Indian Agricultural Scenario and Food Security Concerns in the Context of Climate Change: a Review

This paper presents a brief review of the trends in foodgrain production in India, the determinants of its growth and domestic foodgrain supply projections to draw inferences about the future foodgrain production trends. The foodgrain supply forecasts are examined in relation to the likely demand of foodgrains to answer whether India would have a situation of food surplus or deficit. The paper summarizes the supply and demand side aspects of food security in the context of climate change- covering on one hand, the climate change impact on availability and stability of food supplies and on the other, its likely influence on the access and utilization dimensions of food demand.food security; climate change

Formal Milk Processing Sector in Assam: Lessons to be Learnt from Institutional Failure

Assam initiated organised development of milk processing way back in the mid 1960s. The total installed capacity of pasteurisation and chilling plants in the State is 159 thousand and 28.5 thousand litres per day, respectively. The current scenario of the formal milk processing segment in the state is however, grim. The created infrastructure is either largely defunct or grossly under-utilized. The functional plants are operating at very low level of their installed capacity, have limited product profile, high returns of marketed milk, substantial handling and curdling losses, low productivity of capital and labour and huge operational losses. The poor performance of the plants has been attributed to the establishment of milk processing units without an appropriate assessment of output demand and input supply and ascertainment of economic viability of the plants. In addition, the supporting institutional and infrastructural mechanism has not been put in place and a systematic business and management plan to run the system has not been formulated. Drawing lessons from the institutional failure, the study has suggested some possible interventions and policy initiatives for strengthening the dairy processing activities in the state of Assam.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Impact of ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement on Indian Dairy Trade: A Quantitative Approach

The study attempts a quantitative assessment of the impact of recently signed ASEAN-India FTA (AIFTA) for dairy commodities in India. ASEAN is strategically a potential market in dairy for India and our country already stands as net exporter of dairy products in this region. Partial equilibrium model (SMART model) has been used to simulate the likely impact of dairy exports to and imports from ASEAN countries under the proposed tariff reduction schedule of the AIFTA. The SMART model simulations suggest that AIFTA has generated an additional scope for India to increase its dairy exports to ASEAN countries. On the other hand, tariff elimination from India’s side creates little scope for ASEAN nations to expand their shares. The threat of cheap imports competing with the domestic products in the Indian markets is therefore not alarming. However necessary adjustment assistance may be provided to the dairy product manufacturers to counter the competition in the relevant product lines

Impact of ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement on Indian Dairy Trade: A Quantitative Approach

The study attempts a quantitative assessment of the impact of recently signed ASEAN-India FTA (AIFTA) for dairy commodities in India. ASEAN is strategically a potential market in dairy for India and our country already stands as net exporter of dairy products in this region. Partial equilibrium model (SMART model) has been used to simulate the likely impact of dairy exports to and imports from ASEAN countries under the proposed tariff reduction schedule of the AIFTA. The SMART model simulations suggest that AIFTA has generated an additional scope for India to increase its dairy exports to ASEAN countries. On the other hand, tariff elimination from India’s side creates little scope for ASEAN nations to expand their shares. The threat of cheap imports competing with the domestic products in the Indian markets is therefore not alarming. However necessary adjustment assistance may be provided to the dairy product manufacturers to counter the competition in the relevant product lines

Indian Agricultural Scenario and Food Security Concerns in the Context of Climate Change: a Review

This paper presents a brief review of the trends in foodgrain production in India, the determinants of its growth and domestic foodgrain supply projections to draw inferences about the future foodgrain production trends. The foodgrain supply forecasts are examined in relation to the likely demand of foodgrains to answer whether India would have a situation of food surplus or deficit. The paper summarizes the supply and demand side aspects of food security in the context of climate change- covering on one hand, the climate change impact on availability and stability of food supplies and on the other, its likely influence on the access and utilization dimensions of food demand

Farmers’ perception on climate extremes and their coping mechanism: evidences from disaster prone regions of India

The state of Rajasthan is one of the most vulnerable to climatic extremes. The perception local communities regarding climate change and their indigenous copping management strategies are important for decision-making and policy formation. In this paper, the perceptions of farmers and their copping management strategies were studied using primary data collected from 180 farmers of Bikaner and Kota districts. The data were collected through personal interview as well as focused group discussion. The findings indicated that the risk of droughts, rainfall anomalies and wind-storms have increasing over the time. The people in drought prone region were found to be more food insecure in comparison to flood-affected region. However, their traditional wisdom and indigenous species Khimp (Leptadeniapyrotechnica), Kair (Capparis decidua) Phog (Calligonumpolygonoides), Khejri (Prosopis cineraria), etc. helped them in coping with climate extremes. Adjustments in the dates of sowing, deep summer ploughing in morning hours, dry sowing, higher seed rate, mixed cropping and farming, especially crop-livestock integration were the common copping management strategies followed by farmers. The farmers perceived that with modernization of agriculture, biodiversity of the region is declining. The study suggests that local communities need to be incentivized for conserving these species. These indigenous products have high market value. Therefore, the value chains of these products need to be strengthened by providing processing equipment such as solar drier at subsidized rates

How profitable is dairying in tribal Chhattisgarh?

The study estimated the costs, returns and determinants of milk production in tribal region of Chhattisgarh using household level data from 300 farmers of two tribal districts namely Koriya and Surguja. Study found that dairy animals, particularly indigenous animals were maintained poorly, largely feeding on poor quality common property resources. Cost of milk production was estimated to be highest in buffalo (Rupees 29.12/litre) and lowest in crossbred cow (Rupees 20.97/litre). The rearing of local cows and buffalo for milk production as business was not profitable due to low productivity. However, higher opportunity costs of rearing these animals (Rupees 14.51/litre in buffalo and Rupees 18.58/litre in local cow) may generate significant employment opportunity and additional income among the tribal farmers. The crossbred animals are economically viable at least in the short-run. But if the productivity of these animals does not increase it is likely that in the times to come, the returns will not be even sufficient to cover the rising feed and fodder costs. Positive and significant coefficients of concentrates and green fodder with respect of milk production indicate high priority to be given on these aspects by various ways like availability of seed on improved fodder, creating awareness on balance feeding, institutional arrangement for improving quality of common property resources etc

Cost-effective opportunities for climate change mitigation in Indian agriculture

This work was jointly carried out by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and University of Aberdeen and funded by the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). CCAFS’ work is supported by CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. The views expressed in this paper cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organizations. We sincerely acknowledge the input and support provided by various stakeholders in India during stakeholder meetings. We are thankful to Gokul Prasad for graphics assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

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