THE EQUITY CONSEQUENCES OF PUBLIC IRRIGATION INVESTMENTS: THE CASE OF SURFACE IRRIGATION SUBSIDIES IN INDIA

This paper is organized as follows. Section 1 reviews the structure of surface irrigation charges and the trends in irrigation expenditures and revenues in India. Section 2 discusses the measurement of irrigation subsidies and the data. Section 3 examines the incidence of surface irrigation subsidies and section 4 summarizes the magnitude of these sudsidies. Section 5 elaborates the policy implications of the findings of the study.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

IMPACT OF ELECTRIC POWER SECTOR REFORMS ON FARM INCOMES IN INDIA

The supply of electricity to the agricultural sector (largely for pumping groundwater) is heavily subsidized in India. Using data from a household survey in the state of Haryana, a profit function estimated to analyze the impact of increase in tariffs accompanied by improvement in conditions of supply on farm incomes.Agricultural Finance, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

India: Taking Agriculture to the Market

Policy makers in India recognize the importance o f well-functioning markets to agricultural growth, food security, and broad-based rural development. Markets facilitate the commercialization and diversification of farming, and they are essential for efficiently bringing food and agricultural products to domestic and international consumers. Well functioning domestic markets can reduce the cost of food and assure stability of supply, which as the recent global food crisis has highlighted, are key to assuring the food security of poor and non-poor households. They also open opportunities for greater value-addition and employment throughout the economy. The rapid growth of the Indian economy is bringing new forces for change in agricultural marketing and processing systems. Changes in consumer demand are fueled by rising incomes, increasing urbanization, a growing middle class demanding more diversified and higher-quality food, more working women demanding access to prepared or processed foods and more convenient shopping under one roof, and increased exposure to products through wider media penetration (domestic and international television, cable, and internet). These forces in turn drive changes in the structure of marketing and encourage agricultural diversification

Food safety in a globalizing world: opportunities and challenges for India

Rising incomes and urbanization, increasing consumer awareness prompted by widely publicized food safety crises, and an expansion in agricultural exports have been important drivers for the increased attention to food safety in India. But the development of effective food safety systems is hampered by a number of factors: restrictive government marketing regulations, a weak policy and regulatory framework for food safety, inadequate enforcement of existing standards, poor market infrastructure and agricultural support services, and the predominance of small farms. Addressing food safety concerns in India is likely to require adoption of appropriate legislation; strengthening capacity to enforce rules; promoting adoption of good agricultural, manufacturing, and hygiene practices; greater collective action; and some targeted investments. Joint efforts by the government and the private sector are needed to implement these actions. Copyright 2007 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

Towards greater food security for India's poor: balancing government intervention and private competition

To achieve its strategic objective of food security, the Government of India (GOI) maintains an elaborate set of food grain policies which include public procurement and price support operations, price stabilisation through buffer stocks, public food grain distribution, and extensive controls on private trade. We use aggregate and household level evidence to show that this system is costly, generates inefficiencies in the food grain marketing system (for both the public and the private sector), and often offers few, if any, benefits to its intended beneficiaries, the poor. On this basis we propose an integrated reform agenda involving improvements in the targeting of the public distribution system, creation of an enabling environment for increased private participation in food grain markets and greater incentives for efficiency by the Food Corporation of India (FCI). © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

THE EQUITY CONSEQUENCES OF PUBLIC IRRIGATION INVESTMENTS: THE CASE OF SURFACE IRRIGATION SUBSIDIES IN INDIA

This paper is organized as follows. Section 1 reviews the structure of surface irrigation charges and the trends in irrigation expenditures and revenues in India. Section 2 discusses the measurement of irrigation subsidies and the data. Section 3 examines the incidence of surface irrigation subsidies and section 4 summarizes the magnitude of these sudsidies. Section 5 elaborates the policy implications of the findings of the study

Foodgrain Subsidies in India: Are they Reaching the Poor?

Concerns about the slow down in agricultural growth and the macroeconomic impact of rising fiscal deficits have refocused attention to public expenditures in the agricultural sector. Rising levels of agricultural subsidies have been blamed for crowding out much needed productivity-enhancing investments. This study examines the potential welfare impacts of subsidy reform by tracing the beneficiaries of the farmer and consumer foodgrain price subsidies, and by assessing the distribution and level of these subsidies across households at the state level. Using benefit incidence analysis, we find that producer price subsidies benefited only a few states, and larger farmers within these states. The shift to the targeted public distribution system contributed to an increase in allocation and offtake in states with higher rates of poverty. Household participation rates at the national level on average improved, from 22.6 percent to 31.6 percent between 1993/94 and 1999/00, but delivery problems still leave the major share of the poor out of the system