Exports of Livestock Products from India: Performance, Competitiveness and Determinants

The paper has examined temporal changes in the composition of livestock exports, assessed the export competitiveness of different livestock products and analysed the factors affecting the growth of livestock export. The performance of livestock export has been found noteworthy. The liberalization policy initiated in 1991 seems to have improved the performance of livestock exports. The study has revealed that India is competitive in export of meat products, except poultry. The export of buffalo meat has been increasing consistently and the poor domestic demand has further fuelled its export. But, the export of mutton does not seem to have much prospects in the short-run, as even the domestic demand is not being met by domestic production. In milk and milk products, India has some advantage at the farm level, but is not competitive in export of milk and milk products under the prevailing world market situation. The domestic policy initiatives and increased production and productivity have been identified as the important factors in increasing the export of livestock products. The study has suggested that strengthening of export supply capacity domestically holds the key for enhancing export of livestock products rather than expanding world market.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Rural Employment Diversification in Eastern India: Trends and Determinants

The trends in rural employment diversification, especially within agriculture in the eastern states of India have been studied. The employment potential of different sub-sectors of agriculture has been assessed to provide succour to the ever increasing problem of unemployment. Several socio-economic factors affecting rural employment diversification towards non-farm sector and horticultural activities have been examined by using logit models. The contribution of different socio-economic variables on employment to non-farm sector and horticultural crops has been quantified by computing marginal effects of each variable. The study has suggested that for reducing entry barriers to non-farm employment opportunities, education and skill development will have to be strengthened. The tailor-made training programmes should be arranged to enhance the probability of getting employed in nonfarm activities. The participation in high-value agriculture can be ensured by improving the knowledge and technical levels of the rural households in the eastern India.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Rural Employment Diversification in India: Trends, Determinants and Implications on Poverty

This paper has studied rural employment diversification in India and across major states using NSSO data at household level for the period 1983 and 2009-10. Factors affecting rural employment diversification towards non-farm sector have also been studied. Analysis has shown that the non-farm sector has consistently grown over time and employed nearly one-third of the rural workforce in 2009-10, as compared to merely one-fifth in 1983 at all-India level. The similar trend is seen across major states as well, though the pace and pattern varied widely. In providing employment to rural workforce, increasing dominance of crop production, followed by animal husbandry was observed across major states during 2009-10. The share of fishery and forestry was negligible in providing employment to the rural workforce. The study has revealed that the increasing rural non-farm employment has positive and significant effect on reducing rural poverty at all-India level. A positive link between income and employment has also been observed in diversifying towards horticultural activities. A well designed area-specific programme should be evolved to help improve skill of rural workforce, which in turn would benefit in getting employment in the non-farm sector.Rural employment, Employment diversification, Crop sector, Agricultural and Food Policy, J21, J23, O15, O18,

Estimation of Demand Elasticity for Food Commodities in India

The food demand in India has been examined in the context of a structural shift in the dietary pattern of its population. The results have reinforced the hypothesis of a significant diversification in the dietary pattern of households in recent years and has found stark differences in the consumption pattern across different income quartiles. The food demand behaviour has been explained using a set of demand elasticities corresponding to major food commodities. The demand elasticities have been estimated using multi-stage budgeting with QUAIDS model and another alternative model, FCDS. The study has revealed that the estimated income elasticities vary across income classes and are lowest for cereals group and highest for horticultural and livestock products. The analysis of price and income effects based on the estimated demand system has suggested that with increase in food price inflation, the demand for staple food (rice, wheat and sugar) may not be affected adversely but, that of high-value food commodities is likely to be affected negatively. Therefore, the study has cautioned that if inflation in food prices remains unabated for an extended period, there is the possibility of reversal of the trend of diversification and that of consumers returning to cereal-dominated diet, thus accentuating under-nourishment.Food demand, Demand elasticity, QUAIDS model, FCDS model, Household food demand, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q11, Q18,

Smallholder Dairy Farmers’ Access to Modern Milk Marketing Chains in India

The smallholder dairy farmers’ access to modern milk marketing chain has been assessed in India by collecting data at the farm level in two states, viz. Bihar and Punjab. These states are among the largest milk producing states of the country but depict stark variations in terms of milk productivity and per capita milk availability. Another significant feature is the emergences of modern milk marketing chains in both the states. The study has shown that in spite of the growing presence of modern milk supply chains, the traditional milk supply chain is still dominant in the Indian milk market. Its presence is even more pronounced in less-developed states like Bihar. However, the traditional milk supply chain is being replaced, albeit slowly, with the commercialization of dairying. The structure of the milk marketing in Punjab has depicted this conclusion. The study has concluded that the modern milk supply chain seems to have an inclusive structure and the resource-poor dairy farmers are not excluded from the modern milk supply chain. The study has argued that the traceability and food safety issues will further strengthen the modern milk supply chain. The scalability of the modern milk supply chain will depend on the development of milk collection and transportation facilities and incentive pricing for a quality produce.Milk marketing chain, Smallholders, Dairy farmers, Modern milk marketing chain, Bihar, Punjab, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q12, Q13,

Institutional Credit to Agriculture Sector in India: Status, Performance and Determinants

The institutional credit has been conceived to play a pivotal role in the agricultural development of India. A large number of institutional agencies are involved in the disbursement of credit to agriculture. However, the persistence of money lenders in the rural credit market is still a major concern. In this backdrop, the present study has examined the performance of agricultural credit flow and has identified the determinants of increased use of institutional credit at the farm household level in India. The study based on the secondary data compiled from several sources, has revealed that the institutional credit to agriculture in real terms has increased tremendously during the past four decades. The structure of credit outlets has witnessed a significant change and commercial banks have emerged as the major source of institutional credit in recent years. But, the declining share of investment credit in the total credit may constrain the sustainable agricultural growth. The quantum of institutional credit availed by the farming households is affected by a number of socio-demographic factors which include education, farm size, family size, caste, gender, occupation of household, etc. The study has suggested simplification of the procedure for a better access to agricultural credit of smallholders and less-educated/illiterate farmers.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Comparison of JavaSpace and CORBA Technologies

With computer industry increasingly moving towards network-centric systems, particularly the Internet, competing technologies that help design and develop such systems are fast emerging in the marketplace. The fundamental characteristics of a networked environment are heterogeneity, partial failure, latency and difficulty of gluing together multiple, independent processes into a robust, scalable application. JavaSpaces, a shared memory paradigm, provides high-level coordination mechanism for Java easing the burden of creating distributed systems. Large class of distributed problems can be approached using Javaspaces\u27 simple framework. JavaSpaces allows processes to communicate even if each was wholly ignorant of the others. CORBA on the other hand is a standard developed by OMG that allows communication between objects written in different programming languages. It provides common message passing mechanism for interchanging data and discovering services. The purpose of this graduate project was to compare JavaSpaces and CORBA technologies by developing an Insertion Sort and comparing their response times. Javaspaces outpaced CORBA in terms of response time. These technologies make the implementation of distributed algorithms reasonably fault tolerant and highly scalable

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,

Livestock Sector in North-Eastern Region of India: An Appraisal of Performance

Although agriculture is the prime source of livelihood for a majority of rural population in the North-Eastern region (NER) of India, dependence on livestock as an alternative source of income is significant. Responding to the burgeoning demand for livestock products in a sustainable manner is a big challenge. The widening gap between the demand and supply of livestock products can be met through bringing out changes in the production structure or opening up the international trade. In this context, an analysis of performance and factors influencing development of the livestock sector in NER has been carried out. The growth of livestock sector has been found slower in the NER than at the national level. However, a significant proportion of landless labourers, small and marginal farmers have access to livestock resources and acceleration in the growth of livestock in NER offers significant opportunities for household income augmentation and employment generation. Several factors identified to influence households’ decision to rear livestock include availability of labour, occupation, caste, farm-size, availability of irrigation, and access to information sources. The study has shown that the NE states should take technical, institutional and policy initiatives for the improvement of breeds, feed availability, disease control and food safety of livestock.Livestock Production/Industries,