India’s Livestock Feed Demand: Estimates and Projections

The paper has estimated the feed consumption rates for different livestock species by age-group, sex, and function at the national level, and based on that the paper has generated demand for different types of feed by the year 2020. According to this study, by 2020 India would require a total 526 million tonnes (Mt) of dry matter, 855 Mt of green fodder, and 56 Mt of concentrate feed (comprising 27.4 Mt of cereals, 4.0 Mt of pulses, 20.6 Mt of oilseeds, oilcakes and meals, and 3.6 Mt of manufactured feed). In terms of nutrients, this translates into 738 Mt of dry matter, 379 Mt of total digestible nutrients and 32 Mt of digestible crude protein. The estimates of demand for different feeds will help the policymakers of the country in designing trade strategy to maximize benefits from livestock production.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Environmental Value of Draught Animals: Saving of Fossil-fuel and Prevention of Greenhouse Gas Emission

Animal energy is a renewable and sustainable source of energy. It is renewable because the animals can be reproduced by breeding and rearing the required number of animals. It is sustainable because the animals derive their energy for work largely from agricultural by-products. In addition, there are other environmental contributions of the working animal stock — consider replacing it by agricultural machinery run on fossil-fuel. Animal energy saves natural resources, fossil fuel and prevents green house gases emission. The fossil-fuel equivalent of the animal energy used in the Indian agriculture has been found pretty large, as much as 19 million tonnes of diesel in 2003. If this much amount of fuel were to be burnt through combustion to run tractors in the absence of the working animal stock of over 60 million, it would have released about 6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Linking Farmers to Markets for High-Value Agricultural Commodities

Growing demand for high-value food commodities is opening up opportunities for farmers, especially smallholders to diversify towards commodities that have strong potential for higher returns to land, labour and capital. But, there is an apprehension about the capability of smallholders to participate in the market-oriented production due to their lack of access to markets, capital, inputs, and technology and extension services. In this paper, possibilities have been explored of linking smallholders to markets through such institutions as cooperatives, growers’ associations and contract farming that reduce marketing and transaction costs and alleviate some production constraints. Evidence has shown that smallholders do participate and make a sizeable contribution to the production of high-value food commodities, but their links to markets are not strong. Though market institutions like cooperatives, contract farming and growers’ associations do not altogether ignore smallholders, some policy support is imperative to strengthen their linkages with the markets.Agribusiness, Marketing,

Efficiency and distribution in contract farming:The case of Indian poultry growers

This paper is an empirical analysis of the gains from contract farming in the case of poultry production in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The paper finds that contract production is more efficient than noncontract production. The efficiency surplus is largely appropriated by the processor. Despite this, contract growers still gain appreciably from contracting in terms of lower risk and higher expected returns. Improved technology and production practices as well as the way in which the processor selects growers is what makes these outcomes possible. In terms of observed and unobserved characteristics, contract growers have relatively poor prospects as independent growers. With contract production, these growers achieve incomes comparable to that of independent growersContract Farming, Contracting, Poultry, Vertical Integration

Efficiency and distribution in contract farming: the case of Indian poultry growers

"This paper is an empirical analysis of the gains from contract farming in the case of poultry production in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The paper finds that contract production is more efficient than noncontract production. The efficiency surplus is largely appropriated by the processor. Despite this, contract growers still gain appreciably from contracting in terms of lower risk and higher expected returns. Improved technology and production practices as well as the way in which the processor selects growers are what make these outcomes possible. In terms of observed and unobserved characteristics, contract growers have relatively poor prospects as independent growers. With contract production, these growers achieve incomes comparable to that of independent growers." Authors' AbstractContract farming, Poultry, Vertical integration,

Demand Projections for Foodgrains in India

Demand for foodgrains has been estimated for India for the years 2011-12, 2016-17 and 2021-22, by accounting for the factors like urbanization, regional variations in consumption pattern, shifts in dietary pattern and income distribution, limit on energy requirement and changes in tastes and preferences of consumers for food varieties. Indirect demand including ‘home away demand’ has also been considered in working out these food demand projections. Policy scenario has been presented and yield targets for the years 2011-12, 2016-17 and 2021-22 have been projected to meet the demand of foodgrams in these years.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Sources of agricultural growth in India: role of diversification towards high-value crops

"This study examines the sources of crop income growth in Indian agriculture over the 1980s and 1990s. Using a method developed by Minot (2003), the analysis decomposes crop income growth into the contribution of yield increases, area expansion, price increases, and diversification from low-value crops to higher-value crops. The results confirm that at the national level, technology (higher yield) was the main source of crop income growth during 1980s, while rising prices and diversification emerged as the dominant sources of growth in agriculture during 1990s. Diversification towards higher-value crops such as fruits and vegetables accounted for about 27% of crop income growth in the 1980s and 31% in the 1990s. However, these national averages hide substantial regional variation. In the grain-dominated northern and eastern regions, price increases were the most important source of growth during 1990s, while in the southern and western regions crop income growth was led by diversification into higher-value crops. The results reflect the slowing growth of wheat and rice yields in India, as well as the growing importance of diversification into higher-value crops. Restoring the growth in grain yields will require investment in agricultural research and development, while facilitating further diversification involves institutional development to better link small farmers with growing markets for high-value commodities. " Author's AbstractCrops, income growth, Agriculture, Grain production, Agricultural research, Research and development, High value commodities, Crop yields, Prices, High-value crops, Decomposition,

Strengthening Pluralistic Agricultural Information Delivery Systems in India

The study on agricultural information flow has revealed that only 40 per cent farm households access information from one or the other source. The popular information sources among farmers have been reported to be fellow progressive farmers and input dealers, followed by mass media. The public extension system has been found to be accessed by only 5.7 per cent households. Only 4.8 per cent of the small farmers have access to public extension workers as compared to 12.4 per cent of large farmers. The sector-wise study on the type of information, sought has revealed that a majority of the farmers have sought information on seed (32-55%) in the cultivation sector; on health care (26-54 %) in animal husbandry; and on management and marketing (8-46 %) in fisheries. Regarding adoption of information by farmers, input dealers and other progressive farmers have depicted greater influence mainly due to easy and convenient access to these sources. The study has suggested promotion of farmers-led extension and strengthening of public extension services to improve coverage and efficiency of agricultural information delivery systems.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Diversification in Indian agriculture towards high-value crops: The role of smallholders

"Agricultural diversification towards high-value crops can potentially increase farm incomes, especially in a country like India where demand for high-value food products has been increasing more quickly than that for staple crops. Indian agriculture is overwhelmingly dominated by smallholders, and researchers have long debated the ability of a smallholder-dominated subsistence farm economy to diversify into riskier high-value crops. Here, we present evidence that the gradual diversification of Indian agriculture towards high-value crops exhibits a pro-smallholder bias, with smallholders playing a proportionally larger role in the cultivation of vegetables versus fruits. The observed patterns are consistent with simple comparative advantage-based production choices. The comparatively high labor endowments of the small farmers, as reflected in their greater family sizes, induce them to diversify towards vegetables. Although fruit cultivation is also labor intensive (as compared to cultivation of staples), fruits are relatively capital intensive, making them a less advantageous choice for smallholders who tend to have low capital endowments. Furthermore, both the probability of participation in fruit and vegetable cultivation as well as land allocation to horticulture decreases with the size of landholdings in India. Small or medium holders do not appear to allocate a greater share of land to fruits or vegetables. However, the share allocated to vegetables is significantly higher if the family size is bigger, while the reverse is true in the case of fruits." from Authors' Abstractdiversification, Smallholders, small farms, High value agriculture,