International Trade, Food Security and the Response to the WTO in South Asian Countries

trade liberalization, WTO, food security, imports, self-sufficiency, subsidies, OECD, agriculture, price volality

SAARC Agricultural Vision 2020

This paper has visualized how agricultural scenario would evolve in the near future and what policies and strategies would be appropriate to adjust to the emerging changes and to harness the new opportunities. The major challenges for agriculture in the region are: raising and sustaining agricultural growth; ensuring food and nutritional security; facing impact of climate change; adjusting to changes in energy scenario; maintaining biosafety and bio-security; make sustainable use of natural resources and protecting biodiversity. The new opportunities lie in trade, marketing, biotechnology, shifting demand preferences in domestic and overseas markets, technology sharing, resource sharing and investments in research, extension and infrastructural development. SAARC countries need to develop science-based strategies for collective response to challenges and opportunities and global shocks in agriculture.Agricultural and Food Policy,

A Study on the Performance of National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and Suggestions to Make it More Effective

Agricultural production and farm income in India involve several risks. Crop insurance is the only mechanism available to safeguard against production risks. Against this background, this paper has examined the features and performance of National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) operating in the country and has suggested some modifications to make it more effective. NAIS coverage in terms of crop area, number of farmers and value of agricultural output is very small. If crop insurance programme is to be made an important tool in agricultural risk management, the present level of coverage will have to be improved, at least by 3-4 fold. Such an expansion can occur only with improvements in and broad-basing of the insurance scheme. Every suggested improvement has financial implications and affect the concerned insurance practices. It requires renewed efforts by the government in terms of designing appropriate mechanisms and providing financial support to agricultural insurance. Providing of similar support to the private sector insurers would help in increasing the insurance coverage and improving the viability of insurance schemes over time. The study has also suggested that different general insurance companies in the country may be assigned some reasonable targets to cover agricultural insurance, and to begin with, it could be equal to the share of agriculture in the national income.Risk and Uncertainty,

Instability in Andhra Pradesh Agriculture — A Disaggregate Analysis

Instability in farm production is causing serious shocks to supply and farm income and there is a growing concern about increased volatility in farm production, prices and farm income. The study has estimated instability in three major crops before (1981-93) and after (1993-04) the initiation of economic reforms at the state and district levels in Andhra Pradesh. It has revealed that in a large state like Andhra Pradesh, and which is the case for most states of India, the instability status as perceived through the state level data may be vastly different from that experienced at the disaggregate level. The study has concluded that the state level analysis does not reflect complete picture of shocks in agriculture production, and, further, shocks in production underestimates shocks in farm income. It has suggested the need for addressing risks in farm income by devising area-specific crop insurance or other suitable mechanisms.Farm Management,

Food Security, Research Priorities and Resource Allocation in South Asia

The study conduced on South Asian countries is focused on three issues, viz. (a) research priorities in agriculture, (b) level of research investment, and (c) focus of research investments to attain food-secured South Asia. The results of this empirical exercise have suggested that (a) cereals, horticulture, livestock and fisheries in commodity groups and rice and milk as commodities should receive greater attention in resource allocation at South Asia level with certain minor variations across the countries, (b) prioritization exercises need to explicitly target poor as otherwise their needs will continue to remain under-funded, and at least 2-3 times increase (if the AgGDP growth is assumed at 2.1%) and 3-4 times increase (if the AgGDP growth is assumed at 4%) is needed in funding support to these countries in agricultural research and education to attain food and nutritional security.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Comparative Study of Mental Toughness between National Female Volleyball and Kabaddi Players

Background: Early research on mental toughness indicated that 82% of wrestling coaches identified mental toughness as the most important prerequisite to comparative success. In support of this research, athletes, media personal and coaches regular characterize successful performance as being mentally tough. Purpose: This study explored the comparative study of mental toughness between national female volleyball and kabaddi players of Uttar Pradesh teams. Methods: Female national volleyball (n = 12) and kabaddi (n = 12) players of Uttar Pradesh team selected as a subjects. For collection of data mental toughness questionnaire prepared by Allan Goldberg (1995) was administered. Result: Table 1 reveals that there was significant difference in mental toughness between national volleyball and kabaddi female players of Uttar Pradesh team since the calculated ‘t’ value 3.16 was found to be greater than tabulated value 2.074 at 0.05 level of significance. Thus data provides significant evidence tom ensure that the mental toughness of national female volleyball players of Uttar Pradesh team was found significantly higher than the mean of mental toughness of the national female kabaddi players of Uttar Pradesh team. Conclusion: Findings suggested that there was significant difference in mental toughness between national female volleyball and kabaddi players of Uttar Pradesh team. It could happen because volleyball players involved themselves more to prepare mentally and confidence to participate in various tactical moves in different situation and team coordination during the game. Keywords: Mental toughness, Female players, Volleyball, Kabaddi

On the Onset of Double-diffusive Convection in a Couple Stress Nanofluid in a Porous Medium

Double-diffusive convection in a horizontal layer of nanofluid in a porous medium is studied. The couple-stress fluid model is considered to describe the rheological behavior of the nanofluid and for porous medium Darcy model is employed. The model applied for couple stress nanofluid incorporates the effect of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. We have assumed that the nanoparticle concentration flux is zero on the boundaries which neutralizes the possibility of oscillatory convection and only stationary convection occurs. The dispersion relation describing the effect of various parameters is derived by applying perturbation theory, normal mode analysis method and linear stability theory. The impact of various physical parameters, like the couple stress parameter, medium porosity, solutal Rayleigh Number, thermo-nanofluid Lewis number, thermo-solutal Lewis number, Soret parameter and Dufour parameter have been examined on the stationary convection. It is observed that the couple stress parameter, thermo-nanofluid Lewis number, thermo-solutal Lewis number, Soret parameter and Dufour parameter have stabilizing effects on the stationary convection whereas the solutal Rayleigh number and Dufour parameter have very small effect on the system

Thermal Instability in a Horizontal Layer of Walter’s (Model B\u27) Visco-Elastic Nanofluid- A More Realistic Approach

Thermal instability in a horizontal layer of Walter’s (Model B\u27) visco-elastic nanofluid is investigated for more realistic boundary conditions. The flux of volume fraction of nanoparticles is taken to be zero on the isothermal boundaries. The model used for nanofluid incorporates the effect of Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis. Perturbation method, normal mode technique and Galerkin method are used in the solution of the eigenvalue problem. Oscillatory convection has been ruled out for the problem under consideration. The influences of the Lewis number, modified diffusivity ratio and nanoparticle Rayleigh number on the stationary convection are shown both analytically and graphically