The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk a... more The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk and vulnerability, micro-level perceptions and adaptation decision-making in building resilience of farm communities to climate change in dryland region of India. To select a region for grassroots enquiry, spatial differential in risk to climate change was assessed in Rajasthan, using IPCC AR5 framework. Among the highly vulnerable and risky districts, Bikaner district was selected for elicitation of micro-level imperatives. Rising atmospheric temperature, inter-seasonal displacements of rainfall and recurrence of extreme events were perceived by the farmers resulting in resource degradation, production risks and erosion of households’ socio-economic dynamics. As risk preventive measures, suitable adjustment in agricultural practices, natural resource management, shift to off-farm activities and other relief measures were adopted by the farmers. Farmer’s choice of adaptation was influenced by several climatic, socio-economic and infrastructural & institutional factors in varying degree. Moreover, several financial, economic, infrastructural and informational bottlenecks to adaptations were reported during household survey and FGDs. The results suggest that capturing grassroots evidence is crucial for directing locally tailored adaptation strategies, along with the improving deficiencies in the developmental pathways for climate-resilient agriculture.
The study attempts to analyse the potato price trends, variability, integration and price transmi... more The study attempts to analyse the potato price trends, variability, integration and price transmission in selected markets of northern hills and plain region of the country. High prices of potato were found to be associated with high variability. A strong and positive correlation was observed among the selected markets indicating close movement between prices. The study confirmed the presence of cointegration implying long-run price association among the major hill and plain markets of potato in India. Further Granger causality test confirmed bidirectional causality among Haldwani and most of the markets except Agra (major plain market) and there exist price convergence between Haldwani and all other markets with a greater speed of adjustment in Dehradun, Delhi and Lucknow market as compared to Agra, when Haldwani (major hill market) is assumed to be influenced by the prices in other markets. The analysis of variance decomposition indicated that fluctuations in Lucknow market were h...
Climate change adds another dimension of challenges to the growth and sustainability of Indian ag... more Climate change adds another dimension of challenges to the growth and sustainability of Indian agriculture. The growing exposure to livelihood shocks from climate variability/change and limited resource base of the rural community to adapt has reinforced the need to mainstream climate adaptation planning into developmental landscape. However, a better understanding of micro-level perceptions is imperative for effective and informed planning at the macro-level. In this paper, the grass-root level perspectives on climate change impacts and adaptation decisions were elicited at farm level in the Moga district of Punjab and Mahbubnagar district of Telangana, India. The farmers opined that the climatic variability impacts more than the long-term climate change. They observed change in the quantum, onset and distribution of rainfall, rise in minimum as well as maximum temperature levels, decline in crop yield and ground water depletion. The key socioeconomic effects of climate change included decline in farm income, farm unemployment, rural migration and increased indebtedness among farmers. In order to cope with climate variability and change thereon, farmers resorted to adaptation strategies such as use of crop varieties of suitable duration, water conservation techniques, crop insurance and participation in non-farm activities and employment guarantee schemes. Farmers' adaptation to changing climate was constrained by several technological, socioeconomic and institutional barriers. These include limited knowledge on the costs-benefits of adaptation, lack of access to and knowledge of adaptation technologies, lack of financial resources and limited information on weather. Besides, lack of access to input markets, inadequate farm labour and smaller farm size were the other constraints. Further, on the basis of the grassroot elicitation a 'Need-Based Adaptation' planning incorporating farmers' perceptions on climate change impacts, constraints in the adoption of adaptation strategies and plausible adaptation options were linked with the most suitable ongoing programmatic interventions of the Government of India. The study concluded that micro-level needs and constraints for
Against the increasing vulnerability of agriculture and farm livelihoods to climate change, the s... more Against the increasing vulnerability of agriculture and farm livelihoods to climate change, the study attempted to analyse the trend in climate variables and their impact on major crop yields during the period from 1966-2011, across 4 agro-climatic zones forming Gangetic Plains Region. A rising trend was observed in annual and seasonal (kharif and rabi) mean maximum and minimum temperature across the zones. Rainfall on the other hand, showed a declining trend. Overall, climate change adversely impacted crop yield, but the magnitudes of such effects vary spatially. The results reveal that rice and wheat yield will decline in the entire Gangetic region. By 2050s, maize yield will be higher by 6 percent in Lower Gangetic Plains; pearl millet will increase by 15 percent and rapeseed & mustard by 3.8 percent in Trans-Gangetic Plains. Amongst the crops, sugarcane yield was the most impacted to climate change and is expected to reduce by 21 percent in Middle Gangetic Plains towards end of ...
International Journal of Environment and Climate Change
The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperatur... more The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperature and rainfall data were used for analysis from 1979-2019 which is about 40 years. Understanding spatiotemporal rainfall pattern, Rainfall Anomaly Index which is drought indicator technique was used to classify the positive and negative severities in rainfall anomalies. The RAI ranges below 0.2 are considered as dry zone. The analysis resulted that, all zones are falls in category of dry zone with range of 0.2 to 0.4. For past five years, North Eastern Transition Zone was noted maximum times falling in the range of RAI below 0.2 and near to zero. Statistical techniques like linear trend estimation, R square was used for trend estimation across annual, seasonal to identify the variation in the temperature across different zones. The meaningful statistically significant achieves when there is r2≥0.65 and p≤0.05. It was analysed that, hilly Zone experienced decreased trend in both minimum ...
Historically, black pepper has been a highly tradable commodity; its domestic price, production a... more Historically, black pepper has been a highly tradable commodity; its domestic price, production as well as profitability are highly influenced by its international prices. In 2003-04, the domestic prices of black pepper plunged down to Rs 74/kg from a peak of Rs 215/kg in 1999-2000. The study has therefore been undertaken to identify the drivers for its production, examine the profitability of the farmers and analyse the price behaviour and mechanism of price transmission in black pepper. Like other major spices, the production of black pepper in India has increased substantially over the years. Area under the crop and lagged export quantity have been the main drivers influencing pepper production in the country. From the field survey in two major black pepper growing districts, viz. Idukki and Wayanad, it has been revealed that the production of pepper has become unremunerative due to depressed prices in the domestic and/or global markets coupled with increasing input costs. Furthe...
International Journal of Environment and Climate Change, 2021
The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperatur... more The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperature and rainfall data were used for analysis from 1979-2019 which is about 40 years. Understanding spatiotemporal rainfall pattern, Rainfall Anomaly Index which is drought indicator technique was used to classify the positive and negative severities in rainfall anomalies. The RAI ranges below 0.2 are considered as dry zone. The analysis resulted that, all zones are falls in category of dry zone with range of 0.2 to 0.4. For past five years, North Eastern Transition Zone was noted maximum times falling in the range of RAI below 0.2 and near to zero. Statistical techniques like linear trend estimation, R square was used for trend estimation across annual, seasonal to identify the variation in the temperature across different zones. The meaningful statistically significant achieves when there is r2≥0.65 and p≤0.05. It was analysed that, hilly Zone experienced decreased trend in both minimum ...
This study has evaluated the superiority of resource conservation technologies (RCTs) over conven... more This study has evaluated the superiority of resource conservation technologies (RCTs) over conventional methods of cultivation and has identified the factors influencing adoption of these technologies. It has provided succinct evidences from four states-Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh-by comparing the adopters and non-adopters of RCTs in the rice-wheat cropping system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India. The study has highlighted superiority of RCTs over the conventional practices in terms of cost saving and efficient inputs-use. However, there is a need to internalize the RCTs in their totality by applying plans and strategies based on local dynamics. The study has suggested the need of policy formulations for dissemination and wider adoption of these technologies.
A recent study on poverty highlights serious conceptual anomalies in the measurement of poverty a... more A recent study on poverty highlights serious conceptual anomalies in the measurement of poverty and in selection of variables which can throw more light on contentious issues of deciphering the determinants of poverty. Identification of such variables still remains a challenging task for the researchers and policy makers. in this paper, an attempt is made to identify the factors influencing determination of poverty in rural and urban settings using logit model. Further marginal effects and elasticities were estimated which provided better interpretation of economic variables. The findings explicitly provide insights about the direction and magnitude of the impact of variables on the incidence of poverty. It was found that the proportion of children in the household appeared to be the foremost factor in augmenting poverty; however this may be due to the causative effect on poverty itself. Moreover, infrastructure and occupational variables were found to be more.
Indian farmers and rural communities face various types of risks in the process of agricultural p... more Indian farmers and rural communities face various types of risks in the process of agricultural production and disposal of agricultural output. The nature and magnitude of risk which agricultural producers face varies from farmer to farmer and from region to region. What is certain, however, is that the existence of potential risk in farming increases the vulnerability of the agricultural producers, especially small and marginal farmers and those operating in less favourable production environments. Vulnerability of the agricultural producers is compounded by low carrying capacities of the producers and their increased dependence on loans from institutional and private sources for meeting consumption requirements and for coping with the consequent output and income losses. Vulnerability of agricultural producers arises on account of two types of risks that the agricultural producers face. One is the risk of loss of production or output due to unfavourable weather and soil conditions. The other is the risk on account of depressed prices due to various types of market conditions, resulting from changes in overall supply and demand situations and export-import policies of the government. Low yields and consequently decreased production, leading to reduced incomes for the producers, are particularly common in rain-fed production environments where the producers are dependent to a very large extent on monsoon conditions. Dryland or rain-fed agriculture is practised in India on over 65 per cent of the net sown area and hence even minor variability in rainfall can result in severe yield and production losses. Given the large proportion of area under such a risky production environment, the number of agricultural producers who are subjected to production risks is obviously high. Yield and production risks on account of rainfall variability are compounded by poor soil environment in which producers cultivate their crops. Problems of salinity and waterlogging are increasing and considerable national loss and loss to individual farmers occur on account of the poor soil brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk
The COVID-19 induced lockdown in India was an inflection point for on-boarding of new users into ... more The COVID-19 induced lockdown in India was an inflection point for on-boarding of new users into digital payments. Using a large survey dataset, we examine the driving factors of this shift for those who used digital payments for the first time. Apart from demographic drivers of payment choice traditionally explored in the literature, we find that this shift was significantly shaped by the degree of awareness of digital modes, access to smartphones and debit cards, and pandemic-relief welfare transfers. Users who had abandoned digital payments due to prior bad experiences switched back to such modes.
This report is the outcome of the first phase of the AGRIDIV project (Identification of pulling f... more This report is the outcome of the first phase of the AGRIDIV project (Identification of pulling factors for enhancing the sustainable development of diverse agriculture in selected Asian countries), which was carried out in 2003-2004. Based on the availability of secondary data, five major CGPRT crops grown in Indonesia are studied in detail to examine the sustainable development of diverse agriculture. The crops include maize, soybean, groundnut, cassava, potato and sweet potato. In addition, rice, as the major staple food in Indonesia, is included and rice-related policies affect resource allocation and therefore affect the development of CGPRT crops.International Development,
This micro level study, conducted in the state of Chhattisgarh to examine the income and employme... more This micro level study, conducted in the state of Chhattisgarh to examine the income and employment pattern, has revealed that farm and non-farm activities are the main sources of income and employment and off-farm activity (agricultural labour) contributes only a negligible portion. The smallholders as well as landless households during the slack agricultural season depend on rural non-farm activities as the source of earning. A wide disparity in economy of farm and non-farm households has been observed. The income has been found higher under farm than non-farm households, but on per capita basis, no significant difference has been observed between farm and non-farm households. Within farm households, there are wide disparities between marginal and large farmers. A major portion of farm household's income is generated from kharif crops and a small portion by rabi crops due to prevalence of mono-cropped farming system in the state. A majority of households has been found to gene...
Ambalanthota and Horowpothana are also acknowledged. The coordinator acknowledges the general pub... more Ambalanthota and Horowpothana are also acknowledged. The coordinator acknowledges the general public for providing information and photographs for the publication. This project could not have been successfully completed without the cooperation of the poor rural farmers and villagers who responded to the questionnaires and provided valuable information. The coordinator acknowledges their assistance.
The climate change has been recognized by the world community as a potential threat to environmen... more The climate change has been recognized by the world community as a potential threat to environment, ecosystem, and development. The impacts are not spatially similar and Asia's rural poor are more challenged of its consequences. ICRISAT with support of ADB have tracked the climatic trends, identified vulnerable regions to climate change and ascertained the farmer's perception through quantitative and qualitative means for deciphering the adaptation strategies and constraints to adaptation in South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka), South East Asia (Thailand, Vietnam) and China. A comprehensive approach (Q 2) was designed to imbibe the information at different levels of its significance. Climatic analysis to understand the trends in climate and climate change vulnerability assessment of the regions and sub-regions was carried and later 22 villages were selected from these vulnerable regions for understanding ground level realities of climate change impacts and adaptation strategies. The study revealed a very high variability in distribution of rainfall, with marginal change in quantum of rainfall. The frequent occurrences of extreme events viz., droughts (India, Sri Lanka, China), floods (Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam) were other notable features making the region highly vulnerable. The farmers' perceptions and practices at the grassroots level revealed that farmers are adjusting their agricultural operations in response to the external stimuli of uncertainty and variability of rainfall not only to the climatic factors but also to several other factors like market dynamics, profitability, infrastructure development and government policies. The strategies followed by farmers include shifting from cereals to cash crops and adapting short duration and drought tolerant cultivars and adjustment in the sowing and planting dates. Across the study countries in Asia, farmers have been diversifying their sources of income into non-farm sources (43-87% of total income) to cover the risk of income loss due to variability and uncertainty in rainfall. The study further revealed that the worst affected is the marginal and small farmers and with increased frequency of drought, poor and marginal farmers get into perpetual debt traps. The analysis also revealed various constraints/limitations that existed among farmers hindering effective adaptation. The non-availability of seeds, lack of access to information, weak institutional capacities and inability of access to formal credit were some of the constraints that emanated from the villagers. In order to address the complex issues at the grass root level, it is imperative to formulate appropriate recommendations /promote approaches and options to harness the opportunities in the changing economic, technological and institutional opportunities, having locally-focused contexts. These results have paved way for a set of specific recommendations to be mainstreamed into the country specific policies for improving the livelihood of the rural households and building climate resilient agriculture.
The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk a... more The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk and vulnerability, micro-level perceptions and adaptation decision-making in building resilience of farm communities to climate change in dryland region of India. To select a region for grassroots enquiry, spatial differential in risk to climate change was assessed in Rajasthan, using IPCC AR5 framework. Among the highly vulnerable and risky districts, Bikaner district was selected for elicitation of micro-level imperatives. Rising atmospheric temperature, inter-seasonal displacements of rainfall and recurrence of extreme events were perceived by the farmers resulting in resource degradation, production risks and erosion of households’ socio-economic dynamics. As risk preventive measures, suitable adjustment in agricultural practices, natural resource management, shift to off-farm activities and other relief measures were adopted by the farmers. Farmer’s choice of adaptation was influenced by several climatic, socio-economic and infrastructural & institutional factors in varying degree. Moreover, several financial, economic, infrastructural and informational bottlenecks to adaptations were reported during household survey and FGDs. The results suggest that capturing grassroots evidence is crucial for directing locally tailored adaptation strategies, along with the improving deficiencies in the developmental pathways for climate-resilient agriculture.
The study attempts to analyse the potato price trends, variability, integration and price transmi... more The study attempts to analyse the potato price trends, variability, integration and price transmission in selected markets of northern hills and plain region of the country. High prices of potato were found to be associated with high variability. A strong and positive correlation was observed among the selected markets indicating close movement between prices. The study confirmed the presence of cointegration implying long-run price association among the major hill and plain markets of potato in India. Further Granger causality test confirmed bidirectional causality among Haldwani and most of the markets except Agra (major plain market) and there exist price convergence between Haldwani and all other markets with a greater speed of adjustment in Dehradun, Delhi and Lucknow market as compared to Agra, when Haldwani (major hill market) is assumed to be influenced by the prices in other markets. The analysis of variance decomposition indicated that fluctuations in Lucknow market were h...
Climate change adds another dimension of challenges to the growth and sustainability of Indian ag... more Climate change adds another dimension of challenges to the growth and sustainability of Indian agriculture. The growing exposure to livelihood shocks from climate variability/change and limited resource base of the rural community to adapt has reinforced the need to mainstream climate adaptation planning into developmental landscape. However, a better understanding of micro-level perceptions is imperative for effective and informed planning at the macro-level. In this paper, the grass-root level perspectives on climate change impacts and adaptation decisions were elicited at farm level in the Moga district of Punjab and Mahbubnagar district of Telangana, India. The farmers opined that the climatic variability impacts more than the long-term climate change. They observed change in the quantum, onset and distribution of rainfall, rise in minimum as well as maximum temperature levels, decline in crop yield and ground water depletion. The key socioeconomic effects of climate change included decline in farm income, farm unemployment, rural migration and increased indebtedness among farmers. In order to cope with climate variability and change thereon, farmers resorted to adaptation strategies such as use of crop varieties of suitable duration, water conservation techniques, crop insurance and participation in non-farm activities and employment guarantee schemes. Farmers' adaptation to changing climate was constrained by several technological, socioeconomic and institutional barriers. These include limited knowledge on the costs-benefits of adaptation, lack of access to and knowledge of adaptation technologies, lack of financial resources and limited information on weather. Besides, lack of access to input markets, inadequate farm labour and smaller farm size were the other constraints. Further, on the basis of the grassroot elicitation a 'Need-Based Adaptation' planning incorporating farmers' perceptions on climate change impacts, constraints in the adoption of adaptation strategies and plausible adaptation options were linked with the most suitable ongoing programmatic interventions of the Government of India. The study concluded that micro-level needs and constraints for
Against the increasing vulnerability of agriculture and farm livelihoods to climate change, the s... more Against the increasing vulnerability of agriculture and farm livelihoods to climate change, the study attempted to analyse the trend in climate variables and their impact on major crop yields during the period from 1966-2011, across 4 agro-climatic zones forming Gangetic Plains Region. A rising trend was observed in annual and seasonal (kharif and rabi) mean maximum and minimum temperature across the zones. Rainfall on the other hand, showed a declining trend. Overall, climate change adversely impacted crop yield, but the magnitudes of such effects vary spatially. The results reveal that rice and wheat yield will decline in the entire Gangetic region. By 2050s, maize yield will be higher by 6 percent in Lower Gangetic Plains; pearl millet will increase by 15 percent and rapeseed & mustard by 3.8 percent in Trans-Gangetic Plains. Amongst the crops, sugarcane yield was the most impacted to climate change and is expected to reduce by 21 percent in Middle Gangetic Plains towards end of ...
International Journal of Environment and Climate Change
The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperatur... more The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperature and rainfall data were used for analysis from 1979-2019 which is about 40 years. Understanding spatiotemporal rainfall pattern, Rainfall Anomaly Index which is drought indicator technique was used to classify the positive and negative severities in rainfall anomalies. The RAI ranges below 0.2 are considered as dry zone. The analysis resulted that, all zones are falls in category of dry zone with range of 0.2 to 0.4. For past five years, North Eastern Transition Zone was noted maximum times falling in the range of RAI below 0.2 and near to zero. Statistical techniques like linear trend estimation, R square was used for trend estimation across annual, seasonal to identify the variation in the temperature across different zones. The meaningful statistically significant achieves when there is r2≥0.65 and p≤0.05. It was analysed that, hilly Zone experienced decreased trend in both minimum ...
Historically, black pepper has been a highly tradable commodity; its domestic price, production a... more Historically, black pepper has been a highly tradable commodity; its domestic price, production as well as profitability are highly influenced by its international prices. In 2003-04, the domestic prices of black pepper plunged down to Rs 74/kg from a peak of Rs 215/kg in 1999-2000. The study has therefore been undertaken to identify the drivers for its production, examine the profitability of the farmers and analyse the price behaviour and mechanism of price transmission in black pepper. Like other major spices, the production of black pepper in India has increased substantially over the years. Area under the crop and lagged export quantity have been the main drivers influencing pepper production in the country. From the field survey in two major black pepper growing districts, viz. Idukki and Wayanad, it has been revealed that the production of pepper has become unremunerative due to depressed prices in the domestic and/or global markets coupled with increasing input costs. Furthe...
International Journal of Environment and Climate Change, 2021
The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperatur... more The study was carried out for ten Agro climatic zones in Karnataka state in India. The temperature and rainfall data were used for analysis from 1979-2019 which is about 40 years. Understanding spatiotemporal rainfall pattern, Rainfall Anomaly Index which is drought indicator technique was used to classify the positive and negative severities in rainfall anomalies. The RAI ranges below 0.2 are considered as dry zone. The analysis resulted that, all zones are falls in category of dry zone with range of 0.2 to 0.4. For past five years, North Eastern Transition Zone was noted maximum times falling in the range of RAI below 0.2 and near to zero. Statistical techniques like linear trend estimation, R square was used for trend estimation across annual, seasonal to identify the variation in the temperature across different zones. The meaningful statistically significant achieves when there is r2≥0.65 and p≤0.05. It was analysed that, hilly Zone experienced decreased trend in both minimum ...
This study has evaluated the superiority of resource conservation technologies (RCTs) over conven... more This study has evaluated the superiority of resource conservation technologies (RCTs) over conventional methods of cultivation and has identified the factors influencing adoption of these technologies. It has provided succinct evidences from four states-Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh-by comparing the adopters and non-adopters of RCTs in the rice-wheat cropping system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India. The study has highlighted superiority of RCTs over the conventional practices in terms of cost saving and efficient inputs-use. However, there is a need to internalize the RCTs in their totality by applying plans and strategies based on local dynamics. The study has suggested the need of policy formulations for dissemination and wider adoption of these technologies.
A recent study on poverty highlights serious conceptual anomalies in the measurement of poverty a... more A recent study on poverty highlights serious conceptual anomalies in the measurement of poverty and in selection of variables which can throw more light on contentious issues of deciphering the determinants of poverty. Identification of such variables still remains a challenging task for the researchers and policy makers. in this paper, an attempt is made to identify the factors influencing determination of poverty in rural and urban settings using logit model. Further marginal effects and elasticities were estimated which provided better interpretation of economic variables. The findings explicitly provide insights about the direction and magnitude of the impact of variables on the incidence of poverty. It was found that the proportion of children in the household appeared to be the foremost factor in augmenting poverty; however this may be due to the causative effect on poverty itself. Moreover, infrastructure and occupational variables were found to be more.
Indian farmers and rural communities face various types of risks in the process of agricultural p... more Indian farmers and rural communities face various types of risks in the process of agricultural production and disposal of agricultural output. The nature and magnitude of risk which agricultural producers face varies from farmer to farmer and from region to region. What is certain, however, is that the existence of potential risk in farming increases the vulnerability of the agricultural producers, especially small and marginal farmers and those operating in less favourable production environments. Vulnerability of the agricultural producers is compounded by low carrying capacities of the producers and their increased dependence on loans from institutional and private sources for meeting consumption requirements and for coping with the consequent output and income losses. Vulnerability of agricultural producers arises on account of two types of risks that the agricultural producers face. One is the risk of loss of production or output due to unfavourable weather and soil conditions. The other is the risk on account of depressed prices due to various types of market conditions, resulting from changes in overall supply and demand situations and export-import policies of the government. Low yields and consequently decreased production, leading to reduced incomes for the producers, are particularly common in rain-fed production environments where the producers are dependent to a very large extent on monsoon conditions. Dryland or rain-fed agriculture is practised in India on over 65 per cent of the net sown area and hence even minor variability in rainfall can result in severe yield and production losses. Given the large proportion of area under such a risky production environment, the number of agricultural producers who are subjected to production risks is obviously high. Yield and production risks on account of rainfall variability are compounded by poor soil environment in which producers cultivate their crops. Problems of salinity and waterlogging are increasing and considerable national loss and loss to individual farmers occur on account of the poor soil brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk
The COVID-19 induced lockdown in India was an inflection point for on-boarding of new users into ... more The COVID-19 induced lockdown in India was an inflection point for on-boarding of new users into digital payments. Using a large survey dataset, we examine the driving factors of this shift for those who used digital payments for the first time. Apart from demographic drivers of payment choice traditionally explored in the literature, we find that this shift was significantly shaped by the degree of awareness of digital modes, access to smartphones and debit cards, and pandemic-relief welfare transfers. Users who had abandoned digital payments due to prior bad experiences switched back to such modes.
This report is the outcome of the first phase of the AGRIDIV project (Identification of pulling f... more This report is the outcome of the first phase of the AGRIDIV project (Identification of pulling factors for enhancing the sustainable development of diverse agriculture in selected Asian countries), which was carried out in 2003-2004. Based on the availability of secondary data, five major CGPRT crops grown in Indonesia are studied in detail to examine the sustainable development of diverse agriculture. The crops include maize, soybean, groundnut, cassava, potato and sweet potato. In addition, rice, as the major staple food in Indonesia, is included and rice-related policies affect resource allocation and therefore affect the development of CGPRT crops.International Development,
This micro level study, conducted in the state of Chhattisgarh to examine the income and employme... more This micro level study, conducted in the state of Chhattisgarh to examine the income and employment pattern, has revealed that farm and non-farm activities are the main sources of income and employment and off-farm activity (agricultural labour) contributes only a negligible portion. The smallholders as well as landless households during the slack agricultural season depend on rural non-farm activities as the source of earning. A wide disparity in economy of farm and non-farm households has been observed. The income has been found higher under farm than non-farm households, but on per capita basis, no significant difference has been observed between farm and non-farm households. Within farm households, there are wide disparities between marginal and large farmers. A major portion of farm household's income is generated from kharif crops and a small portion by rabi crops due to prevalence of mono-cropped farming system in the state. A majority of households has been found to gene...
Ambalanthota and Horowpothana are also acknowledged. The coordinator acknowledges the general pub... more Ambalanthota and Horowpothana are also acknowledged. The coordinator acknowledges the general public for providing information and photographs for the publication. This project could not have been successfully completed without the cooperation of the poor rural farmers and villagers who responded to the questionnaires and provided valuable information. The coordinator acknowledges their assistance.
The climate change has been recognized by the world community as a potential threat to environmen... more The climate change has been recognized by the world community as a potential threat to environment, ecosystem, and development. The impacts are not spatially similar and Asia's rural poor are more challenged of its consequences. ICRISAT with support of ADB have tracked the climatic trends, identified vulnerable regions to climate change and ascertained the farmer's perception through quantitative and qualitative means for deciphering the adaptation strategies and constraints to adaptation in South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka), South East Asia (Thailand, Vietnam) and China. A comprehensive approach (Q 2) was designed to imbibe the information at different levels of its significance. Climatic analysis to understand the trends in climate and climate change vulnerability assessment of the regions and sub-regions was carried and later 22 villages were selected from these vulnerable regions for understanding ground level realities of climate change impacts and adaptation strategies. The study revealed a very high variability in distribution of rainfall, with marginal change in quantum of rainfall. The frequent occurrences of extreme events viz., droughts (India, Sri Lanka, China), floods (Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam) were other notable features making the region highly vulnerable. The farmers' perceptions and practices at the grassroots level revealed that farmers are adjusting their agricultural operations in response to the external stimuli of uncertainty and variability of rainfall not only to the climatic factors but also to several other factors like market dynamics, profitability, infrastructure development and government policies. The strategies followed by farmers include shifting from cereals to cash crops and adapting short duration and drought tolerant cultivars and adjustment in the sowing and planting dates. Across the study countries in Asia, farmers have been diversifying their sources of income into non-farm sources (43-87% of total income) to cover the risk of income loss due to variability and uncertainty in rainfall. The study further revealed that the worst affected is the marginal and small farmers and with increased frequency of drought, poor and marginal farmers get into perpetual debt traps. The analysis also revealed various constraints/limitations that existed among farmers hindering effective adaptation. The non-availability of seeds, lack of access to information, weak institutional capacities and inability of access to formal credit were some of the constraints that emanated from the villagers. In order to address the complex issues at the grass root level, it is imperative to formulate appropriate recommendations /promote approaches and options to harness the opportunities in the changing economic, technological and institutional opportunities, having locally-focused contexts. These results have paved way for a set of specific recommendations to be mainstreamed into the country specific policies for improving the livelihood of the rural households and building climate resilient agriculture.
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