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Ram Fishman
Ram Fishman is a Senior Lecturer of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. Prior to coming to TAU, Ram was an assistant professor of Economics at George Washington University, and prior to that, a Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ram’s research is focused on sustainable agriculture, water scarcity and climate change, with an emphasis on developing countries.
Ram holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University, a M.Sc. in Physics from the Weitzman Institute and a B.Sc. in Mathematics from Tel Aviv University.
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भारत में सिंचाई और स्थानीय आर्थिक विकास के स्थान आधारित पैटर्न
भारत की सिंचाई परियोजनाओं का उद्देश्य कृषि की उत्पादकता और ग्रामीण विकास को बढ़ावा देना है। इस लेख में ब्लेकस्ली एवं अन्य द्वारा स्थानीय आर्थिक गतिविधियों की संरचना में सिंचाई उपलब्ध होने के दीर्घकालिक प्रभावों का अध्ययन किया गया है। वे पाते हैं कि कृषि उत्पादकता, जनसंख्या घनत्व और आर्थिक विकास के अन्य सूचकों में वृद्धि होने के कारण सिंचाई उपलब्ध होने का ग्रामीण क्षेत्रों में सकारात्मक प्रभाव पड़ता है। लेकिन सिंचित शहरी क्षेत्रों पर इसका उल्टा प्रभाव पड़ता है जहां गैर-कृषि आर्थिक गतिविधियों में गिरावट दिखती है।
Irrigation and the spatial pattern of local economic development in India
Irrigation projects across India are intended to boost agricultural productivity and rural development. In this post, Blakeslee et al. study the long-run effects of access to irrigation on the composition of local economic activity. They find that while access to irrigation has a positive impact on rural villages by increasing agricultural productivity, population density and other indicators of economic development, the reverse is true for irrigated towns, which experience a decline in local non-agricultural economic activity.
Adoption of Balanced Use of Chemical Fertilisers: Farmer's Response to Scientific Evidence and Social Learning
Government of India has launched a massive program of individualized soil tests and customized fertilizer recommendation, with the hope that scientific information will lead farmers to optimize the fertilizer mix. This porject conducted a randomized control trial in Bihar to provide evidence on the effectiveness of the program, as implemented currently. The findings suggests that lack of confidence is the main factor inhibiting farmers’ response.
Structural transformation and spillovers from ‘Industrial Areas’
A defining feature of economic development is the reallocation of labour from subsistence agriculture to manufacturing. To shed light on this process, this column analyses Karnataka’s Industrial Areas (IAs) programme that facilitated the establishment of industrial firms in rural areas. It finds that IAs caused a large increase in the number of firms and employment with substantial spillovers to neighbouring villages, and triggered a classic ‘structural transformation’ of the economy.
A Novel, Market Based Mechanism to Incentivize Efficient Groundwater/Energy use in Indian Agriculture – Setting Up a Field Experiment in Gujarat
This project documents patterns of rural-urban migration and employment shifts in a region that is facing ongoing depletion of groundwater resources in northern Gujarat in India. Given that migration typically does not occur due to one singular risk, this study assesses the multifactoral drivers of migration.
Impacts of water loss on low-income farmers in Karnataka
Worsening environmental conditions threaten to undermine progress in reducing rural poverty. This article studies the effects of increasing water scarcity in India. It finds that drying up of wells results in a precipitous and persistent decline in farm income and wealth, with little evidence of agricultural adaptation. However, farmers take up relatively more off-farm employment opportunities, particularly in locations with a more developed manufacturing sector.
Adaptation to persistent drought and groundwater depletion: Evidence from Karnataka
By using a random sample of households from the 2004 KSNDMC study, this project conducts a comparative study of households’ coping capacity to two prolonged, 3-year droughts occurring a decade apart, and examines whether the substantial ecological, economic, and social changes occurring over that decade have impacted this coping capacity.
Running out of water, walking away from farming
Groundwater tables are falling in India. What will happen when water actually runs out? This column analyses the impact of water scarcity on farmers in Gujarat. It finds that farmers are failing to or choosing not to adapt to the availability of less water. They are forced to shrink cultivation, leave farming or migrate to cities - thereby, reducing food production.