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Agriculture

Easing contracting frictions with machines: Evidence from Karnataka

  • Articles

The 10,000 FPOs scheme ignores women farmers

In this piece, Shilpa Vasavada puts forth her concern that if we don’t revisit the new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) guidelines with a gender lens, women in the agriculture sector will be left...

  • Perspectives

Gendering technological change: Evidence from agricultural mechanisation

Rising mechanisation in Indian agriculture has been accompanied by reduction in farm employment in rural areas, particularly for women. This article shows that the observed 32 percentage point increas...

  • Articles

DRAMA at the farm gate

Describing the new ‘APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) Bypass Act’ as a ‘Dual Regulation of Agricultural Marketing Act’ or DRAMA, Jean Drèze argues that the legislation's odd framew...

  • Perspectives
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Financial inclusion for agricultural growth: An alternative approach

Traditional, group-based microcredit has had limited success at enabling farmers to expand the cultivation of risky but profitable cash crops. Evidence suggests that this is mainly because of its mech...

  • Articles

Reconstructing facts in Bt cotton: Why scepticism fails

In disputes around Bt cotton, a “triumph narrative” is alleged to have emerged from researchers - mainly economists - catering to vested interests of the biotech industry, its funding and allied j...

  • Articles

Do the poor need genetically modified crops?

Field trials of a few genetically modified crops were recently put on hold by the Environment Ministry. This article asserts that the decision reflects an ideological resistance to and suspicion about...

  • Perspectives

Why do insecure rural property rights persist?

Poorly specified and weakly enforced property rights over land may reduce productivity in the agricultural sector. This column examines why strong private property rights are not adopted more widely, ...

  • Articles

The unintended child health consequences of the Green Revolution in India

While the Green Revolution in India greatly enhanced agricultural production, the enhanced use of fertilisers led to the contamination of surface and ground water. This column analyses the impact of f...

  • Articles

The role of Bt cotton in improving food security

The role of genetically modified crops in the fight against hunger remains disputed. The debate primarily focuses on whether or not these crops can contribute to sustainable increases in food producti...

  • Articles

Willingness to pay for index-based crop microinsurance in India

Given the significance of the agricultural sector in India and its vulnerability, an adequate and sustainable risk management system is critical. However, uptake of microinsurance is quite low. This c...

  • Articles

Grain stocks: Is it a problem of storage capacity?

Foodgrains rot due to insufficient storage capacity, even as millions go to bed hungry. This column argues that increasing capacity is only a partial resolution. The crisis has happened before and wil...

  • Articles

Agricultural wages and MNREGA: Exploring the myth

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, India’s flagship programme that guarantees 100 days of minimum wage employment to rural households, has come under attack for pushing up t...

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Designing microfinance for agricultural growth

Credit and information constraints are particularly acute for farmers in developing countries, and can have a strong impact on their productivity.

  • IGC Research on India

Evaluating the Performance of the Kisan Credit Card Scheme in Bihar

The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme was introduced in India in 1998-99 has since become a flagship programme providing access to short-term credit in the agricultural sector. According to the Governmen...

  • IGC Research on India

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Johns Hopkins SAIS

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Dartmouth College

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Douglas Gollin

University of Oxford

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Tufts University

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Shilpa Vasavada

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A. Nilesh Fernando

University of Notre Dame

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Renee Yaseen

University of Notre Dame

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ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute

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Most Popular Agriculture Posts

Climate change and Indian agriculture

Indian agriculture remains vulnerable to the vagaries of weather, and the looming threat of climate change may expose this vulnerability further. This article presents findings from a study that uses ...

  • Articles

India's farm crisis: Decades old and with deep roots

In this Perspectives piece, Prof. Himanshu argues that the crisis in Indian agriculture today is not a new one; it goes back many years. Therefore, the problems of farmers cannot be addressed by the b...

  • Perspectives

How new technologies can raise farm productivity

Lele and Goswami discuss the potential of new technologies in raising farm productivity, and the challenges involved in turning the power of information and other technologies into a farmer-friendly t...

  • Articles