This volume examines the transitions in Indian agriculture since the 1980s, and emphasizes upon the role of neoliberal policies and their impact. The essays presented here deal with a range of pertinent and contemporary issues, including global food security, livelihoods of agricultural labourers, and public and private investment. These weave together glimpses of the impasse faced by petty commodity producers (marginal and small farmers) and their subsequent economic distress and social exclusion. Comprehensive in analysis, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of agricultural economics, political economy, political science and public policy.

Using the decennial All-India Debt and Investment Survey from 1981-82 to 2012-13, this paper delves into the spatial and temporal trends in private fixed capital expenditure and its composition, among rural households in India. We also assess its relationship with public investment in agriculture. Amidst sizeable ups and downs, the magnitude and rate of growth in private investment in agriculture has gained momentum from 2000s except in Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir. An increasing preference of farmers to invest in residential land and buildings, and that at the cost of asset formation in farm business, is evident in agriculturally advanced states. Within agriculture, relatively higher investments in land improvement, machinery-implements, tractors, and livestock are identified over the period. Importantly, such investments are positively influenced by public investments in agriculture and irrigation in the high and low income states and also by public spending on input subsidy in the middle and low income states. An increase in public expenditure that is well targeted and is commensurate with farmers’ investment portfolio would reinforce a complementary relation between the two across-the-board. The impact of terms of trade on private investment though positive turns out to be statistically insignificant. Land acts as a constraint, indicating need for policy interventions that augment crop yield and can bring remunerative prices to farmers. A continued effort to improve the outreach of formal financial institutions for credit is warranted for higher private capital formation.

The book 'Indian Agriculture and Agribusiness Management' aims at providing students of agribusiness, teachers, researchers, professionals and all those interested in the field of agriculture with a broader understanding of agribusiness as a system and the key concepts needed to successfully manage an agribusiness enterprise. It serves as a basis to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the agribusiness system operates and the challenges faced in the movement of food and fiber from the producer to the ultimate consumer. The first part of the book helps in understanding the context within which agribusinesses operate in India. It focuses on the breadth and scope of agribusiness in India, policy initiatives undertaken by the Indian Government and the legal framework within which they function. The second half of the book deals with the complex network of inter related activities performed on the farm and past the farm gate such as natural resource management, input management, marketing management, supply chain management and risk management, as well as the institutional linkages needed for the same. It addresses issues relevant to decision making in a rapidly changing, highly competitive market environment led by technological advancement in area such as information technology and biotechnology. It provides an insight into management challenges related to rising input costs and shifting consumer preferences. Cases pertaining to the best practices and potential strategies adopted by a few innovative, successful organizations have also been incorporated. The book also incorporates several case studies that highlight the various concepts discussed in the different chapters.

This book presents an extensive study on India’s agricultural and nonfarm sectors, examining prices, investments and policies, and suggesting various essential technological changes. It offers appropriate financial, institutional, and policy frameworks that can help to sustain agricultural growth and augment farmers’ incomes across geographical locations. Further, it addresses agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction through multiple pathways that also tackle varied geographical locations, making it a highly useful guide to understanding the changing contours in agriculture and rural areas across the country and among rural households with various social and economic backgrounds.

This book provides a blueprint for the allocation of public expenditures “in” and “for” agriculture at the dis-aggregated state level and suggests a reorientation in favour of disadvantaged regions where the marginal returns on additional investments would be higher. It provides insights into the inter-linkages between public expenditures, private investment, rural poverty, and agriculture productivity from a regional perspective to reflect upon spatial differences in the welfare effects of various investments, subsidies, and policies. The book focuses on agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction through public and private investments, non-farm employment, and other pathways to the formulation of appropriate policies at the dis-aggregated state level. It presents new evidence based on advanced econometric tools for analysing and understanding the relationship between public and private investments in agriculture and input subsidies (fertilizer, power, irrigation, and credit) together with their impacts at the dis-aggregated state level. The book also deliberates on an income based direct support system for farmers as an alternative to the existing input price subsidy regime. Accordingly, the book offers valuable insights not only for researchers working on poverty alleviation, rural economy, and agricultural growth, but also for policymakers.

Contributed articles on economic aspects of agriculture in India.

India has entered the unfamiliar and exhilarating territory of success, qualified though this success may be. An economic world where India is not a key player is now impossible to imagine. Challenges-old and new abound and a lively policy debate is needed to address these and pave the way ahead. Against this backdrop, Business Standard brings to you the first of an annual series, committed to understanding this new India, and contributing to the policy debate. Business Standard India 2008, the inaugural volume, focuses on the sectors that excited the imagination in 2007, and provides a vision for the years ahead.

This Is A Book On The Economy Of Manipur, A North Eastern State In India, Which Has Entered Recently The Intellectual Agenda Of The Nation. The Urge For Doing Something Is Circumscribed By Lack Of Well Researched Material Particularly On The State Economy