New Release Books by Ashok Gulati

This book brings together unique experiences of India, China and Israel in overcoming economic, social, and natural resource challenges. Through its eleven chapters, the book captures the role of groundbreaking innovations in achieving unprecedented agricultural growth and stabilizing these nations. It provides a future outlook of the new challenges that will confront these countries in 2030 and beyond, related to tackling food and nutrition security, sustainable agricultural growth and adhering to improved food safety standards. This book provides useful insights for exploring technological innovations and policies that can address these future challenges and develop profitable and sustainable agriculture. This volume also highlights valuable lessons that India, China and Israel provide for the rest of the developing world where population is growing fast; natural resources are limited; and it is a challenge to produce enough food, feed and fibre for their populations. Tracing the historical past, this book is an impressive resource for academicians, policymakers, practitioners, agribusiness players, entrepreneurs in understanding the role of innovations in addressing future challenges.

`Institutional Reforms in India Irrigation brings together perspectives from three scholars with research interests ranging from agricultural economics to participatory watershed management and collective action. Overall the book provides a useful overview of irrigation management in India and authoritavely reviews options for cost-recovery under irrigation management transfer programs′ - Development and Change Examining the nature and scope of large-scale surface irrigation in India, this book identifies the factors leading to poor performance from a political economy perspective and suggests viable options for institutional reforms. Using empirical data on irrigation financing and farmer participation, the authors go beyond merely making policy recommendations. They make detailed calculations of the costs of irrigation development, including both capital expenditure and recurring costs. They also examine the performance of reform measures that are already in operation in Karnataka and Rajasthan, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of participatory irrigation management reforms.

In developing countries across Asia, food marketing parastatals have played an important role in agricultural policy, especially with regard to government efforts to stabilize food prices. Three broad market failures constitute the primary arguments for this form of government intervention: a lack of market integration stemming from inadequate infrastructure, the absence or inadequacy of risk-mitigating institutions and markets, and the need to protect the world's poorest communities from a volatile global market. Opponents of such public intervention schemes claim that the old rationales are no longer convincing, that the programs are not cost-effective and do not allocate resources optimally, and that private institutions are strong enough to take over many of the functions traditionally performed by parastatals. In From Parastatals to Private Trade, the editors—clearly from the latter camp—pose three general questions: Why must parastatal-centered policies in Asia change, when should policy changes occur, and how should such change happen: gradually or abruptly? Experts in agricultural policy use case studies from South Asia (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) and East Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) to answer these questions; and a concluding chapter synthesizes these countries' experiences with price stabilization programs. In light of the evidence—which indicates that parastatals played important roles in the past but have become overly expensive, and that reduced intervention can promote competition, help develop alternative institutions, and release funds for development and antipoverty programs without jeopardizing price stability—the editors highlight the challenges ahead and propose suggestions for reforming the existing paradigm for price-related policies. This volume provides valuable analyses for anyone concerned with balancing government intervention with market-friendly policies.

Outcome of collaboration between International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, International Food Policy Research Institute, and International Fund for Agricultural Development.

India's incentive system heavily favors manufacturing and discriminates against agriculture. This proposed reform agenda would remove major policies that distort agricultural imports, exports, inputs, and domestic markets. It would protect low- income groups against necessary increases in food prices.

A policy that moves prices closer to free trade levels would shift resources from groundnuts (or oilseeds) into cotton, rice and wheat -- crops for which India has more of a comparative advantage and would earn more in foreign exchange. This would also allow agriculture to compete with industry for investment rupees.

The Debate Over Agricultural Subsidies Has Been Thrust To The Forefront Of Discussions On India`S Economic Reforms With The Signing Of The Uruguay Round Agreement, Now Devolving On The Wto. This Book Examines The Issue From Various Angles In Order To Move The Reform Process Forward.

Includes statistical tables.

This chapter deals with the distortions to price incentives for agriculture that result from the trade, exchange rate and domestic policies in place in the four main South Asian countries, by summarizing and comparing the findings and themes of the more-detailed case studies on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Attention is paid most to India, which accounts for around four fifths of South Asia's population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and agricultural GDP. The principal focus is on the level of and trends in distortions for agriculture as a whole, and how these have changed over time relative to those for non-agricultural traded sectors in these countries. Previous studies have established that in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, policies strongly favored manufacturing over the principal agricultural crops, although the extent of anti agricultural bias diminished considerably between the 1970s to 1995. The new country studies extend the earlier estimates up to 2005 and back to 1965, and provide long term estimates of distortions to relative agricultural incentives in Bangladesh for the first time. As well, these new studies broaden the coverage of previous research by including estimates for the fresh fruit and vegetables sector in India, and the dairying sectors in India and Pakistan. In South Asia both of these sectors account for large shares of the rural economy as measured by their contributions to GDP.

Indian agriculture is dominated by smallholders. With an average holding size of just 1.08 hectares (ha) (in 2015-16), and 86 percent of holdings being of less than 2 ha in size, Indian agriculture transformed the country from functioning 'ship-to-mouth' during the mid-1960s to being a net exporter of agri-produce today. This would not have been possible without the onset of the Green Revolution post-1965, which resulted in increased foodgrain production and productivity. Among various inputs such as seeds, irrigation and fertilizers, the productivity of farms also depends greatly on the availability and judicious use of farm power by the farmers. Between the mid-20th century and 2013-14, India witnessed a tremendous shift away from traditional agriculture processes to mechanized processes. Today, 88 percent of the total farm power comes from tractors, diesel engine pump-sets, electric pump-sets and power tillers (2013-14). Additionally, India has emerged as the largest manufacturer of tractors in the world, followed by the USA and China. But how has farm mechanization, especially the use of tractors, evolved in India over time? What were the key drivers of the demand for tractors? And how efficiently are the tractors being used in terms of usage by number of hours/year? Given the high cost of tractors, it is also interesting to see how far they have penetrated the small and marginal holdings, i.e., the issues of inclusiveness, financial viability and sustainability. These are some of the key questions that are addressed in this study. [...].

Farmers, especially small and marginal, do not directly trade in agri-futures market in India. Their small size, lack of trust and understanding of futures market and dependence on middlemen, are some of the main deterrents. The role of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) is crucial in this context since they can procure commodities, aggregate them and ensure that size and quality standards required for agri-futures trade are met. In her Budget speech for Union Budget of FY20, the Union Finance Minister has set a target of creating 10,000 FPOs in the next five years (by 2024). NABARD has already been in this process of creating FPOs for the last few years (already has more than 3000 FPOs) and the major responsibility of scaling them with 10,000 new ones, is likely to fall on NABARD. Interestingly, NCDEX has also been trying to deepen FPOs participation in markets for the last few years. However, as our analysis shows that between April 2016 and May 2018 only a tiny fraction (0.004 percent) of overall agri-futures trade at NCDEX was through FPOs. This reflects the need for gigantic steps, if FPOs have to be involved in futures trading at any reasonable scale. The need is even greater if one considers the dire necessity of having forward looking cropping patterns, where farmers' planting decisions are based on future prices rather than last year's or even earlier year's prices. Keeping this in mind, the paper identifies the constraints in first linking farmers to FPOs and second, FPOs to futures market. Based on this research about constraints, the paper puts forward a few suggestions for the FPOs, NCDEX, as well as the government for better results: (1) Both FPOs and NCDEX need to focus initially on commodities not pereceived by the Government as 'sensitive' from food security point of view so that minimum disruption takes place in futures markets. This will help them gain confidence in the functioning of futures markets; (2) NCDEX needs to identify production centres, build delivery centres around them and encourage futures trading in these areas; (3) Resource Institutions involved in educating and hand-holding FPOs in futures trading, themselves need to upgrade their knowledge and skills about functioning of futures trading. Government policy and NCDEX both can help them in this direction; (4) Government initiatives like that of Bihar and Rajasthan can help scaling the efforts of linking FPOs to futures markets in other regions, (5) There could also be learning from small holder dominated agriculture of China, that has provided state support in linking farmers to futures, and helped customized products and reduce price distortions, (6) Government's trading arms can also be encouraged to directly participate in the futures market to give confidence to many others, including FPOs; and (7) Instruments like forwards and options have to be encouraged to invite greater participation by FPOs.

Indian agriculture is dominated by smallholders. With an average holding size of just 1.08 ha (in 2015- 16), and 86 percent of holdings being of less than 2 ha size, Indian agriculture produces sufficient food, feed, and fiber for India's large population of 1.35 billion, and in addition generates some net export surplus. This would not have been possible without the infusion of massive credit to farmers to buy modern inputs ranging from seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, farm machinery, etc. But how has this system of agri-credit evolved in India over time? What is its organizational structure, and how effective is it in terms of its reach, especially to smallholders? How efficiently can it deliver credit and what sorts of innovations are unfolding in this sector to make it more efficient, inclusive and sustainable? These are some of the key questions that are addressed in this paper. Our analysis in this paper shows that the Indian agri-credit system has made commendable progress, with major policy changes, especially in 1969. The share of institutional credit to farming households in overall credit increased from about 10 percent in 1951 to 63 percent in 1981. But since then it has hovered around that level until 2013, the latest year for which this information is available from All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS). However, total direct agri-credit (loans outstanding) from formal institutional sources as a percentage of AgGDP increased from about 16 percent in FY1982 to about 42 percent in FY2017; and direct short term institutional credit (loans outstanding) as a percentage of input requirements in agriculture increased from 22 percent in 1990-91 to 123 percent in 2015-16. This indicates that formal credit has been meeting all the requirements of inputs needed for modern agriculture. Also, in terms of inclusiveness, agri-credit institutions have played a major role. Small and marginal farmers, who operate on 47 percent of the operated area and account for 86 percent of the total operational holdings (number), get about 60 percent of institutional loans for agricultural purposes. This is a commendable achievement, although further improvements are always possible. Despite the mushrooming of several microfinance institutions and various innovations in banking, commercial banks remain the main source of formal finance to farmers, accounting for 75 percent of loans outstanding to farmers in 2017, followed by cooperatives at 13 percent and RRBs at 12 percent. Innovations in agri-credit policies (PSL/PSLC), credit instruments (KCC), organizations (MF institutions), business correspondents and micro-ATMs, are all helping to improve farmers' access to institutional finance. However, most of them focus on productive activities, which presumably push consumption credit to informal sources. The fact that the share of institutional credit in overall credit to agriculture has remained within a narrow range of around 60-65 percent for decades raises concerns as to whether the remaining part of agri-credit is for consumption purposes or whether it is being taken by tenants who find it difficult to borrow from institutional sources due to a lack of land titles as collaterals, or whether the banks do not find that segment of farmers 'bankable' due to low credit rating in the face of rising non-performing assets (NPAs) in agriculture. Whatever may be the reasons for this outcome, the study of Indian agri-credit still offers some important lessons for smallholder developing economies such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.

The agriculture and food sector in India employ a significant proportion (about 44 percent) of the workforce, the majority of whom are not very educated and lack formal or informal skill training. Hence, they are unable to make the most out of their occupation. About 67 percent of the population in India is aged 15-64 years while 27 percent is aged 0-14 years (UNFPA n.d.). This offers both a challenge and an opportunity to skill the youth as well as the existing workforce in India with the objective to improve their productivity and enhance their incomes. This paper is a scoping study of policies and institutions that are operational in this context of skill formation in India, with a focus on the agriculture and food sector. It takes stock of ongoing initiatives and programs, their design and scope in achieving skill development in general and related to the agriculture and food sector in particular. In terms of policy, skill development has been accorded high priority with an objective to make the programs aspirational for youth as well as for them to recognize the value of experience and knowledge. The focus is laid on quality of training, assessment, and certification thus ensuring standards and greater market acceptability. These are prerequisites for investments in skills to bring higher returns in terms of remunerative jobs. The government has been a catalyst of change in this area in terms of designing, implementing and financing of such programs. The role of private players including both potential employers as well as global partners (government, business and nongovernmental organizations) has been widely recognized in upgrading the scope, target and outcomes as well as ensuring sustainability of the national skill development program. As technology plays a very important role in sustainable value chains, it creates demand for a better skilled workforce, and accordingly rewards them with better paid jobs and higher returns in farming. Hence designing appropriate qualification packs and training programs with a focus on innovations all along the value chains (that help promote technology adoption, facilitate effective value chain management, etc.) are critical. Also, innovative models of outreach (for example, classroom training for agricultural professionals, agricultural entrepreneurs, farmer field schools, and e-platforms) can add substantial value to skills at very low cost. Hence, scaling up fast is necessary to benefit the agriculture and food sector in India. While this paper gives an overview of the landscape of various programs and projects, and how they are being implemented by various actors (government, domestic private sector and international agencies), there is dire need to evaluate their outcomes in terms of increased incomes and more stable jobs of those trained through these programs.