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The ‘cereal gap’: Looming issues in India’s foodgrain policy

  • Perspectives

The ‘cereal gap’: Looming issues in India’s foodgrain policy

Cereal production in India recently crossed 300 million tonnes for the first time. In this post, Drèze and Oldiges point out that a major gap has emerged between the net availability of cereals and h...

  • Perspectives

Watering the seeds of the rural economy: Evidence from groundwater irrigation in India

Over time, technological advancements accompanied with government energy subsidies have made groundwater the single largest source of irrigation in India. This study evaluates the impact of access to ...

  • Articles

Land misallocation and industrial development

Although a large share of land in India is used for cultivation, large tracts of this are unproductive and produce low crop yields. In this post, Dasgupta and Rao explain their calculations to determi...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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

Recent Contributors

Jean

Jean Drèze

Ranchi University; Delhi School of Economics

Christian

Christian Oldiges

UN ESCWA

Anjali V. Raj, Seema Purushothaman,

Anjali V. Raj, Seema Purushothaman, Vidya Puttur Sadashiva

Azim Premji University

Camille

Camille Boudot-Reddy

Birkbeck, University of London

André

André Butler

University of Cambridge

Manaswini

Manaswini Rao

University of Delaware

Elisabeth

Elisabeth Sadoulet

University of California, Berkeley

Alain

Alain de Janvry

University of California, Berkeley

View all Contributors

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

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