Foodgrain Production Research Articles

Concept, status and impact of foodgrain banking in Indian villages: A review

Utilization and distribution of foodgrain always remain as an un-ending riddle to the policy makers and administrators despite surplus in foodgrain production in an agriculture dominated economy. At one hand, glut in market leads to distress sale by the debt-ridden farmers and consequent disinterest in farming among village youth in long run; on the other hand rural societies in difficult terrain faces regular cycle of seasonal hunger due to climate, crop and infrastructure related reasons. The time has come to think beyond the overburdened public distribution system to channelize the surplus produce properly since more than 20 million tonnes of grains produced are destroyed annually due to improper transport, inadequate storage facilities both in institutionalized sector as well as farmers' home. Grain banking is a remedy to the food loss and food insecurity, is mostly applied for tribal areas and difficult terrain with high seasonality of agriculture and harsh climate. It has been successfully applied in Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, where community managed grain banks with set rules and norms provide the needy with grain, who in turn returns it through cash or kind. Clusters all over the country could be conceptualized with grain banks in glut region and the nearest starved region exchanging food and that may be hoped to reduce distress sale, wastage and hunger. Present paper is an attempt to review the grain bank concept implemented in India, its pros and cons along with the strategies for scaling up.

Impact of agribusiness on food security and livelihood generation: A case study in Assam, India

Assam is predominantly a rural phenomenon, stemming principally from underperformance of the agriculture sector and lack of alternative employment avenues mainly in the rural areas. Decadal growth rate of population of Assam reflected a per square increase trend of population in the state. With increase population people below poverty line started increasing and average size of holding started to decrease. Area, Production and average yield of food grains in Assam found stagnant for a long period as a result per day per capita availability of most of the food grains found decreasing for the state. The study revealed that Assam has deficit in fish and livestock products as per nutritional demand. But has potentiality in horticultural crops. So to maintain the food security and livelihood to the people of Assam transition of agribusiness is very much required which will include cultivation of high yielding crop varieties, mechanization of agriculture, development of contact farming, establishment of food processing industry and development of cooperative fish and livestock farming in the state.

Robust modeling in the presence of outliers for food grain production in India

The traditional ordinary least squares procedure (OLS) is the most frequently used method for analyzing food grain production data (1983-2014), but ignore the presence of outliers or influential data points which may distort the regression estimates obtained from OLS. These data points may remain unnoticed and can have a strong adverse affect on the regression estimates. In this paper, two approaches i.e., robust M-regression and quantile regression to linear robust regression analysis are presented, as these methods provide formal procedure to overcome from the situation of outliers and influential observations and to reduce their influence on the final estimates of the regression co-efficients by using Cobb-Douglas production function. Moreover, 0.90 th quantile regression model comes out to be best on the basis of AIC (-47.17), SBIC (-36.91), elasticity of production, marginal value productivity, sign, size and the variables significant effect on foodgrain production than OLS and robust M-regression. Also, the variables NSA and AC were best in order to increase the food grain production on the basis of quantile 0.90 th regression, elasticity of production and MVP at 0.90 th quantile.

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and Rhizobium combinations are the key to reduce dependence on phosphorus fertilizers in lentil - A review

Improved agricultural technologies are helping in meeting the foodgrain needs of growing global population while the arable land is shrinking. So, the excessive and continuous use of chemical fertilizers has ensured the high crop production and productivity of foodgrains. However, continuous application of inorganic fertilizers has created many problems related to biosphere i.e. environmental, soil and human being. In recent years, the scientists are concerned about biosphere hazardous; thus, reducing the extra burden of inorganic fertilizers by using microbial inoculants for integrated nutrient management. The microbial inoculations supplement the plant growth and yield by direct ways (increase in supply of nutrients i.e. nitrogen, production of metabolites such as auxins, cytokinins and gibberellins as well as through the solubilization of phosphate and other minerals) and indirect ways (biofertilizers eliminate the pathogens by the production of cyanide, siderophores, chitinase etc.). The microbial inoculation stimulates the plant to use applied as well as fixed nutrients i.e. phosphate efficiently, thus helps to reduce the fertilizers input. Secondly, biofertilizers are considered as economically feasible and environmentally safe.

Grain silo location-allocation problem with dwell time for optimization of food grain supply chain network

In the last few decades, production and procurement of food grain in India have steadily increased, however, storage capacity has not increased proportionally. The government of India (GOI) is establishing the various capacitated silos across the country to bridge this storage capacity gap. This paper presents a novel integrated multi-objective, multi-modal and multi-period mathematical model for grain silo location-allocation problem with Dwell time to support the decision-making process of GOI. Two conflicting objectives-minimization of total supply chain network cost and total lead time (transit and dwell time) are simultaneously optimized using two Pareto based multi-objective algorithms with calibrated parameters.

Green revolution in India-Some reminiscences and views on current agricultural scenario with reference to Punjab

Green Revolution, the term first used by William S. Gaud, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1968, refers to a phenomenal increase in foodgrain production during late 1960s in certain regions of the world especially South East Asia. India was faced with a serious food crisis during 1950s and 1960s. During 1966 and 1967, Government of India imported about 19 million tonnes of foodgrains to meet the needs of the country. During the year 1967, a book titled, “Famine 1975” was published by William Paddock and Paul Paddock. The authors studied the growth rate of the population and that of the foodgrains production. They were of the view that the population growth outpaced foodgrains production and the study resulted into the above mentioned publication forecasting famine in many countries including India by 1975. By about the same time, scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Mexico and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines had developed wheat and rice varieties, respectively, which had much higher yield potential than the ones existing at that time. Large scale adoption of these varieties of wheat and rice resulted in significant increase in foodgrains production. The country became not only self reliant but, at a later stage, food surplus also, thereby belying the famine forecast. But for the new technology of high yielding varieties, India could have faced famine like conditions. Punjab played a leading role in this effort to meet the food grain needs of the country.

Revamping Agriculture Sector through Sustainable Methods for Irrigation with Usage of Solar Water Pumps: A Study of Punjab#

Sustainable agriculture aims to produce food in a suitable quality and quantity and guarantee food security and land use, crop choice, irrigation and fertilisation would not lead to land degradation and desertification. Usage of Sustainable Agricultural practices is an urgent intervention. These methods include usage of solar energy for irrigation. The well-developed irrigation system is mandatory requirement as farmers in India are facing issues like erratic grid supply, increasing unreliability on monsoon rains and high cost of diesel pumps. The Government of India at the Union level and State Governments had formulated certain policies and programmes to address the issue and launched Solar Water Pumps (SWP) as a solution to irrigate fields adequately as it is environmental friendly and cost effective. MNRE in coordination with Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) have implemented SWP scheme in Punjab for improving irrigation system to increase production of food grain. The article has analysed the need and scope of the implementation of the SWP scheme in Punjab and evaluated the extent to which the scheme has created awareness in the farmers and population involved in agriculture and allied activities while considering the perception of beneficiaries towards SWPs installation process to meet their requirement of energy. The article also discussed the functioning of the government machinery involved in the enforcement of the scheme. It has been found although solar pumps may replace traditional tube wells but fewer subsidies, discontinuity in financial assistance, lack of awareness had made this successful to some extent.

Агробиологические особенности нового сорта голозерного овса Багет

Oat grain is used both for forage and food aims. Therefore, it is so important to grow naked oat that is more processable due to the lack of husk. Ten varieties of naked oat are included into the State Register of the breeding achievements of Russian Federation, but only three of them are suitable for growing in the European part of the country. That is why the aim of the study is creation of productive variety of naked oat having high grain qualities which would be suitable for growing in different agro-climatic zones of European Russia. Studies were conducted according to the methods of state varietal testing in three ecological sites: Federal Agricultural Scientific Center of North-East (Kirov, 2000 - 2017), Falenki breeding station - Branch of FARC North-East (v. Falenki, Kirov region, 2012 - 2017), and Samara Agricultural Research Institute ( Bezenchuk, Samara region, 2015 - 2017). Naked oat variety Baget was created by method of individual selection from cross population ОА 503/1 (Canada) * Tumensky golozerny (Russia) with following control of trait in further generations. The variety is intended for production of food grain (children, diet, functional, and gluten-free nutrition) as well as for grain forage. In 2017 there were the most favorable growing conditions for the vegetation of Baget variety and comparison varieties Vyatsky and Bekas within 2015 - 2017 studies. Index of environment conditions (lj) in 2017 varied from 0.734 in Samara and 0.7507 in Falenki breeding station up to 1.8274 in FARC North-East. Average productivity of the new variety for years of study in ecological sites was 4.07 t/ha that is 0.45 t/ha higher than for standard Vyatsky and 0.36 t/ha higher than for oat variety Bekas. Analogous data were received in studies of 2012-2017 for ecological sites of Kirov region. Exceed of standard on productivity (3.86 t/ha) was 0.48 t/ha, that of variety Bekas - 0.33 t/ha.

Vegetable production: A probable pathway for healthy nation and doubling farmers’ income

Indian economy is an agrarian economy. During the last 50 years India has achieved self-sufficiency in foodgrains production. The contribution of farming community is appreciable for achieving this giant goal. But the country is still lagging in combating agrarian crisis and nutritional insecurity. Unexpectedly low returns from agriculture on account of either occurrence of natural calamities or low farmer's share in consumer's price are compelling them to commit suicide. Variation of prices of vegetables and other horticultural prices affect the farmers’ income and also have impact on consumers’ pocket. Realizing these facts, the government has initiated steps to enhance the income of the cultivators. Operation Greens and Operation Blue are steps to provide sustainable prices and to stop the wastage of vegetables of the farmers and also to address the nutritional requirement of malnourished population of the country. If implemented in proper ways, it may help in augmenting the cultivators’ income and may save consumers from price variations.

Forecasting of Area, Production, and Productivity of Food Grains in India : Application of ARIMA Model

Food grains occupy a dominant place in Indian agriculture. The demand for food grains is continuously increasing due to steady increase in the population. Food grains are an important source of energy and protein to majority of the Indians, who are vegetarians. Apart from this, the Government of India enacted the National Food Security Act (NFSA) which came into force with effect from July 5, 2013. This further put pressure on the demand for food grains in the country. Realizing the importance of food grains, the Government of India initiated various measures to boost the production and productivity of food grains since independence. As a result of this, the production of food grains has increased since 1950s, but still there is a gap between demand for and supply of food grains in the country which needs to be addressed urgently. In view of this, the projections for the area, production, and productivity of food grains for 5 years starting from 2016-17 onwards, based on the univariate time series analysis known as ARIMA analysis, was conducted in this paper. ARIMA (2,1,2), ARIMA (4,1,0), and ARIMA (3,1,3) models were fitted to the data on area, production, and productivity of food grains, respectively and these models were found to be adequate. The forecast values indicated that production and productivity will increase during the forecast period but that of area exhibited near stagnancy, calling for timely measures to enhance the supply of food grains to meet the increasing demand in the years to come.

English

English

Per Capita Availability of Food Grains and Pressurized Agriculture Economy in the Reform Period in India

<p>The purpose of this study was to analyze per capita availability of foodgrains and agriculture system of India. The agriculture is the backbone of our country, but recently the growth of Indian economy the share of agriculture in GDP has declined over the years and even today’s productivity of some agricultural products are declining in high extent, if compared with like the USA and China and other countries,as well,the present paper is a new attempt to focus on the dichotomy of excess foodgrain production and large-scale subsidized food distribution on the one hand, and huge wastage and millions of hungry families on the other. As well as, it clearly focuses on the issues that Indian government has not given adequate attention to the storage and transportation of foodgrains during the last three decades or so. At this point, the government is caught between huge foodgrain stocks and the states inability to absorb them. India’s agricultural sector is surprisingly fragmented when compared with other countries.</p>

Importance of biofertilizers in conservation of environment-a review

With increasing use of modern techniques in Indian agriculture, the use of chemicals and fertilizers in the same proportion has also increased. Although the country has become self-reliant in the production of food grains, but the chemicals used in the modern technology, the structure of our soil quality and imbalance in the environment are increasing, due to which the environment is mainly polluting the soil and its fertility strength is declining. Therefore, the need for organic and natural farming is felt not only in India but also in foreign countries (developed countries). Organic farming is a complete process associated with natural environment. It is a group method of cultivation in which chemical fertilizers and insecticides are not used. To maintain the fertile strength of the land, the compost made from grass-clay, urban wastes and dirty rivulets obtained from dirty drains, bacterial compost and compost made from microbes, various products of neem plant and other plant products found in nature are under taken. Therefore, to avoid various types of pollution from chemicals, the use of fertilizers made from biological resources is most suitable.

Trends in Fertilizer Consumption and Foodgrain Production in India: A Co-integration Analysis

Food grain production in India has increased considerably from 50 MT in 1951 to 266 MT by 2013-14. Introduction of green revolution, modernization of agriculture, encouragement to research and extension in agriculture are some of the factors contributed for this growth. However, this is accompanied by considerable increase in the usage of chemical fertilizers starting with the introduction of green revolution in 1960s leading to unsustainable agriculture. The Green Revolution was a technology package and it contains technical component of improved high yielding varieties of two staple cereals (rice and wheat), irrigation and use of fertilizers, pesticides, and better management practices. The high yielding varieties demanded more usage of fertilizers and it is supported by the subsidy policy on fertilizers. In the early 1980s, India introduced New Economic Policy (NEP) which has opened up the economy to privatization and globalization. In the globalized economy agricultural sector became more commercial and production is oriented to export market. This also led to increase in fertilizer consumption. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the trends in the consumption of chemical fertilizers and food grain production in India and to identify the relationship between these two. The study is based on the secondary data and Co-integration Technique and CAGR are used to analyse the trends. The analysis revealed long run relationship between these two variables in India. Encouraged by the increased production, farmers have increased fertilizer consumption without considering the environmental consequences and sustainability of agriculture.

Extreme snowfall event analysis and its impacts on agriculture and horticultural crops in western Himalaya, India

Glaciers and snow are the important features of hydrological cycle and affect volume, variability and water quality in areas where these occur. Snow supplies more than half of water used for irrigation in Himachal Pradesh and other northern states of India and is an important contributor to hydropower and irrigation reservoirs. The fact that snow acts as water storage over the winter and provides soil moisture recharge in the spring is of particular importance to agriculture productivity in mountainous regions. The study on snowfall estimation during 2004-05 in Himachal Pradesh was carried out using remote sensing techniques and ground truth data to estimate total snowfall and assess the impact of snow fall on water availability and crop productivity. The snowfall estimates using remote sensing techniques for two periods by using two sets of imageries before snow fall (October, 2004) and after snowfall (May 2005). This indicated an increase of 28.7 per cent in snow cover compared to pre snowfall period. The ground data from 22 sites also indicated an increase of more than 50 per cent higher amount of snowfall during 2004-05 compared to last two decades. The area under different crops during rabi 2004 was found to be increased by 8.57 per cent, whereas, subsequent kharif season registered 1.85 per cent reduction in cropped area. The increase also reflected in higher productivity during rabi season 2004 and kharif 2005. The productivity of total food grains increased by more than 19.0 per cent during 2004-05 compared to 2003-04. The apple and other fruits registered 12.1 and 59.8 per cent higher productivity, respectively in 2004-05 compared to 2002-03 and 2003-04. The impact of extreme snow fall was more pronounced in short duration vegetables crops. The total vegetables arrivals in the market increased by 48.33 per cent during 2004-05 compared to last three year arrivals. This indicated that there was a positive and significant effect of heavy snowfall on agricultural as well as horticultural crop productivity in the mountains and downstream of Himachal Pradesh.

A Study on the performance of Agricultural Sector in India

<span>The time series data at all India level on area, production and productivity of foodgrains, production and per capita availability of milk and eggs and production of meat were compiled and a decade wise analysis of growth rate, instability index and decomposition analysis was done to study the performance of agriculture sector. During the overall period, the area under food grains showed negative growth whereas production and productivity growth was positive. For milk and egg, both production and per capita availability showed positive growth. Meat production showed a positively significant growth rate. Growth rate in area, production and productivity of both vegetables and fruits was positive. In general, for foodgrains, the yield effect was higher than the area effect which could be attributed to increased use of high yielding varieties. For vegetables and fruits, the contribution of area effect was more than that of yield and the interaction effect suggesting that measures should be taken to improve their productivity. </span>

A Study on the performance of Agricultural Sector in India

The time series data at all India level on area, production and productivity of foodgrains, production and per capita availability of milk and eggs and production of meat were compiled and a decade wise analysis of growth rate, instability index and decomposition analysis was done to study the performance of agriculture sector. During the overall period, the area under food grains showed negative growth whereas production and productivity growth was positive. For milk and egg, both production and per capita availability showed positive growth. Meat production showed a positively significant growth rate. Growth rate in area, production and productivity of both vegetables and fruits was positive. In general, for foodgrains, the yield effect was higher than the area effect which could be attributed to increased use of high yielding varieties. For vegetables and fruits, the contribution of area effect was more than that of yield and the interaction effect suggesting that measures should be taken to improve their productivity.

CROPPING PATTERN AND CROP RANKING OF MYSORE DISTRICT

With the limited resources of land and water in hand, their optimum use is a must to for increased production of food grains to the demands of increasing population. The productivity in any area can be substantially raised by growing the crops suitable to the area with the help of newly developed agricultural techniques. Rainfed crops would continue to dominate in the agriculture of Mysore district.

Arsenic induced eco-physiological changes in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and protection by gypsum, a source of sulphur and calcium

World food security is threatened by low production of food grains due to adverse impacts of abiotic stressors on plant health. Metalloids, including arsenic (As), interfere with plant growth and metabolism. In recent past, As has emerged as a severe threat to animal and plant health due to its rapidly increasing concentration in the environment. The influence of gypsum (calcium sulphate, CaSO4·2H2O), a sulphur (23.3%) and calcium (18.6%) source, on As-induced stress was studied in chickpea gram (Cicer arietinum). Plants were raised in pots containing 150g Soilrite™ with following combinations of 1% (w/w) gypsum and As (50ppm): Control, Arsenic (As), 1% gypsum and 1% gypsum+50ppm As. Fifteen-days-old plants were subjected to treatments and several physiochemical parameters were studied at two different time intervals (10 and 20days after treatment, DAT). Arsenic was found to increase oxidative stress, lesser in presence of gypsum. Arsenic treatment decreased activities of SOD, GR, APX and CAT but an increase was noted in the presence of gypsum, except CAT. Gypsum greatly helped plants in acquiring higher levels of proline, ascorbate, glutathione, non-protein thiols and phytochelatins. More importantly, gypsum helped in maintenance of cellular redox during As stress. Biomass accumulation was also improved in presence of gypsum. Hence, it is clear that sulphur and calcium source (gypsum) might play either an indirect role (reducing plant As uptake) or a direct role (by strengthening the cellular defence) that might be through upregulation of S-defence pathway (glutathione, phytochelatins and non-protein thiols) for protection against As.

Growth and Instability of Foodgrains in Telangana: A State Level Analysis from 1955–56 to 2015–16

Agricultural sector plays the pivotal role in the overall development of Telangana economy. Nearly 62 percent of Telangana’s population lives in rural areas and 55 percent of the workforce actually engaged in agricultural activities. Agricultural sector is a major source of livelihood for a large majority of the State population. In this study, an attempt has been made to know the performance of agriculture sector in Telangana state by knowing the growth trends and instability in area, production and yield of foodgrain crops in the state for the period 1955-56 to 2015-16. It has been observed that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of foodgrains production, area and yield showed a decreasing trend. The production of total foodgrains has the negative growth rate of -0.94 percent during the overall study period. The overall average production of total foodgrains is 41.92 lakh tonnes and area under total food crops is registered 34.77 lakh hectares. However, in the case of instability, Standard Deviation (absolute change) for overall period in the production of foodgrain is registered 20.74 lakh tonnes which are about 49.30 percent (Coefficient of Variation). Likewise, the total absolute change (Standard Deviation) in the area under cultivation of food grain crops is only 5.39 lakh hectares which is about 15.49 percent (Coefficient of Variation) during the study period in addition to this instability in food grains yield is showing an increasing trend over the period. Instability in production and yield is increased more and more after the introduction of economic reforms in the state compared to the adoption of new technology (green revolution) in agricultural sector.