Shivendra Kumar Srivastava

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Researcher at ICAR-National Insitute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research

This policy paper synthesizes scattered data and empirical evidence to provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing and potential challenges and opportunities in the agri-food system transformation. By elucidating both challenges and prospects, it provides a balanced perspective on the current state of affairs and potential pathways for fosteri...

The tiered pricing of electricity can serve as an effective mechanism to address the twin objective of enhancing farmers’ affordability to electric power while promoting sustainable groundwater use. We evaluate how tiered electricity pricing can optimize the trade-off between affordable access and sustainable use of groundwater focusing on diverse...

Water is essential for life, livelihoods, food security, and sustainable development, with its efficient management being crucial for overall progress. Among the various aspects of water governance, water institutions play a pivotal role in regulating access, allocation, and sustainability. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of global rese...

In this study, we evaluated the impact of Minimum Support Prices (MSP), one of the key components of agricultural policy, on crop yields, market prices, farmers’ income, and groundwater levels. The findings demonstrate that MSP-based procurement, by mitigating market uncertainties and price risks, and incentivizing production, serves as an income s...

This study investigated the techno-economic feasibility of the convergence of PMKSY and PM-KUSUM and suggested institutional and policy measures to achieve convergence. The findings indicate that transitioning to solar-powered micro-irrigation has significant potential to conserve groundwater and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is anticipated t...

The agriculture sector is highly vulnerable and sensitive to climatic variations. This study estimates the impact of climate change on the yields of both rabi and kharif crops in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India. The projected impact on the crop yields under RCP 4.5 climatic scenario has revealed that by 2050 and 2080, the yields of paddy would de...

In India, the rural labour market is transitioning from the agricultural to non-agricultural sectors. This transition is accompanied by the changes in agricultural wages and labour availability for farm operations due to employment generation schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) or the disequilibrium in t...

India targets achieving net zero emissions by 2070, promoting Solar-powered Micro-irrigation technologies can significantly contribute towards this as well as provide significant monetary savings at the macro-level due to reduced electricity subsidies and diesel import bills.

This paper has evaluated the impact of stringent regulation on groundwater use in agriculture. It has revealed that overextraction of groundwater has continued even the regulation being in force and looks for explanations for this perverse outcome in policy offsets. The paper suggests for a holistic approach to groundwater management, encompassing...

We explore the possibility of convergence of PDMC and PMKUSUM, and the policy and institutional requirements to make this happen.

This paper deals with study of exposure of Karnataka state to climate change for a period 1979-2019. The Mann Whitney Pettit’s homogeneity test (MWP) was analysed for 240 data sets for monthly data of minimum (MTmin) and maximum temperature (MT max) across ten agro climatic zones) to estimate the year of structural break or year of shift in mean mo...

A primary survey during the year 2021-22 was carried out among the 240 farmers of Bidar and Gulbarga districts of North Eastern Transition Zone in Karnataka to study the farmer’s perception on climate change for the period 1979 to 2019 and validate their opinions with the change in the meteorological indicators. About 74 percent of farmers expresse...

Efficient water management through farm pond technology is a great initiative by Krishi Bhagya Yojana scheme in 2015. Out of 240 sample farmers, about 180 farmers are adopters and 60 are non adopters of farm pond technology in Bidar and Gulbarga districts of Karnataka. Majority of farmers prefer farm pond of size 30 m × 30 m × 3 m as during Kharif...

This chapter empirically examined the long-run gender and occupation-wise changes in rural employment in India using the nationally representative surveys of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). Also, studied the implications of changes in labor supply in agriculture on the farm economy. The estimated workforce in rural areas increased from 19...

Canal irrigation system, besides providing irrigation, generate many ecosystem services for command areas, viz. lesser groundwater extraction and carbon emissions, energy savings, groundwater recharge, recreational services for inhabitants, etc. However, existing studies primarily emphasize irrigation services provided by canals while overlooking o...

This paper provides an account of the nutritional status of Indian households and analyses the effect of changing food consumption patterns on nutrition. Our analysis shows that despite significant economic progress, the present nutritional status of Indian households is at a sub-optimal level. The incidence and extent of under-nourishment vary acr...

Ecosystem services are the processes of nature that directly or indirectly benefit human beings. These services need to be conserved through incentive-based market approaches for a sustainable future. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is one approach that aims to manage natural resources and ecosystem stewardship, wherein the users recompense th...

Agriculture is the most weather-dependent human activity and hence climate change significantly impacts agricultural productivity. In the present study, an attempt has been made to review the existing literature to document and assess the projected crops yield vis-à-vis actual yield of various crops in India. It has been found that most of the stud...

This study reviews groundwater status and management based on the existing literature regarding its resource endowment, hydrogeology, challenges and issues of management and policy suggestions for India. Efficient management requires decoupling groundwater rights from land-ownership rights, changes in electricity pricing and metering, aquifer-based...

Indian agriculture is predominantly dependent on groundwater and consumes nearly 89% of its total groundwater draft. With recurrence of drought and faster depletion of groundwater resources in recent past, micro-irrigation technology has emerged to play crucial role in managing irrigation water demand and sustaining food security. The policy makers...

The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk and vulnerability, micro-level perceptions and adaptation decision-making in building resilience of farm communities to climate change in dryland region of India. To select a region for grassroots enquiry, spatial differential in risk to climate change w...

Irrigation plays crucial role in agricultural production system assuring food security for the nation. In the wake of timely availability of irrigation water, groundwater emerged as reliable irrigation source and resulted into crop intensification with substantially insulating farmers' against drought. However, unrestricted withdrawal of groundwate...

Dietary diversity is the key to improved health and nutrition. Farm production diversity has the potential of enhancing dietary diversity but this interrelationship varies and is ambiguous in many societies. To examine the effect of farm production diversity on household dietary diversity using nationally representative panel data of Bangladesh we...

Rainfall data from 1979-2019 was analysed across the agro climatic zones in transition region of Karnataka. Rainfall Anomaly Index and Mean deviation methods are used to identify drought years and wet years over both spatial and temporal on time scale. The North Eastern Transition Zone can be considered as most vulnerable zone as it recorded for ab...

Owing to the prevailing scale of hunger and malnutrition, food and nutrition security (FNS) has been attached high priority throughout the globe over a long period of time. Of late, the critical role that the women play in ensuring family FNS has been recognized. The subtle family-centred FNS oriented activities that the women exclusively undertake...

With abundant groundwater resources, Bihar has the potential to harness the positive groundwater and agricultural development linkages by improving the economic access to groundwater irrigation. Using the representative data from Central Groundwater Board and the 5 th Minor Irrigation Census, this study has examined the spatio-temporal changes in g...

Irrigation considered being critical input in crop production system that leads to food security. On account of timeliness of irrigation water in appropriate quantity, canal irrigation straggled behind groundwater irrigation over the years. However, existence of canal infrastructure augment irrigation water requirement, groundwater savings and rech...

In India, groundwater development has been more intense in northwestern region of the country which considered being origin and colossal beneficiary of Green Revolution. Government incentives to install water extraction mechanisms at farmers' field and policy of free/subsidies electricity for agriculture have rapidly increased number of wells leadi...

Surface energy balance over an irrigated okra crop was measured directly using eddy covariance technique under a tropical monsoon climate of India. During two crop seasons, integrate values of energy balance components of 8.00 to 17.00 hours revealed that, the net radiation, R n varied from 14.6 to 24.69 MJ m-2 day-1 and surface soil heat flux, G 0...

Subsidies are one of the essential attributes of any welfare state as it intends to protect its citizens by reducing extremes of inequality. Historically, central and state governments of India, allocated significant amount of its annual budget on welfare schemes anticipating to bring transformational change in well-being of populace. As per budget...

Food and nutrition security (FNS) being a key priority area in development planning, requires good predictive models for holistic analysis of the concept, representative of the multi-dimensional linkages associated with the complex phenomenon. The present article discusses the conceptual dissents, and the popular proxy measures from which FNS is be...

The cultivated land utilization index (CLUI) for all the districts of Odisha, India during 2013-14 was estimated in this study. The average state CLUI value (0.585) indicated the scope of improving resource utilization , though 67% of the net cropped area is sown twice. All the districts of the state were classified under four scenarios with variou...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03067-3

Understanding farmers' perspectives to climate change and adaptation is essential in designing effective and informed strategies to combat the associated vulnerability. The study assessed farmers' perceptions to changing climatic conditions, their impacts, adaptation measures and constraints to adaptation in Bikaner district of Rajasthan. Our resul...

The recent development agenda in agriculture aims towards making the sector remunerative, competitive and sustainable through accelerating ongoing transformation and addressing the emerging challenges. The enactment of new farm Acts, 2020 has led to an intense debate with arguments both in favour and against their likely implications on farmers' we...

Globally, agriculture is recognized as a highly vulnerable sector to climate change and risks from climatic aberrations pose an imminent danger to the food security and sustainability of livelihoods. To bring robustness in climate adaptation planning, evaluation of resilience across homogenous regions is essential for developing and scaling suitabl...

Globally, agriculture is recognized as a highly vulnerable sector to climate change and risks from climatic aberrations pose an imminent danger to the food security and sustainability of livelihoods. To bring robustness in climate adaptation planning, evaluation of resilience across homogenous regions is essential for developing and scaling suitabl...

The lockdown, imposed nationwide to curb the spread of COVID-19, has disrupted economic activity and adversely affected the income of most households. The level and composition of household consumption is expected to change and create a disequilibrium in the economy through a downward shift in the demand curves of food and non-food items. The consu...

The paper presents long-run changes in agricultural labour market and its effects on farm economy. Further, effect of COVID-19 led disequilibrium in labour market on cost of cultivation of paddy and wheat has been quantified. The evidences from both census and NSSO surveys point out rising employment diversification towards non-farm sectors. Census...

India experienced a consumption puzzle since the 1970s, whereby households' calorie intakes declined over time, despite significant economic growth. This declining trend in calorie intake (consumption puzzle) was reversed for the first time in 2011-12. This is the first empirical study that investigates the relationship between refinements in data...

Thestudy attempts to estimateand predict climate impact on crop yieldsusing future temperature projections under two climate emissions scenarios of RCP 4.5 and 8.5 for threedifferent time periods (2030s, 2050s and 2080s) across Agro-climatic zones (ACZ) of India.During the period 1966-2011, a significant rise was observed in both the annual mean ma...

To be inclusive, economic development in India must focus on eastern India, which has a high population growth rate, population pressure, high incidence of poverty, small landholding size in agriculture, and underdeveloped rural infrastructure. Employment diversification towards the non-farm sector in eastern India from 1993–1994 to 2011–2012 shows...

During the course of development, Indian agriculture has become more productive, resilient and stable. However, it has been less remunerative as compared to non-farm sectors. The policy discourse in Indian agriculture is oriented towards improving farmers’ income and achieving sustainable agricultural development. The ongoing transition in Indian a...

The trend in milk productivity and its association with breed improvement, feeding and animal husbandry practices, and efficiency in dairy farming at the household level are examined using the representative cost of cultivation surveys in Punjab. Although milk yield at the farm level is rising due to the increasing adoption of cross-bred cattle and...

Climate change and extreme weather fluctuations are the most threatening challenges to the farming communities especially in semi-arid tropics. The paper investigates socioeconomic factors affecting vulnerability and adoption of innovations using micro-level survey data of 100 systematically selected farmers in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, In...

Micro irrigation in India played an important role. Dispite of long journey of micro irrigation the converage still is not much. Therefore, more concerted efforts are required to achive the potential of micro irrigation in the country like India.

देश के कुल सिंचित क्षेत्र में भूजल से सिंचाई का हिस्सा वर्ष 1964-65 में कुल 30.86 प्रतिशत था जो वर्ष 2014-15 तक बढ़कर 62.82 प्रतिशत हो गया। भारत में स्थायी खाद्य उत्पादन प्रणाली को सुचारु रूप से सक्रिय रहने के लिए भूजल संसाधन का स्थायी प्रबंधन परम आवश्यक है। वहीं दूसरी ओर भारत के अधिकांश पूर्वी राज्य भूजल का सही उपयोग न करके सतत विकास के लक्ष्य को...

Prioritizing and targeting less developed regions is one of the multi-pronged strategies for doubling farmers' income (DFI) in India. Using an indicator approach, the present study assessed and mapped agro-ecological sub-regions (AESRs) based on ten indicators representing production, infrastructure, information, marketing and income of the farmers...

The paper presents a framework for developing optimum crop plan using linear programming approach. The methodology aims for optimizing the level of each activity of different crops, level of input use, and output produced under different resource endowments and price scenarios. Data for this study relates to farm house hold data regarding land use,...

Prioritizing and targeting less developed regions is one of the multi-pronged strategies for doubling farmers' income (DFI) in India. Using an indicator approach, the present study assessed and mapped agro-ecological sub-regions (AESRs) based on ten indicators representing production, infrastructure, information, marketing and income of the farmers...

Madhya Pradesh witnessed highest agricultural growth of 9.5 per cent a year during 2005-06 to 2014-15 among all Indian States. The last six years (2009-10 to 2014-15) were more spectacular for the state because agriculture grew at 15.4 per cent a year. It is interesting to know whether all districts of the state equally benefited and whether inter-...

The paper critically reviews various methods exclusively used for c r o p planning and points out suggestions for improvement in techniques used for crop planning. Specifically, the study examines scope for optimization of crop plan, objectives and constraints, approaches, seasonality issues, sensitivity analysis and various computer software packa...

The study examines long run trends in groundwater level and identifies areas that have been facing depletion of groundwater resources. The results show ample opportunity to harness the underdeveloped groundwater resources in the eastern region, but some areas have started facing the problem of groundwater depletion. This should be taken as an early...

The Assam, the gate way to the north east is an agrarian state with rice as the staple crop. Nearly 89% of the state’s population of about 3 crores lives in rural area. The productivity of the major crops like rice, pulses and oilseeds is yet to reach acceptable level despite various efforts in the past. Optimum crop mix for Assam has been develope...

This book is an exploration into ethical tensions that new technology creates, with a particular focus on agricultural biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) food. There are four main arenas where new technologies generally, and agricultural biotechnology in particular, create ethical tensions, fault lines and pressure points. These are: publi...

The transition in the rural economy in the last four decades is examined based on the analysis of growth and composition of output and employment. A reduction in the share of agriculture, and a dominance of non-farm activities in the rural economy is noted from 2004–05 onwards. However, agriculture continues to be the predominant source of employme...

The study has examined economics of crop cultivation at the aggregate level over the past 25 years, identified sources of cost escalation and evaluated the effects of factor prices, substitution and technological effects on the production cost. The results reveal that a disproportionate change in gross return vis-à-vis cost resulted in varying rate...

Punjab is one of the most fertile states in India with agriculture as its largest industry. The state is ideal for wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits and vegetables. The share of agriculture in gross state domestic product (27 per cent) is higher than the national average of 18 per cent during 2014-15. In recent years a drop in productivity and profita...

The study identifies factors behind the groundwater depletion in Punjab (India) and examines the economics of groundwater irrigation across farm-size categories , varied groundwater levels and energy policy scenario. The farm-level evidences point out that farmers with smaller land holdings incur 2–3 times groundwater cost than those with larger la...

Tracking Transition in Dietary Energy Intake in India: Insights and Policy Implications

The study on dynamics of Mechanization in Punjab Agriculture has revealed that the degree of mechanization has increased at a fast pace, the per hectare mechanical energy use has increased by 9.05 percent while labour use has declined considerably and animal use has been totally nullified during the last decade. However, all crops are not uniformly...

The study analyzes the resource use efficiency and indentifies the determinants of technical efficiency of paddy, wheat and cotton crops in Punjab state using plot-level cost of cultivation survey data. The study established positive association between farm-size and efficiency in crop production. To improve the efficiency or to reduce the stress o...

The long-run trend in calorie-intake among rural and urban households in India has shown a decline till the year 2009-10 which got reversed during 2011-12. The reversal in the trend in calorie-intake has several important implications for dietary transition and nutritional interventions. The improvement in nourishment during 2011-12 is accompanied...

The study has empirically revealed that the widely discussed 'calorie-consumption puzzle' appears to have disappeared in the recent years and has established a positive marginal effect of income on dietary energy intake among Indian households. Nevertheless, nutritional effect of improvement in income varies across expenditure-classes, and rural an...

Punjab is one of the most fertile states in India with agriculture as its largest industry. The state is ideal for wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits and vegetables. The share of agriculture in gross state domestic product (27 per cent) is higher than the national average of 18 per cent during 2014-15. In recent years a drop in productivity and profita...

While farm-level empirical studies demonstrate the contribution of Bt technology in increasing crop productivity, there are still questions about its contribution to long-term growth in productivity at the macro-level. Our study examines major technological and seed policy breakthroughs relevant for the cotton crop, and reviews their impact on over...

Pulses are complementary to cereals both in production as well as in consumption. During the production process, pulses help in improving sustainability by (i) fixing the atmospheric nitrogen into the soil (ii) consuming less water and (iii) controlling diseases and pests. On consumption front, pulses reduce malnutrition and improve human health be...

The study has assessed the performance of different crops and cropping pattern in the state of Punjab using alternative scenarios like market prices; economic prices (net out effect of subsidy) and natural resource valuation (NRV) considering environmental benefits like biological nitrogen fixation and greenhouse gas costs. The study has used unit-...

Manual on methodological approach for developing regional crop plan

Tripura, witnessed an impressive growth in fish production during the past decade, because here fish culture is recognized as a vital activity for economic development. The state is presently undergoing a transitional phase and developing several plans to achieve self-sufficiency in fish production. The present study aims to workout strategic optio...

The impact of climatic variability on crop production was studied in the Mahanadi delta area where upland, midland and lowland sites were selected covering Dhenkanal, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Cuttack and Puri district. The monthly run-off (106 m3) data of 19 gauging stations adequately representing the sub-basins of the Mahanadi River basin with a com...