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Annual Report

KRISHI: Publication and Data Inventory Repository

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Title Annual Report
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The National Centre for Agricultural Economics
and Policy Research (NCAP) is making persistent
efforts to sustain excellence in agricultural
economics and policy research in the country.
The Centre serves as a policy think tank and
helps the ICAR through credible research to
actively participate in policy debates and
decisions and in monitoring and interpreting the
research impacts at various levels. The Centre
sensitises policy planners in the country and
ICAR about the emerging changes and concerns
related to agriculture and farmers. Besides
helping ICAR, the Centre also provides
policy inputs to several other public sector
organisations, Departments, Ministries and
various state governments.
The Centre had 18 scientists and 16 other
staff in the year 2011-12. The total expenditure
of the Centre, including externally funded
projects, during the year was Rs 734 lakh.
A Research Advisory Committee chaired by
Prof. V S Vyas, a distinguished economist and
member, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory
Council, guides the Centre in its research
programmes, and a Management Committee
guides its overall functioning. Besides, a number
of committees (mandated by ICAR and internal)
facilitate decentralised management of the
Centre.
Research is conducted at the Centre under
five broad themes, viz. technology policy,
sustainable agricultural systems, markets and
trade, institutional change and agricultural
growth and modelling. During the year 2011-12,
the Centre undertook 15 research projects and
completed four consultancy research studies. It
has not only maintained but also increased the
linkages and collaborations with many
institutions in India and abroad. Besides, it
organised a number of workshops, trainings,
brainstorming sessions and policy discussions.
A brief account of research and other activities
undertaken by the Centre during 2011-12 is given
below.
● A study on proposed Seeds Bill 2011 has
shown that in quality seed production,
participation of the public sector has
increased faster than of the private sector in
recent years. Increased supply of quality seed
has been an important factor for acceleration
in agricultural growth after 2004-05. Still,
there is a large mismatch between availability
and requirement of good quality seeds, not
only of hybrids, but of self-pollinated crops
also. Prolonged indecisiveness in enacting
this important piece of legislation is
impinging on the technology spread in
agriculture.
● Research on compliance with food safety
standards in milk production in the states of
Bihar, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh has shown
significant variations in the adoption intensity
of food safety practices. The cost of
compliance with food safety measures is
found to be Re 0.50/litre, but it contributes to
better price realisation.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
xvi
● A study conducted to assess the economic
impact of foot-and-mouth disease in Andhra
Pradesh has revealed an average per farm
benefit of about Rs 22,300 on account the
Control Programme (CP).
● The visioning exercise in dairy sector has
estimated the total economic demand for milk
by 2021 under normal, high and low growth
scenarios as 132 million tonnes, 140 million
tonnes and 123 million tonnes, respectively.
● The visioning exercise for hill agriculture,
based on experience of Himachal Pradesh,
has pointed to a less cereal-oriented future
farming scenario. The yield gaps in different
fruits have been estimated to be in the range
of 4-117 q/ha and their addressal would help
in attaining higher farm profitability. In the
context of impending climate change and
climate variability, protected and
conservation agriculture would gain currency
in the future.
● Quantification of the impact of Bt cotton
adoption in India has revealed a benefit of
approximately Rs 220 billion. Eighty-five per
cent of it accrues to producers and the rest to
the private sector seed companies and
marketing firms. Statewise, the highest
benefits were recorded in Maharashtra,
followed by Gujarat.
● With the introduction of Bt hybrids, more
than 90 per cent of cotton area in India has
gone under hybrids in all the states. In India,
the private seed companies have promoted
Bt cotton following the route of hybrid so
that they can extract surpluses through sale
of hybrid seeds every year. The total
hybridisation inadvertently renders the
farmers’ rights infructuous, as the seeds
cannot be used for further cultivation. As a
consequence, the varietal composition, fibre
composition and cost of cultivation have
undergone a sea change. In this context, the
public sector institutions can capitalise the
comparative advantage in producing openpollinated
Bt cotton varieties.
● Watershed Development Programmes
(WDPs) have attained, at least partly, the
immediate goals of rain water harvesting and
increasing crop productivity; the larger goals
are yet to be achieved.
● A new project has been initiated to assess
the impacts of climate change on agriculture
as well as to identify adaptation strategies
and options for its mainstreaming with larger
developmental pathways, with the funding
support of National Initiatives on Climate
Resilient Agriculture (NICRA).
● The study on awareness of conservation
agriculture among the farmers of Mewat
district of Haryana has revealed the existence
of a wide gap between the technologies
available at the research level and knowledge
about them at the farmers’ level.
● A comprehensive sustainability indicator has
been constructed based on the Driving Force
- Pressure - States - Impact - Response (DPSIR)
framework by taking into consideration
the ecological, economic and social
dimensions of agricultural sustainability. The
sustainability indicator has revealed that the
states of Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal
Pradesh remained at first and second places,
respectively during the period 1990-91 to
2007-08. The association between economic
and ecological sustainability indicators has
tended towards a negative direction, and the
magnitude has become stronger over the
years.
● At national level, the overall growth in
application of NPK has been 4.15 per cent
per year during the period 1991-92 to 2010-
xvii
11. Over the years, fertiliser-use in the country
has moved in favour of P and K.
● NCAP has developed two outlook modelsone
for grains and the other for oilseedsunder
a dynamic as well as spatial
partial equilibrium modelling framework,
incorporating a system of simultaneous
equations for effectively depicting the
linkages between various economic variables
corresponding to the food balance sheet of
major foodgrains in India. The Outlook
Model for Grains focuses on three major
staple foodgrains of India, viz. rice, wheat
and maize, along with their interrelations
with other complementary and substitute
crops. The Outlook Model for Oilseeds
developed with a similar scope and
applications, focuses on major oilseeds, viz.
rapeseed & mustard, groundnut and soybean,
as the primary commodities.
● A study on market integration and price
transmission in rice and wheat in India has
shown that the transmission from
international prices to farm gate prices is
asymmetric and the short-run shocks in
international prices do not have a significant
influence on the domestic prices at any level
of wheat supply chain. Effective intervention
by the Government in rice and wheat
markets, and insulation of domestic fertilizer
prices from increase in international prices
of crude oil and fertilizer are the major
reasons for this.
● The study on export performance of meat
from India has shown an increase in domestic
production (from 2.6 million tonnes in 1980
to 6.3 million tonnes in 2010) and export of
meat. Buffalo meat is the most competitive
meat produced in India. The major factors
that may drive the Indian meat export are
identified as adjusting our export strategy in
tune with the international prices, increasing
competitiveness of Indian meat industry,
increasing the domestic meat production and
greater compliance with the sanitary and
phyto-sanitory measures. The export demand
for small ruminant meat was ruling high and
leading to faster growth in export as
compared to growth in production.
● The agricultural productivity of marginal and
small holdings has been found to be much
higher than the average productivity for allsize
categories, but they are weak in terms of
generating adequate income and sustaining
livelihood. Despite high productivity, tiny
holdings (below 0.8 hectare) do not generate
enough income to keep farm family out of
poverty. The fertilizer-use per unit of area,
irrigation intensity, cropping intensity and
area coverage under high-yielding varieties
decline with increase in farm size. The inverse
relationship between farm size and
productivity has become stronger with time.
● On an average, MGNREG Scheme has
provided employment to the tune of 18 per
cent of the total employment of the
beneficiary households. The share of the
Scheme in total employment was more in
agriculturally backward area (25%) than in
the developed area (14%).
● The role of banks has been and will continue
to be critical for scaling-up of crop insurance,
since their outreach and penetration in the
rural hinterlands cannot be matched by any
alternative channel for delivery of subsidydriven
crop insurance.
● A design of insurance product for potato has
been developed in collaboration with
Agriculture Insurance Company of India
Limited (AICL) and Punjab Agricultural
University (PAU), taking into consideration
the perceptions of farmers of Punjab.
xviii
● Once the distributional distortions are
negated, the coverage of Kisan Credit Cards
(KCCs), a major vehicle for delivering
institutional credit to the agriculture sector,
is reduced by one-third to reach 48 per cent
at national level.
● The study conducted to examine the
effectiveness of SHGs in agriculture in
Andhra Pradesh and Kerala has revealed that
SHGs are most effective in resource
mobilisation, followed by capacity building,
providing access to extension services and
technology adoption. Group effectiveness is
least in marketing aspects of agricultural
commodities.
● Female participation in agriculture has been
found declining at the national level over a
period of 15 years ending 2009-10; however,
the rate of decline is higher in the Eastern
India (Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha) than at
national level.
● The agricultural sector in the country has
witnessed wide variations in growth
performance during different phases of
technology and policy. Technology-led growth
tempo of early green revolution phase was
sustained during the period of wider
dissemination of technology (1975-76 to 1988-
89), but the subsequent period witnessed the
growth becoming broad-based with
diversification of production towards
horticultural and cash crops. The post-reforms
period experienced a visible deceleration of
growth in most of the major crops due to a
significant diversion of resources away from
agriculture which continued up to the year,
2004-05. A sharp recovery has been realised
since then, due to a conscious hike in public
and private investments and a substantial
improvement in terms of trade in favour of
agricultural sector.
● A study undertaken to analyse the impact of
agricultural productivity, rural literacy, and
real rural wages on rural poverty has revealed
a significant depressing effect of all the three
variables on rural poverty; the highest effect
being exerted by agricultural NSDP per rural
population.
● The Centre conducted a Summer School on
“Decision Support System in Agriculture
using Economic Tools” and two trainings on
“Quantitative Techniques for Agriculture
Policy Analysis” and “Developing
Agricultural Commodity Outlook Models for
Policy Analysis”. NCAP also provided
training on “Core Issues in Agriculture” to
the probationers of Indian Economic Service
(IES). Besides, the Centre conducted several
theme/project-wise trainings, interaction
meetings, workshops, etc. which helped in
capacity building of the project partners.
● As part of the dissemination of research
output, the Centre published two Policy
Briefs and one Policy Paper during the year
under report. The staff of the Centre
published more than 35 research papers in
leading journals of national and
international repute and contributed 13 book
chapters/ popular articles. The scientists of
the Centre were involved in a number
of professional and policy interactions
and projects. The website of NCAP
(www.ncap.res.in) was regularly updated
and all the publications of the Centre were
uploaded on the website.
During the period under report, reviewing
of the Centre for the period 2006-2010 was also
carried out by the Quinquennial Review Team
(QRT) with Dr S S Acharya as Chair. The Team
assessed the overall performance of the Centre
in terms of achieving the mandates as well as on
institutional management. Out of the three
xix
mandates, the performance of the Centre in
respect of two mandates, viz. policy oriented
research and enhancing ICAR’s participation in
policy discussions was rated ‘Outstanding’ by
the QRT. The performance in capacity building
was less than expectations, but was assessed as
‘Above average and Good’. Considering all the
three mandates together, the score of NCAP was
9.13 out of 10. Based on the recommendations
made by the QRT, the General Body of ICAR
has approved to raise the Centre to the level of
an Institute. The major infrastructural
development during the period was construction
of a record-cum-exhibition room.
Not Available
 
Date 2016-12-01T06:50:07Z
2016-12-01T06:50:07Z
2012-07-01
 
Type Annual Report
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/754
 
Language English
 
Relation 2011-12;
 
Publisher Not Available