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Annual Report

KRISHI: Publication and Data Inventory Repository

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Title Annual Report
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Description Not Available
The National Centre far Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP) was established by Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in March 1991. The Centre is located at the campus of the Indian
Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), a sister institute of ICAR and is adjacent to the Indian
Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), a premier research institute in the country. The Centre has at
present fifteen scientists, and fifteen supporting staff. It had a total budget of Rs. 55.49 lakhs for the year
1997-98.
The Centre is guided in its policies by a high-level Research Advisory Committee (RAC) comprising
mostly of eminent professionals outside the system and is supervised by the Management Committee
(MC). A number of internal committees, such as Staff Research Council, Budget Review Committee,
Library Committee and Publications Committee have been constituted far decentralized management.
Policy research conducted during the year covered current and emerging areas of concern which include
agricultural research and extension investment, evaluation and analysis, pesticide use in agriculture,
sustainability of crops and cropping systems, agricultural typology far planning, diversification prospects
towards high value crops, processing of fruits and vegetables, informal rural credit systems, trends and
regional variations in public investment in agriculture.
Agricultural research and extension investment analysis revealed that India is currently spending 0.42 per
cent and 0.20 per cent of AgGDP on research (excluding education) and extension, respectively. The
share of private investment is only 15 per cent in research and 8 per cent in extension. Increased
resource allocation for agricultural research and extension to states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Assam and Orissa is emphasised.
Ex-ante analysis of research on rice-wheat system for incremental investment to be. made under the
National Agricultural Technology Project in Indo-Gangetic plains justified increase in research investment.
There is not much difference between the rates of return on crop improvement research and crop and
resource management research, except water management research where projected research cost is
very high and expected adoption rate is comparatively low.
A study on research and extension for future rainfed farming identified specific institutional factors like
wider stakeholder involvement, appropriate mix in core and contract funding for client oriented system
and matching changes in the incentive and reward system. The study also identified specific skill
development needs for researchers and extension agents in the area of participatory techniques .group
actions, project cycle management and conflict resolutions for efficient designing and delivery of
appropriate rainfed farming technologies.
Analysis of pesticide use in Indian agriculture showed that growth in pesticide use outweighed the growth
in food production upto the first decade of green revolution. Thereafter, pesticide use registered lower
growth than the growth in food production. Development of pest resistant crop cultivars and integrated
pest management technologies helped in moderating intensive use of pesticides in food crops.
Intensification and diversification of eco-friendly strategies is emphasised for targeting sustainable growth
in future agricultural production.
Growth rate analysis of rice-wheat system revealed that wheat yield growth fluctuated in West Bengal arid
accelerated in Bihar. Growth rates witnessed decline in the recent quinquennium for other states. Lowest
growth rates are observed in Punjab which also continued to face deceleration in growth in rice after late
1970's and in wheat after early 1980s.
Bio-economic simulation of wheat production strategies in northern parts of India highlighted that delayed
planting of wheat in about half of the existing area requires additionally 1.6 lakh tonne of fertiliser-N, 7.2
lakh ha m of irrigation water and energy for maintaining productivity at 4 tonnes per ha. Decelerating
growth rates in yield, falling ground water table and imbalance in soil nutrient status is the emerging
evidence challenging the future pathway for development.
Rainfed agricultural typology study revealed that for constructing relatively more homogeneous typologies
with similar response expectation to external policy stimuli, the typology classification approach should
encompass not only agro-ecological variables like normal rainfall, soil type and length of growing period
but also underlying poverty, output market, population pressure, infrastructure, input market and
demography related socio-economic structural variables. Proposed agricultural activity based
classification of 201 rainfed districts from 13 states into 15 rainfed agricultural typologies effectively
integrated these agro-ecological and socio-economic variables.
Analysis of diversification potentials towards high value crops in Karnataka highlighted the profitability of
cultivating cereals either with flowers or with vegetables and sericulture or with fruits and vegetables.
Specific preferences of the farmers for flowers, vegetables and fruits were identified alongwith the
relaxable market and infrastructure related constraints for enhancing the profitability and employment
potentials of high value crop based diversification in Karnataka's agriculture.
A study of fruits and vegetable processing industry revealed considerable inter-state variation in terms of
distribution of processing units and levels of infrastructural development which is again not matching with
the production of fruits and vegetables and availability of other raw materials. Bihar, which contributes 13
per cent of total production accounts for only 1.3 per cent of processing units. Modernising and spatially
extending the processing units with matching basic infrastructure is emphasised particularly in eastern
and north-eastern India.
In terms of future plans, following major research themes for NCAP are identified in the Perspective Plan
for the Centre.
Evaluation of prospective technologies
Constraints to technology transfer
Agricultural research policy
Impact assessment
Efficiency in inputs use
Impact of natural resource degradation
Evaluation of sustainable agricultural systems
Supply, demand and markets
Group action studies
Institutional constraints
Investments in agriculture
Growth analysis and modelling
As visualized in the medium-term plan, by the end of the Ninth Plan, ICAR will have an in-house unit
capable of effective interface with policy making. It will have the capacity to analyse and interpret policy
implications of its technology generation activities. An institutional base will be created for prioritisation of
research as dictated by national concerns. The Centre will establish its credibility as a policy research
group and will provide an effective mechanism for policy dialogue between ICAR and policy making
bodies. It will develop strong linkages with SAUs, other ICAR institutes, centres of research, and
international agricultural research centres. The human resource development programme will contribute
to significant improvement in the quality and relevance of agricultural economics research in the ICARSAU
system.
Two Policy Papers and one Policy Brief have been published during the year 1997-98. Centre staff have
also been involved in a number of professional and policy-level interactions.
Not Available
 
Date 2016-12-01T06:53:20Z
2016-12-01T06:53:20Z
1998-02-01
 
Type Annual Report
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/767
 
Language English
 
Relation 1997-98;
 
Publisher Not Available