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Annual Report

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Title Annual Report
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Creator Director
 
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Description Not Available
The National Centre for 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, had a total budget of Rs. 2 lakhs in 1996-97.
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 for decentralized management.
Research conducted during the year indicated that during the triennium ending 1994-95, the government
is spending 0.49 per cent of gross domestic product from agriculture (AgGDP) on research and
education, and about 0.15 per cent on extension. The annual expenditure per research worker was about
Rs. 4 lakh in research and education, and Rs. 26 thousand in extension. There was substantial underinvestment
in research in states like West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. This imbalance
needs to be addressed in future allocations.
The research study of rice productivity showed that (a) yield levels of 5-6 tonnes per hectare were being
realized by the most efficient farmers except in Orissa where even the best farmers could not produce
beyond 2.5 tonnes, (b) that unit costs differentials were not necessarily related to yield levels - Orissa
costs for the most efficient farmers were not much different from those in Punjab, though yield differential
was quite high, and (c) that efficiency differential (ratio of least to most efficient) ranged from 2.5 to 4.3, in
fact, it was higher in Punjab than in Orissa.
Another study on rice-wheat system refutes the assertion of plateauing or stagnation in yield of wheat and
rice. What is happening is deceleration in growth of yield of these two crops in some states which is being
interpreted as decline in yield.
Water management technologies supported by rational pricing policies and innovative institutional
mechanisms were suggested to reduce the water use beyond 25 per cent from the current level in ricewheat
system .
In the same context, it was found that changes in crop pattern would have marginal impact in arresting
problem of groundwater over exploitation, in north-west India. Even when the area share of paddy and
wheat is reduced to level of early 1970's, when there was no water deficit, it would result in reducing the
water deficit by about 12 percent only. Additional area brought under cultivation due to increase in crop
intensity and expansion of net sown area was found to be responsible for about 62 percent of the over
exploitation of ground water. Dairying was found to be the best choice for agricultural diversification in the
state, both for enhancing employment and income and for reducing soil and water degradation.
The study on income and inequality indicated that livestock and wage labour helped smoothen rural
income distribution mainly because these activities were concentrated among the poor households and
required little or no land. Given the decreasing size of land holding, it may not be possible to improve
income distribution through redistribution of land. Policy measures should emphasize development of
subsidiary and non-agricultural activities that require little or no land.
On women in agriculture, our research showed that literacy and poverty reinforce each other and compel
the poor working women to concentrate in low paid occupations in the informal sector. There should be a
multi-pronged strategy to remove both illiteracy and poverty with a critical minimum speed. Most of the
gender specific, target group oriented, programmes have not yielded much results so far. Because, under
all these programmes, efforts have been directed to provide women with only those inputs' and services
which perpetuate their existence in low paid occupations. It has never been thought to provide
employment to them beyond sewing, weaving, embroidery, knitting etc. The focus of such programme
must shift in order to enable them to take up either self-employment or wage-paid employment in the
modern sector. Besides, the provision of equal pay for equal work should be strictly implemented.
Moreover, there should be efforts to promote women entrepreneurship in business on the pattern of East
Asian countries.
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 Briefs and two workshop proceedings have been published during the year 1996-97. In
addition to these, NCAP Perspective Plan (VISION 2020) has also been brought out. Centre staff have
also been involved in a number of professional and policy-level interactions.
Not Available
 
Date 2016-12-01T06:53:40Z
2016-12-01T06:53:40Z
1997-07-01
 
Type Annual Report
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/768
 
Language English
 
Relation 1996-97;
 
Publisher Not Available