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This study was undertaken to analyze the dynamics of production for pulses in India, one of the most important crops in India from the perspective of nutrition as well as environmental sustainability. India has been persistently deficient in pulses in spite of significant investment by the government over time. Using secondary data for a long period of time, from 1950 to 2011, we study how production of pulses has changed across regions and over time in India. Realizing the role of pulses in the cereals complex, the study shows the changing scenario in pulses production as it was crowded out by cereals with the advent of Green Revolution technologies. We create typologies of different phases in the evolution of production in India. Results show that there have been pronounced movements in pulses, with production centers shifting regionally from north to south and east to west and some concentration in central India. Notwithstanding the turnaround in pulses in the past three to four years, pulses have been moving increasingly to marginal unirrigated areas. The econometric results based on fixed-effects estimation establish that as irrigation becomes available there is a switch away from pulses toward competing crops. Recent advances in technology with short- to extra-short-duration varieties that fit into cereal-based systems have opened up new avenues for pulses reflected in increasing production. Also, we find no evidence of crowding out of domestic production because of liberalized trade, which has been the case in pulses for a long period of time.

This study was undertaken to assess farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for various climate-smart interventions in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The research outputs will be helpful in integrating farmers’ choices with government programs in the selected regions. The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) was selected because it is highly vulnerable to climate change, which may adversely affect the sustainability of the rice-wheat production system and the food security of the region. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and improve the efficiency of the rice-wheat-based production system. CSA requires a complete package of practices to achieve the desired objectives, but adoption is largely dependent on farmers’ preferences and their capacity and WTP.

This study was undertaken to assess if various drought-proofing and drought-relief programs are effective in mitigating the impact of droughts on crop production and household consumption in rural Bihar, India. This study is relevant as Bihar has experienced four drought years since 2009. The drought in 2009 led to an increase in the number of poor people in the state from 2004-2005 to 2009-2010, in spite of rapid growth of gross domestic product in this period. The government of Bihar runs a number of drought-proofing and drought-relief programs to mitigate the impact of drought, but with little effect. The two largest social safety net programs-the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)-provide little relief to drought-affected families in rural Bihar. Additional subsidy on diesel to irrigate Kharif crops in drought-affected areas does not reach many farmers. Delays, uncertainties, and high transaction costs in its disbursal to farmers further reduce the subsidy’s effectiveness. Public tubewells and subsidy on private wells and pump-sets fail to provide wide-scale relief for the drought-stricken area. The results of our year-long study of 160 farmers with access to cheap irrigation from solar powered pump-sets in Bihar showed that these farmers grew paddy in all their land in Kharif in 2013, in spite of low rainfall.

In addition to global developments and food policy changes, 2014 also saw important developments with potentially wide repercussions in individual countries and regions. This chapter offers perspectives on major food policy developments in various regions including Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The individual regional sections cover many critical topics: 1. Renewed focus on the role of agriculture in broad economic growth, poverty reduction, and food and nutrition security in Africa 2. Policy reforms in fuel subsidies, agriculture, and food trade in the Middle East and North Africa 3. Economic challenges and opportunities for Central Asia’s food system 4. Responses to high food inflation and climatic risk in South Asia 5. Laying of the groundwork for multilateral cooperation on food policy in East Asia 6. Progress in South-South learning initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean tempered by weather and other shocks