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The article focuses on the impact of water stress on cropping decisions in the Cauvery Delta Region of India. Topics include the influence of groundwater and surface water availability on crop choice, farmers' responses to market demands and water scarcity, and the broader socio-environmental factors affecting agricultural practices.

Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple food of more than half of the population of the world and provides food security and livelihoods for millions of population. Direct seeding of rice (DSR) refers to the process of direct sowing the seeds in the field rather than by transplanting seedlings from the nursery. Direct seeded rice is an age old practice and before the introduction of green revolution in India. Rainfed rice was often broadcasted into moist soil and crops were highly prone to weed competition resulted into low yield. Rice ecosystems and establishment methods determined the weed spectrum and degree of infestation in rice field (DSR). Weeds are considered as a major biological constraint in direct seeded rice. In direct seeded rice, weed management depend on weed flora, critical period of weed control, availability of water and method to be adopted. Integrated weed management (IWM) is essential to achieve the long term, sustainable and economic management of weeds in direct seeded rice. The literature regarding the direct seeded rice, critical period of crop weed competition, different types of weed flora and different methods for the effective and sustainable management of weeds in direct seeded rice are reviewed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Holistically, after the green revolution, India has been a global agricultural powerhouse of various crops and in present most of the farmers adopt the traditional irrigation methods but challenging task is in utilizing minimum water resource for more productivity per crop in diversified Indian environmental conditions. Water is a precious & scarce resource in many areas of the country due to traditional agricultural irrigation & industrial use. Hence, to limit water loss & wastage in farming it is important for maximum water application efficiency. Indeed, Systematic Irrigation System (SIS) for farming is need of hour and hence, attempt is made for development of SIS using computational device, and NodeMCU & Sensor technology are illustrated in this article. The SIS prototype has developed deploying ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC development board and various sensors such as humidity, temperature, soil moisture, PIR & rain sensor . Graphic User Interface is developed in Blynk platform. This prototype has been tested in the laboratory successfully for application efficiency and has found good performance as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), which is the site of India's Green Revolution, covers almost 15% of the country's landmass and is among the most extensively fertile lands across the world. The densely populated IGP region bears great importance for the socioeconomic facets of India and contributes to a major share of the GDP of the country. The present study demonstrates the regional-specific assessment of summer monsoon precipitation and associated extremes with dynamical and thermodynamical aspects over the IGP region using high-resolution regional climate models (RCMs) under the CORDEX-CORE framework. The analysis reveals that the eastern parts of the IGP receive low-to-moderate precipitation with a higher tail than the western parts, which is due to the direction of the monsoon low-level flow. The observed mean precipitation characteristics are well represented by the RCMs. Further, the research identifies extreme precipitation events over the IGP and conducts comprehensive analysis to understand their underlying mechanisms. It has been observed that extreme precipitation events are linked with the moisture transport associated with trough activity and instability, and RCMs are capable in representing the observed precipitation extremes and underlying mechanisms at localized scales. Overall, this study represents a significant step forward in understanding the evolution of spatio-temporal variability of precipitation over the IGP region, where agriculture is a major economic activity and millions of people depend on rainfed agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study attempts to estimate farm subsidies the governments can save by transitioning to a millet-based production system, replacing GHG emission-intensive crops. Design/methodology/approach: It updates a 131 × 131 commodity input–output (IO) table of the year 2015–16 into 2021–22 using the RAS procedure and simulates the economy-wide impacts of replacing rice and wheat with pearl millet and sorghum using consumption and production approaches. It then quantifies fertilizer, electricity and credit subsidy expenses the government can save through this intervention. It also estimates the potential reduction in GHG emissions that the transition could bring about. India is taken as a case. Findings: Results show pearl millet expansion brings greater benefits to the government. It is estimated that when households return to their pearl millet consumption rates that prevailed in the early-reform period, this could save the Indian government Rs. 622 crores (USD 75 m). The savings shall be reinvested in agriculture to finance climate adaptation/mitigation efforts, contributing to a sustainable food system. Net GHG emissions also decline by 3.3–3.6 MMT CO2e. Practical implications: Indian government has been actively aiming to bring down paddy areas since 2013–14 through the Crop Diversification Program and promoting millets (and pulses and oilseeds) on these farms. The prime reason is to check rapidly declining groundwater irrigation in Green Revolution states. Regulations in the past in these states have not brought the intended results. Meanwhile, electricity and fertilizers are heavily subsidized for agriculture. A slight shift in the cropping system can help conserve these resources. Meanwhile, GHG emissions could also be brought down and subsidies could well be saved. The results of the study indicate the same. Social implications: A less warm society is what governments and nongovernment organizations across the world are aiming for at present. Financial implications affect actions against climate change to a greater extent, apart from technological innovations. The effects of policy strategies discussed in the study, taking a large country as a case, when implemented appropriately around the regions, could help move a step closer to action against climate change. Originality/value: The paper addresses a key but rarely explored research issue – that how a climate-sensitive crop choice will help reduce the government's fiscal burden to finance climate adaption/mitigation. It also offers a mechanism to estimate the benefits within an economy-wide framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to identify the socioeconomic factors that affect farmers' decision-making process regarding the adoption of organic farming. A total of 100 (50 organic and 50 conventional) farmers were interviewed and their demographic, socioeconomic and ecological behaviour differences were studied. The behavioural analysis identified education, environmental concerns and social benefits as the prominent drivers of organic farming, while lack of government support in marketing, managerial and technical spheres as major constraints to its adoption. The probit model confirms that farmers with a smaller size of holding who are educated, younger and practice diversified cropping are more inclined towards organic farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chapter discusses, at length, the environmental hazards of the highly chemical-centric farming, euphemistically known as the "green revolution" in South Asia, in particular, in India. It discusses the potentials of bio farming as an effective alternative to the highly extractive farming centered on chemical fetilizers, to contain the huge environmental hazards, in particular, soil-related hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Green Revolution (GR)' has been successful in meeting food sufficiency in India, but compromising its nutritional security. In a first, we report altered grain nutrients profile of modern-bred rice and wheat cultivars diminishing their mineral dietary significance to the Indian population. To substantiate, we evaluated grain nutrients profile of historical landmark high-yielding cultivars of rice and wheat released in succeeding decades since the GR and its impacts on mineral diet quality and human health, with a prediction for decades ahead. Analysis of grain nutrients profile shows a downward trend in concentrations of essential and beneficial elements, but an upward in toxic elements in past 50 y in both rice and wheat. For example, zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) concentration in grains of rice decreased by ~ 33.0 (P < 0.001) and 27.0% (P < 0.0001); while for wheat it decreased by ~ 30.0 (P < 0.0001) and 19.0% (P < 0.0001) in past more than 50 y, respectively. A proposed mineral-diet quality index (M-DQI) significantly (P < 0.0001) decreased ~ 57.0 and 36.0% in the reported time span (1960–2010) in rice and wheat, respectively. The impoverished M-DQI could impose hostile effects on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like iron-deficiency anemia, respiratory, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal among the Indian population by 2040. Our research calls for an urgency of grain nutrients profiling before releasing a cultivar of staples like rice and wheat in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major emphasis of this study is showing the district-level inequality in the Standard of Living (SoL) in India. It shows the spatial effects and distribution aspect of SoL in India using various spatial econometric techniques e.g. Moran's I, LISA, spatial autoregressive model, GWR model and MGWR model to understand spatial inequality in India. Three clusters of districts having high SoL formed in North-western India, Western India and Southern India. These clusters formed due to urbanization, the spread effect of Delhi, the Green revolution in Punjab, the international trade link of Gujarat and Punjab, and impressive social sector development in southern India. The clusters of districts having low SoL mainly formed in the central, eastern and north-eastern parts of India. These are the area dominated by tribal communities having low socio-economic conditions and rural and agricultural populations with a severe resource-population mismatch. However, the Multiscale spatial regression supports that the level of urbanization, workforce structure, human capital, gender empowerment and group identity operates at a different geographic scale in determining the spatial heterogeneity of SoL. This study suggests that the government should focus on the lagging region and that policy responses should be cognizant of the multiple shades of spatial variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green and decent work in the Global South is inextricably linked to sustaining rural livelihoods especially in agriculture that has undergone significant deskilling under the top-down, technocentric assemblages of the Green Revolution. Additionally, agrarian communities are also seeing youth quitting farming occupations in search of better livelihood options. Scholarly attention to green transitions though has been largely limited to the ecological dimensions. Enacting futures with a focus on ecologically responsible livelihoods need to go beyond existing narratives of technocentric and economic change and foreground the diverse micro institutional innovations that offer newer framings of reskilling. The growing evidence of agroecological initiatives across India indicates less discussed stories of transformation and innovations. Recognising the processes and linkages that allow for, and hinder, transformations at multiple scales and organisational levels is crucial for designing transformative initiatives and policies. Using two illustrative case studies, this paper explores opportunities for green work and the newer skills that might be required to enable sustainable agri-food systems. The case of Natural Farming Fellows (NFFs), a unique programme to encourage young agri-graduates to pursue Natural Farming is presented to understand enabling processes at the grassroots level. The second study explores institutional initiatives to engage rural youth through discussing the pedagogy and curricular approach of a Gandhian university along with opportunities to intern with field organisations. Together, these cases illustrate possible pathways and complexities underlying the process of nurturing sustainable livelihoods, the conception of which needs a broader idea of skilling based on personal aspirations and institutional support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian agriculture is suffered with a number of problems for enhancing the productivity of grain crops to protect the food security by increasing the food production in India's green revolution to get self-sufficiency during 1970s leaving something for widespread scarcity of food. To secure the food self sufficiency caused so many problems despite the improved technologies, so there is need to address all the factors, which affecting on the Indian agriculture. Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihoods in India. Keeping in view the above, therefore tried to discuss the major problems in Indian agriculture in this article. The information related to the problems of agriculture were collected from internet and also taken from the previous work of different researchers in 2020 at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gurdaspur with the objectives to address the threats caused by agricultural intensification. Several problems as land holding, intensive cropping and excessive use of chemical, excessive irrigation, inadequate seed replacement and inadequate mechanization impact on soil productivity and caused degraded land. Other factors like lack of proper transport in rural areas, minimum support price, poor credit facility concern the economic conditions of the farmers and impact on Indian agriculture and also influence directly or indirectly on the food security of the country. As per the objectives the influence of agricultural intensification on productivity and production of food grains factors discussed all the factors with their solution in this article for the benefits of all the concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Indian village of Palanpur has been the subject of close study over a period of six decades from 1957/8 to 2015. Himanshu et al. (2018) document the evolution of the village economy over this period and point to two distinct drivers of growth and distribution of income. An early period of agricultural intensification associated with the green revolution saw an expansion of irrigation and the introduction of new agricultural technologies, leading to rising incomes accompanied by falling poverty and fairly stable, or even declining, income inequality. From about the mid-1970s onwards, a cumulative process of non-farm diversification took hold, and was associated with further growth and poverty decline but also a significant rise in income inequality. Such a process of structural transformation has been observed more widely in rural India. We construct a simple model of a village economy that captures several of the salient features of the Palanpur economy and society, and that is able to reproduce the distributional outcomes observed in the village. Our analysis suggests that while non-farm diversification occurred alongside rising inequality, the counterfactual of no diversification would in fact be associated with an even greater increase. We suggest therefore that non-farm diversification has in fact helped to contain growth in inequality, and has played a particularly pronounced role in reducing poverty. To the extent that other villages in India share features similar to Palanpur, our findings may also hold elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased reliance on groundwater for irrigation in India has resulted in its overexploitation, raising concerns about its long-term sustainability. The groundwater situation is severe particularly in the Northern–Western Green Revolution states of Punjab and Haryana. The provision of free (in Punjab) and heavily subsidized (in Haryana) electricity for tube-wells has resulted in the inefficient use of groundwater, which has contributed to its overexploitation. The primary objective of this study is to analyze the technical and groundwater irrigation efficiency of rice and wheat crops on sample farms in both states, as well as to determine the key factors impacting efficiency. This was accomplished using a non-parametric DEA model using cross-sectional data from 400 farms in Punjab and Haryana. The findings demonstrated disparities in both technical and groundwater consumption efficiency levels in both inter-state and intra-state scenarios. In both states, groundwater irrigation efficiency was found to be lower than technical efficiency. The mean technical efficiency for both crops has been found to be over 80% in both states, with irrigation efficiency being around 70%. Tube-well accessibility status, agriculture extension service access, fragmented landholdings, and adherence to standard crop irrigation practices were found to have a positive impact on technical and irrigation efficiency levels in both states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Indian economy and population have been largely influenced by the green revolution which has caused a big change in India. Yet farmers are not able to make full-blown usage of technology to improve crop cultivation. As Indian economy and per capita income, in trade terms, CAPEX (Capital Expenses); is based on agro products, to rejuvenate the demand-supply chain of the food sector, farmers are using fertilizers to increase yield. Due to the excessive use of these puissance fertilizers, soil fertility is adversely impacted. It is hazardous for direct consumption by people. The current study was aimed to optimize the use of fertilizer as per crop requirement using Newton backward difference (NBD) method. Methods: The experiment was conducted for the last three years (2017-2020) in the Agrotech farm of MIT Academy of Engineering, Pune. The tomato crop was used for taking the readings. Using the NBD, we compared the values between standard, conventional and actual which gives the optimized value and saves the wastage of fertilizer and farmers' burden economically. These NBD can lead to a reduction in the number of sensor nodes in the farm field. The reduction in sensor nodes saves the overall working cost. Result: The implemented system saves the quantity of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) only by providing the required amount of fertilizer to the crop in comparison with a conventional approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I use deconstructive theory to analyze the category of "millet" and the endangerment of food grains in India. I argue that "millet" cohered as a sign of difference from the 1960s through India's Green Revolution, which created a national infrastructure for the materialization of colonial and masculinist ideology. In the hills of Uttarakhand and through the food grain regionally known as mandua, we see how India's postcolonial success relied on the ontological-epistemic erasure of women's food/land practices and assaulted the intertwined "rootedness" (place-making faculties) of women and the crops they cultivate. Reading mandua as "millet" under erasure (millet) reveals how mixed crop systems and practices of socio-ecological reciprocity eroded in the face of Green Revolution ideology and functioned as a bulwark against it. I turn finally to the counterhegemonic potential of "millet," as Uttarakhandi seed activists link with decentralized third world networks, which are exchanging seeds and building power across and from marginalized places. This opens a potential space of visibility and belonging for Uttarakhandi women farmers in the national arena at a time when the ecological and alimentary value of "millet" has entered national and global conversations, infusing the sign of difference with new meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a book review of "Agrarian Change in India," edited by Surinder S. Jodhka. The book chronicles the history of farming in India and its connections with the state, markets, and society. It includes 23 essays published in the Economic & Political Weekly over a span of 50 years. The essays cover topics such as land ownership, land reforms, the Green Revolution, market policies, and the social dynamics of farming communities. While the book provides a comprehensive overview, it lacks chapters on ecology, gender, and science and technology. Overall, it is a valuable resource for understanding Indian agriculture and the scholarly debates in this field. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the long-term management of fertilizer nitrogen (N) in crop production and its impact on soil health. The use of N fertilizers in crop production increased significantly after World War II, particularly in India during the Green Revolution. However, the article argues that fertilizer N is not the only source of N for plants, as soil organic matter also plays a crucial role. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding the relationship between long-term fertilizer N management, soil health, and crop yield levels. It also highlights the need for optimal fertilizer N use to ensure sustainable high crop yields and maintain/enhance soil health. [Extracted from the article]

The present study, covering a period of 52 years (1966–2017), explores changes in agricultural land use and its consequences on crop productivity, diversity, and food availability in Haryana, an agriculturally developed state of India. The time series data on different parameters (area, production, yield, etc.) were collected from the secondary sources and analyzed with the help of compound annual growth rate, trend tests (simple linear regression and Mann–Kendall), and change point detection tests such as Pettitt, standard normal homogeneity, Buishand range, and Neumann ratio. Apart from above, the relative share of area and yield to total change in output was determined using decomposition analysis. The results revealed that agricultural land use became intensive and underwent significant alteration with multifold shifting in area from coarse cereals (maize, jowar, and bajra) to fine food grains (wheat and rice). The yield of all crops, especially wheat and rice witnessed a significant increase which subsequently led to an upsurge in their production. However, the production of maize, jowar, and pulses recorded negative growth despite of an increase in their yield. The results also revealed manifold increase in use of modern key inputs during the first two periods (1966–1985), but afterwards input use rate slowed down. Additionally, the decomposition analysis revealed that yield effect remained positive in changing the production of all crops, but area contributed positively only in wheat, rice, cotton, and oilseeds. The major findings of this study imply that the production of crops can be enhanced only through improvement in yield because there is no further scope left for horizontal expansion in cultivable area of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulses are the important crop after cereals and is the cheapest source of dietary protein. After the Green revolution, the production of pulses in India remain stagnant over the years due to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the various biotic stresses, weeds are the major one which causes severe yield loss in pulses. Due to initial slow growth of pulses, weeds emerge first and gain competitive advantage over the crop and exhibit smothering effect on crop. Moreover, major area of pulses (84 per cent) are under rainfed condition and grown in combination with non-legume crop. As a result, pulses are subjected to various types of biotic and abiotic stresses. Weeds besides causing direct loss in yield also hinder farm activities and serve as alternate host to many pests. Weed management in pulses is essential to bring the weeds below the threshold level to maximize the seed yield and quality. The literature regarding the importance of weed management in pulses, weed flora, critical period of crop weed competition and different weed management methods of weed control are collected and presented in this paper. Weeds are the predominant biological constraint in pulse production due to the slow initial growth of the crop. Strategies' of weed management depends on the weed competition, types of weeds present and weed control method adopted. In general, critical period of weed competition for short duration pulses is up to 30 days and for long duration pulse crops it is up to 60 days. The major three types of weeds viz., grasses, broad leaved weeds and sedges were found in association with pulses. Intensity of weed infestation varies with agroecological conditions and crop management practices followed. A system approach is necessary to maintain the weed population below the economic threshold level thereby reducing the yield loss. Integrated weed management (IWM) which has been proved to be more effective than any single method in alleviating the buildup of weeds in pulse crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China and India are the two top consumers of fertilizer nitrogen (N) in the world not only to provide food security to 36% of the global population living in the two countries but also due to fertilizer-related government policies being followed during the last more than 50 years. Excessive fertilizer N use is now a cause of N-related environmental pollution as well as a concern for climate change. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) at farmers' fields dictates both production of food crops as well as loss of N to the environment including efforts to curb climate change due to N2O emission. We used a gridded database on N input and N output for wheat, rice, and maize in China and India from 1961 to 2013 to synthesize the dynamics of NUE (percentage of applied N used by the crop) and surplus N (difference between total N input and N output) and in the light of relevant literature interpreted it in terms of past and future fertilizer N management scenarios and fertilizer related policies in the two countries. From 1961 to 2013, the percentage of fertilizer N in total N input in cereal crop production increased from 8-10% to 71-75% in India and from 30-37% to 80-84% in China. In both India and China, NUE has been continuously declining and in 2013 it was in the range of 20-24% (except 32% for wheat in India) due to several-fold increases in fertilizer N use and imbalanced use of fertilizer nutrients (particularly in India)--a consequence of huge subsidies provided by the governments on different fertilizer products. Estimates of maximum N output in the form of crop yield at saturating N input regimes determined from trajectories of N output as a function of total N input for 1961-2013 and 2001-13 revealed that crop and fertilizer N management for rice, wheat, and maize in India and China did not improve significantly since the Green Revolution era. As a large number of studies in India and China show that NUE can be increased by the advancement of technology front in terms of crop and fertilizer management and by reducing the fertilizer N rate without a significant reduction in the yield of crops, recommendations have been given for governments (to frame suitable policies), farmers, extension agencies, and fertilizer dealers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paddy field farming remains the dominant form of growing rice in modern times as the rice is the staple food for over half the world's population and is closely associated with food security and political stability of many countries. Record increase in rice production have been observed since the start of the Green Revolution. India is one of the largest paddy producer and exporter in the world. However, constant use of chemical herbicide like paraquat had shown adverse impact on the rice yield. Non-target organisms of the habitat including cyanobacterial paddy biofertilizer face the herbicide toxicity and are unable to perform efficiently their role as biofertilizer. Therefore, in the present study, an attempt has been made to enhance the paraquat resistance in rice biofertilizer (Microchaete sp. NCCU-342) by exogenous addition of salicylic acid. Paraquat showed toxicity in Microchaete sp. NCCU-342 in a dose-dependent manner. Concentration of paraquat >1.0 μM exhibited lethal effect since the beginning. Through successive narrow range experiment, LD50 value of paraquat was obtained as 0.6 μM. Biomass exposed to paraquat (LD50 value) and salicylic acid (0.3 mM) showed mitigation in free radical production (2.20 % MDA and 1.69 % H2O2) and enhancement in the activity of the antioxidant enzymes activity, i.e. SOD, CAT, APX (137.76 %, 87.45 %, 118 %, respectively) and osmolytes (3.8 % proline and 21.51% sucrose). Thus, for sustainable agricultural practice, especially for paddy field cyanobacterial biofertilizer, application of salicylic acid or organism with higher salicylic acid production ability may be an alternative to overcome the paraquat toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian government unveiled new farm legislation on September 27, 2020, with the goal of empowering the farming community. According to the government, new farm regulations will reduce the reliance of indigenous farmers on the mandi (market yard) system, which is now in place and is quite exploitative and full of middlemen and legal cartels. The regulations made contract farming lawful with the intention of luring private sector investment in bolstering agricultural supply chains and infrastructure to give farmers better pricing. But these rules are referred to as repressive and anti‐farmer by the farming community. Farmers believe that eliminating the mandi system will eliminate the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism and that contract farming will ultimately be damaging, enticing major corporations and private investors to bind them to unfair contracts that will result in exploitation. Farmers' demonstrations have begun as a result in the former territory of the green revolution. In order to determine if the new farm regulations introduced by the central government are indeed beneficial to the rural community or not, the article followed the debate among many academics, policy makers, economists, researchers, stakeholders, and politicians (the government's spokesman). The article's main focus is on analysing the farmers' demand for the new farm rules to be repealed and the economic justification for their opposition. Additionally, it contends that new farm rules will encourage capitalistic farming and endanger the viability of farming communities, particularly small and marginal farms (S&M). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability transitions are inevitable if we are to address the multiple crises in and caused by industrial agriculture. Despite the intent, there are few analyses of policy changes that enable sustainable agriculture; of the policy processes in particular. This paper analyses two cases of transition from the Union Government supported green revolution to biodiverse local and sustainable agriculture; cases of policy change evident in millet based agricultural programmes by two State Governments (Andhra Pradesh and Odisha) in India. A Laswellian in-context policy analysis reveals how the adverse social and ecological consequences of the green revolution in rainfed agriculture tracts in the country, was a key driver of these policy changes initiated by the State governments. The emergence of new and dispersed sub-national policy makers and regionally differentiated policy processes to address these consequences, mark significant institutional change. The re-definition of the policy problem by these new policy communities, led by civil society organizations and State Governments is enabled by new deliberative practices, a result of the substantive understanding of and the agency of rainfed agriculture and millets in these local agri-food systems. The new territorial identities forged within policy communities continue to confront the institutional rigidity of centralized consolidated agricultural knowledge and policy making. These decentralized policy processes and knowledge of and in the process are necessary for the transition to sustainable agri-food systems. They demand more academic and public engagement with institutional reform for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large-scale land transformation after the green revolution (modernization of Agriculture with the consumptive use of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilizers and pesticides complemented with irrigation facilities to increase the food production of India during the 1960s) has altered the hydrological cycle and water balance in the semi-arid region of southern Haryana. In this context, this paper analyzes the impact of land-use/cover changes and intensive agricultural practices on the groundwater status in the area from 1980 to 2015. Supervised classification (maximum likelihood technique) has been used to perform change detection, whilst the Groundwater Development Index and change detection method have been used for the computation of groundwater storage change. The result indicates that the area under crops has decreased from 602611 km2 to 591589 km2, while an unprecedented growth of (97.80%) has been witnessed in the built-up area in all these years. The water table has fallen from 9.27mbgl (meters below ground level) in 1980 to 25.58 mbgl in 2015, at the rate of 0.4m per year as the water-efficient crops such as wheat, sugarcane, and paddy have been replaced by less water-consuming crops such as mustered, jowar, bajra, maize, and gram. Groundwater development has exceeded 100% of the natural replenishment level in the Gurgaon and Palwal districts and lies in the 'Over-exploited' category. Hence, it is needed to monitor the land use/cover changes and groundwater withdrawals and increase the body of quantitative evidence to check the pressure of the growing human population and climate change on water resources in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North-western India is known as the 'Granary of India' after the introduction of wheat dwarf varieties in the mid-sixties. Dwarf gene varieties of wheat are highly responsive to inputs viz. fertilizer and irrigation water. Earlier in the Kharif season maize, pearl millet, minor millets and cotton were the predominant crops in north-western India i.e. Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. However, with the increasing infrastructure for irrigation through canals, pump sets and tube wells, farmers started to grow rice even though Punjab soils are not suitable for rice production. Now, most of the farmers are growing rice in Kharif season and wheat in Rabi season. Hence, the rice-wheat cropping system has become dominant and is being practiced in nearly 10 million ha area. Farmers in north-western India also grow a lot of sugarcane crop, which produce huge tonnage but at the cost of luxury consumption of water. 'Green Revolution', which was a new chapter in the Agriculture history of India, started in this region, but it is using its water too lavishly surpassing its recharge. There is an urgent need to change or at least modify the 'rice-wheat' and sugarcane-wheat cropping systems (CS) of this region by less water-demanding ones viz. maize-wheat, cotton-wheat, soybean-wheat and pigeon pea-wheat etc. cropping systems. Even though, they may be less profitable but will ensure the sustainability of agriculture in this region in long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture was, by default, organic throughout the world before the technique of manufacturing synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer was discovered in 1903. However, availability of agro-chemicals became very common after the Second World War and the agriculture started becoming more and more chemical based. Synthetic fertilizers were introduced in India during 1965-66 and their use grew rapidly along with the high yielding varieties during the green revolution period and Indian farming, by and large, became chemical based. However, by the end of the twentieth century the ill-effects of such chemical-based farming were very well understood by the common Indian people and demand for organically produced food started growing. Different methods and procedures of growing organic food got popularity among the growers, however, a sense of confusion on package of practices on organic/natural farming kept on growing simultaneously. This review article was designed to make various concepts related to organic/natural farming crystal clear for the readers. Principals of organic farming, crop cultivation strategies in organic/natural farming, challenges in organic/ natural farming and possibilities and suggestions in organic/natural farming have been elaborately articulated in this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines India's response to the global soil health crisis. A longstanding centre of agricultural production and innovation, India has recently launched an ambitious soil health programme. The country's Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme intervenes in farm-scale decisions about efficient fertiliser use, envisioning farmers as managers and soil as a substrate for production. India is also home to one of the world's largest alternative agriculture movements: natural farming. This puts farmer expertise at the centre of soil fertility and attends to the wider ecological health of soils. Despite emerging as a mode of resistance to dominant agricultural systems, natural farming is now being delivered in increasingly bureaucratic ways by India's state governments. This article offers Himachal Pradesh as a case study in how the soil is governed, drawing on 38 semi-structured interviews with scientists, agricultural officers, non-governmental organisation leaders, and activists. Rather than assess approaches to soil health according to their ecological bottom line, we examine the differing forms of knowledge, expertise and 'truth' in the SHC and Natural Farming approaches. Our analysis reveals discontinuities in how farmers are imagined, as well as continuities in how quasi-spiritual language combines in a bionationalist project, positing assumptions about the correct arrangement of life in nationalist terms. We point to a shift toward hybrid and pick-and-mix approaches to soil health, as farmers and their organisers are increasingly invested with the capacities to combine multiple options. We see a fracturing of expertise and the opening up of epistemic pluralism in responses to the soil fertility crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green Revolution (GR) enhances crop yields significantly that contributes greatly to the social and economic development of many less developed countries. However, the increasing crop yields might rise crop residue biomass burning, leading to adverse environmental and health consequences. We assess the impact of crop residue burning associated with the GR-induced growing crop yields on benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) pollution, a congener of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with strong carcinogenicity. We find a significant increasing trend of BaP emission and contamination from crop residue biomass burning from the mid-1960s to 2010s in India, coinciding with the growing crop yields occurring during the GR. Our results reveal that agricultural BaP emission driven lifetime lung cancer risk (ILCR) in India increased 2.6 times from the onset of GR in the mid-1960s to 2014 and the 57% population in India was exposed to the BaP level higher than the India national standard (1 ng m−3). We show that the reduction of open crop residue burning during the rice and wheat residue burning period would be a very effective measure to reduce BaP environmental contamination and health risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exponential increase in population and economic activities has led to the intensification of agriculture and aquaculture in developing countries. The Green Revolution in the 1960s and Blue Revolution in the 1980s were giant steps in this direction to meet the food demand of the burgeoning population. It resulted in the increased use of modern technology for the intensification of agriculture and aquaculture in India. However, coping with the ever-increasing demand for food has adversely impacted our environment. Hence, it is imperative that we explore sustainable practices that enable us to produce more food without compromising environmental integrity and human health. Integrated rice-fish farming is one such solution that optimizes use of resources, maintains sustainable environmental conditions and provides socio-economic stability to the farmers. This review summarizes the various integrated rice-fish cultivation systems practiced in India including traditional practices, their importance, recent development in this area and the existing challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By tracing specific moments in the history of the more‐than‐human landscape constituting the food geography of western Avadh, a long settled agricultural heartland in the Indo‐Gangetic plains, this paper challenges the neat formulations of the Anthropocene laying out decisive global impacts of humans on the environment. Building upon the concept of the 'patchy Anthropocene', we show how outcomes are shaped by an imbrication of humans and non‐humans—where powerful human actors seek to coerce people and corral the environment into their projects of remaking the landscape, but also where recalcitrant ecologies and resistant people thwart these intentions, especially during the colonial encounter. Contestations across power hierarchies and unintended outcomes litter the wake of the Anthropocene — as we show, efforts to save the non‐human cow in the last decade have intensified processes associated with the Great Acceleration. Instead of treating the trajectory of food geographies like western Avadh as outliers and marginal to the normative process of defining change, we argue for treating it as constitutive of the norm. Only through such a process of decolonisation, by 'provincialising the Anthropocene', can we hope to push for epistemic justice, ecological sustainability and a more equitable world. By tracing the history of the more‐than‐human landscape constituting the food geography of western Avadh, a long settled agricultural heartland in the Indo‐Gangetic plains, this paper challenges the neat Anthropocene formulations of decisive global impacts of humans on the environment. We show how powerful human actors seek to coerce people and corral the environment into their landscape remaking projects, but also how recalcitrant ecologies and resistant people thwart these intentions. We also describe unintended outcomes – efforts to save the nonhuman cow in the last decade have intensified processes associated with the Great Acceleration. Only through decolonisation and 'provincialising the Anthropocene', can we hope to push for epistemic justice, ecological sustainability and a more equitable world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on crop genetic enhancement has created a continuous flow of new, improved germplasm for the benefit of farmers and consumers of the Global South during and after the Green Revolution. Understanding farmers' heterogeneous preferences for varietal traits in different market segments and incorporating the prominent ones in crop breeding programs are expected to facilitate a faster diffusion of these new varieties. Albeit knowing little about farmers' trait preferences in South Asia, public-sector breeding programs prioritize yield enhancement and risk reduction over other varietal traits. Against this backdrop, we examined wheat farmers' preferences for varietal traits in Central India, where the prevailing varietal turnover rate has been meager. We conducted a ranking exercise among 120 individuals, followed by a sex-disaggregated survey with a choice experiment among 420 farm-households in 2019. The lowest varietal turnover rate was observed for the socially marginalized castes. Most women respondents were not actively involved in making decisions related to wheat cultivation, including varietal selection. However, the results indicate that marginalized caste and women farmers are open to experimentation with new varieties, as shown by their positive willingness to pay for improved varietal traits. Across the gender and caste groups, grain quality attributes (especially chapati quality) were ranked high, above the yield-enhancing and risk-ameliorating traits. From the observed patterns, one could deduce that developing and disseminating improved varieties with better grain quality and targeting women and marginalized social groups in varietal dissemination programs could enhance farmer adoption of new, improved germplasm and wheat productivity in Central India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reviewed paper describes the importance and role of modern technology in farm sector in India. Technological changes are the crucial driving forces for increasing farm productivity and promoting farm development in all developing countries. In past the adoption of mechanization in farm was started due to the green revolution, then government want to fulfill the demand of food grains of population. But now the dimensions are changed from last few decades' policies for farm, research and development, trade, training and education has been strong impact on the adoption of technology, the level of farm production and agricultural practices. It is recognized fact that improved modern inputs and machinery are major determinants of farm output, yet it is important to interpret the relationship of mechanization with other social and economic factors. Study also concluded the crop wise adoption of mechanization, farm machinery, major driving forces in social change, participation of women in farm, agribusiness, cost and the labor employed in the farm sector. The paper also recommends suggestions, to ensure that the farm sector takes its rightful place in our economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Indian states of Punjab and Haryana (P&H) are a part of the water-rich Indo-Gangetic river basin. Despite this abundance, both states are on the cusp of a severe water crisis due to groundwater over-extraction. The proliferation of tubewells to support irrigation is responsible for more than 90 per cent of the groundwater extraction in both states. What started as a boon during the Green Revolution has given rise to a host of socio-economic and environmental issues. Overexploitation of groundwater is not a simple problem that the laws can quickly fix. In 2020, both P&H passed legislation to manage their water, including groundwater; however, these legal responses are far from what is required. This article examines the law on groundwater in P&H, focusing on the fallouts of silo-based decision-making where the different facets of water management are left to various authorities resulting in working at cross-purposes and inefficient decision-making. We argue that there is an urgent need to (1) delink groundwater rights from land rights and (2) adopt an integrated resource management strategy if P&H are to utilise their groundwater sustainably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the Green Revolution in Asia, the gap in agricultural yield with the developed world has been closed, while the gap in farm labour productivity has greatly widened. This reveals a deepening agrarian and environmental crisis in India. The industrial mode of production has led to the massive use of costly industrial inputs to increase yields and offset economies of scale that are almost impossible to achieve in this densely populated country. Such a development path is a trap for millions Indian micro-farmers and their natural capital. We then unveil the promises of a type of agroecology called 'natural farming' that has developed in Andhra Pradesh, a State in South India. Andhra's natural farming has pioneered the adoption of technical and organizational innovations that could lead to the first large-scale agroecological transition in the world. But in 2019, these local innovations were accused of following a regressive path and endangering the country's food security. This attack reveals the current omnipotence of the industrial sociotechnical regime over science, as well as a conception of science and progress antithetical to agroecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater depletion in India is a result of water, energy, and food policies that have given rise to a nexus where growth in agriculture has been supported by unsustainable trends in water and energy use. This nexus emanates from India's policy of providing affordable calories to its large population. This requires that input prices are kept low, leading to perverse incentives that encourage groundwater overexploitation. The paper argues that solutions to India's groundwater problems need to be embedded within the current context of its water‐energy‐food nexus. Examples are provided of changes underway in some water‐energy‐food policies that may halt further groundwater depletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green Revolution is often seen as epitomising the dawn of scientific and technological advancement and modernity in the agricultural sector across developing countries, a process that unfolded from the 1940s through to the 1980s. Despite the time that has elapsed, this episode of the past continues to resonate today, and still shapes the institutions and practices of agricultural science and technology. In Brazil, China, and India, narratives of science-led agricultural transformations portray that period in glorifying terms—entailing pressing national imperatives, unprecedented achievements, and heroic individuals or organizations. These "epic narratives" draw on the past to produce meaning and empower the actors that deploy them. Epic narratives are reproduced over time and perpetuate a conviction about the heroic power of science and technology in agricultural development. By crafting history and cultivating a sense of scientific nationalism, exceptionalism, and heritage, these epic narratives sustain power-knowledge relations in agricultural science and technology, which are underpinned by a hegemonic modernization paradigm. Unravelling the processes of assemblage and reproduction of epic narratives helps us make sense of how science and technology actors draw on their subjective representations of the past to assert their position in the field at present. This includes making claims about their credentials to envision and deliver sustainable solutions for agriculture into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice and wheat are grown in sequence on the same land in the same year in South and South-East Asian cropping land to meet the demand for food of a rapidly increasing population. However, the rice-wheat system being the dominant cropping system in India is exhibiting a declining trend in recent times. This study aims at investigating a structural break in annual crop yield of two major foodgrains in India namely rice and wheat following multiple structural break analysis due to Bai- Peron for the period 1961 to 2018 using FAO(Food & Agricultural Organization) dataset of the United Nations following semi-logarithmic growth model both at level and growth. The results show that both rice and wheat yield are non-stationary at level but stationary in the first difference. The Bai-Perron multiple breakpoint test shows the presence of a structural break in both rice and wheat yield and these are present only in level but not in growth. This study has found a single break in rice yield in the year 1988, and two structural breakpoints in the years 1969 and 1998 for wheat yield. The yield growth has fallen for both rice and wheat in the post-break period compared to the prebreak period. Although the growth of rice yield in the post-break period was 1.388% compared to the pre-break period of 1.772%, the wheat yield exhibited acceleration after the green revolution with growth of 3.018% in the post-break period. The wheat growth, however, has slowed down since the late 1990s due to several ecological constraints including climate change. The above observations are quite consistent with the view that the dual goals of self-reliance and sustainable resource management are mutually incompatible. Resource-conserving technologies and crop diversification are required to be implemented to ensure the sustainability of the rice-wheat cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic plains to overcome food security problems in the region. Appropriate policy reform both at the macro level as well as at the sectoral level is necessary for arresting and reversing the present degradation trends. caused by both institutional and ecological factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Green Revolution transformed agriculture in the Indian State of Punjab, with positive spillovers to the rest of India, but recently the state's economy has fallen dramatically in rankings of per capita state output. Understanding the trajectory of Punjab's economy has important lessons for all of India. Economic development is typically associated with changes in economic structure, but Punjab has remained relatively reliant on agriculture rather than shifting economic activity to manufacturing and services, where productivity growth might be greater. Design/methodology/approach: The authors empirically examine structural change in the Punjab economy in the context of structural change and economic growth across the States of India. The authors calculate structural change indices and map their pattern over time. The authors estimate panel regressions and time-varying parameter regressions, as well as performing productivity change decompositions into within-sector and structural changes. Findings: Panel regressions and time-varying-coefficient regressions suggest a significant positive influence of structural change on state-level growth. In addition, growth positively affected structural change across India's states. The relative lack of structural change in Punjab's economy is implicated in its relatively poor recent growth performance. Comparisons with a handful of other states reinforce this conclusion: Punjab's lack of economic diversification is a plausible explanation for its lagging economic performance. Originality/value: This paper performs a novel empirical analysis of structural change and growth, simultaneously using three different approaches: panel regressions, time-varying parameter regressions and productivity decompositions. To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the only paper we are aware of that combines these three approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 2050, India is expected to surpass China as the world's most populated country, with a population of almost 1.7 billion people. To feed this exponentially increasing population, the country must pursue a policy of vertical productivity growth, as the possibilities for additional horizontal expansion of cultivated land are rapidly diminishing. Furthermore, continual cropping depletes soil nutrient resources, necessitating the replenishment of soils with critical major and minor plant nutrients. The country cannot compromise with nutritional supply in order to end "Silent Hunger" and the immoral perpetuation of high concentrations of increasing number of malnourished children and anaemic moms. While the country is intending to restructure its agricultural production system, including R&D, to meet the needs of rising problems, the 2018-19 economic survey established a strong case for the widespread adoption of 'Zero Budget Natural Farming' (ZBNF) to double farmers' revenue. As a result, crop productivity will remain low, and farmers will not be able to earn enough to double their income and get out of debt with this level of output. Also at the country level, we will not be able to meet the expanding populations food and nutritional demands and hence will fail to meet the sustainable goals of "Zero Hunger and Poverty Elimination" by 2030. Thus, with zero budget natural farming practices we can feed to the India and world, our emphasis is too elaborate all aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflict caused by wild herbivores damaging crops is an almost universal problem in conservation. We designed and implemented a game‐theory‐based system for supporting farmers whose crops were being heavily damaged by wild herbivores. In this community‐operated system, farmers self‐report their production, which is endorsed by neighboring farmers. The average deficit in production is compensated for by a payment that is directly proportional to the average deficit in production of the group and to the individual farmer's productivity. As a result, farmers are compensated for the average damage (support) and rewarded for individual productivity (reward) (i.e., support cum reward [SuR]). The design of the game is such that only honest reporting gives maximum returns. Farmers who underreport receive less payment because the SuR amount is proportionate to their self‐reported productivity. The endorsing farmers, in their own self‐interest, prevent overreporting. The system involves multiple game situations, the combined result of which is a stable strategy based on honesty and hard work. In 2 villages along the western boundary of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in central India, we tested the system with 75 farmers over 6 crop seasons. After a few initial attempts to cheat, honesty prevailed throughout the group. Average crop productivity increased 2.5‐fold, in spite of damage, owing to increased effort by farmers. Apart from wildlife conflict resolution, the model offers a promising alternative to crop insurance and a potential behavioral green revolution in agriculture. Article impact statement: A novel scheme of payment for damage and reward for productivity helped resolve farmer–wildlife conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India became independent in 1947, when it was still reeling from the impact of the 1943 Bengal famine and world as a whole was experiencing the brunt of world war second. Thus India was born hungry in a hungry world. The country leaders were well aware of the challenge that India was expected to face in terms of food security and it was Jawaharlal Nehru who said everything can wait but not agriculture. The first president of India Rajendra Prasad after taking the chair, the first thing he did was to hoist the flag at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, declaring "India's most pressing task would be to conquer the battle of hunger. The Indian population has increased tremendously from 376 million in 1950 to 1380 million in 2020 and it is agriculture and its allied sectors that sustained such a huge population. India still has a significant proportion of population 14% undernourished, 35% children stunted, 20% children underweight, 52% women of reproductive age anaemic. India could bring out green revolution, white revolution and blue revolution in order to provide food security to its people. India presently is not food deficient; it has attained self sufficiency in food production and stands exporters of food. However the irony is that India stands at place 102 in global hunger index with score of 30 that is a matter of concern (Global Hunger Index-GHI, 2019). The problem is in making this food available to the people or access to the food is ensured. India needs nutritional security rather than food security besides transformation in agriculture and allied sectors to become free from hunger. The task is tough and precipitated by Covid-19 pandemic, but not impossible. India has much strength but will need research, extension, implementation and policy framing to have sustainable, nutrition sensitive, climate resilient, integrated and smart agriculture to eliminate hunger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since agriculture plays such a significant role in our society, agricultural marketing is a popular topic among academics and administrators alike. Indian advertisers have yet to reap the benefits of a favourable business environment, a well-developed financial sector, and a strong network of higher educational institutions in the country. Farm product marketability is determined by the decision to produce a marketable farm product, and agricultural marketing as a method encompasses all aspects of a system's sales structure. Poor warehouse conditions, a scarcity of demand knowledge, the dominance of middlemen, and a lack of transportation and connectivity are all factors that contribute to bottlenecks in the agricultural marketing system. Due to the rapid advancement of technology, agrarian challenges are becoming increasingly significant. Despite reforms, Indian agriculture remains vulnerable, not only to natural disasters, but also to a lack of institutional power and resilience on the part of the government. Farmer-to-farmer marketing in India is unquestionably growing and expanding, but not everywhere or for all farmers. In light of current projections, the emerging scenario appears to be catastrophic for the region. With the current state of the country, a Second Green Revolution is expected to clear up any messes and keep the country on the right track. The government intends to launch the Second Green Revolution, which will take place between 2020 and 2025. Improved cooperative marketing, the development of managed markets, and the ranking of products, as well as improved transportation and warehousing, are all necessary for the improvement of the marketing system. In this regard, the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) is extremely important in the promotion of agricultural marketing and marketing research. There are only nine APMC in the Tumkuru district of Karnataka where the study is being conducted. The study's primary objectives were to determine farmers' expectations of the APMC's performance as well as to identify issues related to the APMC's operation and functioning. Using an interview schedule, the researchers gather the responses of the participants' opinions, which were analysed using the SPSS Ver 22 and AMOS Ver 25 software packages. In order to validate the functions of APMCs in terms of Farmer satisfaction, SEM analysis was performed. The results of the study indicate that some of the functions are not contributing to farmer satisfaction and require immediate action by the government to improve these functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is now widely recognised as multidimensional, with indicators including healthcare, housing and sanitation. Yet, relational approaches that foreground political-cultural processes remain marginalised in policy discourses. Focusing on India, we review a wide range of relational approaches to rural poverty. Beginning with early approaches that focus on structural reproduction of class, caste and to a lesser extent gender inequality, we examine new relational approaches developed in the last two decades. The new approaches examine diverse ways in which poverty is experienced and shapes mobilisations against deprivation. They draw attention to poor people's own articulations of deprivation and alternate conceptions of well-being. They also show how intersecting inequalities of class, caste and gender shape governance practices and political movements. Despite these important contributions, the new relational approaches pay limited attention to technologies and ecologies in shaping the experience of poverty. Reviewing studies on the Green Revolution and wider agrarian transformations in India, we then sketch the outlines of a hybrid relational approach to poverty that combines socio-technical and -ecological dynamics. We argue that such an approach is crucial to challenge narrow economising discourses on poverty and to bridge the policy silos of poverty alleviation and (environmentally) sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass burning contributes considerably to black carbon (BC) emissions in South Asia, but such emissions have not been linked with the Green Revolution (GR) which has enabled substantial crop production growth in South Asian countries, India in particular. Here, we use an Earth system model to quantify climate change through the direct radiative forcing (DRF) by agriculture‐emitted BC associated with the GR in India. We show that the BC DRF in India has increased significantly since the GR, especially during the post‐GR period. The estimated BC DRF in India rose from +0.197 W/m2 in 1961 to +0.805 W/m2 in 2011; this represents a fourfold increase in DRF since the onset of the GR. The contribution of BC DRF by India's intensive agriculture to the global BC forcing also increased from 2.6% to 4.4% during the GR. Our results reveal that increasing BC emissions associated with the GR raises the importance of emission mitigation from agriculture source. Plain Language Summary: Black carbon originated from incomplete combustion can endanger human health and contaminate the environment. The light‐absorbing nature of black carbon is of vital importance to regional and global climate. Emissions from agriculture sources consist of large portion of black carbon particles, especially in India with intensive agriculture. The GR aiming at improving agriculture development in India has accomplished great success since the 1960s, but its side effects on long‐term climate change have not been assessed. In the present study, we quantify black carbon contamination and DRF induced by agriculture activities including crop residue burning from 1961 to 2011 during which the GR has been operated. Our results reveal that agricultural emission in India is an important sector contributing to the local and regional climate forcing. Such contribution could extend to the global climate. We propose that considerable and continuous efforts need to be made to control agriculture emissions in India to achieve a sustainable GR, in the meanwhile, mitigate the climate change. Key Points: Agricultural emission in India is an important sector contributing to the local and regional black carbon contamination and climate forcingEstimated regional black carbon direct radiative forcing in India showed a fourfold increase during the operation of the Green Revolution (GR)The contribution of India's intensive agriculture associated with GR to global black carbon climate forcing grew significantly [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is essential to elucidate genetic diversity and relationships among related varieties of origin and landraces for improving the breeding process. Since rice breeding has improved agronomic traits such as yield and eating quality during green revolution, modern rice varieties are originated from narrow genetic resource and closely related. To resolve the population structure and genetic diversity in bold type rice varieties of southern India, we used a total of 81 rice genotypes by 100 simple sequence repeat markers composed of 36 improved varieties and 45 landraces, which are representative and important for bold type grain rice breeding. The landraces exhibit greater gene diversity than improved lines, suggesting that landraces can provide additional genetic diversity for future breeding. Clustering by Ward method was done to establish a relationship among the 81 rice genotypes. All the genotypes were clustered into mainly 5 clusters. Principle component analysis revealed that the first principal component revealed 42.87% variation, while the second component showed 14.01% variation. Among the eight morpho-physiological and plant production traits studied, the relative water content and spikelet fertility percentage contributed towards maximum diversity. Principle co-ordinate analysis evidently differentiated the genotypes to high yielding varieties with common ancestry. Population structure analysis also obviously classified the genotypes into high yielding susceptible and indigenous tolerant groups. These old varieties and landraces present in crop germplasm collections represent a strategic reserve of genetic variation that can be tapped for varieties and understanding of stress response and developing new varieties that are physiologically adapted to highly variable, climate-resilient environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is an agrarian economy as more than half of the Indian population1 (GOI, 2016) depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Due to the advent of Green Revolution, the agricultural produce increased manifold, but marketing of agriculture produce is still governed by the age-old provisions of Agricultural Produce Marketing Regulation Acts (APMRA). The Government of India launched National Agriculture Market (eNAM) to solve the problems of agriculture marketing. This study focuses on the effect of facilitating conditions on the behavioral intention of farmers towards eNAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Food security has been a target in India since its independence; the primary aim of food security is to ensure enough staple food for the entire population. Although substantial progress was made through the adoption of green revolution (GR) technologies and implementation of the food public distribution system (PDS), desirable food and nutrition security, as defined by the food and agriculture organization (FAO), is far from being realized. This paper scrutinized the potential contribution of millets in achieving food and nutrition security in India. Methods: The present study was conducted based on the secondary data obtained from FAO Corporate Statistical Database and published literature on food and nutrition security. The impact of the GR technologies and the PDS on food and nutrition security was examined using 58 years of acreage, production, and yield of rice, wheat, and millet, as well as comprehensive information on relevant issues including climate. Results: Both GR technologies and PDS unduly favored two principal crops, namely rice and wheat, marginalizing all other crops cultivated for thousands of years to meet the food and nutrition requirement of mostly developing countries including India. Millets constitute one such neglected group of crops in India, which have tremendous potential for contributing to food and nutrition security. Conclusions: Millets are to be included in the PDS alongside rice and wheat so that they receive an appropriate Minimum Price Support. Appropriate implementation of relevant regulations, continued research and development, and adequate support for cultivation and marketing of millets are necessary in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]