Technical
Efficiency of Paddy Farmers in Andhra Pradesh : A Stochastic
Frontier Production Approach with Panel Data
--
D
Sree Rama Raju
The
present study followed Battese and Coelli (1988) approach
to analyze the role of firm-specific factors in technical
efficiency. The farm level panel data of Andhra Pradesh
for the years 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1992-93, has been used
in the study. This data was collected from the Cost of
Cultivation unit, Dept. of Agricultural Economics, College
of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Significant
intra-farm variations (in both the seasons) in the usage
of important inputs at the zonal and state levels, leads
to variations in the efficiency levels of the farmers
in paddy cultivation. The results of this study showed
that education, power and fuel and rainfall have had significant
influence on the technical efficiency levels of the farmers.
©2004
IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Post
World War II Wool Policy Reform in Australia, 1946 -1991:
Lessons for Developing Countries
--
Dr.
Frank W Agbola
Since
the end of World War II, Governments in almost all developed
and developing countries have pursued protectionist policies
aimed at protecting their domestic economies. The agricultural
sector in these countries has experienced profound changes
in economic conditions and undergone considerable policy
change and institutional reform. These changes are some
of the key dynamic forces that have reshaped the agricultural
sector. This paper seeks to explain the motivation for
the growth of regulation of the Australian wool industry
until the demise of the reserve price scheme in 1991.
It is argued that the pace and direction of policy were
driven by politics of the day and pressures from wool
growers rather than economic themes. It is argued that
the success of the regulatory reforms was due to the ability
of the marketing authorities to enforce and monitor the
production and marketing of wool. Drawing on the Australian
wool industry experience, this paper outlines some policy
implications for other countries.
©2004
IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Agricultural
Insurance in India:a Perspective
--
Dr.
A Amarender Reddy
The
ongoing National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS)
along with experimental income insurance and weather insurance,
is a good step forward to insure risk of millions of farmers
whose livelihood depends on the pattern and distribution
of monsoon rain in India. NAIS is based on area-yield
approach and is suffering from low penetration and adverse
selection with consequent high claim to premium ratio.
With this backdrop, the paper reviews the innovative techniques
in agricultural/rural insurance, which overcome some of
the disadvantages of the above insurance and which advocate
simple rainfall index insurance as a better alternative
to the existing agricultural insurance scheme. The rainfall
insurance is in practice in many countries for years and
has been very simple to understand by a common farmer.
It is put into practice with minimum existing resources
with very little administrative and overhead costs. It
also covers agricultural laborers and non-farm workers
whose income is affected adversely by failure of rainfall
and it is a very effective mechanism to increase insurance
penetration ratio. The rainfall insurance is also more
compatible with reinsurance practices, which make primary
insurers cover their local/regional risks in catastrophic
events by pooling their resources with reinsurance. The
reinsurance agents can also effectively transfer their
risks by issuing catastrophic bond/options like instruments
in stock exchanges (NSE and BSE), as our stock markets
are relatively well-developed and it may effectively fit
into the portfolios of some of the fund managers and hedge
funds.
©2004
IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Agricultural
Marketing: Stop Cheating the Farmer
-- Dr.
A Ranga Reddy
This
paper highlights the agricultural marketing issues like
its structural aspects, current concerns and competitiveness
relating to the Indian farmer in the present scenario.
This study shows that the state keeps a watch and monitors
the market conduct through several mandatory regulations.
This paper examines the trade policy for major farm products,
price policy instruments and direct market intervention
and marketing system improvements, in order to inject
vibrancy and competitiveness in the agricultural sector.
It concludes that the markets have failed to give remunerative
prices to the farmers both at input and output pricing.
It also emphasizes that there is an urgent need to curtail
the domination of private sector, especially the urban
markets which are cheating the farmers, in order to put
an end to the numerous suicidal deaths.
©2004
IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Development
of Agro-based Industries in India
-- Dr.
Srinivasulu Bayineni and Dr. Ramesh Babu Vooka
Agro-based
industry would mean any activity involved in cultivation,
under controlled conditions of agricultural and horticultural
crops, including floriculture and cultivation of vegetables
and post-harvest operation on all fruits and vegetables.
The development of agro-industries has assumed crucial
importance in the economic planning and progress of the
country. This paper highlights the development proposals
of agro-based industries during the tenth five year plan.
This study also points out that Andhra Pradesh occupied
the first place with 10,183 processed food industry units
and the least place was occupied by Meghalaya with only
3 units in the year 2002-03. However, there are extreme
variations among different states in the number of processed
food industries. It is also evident from this study that
except potatoes, all the other perishable products have
been showing inadequate number of cold storage plants
and low capacity utilization of the existing units. This
study suggests that there is a need to develop the processed
food industries throughout the country in order to provide
more employment opportunities and to reduce the regional
imbalances.
©2004
IUP. All Rights Reserved.
India's
Agricultural Exports: Some Challenges
-- Dr.
L Krishnaveni and Sangita Ghosh
The
agricultural sector has been playing a key role in the
composition of Indian exports. This paper highlights the
surprising fact that the share of Indian agricultural
exports has been slowly declining in recent years. In
the era of globalization, the agricultural exports from
India have been facing many internal and external challenges.
Its share has declined from 18.2% in 1998-99 to 13.5%
in 2000-01 and further reduced to 11.7% in 2002-03. It
points out that India's share of exports in tea and mate,
tobacco, sugar and molasses has been slowly declining
in the global market. Inspite of many hurdles, coffee,
rice, fish and preparations have been entering the global
market by raising their shares. This study concludes that
the production bottlenecks like cost diseconomies, poor
quality and increasing domestic demand are the major hurdles
to the Indian agricultural exports on the domestic front.
Apart from this, declining world demand, competition from
other countries, threat from substitutes, etc., are the
major external constraints to Indian agricultural exports.
The authors suggest that the increase in the supply of
agricultural products, diversification of agricultural
exports, quality improvement, improvement of the cold
storage facilities for the highly perishable agricultural
exports, timely delivery of goods etc., are very crucial
for the maximization of agricultural exports. Above all,
the government has to take some timely measures through
some reforms in its EXIM policy, to fulfill the needs
of the exporters of agricultural products.
©2004
IUP. All Rights Reserved.
