Other Agriculture Study
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Publication
Republic of India : Accelerating Agricultural Productivity Growth
(Washington, DC, 2014-05-21)In the past 50 years, Indian agriculture has undergone a major transformation, from dependence on food aid to becoming a consistent net food exporter. The gradual reforms in the agricultural sector (following the broader macro-reforms of the early 1990s) spurred some unprecedented innovations and changes in the food sector driven by private investment. These impressive achievements must now be viewed in light of the policy and investment imperatives that lie ahead. Agricultural growth has improved in recent years (averaging about 3.5 percent since 2004-05), but at a long-term trend rate of growth of 3 percent, agriculture has underperformed relative to its potential. The pockets of post-reform dynamism that have emerged evidently have not reached a sufficiently large scale to influence the sector's performance. For the vast population that still derives a living directly or indirectly from agriculture, achieving "faster, more inclusive, and sustainable growth', the objectives at the heart of the Twelfth five year plan, depends critically on simultaneous efforts to improve agriculture's performance and develop new sources of employment for the disproportionately large share of the labor force still on the farm. The scope of this study is broad in the sense that it marshals considerable empirical evidence and analyses to address those issues. Yet the scope is restricted in the sense that the study does not address all of the issues. A wealth of knowledge exists (and continuing analytical work proceeds) on other major strategic issues, water and irrigation management, food grain management, and public expenditures on agriculture, for example, and the findings of this study must be seen in that context. The lack of sufficient quality data, and often the lack of access to such data, also prevents some issues from being explored in greater depth. Finally, some important issues require more focused and dedicated analysis, such as food safety and quality standards, agricultural trade, and food price increases. This relationship between longer-term strategic issues and contemporary concerns, such as water resource management and food prices, are highlighted in this study through the prism of productivity, but they too require further analysis to fully address the underlying issues. -
Publication
Republic of India : Accelerating Agricultural Productivity Growth
(Washington, DC, 2014-05-21)In the past 50 years, Indian agriculture has undergone a major transformation, from dependence on food aid to becoming a consistent net food exporter. The gradual reforms in the agricultural sector (following the broader macro-reforms of the early 1990s) spurred some unprecedented innovations and changes in the food sector driven by private investment. These impressive achievements must now be viewed in light of the policy and investment imperatives that lie ahead. Agricultural growth has improved in recent years (averaging about 3.5 percent since 2004-05), but at a long-term trend rate of growth of 3 percent, agriculture has underperformed relative to its potential. The pockets of post-reform dynamism that have emerged evidently have not reached a sufficiently large scale to influence the sector's performance. For the vast population that still derives a living directly or indirectly from agriculture, achieving "faster, more inclusive, and sustainable growth', the objectives at the heart of the Twelfth five year plan, depends critically on simultaneous efforts to improve agriculture's performance and develop new sources of employment for the disproportionately large share of the labor force still on the farm. The scope of this study is broad in the sense that it marshals considerable empirical evidence and analyses to address those issues. Yet the scope is restricted in the sense that the study does not address all of the issues. A wealth of knowledge exists (and continuing analytical work proceeds) on other major strategic issues, water and irrigation management, food grain management, and public expenditures on agriculture, for example, and the findings of this study must be seen in that context. The lack of sufficient quality data, and often the lack of access to such data, also prevents some issues from being explored in greater depth. Finally, some important issues require more focused and dedicated analysis, such as food safety and quality standards, agricultural trade, and food price increases. This relationship between longer-term strategic issues and contemporary concerns, such as water resource management and food prices, are highlighted in this study through the prism of productivity, but they too require further analysis to fully address the underlying issues. -
Publication
India : Power Supply to Agriculture, Volume 2. Haryana Case Study
(Washington, DC, 2001-06-15)After almost a decade of high-level effort to bring the charges (tariffs) that farmers pay for electricity more nearly into line with the costs of supply, India has barely made a dent in the longstanding and increasingly uneconomical practice of subsidizing power to agricultural consumers for irrigation. Progress has been slowed by the understandable but misplaced concern that higher tariffs would harm farmers--and that the injured parties would take political revenge on the reformers. This study seeks to dispel that anxiety. It is the result of a joint effort by the Bank and the states of Haryana and Adhra Pradesh , both of which have begun raising the price of electriicity to agriculture. Its central contribution to policy discussion is the detail in which it documents the costs--ususally neither acknowledged nor clearly defined--to farmers in those states of subsidies that actually harm agricultural operations more than they help as well as the benefits that the farmers would get from improved quality of electricity services. The costs--in power outages, damaged pumping equipment, irrigation foregone because of power losses, distorted investment patterns, among others--exact a heavy toll from ordinary farmers. In the form of deficits, the subsidies also sap state budgets of funds that could otherwise be invested in rural infrastructure, extension services, and advanced agricultural technology. As unrecovered costs, they starve suppliers of funds for maintenance and improved service. On the other side of the coin lie the benefits that reliable flows of power and good quality of other electricity services could deliver to rural India. -
Publication
India : Power Supply to Agriculture, Volume 1. Summary Report
(Washington, DC, 2001-06-15)After almost a decade of high-level effort to bring the charges (tariffs) that farmers pay for electricity more nearly into line with the costs of supply, India has barely made a dent in the longstanding and increasingly uneconomical practice of subsidizing power to agricultural consumers for irrigation. Progress has been slowed by the understandable but misplaced concern that higher tariffs would harm farmers--and that the injured parties would take political revenge on the reformers. This study seeks to dispel that anxiety. It is the result of a joint effort by the Bank and the states of Haryana and Adhra Pradesh , both of which have begun raising the price of electriicity to agriculture. Its central contribution to policy discussion is the detail in which it documents the costs--ususally neither acknowledged nor clearly defined--to farmers in those states of subsidies that actually harm agricultural operations more than they help as well as the benefits that the farmers would get from improved quality of electricity services. The costs--in power outages, damaged pumping equipment, irrigation foregone because of power losses, distorted investment patterns, among others--exact a heavy toll from ordinary farmers. In the form of deficits, the subsidies also sap state budgets of funds that could otherwise be invested in rural infrastructure, extension services, and advanced agricultural technology. As unrecovered costs, they starve suppliers of funds for maintenance and improved service. On the other side of the coin lie the benefits that reliable flows of power and good quality of other electricity services could deliver to rural India. -
Publication
India : Power Supply to Agriculture, Volume 4. Methodological Framework and Sampling Procedures Report
(Washington, DC, 2001-06-15)After almost a decade of high-level effort to bring the charges (tariffs) that farmers pay for electricity more nearly into line with the costs of supply, India has barely made a dent in the longstanding and increasingly uneconomical practice of subsidizing power to agricultural consumers for irrigation. Progress has been slowed by the understandable but misplaced concern that higher tariffs would harm farmers--and that the injured parties would take political revenge on the reformers. This study seeks to dispel that anxiety. It is the result of a joint effort by the Bank and the states of Haryana and Adhra Pradesh , both of which have begun raising the price of electriicity to agriculture. Its central contribution to policy discussion is the detail in which it documents the costs--ususally neither acknowledged nor clearly defined--to farmers in those states of subsidies that actually harm agricultural operations more than they help as well as the benefits that the farmers would get from improved quality of electricity services. The costs--in power outages, damaged pumping equipment, irrigation foregone because of power losses, distorted investment patterns, among others--exact a heavy toll from ordinary farmers. In the form of deficits, the subsidies also sap state budgets of funds that could otherwise be invested in rural infrastructure, extension services, and advanced agricultural technology. As unrecovered costs, they starve suppliers of funds for maintenance and improved service. On the other side of the coin lie the benefits that reliable flows of power and good quality of other electricity services could deliver to rural India. -
Publication
India : Power Supply to Agriculture, Volume 3. Andhra Pradesh Case Study
(Washington, DC, 2001-06-15)After almost a decade of high-level effort to bring the charges (tariffs) that farmers pay for electricity more nearly into line with the costs of supply, India has barely made a dent in the longstanding and increasingly uneconomical practice of subsidizing power to agricultural consumers for irrigation. Progress has been slowed by the understandable but misplaced concern that higher tariffs would harm farmers--and that the injured parties would take political revenge on the reformers. This study seeks to dispel that anxiety. It is the result of a joint effort by the Bank and the states of Haryana and Adhra Pradesh , both of which have begun raising the price of electriicity to agriculture. Its central contribution to policy discussion is the detail in which it documents the costs--ususally neither acknowledged nor clearly defined--to farmers in those states of subsidies that actually harm agricultural operations more than they help as well as the benefits that the farmers would get from improved quality of electricity services. The costs--in power outages, damaged pumping equipment, irrigation foregone because of power losses, distorted investment patterns, among others--exact a heavy toll from ordinary farmers. In the form of deficits, the subsidies also sap state budgets of funds that could otherwise be invested in rural infrastructure, extension services, and advanced agricultural technology. As unrecovered costs, they starve suppliers of funds for maintenance and improved service. On the other side of the coin lie the benefits that reliable flows of power and good quality of other electricity services could deliver to rural India.