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20235
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Subject: Agricultural Economics × End date: 2023 × Start date: 2023 ×
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    Valuation of Wetland Ecosystem: A Case Study of Harike Wetland, Punjab
    (Punjab Agricultural University, 2023) Arshdeep Kaur; Guleria, Amit
    The present study entitled “Valuation of Wetland Ecosystem: A Case Study of Harike Wetland, Punjab” was conducted to examine the status of wetlands in Punjab vis-à-vis India, identification and valuation of various use and non-use values of ecosystem services of Harike Wetland and to identify the causes of wetland degradation and suggests policy measures during the year 2022-23. A sample of 400 respondents, including local households (100), tourists (100), and non-users (200), was randomly chosen. To estimate the use value of the wetland for local households Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and Tobit regression model was employed revealing that family expenditure, education, and gender significantly influenced the willingness to pay for wetland conservation. The study also estimated the existence value of the wetland using CVM and Tobit regression analysis of non-users' responses. The results showed that family income, education, age, religion, and caste were significant factors affecting the willingness to pay for the wetland's existence value. The recreational value of the wetland for tourists was captured using the Travel Cost Method (TCM) and a Poisson regression model. The findings indicated that as travel costs increased, the visitation rate decreased. Factors such as family income, education, marital status, religion, gender, caste, and family expenditure per month significantly influenced the recreational value. The estimated annual economic value of the wetland, including use (Rs. 26.78 crore), existence (Rs. 29.08 crore), and recreational (Rs. 10.04 crore) values, was calculated to be Rs. 65.90 crore. Furthermore, the study emphasized the need to address the degradation of the wetland caused by excessive weed growth and industrial effluents. Integrated weed control practices and the prohibition of human activities near the wetland are recommended. Employment opportunities and awareness programs are also suggested to promote wildlife preservation and maintain the ecosystem's balance, biodiversity, and protection of endangered species.
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    Market Integration, Arrival and Price Behaviour of Lemon in Major Producing States in India
    (Punjab Agricultural University, 2023) Nayak, Bilavat Swami; Goyal, Mini
    The present study analyzed the price behavior and integration of selected lemon markets in India. Major lemon producing states of India viz. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha were selected based on their share in total production of the country. Six major markets were selected from major producing states i.e. Tenali (Andhra Pradesh), Pune (Maharashtra), Surat (Gujrat), Attabira (Odisha), Udipi (Karnataka) and Lashkar (Madhya Pradesh). Data on area, production and productivity of lemon were taken from INDIASTAT. To achieve the objectives, various statistical tools like CAGR, Decomposition analysis, Coefficient of Variation, Seasonal Indices, Johansen Methodology, Granger Causality test, Vector Error Correction Model etc. were employed to analyze the data. The analysis indicated that area and production of lemon was consistently increasing significantly in major lemon producing states of India over the last two decades. The change both in area and productivity contributed towards the change in production of lemon. Trend analysis of prices revealed a significant positive trend in the selected markets of lemon. Significant seasonality with inverse relationship has been observed in arrivals and prices of lemon. All the selected markets were found to be integrated and exhibited long-run relationship with each other. Tenali market was found to be a key market as it was influencing the prices of other selected markets of the country. In order to fully integrate the market prices, study suggests for policy interventions in the form of strengthening of market intelligence services along with improvements in market infrastructure including storage, transportation and other physical facilities.
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    Study on resource use planning for sustainability of Punjab agriculture
    (Punjab Agricultural University, 2023) Esar, Bashir Ahmad; Sachdeva, Jatinder
    The use of natural resources in Punjab agriculture, especially irrigation water is facing a crisis. A proper and sustainable plan is needed for their optimal use. Therefore, the current study has been conducted to develop alternative crop plans by incorporating technologies such as wheat sown using happy seeder (HS), direct-seeding of rice (DSR), and short-duration varieties (SDVs) of paddy. The technique of linear programming has been used to develop the optimum plans using data collected under the “Comprehensive scheme for studying the cost of cultivation of principal crops in Punjab” pertaining to the year 2018-19. The results revealed that for optimum utilization of available resources and maximizing the returns, the area under paddy, guar, and potato crops need to be reduced while the area under maize, basmati, sugarcane, cotton, moong, barley, sunflower, and peas need to be increased. By adopting the optimal plans developed with existing resource use and technologies of (HS, DSR, and SDVs) the returns can be increased by 2.52 to 8.63 per cent, along with saving in irrigation water use ranging from 4.65 to 4.96 per cent. Similarly, by adopting the optimal plans with irrigation water use restricted to 90% of its current level will increase returns by 1.6 to 9%. The optimal plans will help in increasing the use of underutilized human labour, and reducing the use of chemical fertilizers presently having much higher use than the recommended levels and reducing the cost of cultivation along with a positive impact on environment. For the optimum plans with irrigation water use restricted to 80 per cent although the returns will decline but the government may compensate the farmers for their losses from the savings on providing subsidies to supply free electricity to the farmers for extracting groundwater to irrigate their fields. Further, the subsidy money saved can be utilized to develop agricultural infrastructure and offering competitive prices for less irrigation water-requiring crops along with saving precious irrigation water to stop the downward movement of ground water level.
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    Effectiveness of Minimum Support Price Policy in India: A state wise analysis
    (Punjab Agricultural University, 2023) Nandi, Sukhendu; Vatta, Kamal
    The present study has examined the awareness of MSP and its effectiveness for various crops across major states of India. The study is based on 77th round of NSS for 2018-19. The incidence of crop sales at MSP and the quantity of produce sold on MSP were used as the effectiveness of MSP for a crop. Simple correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between awareness and effectiveness of MSP. OLS and logit regression models were used to identify the factors affecting the effectiveness of MSP. On average, the awareness of MSP is below 50 per cent for any crop. Sugarcane and paddy are two major crops with the highest level of awareness. Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Telangana exhibited more paddy and wheat sales at MSP or above in India. Barring maize and sugarcane, the price gaps showed an apparent decline with an increase in the land size category. There is a significant and positive correlation between the awareness and effectiveness of MSP for all crops. The OLS results also indicate that awareness is a significant factor influencing the effectiveness of MSP for all the crops in our study. The large producers could sell more on MSP. The variables such as education and access to public extension services influence the effectiveness of MSP for paddy and wheat only and have almost no or significantly less influence on the MSP realization for other crops. There is a need to raise awareness of MSP, expand its benefits to others crops, and increase particular focus on smallholder farmers to raise the effectiveness of MSP and increase welfare of the farmers in India.
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    Encashing the potential of stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni): A case study of Punjab
    (Punjab Agricultural University, 2023) Minhas, Taranveer Singh; Kataria, Poonam
    The present study was conducted to examine the extent of adoption of stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni), to identify the deterrents in the cultivation thereof and to evaluate its economic feasibility as a diversification option in Punjab. The formulations of the study were based on primary data related to crop management details collected from 30 stevia growers and a matching sample of 30 farmers following traditional paddy-wheat crop sequence for the crop year 2021-22. Based on the spread of stevia over the state, the respondents of study were from 16 blocks of six stevia niche’ districts; Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Pathankot. The study highlighted that the stevia area per grower (7.97 acres) was the highest in District Hoshiarpur. The stevia area as per cent of gross cropped area happened to be the highest (66%) in marginal and small farms, followed by semi-medium (44 %), medium (19 %), and large (7 %) farms. In the first year of stevia plantation, the seedling cost accounted for 39.7 per cent and the hired labour, another 41.9 per cent of the total variable cost. The net returns over the variable costs were estimated as Rs. 352661 per acre for the entire crop cycle. In comparison to the net returns accrued from the entire paddy-wheat rotation to the traditional farmers, the stevia growers stood to gain to the tune of Rs 9176 over the entire crop cycle of 5 years. The high initial cost, absence of suitable marketing mechanism and high labor requirement were found to demotivate the non-adopters from taking up stevia cultivation. Very high labor requirement leading to high labor charges cost and high price of planting material, non-remunerative price of stevia produce were identified as the major deterrents in the way of stevia area expansion, requiring immediate policy attention to encash the potential of stevia. The findings of the study endorse the promotion of stevia cultivation in resource-deficient regions, particularly the marginalized lands in SubMountainous Zone of Punjab, where the trade-off is not between paddy-wheat and stevia, rather it is between ‘nothing versus something’.