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Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa

In the imperial Gazetteer of India 1878, Pusa was recorded as a government estate of about 1350 acres in Darbhanba. It was acquired by East India Company for running a stud farm to supply better breed of horses mainly for the army. Frequent incidence of glanders disease (swelling of glands), mostly affecting the valuable imported bloodstock made the civil veterinary department to shift the entire stock out of Pusa. A British tobacco concern Beg Sutherland & co. got the estate on lease but it also left in 1897 abandoning the government estate of Pusa. Lord Mayo, The Viceroy and Governor General, had been repeatedly trying to get through his proposal for setting up a directorate general of Agriculture that would take care of the soil and its productivity, formulate newer techniques of cultivation, improve the quality of seeds and livestock and also arrange for imparting agricultural education. The government of India had invited a British expert. Dr. J. A. Voelcker who had submitted as report on the development of Indian agriculture. As a follow-up action, three experts in different fields were appointed for the first time during 1885 to 1895 namely, agricultural chemist (Dr. J. W. Leafer), cryptogamic botanist (Dr. R. A. Butler) and entomologist (Dr. H. Maxwell Lefroy) with headquarters at Dehradun (U.P.) in the forest Research Institute complex. Surprisingly, until now Pusa, which was destined to become the centre of agricultural revolution in the country, was lying as before an abandoned government estate. In 1898. Lord Curzon took over as the viceroy. A widely traveled person and an administrator, he salvaged out the earlier proposal and got London’s approval for the appointment of the inspector General of Agriculture to which the first incumbent Mr. J. Mollison (Dy. Director of Agriculture, Bombay) joined in 1901 with headquarters at Nagpur The then government of Bengal had mooted in 1902 a proposal to the centre for setting up a model cattle farm for improving the dilapidated condition of the livestock at Pusa estate where plenty of land, water and feed would be available, and with Mr. Mollison’s support this was accepted in principle. Around Pusa, there were many British planters and also an indigo research centre Dalsing Sarai (near Pusa). Mr. Mollison’s visits to this mini British kingdom and his strong recommendations. In favour of Pusa as the most ideal place for the Bengal government project obviously caught the attention for the viceroy.

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Subject: Agricultural Economics × Start date: 2023 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    ESTIMATION OF OUTPUT SUPPLY AND FACTOR DEMAND ELASTICITIES FOR MILK PRODUCTION IN SOUTHERN INDIA
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) LAKSHMIPRIYA, PATIBANDLA; Sinha, D. K.
    Milk is extremely important because it is the second largest contribution of world agricultural output. In addition, it is an essential part of the vegetarian diet in countries like India. However, dairy producers are not compensated fairly for their milk production. Farmers that want to improve milk output need financial incentives, which can only be provided by a system that rewards them for doing so. One needs a solid empirical understanding of how sensitive factor demand and product supply are to changes in relative prices and technological developments in order to develop an effective pricing strategy. With these factors in mind, the current study was conducted in Southern India to analyze the costs and returns from milk production, to determine the profit efficiency of dairy farms and the factors affecting it, estimate the output supply and factor demand elasticities for milk production, find the cost elasticities and net income elasticities, and assess the constraints faced by dairy farmers in milk production. An interview schedule was used to obtain primary data from 240 respondents of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu to achieve the objectives of the study. For the years 2019–20 and 2020–21, secondary data on milk production and livestock population from a wide variety of sources, including websites, research journals, government publications, the Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, and milk unions like BAMUL (KN) and Aavin (TN), etc. Selected respondents were post stratified into three herd-size categories using the Cumulative Square Root Frequency Method: Small (1-3 milch animals), Medium (4-6 milch animals), and Large (7 or more milch animals). The statistical tools included the use of tabular analysis, the Capital Recovery Cost (CRC) approach, the normalized translog profit function, cost and price determination models, the Stochastic Cobb-Douglas profit function, and the Garrets Ranking Technique. According to the results, daily average gross maintenance cost for milk production was highest for crossbred cows (₹ 234.12), followed by buffalo (₹ 163.82), and finally local cows (₹ 143.54). Crossbred cows had the highest net cost of ₹ 227.94 per milch animal per day, followed by buffalo at ₹ 159.67, and local cows at ₹ 139.93. Local cows had the highest cost per litre of milk produced (₹ 33.13), followed by buffalo (₹ 31.84) and crossbred cows (₹ 20.99). While the net return per litre of milk was positive for crossbred cows (₹ 5.67) and buffalo (₹ 3.30) across all herd size categories but it was negative for local cows (₹ -3.93) due to the high cost of feed and fodder and the poor milk yield. Perhaps the rejection of the test of symmetry can be rationalised by the farmers' goal to maximise the utility of agricultural by-products rather than profit maximisation. The magnitude of own price elasticities was negative for all the variable inputs. That milk farmers are more concerned with their own prices than the price of other inputs was made very evident. Overall, a majority of the estimated cross-price elasticity values had a negative sign, showing that the variable inputs are complementary to one another, with the exception of the values for dry fodder and concentrate to veterinarian services, which showed a positive sign and are substitutes for one another. There was a positive relationship between milk price and demand of all the variable inputs for milk production and a negative relationship between milk supply and the variable input prices. It was determined that the cost elasticities were positive in relation to the prices of variable inputs, whereas the net income elasticities were found to be negative. Milk prices would need to increase by 10.77 per cent for small herds, 11.24 per cent for medium herds, 11.82 per cent for large herds, and 11.02 per cent for the overall herd to maintain a constant net income (i=0), according to the growth of cost of production and net income models. To maintain consistent returns to the production cost, the milk price would need to be adjusted by 9.73, 10.32, 10.75, and 10.25 per cent for small, medium, large, and overall herd size categories, respectively. For the year 2029-30, small herd size categories were assessed to have an estimated cost of production per litre of milk of ₹ 67.51, while the medium, large and overall herd size categories have ₹ 69.09, ₹ 71.92, and ₹ 68.98, respectively. Comparatively, in the year 2029-30, the predicted price for milk at constant monetary net income and at constant return to production cost was observed to be ₹ 75.25 and ₹ 69.13 for small herd size categories; ₹ 79.61 and ₹ 73.93 for medium; ₹ 84.28 and ₹ 77.27 for large; and ₹ 77.65 and ₹ 72.97 for overall herd size categories, respectively. Using maximum likelihood estimates, it was found that overall, prices of green fodder (0.1873), prices of concentrate (0.1072), veterinary service rate (0.0569) and herd size (0.7545) all have a positive and statistically significant effect on normalized profits, while the prices of dry fodder (-0.0277) and labour wages (-0.1652) both have a negative and statistically significant effect. A total of 41.35 per cent of profit efficiency was lost due to technical and allocative inefficiencies in milk production, with the overall milk producers' mean profit efficiency of 58.65 per cent that ranging from 32.50 to 89.61 per cent, respectively. Overall, the profit inefficiency model found that a farmer's level of education, herd size, herd composition, and their level of dairy farming experience had a negative and statistically significant effect on profit inefficiency. Therefore, increasing the number of crossbred cows, enhancing dairy farm experience through educating farmers towards balanced feeding techniques, and adopting new technologies would assist in overcoming the inefficiency and subsequently raising the profit efficiency. Major constraints faced by milk producers were a shortage of green fodder round the year, poor conception rate through AI, high cost of medicines, high cost of construction of shed, lack of insurance facility, low price of crossbred cow milk and non-remunerative price for milk. For dairy farming to be profitable, extension institutions need to focus on services to include mobile veterinary clinics and training for farmers in areas like as feeding, breeding, disease control, heat detection, and marketing strategies. The study revealed that the majority of respondents in the study region are not happy with the procurement price offered by the milk collection centres. Therefore, rather than providing price incentives, farmers would benefit more from a rise in the price they are paid for milk that is at least proportionate to the cost of the feed fed to animals which helps farmers to improve productivity of animals and subsequently increasing the profits.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A STUDY ON EXPORT OF MAJOR MARINE PRODUCTS FROM INDIA
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) JEEVITHA, G N; Singh, K. M.
    Indian fisheries sector contributed immensely to the country’s economic development as it is a promising contributor to foreign exchange earnings. Developing countries have inevitably acquired a superior position as international fish exporters. India occupies 3rd position as an international producer and 5th position as an international exporter in 2020. The growth of marine products exports benefits the country’s economy as it supports nutritional security and provides livelihood opportunities for coastal communities. The marine product exports contribution to India's total agricultural exports and its status as a consistent net exporter underscore its importance in international trade dynamics. The present study focuses on the international trade aspect of the India’s marine products to understand trends, export dynamics and market shifts over the period. The study revealed that the Crustacean exports primarily drove India’s total marine exports. Although Crustacean exports grew substantially over the second period (2011-2021), both in terms of quantity (11%) and value (10.45%), the unit value realization was not up to the mark. They were highly concentrated towards importers like UAS and China and highly competitive in the international market concerning both agricultural exports (average RSCA value of 0.69) and total merchandise exports (average RSCA value of 0.76) over the study period. The USA was the stable destination for India’s Crustaceans export. India’s Molluscs exports, though increased both in terms of quantity and value, their share in total exports remained more or less constant around 13 to 19 per cent. The Molluscs exported from India were competitive with average RSCA value of 0.51 concerning total merchandise exports and 0.38 with respect to agricultural exports over the study period and moderately concentrated in European countries and China. On the other hand, Frozen Fish exports were highly unstable both in terms of quantity (33.37) and value (35.95) during overall period. Their exports declined in recent years in both quantity and value terms, and their competitiveness exhibited a declining trend over the period. Their exports were highly concentrated towards China and Thailand. In recent years, China occupied the second position as a key importer of India’s marine products with a market share of 18.20 per cent and was also found to be the stable market for Molluscs export with retention probability of 0.83. Thailand has become one among India’s top five destinations, while Japan’s share declined over the study period. The study suggested emphasizing value addition and product development to improve the per-unit value of the exports. It is high time that India needs to diversify its exports in terms of both geographic destinations and export product basket to avoid risk and enhance its exports. India needs to improve its quality standards further to enhance its exports by gaining more comprehensive market access. It is also suggested to engage itself in trade negotiations to reduce market risks which can be very promising to sustain its exports in the long run.