Agriculture and Food Security : Contemporary Issues

Contents: Preface. I: Structural Reforms and Agricultural Growth. 1. Structural Reform, Agricultural Diversification and Economic Growth/Ram Naresh Thakur and Satendra Narayan Singh. 2. Structural Changes and Agriculture in India/S.S. Somra and Kuldeep Singh. 3. Structural Change in India and Rural Poverty/Dhirendran Nath Konar. 4. Structural Reforms and Sustaining Growth in Indian Agriculture: The Emerging Trade Order/Angrej Singh. 5. Structural Changes in Agriculture: An Empirical Analysis/Purushottam Sahu and Babilata Shroff. 6. WTO and Indian Agriculture: Task and Challenges/Sanjeev Bhardwaj, Pratibha Misra and Deepak Jain. 7. Investment in Agriculture and structural Adjustment in Indian Economy/Rajendra Prasad Singh and Pankaj Kumar Mishra. 8. Agricultural Reforms and Institutional Finance: Problems and Prospects/Ramakant Pd. Singh and Kumar Gaurav. 9. Post-Reform Indian Agriculture: A Survey/Bharti Pandey. 10. Structural Reforms in Agriculture/Satyendra Prajapati and Poonam Kumari. 11. Impact of Globalization on Agriculture in Developing Countries/Asmi Raza. II: Allied Agriculture with Regional Perspectives. 12. Developing Milk Producing Units as a Farmers Enterprise: Need of Multidimensional Assail/N.P. Singh, B.V. Singh and G.P. Singh. 13. An Analysis of Performance of Dairying Practice in Bihar: With special reference to Patna Dairy Project/Krishna Nand Yadav and Upendra Pd. Singh. 14. Review of Returns on Investment in Agro-Processing Units: A Case Study of Central Public Sector Agro-Processing Industries/Ratnesh Kumar. 15. Economic Security against Rising Risks in Agriculture and Allied Sectors/Anjana Kumari. 16. An Analysis of Agro-Economic Condition in Jharkhand/Rajini Kumari and Veena Kumari. 17. Agricultural Diversification in North-Eastern Region in India/Rajnath Upadhyay and Sriman Pandey. 18. Agriculture in Uttarakhand: Problems and Prospects/Devna Sharma and Rachna Dixit. III: Agricultural Credit and Policy Issues. 19. Growth and Transformations in Agricultural Output and Inputs in India: Need for Structural Adjustments/Amarjit Singh Sethi. 20. Rural Credit: Trend, Issues and Challenges in India/Samir R. Samantara and B.B. Sahoo. 21. Agricultural Credit Flow in Bihar/Vinod Kumar and Ram Bharat Thakur. 22. Agrarian Structure in India/Bharat Bhushan and Kabita Kumari. 23. Policy for Land Acquisition for Non-Agriculture Uses and Compensation for Land: An Analysis/G. Savaraiah, G. Chandrasekhara Rao and M. Devarajulu. 24. Land Reforms and its Impact on Agriculture in India/Dhiren Vandra. IV: Food Security Issues. 25. Achieving Food Security in India: Issues and Challenges/Dalip Kumar and Abha Mittal. 26. Environmental Resources and their impact on Foodgrains Production and Productivity/Dastgir Alam, Firdos Ahmad and Jamil Ahmad. 27. WTO and Food Security in India/R. Raj Kumar and A. Gnanavelan. 28. Globalisation and Food Security in India/M. Pandiyan. 29. Globalization, WTO and Food Security Availability, Access and Affordability of Food PDS and Food Subsidy/N.K. Thakur and Alpana Sharma. 30. Economic Reforms, Agriculture and Food Security in India/Ashwini Kant Jha, Bhavna Jha and Dilip Kumar. Index.

The book Agriculture and Food Security: Contemporary Issues contains thirty chapters elaborating on various aspects of agricultural issues and its impact on food security. Articles in this book are organized in then following sections: Section A-discuss the issues related to structural reforms and its impact on agricultural growth, Section B-analyses allied agricultural activities with regional perspectives, Section C-discusses agricultural credit and policy issues, and Section D- describes the issues related to food security.

The agricultural development strategy of the Ninth Five Year Plan is essentially based on the policy on food security announced by the Government, to double the food production and make India hunger free in ten years. The Strategy to ensure food security is as follows:

Doubling food production, Increase in employment and incomes, Supplementary/sustained employment and creation of rural infrastructure through Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAP), Distribution of foodgrains to the people Below Poverty Line (BPL).

There is a need to focus more on poverty alleviation programmes and employment generation schemes. There is no denying the fact that even more than six decades after independence, food insecurity and starvation are big blots on the face of mother India which is moving on the path of achieving the goal of status of the developed country. This could be attributed to failure of our governance and developmental approach. It is contrary to the committed objective of welfare state and inclusive growth. Some Government programmes like as MFSM, RKVY, NHM and ATMA are very useful for farmers, and farmers will be benefited, if these programmes are properly monitored and effectively implemented under the right policies. (Jacket)