This research paper presents a comprehensive analysis of pesticide use in global and Indian agriculture, focusing on the mounting food security challenges due to population growth and the increased demand for food and fiber crops. While pesticides are crucial in mitigating losses due to pests, diseases, and weeds, increasing apprehension regarding their adverse effects on human and environment health necessitates a critical examination of their usage patterns. Despite India’s relatively low per-hectare pesticide usage of 0.4 kg compared to China’s 1.83 kg, issues with pesticide residue contamination in the food chain require urgent attention. Additionally, significant regional disparities in pesticide application highlight the need for more uniform and sustainable agricultural practices. Therefore, this study examines the evolving trends in global and Indian pesticide application, providing a comprehensive analysis of the shifting dynamics across various Indian states and crop varieties. Furthermore, it analyzes various pesticide categories and their respective market shares, providing insights into production and export patterns. Our research also explores regulatory frameworks aimed at optimizing pesticide use while minimizing detrimental effects on human health and the environment.

This article assesses the design, process flow, and impact of the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme in India, which was introduced in 2015. Under this scheme, government mechanisms distribute SHCs to each farmer. The article examines the scheme using a nationally representative sample of farmers in 2017. Awareness of the SHC scheme among the farmers was high at 82%, but only 66% were able to understand the recommendations, and only 48% followed the recommended rate of fertilizer application. Literacy rates, irrigated area, contact with extension workers, subsidized micronutrients, and the infrastructure index had a positive influence on use of SHCs. The farmers benefited through optimal use of fertilizers and reduced cost of production. To replicate similar schemes in other developing countries, they have to enhance state capabilities in terms of soil sample collection and testing with the latest technologies such as GPS-enabled tablets and mass testing, along with better fertilizer subsidy policies.

This article reviews the impact and effectiveness in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) at state level as well as at village level with focus on inclusiveness, rural labor markets and agriculture. The paper finds that some states are more effective in implementation then others. The states which effectively integrated MGNREGA works with local planning gained much in terms of employment generation and asset creation leading to increased agricultural potential. The scheme is more inclusive of vulnerable sections of the society including scheduled castes and tribes and also women. Study also highlight the village level differences in implementation and effective implementation leads to reduction of hunger and poverty. More importantly the scheme increased bargaining power of rural laborer in agricultural sector, resulted in higher wage rates, better work environment and less exploitation.

The demand for organic foods is increasing worldwide due to health and environmental benefits. However, there are several unanswered questions, such as: Do organic farmers generate higher profits? Will the cost of cultivation reduce to compensate for low yields? Can farmers practice as per the organic agriculture protocols and obtain certification? The literature on organic agriculture varies widely in terms of profitability, yields and costs of organic products. A few studies have researched site-specific organic agriculture, but none have compared organic with conventional agriculture at larger scale in India. The Indian government has promoted organic agriculture since 2015 through its pan-India scheme—Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY). Under this program, there were 13.9 million certified organic farmers in 29,859 organic clusters, covering 0.59 million hectares (about 0.4% of the cropped area in India). This study assessed the implementation process of PKVY and the impact at the farmer level using the Difference-in-Difference approach. An economic surplus model was employed to observe the macro scale using data from an all-India representative sample from 576 clusters for the crop year 2017. The results identified that organic farmers experienced 14–19 percent less costs and 12–18 percent lower yields than conventional farmers. The net result is a marginal increase in profitability compared to traditional agriculture. The economy-wide economic surplus model indicates that there will be a reduction in producer and consumer surplus due to reduced crop yields. However, if the shift from conventional to organic is confined to rainfed, hilly and tribal areas, there will be an increase in both consumer and producer surplus.

India is the largest cotton producing and second largest cotton exporting country. India accounting about 26% of the world cotton production. It has the distinction of having the largest area under cotton cultivation in the world with about 11–12 million hectares and constituting about 40% of the world area under cotton cultivation. Cotton is a global crop with high price fluctuation, which depends on the global business cycles. It is a mostly used as raw material for apparel and cloth industry. In addition to production risk cotton farmers encounter high price risk. Thus, it is important to forecast the cotton prices for the benefit of farmers as well as millers who purchase the cotton. The present study is aimed to forecast the prices of cotton of major producing states of India. The time series data on monthly price of cotton required for the study was collected from the AGMARKNET website from January, 2006 to December, 2016 to forecast prices for kharif 2017–18 year harvest months. ARIMA model was employed to predict the future prices of cotton. Model parameters were estimated using the R programming software. The performance of fitted model was examined by computing various measures of goodness of fit viz., AIC, SBC and MAPE. In Kharif season the cotton crop is harvested during December to January. Forecast shows that market prices of cotton, would be ruling in the range of ` 4,600 – 4,900 per quintal (medium staple cotton) in kharif harvesting season, 2017–18.