Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of the trends in temperature and rainfall over the period 1967–2016 (50 years) for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and estimate the effect of these climatic changes on major crop production.Design/methodology/approach: To set up an empirical association between crop yields and climatic variables, the study uses a fixed effect regression framework. This approach makes it possible to capture the effects of time-invariant indicators and farmers' independent adaptation strategies in reaction to year-to-year variations in precipitation and temperature.Findings: The study observes a significant increase in average temperature by 1.9 degrees Celsius in the last 50 years and the greatest increase is noted in the summer. However, there is no significant change in rainfall. The results indicate that a one-degree Celsius increase in temperature reduces crop yields by 7–25%. The results also indicate that rainfall has a positive effect on all the crops. But, rainfall could not offset much of the adverse effects of temperature.Research limitations/implications: Future research can focus on the analysis of the climate change impact assessment for different regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and develop a place-based policy.Originality/value: The recent initiative to phase out crop production makes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia entirely rely on imports. This may have little or no impact presently. However, in the future, it is possible that any global shocks on agriculture due to climate change or geopolitical instability will make the situation worse off. It will threaten both food and nutrition security in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it is important to study these in the present context to prepare a road map for future food, water and nutrition security.

Foreign aid and remittances augment the income of economies. The present study examines the relationship between economic growth, poverty, inequality, remittances, and foreign aid in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries using panel data methods from 1991 to 2019. The study focuses on the MENA region due to the rise in labor immigration and significant foreign aid. The empirical findings reveal that remittances, foreign aid, and economic growth play a significant role in bringing down the MENA region’s poverty levels. Besides, a rise in income share accruing to the lowest quintile is observed despite the negative income growth, which indicates that on average, the income increased more rapidly of the poor in comparison to the non-poor households. Thus, the study finds evidence supporting the hypothesis that remittances and foreign aid augment per capita income and income share in the MENA member countries.

This article examines the relationship between caste, land ownership and agricultural productivity in India, utilising data from a large-scale survey of farm households. Access to resources like information, technology, inputs, markets, and support institutions are important for sustainable and inclusive growth of agriculture. The results indicate that socially disadvantaged households (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) have lower access to land and also other resources, but they produce more output per unit of land because they are more diversified towards high-value crops that generate more returns and are labour intensive. This calls for policy emphasis on crop diversification in the agricultural sector.

This paper discusses the process of structural transformation in Punjab and Bihar. These states lie at the extremes of the continuum of economic development in India-Punjab is at an advanced stage of structural transformation and it has the highest per capita income and lowest incidence of poverty, while the reverse holds true for Bihar-but agriculture is an important economic sector in both states and holds promise for future growth. In Bihar, agricultural growth is driven by technological change and diversification towards high-value crops; in Punjab technological change and price increases drive growth. The area expansion-through an increase in cropping intensity-has also contributed to growth in both states; however, the prospects of area-driven growth are limited, especially in Punjab, because the supply of land is fixed. Further, price-driven growth, as in Punjab, is unlikely to sustain in the long run. In Bihar, the recourse is to exploit the potential of existing and frontier technologies by investing in agricultural research and extension systems and strengthening institutions that link farmers to remunerative markets. In Punjab, the need is to diversify the crop portfolio from staple food crops to high-value food commodities that consume less water and to reorient the research agenda towards crops that can profitably substitute water-guzzling crops.