Jabir Ali

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and farmers' decision-making across the agricultural supply chain

Using a case study of the Indian Tobacco Companys (ITC) e-Choupal initiative, the paper empirically analyses the role of information delivery through information and communication technology (ICT) in enhancing decision-making capabilities of Indian farmers. Users of e-Choupal show significantly better decision-making aptitudes, as compared to non-users, on various agricultural practices across the agricultural supply chain. Further, socio-demographic backgrounds of the users such as education levels, the social category they belong to, income levels, and landholding size also play a significant role in impacting decision-making aptitudes. The impact is particularly prominent in production planning and post-harvest and marketing related decisions. Policy implications of these findings are discussed. The study emphasizes the importance of designing ICT enabled information systems to suit the socio-demographic profile of the user groups.

Efficiency in agricultural commodity futures markets in India: Evidence from cointegration and causality tests

Purpose - In line with the ongoing global and domestic reforms in agriculture and allied sectors, the Indian Government is reducing its direct market intervention and encouraging private participation based on market forces. This has led to increased exposure of agricultural produce to price and other market risks, which consequently emphasize the importance of futures markets for price discovery and price risk management. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of agricultural commodity markets by assessing the relationships between futures prices and spot market prices of major agricultural commodities in India. Design/methodology/approach - The efficiency of the futures market for 12 agricultural commodities, traded at one of the largest commodity exchanges of India, i.e. National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd, has been explored by using Johansens cointegration analysis and Granger causality tests. Unit root test procedures such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller and non-parametric Phillips-Perron were initially applied to examine whether futures and spot prices are stationary or not. The hypothesis, that futures prices are unbiased predictors of spot prices has been tested using econometric software package. Findings - Results show that cointegration exists significantly in futures and spot prices for all the selected agricultural commodities except for wheat and rice. This suggest that there is a long-term relationship between futures and spot prices for most of the agricultural commodities like maize, chickpea, black lentil, pepper, castor seed, soybean and sugar. The causality test further distinguishes and categorizes the commodities based on direction of relationship between futures and spot prices. The analysis of short-term relationship by causality test indicates that futures markets have stronger ability to predict subsequent spot prices for chickpea, castor seed, soybean and sugar as compared to maize, black lentil and pepper, where bi-directional relationships exist in the short run. Practical implications - The results of this study are useful for various stakeholders active in agricultural commodities markets such as producers, traders, commission agents, commodity exchange participants, regulators and policy makers. Originality/value - There are very few studies that have explored the efficiency of the commodity futures market in India in a detailed manner, especially at individual commodity level.

Factors Affecting the Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Farming Decisions

This study analyses the influences of sociodemographic factors, business orientation of farmers, and farm characteristics on adoption of ICT-based information through primary data collected from 461 farmers in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. A personal interview survey was conducted using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The Poisson Count Regression Model was used to analyze the factors influencing use of the information derived through ICT-based systems on various agricultural practices. The findings indicate that education, income, and social category of farmers are important sociodemographic factors affecting the adoption of ICT-based information systems. Similarly, farmers who consider farming as a business venture, practice a diversified cropping system, and have small farms are more likely to use ICT-based information.

Market structure analysis of health and wellness food products in India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the market structure and level of competition in health and wellness food products by type, category, prime positioning and distribution networks in India. Design/methodology/approach – The study is conducted using secondary data from Euromonitor International. Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) has been calculated for analyzing the market trends in terms of type, category and prime positioning and market competition has been analyzed using Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). Analysis of variance has been used for analyzing the statistical difference in market competition. Findings – Consumer purchase behavior for food is significantly changing across the world and consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of the health enhancing properties of food. With growing incidences of problems like obesity, diabetes, coronary heart diseases and foodborne diseases, consumers are becoming aware of the role of food in ensuring health and well-being. There have been ...

Factors Influencing Adoption of Postharvest Practices in Vegetables

The vegetable sector plays a vital role in farm income enhancement and alleviation of poverty in many developing countries. However, this sector suffers greatly from the problem of high postharvest losses, resulting in significant declines in food quality and safety, competitiveness in the market, and profits earned by producers. This study analyzed the adoption behavior of vegetable growers for postharvest practices of washing, sorting and grading, preserving and cooling, dehydrating/drying, packaging, and labeling and storage for value addition based on a survey of 556 vegetable growers in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh. The Poisson count regression model was used to identify the most likely factors affecting adoption of postharvest practices in the vegetable value chain. It was determined that diversified vegetable farmers, inclined to introduce new crops, use credit, have higher income, employ better irrigation facilities, adopt integrated pest management techniques, and sell produce in organized markets, are more likely to adopt postharvest techniques. The results have implications for stakeholders involved in the vegetable value chain to improve the quantity and quality of produce delivered to consumers.

Performance of small and medium-sized food and agribusiness enterprises: evidence from Indian firms

This paper analyses the size of food and agribusiness firms in India in relationship to business enterprise characteristics, performance, and obstacles through surveying 515 food and agribusiness firms operating in different regions of India using the World Banks Enterprise Survey 2014. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and analysis of variance were used to evaluate data using statistical software. Chi-square statistics identify significant differences in enterprise characteristics through examining firm size, location, gender ownership, type and age. An analysis of variance indicates significant differences in business performance across small, medium and large enterprises in term of input and output ratios. Obstacles facing firms are largely similar regardless of firm size in eleven of the sixteen business-obstacles surveyed. Results reveal that large enterprises perceive more challenges with telecommunication services, customs, trade regulations, and corruption, while small and medium firms fac...

Indian agri‐seed industry: understanding the entrepreneurial process

Purpose – The paper aims to discuss and analyse the entrepreneurial process in Indian seed business and factors affecting entrepreneurship in this sector.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on in‐depth personal interviews with 40 entrepreneurs involved in 31 seed ventures belonging to five districts covering three states of India – Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Uttarakhand. These firms were selected following the convenient method of sampling. All major components of entrepreneurial process – personal traits and background of the entrepreneur, legal and financial environment, and market structure – were studied in detail. Descriptive and relational data‐analytic methods were adopted such as frequency distribution, cross tabulation, and correlation analysis.Findings – Realizing the importance of availability of quality seed to the farming community in adequate quantity in the country, current government policies are geared towards promoting and fostering entrepreneurship in seed industry in Indi...

Understanding students’ preferences on school mid-day meal menu in India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the difference in students’ preferences on weekly menu of school mid-day meal (MDM) program in Uttar Pradesh, India. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on primary structured questionnaire survey through personal interviews using multi-stage stratified sampling technique. This comprehensive survey covered 2,400 primary and upper primary students belonging to eight districts of Uttar Pradesh – Allahabad, Balrampur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Hathras, Kanpur Nagar, Mathura, Shahjahanpur and Varanasi. A total of 60 schools have been selected from each district, covering a total of 480 primary and upper primary schools. Simple statistical tools have been used to analyze the surveyed data such as cross-tabulation, percentage distribution and rank analysis. Further, six research hypotheses have been formulated to analyze the difference in school meal menu preferences among the students and χ2-statistics has been used to test the significance level of these...

Commentary: Livestock, common property resources and rural smallholders in India

Livestock rearing in India is an integral agricultural activity among most rural households, particularly landless, marginal and small landholders. Apart from its multifaceted roles in socio-economic development, the livestock sector constitutes about 25% of agricultural gross domestic product and provides nutritionally rich food to many people in both rural and urban areas. Demand for animal-based products such as milk, meat and eggs has significantly increased due to sustained growth in income, urbanization, change in food preferences and increased awareness on nutritional intake. In order to meet the emerging demand for livestock-based products both in domestic and global markets, there is a renewed need to enhance livestock production and productivity. The major challenge before the Indian livestock sector is sufficient supply of livestock inputs, that is feed, fodder and concentrate. As land-scarce poor households face feed and fodder scarcity, they tend to give up livestock rearing, particularly that of large ruminants (Rao et al., 2003). With the emergence of the market economy, the livestock sector is now moving towards specialization with increasing involvement of big farmers and investors. Small dairy herds are turning into big dairy farms with capital-intensive production technologies. Likewise, backyard poultry is converging itself into integrated capital-intensive poultry farms. This phase of livestock sector development does not favour landless and smallholder producers. This commentary examines the issues related to common property resources and their implications for sustainable livestock sector development with special reference to the landless and smallholders.

Pupils’ satisfaction with school mid-day meal program

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differences in pupils’ satisfaction on various aspects of mid-day meal (MDM) program in India across food catered by centralized and decentralized kitchens. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on structured questionnaire survey through personal interviews of 1,200 school children of primary and upper primary schools of four districts of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Simple statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been used for meaningful data analysis. Findings – Pupils’ responses on 17 attributes of their satisfaction on school meal program were reduced to four components − quality of food, social bonding, health and hygiene and availability of support infrastructure, using factor analysis technique. Findings show the perceived differences in satisfaction on various aspects of MDM program. Further, ANOVA indicate that there is significant difference in the satisfa...