Sukhwinder Singh

In 2016–2017, Indian government set a policy target of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. This article investigates farmers’ perspectives on this contentious policy. Results suggest that only 18% of farmers were aware of this policy. Most farmers blamed the government’s support, high cost of cultivation and low MSP for their inability to increase their farm profitability. While synthesizing farmers’ perspectives, past trends, and the debate among agricultural scientists and policy analysts, this policy could not help farmers in doubling their incomes by 2022. However, it could have been possible if the governments had initiated some targeted programmes to provide them with farm inputs at lower prices and bought their crops at a higher MSP.

Using primary data from 479 farmer households, this study examined the associations between agricultural and socioeconomic factors and farmer household dietary diversity in Visakhapatnam and Sonipat. Cropping intensity was positively associated with farmers’ household dietary diversity score (HDDS), suggesting that higher cropping intensity may expand the gross cropped area and improve food security among subsistence farmers. Distance to food markets was also significantly associated with farmer HDDS, which suggests that market integration with rural households can improve farmer HDDS in Visakhapatnam. In Sonipat, wealth index had a positive association with farmer HDDS, targeting the income pathway by improving farmer HDDS in this region. Considering the relative contribution of these factors, distance to food markets, cropping intensity, and crop diversity were the three most important factors affecting farmer HDDS in Visakhapatnam, whereas wealth index, cropping intensity, and distance to food markets emerged as the top three important factors contributing to farmer HDDS in Sonipat. Our study concludes that the associations between agricultural and socioeconomic factors and farmer HDDS are complex but context- and location-specific; therefore, considering the site- and context-specific circumstances, different connections to HDDS in India can be found to better support policy priorities on the ground.

Over the past two decades, smoke aerosols from crop residue burning have increasingly degraded postmonsoon (October‐November) air quality in north India. We use satellite data and atmospheric modeling to investigate whether cascading delays in monsoon rice growth and postmonsoon fires over 2003–2019 have exacerbated the already poor urban air quality downwind of the fires. Beginning in 2008, a government effort to combat groundwater depletion in Punjab mandated rice sowing until closer to the arrival of monsoon rains. We find evidence of district‐level delays in the timing of both monsoon rice growth and postmonsoon fires, which vary from 1 to 4 weeks with largely an east‐west gradient. These delays are correlated spatially (r = 0.51–0.77), with northern and western districts in Punjab, which rely less on groundwater for irrigation, tending to have the greatest delays. Had the delays in fire activity not occurred, we estimate that cities downwind and near the fire source would have consistently seen less smoke‐related fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), on average ranging from 11% to 21% for New Delhi, Bathinda, and Jind during 2008–2019. This net benefit of earlier postmonsoon burning could have been even larger given that (a) a longer rice‐to‐wheat transition could incentivize farmers to find alternatives to burning crop residues; and (b) background PM_2.5 is less abundant earlier in the season, decreasing the likelihood of extreme pollution episodes. Strategies aiming to mitigate air pollution while conserving groundwater may be more effective by promoting an earlier monsoon growing season in districts with less groundwater depletion.

A Correction to this paper has been published: 10.1007/s12571-021-01168-6

This paper investigated whether there are any regional-level differences in factors associated with farmer household dietary diversity using the Food Consumption Score (FCS), in two states of India: Haryana and Gujarat. Our results suggest that the factors associated with farmer household dietary diversity were region-specific, with diverse drivers across districts. For example, in Vadodara (Gujarat), farmers who had greater crop diversity and planted more cash crops had higher dietary diversity while large landholders in Bhavnagar (Gujarat) had higher dietary diversity. In Karnal (Haryana), more educated farmer households and those who cultivated large landholdings had higher dietary diversity while farmers in Bhiwani (Haryana) who were more educated and sold more crops to market had higher dietary diversity. Thus, factors associated with FCS differed even within the same state. These results suggest that in some regions of India, higher crop diversity and better education could improve farmer household dietary diversity. On the other hand, in some other regions, dietary diversity is best improved through the income generation pathway, where households that earn increased income from selling more crops were able to purchase more diverse food from markets. Our study suggests that the drivers of household dietary diversity across rural India are complex and heterogeneous; thus, future policies and programs to improve farmer household nutrition should be tailored considering regional differences in the factors associated with household nutrition.

This paper investigates the associations between crop and income diversity and dietary diversity among men, women, adolescents, and children of farmer households in India. We examine crop, income, and dietary data collected from 1106 farmer households across Gujarat and Haryana, two states that represent different livelihood transition pathways in India. Regression results suggest that crop diversity had a positive association with dietary diversity among adults (both men and women) in both states, and among adolescents and children in Haryana. Higher family education and annual income were the two most important factors associated with higher dietary diversity score (DDS) in Gujarat whereas, higher family education, greater crop diversity, and increased distance traveled to markets were the most important factors associated with higher individual DDS in Haryana. Specifically, for children, crop diversity emerged as one of the most important factors associated with dietary diversity in both states. Interestingly, we find that even in these two relatively prosperous states, the pathways to dietary diversity vary across sites and within households, suggesting that policies to improve dietary diversity should be tailored to a given location and context.

Soil health in the Indian Punjab has been a debatable issue for the last two decades mainly because of lack of pragmatic scientific inquiry. The currently available literature not only seems in contradiction but also limited relative to investigation of the soil health in the light of sustainability indicators. The current systematic and multifaceted study was designed to provide a deep understanding of the soil health issues in Punjab, the epicenter of “green revolution,” in the light of socioeconomic factors. The results should be applicable to the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain. We used a database of 120 soil samples to measure the current state of soil health in Punjab and pointed out the main socioeconomic factors that affected it. The results were compared and contrasted with the available literature to investigate the temporal changes in soil health between 1980–1981 and 2010–2011. Results revealed average soil pH to be 8.2; electrical conductivity (EC) 0.27 dS/m; organic carbon (OC) 0.49%; available phosphorus (P) content 17 mg/kg soil; and available potassium (K) content 171 mg/kg soil. Besides agro-climatic conditions, the size of landholding and farmer education showed a significant association with soil health. Large landowners had healthier soils than the small and medium holders. Contrary to expectations, graduate farmers had poorer soils than those who were either illiterate or possessed average education. An examination of the temporal changes revealed that Punjab soils had become healthier across time, particularly with respect to OC, P, and K. The pH exhibited a declining trend, whereas EC stayed almost constant between 1980–1981 and 2010–2011. Crop intensity had no negative impacts on soil health; therefore, farmers may grow leguminous crops during April--May as third (Zaid) crop, which will not only improve soil nitrogen supply but also fetch additional earnings.