This volume examines the transitions in Indian agriculture since the 1980s, and emphasizes upon the role of neoliberal policies and their impact. The essays presented here deal with a range of pertinent and contemporary issues, including global food security, livelihoods of agricultural labourers, and public and private investment. These weave together glimpses of the impasse faced by petty commodity producers (marginal and small farmers) and their subsequent economic distress and social exclusion. Comprehensive in analysis, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of agricultural economics, political economy, political science and public policy.

The book 'Indian Agriculture and Agribusiness Management' aims at providing students of agribusiness, teachers, researchers, professionals and all those interested in the field of agriculture with a broader understanding of agribusiness as a system and the key concepts needed to successfully manage an agribusiness enterprise. It serves as a basis to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the agribusiness system operates and the challenges faced in the movement of food and fiber from the producer to the ultimate consumer. The first part of the book helps in understanding the context within which agribusinesses operate in India. It focuses on the breadth and scope of agribusiness in India, policy initiatives undertaken by the Indian Government and the legal framework within which they function. The second half of the book deals with the complex network of inter related activities performed on the farm and past the farm gate such as natural resource management, input management, marketing management, supply chain management and risk management, as well as the institutional linkages needed for the same. It addresses issues relevant to decision making in a rapidly changing, highly competitive market environment led by technological advancement in area such as information technology and biotechnology. It provides an insight into management challenges related to rising input costs and shifting consumer preferences. Cases pertaining to the best practices and potential strategies adopted by a few innovative, successful organizations have also been incorporated. The book also incorporates several case studies that highlight the various concepts discussed in the different chapters.

A lot is being said these days about farmers becoming ‘entrepreneurs’. But what is entrepreneurship? What does it take to be entrepreneurial? How can an entrepreneurial behaviour be created and sustained? How can entrepreneurial skills be developed? How do entrepreneurial farmers respond to the changing farming environment? What strategies do they use? What actions do they take? And how can extension workers help farmers develop entrepreneurial capacity?

This book presents an extensive study on India’s agricultural and nonfarm sectors, examining prices, investments and policies, and suggesting various essential technological changes. It offers appropriate financial, institutional, and policy frameworks that can help to sustain agricultural growth and augment farmers’ incomes across geographical locations. Further, it addresses agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction through multiple pathways that also tackle varied geographical locations, making it a highly useful guide to understanding the changing contours in agriculture and rural areas across the country and among rural households with various social and economic backgrounds.

"This book highlights the contextual dimensions of the agribusiness industry through which entrepreneurship researchers would be able to enhance their understanding of entrepreneurship by focusing on the following research question: "Why do individuals, farmers, agrarian, start a new business in the agricultural sector and how do they manage entrepreneurial performance, and what impact it has on the economy?""--

This book provides a blueprint for the allocation of public expenditures “in” and “for” agriculture at the dis-aggregated state level and suggests a reorientation in favour of disadvantaged regions where the marginal returns on additional investments would be higher. It provides insights into the inter-linkages between public expenditures, private investment, rural poverty, and agriculture productivity from a regional perspective to reflect upon spatial differences in the welfare effects of various investments, subsidies, and policies. The book focuses on agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction through public and private investments, non-farm employment, and other pathways to the formulation of appropriate policies at the dis-aggregated state level. It presents new evidence based on advanced econometric tools for analysing and understanding the relationship between public and private investments in agriculture and input subsidies (fertilizer, power, irrigation, and credit) together with their impacts at the dis-aggregated state level. The book also deliberates on an income based direct support system for farmers as an alternative to the existing input price subsidy regime. Accordingly, the book offers valuable insights not only for researchers working on poverty alleviation, rural economy, and agricultural growth, but also for policymakers.