The tools of biotechnology present an opportunity to infuse a new round of technology into Indian agriculture, which has been going through "technology fatigue" in recent period. These technologies follow from the conventional plant breeding techniques and complement them in improving crops to resist biotic and abiotic stresses, break yield barriers, and sustain yields in the face of resource degradation and climatic change.
In an endeavor to promote agricultural innovation, the Government of India introduced two pieces of legislation: (i) the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, which provide for the registration of traditional crop varieties as farmers' varieties, and for the sharing of benefits when those varieties are incorporated into new commercial varieties; and (ii) the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999, which provides for the registration of indications to promote the marketing of goods which derive their quality and characteristics from th
In this perspective paper the authors consider the implications of a digital transformation for agricultural knowledge, a subject which hitherto has received limited attention. They raise critical questions about how digital agriculture will intersect with established modes of knowing and decision-making.
This study examines the influence of an extra-curricular educational program on children's knowledge and cultural valuation of wild food plants, which are an important component of their diets. This program aims to reinforce children's traditional knowledge and values around biological resources in Wayanad, India's Western Ghats, encouraging tribal and non-tribal children to learn from each other and from their own communities. Results show that the educational program has enhanced children's ability to identify selected wild food plants.
This paper reviews a recent donor-funded project concerning the introduction of post-harvest technology to poor hill farmers in India. Rather than conform to conventional development aid projects of either a “research” or an “interventionist” nature, it combines both approaches in a research-action program, which has more in common with a business development approach than a formal social science one. An important conclusion is that the work (and apparent success) of the project is consistent with an understanding of development that emphasizes the importance of innovation systems.
This paper comparatively analyzes the structure of agricultural policy development networks that connect organizations working on agricultural development, climate change and food security in fourteen smallholder farming communities across East Africa, West Africa and South Asia.
This work has largely focused on the developed world, yet the majority of people and future economic growth lies in the developing world. Further, most research examines micro data on consumers or firms, limiting what is known regarding the role of macro factors on diffusion, such as social systems. Addressing these limitations, this research provides the first high-level insights into how green building adoption is occurring in developing countries.
This study presents a framework of climate smart agriculture (CSA) priority setting methodology for identifying and developing portfolios of options based on local stakeholders' responses to CSA technologies. The methodology uses a participatory prioritization framework which is widely used in the development sector This study has modified the existing participatory framework to indicator based prioritization of CSA technologies.
This study examines the effectiveness of mobile as a novel approach for providing targeted and equitable agri-advisory services to farmers at scale. A cross-sectional survey of farmers registered on CABI's Direct2Farm (D2F) user database was undertaken using a combination of telephone interviews, household survey and focus group discussions covering six states in India. Was used mixed method approach that utilized both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods.
In this paper, the authors describe the adaptation and validation of a project-level WEAI (or pro-WEAI) that agricultural development projects can use to identify key areas of women’s (and men’s) disempowerment, design appropriate strategies to address identified deficiencies, and monitor project outcomes related to women’s empowerment. The 12 pro-WEAI indicators are mapped to three domains: intrinsic agency (power within), instrumental agency (power to), and collective agency (power with). A gender parity index compares the empowerment scores of men and women in the same household.