In 1993, the definition of economic activity in the System of National Accounts (SNA) was extended to include unpaid work. The definition thus covered unpaid operations in agricultural production, along with the collection of firewood and fodder, fetching water, etc., whether for sale or self-consumption.
Migrant Tomato Pickers of Southern Italy
Ranjini Basu was a participant at the 10th Marx Autumn School organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Berlin from October 26 to 29, 2017. At one discussion, on the theme of “unfree labour,” a participant from Naples spoke about migrant workers from less developed countries working as tomato pickers on the farms of southern Italy.
The Tripura Model
Madhura Swaminathan and V. K. Ramachandran attempt to draw the contours of “The Tripura Model” of development based on the study of the three villages in the State of Tripura, conducted by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies in May-June 2016. The note, which has been published in The Hindu is republished here.
Electricity Tariffs and Boro Rice Cultivation in West Bengal
Groundwater is a major source of irrigation in West Bengal, with about 65 per cent of irrigated area under tube well irrigation. Under the present government, there has been a rapid hike in power tariffs for agriculture and it has affected the cultivation of summer crops in the State, particularly the cultivation of water-intensive boro (summer) paddy.
Women’s Access to Land
Women’s control over land and property is recognised to be an important factor in women’s socio-economic status and empowerment. We report some interesting results on the subject from a quick analysis of data from eight villages (located in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab and Karnataka) surveyed by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies.
Rural Women Work (At Least) 50 Hours a Week
Women work for at least 50 hours a week. This is our finding from a one-week labour diary or time-use survey conducted in Siresandra village of Kolar, Karnataka in May 2017. As part of a project on Women in Rural Production Systems, the Foundation for Agrarian Studies team interviewed 14 women on all the activities undertaken every day for a week.
Misunderstanding Data, Poor Analysis, and Wrong Conclusions
A recent paper, published by the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences of the United States) and authored by Tamma A. Carleton, titled “Climate Change and Agricultural Suicides in India” claims that “temperature during India’s main agricultural growing season has a strong positive effect on annual suicide rates.” Regrettably, the paper has received widespread uncritical coverage in the Indian media.
The Effects of Extreme Temperature on Crop Yield in Karnataka
One of the immediate consequences of climate variability is the occurrence of extreme weather events, which are expected to increase in the future as global warming intensifies. A study of climate change and agricultural yield in Karnataka, supported by the Karnataka Agricultural Price Commission (Jayaraman, et al. 2017), was recently undertaken to analyse the relationship between extreme temperatures and crop yield at the sub-district (taluka) level for selected crops.
Forests and Food Security
There is an interesting new report on forests and food security from the High Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security (HLPE 2017).
Review of A New Statistical Domain in India
My review in Japanese appears in Statistics, the journal of the Japanese Society of Economic Statistics. The review begins by introducing the book series, mentioning that the book is part of the Agrarian Studies Series of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies.
