|
The last quarter was effectively a two month long quarter for the Foundation, as we were completely occupied in preparing for the survey of two villages in the state of Uttar Pradesh- Mahatwar in Balia district, and Harevli in the Bijnor district - in the second half of May. The survey was conducted in the month of June.
Coming after a gap of three years, this survey was a cause for excitement for all of us. We were going to these villages after 16 years, and it was a unique opportunity for us to understand the change that happened in the last one and half decades. We will be processing and analysing the data over the next two quarters. We hope to gain a better understanding about the process of change in rural India, as a result of this exercise.
Notwithstanding the narrow window of about one-and-a half months, we were able to pull off a large-scale public event on a topic that is of genuine concern for all those interested in the question of development and climate change. The impact of climate change is emerging as a major challenge for agriculture all over the world, including in India. It threatens both the food security of the country as a whole, and the incomes and livelihoods of millions of households dependent on agriculture and related activities. In this context, the necessity to arrive at a scientific and objective understanding of the implications of climate change for agricultural production cannot be overstated. The online public lecture on climate change, organised by the Foundation was an attempt to understand the major debates around these questions in the contemporary world.
We were also able to initiate the second edition of the Young Scholars' Online Seminar Series. This season will involve seven seminars which will be held on the last Thursday of every month. As part of the series, seven young scholars, working in the field of agrarian studies and socioeconomic life in rural regions of South Asia, will present their work.
We look forward to a busy second half of 2023.
Sandipan Baksi
Director,
Foundation for Agrarian Studies
|
|
Revisiting two villages of Uttar Pradesh after 17 years
In June 2023, the Foundation undertook a resurvey of two villages, namely Mahatwar in the Rasra tehsil of Ballia district, and Harevli in the Najibabad block of Bijnor district. These villages had previously been surveyed by the Foundation as part of our Project on Agrarian Relations in India in 2006. The survey was carried out by the Foundation's researchers, collaborators, and a group of students.
To ensure the quality of data collection, a comprehensive two-day training session was held in Rasra on June 4 and 5. Following this, on June 6, the investigators commenced the process of canvassing the survey questionnaire in Mahatwar. The survey activities in Mahatwar spanned over a period of ten days, concluding on June 16. Subsequently, the survey was conducted in Harevli for twelve days, from June 19 to 30. Throughout the month-long endeavor, the survey questionnaire was canvassed in approximately 245 households across the two villages.
|
|
Review of Agrarian Studies
RAS Volume 13 Number 1
The latest issue (Vol 13 No 1) of our open access journal, Review of Agrarian Studies is being published.
Some of the articles in the upcoming issue are already up on the website which include, one research article and two book reviews. This issue includes a research article which is an extended and revised version of the Annual Oration of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies delivered by Dr. Cao Đức Phát on March 29, 2023. Dr. Cao Đức Phát is the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Nam and Chair, Board of Trustees, International Rice Research Institute.
The issue also features two book reviews : 'Agricultural Development from Asia to Africa' by Niyati Singaraju and 'Agrarian Change in Indonesia' by Venkatesh B. Athreya.
The other articles of the journal and the print copies of the journal will soon be available. For further details, visit ras.org.in.
|
|
Public Events
Climate Change and Agriculture in India
On May 11, 2023, the Foundation organised an online lecture on "Understanding the Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture in India" in collaboration with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung South Asia. Professor T. Jayaraman, Senior Fellow - Climate Change, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), delivered the lecture. The lecture was presided over by Dr. Vinod Kumar Singh, Director of the prestigious ICAR - Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad.
The lecture aimed to take stock of the debates surrounding climate change and agriculture in the past ten years, with a specific focus on India. It explored the impact of global warming on agricultural production, emphasizing the need for more detailed information available in the literature. The lecture also delved into the policy choices that India faces concerning agriculture as a site of adaptation or mitigation.
A brief report of the event can be found on our website. A recording of the event is also available on our YouTube channel.
YSOSS - Seminar 1: Rural Labour Market Transformation in India
On May 25, 2023 the Foundation organised the first session of the Young Scholars' Online Seminar Series 2023-24 with Dr Shiba Shankar Pattayat, Assistant Professor of Economics at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Yeshwanthpur Campus.
Dr Shiba Shankar presented his research on "Rural Labour Market Transformation in India: Impacts on the Agriculture Sector." Analyzing official data sources, he explored the shifts in the labor market from agriculture to non-farm sectors. In the lecture Dr. Shiba Shankar also shed light on the factors influencing the changing labor market, such as education, training, wage rates, marital status, household-level variables like living standards, education level, occupation of the family head, and social groups.
The session was chaired by Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the University of Oxford. Niyati Singaraju, Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender Research at the Sustainable Impact Platform, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), acted as the discussant.
The schedule of the upcoming seminars under this series, has been uploaded on the events page of our website and also on our social media handles.
In-house Events
In-house Seminar on Ownership and Use of Machines :The Case of Bihar
Sai Chandan Kotu, Masters Student at Lund University, Sweden, delivered a seminar titled "Ownership and Use of Machines: The Case of Bihar" at the Foundation's office on April 27, 2023. The seminar's main focus was to explore the implications of machine ownership and usage on different socio-economic classes within farming households. During the presentation, Sai shared insights derived from analyzing data from various secondary sources, including the All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) and Input Use Survey.
|
|
Village Studies Series
In June, we ran a short social media campaign that discussed various aspects of rural India that village studies help us understand better.
It can be found on Twitter under the Hashtag #VillageStudiesSeries.
First of the posts can be found here.
|
|
|
|
|
