Practices and Perception of Cotton Ginners
of Punjab Towards Cotton Contamination:
A Study
--Mohit Gupta,
-- Navdeep Aggarwal
Cotton contamination is a serious problem and needs to be strongly tackled to remain
competitive in the world textile market. Ginning and pressing are the two important stages where
contamination needs to be checked and can be efficiently controlled. This study attempts to find the
perception and practices of cotton ginners towards cotton contamination.
It is conducted in two important cotton growing areas of Punjab.
Perception and practices with respect to both general and
specialized contamination practices, types of cotton contaminants, causes of cotton contamination and
general opinion regarding cotton contamination have been studied in detail. Further attempt is also made
to study the difference between small and large spinners on these aspects.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Determinants of Mulberry Silk Cocoon Quality
--Kumaresan P,
--Geetha Devi R G,
--Kamble C K
India is the second largest producer of mulberry raw silk. However, the productivity and quality of
the silk produced in the country is not up to the level of China, the largest producer of silk in the
world. As cocoon quality contributes to the tune of about 80% of the raw silk quality, good quality
cocoon is essential for the production of quality silk. The quality of silk cocoons depends on
many characteristics and each of these measures different aspects of quality of cocoons. The study
revealed that among different variables, defective cocoon percentage, renditta and raw silk recovery had
high degree of association with raw silk grade.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Measurement of Cost Efficiency in the Case
of Rice Production in West Bengal
and Andhra Pradesh
--Chandralekha Ghosh,
--Ajitava Raychaudhuri
West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are two large rice producing states in India. Although both the
states have undergone rigorous changes in agriculture, the forms of reform have been very different in
these two states. While institutional reforms dominated in West Bengal, in Andhra Pradesh
agricultural growth was solely driven by technological reforms. Given this background this paper analyzes the
cost efficiency of rice production in these two states. It has examined the trend of cost efficiency
and technical efficiency of rice production in the two states for the period 1971-2005 by using
stochastic frontier analysis. It is observed that cost efficiency in case of West Bengal was higher during the
1970s and early 1980s but after that from the 1990s Andhra Pradesh is having better cost efficiencies.
The technical efficiencies are also similar in both the states. Thus the states, which have followed
different paths of agricultural development, show similarities as far as technical efficiency is concerned.
But Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal show that both cost and technical efficiency are below the
optimum level which is the real cause of worry. From the above analysis, it seems that there is inefficiency
of input in each factor used in both the states.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Impact of Regional Variation in Agricultural
Development: A District-Wise Analysis in Orissa
--Umakanta Tripathy
This paper focuses on inter-district variation in agriculture among the 13 undivided districts
of Orissa. This paper is divided into three major studies: The first study relates to disparities in
various indicators of economic development such as Per Capita Income (PCI), net irrigated area as
percentage of net area sown, productivity per hectare, cropping intensity, distribution of fertilizer per
thousand hectares of gross cropped area. The second observation relates to variation of district income
such as Gross District Domestic Product (GDDP), Net District Domestic Product (NDDP), and PCI, etc.
The third observation relates to variation in equal distribution of land holdings. It explains
the importance of land reforms for the benefit of marginal and small farmers.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
An Overview of Agrarian Economy in India:
Performance and Determinants
--Amarnath Tripathi,
--A R Prasad
This paper evaluates the performance and progress of Indian agriculture since independence.
In addition, this paper also analyzes sources of agricultural growth and determinants of
agricultural production. Decomposition test is used to analyze the sources of agricultural growth and the
production function approach is used to analyze the determinants of agricultural production from the period
1950/51 to 2005/06. This study indicates that there is a scope to increase both net sown area and gross
sown area. The decomposition analysis indicates that rising output per hectare is the predominant source
of agricultural growth for most of the crops and crop groups. The estimation of aggregate
agricultural production function with both intercept and slope dummy indicates that land significantly affected
the agricultural output growth during 1950/51-1964/65 and after that it became less significant and
now labor and capital are significantly affecting the agricultural output growth.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Determinants of Female Labor Force Participation in
the Agricultural Sector of Swaziland
--N Narayana,
-- N B Shongwe
This study investigates the determinants of Female Labor Force
Participation (FLFP) in the Swaziland agricultural sector. This study
uses data from the Swaziland Integrated Labor Force Survey
2007/08 collected by the Central Statistics Office, Swaziland. The methodology used to analyze the
data included the use of the probit and multinomial logit models. The findings of the study
indicate that about 7% of females participate in the agricultural sector. Participation of females
is determined by age, marital status, level of education, land ownership, employment status and credit
accessibility. Based on these findings, measures to enhance the participation of women in agriculture are proposed.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
