I have spent about a month in Vietnam studying the present situation of rice cultivation, a sector that has immense importance in the economy of Vietnam.
Comparative Study of Rice Cultivation in Thrissur District and the Mekong River Delta
The Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) is happy to announce a fieldwork grant for a new comparative study on rice cultivation in the kole cultivation areas of Kerala and rice cultivation in An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam.
Agricultural Policy Impasse and the Way Forward: A Conversation with Vijoo Krishnan
The FAS blog team had a discussion with Vijoo Krishnan, Joint Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, on the current agricultural policy environment and implications of policy changes for the peasantry on August 9, 2019 in Bengaluru.
Good Diets in the Asia-Pacific Region: Three Countries Score Top Marks
A new study by the regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Bangkok, Dynamic Development, Shifting Demographics, Changing Diets, has put together data on trends and key changes in agriculture and nutrition in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Fact/Fiction of Indian Agriculture
At a time when the economics of agriculture has been ousted from the economics curricula in India, it is heartening to see agrarian issues occupying a central position in recent books of fiction. In this blog, I review Kota Neelima’s Death of a Moneylender (2016, Penguin, Gurgaon).
Drinking Water in Rural India: A Perennial Crisis
Shortage of adequate water in rural India is a perennial problem. As per latest data, almost one fifth of rural habitations did not get the minimum entitled quantity of water (40 litres per capita per day or two buckets a day). This shortage is aggravated in the dry season.
Floods Bring an Unexpected Benefit, High Yields, to Rice Fields in Kuttanad
A preliminary study of eight farmers from Champakulam village panchayat, which is part of the Kuttanad wetland ecosystem, presents some unexpected findings. Kuttanad wetland ecosystem is a globally important agricultural heritage system in south-central Kerala.
The Burden of Cooking: Evidence from a Karnataka Village
In this Note, I examine the time spent by women in a village on an unpaid activity that contributes to household maintenance, cooking and serving food. The data come from time-use surveys conducted in Siresandra village, Kolar district, Karnataka, by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies.
A Book Review by John Harriss
Professor John Harriss of Simon Fraser University has reviewed How Do Small Farmers Fare? Evidence from Village Studies in India, a publication of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies, in the recent issue of Journal of Agrarian Change.
Land Transactions in West Bengal: Evidence from Three Study Villages
The inactive nature of the market for land in India has drawn the attention of economists and other social scientists. In 2010, the Foundation of Agrarian Studies conducted a survey in three villages of West Bengal — Kalmandasguri in Cooch Behar district, Amarsinghi in Malda district and Panahar in Bankura district. Findings from these three villages show that, contrary to popular perception, there were a sizeable number of land transactions in the three villages.
