Department of Economics
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/136
Browse
10 results
Search Results
Item Open Access Food security and poverty : a case study of tea gardens in North Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2023) Chakraborty, Abhijit; Roy Mukherjee, SanchariFood Security has attracted a lot of interest in the economic literature, especially in recent years1. One of the ways to measure poverty is food security. Since minimum calorie intake is a basis for measuring poverty. Food security on the other hand is defined as “Food security, at the individual, household, national, regional and global levels is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’’2. Thus, if enough food is not available, we would call a certain population food insecure. On the other hand, out of the various measures of poverty the basic needs approach tries to identify the nutritional requirement as per person calorie requirement and then convert it into monetary terms to determine a poverty line(Atkinson 2019). The other method is the capability approach as proposed by Amartya Sen which tries to explain poverty in terms of basic capabilities or functioning. The basic needs approach is an old theory. The poverty literature also identifies the measurement issues under two broad heads one is the direct method and the other is the indirect method. The direct method takes into consideration the shortfall in minimum calorie requirement, whereas the indirect method takes into consideration the income required to satisfy the minimum calorie required3. The minimum calories required for basic sustenance are used as a method for determining poverty lines in many countries4. There is also a vast literature which has tried to identify the relation between food security and poverty(Kakwani and Son 2016). The interest by economists in the hypothesis of calorie intake and its effect on income is central to the efficiency wage hypothesis, proposed by Leibenstein (Leibenstein 1957). The seminal work states that the efficiency of work depends on wages, which comes from nutrition (Dawson, Tiffin 1998) and thereby nutrition will play a major role in the country. Thus, we can claim there is a relationship between poverty and food security. In India, the poverty line is determined using the minimum calorie approach and therefore we state that people falling below a certain calorie norm are considered to be food insecure. The required dietary allowance or the recommended calorie at the poverty line is usually taken from the RDA proposed by ICMR. We use the direct method to determine the extent of poverty and thus food security in our surveyed population. The research hypothesis we propose are: Research Hypothesis • Poverty and food security are related, poverty leads to food insecurity and food insecurity leads to poverty. • Tea gardens of North Bengal exhibit marked regional disparities in terms of food security and poverty • PDS has helped to address the problems of Food Insecurity in the Tea Gardens of North Bengal. • Other determinants of Food Security show that there exists food insecurity in Tea Plantations Research Questions: • What is the present socio-economic status of the Tea Plantation workers in the selected gardens? • What is the role of the public distribution system in India in mitigating food security? • How has the PDS evolved in the tea gardens? • Is Poverty and Food Security related? • Are the people in Tea Gardens suffering from undernourishment? • What are the other determinants of Food Security? We use household-level data to test the hypothesis. We also determined the other factors that might affect food security. We find evidence that food security and poverty are indeed related. Results also show high incidence of undernutrition among the Tea plantations, which is a core indicator of food security. Our analysis suggests among the various determinants of food security, the most important are household size and education.Item Open Access The economics of pond fishery : a study of North Bengal region of West Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2023) Agarwalla, Kishan; Majumdar, Tamash RanjanFishing is one of the oldest avocations of man, older than even hunting and farming. In the beginning, man used his bare hands to collect/capture fish and other aquatic animals found along the shores of lakes, rivers, and seas. But, as time passed, many changes occurred in the mode and pattern of fishing. Planned fishing operations are believed to have come into force with the emergence of tribal units from family units. The evolution of fishing gears proceeded step by step from the capture of individual fish to catching them in bulk. Subsequently gears progressively larger in size and sophistication came to be introduced. Fish is considered to be exceptionally nutritious as it is rich in easily digestible animal protein for which there exists hardly any substitute. Nutritionists consider fish as a valuable and effective supplement to a high cereal diet. Empirical findings also attest that fish consumption can reduce disability and the incidence of heart diseases (Sen Gupta, 1984). Fishing characteristically enjoys some added advantages over agriculture. As an economic activity, fishing is quick yielding as compared to agriculture, since the former involves a lesser time lag between efforts and results. In the case of most agricultural crops, it takes at least three months to reap the harvest after sowing. By contrast, in fishing output is instantaneous with effort. Further fishing resources unlike agriculture are renewable and replenishable year by year, which therefore forms a self-sustaining "fund" of resources that can be harvested continuously within maximum limits of exploitation (James, 1972). Productivity is also found to be appreciably higher in fishing when compared to agriculture or animal husbandry. As an industry with wide backward and forward linkages, the employment and income generation potential of fisheries has increased unprecedently in recent decades. Technological innovations in fishing, processing, and marketing have given rise to a host of subsidiary occupations related to boat building, net making, fish processing so on; all these leading to industrial diversification and further strengthening of the economy. In recent times, of all, what has particularly enhanced the economic importance of fisheries is its potential in earning foreign exchange. The fishing sector occupies an important place in West Bengal’s economy as a source of cheap but nutritious food, means of livelihood for thousands of the poor, and an important source of foreign exchange earnings. West Bengal ranks as the second-largest fish producer state in the country after Andhra Pradesh. The state also has the distinction of being a pioneer state in India in terms of fish seed production. The fisheries in West Bengal are comprised of both marine and inland fisheries. However, the state is well known for inland fisheries being made up of freshwater as well as brackish water fisheries. Despite having uninterrupted growth of inland fisheries over the years, there is a gross imbalance between the supply and demand of fish to a considerable extent within the state. The shortfall of supply relative to demand is made up by the import of fish from other states, especially from Andhra Pradesh. This necessitates developing and extending fisheries' economic activities in different directions and locations to increase production further to mitigate the shortfall. In the state, about 78% of the fish caught is sold as fresh or chilled food for the population and inland landing centers. About 6% of the catch is used for drying and curing, 13% to produce frozen fish, and 4% to reduce the yield into fish meals. In the wake of changing lifestyles, valueadded fishery products of different descriptions as convenience food are also gaining popularity in the markets. So it can be said that the fishery sector has an important role in the development of the state’s economy. The fisheries sector constitutes an important component of the regional rural economy of North Bengal. As the fishery resource can re-generate itself naturally in a time frame that is relevant for human exploitation, its commercial production and harvesting can provide massive scope for regional economic development on a sustainable basis. The development of the fisheries' economic activities in different directions can lead to income and employment generation for the rural population on a significant scale. The North Bengal fishery is mainly comprised of inland fishery resources - the pond fisheries are the more dominating form among all of them. The region is rich in water resources. The total water area available for the fishery sector is at present 41752 hectares. The fishery sector of the region registered 199277 metric tons of fish production in 2017-18, which is 12.8 percent of the total fish production in West Bengal during this period. The Fish production in North Bengal has grown moderately well from 1443 metric tons in 2010-11 to 1742 metric tons in 2017-18. This is perhaps due to the expansion of the area under the pond. The fishery sector of the region has also been undergoing a steady transformation from traditional fishing activity to commercial activity over the years. Despite these facts, the level of production and productivity are far from adequate, leaving a large gap between actual and potential output. The region is yet to tap the vast growth potentials of the production of fish, mainly from pisciculture. Also, the fish marketing system in North Bengal has been discussed here. This study has been conducted here to assess the market efficiencies indicators such as gross marketing margin (GMM) and percentage share of fishermen in the consumer rupee (PSFCR) among other indicators. The highest price spread is supposed to be observed in the longest marketing channel due to the involvement of the highest number of marketing intermediaries. In our sample, Darjeeling has a higher price spread when compared to other districts for most of the species. Thus, the marketing efficiency in terms of GMM is relatively lower in Darjeeling in comparison to other districts of North Bengal. Besides GMM, the percentage share of fishermen in the consumer rupee (PSFCR) has been calculated for the different species at the district level with the objective to make an assessment of the level of marketing efficiency across the districts. Efficiency in production is a way to ensure that the products of firms are produced in the best and most profitable way. To prevent the wastage of resources, efficiency is of great importance for every sector of the economy. The study is to examine the technical efficiency of pond fishery using the stochastic frontier model in the northern region of West Bengal. The estimated stochastic frontier model reveals that investment in labour, organic fertilizers, fish fingerling, and land area can increase the return from fish production. The result shows that technical efficiency ranges from 83 to 100 percent with a mean efficiency of 94 percent implying that average fish farmers in the study area are performing below the maximum possible production level by a shortfall of about 6 percent. The study recommends that the use of labour and organic fertilizers (i.e. cow dung) should be made available, to transform traditional rearing practices into more productive scientific methods. Also, the land area should be extended and more fish fingerling should be used to increase the production of fish in the study area. Aquaculture needs to be integrated with agriculture, piggery, duckery, etc. Nowadays, pisciculture activity is mixed with piggery or duckery activity for better viability of the pisciculture scheme. The product of the piggery or poultry may be utilized for manuring the water of the ponds or tanks. These will provide basic nutrients to the water, which also helps in maintaining the food chain of the fish. No extra expenditure for manure or supplementary feed will be required. In this study, the level of technical efficiency of the pond fishery in North Bengal has been estimated using the CCR and BCC DEA models. In the Uttar Dinajpur district, the minimum and maximum TE scores were estimated as 37.50 percent and 100 percent, respectively. On average, the TE score of the sample fish farmers in this district was estimated at 85 percentItem Open Access Microfinance institutions (MFIs) and Self Helf Groups (SHGs) linkages : A study on the role of some selected Self Helf Groups of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2023) Aich Sarkar, Manik; Bagchi, Kanak KantiItem Open Access Indo-saarc trade: problems and prospects In the context of globalization (1985-2018)(University of North Bengal, 2022) Das, Dilip Kumar; Mukhopadhyay, Deb KumarItem Open Access Enquiry into the causes and consequences of rural urban migration in West Bengal with special reference to Coochbehar District(University of North Bengal, 2022-11) Majumdar, Sujit; Bagchi, Kanak KantiItem Open Access Examiation of complementary and competitive aspects of trade relations between India and Chaina(University of North Bengal, 2022-09) Tamang, Karan; Bhuimali, AnilItem Open Access Enquiry into the living conditions of slum dwellers in Siliguri Municipal Corporation Area with special reference to health and education(University of North Bengal, 2022) Das, Madhumita; Bagchi, Kanak KantiItem Open Access Small borrowers need and the credit market: a study of formal and informal market borrowing in the district of Darjeeling, West Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2021) Chatterjee, Sumon; Roy Mukherjee, SanchariItem Open Access Displacement and livelihood changes in erosion affected char areas in Assam; a socio - economic study of Dhubri District(University of North Bengal, 2021) Shahjahan, Ali Sheikh; Dutta, Kanchan,Item Open Access Role of commercial banks in agricultural development with special reference to jalpaiguri District(University of North Bengal, 2020) Dutta, Sanjay; Bhuimali, Anil