Research Area
Title: Exploring Sustainable Development in Agriculture using Operations Management
Post- Independence food security was a major concern for the policy makers of our nation as the country faced a spate of famines and droughts in quick succession. To make India self sufficient in food production, Green Revolution was launched to modernize the crop production (with an emphasis on rice and wheat), followed by market mediation policies to safeguard the farmer's rights. While the intended objective was achieved, India is now self sufficient in rice-wheat production it had a few unintended consequences which form the motivation for my research. While we intend to model the problems in the context of Indian agriculture we expect that the models may be extended to other economies and sectors as well.
Changes in Crop Production per year with respect to population growth
Problem 1: Strategies to reduce crop- residue burning (Ongoing)
The policies mentioned earlier encouraged the farmers to produce rice and wheat in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. However, the period available between rice harvest and wheat sowing is less than a month. On account of such a tight schedule the farmers instead of managing the residue using sustainable crop residue management practices tend to burn. Stubble burning, more generally referred to as agri-residue burning is known to adversely impact health and environment.
We seek to study policy frameworks that would allow the policymakers to induce the farmers to dispose of the excess stubble using sustainable practices. The model will be formulated and analysed in a game theoretic framework
Blanket of Smog with instances of ARB
Problem 2: Cooperation among farmers for sustainable agriculture (Ongoing)
A large section of farmers in developing economies are characterised by small landholdings and low income levels. Such farmers face difficulty in finding access to market, sales channels and financial support. This income inequality also plays a defining role in the farmer’s decision to adopt a sustainable process. Cooperation among the farmers through informal agreements or establishment of formal cooperatives are common and provide the farmers with market power and material support. Cooperatives have been studied to examine payment mechanisms, uniformity in product quality and profitability. In the second study we intend to model cooperation within a farming community aimed towards adopting sustainable methods in agriculture. We also seek to understand how cooperation would influence these decisions in the presence of heterogeneity in income level among farmers.
Problem 3: Crop- Production planning with sustainable objectives
The rice-wheat focused agricultural system also marginalized the production of other categories of crops such as pulses, coarse cereals and oilseeds. India is now dependent on Foreign imports for meeting its domestic demands. This exposes the Indian markets to price volatility. Affordability of food grains have also been known to affect the consumption patterns. Research indicates that Indians in general consume less proteins compared to other communities which leads to malnutrition and protein deficiencies. Rice-Wheat based cropping systems are also not sustainable from an environmental perspective.
We seek to develop a crop production model that would provide a desirable distribution of crops through Integer programming.