Measuring the Climate Variability Impact on Cash Crops Farming in India: An Empirical Investigation

This study investigates the climate variability impact on potato, cotton, groundnut and sesame crops in Indian states. Thereupon, it estimates the technical efficiency (TE) of climatic and non-climatic factors in crops farming in Indian states during 1971-2014. Production, yield and area sown of aforementioned crops are considered as dependent variables and regressed with socio-economic and climatic variables using state-wise panel data employing C-D PFM. Sates-wise TE of cash crops is estimated using SFPFM under non-parametric condition. Estimates indicate that climate variability show negative impact on production, yield and area sown of aforesaid cash crops. Thus, it is essential to adopt effective policy to mitigate the negative consequences of climate variability in cash crop farming in India. Cropped area, production and yield of cash crops are negatively impacted due to climatic variability in India. So there needs to adopt crop specific policies to mitigate the negative impact of climate variability in cash crop farming. Finally, it estimates the technical efficiency (TE) of cash crop using SFPFM across Indian states. Estimated values of TE for production, yield and area sown of associated crops imply that there is significant variation in TE due to climate variability and huge diversity in socio-economic characteristic across Indian states. Thus, most of states have potential opportunity to increase production and yield of cash crops through enlightening technical efficiency of inputs in cultivation.