Faculty Publications
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/18736
Publications by NITK Faculty
Browse
10 results
Search Results
Item Switch in Livelihood Strategies and Social Capital Have a Role to Play in Deciding Rural Poverty Dynamics: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis from Eastern India(SAGE Publications Ltd info@sagepub.co.uk, 2020) Khosla, S.; Jena, P.R.Rural households continuously move into and out of poverty due to various factors; and in response to this phenomenon, these rural households adopt several strategies. The purpose of the present paper was to examine the role of livelihood diversification and social capital in the movement of these households into and out of poverty in Eastern rural India. The present study classified households into four poverty groups (called poverty dynamics) based on the panel data gathered from 1353 rural households between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. The study used the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) and the multinomial logit model (MLM) to examine the poverty outcome between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. As per the data collected, at the state level, 25.26% of households were chronic poor and 37.04% of households ascended out of poverty, while 8.20% of households descended into poverty between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. Further, it was found out from the SLA that there is a positive relationship between the phenomena of non-farm activities and escaping poverty. The result from the MLM shows that social capital in the form of group membership in different saving schemes and social groups helps to ascend out of poverty. © The Author(s) 2019.Item Subsidized LPG Scheme and the Shift to Cleaner Household Energy Use: Evidence from a Tribal Community of Eastern India(MDPI, 2022) Kalli, R.; Jena, P.R.; Managi, S.Traditional fuels have both environmental and health impacts. The transition from traditional to clean cooking fuel requires significant public policy actions. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) is one of the primary policies launched in India to eradicate energy poverty among households. Past studies have focused on the drivers that motivate rural households to adopt clean energy and identified the bottlenecks for adoption of clean energy in developing countries. PMUY’s success in terms of scale and pace is critical in the national drive to provide access to clean energy fuel to each citizen. The present study focuses on two objectives. First, we investigate the intensity of adoption and refill of LPG under the PMUY scheme. Second, we use household and other demographic characteristics to examine the factors that influence households’ decision on using LPG as a cooking fuel. Empirical results show that rapid growth has been witnessed in the provision of subsidized LPG connections. However, the annual average refill status stands at two LPG cylinders per beneficiary household indicating that the majority of the beneficiaries have failed to refill their LPG cylinders. This imbalance between rapid enrollment of LPG and limited refill among beneficiary households indicate the continued usage of traditional sources of energy for cooking. From the primary survey conducted in the rural tribal communities of Odisha, we observe that household income and education played a significant role in adoption of LPG and continued usage of LPG gas. Additionally, the logit and ordered probit models identify that membership in self-help groups, accessibility and awareness of LPG are the major adoption drivers. In conclusion, policy makers need to address the challenge of refill status among PMUY consumers. Further, educating households on health benefits through SHG and creating accessibility at village level can actively increase the usage of LPG. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Item Role of institutional factors in climate‐smart technology adoption in agriculture: Evidence from an Eastern Indian state(Elsevier B.V., 2022) Tanti, P.C.; Jena, P.R.; Aryal, J.P.; Rahut, D.B.Climate change threatens rural livelihoods by adversely affecting agricultural production through reduced crop yields, harvest loss, and increased cost of production. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices have emerged as a possible solution to ensure food security by adapting to climate risks on the one hand, and mitigating GHG emissions from agriculture, on the other hand. However, resource-poor farmers often face both financial and knowledge constraints to adopt CSA practices, and thus, institutional support plays a crucial role in overcoming those barriers. Therefore, this study uses primary data collected from 248 farm households in the Eastern Indian state of Odisha to examine the role of institutional factors in CSA adoption. Almost 95% of the sample farmers experienced the effects of climate change, and many have adopted CSA practices such as rescheduling planting (78%), crop rotation (56%), crop diversification (35%), micro-irrigation (17%), and drought-resistant seeds (16%). Probit models are estimated to explore the key determinants of the adoption of these five major practices. Results show that factors such as government extension service, farmer field school participation, subsidies, access to energy, and perception of climate shocks are the major determinants. Further, the coefficient of interaction between landholding and credit availability on the decision to adopt CSA is positive. Thus, agricultural policies to improve institutional support, such as subsidies on farm machinery, extension support, credit facility, and field demonstration of technologies, are crucial to upscale CSA adoption in the region. © 2022Item Can rural livelihood programs enhance capabilities and reduce vulnerability to poverty? Evidence from a tribal region of eastern India(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Khosla, S.; Jena, P.R.; Rahut, D.B.Quantitative evidence on the impact of social protection such as livelihood programs (LPs) on reducing vulnerability to poverty (VtP) is scant. Therefore, this paper aims to estimate VtP and the ability of LPs to reduce it. The analysis is based on the primary data collected in 2018–19 from 479 households in a tribal region of eastern India. First, household VtP was estimated using the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) method. Households were categorized into four groups based on their current and predicted future poverty status: chronic poor, transient poor, escaped poverty, and non-poor. Second, factors influencing this movement of households from current to future poverty states were determined using multinomial logistic regression. Third, the impact of the LP on VtP was investigated using the endogenous switching regression (ESR) approach. The FGLS estimates show that 34.7% of households are vulnerable to future poverty, which exceeds the actual poverty rate of 28.6%. The major factors responsible for exacerbating chronic poverty and causing transient poverty are chronic illness, climate shocks, and the sale of assets. The ESR results indicate that a household's VtP is reduced by 3% for those that participate in LPs. Although the LP evaluated in this study has an average positive impact in reducing vulnerability, there is wide heterogeneity among the beneficiaries as the geographically disadvantaged communities lag behind the others. Therefore, the study suggests strengthening such LPs with a particular focus on disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. © 2022 Economic Society of Australia, QueenslandItem Perception on climate change, access to extension service and energy sources determining adoption of climate-smart practices: A multivariate approach(Academic Press, 2023) Tanti, P.C.; Jena, P.R.Climate change has an adverse impact on rural livelihoods by increasing vulnerability and reducing crop yields. Climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices have been advanced as a possible solution to adopt and mitigate climate change issues. Administering a structured questionnaire survey among the 494 rural farming households of an eastern Indian state, namely Odisha, the study explores the key determinants of CSA adoption. Three districts, one from the state's coastal and two from the inland regions, are chosen for the study. The majority of the respondents (85%) perceive an increase in temperature and (76%) perceive a decrease in rainfall due to climate change in the region. The respondents have adopted a range of CSA practices such as rescheduling planting (74.5%), crop rotation (59.3%), crop diversification (31.2%), soil conservation (62.1%), drought-resistant seeds (36%) and agroforestry (10.3%) to adapt to these weather anomalies. The current paper employs a multivariate probit model in which the findings of econometric modelling have been triangulated to explore the key determinants of the adoption of CSA practices. The result shows that the key determinants are – perception of climate change, agricultural extension services, and access to energy for irrigation. © 2023 Elsevier LtdItem Using Multidimensional Poverty Measure to Target Right Beneficiaries to Achieve Sustainable Development Goal-1 in India(Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd, 2023) Khosla, S.; Jena, P.R.Shocks are responsible for significant setbacks in development progress because it persistently inflicts a negative impact on livelihood. As a result, those who are poor continue to be poor, and those who are not poor become vulnerable to falling into poverty. The analysis of the link between risks and vulnerability to poverty in developing countries is a major focus of development policy to ensure the resilience of vulnerable households. However, there is a lack of research in India that examines the potential impact of shocks on poverty and future deprivation. The objective of this study is to estimate vulnerability to multidimensional poverty (VMDP) and analyse the factors that lead to loss of well-being after experiencing adverse events in rural Odisha. Using survey data from 479 households, the study first estimated multidimensional poverty (MDP), adopting a counting approach. Secondly, the estimation of VMDP is performed using the three-step feasible generalised least squares approach. The results show that 55% of the surveyed households are vulnerable to MDP in rural Odisha. It is also observed that 35% of currently poor households are likely to remain poor and 20% of non-poor households are at risk of sliding into poverty. The study suggests that poverty alleviation policies should cover not just those in poverty today but also those at risk of becoming poor in the near future. © 2023 Institute for Human Development.Item Determinants of adoption of climate resilient practices and their impact on yield and household income(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Jena, P.R.; Tanti, P.C.; Maharjan, K.L.Climate change poses a risk to the livelihoods of rural communities by negatively impacting agricultural output and raising production costs. Climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices have been advanced as a possible solution to adapt to and mitigate climate change issues. This paper examined the main drivers of adoption of two CSA practices such as crop rotation and integrated soil management and their impact on paddy yield and net agricultural income. Household survey data was obtained from the coastal and inland districts of an eastern Indian state, namely, Odisha. Multivariate Probit model was used to identify the determinants of CSA adoption and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method was used to assess the impacts of these adopted CSA practices. The findings from the PSM method show that both paddy crop yield and net agricultural income have been higher for the adopters of crop rotation and integrated soil management. While, adoption of crop rotation resulted in an increase of 42–45% in farm income, the same for integrated soil management was between 27 and 34%. Further, adoption of these practices led to a yield improvement of about 2.5 quintals per acre of paddy crop for the adopters. The major drivers that jointly influenced farmers to adopt these practices were found to be access to extension service, access to credit, subsidies for seed and electricity use in agriculture. In light of these findings, main policy suggestions are – (i) extension staff need to be trained on regular basis on the technical aspects of CSA practices and (ii) more finances for CSA need to be raised and allocated for strengthening extension support, providing timely subsidies to the right beneficiaries and building CSA enabling infrastructure such as watershed projects and micro-irrigation facilities. © 2023 The AuthorsItem Can farmers with higher capabilities fend off falling into future Poverty? Empirical evidence from a tribal region in eastern India(Elsevier Ltd, 2024) Jena, P.R.; Khosla, S.; Rahut, D.B.The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 (no poverty), targets those individuals who are below the poverty line and those who are vulnerable to falling below the poverty line (VtP). Farmers are more VtP due to limited resilience capacity against the covariate and idiosyncratic shocks. However, literature on farmers’ VtP and their capabilities to mitigate the adverse effects of shocks is relatively scant. Thus, this study aims to examine if higher capabilities lead to less VtP. Using a survey dataset from 222 farm households in rural eastern India, this study first estimated VtP by employing the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) approach. Secondly, it used a counting approach and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method to examine the relationship between the capabilities of households and their VtP. The FGLS results show that about 50% of households are VtP, which exceeds the actual poverty rate of about 36%. The counting approach results show that households with higher capabilities are less VtP. The PSM results indicate that a household's VtP is reduced by 27–37% for those with higher capabilities. Thus, the policy targeting the household below poverty line and also VtP would significantly reduce poverty and contribute to achieving SDG1. This would involve identifying and targeting households most in need of assistance such as households with low income, lack of education, and limited access to resources. This study also suggests increasing the resilience capabilities of households by providing job skill training, diversifying income portfolios, insurance coverage, and social safety nets. © 2023 Elsevier LtdItem Enhancing crop yields and farm income through climate-smart agricultural practices in Eastern India(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2024) Tanti, P.C.; Jena, P.R.; Timilsina, R.R.; Rahut, D.B.Climate-induced increase in temperature and rainfall variability severely threaten the agricultural sector and food security in the Indian state of Odisha. Climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices, such as crop rotation and integrated soil management, help farmers adapt to climate risk and contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, this paper examines the impact of CSA practices on yield and income in vulnerable semi-arid districts of Odisha—Balangir, Kendrapara, and Mayurbhanj. We use primary survey data from 494 households collected in 2019–2020, using a multi-stage stratified sampling approach and structured questionnaire. Propensity score matching (PSM) and the two-stage least square method (2SLS) have been used to analyze the impact of CSA on income and productivity. Two instrument variables, namely distance to the extension office and percentage of adopters in a village, are used to control self-selection bias and endogeneity in our model. Both models show a positive and significant impact of the adoption of CSA on farmers’ productivity and income. The study sheds light on the significant contribution of CSA practices in fostering sustainable income growth amid environmental challenges. Overall, our results suggest that small and marginal farmers of Eastern India, a highly environmentally vulnerable area, can significantly improve their income and productivity by adopting CSA technology. Hence, policymakers should scale the adoption of CSA technology through effective extension programs. © The Author(s) 2024.Item Economic and environmental benefits of cool pavements: a case study of Bhubaneswar city(Springer, 2025) Anupam, B.R.; Chandra Sahoo, U.C.; Vinoj, V.; Rath, P.The change of land use from natural lands to built-up areas is one of the key reasons for the urban heat island (UHI) effect, because of absorbance and storing of heat energy. Roads and streets cover a significant fraction of the urban fabric and are continuously exposed to solar radiation. This study examines the impact of pavement surface temperature on urban air temperature. Measurements were made across the Bhubaneswar city to capture the temperature and relative humidity along the major arterial roads. The study quantified the UHI effect and evaluated the benefits of cool pavements in reducing air temperature and improving energy efficiency. The study reveals a strong relation between pavement surface temperature and near-surface air temperature. It was found that up to 1.5 m above the pavement surface, the impact of pavement surface temperature on the air temperature is substantial. On a particularly hot summer day, the air temperature just above the pavement surface and at 1.5 m above the surface was observed to be higher than the surrounding ambient air temperature by up to 7.4 °C and 2 °C, respectively. Based on the measurements taken during this limited period, the peak UHI intensity in Bhubaneswar city was found to be ~ 1.9 °C, which is high, if the current developments of the city are taken into consideration. This study also indicates that significant economic and environmental benefits can be achieved with the adoption of cool pavement technologies. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025.