Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

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    Commercialization of Horticulture and Its Impact on Farm Households’ Welfare: Evidence from Assam, India
    (Department of Humanities and Social Science, NITS, 2026-02-20) Das, Hemanta
    Agriculture remains a cornerstone of economic development, livelihood security, and poverty reduction for rural communities, especially in developing countries. Despite its crucial role, the economic condition of farmers in agrarian countries, including India, remains deplorable. Against this backdrop, agricultural commercialization, i.e., transitioning from subsistence farming to market-oriented production, has gained increasing attention as a strategy to enhance farmers' welfare and stimulate rural development. While many studies underscore the potential benefits of commercialization, empirical findings remain mixed, with some indicating improved welfare outcomes and others cautioning against adverse effects. In India, the commercialization of agriculture, particularly through crop diversification towards high-value horticultural crops, has been central to agricultural policy since 2016, especially after the Government’s announcement to double farmers' incomes by 2022. However, despite policy-level emphasis, little empirical evidence exists on how commercial farming influences farm household welfare in the Indian context. This study addresses this gap by evaluating the adoption, marketing, and welfare impacts of commercial horticulture farming in Assam, a state actively promoting horticultural commercialization. Specifically, the study examines the extent and determinants of commercial horticulture adoption, efficiency of marketing channels, determinants of marketing channel choice, and the welfare outcomes of commercialization in terms of farm productivity, income, and employment among farm households. The study utilized both secondary and primary data. Secondary data were sourced from official statistics of government to provide a macro-level overview of Assam’s agricultural performance, including trends in landholding, cropping patterns, and agro infrastructure development. To achieve the main objectives of the study, primary data were collected from 540 farm households across six districts, viz. Kamrup, Barpeta, Dima Hasao, Cachar, Golaghat, and Sonitpur, using a multi-stage sampling technique. vii From secondary data, it is found that Assam’s agriculture is undergoing structural changes, marked by a declining share in GSDP and a shift toward non-crop sectors, i.e., livestock and fisheries. A notable shift in cropping patterns is also seen, with farmers diversifying from traditional cereals to high-value crops such as maize, oilseeds, vegetables, and fruits. Horticulture is seen to contribute the most to agricultural gross value added, indicating its role in income growth and rural development. However, low fertilizer use, poor mechanization, limited irrigation, and weak storage and market infrastructure continue to hinder agricultural development in Assam. To assess commercialization, a composite Farm Commercialization Index (FCI) was constructed, and the Independent Double-Hurdle (IDH) model was used to identify the determinants of both adoption and intensity of commercial horticulture farming. Results indicate that although a significant proportion (69.81 percent) of farmers have adopted commercial horticulture, the intensity remains low (average commercialization at 40.01 percent). Key determinants influencing both adoption and intensity of commercialization include education, risk attitude, off-farm income, access to credit, membership in farmer groups, training, extension services, and market access. Younger farmers are more inclined towards adoption, while female participation remains limited. Interestingly, factors such as irrigation and farm size have differential impacts—while irrigation supports higher commercialization intensity, it does not influence adoption. Conversely, larger farm size encourages adoption but reduces intensity due to possible scale management challenges. Marketing efficiency and determinants of farmers’ channel choices were analyzed using the Acharya and Agarwal method and the Multinomial Logit (MNL) model. It is found that farmers used five main marketing channels, with the direct (Farmer–Consumer) channel emerging as the most efficient in terms of producer share and consumer affordability. However, indirect channels dominated due to challenges in direct marketing. Determinants influencing channel choice include socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, family size), farm attributes (farm size, produce volume), and access to infrastructure (smartphones, vehicles, market yards). Farmers with better connectivity and smaller volumes preferred direct sales, while those with larger farm areas, higher off-farm income, and access to credit favored indirect channels. The study emphasizes that marketing efficiency declines due to intermediary layers, increased wastage, and higher transport costs, highlighting the need for infrastructural and institutional support for direct marketing. Subsequently, the impact of commercialization on farm households’ welfare examined using the Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model. This model controlled for selection bias and estimated welfare outcomes under both actual and counterfactual scenarios. The results demonstrate significant positive effects of commercial horticulture adoption on productivity, income, and employment. Specifically, adopters achieved a productivity level of ₹167.714 thousand/ha compared to a counterfactual of ₹59.491 thousand/ha, an increase of ₹108.223 thousand/ha. Similarly, income gains for adopters amounted to ₹42.626 thousand/ha. Non-adopters could potentially increase their productivity and income by ₹121.642 and ₹54.141 thousand/ha, respectively, if they chose to adopt commercial horticulture. Employment effects were also notable, with adopters generating 40.701 more labor days per hectare than if they had not adopted, and non-adopters having a potential gain of 20.359 labor days. These findings confirm the substantial welfare benefits of commercialization for farm households. The study’s policy implications are multi-faceted. First, it underscores the importance of targeting youth and women through training and financial support to increase their participation in commercial farming. Second, strengthening extension services is critical for disseminating knowledge and linking farmers to markets. Third, credit systems need to be tailored to ensure productive use in farm investments. Infrastructure development, such as irrigation systems, cold storage, local markets, and transportation networks, must be prioritized to reduce post-harvest losses and marketing inefficiencies. Additionally, digital tools and mobile platforms can transform farm marketing, offering price transparency, real time market information, and customer engagement. From a farmer’s perspective, the study highlights the importance of forming farmers groups, enhancing collective bargaining, and engaging in continuous learning to improve farming efficiency and market competitiveness. Efficient land and water use, along with diversification and precision farming, can further optimize farm productivity and sustainability. Farmers should leverage mobile technology and digital platforms for marketing and logistical planning, invest in transportable vehicles for improved market access, and engage in value addition to increase product shelf life and revenue.
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    Ethnic Identity, Insurgency and Economic Development
    (Department of Humanities and Social Science, NITS, 2026-02-18) Basumatary, Daoharu
    In today’s world there is hardly any country that is ethnically homogenous. Polyethnic societies are often characterised by the competition for resources (including state privileges) across identities—be it ethnic, racial, religious or linguistic— which is often explained through a majority minority frame As economic condition of a social group is largely influenced by the development policy of the state, in most cases, particularly in electoral democracies, these policies are often biased towards the interest of the majority community leaving the minorities in the lurch. This phenomenon has been observed worldwide irrespective of the forms of government where the minority groups mostly find themselves excluded from the participation in mainstream political and economic opportunities which are embedded in the political processes. As a result, the minority groups in most of the countries are economically marginalised. In fact, this divide might further gets accentuated due to the discriminatory practice in the labour market in the lines of race and ethnicity and the practice of segregating the ethnic minorities in lower paid jobs and occupation. Thus, the uneven economic status among the of the minority ethnic groups in a polyethnic society is often an outcome of identity-based socio-politico-economic marginalization and discrimination. Therefore, governments across the globe are tasked with the responsibility of managing ethnic diversity. Broadly speaking the policy of integration or assimilationist is usually followed in managing the ethnic base of a country. Integrationist policy which allows co-existence of multiple cultural groups and accommodative of the claims and aspirations of the ethnic groups have resulted in peaceful existence between the ethnic groups. Contrary to integration is the policy of assimilation built on the notion of cultural homogenization in favour of the majority groups. This type of policy engineered by the majoritarian ruling elites is often faced with stiff resistance from the minorities leading to ethnic assertion, demand for separatism and sometimes call for secession. Inter-ethnic conflict arising out of ethnic assertion especially in developing and underdeveloped countries as they often lack the institutional capacity to manage the elements of conflicts inherent in ethnic diversity have often transcended into insurgent movements by the minority groups. Needless to say, that insurgency spews violence. This results in extreme difficulty for the government(s) in supplying public goods like education, health, housing, transport, electricity, drinking water, and sanitation particularly in rural areas. Moreover, the inducement to invest by the private investors also gets greatly reduced in an insurgent affected area. As a result, the avenues for employment and income generation get reduced, resulting in widespread unemployment that deteriorates the overall well-being and economic condition of the people living in an insurgency-affected area. In such a milieu, unemployed youths often become an easy prey to the ideological call of the insurgents and many joiners see it as the only alternative for meaningful engagement. Thus, a vicious cycle of insurgency and underdevelopment comes into play where one reinforces the other. Therefore, accommodating the claims and aspirations of the ethnic minorities relating to their identity, culture, politics and economy appears to be a way forward for conflict resolution that would allow development initiatives to take hold. In fact, the Bodo ethnic assertion that transcended into Bodo insurgency (1986 2021), can be attributed to their grievances relating to their identity, politics, economy, culture, and language. The Bodo insurgency was solved by federally accommodating the Bodos within the state of Assam. It was with the signing of the 3rd Bodo Accord in 2020, between the representatives of the Bodos on one hand and the Government of Assam and India on the other, under the provision of the 6th schedule of constitution of India, that resulted in the creation of the BTR (Bodoland Territorial Region) constituted by the five contiguous districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, Tamulpur and Udalguri that Bodo insurgency came to an end. The proposed study seeks to empirically investigate whether (a) there exist any difference in the economic status between the Bodos and the Non-Bodos, (b) the ethnic assertion of the Bodos was responsible for the Bodo insurgency, and (c) how this Bodo insurgency affected the economic development of the BTR. To do so three hypotheses were framed, which are 1. Major ethnic groups in the BTR like the Assamese, Bengali and Santhals, have higher levels of economic development in comparison to the Bodos. 2. Identity Crisis in a multi-ethnic society leads to ethnic insurgency. 3. Insurgency negatively affects economic development. For all the objectives the data collected from 408 respondents (determined by using Taro Yamane’s formula) in the BTR were estimated using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Since for the first objective we found that in a polyethnic society the ethnic assertion of the underprivileged minority group(s) can be triggered by the existence of uneven economic development between of these groups. Hence economic development of a nation has to be inclusive that factor into the interests of the underprivileged groups as a way of conflict resolution Secondly, we determined that identity crisis of the Bodos acted as a major driver behind insurgency. This finding has a significant policy implication in polity management and governance particularly in a polyethnic social setting. Our finding calls for federalist accommodation of the ethnic groups as a way forward towards conflict resolution and peace building in a polyethnic social setting a la BTR. Lastly the effect of Bodo ethnic insurgency on the economic development was estimated. We found that insurgency negatively affected economic development. This calls for the development policy of a state to be accommodative of the grievances relating to the identity, culture, politics and economy of the ethnic minorities as a way forward for conflict resolution.