Indian agriculture at large has been on trajectory of grand uncertainty. The brunt of climate change, sharp undulation in productivity, unpredictability in market price, the consistent up rise in cost of cultivation and downfall of net return are amounting to what we may call the grand uncertainty. Uncertainty is an inevitable character of any system where most of the contributory factors are either unpredictable or unfathomable. The higher is the complexity, the lesser would be the resilience, and higher would be the uncertainty. Agricultural production system, as it is managed in Indian condition, is the most vulnerable to a plethora of uncertainties. Mostly managed in an open air rain fed conditions, complex-diverse-risk prone, it has been exposed to weather and resource uncertainties, market volatility, poor access to technology and a fragile input delivery mechanism. Indian Agriculture is now at a crossroad and gets confronted by uncertainty and unpredictability.
The growth rate of food production runs just marginally above population growth. The book has uniquely dealt with a basket of perceived uncertainties that makes farmers and economy reel under stress and risk. The world’s largest agrarian economy is being managed mostly by private land owners, who are mostly under the clutch of middlemen and vagaries of weather.
The book, based on an empirical study, has indentified the marker variables of farmers in responding to and complying with the unpredictability and freaks of social dynamics.
Prof. (Dr.) Sankar Kr Acharya, former Head, Dept. of Agril Extension and Director, Extension Education, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, WB, born on 6th October, 1960, started his career as Assistant Professor at BCKV in 1988 and has been in teaching, research and extension over 30 years. An erudite teacher as well as an elegant speaker, Prof. Acharya has also been the topper and awarded the certificate of merit in his M. Sc. (Ag) academic career in Agril. Extension. He is internationally acclaimed for his unique research domain of Social Entropy and Energy Metabolism, Social Ecology and Environmental Sociology, Enterprise Ecology Framework, Farm Stewardships: The Transition from Conservation, Technology Socialization Process, and The Social Ecology of Livelihood, which have got tremendous policy as well as scholastic importance. Research Publication: 237 in National and International Journals. Book Publication: 107 books authored / co-authored, covering areas Participatory Extension Planning and Management; Value, Extension Strategy for Natural Resource Management; Horticulture Management with Quality Issues, Technology Socialization Process; Fish bio-diversity; Income and Livelihood; Enterprise Management and Entrepreneurship Building;; Social Metabolism, Farm Energy Metabolism, Community Perception on Climate Change , Social Entropy and Chaos, ,Decision ecology Commission; Marketing and Extension Sub Committee, Govt. of West Bengal; Expert member WWF projects in BTR (Buxa Tiger Reserve Project); Expert member; DFID project on Primary Education (DPEP); REIA, Visited Italy, France, Germany, China , Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Delivered 17 Key note addresses, 13 guest, invited and lead speakers in International Congress, Chaired 19 Sessions in International conferences, Editors of a score of national and international journals. He has so far been awarded with 13 best paper awards in National and International Conferences Organizing Secretary of two International Conferences, held in the years, 2016 & 2018, Jointly Organized by Department of Agricultural Extension, BCKV, WB and Krishisanskriti, New Delhi. His Present RG score: 28.64. He has also been honoured to be selected as the Convener of Panel (PE-32) entitled The hunger , poverty and silence, of IUAES, University of Manchester, UK, 2013 .Co-PI of ICAR, NAHEP and World Bank funded project on Conservation Agriculture. So, far he has successfully guided 19 Ph D scholars and 77 M Sc students from BCKV CU, KU, Vidyasagar University. He is the fellow, ISEE, IARI, New Delhi
A. B. Sharangi is a Professor of BCKV (Agricultural University) attached with teaching, research and extension for about 25 years. He completed his Doctoral degree from BCKV and Post-Doctorate from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is specially trained from IISR, IIHR & ARO (Tel Aviv, Israel); experienced in herbs, spices & MAPs. He spent some productive times in several laboratories of Australia, USA and UK for continuing research on those crops as well as teaching Post Graduate students in the universities abroad. Prof Sharangi has several international awards including FULBRIGHT(USA), INSA-RSE Visiting Scientist (UK), ENDEAVOUR Award (Australia), MarquisWho’sWho (USA),Young Achievers Award (SADHNA), Higher Education Leadership Award, Outstanding Scientist Award, Bharat Ratna Mother Teresa Gold Medal Award, etc. He is life member of several academic bodies and Fellow of eightprestigious academies/societies. He has published about 104 peer-reviewed papers, about 30 books from SpringerNature, Taylor & Francis, Nova Publisher, CRC Press, NIPA, Agrotech, etc and numerous book chapters within his area of expertise. He is also associated with 55 journals worldwide as editor-in-chief, regional & technical editor, editorial board member and active reviewer. He has guided seven PhD and more than 20 MSc scholars, so far. He also has administrative experience for four years as HOD, chaired several sessions of national and international conferences, executed six research projects so far as Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI, developed as well as restructured PG courses as BSMA committee member (DG, ICAR, Govt of India) at national level. Prof Sharangi is Fellow of eight scientific academies and societies and member of many national and international organizations as well. He is Honorary Professor, (Texas) USA.
Swagata Patra, born on 23rd october1996, completed her M Sc in Agricultural Extension, BCKV, Mohanpur. She has been a brilliant scholar although and an awardees of best paper presentation in an International conference, July, 2022. She passed out her M Sc in first class with a cumulative grade point 9.10. To her credit there have been a couple of paper publications.
1. Introduction, 2. Literature and Citations, 3. Concept and Theory, 4. Social Ecology, 5. Methods of Inquiry, 6. The Case Study, ,7. Summary and Conclusion, 8. Limitations and Future Scope, 9. Bibliography