How agricultural technologies and climatic factors affect India's crop production? A roadmap towards sustainable agriculture

This study aims to explore the long-term (LT) and short-term (ST) effects of meteorological factors and technological advancement on major crop production, that is, wheat, and rice, in India from 1990 to 2020. For this purpose, the authors also used other important controlled variables, that is, agriculture employment (AE), agricultural credit (AC), and cultivated land (AUR/AUW). For the estimation of data series, the study employed robust econometric techniques, such as the ARDL, FMOLS, and CCR framework. Empirical results reveal the long-term relationship among meteorological factors, agricultural technologies, and major crop production (wheat and rice). In the case of meteorological factors, rainfall (RF) and carbon emission (CO2) have a positive and negative impact on wheat and rice production, while the mean temperature is negatively related to rice production and positively related to wheat production. Whereas agricultural technologies, such as fertilizer usage and farm machinery, improve wheat and rice crop production. The long-term (LT) estimated findings are confirmed by econometric techniques such as FMOLS and CCR. The government should adopt necessary measures to achieve sustainable production and develop resilient hybrid seeds of rice and wheat that are well-suited to agro-climatic conditions in order to mitigate environmental degradation.

Automated summary

This study aims to explore the long-term and short-term effects of meteorological factors and technological advancement on major crop production in India from 1990 to 2020. The study used important controlled variables and employed robust econometric techniques to estimate the data series. The empirical results reveal a long-term relationship among meteorological factors, agricultural technologies, and major crop production.