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Impact of economic growth and population on agrochemical use: evidence from post-liberalization India

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of population and per capita income on agrochemical use in India. Traditionally, few researchers have used I = PAT equation in its original form to study the impact of population and per capita income on agrochemical use. In this paper, a variant of I = PAT is used which relates per capita income and per hectare population with per hectare agrochemical use. The sample covers the period 1990–2008 for 25 Indian states. Our results suggest that per capita income has a nonlinear relationship with per hectare agrochemical use. Observed negative relationship between pesticide use per hectare and persons per hectare is indicative of public awareness regarding harms related with intensive use of pesticides; however, a positive relationship between fartilizer consumption per hectare and population pressure, found here, reiterates importance of fertilizers for food security. An examination into dematerialization of agriculture is also carried out at all India level which indicates that declining intensity of fertilizer and pesticide use in post-1990 period is mainly attributed to structural change in the economy. In summary, the paper concludes that India needs environment friendly agriculture policies and rural infrastructure to manage agriculture-related environmental problems.

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Notes

  1. For simplicity, we assume a homogenous agricultural output, say ‘Food’.

  2. Environmentally less harmful substitutes of agrochemicals are available in form of bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers. Availability of close substitutes suggests that with increasing prosperity use of bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers may increase. Additionally, we don’t find any reason why use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers will increase after showing a declining trend as declining use of agrochemicals will partially be an outcome of increasing use of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides.

  3. Laws and regulations to prohibit use of certain pesticides not only act to ban pesticide use but also create wide awareness against pesticides use.

  4. Wooldridge procedure regresses the residuals from the regression with first differenced variable on their lags and tests that the coefficient on the lagged residual is equal to −0.5. Central to this procedure is the observation, that if residuals are not serially correlated then correlation between residual and its lagged value is −0.5.

  5. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an eco-friendly approach which uses cultural, mechanical and biological tools and techniques for keeping pest population below economic threshold levels. This approach attaches a high premium on the efficacy of bio-control agents and bio-pesticides. However, need based and judicious use of chemical pesticides is permitted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India

    Amarendra Pratap Singh & K. Narayanan

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  1. Amarendra Pratap Singh
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  2. K. Narayanan
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Correspondence to Amarendra Pratap Singh.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5, 6 and 7.

Table 5 Summary of variables
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Table 6 Correlation matrix
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Table 7 Panel cointegration test results
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Singh, A.P., Narayanan, K. Impact of economic growth and population on agrochemical use: evidence from post-liberalization India. Environ Dev Sustain 17, 1509–1525 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-015-9618-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-015-9618-1

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