1. Semester: III
2. Number of  Credits: 4

Preamble
This course would helpful to understand the various types of relationships in agriculture: factors and products, problems of instability in production, the functioning of and imperfections in credit markets, labour markets, and land markets.

Module: Economics of Agricultural Production, Resource Use and Instability in Agriculture (12 Lectures)
Resource and input use – Important production relationships – Economics of input and product substitution – Imperfections in product and input markets in developing agriculture – Sources of price variability and income instability – Rationale for and types of government intervention for price support and reduction in instability – Alternative concepts of cost of cultivation and determination of minimum support prices in India – Role and optimum size of buffer stocks.

Module 2: Rural Credit Markets (12 Lectures)
Characteristics of rural credit markets, Credit fragmentation – Organized and unorganized sectors – Theories of informal credit markets: Lender’s Risk Hypothesis, Default and collateral, Credit rationing: Default, Informational asymmetries – Moral hazards – Evolution of credit systems in India – Role and Performance of   Commercial Banks, Co-operative Credit Institutions, Regional Rural Banks, NABARD and Micro-credit through SHG’s in India, Imperfections in rural credit markets in India.

Module 3: Labour Markets (12 Lectures)
Concepts of work, skill and productivity – Methods of measurement of employment and unemployment – Free and unfree labour – Types of employer -employee relationships – Determinants of wage rates – Labour market segmentation – Gender-based discrimination –  Biases in data sources – Wage Differentials – Contract Labourers in rural markets

Module 4: Land and Lease Markets (12 Lectures)
Types of farming – Historical evolution – Segmented property rights – Characteristics and functioning – Economic, extra-economic and legal restrictions – Lease market – Formal and informal leases – Economics of share tenancy – Crop-sharing practices in India – Inequity in distribution of holdings – Market interlocking and interlinkages – Analysis of rural classes –.Contract Farming.