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The study attempts to verify the role of agricultural diversification as a mechanism of coping with income risk. For this purpose, the study estimates the level of agricultural diversification across the eastern Indian states sourcing secondary data on value of output for the period spanning from 1999-00 to 2013-14. Further, income risk at state level also measured through a comprehensive and comparable risk index. It was observed that in eastern Indian states, Chhattisgarh had highest level of risk and Bihar had lowest risk level. Further, factors which can positively influence level of agricultural diversification were segregated and it was observed that, fertilizer usage, percentage of irrigated area, cropping intensity, market access and farm sizes had direct impact on level of diversification for overall agriculture and in cereals, pulses and oilseeds sub-sectors, though in varying degrees. The study also established that level of agricultural diversification reduces risk level while land fragmentation increases risk level.

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Climate change and consequent variations in temperature pose a significant challenge for sustaining wheat production systems globally. In this study, the potential impact of rising temperature on wheat yield in the north Indian plains, India's major wheat growing region, was analyzed using panel data from the year 1981 to 2009. This study deviates from the majority of the previous studies by including non-climatic factors in estimating the impact of climate change. Two temperature measures were used for fitting the function, viz., Growing Season Temperature (GST) and Terminal Stage Temperature (TST), to find out the differential impact of increased temperature at various growth stages. Analysis revealed that there was a significant rise in both GST as well as TST during the study period. The magnitude of the annual increment in TST was twice that of GST. Wheat yield growth in the region was driven primarily by increased input resources such as fertilizer application and technological development like improved varieties and management practices. Most importantly, the study found that the extent of yield reduction was more significant for an increase in temperature at terminal crop growth stages. The yield reduction due to unit increase in TST was estimated to be 2.26 % while rise in GST by 1◦C resulted in yield reduction of 2.03%.

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