Agri-input, especially the chemical inputs, played a vital role in ensuring the availability of foodgrains to the growing Indian population. Several government policies and company promotional activities contributed to the increased chemical agri-input consumption. However, these promotional activities shifted the evaluation of agri-inputs primarily to the functional short-term benefit leading to excessive and indiscriminate use of agri-inputs. The excessive and indiscriminate chemical agri-input use contributed to several negative environmental consequences. Notwithstanding the fact that chemical agri-inputs are associated with negative consequences, India is not in a position to do away with chemical agri-inputs and rely on organic farming. There is therefore a need to design strategies to promote sustainable chemical agri-input use. It is in this context that this book develops a framework for sustainable agri-input use, taking into account the farmers goals, organizational goals, national goals and the global goals. The first section of the book looking at the “big picture” of agri-input use in India studies the consequences of agri-inputs on the national and global goals. The second section studies the current practices of the use of chemical agri-inputs and sustainable agri-inputs. Based on this, the book suggests strategies and communication plan to encourage sustainable agri-input use.

Preface / Acknowledgement / Indian Agriculture: The Big Picture / Agri-input use and Food Security / Agri-input usage and Nutritional Security / Agri-input use and Small and Marginal Farmers Welfare / Agri-input usage and Geographic Equity / Impact of Different Inputs on Natural Resources / Agri-input usage and Climate Change / Agri-input usage and Farmers Income / Input Companies and Agri-input Consumption / Farmer Buying behaviour / Sustainable Agri-input usage in India / Changing consumer basket / Institutional Support / Sustainable Agri-input Models / Technical Marketing for Agri-inputs / Building Quality Perceptions for Agri-inputs / List of Figures / List of Tables / References.

Undergraduate Students, Professionals and Researchers