Trade-Off Between Pollution and Growth: Myth or Reality?

 Introduction:

Economic growth and pollution have been on the news for years, and there has been a lot of debate about their relationship. Many argue that urbanization, transportation, and industrialization occur as economies grow and pollution increases. If green technologies are adopted and good policies are implemented, pollution can be reduced even with high economic growth. Is the idea of a trade-off between pollution and growth a myth or a reality? Some theories, such as the Environmental Kuznets Curve(EKC), talk about how pollution increases and decreases after a certain income level is reached in the early stages of development. The real-world evidence is mixed in developing countries.

Source: Environmental Kuznets Curve

The Traditional View: Growth Leads to Pollution
 Historically, increasing pollution has always been linked to industrialization. As economies grow, growth will be more reliant or dependent on fossil fuel deforestation, which in turn contributes to air and water pollution.  The main reason why the growth is often linked to pollution is Increased energy demand: More factories, vehicles, electricity, and fossil fuels will lead to pollution. Increased deforestation: People cut down trees for their shelter, for use of timber, etc. Industrial waste and emissions: The manufacturing sector releases pollutants into the air, water, etc. Many developing countries believe that economic growth is the first priority and environmental problems are second. Let us understand the growth and pollution through the figures and data:

 Methodology:

The data used in this analysis comes from the World Bank database, covering 216 countries. Six key variables were examined: CO2 emissions, GDP growth, carbon intensity in GDP, access to electricity, fuel imports, and fuel exports. A regression analysis was conducted to understand the relationships among these variables.

Data analysis and interpretation:

Regression Result

Added Variable plot

This study shows the impact of GDP growth, carbon intensity in GDP, fuel export, and fuel import on CO2 emissions using a multiple regression model. Through the table and the added-variable plots, the results can be interpreted to indicate that fuel export has a significant positive impact (beta=0.084283, p<0.001) on CO2 emissions, meaning that as fuel exports increase, CO2 emissions will also increase. This suggests that regions exporting more fuel contribute more to emissions. GDP growth does not significantly (beta=0.007336, p>0.005) impact CO2 emissions, indicating that as production increases, there is no direct effect on CO2 emissions. However, carbon intensity in GDP does affect CO2 emissions, showing a weakly significant positive impact (beta=2.992574, p<0.005). Fuel imports have a moderately significant negative impact (beta=-0.132201, p<0.001) on CO2 emissions, indicating that countries that import fuel produce less CO2 emissions.        

Conclusion

This study found that CO2 emissions are affected by the carbon intensity in GDP, fuel exports, and fuel imports, with no direct impact of GDP growth on CO2 emissions. Policymakers should focus on promoting cleaner energy and sustainable practices to reduce carbon emissions.

By
Shivangi
Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Economics, SBSS, MRIIRS, Faridabad

To cite this article:  Shivangi. ( 2025, February)."Trade-Off Between Pollution and Growth: Myth or Reality?" Eco-Bizz, Department of Economics. https://ecobizzblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/trade-off-between-pollution-and-growth.html

Article Received on: 28 January 2025

Article Published on: 15 February 2025

Unbreakable Bond

In Search of

Somebody to care,  
somebody to know,  
somebody to hear—  
when I scream on that high note.  
  
Somebody to lay by my side,  
having that long night drive ride,  
caring for my soul,  
who can let his embrace make me hide—  
ohhh, yeahhh.  
  
That's the love I wa-aa-aant,  
in a world that seems too cold.  
That's the love I want.  
  
Having those little playful fights,  
after that dinner candle light,  
singing songs in the rain,  
making our dreams come alive.  
  
No matter how hard life tries  
to break us apart and make us cry,  
no, we won’t give up on each other—  
and let our love die.  
  
'Cuz your love is all I need,  
cuz your love is all I want,  
in a world that seems to be cold—  
that's the love I want.

Designed by Microsoft Copilot, an AI created by Microsoft

One side love

every broken soul is as beautiful as moon

having wounds and deep cuts in their heart

waiting for someone as calm as night sky

to embrace them till death do them apart

the only source of my happiness is you 

even your thoughts can make me smile 

knowing these things are impossible still

my heart beats fasten without caring the distance of mile

sometimes gets insecure by thinking you deserve better 

but gets jealous if someone tries to approach you ever

it's hard for me to express my love for you in just one letter

but the only thing I want to say is I love you forever

seeing the whole world with your hands in mine

is the only dream I want to have with our sunshine

being irritated and having fights in our old age

where our love is stronger than our rage

that's the future I want with you 

I hope someday it will come true

my winter bear......

By

Yashvi Tyagi

B.A. Economics Sem IV, SBSS, MRIIRS, Faridabad

Echoes of Eternity

 If Heaven is a hotel

If heaven is a hotel,

Do angels bring comfort to the soul,

Serving peace to make us whole?

Are the walls aglow with soft, warm light,

Each one beholding a gentle sight?

If heaven is a hotel,

Does the lobby echo with sweet embrace,

As long-lost loved ones find their place?

 Do we leave our sorrows at the door,

 Exchanging grief for peace, forevermore?

If heaven is a hotel,

Are the rooms a gentle retreat,

Crafted from moments of joy and peace?

Do they hold the warmth of love’s embrace,

A place where time and sorrow cease?

If heaven is a hotel,

Do they welcome all who seek their way,

Or must we earn our place to stay?

And when we rest beneath its sheets,

Do we awaken whole, or simply free?

By
Gulnaaz Kohli

By: Gulnaaz Kohli

The First Step

I still remember,
When I fail for the first time,
Just me, myself, and echoes confined,
I tried so hard; I gave my all
Yet things stood still, I recall.
 
I know this step is just the start,
So many dreams fill my heart.
Day by day, I am giving my best,
Leaving behind the weight of rest.
 
 with the strong goals sight,
 touching the success height,
Making my future bright,
As it was my first step.
 
Grateful for the nature,
Each and every creature.
Shaping a perfect future,
As it was my first step.
 
Not a year, just a week has passed,
But that first step-it’s shadow lasts.
For me it's just a start, but I believe,
Step by step, I shall achieve.
As it was my first step.

By
Kritika

Contributors:

Gulnaaz Kohli & Kritika 

B.A. Economics, IV, SBSS, MRIIRS, Faridabad

The Tragic Toll of Competitive Exams

The extreme pressure that young students take on themselves in competing for India's top educational institutions often results in extreme and tragic actions. How does the nation cope with this new phenomenon?

Educational Status of Suicide Victims during 2000
Data Source: Government Open Data, NCRB 

The suicide of an 18-year-old student the day after results were declared for India’s hyper-competitive National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) has shone a spotlight on the mental toll this annual test takes on those who sit for it.

The teenager’s death was the 11th suicide linked to preparation for entrance examinations this year. In 2023, 26 aspirants at India’s ‘cram schools’ died by suicide.

There is an unfolding crisis among students who join these coaching centres to prepare for the NEET and IIT-JEE, crucial exams for students to gain entry into the country’s top medical and engineering institutions.

This year, nearly 24 lakh students competed for just 1.1 lakh available seats in the NEET exam and more than 14 lakh students in both the sessions of JEE Mains, underscoring the intense pressure and fierce competition faced by candidates.

Kota, in Rajasthan, where the deaths took place, is the ‘cram school capital‘ of the country. The dynamics of the Kota coaching industry have even been made into a popular Netflix series, Kota Factory.

Every year, approximately 200,000 students flock to Kota to prepare for IIT-JEE, a national-level two-part Joint Entrance Examination for engineering, and NEET, a pre-medical entrance examination. 

Extreme Pressure On Students

 

The pressure to prepare for these engineering institutes and medical colleges has intensified with an increasing number of hopefuls. The wide gap in the number of aspirants and the seats available leads to examination anxiety and high levels of competition among students.

The exam format is also tough, and different from mainstream school exams. School examinations are subjective whereas JEE and NEET exams are objective (multiple choice questions) and include negative markings. 

The preparation and mindset needed to appear in competitive exams, where the rate of failure is very high, are very different from that of school examinations.

In most cases, students simultaneously prepare for competitive exams while still enrolled at school. This adds to the pressure on the students, who are already preparing for their Board examinations to complete their higher secondary education.

Private coaching is a form of supplementary education that is taken alongside mainstream education commonly known as shadow education.

This phenomenon is not only peculiar to India. The number of cases of student depression  and even suicides in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan related to schooling problems provides a stark reminder of the impact of extreme pressure on young minds.

Some students take coaching classes willingly and others under family and social pressure. Aspirants use private coaching to increase their chances of success.

Huge Gap In Education Standards

 

There also exists a massive gap in the quality of education imparted across the elite and high-quality and non-elite mediocre or low-quality institutions. 

Elite institutions confer on the students an identifiable social advantage, which translates into social prestige, better job opportunities, and high pay packages in the future. However, entry to these top-quality institutions is highly competitive.

The chances of success for most students are slim.

It is contingent on the ability of the students, as reflected in the marks obtained in the school board examination. Based on this, many parents decide to invest in coaching — approximately Rs 3-4 lakh in tuition fees and living expenses — despite knowing the chances of success are low.

The expectations of both students and their parents are crucial to this process. 

Parental Pressure

 

This author’s (unpublished) research found that these expectations are informed by various factors such as the ability of the students, household budget, psychological factors such as family pressure, and socio-economic-cultural attributes such as parents’ occupation and education, decision-making to take coaching by family members and scholarships offered by the coaching institutes.

The private coaching industry has economic, social, and educational implications. 

First, the costly nature of coaching both in terms of money and time spent: a minimum of two years, often while in high school and sometimes after completion of higher secondary education. 

The social implications include increasing mental pressure on students due to the hyper-competitive nature of the exams and family pressure to succeed. 

The educational implications are that students skip school to start preparing early for the exams or take dummy admission in schools while being registered in the coaching institutes.

The extreme pressure on students to compete sometimes results in students taking extreme steps such as taking their lives. 

To address this, guidelines have been issued by the central government and the state government. The Ministry of Education provided guidelines for the regulation of coaching centers in January 2024. The Rajasthan government also issued guidelines for reducing stress and improving the mental health of students enrolled in coaching Institutes in September 2023.

India’s National Education Policy 2020 has identified that “coaching culture” is causing harm, especially at the secondary level, and suggested the elimination of the need for coaching for “cracking the examination”.

How To Ease The Burden On Students

 

There are several measures that could reduce the burden on students who enroll in Kota’s coaching centres.

Counselling for students and parents so they understand the exam format of the exam would help. False expectations on part of the parents often cause stress among the students.

Students could also be awarded grades rather than ranks during the internal test in the coaching. Relative ranking in the internal tests which are conducted fortnightly causes a lot of stress among the students.

Finally, extensive ethnographic studies would provide a more detailed analysis of the coaching ecosystem. It is crucial to understand that the well-being and holistic development of our youth must take precedence over any examination.

 

(This article was originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™) https://360info.org/the-tragic-toll-of-competitive-exams/

By

Dr. Nooria Rehman 

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, SBSS, MRIIRS.

To cite this article: Rehman, N. (2025, February). "The Tragic Toll of Competitive Exams". Eco-Bizz, Department Economics. https://ecobizzblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-tragic-toll-of-competitive-exams.html

Article received on: 27 January 2025
Article published on: 05 February 2025 

Water and Wine as a Free Good

Is piped drinking water drinkable in India? If it's drinkable, is it chargeable? Both answers are a big "No" in New Delhi. However, bottled, private mineral water is priced in New Delhi. The early classes of the micro-foundations of economics made us think in the following way: a) A normal good has a negative price elasticity of demand, whereas, for a luxury good, the same demand curve is positive. 

Data Source: Open Government Data (OGD) Platform

Thus, if the price of a luxury good increases, then the quantity demanded of the same good goes up due to the income effect. On a similar note, for a normal good, if the price increases, the quantity demanded of the normal good falls down. In this way, if there is no clean piped drinking water in New Delhi, and the only reliable, clean drinking water for middle and upper-income class households is bottled mineral water, will its consumption go down for such households if the price goes up. The answer to this is too a big "No". Then why water which is so necessary and normal as a good for survival is often not priced whereas diamond which is not necessary for human survival is still priced high when people consume diamond in the form of wearing a jewellery from South Ex shops of New Delhi.

Well, I got an answer to this paradox a month back while treating my international guests with a glass of wine in a well known restaurant of Khan Market of New Delhi. As a host during the dinner in the well known lutyens location of Khan Market when I ordered for a bottle of wine for my guests it was charged. The bottle of wine, in the location of Khan Market acted as a normal good. However in the same restaurant and during the same dinner, when I only consumed 10 ml red wine in comparison to the entire crowd who were ordering bottles of wine, my 10 ml wine was uncharged by the restaurant. They gave a price signal that in the relative positioning space of a consumerist society and a typical lutyens Delhi restaurant, 10 ml wine was almost like a free water and was free, uncharged while other bottles of wine were charged as a normal good.

I understood, how, class, consumption, relative welfare position of a consumer in a society was making the same red wine free (in marginal amount of 10 ml) for one and chargeable for others. I could realise when the same good transforms to be a normal to a luxury across societal classes based on the social, consumerism culture. In my micro foundation class of economics, I experienced how - "Water and Wine can both become a free good in a society" in a completely paradoxical and antithetical way. Possibly microeconomics needs to be written in a new way with "Water and Wine"!

 

Originally posted at: https://geekonomistdiary.blogspot.com/2025/01/water-and-wine-as-free-good.html 

 

By

Prof. Anandajit Goswami

School of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Research Director, MRIIRS, Faridabad.

 To cite this article: Goswami, A. (2025, January). Water and Wine as a Free Good. Eco-Bizz Department of Economics.

https://ecobizzblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/water-and-wine-as-free-good.html

Article received on: 25 January 2025

Published on: 30 January 2025

Disasters Hindering Women's Life Expectancy in Developing Nations: An Aftermath Analysis

 “The aftermath of a disaster, reproductive health services are crucial for shelters and evacuation because expectant mothers and new mothers are particularly vulnerable. Typhoon Haiyan affected over 230,000 pregnant women. The UN Population Fund estimated that over 900 deliveries took place daily, with roughly 130 of those pregnancies likely to have life-threatening complications” - The Centre for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP)

Data Sources: Female Life Expectancy at Birth-World Bank Database, Natural Disaster- EM-DAT database 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 6th Assessment Report (2015-23), which claims that 3.6 billion people reside in climate-vulnerable areas. The effects on health are most noticeable in low-income countries and small island developing states, where the frequency of deaths from extreme weather is fifteen times higher. In 2019, 396 disasters affected 95 million people, causing damages of $103 million and displacement of 25 million people (Women’s Resilience to Disasters Concept Note, 2021).

Source: After the cyclone, a mother holds his baby in her arms and looking the destruction of all her belongings in disaster (Dhaka Tribune)

Considering the circumstances, developing nations like India face numerous natural and man-made disasters due to their unique geo-climatic and socioeconomic conditions. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), India, reported that almost 58% of the landmass is prone to moderate to high-intensity earthquakes, 12% to floods and river erosion, and 68% to drought. Hilly areas are at risk from landslides and avalanches. The Centre for Science in Down to Earth (2023) reported 2,923 human fatalities, 80,000 house damages, and 2 million hectares of crop yield damages annually.

A study by Parida and Goel (2020) found that India had 371 natural disasters between 1971 and 2009, with floods being the most frequent, resulting in 1,511,000 fatalities and impacting 1.86 billion people. Down to Earth (2023) reports reveal that in India, 2,923 human fatalities were reported, approximately 80,000 houses were destroyed, and 2 million hectares of crop yield were damaged during this whole year.

Besides, women and girls often face challenges in escaping disasters, especially in developing nations, as they are often responsible for caring for homes and victims of sexual assault, physical abuse, and human trafficking (World Bank Group, 2018a). Some case studies show the Gender disparity in disaster-related deaths, women fatalities were 61% in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, 70% after the Banda Aceh, India, tsunami in 2004, and 91% after Cyclone Gorky in Bangladesh in 1991, and one more hidden aspect is there is often a delay in reporting sexual abuse during and after disasters because victims of sexual assault prioritize their recovery over-reporting. In addition, victims may not have access to medical facilities or domestic violence shelters. Inequality among genders, specific norms about gender, and societal exclusion all enhance a person's vulnerability to the effects of catastrophes (Wisner et al., 2012).

“The indirect impacts of disasters can also have wide-ranging cascading impacts on other aspects of structural or social inequality. For example, research shows that violence against women and girls increases in the aftermath of disasters. At the extreme end of the scale, this takes the form of intentional homicides” – GAR (2022)

According to an Oxfam International survey conducted in the Aceh Besar province of Indonesia, 72% of the fatalities were women. In comparison, male survivors of the tragedy outweighed female survivors by a ratio of nearly 3:1. Women accounted for 77% of all fatalities in four other communities. The worst-hit town, Kuala Cangkoy, had a 4:1 female-to-male fatality ratio, meaning that 80 percent of the victims were female. Women accounted for 72% of the fatalities caused by tsunamis in the island nation of Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas of India.

 

According UNISDR (2009) reported, women and gender minorities suffer more throughout and following a disaster the less economic, political, and cultural influence they had before the event. Women experience an enormously more significant death rate from disasters than males. Besides the death rates, in disaster aftermath, some components play essential roles that hinder women's inclusion in recovery stages, like Cultural norms, gender stereotypes, and lack of education.

Why do women suffer the most in developing nations or income-group nations? There are reasons like the dependency on agriculture of rural women, around 64 %, which results in further poor health, low standard of living, and lower access to social services. Land owing to rural women is less than 15 %, leading to financial instability, low family decision-making power, and lack of access to credit facilities. Around 30 % of rural women give birth to a child without proper medical facilities, which reduces the reproductive life of females and increases the chance for a higher mortality rate. Only 2 % of poor women complete upper secondary school, which results in low-quality jobs, fewer opportunities, and barriers to career growth. Around 3.7 billion rural women do not access network connectivity and lack technological improvement skills (UN Women, 2018).

In preventing significant disasters, either natural or human-made, we should first identify the existence of risks and hazards that are prevalent in the environment. Then, the most vulnerable groups, like women, the elderly, etc., should be identified for resilient capacity building at the local level. This research focuses on the improvement of women life expectancy to reduce the risks from disasters.

Two crucial issues for female survivors are the rebuilding of support networks and the lack of accessible psychologists. Since they are more dependent on domestic work and the unofficial sector, women are more impacted than men by displacement, loss of household resources, and insufficient support (Kar 2010).  Also, women are more susceptible to economic insecurity after natural or man-made disasters because of their traditional responsibilities. The breakdown of traditional family and community support structures is a problem that disproportionately affects women after disasters (Kimerling et al., 2009).

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes gender equality as a crucial objective for sustainable development and economic growth. However, women still face barriers to employment and decision-making positions worldwide, including the gender wage gap and disproportionate opportunities.

The UNDP's "EnGenDER project" in nine Caribbean nations promotes women's resilience and equitable development by incorporating human-rights-based methods and equal opportunities for men and women in environmental management, disaster risk reduction, and climate change resilience policies. Projects should be initiated at the micro level in developing nations like India to promote equal participation and disaster resilience among women.

 

References

Aguilar, L. (2004). Establishing the linkages between gender and climate change: State of the world

Action aid annual report, 2017. Retrieved from https://actionaid.org/publications/2018/annual-report-2017

Alexander, D., Gaillard, J. C., & Wisner, B. (2012). Disability and disaster. The Routledge handbook of hazards and disaster risk reduction, 1, 413-423.

Balarajan, Y., Selvaraj, S., & Subramanian, S. (2011, February). Health care and equity in India. The Lancet, 377(9764), 505–515. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61894-6

Basu, A.R., and R.S. Murthy. 2003. Disaster and mental health: Revisiting Bhopal. Economic and Political Weekly 38(11): 1074–1082

Bhalotra, S., & Clots-Figueras, I. (2014, May 1). Health and the Political Agency of Women. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 6(2), 164–197. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.6.2.164

Eric Neumayer & Thomas Plümper (2007). The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981–2002, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97:3, 551-566, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00563.x

Gaillard, J. C., Sanz, K., Balgos, B. C., Dalisay, S. N. M., Gorman‐Murray, A., Smith, F., & Toelupe, V. A. (2017). Beyond men and women: a critical perspective on gender and disaster. Disasters, 41(3), 429-447

Moosa, C. S., & Tuana, N. (2014). Mapping a Research Agenda Concerning Gender and Climate Change: A Review of the Literature. Hypatia, 29(3), 677–694. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24542024

Mujeed, S., Li, S., Jabeen, M., Nassani, A. A., Askar, S. E., Zaman, K., Abro, M. M. Q., Sriyanto, & Jambari, H. (2021, February 3). Technowomen: Women’s Autonomy and Its Impact on Environmental Quality. Sustainability, 13(4), 1611. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041611

Patel, S., Ramaiah Nellore, M. R., Sadhu, H. G., Kulkarni, P. K., Patel, B. D., & Parikh, D. J. (2008, July). Effects of Industrial Pollution on Respiratory Morbidity Among Female Residents of India. Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 63(2), 87–92. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3200/aeoh.63.2.87-92

Kar, N. 2010. Indian research on disaster and mental health. Indian Journal of Psychiatry 52(1): 286–290.

Kimerling, R., M.P. Katelyn, and J. Alvarez. 2009. Women and disasters. In Mental health and disasters, ed. Y. Neria, S. Galea, and F.H. Norris, 203–217. New York: Cambridge University Press

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: completion of the Sixth Assessment cycle and future plans. (2022). Fundamental and Applied Climatology, 8(4). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.21513/2410-8758-2022-4-407-412

Sorensen, C., Saunik, S., Sehgal, M., Tewary, A., Govindan, M., Lemery, J., & Balbus, J. (2018, October). Climate Change and Women’s Health: Impacts and Opportunities in India. GeoHealth, 2(10), 283–297. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gh000163

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (2023). GAR Special Report: Measuring Resilience for the Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva. Retrieved from http://www.undrr.org/gar2023sr

United Nations. #Envision2030 Goal 5: Gender Equality. Goal 5: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls. 2015. Retrieved from    https://social.desa.un.org/issues/disability/envision-2030/envision2030-goal-5-gender-equality

UNISDR. 2002. Women, disaster reduction and sustainable development

United Nation for Women Emowernment.https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/multimedia/2018/2/infographic-rural-women

World Bank Group. (2018a). World development indicators as women disability. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/womenwatch/enable/index.html

BY
Pinki Chahal
Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Economics, SBSS, MRRIS, Faridabad
Dr. Durairaj Kumarasamy
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, SBSS, MRRIS, Faridabad

To cite this article: Chahal, P., & Kumarasamy, D. (2025, January). Disasters Hindering Women's Life Expectancy in Developing Nations: An Aftermath Analysis. Eco-Bizz Department of Economics.

https://ecobizzblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/disasters-hindering-womens-life.html

Article Received on: 9-01-2025

Published on: 28-01-2025

Millets as a Sustainable Solution for Food Security: An Analysis of Global Research and Trade Trends

Summary: This study conducts a bibliometric analysis to explore global research trends on the interconnections between food security and millets. Recognizing the urgent challenges to food security posed by climate change, population growth, and resource scarcity, this analysis emphasizes millets—a resilient, nutrient-rich, and environmentally adaptable grain—as a potential crop to enhance food security and sustainability. Given millets' advantages, such as low water requirements, adaptability to marginal soils, and high nutritional value, there is growing international interest in integrating them into sustainable food systems. The analysis focuses on research from 1993 to 2024, obtained from the SCOPUS database, examining  primary search terms: "food security and millets." The study uses VOS viewer software to categorize keywords into thematic clusters, revealing research patterns across environmental, economic, and agricultural themes. Key findings demonstrate significant research gaps in millet-focused trade studies, despite the 2023 International Year of Millets, and underscore the need for further research to optimize millet production and trade strategies. By identifying gaps and potential areas for further investigation, this study offers insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders interested in leveraging millet’s benefits to enhance global food security and build resilient food systems amidst climate challenges. This bibliometric approach is a tool for future studies on sustainable crop trade, guiding research toward holistic food security solutions that integrate underutilized but highly promising crops like millets.

1.     Introduction

Global food security has been a critical issue in the 21st century because of the increasing population, climate change, and finite natural resources, which have been challenging for the traditional agricultural system. As the nations collectively work towards taking action to achieve United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 2, targeting Zero Hunger globally, adaptable, resilient, and nutritional crops have become the need of the hour.  Millets, A group of small seed cereals, possess high nutritional value and are climate-resilient. Therefore, these crops can play an essential role in attaining SDG 2. (Antony Ceasar and Maharajan,2022).

The most popular types consumed are pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), finger millet (Eleusine coracana), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica). The unique properties of millets that make it valuable for global food systems that are facing growing risks of resources is that it is not a water-intensive crop like the staple crops (wheat and rice) (Ajatasatru, A., Prabhu, V., Pal, B.D. et al.,2024). With their ability to thrive in poor soils and under minimal water conditions, millets are well-suited to meet the dual challenges of climate resilience and food security. (Traore, B. et al,2021.).

The growing recognition of millets' role in food security has also spurred international collaborations to improve their cultivation and distribution. Trade partnerships and initiatives, such as the UN’s designation of 2023 as the International Year of Millets, highlight the importance of millets globally and promote research investments to enhance yield, quality, and distribution channels. These collaborations help standardize millet production and quality, making them more accessible to international markets and attractive to consumers. Furthermore, Millets are essential in enhancing global food security through international trade by diversifying food systems, boosting nutrition, and offering a sustainable and resilient crop alternative. (Hatem Chouchane, Maarten S. Krol, Arjen Y. Hoekstra,2018)Expanding millet trade benefits producing regions economically while providing a sustainable solution to global food challenges, fostering healthier diets, and building resilience against food insecurity.

This paper attempts to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the research work undertaken globally on ‘food security. This paper analyzes the scientific literature on the topic and understands the pattern of publication over the years in terms of keyword analysis of themes pursued over the years. Also, this paper studies the frequently used keywords on the topic and analyzes them through cluster analysis using the software Vosviewer. Overall, this bibliometric analysis can be used as a tool for future researchers to find future research potential through gaps in the current study. It will benefit the researchers in studying the potential of millets to contribute to global food security. Further, by investigating the role of millets in a sustainable, secure, and nutritious food system, this research contributes to the growing discourse on how underutilized crops can play a transformative role in addressing food security in an era of climate uncertainty.

 

2.     Research Methodology

To conduct the bibliometric analysis, the study was conducted over the food security research work conducted globally from the year the first article was published to 2024. Through the SCOPUS database, an initial search was carried out with different keywords: “food security” AND “millets”. To refine the results, only “Articles” limited to the “English” language and “all open access” were selected. This search resulted in extracting the dataset of 181 documents downloaded in .csv format to further analyze the results. The VOSviewer (bibliometric mapping software) was used to conduct the bibliometric analysis and has also been a widely used and accepted software in conducting bibliometric analysis tools.

3. RESULT AND FINDINGS

FOOD SECURITY AND MILLETS

This section analyzes the extracted data on “food security” AND “millet” in graphs and tables derived from the VOS viewer. The research and development of millets in food security was extracted through the process explained in Figure 1 above. In 1999, the first paper on the topic was published by Apili Ejupu, E.C., Makhura M.T., and Kirsten J.F., titled “Food security in a commercializing rural economy. During the extraction process, the first research work was published in 1999, the only document published in the year , and the latest was published in 2024.

 

Time Period	Total Articles	Keywords	No. of Citations
1999-2024	216	100	5,336

 

KEYWORD CO-OCCURRENCE ANALYSIS

The keyword analysis was conducted by uploading the data extracted from SCOPUS to Vosviewer. After selecting the Co-occurrence of all the keywords, 1932 keywords were derived from the uploaded documents. To make the results more relevant and refined, the threshold limit of occurrence of each keyword was set to 5, after which only 100 keywords made it to the final list. The following analysis was done on the refined keywords represented in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Keyword Co-occurrence of food security and millet.

The table1 categorizes research keywords into three different clusters, each color-coded and containing terms related to agricultural and environmental research themes The first cluster, that is, Red Cluster centres around climate adaptation, agricultural management, and food security, with significant focus on climate change (42 occurrences) and food security (101 occurrences). Terms such as "crop yield," "crop production," and "food supply" indicate a focus on enhancing agricultural productivity and resilience in response to climate-related challenges. Keywords like "adaptive management" and "farming system" emphasize sustainable agricultural practices that can help manage and mitigate climate risks. This cluster reflects research focused on climate-smart agriculture, aiming to ensure food security by enhancing crop resilience and management in vulnerable regions.

Table 1: Keyword Occurrence of Food Security and Millet

The green cluster has a strong biological and genetic research orientation, with terms related to plant genetics, genomics, and breeding. Keywords such as "genome," "genotype," "genome-wide association study," and "gene expression" point to molecular and genetic studies, which are essential for developing resilient crop varieties. Terms like "drought stress" and "finger millet" suggest that this research explores how crops can withstand environmental stresses. Locations such as India and Nepal hint at regions where this genetic research might be applied. The focus of this cluster is on understanding and enhancing genetic variability and plant resilience, with the ultimate goal of developing climate-resilient crops through genetic advancements.

The blue cluster is heavily centred on food and nutritional security as well as sustainable agriculture. Keywords such as "agriculture," "crop," "millet," "food grain," and "malnutrition" suggest a focus on crop production and the role of diverse crops in meeting nutritional needs. This cluster also emphasizes specific crops like maize, millet, sorghum, and soybean—important staples in many regions. Terms like "sustainability" and "sustainable agriculture" reflect a broader interest in promoting agricultural practices that are environmentally sound and can ensure long-term food security. The presence of "nutrients," "seasonal variation," and "water supply" highlights the research’s attention to the resource-efficient and nutritional aspects of crop production.

Together, these clusters illustrate a comprehensive approach to global food security that integrates adaptive management, genetic innovation, and sustainable agricultural practices. This interconnected research can help build resilient food systems that address the dual challenges of climate change and nutrition security.

TREND OVER THE YEARS

Over the years, the keywords used for the study of food security and millets have varied. In the initial year of 2018, more attention was given to rice as it was the food of choice, malnutrition, smallholder, genetic variability, Sahel, Mali, etc., as shown in Figure 2. 

 

Figure 2: Research trends over the years on food security and millet

In further years, the area of research changed towards maize, crop production, fertilizers, cultivation, crops, and nutrients. In recent years, the focus of the study has shifted towards climate effects, forecasting, pearl millet, finger millet, China, Africa, India, and agricultural ecosystems. This depicts a shift in focus from the issues that were more relevant in the past, such as smallholder and genetic variability, towards issues that are more prominent in recent scenarios, such as climate effect and millets.

CONCLUSION

The outlook for millets in international trade is promising, given the global emphasis on sustainable agriculture. Millets align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), by offering a resilient crop option in water-scarce regions. Increased government and NGO support for millet production and processing in developing countries will likely drive growth. Additionally, initiatives focusing on improved storage, processing, and export infrastructure are expected to bolster the export potential for millet-based products.

However, no significant research has been done in this area to improve the performance of millets in international trade. Upon accessing the SCOPUS database, we find no research papers on the importance of millets in ensuring food security through international trade. International trade is critical in ensuring global food security by facilitating the movement of food and agricultural products across borders and addressing disparities in production capacity, climate, and resources among countries. For nations with limited agrarian output due to climatic constraints, arable land shortages, or seasonal variations, trade enables access to food resources that would otherwise be unavailable, ensuring a stable supply for their populations.

The clusters collectively depict a comprehensive view of global food security and agriculture, intersecting with economic, environmental, and social factors. In conclusion, this study highlights a critical research gap in millets, international trade, and sustainable food. By analyzing datasets from SCOPUS, we identified strong links between food security. Security, agricultural trade, and sustainable development, as well as between food security, millets, and climate change. Despite the recent global focus on millets, including the 2023 International Year of Millets, the literature on the role of international trade in promoting millet-based food security remains limited. Given their resilience to water scarcity and suitability for arid regions, millets hold significant agricultural trade potential for countries with limited water resources. Future research should, therefore, explore trade models that leverage millets to enhance food security and support sustainable development goals. Addressing this gap could contribute to resilient food systems worldwide, particularly in regions vulnerable to climate change and resource constraints. 

References:

1.     Marie-Julie Lambert, Pierre C. Sibiry Traoré, Xavier Blaes, Philippe Baret, Pierre Defourny, Estimating smallholder crops production at village level from Sentinel-2 time series in Mali's cotton belt, Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 216, 2018, Pages 647-657, ISSN 0034-4257.

2.     Hatem Chouchane, Maarten S. Krol, Arjen Y. Hoekstra,Expected increase in staple crop imports in water-scarce countries in 2050, Water Research X, Volume 1, 2018, 100001, ISSN 2589-9147.

3.     Antony Ceasar, S., & Maharajan, T. (2022). The role of millets in attaining United Nation’s sustainable developmental goals. Plants People Planet, 4(4), 345–349. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10254

4.     Ajatasatru, A., Prabhu, V., Pal, B. D., & Mukhopadhyay, K. (2024). Economy-wide impact of climate smart agriculture in India: a SAM framework. Journal of Economic Structures, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40008-023-00320-z

5.     Traore, B., Birhanu, B. Z., Sangaré, S., Gumma, M. K., Tabo, R., & Whitbread, A. M. (2021). Contribution of climate-smart agriculture technologies to food self-sufficiency of smallholder households in mali. Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(14).

6.     Davis, K. F., Chiarelli, D. D., Rulli, M. C., Chhatre, A., Richter, B., Singh, D., & DeFries, R. (2018). Alternative cereals can improve water use and nutrient supply in India. Science Advances, 4(7). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao1108

7.     Apili Ejupu, E. C., Makhura, M. T., & Kirsten, J. F. (1999). Food security in a commercialising rural economy: Initial findings from a case study of two districts in uganda. Agrekon, 38(4), 827–838.

8.     Yiridomoh, G. Y., Bonye, S. Z., & Derbile, E. K. (2024). Reducing vulnerability to climate change among millet and sorghum farmers in Ghana: interrogating the contribution of climate-smart agriculture in northwestern Ghana. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 8.

9.     Leila Riahi ･Mériam Ben-Romdhane ･Ahmed S. Masmoudi. Industrial interests and requirements for improvement of pearl millet, a gluten-free and climate-smart underutilized cereal. J Plant Biotechnol (2024) 51:077-088

10.  Chhabra, I., & Kaur, A. (2022). A study of consumer behaviour towards products promoting health and sustainability. PUSA Journal of Hospitality and Applied Sciences, 8(1), 34-46.

11.  Vyas, S., Dalhaus, T., Kropff, M., Aggarwal, P., & Meuwissen, M. P. M. (2021). Mapping global research on agricultural insurance. Environmental Research Letters, 16(10). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac263d

12.  Jalgaonkar, K., Jha, S. K., & Mahawar, M. K. (2018). Influence of incorporating defatted soy flour, carrot powder, mango peel powder, and moringa leaves powder on quality characteristics of wheat semolina-pearl millet pasta. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, 42

By
Palak Rawat

Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Economics, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Haryana.

To cite this article: Rawat, P. (2025, January). Millets as a sustainable solution for food security: An analysis of global research and trade trends. Eco-Bizz Department of Economics. https://ecobizzblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/millets-as-sustainable-solution-for.html