SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis is a study of some economic aspects of higher-yielding varieties of rice with special reference to small farmers in the West Godavary district of Andhra Pradesh. The introduction of higher-yielding varieties represents a major technological breakthrough in Indian agriculture. They sire expected to play an important role in increasing food production. The successful cultivation of these varieties depends upon the use of non-conventional inputs like chemical fertilisers and pesticides and the adoption of improved water management practices. The ability to increase rice production by means of these varieties will depend upon the availability of these inputs on farms of all sizes. Rice cultivation in India is undertaken predominantly on small farms. Such farms face several difficulties in acquiring these inputs. Any assessment of the impact of the new varieties in increasing rice production in the country as a whole will require identification of these difficulties. Chapter I contains brief descriptions of the new varieties and of the region studied; the term "small farm" is then defined for the purpose of the present study. Chapter II examines the role of irrigation in the cultivation of the new varieties. Chapter III deals with fertilisers; it explores the factors influencing demand at the micro-level. Chapter IV examines the nature and implications of the increased application of human labour input on farms resulting from controlled irrigation and high levels of fertiliser use. Chapter V returns to the themes developed in the earlier chapters and presents the demand for and supply of fertilisers and facilities for control of irrigation in the form of a generalised input, namely, credit. The inferior access of small farms to institutional credit is seen as an obstacle to their effective contribution to the programme of increasing rice production. Chapter VI contains the principal conclusion of this thesis: that the potential contribution of small farms to rice production has hitherto received inadequate attention and may be considerably more significant than is at present supposed.