Rainfed rice - IRRI books - International Rice Research Institute

RAINFED RICE A SOURCEBOOK OF BEST PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES IN EASTERN INDIA
Impact of agro-ecological and socio-economic factors
To assess the importance of different agro-ecological and socio-economic factors in
explaining variation in the level and growth of rice yield across districts, researchers
of the rainfed rice project carried out a multivariate regression analysis in eastern
India. The socio-economic factors considered in the analysis are:
The average size of the farm in the district;
The pattern of distribution of land (measured by the share of landless
agricultural labourers and tenants in total farm population);
The incidence of poverty (measured by the per capita calorie intake of the
population for the base period); and
The economic capacity of the farmers (measured by the amount of chemical
fertiliser used per hectare of land in the district).
Analysis
The smaller the size of the farm, the higher the pressure of population on land
and the need to increase productivity.
Farm size also determines the availability of labour input and its opportunity cost
to the farm household.
Small farms may use more labour and thereby achieve higher levels of
productivity than large farms.
Small farms may not be economically able to afford relatively capital-intensive
modern technology. This factor may be responsible for the slower rice yield
growth in districts with smaller farms.
The effect of farm size on productivity will depend on the relative strengths of
the two above-mentioned opposite factors.
Unequal land ownership and high tenancy factors may act as a disincentive to
production, which, in turn, will affect growth of rice yield.
The subsistence pressure on rice growth production is also expected to be highly
influenced by poverty at the base level.
Results of the regression analysis
Water control and the level of fertiliser use, which are highly correlated, were
important factors behind the spatial variation in productivity growth.
The level and growth in rice yield were negatively correlated with the amount of
rainfall, which suggests poor drainage and waterlogging as a significant
constraint to growth in rice production.
Land tenure is a special social problem as districts with a higher incidence of
tenancy and landlessness had lower rice yields and slower growth.
An inverse relationship is found between farm size and level and growth in rice
yield, suggesting that the small farm size in the region is not a serious constraint
to the adoption of input-intensive technology.
Farm size, incidence of irrigation and instability in rice yield are important
factors behind the spatial variation in fertiliser use and growth in rice yield.
Prepared by:
Mahabub Hossain and Alice Laborte
38