economics of on-farm development - Institute for Social and ...

greater differences between the theoretically perceived OFD measures and the
actual OFD and water conservation practices at the farm leHI. This mismatch is
quite likely as the farmers are diverse in terms <strong>of</strong> cropping practices. resource
endowment position and the very attitude towards farming as a major economic
activity. Keeping this empirical reality in mind. we conceptualise On-Farm
Development by <strong>of</strong>fering an operational definition as follows:
"On-Farm Development is Ihe process in which Ihe farmers
prepare Iheir lands before irrigalion for Ihe smoolh flow <strong>of</strong> water
and the land preparation is non-mechanical and involves minimum
inputs <strong>of</strong> labour and other factor use ".
This operational definition is based on the filed level perceptions <strong>of</strong> the
implementation status <strong>of</strong> OFD in the irrigation commands in Kerala in view <strong>of</strong>
the various socio-economic and technical constraints involved in the process <strong>of</strong>
farming, in generaL and uti lisation <strong>of</strong> irrigation Water, in particular.
3.3 Analytical framework
An important theoretical contention behind the promotion <strong>of</strong> public investment in
agriculture and infrastructure development is the complementarity hypothesis,
which suggests that the private investment always increases with the increase in
public investment, which is termed as 'crowding in' effect Farm level investment
by individual farmers, particularly, to undertake On-Farm Development depends
a great deal on the quality <strong>of</strong> irrigation service provided to the farmers. Merely
building the physical infrastructure to store and convey water to the fields by
itself may not induce farmers to invest in OFD works. There are empirical
evidences to prove that scientific adoption <strong>of</strong> OFO prior to or concurrently with
the release <strong>of</strong> water results in improved farm productivity and incremental
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