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

The debate on conversion <strong>of</strong> paddy lands should also be viewed in terms <strong>of</strong>
peasant rationality. Herring (1991 a) interprets this as flight <strong>of</strong> capital (in the form <strong>of</strong>
redeployment <strong>of</strong> capital) and argues that farmers have opted out <strong>of</strong> labour intensive
paddy (in favour <strong>of</strong> less labour intensive tree crops) purely on account <strong>of</strong> rising
wage costs and the loss <strong>of</strong> managerial prerogative resulting from the demise <strong>of</strong>
traditional labour regime (Herring, 1991 a. as cited in Heller. 1999). In line with
Herring (1991a). Heller (1999) considers the shift to cash crop economy as a
rationalisation <strong>of</strong> cropping patterns dictated by an increasing responsiveness to
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market forces .
Thus. the agricultural development scenario <strong>of</strong> the state since the late 70s
characterised by sharp decline in the area under food crops dominated by paddy and
the substantial expansion in area under commercial crops dominated by plantation
crops should form a major point <strong>of</strong> departure in the economic analysis on the impact
<strong>of</strong> any developmental intervention by the state. including development <strong>of</strong> irrigation
systems.
The emerging changes as discussed above. in the agricultural development in
the state. in general. would have signi ficant consequences on the performance <strong>of</strong> the
irrigation sector. On the one hand. the change from food to cash crops could be
translated in terms <strong>of</strong> lack 01 effective demand for water for irrigation. On the other,
<strong>of</strong> tasks. with each task involving a specitic time or piece wage rate [also sec Nair. M.K.S
( 1999)1·
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