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

Source: Govt. <strong>of</strong> Kerala, BES, relevant years.
This further indicates the fact that the farmers are more induced by
comparative pr<strong>of</strong>itability <strong>of</strong> alternate crops than the assured supply <strong>of</strong> water per se.
The pr<strong>of</strong>itability ratios <strong>of</strong> alternate cropping systems make paddy cultivation nonviable.
For instance, the estimates based on productivity and prices <strong>of</strong> important
crops (GOK, 1997: 23) during 1997 show that the gross income realised from paddy
per ha. constituted only 13 per cent <strong>of</strong> the income from arecanut, 10 per cent <strong>of</strong>
income from banana, 22 per cent from tapioca, 44 per cent from coconut, 21 per cent
from rubber and 8 per cent from horticulture crops.
In this context. the trends in area and productivity <strong>of</strong> major crops in the
command areas <strong>of</strong> the completed irrigation projects in the state have also been
examined in order to bring out the excessive orientation towards paddy. The results
are shown in table 5.13.
It becomes evident that there is decline in area under paddy in almost all the
irrigation projects and the decline is more pronounced in the area under summer
paddy. However, in spite <strong>of</strong> the decline in area under paddy, the productivity has
been increasing. This yield increase in paddy cannot be attributed to any impact <strong>of</strong>
technology adoption or assured supply <strong>of</strong> water. Rather, has been purely due to
marginal land going out <strong>of</strong> cultivation (Kannan and Pushpangadan, 1990: 43).
Interestingly, paddy was not cultivated during summer in any <strong>of</strong> the five projects
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