RA 00048.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

Although those would appear to encourage a
move towards more equal factor use ratios, it may
well be that because of the poorly developed
input support systems, there is often inequitable
access, therefore preserving differences in the
factor use ratios. However, even if this is the
case, the solution may often be more with
adjusting accessibility to the support systems
rather than developing different improved technologies,
but the difficulties of doing this should
not be underestimated. 29
Exchange or Market Systems
for Inputs and Output
The exchange and market systems are of crucial
significance in determining the relevancy of particular
improved technologies. The degree of market
development is in turn influenced by a number
of factors. All other things being equal, it is likely
to be positively related to the level of development
and negatively related to the physical
distances to be covered.
Because of constraints imposed by the lack of a
marketing system, farming families are then
forced to be self-sufficient. It is not surprising that
a self-sufficiency orientation is often more pronounced
in areas of low population density where
high land/labor ratios prevail and the costs of
market development per customer are therefore
relatively high.
The self-sufficiency orientation, usually implying
an adaptation to low levels of production/income,
is also an adaptation to the "costs" faced in
exchanging goods and factor services. From the
perspective of the self-sufficient farming family,
these costs are deemed to be very high. For
29. Because of limited resources, governments which
usually provide such support systems find it difficult
to provide them at the level that would be desirable.
Consequently, access to such systems is often
confined to the more influential and economically
powerful farming families. Also problems are developing
with the adoption of certain types of
technology. For example, in Mali in recent years, the
prices of cash crops have increased less rapidly than
prices of animals and equipment (CRED 1976). Thus
adoption of animal traction has slowed down creating
an increasing dichotomy between those who
already possess animal traction and those who do
not (Ernst 1976).
example, because of the effort required and low
profitability levels, there may be little incentive to
take small quantities of products to distant markets
involving high transport costs in terms of
money and/or time. Also, because of poor market
integration, a strategy of producing cash crops
may be perceived as too risky with too little to sell
in drought years when food prices are also high.
Nevertheless, seasonal hunger or the hungry gap
which occurs at the beginning of the rainy season
(Raynaut 1973) is still a major problem in many
such areas but is probably often accentuated
when market structures start developing and
some reliance is placed on what is inevitably at
the beginning a poorly developed and therefore
inefficient system. The occurrence of the hungry
season at such a time has a serious impact on
labor productivity with a reduced calorie intake
resulting in weight loss and reduced resistance to
disease (Chambers and Longhurst 1979). Unlike in
West Africa, where this hungry season occurs at
the busiest time of the year, this period in India
appears to be more common during slack periods
in the agricultural cycle. In India, the inequitable
land distribution and well developed labor market
enables landless laborers to find work during
active periods in the agricultural cycle.
Costs and marketing risks decline with improvements
in communications, transport, and market
integration. For example, a drought affecting
sorghum producers in the United States does not
also raise their food prices, which are largely
independent of growing conditions in sorghum
producing regions. Low transport costs and high
integration into the national and international
market imply that developed country farmers
produce almost exclusively for the market and are
often more highly specialized than their counterparts
in developing countries. SAT countries differ
in the extent of market integration of their
economies. In India, for example, there is a high
degree of domestic market integration but a low
degree of international market integration. In
Thailand, there is a high degree of market integration
both domestically (i.e., except for distant
regions) and internationally, while integration is
low in both areas in many parts of Africa. In
general, however, the degree of market orientation
and integration is rising everywhere. 30
30. Although rising energy costs are causing setbacks in
this trend particularly in thinly populated areas (e. g . ,
areas away from the line of rail in Zambia).
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