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meet their food and fodder requirements from their own limited land. Farming householdsfrom the upper castes that have a larger size of landholdings tend to grow morethan one crop and more than one variety of rice as shown by the crop diversification(CDI) and rice varietal (RVI) indices.Access to supplementary irrigationA majority of the farmer-operators across all villages and castes own the lands theyare cultivating; however, they suffer from a lack of an assured source of water for riceproduction. This causes delays in crop establishment and drought stress at some stagesof crop growth. In low-lying areas, the onset of heavy monsoon, accumulation ofrainwater, and slow and inadequate drainage cause delays in crop establishment anddamage to the standing crop from flooding. These conditions result in decreased riceyields as well as low overall farm productivity (Singh 1996). Farmers in the threevillages obtain supplementary irrigation through their own and rented tube wells (Table14). There is disparity by caste in terms of access to irrigation facilities. Of the totalfarming households in Chandpur, 23% and 13% of the upper and lower caste, respectively,invested in pump sets and tube wells. In Mungeshpur, a higher proportion(67%) was able to afford investing in supplementary irrigation facilities. Only 9% ofthe lower caste households in this village have their own tube wells and pump sets.Thus, they rent from the richer farmers. Farmers from the lower caste are often at themercy of upper caste households who have more access to water. Those who do notown irrigation facilities suffer from crop failure. Because of the high cost of supplementaryirrigation, farmers in Mungeshpur use their own irrigation facilities not onlyTable 14. Access to land and supplementary irrigation by village and caste (%),1995.Chandpur Mungeshpur SariyawanFarm characteristic Upper Lower Upper Lower Upper Lowercaste caste caste caste caste caste(n = 13) (n = 138) (n = 12) (n = 121) (n = 6) (n = 75)% of land (tenure status)Owned 88 81 98 94 100 97Share tenant 12 9 2 6 – –Leasehold – 10 – – – 3% of land irrigated byOwn tube well 21 40 66 17 34 34Rented tube well 55 40 34 80 66 62Canal irrigation/ 24 20 – 3 – 4none% of farmers with 23 13 67 9 33 35own irrigationfacility364 Paris et al