Characteristics and performance of settlement programs : a review

The studies and cases reviewed by the authors suggest that settlement programs are too often designed on the assumption that all settlers will or can succeed. This had led to too much centralized administration and rigid designs, rather than reliance on decentralized approaches, flexibility in implementation, support for spontaneous settlement, and reliance on the settler's own investment capacity. Collective forms of crop production have not worked. Cropland is best allocated to individual families whose land rights must be clearly defined as ownership or long-term leases. Farm sizes must be flexibly adjusted to skills, the availability of family labor, and the families'capital ownership. Settlers should therefore be allowed to sell or rent the land to other beneficiaries. If poor settlers are to benefit or succeed, settlement cannot be based on credit finance but must include grants. Paternalistic constraints on the choice of crops or technologies, marketing, or participation in the labor force have usually not been enforceable or have had negative effects.Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Urban Housing,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Housing&Human Habitats

The Role of an International Institute in Farming Systems Research

This note is intended to serve as a basis for a thorough discussion about the role of an International Institute such as ICRISAT in the area of Farming Systems Research. As such it is very tentative and the ideas expressed need scrutiny, qualification and amplification by researchers inside and outside of the International system. However the issues involved are of extreme importance for the successful allocation of research resources and research tasks within the international system and between the national and international systems

Efficiency and equity issues in ex ante allocation of research resources

The paper discusses economic factors in making ex ante decisions about the allocation of resources to research. A proper balance between basic and applied adaptive research is required. This ensures that possibilities for further advances on the basic scientific frontier continue to occur, from which applied research can draw. Agronomic and cropping systems research can have their highest pay-offs in large homogeneous zones rather than in small, heterogeneous ones. In the latter, farmers' own informal experimental methods may often be preferred. Varietal research is less location-specific and can have wider applicability, even in relatively heterogeneous regions. Publicly-funded research should complement and not compete with private research. The latter generally concentrates on research where the benefits can be appropriated such as in fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, mechanical equipment and hybrid seeds. Generally speaking, resources should be allocated to research on production factors in such a way that the results will increase the productivity of those factors in relatively short supply more than the productivity of those in relatively abundant supply. On these grounds labour-saving innovations in India, which has low and relatively stagnant wage rates, cannot be justified on either efficiency or equity grounds. If research is to be aimed at helping the poorest consumers it should stress commodities with low price and income elasticities. This also helps small subsistence producers relative to large commercial farmers. If it is to help maximize producer incomes and/or agricultural employment, resources could be concentrated on commodities with high elasticities. Expected regional impacts of research can be analyzed using the simple tools of benefit-cost and partial equilibrium analysis to assist decision-makers in all the issue

Supply Response and Investment in Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh

The study explored the response of aggregate farm output, input use, and farm investment decisions to output and input prices, wages, technological change, public investments, and climatic factors using district-level panel data of over 39 years from Andhra Pradesh. It confirms the low, short-run aggregate output supply elasticity of Indian agriculture as found in the literature. It validates the hypothesis that the relationships between public investment, financial institutions, and farm investment of labor and capital in agriculture have not changed over the years. The empirical estimates of aggregate output supply elasticity with respect to output price (0.2), roads (0.2), markets (0.11), and net irrigated area (0.05) are higher than previous findings for selected states in India. Aggregate agricultural output responds positively to credit availability (represented by banks) and canal irrigation, each with an elasticity of 0.01. The wage elasticity (0.3) on aggregate output is higher than price elasticity (0.2), indicating that the effects of rising wages outweigh the incentives offered by output price support. Climatic factors (e.g., rainfall) significantly affect fertilizer use and aggregate output while deviation from normal rainfall adversely affects aggregate output. The study substantiates previous findings that public investment in infrastructure and financial institutions respond to the agriculture potential and agro-climatic endowments of an area. A renewed focus, therefore, is required for better targeting of public investments in areas that are relatively resource poor and have harsh agro-climatic conditions for a more inclusive growth and rural poverty reduction

Supply Response and Investments in Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh

This study examines how farm output, farm inputs and farm investment have responded to changes in prices of output, factor prices (wages), technical change, and public investments

Common Features and Contrasts in Labor Relations in the Semiarid Tropics of India

The main objectives of this paper are (1) to document and explain labor market arrangements in different agroclimatic and socioeconomic zones on the basis of intensive survey data; (2) to explore linkages of transactions in labor markets with transactions in other markets such as those for credit, draft power, and outputs, as well as linkages between caste status and type of labor performed; and (3) to characterize, as far as possible, the changes, if any, in labor relations over time

Common Features And Contrasts In Labor Relations In The Semiarid Tropics Of India

'I he niaitt ohjcctivcs of this paper are (I) to document and explain labor market arranpcnients in tlifl'ercnt agroclimatic and socicwonomic zones on the basis of intensive survey data; (2) to explore linkages of transactions in labor ninrkets \rith transactions in other mnrkets such as those for credit. dral't po\sfer, ant1 outpitt~a. s well as linkages bctween caste status and type of labor perfornied: and (3) to characterize. iIS far as possible. thc changes. if any, in labor relations over time

Geometry of Time and Dimensionality of Space

One of the most distinguished features of our algebraic geometrical, pencil concept of space-time is the fact that spatial dimensions and time stand, as far as their intrinsic structure is concerned, on completely different footings: the former being represented by pencils of lines, the latter by a pencil of conics. As a consequence, we argue that even at the classical (macroscopic) level there exists a much more intricate and profound coupling between space and time than that dictated by (general) relativity theory. It is surmised that this coupling can be furnished by so-called Cremona (or birational) transformations between two projective spaces of three dimensions, being fully embodied in the structure of configurations of their fundamental elements. We review properties of some of the simplest Cremona transformations and show that the corresponding "fundamental" space-times exhibit an intimate connection between the extrinsic geometry of time dimension and the dimensionality of space. Moreover, these Cremonian space-times seem to provide us with a promising conceptual basis for the possible reconciliation between two extreme concepts of (space-)time, viz. physical and psychological. Some speculative remarks in this respect are made

Multiple Shocks, Coping and Welfare Consequences: Natural Disasters and Health Shocks in the Indian Sundarbans

Background: Based on a household survey in Indian Sundarbans hit by tropical cyclone Aila in May 2009, this study tests for evidence and argues that health and climatic shocks are essentially linked forming a continuum and with exposure to a marginal one, coping mechanisms and welfare outcomes triggered in the response is significantly affected. Data & Methods: The data for this study is based on a cross-sectional household survey carried out during June 2010. The survey was aimed to assess the impact of cyclone Aila on households and consequent coping mechanisms in three of the worst-affected blocks (a sub-district administrative unit), viz. Hingalganj, Gosaba and Patharpratima. The survey covered 809 individuals from 179 households, cross cutting age and gender. A separate module on health-seeking behaviour serves as the information source of health shocks defined as illness episodes (ambulatory or hospitalized) experienced by household members. Key findings: Finding reveals that over half of the households (54%) consider that Aila has dealt a high, damaging impact on their household assets. Result further shows deterioration of health status in the period following the incidence of Aila. Finding suggests having suffered multiple shocks increases the number of adverse welfare outcomes by 55%. Whereas, suffering either from the climatic shock (33%) or the health shock (25%) alone increases such risks by a much lesser extent. The multiple-shock households face a significantly higher degree of difficulty to finance expenses arising out of health shocks, as opposed to their counterparts facing only the health shock. Further, these households are more likely to finance the expenses through informal loans and credit from acquaintances or moneylenders. Conclusion: This paper presented empirical evidence on how natural and health shocks mutually reinforce their resultant impact, making coping increasingly difficult and present significant risks of welfare loss, having short as well as long-run development manifestations.DFI