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Changes in Agriculture and Village Economies

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/1757/
 
Title Changes in Agriculture and Village Economies
 
Creator Rao, K P C
Kumara Charyulu, D
 
Subject Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description The Village Level Studies of ICRISAT are designed to collect farm level data to assist research in its task
of generating new technologies suited to the needs and means of farmers living in the semi-arid tropics.
They serve as a vehicle to study the changes in agriculture and village economies. This publication is a
comprehensive study of 240 households from six villages, Aurepalle and Dokur in Andhra Pradesh and
Kalman, Kanzara, Kinkheda and Shirapur villages in Maharashtra undertaken from 1975 to 1984 and later
resumed in 2001-02 with a more representative sample of 446 households. It documents the changes that
occurred in agriculture and household economies in these villages over a 26-year period between 1975-78
and 2001-04. The studies while giving a clear picture of farming systems in the rural areas, help in
identifying the socioeconomic and institutional constraints faced by the farming community.
The studies reveal the slow disappearance of joint families (dominant in 1975-78) and the emergence of
nuclear families. They delve deep into the trends pertaining to average family size, literacy levels, household
income, consumption standards, dependence on farming as a major occupation, reduced dependence on
crop and livestock enterprises for sustenance, nonfarm sources of income, real wages of labor, etc. The
studies reveal that households had less land to operate in 2001-04 than in 1975-78 and that cropping
patterns have undergone drastic changes with cash crops overtaking food crops in all the VLS villages.
Despite moderate increases in productivity, crop and livestock production have become non-remunerative
due to steadily increasing production costs and stagnant product prices.
The publication finally addresses the policy implications of drastically changed cropping patterns and
nonviability of crop and livestock enterprises among other issues, and suggests measures to improve the
state of rainfed agriculture in the semi-arid tropics.
 
Publisher International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics
 
Date 2007
 
Type Book
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/1757/1/Changes_in__agriculture__and_village_economies.pdf
Rao, K P C and Kumara Charyulu, D (2007) Changes in Agriculture and Village Economies. Research Bulletin no.21 . International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics , Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India. ISBN 978-92-9066-507-6