Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/312874 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
AWI Discussion Paper Series No. 761
Publisher: 
University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
This paper recounts an early attempt to promote the adoption of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice and wheat by small farmers. The instrument was a package not only of inputs, extension advice and supervision, but also - addressing risk aversion - a guaranteed net revenue. The scheme was implemented by the newly-created Small Farmers' Development Agency, a parastatal body. The paper examines how and why the scheme failed, and analyses the data yielded by the trials. The chief causes of its failure were a lack of incentives within the public sector and the Agency's weakness within the larger administrative system. Despite all manner of difficulties, the participants in the trials obtained levels of valued added per acre thrice those of their contemporaries cultivating local varieties and crop yields from two-thirds to four-fifths of those achieved by their grand children's cohort circa 2020.
Subjects: 
high-yielding varieties
credit-insurance scheme
Small Farmers Development Agency
Bihar
JEL: 
N55
O12
O13
Q12
Q16
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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