Premium
ADOPTION OF A LONG‐GESTATION CROP: EUCALYPTUS GROWERS IN NORTH‐WEST INDIA
Author(s) -
Saxe. C.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1992.tb00220.x
Subject(s) - eucalyptus , agriculture , irrigation , crop , constraint (computer aided design) , agroforestry , agricultural economics , geography , economics , agronomy , biology , forestry , mathematics , ecology , archaeology , geometry
A four‐village survey was carried out in 1989‐90 in western Uttar Pradesh to test three hypotheses about the adoption of a newly introduced tree crop of Eucalyptus. First, Eucalyptus is of relatively long gestation, and is hence inconvenient for small farmers. Second, its adoption entails risk, and is more likely to be adopted by those who come from upper castes, have more assets, and diversified sources of incomes. Third, total labour required for growing Eucalyptus is much less than for seasonal crops, and hence it is preferred by labour‐constrained households in general, and non‐resident households in particular. The survey supported these hypotheses. Besides the constraint of gestation, small farmers, despite having caught up with large farmers in the adoption of modern seeds technology in agriculture, did not risk adopting Eucalyptus because, with assured irrigation and fertile soils, annual crops provided a more stable income.