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Innovation Adoption in Indian Agriculture—the High Yielding Varieties Programme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Barbara Harriss
Barbara Harriss
Affiliation:
Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology
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Extract

Whilst reading agricultural economics for the postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Science at Cambridge University, the author's attention was caught by two reports on recent developments in Indian agriculture. These were the ‘I.A.D.P. Third Report 1965–7’, and the ‘First Evaluation Study of the High Yielding Varieties Programme for 1967–8’. Although the information was generalized and the samples involved biased towards most successful areas, certain trends and conclusions emerged relating to the progress of innovation adoption in simple agricultural communities and the influences at work on the mechanism. Subsequent field work in north-west India provided firstly some of the detail lacked by the All-India statistics and, secondly, some insight into the problems faced by economically progressive districts of relevance to less developed ones.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1972 , pp. 71 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

The author wishes to thank the trustees of the Mary Euphrasia Mosley Travel Scholarship, Cambridge University, and the trustees of the Mary Ewart Graduate Travel Award, Newnham College, Cambridge, for their financial assistance; Sir Joseph Hutchinson for his comments on a draft version of this paper, Mr B. H. Farmer for his guidance and encouragement, and her husband for his help with the field work.

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