The gift of change

In recent years there is a growing trend of crop diversification in dry land regions. Dr RP Singh provides an insight into this phenomenon and explains its impact on farmers

It is a known fact that farmers in the dry land regions face various types of risks and income instability due to uncertain climatic conditions and poor resource base. The diversification across crops and fields are the two main strategies followed by the farmers to minimise the risks of income instability. Plot diversification arises from farmers owning more than one field, leasing in land, sub-plotting within fields, and multiple cropping over season. More land fragmentation implies greater plot diversification. Since, majority of the farmers in dry land regions are small and marginal farmers, they have to meet multiple objectives with limited land. Hence, they plan their cropping activities in such a manner that it can ensure them regular income, and minimise risk of crop failure. Land fragmentation has many inherent limitations, as it leads to slow adoption of new technology. But for farmers especially marginal and small, it is risk management strategy for spreading risk to larger areas. Some studies have been conducted based on country or district level data using gross revenue variability as a measure of crop income instability but they often fail to capture real farm level realities. For example, the study conducted by BC Barah and HP Binswanger (1982) under the aegis of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) using district level data for four states indicates that crop diversification was largely a response to low and unstable rainfall. Moreover crop diversification does significantly reduce gross revenue variability. The effect of diversification has not been adequately addressed by taking into account the farm level data on crop income stability.

DATA USED
The present study uses farm level data from three distinct agro climatic regions covering a period of five years to address the causes and consequences of interregional and inter-village differences in diversification behaviour. This data set from the Icrisat Village Studies pertain to a panel of 30 cultivator households in each of the six villages located in three broad soil, climatic and cropping regions of the semi-arid tropics of India.

METHODOLOGY
Both crop and field diversification is measured by the Simpson index of diversity. The index is calculated for each farm household. Measuring the level of crop diversification is quite complex as more than 35 per cent of the plots are intercropped and to get exact area under each crop is quite difficult. Besides many cultivars of different crops are planted and one should be clear to include them as one crop.

DETERMINANTS OF CROP DIVERSIFICATION
The level of crop diversification, both within and across villages, largely depends on site specific ecological characteristics, the resource endowment of farm households and their personal characteristics, emerging weather conditions, crop rotational requirements, perceived consumption needs of the households and market access. However, all these factors such as crop rotational considerations and consumption targets were not readily available and so they have not been analysed. It was expected that personal characteristics, including risk aversion lead to greater diversification. Risk attitudes for each household were estimated by conducting experimental games described in Binswanger (1978) and Binswanger et al (1982). Changing weather conditions particularly at planting is expected to influence crop choices and levels of diversification. The effect should be stronger in less assured rainfall regions where crops are planted in post-rainy season on residual soil moisture. The resource endowments of the farm household are expected to have a substantial influence on diversification. The access to irrigation, availability of draft power, labour, land quality, experience and education of the farmers play an important role in influencing diversification. The details of explanatory variables are given in Table 1. Since these three regions have diverse agro climatic conditions the determinants of farm-level diversification are analysed

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