Rice Incomes and Farm Policy

Abstract

newlineKerala is a State of India where agro-climatic conditions are particularly suited to the newlinecultivation of rice. The State is known for its specialised rice agro-ecosystems and locally newlinepreferred and nutritive matta or red-rice varieties. The preservation of rice cultivation is newlinealso valued in Kerala for historical, cultural, and environmental reasons. Although there newlinehas been sustained state intervention directed at preserving the cultivation of rice in Kerala, newlineboth the area under cultivation and the production of rice have declined in the last four newlinedecades. This is the context for my study of the economics of rice cultivation in Kerala. I newlinefurther use a comparative economic framework to study rice cultivation in the Mekong newlineDelta Region of Vietnam, a region with similar physical conditions but rapid growth of rice newlineproduction and productivity. newlineThe first major research issue examined in this thesis is the change in cropping pattern that newlinehas occurred in cropping patterns in the districts of Kerala. This exercise also quantifies newlineand contextualises the aggregate decline in area under rice cultivation. The second research newlinetask undertaken in the thesis is a study, based on field work, of incomes and the costs of newlinerice cultivation in the kole wetland region, the best-performing rice agro-ecosystem in newlineKerala. This study is unique in the method used for the quantitative estimation of newlinegovernment support for rice production and in its examination of the viability of rice newlinecultivation at the household and plot/land parcel levels. Finally, the thesis compares newlineincomes and costs of rice cultivation in the kole wetland region with those in the Mekong newlineDelta region of Vietnam, with the objective of identifying the factors, including newlinegovernment policy, that contributed to differences in the development trajectory of the newlinetwo regions, particularly with respect to productivity and incomes. newline