Impact of policies designed to enhance efficiency of water and nutrients on farm households varying in resource endowments in south India

Abstract

Livelihoods of rice farmers depend on the efficient use of scarcely available agricultural resources. Farmers tend to maximize economic output of farming activities that may not necessarily coincide with the optimal use of resources from an ecological perspective. However, improving resource use efficiencies at the regional level is important for society at large. Efficiencies can be enhanced by well-chosen combinations of resource efficient technologies at the farm level and policy interventions at the regional level, thereby obtaining a balance between the objectives of both farmers and society. Rice-based farms in Tamil Nadu, India, were grouped into four farm types based on their biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. Crop and farm level resource use efficiencies of water, labour, capital and nutrients were quantified on three representative farms per farm type. The four farm types differed in water, labour and nutrient productivity and profitability both at crop and farm level. Water productivity was poor on Farm Types 1, 2 and 3 compared with Farm Type 4 due to the open access to the commonly available canal water on the first types. Labour productivity was highest on Farm Type 2 due to more family labour use and lowest on Farm Type 3 due to the small operational holding. Farm Types 1 and 2 were most profitable and Farm Types 3 and 4 were least profitable – directly related to the resource endowments. Farm Type 3 was least efficient in all the resources considered, emphasizing the negative effect of low resource endowments. Possible policy interventions in order to improve the resource use efficiencies and their effect on the farmer livelihoods are discussed. Government policy interventions may influence the farm resource use efficiencies through the adoption of resource efficient technologies. However, an identical set of policy interventions cannot be applicable to all farm types since current resource use efficiencies and adaptability of these farm types for change in policies differed substantially.