Abstract
This study modelled the cropping decisions of Indian agricultural households using a nationally representative survey conducted in 2013 covering over 35,000 households with plot-level panel data on the types of crop cultivated in the two seasons (Kharif or Rabi) of a cropping year. We controlled for household-level unobserved characteristics using a fixed-effects procedure and estimated a multinomial model to determine the factors affecting choice of crop-type. We provide evidence on the ‘stickiness’ in the choice of cereals in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and other regions of India. The probability of a farmer switching towards non-cereal crops within the crop year was low, highlighting the challenges in crop diversification. We found that irrigated plots were less likely to be left fallow and more likely to be used for growing cereals. The probability of cultivating cereals was higher for larger plots. While our results suggest that policies promoting irrigation and the expansion of land ownership might not improve crop diversification, we also find that these measures may reduce the amount of land left fallow and hence impact food security in India.
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Notes
The categories for the kind of possession are—owned and possessed, leased-in, otherwise possessed, and leased-out.
Qualitative studies have established that availability of water across seasons affects the risk perceived by farmers especially in the Rabi season (Singh et al., 2016).
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Acknowledgements
This article was written as part of the System of Promoting Appropriate National Dynamism for Agriculture and Nutrition (SPANDAN) research initiative. The initiative is supported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Global Development Grant Number OPP1029478). We are grateful for comments from seminar participants at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai and participants at the international conference on “Pulses for Sustainable Agriculture and Human Health” held on 31 May-1 June 2016 in New Delhi, India. We thank the Editor in Chief, a Senior Editor, and an Associate Editor of the journal and the anonymous referees for their detailed comments.
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Chandrasekhar, S., Pandey, V.L. & Sahoo, S. Land use and cropping decisions of agricultural households in India. Food Sec. 14, 621–635 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01250-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01250-z