More efficient use of agricultural inputs as part of adoption of preparedness strategies: Monocropping

Abstract

Desai (1988) indicated already 20 years ago that accelerated growth in agricultural production of developing countries depends on exploiting more fully the existing production potential and continuously raising that potential through technological change. He indicated that this requires sustained rapid growth in the use of inputs such as seeds of better quality, fertilizers, pesticides, farm implements, and machinery. Price policy issues at that time dominated in discussions on how to increase the use of these inputs, often without sufficient attention to certain non-price factors and policies. We now know that both price and non-price factors remain important. It must also be acknowledged that at present no achievements would have been in place, had millions of resource-poor farmers living mostly in the developing world not adopted new crops, varieties/hybrids, cropping systems and innovative production technologies. Thus, the secret of success lies in wide scale adoption of improved technologies by millions of small and marginal farmers (Paroda 2004). © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.