Conditions for group action among farmers

These conditions are the inherent deficiencies of the natural resource base, the insufficient and sometimes ineffective investment in improvements of the natural resource base, and the inefficient use of existing or potential resources because of social and institutional structure and insufficient diffusion of knowledge among farmers. This paper describes the village level studies set up using a multidisciplinary approach as an organized way of gathering original microlevel data to satisfy many of the needs of different researchers in ICRISAT. The study is limited to three zones, the Sholapur, Akola and Mahbubnagar districts. The studies were to provide the data base for the following types of analyses: tests of new practices against the existing farming system via cost benefit analysis and other checks of how the new technologies could fit into or supercede existing practices; examination of proposed research projects for their likely contribution to alleviating existing constraints; search of existing practices of farmers for components which might be incorporated into new technologies or improved research; and identification of formal or informal institutional arrangements evolved in the past to facilitate agricultural production and identification of institutional changes required to make adoption of new knowledge or investment packages feasible. The payoff, investment cost and its spread, gestation period, extent of out-of-pocket costs, and so forth, are basic considerations influencing farmers" response to new technology.