Impact of irrigation and labor availability on multiple cropping : a case study of India

This case study examines the considerable differences in multiple cropping from State to State and within selected States in India in order to discover the effect on multiple cropping of the key variables of irrigation and the availability of labor. The availability of labor per unit of sown area and the extent and quality of irrigation were found to account for 80% of inter-State variations in multiple cropping; in 12 of the 17 States studied, the same factors accounted for 80% of the variations in cropping intensity among farm holdings grouped according to size. Smaller farms used labor and irrigation more intensively, while among irrigation methods, tubewells had the most positive effect on multiple cropping, double that of wells and canals. Results suggest that the expansion of irrigation contemplated in the GOI"s Sixth Five-Year Plan could, if rightly implemented, increase multiple cropping by about 1% per year, resulting in a 3.5% increase in agricultural output at the present productivity rate. On a more general level, results indicate that land reforms can exert a significant favorable effect on multiple cropping.