R.D. Ghodake¹ and S. LalithaInternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh 502 324, India
1. Present address: Highlands Food Crops Research Team, Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Kuk Agricultural Research Station PO Box 339, Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea
This paper contains the results of an ex-ante economic assessment of an improved Vertisol technology in a verification site of high production potential in Madhya Pradesh, central India. Implications from the Indian experience are drawn for on-farm verification of prospective technologies in sub-Saharan Africa.
The assessment is made by using the whole-farm modeling approach which allows technology verification with a farming system perspective. The results suggest considerable potential for the adoption of the improved Vertisol technology. Adoption varies between 71 and 97% across different farm-size classes. The marginal rate of return on additional production expenditure ranges from 101 to 142%.
Credit was identified as the constraint to potential adoption of the improved technology. Compared with the existing credit availability, the model's estimates are consistent with credit gaps ranging from 50 to 75%. Therefore, in technology transfer in central India, the main emphasis must be on providing sufficient credit.
ICRISAT's experience of applying whole-farm modeling for economic assessment indicates that because of the comprehensiveness of the approach, the comparability of Vertisol management options, and the characteristics of the farming environment in sub-Saharan Africa, such an approach can effectively be used for making economic assessments of prospective technologies in sub-Saharan Africa.
