IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/eptddp/59229.html

Local Seed Systems and Village-Level Determinants of Millet Crop Diversity in Marginal Environments of India

Author

Listed:
  • Nagarajan, Latha
  • Smale, Melinda

Abstract

In the subsistence-oriented, semi-arid production systems of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, India, the environment is marginal for crop growth and often there is no substitute for millet crops. Across communities, farmers grow thirteen different combinations of pearl millet, sorghum, finger millet, little millet, and foxtail millet varieties, but individual farmers grow an average of only two to three millet varieties per season. The notion of the seed system includes all channels through which farmers acquire genetic materials, outside or in interaction with the commercial seed industry. Data are compiled through household surveys and interviews with traders and dealers in village and district markets. Based on the concept of the seed lot, several characteristics of local seed markets are defined and measured by millet crop, including seed transfer rates for farmer-to-farmer transactions and seed replacement ratios. Most seed transactions appear to be based on money. Seed supply channels differ by improvement status of the genetic material. Econometric results indicate the significance of the seed replacement ratios and seed volumes traded in determining the levels of crop biodiversity managed by communities, in addition to the household, farm and other market-related factors identified by previous studies. These are interpreted as indicators of market strength.

Suggested Citation

  • Nagarajan, Latha & Smale, Melinda, 2005. "Local Seed Systems and Village-Level Determinants of Millet Crop Diversity in Marginal Environments of India," EPTD Discussion Papers 59229, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:eptddp:59229
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.59229
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/59229/files/eptdp135.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.59229?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul W. Heisey & John P. Brennan, 1991. "An Analytical Model of Farmers' Demand for Replacement Seed," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1044-1052.
    2. Sperling, Louise & Scheldegger, Urs & Buruchara, Robin, 1996. "Designing Seed Systems With Small Farmers: Principles Derived From Bean Research In The Great Lakes Region Of Africa," Overseas Development Institute Archive 295973, Overseas Development Institute.
    3. Brush, Stephen B. & Taylor, J. Edward & Bellon, Mauricio R., 1992. "Technology adoption and biological diversity in Andean potato agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 365-387, October.
    4. Bellon, Mauricio R & Taylor, J Edward, 1993. ""Folk" Soil Taxonomy and the Partial Adoption of New Seed Varieties," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(4), pages 763-786, July.
    5. William A. Brock & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2003. "Valuing Biodiversity from an Economic Perspective: A Unified Economic, Ecological, and Genetic Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1597-1614, December.
    6. Sperling, Louise & Loevinsohn, Michael E., 1993. "The dynamics of adoption: Distribution and mortality of bean varieties among small farmers in Rwanda," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 441-453.
    7. Thiele, Graham, 1999. "Informal potato seed systems in the Andes: Why are they important and what should we do with them?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 83-99, January.
    8. Scott Rozelle & Carl Pray & Jikun Huang, 1997. "Agricultural Research Policy in China: Testing the Limits of Commercialization-Led Reform*," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 39(2), pages 37-71, July.
    9. Maredia, Mywish K. & Howard, Julie A. & Boughton, Duncan & Naseem, Anwar & Wanzala, Maria N. & Kajisa, Kei, 1999. "Increasing Seed System Efficiency in Africa: Concepts, Strategies and Issues," Food Security International Development Working Papers 54578, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    10. Edmeades, Svetlana & Phaneuf, Dan & Renkow, Mitch & Smale, Melinda, 2004. "Variety demand within the framework of an agricultural household model with attributes: the case of bananas in Uganda," EPTD discussion papers 125, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Derek Byerlee & Edward Souza, 1997. "Wheat Rusts and the Costs of Genetic Diversity in the Punjab of Pakistan," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(3), pages 726-737.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nagarajan, Latha & Smale, Melinda & Glewwe, Paul, 2005. "Comparing Farm and Village-Level Determinant of Millet Diversity in Marginal Environments of India: The Context of Seed Systems," EPTD Discussion Papers 59235, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Gruère, Guillaume P. & Nagarajan, Latha & King, E. D. I. Oliver, 2007. "Collective action and marketing of underutilized plant species: The case of minor millets in Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu, India," CAPRi working papers 69, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Nagarajan, Latha & Pardey, Philip G. & Smale, Melinda, 2006. "Local seed systems for millet crops in marginal environments of India: industry and policy perspectives," EPTD Discussion Papers 55420, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nagarajan, Latha & Smale, Melinda, 2005. "Local seed systems and village-level determinants of millet crop diversity in marginal environments of India:," EPTD discussion papers 135, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Eric Van Dusen & D. Gauchan & M. Smale, 2007. "On‐Farm Conservation of Rice Biodiversity in Nepal: A Simultaneous Estimation Approach," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 242-259, June.
    3. Van Dusen, M. Eric & Gauchan, Devendra & Smale, Melinda, 2005. "On farm conservation of rice biodiversity in Nepal," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19210, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Bellon, Mauricio R., 2001. "Demand and Supply of Crop Infraspecific Diversity on Farms: Towards a Policy Framework for On-Farm Conservation," Economics Working Papers 7666, CIMMYT: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
    5. Bellon, Mauricio R., 2004. "Conceptualizing Interventions to Support On-Farm Genetic Resource Conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 159-172, January.
    6. Gauchan, Devendra & Van Dusen, M. Eric & Smale, Melinda, 2005. "On Farm Conservation of Rice Biodiversity in Nepal: A Simultaneous Estimation Approach," EPTD Discussion Papers 58589, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Van Dusen, M. Eric, 2000. "In Situ Conservation Of Crop Genetic Resources In The Mexican Milpa System," Dissertations 11941, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    8. Benin, Samuel & Gebremedhin, Berhanu & Smale, Melinda & Pender, John & Ehui, Simeon, "undated". "Determinants of cereal diversity in communities and on household farms of the northern Ethiopian highlands," ESA Working Papers 289085, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    9. Jean-Paul Chavas, 2009. "On the Productive Value of Biodiversity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(1), pages 109-131, January.
    10. Drucker, Adam G. & Gomez, Veronica & Anderson, Simon, 2001. "The economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: a survey of available methods," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-18, January.
    11. Smale, Melinda & Singh, Joginder & Di Falco, Salvatore & Zambrano, Patricia, 2008. "Wheat breeding, productivity and slow variety change: evidence from the Punjab of India after the Green Revolution," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(4), pages 1-14.
    12. Ekin Birol & Melinda Smale & Agnes Gyovai, 2005. "Sustainable Use and Management of Crop Genetic Resources: Landraces on Hungarian Small Farms," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Working Papers 02.2005, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economics, revised 2005.
    13. Melinda Smale & Leslie Lipper & Phoebe Koundouri, 2006. "Scope, Limitations and Future Directions," DEOS Working Papers 0601, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    14. Di Falco, Salvatore & Perrings, Charles, 2005. "Crop biodiversity, risk management and the implications of agricultural assistance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 459-466, December.
    15. Gennifer Meldrum & Dunja Mijatović & Wilfredo Rojas & Juana Flores & Milton Pinto & Grover Mamani & Eleuterio Condori & David Hilaquita & Helga Gruberg & Stefano Padulosi, 2018. "Climate change and crop diversity: farmers’ perceptions and adaptation on the Bolivian Altiplano," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 703-730, April.
    16. Ott, Ingrid & Papilloud, Christian & Zülsdorf, Torben, 2008. "What drives innovation? Causes of and Consequences for nanotechnologies," Kiel Working Papers 1455, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    17. Meng, Erika C.H. & Smale, Melinda & Rozelle, Scott & Ruifa, Hu & Huang, Jikun, 1999. "The Cost Of Wheat Diversity In China," 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN 21580, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Jean-Paul Chavas & Salvatore Di Falco, 2012. "On the Productive Value of Crop Biodiversity: Evidence from the Highlands of Ethiopia," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(1), pages 58-74.
    19. Benin, S. & Smale, M. & Pender, J. & Gebremedhin, B. & Ehui, S., 2004. "The economic determinants of cereal crop diversity on farms in the Ethiopian highlands," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 197-208, December.
    20. Smale, Melinda, 2000. "Economic Incentives for Conserving Crop Genetic Diversity on Farms: Issues and Evidence," 2000 Conference, August 13-18, 2000, Berlin, Germany 197208, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:eptddp:59229. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.