Articles by V M Rao

Case of Dryland Agriculture Introduction A SUBSTANTIAL breakthrough in dryland agriculture is a key component in the agricultural strategy proposed for the Eighth Plan [Planning Commission, 1990]. This is important not only for sustaining agricultural growth over the coming decades but, even more, to locate agricultural growth processes in vast areas which have remained largely stagnant so far. Nurturing growth processes in such areas is a delicate and time- taking development task. While the generation of new technologies for dryland agriculture is a formidable enough challenge to be faced, the effective adoption of these technologies by the masses of peasants to support a steady and viable growth process is immeasurably more so. Changes of such an order are in the nature of thoroughgoing transformation in rural societies covering individual attitudes and behaviour, community structures and the network of hierarchies and relationships influencing their economic performance.

Decentralised Planning Priority Economic Issues V M Rao Decentralised planning in India is still in a preliminary stage of experimentation. This paper enumerates a number of issues which need careful attention to develop decentralised planning into a functioning operational system. The issues are categorised under three heads: (i) planning for growth, (ii) planning for minimum needs, and (Hi) promotion of participation in planning.

V M Rao Introduction THIS paper takes a look at the researches done in Karnataka in the last about two decades on the wide range of development programmes implemented in the state. The paper has been prepared as a part of a research project undertaken in the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) to make a comprehensive inventory of development programmes implemented in Karnataka by the official agencies and by the voluntary organisations and to assemble the principal findings and insights of researches done on the programmes in the form of abstracts. A particular attempt has been made in the project to cover unpublished researches available in universities, institutions and government of Karnataka departments.

Changing Village Structure Impact of Rural Development Programmes V M Rao The economic investigations of rural programmes tend to be rather myopic remaining preoccupied with increases in employment, income, assets, etc. The purpose of this paper is to argue that looking at the rural programmes from the broader perspective of changing relative positions of rural strata would provide deeper understanding of rural change and, also, bring the empirical studies closer to the emerging theoretical issues in development economics.

A Review of Experiences and Prospects V M Rao R S Deshpande While the agricultural sector has witnessed some startling breakthroughs, doubts are now being expressed whether the growth is fast enough and sustained enough to carry the economy through the next few critical decades. This paper examines the shifts in the sources of growth since the sixties from area increase to improvements in yields; growth in irrigation and in the use of modern inputs; and takes a brief look at the recent changes in the agriculture's terms of trade. Against this background the authors pose the complex question of the relationship between agricultural growth and the welfare of the rural masses and identify three major frontiers which need to be crossed to push agricultural growth beyond its present limits.