Constraints to the Dispersal of NRC Agricultural Technology in India: The Case of SRI (System of Rice Intensification) in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Agriculture sector has been acknowledged as engine of economic growth and critical to poverty reduction through improvements in rural incomes in developing countries like India. Since the beginning of development planning, policy making in India has been occupied by problems of low per capita production of food grains and accompanying food insecurity. This was partly addressed by large scale investments in irrigation early years of planning and subsequent advances brought by the green revolution, helped the country to achieve a technological breakthrough in the agricultural sector in 1960s. In the Green Revolution process, the knowledge and technologies generated by investment in R&D has played major role in achieving food security for its growing population (Ramasamy, 2013) and achieving self-sufficiency of food grains. Besides the achievement of green revolution in attaining high productivity during 1970s and 1980s, it was restricted only to irrigated regions and to particular crops like wheat and rice.