Government Paddy Development Schemes And Their Impact On Production And Market Supply: A Review Of The Literature With Special Reference To Palakkad, Kerala

Abstract

Rice is the staple food of Kerala, yet the state produces only a fraction of its requirement and has experienced a sustained contraction in the area under paddy over the past half-century. Successive central and state governments have responded with a dense architecture of paddy development schemes, comprising minimum support price and assured procurement, input subsidies and per-hectare cultivation assistance, mechanisation and group-farming support, conservation incentives, and agricultural credit and crop insurance. This article reviews the theoretical and empirical literature bearing on the evaluation of these schemes and their impact on paddy production and market supply, with special reference to Palakkad, the leading rice-producing district of the state. Drawing on foundational works in agricultural and development economics, the diffusion-of-innovations and technology-adoption literatures, supply-response theory, and the political science of policy implementation, together with empirical studies from Kerala, India, and comparable developing-country settings, the review synthesises current knowledge around five themes: the decline of paddy cultivation and its causes; the design of government schemes; farmers’ awareness and utilisation of schemes; the impact of schemes on production and marketed surplus; and the role of implementation and extension in shaping outcomes. The review finds that scheme effectiveness cannot be inferred from expenditure or aggregate production figures, and that awareness, utilisation, and realised outcomes must be treated as distinct. It identifies a need for district-level, dual-perspective evaluation that separates awareness from utilisation and incorporates the viewpoint of implementing officers alongside that of farmers, and outlines directions for future research.