Institutional Innovations in Accessing Land, Water, Farm Machinery and Extension Services in Indian Agriculture

In India, agriculture is characterized by the predominance of small land holdings that are shrinking considerably in recent decades. This hinders small farmers’ access to modern inputs, institutional finance and agri-extension services, which impedes farm productivity and income-generation. Also, population in India is continuously growing, as does the demand for food, feed and fibre. There are many facets to solving this challenge. Among them is the need for optimum use of different factors of production that require conducive institutional environment. In this chapter, we have picked up four key input systems within agriculture, namely land, water, farm machinery, and agri-extension and have examined the embedded institutions (rules of the game) in each of these sub-systems of agriculture in India with a view to find out the quality of outcomes. The parameters for judging whether the outcomes are good or bad are access to each input, and its efficient, sustainable use. Thus, the central theme of this chapter is the need for innovative and farmer-centric institutions that improve their access to the four most fundamental factors of agricultural production. Better use of land, water, machinery and extension raises farm productivity and income sustainably.