Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Second, traditionally, agriculture occupies an important role in
the local and national economies of most developing countries
and is an important source of rural employment. Finally, the
relation between climate change and agricultural adaptation
represents a classic example of the human environment inter-
face, an area of long-standing interest within geography.
11.3
theoretical framework
As stated earlier, this research will utilise the theoretical frame-
work of the induced innovation hypothesis to examine the
interaction between climate and technology as a foundation for
understanding the potential future agricultural adaptation to cli-
mate change and variability in India. Induced innovation refers
to the process by which societies develop technologies that
facilitate the substitution of relatively abundant (hence, cheap)
factors of production for relatively scarce (hence, expensive)
factors in the economy. Although the hypothesis of induced
innovation was originally based on the experience of agricul-
tural development in the United States and Japan (Hayami and
Ruttan, 1985), lately, it has been used to explain the complex
process of technological and institutional change, which rep-
resents a major perspective on international agricultural devel-
opment (Koppel, 1995). The most fundamental insight of this
hypothesis is that investment in innovation of new technology
is the function of change (or difference) in resource endowment
and the price of the resources that enters into the agricultural
production function. This has spawned a conceptual infrastruc-
ture that addresses the broader issues of how farmers and their
supporting institutions determine priorities for agricultural
production.
As shown in Figure 11.1, climate change may alter these
climatic resources by changing the growing season length and
soil moisture regimes, and by adding heat stress to the plant.
Such changes, following the hypothesis of induced innovation,
will provide appropriate signals to farmers and public institu-
tions to induce technologies suitable for the new environment.
Translating this argument, as presented in the conceptual
model, the induced innovation hypothesis suggests an impor-
tant pathway for the interaction of climate and technology and
for the study of the agricultural adaptation to climate change.
The strength of this simple framework lies in its ability to high-
light the central role of climate as a motivator of technological
innovation and ultimately as a source of adaptation. Within this
