Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
11.4
Climate-induced innovation in agriculture
Climate-induced innovation occurs when location-specific cli-
matic constraints produce new demands on technology. Two
outcomes are likely in this process. First, climatic constraints
may induce the development of new knowledge to optimise
the use of available climatic resources, resulting in increased
production. Second, such new knowledge has the potential to
enhance the ability of a region to compensate for the constraints
imposed by climate and become self-sufficient in agricultural
production (Evenson and Gollin, 2000; McCunn and Huffman,
2000). Logically, in the case of India's rice production, climate-
induced innovation may provide opportunities for farmers to
substitute for climate allowing for increased productivity in cli-
matically less-favorable regions, leading to a convergence of
productivity across climatically different regions of the coun-
try. The potential for convergence of productivity across differ-
ent climatic regions can only be realised if and when farmers
and research establishments devise and adapt technologies
appropriate to the existing region-specific human environment
conditions.
Following the thrust of the hypothesis of induced innovation,
a priori
, it can be argued that the innovation of technology in
response to scarcity of climatic resources provides potential for
rice productivity to grow faster in districts with marginal cli-
mate relative to the districts with more favorable climate. This
process is asserted ultimately to lead to a convergence in the
yield of rice over time. Such processes of targeted technological
innovation may be reflected through the development of higher-
yielding location-specific rice varieties, the enhancement of
land development activities (e.g. irrigation), the development of
climate-specific agronomic practices or a combination of all.
The adoption of short-season rice varieties, for example, allows
farmers to escape the late-season drought that occurs in some
areas of the country. Similarly, the presence of irrigation allevi-
ates the scarcity of water, a major constraint in the adoption of
improved varieties of rice in India.
The hypothesis of induced innovation has been used to
explain the relationship between resource endowment and the
development of new technologies. Over time, it has been sub-
stantiated through many examples involving technical change
in food production. The premise of the hypothesis of induced
innovation concerning the role of climate as a stimulant for tech-
nological innovation has gone largely unquestioned because it is
