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Abstract: Specification effects in terms of how technology options are contrasted can introduce bias in impact assessment. In a companion paper we evaluated the on-farm impacts of zero tillage (ZT) wheat as a resource-conserving technology in the rice–wheat systems of India''s Haryana State and Pakistan''s Punjab province [Erenstein, O., Farooq, U., Malik, R.K., Sharif, M., 2008. On-farm impacts of zero tillage wheat in South Asia''s rice–wheat systems. Field Crop Res. 105, 240–252]. The underlying field work surveyed plots of full adopters (only ZT plots), partial adopters (ZT and conventional tillage [CT] plots on same farm) and non-adopters (only CT plots). The companion paper assumes that the comparison between the ZT plots of full plus partial adopters and CT plots of partial adopters is the least-biased assessment of ZT''s on-farm impact. Here we revisit this underlying assumption and draw on complementary farm survey findings to illustrate the extent of specification effects in the assessment of on-farm impacts of ZT wheat in the same study areas. The study thereby distinguishes between three contrasts between ZT and CT within the same dataset: (1) plain contrast (all plots of adopters and non-adopters); (2) adopter-only contrast (full and partial adopters only, as used in Erenstein et al. [Erenstein, O., Farooq, U., Malik, R.K., Sharif, M., 2008. On-farm impacts of zero tillage wheat in South Asia''s rice–wheat systems. Field Crop Res. 105, 240–252]); (3) pair-wise contrast (partial adopters only). Proceeding from type 1 to type 3 comparisons the number of observations decrease but this is compensated by an increasing ability to control for variation. The ability of type 3 comparisons to pick up relatively small but significant differences is an important consideration in farm survey impact assessment. However, there is also an increase in partial adoption bias and further follow-up studies are needed to understand the implications of this. The comparisons show that the ZT effects on savings for diesel, tractor time and cost for wheat cultivation are particularly robust. In Haryana ZT''s positive implications for yield and the other financial indicators were also statistically robust, but in Punjab these were sensitive to specification effects. Particularly sensitive to specification effects were the ZT effects on the productivity of applied water in both sites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Conducting farmers participatory field trials at 40 sites for 3 consecutive years in four rice-wheat system dominated districts of Haryana state of India, this paper tested the hypothesis that zero tillage (ZT) based crop production emits less greenhouse gases and yet provide adequate economic benefits to farmers compared to the conventional tillage (CT). In each farmer's field, ZT and CT based wheat production were compared side by side for three consecutive years from 2009–10 to 2011–12. In assessing the mitigation potential of ZT, we examined the differences in input use and crop management, especially those contributing to GHGs emissions, between ZT wheat and CT wheat. We employed Cool Farm Tool (CFT) to estimate emission of GHGs from various wheat production activities. In order to assess economic benefits, we examined the difference in input costs, net returns and cost-benefit analysis of wheat production under CT and ZT. Results show that farmers can save approximately USD 79 ha−1 in terms of total production costs and increase net revenue of about USD 97.5 ha−1 under ZT compared to CT. Similarly, benefit-cost ratio under ZT is 1.43 against 1.31 under CT. Our estimate shows that shifting from CT to ZT based wheat production reduces GHG emission by 1.5 Mg CO2-eq ha−1 season−1. Overall, ZT has both climate change mitigation and economic benefits, implying the win-win outcome of better agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a structured technique for dealing with complex decisions. In this paper, we propose a new AHP technique using Geographic Information System (GIS) termed as "Objective Spatial Analytic Hierarchy Process (OSAHP)" for identification of potential agroforestry areas by integrating spatial data with ground survey data. The developed OSAHP technique is objective in nature as it is based on sound statistical techniques. This technique is used to categorize all the villages of Yamunanagar district of Haryana State into three classes i.e. High, Moderate and Low potential for agroforestry so that farmers of the district can be advised to adopt/grow agroforestry in the villages that are highly potential or even moderately potential for agroforestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse the impact of new agro-technology on the agrarian social structure with reference to Haryana. The study intends to explore the changing nature of agro-technology and changing socio-political structure of the rural society. It seems that the agro technology along with capitalism or modernisation of agriculture has led not only to an increase in productivity and integration of agriculture in the broader national market, but also brought about the fundamental change in the social relations of production leading to freeing of agricultural labour from all kinds of patronage and institutionalised dependency relationship. It was observed that annual labourers are no more enjoying the paternalistic relations with their employer in the developed region and degree of paternalistic relationships also becoming weak in under-developed region of Haryana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]