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INTRODUCTION
Economic and technological systems all over the globe are changing rapidly. However, the intensity and impact of these changes are more pronounced in developing countries. In India, although the reforms of economic liberalisation and structural adjustments initiated in 1991 were not explicitly directed to agriculture, they are expected to impact agricultural sector significantly. The impact may be more visible with the completion of second phase of the reforms covering financial sector, public organisations, protection of intellectual property and labour regulations (Vyas, 2001). This, coupled with trade-led growth opportunities and challenges and technological revolutions are expected to transform Indian agriculture significantly. It is now a fact that further growth in the agriculture could be achieved mainly through increase in productivity, which is only possible through accelerated development and dissemination of improved technologies. Since most of the cutting-edge technologies are knowledge-intensive, new institutions and organisations are needed for their development, management and use. In particular, participation of private sector in agricultural research and development (R&D) and protection of intellectual property, including plant varieties, requires reorientation of the existing R&D institutions. The experience of the green revolution has also shown that besides technological advancements and applications, supporting institutions like credit, land reforms, etc., as well as incentives like prices are of paramount importance for technology-led growth in agriculture. The past experience has clearly shown that the full potential of some of the technologies, e.g., hybrids, integrated crop management, watershed development, bio-inputs, etc., could not be realised due to lack of proper institutions (Pal et al., 1998; and Kolavalli and Kerr, 2002). These were information-intensive technologies, while the existing institutions had the strength to transfer of input-based technologies like seeds of open pollinated crops and fertilisers. These mismatches between the strengths and the requirements would determine the direction of institutional reforms in Indian agriculture in future. Though the main emphasis in this paper is on the institutions relating to agricultural R&D consisting of technology development, management, transfer and use, regulations, etc., other complementary institutions such as credit, agrarian, marketing and trade affecting adoption and impact of technologies are also discussed.
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INSTITUTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT: SOME EVIDENCE
The new institutional economics (NIE) is increasingly applied to study economic and agricultural development. The evidences suggest strong link between quality...