title: Flood-tolerant rice reduces yield variability and raises expected yield, differentially benefitting socially disadvantaged groups.
abstract: Approximately 30% of the cultivated rice area in India is prone to crop damage from prolonged flooding. We use a randomized field experiment in 128 villages of Orissa India to show that Swarna-Sub1, a recently released submergence-tolerant rice variety, has significant positive impacts on rice yield when fields are submerged for 7 to 14 days with no yield penalty without flooding. We estimate that Swarna-Sub1 offers an approximate 45% increase in yields over the current popular variety when fields are submerged for 10 days. We show additionally that low-lying areas prone to flooding tend to be more heavily occupied by people belonging to lower caste social groups. Thus, a policy relevant implication of our findings is that flood-tolerant rice can deliver both efficiency gains, through reduced yield variability and higher expected yield, and equity gains in disproportionately benefiting the most marginal group of farmers.
authors.affiliation: International Rice Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Manzoor H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Dar
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Janvry
authors.forename: Kyle
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Emerick
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raitzer
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sadoulet
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000254:growth & development*; D055868:Floods; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D012275:Oryza / Q000254:growth & development*; D011204:Poverty Areas; D011897:Random Allocation; D063809:Satellite Imagery; D035862:Vulnerable Populations