a historical policy review of success of castor revolution in.pdfVIP

© Kamla-Raj 2012 J Hum Ecol, 38(3): 213-222 (2012) A Historical Policy Review of Success of Castor Revolution in Gujarat, India D. D. Tewari School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa KEYWORDS Castor Hybrids. Commercialization. Germplasm. Breeding. Adoption ABSTRACT The study explains with respect to various policy parameters which enabled castor crop to become an economic success in Gujarat in 1980s and thereafter. The policy overview suggests that it was a combination of a good breeding program, a good extension model, coupled with access to well-developed national and international markets. All these led to a rapid commercialization success of the castor crop. The study confirms that a simultaneous development of all three programs—breeding, extension, and market development—is the key to the success of any technological change. 1. INTRODUCTION country’s total castor production with only one- third of the total castor acreage in the country Castor is a non-edible oilseed crop; the out- during 1990s (Tewari and Rao 1991: 28). Gujarat put of this crop is in the form of beans which alone contributes to 86 percent of the total cas- when crushed produces oil and cake. Castor oil tor seed production in India today (www. 1 /commodity/castor.html ).Also, cas- has a large international market . Castor oil is used in more than 700 industrial products and