This book intends to compare Government and NGO interventions and non-interventions with regard to dryland agriculture in semiarid region of Andhra Pradesh IT analyses the process and the consequences of adoption of improved technologies for dryland agriculture.

A study in 1987 concluded that agricultural innovations for dryland had been developed in India but that, amongst others extension and implementation was not very successful. The present study is in fact a continuation of this interest in the problems faced by farming households living in remote, economically backward semi-arid regions and the policies towards these regions. The study focuses on agricultural change in a semi-arid area south of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and analyses in depth the effect of two intervention strategies: a project financed by the World Bank and implemented by the Andhra Pradesh Government and a project implemented by AWARE, one of the largest NWOs in Andhra Pradesh and in India.