ABSTRACT
Chandpur village lies in the district of Varanasi, which is the home of the ancient and holy city of Banaras, known in ancient literature as Kashi, venerated and inhabited by the Hindus, Muslims, Jains and the Buddhists alike. Irrigation is limited and there is dependence on rains for agriculture, the cropping pattern is guided by the rainfall pattern. In Kharif and Rabi seasons, there is a mixture of food crops and cash crops, with food crops occupying a larger share of cultivable land. Only one principal food crop is harvested in each of the two seasons: paddy in Kharif and wheat in Rabi. From the cultivation process, the inputs into agriculture sought by the farmers of Chandpur can be easily deduced. The inputs would come in the nature of "public" good or "free" good, such as soil fertility, sunshine, rains and some in the nature of purchased inputs: be they seeds, fertilizers/manure, water and water lifting devices, labour and tractor.
