4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST areas. Inadequate access to institutional credit is a far more critical deprivation to cultivators now than before since it denies the benefits of technological change to the rural poor. The purpose of this paper is to examine India's land and rural credit system, their inter-dcpendencc and the constraint of the prevailing distribution of land on food production and that of the allocation of rural credit on adoption of technological change. In the first part, differentiation of peasantry is specified with respect to ownership of land, use of agricultural implements and water, and availability of credit. The efficiency aspect of prevailing differentiation of peasantry is also examined by estimating the effect of a given redistribution of land on aggregate food production. The land reforms policy is reviewed in the second part and the rural credit system in the third. Some explanation of the rigidity in land ownership pattern and the prevailing inequitable allocation of credit is attempted in the end. TAB^E IDISTRIBUTION OF ECONOMIC RESOURCES AMONG 1 ^URAL HOUS ;EHOLDS < [1971-72) P< srccntage Poor Small Well-to-do peasants farmers farmers Households 60.28 29.38 10.34 Area operated 9.25 37.52 53.23 Cattle I Heads 14.10 49.98 35.92 » Value 8.71 43.97 47.32 Buffaloes I Heads 16.12 45.46 38.40 j Value 15.35 43.46 41.19 Ploughs I wooden 10.82 56.58 32.60 j Iron 7.35 47.50 45.15 Electric pumps, 'tractors 3.69 20.07 76,24 Agricultural machinery (value) 4.45 33.30 62.25 Non-farm business equipment (value) 47.83 20.12 32.05 Transport equipment (value) 11.14 38.70 50.16 Land utilization (net area sown as percentage of area operated) 89.39 87.78 80.94 Crop intensity (gross cropped area as percentage of net area) 1.30 1.21 1.12 Cropping pattern (area under food crops as percent- age of gross cropped area) 83.10 80.26 73.63 Irrigation (all types) 15.09 38.98 45.93 Irrigation intensity (gross irrigated area as percent- age of net irrigated area) 1.63 1.04 086 Term loans \ Public sector banks 5.10 32.62 62.29 (amount outstand- j Private sector banks 3.96 18.75 77.29 pg in 1973-74) SOURCE: National Sample Survey, 26th Round, No 215, Agricultural Census of India, Government of India, 1975, and Reserve Bank of India Monthly Bulletin, April 1974 and August 1974.