ABSTRACT
Policies intended to accomplish specific goals, or assist particular activities, almost invariably have side-effects on other sectors, many of which can be quite detrimental. Oftentimes these drawbacks come about through misunderstanding or inadvertence, as for example, when agricultural officials in India urged price support policies in the 1970s to encourage farmers to grow more foodgrains in order to take advantage of the new high yielding varieties (HYVs). These policies did indeed work in the sense that a great deal more foodgrain was produced. However, this success came about to a considerable extent through substituting foodgrains for pulses, as farmers shifted from the one crop to the other as yields and profit opportunities began to appear more promising with foodgrains. This pattern caused a serious nutritional problem, in that pulses had traditionally supplied the critical amino acid (lysine) that is lacking in wheat and rice, and which is needed to give a balanced protein component to the vegetarian diet of most Indians. The planners therefore improved the nutritional situation on the calorie front in terms of total foodgrains produced, but they did so at the expense of the protein position (for more explanation, see inter alia, Cassen, 1975; for a more general consideration of the problem, Cerescope, 1983).
