Patterns of human social organisation are frequently overlooked in rural development planning and implementation. Yet it is the members of the local community that decide how to respond to development activities, and cost#x2010;effective planned change cannot afford to overlook this human factor. This article discusses some recent changes in economic and social processes amongst Omani farmers in the eastern region of the country; and focusses upon responses to new opportunities, which have created a pattern of indigenous development. Data are presented to review physical resources, farmers#x2019; social organisation as this relates to production, and some key issues in national development planning. The population studied is the settled, crop#x2010;producing village communities, and the process of innovation here, although this process is often merged with that going on amongst the nomadic groups. Socioeconomic data were collected using the methods of applied anthropology, with fieldwork in the Sultanate of Oman during four months of 1986 and 1987. Two major areas of innovation and indigenous development are highlighted. These include the production of green livestock fodder (alfalfa), and wage earning and investment of this private capital. Both issues are extremely important for the future course of planned development activities here and in other areas.
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