Subject

Degree

Location

Ethiopia, Addis Ababa ,Addis Ababa

Farmers’ Behaviour towards Adopting Conservation Agricultural Practices in Wheat: A Study in Punjab and Haryana

Attaining food security for a growing population and alleviating poverty while sustaining agricultural systems under the current scenario of depleting natural resources, negative impacts of climatic variability, spiraling cost of inputs and volatile food prices are the major challenges in front of Indian Agriculture. The tillage intensive conventional cereal-based cropping systems which is instrumental in achieving of self-sufficiency in food-grain production often led to emergence of second generation problems of green revolution viz., decline in soil organic matter, soil degradation, emergence of multi-nutrient deficiency, soil compaction, crop residue burning etc. leading towards non-sustainability in long-term. Conservation agriculture can be seen as a new way forward for conserving resources and enhancing productivity to achieve the goals of sustainable agriculture, which demands a strong knowledge base and a combination of institutional and technological innovations. Conservation Agriculture (CA) technologies involves the minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues, or cover crops, and crop diversification for achieving higher productivity.
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Technical Requirements

Objective 1: To assess the knowledge and attitude of farmers of Punjab and Haryana regarding CA practices in wheat

Measurement of knowledge: Knowledge test and Knowledge Index will be developed. Attitude measurement: Summated rating Likert type scale on attitude towards CA will be constructed and it will be measured on a 5 point continuum. Effect of socio-economic, psychological and communication variables on the knowledge and attitude of the farmers will be studied using regression model.

Objective 2: To study behaviour of farmers regarding adoption of CA practices in wheat

In this particular objective, Technology Acceptance Model will be used with minor modifications for the current study to measure behavioural intentions, factors affecting that and ultimately predicting behaviour towards CA. TAM model is one of the most influential extensions of Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action (TRA) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB). TAM provides a basis for discovering the impact of external variables on intermediate variables like beliefs, values, attitudes and ultimately the behaviour of individual.

 Objective 3: To analyse factors promoting the uptake of CA practices by farmers

Different factors promoting CA practices will be identified after thorough review of literature and focus group discussion with the farmers. After coming out with a list of factors, it will be analysed using Principal Component Analysis.

Objective 4: To explore the role of institutions in promoting CA practice among farmers

First institutions will be categorized into different groups, types of services provided by the institutions (input, consultancy, advisory, capacity building etc.), timeliness of services, quality and utility of services provided by the institutes will be studied. Along with this, importance of institutions and their networking in promoting CA among farmers will be studied using institutional networking analysis.

Objective 5: To delineate the perceived constraints in the adoption of CA practices by farmers and framing suitable strategies

Constraints or barriers will be categorized into different groups: social, financial, technical, infrastructural, psychological, institutional etc. and will be measured using ranking techniques and appropriate strategies will be formulated against each constraint after discussing with experts and farmers.