Socio-technical system analysis of tribal and settler farmers in the western ghat regions of wayanad district in Kerala
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Date
2007
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Department Of Agricultural Extension, College Of Agriculture, Vellayani
Abstract
Agriculture cannot be sustainable unless it is integrated into the existing social systems. Furthermore, it must enhance social justice. Social integration means that the farmers must accept the technology. Optimum adoption of agricultural production innovations is achieved only when a farmer is persuaded to accept a technical innovation, which for him is technically sound, economically feasible, physically possible and politically and socially compatible.
Research studies exploring the socio-technical system aspects of agricultural technology generation and diffusion among the diverse tribal and settler farmers in ecologically sensitive locations like Wayanad district will help in envisioning sustainable developmental interventions. It is in this background, the present investigation has been designed to analyse and compare the socio-technical system determinants, to study the cropping pattern and farming systems of the tribal and settler areas, to study the differential diffusion of agricultural innovations among the tribal and settler farmers and to construct a socio-technical feasibility index to evaluate the agricultural innovations among tribal and settler farmers.
The study was carried out in Wayanad district, as this district has the maximum population of tribals and settlers. Six panchayats having the maximum tribal populations from the three blocks of Wayanad were taken. From each panchayat, 30 tribal and 30 settler farmers were selected randomly, making the total sample size of 360 respondents. An index for measuring the socio-technical feasibility of agricultural innovations was developed for the study taking into consideration the socio- technical determinants and adoption variables. In addition to the index, the differential diffusion of agricultural innovations among tribal and settler farmers, the personal, socio-psychological, economic variables and constraints experienced by the tribal and settlers farmers were also studied.
Regarding the distribution of the tribal and settler farmers, with respect to some variables like education, family education status, annual income, exposure to mass media, risk preference, achievement motivation, self confidence, rational orientation, information source utilization, progressiveness and cosmopoliteness the settlers belonged to the high category, whereas in the case of family size, dependency, value orientation and fatalism the tribals belonged to the high category. Still in the case of some variables like farming experience, economic motivation, credit orientation and attitude towards development programmes, there was not any significant difference between the tribals and settlers.
The predominant crops in Wayanad are paddy, coffee, banana, ginger, pepper and arecanut. There was also cultivation of newly introduced crops like vanilla, banana, cardamom, coconut etc. present in small numbers. Majority of the tribals in Wayanad are agricultural labourers having no cultivable land and no control over land resources. The crops they cultivated were also the traditional ones. So the favoured combinations seen among the tribals were limited to the traditional crops namely paddy, coffee, pepper and banana. A shift in favour of the newly introduced crops like vanilla, cardamom, arecanut, banana etc. were seen among the settlers. Settlers had more land compared to the tribals and they were also in favour of new crops or cash crops along with the traditional ones.
The comparison of the tribals and settlers, in the three blocks with respect to the selected variables showed that significant difference in almost all the variables except age, type of family, family size, self confidence, cosmopoliteness and attitude towards development.
A comparative analysis of the three blocks revealed that the differential diffusion was higher in settlers as compared to the tribals of Wayanad. Tribals did not have access to the new technologies and in some cases where there was access, the technology did not suit their existing conditions. The settlers, on the other hand, if they practised new technologies, there were problems with the social and technical determinants, which affected the diffusion.
Evaluation of agricultural innovations using the socio-technical feasibility index showed significant difference between the two major categories, i.e, tribals and settlers. Among tribals also, there was significant difference among the three blocks selected for the study. Kalpetta and Mananthavady showed significant difference among the tribals with regard to the index values. Similar was the case of Mananthavady and Sulthan Bathery. But with respect to CD values of Kalpetta and Sulthan Bathery, there was not much difference. Whereas in the case of settlers, there was not much difference among the settlers from among the three blocks of the district. Significant difference was observed between tribal and settler farmers, in which the tribals were much backward in the case of development.
The study indicated the need for evolving a new strategy for solving the problems in technology generation and its transfer at the field level. Only 30 per cent of the technology generated can be used by the farmers. This shows the non-feasibility of the technologies with respect to the social and technical determinants such as profitability, acceptability, complexity, sustainability etc. These social and technical factors, which are particular for each system, should be taken into consideration while generating and transferring technologies further.
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PhD
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172708