Attitude of the farmers towards organic farming in Marathwada region
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Date
2022-12-29
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Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani
Abstract
The present study was undertaken in Marathwada region of Maharashtra state during the year 2021-22. In purposively selected three districts on viz., Aurangabad, Beed and Nanded districts of Marathwada region of Maharashtra state on the basis of maximum number of farmers following organic farming practices were found in these three districts. The talukas also selected purposively on the basis of maximum number of farmers following organic farming practices. So, from Nanded district two talukas were selected namely, Loha, and Billoli, from Beed district two talukas namely, Parali V., and Ambajogai were selected and from Aurangabad district two talukas namely, Gangapur and Paithan were selected. Thus, total six talukas were selected.
From each selected taluka 3 villages were selected purposively on the basis of maximum number of farmers following organic farming practices for that purpose list obtained from Organic Farming Research and Training Centre, VNMKV, Parbhani, and State Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra hence eighteen villages were selected for conducting the study. The list of organic following farmers was obtained from Organic farming research and training centre, VNMKV, Parbhani, and State Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra. So from each village ten respondent organic following farmers were selected randomly from that list and we considered them as respondents, thus making a sample of 180 respondents. Ex-post facto research design was adopted in this study. The data were collected with the help of pretested interview schedule from the respondents as per their convenience at their home or farms.
The independent variables namely, education, size of family, occupation, land holding, area under organic cultivation, annual income, farming experience, social participation, mass media exposure, scientific orientation, economic motivation, innovativeness and knowledge were selected for study. Attitude towards organic farming selected as dependent variable for study. The method of summated rating suggested by Likert (1932) was used to develop and standardize a scale to measure attitude of the farmers towards organic farming.
The statistical methods and tools such as mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage, Pearson’s coefficient of correlation, multiple regression analysis and path analysis was used for the analysis of data.
The study shows that, more than one third (34.45%) of the respondents educated up to higher secondary school (11th to 12th), majority (52.22%) of the respondents had small sized families having up to 4 members in their respective families, majority (96.11%) of the respondents had agriculture as a main occupation, near about half (49.45%) of the respondents belonged to small category of land holding i.e. 1.01 to 2.00 ha., near about half (47.77%) of the respondents had annual income between Rs. 1,26,667 to Rs. 2,13,332/-, majority (60.56%) of the respondents had small area under organic cultivation i.e. up to 0.67 ha., more than three fourth (71.66%) of the respondents were having up to 8 years of farming experience, more than half (60.55%) of the respondents belonged to medium category of the social participation, more than three fifth (61.11%) of the respondents belonged to medium category of the mass media exposure, near about two third (63.89%) of the respondents belonged to medium category of the scientific orientation, majority (62.22%) of the respondents belonged to medium category of the economic motivation, more than two third (69.44%) of the respondents belonged to medium category of the innovativeness and majority (65.55%) of the respondents belonged to medium category of the knowledge.
It was observed that, majority (60.00%) of the respondents had favourable attitude towards organic farming.
Regarding correlation analysis it was observed that, independent variables namely, education, annual income, social participation, mass media exposure, scientific orientation, economic motivation, innovativeness and knowledge were having positively and high significantly related with the attitude towards organic farming while area under organic cultivation was having positive and significant relationship with the attitude towards organic farming.
It was revealed that, co-efficient of determination (R2) of the independent variables was 0.5840. It means that 58.40 per cent of the total variation in the attitude towards organic farming was explained by the selected 13 independent variables.The regression coefficient (t) of annual income, social participation, mass media exposure, scientific orientation, economic motivation, innovativeness and knowledge variables were 6.1805, 1.3135, 0.6481, 0.4633, 0.4727, 0.6029, and 0.6959 respectively, which indicates that one unit change in the variable viz., would affect 6.1805, 1.3135, 0.6481, 0.4633, 0.4727, 0.6029, and 0.6959 unit change in attitude of the farmers towards organic farming, respectively.
From path analysis, it was observed that, education, annual income, mass media exposure, scientific orientation, economic motivation, knowledge and innovativeness were important variables in absence of which independent variables are not able to influence the attitude of the farmers towards organic farming.
Regarding constraints it was observed that, 92.77 per cent of the respondents faced constraint of non-availability of package of practices about organic farming practices, 91.66 per cent faced constraint of non-availability of organic inputs, 89.44 per cent of them faced constraint of high risk and uncertainty of returns, 88.88 per cent faced constraint of large quantity of input required for organic farming.
It was revealed that, 90.55 per cent of the respondents suggested that package of practices about organic farming practices should be provided, 83.33 per cent of the respondents suggested that certification process should be made easy, 75.55 per cent respondents suggested that training programmes should be arranged at village level, 61.66 per cent of the respondents suggested the arrangement of intensive campaign programmes for promotion of organic farming.