Technological responsiveness of organic production system in Terai region of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Organic agriculture has witness multi-dimensional growth rate in India as farmers has been adopted it for varied reasons. These reasons sometime were high input intensive conventional agricultural, then understanding ill effects of conventional agriculture in the form of reduced soil fertility, food toxicity or increasing cost and diminishing returns. Then arises farmers organizations, those systematically adopted the commercial organic agriculture to capture emerging market opportunities and premium prices. During the study many witnesses come into front where farmers were practicing traditional method to grow food crops without any organic input. This study was focused to understand the categories of farmers by measuring their level of awareness about recommended organic producing technologies and other influential socio-economic variables. To measure the awareness level of farmers about organic farming technologies and to understand the relationship between socioeconomic variables and awareness about organic farming technologies. The Terai region of West Bengal i.e., Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, and Alipurduar were selected purposively for the study. The study revealed that respondents had a high level of awareness of nutritional supplement techniques, plant protection techniques, and soil & cultural practices, but moderate awareness was found in growth-promoting techniques. Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, and Alipurduar districts were at par in respect of awareness of growth promoter techniques and plant protection techniques but were statistically different in case of soil & cultural management techniques, Socio-economic characteristics like possession of assets, participation in social organizations, and a number of trainings received by them had significantly influenced the level of awareness on organic farming.