A study on knowledge and adoption level of organic farming by the farmers of Imphal East District, Manipur

Abstract

Organic farming is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. The present study was conducted in Sawombung sub- division of Imphal East District, Manipur. Out of the total 69 villages in Sawombung sub division, four villages viz., Uyumpok, Khundrakpam, Keibi Khullen and Lamboikhul were selected for the study. An equal number of respondents were selected from each village and make up a total of 120 respondents. The selected respondents were interviewed personally using pre tested well structured interview schedule. The data collected from 120 respondents revealed that majority of the respondents are middle age (50.00%). Most of the respondents have completed have high school and higher secondary education (31.70%) and have significant farming experience (38.30%). Nearly half of the respondents (46.70%) have land holding upto 1ha. In terms of income, 49.17 percent fall within the medium- income group, while a large majority (84.17%) has low farm power. Most respondents live in mixed-type houses (40.00%). When it comes to livestock possession, more than half (52.50%) belong to the medium livestock group. It shows that over half of the respondents have regular extension contact (57.50%) and exposure to mass media (60.83%). It also reveal that majority of the respondents (53.33%) had medium level knowledge in organic farming followed by high level (46.67%) and no respondents under low level knowledge in organic farming. Whereas majority of the respondents (48.33%) had medium adoption level of organic farming practices followed by high level (31.67%) and low level (20.00%) adoption of organic farming practices.