Perception of farmers towards ecosystem services associated with natural farming in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The green revolution transformed Indian agriculture into a food sufficient sector but at the same time, made Indian agriculture depend on the heavy doses of fertilizers and pesticides for the surplus generation of food which deteriorated the physical and biological properties of soil and led to contamination of water bodies. This has created a need for soil restoration and nutrient regenerative techniques. In the notion of Natural Farming main emphasis is to join efforts with nature in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way while avoiding use of external inputs. The present study was carried out in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. A sample of 120 farmers was selected using simple random sampling without replacement from the four blocks viz. Balh, Drang, Dharampur, Karsog. Interview schedule was framed to ascertain the level of perception towards ecosystem services related to natural farming and document the constraints identified in the adoption of natural farming. The findings revealed that a high proportion of farmers were aware of ecosystem services (58.33%) and majority of the farmers (70.83%) were having medium attitude towards the ecosystem services associated with natural farming. The overall perception enumerated by averaging the percentages of two dimensions viz. awareness and attitude was found to be medium with 48.33 per cent of farmers. Furthermore, the lack of premium price for natural produce was ranked first among the constraints, followed by labor intensive farming, inclination towards traditional farm practices, lack of proper information and lack of extension personnel regarding SPNF practices. The results emphasized proper institutional and financial support to the farmers by the regulatory bodies to embrace natural farming on a larger scale.