Conversion Trends towards Organic Cultivation of Paddy Conversion Trends towards Organic Cultivation of Paddy

Abstract

Organic food might be in fashion among the
more health conscious consumers but the
appetite for it is not increasing rapidly. A
minimum period of three years is required as a
conversion period for organic cultivation.
Keeping the above fact in mind, a sample of 150
farmers from six villages namely Siwan and
Kangthali from Siwan, Kachchwa and Kunjpura
from Karnal, Seonsar and Kamoda from Pehowa
block were selected randomly. The statistical
analysis, such as percentage, frequency,
correlation coefficient and multiple regression
analysis were applied to draw the meaningful
conclusions. The study revealed that only 12.00
per cent respondents were growing organic
paddy for more than last three years and that
also on a small scale. The study shown that
mean knowledge and adoption score increase
with the increase in years of organic paddy
farming practice. The study also depicted that
among farmers growing organic paddy for more
than three years, 38.89 per cent of farmers
belong to Kaithal district. Whereas, 35.94 per
cent farmers who have grown organic paddy for
first time belong to Karnal district. The
correlation analysis revealed that exposure to
training (r=.258), knowledge (r=.538) and
adoption (r=.595) of the respondents had a
highly significant relationship at 0.01 level of
probability with number of years of organic
paddy farming. Further, study implied that
independent variables explained the variation
to the extent of 53.00 per cent. It was observed
that farmers were aware about organic farming
at large and really interested to follow it, but
the main constraint in conversion was the lack
of enough resources.