Determinants of agricultural technology adoption by marginal and small farmers in Karnataka

Abstract

Adoption of new technology in agriculture paves a way for meeting the ever-increasing food demand by the growing population. However, despite the evident benefits of new technologies, farmers either don t adopt them or in many a case, it takes long years to adopt. Thus, the present study was undertaken to understand the factors that influence the farmers in technology adoption. The study focused on understanding the various factors influencing the technology adoption, the extent of crop diversification, the pattern of resource use efficiency. Further an attempt was made to study the interdependence among these factors. The total sample size was 612 famers consisting of 306 technology adopters and 306 technology non-adopters. Study was conducted in Raichur for paddy, Yadgir for cotton, Kalaburagi for jowar and redgram, Chitradurga for groundnut, and Belagavi for sugarcane. The selection of crops and area was based on the area under the crops and production. Details on socio economic characteristics, cropping pattern, input use were collected from the farmers. Level of education was relatively higher among the adopters. Thus, providing informal education to the village population can enhance technology adoption. Secondary analysis of the data on area, production and productivity revealed that only cotton had registered significant growth in area (19%) in Yadgir, while the remaining crops had registered negative growth rate in their respective sampling areas. With respect to production, redgram exhibited significant growth rate of five per cent in Kalaburagi, while all other crops registered either non-significant or negative growth rate. With respect to yield, redgram (4%) and jowar (4%) shows significant growth rate in Kalaburagi. Thus, research in this line leading to the improvement in the yields are required. Further, Tobit estimates revealed that education level, farm size, credit availability, experience in farming, owning a mobile phone, cooperative membership significantly influenced technology adoption amo