Willingness of farmers to change their production practices : a choice experiment approach | |
| Author | Lynrah, Saman Roibha |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.WM-15-08 |
| Subject(s) | Rice--India Farmers--India |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Water Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. WM-15-08 |
| Abstract | The article examines farmers’ preferences for rice production practices. The results of a choice experiment (CE) survey with 109 farmers in the Ri-Bhoi District of Meghalaya, India are presented. A choice task was conducted whereby five alternatives were presented to the farmers. The first two alternatives are related to the SRI and ICM Technology of rice production, the third and forth alternatives are the recommended practices by the States’ Agriculture Department and Farmers’ Practices, respectively and finally the fifth alternative is the opt-out alternative, whereby the farmers are not forced to choose an unsatisfactory option. The farmers chose alternatives based on their attributes and levels. The objectives of the study are to examine the factors influencing farmers in choosing an alternative production method and more environmental friendly practices and perform trade-off analysis to study the trade-offs they are willing to make with yield in adopting other attributes. The influence of socio-economicfactors in technology adoption is also presented. The results show that the farmers of this region are very attached to the indigenous rice varieties and are not willing to adopt new rice varieties introduced to them. The farmers do not value water savings technologies as irrigation water is free in this region. The trade-off analysis shows that they are willing to lose some quantity of yield in order to keep their indigenous varieties. They are also willing to utilize more water and invest more money withnew technologies to gain more yield. However, they are willing to lose some quantity of yield in order to reduce the risk levels. Furthermore, the socio-economic factors like the age, area of land, number of farming experience years, status of education, gender, ownership status of the land are all significant and play some role in technology adoption in this study. |
| Year | 2015 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. WM-15-08 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Water Engineering and Management (WM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Jourdain, Damien |
| Examination Committee(s) | Shrestha, Sangam;Kumar, Prabhat |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | AIT Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2015 |