Understanding Conservation Agriculture in terms of Knowledge, Perception and Application

Abstract

Depleting natural resources, environmental pollution and climate change are the three major factors of concern simmering up with contemporary global agriculture. Conservation agriculture (CA) is being flagged up as a sustainable adaptation mechanism. Adoption of CA depends upon ecological as well as, farmers’ level of perception, knowledge acquisition, and decision-making process. The present study was taken place in West Bengal covering both the new alluvial zone (NAZ) and terai zones (TZ) following snowballing sampling method during 2018-21. A total of 65 farm households were surveyed considering 57 different social-ecological factors operating across CA farms. The study elucidated that farmers’ perception of energy, climate change perception, formal education, land fragmentation, gender ratio, irrigated area, dietary diversity, and family size came up as strong determinants of their level of knowledge of CA. Understanding and measuring the complexity of social knowledge is essential for sustainable management, with consequences for problem-solving, mutual aid, and decision-making.

Scale to Assess the Sustainability of Rice-Wheat Cropping System

“…The ultimate goal of this scale was to probe the relationship between farmer perception and the effect it has on farmer adoption behaviour towards sustainable practises in RWCS. The farmers' perception and adoption behaviour are positively correlated as seen in the studies of Mottaleb (2018); Chatterjee et al, (2022); Choudhary et al, (2022) & Vecchio et al, (2022. During the exhaustive search for the appropriate research problem, it was found that little effort had been made in the study of farmers' perceptions of the sustainability of RWCS in particular.…”

Performance and Prospects of Wheat Market Outlook in India

“…Globally, there is a rising concerns on how to feed the growing population with depleting resources and shrinking food production system. Chatterjee et al, (2022) reported a massive loss of agricultural output in the Indian market which was poised to affect market equilibrium of demand and supply. The problem is significant for India as it supports 18 and 37 per cent of global human and livestock population from meagre 2.4 per cent of global land and four per cent of global freshwater resources.…”