ADOPTION OF ORGANIC FARMING PRACTICES AND CONSTRAINTS FACED IN ADOPTION BY THE FARMERS OF SURENDRANAGAR DISTRICT OF SAURASHTRA REGION IN GUJARAT STATE

M.S. CHANDAWAT¹*, B.C. BOCHALYA², M.F. BHORANIYA³, R.P. KALMA^4
1ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Phalodi, 342005, Agriculture University, Jodhpur, 342304, Rajasthan, India
²ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chotila, 363520, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, 362001, Gujarat, India
³ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chotila, 363520, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, 362001, Gujarat, India
⁴ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chotila, 363520, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, 362001, Gujarat, India
* Corresponding Author : drchandawat@rediffmail.com

Received : 18-04-2019     Accepted : 12-05-2019     Published : 15-05-2019
Volume : 11     Issue : 9       Pages : 8370 - 8373
Int J Agr Sci 11.9 (2019):8370-8373

Keywords : Organic farming, Adoption, Socio - economic characteristic and constraint
Academic Editor : Dr Vijaya Lakshmi V
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors are thankful to ICAR and Agriculture University, Jodhpur, 342304, Rajasthan, India
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

Organic farming in India is being followed from old world. Organic agriculture in India has its roots in traditional agricultural practices that evolved in many villages and farming communities over the millennium. Gujarat has remained a leading state in adopting organic farming. Adoption of organic farming necessarily involves a sequence of steps that need to be followed by the growers and verified by certification and inspection agencies. Looking into this, Government of Gujarat established Gujarat Organic Products Certification Agency (GOPCA), a Gujarat state government certification body that carries out impartial third party inspection & certification in organic production and handling. To find out the level of adoption of organic farming practices and constraints faced by farmers in adoption of organic farming practices, respondents were selected from three talukas and 9 villages purposively. From each selected village, 10 farmers who were engaged in organic farming partially or fully were selected purposively. Thus sample size consisted of 90 respondents from 9 village covered under study. Most of the respondents had followed organic farming practices like land preparation, summer and winter ploughing, application of compost/ash and vermi-composting. Similarly cow urine for seed treatment, manual weeding was found practiced. None of the respondents found to be used bio herbicides. Majority respondents were utilized castor cake, neem cake, bio fertilizers like PSB, rhizobium culture and Azotobacter and groundnut cake as source of nutrients and were found to be used cow dung/urine as concentrated manures. None of the respondents were found to use bone meal or fish meal. They used bio agents and neem leaf extract and buttermilk to manage insect, pest and soil borne fungal disease in various crops. Majority of respondents expressed lack of assured marketing network of organically produces of organic farming (96.32 %), lack of information regarding organic farming(92.22 %), no government subsidy for organic farming cultivation (84.44%), high certification charges (78.89 %), no price premium in local market (72.22%), inadequate transport facility (75.56%) etc. Were major constraints they faced in adoption of organic farming practices.

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