An empirical analysis on adoption of precision agricultural techniques among farmers of Punjab for efficient land administration

Abstract

Agriculture plays a vital role in building the nation’s economy. To enhance the country’s financial standings, it is essential for farmers adopt innovative agricultural techniques/practices. Over the years, a rapid growth has been experienced within this domain by virtue of adapting agricultural sensors, drones, Global Positing Systems (GPS), and other integrated devices. However, adaptation of newer practices is completely overlooked by most farmers across the state of Punjab in the Indian sub-continent. It has been visualized that farmers across the state are hesitant to adapt precision agricultural practices. This is mainly due to several constraints that are encountered by the farmers across the state, i.e., non-awareness of the concept among farmers, financial limitations, and other associated factors within the domain. Hence, to clearly understand the mindset of the farmers and their perception towards the adaption of precision agriculture techniques, the authors have prepared a structured questionnaire that consisted of 30 questions. The questionnaire was prepared to capture farmers’ basic tendency towards various hurdles that farmers encounter while adopting precision agricultural practices. Responses of 342 farmers across the state of Punjab was taken under consideration to further evaluate the mindset of farmers on the following key points, i.e., Various parameters such as basic knowledge on the usability of agricultural sensors, expectation level of farmers towards adaptation of agricultural sensors, and support from the state government, issues related to cost of agricultural sensors, and issues related practical implementation of agricultural sensors. To evaluate the responses, One-way ANOVA and Independent-sample T-test were analyzed over Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) Version 22. In addition, descriptive analysis (on individual responses) has been presented within the results section and coefficient of correlation (r) has also been has also been calculated to identify the degree of relationship among dependent and independent variables. f-distribution results obtained over SPSS software depicted a positive inclination among farmers towards usage and adaptation of newer farming concepts, provided some constraints needed to be addressed with a pragmatic approach. The main aim of the study is to evaluate the reasons for the shortcomings for non-adaptability of modern day agricultural practices among farmers and to bridge a gap among farmers and state/central government on motivating and providing all sorts of possible assistance in adopting precision agricultural practices with an aim to make effective use of land and enhancing production scale.