Farmers’ Perception towards Transformation of Rice-based Cropping System intoTea Garden

Abstract

Transformation of agricultural lands into non-farm lands or plantations has got tremendousecological chaos and ripples. Northern part of West Bengal is undergoing rapid changes inrural areas where new opportunities are emerging in the form of demand-driven and market-driven agriculture. Due to persistent low returns from traditional rice cultivation, thetransformation of paddy fields into tea gardens has been a recent trend for this part ofWest Bengal. The present study has been conducted by selecting purposively three blocksfrom Alipurduar district and sixty respondents through random sampling, those who havealready transformed their crop field into tea gardens from these blocks. The farmers’perception towards transformation is taken as dependent variable along with a score offourteen independent variables. The responses are collected through a structured interviewschedule. The study envisaged that the farmers’ education level, number of family membersengaged in the garden, their economic motivation, sources of information, risk orientationbehaviour and distance from the tea processing factory showed significant contributiontowards the transformation behaviour. The future impact of such transformation on theecological dynamics in terms of livelihood, biodiversity restoration and ecological resiliencecan be brought under policy frameworks.