Farmers’ self-perception toward agricultural technology adoption: evidence on adoption of submergence-tolerant rice in Eastern India

Abstract

This paper estimates the determinants of farmers’ self-perception toward adoption of new agricultural technologies based on a primary survey of 731 farm households that cultivated rice in eastern Indian states: 157 of these households received seed mini-kits of a new stress-tolerant rice variety called Swarna-Sub1, and the remaining 574 households were randomly selected from the study regions. The results show that farmers who received Swarna-Sub1 have higher scores on self-perception indices toward adoption of new agricultural technologies than the representative farmers. The paper also identifies factors that influence self-perception. The results indicate that female farmers, the less educated farmers, and farmers who belong to the scheduled caste group have low scores on self-perception indices, whereas Swarna-Sub1 users, large landholders, and wealthy farmers have high scores. The results suggest that empowering farmers, in terms of self-perception, may lead to adoption of new technologies.