Identifying the Determinants and Extent of Crop Diversification at Household Level: An Evidence from Ukhrul District, Manipur

Abstract

Crop diversification is a risk management strategy for the farming community and an important step for poverty alleviation and transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture. The paper aims to recognize those factors which influence household decision to crop diversification and further attempts to identify what factors influence the degree to which this diversification takes place. The study adopts, Heckman's Two Stage Model to estimate separately the determinants of household diversification decision and intensity of diversification by the households’. The results of the study found that education of the household head is found to have positive association with the level of crop diversification. The farming experience of the farmer is found to have positive influence only while taking decision to diversify crops. Access to plough has positively affected both the household's decision to diversify crop as well as level of crop diversification. Access to fertilizer and availability of irrigation has effect on propensity to diversify crops. Exposure to farming information by the households significantly affected level of diversification. Farmers who attend farming training regularly are more likely to diversify crop. The distance to the nearest market from homestead also positively affected crop diversification level.