Socioeconomic Dimension of Farming System

Abstract

Though organic farming is sustainable, its share remains just 0.2% of the overall agricultural land in Nepal. In any adoption studies of agricultural innovations, socioeconomic variables are considered as important as agroecological variables and farmers’ perception. This chapter assesses impact of farm households’ socioeconomic variables that encourages or discourages adoption of organic and conventional farming systems in Chitwan District of Nepal. Data of 285 farm households was analyzed using binary logistic model. The result shows that while group formation plays a crucial role in commencing organic farming, it does not guarantee adoption over time because of varying levels of motivation among members. But households receiving higher number of organic farming-related training have highly significant probability to continue practicing organic farming. The impact of longevity of group formation and vitality of training is also reflected in adoption rate of organic farming among different village development committees considered for this study. Likewise, commercially available organic fertilizers and pesticides could also be playing significant role in the adoption rate of organic farming.