Agricultural Economics (Amsterdam, Netherlands), The study aims to track adoption of improved chickpea varieties, and assess their on-farm benefits in some remote and backward tribal villages in Gujarat, India, where few newly developed varieties were introduced by a non-government organization. It also determines key factors which were influencing their adoption. The study found that adoption of improved chickpea varieties was gradually increasing by replacing a prominent local variety. Duration of crop maturity, farm size, yield risk, and farmers' experience of growing chickpea crop were significantly influencing their adoption. The on-farm benefits as a result of improved varieties were realized in terms of increased yield levels, higher income and labor productivity, more marketable surplus, price premium and stabilized yields in fluctuating weather. Breeding short duration varieties with stable yield levels under varying weather, and organizing seed multiplication and dissemination in regions, where moisture stress is a problem during maturity of chickpea, are the major suggestions.
Stone, Glenn Davis (author / Anthropology and Environmental Studies, Washington University)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2003-04-22
Published:
India
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 147 Document Number: C23356
Notes:
Paper presented at the Conference on Biodiversity, Biotechnology and the Protection of Traditional Knowledge, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri, April 22,2003. 20 pages.
