An Economic Assessment on Conditions for CAPS Adoption in Odisha (India)

Despite demonstrated environmental and economic benefits, the adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA) still remains low across smallholder agricultural communities. Adoption of a complex and composite technology such as CAPS (Conservation Agriculture Production System) requires a thorough understanding of site-specific determinants and constraints in the adoption process. In this paper, an Economic Assessment of adoption of CA practices was conducted including: minimum tillage and inter cropping among farmers in the North Central Plateau Zone of Odisha in India using farm and household surveys. The technical efficiency between adopted and non-adopted farmers was compared and the different factors that influence the adoption of CAPS were disentangled using frontier production function and binary logistic models respectively. Survey results indicate that farmers adopting CAPS are more efficient in resource use than framers that do not adopt. Among the variables measured, cropland area, primary occupation and month of stay influence adoption of CAPS. Garrett ranking method was employed for identifying the important constraints for CAPS adoption. Unavailability of labour in peak seasons and high input cost were found to be the major constraints for adoption of CAPS in the study area. Among policy measures suggested, coalitions and partnership among institutions that deals with CA, namely State Government, agricultural university (OUAT) and NGOs, who should work together to promote CAPS in a coordinated way.