by Mosharaf Hossain, Swati Nayak, Subhasmita Mohapatra, Pooja Trivedi, and Showkat A. Waza
In recent times, the role of women farmers has been dramatically emphasized to speed up the diffusion of agricultural innovations. Besides, it has been observed that extension programs implemented through collectivized and non-collectivized women farmers show differential adoption rates. Technological interventions such as capacity building for quality seed production, when channeled through group-based women farmers, result in enhanced technical know-how and improved adoption of improved varieties.
Rice–wheat cropping sequence is the world’s largest agricultural production system and the lifeline for billions of people in South Asia. This system is India’s most widely adopted cropping pattern prevalent in the Indo-Gangetic plains of the country. It acts as a source of food and nutritional security for millions of people, besides being one of the major contributors of foreign exchange through exports.
The productivity under this cropping system largely determines the nation’s food security and the general welfare of the farmers. Although the green revolution technologies have significantly contributed towards enhancing the yields, the productivity under this system is still lower than its actual potential, thereby making it relatively less remunerative. With more than 50% of India’s population engaged in agriculture, the rice–wheat cropping system warrants evaluating and adopting all sustainable farm innovations for enhancing productivity and profitability.
Advancement of research programs in India has introduced several productivity-boosting scientific innovations, but most revolve around developing and disseminating crop varieties. Thus, a major share of scientific efforts to raise crop productivity is about farmers’ enhanced access to quality seeds of improved cultivars.
However, the efforts to improve seed security and its availability to farmers have yielded mixed results. The interventions aimed at improving access to quality seed by farmers as a productivity-enhancing measure have not shown uniform and positive results across the setups. Development, subsequent transfer, and availability of the technology cannot ensure its adoption, and consequently, cannot achieve maximal benefits to its end users.
Appropriate extension models and the recipients’ characteristics often play a crucial role in stimulating farmers’ adoption decisions for a new technology like a crop variety. Besides, the adoption of improved varieties results from an intricate interplay of a range of technical and socio-economic factors which are constantly evolving in developing countries like India.
Therefore, farmers’ adoption challenges are often multidimensional, thus requiring an in-depth analysis to formulate the appropriate policy and planning strategies. Some of the strategies require capital-intensive measures like investment in infrastructure and research and developmental activities. India has taken several transformative approaches [including establishing Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA), etc.] to fast-track its technology adoption programs amongst the farming community.
Nevertheless, a streamlined and innovative extension approach can accelerate the adoption of new technology in the target geography.
In recent times, the role of women farmers has been greatly emphasized for faster diffusion of agriculture innovations. Besides, it has been observed that the extension programs implemented through collectivized and non-collectivized women farmers show differential adoption rates. Technological interventions such as capacity building for quality seed production when channeled through group-based women farmers result in enhanced technical know-how and improved adoption of the improved varieties.
However, there are only a few studies that have been conducted to test this hypothesis and have not been evaluated scientifically and neither the processes nor the outcomes have been documented sufficiently. Despite several research efforts toward understanding the adoption dynamics across different conditions and contexts, a research gap exists in building empirical knowledge about seed diffusion through collectivized women-focused extension models science-based evaluation methodology appropriately attributing the measurable impacts to such specially designed interventions needs to be employed for conclusive research findings.
In this context, a randomized control trial (RCT) based experiment was conducted in Eastern Uttar Pradesh to evaluate the efficiency of the WSHG-based extension strategy towards enhancing varietal awareness. Besides, the adoption of improved varieties for demonstrated rice–wheat cropping systems, implementation of other seed technology practices, and consequential enhancement in yield were also investigated.
The impacts of WSHG-based extension on implementing quality seed production practices, adopting seed quality measures, and participating in capacity-building trainings were also evaluated. RCT-based evaluation is nowadays widely being used to quantify and attribute the desired impact of extension programs.
The WSHG-based seed program was mainly intended to promote the adoption of improved varieties and encourage the practice of quality seed production. The incremental differences for various parameters, viz., varietal adoption, seed production, and seed quality enhancement measures were significant between intervened WSHGs in the treatment and control groups.
With the RCT-based empirical analysis, such positive changes conclusively imply the advantage of using WSHGs for program delivery. Therefore, the results encouragingly recommend the diffusion of new and improved agro-technologies through WSHGs. Comparison between non-intervened WSHGs in the treatment GPs and WSHGs in the control GPs, which explains the spillover impact of WSHG farmers, was an important research objective in the present study.
Adoption of the varieties, sourcing seeds from WSHGs, and chemical treatment of seeds were the cases in which a significant spillover impact was observed. These research findings validate the notion that even if WSHG farmers are not programmatically intervened but are located in the vicinity of the intervened recipients, substantial cross-over benefits of the program may be ascertained.
This assumption can be an important guiding principle for program design and implementation. Moreover, the present findings suggest that if a program intends to increase the participation of farmers in various capacity-building activities, implementation through the WSHG model can be significantly effective. These findings can help formulate training outreach programs.
Further, any attempt towards popularizing the technology that is already in practice (e.g., seed cleaning, germination test, etc.) may not show a further enhancement in adoption even through the WSHG-based interventions. Such findings suggest carefully considering the baseline data and exploration of the different dissemination strategies.
Read the study:
Hossain M, Nayak S. Mohapatra S. et al. (2024) Women-led community institutions as a potential vehicle for the adoption of varieties and improved seed practices: an impact case from India. CABI Agric Biosci 5, 53.
