Economic Imapct Assessment of Farmer- Led Innovations

Abstract

The present article is an attempt to explore the economic impact of farmer-led innovations developed at grass root level. The study was undertaken in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh during 2015-16. Total 50 innovative and recognized farmers were selected by stratified sampling. The determinants for the genesis of farmer-led innovations were analyzed. Friedman’s test static results revealed that major determinants identified in the present study were socio-psychological determinants (Q value = 52.146). It was found that among socio-psychological determinants, problem solving nature (mean rank 4.59) and creativity in thinking (mean rank 4.57) were the major contributing factors. Further information seeking behavior of the innovators was analyzed (Friedman’s test statistic Q value = 123.16) and it was found that different mean ranks indicate the frequency of the contact to the institute by the innovators. The two major institutes/organizations where innovators seek information were KVKs (mean rank 6.07) as they were located in every district and in reach of the farmers followed by state agricultural universities (mean rank 5.14). The economic impact of different category of farmer-led innovations like crop production, horticulture, farm machinery, processing and value addition; and animal husbandry was analyzed. Before and after analysis was performed to assess the economic impact of the innovations and the paired ‘t’ test revealed that, the results are significant at 5 per cent level and profit maximization was witnessed for all the innovations. Among the different categories, processing and value addition innovations are more profitable to the farmers as the range of B:C ratio (0.32) is wide after innovation. On the other hand, farm machinery innovations were not having much economic gain (B:C ratio 0.02) to the innovators as they were mainly developed to increase the efficiency of the machinery.