Farmer's opinion about crop diversification in Punjab

Rice-wheat monoculture occupies more than 77 per cent of Punjab's net cropped area which is leading to many issues like water table depletion, exhaustion of soil with saturation in yield and decrease in productivity factor, thus making crop diversification essential for Punjab, which is a leading agrarian state in India. There is need to shift new production profile in Punjab, so the farmer needs to diversify their crop base. The present study was carried out with the objective to know the opinion of farmers in Punjab regarding crop diversification. The study constituted total 252 respondents, out of which 72 were adopters and 180 were non-adopters of crop diversification. The findings highlighted that majority of the respondents opined that crop diversification helped in increase net return, enhances ground water table, raise nutritional value in our daily diet, to control various insects’ pests, diseases, weed problems and enhances sustainable agriculture. Majority of non-adopterspreferred to grow Maize- wheat, Maize-wheat-bajra, and basmati-wheat rotationsin place ofrice-wheat.