Assessment of Farmers’ Knowledge about Beneficial Effects of Application of Paddy Straw onto Soil in West Bengal

West Bengal is the major paddy growing State in India and, as a consequence, a huge amount of paddy straw is also produced. Paddy straw has diversified uses. Paddy straw contains a significant amount of organic fertilizer which is helpful in improving the soil health. But a large portion of this straw is burnt in different States causing ecological damage. This paper, thus, aims to assess the level of farmers’ knowledge related to beneficial uses and effects of paddy straw in soil. The study was conducted in West Bengal with 60 sample farmers in the year 2013–14. Farmers used paddy straw in various ways and it had a positive and significant impact on soil health. The results revealed that farmers had adequate level of knowledge about this issue. Majority of the farmers were marginal but they had moderate exposure to mass media and satisfactory level of ecological consciousness. Estimates of Difficulty Index, Discrimination Index and Correlation Coefficient were worked out. No significant relationship was found between the level of knowledge about utility of paddy straws and socio-personal & psychological variables. Thus, this study promotes useful information about the utilities of paddy straw which calls for carrying out dissemination of the knowledge to the farmers of other states for appropriate management of paddy straw for ecological as well as economic point of view.