Constraints and Strategies in Scaling up of Farmer-led Innovations

The present study was undertaken during 2015–16 at Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in order to identify the constraints in scaling up of farmer-led innovations and also to formulate strategies for better replication to similar situations. A sample size of total 100 respondents constituting 50 innovators and 50 non-innovator farmers were selected by stratified sampling to identify the farmer level constraints in scaling up of farmer-led innovations. The Friedman test results revealed that marketing (mean rank 5.00) and technical (mean rank 4.00) were the major constraints for the innovators and non-innovators respectively. Among the marketing constraints for the innovators, the major were promotion of branding to the local innovations (mean rank 4.41) and lack of latest market information (mean rank 4.34). Location specificity of the innovations (mean rank 4.34) and non-validation of innovations (mean rank 4.24) were the major inhibitors among technical constraints for non-innovators. The present study also highlighted some strategies for scaling up the farmer-led innovations with special emphasis on Indian conditions.