Factors Influencing the Adoption of Organic Farming in Punjab

Organic farming was the dominant way of farming in India before the green revolution. The green revolution technologies quickly transformed the way of farming from organic to a system largely dependent on external inputs such as synthetic fertilizers and agro-chemicals. However, the unintended consequences again necessitated the introduction of an alternative system. Still, the adoption of organic farming is very low in the green revolution states. Thus, this study was planned to explore the factors affecting the adoption of organic farming in Punjab using the binary logistic model. Data was collected from the survey of forty conventional and forty organic farmers selected using cluster sampling. Most of the farmers revealed home consumption as the purpose behind the adoption of organic farming and the majority of the farmers had adopted organic farming only on the partial area of their farm. Organic farmers had significantly higher mass media exposure, extension contacts, environmental concern, risk orientation, and lower profit orientation than conventional farmers. Binary logistic regression validated that the farmers with high extension contacts, high risk orientation and low profit orientation were more likely to adopt organic farming. It is hoped that the findings will be an addition to the existing knowledge of the scientific community and policymakers.