Adoption of Chemical Weed Control in Rice: Credit Utilization and Preference for Formulation: A Study From Temperate Kashmir

Farmers don't use credit for the purchase of herbicides in the rice crop and they prefer a particular formulation of herbicide in Kashmir. To know the reasons, a study was conducted in four randomly selected development blocks of district Baramulla. Two villages from each development block were selected randomly. A sample of 200 farmers comprising adopters, partial adopters, and non-adopters was selected from eight sampled villages through stratified random sampling technique proportional to size. The study revealed that financial soundness and the risk of losing their lands in case of untimely repayment of credits were the main reasons for not using credits. It was further revealed that granular formulation was preferred over liquid formulation owing to lesser requirement of labourers and ease of application.