Farmers’ knowledge related to organic farming: A study in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh

Organic farming is now a promising option due to the low external input cost for cultivation such as low fertilizer and low pesticide amounts by increasing the efficient use of farm resources. Knowledge has been found to be an important factor contributing to adoption of recommended practices by the farmers. The study was focused to know the knowledge of farmers about organic farming in relation to socio-personal, psychological and communicational variables of the farmers i.e. age, education qualification, size of family, farm size, annual income, livestock possession, organic farming experience, innovative proneness, attitude towards organic farming, mass media exposure, participation in social organization and knowledge towards improved agriculture practices. The present study was conducted in Tikamgarh block of Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh state. As per the findings, majority of farmers possessed medium knowledge whereas in case of inorganic farmers majority of the farmers were having low knowledge on organic farming. In case of organic farmers, only one variable showed positive and significant relationship i.e. knowledge about improved agricultural practices with knowledge about organic farming, whereas in case of knowledge level of inorganic farmers, no relationship was found between independent and dependent variables. Regarding in adoption of organic cultivation practices, the major constraints reported was that organic farming is a slow process and time consuming.