A Scale to Measure the Attitude of Rice Farmers Towards SRI Technology

SRI is a whole package of agronomic practices which together exploit the genetic potential of rice plants, create a better growing environment, enhance soil health and reduce inputs like seeds, water, and labour. It increases farmers’ rice yields, while using less water and lowering production costs. In Tamil Nadu the SRI was first introduced in Thamirabarani command area during 2003. SRI accounted only 31 percent of rice area in Thamirabarani command area during 2011–2012. To assess the reasons for slow spread of the technology, it becomes essential to study the attitude of the farmers practicing SRI towards SRI technology. Hence, an attitude scale was constructed in this study using Equal Appearing Interval Scaling Technique. The study was conducted in all the eight blocks Thamirabarani command area of Tamil Nadu, where the SRI technology was first introduced. A total of 250 farmerspracticing SRI were selected as respondents by using proportionate random sampling method. The scale was administered to the selected 250 respondents to assess their attitude towards SRI technology. The study reveals that 85.60 per cent of farmers practicing SRI were having favourable to more favourable attitude towards SRI. Hence, it is suggested that a location specific practical difficulties in adopting SRI should be identified and rectified so as to convert the favourable attitude in to favourable action.