Adoption and Dis-Adoption Dynamics of System of Rice Intensification : A Micro Level Study from Soutern India

Rice cultivation faces challenges across the world and India is no exception. With the increasing cost of cultivation of paddy coupled with labour scarcity, sustaining the interest of farmers in rice cultivation has become a challenge. Thus, there is an urgent need to produce more output with a drop of water owing to water scarcity. This study has envisaged to examine the issues in adoption and dis-adoption and its impact on resource use, yield and efficiency of SRI farmers in Palakkad district of Kerala, India. The present study revealed that SRI can be further adopted and practiced by farmers if there is an improvement in SRI extension service delivery. The main problem associated with discontinuance behaviour of farmers was shortage of skilled labour. Training and education to farmers on SRI techniques should be enhanced so that skilled labour is available for various operations and farmers can adopt SRI technologies to their own resource endowments and constraints to improve their rice production. The farmers should also be provided with essential institutional support through technology and capacity building.