Technology
transformation for sustainable production, productivity and profitability
depends on the decisions and actions of farmers. At one side, agricultural
scientists in the country are striving towards developing appropriate
technologies and disseminating them but at the other side most of the
farmer-led innovations are also emerging from their vast rich experiences and well
suited to their micro-level farming situations. Scaling up of farmer-led innovations,
which are technically feasible and economically viable are very important
aspect of today’s research studies. Considering
all the above factors, the present investigation was carried out to
find out the importance of farmer-led innovations and their techno-economic
feasibility for scaling up in northern India. The key issues in the study were
determinants for the genesis of innovations, means of spread, socio-economic
impact, role of institutions in scaling up and constraints of the innovators
and officials in scaling up of the innovations along with the hindering factors
of non-innovators to go for adoption. In order to find out the determinants for
the genesis of innovations, Friedman’s
test was carried out and it was found that socio-psychological factors
were the major determinants for the genesis. Problem solving nature, creativity
in thinking and enterprise diversification were identified as major among the
socio-psychological determinants. Identified
category wise stimulants of innovations were ‘problem faced by self’ in crop
production and horticulture, ‘innovation induces innovation’ in farm machinery,
‘experimented purposefully with curiosity to start a new venture’ in processing
and value addition; and animal husbandry innovations. Different means of spread
by farmers and institutions were identified and the results revealed that
linkage with organizations was the major means of spread. Further Friedman’s
test also revealed that there was significant difference in different means of
spread. Wilcoxon Mann Witney test was carried out to compare the level of
social empowerment and it was found from the results that there was significant
difference between innovators and non-innovators. Paired ‘t’ test results of
economic impact revealed that there was significant difference after the
innovation. Among the selected categories, it was found that processing and
value addition; and horticulture innovations fetch more income to the farmers. Extent of involvement of institutional
stakeholders in scaling up of farmer-led innovations was analyzed with
Friedman’s test to identify the degree of involvement of institutions in each
category. It was found that the degree of involvement was higher for
documentation and dissemination followed by validation and commercialization.
Further prioritization of institutes/organizations for different activities of scaling
up was done. It has been inferred that district level institutions for
documentation, research institutions for performing the validation, private
agencies for commercialization and state agricultural universities for
dissemination of farmer-led innovations to play a vital role. It can be
concluded from the study findings that marketing constraints for innovators in
scaling up, technical constraints for non-innovators in adoption of innovations
and administration constraints for officials in scaling-up of farmer-led
innovations were most severe constraints. Further Friedman’s test results
revealed the significant differences between each group of constraints. Some of
the strategies identified for policy interventions were the networking of KVKs
for documentation, existing facility of state agricultural universities as
referral centers for validation, ZTM&BPDs for commercialization and zonal
level ATARIs for wider dissemination of farmer-led innovations.
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