FACTORS AFFECTING FARMER'S BUYING DECISION FOR HERBICIDES IN RELATION TO WEED DYNAMICS IN PADDY CROP : A CASE STUDY

摘要

The study was carried out to determine the socioeconomic-brand-institutional knowledge factors that influence the utilization of herbicides for the control of weeds in paddy cropping system. Structured questionnaire with the aid of personal interviewwas used to collect data from a sample size of eighty respondents (farmers) selected purposively from two villages of each four blocks namely Gadarpur, Kashipur, Rudrapur and Sitarganj of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. Data collected were analyzed on 10 point scale using One-Way ANOVA and Discriminant Analysis. The result of the analysis showed farmers having more education are likely to make informed choice and in case of brand switching, they have proper logical reasons for the same otherthan just influence of others. And as these farmers also work as opinion leader for others so education plays an indirect role towards farmers' decision making process. Out of the observable factors few are controllable like brand name, price, availability and promotional activity, whereas rest is uncontrollable like opinion leader, dealers influence, previous results etc. But the most interesting fact is that all these uncontrollable factors are dependent on the controllable factors, so having a rightmix of the controllable factors would help to set the uncontrollable factors in place. Conclusively the household size and extension-based-know-how are significant determinants of the decision of farmers' to adopt herbicides as an alternative to manual weeding, while economic variables such as the price of herbicides, total income, and access to credit determine the level of herbicide use.