Farm level investment and factors affecting adoption of multiple soil and water conservation technologies in semi–arid tropics of India

Abstract

The study identifies factors affecting adoption of multiple soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies using multivariate probit (MVP) model for data collected from 1239 fields selected by multistage sampling method. The analysis revealed that farmers' share is only 20% in total investment for SWC technologies. The results also showed that field level features, farmer's perception of benefits of SWC technologies, and social capital and extension services are the key determinants of adoption of multiple soil and water technologies – field bund, water harvesting structure (WHS), micro– irrigation (MI), and farm yard manure (FYM) in the semi–arid drought prone areas of Karnataka. Therefore, the identified key determinants need to be targeted for achieving a higher level of adoption of SWC technologies for sustaining the natural resources and thereby livelihood of resource poor farmers of the drought prone areas of the state.