Influence of Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Socio-Economic Characteristics towards Adoption of Climate-Resilient Technologies

Abstract

Indian economy is mostly dependent on agriculture but climate change is the most threatening phenomena and addressing it as the biggest challenge now a days. ‘In order to reduce the climate change adversities, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the help of different Krishi vigyan Kendra (KVKs) operated a project called “National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture”. To know the impact of the project a study was conducted in KVKs (i.e., NICRA, KVKs) of two districts of North Bengal i.e., Cooch Behar and Malda. One adopted village and one non adopted village adjacent to adopted village (as control area) were selected for study from each KVK-area.  From each village 30 respondents were selected randomly i.e., 60 respondents from adopted village and 60 respondents from non-adopted village. A total of 120 respondents were taken for the research work. The result from this study shows that in the level of awareness, adoption of water-saving technology, in-situ moisture conservation technology, water harvesting, recycling technology and other climate-resilient technologies the mean awareness and adoption score is more in the adopted village than in the non adopted village. The education of household head, total land holding, outside contact score, total yearly income of the family, extent of participation, exposure to interpersonal media, household power access status, level of awareness on climate resilient technology and extent of association with KVK are positively and significantly associated with adoption score. It is also found that in non-adopted villages the socio-economic variables are influencing more towards adoption of climate-resilient technology, whereas, in adopted villages it is due to the association with KVK.