Farmers’ Attitude Towards Aerobic Rice Cultivation in Muktsar District of Punjab

In Punjab rice is cultivated mainly through transplanting method which is more laborious, time consuming and water demanding. Aerobic rice is becoming popular among the farmers to overcome these problems. The main purpose of this study was to determine farmers’ attitude towards aerobic rice cultivation. It also explored the relationship between selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards aerobic rice cultivation. Sri Muktsar Sahib District of Punjab has selected purposively for this study as maximum area under aerobic rice cultivation was grown under this district of Punjab. From the four blocks of the district Gidderbhaha block of the district was selected randomly, again from this selected block four villages namely Chattiana, Gurisangar, Dhulkot and Kauni were selected randomly and from each village 30 farmers were selected by using simple random sampling technique therefore constituting a sample of 120 farmers. Likert method of scale construction was used to develop the scale (consisting of eleven statements) to measure dependent variable i.e. attitude of the farmers’ towards aerobic rice cultivation. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was computed to describe the relationships between the dependent variable (attitude of the farmers) and independent variable (age, education, land holding, family size, income, training experience, risk orientation, innovativeness, extension contacts etc.). Correlation analyses showed that five characteristics of the farmers, namely education, extension contact, training experience, risk orientation, innovativeness had significant positive relationships with their attitude towards aerobic rice cultivation. It may be concluded that if education and training facilities are available to the farmers, the level of skill will increase which in turn help in the formation of favourable attitude towards aerobic rice cultivation. Based on findings, it can be said that age, land holding, family size, family income are not important attributes in gaining favourable attitude towards aerobic rice cultivation.