Decisional factors driving farmers to adopt organic farming in India: a cross-sectional study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to carry out an empirical investigation of the role of various factors such as economics, social, marketing, cultivation and government in adoption of organic farming. Further, this study examines the factors that influence farmers’ choice of adopting organic farming, based on their demographic classification such as education level, farm size, farming experiences and land ownership of the organic farmers. Design/methodology/approach - To address the research objectives, the primary data were collected with the help of a structured questionnaire from 200 respondents. In this study, the QUAL–QUAN sequence of mixed method design was used. Four focus groups were conducted to identify the factors of organic farming adoption. Further, multinomial regression analysis was applied to analyze the differential impact of these factors in relation to the farmers’ demographic classification. Findings - The study found five major factors that affect the adoption of organic farming (economic, social, marketing, cultivation, government policy) in India. The study also observed that marketing and government policy factors were most crucial in influencing all types of farmers irrespective of their educational level. The farmers with more farming experience were more concerned about social factors. Similarly, the farmers using lease farms were found to be concerned about the economic viability of organic farming. Social implications - This study suggests that without government support, the adoption of organic agriculture seems to be a highly challenging task in a situation, where majority of the farmers fall under the small and marginal category. Hence, to promote organic farming in a developing country like India, the government has to invest more in schemes where farmers should get exclusive training and support to strengthen their intention behind the adoption of the organic farming. Originality/value - Based on the collective insights from the studies, the different stakeholders with interest in organic agriculture may frame necessary strategies to promote organic farming.