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Type : Other Article

Preferences on Indigenous and High Yielding Varieties of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) by Tribal and Non-Tribal farmers of Assam

Ranjita Goswami, Pallabi Bora and Pallabi Das

Abstract

Assam occupies a special place in the rice production and a home to many indigenous varieties of rice. The production and productivity of the Indigenous varieties are much less than the HYVs but some farmers still prefer growing indigenous rice along with HYVs. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to study the distribution pattern of Indigenous and High Yielding varieties of rice and to enumerate the farmer’s preferences to Indigenous and High Yielding varieties of rice in Baksa district of Assam. A total of 160 numbers of both Tribal and Non-tribal farmers were selected for the study. The data were collected by means of personal interview schedule. Statistical tools employed to analyze the data included frequency, percentage, Mean and Standard Deviation. To know the distribution pattern of both Indigenous and High Yielding varieties of rice, two major areas viz. Area distribution and Varietal distribution were identifi ed. The fi ndings revealed that non-tribal farmers cultivated HYVs in 68.13 per cent area and tribal farmers cultivated in 31.87 per cent area. But in case of Indigenous varieties non-tribal farmers cultivated in 44.93 per cent and tribal farmers cultivated in 55.07 per cent area. The major HYV varieties grown by the non-tribal farmers were Masuri, Ranjit, Moniram and varieties grown by tribal are Ranjit, Bahadur and Masuri. The indigenous varieties grown by the non-tribal farmers mostly Nolbonni, Ballam Joha, Moinagiri and varieties grown by tribal are Phulpakhri, Tanagaguri, Parochokua bonni. Further, A comparative assessment of the preferences of both Indigenous and High yielding variety rice growers was performed and it was observed that tribal farmers preferred indigenous rice varieties because of their taste, cooking quality etc, and preferred HYVs because of yield, market demand etc. But non-tribal farmers preferred indigenous varieties because of their traditional delicacies, taste etc, and showed preference to HYVs because of cooking quality, market demand etc.

Keyword: Indigenous varieties; High yielding Varieties; Tribal farmers; Non-tribal farmers; Preferences. Preferences on Indigenous and High Yielding Varieties of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) by Tribal and Non-Tribal farmers of Assam

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