Agricultural Economics Research Review
Year : 2021, Volume : 34, Issue : conf
First page : ( 197) Last page : ( 197)
Print ISSN : 0971-3441. Online ISSN : 0974-0279.

Temporal economic impact of conservation agriculture on marginal farms in West Bengal India: An assessment with DID method

Chatterjee Soumitra*, Hasan Mehedi, Chakraborty Riya

Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia-741 252

*Corresponding author: soumitra.soum123123@gmail.com

Online Published on 16 March, 2022.

Abstract

Prototype agriculture is facing several socio-economic and environmental challenges regarding sustainable livelihood and food security particularly for marginal and small households in India. Widespread soil erosion, nutrient mining, depleting water tables, and eroding biodiversity are nowadays the major issues in the long run agricultural sustainability in the country. The present study attempts to evaluate the economic impact of conservation agriculture in West Bengal as an alternative solution to these issues. The study compares the overall economic change of system productivity and return-cost ratio under conservation agricultural farms with conventional farming using the Difference in Difference (DID) method of estimation. The results depicted that changes in conservation agriculture over conventional farms increased from 4945 kg ha⁻¹ in 2019–20 to 8480 kg ha⁻¹ in 2020–21 with an overall gain of 3535 kg ha⁻¹ over two years. The overall change in system net returns an increase of Rs. 1, 09,105 from Conservation agriculture over conventional farms. Conservation agriculture has utilized less tillage, less inputs, less mechanization and less manpower. The estimated gain in system productivity due to conservation agriculture was 69.13%.

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