Farmers' Willingness to Conserve Crop Genetic Resources under Different Policy Incentives

Abstract

Drawing on a random sample of 228 farm households from two regions in the Western Ghats of south India, this study assesses factors influencing farmers' willingness to conserve traditional rice varieties of low survivability, contingent on three policy scenarios or incentives. The empirical results indicate that factors influencing decisions to conserve these varieties on-farm depend mainly on farmers' socioeconomic characteristics and farming systems, and vary between the two regions and among the tested or assumed policy scenarios. There are also synergies and trade-offs between the application of other rural development policy interventions and the demand for the tested policy incentives. The study concludes that on-farm conservation of traditional rice varieties threatened with extinction necessitates appropriate choices of policy incentives and proper targeting in both regions.

Keywords

on-farm conservation traditional rice varieties willingness to conserve policy incentives India

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