Analysis of Farmers' Willingness to Conserve Traditional Rice Varieties in the Western Ghats of South India

Abstract

Conservation of crop genetic resources is a major preoccupation of the Indian government in particular and the international community at large. Drawing on a random sample of 228 farm households from two regions in the Western Ghats of Southern India, this study reports the main factors influencing farmers' willingness to conserve traditional rice varieties of different levels of survival ability (survivability). Estimated results of a logit model indicate that factors influencing decisions to conserve the varieties on-farm depend mainly on farmers' socio-economic characteristics, and vary between the two regions and among incentive or policy scenarios assumed. The factors do not however vary so much from the perspective of the survivability of the traditional rice varieties. Therefore, the study concludes that on-farm conservation in the two study areas requires a mix of different conservation strategies and policy incentives which may not be dependent on the levels of survivability of the traditional rice varieties.