Prevalence of ITK practices among rice farmers in Odisha: An Indian Knowledge System perspective
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Keywords:
Adoption, IKS, ITK, Indigenous Technical Knowledge, Odisha, Regression, Rice, TraditionalAbstract
The study was conducted in 2025 to list out the Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) practices with its extent of adoption among rice growers and the determinants influencing such adoption. Multi-stage random sampling was followed to culminate 320 respondents across four districts of the Odisha. Majority of the respondents exhibited moderate extent (51.25%) of ITK adoption. Botanical preservation of stored grains and sun-drying of paddy seeds recorded the highest adoption indices. Family eldership transpired as the primary source of ITK information. Multiple linear as well as stepwise regression models concurred that extension contact, farming experience and age have positively, whereas economic motivation has negatively, governed adoption extent of ITKs. Stepwise model kept four predictors delineating variance comparable to the linear model, underlining the efficiency of targeted extension-driven interventions for sustaining indigenous farming knowledge.
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