Knowledge Level of Farmers on Organic Farming in Tamil Nadu

Organic farming is a production system in which the environment is preserved, farmers and workers have fair access to the means of food production while receiving a fair return for their labour and consumers have their food at fair prices. The area under organic farming in India has been increasing steadily since 2000 after launching National Programme for Organic Production. The study was conducted to find out the knowledge level of organic and inorganic farmers on organic farming in Tamil Nadu. A total of 240 farmers comprising 120 organic farmers and 120 inorganic farmers drawn randomly from four districts in Tamil Nadu constituted the sample for the study. A test was developed for assessing the knowledge of farmers. Organic farmers had better knowledge than inorganic farmers with the mean score difference of 3.73. The variables namely, innovativeness, market orientation, extension orientation and mass media exposure had significant relationship with knowledge level of organic farmers.