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An Empirical Analysis of Factors Influencing the Production of Organic Vegetable Farming in Kerala

The present study examines the factors influencing the production of organic vegetable farming in the north region of Kerala. The study is based on primary data collected by using a structured questionnaire. The samples of 300 organic Vegetable farmers randomly selected from five districts of north Kerala. A logistic regression method has been used in this study to determine the factors influencing the productivity of organic vegetable farming. The results from the estimated model shows that gender, irrigation potential, sources of water, ownership of the land, experience in both farming and organic farming, land maintenance, price of organic vegetables, price volatility, farmer occupation and income source, number of household member engaged in farmingare influencing the production of organic vegetables.

Availability of Safe, fresh and quality food has received abundant consideration in recent years due to the propagating concerns related to health and the environment (Rana, 2018). The issue started after the invention of new modern techniques in agriculture especially the green revolution. The use of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides and high yield verity of seeds has been given a huge difference in production in the initial stages accompanied by negative side effects to the environment and the people (Njeru, 2016). The conventional farming practices led the soil to infertile, polluted the water sources, made disturbances to the life cycles through killing both good and bad insects, affected climate, and sustainable development of the agriculture itself. Altieri and Anderson (1986) and Das (2017) discussed that technology changes in agriculture had adversely affected on the income distribution in rural areas and it contributed to widening the gap between different regions and small and large farmers.
Organic farming or traditional farming method is the only solution to protect our environment and sustainable development (Mccann, 1997). According to Koan (2007), organic farming is a cheap and sustainable alternative in which farmers can produce without causing health or environmental damage. It ensures the safety of food by following the traditional method and using organic manure for cultivation. According to International Food Standards, Organic farming is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem, health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of farm inputs, taking into account that regional conditions require locally, and adapted systems. This is accomplished by using, where possible, agronomic, biological and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials to fulfill any specific functions within the system (WHO, 1999).
Organic farming has been considered as an alternative and healthy farming methods for small scale food producers (Njeru, 2016). Now-a-days, most of the organic farmers are not following the traditional method of farming, they mixed the traditional method with new modern technique and producing environment-friendly healthy products.
Currently, there are 50.9 million hectares of agriculture land following organic methods and 2.4 million producers were reported as certified organic farmers worldwide. Including the uncertified farmers, the number will be double and more than three-quarters of certified producers are located in developing countries. The countries with the most producers are India (585200) followed by Ethiopia (203302) and Mexico (200039)    India followed the traditional farming method before the 1960s and the traditional agricultural practices were gradually replaced by modern technology through the green revolution (Das, 2017). Traditional farming helped the farmers to stick on locally available inputs and seeds, which kept the cost of farming low. The green revolution forced the farmers to depend on external inputs and HYV seeds, which increased the cost of farming (Sebby, 2010). This led to the booming of the credit system for agriculture and the poor farmers were trapped into the credit and finally committed suicide. The green revolution brings the chemically and mechanized farming methods in India without giving proper information and training to the local farmers about the use of inputs. This led to the unbalanced use of inputs in the field for more yield (Das, 2017) which infertile the soil and affected the health of people.
The studies related to determinants of productivity of organic farming are few. Therefore, the present study focused to determine the factors influence the adoption of organic vegetable farming in Kerala.

Objectives of the study
To identify the factor determine the productivity of organic farming in northern districts of Kerala.
To analyze the impact of the factors in the productivity of organic farming in northern districts of Kerala.

Database and methodology
The research conducted in northern districts of Kerala namely Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, and Palakkad. The simple random techniques used to select the samples. The districts, block, and villages purposively selected, based on the farming area and farming techniques used in these regions. Samples of 300 organic farmers were randomly selected and the data were collected by using a structured questionnaire. The farmers have selected the study on the basis of years of adoption. Farmers who converted to organic farming less than 3 to 4 years were not included in the survey. This is because the economic benefits and productivity of organic farming can't measure in the starting of the conversion period. The primary survey collected data of basic socio-economic background of the farmer and information relevant to marketing and finance, fertilizing, irrigation aspects of organic farming.
As the productivity of organic vegetable farming is a dichotomous or binary dependent variable with the option of either higher production or lower production. Logistic regression was considered to be an appropriate analytical tool to estimate the determinants of the production of organic vegetable farming in north Kerala. In order to facilitate analysis of the data, a value of 1 was assigned to the higher production and 0 to the lower production.
The parameters of the model were estimated with the maximum likelihood technique. The model has been specified as: Y i = β 0 + β 1 X 1 + β 2 X 2 + β 3 X 3 + β 4 X 4 + β 5 X 5 + β 6 X 6 + β 7 X 7 + β 8 X 8 + β 9 X 9 + β 10 X 10 + β 11 X 11 + β 12 X 12 + β 13 X 13 + ε Where,   The maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters in the logistic regression model characterizing the behavior of organic farmers towards the productivity of organic farming shown in Table 2. All variables are statistically significant at 5% level (p<.05). The odds ratio shows in column two of the table.

Socio-economic and farm characteristics of the respondents
The results show that in organic vegetable farming in north Kerala, female farmers having higher production compared to male farmers as the odds ratios is greater one (3.351). The government policies in Kerala towards the development of organic farming is female-centric, the government trying to popularize the benefits of organic farming through women self-help groups called Jaivasree and Kudumbashree in Kerala. This may be a reason for higher production for female farmers. some of the studies argue (Desai, 2013;Farnworth, 2009;Roy et al. 2015) that accessibility of chemical is comparatively less for female farmers and the concentration of farming on family needs than marketing is also a factor of higher production in female farmers.
Experience is a major factor in determining the productivity of a farmer. Experienced farmers can find their own way to maximize production with minimum inputs. In this study, included three dummies in the model. The odds ratio for Experience OF2, Experience OF4 and Experience OF5 are 1.9758, 2.9306, 3.8307 respectively, are greater than one. Which means that It indicates that a farmer having more years of experience in both farming and organic farming are more likely to produce higher than the farmer with less experience in farming and organic farming.
The irrigation potential and water source is another important factor to help in the production of farming. The farmers are getting more rainfall in a year and having irrigation potential throughout the year are more likely to have higher production than the farmers depending on private water sources and seasonal irrigation facility. The odds ratios of seasonal irrigation potential and rainwater are 0.2202 and 4.8371 respectively, which are greater than one.
Usually, the vegetable market faces higher volatility and unpredictable risk in the pricing of the products. This is a major demotivating factor all the farmers. But in the case of organic farming, consumers are ready to pay a higher price for the quality product and the volatility in pricing is comparatively low which encourage the farmers to convert into organic farming. The present study shows that farmers converted to organic farming due the attractive premium price are more likely to produce higher than the farmers converted due to other factors like social commitment and health motives, as the odds ratio of other factors for conversion is less than one (0.0701). In the same aspect, the odds ratio of not satisfied with pricing (0.2109) and no seasonal variation in pricing (2.686) point out that, farmers satisfied with the pricing of their product and farmers facing no seasonal variation for prices are also highly motivated and producing higher than their counterparts.
In most of the farming family, household members are substituted as labor for farm activities. This may help the farmer to reduce the cost of production by cutting down the wage rate. But the current study found that increasing the participation of household members in organic farming reduces the chances of having higher organic vegetable production. This may be due to the lack of skill development of household laborer.
The ownership of the land and farmers sources of income are also influencing the production of organic vegetable farming. The odds ratio of leased land (0.3857) and both leased and owned land (0.4371) shows that farmers cultivating in owned land are more likely to produce higher than the farmers cultivating in leased land. Farmers are getting more chances and interest to improve the fertility of the land,in owned land than leased land. This is because it will take years to convert the land into fully organically fertile, so a farmer depends on leased land cannot get a long period to convert the land into fully organic. The main drawback of organic farming is the problem adoption period of land to the organic. In these adoption periods, the productivity of land will very less. So, these features point out that farmers having own land get enough time to convert their land and getting higher production.
The farmers having other sources of income and higher household monthly income may spend less time and interest in farming compared to the farmers depend on farming as an income source.
The results show that the odds ratio for Local job /business and others (LJBO) and Government job/ private job are 0.3486 and 0.2981 respectively, both are lesser than one. This means that the organic farmers engaged in other jobs are more likely to produce less organic products compared to the farmers full time engaged with farming. The odds ratio for household monthly income 4 (HM4) is 0.1444 is less than one. This means that the farmers having higher monthly income are more likely to produce lesser output compare to the farmer having a low monthly income.
The expenses for land maintenance is another important factor induce the production of organic vegetable farming. The odds ratio for ExpLM3, ExpLM2 and ExpLM1 are 39.28941, 10.56228 and 14.3522 respectively. This indicates that farmers spending for land maintenance is more likely to have higher production, compared to farmers not spending for land maintenance. Maintaining farmland will induce fertility of the land, this will help to induce the productivity of the land.

CONCLUSION
The production of organic vegetable farming induced by various factors includes the gender of the farmer, irrigation potential, sources of water, ownership of the land, experience in both farming and organic farming, land maintenance etc. The study points out that, female farmers, farmers cultivate in owned land, farmers having more years of experience, farmers availing higher rainfall and irrigation facility throughout the year are having higher production compared to counterparts. Some other factors like getting higher price products, low volatility in pricing motivate the farmers positively to stick with organic farming. The study shows that farmers converted to organic farming for looking towards the premium price are having higher production than farmers converted due to other factors like social commitment and health motives. The farmers having other income sources and jobs and higher household monthly income are less likely to concentrate to increase the production of organic vegetable farming. The farmer will hire labor to depend on the availability of household member for the farm activity. This action may help to reduce the cost of production of farming, but the results show that unskilled labor from the household may lead to a reduction in total production.