Purchase Behaviour of EcoFriendly Fertilizers Pesticides by Farmers in Telangana

Abstract

newline The agriculture sector plays an important role in developing countries like India. It is a primary source of livelihood for nearly 58% of India s population (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2021). Employing 42.6% of the country s labour force (Statista, 2021), the agriculture sector generates 20.19% of the national gross domestic product (Statistic Times, 2021). Pesticides and fertilizers are some of the crucial inputs in agriculture. Application of chemical pesticides/fertilizers has undoubtedly helped in protecting the crop from pest damage and improving the yield, but this has come with a cost of detrimental effects on the environment (Dhanker et al., 2021). Due to the risks resulting from the use of these chemical inputs, there is a great emphasis to take up farming using eco-friendly products (Ozkara et al., 2016; Mishra et al. 2018; Karunamoorthi, 2012). newlineEco-friendly products are those products that result in the least environmental degradation (Cooper et al., 2019). Basing on this point, it is understood that eco-friendly fertilizers/pesticides are those products whose application causes least/no harm to the environment. Eco-friendly fertilizers are defined as the fertilizers that cause less environmental damage than the traditional fertilizers on application to soil (Khachatryan et al., 2016). Likewise, eco-friendly pesticides are those pesticides that minimize the negative impact on environment on their application (Damalas and Koutroubas, 2020). The term eco-friendly is alternatively known as green , environmental friendly , or sustainable (Kim et al., 2013; Prakash and Pathak, 2017). newlineIt is important to conduct studies about eco-friendly fertilizers/pesticides (Koul et al., 2008). Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, the research investigating the determinants of farmers purchase of eco-friendly fertilizers/pesticides is scarce. Therefore, this study aims to understand the determinants of farmers purchase of eco-friendly fertilizers/pesticides.