Page 473 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2024

Innovation and Digital Transformation for a Sustainable World

data, available at the time of analysis.] Below is a graph conducted direct interviews with participants, followed by
illustrating this comparison telephone interviews, All interviews were recorded with
their consent. The conversations were centred around the
following questions:
1) General Information
1. Are you a professional farmer?
2. How many years have you been farming?
3. Do you own the land you farm on?
4. What crops do you cultivate?
5. Are the crops you produce for personal use or sale?
(a) Bar Graph (b) Pie Chart
6. How much do the earnings from farming contribute to
Fig. 1: Expenditure Incurred on Paddy Procured by Food your household expenditure?
Corporation of India (FCI) During 2021-22 7. Are you engaged in any other professions besides farm-
ing?
We collected data from the West Bengal Planning and 2) Challenges and Issues
Statistics Department [13], providing District-wise Esti- 1. Are you facing problems selling your produce?
mates of Yield Rate and Production of Nineteen Major 2. Are you getting a fair price for your produce?
Crops of West Bengal spanning from 2010 to 2015, which 3. Have you been losing interest in farming? If so, why?
represents the most updated data available. Our primary fo-
3) Future Outlook and Concerns
cus was on South 24 Parganas district. Hence, we extracted
1. Are people in your area selling their land to acquire
data specifically for this district to analyze its agricultural
money?
scenario.
2. Is the next generation in your family interested in
farming?
3. If land continues to be sold for non-farming projects,
do you think this will be a problem?
4. If you are offered a fair price and can sell products
directly through the app, would you be interested?
4) Environmental and Agricultural Practices
1. Does climate change affect your crop yield?
2. Do you use pesticides (kitnashak) on your crops?
3.3 Agricultural Site Visits in 24 Parganas South
3.4 Insights from Conversations
From the various conversations, we can understand the
following points:
1. Middlemen in Sales:
Fig. 2: Yield and Production of Various Crops in South 24
– Farmers typically rely on intermediaries to facilitate
Parganas from 2010-11 to 2014-15
the sale of their produce to end consumers, resulting
in reduced profits and market access challenges.
Here are various types of rice, each with varying yield
2. Usage and Sale of Produce:
rates and production quantities over the years. Other crops,
such as Wheat, Gram, and Arhar, show consistent or – Farmers often allocate only a small portion of their
increasing trends, while Maize and Barley have minimal or harvest for sale, preferring to retain the majority for
zero production in some years. The production of pulses personal consumption to meet household needs.
also varies, with Mung showing a decreasing trend and 3. Dependency on Weather and Pesticides:
Matar’s production fluctuating. – Agricultural productivity is subject to weather fluc-
tuations, prompting farmers to use pesticides as
3.2 Questionnaire and Conversation
a precautionary measure to safeguard crops from
Initially, we used questionnaires to collect data, but we
pests and diseases.
found this method insufficient for capturing the nuanced
4. Financial Dependency and Diversification:
insights we needed. Questionnaires often limit responses
– Insufficient income from farming compels many
to simple yes/no answers or numerical values, which
farmers to seek alternative sources of livelihood,
fail to reflect the complexities of individuals’ experiences
leading to a decline in interest and investment in
and emotions. Recognizing this limitation, we shifted to
agriculture.
conducting in-depth interviews. This approach allowed
us to engage more deeply with farmers, gaining richer, 5. Next Generation’s Career Aspirations:
more comprehensive insights into their challenges, perspec- – Younger generations are increasingly drawn to non-
tives, and needs. For our research and survey purposes, we agricultural professions due to limited financial

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