Assessing farmer’s willingness to participate in the on-farm conservation of minor millet using direct compensation payment

The farmers, predominantly the small and tribal,particularly in regions of rich agro-biodiversity immensely contribute to the on-farm conservation and enrichment of this diversity, often at personal cost. The past and present agricultural progress could not have happened without these genetic resources and associated knowledge conserved by farmers. On-farm conservation assumes more importance in the context of climate change in view of the gene evolution it promotes. Therefore, it plays crucial role to the future global food and nutritional security. Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu had been a region where six species of minor millets are under cultivation during last several hundred years. Farmers here over this period had evolved significant genetic variability in these crops. They are, however, under threat due to high competition from tapioca as well as the easy access to PDS rice at low prices. This study attempts to examine the role of farmer incentive mechanisms to conserve minor millets in Kolli Hills. The millet varieties were classified either as most preferred varieties (MPVs) or least preferred varieties (LPVs) by the farmer respondents based on their yield and consumption preferences. The farmer willingness to accept compensation to participate in the conservation programme is estimated using a contingent valuation method. Seemingly unrelated bivariate probit regression is used to estimate the determinants of willing to participate in on-farm conservation of minor millets.