Neuro - Perspectives in Farmers Decision Architecture

Decision making is a province of intense study in agro - science and cognitive agro - science. In reality, decision processes emerge from complexly interlinked matrices. Farmers, as production managers, make management decisions about procedural operations to be performed on biophysical components of farm lands. These decisions have implication in sustainability of farm business and deserve in-depth assessment with a systematic approach. Traditionally, it is assumed that farmer knows all alternatives, consequences and probabilities. They have time - tested preferences and possesses cognitive capacity to efficiently process them. On the contrary, studies portray that farmer's decision-making does not meet these assumptions and could be augmented by focusing on natural strategies. Eyes architectures suggest that Eyes considers various sources of information before making decision. When faced with incomprehensible decision farmer often fail to design ‘rational’ decisions. Inquiry is how farmer make decisions. Objective of this paper is to examine how do farmers coordinate their activity when making a decision? How do they dovetail relevant information to simplify decision process and make it tractable? What are the underpinnings in farmer's decision modeling? How do farmers subject themselves to bandwidth of decisions? Does previous experience alter decision behavior? Paper attempts to address some unsolved issues; how does farmer decide in a state of vacillation, risk and probability? How does farmer decide in state of VUCA (Uncertainty, Vulnerability, Complexity and Ambiguity? Methodology incorporates ‘Desk Research’ and ‘Diary Research’. ‘Questionnaires’ and ‘interviews’ have been conducted to gather primary data. A representative population of 15 farmers, from rural pockets of Odisha, was adopted for the study. A cognitive test was administered to respondents. Some essence of eye movements was noted during interaction. Data was analyzed via standard statistical protocols and ‘Paper - Pencil Edit’ methodology. Results indicate that farmers in rural pockets of Odisha still resort to traditional decision methods in spite of technology having penetrated deep into the sector. Study recommends for intensive agricultural extension training and education in the interior ‘Food Pockets’ of Odisha