Practicing Economy of Nature through Traditional Rice Variety Conservation: A Case Study from West Bengal, India

Abstract

Abstract
Traditional rice varieties (TRVs), continue to be cultivated defying the allurement of high-profits from cultivating high yielding varieties. The reasons why TRVs are still cultivated, withstanding extreme pressures leading to disappearance of many TRVs are interesting, especially for their associated non-market values. This study documents 50 TRVs being cultivated by farmers (n= 488) in three districts of West-Bengal, followed by a criterion-based analysis using UPGMA algorithm applied with Bray-Curtis similarity-index to determine clustering of TRVs based on why farmers prefer to cultivate them. The findings shall prove to be important in deciding priorities in conserving TRVs.

Keywords: Criterion-based analysis, conservation, consumption-based values, non-consumption based values, value attributes

Cite this Article
Jimi Banik, Anupam Paul, Sudipta Mukherjee et al. Practicing Economy of Nature through Traditional Rice Variety Conservation: A Case Study from West Bengal, India. Research & Reviews: Journal of Botany. 2017; 6(3): 20–35p.