Abstract
This chapter analyzes crop diversification between organic and conventional farming systems using Shannon Diversity Index (SHDI). It captures both richness (number) and evenness (abundance) of crops and analyzes impact of livelihood assets on it using ordinary least square model. Organic farming system in the study areas is richer in integrating more number of crop types (richness) but is poor in evenness, which resulted in having lower SHDI than conventional farming system. Since crop evenness is better indicator of improved productivity than crop richness, it can be implied that farmers, especially organic farmers, should be made aware of this fact in order to improve their overall productivity. The socioeconomic variables that have significant positive impact on SHDI are education attainment, livestock holding, non-farm income, group membership, training, and farther distance to the market.
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Singh, M., Maharjan, K.L. (2017). Crop Diversification Under Organic and Conventional Farming Systems. In: Sustainability of Organic Farming in Nepal. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5619-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5619-2_7
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