Farmers' attitude to tree planting in relation to agriculture; a paper presented to social forestry refresher course II

Abstract

The key word in this paper is attitude. While trying to tackle the problem of agriculture and food policy worldwide, knutson et al (1983) described attitude as what is generally" believed and this involvesmental conviction, acceptance, confidence or faith that a proposition is true. In Weber's handy college dictionary (1981), the word attitude is described as a position or manner indicative of feeling, opinion or intention towards a person or a thing. These are definitely neither the most exhaustive or the best definitions of the word. As early as 1930's it had been observed by a Japanese scholar, Toyohiko Kagawa that conservation with ordinary trees was not being practiced in Japan and elsewhere. The reason, he observed was that ordinary trees did not yield early cash returns. Rural families were therefore not ready to plant them. It is true that the majority of our farming communities are rural based and most of them are subsistence farmers whose time preferences are short, risk discounted returns are low and their propensities to invest are also low. Most of such farmers produce to consume and thereby ensure their survival and that of their families. While the above is true, it has already been recorded that there is a general shift in forest policies worldwide which have gone in tune with similar changes in economic development policies towards the emphasis on .meeting the needs· of the rural poor in their quest for survival resources e.g~food, fuelwood, poles, foddermedicinal herbs etc; and that industrialization and economic growth will not necessarily ensure achievement of the equity goals of development; thereby sressing the need for self reliance for the provision of production and utility goods and services, through the use of locally available resource.