Rice wetland being highly fragile, the adverse effects of input intensive farming are
prominent and far-reaching which questions the very existence of human race in this planet.
Moreover, these practices are leading to extinction of many valuable flora and fauna. With the
intension to study the effect of input intensive farming on the faunal and floral population
associated with the rice fields, perception of farmers on enrichment of biodiversity by way of
adopting eco-friendly farming was recorded. The investigation was undertaken in the
Palakkad district, Kerala. A total of 40 beneficiary farmers were selected from the study area.
The dimension was measured by using an interview schedule developed by the researcher for
the purpose. To support this study on perception of farmers’, major organisms constituting the
rice ecosystem were identified and documented by taking photographs. Elderly farmers were
contacted with these photos to collect information on the variation in the diversity over the
years. The study reveals that majority of the respondents (62.5%) perceived biodiversity
enrichment as a major social benefit of eco-friendly farming. Most of these farmers opined
that reduced use of chemical inputs and avoiding poaching in eco-friendly farming leads to
conservation of biodiversity in this eco-system. 37.5 per cent respondents attributed
biodiversity changes to other factors like climate change and other human interventions,
besides eco-friendly cultivation. A list of the flora and fauna seen in rice fields and its
population variation over years was recorded as a part of the study. As high external input
agriculture has been proven to be unsustainable, ensuring food security requires a shift
towards low external input/eco-friendly agriculture, which would maintain input-output
cycles as well as the ecosystem balance.
Keywords: Rice eco-system, biodiversity, Farmer perception, eco-friendly
cultivation, flora and fauna.
