Evaluation of Seed or Grain Storage Technologies from Indian Farming Societies Using A Hybrid and Multi-Attribute Approach

Abstract

Soon after the introduction of green revolution, a parallel increment in percent food grain production and losses has been reported in India, which impedes the mission of achieving food security in India. In parts, among the major causes of these losses are the reluctance among farmers, especially of small holding, towards adoption of scientific storage methods/technologies and inability of the national agencies to meet the challenges imposed by the supply of surplus grains to them by the farmers. Although sets of traditional and improved grain storage technologies exist among Indian farming communities, a controversial account about their effectiveness and performance is available in the literature which negatively impacts the endeavour of bringing rapid developmental in the farming society. In a developing nation like India, a large section of farmers is often either unaware of the modern technologies or cannot logistically access them. They often rely on the traditional or semi-modern technologies without having a comprehensive account of the benefit and economic feasibility of the modern technologies. This impedes the vision of rapid development of the farmers and the process of infusing emerging technologies in the society. In order to develop an informative argument about the performance of the existing technologies, a nearly comprehensive study has been undertaken to compare the different traditional and improved grain storage structures used by Indian farmers. Both qualitative and quantitative parameters were compared individually and simultaneously to achieve their effect on performance individually and in unison. Another objective of the study was to test the applicability of hybrid and multi-attribute approach, based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for the performance evaluation and ranking of the attributes and structures. Finally, based on analysis and ideas borrowed out of literature a set of theoretical and conceptual guidelines to assist improvement in these structures was brought in. The study will help understand the status of grain storage technologies in the developing, resource-poor society and also increase the adoption and access of farmers to better post-harvest seed storage technologies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text