IMPACT OF MAJOR GOVERNMENT SCHEMES ON SOCIALLY BACKWARD FARMING COMMUNITY IN IDUKKI DISTRICT OF KERALA
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Date
2018
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IMPACT OF MAJOR GOVERNMENT SCHEMES ON SOCIALLY BACKWARD FARMING COMMUNITY IN IDUKKI DISTRICT OF KERALA
Abstract
The present study was conducted with broad objective of identifying the
impact of major Government schemes on socially backward farming community
in Idukki district of Kerala. The study was framed in such manner to explore the
profile characteristics of socially backward farmers, impact of Government
schemes analyzed through individual respondent wise impact and individual
scheme wise impact along with dependence of impact Government schemes and
profile characteristics. The factors influencing the impact of various Government
schemes on the socially backward farming community and suggestions for
enhancing the impact of Government schemes as perceived by the socially
backward farming community was also elicited.
Ex-post-facto research design was used in the present investigation.
Idukki district of Kerala was selected purposively. Three taluks viz., Devikulam,
Peerumedu and Udumbenchola of Idukki district were selected through simple
random sampling procedure. From each selected taluks four villages were
selected randomly and from each selected village, ten socially backward farmers
were selected, making a total of 120 respondents for the study.
The analysis of the profile characteristics of the farmers indicates that
majority of the socially backward farmers are middle aged, high school educated,
with marginal land holding, medium annual income, social participation, mass media
exposure, aspiration levels, extension contact, decision making ability,
achievement motivation and management orientation.
The respondents were classified into three categories according to their
perceived level of impact and it was indicated that majority of respondents
xiv
perceived medium impact. And scheme wise analysis revealed that overall
awareness, overall knowledge, overall utilization, overall impact on productivity
and overall impact on standard of living were 43.91 per cent 29.04 per cent,
16.58 per cent, 13.10 per cent and 11.64 per cent, respectively.
Correlation analysis revealed that social participation, mass media
exposure, aspiration level, extension contact, decision making ability, achievement
motivation and management orientation were positively and significantly related
at 0.01 level of significance whereas land holding, social status and annual
income were positively significant at 0.05 level of significance. Education was
found to be positively non-significant whereas age showed negatively nonsignificant
relationship with perceived impact of Government schemes.
The regression analysis revealed that out of all the selected 12 independent
variables put together explained about 57.8 per cent variation in the impact of
chosen Government schemes on socially backward farming community. The
partial regression coefficients implied that mass media exposure and
management orientation were the most important variables that contributed to
most of the variation in the perceived impact of Government schemes under
study.
The factors influencing the extend of impact of Government schemes in
the order of magnitude perceived by the respondent farmers in the order were
political interference, lack of remunerative prices, accessibility to extension agents,
middleman interventions, lack of awareness on ongoing programmes, lack of
follow-up activities, poor availability and utilization of mass media, inadequate
quantity of inputs, small land holding, lack of specific schemes, availability of
better options, lack of commitments in the part of department officials, natural
calamities, poor access to financial and developmental departments, social
status, low economic status, lack of capital for investing, unavailability of
suitable agricultural inputs and implements, previous unsatisfactory experience,
poor quality of inputs, remoteness from other communities, lack of interest in
farm production and illiteracy.
The major suggestions furnished by the respondents to manipulate the
impact influencing factors included ‘specific schemes targeting socially backward
farmers on various aspects of farm production’, ‘conduct awareness camps and
follow-up camps’ ‘relaxation in eligibility criterion to socially backward farmers’,
‘implementation of more credit oriented schemes’, ‘constant monitoring and
display of input and service inventory’, ‘transparent and clear procedures so as
to eliminate the middleman interventions and political interference’, ‘availability
of adequate quality inputs on right time’, ‘establishment and efficient functioning
of local crop samities and farmer forums’, ‘adoption of package approach’,
‘increment in number of extension agents’ and ‘system ensuring the remunerative
prices of farm products’.
A suitable strategy has been developed keeping in view of the results
obtained in the study and discussions held with the stakeholders of the study.
Description
D5688
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