Das, P. K.Hussain, Irshad2024-06-292024-06-292023https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810211207The present study entitled “A Study on Management Orientation and Productivity of the Members of Farmers Producer Company with reference to Potato Production in Assam” was carried out with the following objectives: 1) To study the personal, socio-economic, psychological and communication characteristics of the members of Farmer Producer Company 2) To assess the level of management orientation of the members of Farmer Producer Company 3) To assess the level of productivity of potato by the members of Farmer Producer Company 4) To identify the factors which influence management orientation and productivity of the members of Farmer Producer Company 5) To determine the direct and indirect effects of selected factors on the level of management orientation and potato productivity of the members of Farmer Producer Company 6) To identify the constraints as perceived by the members of Farmer Producer Company in production and marketing of potato The study was undertaken in Sonitpur and Nagaon districts of Assam which were selected purposively, as two Farmer Producer Companies dealing with commercial potato production were operating in these two districts. Two FPCs namely, Satbhani Potato Producer Company limited of Sonitpur district and Sankar Azan Agro Producer Company limited of Nagaon district were selected purposively for the study. Six villages were selected from each of the FPCs therefore all together twelve villages were selected for the study randomly by using the equal allocation method to get a sample size of 300 farmer members. The primary data for the study were collected by the personal interview method with the help of a structured research schedule. The primary data for the study were collected during the month of February, March and April of 2022. Management orientation and productivity of potato were the dependent variables in the study. A standard scale was developed in the present study to assess the level of management orientation of the members of Farmer Producer Company following the procedure followed by Sharma et al. (2012). A total of 21 independent variables were selected for the study. The independent variable included in the study were Age, Education level, Family size, Family type, Potato farming experience, Occupational status, Size of operational land holding, Area under potato cultivation, Net annual income from potato, Social participation, Farm Mechanization, Scientific orientation, Leadership ability, Decision making ability, Risk orientation, Achievement motivation, Economic motivation, Degree of information exposure, Exposure to training on potato cultivation, Adoption of improved potato production technology and Knowledge on potato production practices. The statistical techniques and tests used in the study for analysis and interpretation of the data were frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, co-efficient of variation, multiple correlations, multiple regression, t-test for testing the significance of the coefficients for correlation and regression analysis and path analysis. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents (56.34%) were belonged to middle aged category and middle school level of education (46.34%). Majority of the respondents (61.33%) belonged to the nuclear family with small family size (51.57%) upto 5 members. Majority of the respondents (59.33%) had medium term potato farming experience with (70.00%) of respondents used to follow cultivation as their occupation. Most of the respondents (38.66%) belonged to the marginal farmer category and (56.33%) of the respondents were having a land area up to 0.8 ha under potato cultivation. Majority of the respondents (52.00%) had high net annual income from potato above Rs. 173543. In case of social participation majority of the respondents (85.33%) were member of one organization. Majority of the respondents had medium level of farm mechanization (71.66%), medium level of scientific orientation (69.66%) and medium level of leadership ability (63.66%). Majority of the respondents had medium level of decision making ability (60.34%), medium level of risk orientation (67.66%), medium level of achievement motivation (65.33%) and medium level of economic motivation (64.33%). Among the personal cosmopolite sources of information, majority (54.33%) respondents used to get the information by Input dealers in regular basis. And through personal localite sources of information, friends/ relatives/ neighbors or fellow farmers majority (41.66%) of the respondents used to get the information regularly. Among the mass-media sources, farm publications were used regularly by majority (24.00%) of the respondents and overall majority of the respondents (55.00%) had medium level of information exposure. It was found that majority of the respondents (51.67%) had no exposure to training. Majority of the respondents (64.00%) were found in the medium level of adoption in case of adoption of improved potato production technology and majority of the respondents (71.34%) had medium level of knowledge on potato production technology. Majority of the respondents (64.34%) belongs to medium management orientation of the members of the farmers producer company, whereas 19.33 per cent of the respondents belongs to the category of low management orientation. The remaining 16.33 per cent of the respondents had high management orientation. It was observed that the majority of the respondents (71.34%) had medium level of productivity followed by 15.33 per cent respondents with low productivity and 13.33 per cent respondents were found with high level of productivity. The mean value 27.61 indicated that on average respondents had medium level of productivity. The coefficients of correlation were worked out to examine the relationship of 21 independent variables with the management orientation of the members of FPC. Almost all the 17 variables viz., education level (0.149), potato farming experience (0.175), size of operational land holding (0.550), area under potato cultivation (0.583), net annual income from potato (0.744), social participation (0.268), farm mechanization (0.824), scientific orientation (0.865), leadership ability (0.812), decision making ability (0.873), risk orientation (0.822), achievement motivation (0.877), economic motivation (0.782), degree of information exposure (0.888) and exposure to training on potato cultivation (0.178), adoption of improved potato production technology (0.340) and knowledge on potato production practices (0.744) showed significant and positive relationship with the management orientation of the members of FPC at 0.01 level of probability. The correlation analysis of productivity of potato with the independent variable indicated that out of the 21 selected independent variables, 17 independent variables were significantly correlated with the productivity of potato by the members of FPC. Among the 21 independent variables, 16 variables viz, potato farming experience (0.152), size of operational land holding (0.377), area under potato cultivation (0.384), net annual income from potato (0.552), social participation (0.195), farm mechanization (0.636), scientific orientation (0.747), leadership ability (0.724), decision making ability (0.711), risk orientation (0.884), achievement motivation (0.849), economic motivation (0.864), degree of information exposure (0.769) and exposure to training on potato cultivation (0.150), adoption of improved potato production technology (0.288) and knowledge on potato production practices (0.631) showed significant and positive relationship with the productivity of potato by the members of FPC at 0.01 level of probability. Only independent variable family size (0.132) showed significant relationship with the productivity of potato by the members of FPC at 0.05 level of probability. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the contributory effects of selected independent variables with the management orientation. Results of regression analysis revealed that 8 variables, viz., net annual income from potato (b=0.288), farm mechanization (b=0.132), scientific orientation (b=0.118), decision making ability (b=0.182), achievement motivation (b=0.261), economic motivation (b=0.159), degree of information exposure (b=0.224) and knowledge on potato production practices (b=0.090) had positive and significant relationship with the management orientation of the members of farmers producer company at 0.01 level of probability and 3 variables viz., area under potato cultivation (b=0.108), Risk orientation (b=0.150) and exposure to training on potato cultivation (b=0.039) showed significant and positive relationship with the management orientation of the members farmers producer company of at 0.05 level of probability. The value of coefficient of multiple determination (R2) being 0.923 indicated that the eleven independent variables jointly could predict 92.30 percent of the variation in the level of management orientation. Results of regression analysis of selected independent variables with the productivity of potato revealed that among the 17 independent variable, 4 variables viz., net annual income from potato (b=0.202), risk orientation (b=0.361), achievement motivation (b=0.199) and economic motivation (b=0.306) had positive and significant relationship with the productivity of potato by the members of farmers producer company at 0.01 level of probability and 2 variables viz., potato farming experience (b=0.053) and area under potato cultivation (b=0.167) showed significant and positive relationship with the productivity of potato by the members of farmers producer company of at 0.05 level of probability. The value of R2 (0.837) indicated that 6 independent variables selected for the study were efficient in predicting the productivity of potato by the members of FPC. The 6 independent variables fitted in the linear regression analysis could predict 83.70 per cent of the variation in the productivity of potato by the members of FPC. Path analysis was done to get a clear picture of how the chosen independent variables affected both directly and indirectly the level of management orientation and productivity of potato by the members of the Farmer Producer Company. The results of path analysis in management orientation revealed that the highest direct effect on the management orientation was exhibited by net annual income from potato (0.274) which was followed by achievement motivation (0.263) and degree of information exposure (0.209). The maximum indirect effect was exhibited by the degree of information exposure (1.315), which was followed by scientific orientation (1.218). The highest total effect on the management orientation by the members was exhibited by degree of information exposure (1.524) and followed by scientific orientation (1.312). In case of productivity of potato the results of path analysis revealed that the highest direct effect on the productivity of potato was exhibited by risk orientation (0.363) which was followed by economic motivation (0.315) and area under potato cultivation (0.231). The maximum indirect effect was exhibited by the achievement motivation (0.832), which was followed by economic motivation (0.769). And the highest total effect on the productivity of potato by the members was exhibited by risk orientation (1.108) followed by economic motivation (1.084). The most important constraints faced by the majority of the respondents (82.66%) is the ‘Blight problem’ in production faced by the members of FPCs. The other constraints faced by the members in order of importance were ‘Lack of availability of good quality seeds’ (75.33%), ‘Unavailability of fertilizers in planting time’ (68.00%), ‘High cost of good quality inputs’ (62.66%) and ‘Labour shortage problem during the planting and harvesting time’ (59.00). Regarding marketing constrains majority of the respondents (86.33%) perceived that ‘Lack of proper market place’ was the most important constraint faced by the members of FPCs. The other constraints faced by the members in marketing of potato were ‘Lower market price due to import from other states’ (78.66%), ‘Involvement of middleman in the marketing system’(64.33%), ‘Low price given by the brokers’(59.00%), ‘Inadequate storage facility’ (49.66%) and ‘Increasing charge of cold storage’ (35.33%).EnglishThesis