VIJAYABHINANDANA, BABIRAMI, G2016-06-212016-06-212012http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/67590Irrigated Agriculture Modernization and Water Bodies Restoration and Management (IAMWARM) project was implemented in Tamil Nadu during the year of 2007 with the aim of improving irrigation service delivery including adaptation of modern water saving irrigation technologies. To study the socioeconomic impact in of the IAMWARM project in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu an ex-post facto research design was followed. The study was conducted in Tamil Nadu state during the year 2012. Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu was purposively selected, since this project was first implemented in the district under first phase sub-basin of the project during the year 2007. Four taluks were selected randomly out of thirteen taluks and three villages were selected from each taluk for the study. Ten respondents were selected from each village by following simple random sampling method thus, making 120 respondent beneficiaries and for nonbeneficiary farmers two taluks were selected to make 60 respondents. Data were collected with pre-tested interview schedule coupled with case study by selecting the independent variables viz., age, education, land holding, farming experience, information source utilization, training received, economic motivation, scientific orientation, innovativeness, risk orientation and dependent variable socio-economic impact in terms of direct changes and indirect changes viz., knowledge, adoption, income, asset acquisition, yield, water use efficiency, participation in the project activities, labour use under indirect changes and social participation, cost of cultivation, empowerment under indirect changes. Besides, list of project activities undertaken by the project were collected. For the purpose of statistical analysis of the coded data various statistical tools were used viz., frequency and percentage analysis, Z – test, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, step wise regression analysis, principal component analysis, ranking and class interval. The detailed analysis of profile of farmers indicated that majority of the respondents were under middle age group, had middle school level education and small farmers with medium level of farming experience who had medium level of information source utilization, medium level of training received and medium level of economic motivation coupled with medium level of scientific orientation, medium level of innovativeness with medium level of risk orientation. ‘Z’ value indicated that there was significant difference between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in respect of almost all the variables except – age, land holding and farming experience. Most of the respondents indicated field level demonstration of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as the predominant project activity, followed by field visits, subsides for adoption of improved technologies, training programmes, promotion of micro-irrigation system, water user association election, promotion of commodity groups, exposure visits, IAMWARM DAY, model Seed village, promotion of precision farming, promotion of fish pond. Majority of beneficiary farmers experienced medium level of direct changes due to the implementation of the project. The direct changes were medium level of knowledge and adoption, moderately increased income, same level of asset acquisition, moderately increased yield, slightly increased water use efficiency, medium level of project participation and decreased labour use. Majority of beneficiary farmers experienced medium level of indirect changes. The indirect changes experienced by the project beneficiaries due to implementation of the project were same level of social participation, same level of cost of cultivation and medium level of empowerment. ‘Z’ value indicated that there was significant difference between beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries in respect of almost all the variables except – social participation. The correlation analysis revealed that education, land holding, farming experience, information source utilization, training received, economic motivation, scientific orientation, innovativeness and risk orientation were positively and significantly correlated with socio-economic impact. Whereas, age with socio-economic impact had non-significant relationship. All the independent variables together explained up to the extent of 86.10 per cent to the total variance in the socio-economic impact. The multiple Linear Regression analysis gave the 86.10 per cent of the total variation in the socio-economic impact. The most important subcomponents in order of their importance were farming experience; training received economic motivation, innovativeness and risk orientation. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that ten significant variables explained 98.7 per cent of the variation. Income alone explained 47.9 per cent of the variation, emerging as a single most variable that predicted variation in socio-economic impact of beneficiary farmers. Principal component analysis revealed that socio-economic impact was directly related to the variables namely; knowledge, adoption, income, asset acquisition, yield, water use efficiency, participation in the project, labour Use, social participation, cost of cultivation, empowerment. The information collected from four beneficiary farmers under case study indicated that most of them were middle aged, educated more than middle school and had experience in farming for more than ten years. Most of them were had five and more acres of land. Besides, they possessed cow, poultry birds and sprayers. They came to know about IAMWARM project through the meetings held in their villages. And all of them became aware about the soil and conservation through meeting. All were having good organizational participation. They adopted System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in their field. And they experienced the advantages of the method as – water saving, rat control, no lodging of the crop, vigorous single seedlings, less labour requirement, more yield and more economic returns than conventional method of rice cultivation. Farmers attended to most of the trainings conducted by the project and had some future plan to do. They suggested to intensify the project activities, in order to increase awareness among farmers about the soil and water conservation. Major constraints faced by the beneficiary farmers were, increased labour cost, adequate quantity of FYM/ Compost was not available, high cost of chemical fertilizers, non- availability of labour at peak time, lack of remunerative price for paddy, lack of marketing facilities, resistance from women labour to transplant single seedling, difficulty in intercultural operations, lack of cooperation and coordination among the farmers, nonavailability of quality seed on time, problem of middlemen in marketing, inadequate credit facilities, lack of co-operation of members in water users association, bad tenurial system, water ways running through holdings of different farmers leading to social problems, managerial problems due to fragmentation of land holdings, poor socio-economic status of farmers in adoption of new technology, non-availability of implements for intercultural operation, negligence among farmers to take responsibility to protect community assets, lack of proper compensation settlements against crop insurance for inundated fields. The suggestions given by the beneficiaries for improvement of project functioning were timely supply of inputs and subsidies will be useful to increase the benefits of the project, proper communication about the inputs, subsidies availability and their sources to all the farmers, labourers need to be trained to do effectively the intercultural operations, follow up activities need to be undertaken, more awareness should be created towards benefits of the farmers level organizations to improve their participation and more number of field level demonstrations to be conductedenbiological phenomena, irrigation, participation, land resources, manpower, tillage equipment, rice, technological changes, economics, marketingThesis