Impact of tribal sub plan (TSP) interventions on tribal farmers in Nalgonda district of Telangana state

Introduction

Agriculture is playing a vital role in our economy at present. It is the primary source of livelihood around 58 per cent of the population in the country. Agriculture is life line of majority of peoples who are fully or partially dependent on agriculture and its allied sector. In India, agriculture and allied sector has remarkable support for economic growth, development and society transformation of the country. India has different types of tribal population reflecting its great ethnic diversity. They are an integral part of Indian social fabric and accounts for 8.2 per cent of total population, which comprises of 4.26 crores tribal men and 4.17 crores tribal women. This accounts for 8.40 per cent men and 8.01 per cent women (Khare and Rajan, 2014) [4] . Scheduled tribes who constitute 8.6 per cent of India's population are the oldest ethnic group in the country. They are socio-economically backward, living under harsh physiographic conditions, suffering poverty and deprivation. Living in predominantly rural areas, agriculture and allied activities are their major source of income. Though the tribal areas are endowed with fertile soil, abundant rainfall and favorable climate, the crop productivity is substantially low because of poor technological uptake (Kamble et. al., 2019) [12] . Scheduled Tribe population in Telangana State, accounts for 9.34 per cent of the total population (as per 2011 census). Nalgonda district has 292,951 ST population and majority are Lambadas. There are several technologies available for improvement in crop productivity, but the available technological option does not fulfill its purpose till it reaches and adopted by its ultimate users, the farmers. The level of knowledge about technology determines the level of its adoption. (Nahatkar et al., 2017) [8] . These technologies were demonstrated to the farmers for dissemination at large scale to improve the knowledge, adoption and productivity through front line demonstration programme, because farmers like to see how a new idea works and also what effect it can have on increasing their crop production.

(Rajan et al., 2020) [11] . The present study "Impact of Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) Interventions on Tribal Farmers in Nalgonda District of Telangana State helps to find out the impact of KVK, Kampasagar in Tribal village.

Materials and Methods

Ex-post facto research design has been selected in the present study. Nalgonda district was purposefully selected where the Tribal Sub Plan has been implemented. Three mandals were purposefully selected, two tribal villages from each mandal were selected thus constituting total six villages for the study. From each village 20 beneficiaries were randomly selected, thus total of 120 tribal beneficiaries were selected for the study. Only those respondents have been selected who have got the benefit of Tribal Sub Plan Programme. An interview schedule was prepared in order to collect information, from the respondents under the study, at least a well-constructed pretested interview scheduled will be used as a tool. The collected data were analyzed using various statistical tools like Average, Frequency, Percentage, mean, mean score. These findings are presented in this article. The source of data for this includes both primary and secondary sources. An Interview Schedule was prepared in order to collect the primary data from the respondents under the study. [7] . [7] . As a part of mechanization, drum seeding in rice (81.67%), followed by Seed sum ferti drill in groundnut (61.67%) and Machine transplanting in rice (37.50%) were majorly adopted by the tribal farmers as there is huge demand for labour, timely non availability of labour and high wages lead to adoption the technologies. Under Integrated Crop Management major practices adopted by the farmers were viz., green manuring preceeding to Rice crop (72.50%) as it helped in improved growth and yield of succeeding rice crop, followed by cultivation of vegetables under pandal system (67.50%) as major vegetable crops cultivated by tribal farmers were ridge gourd, bitter gourd, bottle gourd and Coccinea this technology helped the vegetable growers to obtain quality produce, high yields and ultimately reaping more profits (Murali et al. 2020) [6] . with cultivation of leafy vegetables for summer season under shade nets (65.83%), pulse crop followed by rice (60.00%) pulse crop like greengram with the help of conservation agriculture practices helped in obtaining maximum yield and profit in rice-fallow areas, thus enhancing the system productivity and profitability. (Behera et al. 2014) [12] . [9] , Arka Vegetable Special in Okra (53.33%) were majorly adopted by the farmers. As a part of subsidiary occupation, it was also observed that a good number of tribal farmers practiced Backyard poultry to enhance the nutritional security (77.50%). Backyard poultry is an important livelihood component of rural and tribal folks, providing valuable animal protein sources through egg and meat besides aids in economic improvement by providing subsidiary income. KVK, Kampasagar has provided the improved backyard poultry variety i.e., Rajasri birds to the tribal women under Tribal Sub Plan (TSP). The involvement of women was more in housing, feeding, watering, healthcare, and breeding which were contributed for increasing the household income of the family. The income was generated from backyard poultry rearing was used for household needs and also to extend the poultry flock production depending upon the felt needs. The participation of tribal women in the backyard poultry rearing is of great importance and played major role in the economic empowerment of tribal women (Vijaya Nirmala et al. 2020) [12] . Sheep rearing was practiced by 74.17 per cent of farmers. Sheep rearing was promoted as a source of income generation and self-employment for the poor and landless households in Tribal villages. It helped in providing a very stable and attractive additional income source for small and marginal farmers without affecting their main occupation (Misra A S et al. 2006) [5] .

Conclusion

In conclusion, sustained guidance of KVK, Kampasagar helped the beneficiaries adopt scientific farming and obtain good income. Induction and dissemination of various technologies on crop production and animal husbandry activities have impacted on the yield and income of the farmers. The demonstrations conducted with new improved varieties of paddy, redgram were successful in changing farmer's perception and improving knowledge on recommended farming practices which resulted in higher yields. The results clearly established the facts that the adoption of improved technology improves the productivity and profitability. In the vicinity of the KVK, farmers in large number adopt and followed recommended practices under demonstration and got benefited with higher production. (Rajan et al, 2019) [10] .

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