Impact of training programme on banana farmers’ income and welfare in Southern Karnataka

Introduction

Horticulture Extension Education Unit of College of Horticulture, Mysuru is exclusively meant for carrying out extension activities for the benefit of farmers of this region organizes exposure visits, demonstrations, exhibitions, farm trials, etc as per the demand from the farming community on a continuous basis besides helping the farmers in adopting the latest technologies developed by research institutes and farm universities. Farmer oriented crop specific training programmes were organized regularly to educate the farmers with regard to technological advancement in the particular crop and scientific cultural practices to enhance the productivity and net returns of farmers. The training programme on scientific cultivation aspects of Banana was conducted and study has been taken to know the impact of training programme on farmers.

Methodology

The present study was undertaken in Mysuru district, farmers from different vllages of Mysuru district were included and purposive sampling was done to carry out the study. Primary data from 30 farmers were collected and information related to socio-economic status, various aspects of agriculture like size of land holding, livestock asset position, input usage, reasons for attending training, crop yield, costs and returns and other related information both before and after the training programme were gathered. Relevant statistical analysis was done to know the differences in technological advancement before and after the training programme. The study was conducted to assess the impact of training on farmer's income & welfare implications of trained farmers and to suggest strategies for effective training programme. Small size (<3) 3 (10.00) 2.

Results and Discussion

Medium size (3-5) 9 (30.00) 3.

Mean size 7

Size of the family is an indicator of availability of human resource for the agricultural operations at farm, the mean family size of the sample farmer is 7 which is considered to be good for supporting farming activities. Large family size helps in reducing the dependency on hired labour is advantageous for taking up good agricultural practices and own family labour is considered as implicit cost which helps in enhancing the farm revenue by reducing the cost of production. Small (2.5 to < 5 ac) 18 (60.00) 3.

Medium (5.0 to 12.5 ac) 5 (16.67) 4.

Large (>12.5 ac) 2 (06.66) 5.

Land holding distribution pattern of farmers were presented in table 4, majority of them were small farmers (60 per cent) remaining 33 per cent of them were marginal and medium farmers and only 7 per cent of the farmers belongs the large category. It could be evident from the table that, majority of the farmers belong to small and medium land holding category hence, training programmes must focus on equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to increase productivity and inducing cost effective technologies for improving the socio-economic status of these farmers to sustain their livelihood. FYM produced (tons/farm) 05.50

Table 5 presents the per farm livestock assets of the sample households, which serve as an important indicator of the economic strength and sustainability of rural households.

The results indicate that the farmers possessed a moderate level of livestock assets, with one bullock pair, followed by cows, goats/sheep and poultry birds as source of eggs for home consumption Animal power can be utilized for ploughing and carting primarily in agriculture where machinery is not a feasible option (Mehta & Nambiar, 2007) [7] . Livestock asset provide a wide spectrum of benefits such as food, manure with an average production of 5.50 tons per farm and generate income. The availability of farm yard manure supports integrated nutrient management practices and helps in reducing dependency on chemical fertilizers and intern reduces cost of cultivation thereby promoting sustainable agriculture practices. It is very crucial to know, why farmers will attend training programmes in the horticulture extension education unit. Table 6 highlights the reasons for farmers participation in the banana training programme. The findings reveal that all the respondents participated to gain knowledge on recent advances in banana production technologies, which was ranked first (Anonymous 2024 & 2025) [3,4,5] . Integrated disease management (96.67 per cent) and integrated nutrient management (93.33 per cent) were ranked next, indicating farmers concern towards reducing chemicals and making crops more resilient to pest and diseases. This will boost crop productivity, soil health and cutting cost on chemicals. Improved marketing opportunities, quality planting material and irrigation management were considered as important motivating factors to attend training. Overall, the results indicate that farmers were primarily motivated by production oriented, technology driven and income enhancing aspects of banana cultivation, emphasizing the relevance and effectiveness of the training programme. In order to calculate the total cost of production, variable cost components assessed on the basis of prevailing market rates of the inputs used. Farm yard manure cost is also accounted for 11 per cent of the total variable cost, which is due to lack of livestock results in depending on purchase of farm yard manure from the fellow farmers at higher price by the sample respondent. [6] results are in line with these findings. This reduction is mainly due to reduction in variable cost after the training majorly due to reduction in the use of chemical. Use of more bio-products, taking of timely operations and prophylactic measures has attributed towards improved banana productivity and incomes of the sample respondents. Significant reduction in the cost of banana production was noticed as an impact of the training programme. www.extensionjournal.com [6,2] . After the training there was a decline in the usage of chemical fertilizers and plant protection chemicals, this has attributed towards reduction in the total variable cost which contributed towards increased net returns. There was an eleven per cent increase in the breakeven yield of after the training, majority of the farmers have opined that adoption of scientific cultivation practices could able to increase the yield. This clearly signified the impact of training on yield and income of farming community.

Conclusion

References

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