Correlates of farmers’ profile characteristics with their perception towards Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana

Introduction

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy and plays a crucial role in ensuring food security, employment generation and rural development. A large proportion of India's population depends directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood. Despite significant progress in agricultural production, Indian farmers continue to face several challenges such as small and fragmented land holdings, increasing cost of cultivation, inadequate institutional credit, climate variability, crop losses and unstable market prices. These problems often affect the economic stability and living standards of farming communities. To overcome these challenges and strengthen the agricultural sector, the Government of India has implemented various farmer welfare programmes such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Kisan Credit Card (KCC), Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana. The PM-KISAN scheme was launched by the Government of India in December 2018 with the objective of providing assured financial support to farmers. Under this scheme, eligible farmers receive ₹6,000 annually in three equal instalments directly transferred to their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts through the DBT mechanism. The scheme aims to reduce farmers' financial burden, facilitate timely purchase of agricultural inputs and improve their economic security. The success of any developmental programme depends largely on the characteristics, awareness, perception and participation of the beneficiaries. Previous studies have highlighted the influence of various socio-economic and psychological factors on farmers' behaviour towards agricultural programmes. Deshmukh et al. (2018) [3] www.extensionjournal.com reported that the majority of farmers belonged to the middle-age category, indicating active participation of this age group in farming activities. Jadhav (2018) [4] observed that education enhances farmers' ability to understand and utilize agricultural information effectively. Chavan (2016) [2] found that most farmers possessed a moderate level of farming experience, which influences their decision-making ability regarding improved agricultural practices. Further, Manjusha et al. (2019) [6] revealed that a substantial proportion of farmers belonged to small and marginal landholding categories, indicating their greater dependence on government support schemes. Khan (2020) [5] reported that a large proportion of respondents had limited educational and land resources, which affected their access to modern agricultural opportunities. Amitha and Karthikeyan (2022) [1] observed that a majority of PM-KISAN beneficiaries were small and marginal farmers with varying levels of farming experience and awareness towards the scheme. PM-KISAN is one of the largest direct income support programmes for farmers and has contributed significantly towards strengthening the financial capacity of rural households. However, the actual effectiveness of the scheme depends upon how beneficiaries perceive the programme, the extent of their awareness and the constraints faced during its implementation. Understanding farmers' perception towards PM-KISAN is therefore essential for identifying the strengths and limitations of the scheme. Keeping this in view, the present investigation entitled "Perception of Farmers Towards PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana" was undertaken to study the socio-economic characteristics of beneficiaries, assess their perception towards the scheme and identify the constraints faced by them. The findings of the study will be useful to extension workers, researchers, planners and policy makers in formulating suitable strategies for improving the effectiveness and outreach of PM-KISAN.

Materials and Methods

The present research was carried out in the Western region of Maharashtra state. From this region Ahmednagar district was selected purposively. Ahmednagar district has highest number of beneficiaries under PM KISAN Scheme. There were fourteen tehsils in Ahmednagar district viz., Kopargaon, Rahata, Shrirampur, Nevasa, Shevgaon, Pathardi, Rahuri, Sangamner, Akole, Parner, Ahmednagar, Shrigonda, Jamkhed and Karjat. Out of that two tehsils i.e., Newasa and Sangamner were selected from that five villages were selected from each tehsils in this way total ten villages were selected and from each village fifteen respondents were selected randomly to involve total one hundred fifty respondents for the study purpose. Ex-post facto design of social research is used for the current investigation. The data collected from all the respondents were coded, classified and tabulated in order to make the findings meaningful. The findings were suitably interpreted and necessary conclusions and inferences were drawn by using different statistical tools such as percentage, frequency, range and Karl Pearson Correlation Coefficient.

Result and Discussion

It was observed that 48.67 percent of farmers had middle age, 42 percent farmers were educated upto secondary school, majority of farmers was male and had small family type also 48.67 percent had medium farming experience followed by 47.33 farmers had marginal land holding, 53.33 percent farmers had medium annual income also 44.00 percent farmers had medium level of social participation, 64.00 percent farmers had medium level of innovativeness, 52.67 percent farmers had medium awareness about PM KISAN Scheme also 46.67 percent farmers had medium level of extension contact followed by 50.67 percent farmers had medium Perception of farmer towards PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. It was observed that independent variables such as social participation, extension Contact, innovativeness and awareness were positively and highly correlated with perception of PM KISAN beneficiaries and education, land holding, annual income were positively and significantly correlated with the perception of beneficiaries towards PM KISAN scheme. Whereas, age, gender, farming experience and size of family were negatively and Non-significantly correlated with the perception of beneficiaries towards PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

Conclusions

It is concluded from the current study that majority of the beneficiaries of PM KISAN Scheme were in middle age group, completed up to secondary school, had small family, medium level of farming experience. Most of them had medium annual income, marginal Land holding, medium level of social participation, medium level of extension contact, medium level of innovativeness, medium level of awareness. Less than half of the beneficiaries had medium level of perception towards PM kisan samman Nidhi yojana followed by high, low and very low level of perception respectively. It is concluded that independent variables such as social participation, extension Contact, innovativeness and awareness were positively and highly Correlated with perception of PM KISAN beneficiaries and education, land holding, annual income were positively and significantly correlated with the perception of beneficiaries towards PM KISAN scheme. Whereas, age, gender, farming experience and size of family were negatively and non-significantly correlated with the perception of beneficiaries towards PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

References

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