Resource Use Efficiency of Tribal Farming in
Sittilingi Valley of Tamil Nadu
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Author:S. Govindaraj, S. Gurunathan, S. Senthilnathan and C. Sekhar
p-ISSN:0024-9602, e-ISSN:2582-5321, Vol:97, Issue:apr-jun
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.100375
Abstract
The economy of tribal population primarily depends on agriculture. Heavy deterioration of
natural resources in the forest area and reduction in the flora and fauna made their shifting
cultivation unfeasible. Since access to agricultural technology and inputs from the state or
private sector machinery is much weaker their net returns from agriculture are also much
lower. A study undertaken in the Sittilingi Valley of Dharmapuri district among 50 tribal and 50
non-tribal farmers selected randomly to compare tribal farming with non-tribal farming is
more essential to document the economic condition of tribal farming. The resource use
efficiency among tribal and non tribal farms revealed that the production functions fitted
were found to be on the increasing returns to scale underlying the scope to increase the
inputs for increasing the productivity. Since access to institutional credit facilities was found
to be much weaker, a Farmers Interest Group (FIG) is suggested to be established among
them, which may help the tribal farmers to invest more on farm inputs so that the productivity
of crops can be increased considerably
Key words : Tribals, Cobb-Douglas production function, resource use efficiency