To Study the Profile Characteristics of National Horticulture Mission farmers in Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The study done on the profile characteristics of National Horticulture Mission farmers in Krishnagiri district revealed that the majority (53.33%) of the NHM beneficiaries belonged to the old and middle age (40.00%) category. They were educated from primary school (20.00%), functional literate (18.33%), High School (16.67%), Intermediate (11.67%) and Illiterate level (8.33%). Majority do farming (66.67%) and farming with animal husbandry (23.333%) according to this study. Regarding land holding, the majority (55%) are small and marginal farmers (21.67%). They possess medium (51.67%) annual income and 40% belong to low medium income category. With regard to farmers experience, they had high (43.33%) and low level (38.34%) of farming experience. They possess medium (60.00%) and low (28.34%) less of extension agency contact. Majority (60.00%) had a medium level of risk orientation, followed by 33.67% with a high level of risk orientation in Krishnagiri district. The majority had (45.00%) medium level of scientific orientation followed by a medium to high level of mass media exposure (26.67%) in this study.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.112033

Pages

1 - 7

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords

Introduction

The National Horticulture Mission implemented in TamilNadu and across India aims to improve the horticulture production, productivity and marketability 
of horticultural produce. Involving the small and marginal farmers, farmer organizations like Farmer Interest Groups, and Farmer’s Producer Organisations, it aims at achieving economies of scale across the nation. At present, more focus is given on raising more crop per drop and doubling of our farmers incomethrough increasing the yield through using excellent germplasm available with us, using improved plant material stocks for propagation and utilising thepresent-day advanced precision technologies by carrying out micro irrigation technologies. To foster skill development and create new employment opportunities for rural youth in horticultural sector and in post-harvest management technologies, today National Horticultural Mission (NHM) is focusing on establishing new cold chains, value addition centres, ware housing facilities with advanced logistics support to improve the productivity and profitability of horticultural sector. Keeping this in view, the present research was undertaken to study the profile characteristics of National Horticulture Mission farmers in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. 

Methodology

The study was undertaken in Krishnagiri district. Three taluks, namely Krishnagiri, Hosur, and Shoologiri, were selected for this study based on the 
participation of beneficiaries under NHM. A list of villages was selected from the respective blocks where more NHM activities were carried out. From the list, two villages in each block were selected based on the maximum number of trainees of NHM. Nagondapalli, Thattiganapalli, maharajakadai, Naralapalli, Kudisadhanapalli, and Panapalli were the six villages selected for this study. A total of 120 beneficiaries was selected using a proportionate random sampling 
method. 

Results Discussion

The findings on the distribution of NHM beneficiaries according to their profile characteristics of NHM are presented below 
Age
 Age is an important factor as  it reveals the mental maturity of  an individual to take decisions for meeting his/her needs. The distribution of farmers according to their different age is presented in Fig 1 Data presented in the Table 1 indicated that, among beneficiaries, the majority (53.33%) of the 
respondents in this study belonged to the old age category, followed by middle (40.00%) and young (6.67%). In case of non-beneficiaries, 48.34  per  cent 
of  the  respondents  belonged  to old  age  group followed by middle (40.00 %) and young (11.66%). From the above result, it can be concluded that the 
majority of both beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers belonged to the old age group, followed by the middle age group. The young generation today do not show  interest  to  take  up  farming as their profession because  of  low  profitability  and  hard  work, as  farming  involved  lot of  physical  work.  Further, the younger generation today are educated, and they try to get into other sector jobs which are more remunerative and need less labour. The results are in accordance with the findings of Latha (2015)
 Education
 Educational status of an individual farmer plays a vital role in enhancing his knowledge level.  It plays a role in motivating him/  her towards  knowing  new  
things  and understanding  them  new things. The distribution of respondents according to their level of 
education is furnished in Figure 2.
From the findings presented in  Table  2,  it  was  evident that  20.00 percent of beneficiary  respondents  studied up  to  primary education, followed by  18.33 percent being functionally literate, 16.67 percent in High school, and 11.67 percent in Illiterate and Intermediate, and only 3.33 percent studied upto  
post-graduation  level. In the case of non-beneficiaries, 28.33 percent of the respondents were functional literate, followed by 20 percent with primary school education and 16.67 percent with upper primary school education. Approximately 11.67 percent of the non

Conclusion

The findings of the present study reveal that Majority (53.33%) of the NHM beneficiaries belonged to old age and middle age (40.00%). In the nonbeneficiaries category, Majority and another belong to old (48.34%)  and middle age (40.00%). With regard to their education status, the beneficiaries of NHM were educated from primary school (20.00%), Functional literate (18.33%), High school (16.67%), Intermediate (11.67%) and Illiterate level (11.67%). In the nonbeneficiary category, they are mostly functional literate (28.33%), with primary school level (16.67%) upto High school level (11.67%) and in Intermediate and Illiterate (8.33% and 8.33%) in this study. In occupational status, Majority of NHM beneficiaries do farming (66.67%) and farming with animal husbandry (23.33%). In the non-beneficiary category, Majority (56.67%) do farming and another category 36.67% do farming with animal husbandry in the study area. In land holding, among the beneficiaries of NHM, Majority (55.00 per cent) are small and marginal 
farmers (21.67%). In the non-beneficiary category majority (55.00%) are marginal (55.00%) and small (35.00%) farmers in this study. In Annual income, 
among the beneficiaries of NHM, Majority (51.67%) have below to the medium level of annual income and 40 per cent belong to the low level of annual income category in this study. With regard to non- beneficiaries of NHM in the study area, majority (61.67%) have low level of annual income and about 33.00 per cent of the respondents have medium level of annual income. With reference to experience in horticulture, Majority (43.33%) of the beneficiaries of NHM have high level of farming experience followed by low level (38.34% ) of farming experience in this study. Majority (60.00%) of the NHM beneficiaries have medium and low level (23.33%) of extension agency contact in this study. With regard to non-beneficiaries majority (53.34%) had medium to low (43.33%) level of extension agency contact. With regard to non-beneficiary respondents, medium (53.34%) to low (43.33%) level of extension agency contact was reported in this study. Majority (60.00%) of the beneficiaries of NHM have medium level of risk orientation followed by 33.67% with high level of risk orientation in the study area. In the nonbeneficiary category, majority (76.67%) have medium level of risk orientation followed by 21.67% o the respondents with low level of risk orientation in this study. 

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