COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LIVELIHOOD SECURITY OF THE FARMERS PRACTICING DIFFERENT FARMING SYSTEMS IN MANDYA DISTRICT OF KARNATAKA

Abstract

The survey was conducted during 2018-19 in Mandya district of Karnataka to analyse the livelihood security of the farmers practicing divergent farming systems. From Mandya district two taluks were considered i.e., K.R.Pete and Pandavapura. Major farming systems in each taluk were identified after thorough discussion with extension professionals of line departments and interaction with farmers and two predominant farming systems were selected from each taluk i.e., ‘paddy+dairy’ and ‘paddy+dairy+horticulture’ farming systems from K.R.Pete taluk and ‘sugrcane+dairy’ and ‘sugarcane+dairy+horticulture’ farming systems from Pandavapura taluk. For each farming system 30 respondents were selected, hence the total respondents selected was 120. A comprehensive scale was developed to measure livelihood security of the respondents adopting divergent farming systems. The study revealed that, under ‘paddy+dairy’ farming system, more than half (66.66 %) of the farmers fall under poor level of livelihood security. In ‘paddy+dairy+horticulture’ farming system more than two fifth (43.33 %) of the respondents fall under average extent of livelihood security. In case of ‘sugarcane+dairy’ farming system, 40.00 %) of the respondents fall under to poor extent of livelihood security. In case of ‘sugarcane+dairy+horticulture’ farming system, more than half (53.33 %) of the farmers belonged to average level of livelihood security. Furthermore, the results also showed that, there is a symbolic difference between livelihood security of farmers practicing ‘paddy+dairy’ and ‘paddy+dairy+horticulture’ farming systems at 1 per cent level of consequence. The U (6.00) value indicated that, there is a symbolic difference between livelihood security of farmers practicing ‘sugarcane+dairy’ and ‘sugarcane+dairy+horticulture’ at 1 per cent level of significance. The Chi-square value (24.40) indicates there is a symbolic difference between livelihood security of the farmers practicing ‘paddy + dairy’, ‘pa