Enhancing Groundnut Productivity in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh: Identifying Constraints and Developing Adaptation Strategies

Abstract

India is a world leader in groundnut farming. A purposive and random sampling technique was used for the study and conducted in KVK operated mandals of Anantapur and Satya Sai district. Ten mandals of KVK operational area were selected purposively where Cluster Front-Line Demonstrations were conducted and from each mandal 2 villages were selected purposively by KVK. Eight farmers from each village were selected randomly, thus making a total of 160 respondents for this study. An ex-post facto research design was used and the data were collected by interview method and enquired about the constraints faced by them for low groundnut productivity and queried suggestions to overcome the constraints faced by them. From the study, it was revealed that major constraints of the farmers faced were uncertainty in rainfall during crop growth period (96.25) followed by lack of irrigation facility (92.5 %), shortage of labour during critical stages (88.75%), low production due to pest and disease infestation (87.5%) and non-availability of appropriate market price (86.25) as reported by the farmers. Among the suggestions offered by farmers it was the supply of inputs at subsidized rate (76.25 %) ranked first followed by remunerative price should be made available to the groundnut farmers during drought years (75.0%) ranked second and irrigation facilities should be made available (72.5%) ranked third.