Study on socio-economic condition of Tribal farmers in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

The economy of Sonbhadra district is mainly dependent on agriculture. The district has the highest percentage of forest area among all districts of Uttar Pradesh and the district is also called as Energy Capital of India. Sonbhadra district has highest Scheduled Tribe (ST) population in Uttar Pradesh and constituting 20.67 per cent in total district population. The present study was based on primary and secondary data collected to study the socio-economic condition of tribal farmers and status of agriculture in Sonbhadra district. The analysis of secondary information and data shows that net area sown and forest cover was 28.26 per cent and 50.36 per cent of total area respectively in the district. The cropping intensity and irrigation intensity of the district was 151.34 and 172.96 respectively. Wheat crop has the highest share in area (22.93 per cent) followed by paddy (15.77 per cent), maize (4.98 per cent), arhar (3.54 per cent) and gram (3.36 per cent) in the district. Total number of land holdings in the district was around 2.03 lakhs and 84.14 per cent land holdings in the district belongs to marginal and small category of land holding. Classification of population shows that district has highest share of marginal workers followed by agricultural labour, other workers, farmers and family labour. Around 61 per cent population in the district were illiterate. The analysis of primary information and data shows that average age of surveyed farmers was 40.1 years with majority of farmers (68.4 per cent) belongs to age group 35-50 years. Majority of farmers getting agriculture related information from neighborfriends and relative followed by radio, progressive farmers, officials of SHGs and NGOs and newspaper. The productivity of almost all the crops at farmers level was less than the district average. There is a high potential to increase the farm productivity. Share of marketed surplus in total production (Roy et al. 2019) was very less at farmers’ level showing major portion of the farm production was consumed as family need. Around 67 per cent farmers are taking credit from bank followed by money lender and Self Help Groups. Consumption expenditure details of farmers shows that around 36 per cent of their expenditure on food items which consists of 22.63 per cent on foodgrains, 4.18 per cent on pulses, 5.20 per cent on vegetables and 3.53 per cent on other food items (Roy et al. 2020). The findings of the present study are crucial for future planning towards upliftment of socio-economic condition of the tribal farmers and improvement in status of agriculture in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh.