Profile characteristics of groundnut farmers of Telangana state

Abstract

Groundnut, a key oilseed crop extensively grown across several states in India, particularly Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana which serves as a source of edible oil and protein for millions of people in the country. Considering the important role it plays, this study was taken up to assess the profile characteristics of groundnut farmers in major groundnut producing districts of Telangana viz. Mahabubnagar, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Jogulamba Gadwal and Narayanpet. An Ex-post-facto research design along with multi-stage sampling method was employed in the study. A total of 24 farmers were selected from each district constituting the sample size of 120 farmers. The results of the study indicated that the majority of the farmers belonged to middle age category (63.33%) with secondary school education (29.17%), small holdings (37.50%), had a low level of farming experience (43.33%). Whereas 65.00 percent rely on rainfall+tubewell as primary water source, with medium level of sources of information (68.33%), medium degree of cosmpoliteness (53.33%), and medium level of social participation (45.00%). Further, nearly cent percent of the respondents had their occupation as agriculture, most of them belonged to middle-income category (69.17%) had high risk orientation (39.17%), high level of innovativeness (40.00%), had (58.33%) favourable attitude towards new varieties, 71.67 percent had medium level access to credit, most (80.00%) of them had high access to critical inputs (75.83%) with medium access to markets.