Socio-economic profile characteristics of the members of farmer producer company with reference to potato production in Assam

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted with the objective to know the socio-economics profile characteristics of the members of the farmers producer company with reference to potato production in Assam. The study was conducted in Assam with the members of Satbhani Potato Producer Company limited, Sonitpur district and Sankar Azan Agro Producer Company limited, Nagaon district of Assam were chosen purposively due to the presence of two Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) that are associated with the commercial potato production in Assam. An Ex-post-facto research design along with multi-stage sampling method was employed in the study. A comprehensive list of the beneficiary potato growing members of each farmer producer company was obtained. From this list, six villages were selected randomly for each of the FPC and thus all total 12 villages were selected. A total of 25 members were selected randomly from each villages constituting the sample size of 300 potato growing members. The results of the study indicated that the majority of the farmers belonged to middle age category (56.34%) with middle level school education (46.34%), nuclear family type (61.33%), had a middle level of potato farming experience (59.33%), cultivation as a primary source of occupation (70.00%) with marginal land holdings (38.66%), high annual income (52.00%). Whereas (85.33%) of respondents have membership of one organization as a social participation, with medium level of Scientific orientation (69.66), risk orientation (67.66%), economic motivation (64.33%) and degree of information exposure (55.00%). Majority of the respondents have no training exposure (51.67%), partial level of adoption (64.00%) and medium level of knowledge on potato production practices (71.34%) were found in the study area.