An analysis of profile characteristics of FPO members in Nagar Kurnool and Wanaparthy districts of Telangana

Abstract

The paper focused on studying the socio-economic profile of selected Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and their members in Telangana state. The study primarily analysed the personal, social, and communication characteristics of FPO members. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Four FPOs two from each promoting institution, which had been actively functioning for more than three years were purposively selected from Nagar Kurnool and Wanaparthy districts, and a total sample of 120 respondents was selected through simple random sampling using the chit method. Data were collected using a structured interview schedule. The results of the study revealed that a majority of the FPO members belonged to the middle age group (75%) and had nuclear family type (81%). Nearly three-fourth of the member farmers were male (71%) with medium family size (79%). A little more than half of the member farmers were small farmers with land holding between 2.5 and 5 acres (52.5%) and possessed medium farming experience (72.5%). Nearly three-fourth of the members adopted irrigated farming. With respect to communication characteristics, most of the respondents had medium level of extension agency contact (68.34%), medium social participation (71%), and medium level of mass media exposure (62.5%). Majority of the members exhibited medium cosmopoliteness (59%), medium risk preference (61.5%), and medium economic motivation (65.84%). Most of the member farmers owned a television (91.6%), indicating better access to information and communication sources. The findings related to socio-economic status revealed that a little more than one-fourth (27.5%) of member farmers were educated up to middle school and little less than one-fourth (23.5%) of non-members were educated up to middle school, 37.5 per cent of member farmers were having Agriculture as primary occupation and 33.34 per cent of non-members were unskilled workers. Nearly half (46.66%) of the member farmers were in the medium annual income category.