Socio-economic profile of Stylosanthes seed producing farmers and constraints faced by them inAnantapur district of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

study was carried out to know the socio-economic profile of Stylosanthes seed producing farmers in Ananthapurdistrict of Andhra Pradesh. Farmers were identified through snowball technique and were interviewed using standardizedinterview schedule. The study revealed that more than half of the Stylosanthes cultivating farmers belonged to middle agegroup, were illiterates, belonged to small family, semi medium land holding category and medium income group. Majorityof the farmers belonged to nuclear type of family. Exactly half the seed growers possessed small herd size. Majority of therespondents (85%) belonged to medium economic motivation category. Medium risk orientation was observed with96.67 per cent of the respondents and nearly 40 per cent of the respondents had medium extension participation. Nonavailability of improved implements for seed harvest and processing, very labour-intensive crop for seed collection andprocessing, drudgery involvement during seed collection/sweeping were the most severe constraints expressed by therespondents.