Socio-Economic Evaluation of Cropping Systems for Small Holder Farmers in Begusarai Dist. of Bihar - Challenges and Options

Abstract

The exact identification of smallholder farmers varies widely worldwide depending on location and intensification of farming systems. Generally, a smallholder farmer is viewed as a person involved in farming a small piece of land, most of them do subsistence farming. In many localities, smallholder farmers practice mixed crop-livestock farming, whereby the number of large ruminants kept is around. Keeping this in mind, the present study was based on the analysis-Economic Evaluation of Cropping Systems for Smallholder Farmers in Begusarai Dist. of Bihar– Challenges and Options. The primary data of Socio-Economic Evaluation of Cropping Systems for Smallholder Farmers were collected from 120 farmers of Begusarai district from a cluster of three villages each from two blocks for the agricultural year 2020-21 through SRSWOR Technique and secondary data were collected from DES (Department of Economics and Statistics), Govt. of Bihar. Primary data on various aspects related to socioeconomic and personal characteristics were collected through personal interviews with help of a pre-tested interview schedule. It consists of information on age, education, size of family, size of operational holdings, prevailed cropping system, source of income, cost incurred on the cultivation of crops, gross income, net income received and farmer level constraints, etc. The sample was dominated by semi-medium farmers followed by medium, marginal & small, and large farmers. In the study area, observed that maize and wheat were the two most important crops in the cropping system. The cropping intensity on sample farms was 190 percent. It was found in order of category of farms, i.e. a minimum of 185 percent on marginal & small farms followed by 190, 195 and 193 percent on semi-medium, medium and large farms, respectively. It may be due to the land situation of the marginal & small farmers which restricts them from intensive farming. For the sake of nation and enhancement of small & Marginal Farmers income, there is a need to step up investment in agricultural research, education, extension to reach among an unreached section of society emphasizing quality of production and value addition.