Livelihood Enhancement of Scheduled Caste Farmers through Integrated Farming System in Kolar District, India

The study was conducted in purposively selected Kolar district, a total sample of 353 respondents were purposively selected for the study. Data was collected by using pretested structured interview schedule and analyzed by using appropriate statistical tools. The results revealed that a majority of the respondents belonged to low category of mass media exposure, medium category of education, livestock possession, cosmopoliteness, extension participation, social participation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, training undergone followed by high category of cropping pattern, innovativeness, management orientation, level of aspiration, participation in the developmental programmes, willingness towards IFS, access to extension personnel and access to resources. Livelihood Security of respondents in ‘highly satisfied category’ increased to 37.96 per cent from 28.33 per cent out of seven dimensions, maximum increase was noticed in economic efficiency (52.71%). The personal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics such as cropping pattern, livestock possession, risk orientation, training undergone, access to extension personnel and access to resources had positive and significant relationship with livelihood security. The multiple regression value indicated that all the 18 independent variables had contributed to the tune of 23.20 per cent of variation in livelihood security of the respondents. The results pertaining to economic analysis indicated that BC ratio has been increased to 2.98 from 1.93 in crop component and with respect livestock component BC ratio was found to be enhanced to 3.18 from 1.93 after the implementation of the project. Hence, the concerned development departments should organize the demonstrations, trainings, field days, exposure visits etc., to educate the farmers about IFS. The positive and significantly related characteristics need to be considered while selecting the farmers for the extension educational programmes to enhance their livelihood security.