Socio-economic and Institutional Characteristics of Vegetable Growers in Jaunpur District of Uttar Pradesh, India

Vegetable cultivation has become highly commercialized. But there is a wide gap between current and desired production. To know the profile and problems faced by vegetable growers the study was undertaken in Karanjakala block of Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Two hundred fourteen (214) vegetable growers were randomly selected as respondents for the purpose of study. The findings reveal that majority of the respondents were in 36 to 54 years age group, having education up to intermediate. Majority of farmers belonged to other backward caste category, from joint families, having large size family, large land holdings and agriculture as main occupation, from medium income group and having 21 to 32 years of farming experience. Lack of government and non- government institutions for imparting training to the vegetable growers was perceived as the major problem, followed by unawareness about the modern vegetable cultivation technologies. Therefore, based on the findings of current study, it can be concluded that vegetable growers were middle aged; education is higher secondary with large family belonging to medium income group. Since the vegetable growers are from poor and medium income group, zero budget vegetable cultivation technologies and practices should be promoted as it is being promoted among poor women farmers of Bihar under Jeevika project.