Contract Farming in Kumaon Division of Uttarakhand, India: An Analysis of Socio-Economic Profiles and Attitude of Contract Farmers

Contract farming is a system for the production and supply of produce by farmers/primary producers under advance contracts, the essence of such arrangements is a commitment to provide an agricultural commodity of a type, at a specified time, price, and in specified quantity to a known buyer. The present study aims to explore the socio-personal, economic, communication, psychological and attitudinal dimensions of contract farmers in Kumaon Division of Uttarakhand, India. The study was conducted in Kumaon Division of Uttarakhand where two districts Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital were selected purposively. Thus, a total of 200 respondents were selected and interviewed on various identified parameters as per the objectives of the study. The descriptive research design was used to meet the objectives of the study. The Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to measure the relationship between the attitude of farmers towards contract farming and selected independent variables. The findings revealed that maximum number of respondents (48.00%) belonged to middle age category, (64.50%) were male, (43.50%) had education up to intermediate level, (64.00%) belonged to marginal land holding category, (80.50%) belonged to small area under contract farming category, (91.50%) belonged to lower income category, (58.50%) had medium information seeking behaviour, (55.00%) had low level of mass media exposure, (91.00%) had low level of social participation, (43.00%) had medium level of innovativeness, (77.50%) had medium level of scientific orientation, (66.00%) had medium level of economic motivation, (53.50%) had medium level of risk orientation, (88.00%) had medium level of decision making ability, majority of farmers (52.50%) had more favourable attitude towards contract farming. Landholding (-0.268), area under contract farming (-0.143), mass media exposure (-0.249), innovativeness (0.241), scientific orientation (0.237), and economic motivation (0.267) of respondents were significantly correlated with the attitude towards contract farming. It can be concluded that contract farmers had a favourable attitude towards contract farming. Regarding the relationship of selected profile characteristics of contract farmers with attitude towards contract farming, it was found that land holding, area under contract farming, mass media exposure, innovativeness, scientific orientation, and economic motivation were significantly associated with attitude towards contract farming.