Awareness on Soil Health Management Scheme by Farmers of Tumakuru District in Karnataka

Abstract

The present study was carried out in 23 Raitha Samparka Kendras inGubbi ,Kunigal, Madhugiri and Tumakuru taluks of Tumakuru district in Karnataka state to know the extent of awareness of farmers regarding Soil Health Management Scheme (SHMS). Thirty beneficiary farmers of SHMS were randomly selected from 12 RSKs for the study. A pre-tested schedule was used to collect relevant data from the respondents. The results revealed that half of the beneficiary farmers (50.00%) had more awareness about SHMS, whereas one-third (33.33%) and 16.67 per cent of the beneficiary farmers were awareness and less awareness regarding the SHMS, respectively. A vast majority of the farmers were aware of the objectives, interventions, mode of operation, selection criteria of beneficiaries and subsidy on various agricultural inputs pertaining to SHMS.A simple majority of the farmers (53.33%) had contacted Assistant Agricultural Officer for obtaining information on SHMS, while half of the farmers (50.00% each) had contacted Agricultural Officer and Agricultural Assistant for obtaining information regarding SHMS. The results of path analysis revealed that extension agency contact of farmers had direct and indirect effect on the extent of awareness on SHMS. The first, second and third largest indirect effect channelled through is extension agency contact (X9) in the case of five variables, mass media participation (X8) in the case of five variables and education (X1) in the case of three variables, respectively.