Impact of Farmer FIRST Project on Livelihood of Farmers

Abstract

Under the farmer FIRST project about 400 beneficiary farmers were provided access toimproved agricultural technologies in Khordha district. Skill training and demonstration ofmodules on improved technologies on Crop, Horticulture, Livestock and Fishery wereconducted. Following the DFID framework (1999) the impact on livelihoods of farmerswas measured through finding a comparative position of physical, social, financial, humanand natural assets of the farmers before and after the adoption of the interventions. Astructured interview schedule was developed and data was collected from 87 randomlyselected beneficiaries by personal interview method twice (before i.e., in 2016-17 and afterthe intervention i.e., in 2019-20). The mean value of overall standard of living of adoptedfarmers derived through the addition of the index values of five assets was worked out tobe 2.84 in the post-adoption period against 2.41 in the pre-adoption period. Paired samplet-test indicates the positive and significant impact of the project on the livelihood of thebeneficiaries.