Four Seasons of Learning and Engaging Smallholder Farmers - icrisat

Table 7-3: Distribution of sample households in the study area of Karnataka
Farm size Dharwad Gulbarga Overall
A % C % A % C % A % C %
Marginal 15 16.7 6 13.3 25 27.8 10 22.2 40 22.2 16 17.8
Small 31 34.4 16 35.6 24 26.7 15 33.3 55 30.6 31 34.4
Medium 24 26.7 14 31.1 25 27.8 14 31.1 49 27.2 28 31.1
Large 20 22.2 9 20.0 16 17.8 6 13.3 36 20.0 15 16.7
Total 90 100.0 45 100.0 90 100.0 45 100.0 180 100.0 90 100.0
A=Adopted; C= Control
Agriculture was the main occupation for large proportion of the farmers (over 93.0%) in the adopted
and control areas, followed by service/employment (4 to 5 %). Similar trend was observed separately
for each district and for adopted and control areas. The main occupation pattern across different farm
sizes showed that agriculture was the main occupation for majority of the farmers in each farm size
class.
The results showed that a large proportion of the operated land was dry land and was cultivated under
rainfed condition by the farmers in both the adopted (96%) and control (92%) areas in Gulbarga
district whereas though a similar situation existed in Dharwad district, the difference between adopted
(70%) and control (31%) villages was much higher. The remaining proportion of operational land was
cultivated under irrigated condition. The average holding size for the adopted farmers varied between
1.4 and 1.8 ha and that for control farmers between 1.2 and 1.8 ha.
Cropping pattern
Andhra Pradesh
Major crops grown in Kurnool are paddy, sorghum, pearl millet, minor millet, pigeonpea, groundnut,
sunflower, cotton, tobacco, chillies and chickpea as per the secondary data during 1995. Later the crops,
which picked up in terms of area were chickpea, paddy, sunflower, tobacco and chillies sacrificing the
area under other crops predominantly grown. While growth in other crops like paddy, tobacco and
chillies ranged from 5 to 25%, chickpea growth was more than 150% compared to 1995 indicating
clear-cut preference of the farmers to chickpea replacing other crops. Crops replaced were pearl millet,
sorghum, minor millet, pigeonpea, and groundnut initially and cotton, tobacco, sunflower and chillies
during the recent past.
Chickpea is a major post-rainy season (rabi) crop followed by sunflower. Very small area under crops
like tobacco, paddy and groundnut was recorded. No area under pigeonpea, cotton, pearl millet and
minor millet was reported indicating a total shift in the cropping pattern. Kurnool is one of the seed
production centres in Andhra Pradesh for cotton and sunflower crops and despite of this chickpea
emerged as best suited crop to the farming situation. In 2007-08 production year chickpea was found to
be a priority crop in terms of area allocation. Adopted area sample farmers allocated 327.9 ha of land
while control farmers allocated 91.3 ha of land for chickpea. Following chickpea sunflower, sorghum,
tobacco, paddy and groundnut share land allocation in that order. The crop production in Kurnool is
mainly rainfed and the only exception is paddy, which is grown under irrigation. Sole cropping is a
common practice and no intercropping reported both from adopted and control sample farmers.
While in all other crop types the same varieties are grown by adopted area and control sample farmers,
which was not true in case of chickpea. Adopted area sample farmers are growing three varieties of
chickpea while control area sample farmers are grown two varieties. The improved varieties of chickpea
have shown better performance in term of productivity and return per ha.
Progress of Phase 1
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