MSc.

Agricultural development programmes are aimed at increasing food supply to feed
the rapidly expanding population. The major challenge faced by the Government is to
increase the agricultural production with limited natural resources in a sustainable
manner for ensuring food security and providing income security to the farmers. With
an objective to meet the growing demand for rice through increasing the rice
production, the Government has been implementing various programmes.
Simultaneously it is important that these programmes should be successful to the fullest
in terms of achieving goals since, huge amount of money is spent on the same. Keeping
these issues in view, the study entitled “Analysis of development programmes for
paddy promotion under decentralized planning in thrissur district” has been framed.
The present research work was taken up to study the trend of paddy promotion
programmes and to delineate the components. The study has also analysed the
perception of beneficiary farmers and extension personnel on the effectiveness of
paddy promotion programmes under decentralized planning and the factors influencing
the implementation. Apart from this the benefits and constraints of the programme were
also analysed. For this, ninety beneficiary farmers of paddy promotion programmes
under decentralized planning from three panchayats viz; Chelakkara, Arimpur and Adat
were selected as the farmer respondents. Thirty extension personnel from the
corresponding three blocks viz; Pazhayannur, Anthikkad and Puzhakkal constituted the
other category of respondents. The secondary data were collected from the State
Department of Agriculture and various government websites.
The trend analysis of the amount allotted for agriculture and allied sectors in the
Union budget shows that there was an increase in the per cent of share, from 2011- 12
to 2013- 14. Then the drop is sharp for succeeding two years and a slight increase was
noticed in the recent year. The per cent share allotted for paddy promotion schemes in
State plans showed a declining trend and a slight fluctuation was observed in the case
of Thrissur district. The analysis of the financial allocations given to the three
panchayats revealed that more than half of the total financial outlay has been utilized
for paddy promotion programmes.
The major paddy promotion schemes that had been implemented through
Krishibhavans were identified as Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, MOU Rice, Food
Security Project as the Centrally sponsored schemes; Sustainable Development of
Rice, ATMA & ATMA Plus as the State sponsored schemes. Under decentralized
planning, Comprehensive Organic based Rice Development Project and paddy
cultivation assistance to SC youth in Adat panchayat ; Distribution of HYV paddy seed
in Arimpur panchayat and in Chelakkara different schemes were identified and all these
were delineated. The schemes under decentralized planning varied among the
panchayats, whereas the same Centrally and State sponsored schemes were
implemented in all the three panchayats.
Resource aspects was perceived as the most influencing factor, followed by scheme
features, beneficiary aspects and leadership style and management approach of
extension personnel in both cases of central and state schemes as well as schemes under
decentralized planning.
Profile of the beneficiary farmers were noted down. Majority of the beneficiary
farmers belonged to ‘elderly’ age group (56 years and above), had high school
education, belonged to large family(5 to 6 members), had an annual family income
above 1 lakh rupees, and were small and marginal paddy farmers ( below 5 acres), and
practiced paddy cultivation in their own land. The respondents were found to have
medium level of economic motivation, risk orientation, mass media exposure, social
participation, contact with extension agency, scientific and market orientation.
The benefits accrued under decentralized planning were listed out and categorized
into- socio economic development, asset generation, inputs availed, skill development.
Kruskal Wallis test was employed to compare the perception of the beneficiary
farmers on the effectiveness of paddy promotion schemes under decentralized
planning. It was found that the farmers of Adat, Chelakkara and Arimpur panchayats
had high, medium and low levels of perception respectively. Further, dimension wise
perception was analysed and the panchayats were ranked accordingly. Majority of the
extension personnel perceived the effectiveness of the programmes as good.
Constraint analysis revealed that the beneficiaries of Arimpur panchayat
experienced more number of constraints, followed by Chelakkara and Adat panchayats.
The severity varied among the panchayats. The extension personnel perceived
constraints in manpower as the most important one. The suggestions include increasing
the number of components implemented and enhancing the subsidy amount under each
comprehensive scheme with capacity building at different levels. For addressing the
manpower constraints, at the institutional level appointment of more staff based on the
geographical area of the panchayat and at field level, merging with Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are proposed. The
persistent problem of timely seed availability may be addressed by devising innovative
measures at local level as far as possible.
In a nutshell, the paddy promotion programmes implemented under
decentralized planning augmented sustainable rice farming. However, the effectiveness
can be enhanced by rectifying the existing lacunae.