MSc

The present study entitled "Environmental orientation of lease land farmers in Kerala: The case of Palakkad district "conducted during 2016 – 2018 focused on nature of lease land farming and environmental orientation of the lease land farmers, identification of the factors influencing the sustainability of the lease land farming, the constraints experienced by the lessee farmers and their profile characteristics. The study comprised of ninety respondents having a land area of at least 20 cents who cultivated either paddy, vegetables or banana selected through simple random sampling from three panchayats of Mannarkkad block in Palakkad district. Environmental orientation of lease land farmers with four components was the dependent variable and ten independent variables were selected based on judges’ rating.
A structured interview schedule was used for data collection. Statistical tools such as arithmetic mean, quartile analysis, frequency, percentage analysis, Kruskal-Wallis test and correlation analysis were used.
The nature of lease land farming was analysed based on nature of lease land contracts, tenure status, mode of payment of land rent, nature of land leased in and crops cultivated. It was found that 50 per cent of the respondents had written agreement. More than half (60%) of the respondents paid the rent in advance. Regarding tenure status, 67.78 per cent of the respondents were pure tenants. It was found that 95.56 per cent of the respondents paid rent in cash. Regarding nature of leased in land, majority (83.33%) of the respondents had plain land. Less than half (44.44 %) of the respondents cultivated banana.
Based on the analysis of data, it was found that more than half (60%) of the respondents had high environmental orientation. On comparison between the three panchayats, it was found that there was significant difference between the environmental orientation of the three panchayats and Thachampara panchayat had high environmental orientation.
More than half (60%) of the respondents belonged to age category of 35 to 55 years. The study revealed that 97.78 per cent of the respondents were male. Less than half (38.89%) of the respondents had education up to high school and higher secondary level. Majority (78.89%) of the respondents had four to seven members in the family. The study revealed that 31.11 per cent of the respondents had eleven to twenty-five years of experience. Less than half (47.78%) of the respondents had leased in area of greater than 2 acres. The findings revealed that 80 per cent of the respondents were recycling the resources. More than half (68%) of the respondents had medium level of mass media exposure. Majority (72.22%) of the respondents had an average monthly income of Rs. 10,000 to 25,000 and 73.33 per cent of the respondents were in medium category of decision making ability.
Factors influencing the sustainability of lease land farming were studied under the heads, rent paid by lessee farmers, motivational pattern, input availability and source of irrigation. More than half (65.55%) of the respondents paid rent up to Rs. 10,000. Ranking of motivational pattern of the respondents revealed that economic motivation was the first motive followed by achievement motivation. Both affiliation and extension motivation had equal ranks. Majority (90%) of the respondents claimed that the inputs were readily available. Regarding the source of inputs, the major source of seed was Tamil Nadu for 75.56 per cent of the respondents, major source of organic input was local sources for 34.44 per cent of the respondents and inorganic inputs was private shops for 57.78 per cent of the respondents. The major source of irrigation was Kanjirappuzha dam for 64.44 per cent of the respondents.
Result of the correlation analysis between environmental orientation and profile characteristics of the respondents revealed that decision making, mass media exposure and resource recycling had positive and significant correlation with environmental orientation.
Constraints experienced by the lease land farmers were identified and ranked. It was found that the major constraints were illegal nature of land leasing, little interest to invest in land improvement by lessor, illogical increase in rent
amount, non-availability of land, short period of agreement and difficulty in accessing credit facilities.
Thus, the study revealed that more than half of the lease land farmers had high environmental orientation. Only 50 per cent of the farmers had written agreement. The constraints experienced by the lease land farmers need attention from the policy makers to increase the production and resource utilisation in a sustainable manner.