Effectiveness of Farmers Club: - a case study on Pananchery Farmers Club

PROPOSAL OF MINOR PROJECT WORK Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the Post Graduate degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AGRI- BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Submitted by: Sowmya. C 2010-31-124 Jojo Anto 2010-31-114 Under the guidance of: Dr. Sreevalsan. J. Menon ATIC, Mannuthy

COLLEGE OF CO-OPERATION BANKING & MANAGEMENT, KERALA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY VELLANIKKARA, THRISSUR 680 656 KERALA, INDIA 2010

INTRODUCTION If those who think to achieve, have a firm and focused mind They will realize what they thought of And even as they have thought of (Thirukural)
Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian Economy as nearly 60% of the population of the country depends on agriculture and it contributes 18% to the GDP. Tenth Five Year Plan and National Agriculture Policy documents envisage a growth level of 4% in Agriculture as against the average growth of less than 2% in the last 50 years. The last decade commencing from 1990s was marked by post-Green Revolution fatigue and plateauing yield levels in many parts of the country. For sustained 4% growth in agriculture there is needed to improve productivity and cut down on costs by improving efficiency. Group farming is, in effect of a massive technology, transfer programme in which thrust is given to bring the farmers together and take up cultivation by adopting modern scientific methods of cultivation. Kerala Agricultural University initiated a group management approach in the adopted villages of college of agriculture, Vellayani as early as in 1975 and it was successful since 1985. And it was in 1984 the Farmers club came into existence. This project was initiated by NABARD, to bring the farmers together under one roof. Farmers Clubs are grassroots level informal forums of farmers. Such Clubs are organized by rural branches of banks with the support and financial assistance of NABARD for the mutual benefit of the banks concerned and the village farming community/rural people. With the enhancement of the program, other agencies like NGO, VAs, KVKs, and SAUs etc. are also now included as agencies included in the formation and promotions of FCs.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

PANANCHERY FARMERS CLUB (Pan Farm) is an enterprising group of 48 farmers in Pananchery Panchayath and one farm scientist in Thrissur Dt. Kerala, India registered a Farmers Club with NABARD in the year 2004 as a constituent of Vikas

Volunteer Vahini .This project envisages a detailed study of the pananchery farmers club with the following objectives

OBJECTIVES
1. To study whether the objectives set forth by the pananchery farmers club is achieved, and the objectives are; The broad objective of setting up Farmers Clubs would be to achieve prosperity for the farmers with overall agricultural development in its area of operation by facilitating credit counselling, technology counselling and market counselling. Over the years, the vision of Farmers Clubs has undergone a change and the role expected to be played by Farmers Clubs have been enlarged to enable them to facilitate transfer of technology, propagation of seed village concept, strengthen agricultural extension services, undertake collective purchase and distribution of inputs, production and marketing, capacity building of members, to act as Business Facilitators (BFs)/Business Correspondents (BCs) for bank .

2. To study the farmers perception on the effectiveness of pananchery farmers club.

METHODOLOGY
The methodology comprises of:
1. Location of the study Pananchery farmers club nearby pattikad is selected as the area of study 2. Sampling procedures Panachery farmers club consists of 48 members, out of 48 members, 30 samples are taken using simple random sampling. 3. Main items of observation a. Name

b. Age c. Experience in farming

The farmers perception is measured in terms of these aspects:

1. Social participation and communication 2. Knowledge and skill development 3. Marketing awareness and credit utilization 4. Tools employed for data collection Interview schedule will be prepared for collecting data from farmers. This will be pretested and finalized before the data collection. Secondary data from the pananchery farmers club will also be analyzed. 5. Statistical tools Simple percentage analysis and other appropriate tools are used

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The present study helps us to comprehend the mechanism of group formation and management in the field of agriculture. Farmers club initiated by NABARD have been functioning for the last 25 years. This study is an attempt to understand the attitude and perception of the farmers towards farmers club. An analysis of the farmers club for their performance success or otherwise will give a better understanding of the functioning of groups. The study would help in bringing out suggestions to improve the performance of farmers club. It will also create a motivation among other farmers and farmer groups to function keeping the farmers clubs as role models.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study was conducted in a systematic way following the procedure and approach of social science research. However since the project was undertaken as a part of the requirements of MBA minor project the concept could not be studied in greater depth due to constraints of time and resources. Since the investigation is based

on the perceptions of the respondents in the farmers club there could be personal bias, which might have affected the study even though all possible care was taken to avoid them.

REFERENCES
1. KOTHARI C.R, RESEARCH METHODOLOGY NEW DELHI, NEW AGE INTERNATIONAL PVT.LTD, 3RD EDITION 2002 2. www.panancheryfarmersclub.org 3. www.nabard.org/development.../farmersclubprogrammemore.asp

Signature of the guide

Name of the Guide:

Dr. Sreevalsan. J. Menon

ATIC, Mannuthy