Knowledge about national food security mission and its impact among the beneficiaries in Belagavi district

Abstract

The present research was carried during 2019-20 to study the knowledge of farmers about the National FoodSecurity Mission. The farmers who were the beneficiaries of the scheme were identified in consultation with RSK fieldfunctionaries, thus forming the sample size of 140 beneficiaries. The primary data about the knowledge of beneficiariesabout the scheme and impact of the scheme was collected with the help of schedule developed for the study. The knowledgeof the beneficiaries about the scheme and its interventions was studied under three aspects namely; general informationabout NFSM, subsidy under NFSM, interventions by NFSM. And crop wise impact of the scheme on farm productivitywas studied. The results of the study revealed that highest percentage change in productivity was observed in case of jowarand the least change was observed lentil. Paired ‘t’ test results showed significant difference was observed in productivity.The results further depicted that large majority of the beneficiaries had knowledge about benefits received under the scheme,crops covered under the scheme and helpfulness of the scheme. However the beneficiaries did not possess any knowledgeabout number of beneficiaries being selected for the farm mechanization assistance. The overall distribution of the beneficiariesbased on their knowledge index indicated that the beneficiaries had highest knowledge index under the general information.Furthermore the study revealed that more than half of the beneficiaries had low overall knowledge about the scheme