Perceptional Study of Beneficiaries and Non-beneficiaries towards Rythu Bandhu Scheme (RBS) in Telangana State: An Insight From Nalgonda District, India

Among all the farm inputs, credit is considered as the major input for the development of the agricultural sector of any country or state. Recognizing this importance, Telangana government came up with the new direct investment scheme to support farmers during Kharif 2018-19 titled as Rythu Bandhu scheme (RBS). The present research study aimed at evaluating the perception of the beneficiary farmers as well as tenant farmers and agricultural labourers who are non-beneficiaries of the scheme. The sample of the study contains 120 beneficiary farmers, 40 tenant farmers and 40 agricultural labourers from the Nalgonda district of Telangana state. A Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select mandals and villages from the selected District. An integrated analytical approach was followed to analyze the data to arrive at meaningful conclusions. About 50% of beneficiary farmers opined that RBS scheme has reduced dependency on private loans. Most of the respondents are with an opinion that RBS should be limited only to small farmers with less than 5 acres land as large farmers are self- sufficient financially. Most of tenant farmers and agricultural labourers expressed that RBS should also be extended to tenant farmers as their cost of cultivation is higher than land owning farmers due to lease rent.