Improvement in Livelihood Security of Scheduled Caste Farmers through Integrated Farming Systems in Hassan District of Southern Karnataka, India

The study was conducted in the purposively selected Hassan district, a total sample of 223 respondents were purposively selected for the study. Data was collected by using pretested structured interview schedule and analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. The results revealed that, a majority of the respondents belonged to low category of education level, land holding, cropping pattern, livestock possession, innovativeness, mass media exposure and extension participation and then followed by medium category of cosmopoliteness, training undergone, willingness in agriculture and high category of social participation, level of aspiration and risk orientation. The Livelihood security of respondents in ‘highly satisfied category’ increased to 34.98 per cent from 23.77 per cent after implementation of the project. There was an improvement in livelihood security after the implementation of the project, out of seven dimensions, maximum increase was noticed in employment security (50.62%) followed by living amenities(49.86%),economic efficiency(40.89%),ecological security(39.82%), social equitability (35.56%),assets(35.37%)and coping strategies against stress (22.39%).Further, the characteristics such as land holding, cropping pattern, livestock possession, cosmopoliteness, innovativeness, mass media exposure, extension participation, level of aspiration, training undergone and willingness in agriculture had positive and significant relationship with livelihood security. The findings conveyed that six independent variables such as land holding, cropping pattern, innovativeness, extension participation, level of aspiration, training undergone had contributed significantly to livelihood security of farmers. The R2 value indicated that all the 13 independent variables had contributed to the tune of 64.40 per cent of variation in livelihood security of the respondents. The results pertaining to economic analysis indicated that BC ratio has been increased to 3.26 from 1.84 in crop improvement and livestock components after the implementation. Hence, the concerned development departments require to organize the demonstrations, trainings, field days, exposure visits etc., to educate the farmers about IFS. The positive and significantly related characteristics needs to be considered while selecting the farmers for the extension educational programmes in order to enhance their livelihood security.