Personal Profile and Information Sources used by the Finger Millet Cultivators

Millets are small grained cereals, referred as “Poor man’s cereals”. The study was undertaken in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra State during the year 2016-17. Four tahasils namely Panhala, Karveer, Radhanagari and Shahuwadi were selected purposively for the study having good area under finger millet crop. On the basis of the highest area, 3 villages from each tahasil were selected. 10 finger millet growing farmers were selected on the basis of highest area for interview from the selected villages. Thus, in all 120 farmers were finally selected for the study. Majority of the respondents were from middle age group of 36 to 50 years (60.00%), 52.53 per cent finger millet growers had primary education i.e. upto 7^th std., 60.83 per cent of them possessed medium family size i.e. 6 to 10 members, 73.33 per cent of them had joint family and 61.66 per cent of them had 6 to 10 years of farming experience. About 59.17 per cent of them owned land from 1.01 to 2.00 ha and majority of them (74.16%) were having annual income upto Rs.1.00 lakh. 47.50 per cent of finger millet growers were always obtained agricultural information from progressive farmers, friends and relatives followed by All India Radio Programme (65.84%) and Television (56.66%). Majority of the respondents suggested that free of cost inputs may be supplied (100.00%), the seed of improved varieties may be made easily available (71.67%), the farmers may be given training in finger millet cultivation and preparation of bi-products (63.33%) and the economic incentives may be given for the installation of processing unit (60.83%).