Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Selected Contract and Non-Contract Farmers

Parbhani and Beed districts were purposely selected because of these districts were taking contract farming in cotton crop. Selu Tehsil was selected from Parbhani district and Georai from Beed district on the basis of highest area under cotton. Ten farmers were selected randomly from each village for contract farming and same procedure was adopted for non-contract farming in case of cotton crop. Thus, a sample of 100 for contract farmers and 100 for non-contract farmers was selected. The total effective sample size of respondents was 200. Data pertained to the year 2007-08. Majority of cotton growers under contract and non-contract farming belonged to young age group. It implied that in contract farming. It means in both situation main occupation was agriculture and after that allied services farmers was giving more importance to education as compared to non-contract farming. In an average capital investment was more in contract farming compared to non-contract farming. The result of analysis revealed that significant differences in these factor except land holding.