Adoption of Climate Resilient Agriculture under NICRA: Farmers’ Socio-Economic Dimensions and Institutional Challenges in Lakhimpur, Assam, India

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues in today's world, which has significantly changed or is still changing the earth's ecosystems. The present investigation was conducted out with the objective to measure the socio-economic structure of NICRA beneficiary farmers and institutional challenges on climate resilient agro technologies in Lakhimpur district of Assam. The present study on NICRA project interventions on climate resilient agriculture was taken up in the Lakhimpur district of Assam. As the project was implemented in the district since 2011, the district was selected for the study. An interview schedule was developed to collect data from respondents through personal interviews. A total of 80 NICRA beneficiary farmers were selected randomly from five villages.12 numbers of respondent from implementing agency was taken. The primary data were collected for the year of 2021-22. The findings of the study revealed majority 50.00 percent of total respondent were found to be marginal farm size group. Most of the respondents (67.5 %) belonged to the old age (Above 50 years) group. In contrast, 28.75 percent of the respondents belonged to middle age (Between 35-50 years) and the remaining 3.75 per cent belonged to the young age group (Between 25-35 years) with higher secondary level of formal education (40.00%), succeeded by 33.75 percent of the respondents who had received high school education. Findings revealed that the ratio of male members (42.76%) to total family size was greater than that of both female members (32.68%) and children (24.55%). Most (83.75%) of the respondents were associated with a family of nuclear type and the remaining 16.25 percent associated with the family of joint type. Study revealed that the literacy rate of among the respondent farmer was 83.75%. This study concluded that the major constraints perceived by the implementing agency included less number of farmers coverage due to limited fund, less than expected adoption rate of technology and interventions by farmers, non-availability of required inputs, more dependence of farmers on free input supply and, longer distance between adopted village and NICRA head office.