Adoption of Different Agro-based Enterprises by Farmers in Marathwada Region of Maharashtra

The paper has studied the types of agro-based enterprises being adopted by the farmers for income enhancement in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. It has also looked into the sources of technological information, financial assistance and marketing mode of these farmers by collecting information through questionnaire. The study has observed that most of the farmers (96.2%) had diversified their income source by adopting more than one enterprise. The farmers used different sources of information such as Marathwada Agricultural University (89.5%), newspapers (82.5%), state departments (70.2%), fellow farmers, etc. to know about the latest recommendations/methodology of the enterprise they had adopted. The cooperative societies and commercial banks have been found to be the sources of financial assistance to these farmers. Regarding market mode the study has observed that most of the respondents sold their produce through commission agents (80.7%), followed by direct to customers (36.8%), shopkeepers (24.5%), and cooperatives (12.3%). The study has made some suggestions also to improve the performance and income of these farmers.