Socio-economic dimensions of small and marginal farmers in agrarian distress prone districts of Vidarbha

The present investigation was carried out during 2010 in distress-prone districts namely, Akola, Washim and Buldana of Western Vidarbha region of Maharashtra State with exploratory design of social research. The study revealed that, low education level, low cropping intensity coupled with rain fed farming and lack of irrigation facilities and absence of any supplementary occupations pushes the farmers towards unsustainable livelihood and debt trap. Majority (94%) of the respondents’ annual income was not enough to fulfill the essential livelihood expenditure. This warrants for appropriate micro policy implication to create alternate employment opportunities in distress prone districts for sustaining livelihood of farmers. This study also showed that the factor weather and yield uncertainties; non-remunerative prices; rise in cost of inputs; lack of irrigation facilities; limited availability of the credit; rise in indebtedness, supplier induced demand in market and increasing dependency on others in farming business severely affect the farming business of majority of the selected farmers. Hence there is need to take care of these trigger/factor for reducing present agrarian distress in selected districts of the Western Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.