Socio-economic and Psychological Status of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Growers and Constraints in Cultivation: Evidence from Mizoram, India

This paper is an attempt to study the socio-economic characteristics and the constraints faced by rice (Oryza sativa L.) growers in Mizoram, India. Further, the study emphasized, how socio-economic issues of rice growers were associated with the degree of constraints. An interview schedule was developed to collect data from respondents through personal interviews. Altogether, 120 rice growers were taken from 12 villages of 3 selected blocks from the 3 districts. The average age of the respondents was 55 years with 25 years of average experience of rice cultivation. All have literacy and 12.50 per cent with graduation and above education. Around 80.00 per cent of each of them had a positive attitude towards rice cultivation, risk orientation and decision-making ability. Around 45.83 per cent had a marginal size of landholding, and 62.50% had a marginal size of land under paddy. About ²/ ^rd of them had medium annual income and medium income from rice cultivation. Ranking exercise of constraints associated with rice cultivation in descending order were: labour constraint, marketing, financial, input, general and technical constraint. The government may take the initiative to mitigate all the identified constraints and provide better extension support to the rice-farming community. The policy process may take all the issues into account.