Socio-Economic and Psychological Characteristics of Bt Cotton Growers in Raichur District of Karnataka State

The present investigation was undertaken with sample size of 120 for assess the cost and returns and problems in adoption of Bt cotton production in Raichur District of Karnataka for the year 2011. Cotton industries provide means of livelihood for about 250 million people through its cultivation, trade and industries in India. The study on socio-economic characteristics revealed that, that 47.50 per cent of there spondents belonged to high annual income level followed bymedium (25.83%), semi medium (20.84%)) and 5.83 per cent of them belonged to low annual income category. The possible reason for high annual income of the respondents it could becontributed to their land holding, cropping pattern and subsidiary occupation. The study also focus on the psychological characteristics of Bt cotton producers, the results reveals that, 55.00 per cent of the Bt cotton growers had medium scientific orientation whereas, 23.33 and 21.67 per cent of them had high and low level of scientific orientation respectively. Scientific orientation is the orientation of farmer to adopt new technologies in a scientific way. However, in case of risk orientation results revealed that, 52.50 per cent of the respondents had medium risk orientation, where as 28.33 and 19.17 per cent of respondents belonged to high and low risk orientation category respectively. The attributing reasonis that, that the individuals will be very critical and cautious in understanding different aspects of technology. There istendency in farmers to take risk based on their income level, land holding and other resources. Risk taking varies with personal and socio economic status of the individuals. The study suggests that, One of the best ways to overcome this isto vigorously utilize the scientific expertise of Krishi Vigyan Kendras for conducting regular off campus training for the farmers. Conducting Farmer's Field Schools would certainly helps to bridge these gaps.