2024, Vol. 9, Special Issue 1

Farming in the Central Dry Zone (CDZ) of Karnataka is predominantly rainfed and majority of farmers are small and marginal, facing numerous challenges. Given the situation, diversification becomes imperative to address economic hardships of farmers. The present study was conducted to analyze performance of farming systems Credit and savings behaviour of farmers in CDZ. Four major farming systems viz., Crop+ Sheep, Crop+ Dairy, Crop+ Horticulture+ Dairy and Crop+ Horticulture were considered for indepth analysis. The required data were collected using pre tested schedules through personal interview from 180 respondents, comprising of 45 farmers practicing each of these chosen farming systems. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and suitable functional analysis. The results on Herfindahl index used to know the diversification in sources of income revealed that the farming systems comprised of diary component were emerged as the most diversified farming systems. Among the four farming systems, Crop+ Horticulture+ Dairy system was found to be the most profitable with higher per acre net returns (₹ 4,04,757) followed by Crop+ Sheep, Crop+ Dairy and Crop+ Horticulture. The results on credit behaviour of farmers showed that 31.11 per cent farmers practicing C+H+D farming system, o fall under 50 to 75 per cent repayment category followed by 28.89 per cent of them in 25 to 50 per cent repayment category, nearly one-fourth showed high repayment (75-100%) rate and only 15.56 per cent belonged to poor (0 to 25%) repayment category. Further, C+H+D farming system practicing farm households could save more (₹ 1,98,703) compared to other farming systems. Better performance of C+H+D farming system can be attributable to higher net return in this system. The results on multiple linear regression to delineate factors determining saving by farm household showed that area under annual crops, number of livestock and area under horticulture crops were the major determinants in all the farming systems.