A Study on Problems and Prospects of Farmers with Reference to Tirunelveli District

Farmer or agriculture is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. They are the vertebrae of our community. All are the ones who present us with all the food that we eat. As a result, the community as a whole of the country depends upon farmers. In addition to the farmers contribute almost 17% of the Indian economy. But the condition of farmers in India is critical. Hence, this study is mainly focused on finding out the problems faced by the farmers why they are shifting area from agriculture to non-agriculture. Both primary and secondary data were used. 350 samples were collected based on a convenient sampling technique. Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS. The significant finding of the study is that Lack of long term policy perspective, Monsoon failure, There is no planning in agricultural land and Importance for traditional cultivation. These four factors mainly induce the farmer shifting area from agriculture to non-agriculture.


Introduction
Several problems plague Indian agriculture; some of them are natural and some others are human-made. However, the primary concern of a farmer is marketing. Agricultural marketing continues to be in bad shape in rural India. In the absence of sound purchasing facilities, the farmers have to depend upon local traders and intermediaries for the disposal of their farm produce which is sold at a throw-away price. In most cases, these producers are forced, under socio-economic conditions, to carry on distress sale of their produce. In most small communities, the farmers sell their produce to the moneylender. They usually borrow money. To meet his responsibilities and pay his debt, the poor farmer is forced to sell the produce at whatever price is allowed to him. The Rural Credit Survey Report rightly mentioned that the producers, in general, sell their produce at an unfavorable place and at an unfortunate time and usually, they get unfavorable terms. In the deficiency of an organized marketing structure, private traders and intermediaries dominate the marketing and trading of agricultural produce. The payment of the middlemen's services increases the consumer's load, although the producer does not derive a similar benefit.
To save the farmer from the money lenders' clutches and the middlemen, the government has regulated markets. These markets generally introduce a system of aggressive buying, help eradicate malpractices, ensure the use of patterned weights and measures and evolve suitable machinery for settlement of disputes, thereby ensuring that the producers are not reduced to exploitation and receive remunerative prices.

Statement of the Problem
Since independence, remarkable progress has been made in the sphere of agricultural development in the country. However, there are ups and downs in the growth of agriculture in the country and the state. The decline in the development of food grains during the 1960s and after raises concern about food security. To overcome this, the government emphasized various supportive measures.
However, developing these resources and developing infrastructure to facilitate their use by the farmer is a long-term process. Therefore, it becomes an essential and urgent need to find a way for rural households' problems in their land utilization in agriculture. This need is to be analyzed in this study by evaluating the present status of land resource management by the agriculture sector and by giving useful ideas for resource management and plan for the villagers. Therefore, further attempt in the present study to be made in the future is pertinent to land resource management in this study area.

Scope of the Study
This is associate on empirical study in an exceedingly elite space specifically Tirunelveli district, supported each primary and secondary data. This analysis is confined to the issues and prospect of farmers Tirunelveli district, which incorporates socio-demographic characteristics, land financial gain and management.
The present study aims at being attentive in investigation the present land pattern and to convey policy suggestions for full utilization of land. Try is created to recommend a land analysis and it'll be useful in increasing agricultural production. The study has lined sample villages that disagree from each another in condition of atmosphere, economic and social factors. The study especially confined to the land revenue level of living at small land holders, farmers within the rural areas of Tirunelveli district.
The data was collected by personal interviews through a pre-tested interview schedule with the assistance of users recall technique subject to the restricted memory power of the respondents to convey authentic data. The study has targeting on the routine agricultural activities of the households omitting the water management.

Objectives of the Study
• To analyses the socio-economic condition of agriculturists in the Tirunelveli district. • To study the land resources comprising of soil condition, climate, influence on land utilization/ land use mainly for crop production. • To identify the cultivation, marketing and financial problems faced by the formers. • To measure the training need of farmers in the Tirunelveli district. • To offer a suggestion based on the finding of the study.

Research Methodology
Research Design: Descriptive design Sampling Design: Convenient sampling methods.
Sampling Size: 350 farmers in Tirunelveli district Sources of Data: The study was based on primary and secondary data.
Data Collection Tool: primary data collected through interview schedule. The secondary data was collected from Books, Magazines and related Web sites.
Statistical Tools: Percentage analysis, Cross tabs -Chi-square test, Correlation Method, One way -ANOVA (multiple comparisons), Two way ANOVA (various responses), Friedman test and Factor analysis were used for the research for the survey data.  The significance (0.000) is less than the assumed significance value (0.05). So the null hypothesis H0 is rejected, the alternate hypothesis H1 is accepted, and hence the factor analysis is valid; next, one may look at the KMO co-efficient to cross-check Bartlett's test. It can be seen (0.822) is more than 0.5, so one agrees with Bartlett's trial that the factor analysis is valid. The above table exhibits the rotated factor loading for the 15 statements (factor). The reason for shifting the area from agriculture to non-agriculture has been extracted into four elements: Lack of longterm policy perspective, Monsoon failure, There is no planning in agricultural land and the Importance of traditional cultivation.

Findings
The survey reveals that, 73% of the respondents gave preference to primary crop cultivation is paddy; 54.5% of the respondents were agree to scarcity of labor in cultivation; 69.5% of the respondents were agree to low subsidy by government from cultivation losses; 73% of the respondents were disagree to lack of yards; the majority of the respondents 55.5% were affected by high labor charges due to change in trend of paddy cultivations; 44.5% were highly agree for decreasing yield of agriculture by using more fertilizer; 48% were disagree to less Facility for getting agriculture loan; 75% were highly disagree with able to reply agriculture loan; 76% were highly disagree with agricultural equipment/Power driven using production activities; 75% were agree for getting agriculture loan due to they got loss by their agriculture product; 52% were agree with the farmer need more facilities to sell the products; 42% were highly disagree with the farmer got any grant from the government to compensate the loss; 65% were agree with decreased for well water; 41% are lousy opinion to government support in cultivation; 51% were decided with Ground water source dropped; 47% were highly disagree with Changes in cropping pattern; 71% were highly agree with expecting infrastructural development and training program creating awareness for farmers; 47% were agree with expanding hybrid technology and expecting scope for crop diversification; 78% are attending agriculture training program.

Recommendation
• The government may take steps to control land conversion and giving proper training camps to the farmer. • The government should initiate the implementation of a dry farming system inefficient way which protects the farmer from the problem of shortage of water.
• The banks should provide and extend the required financial support for setting up bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticides production units, etc.

Conclusion
The land is one of the essential factors of production, which provides food and raw materials for industries -this way, landforms the most important wealth of a country. The appropriate use of land is a matter of utmost concern to its people. Land utilization as per its capability ensures good results in the production of a country. The improper and limited use of it can lead to economic deterioration. Hence, it is necessary to utilize land in an efficient and significant way. For this purpose, a country must have a good land use pattern that may avoid the mal-combination of production factors. It is very clear from the discussion that intensive use of land has been increased. The significant changes have been observed in cropping intensity and intensity of area sown more than once. This shows that in the Tirunelveli district, the process of maximum utilization of land has been increased. Simultaneously, the cropping pattern is changed from irrigated crops to un-irrigated crops such as paddy to black-gram.In this study, the results of Socio-demographic factors are also significantly related to the land utilization of the farmers. Among the significant variables, age and educational qualification have a greater influence on land utilization determination.