Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Author(s):
Radha S and Dr. KB Umesh

Abstract:
India has a large agrarian economy with most of its rural population being marginal and small subsisting on farming. The standard of living of these farm households is measured by annual income, consumer expenditure, investment on productive assets and their indebtedness. Of all, income plays a major role in determining the household expenditure, savings and investment of farm households. Income includes farm, off-farm and non-farm. When income rises steadily consumption also rises but, for the same reason, when income decline, consumption also falls sharply, with devastating consequences for farm households. Thus, the current study was taken up to study the sources of farm household income and factors influencing income sources considering 120 sample farmers. Mandya district where surface irrigation is predominant (Surface Water Users) and Tumakuru where the source of irrigation is ground water (Ground Water Users) were selected for the study. From each district 60 samples were drawn based on land holding size. The outcome inferred that GWU small farmers had higher income from livestock, off-farm and non-farm activities than the SWU small farmers. SWU large farmers had higher farm income due to cultivation of cash crop. Thus, the study concluded that farmers were dependent on other sources of income for making a better living. Thus, this can be further achieved by promotion of self-employment and entrepreneurship among rural youth through agro-based processing and manufacturing industry.