Adoption Level of Various Farm Enterprises by Self Help Group (SHG) Members of Anantapur District

Abstract

Self Help Groups (SHGs) are small voluntary association of people from the same socio
economic background with a purpose of solving their common problems through self-help 
and mutual help. Expos facto research design was used with well-constructed interview 
schedule. Anantapur district was purposively selected based on the highest number of SHGs 
in Andhra Pradesh. Three Mandals namely Bukkapatnam, Kothacheruvu and Puttaparthi 
were randomly selected for the research study. Two villages from each mandal were 
randomly selected and from each village 20 SHG members were selected thus making the 
total number of respondent 120. During the year 2019-20 the number of SHGs increased by 
2.29 lakh with a corresponding increase in saving by Rs. 2,827.57 crore as on March 
2020.The saving outstanding of SHG with Banks as on March 2020 has reached an all-time 
high of Rs. 26,152.05 crore. In view of the economic importance of SHGs in women 
empowerment a study on adoption level of various farm enterprises by SHG members were 
under taken. Study revealed that majority of the respondent’s (60.00%) have fully adopted 
harvesting technologies followed by (57.50 %) have partially adopted scientific management. 
It was observed that (60%) respondents have not adopted value addition. It was observed 
that (43.33%) of respondents have fully adopted cattle rearing followed by (37.5 %) adopted 
poultry enterprise and (42.5%) members not adopted handicrafts vocational activities.