FACTORS INFLUENCING TRIBAL FARMERS TO SHIFT FROM TRADITIONAL TO MODERN AGRICULTURE IN WAYANAD DISTRICT OF KERALA

Abstract

Agriculture has always been a way of life and culture for the traditional farmers. The major 
occupation of the tribal communities has always been agriculture. The pressure to meet the growing demands of 
the increasing population forced countries like India to adopt modern methods of farming. This gradually 
brought about changes in the ancient farming systems that existed in the Country. Kurichiya tribal community in 
Wayanad district of Kerala is the first agricultural community in the district and has an important role in the 
agricultural sector of the State. Today, changes have taken place in various aspects of the farming they follow, 
as a result of influence fro0m several factors.  The study was conducted in Wayanad district of Kerala 
purposively for analyzing the socio-economic profile and the association of selected independent variables with 
factors influencing the Kurichiya tribal farmers to shift from traditional to modern agricultural system. The 
study was conducted using Descriptive research design. A total of 120 respondents were selected for the study. 
Pre-tested schedule was used for collection of data and statistical tools were used for analyzing. Karl Pearsons’s 
Co-efficient of Correlation test was used to find the association between independent variables and factors 
influencing the respondents. The important findings of the study were that the factors influencing had a highly 
significant and positive relationship with Education, Mass Media exposure and Progressiveness.