A Study on Profile Characteristics of Rice and Maize Farmers in the State of Nagaland, India

The present study was conducted in six selected districts of Nagaland with a sample size of 300 respondents to find out the profile characteristics namely; personal, socio-economic, communication and psychological characteristics of rice and maize farmers. The profile of the farmers revealed that more than half (59.7%) of the respondents were medium aged and were males (65.7%), less than one-third of them were illiterates (31.7%), majority belonged to nuclear family type (86%) and more than half (51.7%) of them had family size of 3-5 members. A little more than two-third (67.7%) of the farmers did cultivation as occupation, majority (46%) had marginal operational land holding, 80.67 % had medium income level, more than half (57.7%) of them had 13-32 years of farming experience, less than half (49.3%) of the farmers had no membership in any organization, 47.67% of them had medium level of information sources utilization and 51.67% had medium level of extension contact. Majority (23.66%) of them had contact with ATMA officials, 67% of them visited towns for agriculture purpose. More than half (69.67%) of the respondents had medium level of innovativeness, 45.67% had medium level of economic motivation, 62% having medium level of scientific orientation, 56.67% having medium level of achievement motivation while 63.7% of them had moderate level of attitude towards shifting cultivation.