Assessment of Socio-Personal and Management Factors Affecting Farmer’s Income from Sericulture in West Bengal, India

Abstract

Among all the agricultural practices, sericulture plays a vital role in income generation by the rural population worldwide. In India, West Bengal is such a state where sericulture had been introduced long back and farmers are being economically benefitted from it. Several factors associated with sericulture and allied activities becoming challenging here and hence income is being critically hampered. In this situation, our study was conducted to assess the farmer’s income in respect to a total of 21 socio-personal and management variables associated with sericulture. A total of 127 respondents were selected randomly at village level under the three districts of West Bengal i.e., Murshidabad, Nadia and South 24 Parganas. The independent 14 socio-personal and 7 management variables were statistically analyzed using path and regression analysis. Path analysis showed the direct effect on x₁₇, x₆, and x₁₃ which have been substantial and occupied the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd position respectively, in terms of modal values. The extracted regression equation showed that the variables x₆, x₁₃, x₁₇, and x₂₀ were critically affected on the predicted character income (y). However, based on the findings of this study, if the identified factors can be addressed in terms of income generation, the number of sericulture farmers and overall progress will increase in the future.