Factors Determining the Membership of Farmer’s in Producer Organization (PO) a Study in the Assam State of India

Aim of this study to document the factors that influence farmer’s participation in producer organizations. To address these issues, the Government of Assam decided to mobilize farmers in the form of Producer organization (PO). Producer organization meant for effective management of agriculture in a specific crop field. The history of Producer Organizations indicates that after performing successfully for a period of time it almost defunct. For sustainability of Producer Organizations, factors influencing its membership pattern need to be studied. Therefore, this study was conducted in Jorhat District of Assam to address this issue. Total 240 respondents were selected (120 members and 120 non-members of Producer Organizations) by using multistage sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire that consists of two sections. Section one contained Individual level information i.e. Age, Education, Gender, Caste, Organizational participation, Extent of public extension contact. Section two had Family level/ house hold information i.e. Primary source of income, Size of the family, annual family income, Size of operational land holding. The t test indicated that there were significant difference between age, operational land holding, the extent of government extension contact, the primary source of income and annual family income of members’ and non-members’ means in these characteristics, both the groups were heterogeneous. From forward stepwise regression analysis, it was found that extension contact, operational land holding, annual family income and caste influences the membership pattern of Producer Organization. These variables together explained 67.50 per cent (Adjusted R2 =0.675) of the variance of effective factors on farmer’s membership pattern toward producer organizations. The study recommended that extension machinery should give emphasise on these factors and manipulate these factors for enrolling more farmers.