A Study of Major Problems Faced by Sugarcane Farmers in Powayan block of Shahjahanpur District, Uttar Pradesh

Agriculture is main economic activity in Shahjahanpur district providing employment opportunity to large number of people. Sugarcane is a main commercial crop of the district sprawled over about sixty-five thousand hectares of land in the district. Powayan block in Shahjahanpur district has large concentration of sugarcane crop. The main aim of the study is to find the main difficulties faced by sugarcane growers in Powayan block of Shahjahanpur district. The study is based on the primary source of data which is collected from five randomly selected villages of Powayan block namely, Ajmatpur, Gangsara, Marena, Katka and Dalippur. The data is gathered by using a well-structured interview schedule including the questions regarding the demographic information, agricultural behavior, and their problems in sugarcane cultivation. The total sample size was taken of 100 farmers who are cultivating sugarcane in their fields. The analysis of data has been done with the help of SPSS software. The major findings of the study reveal that majority of farmers who are engaged in sugarcane cultivation were aged 46-55 years. Literacy rate among the respondents was very poor only 18 percent of respondents were educated. Moreover, the main problem among the farmers was delay in payments by sugar factories. The farmers who have small landholding under sugarcane crop cannot wait for long time for their payments consequently they sell their crops to middleman at very low price because of family requirements. Hence, it is suggested that sugar factories should make the payments as early as possible, which will save the farmers from borrowing the money from unorganized sector.