International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Sanjay VC, Sabita Mondal, Prabhat Kumar Pal, Nikhil Kumar and Ragini HR

abstract
In India sugarcane is the 2^nd major commercial crop grown after cotton and is the 2^nd largest raw material provider for agro-based industry after textile. Sugarcane farmers are facing various crisis conditions which significantly affect sugarcane farmers psychologically, financially, and socially, impacting their coping capacities. It is important to understand the factors influencing the crisis management behaviour of sugarcane. So, a study was conducted to find out the Path analysis showing the effects of the profile of the sugarcane growers and their crisis management behaviour in Southern Karnataka. Mysore and Mandya districts were selected purposively because of leading producers in southern Karnataka. Talukas villages and respondents are selected through multistage simple random sampling. Two talukas of Mandya district and two talukas of Mysore district were selected randomly and two villages from each taluka constituting eight villages and from each village 15 sugarcane growers with minimum five years of experience in sugarcane cultivation were selected randomly constituting a sample size of 120 respondents. Data was collected with structured interview schedule through physical interview method. Path analysis was used as statistical tool for data analysis. The findings revealed that cosmopoliteness, innovativeness and age of the sugarcane growers were the key variables in exerting considerable direct, indirect and substantial effect on the crisis management behaviour of the sugarcane growers. Annual income, cosmopoliteness and attitude towards crisis are having significant relationship at 1% significance level, whereas scientific orientation is 5% significance level with the direct effect on the crisis management behaviour of sugarcane growers.