International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
E Devi Prasanna, B Aparna, V Sitarambabu and D Ramesh

abstract
Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for most of India's rural population for food production and quality to combat malnutrition and food scarcity. Number of schemes had been formulated to help the farmers to increase production and to reduce the cost of cultivation. Still, the farmers face many problems during the procurement of costly inputs, unable to access the market information and marketing of their produce etc. Keeping this in the view, YSR Rythu Bharosa programme was launched by the Hon’ble Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Sri. Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on 15th October, 2019. Later “Rythu Bharosa Kendras” (RBKs) were established on 30th May, 2020 as a one-stop solution to farmers. This paper assesses the Impact of Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) intervention on cost of cultivation of maize farmers in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh using Propensity Score Matching technique with a sample size of 180 maize farmers. The results of ATT revealed that the treated farmers have Rs. 12,228/ha to Rs. 20,405/ha lesser cost of cultivation when compared to the control farmers in the study area. Education (0.287), timely availability of inputs (2.514), access to extension services (1.180), trainings attended by the farmer (0.627), and farm management decisions of farmer (1.681) were found to be statistically significant and had a positive influence on participation in RBKs by the farmers in the study area. The participation in RBKs led to a significant difference in the cost of cultivation of maize farmers. The study recommended to provide inputs to farmers on credit basis, supply of new generation seeds, provision of storage facilities and minimal post-harvest facilities etc., to improve performance of RBKs.