Impact of Group Counseling Intervention Programme on Farmers

Every individual in the society belongs to many groups. Most of the personal and social needs are fulfilled through groups. The groups are most natural and effective tool for learning. The members of groups have common goal to find solution to their problem. Group counseling has noticeable effects in various fields. The purpose of this paper is to explain how farmers are benefitted by group counseling intervention programme. It is actually field study of 10 groups of rice growing farmers in 10 villages of Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. Rice is a basic crop in Sindhudurg district for livelihood of farmers but due to the lack of knowledge about improved cultivation practices of rice. The production of rice was less and input cost was more. Farmers were getting less income. On this background, Non Government Organization working for rural development supported the farmers by giving group counseling based on improved technology of ‘System of Rice Intensification (SRI)’. It is the innovative experiment of application of group counseling for farmer community which has resulted into observable, measurable and sustainable impact.