ff. Human Factor

In the adoption of High Yielding Varieties, the role of human factor is also very important. As a matter of fact, in many cases, man behind the machine becomes more important than the machine itself. Within an agricultural community, individuals vary in their receptivity to innovations and new agricultural techniques. The personal qualities of the farmers, education, progressiveness, attitude towards life, aspirations, life style and family values determine his capacity to adopt the new agricultural technology. There are innovative and progressive farmers within a village who perform better than their orthodox and less progressive brothers. In other words, in all societies, there are rational and irrational farmers. The progressive farmers have largely improved their production and thereby their standard of living, while the conservative anti less hard working farmers could not adopt the new agricultural technology successfully and they are in the grip of poverty and undernourishment.

The life style of the farmers and their aspirations for better standard of living also determine their efficiency. It is mainly because of the human factor that the agricultural income of the farmers, having almost the same size of holdings in a village, vary from each other. Human development of cultivators by focusing on education health and skill programmes is required at a priority basis.