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Plant growth is defined as the progressive development which is irreversible. It is expressed in terms of dry weight plants, height of plants, girth or diameter of the stem or tree trunks, spread of the tree canopy, number of branches or tillers. Plant growth is a function or various factors which may be expressed as G = f (x, x₂, x₃ x_n ).Some factors may be controlled while some cannot be controlled. The following are the factors which influence the plant growth.

Knowledge of fertilizer dose, selection of fertilizer sources, time and method of application is essential for achieving efficient use of fertilizers and profitable yield.

A. Fertilizer Dose

Fertilizer dose for crops is determined based on the field experimentation. It varies with the crops and varieties, initial fertility of the soil, soil properties, cropping system, climate, season, rainfed or irrigated crop, expected yield etc. Fertilizer dose for rainfedcrops (Kg/ha)

Manures are the plant and animal wastes that are used as source of plant nutrients. They release nutrients upon their decomposition.

Bulky organic manures contain small percentage of nutrients and they are applied in large quantities. e.g,. farmyard manure, compost, green manures.

Criterion for essentiality of plant nutrients

Arnon’s (1954) criteria for essentiality of elements for plant growth:

1. The plant must be unable to grow normally or complete its life cycle in the absence of the element,

2. The element is specific and cannot be replaced by another and,

3. The element plays a direct role in metabolism.

A seed consists of a plant embryo, stored food material surrounded by a seed coat. Seeds of cereals and grasses consist of embryo or germ, endosperm and the pericarp.

Seeds of legumes contain no endosperm, the bulk of the seed being made up of the two cotyledons. The cotyledons constitute the food storage portion.

The embryo of the grass seed is made of epicotyl, hypocotyl and scutellum- the single cotyledon of monocots, the epicotyl gives rise to the shoot and the hypocotyl produces the roots.

Tillage is the physical manipulation of the soil with tools and implements which, results in good tilth for better germination and subsequent growth of crops.

Tilth is the physical condition of the soil resulting from tillage. Soil is said to be in good tilth when it is mellow, friable and adequately aerated. Tilth is dynamic. Mechanical forces may change the roughness of the soil surface, the total porosity and bulk density of the tilled layer and the aggregate or clod size. Heavy rainfall and high velocity wind or water destroys the tilth. The action of wetting and drying, freezing and thawing regenerates desirable tilth. The roughness of the soil surface is an index of the amount of water that can be stored in soil depressions and may also be related to the resistance of the soil surface to sealing. Roughness may be related to rate of evaporation, transfer of heat and air between the soil and atmosphere.

Soil fertility is the ability of the soil to supply all the essential nutrients in optimum amount in balanced proportion in a form readily available to plants under conditions favourable for plant growth and should be free from toxic substances.

Soil productivity: Soil productivity is defined as the capability of soil for producing a specified crop or sequence of crops under defined set of management practices. It is measured in terms of outputs or harvests in relation to the inputs of production factors for specific kinds of soils under a physically defined system of management according to USDA (1957).

The word soil is derived from the Latin word ‘Solum’ means soil. In general the top 15-20 cm cultivated layer is referred as soil. It is a loose and unconsolidated outer layer of the earth crust that is crumbly and powdery in nature. Soil below the plough layer is called subsoil.

Soil is formed by weathering of rocks. Weathering may be physical or chemical or both. Factors of soil formation are parent material, climate, living things-plants, animals and microorganisms, topography and time. Soil formation is a function of parent material (P), climate (C), topography (T_o), life (L) and time (T) which is represented by f(P C To L T).

Field Crops: Refers to the crops grown on a vast scale. They are classified in the following ways

1. According to the place of origin

2. Botanical classification

3. Commercial classification

4. Economic classification

5. Seasonal classification

6. Classification according to ontogeny

7. Agronomic classification

8. Classification based on leaf morphology

9. Classification based on serving special purpose

Crop growth is influenced by internal factors and external factors. Internal factors are controlled by the genes and hereditary. External factors are climate, edaphic, biotic, physiographic and anthropic.

Genetic Factors

Genetic factors are controlled by the genes. Plant height, yield, size and color of the grains or fruit etc. The productivity and quality of the crop can be improved by breeding through conventional methods or by biotechnological approaches.

Environmental factors Climate

Precipitation occurs in the form of rainfall, snow, hail and fog.

Fog: Consists of water droplets so small that their fall velocity is negligible. Fog particles contact vegetation and may adhere, coalesce with other droplets and eventually form a drop which is large enough to fall to ground.

The term agriculture is derived from the Latin words ager or agri meaning soils and cultura means cultivation. Agriculture is the art, science and business of crop production. It encompasses all aspects of crop production, livestock farming, fishery and forestry. Agriculture is the conversion of solar energy into the chemical energy. Crop production is the conversion of environmental inputs like solar energy, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients in soil to economic products in the form of human or animal food or industrial raw materials.

Agriculture is a science, an art and business of crop production

Agriculture is a science of farming. Scientific principles are employed to find ways of making it as efficient as possible. Through scientific principles plants and animals are transformed genetically and most favorable environment is provided to harvest higher yields of good quality with least expense of energy. The scientific principles of various branches viz. soil science, genetics and plant breeding, entomology, plant pathology, microbiology, agricultural engineering etc. were employed in agriculture. Agriculture like any other science is a body of truths synthesized and systematized and arranged in such a way as to show the operation of general laws and principles.

Agriculture is an art which embraces knowledge of the way to perform the operation of a farm in a skillful manner. The physical and mental skills are involved in agriculture. The skills may be acquired through years of experience viz. ploughing, stacking hay bundles, handling animals, sowing seeds, transplanting, driving a tractor etc. Mental skills are those involved in decision making for example when to plough the land, selection of appropriate crops, seed selection etc.

Agriculture is a business which is no longer a way of living or subsistence agriculture, where production is intended to meet the home requirements. Agriculture is intended to earn more income. Land, labour, capital are judiciously used. Like in any industry the farming industry should forecast the demand, tailor the production with demand to earn more profits. It involves processing, value addition, transportation, packing and storage in scientific way. Knowledge of employee and employer relationship or human resource management, export and imports, taxation, customs, tariffs and trade are required. All these aspects demand business knowledge in addition to the production and managerial skills. Traditional agriculture is no longer relevant for success in agriculture. Commercial agriculture or corporate farming, agribusiness development corporations demand entrepreneurs in agriculture rather than technologists alone.

Family No. 1

Name and address:

Smt. Jamuna Khajuriputia

Age - 45 years, Caste - ST

Village – Rajbadei

Block – Similiguda, Koraput

Family size: A total of five members, husband Gopinath (50 years), the son Ramesh and Podu, daughter-in-law Dana and herself. Male : Female ratio is 3:2

Educational status: All members have education except daughter-in-law, Dana. The status score is 4.16 in 10 point scale.

The problems of SHG are many and diversified. The problems vary from place to place and SHG to SHG. Then problems cluster is in relation to economic productivity, overall welfare and livelihood. As we observe since five decades after independence, resistance of people in the state of social, economic, political disempowerment is considered to measure hindrance to overall development. The SHG being a part of society is not an exception to be cited with problem. During investigation the constraints experienced by SHGs members are categorized under five areas namely personal, social, economical, technological and marketing problem. These problem directly and indirectly affects the performance of SHGs. The evidences of past studies and experience in the present context reveal a wide variation in the dimension of the problem.

SWOT analysis is the systematic identification of the internal strength and weakness of an organization or enterprise and environmental opportunities and threats. The analysis is based on the assumption that effective strategy maximizes strength and opportunities and simultaneously minimizes its weakness and threats. Entrepreneurial activities require a SWOT before initiation to provide first hand information about feasibility of the enterprise. All SHGs in rural sector are formed for income generation. A variety of enterprises coming up through SHG in rural sector may or may not be successful. SWOT provides basic direction for entrepreneurship at any level for benefit of the practitioners. The SWOT of SHG in tribal area where study was conducted has been analyzed.

The study is confined to tribal zone of Orissa, especially of Koraput district where tribes account for 49.69% of the district population. The sample SHG were selected from Sadar, Similiguda and Koraput blocks without any prejudice to their performance. At the outset, it is admitted that SHG has created a sensation among the tribes to look forward the development process. The present study ‘SHG in Techno-Economic Empowerment of Tribal Women’ has been conceived to find out inter-play of technological and economic variables that reflect in social status.

Membership status

SHG starts with the philosophy of micro-approach. Small sized group dynamics, available technology and economic opportunity linked with market structure are the perceived objectives to bring change in livelihood system. The study considered the age of SHG, present membership status, rate of discontinuance as the basic factors of SHG in tribal zone.

Motives of joining SHG

Sensitization for joining SHG does not alone help to achieve immediate result. Motives when combined with inspiration, an individual is tempted to act so also the case with sample SHG who expressed motives for joining SHG as follows.

Concept and Meaning of Empowerment Meaning and definition

Women empowerment has been widely recognized as an important goal in global development process. The term “empowerment” was coined in the second half of the seventeenth century (Oxford English Dictionary). It gained momentum in USA in 1960s when the activists of Black Panat Movement used the term ‘empowerment’ in the context of political mobilization. In 1980s the term was adopted by NGOs worldwide to signify an alternative development agenda for poverty alleviation based on principles of participation and self help. During this period, the participation and self help came to forefront. There after it has entered many fields of theory and practice. Since 1980s, the world has witnessed the concept, used to describe this phenomenon (empowerment).

The voiceless and powerless are the common elements that need the concept of empowerment in terms of socio-economic, technological, cultural and political development. In the context of power, empowerment depends on two things. These are: power can change and power can extend. The concept came to exist that power can change and power can extend giving the term ‘empowerment’ as the power is created in relationship, power and power relationship can certainly change. Therefore, empowerment simply is a process of change.

The study entitled “SHG in Techno Economic Empowerment of Tribal Women” was conducted on the following specific objectives.

Empowerment of women in relation to SHG (ii) Profile of SHG

Structure and functions of SHG

SWOT analysis of SHG

Constraints of SHG and suggestion

Case studies

It is an organized set up to provide micro credit to the rural women on the strength of the group savings without insisting on any collateral security for the purpose of encouraging them to enter in to entrepreneurial activities and for making them enterprising women (Gurumoorthy, 2000).

Puhanzhendi and Badatya (2002) find that the SHG programme has a positive social impact.

Rajamohan (2003) stated that SHG is a medium for the development of saving habit among the women.

Jeyasudha (2004) reported that eradication of poverty and the ushering in of speedy socioeconomic progress is the goal with which the developmental programmes are being implemented through a multipronged strategy, reaching out to the most disadvantaged sections of the society. She placed the concept of rural development at the top of agenda in national policies of developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The developed countries have also recognized this need and have directed their efforts towards meeting the basic needs of the poorest people in developing countries.

Introduction

India with exceeding population of 1027.01 million with 741 million living in rural areas is on the path of development. With 40% of population below poverty line, our country faces the problem of quality life. The lack of access to and control over resources is said to be the cause of poverty. The central aim of enhancing economic productivity of India is to improve the overall welfare of those residing under poverty line. To combat poverty, ‘self help promotion’ is of recent paradigm that has attracted attention of all sections of population. Now it is a matter of concern for all those social consciousness driven people who wants to vanish poverty through this concept known as Self Help Group.

As per the report of ILO, by the year 2050 about 33% of people in the developed countries and 19% in developing countries will be sixty years or older and most of them incidentally will be women. 2001 census reveals that unorganized labour account for more than 40% of the total work force and total employment in both sectors in our country is 397 crores. Out of the unorganized sector workers, 237 crores are employed in agriculture.

Women form half of our population. They have significant roles in overall development. Rural development concept in our country attaches more importance to women development. Through various projects and research, it has been recognized that group approach is only means of reaching disadvantaged people in our society within which women are included. Many countries in Asia have proved effectiveness of group approach in achieving development.

With increasing emphasis on development, quality life, livelihood, etc. group concept has to be worked out in development prospective. The advantages of group concept over individual approach are i) Democratizations ii) Visualization of common problem iii) Interaction to become homogeneous iv) Power to present problem before authorities v) Farming base for grass root level planning vi) Realization of one’s potentiality compared to others vii) Protection from risk or sharing of risk viii) Enabling to form acceptable rule and regulation and ix) feeling of empowerment.