ANNOUNCEMENTS
The adoption of sustainable agriculture (SA) in Karnataka was required due to issues like ecological deterioration, groundwater resource depletion, soil erosion, and an over reliance on chemical inputs. These measure are aimed to mitigate these problems in order to maintain environmental sustainability and long-term food security. This study was conducted in Devadurga Taluk of Raichur district (Karnataka) used Sustainable Livelihoods Framework Approach by DFID aided by primary research methods (survey questionnaire, interviews, and PRA) to understand the relationship between socioeconomic factors and sustainable livelihood patterns, and the challenges presented by prevalent agriculture practices in its adoption. To achieve these objectives, an index was created for which weights were assigned using the entropy method. These score were then analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The study population was 134 farmers (purposive sampling) who were beneficiaries of the various sustainable interventions provided by ICICI Foundation. The data was analysed using STATA 14. The results indicated that education and land size were significantly related with Sustainable Livelihood Index (SLI). Furthermore, the major issues faced in adoption of SA were low yield, unscientific practices, and poor soil quality. Precision farming, targeted benefit disbursal at farmer level, and improvement in capacity building of farmers are some of the ways these challenges can be mitigated in the future.
Key words: Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Livelihood Framework, DFID, Agroecology, Soil Health.
