IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF FAMILY FARMING IN CONTEXT TO THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC NEEDS OF THE FARMERS IN THE PUNJAB, PAKISTAN.

The present study was conducted to analyse family farming in context of socio-economic needs of farmers in district Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan in 2019. Tehsil Nankana Sahib was selected purposively as it was the largest tehsil of the selected district (Nankana Sahib). Twenty union councils were selected randomly; from each of the selected union councils three farm families were selected by using snow ball sampling technique. From each of the selected families, two respondents, one head of the farm family and second any other adult family member (willing to give concerned data) were selected. In this way, a validated and reliable interview schedule was used to collect data from 360 respondents. The collected data were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Mean, standard deviation, weighted score and rank order were calculated to interpret the data. It was concluded that family farming was providing food to whole family (score = 1570 and mean = 4.36). It was also playing its role to engage the whole family in farming related activities (score = 1548 and mean = 4.30). The family-based farming was also responsible for a better living standard (score = 1321 & mean = 3.67) of the family farmers, it was also the only source of income to fulfill the expenditures for happy and sad moments (score = 1310 and mean = 3.64), and the family farming was also contributing for better health and education (score = 2364 and mean = 3.79). The family farmers were also depending on farms for their agricultural needs (seed, fertilizers, pesticides and etc.). It was suggested that family farmers should move towards modern agricultural farming techniques to secure their profesion as well as themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]