Age: Physical and psychological development is related to age which influences the interest and needs of an individual and also affects future goals and expectations. It is evident from Table 1 that indicates that the majority of members (43.33 percent) were middle age group followed by young age (32.67 percent). For non-members majority of the respondents were middle-aged followed by old age. Thus it is found that middle-age, and young age farmers were more interested in self-help group formation.

Gender: Gender of farmers is helpful in studying the gender orientation of community towards group problem-solving at village level. It is evident from the study (Table 1) that women farmers are more oriented towards self-help group formation than male farmers as 130 (86.67 percent) SHG members were reported, female farmers.

Education: Education is an act or process of acquiring general knowledge, developing the process of reasoning and judgment, and preparing oneself for mature life. The education status of an individual farmer plays a vital role in realizing higher performance through a better understanding of the mechanism involved in the formation and functioning of SHGs and practicing scientific vegetable farming. Table 1 indicates that the majority of the members (26.67 per cent) were having a secondary level of education, followed by middle education status (21.33 percent). In the case of non-members majority of the respondents were functional literate (28.67 percent) followed by middle level (26.67 percent) of education. It is also revealed from the Table 1 that with an increase in education farmer tends to be a member of SHGs.

Occupation: Occupation status indicates the type of income-generating activities undertaken by the respondent and decides the extent of involvement of the farmer in the farm operations. The occupation of the respondents is presented in Table 1. The table reveals that the majority of the respondent farmers from members (52.67 percent), as well as non-members (62.67 percent), were practicing mixed agriculture i.e., vegetable farming plus other agricultural activities, followed by vegetable farming plus business/service by a member (28.00 percent) and non-members(25.33 percent). Vegetable farming as a sole activity was undertaken only by 19.33 percent of member and 12.00 percent non-member farmers.

Years of experience in vegetable farming: Farming experience is valuable in building successful livelihood and fosters the ability to assume greater responsibility. It also influences the knowledge and adoption behavior, including the rejection of an innovation. Table 1 reveals that the majority of the members (67.33 percent), as well as non-members (76.00 per cent), were having short vegetable farming experience, followed by 20.67 percent members and 13.33 percent members in medium experience category respectively. Long experience (above 14 years) was confined to 12.00 percent members and 10.67 percent non-members.

Loan received: The idea behind the formation of SHG is to provide financial services to those who remain out of the reach of institutional financial services. Table 1 loan received by the respondents. A perusal of the Table 1 reveals that majority of the respondents (52.00 percent) has received bank loan whereas only 16.00 percent of the non-members have taken loan from banks. The study reveals that the SHG program is successful in providing a platform to the members to reach financial institutions which otherwise remained out of the reach of farmers.

Training received: Training is an important activity aimed at imparting knowledge and skill to change attributes and behavior to enhance the performance of the trainees. Training is an activity leading to skill behavior. A close look table 1 reveals that the majority of the members (48.67 percent) received medium training in vegetable farming, whereas the majority of the non-member farmers (36.00 percent) received no training. 26.00 percent of the members found undergone high training (26.00 percent), which was only 4.00 percent for non –members. SHG members significantly received a higher number of training as compared to non-members who might be due to the group approach, which is easy to attend by the change agents too.

Operational land holding: Land is one of the important resources of the farmers. Large size of land helps the farmers to take a risk in the adoption of new technologies at their farms. Table 1 revealed that the majority of the members, as well as non-members, belong to the marginal landholding category possessed less than one hectare of land, followed by small and semi-medium group.

Area under vegetable cultivation: All operational land holding of the farmer is not put into vegetable cultivation, but a portion of suitable land is put into vegetable farming. Information regarding effective area under vegetable cultivation is presented in Table 1 reveals that the majority of the member (93.33 percent), as well as non member (98.67 percent) farmers, but less than one-hectare area under vegetable cultivation but the mean value for members was significantly higher than that of non-members at five percent level of probability. The possible explanation for this phenomenon might be group activity that enhances risk-taking ability of the members along with the availability of short-term loan from SHG.

Vegetable production: Table 1 depicts the annual vegetable production in vegetable farms of the respondents. A perusal of the data in the table reveals that the majority of the members’ farms (72.67 percent) were in the medium vegetable production category followed by high vegetable production (17.33 percent) whereas the majority of the non-members farms were in medium vegetable production category (56.00 percent) followed by low vegetable production (32.00 percent) category. Vegetable production of SHG member farms was significantly higher than non-members, which proves that organizing vegetable farming farmers into SHGs can boost vegetable production in the state.

Media exposure: Exposure to various media helps a farmer to acquire information on vegetable farming, market information, and policies of the government. Exposure to media indicates the degree of progressiveness of the farmers. Data presented in Table 1 revealed that 30.00 percent of the members had fewer media exposure while the corresponding figure for non-members was 34.67 percent. 14.67 percent of members and 13.33 percent of non-member have high media exposure. Majority of the members, as well as non-member, lies in the medium category of media exposure.

Extension contacts: Prompt and effective transfer of technologies takes place through the regular extension contact of the farmers with various change agents. Change agent’s frequent contact motivates the farmers to adopt new and improved farming practices and also ensures participation of the farmers in decision-making activities. It was found that the majority of the members (58.00 percent) were having medium extension contacts, whereas the majority of non-members were found to have low extension contacts. The difference between member and non-members extension contact was found significant at one percent level of probability which might be due to the fact that SHG members were in regular contact with the various extension workers like the agriculture department, KVKs, banks, etc.