The study was purposively confined to Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. There are 7 districts namely Banda, Mahoba, Chitrakoot, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur and Hamirpur comes under this region. Bundelkhand region is considered as a disadvantaged region so it was selected purposively along with reason that it comes under the operational area of our university. An appropriate sampling is essential for obtaining required information. For the selection of sample farmers, a multistage sampling procedure was adopted for the selection of districts, blocks, villages and farmers in the study area. As there are seven districts comes under Bundelkhand region. In the first stage, Hamirpur district was selected purposively for study on the basis of having higher production and area under mustard crop. There are seven blocks in Hamirpur namely- Kurara, Maudaha, Sumerpur, Sarila, Gohand and Rath, out of which, Maudaha block was selected purposively on the basis of higher production of the mustard crop.

The early history of the region covered by the present district of Hamirpur may be traced back to the Paleolithic age as evidenced by the discovery of choppers, hand axes and pebble cores. In the eleventh century, the town of Hamirpur was founded by one Hamira Deva, a Kalachuri Rajput. The remains of the fort built by Hamira Deva are still found in Hamirpur. The district is located on the right banks of the Yamuna river. It lies between Latitude 25.95 N and Longitude 80.15E.Hamirpur covers an area of 4121.9 km². The district shares its boundary with districts Jalaun, Kanpur and Fatehpur in north, Mahoba in South, district of Jhansi and Jalaun on the west and Banda in east. Hamirpur is divided into 7 development blocks namely; (1) Gohand (2) Kurara (3) Maudaha (4) Muskara (5) Rath (6) Sarila and (7) Sumerpur. From the selected block four villages were selected randomly and from each village 30 respondents/ farmers have been selected randomly to make a sample of 120 farmer households.

Hamirpur district: According to census report 2011 the district Hamirpur has a population of 1104285. The total population 51.5 per cent are male and 48.5 percent female respectively.

As a result of consistent growth in population, the pressure on land goes on increasing day by day and in turn reduces the per capita of both the total and the agriculture land. The land availability of Hamirpur district 0.35 hectare and net sown are a availability 0.23 hectare maximum area sown in Hamirpur is in Rabi season 58.38 percent followed by Kharif 41.38 percent and Zaid with 0.20 percent respectively and if the facilities of irrigation are further strengthened and insured there is vast scope of increasing area under summer crops in the study area.

Table 1 describes about the various socio economic status, among all the sample farm categories total number of land holding was found maximum under marginal farms category (50), followed by small farms (36), medium farms (27) and large farms (7) respectively. Among all the 120 sample farms, 29 per cent i.e. 35 were found illiterate, 17.5 per cent i.e. 21 have gone for primary education only, 25.83 per cent i.e. 31 have continued till secondary education, 20 per cent have taken education up to higher secondary level. Only 7.5 percent sample farms were found graduate and none was found Post Graduated. Among all the sample farms, most of them i.e. 68.33 percent were having pakka house, 29 percent were having Kachha house and only 1.66 per cent were found living in hut. Among all the 120 sample farms family, 56.5 per cent i.e. 315 male members and 43.5 per cent i.e. 243 female members were there. 22.10 per cent i.e. 130 members were found adults followed by 51 percent (289) children and 24.90 per cent (139) were found senior citizens. The cast was the most distinctive feature of the sample mustard growers, it revealed that highest 45 per cent belongs to the O.B.C category followed by 37.5 per cent SC/ST category and only 17.5 per cent belongs to general or unreserved category. Occupation distribution shows that maximum was having only agriculture as an occupation while 33.33 per cent were doing labour work along with agriculture.

Table 2 shows the distribution of land holding in Maudaha block of Hamirpur district. No. of holding is maximum under marginal farms category i.e. 50 (41.16 per cent) followed by small farms 37 (30 per cent), medium farms 27 (22.5 per cent) and large farms 7 (5.83 per cent). Area under the cultivation is maximum under medium farm category i.e. 102.4 hectares (38.60 per cent) followed by large farms 73 hectares (27.5 per cent), small farms 52.56 hectare (19.8 per cent) and marginal farms 37.28 hectare (14.05 per cent) of the total 265.24 hectare (100 per cent). Average size holding per farm is highest under large farms i.e. 10.73 ha followed by medium farms 3.79 ha, small farms 1.42 ha and marginal farms 0.74 ha. On all farm basis Average size holding per farm is 4.17 ha. The findings are also found in the line of the findings of Kalia et al. (2015) and Singh et al. (2018).

Table 3 reveals that the intensity of cropping in Maudaha block is 112 per cent with the net cultivated area is 95.7 ha and the total cropped area is 106.3 ha. Cropping intensity of U.P. is 158 per cent, in Bundelkhand region it is 140 per cent and in Hamirpur district it counts for 128 per cent (Singh et al. 2018). This is because of most of the land is still not subjected to raising two or more crops in different season due to unexpected rainfall, due to lack of irrigation facilities and damage caused to crop by stray animals (Anna Pratha).

Table 4 shows the availability of livestock under per farm and per hectare category. In case of cow, Maudaha block medium farms have 0.85 cows followed by marginal farms 0.8, medium farms 0.62 and small farms 0.61 per farm, on overall per farm basis Maudaha block have 2.9 cows. On per hectare basis marginal farms have 1.08 cows followed by small farms 0.41, medium farms 0.20 and large farms 0.08 cows respectively, overall 1. 77 cows were present on per hectare basis in Maudaha block.

Per farm availability of the buffalo is highest in large farms (3.71) followed by Medium farms (1.55), small farms (1.30) and marginal farms (0.90) respectively. On overall per farm basis Maudaha block have 7.5 buffaloes. On per hectare basis marginal farms have Medium farms (1.55), small farms (1.30) and marginal farms (0.90) respectively. On overall per farm basis Maudaha block have 7.5 buffaloes. On per hectare basis marginal farms have highest 1.26 buffaloes followed by small farms 0.89, medium farms 0.41 and large farms 0.35 cows respectively, overall 2.91 buffaloes were present on per hectare basis in Maudaha block.

Per farm availability of the Goat is highest in marginal farms (1.36) followed by small farms (1.25), large farms (1.0) and medium farms (0.22) respectively. On overall per farm basis Maudaha block have 3.84 goats. On per hectare basis marginal farms have highest 1.82 goats followed by small farms 0.85, large farms 0.09 and medium farms 0.05 respectively, overall 2.81 goats were present on per hectare basis in Maudaha block.

Per farm availability of the sheep is highest in marginal farms (0.16) followed by small farms (0.11) respectively. On overall per farm basis Maudaha block have 0.38 sheep. On per hectare basis marginal farms have highest 0.21 sheep followed by small farms 0.07, and medium farms 0.02 sheep respectively, overall 0.3 sheep were present on per hectare basis in Maudaha block.

Table 5 shows the availability of various implements in Maudaha block. It becomes clear that among all the categories of farms, large farms have more numbers of tractors on per farm i.e. 0.85 and small farms (0.16) on per hectare basis. On overall per farm and per hectare basis Maudaha block have 0.12 and 0.15 tractors, respectively.

Per farm availability of the cultivator is highest in large farms (1.00) and per hectare in small farms (0.13). On overall per farm and per hectare basis Maudaha block have 0.34 and 0.07 cultivators, respectively.

Per farm availability of the Seed drill is highest in large farms (1.00) and per hectare availability was highest in small farms (0.25), respectively. On overall per farm and per hectare basis Maudaha block have 0.34 and 0.11 seed drills, respectively.

Likewise, per farm and per hectare availability of thresher is highest in large farms (1.00) and per hectare availability was highest in small farms (0.06). On overall per farm and per hectare basis Maudaha block have 0.33 and 0.06 cultivators, respectively.

In case of rotavator, mould board plough, harrow and chaff cutter, the same trend has been followed. Per farm and per hectare availability of these implements was found highest in large farms followed by small farms. However, in case of other small implements like spade, etc., it was found that per farm availability was highest in large farms (1.42) and per hectare availability was highest in marginal farms (1.60), respectively. Overall per farm and per hectare availability of other small farm implements were recorded as 1.20 and 0.69, respectively.

In the conducted study resource endowments analysis of Mustard growers was performed. Majority of the farmers were found illiterate or having secondary school level of education. Agriculture was found to be the major source of income for the farmers of Maudaha block and also provided a source of the dietary needs of the family. Average size holding per farm was found highest under large farms followed by medium and small farms. The cropping intensity of Hamirpur was found less than that of whole Bundelkhand region. In Bundelkhand region livestock population especially cattle seem to be a liability rather than an asset from a macro perspective that looks at long-term effects of environmental degradation. Although, considerable effort is made by state government to improve cross-bred cattle numbers, but it appears that state has not been able to make very negligible dent in Bundelkhand region. Over the years, farmers in the region have begun to prefer buffalo rearing although buffalo population in Bundelkhand region is about 5 percent of Uttar Pradesh buffalo population, but it is interesting to note that buffalo population is increasing in the region over the period. It is interesting to note that semi-intensive buffalo rearing is followed in the region by the farmers (Rathod and Dixit, 2020). The per farm and per hectare availability of implements and machinery were observed to increase with increase in the size of the farms. These above findings are supported by the findings of Singh et al. (2018) and Umasankar et al. (2019).