India is mainly an agriculture based country where majority of the people are engaged in agriculture. Recognizing the vast potential of horticulture in stimulating the growth of Indian agriculture, Government of India had launched a scheme of National Horticulture Mission for the holistic development in the year of 2005-06. The present study was undertaken to measure the problems faced by the beneficiary farmers in availing the benefits under NHM in Semi-arid Eastern Plain Zone (IIIA) of Rajasthan. From this IIIA Zone two districts were selected for the research study. A total of 240 beneficiary farmers were included in the sample of study. Study shows that majority (67.08%) of beneficiary farmers had medium level of problems. It was found that “lack of adequate information at right time” was the most severe problem faced by majority of the beneficiary farmers with overall MPS 86.80 and was ranked first. Besides, “lack of awareness of NHM guidelines among the beneficiaries” was also a severe problem perceived by the beneficiary farmers with overall MPS 84.86 and was ranked second. It was also observed that there was significant difference between the beneficiary farmers of Jaipur and Tonk districts with respect to problems faced by them in availing the benefits under NHM.

Keyword: National Horticulture Mission; Horticulture; Semi-arid Eastern Plain Zone (IIIA); Beneficiary farmers;