Empowerment of resource poor families in rural areas is gaining momentum in most of the developing countries of the world. With low income and less knowledge and skill in economic activities, existing formal financial services can do little for their economic development. Towards this direction, providing skill based training and micro finance to initiate small scale enterprises plays a significant role. For this, a concerted effort is need to be initiated by the development agencies to improve the living standard of resource poor families. Studies have shown that, delivery of micro finance to the resource poor families is highly productive, effective and less costly if these families are organized into Self Help Groups (shgs). Women in resource poor families are as efficient as men farmers and they can manage small scale production units related to agriculture. Action research mode of executing empowerment projects ensures commitment of all the stakeholders by enhancing higher degree of participation. Involvement of local institutions, NGOS and rural youth will strengthen the successful implementation of the project. Initial priority should be given to the development of the individual families instead of addressing the general problems. Involvement of the entire family in the programs is essential for success. As most of the rural resource poor are hesitant about their ability to fight poverty, it is necessary to boost their confidence before initiating empowerment programs.

As a complementary sources of family income and self-help groups proved to be a boon to the resource poor families not only in enhancing their financial status but also promoting entrepreneurship. The key domains impacting resource poor families are (1) Social capital among members of SHG, (2) Collective action and cooperation among members of SHG and (3) Empowerment lead action among SHG members. With concerted efforts of the development workers (Govt. NGOS, volunteers) by adopting action research and self-help group approach, it is possible to provide income generating skills with which resource poor women can produce agricultural inputs which are having greater demand among the farmers.

Biography:
A D Ranganatha is presently working as Senior Scientist and Head, Krishi Vignana Kendra, V.C. Farm, UAS, Mandya. He served as assistant professor for eleven years and taught rural development, extension teaching methods and audio visual aids courses for graduating students in agriculture at the College of Agriculture, V.C. Farm, Mandya. His doctoral dissertation covered identification and documenting indigenous agricultural technologies by the primitive segmentation of the population generically called as Soligatribalʼs. Besides, he is actively involved executing the technology transfer programs and research projects as a principal investigator on adoption of agricultural technologies.