117 EXTENT OF ADOPTION OF IMPROVED CULTIVATION PRACTICES OF CAULIFLOWER
BY THE FARMERS P. N. Chaubey
Department of Agriculture Extension, S.M. M. T. D. College, Ballia, Uttar Pradesh Abstract- Five attributes were studies to know the farmer‟s status on cauliflower production in the study area. These were participation of respondents in participation of different social activities, Mass media activities, extension activities, Level of knowledge about cauliflower production technology and extent of adoption level of improved production technology of cauliflower. More than half of cauliflower growers had medium level (45 per cent) of social participation, majority of the respondents belonged to medium (64.16 per cent) mass media participation, More than half of cauliflower growers had medium level (51.67 per cent) of extension participation, majority of the cauliflower growers had medium level (54.17 per cent) of knowledge and majority of the cauliflower growers had medium (53.34 per cent) adoption.
Keywords: Attributes, extension participation, extension activities, level of knowledge etc.
1 INTRODUCTION
Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) is one of the most important vegetable crops of India. The edible part of cauliflower is known as curd, which consists of a shoot system with short internodes, branches apices and bracts. The edible portion of this vegetable is approximately 45 per cent of the vegetable as purchased. Food is broadly classified into cereals, pulses, nuts, oil seeds, fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products, fish, egg and meat.
These supply in general proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, salt and water. The word „cole‟ seems to have been abbreviated from the word “Caulis”
meaning stem. Cauliflower is grown for its white tender head or curd, which is used as a vegetable, soup and for pickle. It is having a good nutritive value. It contains good amount of vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin C and fair amount of proteins and fibers. The cauliflower is also a good source of minerals like Ca, Mg, P, Fe, Na, and S.
Cauliflower is an important vegetables of India. Its cultivation is widely done in the sub-tropical parts of north India. In India, the area under cauliflower was 459 thousand hect. with a production of 8800 thousand tonne and productivity of 19.17 tones/ha. India produces around 32.5 per cent of the world‟ total production of cauliflower.
Individually cauliflower accounts for 5.06 per cent of vegetable production of country. More than 20 million tone of cauliflower is produced annually
worldwide and china and India are among the leading countries. Varying climatic conditions affects production of cauliflower but in the long term a growing demand trend is likely to remain. China produces half of the world‟s yield which is huge revenue for the country. The cauliflower sector is accounted for over 75 per cent of world production by Chinese and Indian cauliflower.
The awareness of the knowledge gap and adoption gap will enable the researchers, policy makers, planners and extension agencies to fix up the priorities in understanding the activities and steps for research to improve productivity.
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study was undertaken in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh during 2020- 2021.. This district covers an area of 4,038 sq. km. It comprises of 21 blocks.
Out of these 1 block i.e. Badalapur block was selected purposively since most of the FLDs are situated in the Badalapur block.
The study was conducted purposively in Badalapur block of Jaunpur district due to maximum area under cauliflower cultivation. A list of the villages of the selected block was prepared and 10 villages were selected with the help of simple random sampling method for the study. Village- wise list of rapeseed and cauliflower growers were prepared with the help of agriculture supervisor from each selected 10 Village and total respondents 120 cauliflower growing
118 farmers were selected randomly through
proportional allocation to the size of sample.
Extent of adoption level of cauliflower growers:-
The adoption behavior about cauliflower production technology refers to the extent of adoption of recommended improved farm practices. The questions regarding improved varieties, seed rate, seed treatment, sowing time & methods, recommended dose of chemical fertilizers, and plant protection etc. were selected.
The weight age of 3 for complete adoption, 2 for partial adoption and 1 for no adoption of each practice was assigned.
The respondents were classified into low, medium and high on the basis of mean ± S.D.
Sr.
No. Category Score
1. Low Below (Mean-SD)
2. Medium (Mean-SD) to (Mean +SD)
3. High Above (Mean +SD)
3 RESULTS & DISCUSSION:
1.Distribution of respondents according to their Social Participation.
The data presented in Table -1 indicate that maximum 45.00 per cent of the respondents had medium social participation. The percentages of participation regarding to the low and high level of social participation were observed 30.00 and 25.00 per cent, respectively.
Therefore, it may be stated that most of the respondents has medium social participation.
Table 1 Distribution of respondents according to their social
participation.(n=120) Sr.
No. Categories No. of
respondents Percentage
1. Low 36 30.00
2. Medium 54 45.00
3. High 30 25.00
2. Distribution of respondents according to their Mass media participation:-
Data presented in Table 2 show the participation of respondents in social organizations. It is concluded that 64.16 per cent had medium participation followed by 25.00 per cent had high
participation and 10.84 per cent had low participation in social organizations.
Thus, it is clear from the table that majority 64.16 per cent of the respondents had medium social participation.
Considerable number of growers (45 per cent) had medium participation in different extension activities.
Table 2 Distribution of respondents according to their mass media
participation. (N=120) Sr.
No. Categories No. of
respondents Percentage
1. Low 13 10.84
2. Medium 77 64.16
3. High 30 25.00
Data of table -2 concluded that 64.16 per cent respondents had medium participation followed by 25.00 per cent had high participation and 10.84 per cent had low participation in social organizations. The work of Agarwal (2008), Savaliya (2003), Sharmaet.al (2014) confirm the present finding.
3. Distribution of respondents according to their Extension participation:-
Table- 3 highlights the percentage distribution of extension participation of the respondents. It is obvious from the table-3 that out of total respondents, 51.67 per cent had medium level of extension participation, while 20.83 per cent had low and only 27.50 per cent had high level of extension participation.
Hence, it may be concluded that majority (51.67 per cent) of the respondents had medium extension participation.
Table 3 Distribution of respondents according to their extension
participation. (n=120) Sr.
No. Categories No. of
respondents Percentage
1. Low 25 20.83
2. Medium 62 51.67
3. High 33 27.50
Regarding extension participation of the respondents. It is obvious from the table-3 that out of total respondents 51.67 per cent had medium level of extension participation, while 20.83 per cent had low and only 27.50 per cent had high level of extension participation. The
119 work of Kawale et al. (2003), Singh(2004)
and Singh Dangi et al.(2006) Confirm the present finding.
4. Distribution of respondents according to their Level of knowledge of cauliflower growing:-
The summated score represents the extent of knowledge on cauliflower cultivation practices of a respondent. The data presented in table- 4 depict the knowledge level on the basis of scores obtained by the respondents on selected cauliflower cultivation practices. A higher percentage of the respondents (54.17 per cent) had medium knowledge level followed by 25.00 per cent had high and only 20.83 per cent respondents had low level of knowledge.
Thus, it is concluded that majority of the respondents (54.17 per cent) were possessing medium level of knowledge regarding cauliflower cultivation practices.
Table 4 Distribution of respondents according to their knowledge
level.(n=120) Sr.
No. Categories No. of
respondents Percentage 1. Low level of
knowledge 25 20.83
2. Medium level of knowledge
65 54.17
3. High level of
knowledge 30 25.00
A higher percentage of growers (54.17per cent) obtained medium knowledge of cauliflower cultivation practices and almost the remaining percentage of growers (25 per cent) were from high level of knowledge group.
However, only 20.83 per cent were belonged to low knowledge group. That might be due to communication contact and the cauliflower growers were in regular touch with the social network.
This finding finds support with the work of Singh and Sharma (2005), Sonare (2008) and Kushwaha (2008).
5. Extent of adoption level of improved cultivation practices of cauliflower by the respondents
The distribution of the respondents according to their extent of adoption
(overall) of selected cauliflower cultivation practices is shown in Table -5.
It was observed from the data presented in Table -5 that most of the trained farmers (53.34 per cent) belonged to medium adoption category about recommended cultivation practices of cauliflower, whereas, 26.66 and 20.00 per cent of them in low and high adoption categories of cauliflower production technologies, respectively.
Thus, it has been inferred that most of the respondents (53.34 per cent) belonged to medium adoption category.
Table 5 Distribution of respondents according to their adoption level.
(n=120) Sr.
No. Categories No. of
respondents Percentage 1. Low
adoption 32 26.66
2. Medium
adoption 64 53.34
3. High
adoption 24 20.00
Majority of respondents (53.34 per cent) had medium adoption level followed by low (26.66 per cent) low and only (20 per cent) and high adoption (20 per cent) of the recommended package of cauliflower cultivation practices. That might be due to their medium level of knowledge about the recommended package and innovativeness. The respondents were found to be of some traditional in nature to adopt new technology. This finding finds support with the work of Saini et al. (2005).
4 CONCLUSION
On the basis of the results, main findings are more than half of cauliflower growers had medium level (45 per cent) of social participation, majority of the respondents belonged to medium (64.16 per cent) mass media participation, More than half of cauliflower growers had medium level (51.67 per cent) of extension participation, majority of the cauliflower growers had medium level (54.17 per cent) of knowledge and majority of the cauliflower growers had medium (53.34 per cent) adoption.
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