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Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola
Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola was established on 20th October, 1969 with its head-quarter at Akola. This Agricultural University was named after the illustrious son of Vidarbha Dr. Panjabrao (alias Bhausaheb) Deshmukh, who was the Minister for Agriculture,Govt. of India. The jurisdiction of this university is spread over the eleven districts of Vidarbha. According to the University Act 1983 (of the Government of Maharashtra), the University is entrusted with the responsibility of agricultural education, research and extension education alongwith breeder and foundation seed programme.
The University has its main campus at Akola. The instructional programmes at main campus are spread over in 5 Colleges namely, College of Agriculture, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, College of Forestry, College of Horticulture and Post Graduate Institute. At this campus 4 degree programmes namely B.Sc.(Agri.) B.Sc. (Hort.), B.Sc. (Forestry) and B.Tech. (Ag. Engg.) , two Master’s Degree Programmes viz. M.Sc.(Agri.) and M.Tech. (Agri.Engg.) and Doctoral Degree Programmes in the faculties of Agriculture and Agril. Engineering are offered.
The University has its sub-campus at Nagpur with constituent College, College of Agriculture which offers B.Sc.(Agri.) and M.Sc.(Agri.) degree programmes. The Nagpur Campus is accomplished with a garden, surrounded by its natural beauty and a well established Zoo which attract the general public and visitors to the city. A separate botanic Garden is being maintained on 22 hectares with a green house for the benefit of research workers.
In addition there are 2 affiliated grant-in-aid colleges and 14 private non-grant-in-aid colleges under the umbrella of this University
A Central Research Station is situated at the main Campus which caters to the need of research projects undertaken by Crop Scientists of the principle crops of the region are Cotton, Sorghum, Oilseeds and Pulses.
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ThesisItem Open Access EVALUATION OF ORGANIC SOYBEAN CULTIVATION IN WESTERN VIDARBHA.(Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2019-12-03) PATIL, JYOTI MADHUKAR.; Koshti, Dr. N. R.The demand for organic food is growing fast in India and so most of the states in India are trying to convert a remarkable portion of their cultivated areas into organic farming. As such, worldwide there is a strong feeling that the solution of problems of conventional farming now lies in organic farming. According to a survey of IFOAM, only 0.83 per cent of organic area share to total agricultural land of India in 2016 has been under organic farming which accounts for a negligible part of total Indian agriculture production. Notwithstanding the growing opportunities in this field, there has been little effort in research front regarding evaluation of organic soybean cultivation in western Vidarbha. Therefore a research study entitled “Evaluation of Organic Soybean Cultivation in Western Vidarbha” was an attempt to explore farmers’ knowledge and adoption of recommended organic farm practices for organic soybean cultivation and the constraints faced by them in adoption of recommended organic farm practices. This was an outcome of bottom-up approach of hearing the voices from the field and sincere efforts of researcher to taking their concerns to the people who matter the most. There is an urgent need to create a data base on various aspects of organic farming followers in order to reorient the research agenda and train extension and development workers in organic farming. Therefore, the present study was undertaken with following specific objectives. 1. To study the profile of organic soybean growers 2. To study the status of organic farming in western Vidarbha in terms of percent increase in area under organic farm and number of organic farms 3. To study the comparative economic analysis of soybean crop production under organic and inorganic farming 4. To document the organic farm practices followed by the organic soybean growers and their adoption with respect to recommended organic farm practices 5. To examine the constraints faced by the organic soybean growers in adoption of recommended organic farm practices and during the conversion phase from conventional farming to organic farming 6. To study the relationship between the selected characteristics of organic soybean growers with their adoption of recommended organic practices and constraints faced by them 7. To document in-depth case study to analyze the impact of organic farming in term of quality of produce and price premium. The study was conducted in three districts of western Vidarbha namely Akola, Buldana and Washim. Four talukas in Akola district namely Patur, Akola, Murtijapur and Barshitakali were selected purposively for in depth study having highest concentration of organic soybean cultivators involved in organic soybean production. The data were collected from 200 organic soybean growers and 10 per cent of whole sample size i.e. 20 inorganic soybean growers were selected randomly by following proportionate stratified random sampling method spread over 10 villages across the 4tahsils of Akola district by conducting field survey and applied diagnostic research design of social research. Apart from in depth interviews with the 200 organic soybean growers and 20 inorganic soybean growers, five group discussions were also carried out in the study area. For fulfilling other objectives, the researcher collected the information of total number of organic farm, farmers and total area under organic soybean cultivation in the study area has been collected from respective agencies and changes with respect to area under organic soybean cultivation over time, organic farm practices followed by the organic soybean growers and different indigenous knowledge and practices they knew and actually used in the farm, the rationale behind using these indigenous practices and how beneficial of them for organic farming and the information on year wise constraints faced by the organic soybean growers in adoption of recommended farm practices in conversion phase with suggestions to overcome the narrated constraints.The data collected from the respondents was then suitably organized, scored, classified, tabulated and analyzed in line with the objectives of the study. The data were also subjected to statistical treatments and analysis with the help of appropriate statistical techniques and tests. The results pertaining to independent variables revealed that 61.00 per cent of the organic soybean growers belonged to the middle age category i.e. 36 to 50 years followed by young age and old age category, more than two-fifth i.e. 43.00 per cent of the organic soybean growers possessed college level education followed by high school level. Nearly half i.e. 47.00 per cent of the organic soybean growers have medium (05 to 06 family members) family size followed by small family size. Maximum percentage of organic soybean growers (63.00%) was found in semi medium category of land holding i.e. 2.01 to 4.00 ha. More than half of organic soybean growers (55.00%) possessed medium (2.67 to 3.32 ha) area under organic soybean cultivation. Nearly two-third (63.50%) of the organic soybean growers had medium (9 to 13 years) level of farming experience and 44.50 per cent of them had annual income between Rs. 2,90,001/- to Rs. 3,80,000/-. Maximum number (42.50%) of the organic soybean growers had possessed more than 4 animals. Two third of the organic soybean growers (65.50%) had received medium duration training (08 to 18 days) followed by short and long duration training. Majority of the organic soybean growers i.e. 74.00 per cent had medium level of agriculture infrastructure. Majority of the organic soybean growers (70.00%) had medium level of extension orientation and two third of them (66.50%) had medium level of motives behind organic farming. Exactly three fourth of the organic soybean growers (75.00%) had medium level of risk orientation and majority of them (60.00%) had medium level of market orientation. More than two third of the organic soybean growers (67.00%) had medium level of economic motivation and majority of them (84.50%) had medium level of knowledge followed by high and low level of knowledge.The results pertaining to independent variables revealed that majority of the organic soybean growers (79.50%) had medium level of adoption followed by high and low level of adoption. Many of the organic soybean growers (60.50%) had highly severe level of constraint severity index. The findings in present research clearly indicated that in the year 2016, 2017 and 2018, Akola, Buldana and Washim districts had 27, 61 and 78 organic farm or organic farming groups which include 689, 1727 and 1566 organic farmers those covers 385.40 ha, 596.02 ha and 368.59 ha area under organic farming respectively. In the year 2018, all these farms come under in conversion phase 3 (IC-3) or certified organic with remark “PGS-INDIA ORGANIC”. In today’s date means in the year 2019 all these farms were certified organic. All these organic farms go through the PGS-India’s certification procedure under PKVY scheme for western Vidarbha. The data collected from the NGOs and Suminter India Organics, etc clearly indicated that Akola, Buldana and Washim districts had total 6624, 741and 541 organic soybean growers and 17,725.49 ha, 1,598.13 ha and 1,112.48 ha area recorded under “Certified Organic” category. The data recorded for Akola district regarding area and number of organic soybean growers was highest among the three districts of western Vidarbha. The findings regarding percent increase in number of organic soybean growers in Akola district clearly revealed that with comparison to the year 2006 there was 26.97 per cent increase in the year 2007. As compared to 2007, there was unexpected increase in the area of organic soybean cultivation (386.00%) was observed over a period of decade (i.e. year 2007 to year 2016). Whereas, Washim district recorded 28.70 per cent increase and Buldana district recorded 12.99 per cent increase in the year 2007. The findings pertaining to economic analysis of organic and inorganic soybean revealed that input utilization for organic soybean cultivation is much lesser as compared to inorganic soybean cultivation, except labour cost. Total human labour requirement for organic and inorganic soybean cultivation was 65.37 man days and 58.36 man days, respectively and total cost required to pay labour charges for organic and inorganic soybean cultivation was Rs. 13,921.13 and Rs. 12,631.62 respectively. Total cost required for per hectare cost of cultivation of organic soybean (Rs. 54,203.08) was less as compared to inorganic soybean (Rs. 64,547.82). Similarly the yield produced from organic soybean cultivation (20.89 qtls/ha.) was also found low as compared to yield obtained from inorganic soybean cultivation (22.03 qtls/ha.). However the prices received for organic soybean (3,382.98 Rs./qtl) was higher than price received for inorganic soybean (3,115.68 Rs./qtl). This price was found to be the most crucial factor in comparative economic analysis of organic and inorganic soybean cultivation. Due to the lower investment and higher price return for production, reduces the per quintal cost of main produce i.e. in organic soybean cultivation was Rs. 2,486.74 per quintal and in inorganic soybean cultivation Rs. 2,799.74 per quintal. Further findings inferred that B:C ratio of organic soybean cultivation was 1.34 and of inorganic soybean cultivation was 1.11. This was shows that, organic soybean growers received more profit as compared to inorganic soybean growers. This was not because of higher production but, due to high premium prices received by organic soybean than inorganic soybean. The findings related to year wise constraints faced by the organic soybean growers in adoption of recommended organic farm practices revealed that the organic soybean growers faced the major constraints like, lack of information about standardized organic farming practices (67.00%), non availability of literature on package of practices for organic farming (87.50%) and non-availability of organic inputs like seeds, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides in time (93.50%) in the first year of conversion phase. During second year the major constraints were low yield (95.00%), non remunerative market prices (90.50%)and lack of suitable markets for sale of organic produce (86.50%). The most important year in the process of organic certification was third year and in this year organic soybean growers faced the major constraints like low yield level as compared to inorganic crops (83.50%), market rate not compensate to inorganic produce (97.00%) and the certification procedure is very complicated and expensive (94.50%). Researcher proposed the extension strategy to overcome the year wise constraints faced by organic soybean growers during conversion phase based on the suggestions received from all stake holders like organic soybean growers, experts in this field, different executing agencies like Department of Agril., NGOs, RCOFs, NCOF, SAUs, etc. In case of relational analysis, out of 16 independent variables the eleven variable viz; education, land holding, area under organic soybean cultivation, annual income, livestock possession, agriculture infrastructure, extension orientation, risk orientation, market orientation, economic motivation, and knowledge shows highly significant and positive correlation with adoption of recommended organic farm practices at 0.01level of probability while the other remaining three variables likefarming experience, training received, motives behind organic farming shows significant and positive correlation with adoption of recommended organic farm practices at 0.05 level of probability. The results of relational analysis were fitted in regression equation and regression analysis shows that, the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.9651, indicated that, all the selected variables contributed 96.51 per cent of the total variation in dependent variable adoption of recommended organic farm practices. Again out of 16 independent variables education, land holding, annual income, agriculture infrastructure, extension orientation, risk orientation and knowledge were found negatively significant at 0.01 and 0.05 level of probability with the constraints severity index. The results of relational analysis were fitted in regression equation and regression analysis which shows that, the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.1440, it means that, all the selected variables contributed 14.40 per cent of the total variation in dependent variable over all constraints severity index. In depth case study of successful organic grower Mr. Rajendra Tale explored that, he increased his area under organic farming till date and his whole land is now certified organic by certification agency. His net annual profit from 6.5 acre land is more than 6 lakh. Mr. Tale continuously carried new experiments on his field which are now beneficial to other farmers like cycle spraying pump which covers 1 acre area within 20 to 30 minutes. In the year 2015, he got Swaminathan Foundation fellowship and many awards for his outstanding contribution in organic farming. The organic practices followed by Mr. Tale on his own farm and getting quality produce and fetching premium prices in the market for his organic produce inspires other fellow farmers in the study area to adopt organic farming. Suggestions received from organic soybean growers revealed that awareness and training programme on advancement in organic farming should be organized through the concerned agencies, certification procedure should be made easy, simple and less costly, the subsidy should be given during the conversion period (first 3 years) by the concerned agencies in the form of organic inputs, infrastructure development and training for processing and value addition, fixation of minimum support price for organic produce, the separate market place should be established for the sale of organic products, etc. Overall, the findings of the study indicated the need for improving the adoption of organic farming in western Vidarbha which is beneficial to the human being and environment. An effort to increase in area under organic farming in western Vidarbha is required. Organic farmers should get organic inputs, subsidy at conversion phase and premium prices for their produce on time. Although government is taking serious efforts on all these issues but the fruits are yet to be ripened. There is need to re-evaluate, re-validate all the schemes related to welfare of organic farmers of the region to motivate inorganic farmers to go for organic cultivation.