Knowledge, attitude and perceived prospects of agroforestry in Punjab
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Date
2020
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The study entitled “Knowledge, attitude and perceived prospects of agroforestry in Punjab” was undertaken with the objectives to study the knowledge and adoption of package and practices of agroforestry by the farmers/respondents, attitude of respondents towards agroforestry, prospects of agroforestry and also problems encountered by respondents in agroforestry. Study was conducted in Hoshiarpur, Roopnagar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar districts of Punjab state. Two blocks from these districts were selected and from each block further two villages were selected. From each village 15 farmers were selected randomly. Hence, a total of 180 farmers were selected for the study. Data were collected by personally visiting the study area and interviewing the farmers. The study revealed that most of the respondents were in the age group of 40-52 years, educated up to matric, had semi-medium land holdings (5.1-10 acres) and more than 2/3rd of the farmers (84.44 percent) were growing poplar trees on land ranging from 1-9 acres.Majority of the respondents had medium level of risk orientation, innovativeness and economic motivation. It was reported that farmers were having maximum knowledge and adoption about recommended time for planting saplings. On the other hand, they had least knowledge and adoption for recommended wheat variety for intercropping with poplar.Half of the farmers were having favourable attitude (50 %) regarding agroforestry. Only a few were having unfavourable attitude towards agroforestry. All the farmers perceived medium (85.56%) to high (14.44 %) level of prospects, which depicts that future of agroforestry, is bright. Majority of the farmers faced medium level (84.44) of problems and a few (16.56%) reported high level of problem. There were no serious problems reported by them but some problems faced were „low market price of poplar wood‟, „reduction of yield under shade of poplar‟ and „difficulty in getting land on rent for planting poplar‟.Majority of the respondents (60 %) were having high level of awareness regarding various benefits of agroforestry.