Assessment of rate of adoption of happy seeder technology by characterizing technological attributes and extension efforts
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Date
2020
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The study entitled,” Assessment of rate of adoption of Happy Seeder technology (HST) by characterizing technological attributes and extension efforts” was undertaken with the objectives to study the extent and rate of adoption of Happy Seeder technology among the farmers, to assess the factors affecting the rate of adoption of Happy Seeder technology and study the extension efforts done by the extension personnel (ADOs) for dissemination of Happy Seeder technology. The study was conducted in five agro climatic zones of Punjab. Two districts were selected on the basis of highest number of Happy Seeder owners. One hundred and eighty farmers, those who had adopted HST minimum two years ago, were selected purposively from the selected districts. Thirty extension personnel (ADOs) from the State Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare were also selected to study the extension efforts. The data were collected by personally interviewing the respondents. The findings of the study revealed that among the respondent farmers about half of the respondents were large farmers and about 35 per cent of them were educated up to senior secondary. Newspaper was the most used mass media source and ADOs were the most visited extension contacts of the farmers. Most of the farmers got aware about HST in 2015-16. Average area under HST by the farmers was about 58 per cent out of their total operational land holding. Maximum time was taken by the farmers to move from awareness stage of adoption process to interest stage of adoption process of the HST. Average forty months were taken by the farmers to complete the five stages of adoption process from awareness to adoption. It was found that factors such as attributes of the technology viz. relative advantages, trialability, observability and compatibility had positive effect whereas complexity of the technology had a negative effect on the rate of adoption. Extension activities, easy availability of HST and large operational land holding had a positive effect on the rate of adoption of HST. From the discussions and data analysis it was also found that non uniformity in rent and design of the machine, high initial cost, requirement of high power tractor, management of moisture and lack of specific agronomic recommendations for HST were major constraints in the adoption of HST. Agronomic practices such as seed rate, fertilizer doze and methods of application, weed management, irrigation etc. need to be validated through research for happy seeder sown wheat as compared to conventional wheat cultivation. Awareness and motivation among the farmers regarding environmental pollution and Happy Seeder technology should be increased as they are taking maximum time to reach interest stage from awareness stage.