Extension intervention for sustaining rice production
Loading...
Files
Date
1999
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani
Abstract
The present study 'EXTENSION INTERVENTION FOR SUSTAINING
RICE PRODUCTION was undertook to study the extent of awareness and adoption of
farmers regarding the selected recommended practices in rice cultivation, their
attitude towards rice cultivation and to assess the impact of an extension intervention
in the awareness, attitude and adoption levels and also on the yield and benefit -cost ratio
of rice crop. For this study Neyyattinkara taluk ofThiruvananthapuram district was
purposively selected. Forty farmers were selected using random sampling
procedure from the selected padasekharam which was selected randomly. The data
were collected using a well-structured interview schedule. The extension
intervention was carried out in three stages viz., pre-sowing, pre-transplanting and
post-transplanting extension intervention.
The study revealed that majority of the farmers had low attitude towards
rice cultivation and low adoption of the recommended practices. But majority
possessed high awareness about the recommended practices. Regarding the personal
characteristics majority had low social participation, extension orientation,
innovativeness and risk orientation and high level of educational status, farming
experience, cosmopoliteness, mass media participation, scientific orientation,
economic motivation and self-confidence. Among the major hurdles inhibiting the
adoption of the advocated practices lack of awareness stood first followed by high cost
of inputs.
The correlation analysis showed that the following variables viz.,
educational status, social participation, extension orientation, scientific orientation,
innovativeness, risk orientation, cosmopoliteness, mass media participation, economic
motivation and self-confidence were positively and significantly related to awareness
and adoption of respondents with regard to selected recommended practices while
age, occupational status, farming experience and annual income showed
significant negative correlation with adoption. The variables age, occupational status,
and furming experience were negatively correlated with awareness. As fur as attitude of
farmers towards rice cultivation was concerned only the following variables namely,
educational status, social participation, extension orientation, scientific
orientation and self-confidence showed significant positive association.
Among the selected recommended practices the following namely,
varietal choice, seed rate, seed treatment, transplanting stage, planting depth, basal
and top dress fertilizer dosages, urea-neem cake mixture application and pesticide
dosage were fully adopted by more than 50 per cent of the respondents after the
extension intervention. Maximum percentage increase in full adopters was seen
with regard to urea-neern cake application followed by seed treatment and seed rate.
Step-wise regression analysis showed that critical weed control followed
by varietal choice, NPK fertilizer application, pesticide application, seed treatment and
fungicideapplication showed significant contribution towards variation in the yield of
paddy. As far as predictive efficiency of the variables was concerned varietal
choice followed by seed treatment and critical weed control took the first three
places. The results oft-test brought to light that the extension intervention could
significantly bring about change in the extent of awareness of farmers about
selected recommended practices in rice cultivation, extent of adoption of selected
recommended practices in rice cultivation by farmers and yield of rice crop.
Description
PG
Keywords
null
Citation
171608