PERCEPTION OF FARMERS ON HIGH YIELDING VARIETIES OF RICE RELEASED BY ASSAM AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY- A STUDY IN GOLAGHAT DISTRICT OF ASSAM
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Date
2021
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Abstract
The present study was conducted in Golaghat district of Assam with the objectives to determine the perception of farmers towards AAU released high yielding varieties of rice and its correlation between the selected profile characteristic of the respondents and the problems faced by the farmers in cultivating HYVs of rice along with their suggestive measures. A multistage purposive cum random sampling design was followed for selecting 120 respondents for the study. Appropriate statistical tools viz. frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, ranking, Pearson’s correlation, and chi-square were used to analyze and interpret the data according to the objectives.
The analysis of the profile characteristics of the farmers revealed that the majority (70.83 %) of the respondents belonged to the age group of 30 to 50 years and most of them (94.17%) were male, had high school education i.e., 9 to 10 years of formal educational experience, belonged to OBC category (50.83 %), with a medium-sized family of 5 to 6 members (55.83 %), Agriculture was primary source of income for the majority (83.33%) with average annual income of ₹ 110437.50. Marginal landholders (less than 1 ha) were the majority (60.00%) in the study area with 80 to 100 per cent of the total operational landholding under rice cultivation with least scatteredness of land holdings. The average farming experience of the respondents was 26.57 years with an average cropping intensity of 147.32 per cent. A major proportion of the respondents (58.33%) had a medium level of innovativeness, degree of commercialization (81.67%), economic motivation (63.33%), extension contact (70.00%), and mass media exposure (70.83%) with the highest extension contact with farmers’ organizations and television was the highest utilized mass media. Irrigation facility was not available for the majority (79.17%) of the respondents. Most of them were having a medium degree of farm mechanization, a medium level of labour availability (6-12 number of labour), and a medium level of infrastructural facilities. Around 83.33 per cent of the total rice acreage (90.00 ha) in Sali season was occupied by HYVs of rice released by AAU. The dominating varieties in the study area were Ranjit, Ranjit Sub-1, Mahsuri and Bahadur Sub-1 in terms of percentage share of area and percentage adopters. The majority of the farmers had a moderate level of perception on quality of high yielding varieties of rice released by AAU. Greater productivity, climatic adaptability and good cooking quality and taste were the quality traits highly perceived by the farmers. Bina Dhan-11, Keteki Joha, and Ranjit Sub-1were the varieties perceived as high by the farmers in terms of quality dimensions. Annual income, caste, occupation, degree of land scatteredness, innovativeness, commercialization, economic motivation, extension contact, mass media exposure, the status of infrastructural facilities and family labour were found to have a significant association on perception level of farmers towards HYVs of rice. Fluctuating market price, uncertainty in rainfall, high cost of inputs, lack of irrigation, etc. were some of the severe problems faced by the farmers of the study area in the cultivation of HYVs of rice. It is discovered from the study that the majority of people have a moderate perception on quality dimension of HYVs of rice released by AAU.
To popularize the highly perceived high yielding varieties, the extension system should put sincere efforts for promotions through large-scale demonstrations, training, awareness programmes, etc. The varieties having a low level of perception need to be refined and recast quality.