AN ANALYTICAL STUDY ON DIRECT SOWN RICE CULTIVATION IN GUNTUR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH
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Date
2016
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Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
Research study entitled “An analytical study on direct sown rice cultivation in
Guntur district of Andhra pradesh” was undertaken to study the profile characteristics of
direct sown rice farmers, knowledge, adoption levels of farmers about recommended
technologies, cost of cultivation of direct sown rice system with traditional systems of
rice cultivation, relationship between dependent and independent variables and aims to
elucidate the constraints faced by the farmers and suggestions given by them to
overcome the constraints.
The study was taken up in three mandals of Guntur district with a sample size of
120 members. Fourteen independent variables with knowledge and adoption as
dependent variables were studied. The farmers were interviewed personally by a well
structured interview schedule. The data collected was coded, tabulated and analyzed
using suitable statistical tools.
The profile of the direct sown rice farmers revealed that majority of the farmers
were middle aged, educated upto middle school, had small to marginal land holding,
Agriculture and labour work as the main occupation, medium annual income, 11 to 20
years of farming experience, untrained on direct sown rice farming, medium level of
utilization of source of information, social participation and extension contact. Regarding
psychological variables, majority of the respondents were under medium level of
economic motivation and scientific orientation, low level of risk orientation and high
level of innovativeness.
Majority of the farmers had medium to high level of knowledge regarding direct
sown rice technology. majority of the farmers had knowledge about practices like seed
drilling, amount of recommended quantities of herbicides, plant protection chemicals,
micronutrients, about moisture sensitive stages, suitable varieties for direct sown rice
technology, etc., Majority of the farmers had low level of knowledge on aspects like
usage of baits for rodent management, use of pheromone traps, trichocards, biofertilizers,
etc., Even though farmers had knowledge about new and eco-friendly technologies, due
to their non-availability in local markets, they were not adopted. Some practices like
plant protection based on Economic Threshold Levels (ETLs) were not understood by
most of the farmers.
Majority of the respondents were in medium level of adoption of recommended
direct sown rice technology. Technologies like application of recommended quantity of
Nitrogen, weedicides, zinc sulphate were overly adopted. Practices like cultivation of
suitable varieties, use of eco-friendly technologies, micronutrient sprats, poison baits,
etc., were not adopted by the farmers.
Out of fourteen independent variables studied Age, Education, Experience,
Training received, Source of information, Social participation, Extension contact and
Innovativeness showed a positive and significant association with knowledge and
adoption levels of direct sown rice farmers. The correlation values of Land holding,
Occupation, Annual income, Economic motivation and Scientific orientation had showed
a negative relationship with the knowledge and adoption levels of the respondents.
Multiple Linear Regression analysis gave the “R2” value of 0.8835 indicated that
all the selected 14 profile characteristics put together, explained about 88.35 per cent
variation in the level of knowledge of direct sown rice farmers. Remaining 11.65 per
cent is due to the extraneous effects of the variables. The “R2” value of 0.651 indicated
that all the selected 14 profile characteristics put together, explained about 65.10 per cent
variation in the extent of adoption of direct sown rice farmers. Remaining 34.90 per cent
is due to the extraneous effects of the variables.
Regarding economics of direct sown rice, total cost of cultivation per hectare was
worked out to be Rs.86,700 which was very less compared to total costs of transplanted
rice cultivation Rs. 96,562.5. The net returns of direct sown rice crop and transplanted
system were Rs. 15,572.72 and Rs.5,710.22 respectively. The benefit to cost ratio for
direct sown crop and transplanted crop was 1.17 and 1.05 respectively.
The most important constraints encountered by the farmers in direct sown rice
cultivation were late release of canal water, improper implementation of warabandhi
system, ineffectiveness of recommended herbicides for management of weeds, nonavailability
of fine varieties for direct sown rice cultivation, non-availability of
trichocards, high labour costs, high cost of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals
leading to high cost of cultivation, lack of suitable crop insurance policy and nonavailability
of sufficient credit, most important problems faced by the farmers were lack
of remunerative Minimum Support Price(MSP), insufficient godown facilities either at
village level/ AMC level, lack of awareness regarding fluctuations in market prices and
insufficient public purchase points for marketing of the produce.
Suggestions made by the farmers to overcome constraints in direct sown rice
cultivation were providing remunerative Minimum Support Price by the government,
timely provision of seed, fertilizers and plant protection chemicals on subsidized rates,
development of fine varieties suitable for direct sown rice cultivation, provision of
sufficient godown facilities at AMC level and timely provision of credit facility at low
interest rates and subsidies on seeds, fertilizers and plant protection chemicals.
Description
D5257
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