Das, P. K.Parasar, Suman2022-02-262022-02-262017-07https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810182914The study entitled ‘A Study on Technological Gap in Adoption of Scientific Practices of Tea Cultivation by the Small Tea Growers in Sonitpur District of Assam’ was conducted in Sonitpur district of Assam with the following objectives: 1. Study the socioeconomic characteristics of Small Tea Growers of Sonitpur district of Assam 2. Determine the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by Small Tea Growers 3. Identify the factors influencing the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by Small Tea Growers 4. Identify the problems in production and marketing of green tea leaves as perceived by the Small Tea Growers Sonitpur district has three sub-divisions, namely, Tezpur, Biswanath and Gohpur. Out of which two sub-divisions (Tezpur and Biswanath) were selected at random. The sample of the study consisted of 100 respondents, out of these 50 respondents were selected from Tezpur sub-division and 50 respondents were selected from Biswanath sub-division. The data were collected with the help of a pre tested schedule by personal interview method. The statistical tools employed in the study included frequencies, percentage, mean, standard deviation, co-efficient of variation, multiple correlation co-efficient, multiple regression analysis and t- test were the statistical techniques used for analysis and interpretation of the data. Altogether 19 independent variables, viz., age, education, family type, family size, occupational status, institutional linkage, experience as tea grower, area under tea net annual income from tea , exposure to training, working capital availability for tea, utilization of information source, farm mechanization, economic motivation, management orientation, risk bearing ability, scientific orientation , decision making ability and knowledge level on scientific practices of tea and 1 dependent variable viz., extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation were included in the study. The procedure followed by Das (2013) was used to measure the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation. Findings revealed that majority of the respondents (56.00%) belonged to the middle aged group while 25.00 per cent of the respondents belonged to the old aged ii group. Majority of the respondents (27.00%) had high school level of education followed by 24.00 percent respondents with middle school level of education. An equal proportion of them had higher secondary level of education. Majority of the respondents (77.00%) belonged to the nuclear family and had small family size (79.00%). Majority of the respondents (69.00%) had only cultivation as occupation followed by 18.00 per cent of respondents having cultivation + business as occupation. Majority of the respondents (38.00%) had membership of two or more organizations. Majority of the respondents (85.00%) had medium term (5 to 10 years) experience as a small tea grower followed by 15.00 per cent respondents with long term (more than 10 years) experience as a small tea grower. Most of them (78.00%) respondents having land area from 1.00 to 2.00 ha under tea cultivation followed by 18.00 per cent respondents having land area from 2.10 to 4.00 ha under tea cultivation. Majority of the respondents (82.00%) had medium net annual income from tea cultivation, medium level of working capital availability (90.00%) from tea cultivation. Majority of the respondents (83.00%) were not exposed to training on scientific tea cultivation. Majority of the respondents (59.00%) had medium information source utilization followed by 25.00 per cent with low information source utilization. Majority of the respondents (75.00%) had medium level of farm mechanization. Majority of the respondents (65.00%) had medium level of economic motivation, medium level of management orientation (55.00%), medium level of risk bearing ability (75.00%), medium level of scientific orientation (78.00%) and medium level of decision making ability (57.00%). Majority of the respondents (72.00%) had medium level of knowledge on scientific practices of tea cultivation, followed by 15.00 per cent respondents with low level of knowledge on scientific practices of tea cultivation. With regards to technological gap majority of the respondents (71.00%) had medium overall technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation followed by 17.00 per cent respondents with low overall technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation. A small percentage of them (12.00%) were found with high overall technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation. The findings also revealed that practice wise maximum average technological gap was found in adoption of Doses of YTD mixture (70.90%) followed by Size of planting pit and Number of ploughing and harrowing with average technological gap scores being 61.71% and 57.21% respectively. iii The findings of correlation analysis revealed that variables family type, area under tea, economic motivation, management orientation, scientific orientation, risk bearing ability, exposure to training, decision making ability, knowledge level on scientific practices of tea cultivation and working capital availability had significant negative correlation with the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by the small tea growers. Variables age, education, family type, family size, institutional linkage, occupational status, net annual income from tea and farm mechanization had no significant positive correlation with the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by the small tea growers. The variables which were significantly correlated with the extent of technological gap in scientific practices of tea cultivation were further considered for multiple regression where the value of R2 (0.5466) indicated that 10 independent variables could explain 54.66% of the variation in the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by the small tea growers. The most important problems faced by the small tea growers in production of green tea leaf in order of importance were scarcity of labour (rank I), incidence of Tea Mosquito Bug in green tea bushes (rank II), lack of knowledge regarding organic tea cultivation (rank III), lack of knowledge on scientific tea cultivation (rank IV), lack of land patta to avail incentives/facilities given by TBI (rank V), lack of cooperation from bought leaf factories (rank IV), lack of opportunity for training on scientific tea cultivation (rank VII), threat from stray animals (rank VIII), erratic climate factors (rank IX), high cost of irrigation (rank X) and high cost of chemical(rank XI). The most important problems faced by the small tea growers in marketing of green tea leaf in order of importance were low price of green leaves provided by the factories (rank I), lack of market information (rank II) and limited number of bought leaf factories (rank III).EnglishThesis