Ansari, M. N.Kumar, Raju2018-02-072018-02-072017http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810040527Cultivation of fruits played a pivotal role in diversification of agriculture along with food and nutritional security of ever growing population. The agro-climatic conditions of Bihar are eminently suitable for fruit crops. The state ranks fourth in fruit production and third in vegetable production in the country. Among the fruits, Papaya (Carica papaya) occupies a special place. Like banana it is available throughout the year and it is easy to cultivate. It produces more income per unit area only next to banana and has high nutritive and medicinal value. It is also used in pharmaceutical industries, textiles, garment, cleaning paper and adhesive manufacturing, sewage disposal and so on. The average yield of papaya in Bihar is lower than national average. The present productivity of papaya could be increased considerably if the available technology is effectively transferred to the farmers. Our training programmes need to focus more on transferring of new technology from the confines of laboratories and research institute to the farmers and make then result oriented. Its profitability needs to be enhanced further, but still profitability of papaya growing is based with many constraints faced by papaya growers due to production and marketing. Therefore, the papaya growers need to be properly trained in the latest improved cultivation practices for realizing more productivity and production of papaya. Keeping all these aspects in view, the proposed study has been undertaken with following specific objectives:  To know the socio-economic and demographical characteristics of papaya growers.  To measure the level of knowledge of farmers about recommended papaya production technology.  To ascertain the training needs of papaya growers with respect to different components of improved papaya cultivation.  To identify the constraints as perceived by the papaya growers Begusarai district of Bihar state has been identified as a locale of present research enterprise in view of its importance in terms of area and total production of papaya crop in the state. There are 18 block in Begusarai district. Out of 18 blocks of Begusarai district, five blocks which had maximum area under papaya cultivation, was selected. Out of these five blocks, two villages from each block, having maximum area under papaya was selected. So in all ten villages was selected as sample villages for this study. Thus, a total number of 60 papaya growers were constituted as the sample for the present study. The researcher collected data by using a pretested structured schedule employing personal interview technique. Thereafter, the data were classified, tabulated, statistically analyzed and interpreted in light of the objective of the study, which led to the conclusion. This study concluded that maximum per cent of papaya growers were belonged to middle age group, medium level of education, large land holding and had 0.5 to 1 acre area under papaya cultivation. Likewise majority of the papaya growers had medium extension level of contact, medium level of economic motivation and had high risk preference. The result also showed that majority of the respondents belongs to medium knowledge level about the improved papaya production technology. The zero order correlation value indicated that out of eight variables studied, as many as six variables viz., education, land holding, annual income, contact with extension agency, economic motivation and risk preference were found statistically correlated with the knowledge of papaya production technology. It is also concluded that a majority of the respondents had came under medium needed training category. The major areas in which papaya growers needed more consideration were plant protection measures, high yielding varieties and manures & fertilizer management. It can be observed that the plant protection measures has got the first rank and top most required need for the training while marketing & storage has got the 13th rank in training need. Further it observed that the “appearance of different types of diseases’’ and "do not know fertilizer calculation" has got the first & second rank respectively while “Papaya fruits are harvested by other people’’ has got last rank in constraints perceived by papaya growers.ennullThesis