Sawant, B. N.Hattalli, Ambarish Dhareppa2019-10-052019-10-052019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810130327The study was conducted in Kudal, Kankavali, Malvan and Sawantwadi tahsils of Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra state. The sample was constituted 120 paddy growers drawn from twenty villages. The respondents were interviewed with the help of a specially designed schedule. The ex-post facto research design was used for the present study. The analysis of data revealed that majority of the respondents were middle age group, moderately educated, medium level of farming experience, marginal land holding, medium area under rice cultivation, medium annual income, medium social participation, extension contact, economic motivation and „medium‟ knowledge level. The data regarding technology utilization behaviour of paddy growers revealed that majority of the respondents had „medium‟ technology utilization behaviour of the selected agricultural technologies of paddy crop. The data regarding practice-wise tehnology utilization behaviour revealed that the respondents had „full‟ technology utilization behaviour of „use high yielding variety‟, „one ploughing before or after first rain‟, „use quality seed‟, „transplanting of seedling at proper age reduces the incidence of pest‟, „harvest the crop at 90 per cent grain maturation and plants are still green‟, „dry under sun for 2 days after harvest in the field‟, „before storage, dry grains for 3-4 days under sun‟. The „partial‟ technology utilization behaviour practices were „maintain recommended plant population during transplanting‟, „apply 40 kg N, 50 kg P and 50 kg K/ha as a basal dose during transplanting‟. The association between profile of paddy growers and their technology utilization behavior namely, area under rice cultivation, rice yield, annual income, experience of rice cultivation, age, farming experience, land holding, area under rice crop, social participation, extension contact and economic motivation and their technology utilization behavior of paddy growers was non-significant. However, the association of education, annual income with technology utilization behavior of paddy growers was significant. Major constraints faced by respondents in paddy cultivation were high cost of inputs, lack of knowledge about recommended plant protection practices. To minimize the constraints in technology utilization (adoption) of recommended paddy production technology majority of the respondents suggested that, need to increase the minimum support prize of paddy, seeds of resistant variety should be available to the farmers at tahasil level respectively.ennullThesis