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O. SARADA
Senior Scientist (Extension) DAATTC, ANGRAU, ONGOLE – 523 002
The present investigation was carried out in Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh during the year 2015-16. An ex-post-facto research design was used to analyze technological gap in Bt cotton production technology. One hundred and twenty farmers from eight villages of four major Bt cotton growing mandals represented the sample of the study. Majority (57.60%) of the Bt cotton farmers were with medium technological gap followed by 24.00 per cent in high and 18.00 per cent low technological gap categories. Major technological gap was recorded in the time of application of P fertilizer (64.73%) followed by seed treatment (63.89), micronutrient management (60.56%), irrigation (56.83%), pest and disease management (54.88%), time of K application (51.67%) and manure application (51.39%). Major correlates of technological gap were education, extension contact, innovativeness, trainings undergone and mass media use and they were negatively correlated with technological gap. Major training needs identified were high yielding Bt cotton hybrids (92.50%), weed management (81.67%), sucking pest management (74.17%), drought management (64.17%), fertilizer management (57.50%) and compatibility of insecticides and fungicides (55.00%). Major constraints expressed by farmers in Bt cotton production were sucking pest incidence (82.50%), increased micro nutrient deficien- cies (70.00%), terminal moisture stress (67.50%), wilt (63.33%), poor yields(59.17%), continuous mono cropping (55.83%), high seed cost (54.17%) and increased cost of cultivation (51.67%).
KEY WORDS: Bt cotton, technological gap, training needs
India continued to maintain the largest area under cotton and second largest producer ofcotton next to China with 35.29 per cent and 24 per cent of world cotton area and production,respectively. India also sustained the position of being the second largest consumer andexporter of cotton and is expected to export 7.5 million bales and expected to consume 23million bales in 2013 14. In India, cotton contributes about 85 per cent raw material to textile industry, occupying an area of 115.53 lakh ha with a production of about 375 lakh bales. (Anonymous, 2013- 14).Cotton, the ‘White gold’ occupies an enviableplace amongst commercial crops of our country and being a cash crop, it is of great economic importance for Indian farming community.
Severe pest and disease incidence and increased cost of cultivation were the two major factors making
*Corresponding author, E-mail: saradasuneel@gmail.com
cotton cultivation non remunerative. Agood crop with mini- mum pest attack brings prosperity, whilea severe pest at- tack brings misery.Pests also became resistantto chemi- cal pesticides and cause significant increase croplosses. Pesticides do not provide lasting control and soneeded repeated applications. Continued use of pesticidesbuilds up high level of toxic residues in food, ground waterand air.Excess use of insecticides also increases cost of cultivation.Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers was the major factor contributing for increased cost of cultivation.This is more so in the rainfed areas whereopportunities for growing alternative crops are lim- ited due tomarginality of the production environment.The reason of poor performanceof the Bt cotton could be huge technological gap existing among the Bt cotton farmers. In Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh cotton is princi- pal cash crop traditionally grown by the farmers in about 54,393 ha over the normal area of 39,682 ha, with an av- erage kapas yield of 653 kg ha-1. Hence a need was felt to analyze technological gap in Bt cotton cultivation with the following specific objectives.
⦁ To analyze Technological gap in Bt cotton cultivation
⦁ To ascertain correlates of technological gap in
Bt cotton production technology
⦁ To identify training needs of farmers in Bt cotton cultivation and
⦁ To analyze the constraints in Bt cotton production
Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted during 2015-16 in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. Considering maxi- mum area under Bt cotton cultivation as criteria, four mandals viz., Marturu, Parchuru, Inkollu, and Karamchedu, were selected. From each mandal two vil- lages having highest area under Bt cotton cultivation were selected purposively. From each selected village, 15 farm- ers growing Bt cotton were selected by simple random sampling procedure, thus, making the total sample size
120. All the Bt recommended package of practices rec- ommended by Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural Univer- sity, Andhra Pradesh were included in the schedule were administered to the respondents after pre-testing and the responses were obtained on a three point continuum as fully adopted, partially adopted and not adopted and scores of 3, 2 and 1 were assigned, respectively. Any remark- able deviation from adoption of normal recommendation was treated as partial adoption. The maximum score that a respondent could obtained was 57 and minimum was
19. The actual score was deducted from maximum score of the respondents to find out the technology gap of rec- ommended practice of individual. Technology gap has been defined as the proportion of gap in the adoption of prac- tices recommended and it expressed in percentage (Ray et al., 1995).
The technological gap of a particular practice expressed in percentage was:Maximum possible score – Actual score obtained Technological gap = —————————————————– ×100
Maximum possible score
The data on adoption of technological gap of Bt cotton farmers were collected by using pre tested schedule employing personal interview method. The respondents were divided into three categories viz., low, medium and high based on their mean technological gap and standard deviation. The responses were scored, quantified, categorized, tabulated and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, frequencies and percentage. Correlation analysis was carried out to assess the relationship between profile characteristics of farmers and their technological gap. Each cottonfarmer was also interviewed by posing open ended questions so as to unearth training needs and constraints he/she has experienced and analyzed by calculating frequencies and percentages.
TECHNOLOGICAL GAP IN Bt COTTON PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
A critical look at the Table 1 revealed that almost
sixty per cent (57.60%) respondentswere in medium technological gap followed twenty four per cent in high and eighteen per cent low technological gapcategories. The major reasons for this medium and high technological gap were top dressing of complex fertilizers, non adoption of seed treatment and micronutrient management, partial adoption of N and K fertilizers management, irrigation and pest and disease management.These findings are in conformity with the findings of Sable and Kadam (2012).
It was worthy to note from Table 2 that there was no technological gap with respect to land prepara- tion, sowing time, method of sowing, seed rate, varieties/ hybrids, spacing, and harvesting. Being commercial crop, farmers were cultivating high yielding hybrids recom- mended to their areas. Further, farmers as a result of their farming experience have themselves realized the useful- ness of these practices also; hence most of the respon- dents were convinced about the profitability and practi- cability of these recommendations. More technological gap was observed in the time of application of P fertilizer (64.73%), seed treatment (63.89), micronutrient manage- ment (60.56%), irrigation (56.83%), pest and disease management (54.88%), time of K application (51.67%), manures (51.39%), quantity of N applied (45.83%), quan- tity of K fertilizer used (44.45%), time of application of
N fertilizer (40.27%) and weed management (38.00%).
Majority of the farmers had applied nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers more tha n recommended quantity and throughout the crop growth period. The reason given by the respondents for this behavior was that application more quantity of chemical fertilizers continuouslywould give more yields. Also many respondents did not have the correct knowledge about the recommended fertilizer dosage. Possible reason for over adoption of all the three (N, P and K) fertilizers might be ‘lack of knowledge’, most of them believed that application of recommended quantity of N,P,K fertilizer was not sufficient to get the expected yield and hence over adoption. Similar result was reported by Sable and Kadam (2012).Seed treatment was not adopted by the farmers because of their assumption that Bt cotton seed was treated against all pests and diseases. Lack of knowledge to diagnose micro nutrient deficiencies with that of disease symptoms was the major reason for increased technological gap of micronutrient management. Rainfed cotton cultivation and insufficient rains were the reasons for technological gap in irrigation management. Indiscriminate and scheduled sprays contributed for technological gap of pest and disease management. Farmers were unable to use recommended manure as it was a costly affair and insufficient quantities available to them. It was observed in the study area that cattle population was declining over the years due to high cost of their maintenance, hence resulting in reduced availability of FYM. The produced FYM might not be sufficient to meet the individual’s requirement. Considerable gap was recorded with respect to weed management this was because of insufficient knowledge of the farmers on post
emergence herbicides.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROFILE CHARACTERISTICS OF Bt COTTON FARMERS AND THEIR TECHNOLOGICAL GAP
It was noticed from table 3 that out of 10 vari- ables innovativeness, trainings undergone and mass me- dia use had significant negative correlation with techno- logical gap at 0.01% level. Extension contact and educa- tion were found to have significant negative correlation at 0.05 % level. Remaining variables viz., age, land hold- ing, farming experience, social participation and economic motivation were found to have non significant correlation with technological gap in Bt cotton cultivation. Innovativeness motivates farmers to learn new technolo-
gical gap in Bt cotton cultivation. Innovativeness motivates farmers to learn new technological interventions and to adopt. Training undergone impart knowledge and skill to the farmers on latest management practices. An individual who receives training become more knowledgeable, skilful and develop rationale and adopt improved farming practices which helped in reaping higher harvests. Mass media use facilitates farmers to update their knowledge. Hence more will be the innovativeness; trainings undergone and mass media exposure lesser will be the technological gap in Bt cotton cultivation. Education and extension contact help the farmers to get acquainted with the technological developments easily in the field of agriculture. This finding is in line with the findings of Raghavendra (2010), Singh et al. (2010), Sable and Kadam (2012) and
Kiranmayi et al. (2016)
It could be inferred from table 4 that majority of the Bt cotton farmers expressed that high yielding Bt cotton hybrids (92.50%), weed management (81.67%), sucking pest management (74.17%), drought management (64.17%), fertilizer management (57.50%) and compatibility of insecticides and fungicides (55.00%) were the major training areas. Almost fifty per cent of the farmers felt micronutrient deficiency identification and management (47.50%) anddisease management (46.67%) were the areas where trainings need to be emphasized. Some of the farmers required training on critical stages of irrigation (42.50%), pink boll worm management (40.00%) and ETLs for pest and diseases (36.67%). This training need analysis clearly indicated the knowledge and adoption gaps of the farmers in terms of fertilizer management, pest and disease management which ultimately leading to increased cost of cultivation of Bt cotton. Hence there is a need to emphasize on these identified training areas to make Bt cotton cultivation more remunerative and profitable. Similar training needs were identified by Rajput and Supe (2007).
It is evident from Table 5 that majority of the Bt cotton farmers expressed sucking pest incidence (82.50%), increased micro nutrient deficiencies (70.00%), terminal moisture stress (67.50%), wilt (63.33%), poor yields(59.17%), continuous mono cropping (55.83%), high
seed cost (54.17%) and increased cost of cultivation (51.67%) were their major constraints. Below fifty per cent of the farmers felt increased pink boll worm incidence (49.17%), poor seed quality (45.83%), indiscriminate use of pesticides and flower and boll drop (40.83%) were the other constraints experienced by them in Bt cotton cultivation. Similar constraints were reported by Muhammad et al. (2007) and Ramasundaramet al. (2007)
It could be concluded that majority of the farm- ers were in medium technological gap category and ma- jor gaps were recorded in terms of N, P, K and micronu- trient management, seed treatment, weed management and pest and disease management. The major correlates of technological gap were education, extension contact, innovativeness, trainings undergone and mass media ex- posure. Training needs identified were reemphasizing in- adequate knowledge of the farmers on high yielding cot- ton hybrids, weed management, sucking pest manage- ment, drought management, fertilizer management and compatibility of insecticides and fungicides. Hence the training programmes organized by the Department of Agriculture, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), District Agri- cultural Advisory and Transfer of Technology Centre (DAATTC) need to be emphasized on these identified training needs in order to bridge the gap existing in Bt cotton production technology.
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Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to their overall technological gap (n=120)
Table 2: Technological gap in adoption of recommended Bt cotton cultivation practices (n=120)
Table 3: Correlation of profile characteristics of Bt cotton farmers with technological gap (n=120)
Table 4.Training needs of Bt cotton farmers N=120
Technological gap in Bt cotton production in Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh
Table 5: Constraints expressed by the farmers in Bt cotton production (n=120)
