Assessment of kharif oilseed crop varieties and technologies disseminated through cluster frontline demonstrations in Chhattisgarh

Introduction

Edible oils occupy a unique place in Indian society, culture, dietary patterns and economy of the country. Due to diverse agro-climatic conditions and geographical locations, farmers are able to grow the entire nine annual oilseeds viz. groundnut, mustard, soybean, sunflower, sesame, safflower, Niger, castor and linseed. Oilseeds are the rich source of energy, containing twice as much energy (9 kcl/g) as carbohydrate or protein (4 kcl/g), (FAO, 1980). In India, oilseeds are the second most important crop after cereals sharing 14 per cent of the country's gross cropped area and accounting for nearly 3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Value wise, oilseeds constitute nearly 6 per cent of the value of all agricultural products. India grows oilseeds on an area of nearly 27 million hectares with productivity of 1108 kg per hectare. Consumption of vegetable oils is increasing steadily because of the lifestyle changes in dietary pattern and increasing per capita income. Like pulses, oilseeds also face severe challenges in terms of climatic stresses and unfavourable farming conditions, oilseeds cultivation is mainly undertaken on marginal land by resource poor farmers who are generally reluctant to provide necessary inputs for increasing the productivity. Nearly, 82 per cent area of oilseeds cultivation fall under rainfed farming where climatic vagaries cause severe damage to crops. Oilseeds also face a plethora of challenges. India is one of the largest producers of oilseeds in the world and contributes about 6-7% of the world oilseeds production. Though, India ranks among leading producers of oilseeds in the world which is close to 10 per cent, majority of oilseed production comes from rainfed areas, due to insect infestation and other problems farmers don't take interest in cultivation of oilseeds. At the same time, India is fortunate in having a wide range of oilseeds crops grown in its different agro climatic zones. Groundnut, mustard, sesame, safflower, linseed, Niger seed, castor are the major traditionally cultivated oilseeds. Our total consumption of edible oils is between 180 -190 lakh tonnes annually. 50-60 per cent of this requirement is met through imports, bulk of which is in the form of palm oil imported from Indonesia and Malaysia. Ten top oil seed growing states account for 93 per cent acreage and 96 per cent production. Contribution of remaining states is negligible. Govt. of India had started Technology Mission on Oilseeds in 1986 which has been converted into a National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP) in 2014. This gave a thrust to Government's efforts for augmenting the production of oilseeds. This is evident by the increase in the production of oilseeds from about 11.3 million tonnes in 1986-87 to 36.56 million tons in 2020-21. Area under cereals, pulses and oilseeds has increased in Chhattisgarh. In cereal crops the area under summer paddy and wheat has increased significantly, in case of oilseeds, area under sesame and groundnut has increased significantly. Maize, horse gram, mustard and Niger are the major crops in Bastar plateau, while wheat, mustard, linseed, sesame, Niger & black gram are the major crops in northern hill zone. Sugarcane followed by groundnut and maize are the major Zaid (summer) crops in Chhattisgarh. Till date, the productivity level of pulses and oilseeds is not sufficient on account of several biotic and abiotic stresses besides unavailability of quality seeds of improved varieties in time and poor crop management practices due to unawareness and non-adoption of recommended production and plant protection technologies. Therefore, it is essential to demonstrate the high yielding varieties, resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses and other production technologies to which the farmers generally do not adopt. A wide gap exists between the available techniques and its actual implementation by the farmers which is reflected through poor yield in the farmers' fields. There are so many appropriate technologies generated at agricultural universities and research stations but the productivity of oilseeds is still very low due to poor transfer of technology from the points of its development to the points of its utilization and only a little new knowledge percolates to the farmers' fields hence, a vast gap has been observed between knowledge production and knowledge utilization. To achieve target of additional production of oilseeds, Cluster Frontline Demonstration (CFLD) of oilseeds on farmer's field may be helpful. The basic objective of this programme is to demonstrate improved proven technologies of recently released, early maturing, high yielding, varieties in a compact clusters with nutrient management, weed management and pest management at farmers field to bring in enhanced application of modern technologies to show high yield. Keeping this in view, demonstrations were conducted in 0.4 ha each to assess technological gap and production gain on some selected oilseed and pulse crops as per the suitability of district needs and farmer's choice. Frontline Demonstrations in oilseeds under CFLD have been initiated involving all 27 KVKs across the state. Farmers are realizing potential of oilseed crops through these demonstrations and are adopting these remunerative crops in large scale.

Materials and Methods

India's economy has been dominated by agriculture. However, Indian agriculture fiercely depends on monsoon to yield sufficient agricultural returns. India's major food crops rice and wheat have been heavily incentivized with MSP in addition to preferential treatment of Public Distribution System to benefit the Indian poor. Hence, Indian farmers are motivated to grow either these crops or cash crops like cotton, sugarcane etc. Pulses and oilseeds have been a second choice for the farmers for cultivation. Over a period of time, a number of improved oilseed varieties and production technologies have been developed, but full potential of these varieties as well as technologies could not be exploited due to low rate of adoption and low yields. Thus, factors limiting the productivity cannot be overlooked. It may emphasize on quality attributes, adoption and popularization of new agro technology, evolving better varieties for stress conditions and improving present yield potential. The aim of these demonstrations in general is to raise production through transfer of farm technology. Cluster front line demonstrations (CFLDs) is one of the most powerful tool of extension because farmers, in general, are driven by the perception that "Seeing is believing". Cluster Front Line demonstrations (CFLDs) is a unique approach to provide direct interface between scientist and farmers as the scientists are directly involved in planning, execution and monitoring of the demonstrations for the technologies developed by them and get direct feedback from the farmers about the crops in general and technology being demonstrated in particular. This enables the scientists to improvise upon the research programme accordingly. CFLDs provide an opportunity to researchers and extension personnel for understanding the farmer's resources and requirement to fine tune and/or modify the technologies for easy adaptability at farmers' fields. Frontline Demonstration is a form of applied research through university system on latest released varieties along with critical inputs on selected farmers' fields with a view to demonstrate the potentiality of the technologies to (a) participating farmers (b) neighbouring farmers and other agencies; (c) to analyse the production (d) performance of the technologies for scientific feedback.

Objectives

The main objective of cluster frontline demonstrations is to demonstrate newly released crop production and protection technologies and its management practices in the farmer's field under the micro-farming situation.

Selection of site and beneficiary

 The sites of demonstrations selected were easily accessible to attract large number of farmers for more impact, easy monitoring and feedback.  Technologies selected were of paramount importance and preferred by farmers.  To create better and visible impact of a technology, the demonstrations were conducted in cluster approach of at least cluster of 10.0 hectares. One demonstration at individual farmer was not less than 0. The demonstrations on farmers' fields were monitored by scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra and officials of Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur right from sowing to harvesting and made to guide them. Finally, field day was conducted involving demonstration holding farmers, other farmers in the village, and scientists from university and officials from Department of Agriculture to demonstrate the superiority of the technology for each crop. These visits were also utilized to collect feedback information for further improvement in research and extension programme. The yield data were collected from the demonstrations and control plots and analysed with the suitable tools for different parameters.

Crop yield was recorded from the demonstration and control plots for the crops at the time of harvest. The most feasible way by which this could be achieved is by demonstrating the recommended improved technology on the farmer's fields through front line demonstrations with the objectives to work out the input cost and monetary returns between front line demonstration and farmers methods, to identify the yield gaps between farmer's practices and frontline demonstrations. The basic information was recorded from the farmer's field and analysed to comparative performance of cluster frontline demonstrations (CFLD's) and farmer's practice.

The yield data were collected from both the demonstration and farmers' practice.

Results and Discussion

Cluster Frontline Demonstrations on Groundnut were conducted by different KVK's during the Kharif season from 2017-18 to 2021-22 in 429 ha. The results reveal that average higher yield (12.78 q/ha) was recorded in CFLD's as compared to farmer's practice (6.84 q/ha).

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementAuthors are highly grateful to Director Extension Services, IGKV, Raipur and Director, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI), Zone 9, Jabalpur for encouragement and assistance for carrying out the study and all Senior Scientist & Heads and Scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendras for providing the information and feedback from oilseed growing farmers of Chhattisgarh.

References

1. Sumathi P. Role of front-line demonstrations on transfer of pulses production technologies in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. Agric Update. 2012 Feb-Mar;7(2):147-150.