Gap analysis and impact of cluster frontline demonstration on pulses (Pigeon pea) in east & south eastern coastal plain zone of Odisha

Introduction

India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world, constituting 28 percent of the world's total production and 30 percent of the world's total consumption of pulses in 2020 respectively (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Food Agricultural Organization (FAO), 2021). Being rich in protein, they not only form a vital part of the human diet, but also play a crucial role in balancing the dietary proteins. Pulses play an important role in maintaining soil fertility and offer a hidden advantage to the soil by providing free elemental nitrogen through its fixation by activity of Rhizobia bacterial present in their root nodules. It is estimated that pulses fix around 20 -40 Kgs. of valuable nitrogen per ha in the soil free of cost. Pigeon pea, although being native to Africa is widely used in Indian cuisine as Dal. Seeds are rich in iron and iodine, besides essential amino acids like lycine, tyrocene, cyctine and arginine. In Odisha Pigeon pea occupies a major position in terms of area, production and productivity among the pulses. More than 90 per cent of total pulse production in India is contributed by 10 states among which Odisha is one of them. National productivity in pulses is 841kg/ha whereas Odisha stands at 561kg/ha. Pigeon pea is one of the predominate pulse crops in east & south-eastern coastal plain zone during Kharif. Many biotic and abiotic factors are responsible for low productivity of pulses crops and farmers confront with many issues related to production, input, marketing and extension management. Over a period of time, a number of improved pigeon pea varieties and production technologies have been developed, but the full potential of the varieties as well as technologies could not be exploited due to low rate of adoption and low yield. Thus, factor limiting to productivity cannot be overlooked. Research and extension programme need to be diverted to produce value additive pulse. It may emphasize on quality attributes, adoption and popularization of new agro technologies, better varieties for stress conditions and improving present yield potential with an aim to raise production through transfer of farm technology. A study by the NCEAR (2014) also reported that growth in pulses production (less than 1% annual growth) was less than half of the growth rate in Indian human population during the past 40 years, resulting in sharp decline in per capita production and availability of pulses in the country. Cluster front line demonstration (CFLD) is a novel approach to provide a direct interface between researcher and farmer for the transfer of technologies developed by them and to get direct feedback from farming community. The concept of Cluster Frontline Demonstration was put forth under this www.extensionjournal.com mission. The scheme implemented in a mission mode through a farmer centric approach. The basic strategy of the mission is to promote and extend improved technologies, i.e., seed, micronutrient, soil amendments, integrated pest management, farm machinery and implements, irrigation devices along with capacity building of farmers. The project was implemented with main objective to boost the production and productivity of pulse through CFLD with latest and specific technologies.

Materials and Methods

The CFLD programme was carried out during Kharif in the year 2022-23 & 2023-24 with an area coverage of 10 ha per year with total beneficiaries of 47 under these demonstrations. Beneficiaries (farmers/ farmwomen) were identified through district level officials and local FPOs, critical inputs for the technologies like seeds, fungicides, bio-fertilizers, plant protection chemicals, plant hormones were supported by KVK, Nayagarh for the said demonstrations. Off farm training of farmer & farm women followed by regular field visit, monitoring and need based advisories were provided by the scientists of KVK. In case of local check, the traditional practices were followed by using existing local genotype Huda Kandula. In demonstration plots, use of quality seeds of HYV varieties (PRG 176, LRG 52) with line sowing and timely weeding, application of need based chemicals were administered. The basic information was recorded from the demonstration and control plots and analyzed for comparative performance of the cluster frontline demonstrations (CFLDs) and farmer's practice. The yield data were collected both from the demonstration and farmers practice by random crop cutting method and analyzed by using simple statistical tools. The technology gap and technological index (Samui et. al., 2000) [5] were calculated by using following formula as given below. Note: Price at local market of Pigeon Pea @Rs 5,000 qt-1 in 2022-23, Rs 6,500 qt -1 in 2023-24.

Results and Discussion

Gap Analysis: Data in Table 2 reveals grain yield of 12.4q/ha in the year 2022-23 which is almost 34% higher productivity over the farmer's practices caused due to cultivation of HYV seeds followed with practices of schedule fertilizer application, weed control and pest and disease management. The mean data of two years reveals an increment of 22.8% higher yield over local check which shows a positive impact of demonstrations programme by achieving an incremental yield of 2.02 q/ha. The ultimate objective of the demonstration to narrow down the extension gap and to promote feasible location specific technology for upscaling and out-scaling. In the year 2022-23 the extension gap was 3.2q/ha while in the consecutive year it was narrow down to 0.83q/ha as we can find out there is minimal increase of 10% yield over farmers practice. Besides there is continues stive to shrink down the technology gap and technology index (%) of demonstration, lower the value expresses higher acceptance of the technology. The value of technology Index was 38% and 49.9% in the year 2022-23 & 2023-24 respectively whereas the average value of index was recorded 43.7% which shows the huge gap need to be narrow down with location specific recommendations in terms of suitable HYV with crop management practices coupled with capacity building of farmers for technology execution and adoption.

Impact of Cluster Frontline Demonstrations

CFLD conducted during 2022-24 in different locations revealed that the improved package of practices is more important with technological intervention for productivity and profitability of pulse. From the table 3 it is evident that with an additional average input cost of Rs.2910/ ha the farmers could get an average incremental income of Rs.10697.5/ha which almost three times of the investment of input cost. This surely show a positive impact and constructive change impact among the beneficiaries. The cultivation practices comprised under CFLD viz use of improved variety, seed treatment, line sowing, balanced application of fertilizers, proper weed control and control of pest through insecticide at economic level evidentially proved superiority over farmer's practice (Table 2). The technology gap ranges from 7.6 to 8.9 q ha-1 whereas the extension gap ranges from 3.2 to 0.83 q ha-1, lower the value of technology index indicates more feasibility of the technology. Economic performance of pigeon pea under cluster frontline demonstration presented in table 3. reveals that technologies demonstrated under CFLDs also had positive impact on net return and thereby benefit cost ratio (B:C ration) over farmer's practice. These results are in accordance with the findings of Jha et al. (2020) [2] & Singh and Singh (2020) [7] & Tomar et al. (2021) [8] .

Conclusion

References

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