Effect on yield and profitability of toria through mega project on rapeseed and mustard in Darrang district of Assam

Introduction

Agriculture is considered as the mainstay of the economy of Assam and plays a vital role in the State's economy. Agriculture and allied activities in Assam have overriding importance as source of livelihood to its people. It still contributes more than one forth (26.19%) to the State's Net Domestic Product (NSDP) and supports about 70 Per cent of its population. The net cropped area of the state is 27.53 lakh hectares against gross cropped area of 39.57 lakh hectares. In Assam, farmers grow crops mainly in two seasons i.e. kharif and rabi season. The major kharif crops are autumn rice, winter rice, maize, pulses, kharif oilseeds like seasamum, castor, soyabean, groundnut, kharif vegetables etc. There are some non food crops like jute, mesta, cotton etc. also grown in some extent by the farmers in the kharif season. On the other hand major rabi crops cultivated are summer rice, cereals, wheat, grams, rape & mustard, various rabi oilseeds, rabi vegetables, potato etc.

The oilseed that are commonly grown in the Assam are Rapeseed and mustard, soybean, sesame, groundnut Rape & Mustard is the principal oilseeds grown in the State which occupied about 8.00 per cent of the total crop area. The economy of the Darrang district is basically agrarian where the majority (about 85%) of the population is engaged in agriculture and allied activities. Rice is the main crop in Darrang district followed by other crops like rapeseed & mustard, jute, potato, rabi vegetable etc. Darrang district of Assam has a sizeable area under rapeseed-mustard cultivation with area 18267 ha and production and 13608.93MT and productivity of 745 kg ha For conducting the programme a list of farmers was prepared from group meeting and specific skill training was imparted to the selected farmers regarding different aspect of cultivation. Farmers were provided training to follow the package and practices for rapeseed and mustard cultivation recommended by the Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. A total of 200 numbers of practicing farmers were selected under the programme covering five villages. In case of Farmers practice, the traditional practices () were followed by using existing variety (Local Behar). The soil sample of the experimental plot was sandy loam in texture. Application of 40: 35:15 kg/ha each of N, P2O5 and K2O along with 10 kg of borax was applied as basal. The selected farmers under the programme were guided by KVK scientists in performing field operations like sowing, spraying, weeding, harvesting etc during the course of training and visits. The traditional practices were maintained in case of farmers practice. Various morpho physiological datas like plant height, number of silliqua/plant, number of pods/silliqua, yield attributes, weather parameters of the five clusters were collected during the programme. The extension gap, technological gap and technological index along with the benefit cost ratio were worked out (Samui et al., 2000) [1] as given below: Technology gap = Potential yield -Demonstration yield Extension gap = Demonstration yield -Farmer's yield Technology index = (Technology gap/potential yield) x 100

Results and Discussion

Yield

It has been observed that in the mega project's Toria variety TS 38 recorded the higher seed yield in each cluster as compared to control. Improved crop management practices recorded the highest mean seed yield of 9.9 q ha -1 in cluster 2 and 5 followed by 9.8 q ha -1 in cluster 3, 9.5 q ha -1 in cluster 1 and 9.4 q ha -1 in cluster 4 respectively against the farmers practice 7. [2,3,4] . From the results it is evident that the performance of demonstrated plot was found better than the farmers practice under same farming situation. The poor productivity in farmers practice is mainly due to factors like use of non descript local variety, late sowing owing to late vacation of field after harvesting of medium to long duration winter paddy and low level of agronomic management in addition to non availability of resources in time. The result clearly depicts the positive effects of demonstrations over the existing practices towards enhancing the yield of toria in Darrang district.

Technology gap:

The average technology gap recorded for the clusters were 0.5 q ha -1 for cluster 1, 0.1 q ha -1 for cluster 2,0.2 q ha -1 for cluster 3, 0.6 q ha -1 cluster 4, 0.1 q ha - 1 for cluster 5 in toria variety TS38 & 1.5 q ha -1 in mustard variety PM28 respectively. The technology gaps recorded are ranged from 0.1to 1.5 q/ha which reflects the farmer's participation in conducting the demonstration. The variation in technology gap observed might be due to dissimilarity in soil fertility and management factors in the district.

Extension gap:

The extension gap recorded in this study is 2.4 q ha -1 in cluster 1, 2.9 q ha -1 in cluster 2, 2.9 q ha -1 in cluster 3, 2.81 q ha -1 in cluster 4, 2.5 q ha -1 in cluster 5 in toria variety TS-38 & 3.1 q ha -1 in mustard variety PM-28 which is solely due to non adoption of high yielding varieties and delayed sowing (1 st week of December).

Technology index:

The lower value of technology index, higher is the feasibility of the improved technology. It was observed that the mean technology index of 5%, 1%, 2%, 6%, 1% and 12.5%was recorded in mega project programmes under the clusters 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 respectively, which showed the efficacy of good performance of technical interventions. www.extensionjournal.com Other morpho physiological traits Some other morpho physiological traits like plant height, no. of silliqua/plant, no. of pods/silliqua, date of sowing, date of harvesting, crop duration are also recorded and given in the below table.

Economics of the study

Economic study showed that in each of the cluster there is a higher net profit found as compared to the farmers practice.

The details of the economic study was given in the table 4. below

Conclusion

At the end we can conclude that the HYV of toria/ mustard cultivated under the Mega project out yield the farmers practice in each of the cluster due to maintenance of proper time of sowing, use improved variety, use of correct doses of fertilizer and other inputs etc. It is concluded from the study that there exist a wide gap between the potential and demonstrated yield in mustard mainly due to technology and extension gaps and also due to the lack of awareness about the technology of mustard in Darrang district. Based on the analysis of data on Mega project conducted by KVK, Darrang, the results indicated that the project has given a positive and significant impact over the farming community as they were motivated by the new agricultural technologies applied in the demonstrations which were superior in every aspect compared to existing practices.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementAuthors are thankful to AAU-ZRS Shillongani, Nagaon, ICAR-DRMR, Bharatpur, Rajasthan DEE, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat and Director, ATARI Guwahati for their valuable suggestions and timely allocation of fund to conduct the above study.

References

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