Impact of front line demonstration on productivity and profitability of field pea under rice pulse cropping system of West Tripura district

Introduction

Pulses are an important commodity group of crops that provide high quality protein complementing cereal proteins for pre-dominantly substantial vegetarian population of the country. Although, being the largest pulse crop cultivating country in the World, India's production of pulses is relatively mere in comparison to total cereal crops productions. The cultivation of pulses builds-up a mechanism to fix atmospheric nitrogen in their root nodules and thus meet their nitrogen requirements to a great extent. In India, Pulses can be produced with a minimum use of resources and hence, it becomes less costly even than animal protein. In comparison with other vegetables, pulses are rich in protein which are less expensive and can be cultivated as an inter-crop and also as mixed crop. Pulses are mostly cultivated under rainfed conditions and do not require intensive irrigation facility and this is the reason why pulses are grown in area left after satisfying the demand for cereals/cash crops. Pulses are grown in all three seasons. The season-wise pulses are as under: 1. Kharif -Arhar (Tur), Urd (Blackgram), Moong (Greengram), Lobia (Cowpea), 2. Kulthi (Horsegram) and Moth. 3. Rabi -Gram, Lentil, Pea, Lathyrus and Rajmash 4. Summer -Greengram, Blackgram and Cowpea Field pea (Pisum Sativum L) is one of the important pulse crop of rabi season after dry beans and chickpea. It is a highly productive crop. Field pea is being grown by the farmers of West Tripura district after harvesting of kharif rice, But the farmers of West Tripura district are getting very low yield. The national productivity of field pea is 1500 kg/ha but under Tripura condition it is only 900 kg/ha. The key reasons, for such a poor productivity in Tripura and particularly in West Tripura district, are cultivation of field pea in marginal areas, non-adoption of improved farming www.extensionjournal.com techniques, minimal adoption of high yielding improved varieties and an overall lack of awareness among farmers about improved packages of practices. There is wide scope for extension machinery to educate the farmers of West Tripura district for higher adoption of improved and specific production technology of field pea by front line demonstration. Demonstrations are one of the practical approaches to maximize the production by display of relevant technologies at farmers field under close supervision of agricultural experts helped to narrow down the technological gaps to a considerable extent (Katare et al., 2011) [1] .

Materials and Methods

The programme on Cluster Front Line Demonstration of Field pea was laid out in the selected villages of West Tripura district of Tripura State through number of extension practices like group meetings, awareness programmes, trainings, demonstrations, field day, etc. Based on the trials conducted by ICAR, improved variety of field pea Aman was selected for demonstration in the farmers field in six selected villages (Ragavendra et.al 2018) [10] . All together 75 demonstrations were conducted covering an area of 15 ha for three consequtive year (during rabi season of 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021). In general soil of the area under study was sandy loam to clay loam and medium in fertility status. Awareness programme on importance of pulse crop in human diet and inclusion of pulse crop in cropping system was organized by the scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra. A group meeting was also conducted in each village. Training programme on the topics like improved cultivation practices of field pea, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management was conducted before starting the demonstration programme in the selected villages. In the training programme a pre-and post-training evaluation was done to see the change in knowledge level of the farmers on the demonstrated technology. Besides imparting training, printed leaflet on field pea cultivation was distributed among the farmers. Regular visits by the KVK scientist were ensured to guide the farmers on all aspects of cultivation. These visits were also utilized to collect feedback for further improvement in research and extension programme. Field Day was organized at the demonstration site to provide opportunities for other farmers to witness the benefit of demonstrated technologies. The critical inputs like seed, fertilizer, insecticide/pesticides were supplied to the demonstration farmers by KVK, West Tripura. Regular data on various parameters were collected from the farmers field.

The demonstrations were conducted to study the technology gap between the potential yield and demonstrated yield, extension gap between demonstrated yield and yield under existing practices and technology index. The yield data was collected from both the demonstration and farmers practice by random crop cutting method and analyzed by using simple statistical tools. The percent increase yield, technology gap, extension gap and technology index were calculated by using following formula as per Samui et al.

(2000) [4] , as given below:

Percent increase in yield = (Demonstration yield -Farmers practice yield)/ Farmers practice yield X 100 1). Among varying technological component, full gap was observed in the component viz variety, seed treatment, seed inoculation, sowing method and plant protection measure and partial gap was observed in seed rate, fertilizer dose, irrigation. These gaps observed at the farmers field were ascribed to slow pace of extension activities; coupled with unreached extension system, poor accessibility of improved agro technologies especially among small holder farmers (Shivran et al., 2020) [5] . Under farmers practice, seed of local/nondescriptive type with low yield potential was sown instead of newly recommended varieties for the district with improper application of improved recommended package technologies. On the basis of observed gap under the demonstration, improved variety of field pea Aman, fungicide, insecticide, biofertilizer (Rhizobium and PSB culture) etc. were provided to beneficiary farmers by KVK well in before taking the demonstration and other crop management practices were timely performed by the beneficiary farmer himself under the close supervision of KVK Scientist. The soil sample from the farmers field were tested before raising the demonstration for fertilizer application. Similar findings have also been observed by Meena et al. (2022) [7] . www.extensionjournal.com 2).

These results clearly indicated that the higher average seed yield in demonstration plots over farmers practice might be due to use of high yielding variety along with integrated crop management practices. Adoption of scientific package of practices like seed treatment with bio-fertilizers and need based right plant protection practices resulted in higher yields. The above findings are similar in lines with Raju et al. (2015) [9] and Kishor Zade et al. (2020) [3] .

Technology Gap

The data presented in Table 2 [8] and Keshavreddy et al. (2018) [2] .

Extension Gap

Extension gap is considered as a parameter to know the yield difference between the demonstrated improved technology and farmers practices. Results of the demonstrations (Table 2) showed that extension gap ranging between 503.8 to 581.64 kg/ha was found between demonstrated technology and farmers' practice. The extension gap observed was 510.23, 581.64, 503.8 kg/ha during 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 respectively. On an average extension gap observed in four years under CFLD implemented villages was 531.89 kg/ha. The highest extension gap of 581.64 kg/ha was observed during 2019-2020 followed by 510.23 kg/ha during 2018-19 and 503.8 kg/ha during 2020-21. To enhance the farmers income, there is need to reduce extension gap. Therefore, it is necessary to educate the farmer's through various means of extension for more adoption of recommended improved technologies. The above findings are similar to the findings of Meena et al. (2022) [7] ; Keshavreddy et al. (2018) [2] and Kishor Zade et al. (2020) [3] .

Technology Index

The technology index is a parameter to show the feasibility of the improved technology at the farmers fields. The technology index of the present study was varied from 4.77 to 8.15%. On an average technology index was 6.42 during the years. This shows the efficiency and effectiveness of the improved technologies as a result of successful technical interventions to increase the yield performance of fieldpea. This will accelerate the adoption of demonstrated technological intervention to increase the yield performance of field pea at farmers field. Similar findings were recorded by Meena et al. (2021) [8] and Meena et al. (2022) [7] . [6] . The benefit cost ratio of demonstrated technology were 2.29:1, 2.30:1, 2.18: 1 during the years 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 respectively while it was 1.65:1, 1.59:1, 1.67: 1 from the farmers' practices over different years. The highest benefit: cost ratio recorded in demo plots might be due to higher yields obtained under improved technologies compared to farmer's practices during all the three years (Table 3). Similar results were observed by Meena et al. (2021) [8] and Raju et al. (2015) [9] .

Conclusion

The front line demonstration programme in the farmers' field was effective in changing skill, attitude and knowledge of beneficiary farmers. The adoption of improved technology helps in increasing yield of field pea and net return of the farmers. There is need to disseminate the improved technologies among the farmers with effective extension activities like trainings and field demonstrations. This also improved the relationship between farmers and scientist and built confidence between them. The selected farmers of the demonstration acted also as a source of information and pure seeds of wider dissemination of high yielding varieties of field pea for the other farmers. The productivity gain under demonstration over conventional practices of field pea cultivation created greater awareness and motivated the other farmers to adopt appropriate recent production and protection technologies of field pea in the district. Farmers should be always encouraged in demonstration of improved technologies of crops and such type of participatory approach are always helpful in disseminating technologies among the other farmers of the district.

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