Impact of front line demonstration on the yield and economics of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Banswara district of Rajasthan

Introduction

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the premier pulse crop widely consumed in India. It is an important rabi season food legume having extensive geographical distribution and contributing 39 percent to the total production of pulse in the country (Singh et al., 2013) [17] . It is the cheapest source of protein and is the inseparable part of the daily diets of every Indians. It also plays an important role in sustainable agriculture enriching the soil through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). It is a good source of protein (22 per cent), carbohydrate (60-70 per cent), fat (2-4 per cent), minerals (calcium, phosphorus, iron) and vitamins (Singh et al., 2014) [18] . It is an excellent animal feed. Its straw also had good forage value. Chickpea is grown in more than 50 countries (89.7 per cent area in Asia, 4.3 per cent in Africa,2.6 per cent in Oceania, 2.9 per cent in Americas and 0.4 per cent in Europe). In India, the area under chickpea was 8.39 million hectares with a production of 7.81million tons and productivity of931 kg/ha during rabi 2016-17 (FAOSTAT, 2017) [4] . The major chickpea producing states are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal. In Rajasthan state chickpea crop grown in an area of 12.35 lakh hectare with production of 7.50 lakh tones and productivity of 607 kg/ha (Kumar and Kumawat, 2019) [6] . Over the last six years, the on-going National Food Security Mission (NFSM) has been converged with multi-pronged strategies to enhance the production and productivity of pulses in the country (Anonymous, 2018) [1] which results in enhanced per hectare productivity. The country is now trying to meet the target of 35 million tonnes by 2030 with the challenging reasons like unavailability of quality seed, lack of technical guidance, ignorance of Integrated Pest Management techniques and non-adoption of integrated nutrient management (Kumar et al. 2014) [7] . Besides this, major abiotic stress i.e. low organic content in soil, low moisture content in the soil, types of soils, seasonal drought due to low rainfall are also responsible for low productivity of the pulses crops (Dubey et al. 2017) [3] . The utmost objective of the frontline demonstration is to large scale technological demonstrate latest technologies of crop production and management practices under diverse climatic conditions as well as farming situations to fill the per cent yield gap. Therefore, the effect of frontline demonstrations on yield and economics of chickpea crop has been studied in Banswara district of Rajasthan.

Materials and Methods

Front line demonstrations on chickpea were conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Banswara, MPUAT, Udaipur during rabi seasons from 2020-21 to 2022-23. Total 138 demonstrations on 55 ha area were conducted in different clusters in Banswara district of Rajasthan. The district has sub-humid agro-climatic condition with average temperature of 21.3 -40.6 °C in summer and 9.5 -34.9 0 C in winter and annual rainfall of 900 mm. Soil of the area is medium red loamy soil. Cluster selections, farmer selection, problem diagnosis, layout of demonstration were carried out according to Choudhary (1999). Assessment of gap in adoption of recommended technology was done before laying out FLD's through personal discussion with selected farmers (Table 1). Trainings were organized about detailed technological intervention with improved package and practice for successful cultivation of pulses. In the demonstrated FLDs the recommended package of practices were followed for crop cultivation and compared with the farmer's practices (Table 1). In case of farmers practice plots, existing practices being used by farmers were followed. Scientists visited regularly demonstrated fields and farmer's fields. The feedback information from the farmers was also recorded for further improvement in research and extension programmes. The extension activities i.e. trainings, interaction with farmers and field days were organized at the cluster frontline demonstration sites. The basic information were recorded from the farmer's field and analysed to comparative performance of demonstrated plot and local check. Data on yield parameters from demonstrated plots and farmers practices were collected by random crop cutting method. The technology gap, extension gap and technology index were calculated using the following formulae given by (Samui et al., 2000). The satisfaction level of participating as well as neighbouring farmers' for the performance of improved variety demonstrated was also assessed. In all, 138 participating farmers were selected to measure satisfaction level of farmers' for the performance of improved variety demonstrated. The selected respondents were interviewed personally with the help of a pre-tested and well structured interview schedule. Client Satisfaction Index was calculated as below. The data collected were tabulated and statistically analysed to interpret the results. The economicparameters (gross return, net return and C: B ratio) were worked out on the basis of prevailing market prices of inputs and Minimum Support Prices of outputs.

Results and Discussion

Yield

Cluster Frontline demonstrations (CFLD) are effective tools in introducing various new technologies to the farmers and education them and to increase the farmer's knowledge and confidence level by comparison of productivity levels between improved production technologies in demonstration trials. The data (Table 2) indicated that the cluster front line demonstration has given a good impact over the farming community of Banswara district of Rajasthan as they were motivated by the new agricultural technologies applied in the demonstrations.

Results of 138 frontline demonstrations indicated that the cultivation practices comprised under CFLDs viz., use of improved variety (GNG-1958, GNG-2144), balanced application of fertilizers @ 20:40:0:20 kg NPKS per ha, line sowing, timely weed management, water management at critical stages and control of pod borer through IPM module, produced on an average 17.40 q/ha, 15.80 q/ha and 16.30 q/ha chickpea yield during 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, respectively which was 46.22 per cent, 29.51 per cent and 27.34 percent, respectively higher compared top revailing Local check (Table 2). The results indicated that the cluster front line demonstrations have given a good impact over the farming community of Banswara district as they were motivated by the new agricultural technologies applied in the CFLD (Table 1). This finding is in corroboration with the findings of Poonia and Pithia (2011) [13] and Raj et al. (2013) [14] . The data presented in Table 2 indicated that the average yield of chickpea under demonstration was 16.50 q/ha whereas that the yield under Local check was 12.30 q/ha. This indicated that use of improved technology for chickpea production contributed 34.36 per cent higher production than the local check. The above findings were also similar to the findings of Singh (2002) [16] , Poonia and Pithia (2011) [13] , Patel et al., (2013) [12] and Raj et al., (2013) [14] .

Extension gap

The yield gaps presently ranging 3.5 q/ha to 5.5 q/ha. The average extension gap during the period of study was 4.2 q/ha (Table 3). This emphasized the need to educate the farmers through various means for the adoption of improved agricultural production technologies to reverse this trend of wide extension gap. More and more use of latest production technologies with high yielding variety will subsequently change this alarming trend of galloping extension gap. The new technologies will eventually lead to the farmers to discontinue the old technology and to adopt new technology (Table 1).

Technology gap

The technology gap in the demonstration ranged from 6.5q/ha to 9.4 q/ha yields over potential yield and average technological gap during the period of study is 7.63 q/ha (Table 3). The technology gap observed may be attributed to the dissimilarity in soil fertility, salinity and erratic rainfall and other vagaries of weather conditions in the area. Hence, variety wise location specific recommendation appears to be necessary to minimize the technology gap for yield level in different situations and similar finding were found by Mukherjee (2003) [11] and Mitra and Samajdar (2010) [9] .

Technology index

The technology index shows the feasibility of the evolved technology at the farmer's fields and the lower the value of technology index more is the feasibility of the technology (Jeengar et al. 2006) [5] . As such, fluctuation in the technology index was 35.07 per cent, 30.70 per cent and 28.51 per cent during 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, respectively and average technology index during the period of study is 31.43 per cent (Table3). These findings corroborate with the findings of Mokidue et al., (2011) [10] and Tomar (2010) [20] . [15,2,8] . Similarly, demonstrations of improved technologies at farmer's field proven best to a great extent in enhancing the production and productivity of chickpea crop (Singh et al. 2017; Tomar, 2010) [19, 20] . The results suggested that higher profitability and economic viability of chickpea demonstrations under local agroecological situation.

Conclusion

It may be concluded that integrated crop management technology in chickpea has found more productive, profitable and feasible in Banswara district of Rajasthan as compared to prevailing farmers practice. Even though up to 34.36 per cent yield increase of chickpea crop over local check are witnessed of creating confidence and friendly relationships between farm scientists and farming community. Farmers were motivated by results of demonstrations of integrated crop management practices in chickpea and they would adopt these technologies in the coming years. Now, National Food Security Mission a government initiative tried to bridges a connection to enhance the same due to popularization of improved technologies though KVKs at farmer's fields. But, there is still a wide gap between potential and demo yield which needs more extension service among farming community for better crop production, productivity and net monetary returns of pulses with more emphasis.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementsIt is a great pleasure for me to express sincere and deepest sense of gratitude and indebtedness to authors and Staff of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Banswara for his valuable inspiring guidance and encouragement during the research work and preparation of the manuscript.

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