Dr. Rakesh Kumar and Dr. P.S.Slathia
Agriculture is the vital sector of our country economy. Although contribution of agriculture sector in our national GDP is only around 16% but provide direct employment to approximately 49% of total work force for sustaining their livelihood and also the base of different agribased industries. In our state of Jammu and Kashmir too contribution of agriculture sector in state GDP is only 22% but is the source of occupation to almost 64% of the population. Prosperity of the farming community largely depends upon the productivity of agriculture and allied sectors and more over it is need of the hour to achieve higher production per unit area in order to maintain balance between demand and supply of food grains in the country. Average productivity of almost all the crops has increased since 1950, due to the special attention given to agriculture sector and steady progress in irrigation, application of modern agricultural practices and provision of agricultural credit and subsidies since the Green Revolution in India. However, studies show that the average yield in India is generally 30% to 50% of the highest average yield in the world. The average productivity of major crops such as rice, wheat, maize, pulses and oilseeds in our state is far less than the national productivity level of these crops. Partial or non-adoption of recommended production technologies by the farmers at their farms is one of the important factors affecting the productivity level of important crops. The other important factors determining the productivity of crops are lack of irrigation at critical stages of crops, absence of timely rainfall, adverse climatic conditions during cropping period etc. which are beyond the control of farmers. Improved agricultural practices are the product of modern science and technology. Absence of technology is generally not the major problem in our country but main problem which still exists today is that of satisfactory adoption of these technologies by the farmers.
Adoption of complete package of improved agricultural technologies including post-harvest processing technologies especially of fruit and vegetable crops can really help in improving agricultural scenario of our state so that this noble profession of farming may become more remunerative and attractive. Agricultural scientists of both the farm University of the State are continuously evolving improved farming situation based technologies in the form of new crop varieties, new methods of cultivation, new plant protection techniques etc. but due to lack of their full adoption, potential of these technologies remains underutilized. This fact is adequately supported by different research studies conducted in SKUAST-J on adoption of production recommendations of different crops in different agro-climatic zones of Jammu division. For example in a recent survey based research study conducted on adoption of rapeseed mustard crop production recommendations in both sub-tropical and temperate region of Jammu division, it was found that only 5 per cent sampled farmers adopted the seed treatment practice, 47 per cent adopted the recommended seed rate and 20 percent applied recommended doses of fertilizers respectively and due to this reason average productivity of this important oilseed crop is hovering around 7.0 q/ha which is almost half than the national average and more or less same is the case of other crops grown in the state where due to non adoption or partial adoption of recommended technologies, average productivity is below than their potential level. At the same time there are number of examples of farmers also who are obtaining the satisfactory productivity per unit area because they carry out different farming operations on their fields as per recommendations. In this era of science and technology, new technologies are evolving at a very fast pace in every field of human concern and field of agriculture is no exception to this. Adoption of new technologies is more than satisfactory in all fields except agriculture. For instance take the case of mobile phones technology, whenever a new model of phone gets launched in the market by any company its information diffuses in every nook and corner of the country including rural areas in quick succession. This is because of important factors such as strong publicity of the product both through print and electronic media, strong infrastructural support, good financial support etc. All these factors help in quick dissemination of newly launched product and, simultaneously its adoption also gear up because favorable environment and need is created among the people through different sources.
But this is not true in case of new agricultural technologies, because all above cited factors crucially lack in case of dissemination of information regarding any new agriculture technology whether it is new variety of crop, new fertilizer, new pesticide, new breed of any milch animal etc. We hardly find any advertisement in our print and electronic media about the arrival of new agricultural technologies with little exceptions, if found its frequency is too low to arouse the interest of the farming community. Moreover adoption of latest agricultural technologies is a complex phenomenon which does not only merely depend upon the type of technology and its characteristics but also upon the different socio-personal characteristics and economic background of the farming community for whom the technology is generated. Adoption of new, improved and better agricultural technology is a crucial and important phenomenon from farmers’ point of view because as long as improved technology will not be adopted by the farmers on their actual field conditions till then existing production and productivity level cannot be improved. Adoption of improved technology is like an investment for the farmers. First and foremost responsibility of agricultural extension personnel’s is to convince, motivate and prepare farmers to adopt agricultural technology as per their existing resources and suitability of technology to their farming situation. The profession of agriculture has dynamic features.
Farming practices change continually with the passage of time and arrival of new technologies, changing needs of the consumers etc. Changes in natural conditions, resource availability, and market development also present challenges and opportunities to which farmers adjust their farming practices. Any effort that attempts to develop and promote improved farming practices should be able to assess progress and use that information to make future actions more effective. Farmers input or suggestion is of vital importance in generating new technologies because chances of adoption of new technologies increases manifold if new agricultural technologies are as per the needs of the farming community. So, sincere efforts should be done to incorporate farmers’ point of view before planning any research or extension programme. Such efforts can boost the adoption of agricultural technologies at the field level.
(The authors are from Division of Agricultural
Extension Education, SKUAST-Jammu)
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