Knowledge and adoption of improved grape cultivation practices in Haryana, India

Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is a temperate fruit crop and also cultivated under tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. India is fast emerging as one of the major grape growing countries in the world. The grape is one of the important fruit crops of Haryana. It occupies an area of 1157 ha. An investigation was carried out in Hisar district of Haryana on the knowledge and adoption of improved cultivation practices. Hisar district was selected purposively because it has maximum production and area under grape cultivation in Haryana. Hisar district consisted of six blocks and from among them, four blocks were selected. A sample of 100 farmers was selected proportionate to the area and production of these four blocks by using proportionate random sampling technique. A well structured interview schedule was used for data collection and collected data were analyzed by using appropriate statistical tools. Study revealed that majority of the respondents were having moderate level of knowledge about recommended/improved practices of grape cultivation. Among the different grape cultivation practices, respondents possessed highest knowledge about selection of site and cultivar. It was also found that a maximum number of respondents belonged to medium adopters category. Adoption level of grape growers increased with the increase in their education, land holding, socio-economic status, source of information and risk orientation.