Pulses are major sources of proteins among the vegetarians in India, and complement the staple cereals in the diets with proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Pulses maintain soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in soil and thus play a vital role in furthering sustainable agriculture. Madhya Pradesh being the major pulse growing state in India, has a lot to contribute towards increasing pulse production and productivity in the country. The average productivity of pulses in the states is far below the average productivity of the country as well as global productivity. To boost the production and productivity of pulse crops, krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sagar are conducting front line demonstration (FLD) on pulse crops. The main objectives of FLD's on pulses is to demonstrate and popularize the improved package of practices on farmers ’fields for effective transfer of generated technology and fill the gap between recommended technology and traditional farming practices. Front line demonstrations were studied in pigeon pea (201112 to 2012–13) and urd (2010–11, 2012–12) during kharif season and in chickpea (2008–09, 2012–13), and lentil (2009–10, 2011–12 to 2012–13) during rabi season in Sagar district of Vindhyan Pleatue agro-climatic zone of Madhya Pradesh. There was a wide yield gap between the potential and demonstration yields in all the pulse crops due to technology and extension gaps. Increase in yield in demonstration plots due to adoption of improved package of practices ranged between 10.00 to 35.16 per cent with a mean per cent increase of 19.52 per cent as compared to traditional farming practices. On an average technology gap of different pulse crops under front line demonstration programme was 6.50q/ha while its range varied from 3.25 to 8.84q/ha. Extension gap of different pulse crops range was 0.5 to 3.20 q/ha with an average of 1.67 q/ha and technology index was varied from 20.05 to 60.71 per cent with on an average of 39.59 per cent. The wide variation in the technology gap and in index percentage were found due to variation in agro-climatic parameters, soil fertility, biotic stresses, socio-economic and management practices. This variation can be narrowed down only to motivate the farmers to adopt economical viable technologies for increasing production, productivity and profitability of pulse crops.
Extension gap, pulses varieties, technological intervention, technology gap
