Knowledge level and extent of adoption of recommended production technologies of wheat crop under front line demonstration by KVKs in Jammu and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is the key institute for the holistic development of village community by adopting proper agricultural and allied practices towards sustainability. In order to increase the productivity of crops per unit area and get the feedback of farmers on the performance of new varieties and technologies, the Front Line Demonstration (FLDs) programmers’ was designed and launched. The main objective of front line demonstration is to demonstrate newly released crop production and protection technologies and management practices at the farmers’ fields under different agro- climatic regions and farming situations. Frontline demonstrations were carried out in a systematic and scientific manner on farmer's field to show the worth of a new variety and convincing farming community about potentialities of improved production management technologies of wheat for further adoption. Thus a study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge level and extent of adoption of recommended production technologies in wheat crop with the help of structured interview. Based on random number sampling total sample of 80 respondents (40 beneficiaries and 40 non-beneficiaries) were interviewed using a structured interview schedule. In case of wheat 50 per cent of beneficiaries possessed medium level of knowledge about various practices of wheat while 67.5 per cent of non-beneficiaries possessed medium level of knowledge. The adoption of technologies both in case of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries follow knowledge, though high percent of farmers were aware about different wheat production practices but the adoption was lower than the knowledge in both cases. A significant difference was observed between the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries regarding adoption of recommended seed rate, seed treatment, fertilizer usage, insect-pest & disease management in wheat. The results of linear regression showed that in case of wheat only knowledge found to have significant effect on the adoption of practices.