Constraints faced by soybean growers of Mandsaur district in Malwa plateau of Madhya Pradesh

Soybean is one of the most important oilseed crops of Madhya Pradesh where it is grown on an area of 4.25 million ha with annual production of 4.50 million tonnes. Its cultivation is predominantly done in Mandsaur district. The production constraints which are being faced by farmers in this area have been analyzed though personal survey. The major constraints taken in to account were technological, socioeconomic and agro-ecological which limit the adoption of modern package of practices of its cultivation ultimately leading to low productivity of the crop. The main constraints faced by most of the farmers were incidence of insect pests and diseases on plants (98.28%), non-availability of quality seed material (96.30%), non-availability of sulphur based phosphate fertilizers for balanced nutrition (95.17%) and non-availability of appropriate plant protection chemicals (90.74%) which ultimately lead to low production. There is an urgent need to address the problems of insect pests and diseases through extension and development work network in the state so that the barriers in adoption of improved package of practices by the farmers could be checked.