Productivity enhancement in green gram through frontline demonstrations in Erode district of Tamil Nadu

Green gram (Vigna radiata L) is one of the most important pulse crops cultivated in Erode district of Tamil Nadu. However the productivityof green gramin the district is quite low. Attempts were made to improve the productivity and to increase the area under the crop by adopting integrated crop management practices. The integrated crop management practices comprised introduction of high yielding variety, seed treatment, integrated nutrient and plant protection measures. The results showed higher grain yield of 689 kg/ha compared to 574.5 kg/ha in farmers’ practice with an yield advantage of 19.9 per cent over the farmers’ practice. The average extension gap, technology gap and technology index were 114 kg/ha, 162 kg/ha and 19.03 per cent respectively. The integrated crop management practices gave higher benefit-cost ratio of 2.2 compared to farmers’ practice. Considering the above facts FLDs were carried out in a systematic and scientific manner on farmers’ fields to show the worth of new variety and the potentialities of improved production management technologies in green gram for further adoption.