International Journal of Farm Sciences

The production of good quality seedlings is very much essential for getting higher yield and quality of vegetable crops. Vegetable growers frequently face problems associated with raising seedlings in a standard nursery beds for off-season vegetable production during monsoon. Huge losses in income of farm women have been assessed due to high mortality of vegetable seedlings. Keeping these factors in view the frontline demonstrations were conducted by JNKVV Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Mandla, Madhya Pradesh. The study was conducted during Kharif 2013 and Kharif 2014 at three locations in two adopted villages. The results revealed that farm women had good knowledge of marketing nursery locally but there was a vast gap in the knowledge of preparation of nursery beds (82.4%) and field preparation (77.6%). The total seedling production under recommended practices was 1790/5 sqm in comparison to 1260/5 sqm in farmers’ practices. The gross and net returns and cost-benefit ratio under recommended practices were Rs 8950 and Rs 7040 and 3.68 as compared to Rs 5040 and Rs 3280 and 1.86 under farmers'practices respectively.