Impact of frontline demonstrations (FLDs) on participatory seed production of rice among scheduled caste farmers of Bishnupur district, Manipur, India

One of the main reasons for low productivity of crops is unavailability of reliable quality seeds in the local markets. Use of quality seeds alone can enhance the crop productivity by 15–25 per cent. Considering the importance of quality seeds of rice, KVK, Bishnupur, Manipur conducted frontline demonstrations (FLDs) through participatory seed production of rice var RC-Maniphou-13 in kharif season at adopted farmers’ fields in Leimaram village, district Bishnupur, Manipur during 2017–18. The study was carried out to demonstrate the production and economic benefit of adopting improved technologies through line transplanting at 25 x 10 cm spacing in the fields of 20 adopted farmers’ fields covering an area of 10 ha. Impact assessment recorded higher yield as well as higher economic return as compared to the farmers’ local practices. The demonstration of technologies gave higher yield of 58 q/ha with 15.51 per cent increase in average yield over farmers’ local practices. The study also registered higher gross return, net return with higher benefit-cost ratio in the demonstration fields as compared to farmers’ local practices.