Knowledge of extension personnel and farmers regarding the effect of open burning in paddy and wheat cropping system

In the state of Punjab, majority of the rice straw is presently disposed by open burning during the months of October to November. The release of various pollutants from the open burning of straw affects the health of humans, animals and deteriorates the quality of the environment. Although there are several potential uses of the straw, farmers still practice straw burning. The present study involved 210 respondents of which, 150 extension personnel (ADOs) were selected randomly from the state and 60 farmers were selected randomly from three agro climatic zones. The knowledge of the respondents was evaluated with the help of a knowledge test regarding various paddy and wheat straw management alternatives and effect of open agricultural burning. The study revealed that 78.00 per cent of the extension personnel and 81.67 per cent of the farmer respondents had medium level of knowledge regarding the economic effect of paddy straw, 59.33 and 64.67 per cent of the extension personnel had high knowledge while 75.00 and 63.33 per cent of the farmer respondents had medium level knowledge regarding environmental effect and pictorial identification for paddy wheat straw management respectively. The overall analysis showed that 63.33 per cent of the extension personnel and 70.00 per cent of the farmer respondents had medium level of knowledge. The variables like education, service experience, extension contact, mass media and economic motivation showed a positive and highly significant correlation with knowledge while age of the farmer respondents was negatively and significantly correlated with knowledge.