Utilization Patterns of Sugarcane Production Technologies and Factors Affecting the Same Under Sugarcane Based Farming System in Indo-Gangetic Plains of India

Utilisation of technologies by the farming community is of utmost importance from economic wellbeing of farmers, the enterprise as well as environment point of views. However, the technology utilization may be affected by ‘their sources and access. Here an attempt has been made to investigate actual level of technology utilization at farmers’ level along with factors affecting the same. The study was conducted in purposively selected the state of Uttar Pradesh among the five states viz., Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India mainly as it has highest area under sugarcane and area wise was also the largest. The study was conducted in major sugarcane growing regions viz., Eastern, Central and Western U. P. and 3 regions, 3 districts, 6 tehsils, 12 villages and 240 farmers constituted the sample size. The data collection was done with the help of semi-structured interview schedule through personal interview and observation methods. Most of the farmers (40.00%) were of old age, had education up to high school (25.83%), medium family educational status (40.42%), maintained small families (42.50%), have joint families (57.42%), had medium level of social participation (51.25%), decisions were taken by the family head on the basis of economic factors (56.25%), average land holding was 1.78 ha, belonged to the marginal category (40.42%) of farmers, 49.17 per cent had low level of annual income (<Rs. 2.17 lakh), small herd size (59.58%) of less than 3.16 standard animal unit dominated by non-descript animals, medium mass media exposure (42.50%) and medium extension contact (41.25%). Sugarcane was found to be the major crop which covered 32.95 per cent of total cropped area with average yield of the 708.58 q ha^-1. It was observed that majority (43.33%) of the farmers could utilize technologies to medium extent with index value of 48.80-62.45. It was followed by the farmers (31.25%) who utilized the technologies to high extent with index value of greater than 62.45. It was observed that education of family head, family educational status, family size, income from sugarcane, income from other sources, extension contact and mass media exposure were found to be the major contributory factors in utilization of sugarcane production technology in Uttar Pradesh.