Exploring the relationship between socio-economic variables and adoption of guava cultivation practices under national horticulture mission in Haryana

Guava is a very popular fruit. It is available throughout the year. Being very hardy, it gives an assured crop even with very little care. The NHM programme has resulted in a few notable improvements in India, including the first time since independence that the GDP from the horticulture industry has surpassed the GDP from the agriculture sector. The present data were solicited from randomly selected 120 guava growers in Sirsa, Fatehabad, and Hisar districts of Haryana state during 2022-23. Forty respondents were selected randomly from each district. It was found that two-fifths of the respondents (42.50%) were from the age group of 36–50 years, and one-third of the farmers (30.00%) were educated up to secondary and senior secondary school. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents (62.50%) hailed from the nuclear family, with a majority of 62.50 per cent having a family size of up to 4 members. Regarding land holding, 33.33 per cent of the respondents had 5–10 acres, 39.17 per cent of the farmers had annual income above Rs. 300, 000, Half of the farmers (50.00%) were exposed to a medium level of mass media exposure, and 46.67 per cent of the farmers belonged to a high level of socio-economic status. Nearly three-fourths of the respondents (73.34%) had a medium level of adoption of guava cultivation under NHM, while 20.00 per cent had a high and 6.66 per cent had a low level of adoption. A significant association was found between education, size of land holding, annual income, extension contacts, and socio-economic status and levels of adoption of guava cultivation practices among respondents at a 0.5% level of significance.