Cluster Frontline Demonstration: An Effective Communication Approach for Dissemination of Sustainable Soybean Production Technology

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is one of the most important oil seed crop cultivated in Madhya Pradesh which also has tremendous importance as a food legume. The production and productivity of soybean in the Khargone district is found to be low, therefore constant attempts are being made to improve the productivity and to increase the area under soybean by adopting high yielding variety along with improved cultivation practices. Present study was conducted in Khargone (West Nimar) district of Madhya Pradesh during the year 2017-18 to 2021-22. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Khargone conducted 225 Cluster frontline demonstrations on Soybean in 90 ha area under real farming situations in the farmer’s fields of six KVK’s adopted villages of district Khargone (M.P.). The objective was to transfer the technology to increase the productivity of Soybean through various types of interventions viz., Varietal, Seed treatment, Plant Protection, Bio-fertilizer, STV based Fertilizers application and IPM. High yielding variety of Soybean RVS 2001-04 and JS 2034 was given to the farmers and basal application of 25 kg N + 60 kg P₂O₅ + 40 kg K₂O + 20 kg S/ha in the form of DAP, MOP and Bentonite Sulphur @ 25 kg /ha as per demonstration were advised. The seed was treated before sowing with Carboxin 75% WP 2 g + Trichoderma 5 g/kg seed and Rhizobium 5g + PSB 5g/kg of seed as per recommendations to control seed infection. It was observed that in cluster front line demonstrations, the improved Soybean variety RVS 2001-04 and JS 2034 recorded an average yield of 1483, 1762, 1452, 1710 and 1704 kg/ha were much higher than as compared to average yield of farmers practices 1193, 1515, 1125, 1474 and 1385 kg/ha respectively during 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. The average percentage increased in the yield over farmer’s practices was 24.30, 16.30, 29.06, 16.01 and 23.03 for the year 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively. Technology gap was found 390 kg to 817 kg over the potential yield. The highest extension gap of 327 kg/ha was recorded in 2019-20 and the lowest was observed 236 kg/ha in 2020-21. From these results it is evident that the performance of improved variety was found better than the local check under same environment conditions. Farmers were motivated by results of agro-technologies applied in the CFLDs trials and it is expected that they would adopt these technologies in the coming years.