Determinants of Farmers’ Training Needs in Agri-horti Farming System: A Study of J&K State

Fruits occupy a premier position in the country's economy by virtue of their nutritional values and high yields per unit area. To build a viable and sustainable fruit sector, country needs to take a holistic view of the supply chain from seed to table, improving production and distribution practices. Agri-horti system of farming offers new avenues of commercial agriculture for small fruit growers. The tailored human resource development activities to convert available human resources into functionally more useful, professionally more purposeful, better equipped and more relevant can only be planned if they are conceptualized on proper data. The study conducted in Doda district of J&K state shows that the farmers were economically motivated and moderately innovative. The level of adoption of package of practices of field crops as well as horticultural crops was moderate by majority of the farmers. Most of the respondents reported high level of training needs with slight variation. The variables like family occupation, land holding, economic motivation, innovative proneness and information sources utilization were positively and significantly associated with training needs of respondents. The farmers preferences regarding training programme organisation were also sought which need to taken into consideration while planning and implementation of human resource development activities.