Impact of fld on knowledge level of farmers in relation to rapeseed and mustard production technology in K.V.K. system

The study was undertaken to know the knowledge level of farmers in relation to the rapeseed and mustard production technology as a result of FLD. The study was carried out in four Krishi Vigyan Kendras of Bihar located in the districts of Nalanda (Harnaut), Patna (Barh), Begusarai (Khodawandpur) and Muzaffarpur (Saraiya). A total number of 40 farmers constituted the sample respondents among with 20 were demonstrating and rest were non-demonstrating farmers. The findings suggested that the majority of the respondents in all the three cases that is demonstrating farmers, non-demonstrating farmers and total farmers, were having medium level of knowledge. The rational analysis showed that out of eight independent variables, as many as four variables namely education, cropping intensity, communicational behavior and innovation proneness were found to be significantly correlated with the knowledge in the case of demonstrating farmers. The path co-efficient values revealed that cropping intensity was the most influential factor and did explain variability on the level of knowledge to a statistically significant degree. The study concludes that Front Line Demonstration programme on rapeseed and mustard has been effective in increasing the knowledge of production technology related to this crop. The planners, administrators and extension functionaries need to pay more emphasis on FLD on rapeseed and mustard if the country has to fulfill the future oilseed demand.