Technological impact on production and income of pulses growers under Farmer FIRST Project in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh-A case study

The Farmer FIRST project on ‘Integrated approaches for food, nutrition and livelihood security of rural households in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh’ was implemented in three adopted villages viz., Karchalpur, Kharouli and Mirai of Devmai block during 2017–18. In these project villages, major problems faced by the farmers for cultivation of chickpea were susceptibility of local varieties to wilt, damage by pod borer and reduced productivity levels. Similarly, nonavailability of quality seed, incidence of YMV disease and lower productivity levels in case of both mungbean and urdbean were the major constraints faced by the farmers. To overcome these, wilt resistant chickpea ‘JG-16’ and YMV resistant mungbean ‘IPM 02–14’ and urdbean ‘IPU 02–43’ were provided to the farmers of these project villages. Further, insecticides (Indoxacarb in chickpea, Imidacloprid in mungbean and urdbean) and micronutrients (5G) were also supplemented to contain pests and enhance grain yield and profitability levels of these crops. Study showed that grain yield of chickpea ‘JG-16’ (2194 kg/ha) were 11 percent higher compared to that in local variety (1973 kg/ha), while in case of both mungbean ‘IPM 02–14’ and urdbean ‘IPU 02–43’ the increase in yield was 17 percent each. Application of micronutrients also led to increase in yield of chickpea (8%), mungbean (15%) and urdbean (18%). Similarly, application of insecticides also resulted in increased yield in chickpea (8%), mungbean (16%) and urdbean (21%). Further study on dummy variable regression model indicated a positive and significant impact of improved varieties, application of micronutrients & insecticides on the farmers’ income.