Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Different Tribes of Garo Hills districts of Meghalaya towards Scientific Horticulture

The study was conducted in tribal areas of Garo Hills, Meghalaya during 2013 to evaluate the knowledge attitude and practices of different tribal farmer community towards scientific horticulture. A total of 150 tribal respondents, 30 each from Rabha, Hajong, Koch, Banai and Garo tribal area were selected randomly. The selected respondents were interviewed with the help of a semi structured interview schedule. It was found that majority (48%) of the respondents have primary level of education. 83.3 per cent of the farmers cultivate in their own land except Banai tribe where almost 50 per cent of the respondents cultivate on leased land. 70.7 per cent of the respondents have annual income between Rs. 30,000/- to Rs. 60,000/- from main source. Eighty four per cent of the respondents have farming experience between 3–9 years and above 12 years. It was also revealed that 96 and 81.3 per cent of the respondents have land under vegetables cultivation and orchard is less than 0.4 ha, respectively. In the study area it was found that 49.3 per cent of the respondents have farming as primary occupation and majority (68%) of the respondents have poor level of knowledge and neutral attitude towards modern horticulture, respectively. It was also found that education, source of land and farming experience were negatively correlated with knowledge level which was mainly because with higher education, respondents loose interest in farming and their involvement in farming reduces and thus knowledge level in horticulture comes down. Results of the study revealed that knowledge, attitude and cultivation practices level were considerably low among almost all the tribes though it varied from one community to other living in a same geographical area.