1Ph. D. scholar, Deptt of Agricultural Communication, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar
Department of Agricultural Communication, College of Agriculture, G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 263 145, (Uttarakhand)
2Professor, Deptt of Agricultural Communication, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar
3Senior Research Fellow, Deptt of Agricultural Communication, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar
Innovations play an important role in increasing food production and optimizing resource utilization by farmers. Despite herculean extension efforts, there is still a wide gap between agricultural technologies developed at research institutions and their adoption by farmers. Often, innovations are rejected by the farmers after initial adoption due to several reasons. Hence, this study was undertaken to find out the reasons behind the discontinuance of agricultural innovations. The study was carried out in U.S. Nagar district of Uttarakhand. Five agricultural innovations viz. direct seeding of rice, application of bioagents, mushroom cultivation, polyhouse cultivation and nutritional gardening were selected for the study. For data collection, 89 farmers were interviewed by the researcher using a pretested schedule. The findings revealed that major reasons for discontinuance of agricultural innovations were non-availability of inputs (68.57%), lack of extension agency contact/support (51.42%), lack of interest (37.14%), engagement in other activities (28.57%), cumbersome operation & maintenance (28.57%) and lack of training (22.85%).
Adoption, Agricultural innovations, Discontinuance, Farmers, Reasons for discontinuance
