Knowledge and Adoption of Aonla Production Technology by Farmers

The Aonla (Emblica officinalis L.) one of the most important minor fruit and a crop of commercial significance, is quite hardy, prolific bearer and highly remunerative even without much care. It belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and is known as amla, amlaki, amali, ambala, amalakamu and nelli indifferent parts of India. The fruit is highly nutritive and it is the richest source of vitamin C. The fruits are made into preserves (murabba) souce, candy, dried, chips, tablets, jellies, pickle, tophies, powder etc. The stability of ascorbic acid and presence of astringency in Aonla fruit may be assigned to the presence of Polyphenols or levcoanthocyanins. Aonla can be grown in light as well as heavy soil except very sand one. However, well drained fertile loamy soil is the best. The plant have capacity for adoption to dry regions and can also grown in moderately saline and alkaline soil. It is most popular in Uttar Pradesh where itis largely cultivated in commercial orchard in Azamgarh, Pratapgarh, Varanasi, Bareilly and Raebareli districts. In view of its diverse uses, its cultivation is increasing fast and the tree in becoming popular with the Orchardists. A full grown grafted Aonla tree with good bearing habit yieldfrom 187 to 299 kg fruits per year. In Uttar Pradesh aonla cultivation is concentrated in Raebareli showed a yield of 1.8 qts from the 10 year old tree of Chakaiya and Banarsi varieties. The low yields might be due to lack of technical knowledge about technical know how and non adoption of aonlaproduction technology by farmers. To examine the knowledge and adoption of aonla production technology following two specific objectives were formulated. The study the knowledge possessed by the farmers aboutAonla production technology To study the adoption of aonla production technology by the farmers.