Evaluation of impact of rallis crop advisory centre on farm yield and farmers’ income in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh

A survey was conducted in 5 villages of Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh where Rallis Crop Advisory Centre has its strong presence. RCAC provides advice to farmers/visitors on crop package of practices, pest incidence and control measures and product usages through crop seminars, scheduled field visits, meetings at advisory centres, etc. Reduction in cost and increase in yield in chilli crop were the two parameters which were studied in order to evaluate the impact on farmers’ income. Since RCAC provides crop advisory services to farmers on soil testing, seed, fertilizer and pesticide to be used, costs involved particularly under these four heads were collected. The results indicated a difference in seed cost of Rs.300 between user-farmers (Rs.2700) and non-user-farmers (Rs.3000). Similarly, the difference in fertilizer cost between userfarmers (Rs.11990) and non-user-farmers (Rs.16560) was Rs.4570; Pesticide cost difference between userfarmers (Rs.14630) and non-user-farmers (19604) was Rs.4974. An extra cost of Rs.50 was also incurred by user-farmers towards soil testing. So the total reduction in expenditure on agri inputs for the RCAC userfarmers was Rs.9794. the difference in yield per acre of user-farmer (27.3 Q) and non-user farmers (25.2 Q) was found to be 2.1 quintals. The added returns worked out for the RCAC user-farmers were found to be Rs.20294 per acre. The evaluation clearly indicated that there is substantial impact of RCAC activities in improving the income levels of the farmers.