An Expost-facto research was conducted to measure the knowledge and extent ofadoption of drip irrigation management practices among the plantation crop growers inShimoga and Davanagere districts of Karnataka during 2002-03. The data collected from 90drip irrigation farmers revealed that a moderate percentage of farmers were noticed in highknowledge level (28.89%) and high adoption (21.11%) of recommended managementpractices. In possessing the knowledge of individual management practices the majority offarmers had the complete knowledge about selecting suitable soil (94.44 %), conductingwater and soil test and deciding of crops (77.77%), interval of checking desirable quantity ofwater release through drippers (70.00%) and water saving (68.88%). Around fifty percent offarmers were knowing the purposes of drip irrigation (48.88%) and opening ends of lateralsat recommended interval (51.11%), whereas negligible per cent of farmers possessed theknowledge of all the required essential parts of drip system (2.22%) and types of drippers(1.11%). But none of the respondents possessed the complete knowledge of selectingsuitable crop for drip irrigation and ideal interval of cleaning drippers. Similarly, in adoption ofindividual management practices all the farmers were found to get repaired the essentialcomponents of the system regularly but the ideal interval of opening end cap and cleaningthe components was noticed with 30.00 and 25.55 per cent of farmers respectively. Theessential practices like land mapping, soil and water tests, preparing cropping pattern andmeasuring quantum of water availability were noticed with 21.11 percent of farmers, butnone of the respondents followed fertigation and stipulated time for irrigating the crop.
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