Assessment of Improved Practice Over Farmers' Practice of Rainfed Cotton Cultivation Under Semi-Arid Vertisolsin Tamil Nadu

摘要

Thirty one on-farm trials in cotton were conducted in farmers fields under rainfed conditions during 2004, 2005 and 2006 under semi-arid vertisols of Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi District in Tamil Nadu. The trials were conducted in 8 villages to assess the performance of improved practice in cotton compared to the farmers practice adopted in the region. The improved practice comprised of compartmental bunding, foliar spray of MgS04 @ 1 % solution, application of recommended N and P doses, bio-fertilizerapplication and ZnS04 @ 25 kg/ ha for rainfed cotton. A detailed assessment has been made in this paper about the status of soil fertility in farmers fields, yield and monetary returns obtained with improved and farmers practice in different years. A comparison of performance of the two practices under small, medium and large farmers' fields and also differences in their performance in different villages has also been made in the study. The mean differences in soil fertility and yield and monetary returns obtained by different categories of farmers, between different villages and years were tested for significance based on t-test. The villages in which the farmers have obtained yield and monetary returns, apart from maintaining soil fertility with inthe 95% confidence limits were identified. Based on the on-farm trials, the farmers of different villages in Kovilpatti were convinced about usefulness of improved technologies for attaining a higher yield and monetary returns. This has also motivated other farmers in the villages for a large scale adoption of the improved practice in cotton crop under semi-arid vertisols of Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi district.