Mechanization of Bt cotton production in northern India through front line demonstrations-Case study of directed technology diffusion

摘要

Field evaluation was carried out in 150 demonstrations occupying an area of 487.7 ha over a period of 5 years by following farmer's practice in comparison with improved and feasible mechanical practices focused on reduction in cultivation cost along with yield enhancement. Range of increase in seed cotton yield among the improved mechanical practices over farmer's practices was 11.0-16.1, 7.25-12.3, 5.9-9.8, 5.9-8.5, and 4.8-9.7 per cent for year 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively. Studiesrevealed that besides timely execution of field operations in limited time frame, introduced machinery proved beneficial as it saved not only money (US$19.8-34.3/ha) but also labor and energy as compared to its traditional counterpart leading to overallreduction in cultivation cost. As a result of this, additional returns by US$93.3-161.1 /ha over the farmer's practice were recorded owing to enhanced yield. Among demonstrated implements, aeroblast sprayer, cotton planter and rotavator exhibited the highest adoption index (>80%) in the concluding study year because of wide acceptability by farmers in cotton agro ecosystems.