On-farm assessment of technological innovations of jute

摘要

Jute (Corchorus olitorius) is an important commercial crop next to cotton in India. Jute production plays an important role in supplementing the income of the small and marginal farmers particularly of West Bengal. There is wide gap in fibre yield ofjute between national productivity, demonstration yield and research results. It urges to reduce the productivity gap with suitable production technology to expedite the farmers' income. In this regard, Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibre (CRIJAF) conducted frontline demonstrations on 131 farmers' field during the year 2005-06 at eight villages viz., Devok, Koirapur, Masunda, Isumrigacha, Geedha and Teghoria in North 24-Parganas district and Kamarkundu I & II (Bhola) of district Hooglyin southern part of West Bengal. Fibre yield of jute varieties namely, JRO-524, JRO 8432, JRO-66, JRO-128 and S-19 increased by 15.67, 9.84, 6.84, 6.39 and 6.27 respectively over the local check under demonstrations conducted with improved technologies.The highest technology gap were recorded from JRO-66 (11.90 q /ha), JRO-8432 (11.11 q /ha) and JRO-128 (10.02 q /ha). The extension gap was 4.12 q /ha for JRO-524, followed by JRO-8432 (2.59 q /ha). The technology index was lowest for JRO-524 (19.95%), closely followed by S-19 (22.36%). The yield increase for JRO-524E, which is energized seed of JRO-524, was by 10.61% over check. The extension gap for JRO-524E was 2.79 q /ha which was 23.45% as technology index. The results obtained suggest mat the variety JRO-524, S-19 and energized JRO-524 are best suited for South Bengal area. The results of the study further indicate that there is a need to adopt multi-pronged strategy to reduce the technology and extension gaps as described in this paper.