Impact Assessment of Front Line Demonstrations on Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) in Sub-mountainous Region of Punjab Kaur Satwinderjit1*, Saini Mandeep Kaur2, Aulakh Sarbjit Singh3, Chhina Ravinder Singh4 1Associate Professor 2Assistant Professor 3Associate Director 4Professor, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, PAU Regional Station, Gurdaspur, Punjab *Corresponding author email id: satwinderjitkaur@pau.edu
Abstract The main objective of frontline demonstrations is to demonstrate newly released crop production and protection technologies and its management practices at the farmers’ fields under different agro-climatic regions and farming situations. Realizing the importance of frontline demonstrations (FLDs) in transfer of Gobhi Sarson production technologies, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gurdaspur conducted FLDs at 26, 50 and 50 farmers’ fields in the district during 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017–18 on area of 10, 20 and 20 hectares (ha) respectively. The improved technologies were consisted of improved canola variety (GSC 7), balanced fertilizer application including use of sulphur, efficient weed and pest management. The results revealed that the demonstrations with recommended technology (FLDs) produced an average 17.6, 20.3 and 20.4 q/ha seed yields of Gobhi Sarson during 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017–18 respectively which are 12.9, 12.0 and 16.3 per cent more than the existing farmers’ practice (FP) yield during the three years of study. Execution of FLDs resulted in decrease of technology gap from 4.65 to 1.85 q/ha from the year 2015–16 to 2017–18. The increase in profitability of Gobhi Sarson in terms of average gross (Rs. 71924/ha) and net returns (Rs. 51793/ha) was also recorded in comparison to FP. Higher net returns with higher B:C ratio (3.58:1) obtained after conducting FLD shows positive impact of FLD on adoption of demonstrated technologies. Data also indicated that majority (91.3%) of the respondents had adopted canola varieties. The important package of practices where more increase in adoption was found were use of high yielding canola varieties (61.1%), use of recommended fertilizer dose (55.6%), timely irrigation (54.8%) and use of proper seed rate (26.2%). The study proved the positive impact of FLDs on adoption of improved production technologies and production potential of oilseed crops. Top Keywords Adoption, Extension gap, Front line demonstration, Gobhi Sarson, Impact, Technological gap, Technological index. Top |