MSc

The study entitled ‘Technology assessment on the production practices of economically dominant crops in homegardens’ conducted in Thiruvananthapuram district covered 100 homegardens with 20 each from 5 AEU’s during 2014-2015. Study identifies the economically dominant crops in homegardens, level of adoption of selected KAU production practices, technology needs or gaps and constraints perceived by homegarden farmers.
Coconut (1.59), banana (1.68), tapioca (2.94), pepper (3.33), vegetables (3.47), yams and colocasia (4.22) and arecanut (4.56) were identified as economically dominant crops. Production preferences of homegarden farmers revealed that perennial crops like coconut and pepper were preferred for their guaranteed market and cost effectiveness whereas annual crops like tapioca, colocasia and yams were preferred by farmers due to less management and profitable returns. Remunerativeness, nutrient recycling and resource utilization were the major criteria for preference of livestock along with crop components.
Thirteen independent variables viz., age, education, occupation, effective homegarden area, family size, farming experience, rational orientation, irrigation potential, knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media contribution, extension contribution and livestock possession were selected through judges rating. An additional five variables viz., soil health card possession, fencing, irrigation source, labour involved and type of irrigation were purposively included. Adoption of technology was significantly and directly influenced by the independent variables viz., age, farming experience, knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media contribution, livestock possession (at 1% sig.) and extension contribution (at 5% sig).
Technology assessment revealed that 63 per cent of homegarden farmers belonged to medium category of adoption. An attempt was made to categorise the homegarden respondents to different adopter categories as explained by Rogers (1982). The results showed that the major portion of respondents belonged to early adopters and early majority which is a clear indication that KAU production practices are adopted by the farmers. Though the number of innovators in the overall adoption curve was zero, the innovators in the adoption curve for the selected crops viz, coconut and banana where higher than the standard Rogers curve (Rogers, 1982).
ITK practices documented showed that the number of ITK practices were highest for vegetables followed by coconut, banana, tubers, livestock, poultry and spices as practiced by the homegarden farmers. Technology needs assessment as perceived by homegarden farmers revealed that maximum technology need was reported for drainage technology, homegarden suited machineries and soil amendment technology. The three major constraints experienced by farmers were high labour cost, non availability of labour and low price of product.