TY - BOOK AU - Noobiya Basheer AU - Allan Thomas (Guide) TI - Technology utilisation of bittergourd in Thiruvananthaapuram district U1 - 630.71 PY - 2016/// CY - Vellayani PB - Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture KW - Department of Agricultural Extension N1 - MSc N2 - The study entitled ‘Technology utilisation of bittergourd in Thiruvananthapuram district’ conducted in Thiruvananthapuram involved 90 bittergourd farmers, with 30 each from Kalliyoor, Manickal and Vembayam Panchayats, during the period, 2015-2016. The study was done to determine the levels of adoption of varieties cum the selected KAU production technologies, factors associated with the adoption of the agricultural technologies, its relation with level of adoption and constraints experienced by the bittergourd growing farmers with suggestions for refinement. Twelve independent variables, namely, age, education, occupation, farm size, area under bittergourd cultivation, annual income, farming experience, irrigation potential, extension orientation, innovativeness, market orientation and economic motivation were selected through judges rating. Along with the selected variables, two additional variables like extent of awareness and knowledge were also included purposively. The level of adoption was the dependent variable. Sixteen recommended practices in bittergourd were selected consulting the subject matter specialists. Knowledge level was high for 20.00 per cent of farmers, medium for 58.89 per cent of farmers and low for 21.11 per cent of farmers. Perceived effectiveness was high for practices like cue lure trap and weeding and raking at the time of fertilizer application where 76.67 per cent of farmers reported it as ‘very effective’. Eighty two percent of the farmers reported that cue lure trap was ‘very useful’ followed by 78 per cent for weeding and raking at the time of fertilizer application. Technology assessment revealed that 65.55 per cent of farmers belonged to medium category of adoption, followed by 17.78 per cent with low adoption level and 16.67 per cent with high adoption level. In the case of recommended varieties,adoption was higher for the variety Preethi (71.11 %) followed by Priyanka (18.89 %). Farmer respondents were categorized to different adopter categories as explained by Rogers (1982). According to the findings major portion of farmer respondents were late majority (42.22 %) followed by early majority (25.56 %) and about 2.22 per cent of the farmers were innovators. The main factors of influences on technology adoption of recommended practices were farm size, extension orientation, annual income, market orientation, irrigation potential, innovativeness, knowledge and awareness at 1% significance followed by education, economic motivation and farming experience at 5% significance. Technology needs assessment as perceived by bittergourd farmers revealed that maximum need was observed for value addition technologies. The major reason for non adoption as perceived by the non adopters was ‘lack of awareness’. The major constraint experienced by the farmers was incidence of pests and diseases. The primary suggestion for refinement was follow up and support by extension agents on adoption of recommended practices UR - http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810032214 ER -