Indigenous practices in coconut farming in Thrissur district

Abstract

The study was carried out in Thrissur district of Kerala on the indigenous practices followed in coconut cultivation. The study aimed at identifying the indigenous practices, analyzing the knowledge about, extent of adoption and evaluation perception of these practices in coconut farming. The respondents consisted of 120 farmer respondents selected from three panchayats of the district, 30 extension personnal and 30 research personnal from the district. Sample selection was carried out using multistage sampling procedure. The dependent variables of the study were, the knowledge about and the extent of adoption of selected indigenous practices by farmers which were quantified using measurement devices developed for the study. The independent variables included the personnal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics of farmers. In total, 83 indigenous practices were identified out of which, ‘collection of seednuts in summer’ and ‘bringing down the nuts with the help of ropes or coir baskets’ were the most known practices, while, the least known was ‘crushed onion + salt application in basins’. ‘Green leaf manuring’ was the practice adopted by most of the farmers whereas, ‘wick irrigation using clay pot’ was the least adopted. Overall evaluate perception was medium for all the three categories of respondents. ‘Education’ was the single variable which showed a significant positive correlation with knowledge whereas, ‘exposure to information sources’ was the only one variable exhibiting a significant positive relationship with the extent of adoption of indigenous practices.