Assessment of Knowledge and Adoption of Horticultural Crops Under MIDH for Sustainable Crop Production in Haryana

Pages: 192-196
Baskaur, Vinod Kumari, Rashmi Tyagi, Manisha, and Sahil Boora (Department of Sociology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana)

Sustainable horticulture farming is now an unavoidable necessity for environmental rehabilitation and food security. Horticultural crops constitute a significant portion of the total agricultural produce in India. The government of India has proposed to double farmer’s income by the year 2022. Horticulture sector has emerged as an important source of income in Haryana and farmers have also started taking up horticulture crops as a separate viable economic activity. The present study was conducted in Fatehabad and Hisar districts of Haryana state. On the whole, 160 respondents were interviewed with the help of well-structured interview schedule. For assessing the knowledge and adoption of horticultural crops under MIDH for sustainable crop production, data were collected by personal interviews with the respondents at their home/ farm. It was found that more than one third of the respondents had partial knowledge about vegetable nursery raising method and subsidies for purchase of tractors and tillers. Two fifth of the respondent had no knowledge about cold storage capacity. It was found that 62.5 per cent of the respondents had fully adopted the fruits crops followed by 43.8 percent who had full adoption of vegetable crops. Only 37.4 percent respondents had partial adoption of vegetable crops. Not a single respondents had adoption of drone and crop scouting technology. Regarding the social impact of horticultural crops under MIDH four fifth majority of the respondents reported improvement in health and education. Regarding the economic impact three fourth percent of the respondents agreed that there was increase in income. Regarding the environmental overwhelming majority of the respondents agreed that degraded land can be utilized.