Analysis on Extent of Adoption of Recommended rabi Vegetable Cultivation Practices

A study was conducted on 150 vegetable growers in 5 villages namely pukhao, Waiton, Dolaithabi, Lam- boikhull, Tangkham, under Sawombung block of Imphal East district of Manipur randomly selected to identify the extent of adoption of rabi vegetable cultivation practices. Structured scheduled consisting14 items from different aspects of cultivation practices of cabbage and cauliflower were presented to the respondent The study re- veals that majority (46.7%) of the respondents had medium extent of adoption followed by high level of adoption (33.3%) and low (20%) level of extension . Vegetables comprises of a large number of plants, most- ly, annual of which different part like leaf, stem, flow- ers bud, flower, fruits, root, etc.are eaten. They are one of the cheapest sources of natural nutritive foods. Their consumption in sufficient quality provides taste, palatabil- ity and increase appetite for maintenance of good health and is beneficial in protecting against some degenerative diseases. They also play key role in neutralizing the acids produced during digestion of protienous and fatty foods.It has been estimated that 100g of tropical leafy vegetables can provide 60-140mg of ascorbic-acid (vitamin-C), 100µg of folic acid, 4-7mg iron and 200-400 mg of calcium. In Manipur, the total area under vegetable production is 7254 ha with a production of 55936 metric-tonnes. Though, few farmers grow rabi vegetable in some part of state, the production doesn't meet the requirement .The production of rabi crops in Manipur is insufficient mainly due to lack of giving suitable irrigation methods /practices of crops and vegetables are imported from other states. The present study was conducted with the following objec- tives :To study the adoption behavior and extent of adop- tion of rabi vegetable crops by the farmers of Imphal East district, Manipur". 2.Materials and Method The present study was conducted in Sawombung block of Imphal-East District of Manipur.There are three blocks in Imphal-east district namely Sawombung, Keirao- bi- tra and Jiribam. For the study, Sawombung block was selected purposively as majority of the population were cultivating vegetables and depends on agriculture for their livelihood.A sample size of 150 respondents were selected separately from five villages namely;Pukhao(36) ;Waiton(30); Dolaithabi(38); Lamboikhul(20); Tangkham(26); based on proportional random sampling method.The data were collected with the help of well-stuctured and pre- tested interview schedule. The extent of adoption of im- portant cultivation practices i,e. used of HYVseeds,seed treatment,seed rate,time of nursery raising,fertilizer used in nursery,age of seedling at transplanting,transplanting space and time,used of N,P,K,weeding,plant protection,irrigation were considered for the study. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1. Adoption behavior of rabi vegetable cultivation practices: The adoption behavior was measured with the help of structured schedule which was developed in consultation with experts. The schedule consisted 14 items from differ- ent aspects of cultivation practices of cabbage and cauli- flower presented in Table -1. To compute the adoption score of each practice and in case the adoption score of any practice exceed the corresponding weight, the weight- ed score of that practice was considered as maximum adoption score. The adoption behavior was calculated by using the following formula developed by Chattopadhyay (1963) The data presented in Table-2 reveals that majority (46.7%) of the respondents had medium extent of adoption fol- lowed by high level of adoption (33.3%) and low (20%) lev- el of extension. The medium level of adoption may be due to lack of complete knowledge and information about the recommended package of practices. The results is in agreement with the findings of Singh et. al (2006)