Enhancement of Rural Livelihoods Through Cluster Front Line Demonstrations on Pigeonpea Variety (Amaravati) in Ananthapuramu District of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Background: Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) is the predominant pulse crop growing in the Ananthapuram district during kharif season with a normal area of 53994 ha. The production and productivity of pigeon pea is low due to most farmers were using long-duration variety of pigeon pea (LRG-41), which faces terminal drought, leading to lower yields in the district and constant efforts were made to increase production by interventions of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, reddipalli of Ananthapuram. Moreover, the study area falls under arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. Methods: Krishi Vigyan Kendra has conducted cluster frontline demonstrations (CFLD) in pigeonpea from 2017-18 to 2019-20 in a total of 160 ha to assess the performance of enhanced, high yielding and wilt resistant pigeon pea variety i.e., LRG-52 along with integrated crop management practices in KVK espoused villages in Ananthapuramu district. Result: The upshots divulged that the demonstrated variety was chronicled as high-pitched yields compared to farmers’ practices in the course of the study window and touched upon in 12.45, 47.62 and 11.73 per cent increase in harvest was during 2017-18 to 2019-20 respectively. The demonstrated yield was 596 kg/ha, 124 kg/ha and 581 kg/ha compared to farmer’s practice of 530 kg/ha, 84 kg/ha and 523 kg/ha from 2017-18 to 2019-20 respectively. The technology gap, extension gap was recorded 904 kg/ha, 1376 kg/ha and 919 kg/ha, 66 kg/ha, 40 kg/ha and 61 kg/ha during 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively. The technology index was ranging from 60.2 to 91.7 during temporal variation from 2017-18 to 2019-20. It can be concluded that pigeon pea production can be enhanced by encouraging farmers through the adoption of medium duration, high yielding variety LRG-52, upgraded technologies and ensuring need-based inputs in due time.