Training Needs of Farmers in Adoption of Groundnut Production Technologies in Ariyalur District of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Groundnut is called as the king of oil seed. It plays an important role in oil seed economy of India. Groundnut oil is mainly used as cooking purpose and also used for manufacturing soaps, cosmetics, shaving creams and lubricants. Groundnut was cultivated both as rainfed and irrigated crop. Increased productivity greatly depends on available technologies and extent of adoption by farmers. With poor productivity, the economy of major groundnut district of Tamil Nadu like Ariyalur has been shattered as evidences with debt ridden farmers and migrating agricultural labourers of the region. Even through considerable changes with regard to knowledge and skills among the groundnut farmers were brought by the scientists and extension personnel, still there is a wide gap to be filled in by effective training programmes. If the training programmes are need based, a definite improvement in the knowledge level of groundnut farmers would occur leading to increased productivity and there is a possibility to make the predominant small and marginal farming systems more sustainable. Keeping these in view, the research study was taken in Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu with the following objectives. Analyze the training needs of groundnut farmers on production technologies through the use of objective techniques. It would be of great use to find out the relationship between the selected independent variables and dependent variable. Identification of problems faced by groundnut farmers in adopting the recommended practices and their perceived solutions will be of immediate use in removing the existing deficiencies and to plan a sound future strategy of training the groundnut farmers. Proportionate random sampling procedure was applied to select 120 respondents from the district. The data were collected by using a well-structured interview schedule, and analyzed with statistical tools like percentage analysis, cumulative frequency method, and correlation and regression analysis. It could be observed that out of the eleven major subject areas, only four areas viz., ‘plant protection measures’, ‘fertilizer application’, ‘micronutrient application’ and ‘weed management’ were the most needed areas on which trainings were demanded. ‘Lack of suitable weed control measures’ was the fifth most important constraint expressed by (90.83 per cent) of the respondents in groundnut cultivation.