Yield Gap Analysis of Kharif Groundnut Cultivation Through Front Line Demonstration in Plateau Ecosystem

This study was undertaken in

India has the fourth largest edible oil economy of the world after United States, China and Brazil. The per capita consumption of edible oil of every Indian was 14.5 kg per annum  which was double than that of early nineties. During 2009-10 India imported about 8 million tonnes of edible oil worth 25000 crores. Though India's status in oilseed production has been increased after the launch of Technology Mission on Oilseeds in 1986, yet the productivity as a whole could not be able to meet the growing demand (Hegde, 2010).
Groundnut, mustard, sesamum, niger, sunflower, safflower, linseed are the major oilseed crops cultivated in Orissa. Groundnut, as the principal oilseed crop, contributes 1.41% of net cultivated area of the state, i.e. 83 thousand ha  with an average yield of 11.56q ha -1 (Anonymous, 2008-09). It is cultivated in kharif and post rabi seasons of the year. Lack of assured irrigation facility in uplands has influenced the adoption of kharif groundnut cultivation in plateau eco-system. Deogarh district, present in North Western plateau agro-climatic zone of Orissa (21 0 31' 53'' N and 84 0 43' 2'' E) has 33% of cultivated area irrigated. 1060 ha of the district is covered by kharif groundnut whereas only 320 ha during rabi season . The majority of the kharif groundnut growers belong to the class of 83% of farming community that are under small and marginal category. With the paucity of resources and lack of awareness on improved cropping practices among them, the farmers' productivity is below than the recommended practices which are popularised through frontline demonstrations. Keeping this in view, the present study was under taken with an *Corresponding author email: nathsk@rediffmail.com objective of investigating the yield gap in kharif groundnut production technology.

Materials and Methods
The study was conducted in the kharif FLD (oilseed) groundnut programme of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Deogarh from the consecutive years of 2007-08 to 2010-11 in the low elevation, high rainfall plateau agro-ecological situation. The programme was taken in Balirui, Asatnali, Akshyarasila and Aksyarapat villages of Deogarh district. During these four years, the FLD programmes were conducted for fifty farmers in twenty hactares of land. For conducting the FLD programme, one pre-FLD training on scientific groundnut cultivation mentioning the critical inputs and interventions to be taken, was organised by the KVK. The soil of the study area was acidic, sandy loam with a pH range of 5.4 to 6.2. Various parameters related to crop growth and yield were recorded from both the farmers practice (FP) and demonstrated recommended practice (RP). Yield, cost of cultivation, gross return and net return of individual farmers were recorded and yield gap and BC ratio were calculated. Sustainability index (SI) was worked out (Singh et al., 1990) as follows: Where Ymean = mean seed yield (q/ha) over the years Ymax = maximum seed yield (q/ha) recorded in the years of study SD = standard deviation SI = Sustainability index expressed in percentage and the values less than 33per cent indicates technology is not promising; from 33% to 66% indicates moderately sustainable; 66% and above indicates the technology is highly promising, sustainable and recommended for adoption.

Results and Discussion
The Front Line Demonstration on kharif groundnut cultivation has the objective to increase the productivity of the crop by critical interventions. The basic differences between the package of practices of kharif groundnut cultivation of the FLD and farmers practice are enumerated below in Table 1.
From Table 1 it can be summarised that the differences in management practices followed in groundnut cultivation makes the difference in yield reported in Table 2. From Table 2 it is observed that the demonstration yield was 9.6q ha -1 (2007-08) which was 23% more than the control (7.8q ha -1 ). The highest yield was recorded during 2009-10 i.e. promising and more sustainable in its yield in the prevailing climatic condition. It can be found that the yield of the control plot also increased from 7.8q ha - Table 3 indicates the economic analysis in FLD plots in comparison to control plots .The average the prices of the prevailing period. cost of production and returns were calculated on The above Rs 17600/ha during 2010-11 in FLD plots. The same trend was also observed in the average gross return and average net return. The average net return found increased 2.24 times from 2007-08 to 2010-11. The average gross return during kharif 2010-11 was Rs 37750 ha -1 in the FLD plots which was Rs11000 ha -1 more than the farmers' practice. The BC ratio during 2007-08 in FLD plots was 1.6 in comparison to 1.2 in control. It was increased to 2.14 and 1.76 respectively during 2010-11. Thus it may be concluded that adoption of scientific recommended practices in kharif groundnut cultivation has increased the pod yield. Further it may be noted that the profit in kharif groundnut cultivation has also been increased during the study period.
Perception of farmers about the factors attributing the higher yield of kharif groundnut was collected and mentioned in Table 4.  Table 4 it can be concluded that farmers perceived the introduction of variety TAG-24 was instrumental in increasing the yield in the demonstration over their local variety AK 12-24.They perceived time of sowing also plays a major role for promotion of productivity. It secured second rank among the factors attributing yield. Time of interculture secured third highest mean score followed by plant density and weed management in the rank analysis. Application of gypsum during interculture, RDF and application of PMS contributed approximately equally to the yield according to farmers' perception. It was found from the discussion that incidence of the major disease, tikka in AK 12-24 found absent in TAG-24 variety. It secured the ninth position among the eleven factors. It is observed from the above table that seed treatment and rhizobium inoculation still came last in the farmers' perception about higher yield in kharif groundnut. This conclusion resembles the previous studies of Singh and Satpathy (1994) who had reported that farmers in general appear to possess very little knowledge about the Rhizobium culture.
From the above study it was found out that intervention in FLD kharif groundnut programme has been fruitful in increasing the yield and BC ratio. Adoption of scientific practices can reduce the yield gap. The yield gap can also be termed as extension gap as extension agencies of the district like the agriculture department and Krishi Vigyan Kendra can play a pivotal role in bridging this gap.