Abstract

To increase the cotton area, production and productivity, India has introduced various development programmes in cotton over the period. But the production and productivity are in stagnation stage only. It may be due to lack of knowledge, skill and adoption behaviour among the farmers. To increase the above three domains the present study on developing extension education module for sustainable cotton cultivation in India was carried out to fulfill the national goal. The Study was conducted at Salem district of Tamil Nadu with sampling size of 216 respondents. Multiple randomized group design was used in this experimental study. Three extension education modules were tested among the selected respondents by using various combinations of extension methods. Well-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used for evaluating knowledge gain, skill related to knowledge gain and symbolic adoption behaviour of the farmers. It was found that lecture assisted with slide show + demonstration + discussion forum were effective in terms of imparting knowledge, knowledge related to skill, and adoption behaviour in cotton cultivation. Finally developed extension education module cultivation was proposed to the farming community for achieving sustainable cotton cultivation in India.

Keywords: Knowledge gain, Knowledge gain related to skill, Symbolic adoption behaviour, Cotton cultivation.