Factors Influencing the Extent of Technological Gap in Adoption of Scientific Practices of Tea Cultivation by Small Tea Growers of Assam

Abstract

The study was conducted in Sonitpur and Biswanath districts of Assam with 100 Small Tea Growers to identify the factors influencing the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by small tea growers. An analysis of the small tea production system is the quite important to the subject of development of the small tea growers as well as improving the productivity tea on small holdings. It was found that majority of the respondents (71.00%) had medium overall technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation followed by 17.00 per cent respondents with low overall technological gap. The findings also revealed that practice wise maximum average technological gap was found in adoption of Doses of YTD mixture (70.90%) followed by Size of planting pit and Number of ploughing and harrowing with average technological gap scores being 61.71% and 57.21% respectively. The findings of correlation analysis revealed that variables viz. area under tea, management orientation, risk bearing ability, decision making ability, scientific orientation, exposure to training, knowledge level on scientific practices of tea cultivation, family type, economic motivation and working capital availability for tea cultivation had negative and significant relationship with extent of technological gap. So, there is a need for extension agencies and other concerned departments to positively manipulate these crucial factors in order to bridge the technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by the small tea growers. The variables which were significantly correlated with the extent of technological gap in scientific practices of tea cultivation were further considered for multiple regression where the value of R 2 (0.5466) indicated that 10 independent variables could explain 54.66% of the variation in the extent of technological gap in adoption of scientific practices of tea cultivation by the small tea growers.

Development of a Test to Measure the Knowledge Level of Growers on Recommended Cultivation Practices of Major Vegetables

“…Similarly majority of farmers (61%) knew about the impact of global warming on sea level and 86% respondents had knowledge about the impact of climate change in arid ecosystem [1]. A study conducted on knowledge of small tea growers regarding scientific tea cultivation practices revealed that majority of respondents (72.00%) had medium level of knowledge, whereas 15.00 per cent and 13.00 per cent of growers had low and high level of knowledge about scientific tea cultivation practices, respectively [2]. Knowledge was considered to be one of the important components of behaviour playing an important role in the covert and overt behaviour of an individual [3].…”