21.09.2015 Views

The Journal of Research ANGRAU

Contents of 41(1) 2013 - acharya ng ranga agricultural university

Contents of 41(1) 2013 - acharya ng ranga agricultural university

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

<strong>Research</strong> Notes<br />

J.Res. <strong>ANGRAU</strong> 41(1) 101-104, 2013<br />

A STUDY ON DIFFUSION STATUS OF SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI)<br />

IN ANDHRA PRADESH<br />

K. NIRMALA and R. VASANTHA<br />

Department <strong>of</strong> Agricultural Extension<br />

College <strong>of</strong> Agriculture, Rajendranagar, <strong>ANGRAU</strong>, Hyderabad – 500 030<br />

Date <strong>of</strong> Receipt : 14.06.2012 Date <strong>of</strong> Acceptance : 27.09.2012<br />

Any efforts that successfully reduce the<br />

water allocation for rice even by 20 to 30 per cent<br />

will help in averting both the food and water crises<br />

as farmers can continue to grow more rice with less<br />

water.<br />

Frequent drought over the past 10 years has<br />

left the rice farmers <strong>of</strong> Andhra Pradesh in doldrums.<br />

Andhra Pradesh experienced severe drought in 1999-<br />

2000, characterized by water shortages, falling<br />

groundwater levels and increased risk <strong>of</strong><br />

contamination <strong>of</strong> surface water. Drought, followed by<br />

low rainfall (534 mm annual rainfall) in the south-west<br />

and north-east monsoons during 1999 was<br />

exacerbated by groundwater extraction. Agricultural<br />

production was seriously reduced in kharif 1999.<br />

<strong>The</strong>reafter, the thrust for conservative water-usage<br />

became the major concern for scientists and farmers.<br />

Depleted water resources, stagnated rice productivity,<br />

the growing importance <strong>of</strong> organic agriculture,<br />

increased production costs and the need for better<br />

utilization <strong>of</strong> family labour among small and marginal<br />

farmers, calls for a shift in cultivation practices. <strong>The</strong><br />

System <strong>of</strong> Rice Intensification (SRI) <strong>of</strong>fers a way to<br />

not only reduce the demand for water while growing<br />

irrigated rice, but also <strong>of</strong> simultaneously increasing<br />

rice production. SRI was introduced in Andhra<br />

Pradesh in kharif 2003 in all 22 districts <strong>of</strong> the state<br />

by Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University<br />

(<strong>ANGRAU</strong>). Since 2003, <strong>ANGRAU</strong> and State<br />

Department <strong>of</strong> Agriculture has taken several initiatives<br />

to promote SRI in Andhra Pradesh (www. sriindia.net,2009).<br />

Today, India has one <strong>of</strong> the largest numbers<br />

<strong>of</strong> SRI farmers in the world. Official record indicates<br />

that SRI diffused first to Tamil Nadu State, followed<br />

by Andhra Pradesh (Prasad, 2006). Though Andhra<br />

Pradesh was the first to start large scale promotion<br />

<strong>of</strong> SRI, but no substantial area could be covered<br />

during the last few years. Even after 9-10 years <strong>of</strong><br />

introduction <strong>of</strong> SRI technology among farmers <strong>of</strong><br />

Andhra Pradesh, the pace <strong>of</strong> spread <strong>of</strong> technology is<br />

not rapid.<br />

Hence the present study was conceived to<br />

know the status <strong>of</strong> SRI in terms <strong>of</strong> diffusion and<br />

adoption across the selected villages and mandals<br />

<strong>of</strong> Mahaboobnagar district.<br />

<strong>The</strong> present study was conducted in<br />

Mahaboobnagar district as it has highest cultivated<br />

area under SRI during 2008-09. Ex-post facto research<br />

design was followed. A sample <strong>of</strong> 120 SRI cultivating<br />

farmers from 12 villages <strong>of</strong> four mandals <strong>of</strong> the<br />

district was selected randomly. Measurement <strong>of</strong><br />

diffusion status was done under three dimensions<br />

i.e, Diffusion Status, spread <strong>of</strong> SRI in selected<br />

villages (secondary data) and adopter categories.<br />

Diffusion status <strong>of</strong> System <strong>of</strong> Rice<br />

Intensification was operationalised as the extent <strong>of</strong><br />

spread <strong>of</strong> SRI technology among the farmers from<br />

2006-07 to 2010-11. Diffusion status was measured<br />

with the help <strong>of</strong> developed schedule comprising <strong>of</strong><br />

various items that are pretested. <strong>The</strong> score obtained<br />

by a respondent on all items <strong>of</strong> diffusion status were<br />

added to get total score. Based on total scores<br />

obtained, respondents were grouped into 3 categories<br />

<strong>of</strong> low, medium and high according to equal class<br />

interval method.<br />

<strong>The</strong> second dimension i.e. spread <strong>of</strong> SRI in<br />

selected villages was studied in terms <strong>of</strong> number <strong>of</strong><br />

farmers adopting and number <strong>of</strong> acres. Year - wise<br />

data was collected starting from 2006-07 to 2010-<br />

2011 (5 years) from secondary sources such as<br />

Department <strong>of</strong> Agriculture and NGOs.<br />

<strong>The</strong> third dimension i.e. adopter categories<br />

was studied by categorizing adopters into five<br />

categories based on the criteria <strong>of</strong> innovativeness or<br />

email: drankamarajug@yahoo.com<br />

106

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!