A Study on Yield Gap of Cotton Growers in Perambalur District

  • Dr. T. Kalidasan, B.Loganathan

Abstract

Cotton is one of the major Kharif crops grown under both irrigated and rain-fed conditions in India. Although India has the largest area under cotton the average productivity of Indian cotton is one of the lowest in the world much lower for the vast production area and this is a cause for concern  because  millions  of  people  depend  on  cotton cultivation for their economic wellbeing. More than 50 per cent of the cotton area is covered by cotton hybrids and the hybrids contribute about60 per cent to national production Conversely, about 60 per cent of cotton in India is cultivated under rain-fed conditions and this is regarded as one of the reasons for the low productivity recorded in the country. Cotton is very important to the Indian economy because it provides gainful employment for millions of people as well as source of foreign exchange for the country. Majority of the respondents (46.67 per cent) had medium level of yield gap followed by 40.83 per cent who had low level of yield gap and 12.50 per cent of the respondents with high level of yield gap of cotton cultivation technologies. Less adoption was found on the technologies viz., seed treatment, weed management, bio-fertilizer, topping, plant growth regulator and irrigation. Intensive extension efforts may be taken-up to increase the adoption of these technologies. The role of public extension system needs to be stressed upon for capacity building of farmers for optimum harnessing of the benefits of new generation technologies.In order to narrow down the yield gap among the cotton growers it is necessary on the part of extension agency to popularize all the cotton cultivation practices among the cotton growers and convince the farmers to adopt the cultivation practices.

Published
2019-11-07
Section
Articles