Impact of Front Line Demonstration on Muga Cocoon Yield at Farmers’ Level in Assam, India

Abstract

Front line demonstrations (FLD) of integrated technology package of muga culture were conducted at 10 adopted farmers’ fields each in Golaghat and Dibrugarh districts in Assam State (India) during 2014-15. To demonstrate the production and economic benefit of adopting improved technologies, 200 g disease free laying (dfls) was brushed during kotia commercial crop (Oct-Nov) in each of the 20 adopted farmers’ field. Impact assessment of FLD recorded higher yield as well as higher economic return as compared to the farmers’ traditional practices. The demonstration of technologies registered higher yield of 66.8 cocoons per dfl with 41.9 per cent improvement as against 47.5 cocoons per dfl under traditional practices. Study also registered very narrow technology gap in the demonstration yield i.e., 3.15 cocoons per dfl over the potential production. Extension gap of 19.5 cocoons per dfl is found to be wide but, mean technology index calculated only 4.5 per cent which prove the feasibility of technology packages at farmer’s field. The improved technology packages  also gave higher net return of Rs. 4855/-with higher benefit cost ratio 1.32 as compared to net return of Rs. 2045/- and benefit cost ratio 1.17 under traditional practice in 0.202 hectares of plantation. Findings of the present study in Golaghat and Dibrugarh districts of Assam indicated that FLD of integrated technology packages of muga culture have shown highly significant impact (P ≤ 0.05) on cocoon production in terms of average cocoon yield per dfl and total cocoon yield against the traditional practices adopted by the farmers. Similarly, the comparative economic analysis of FLD and traditional practices of both the districts have found highly significant (P ≤ 0.05) Net Return of FLD over that of traditional practices. The FLD of the integrated package is one of most effective tools for transfer of technology to enhance the productivity and hence, the integrated technology should be adopted in every potential pockets of muga culture for enhancing the productivity.