Adoption Behaviour of Farmers towards Improved Cultivation Practices of Soybean in Dimapur District of Nagaland, India

Abstract

Soybean is known as “golden bean”, “miracle crop” etc, because of its several uses, It is an excellent source of protein and oil. Soybean is considered an important crop because of its dual purpose that is oil seed as well as pulses crop. In Nagaland, soybean is cultivated almost in all the districts. The present study was carried out during the session 2021-22. The investigation was conducted in Kuhuboto block of Dimapur district of Nagaland. A total number of 120 respondents from 6 villages were selected using proportionate random sampling procedure. The study was conducted with the objectives to find out the characteristics of soybean growers, the extent of knowledge and ascertain the extent of adoption behavior of farmers towards improved cultivation practices of soybean and to delineate the constraints faced by the respondents and to obtain their suggestions. An interview schedule based on the study was prepared and data were collected and processed through primary and secondary tables and statistical analysis. The respondents were contacted personally and interviewed. The study revealed that majority of the soybean growers belonged to middle aged group, acquired Upper Primary school education, had medium level of annual income with small size of land holding. Majority of them had medium (10-20) years of farming experience, use of sources of information and medium level of extension contact. It was observed that the majority (70.84%) of the respondents had medium level of knowledge on improved cultivation practices of soybean followed by 13.33% having high and 15.83% having low knowledge level respectively. In respect of correlation analysis between knowledge level and the independent variables, it shows that annual income, land holding and extension contact had positive and found to be significant. Whereas, age, education, marital status, family type, family size, type of house, occupation, farming experience, mass media exposure and source of information was found to be non-significant. As for analysis between adoption level and the independent variables, it was revealed that variables like annual income, land holding and extension contact are significantly associated with adoption of soybean growers. Further, the variables age, education, marital status, type of family, family size, type of house, occupation, farming experience, mass media exposure and source of information was found to be non significant. The major constraints faced by the respondents were lack of proper resources and capital, high cost of inputs, lack of proper information at time, lack of consultancy, shortage of labors etc.