Groundnut is an important oilseed crop in India which occupies first position in terms of area and second position in terms of production. The study was conducted in Banaskantha District of Gujarat state during 2018-19. The main focus of the investigation is on adoption of plant protection measures in groundnut crop by the farmers of Banaskantha district. The district was selected purposively as the area of groundnut is increasing day by day. Three talukas viz., Deesa, Lakhani and Dantiwada having higher area under groundnut cultivation were selected purposively (Anonymous 2018). Five villages were selected randomly from the list of groundnuts growing villages of each taluka. Ten groundnut growers were selected, randomly from each selected village. Thus, the final sample was 150 groundnut growers. Ex-post facto research design was used for the study. The data were collected by personal contact method with help of structured interview schedule and data were coded, classified, tabulated and analysed in the light of objectives. Ten independent and one dependent variable were selected for study. The independent variables viz., education, land holding, annual income, extension participation, source of information, and scientific orientation were positively and highly significantly associated with extent of adoption about plant protection measures. Risk orientation had positive and significant association with extent of adoption about plant protection measures. The remaining variables namely age and family size had negative and non-significant correlation, while social participation had positive and non-significant correlation with the extent of adoption about plant protection measures.

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. In India, oilseed crops constitute the second largest agriculture produce next to food grains. Castor is an important cash crop for farmer as well as for country too as it fetches valuable foreign exchange by export of seeds, oil and derivatives to all over the world. The present study was conducted in Patan District of Gujarat State. Among the nine talukas of Patan district, only Patan, Saraswati and Harij this three talukas of Patan district were selected purposively for the reason having highest area under castor cultivation as compared to other talukas of the district. The multi-stage sampling (three stage) technique was used for selection of talukas, villages and respondents. Ex-post facto research design was used for this study. The study was conducted to know the technological gap of castor growers of Patan district. Technological gap has been defined as the proportion of gap in the adoption of castor production technology and it is expressed in percentage. In the present study technological gap was operationalized on the division in adoption of castor production technology by the castor growers and expressed in percentage. revealed that the high technological gap was observed in plant protection measures 75.40 per cent followed by seed treatment 71.00 per cent, weed control 68.75 per cent, FYM 64.00 per cent, crop rotation 58.35 per cent, chemical fertilizer 51.77 per cent, sowing time 45.10 per cent, spacing 40.67 per cent, seed rate 36.00 per cent, recommended variety 30.33 per cent, harvesting 27.85 per cent, interculturing 21.90 per cent and irrigation schedule 16.00 per cent, which were ranked as first to thirteen, respectively.