Pigeonpea is a major pulse crop in India. However, its productivity, which hovers around 700 kg ha -1 , has remained stagnant over the past several decades. Local landraces dominate the cultivation of pigeonpea in the country. A major reason for low productivity in pigeonpea is the non-availability of quality seed of improved varieties to farmers. In this paper, we share experiences of farmer-participatory pigeonpea seed production in Fatehpur and Kanpur Dehat districts in Uttar Pradesh in India. Through farmer-participatory varietal selection trials, farmers identified NA 1, long-duration pigeonpea variety and UPAS 120, short-duration variety, as their preferred choices. Long-duration variety NA 1 was preferred because of its disease resistance, higher yield, attractive seed size and color. Farmers were organized to form cooperative societies to undertake seed production, processing and marketing at the local level. Societies were also linked with the public sector seed producing agencies to participate in the formal seed production program. The C: B ratio of seed production of NA 1 variety was 1: 5.19 as compared to 1: 2.53 of the local variety. Village-level seed production not only addressed the issue of shortage of quality seeds but also brought higher incomes to farmers leading to improved livelihood.
Adoption research has a well-defined position in the development studies of all the scientific disciplines. In this study an attempt has been made for comparative visualisation of extent of adoption and economic impact of different NARS rice varieties among the adopters in Indo-Gangetic Plains. Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal were selected purposively in the study. From each of the selected states, four districts and from each district two adopted and one non adopted village were selected randomly. Further from each village 30 respondents were selected. Total 1170 respondents were selected for the study. Extent of adoption and economic impact has been analysed for improved NARS rice varieties over the years with primary cross-sectional data collected (during 2016) for the previous five years (2010-11 to 2014-15).
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