Yield Gap Analysis, Economics, Adoption, and Horizontal Spread of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Cultivation through Front Line Demonstration in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to found the yield gap through FLDS on tomato crop. The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Varanasi conducted Frontline demonstration on 10 farmers for each year since 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 in different locations of Varanasi district. Frontline demonstrations were conducted on tomato by the active participation of the farmers with the objective of improved technologies of tomato production potential. Use of hybrid variety, balanced use of fertilizer on the basis soil testing report and integrated pest and disease management etc are the main technologies to be tested in this demonstration. Tomato is a major vegetable crop of eastern Uttar Pradesh. But the productivity of tomato are very low in this district due to lack of knowledge and partial adoption of recommended package of practice by tomato cultivators. The data of study revealed to the cost of cultivation, production, productivity, gross return and net return were collected as per schedule and analyzed. The result of present study revealed that average highest yield in demonstration was recorded 643.83 q ha-1 was obtained in demonstrated plot over control (522.66 q ha-1) with an additional yield of 121.17 q ha-1 and the increasing the average tomato productivity by 23.88 per cent. The extension gap and technology gap ranged between 119.50 to 122.50 and 93.50 to 119.50 q ha-1, respectively, with the technology index of 16.51% during the demonstration years. Besides this, the demonstrated plots gave higher gross return, net return with higher benefit cost ratio when compared to farmer’s practice. In present study efforts were also made to study the impact of FLD on horizontal spread which was increased 269.38%, if appropriate package and practices are followed.