Yield Gap and Economics of Chick Pea (Cicer arietinum L.) Cultivation in Low Hills of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The popularity of pulse crops remains quite low due to technological gaps in adoption of pulse technologies along with other factors also. To demonstrate pulse production technology, 96 frontline demonstrations (FLDs) were organized by KVK Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) on chick pea for four consecutive years from 2006-07 to 2009-10 on the farmers fields with prevailing farmers practice as control. The yield performance, yield gap, technology gap, extension gap and technology index were analyzed for demonstration and control plots. Higher yield of 21.8 to 61.4 percent were recorded in demonstration plots over control. Average technology gap of 2.79 q/ha, average extension gap of 2.94 q/ha with the technology index of 23.21 percent were recorded. The average net return of recommended and farmers' practices were Rs. 22420 and Rs. 15300 with incremental benefit-cost ratio (IBCR) of 1.43 to 2.99, respectively. By conducting FLDs of proven technologies, yield potential and net income from the chick pea cultivation was enhanced to a great extent with increase in farmer's income.