Discriminant factors in selecting groundnut varieties for cultivation

Abstract

Groundnut is one of the most widely used oil seed and food crop in India. Necessity has led to the development of many varieties by agricultural scientists. In general, farmers are adopting varieties following conservative practices and fail in adopting the new and better varieties in terms of yield and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. A study is taken up to identify the significant factors influencing in selecting groundnut varieties by farmers. A random sample of 150 groundnut farmers has been considered from the three districts of Southern Zone of Andhra Pradesh and data on fifteen variables is collected. Among fourteen factors only three major factors viz., seed availability, market demand and high yield are identified using discriminant analysis in selecting groundnut varieties. The discriminant function correctly classifies 67% of the cases for one group and nearly 77% for another group making less proportion of mistakes for both categories. Overall, 63.3% of the cases are correctly classified. A detailed explanation provided in this paper guides researchers in understanding the application of discriminant analysis and to persuade them to use this method in their research.