Correlates of adoption behaviour of recommended cultivation practices by Ajwain growers

Abstract

The present study was purposively conducted in three Panchayat Samities of Akola district of Maharashtra state. 10 respondents from each village were selected from 12 villages, so 120 respondents for study. The exploratory design of social research was used in the present study. The data was collected by personally interviewing the respondents with the help of pretested and well-structured interview schedule subjected to appropriate statistical analysis. Data were collected on personal, socio-economic, situational, communicational and psychological characteristics of the respondents. Findings revealed that, maximum number of respondents were in middle age group and educated up to secondary school level, possessed semi-medium land holding, annual income ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1,50,0 Majority of respondents were having area under Ajwain up to 1 ha. More than half of the respondents had market accessibility above 20 km. Higher proportion of the respondents had medium level of sources of information, economic motivation and scientific orientation. Risk preference comes under high level category. Majority of Ajwain growers were observed in medium level of adoption behaviour. Findings of relational analysis revealed that age, education and land holding were positively and significantly correlated at 0.05 level of probability. The variables such as annual income, area under Ajwain, sources of information, economic motivation, scientific orientation and risk preference were positively and highly significant at 0.01 level of probability. Whereas market accessibility had shown non significant correlation with adoption behaviour.