Impact of front-line demonstration (FLD) on the yield and economics of banana in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Tamil Nadu is the fourth highest banana producing state in the country. In the past five years, there has been 32% increase in banana production in the state. One of the major constraints of traditional farming is low productivity due to lack of recommended package of practices and high yielding varieties. To replace this inconsistency of practices, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Madurai conducted Front line demonstrations in the farmer’s field. Through frontline demonstration farmers were provided with all the basic inputs (improved practices). The technology adopted in his field is micronutrient spray @ 2% on 4th, 5th and 6th month’s interval from the date of planting. This resulted in higher yield than that obtained through the farmer’s practices. The average percentage of increase over farmers practice through this demonstration was recorded to be 11.9 percent during 2019-20 and 15.4 percent during 2020-21. The average extension gap in the improved practices was 15.0 q/ha during 2019-20 and 20.0 q/ha during 2020-21. The average technology gap in the improved technology was found to be 7.0 q/ha during 2019-20 and 5.0 q/ha during 2020-21.