YIELD GAP AND ECONOMIC UTILITY EVALUATION OF IMPROVED TECHNOLOGIES IN RAPESEED-MUSTARD CULTIVATION: AN ANALYSIS OF FRONT LINE DEMONSTRATIONS IN WEST BENGALBenukar Biswas, Sukamal Sarkar, Shyamal Kumar Sahoo, Raju Das, Sanjib Kumar Das and Dhiraj SinghAbstract Mustard is one of the most important rabi oilseeds crop in eastern India, which plays a major role in supplementing the income of small and marginal farmers of West Bengal provides 53% of states total oil seed production. One of the major constraints is low productivity of this crop due to non espousal of recommended package of practices and situation-specific improved cultivars by most of the growers. The Front Line Demonstration (FLD) is a scientific approach to accelerate the dissemination of proven technologies at farmers fields in a participatory mode with an objective to explore the maximum available resources of crop production and also to bridge the productivity gaps by enhancing the production and higher economic return. The 119 front line demonstrations (FLDs) conducted by Pulses and Oilseeds Research Station, Berhampore, West Bengal during Rabi season of 2010-11 to 2013-14 in rapeseed-mustard revealed 20% yield advantage by adoption of improved varieties may be possible. The other components viz. adoption of right method and time of sowing, integrated pest and disease management showed 31, 22 and 28% respectively yield advantage were exhibited over farmers practice. A wide extension gap has been recorded throughout the experimental year in different FLD components ranging from 0.49 to 3.71 q ha-1. Benefit: cost ratio was recorded to be higher under demonstrations against farmers practices during all the years of experimentation. Popularization of these proven technologies to the rapeseed- mustard growers will help them to get higher economic returns with sustainable production system of the state.
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