Vol. 12, Issue 4 (2023)

Author(s):
SY Gadmale, PB Kharde, MC Ahire and VG Pokharkar

Abstract:
Agriculture has a huge role in economy of India. National Development Council in its meeting held on 29th May, 2007 decided introduce central assistance scheme taking into account agro-climatic conditions, natural resources and technology for ensuring more inclusive and integrated development of agriculture and allied sectors. Hence, Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India launched Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) from 2007-08 to enhance the production, productivity and income through technology development. The project entitled Farmer FIRST under RKVY is an initiative of MPKV, Rahuri. Total nine technologies were conducted under project. The present study was conducted in the year 2022 on one of the technology named as mole plough technology for ill drained soil in Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur district. Ex-post-facto research design was used for the study. Total 60 respondents were selected for study purpose. From that 30 were beneficiaries and 30 were non-beneficiaries of the project. It was observed that average yield of beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers were 52.02 t/acre and 48.38 t/acre, respectively. Similarly, average gross monetary returns of beneficiaries from sugarcane (major crop in that area) was 135225 Rs./acre and for non-beneficiaries 125788 Rs./acre. However, the cost of production of non-beneficiary farmers was Rs.3559/acre higher than beneficiary farmers (i.e. 35882 Rs./acre for beneficiaries and 39441 Rs./acre for non-beneficiaries). Average net returns per acre of beneficiaries was Rs.12971 more than the average net returns of the non-beneficiaries (i.e. 99318 Rs./acre for beneficiaries and 86347 Rs./acre for non-beneficiaries). Hence, it was clear that the mole plough technology under RKVY farmer FIRST project was able to increase the income of the beneficiaries of the project.