KNOWLEDGE AND ADOPTION OF PRODUCTION PRACTICES AMONG CHICKPEA GROWERS OF ANDHRA PRADESH

: India is the largest producer of pulses in the world. Pulses ensures food security with its rich source of protein. To feed the growing population of India, the production of pulses also need to be increased. Hence, in order to improve the production and productivity of pulses, the knowledge and adoption level of pulse growers should be learnt to understand the technological gap exists in between them. Among various pulse crops, chickpea has been widely cultivated. Thus, the knowledge and adoption level of production practices on chickpea among the chickpea growers of Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh was studied. Twelve villages from six mandals of three blocks of Kurnool district constitute the 120 chickpea growers. The primary data were gathered with the help of structured interview schedule through persona interview during 2019-2020. The findings revealed that chickpea growers had medium level of knowledge and adoption of production practices of chickpea because of medium level of innovative proneness, farm power and social participation. Hence, it was recommended to conduct training programmes and awareness campaigns to improve the knowledge and adoption of various production practices, which in turn increase the production and productivity of chickpea. and adoption level, Production practices, Andhra Pradesh.


INTRODUCTION
Agriculture serves as the "backbone of India", as it contributes 18 per cent of its income to GDP of our Nation and additionally provides employment to a more than half of the Indian population (Madhusudhan, 2015). Simultaneously, evolution and availability of farm technologies led to increase in agricultural growth. Among the highly populated countries, India secures second rank (Census, 2011). In order to feed the growing population of India, it becomes evident to ensure food security, which can be done through improving productivity of pulses.
Pulses are regarded as the important food crops because of their high protein content.
Haryana. The chickpea in India is cultivated over an area of 28.28 Million hectares and yields about 22.995 Million tines with productivity of 767 kg/ha (Ministry of India, 2016-17). In addition to this, it can be understood that area and production of pulses contribute 30 and 37 per cent to Nation respectively.
Madhya Pradesh serves as the largest producer in the country (40 % of total production), while Rajasthan (14%), Maharashtra (10%), Uttar Pradesh (9%), and Andhra Pradesh (7%) contribute respectively. In Andhra Pradesh, chickpea was mostly cultivated in districts of Kurnool, Prakasham and Guntur; over an area of 6.38 lakh hectares with an annual production of 9.37 lakh tones with a productivity of 1469 Kg per hectare. Though the area under chickpea was high, it does not meet the demand of people due to low production and productivity. The chickpea yield had remained stagnant over a long time and it depicts that there is a gap between the knowledge and adoption of chickpea production practices. Hence, a detailed study on the knowledge and adoption behavior of chickpea growers on the production practices helps to understand the extent of knowledge the farmers possess and the extent of adoption. chickpea growers had medium annual income from medium size of land holding (55%). Padiyar

Statement of the Problem
Kurnool is one of the districts of Andhra Pradesh, where chick pea was found to be the main crop. Even though, the area under cultivation of chickpea is constantly increasing in Kurnol, the production and productivity remains the same, even after the several efforts by govt.
functionaries and reputed NGOs. In turn, it depicts that there is a gap between the knowledge and adoption of chickpea production practices. Hence, a detailed study on the knowledge and adoption behavior of chickpea growers on the production practices helps to understand the extent of knowledge the farmers possess and the extent of adoption. With this background, the following objectives were formulated. The objectives of the study were as follows, • To ascertain the socio-economic profile of the respondents.
• To access the knowledge and adoption of recommended chickpea production practices by the respondents.

METHODOLOGY
The present study was conducted at Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. Kurnool district was purposively selected because of the adequate concentration of chickpea growers residing in the district. Out of 14 taluks in Kurnool district, Banaganapalle taluk was selected purposively.
Among the 5 mandals in Banaganapalle taluk, sanjamala, owk and koilakuntla mandals were randomly selected (Random sampling method). From each mandal, two villages constitute six villages under study area. The farmers whose main crop was chickpea were regarded as chickpea growers and the list of chickpea growers were gathered with the help of RAEO"s and other government officials. From each of the village, 20 chickpea growers were randomly selected, thus make 120 chickpea growers as respondents. The secondary data was gathered from RAEO"s, other government officials, survey reports, available literature and previous studies.
Meanwhile, the primary data were gathered from the chickpea growers with the help of structured interview schedule through personal interview method during 2019-2020.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The gathered data was tabulated, distributed and analyzed with suitable statistical tools.  of the chick pea growers never participate in youth club, followed by occasionally participation (10%) and regular participation (5%). As far as participation, 82.50 per cent never participate in self help groups, where 10.83 per cent and 6.66 per cent of chick pea growers participate occasionally and regularly. Further, 92.50 per cent of the respondents "Never" participate in Other organizations (like Dairy cooperatives, Saving groups) followed by "Occasional" (4.16%) and "Regular" (3.33%).
Among the total chickpea growers, most of them had medium farm power (60.83%), followed by high farm power (20.83%) and low farm power (18.33%) per cent respectively.
More than half of the farmers had medium level of economic motivation (55%), followed by low    The possible reason might be the fact that, medium level of innovative proneness, farm power and social participation led to increased rate of adoption on various production practices in cultivation of chickpea. Similar findings were reported by Sharma et.al., (2015).

CONCLUSION
From the present study, it can be learnt that majority of the chickpea growers in Kurnool district were middle aged with primary school education and possessed medium size of family with marginal size of land holding. Subsequently, they had medium farm power which earns high annual income. In addition to this, most of the chickpea growers member in various social organizations with low extension contact and subscription for various mass media sources. They also had medium level of economic motivation, innovative proneness, risk orientation and resulted in medium level of knowledge and adoption of various production practices of chickpea.
Thus, it is also recommended to conduct more training programmes and awareness campaigns to increase production and productivity of chickpea, since it remains as the major crop of Kurnool.
Eventually, new policies to provide subsidy for pulse growers should be implemented.