Cluster front line demonstration, chickpea, yield, economics, B: C ratio.

Pulses are a Smart Food as these are critical for food basket (dal-roti, dal-chawal), important source of plant protein and help address obesity, diabetes etc. In addition pulses are highly water efficient, can grow in drought prone areas and help improve soil fertility by fixing soil nitrogen (Kumar et al., 2020). Pulses occupy a prominent place in human nutrition particularly among the lower income groups of people in developing countries like India. India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses with maximum area coverage in the world. However, productivity of pulses in India is well below the world's average productivity. There are several reasons responsible for lesser productivity of pulses i.e. more focus on cereal crops like wheat & rice, less investment on irrigation facilities (only 15% for pulses as against 80-90% for wheat/ rice), technological absence to minimize disease, insect and weed infestation that cause substantial damage in standing crops, lack of quality seed of improved varieties, cultivation on less fertile soil, rainfed and marginal lands, imbalance use of nutrients, lack of integration of nutrient supply sources and adverse impact of weather aberrations on crops.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the oldest pulse crops that have been grown for over 8,000 years (Dhuppar et al., 2012). It is the cheapest source of protein (18-22%), carbohydrate (52-70%), fat (4-10%) and minerals. By virtue of its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, it is traditionally indispensable component of cropping systems in India and is also climate resilient and can be sown in rainfed areas. 

Dausa district falls in agroclimatic zone IIIa namely "Semi-Arid Eastern Plains" of Rajasthan which covers Dausa, Ajmer, Tonk and Jaipur districts. Chickpea is an important pulse crop grown in rabi season in Dausa district of Rajasthan. During 2021-22 chickpea was grown in 24012 hectare area with total production of 31744 metric tons having productivity of 1322 kg/ha (Anonymous, 2021). 

Cluster front line demonstration (CFLD) is a novel approach to provide a direct interface between researcher and farmer for the transfer of technologies developed by them and to get direct feedback from farming community. Centrally Sponsored Scheme, 'National Food Security Mission' (NFSM), was launched in October 2007. The concept of Cluster front line demonstration was put forth under this mission. The scheme implemented in a mission mode through a farmer centric approach. The basic strategy of the mission is to promote and extend improved technologies, i.e., seed, micronutrients, soil amendments, integrated pest management, farm machinery and implements, irrigation management along with capacity building of farmers. In view of this, a project on cluster front line demonstration was started in order to demonstrate the production potential and latest advancement in package of practices among the farmers with the view to reduce the time lag between technology generated and its adoption. In order to improve the productivity all the recommended technologies were carried out in front line demonstrations plots under the direct supervision of the scientists. The project was implemented by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dausa with main objective to boost the production and productivity of chickpea in the district.

The present study was conducted at farmers’ fields of Dausa district of Rajasthan during rabi season of consecutive five years from 2016-17 to 2021-22. A total of 575 demonstrations in 260 hectares area having similar number of traditional practices or local check were carried out in sandy loam soil under irrigated conditions. The chickpea crop was sown in last week of October to first week of November and harvested in second fortnight of March across the years. The variety CSJ 515 was used in demonstrations in Jaama village during 2017-18 and Mohchingpura village during 2021-22 while variety GNG-1581 was demonstrated in different villages of Lalsot and Bandikui blocks of Dausa district during 2017-18. Chickpea variety GNG 1958 was used for cluster front line demonstrations in different villages of Dausa, Lawan and Lalsot blocks of Dausa district during 2018-19 and Badoli and Mohanpura villages during 2020-21. Other variety GNG 2144 was used in demonstrations in Peechupada Kalan, Mund Ghisya and Chhareda villages during 2019-20 and Badoli village during the year 2020-21. The area falls under agroclimatic zone IIIa namely “Semi-Arid Eastern Plains” of Rajasthan. After preliminary  survey and interactive meetings farmers were trained  to follow  the package  and  practices  for  chickpea  cultivation as recommended for the region.

In cluster front line demonstrations special emphasis was given to proper seed rate (60-80 kg/ha), balanced use of fertilizers (40 kg/ha N and 20 kg/ha P2O5), seed treatment with pesticides (carbendazim 50 WP @ 1g/kg + fipronil 5 SC @ 10 ml/kg) and proper need based plant protection measures. In traditional or local check plots farmers were using higher seed rate, imbalance dose of fertilizers, local seed for sowing, improper seed treatment and plant protection measures. The basic information was recorded from the demonstration and control plots and analyzed for comparative performance of the cluster frontline demonstrations (CFLDs) and farmer’s practice. The yield data were collected both from the demonstrations and farmers’ practice by random crop  cutting  method  and analyzed by using simple statistical tools. These were further used for calculation of cost of cultivation, gross returns, net returns, additional cost, additional returns and B:C ratio. The cost of cultivation included all the expenditures right from land preparation to harvest. Gross return was calculated by multiplying of produce to prevailing market price. The benefit cost ratio (B: C) was calculated dividing the net monetary return by the total cost of cultivation. Technology gap, extension gap and technology index were calculated as follows:- 

Technology gap = Potential yield - Demonstration yield 

Extension gap = Demonstration yield - Farmer’s/ Traditional yield

Yield of cluster front line demonstration trials and potential yield of the respective variety were compared to estimate the yield gap which was further categorized into technology and extension gaps. Technology gap was maximum (5.70 q/ha) in case of GNG-1581 during 2017-18 while minimum technology gap (3.87 q/ha) was recorded in case of CSJ-515 during the year 2021-22. Average technology gap was 4.83 q/ha throughout the study period (Table 1). Higher technology gap were also recorded by Bairwa et al. (2021) ; Ramesh et al. (2023). Though, the cluster front line demonstration trials were laid down under the supervision of KVK scientists at the farmers’ fields but the yield obtained in demonstration plots over the years was still lower  than potential yield which may be attributed to climatic conditions of the  areas. Hence, variety wise location specific recommendation appears to be necessary to minimize the technology gap for yield level in different situations (Jat et al., 2013). 

The extension gap for all the years in cluster front line demonstrations on chickpea were lower as compared to technology gap except in the year 2020-21 for variety GNG 2144 (Table 1). This emphasized the efforts made by the scientists to educate the farmers in adoption of improved technology to narrow the extension gaps. These findings are in line with Ramesh et al. (2023). Among the cluster front line demonstrations on chickpea in different years, extension gap was the highest i.e. 4.95 q/ha in variety GNG 2144 at Badoli village during 2020-21 while extension gap was the lowest i.e. 2.30 q/ha in variety CSJ 515 at Mohchingpura village during 2021-22 (Table 1). Singh et al. (2014); Rachhoya et al. (2018) also reported similar findings in chickpea.

Technology index was the highest by the tune of 19.74 per cent in Dausa, Lawan and Lalsot blocks during 2018-19 and lowest technology index was 16.13 per cent at Mohchingpura village in 2021-22. The average technology index was 18.63 per cent which indicates that wide gap exists between the technology evaluated at research station and farmers fields’. Lower value of the technology index indicates more feasibility of evaluated technology. Similarly, technology index were also reported by Rajpoot (2020) ; Bairwa et al. (2021). Variations in in the technology gap and index percentage were found due to differences in agro-climatic factors and management practices which can be reduced by farmer's participation in adopting new technologies (Kumari and Singh 2023).

The data (Table 1) showed that maximum yield of cluster front line demonstration was 26.0 q/ha during 2017-18 in variety GNG 1581 and 2018-19 in variety GNG 1958 while minimum yield of demonstration was 16.0 q/ha during 2017-18 in variety CSJ 515 and GNG 1581. Average yield of cluster front line demonstrations was reported maximum (22.40 q/ha) during 2020-21 in variety GNG 2144 while minimum average yield of cluster front line demonstrations (19.73 q/ha) was reported during 2017-18 in variety CSJ 515. The highest percentage increase over control or farmers practice was 28.37 per cent during 2020-21 with variety GNG 2144 followed by 28.28 per cent during 2020-21 with variety GNG 1958. Study showed that average percentage increase over control was 20.40 per cent which showed that cluster front line demonstrations found better than farmers practices or control. The results were in confirmity with the findings of Singh et al. (2018) ; Prasad et al. (2022).

Data pertaining to economic performance of various cluster front line demonstrations on chickpea are presented in Table 2. The economics of chickpea cultivation and its feasibility in demonstration was calculated considering the existing prices of inputs and production costs over farmers’ practice. Maximum per cent increase in net  return (97.91%) was reported during 2017-18 with variety CSJ 515 followed by GNG 1581 (79.94%) in 2017-18. Average per cent increase in gross return was 20.99% while average per cent increase in net return was 58.74% during the study period. Higher B:C ratio was observed in demonstrations over local check across the years. Average B:C ratio across the years was 2.31 while for farmer's practice average  B:C ratio was 1.82. Similar findings were reported by Prasad et al. (2022) ; Kantwa et al. (2024).

Table 1: Comparative statement of yield and other parameters of cluster front line demonstrations on chickpea in different villages of Dausa district of Rajasthan.

Table 2: Economics of the cluster front line demonstrations on chickpea in different villages of Dausa district of Rajasthan.