Results and Discussion
The present study focused on the Profile of farmers practicing wider row spacing, Effect of wider row on yield, Advantages of wider row spacing, Constraints in wider row spacing and Economics of wider row spacing versus narrow row spacing. The details are discussed below: Demographic Profile of Farmers Growing Sugarcane in Wider Row Spacing Thirteen socio-economic and demographic factors were considered to assess the profile of the respondents.
Age
According to age, 46.67% of the adopters were above 50 years and 40.00% of the respondents were in the category of 35–50 years. So age is not a constraint in adopting wider row spacing.
Education
As per educational level, 23.33% of the farmers were graduates, 46.67% had primary or secondary education, 16.66% could read and write and the rest were illiterate. This implies that education has a say in motivating farmers to adopt latest technologies.
Occupational Status
Sixty percent of the respondents were doing agriculture as their primary occupation while 40% had agriculture as secondary occupation. The other occupations include mulberry cultivation, rearing milch animals, producing vermicompost etc.
Farming Experience
Nearly 50% of the respondents had more than 25 years of experience in farming and 40% had a farming experience of 11–25 years. This implies that increase in farming experience leads to increase in adoption of latest technologies.
Experience in Sugarcane Cultivation
The experience in sugarcane cultivation ranged from less than 5 years to more than 25 years. At least 20% of the farmers had less than 5 years experience in sugarcane, 33.33% – 5–10 years, 13.33% – 11–15 years, 26.67% – 16–20 years and 6.67% – 21–25 years. Experience in Wider Row Wider row, being a recent technology in sugarcane, 66.66% of the respondents had up to 2 years of experience and 16.67% each had an experience of 2–3 years and 3–5 years.
Operational Holding
Fifty percent of the respondents were medium land holders, 30% small and marginal land holders and only 20% were large farmers. This indicates that concerted efforts should be focused on medium farmers for better technology adoption.