Abstract
The purposes of the study were to assess the adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices and to explore relationships of 15 selected characteristics of the farmers with their adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices. Data were collected through an interview schedule from randomly selected 300 groundnut growers of 3 districts during July 2012 to November 2012. In addition, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and case studies were also employed to obtain necessary information from the study area. Fifteen selected characteristics were considered as the independent variables and adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices was the dependent variable. The adoption of recommended sowing method, spacing between line to line, plant to plant, seed rate, sowing time, proper time of crop harvesting, recommended dose of phosphatic fertilizer and nitrogen fertilizer had higher adoption while potassium fertilizer, balanced fertilizer, quality seed, weed control, drainage and application of sevin dust for controlling ants having medium and application of pesticides for controlling leaf spot, termites, recommended dose of sulphetic fertilizer, application of fungicides for controlling rust, recommended dose of boron fertilizer, application of pesticides for controlling aphid, recommended irrigation, modern variety, application of pesticides for controlling Jassid, use of light trap for controlling hairy caterpillar, seed treatment, practice of ICM methods had lower extent of adoption. Combined adoption scores of 26 modern groundnut cultivation practices of the farmers indicated that 63 percent of the farmers had medium adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices compared to 28.30 percent having low adoption and 8.70 percent had high adoption. Among the 15 characteristics of groundnut farmers- the level of education, farm size, area under groundnut cultivation practices, annual household income,, knowledge on modern groundnut cultivation, training exposure, innovativeness, extension contact, availability of inputs, risk orientation and decision making ability of the farmers had significant positive relationships with their adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices while farmers' age and farming experience had significant negative relationships. Stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that among other variables level of education alone contributed 59.4 percent of the total variation in predicting the farmers' adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices. Risk orientation, availability of inputs, decision making ability and knowledge on modern groundnut cultivation practices had also considerable contribution to the adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices. Path analysis revealed that level of education, risk orientation, availability of inputs, decision making ability and knowledge on modern groundnut cultivation practices of the farmers had substantial direct and indirect positive effect on their adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices and was channeled through each other. The overall adoption of modern groundnut cultivation by the farmers may not be improved unless effective steps are taken to increase their access to various sources of agricultural information. To boost up adoption of modern groundnut cultivation practices by the farmers through intensive motivational campaign and field demonstration activities should be strengthened by DAE, GO and NGOs.