An empirical study on farmers knowledge and adoption of improved paddy cultivation practices.

The present study was conducted in Raichur and Manvi taluks of Raichur district during 2012-13 with 120 respondents. The ex post facto research design was used for the study. The data were collected using structured and pre tested interview schedule. The results of the study indicated that, majority of the respondents possessed full knowledge with respect to practices like recommended variety, seed rate, micro nutrients, manual weeding and time of harvesting and partial knowledge in practices like seed treatment, age of seedlings at transplanting, organic manure, application of chemical fertilizers, irrigation management and pest and disease management. Majority of them fully adopted the practices like recommended variety, seed rate, micro nutrients, time of harvesting and chemical weed control. Majority of the respondents were having full knowledge regarding simple practices and have adopted the same. Some of the practices like number of seedlings per hill, application of chemical fertilizers, recommended dose of organic manure, manual weeding, chemical weed control, management of pests and diseases were also partially adopted by majority of the respondents.