Impact of Technology Demonstration Component of NICRA Project on Socio-economic Aspects of Beneficiary and Non-beneficiary Respondents

Abstract

The development in the field of agriculture was systematically started after independence. Government at central as well as state level started different agriculture programmes. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has launched a major project entitled "National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA)" during 2010-11(February, 2011) with an outlay of Rs. 350 crores for the XI Plan. The project aims to enhance resilience of Indian agriculture to climate change and climate vulnerability through strategic research and technology demonstration. Under this consideration, the study was undertaken in Ratnagiri district from Konkan region and Aurangabad (Chattrapati Sambhajinagr) district from Marathwada region of Maharashtra state to study impact of Technology Demonstration Component of NICRA project on socio- economic aspects of beneficiary and non-beneficiary respondents. The study was based on ex-post facto research design and data were collected through interview schedule. The results revealed that there was significant difference between beneficiary and non-beneficiary respondents with regard to their social participation and information seeking behavior in Konkan and Marathwada region. The highly significant difference in yield and returns from of all the crops was due to medium to high level of adoption of technology intervention demonstrated on beneficiary respondents' field. This highly significant difference was due to good quality production with higher yield obtained by beneficiary respondents.