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Experiment Background
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Introduction
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) commonly known as Nagli in Gujarati and ragi in english, is an important staple food after rice, wheat, sorghum and pearl millet in India. It is cultivated under diverse soil and climatic conditions mostly as a rainfed crop. Finger millet is native to the Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands. Interesting crop characteristics of finger millet are the ability to withstand cultivation at altitudes over 2000 meters above sea level, its favorable micronutrient contents (high iron and methionine content in particular), its high drought tolerance and the very long storage time of the grains. Finger millet grain is highly nutritious and has excellent grain storage capacity. The stover is a major dry matter source for both draft and milch animals. However the area is being replaced by other crops such as hybrid rice crop, particular in the Dangs. Our research scientists, extension workers and farmers have great responsibility to maximize the production of finger millet which is possible if tribal farmers know and adopt new technology. There are effective technologies available and have shown the possibility of new farm technology to be highly effective economically viable. The low production may be due to the tribal farmers being lack of knowledge about finger millet cultivation practices or they may be facing some constraints in its adoption at their own farms. Information regarding training needs will help to formulate the training courses in finger millet cultivation. Keeping all these views in mind, the present investigation entitled ‘Training needs of tribal farmers in finger millet cultivation of the Dangs district’ was undertaken with the following specific objectives:
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Research Methodology
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Research methodology
The present study was conducted in the Dang district of South Gujarat. Dangs district consist of three talukas i.e. Subir, Ahwa and Waghai. For the purpose of this study, all three talukas were selected purposively for study purpose. From each taluka, ten villages were selected randomly. Thus thirty villages were selected for study purpose and ten respondents were selected from each village. Thus total sample of 300 tribal farmers was draw for study purpose. Out of these 300 tribal farmers, in the first year 150 tribal farmers were selected from Subir, Ahwa and Waghai of the Dang district. The information of each respondents was collected with the help of pre tested, structured interview schedule by personal interview. The structural interview schedule was applied for data collection. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted in the light of the objectives with appropriate statistical tools like percentage, rank, mean, standard deviation etc. were used.
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