TECHNOLOGICAL GAP AMONG THE FARMERS REGARDING RECOMMENDED SORGHUM PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

In India and other Asian and African countries, millets commonly include sorghum, pearl millet, and a range of small millets (Vetriventhan et al., 2020). India is the sixth largest producer of sorghum globally (www.smartfood.org). Sorghum is mainly used for food, fodder, alcoholic beverages and production of bio fuels. Sorghum is also known as "Global Grain" due to its multipurpose uses being a 4F (food, feed, fodder and fuel) crop. Despite of its multiple uses, the area under sorghum in India has declined from 18.61 m. ha in 1969-70 to 4.96 m. ha in 2017-18. There is wide gap between national productivity and yield potential of the improved sorghum technologies developed from the research institutes. Productivity of the crop can be enhanced by adopting the improved practices. The extent of technological gap in different production components of the technology contributes differently to the yield gap. Keeping in view the afore mentioned facts, the study on Technological Gap among the farmers regarding recommended sorghum production technology was undertaken the middle of Gujarat. A sample of 300 sorghum growers were selected from all 14 villages of Vadodara district by using proportionate random sampling. Ex-post-facto research design was used. The results of the study show that higher (87.64 per cent) technological gap in use of plant protection measures, 75.30 per cent technological gap in use of seed treatment, 63.18 per cent technological gap in weed management and 61.93 per cent technological gap in use of FYM were found in adoption of recommended sorghum production technology as majority of the sorghum growers faced constraints of high cost of farm inputs ( pesticide, insecticide, FYM), non availability of seed, good quality of FYM & fungicides at proper time, inadequate knowledge about sorghum production technology, non-availability of labor at proper time for weeding & harvesting during adoption of recommended sorghum production technology. Hence, more emphasis should be given to supply inputs in time, sufficient in quantity at affordable price to farmers.