Knowledge of the Members of Agnigarh Producer Company Limited towards Improved Litchi Cultivation Practices in Sonitpur District of Assam, India

Farmer Producer Company is a company formed by a group of farmers who are producers come together to form a company. The present investigation was conducted out with the objective to access Knowledge of the members of Agnigarh Producer Company Limited towards improved litchi cultivation practices in the Sonitpur district of Assam, India. Agnigarh Producer Company Limited was selected purposively, as the Farmer Producer Company dealing with commercial litchi production was operating in this district. A sample of 80 respondents was chosen from 13 selected villages in Sonitpur district using a proportionate random sampling method. The primary data for the study were collected by the personal interview. To assess the Knowledge level of the FPC members, the Managerial Ability Scale created by Jadav (2005) was used. The primary data for the study were collected during the month of February, 2023 to June, 2023.Findings revealed that majority of the respondents (43.75%) belonged to middle aged category. Majority of the respondents (41.25%) had formal education up to higher secondary/PU level and there were not any respondents from illiterate, can read only category in the study area. Most of the respondents (41.25%) belonged to small farmer in land holding category. Majority of the respondents (50.00%) were having area from 0.10 to 1.5 ha under litchi orchard with medium annual net farm income ranging from Rs. 94278.31 to Rs. 156528.93. Majority of the respondents (60.00%) had medium level of litchi yield, medium level of farm mechanization (70.00%) and medium level of irrigated area under litchi cultivation (77.50%). Majority of them (80.00%) had medium level of farm wage payment related to litchi cultivation. Most of the respondents (53.75%) had 9-19 years of experience in litchi cultivation. Majority of the respondents (55.00%) were belonged from having membership in one organization. Majority of them had medium level of achievement motivation (68.75%), medium level of orientation towards the competition (67.50%), medium level of attitude towards modern agriculture (63.75), medium level of risk orientation (67.50%) and high level of exposure to training on litchi cultivation (50.00%). Findings revealed that majority of the respondents (50.00%) had medium level of knowledge on improved litchi cultivation practices followed by 27.50 per cent of the respondents had low level of knowledge on improved litchi cultivation practices and 22.50 per cent of the respondents had high level of knowledge on improved litchi cultivation practices. The mean knowledge score (49.78) indicated that on an average the respondents had low level of knowledge on improved litchi cultivation practices with standard deviation of 29.14. The value of co-efficient of variation (58.55) indicated that the respondents were relatively heterogeneous with respect to their knowledge on improved litchi cultivation practices.