Association between Socio Personal, Psychological and Communicational Attributes of NHM Flower Grower Beneficiaries and their Adoption Behaviour

Abstract

India has an ancient heritage of floriculture, still, 98.5% of flowers are grown under open cultivation and hardly 1.5% of flowers are grown in a greenhouse. Commercial floriculture is now recognized as an important sector with the potential for generating employment and earning valuable foreign exchange. There has been tremendous growth in the demand and consumption of floriculture products in the last two decades. The research study was conducted in the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh in the year 2016-2017. Ujjain district is one of the important flower-growing districts and hence, it is considered under National Horticultural Mission (NHM) program by taking 120 flower growers. Out of the total of 25 villages, 4 villages were selected by random sampling method and data was collected by using an interview schedule. The adoption behavior of respondents, in the present study, refers to the extent of improved flower production technology and practices adopted by the respondents under the NHM program on their farm as per the recommendations. For measuring the level of adoption behaviour, an adoption index was developed which consisted of 14 practices. The Education level, annual income, source of irrigation, farm mechanization, marketing behavior, information-seeking behavior, mass media communication, risk-taking ability, and knowledge level of the flower growers were found to be positively and significantly associated with their adoption behavior of improved flower production technologies. Hence it is concluded that there is a need to promote flower cultivation for better livelihood of the flower growers.