Determinants of knowledge and adoption of a bio-fortified variety Pusa Mustard 30 among the farmers of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana

Mustard is the second most important oil seed crop in India and mustard oil is healthy and its characteristic pungency makes it ideal cooking oil, which is something many consumers especially in northern India want. Normal mustard varieties oil contains more than 40 per cent of erucic acid and many studies reported the health risks associated with it. ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi has given due emphasis to improve the nutritional quality traits of Mustard and developed Pusa Mustard-30, which contains less than 2 per cent erucic acid which is very much good for human health. The study evaluates the knowledge level of farmers about the health benefits of the variety and the factors that influence the knowledge and adoption of biofortified crop variety (Pusa Mustard 30) using a sample of 160 farmer households from Baghpat (U.P.) and Jhajjar (Haryana). It was found that two third of the respondents had medium level of knowledge and the knowledge about the health benefits of the variety is influenced by the factors like education level, extension agency contact, personal local contact, number of awareness programmes attended, number of demonstrations attended and innovativeness. And the adoption was not only influenced by awareness about the variety, its yield and oil content but also by the knowledge about the health benefits of the variety, education, extension contact and innovativeness. This indicates the positive impact of nutrition knowledge on the adoption of biofortified crop varieties, relative to basic awareness of the varieties. Hence, this study concludes that adoption of bio-fortified varieties in general; PM-30 crop in particular, can be improved by disseminating information about the varieties and their nutritional/health attributes and through collaboration with various institutions. This can be achieved by entrenching nutrition/health information in extension packages disseminated to farmers.