Sustainable Naga King Chilli Cultivation: Factors Influencing Technical Knowledge and its use Among Farmers

Sustainability in agricultural production has become a dire necessity for the availability of sufficient food, assured employment to growing populations and conservation of natural resources. Naga king chilli with GI tag, is a crop of economic importance and is generally grown under natural conditions in Nagaland. The study aimed to evaluate farmers' technical knowledge towards sustainable Naga king chilli cultivation practices and to determine the variables that conditioned their knowledge level. Ex-post-facto research design was adopted for the study. Peren, Dimapur and Mon districts of Nagaland were purposively selected. Two Rural Development (RD) blocks were randomly selected from each of the districts and two villages were selected randomly from each block making a total of twelve villages. A sample size of 250 respondents was selected based on a proportionate random sampling procedure. Primary data were obtained using a structured interview schedule. The study found that 60.40 per cent of the respondents had a medium level of knowledge of sustainable king chilli farming technology. Variables like size of land under Naga king chilli, farming experience, training exposure, information source utilization, family size and economic motivation showed significant relation towards farmers' knowledge of sustainable cultivation practices of Naga king chilli. The findings suggested organizing capacity-building programmes on sustainable Naga king chilli cultivation practices and appropriate integration of traditional knowledge with location-specific improved sustainable agricultural practices is vital for the economic generation of the farmers while addressing the global issue of food security and ecological sustainability.. KEYWORDS :Naga King chilli, Knowledge, Nagaland, Sustainability, Cultivation.