Impact of On-Farm Trials and Front-Line Demonstrations on Zero Tillage Maize in Peddapalli District, Telangana, India

During Rabi season, a large portion of the Peddapalli district adopted rice fallow or cotton fallow maize cultivation with conventional method, which involves plow row sowing after two to three ploughings and is very expensive and time-consuming. Due to the late sowing, crop encounters to terminal moisture stress and needs extra irrigations, which decreases its yields and lowers its price in the district. The innovative idea of zero-tillage maize arose in 2012–13 as a countermeasure. Krishi Vigyan Kendra Ramagirikhilla carried out on farm trails and front-line demonstrations in various locations of Peddapalli district from 2012–13 to 2018–19. Total 52 farmers from various villages were chosen to demonstrate zero-tillage maize for seven years in a row. The results revealed that the maize yield (73.30 q ha-1) increased by 10.83 percent when compared to the farmers’ practice (66.26 q ha-1) with a technology index of 13.76%, an extension gap of 7.04 q ha-1, a technology gap of 11.70 q t ha-1 and recorded higher benefit-cost ratio (2.50) with additional income Rs. 16,460.37/- than farmers' practices (2.11). Compared to the farmers’ practice, zero tillage maize proved to be an effective technology for improving farmers’ income with lower cultivation costs due to its utilization of residual moisture, minimizes the number of irrigations and prevents the crop from terminal moisture stress. During the study the adoption of Zero tillage technology increased from negligible to 283.33% with overall adoption level 144.58% and horizontal spread from 0 ha up to 892 ha during 2018-19.