Abstract

Author:
Santosh Sen Chaudhary, Niraj Khanal, Rajesh Paudel, Mahesh Jaishi, Kishor Chandra Dahal

Doi: 10.26480/sfna.01.2023.06.10

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

The study was conducted in the Kamala River basin areas, stretches over three municipalities namely Karjanha, Kalyanpur and Siraha of Siraha district, Nepal, in 2020 to assess the adoption of riverbed farming technologies. Descriptive and statistical tools were used among 179 households selected from 336 sampling population of riverbed farmers. The proportionate stratified random sampling procedure was employed with structured interview schedule for Key Informants Interview (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Findings portrayed riverbed farming in Kamala River found to be highly profitable and economically viable with B: C ratio 1.51 and 1.47 for watermelon and cucumber respectively. Similarly, the riverbed farm practices adopted were improved seeds varieties, recommended seed rate, specific crop spacing, recommended fertilizer dose, mulching, use of micronutrient, wind barrier, 3G technology, intercropping, sprinkler/drip irrigation, harvesting technology and post- harvest technology. Among them, ‘specific crop spacing’ was highly adopted followed by use of micronutrient and post-harvest technology whereas ‘sprinkler/drip irrigation’ was least adopted followed by recommended fertilizer dose and mulching technology. The average adoption index was 43.67. Based on the technology adoption, the majority of respondent (64 %) were medium adopters followed by high adopters and then low adopters. In addition, there was a substantial positive correlation between age, sex, education level, mass media, subsidies received, interactions with extension agents, riverbed income, and farming experiences and a large negative correlation between market distance and adoption. While accelerating the implementation of technology in farming systems, socioeconomic variables influencing the adoption of better farming techniques may be considered.