Yield enhancement in paddy through frontline demonstrations on integrated pest management

The frontline demonstrations (FLDs) were conducted to demonstrate the integrated pest management (IPM) technology to control pest infestation and yield enhancement in paddy with scientific cultivation in the fields of farmers of Kheda district, Gujarat during kharif season. The improved sorghum variety Gurjary was grown with IPM and compared with the farmers’ practice. The results indicated that the higher grain yield (4, 815 kg/ha) was recorded in the demonstrations compared to 4, 604 kg/ha in farmers’ practice. Thus there was an increase of 5.3 per cent in demonstrations over farmers’ practice. The higher net income (Rs 25, 360/ha) was realised in demonstrations as compared to farmers'practice (Rs21, 201/ha). Adoption of IPM inpaddycultivation under demonstration plots also recorded higher benefit-cost ratio (1.73) as compared to farmers’ practice (1.58).