Impact Analysis of Front Line Demonstration on Tomato under Mid Plain Agro-Climatic Zone of Uttar Pradesh, India

Aims: Tomatoes benefit local farmers because of their excellent storage and truck-gardening capabilities. Because of local demand, tomatoes are a prominent commercial vegetable production in the Bhadohi area. A Frontline demonstration was held to cover the aforementioned possibility and impact of increase farmer earnings.

Place and Duration of Study: The current study was conducted by ICAR-IIVR - Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bhadohi for five years in a row from 2018–19 to 2022–23 in the farmers' fields in various areas of the district using front-line demonstration.

Methodology: Over the investigation's five years, a total of 112 demonstrations were held at farmer fields on 5.0 ha of land. Each frontline demonstration was set up on 0.1 ha of land, with the nearby 0.3 ha serving as the comparison control (farmer's practice). KVK scientists gathered information on yield, production costs, and returns from farmers' practice plots (control plots) and front-line demonstration plots. Finally, the formulas proposed by Samui et al. [1] was used to calculate the extension gap, technology gap, and technology index.

Results: Under the five-year FLD program, the average extension gap was 140.9 q/ha, the technology gap was 184.74 q/ha, and the technology indexwas 30.79 percent. The benefit cost ratio of tomato ranged from 5.02 to 7.44 in demonstration plots and from 3.99 to 5.74 in farmer’s practice plots during five years of demonstration with an average of 2.60 in demonstration and 2.09 under farmer’s practices.

Conclusion: Front-line example shows how new technology may boost output and profit .The Bhadohi districts of Uttar Pradesh's mid plain have improved vegetable production, consumption, nutritional security, and overall livelihood security as a result of the productivity gain under FLD over existing tomato cultivation practices. This has increased awareness and inspired other farmers in the district to adopt the demonstrated technologies for tomato production.