Determining the Effect of Front Line Demonstrations on Trellis Method of Cultivation in Tomato (Solanum lycopercicum Mill.) in Khammam District of Telangana, India

The present study was conducted in Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Wyra adopted villages in Khammam District of Telangana. Tomato is an important vegetable crop in the district but the yields are not up to expectations due to poor quality, early decay, pests and disease incidence. An effort was made by KVK, Wyra to address the problem of reducing pests and disease incidence and improving the fruit quality by introduction of technology Trellis method of cultivation in tomato. This was tested on small scale for 3 years with the help of On-farm trials with limited number of farmers. It was proved to be profitable hence this technology was up-scaled and disseminated on large scale with the help of front line demonstrations as the main thrust areas of KVKs are refinement and demonstration of novel technologies, training of farmers and extension functionaries. The front line demonstrations on trellising in tomato crop were conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Wyra, Khammam in its adopted villages from 2016-17 to 2018-19 with an objective of improving the yield and quality of tomato by adopting the technology trellising on tomato along with drip and mulching, use of indeterminate hybrid varieties, balanced use of fertilizers and integrated pest and disease management. Though trellising has been developed long back the knowledge and adoption rate was low with the tomato farmers of the district. The data from the study like cost of cultivation, production, productivity, gross returns and net returns were collected as per schedule and analyzed. The results from the study revealed that average highest yield recorded was 622.58 q/ha in demonstration plot compared to control plot yield 431.55 q/ha, an additional yield of 191.03 q/ha was recorded, 44.33 percent of average yield increase was recorded over control plot. The extension gap and technology gap enumerated from the study ranged from 183.45 q/ha to 201.80 q/ha and 11.40 to 41.25 q/ha respectively, with the technology index of 4.21 percent during the demonstration years. Besides this, the demonstrated plots gave higher gross return, net return with higher benefit cost ratio when compared to farmer’s practice. In present study efforts were also made to study the impact of FLD on horizontal spread which has increased by 160.36 percent. The study results showed that higher average yield was obtained in demonstration plots over the years compared to farmer’s practice due to high knowledge and adoption of full package of practices i.e. use of trellis method of training to tomato plants, application of farm yard manure, recommended dose of fertilizers, fertigation, mulching etc. Further the study was undertaken to do a formative and summative (outcome and impact) evaluation of the frontline demonstrations on trellising in Tomato.