TY - BOOK AU - Iby Sebastian AU - R Prakash (Guide) TI - Technology need assessment on horizontal and vertical diversifications for the economically dominant crops in homegardens U1 - 630.71 PY - 2015/// CY - Vellayani PB - Department of agricultural extension, College of agriculture KW - Agricultural extension N1 - MSc N2 - This study entitled ‘Technology need assessment on horizontal and vertical diversifications for the economically dominant crops in homegardens’ was conducted at Thiruvanathapuram district comprising 5 agro ecological units covering 100 respondents with 20 each from each agro ecological units. The objective of the study was to determine the technology needs of horizontal and vertical diversifications for the economically dominant crops in the homegardens. The study also aimed to identify the diversification preferences and knowledge level on both horizontal and vertical diversifications within each homegardens. Constraints experienced by farmers in the process of these diversifications in the homegardens was delineated, categorized and documented. The maximum economic dominance was noticed for coconut followed by banana, tapioca, pepper, vegetables, yams and colocasia and areca nut in the decreasing order of economic dominance. The personal characteristics of the homegarden respondents which constituted the independent variables selected for the study were age, education, occupation, family size, annual income from homegarden, effective homegarden area, social participation, market orientation, risk orientation, mass media contribution and evaluative perception of homegarden respondent farmers in relation to sustainability of the homegardens with reference to horizontal and vertical diversification The technology needs of horizontal and vertical diversifications for the economically dominant crops in the homegardens revealed that extend of Horizontal diversification in 62 per cent of the homegardens are 4 tier or above and 38 per cent of homegardens are less than 4 tier. 58 per cent of the homegardens had 3 or less level of vertical diversification and 42 per cent had 3 or more level of vertical diversification. Detailed study revealed that for each economically dominant crops the maximum vertical diversification level was three which was noticed for coconut, pepper, tapioca and arecanut, followed by 2 levels of diversification for banana and tubers (yams and Colocasia) and the least vertical diversification was noticed in vegetables with one level of vertical diversification, that is they sell produce as such. The result of the knowledge on horizontal diversification revealed that majority (60%) homegarden respondents had fairly high level knowledge on horizontal diversification but 66% of homegarden respondents had low level of knowledge on vertical diversification and only 34 per cent had high level of knowledge on vertical diversification with mean value as check. Results on relationship of personal and social characteristics of the respondents on the knowledge on horizontal diversification and vertical diversification revealed that effective homegarden area and mass media contribution had positive and significant relationship with knowledge on horizontal diversification. Education, risk orientation and mass media contribution had positive and significant relationship with knowledge on vertical diversification. The result of the diversification preferences showed that respondents prefer diversification mainly to cater the family needs which ranked topped with a mean rank value of 6.85 followed by for profit making, to reduce risk and for increasing shelf life, and employment generation. Majority of the respondents (55%) perceived less need for technologies on horizontal in case of vertical diversification 67 per cent perceived that they require more technology. Technology needs assessment as perceived by homegarden farmers revealed that maximum technology need was reported for storage facilities/technologies. The major constraints experienced by farmers were poor harvesting technologies, lack of homegarden suited post harvest technologies, lack of varieties suited for value addition, non availability of supplies and services, lack of homegarden suited post harvest implements and high labour cost. Thus the study revealed that the technology needs for vertical diversification as perceived by homegarden farmers was high, when compared to the technology needs for horizontal diversification. The homegarden farmers preferred diversification mainly to cater the family needs followed by profit making, reducing risk and increasing the shelf life of the produce. When the majority (60 per cent) of the homegarden respondents had fairly high level of knowledge on horizontal diversification, 66 per cent of homegarden respondents had low level of knowledge on vertical diversification. The major constraints experienced by homegarden farmers were poor storage facilities, poor harvesting technologies, lack of knowledge on post harvest handling, lack of homegarden suited post harvest technologies and lack of varieties suited for value addition in decreasing order of importance UR - http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810029657 ER -