Dini M Das creator Allan Thomas (Guide) text Vellayani Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture 2022 monographic 120p. The study on “Technology assessment of rubber based intercropping systems (RBIS) in South Kerala was undertaken with an objective to examine the evolutionary dynamics of horizontal diversification in rubber gardens, its technology needs and the decision-making factors influencing the adoption of rubber based intercropping systems (RBIS). Farmer's attitude toward RBIS was determined and constraints as perceived by the farmers pursuing RBIS were delineated. Sixty farmers practicing rubber based inter cropping with an area of more than 50 cents were randomly selected from rubber dominating agro ecological units of two districts namely Thiruvanathapuram and Kottayam. Farmers from AEU8, AEU9 and AEU12 with 20 farmers from each AEUs were the respondents selected for the study. Ten independent variables were selected through judge’s rating. Adoption of inter crop management practices including nutrient management, pest management and soil conservation measures were the dependent variables of study. On analysis, 66.66 per cent of RBIS farmers belonged to middle age (35-55) ,with an education up to 10th (50%) and 61.67 per cent had family size up to four. Majority(70% ) of RBIS respondents have agriculture as primary occupation. Greater proportion (80%) of RBIS farmers have medium level (1.1-2.95 acre ) of total land holding. About 46.67 per cent of RBIS farmers had little water scarcity and 48.33 per cent had an effective intercropping area of 100-150 cent. Majority of RBIS farmers had medium level of extension participation (65%) and extension contact (65%). Over 53.33 per cent of RBIS farmers had above mean level of market orientation.The distribution of RBIS based on the dominance profile identified that banana was the most dominant intercrop based on numerical dominance. Majority (61.67 %) of RBIS have more than 4 level of horizontal diversification with a mean score value of 4.75. The results on the extent of adoption on production and management technology practices for RBIS revealed that majority of RBIS respondents i.e. 61.66 per cent belonged to medium category followed by 21.67 and 16.67 per cent in low and high category of adoption. On categorization of RBIS respondents into different adopter categories as explained by Rogers, 30% of respondents each belonged to early majority and late majority category, respectively. The result of correlation coefficient between selected independent variable and the extent of adoption of production and management practices of intercrops revealed that only market orientation was significant at 5 % level of significance. On analyzing the different components of technology adoption by factor analysis, out of 13 factors three factors viz., nutrient management measures, pest management measures and soil conservation measures explained 60.473% of the total variance. Intercrop wise extent of adoption of production and management practices showed medium level of adoption for banana (62%), cassava (64.29%), pineapple (56.52%) and elephant foot yam (54.28%). Result of technology need assessment revealed that RBIS farmers felt the need for drainage technologies (115), followed by nutrient management technologies (142) and irrigation technologies (153). On analyzing the decision-making factors influencing the adoption of RBIS, it was revealed that the distance between farmers residence and rubber land was the most important factor. While considering the different dimensions related to specialized components in rubber garden situations, income generation potential was considered as the major dimension with rank 1 followed by regularity of returns (2) and initial cost (3). The percentage contribution from mean intercrop income to mean annual income was 33.14%. The result of the Karl Pearson product moment correlation between the percentage contribution of intercrop area and intercrop income was not significantly related. The result of attitude of farmers towards intercropping system pointed that 55% of the RBIS respondents was with neutral attitude. The major constraints experienced by the RBIS farmers was the high cost of labour with mean score of 2.88. To conclude, the present study indicated that the overall extent of adoption of production and management technology practices of intercrops in RBIS was from medium to low level. This shows the need for the improvement in adoption of technology for production and management practices in RBIS and scaling up the adoption through suitable extension interventions.Attitude plays an important role in the inclusions of intercropping in rubber gardens. Only minority (15%) have negative attitude towards intercropping in rubber gardens. This shows that in future intercropping would become a common phenomenon in rubber gardens and technology options be made for RBIS farmers. M Sc Agricultural Extension Rubber RBIS 630.71 DIN/TE PG https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810216002 https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810216002