UNDERSTANDING THE FARMERS NEEDS WITH REFERENCE TO CROP NUTRITIONAL INPUTS IN DISTRICTS OF TELANGANA

The focus of Indian agriculture has been changing ever since the introduction of planning era (Deshpande et al.,2004).Because of severe shortage of food grain production, an increased attention was given for augmenting productivity and production of food grains starting from late sixties till the eighties. In recent years growth of agriculture has increased remarkably, but this growth was mainly due to increased yield per unit area rather than by expansion of the cultivated area. The fastest and most practical route to improved yield is application and extension of existing agricultural technologies. Good soil structure and permanent cover allow the reduction of mechanisation, fuel consumption and irrigation. Farmers need resources to grow food. They need many different types of resources like natural resources, such as land, air, nutrients, water and sunlight. Proper nutrition is essential for satisfactory crop growth and production. The use of soil tests can help to determine the status of plant available nutrients to develop nutrient input recommendations to achieve optimum crop production. The profit potential for farmers depends on producing enough crop per acre to keep production costs below the selling price. Given the present scenario in farming 77 per cent in Wanaparthy 81 per cent in Gadwal and 80 per cent in Mahbubnagar farmers were willing to opt for alternative enterprise for livelihood. Subdivision has an impact on the landholding possessed by the sample farmers. But in Wanaparthy and Mahbubnagar, the holding held by sample farmers registered a marginal increase in over the extent of land possessed by preceding generation. Cent per cent of farmers in selected three districts, were found to have assured source of irrigation. All the farmers in Wanaparthy used power drawn machinery for harvesting, which was not so in Gadwal district and Mahbubnagar. Cent per cent of farmers in selected districts were using UREA and DAP. NPK GRADE was used by 77 per cent of farmers in Wanaparthy 93 per cent in Gadwaland 20 per cent in Mahbubnagar. The average consumption of fertilizers in Wanaparthy was 320 kg , while 530 kg in Gadwal and 450 kg in Mahbubnagar. On an average of 15 tonnes of organic manure per ha was used in Wanaparthy 0.93per cent in Gadwal and 6.9 per cent in Mahbubnagar. Farmers preference for colour DAP was influenced by quality expectation to extent of 88per cent in Wanaparthy and more are less similar trend was found in other two districts. The awareness of ZNDAP was not uniform among selected districts. The farmers of Mahbubnagar were totally ignorant in the use of ZNDAP. The application of fertilizers by farmers was influenced by their own self-assessment followed by dealer's advice in Wanaparthy while in Gadwal and Mahbubnagar farmers own experience was most powerful factor. Undoubtedly price and quality were major factors in deciding the grade of fertilizer in all the districts. In respect to micronutrient usage in the form of zinc was used by 55 per cent in Wanaparthy, 68 per cent in Gadwal, 60 per cent in Mahbubnagar. Farmers in general in selected districts were not satisfied with facilities available for soil testing if they are made available. The facilities that the farmers required were technical literature, field demos, farmer meetings etc in Wanaparthy district. Field demos, farmer meetings, soil testing in Mahbubnagar and Gadwal district. The constraints that the farmers encountered in farming were weather/inadequate rains/drought as lamented by all the farmers in three districts. Other constraints were non availability of labour in Wanaparthy and Gadwal and lack of technical support in Mahbubnagar. Yet other constraints were indebtedness, lower returns, and non-availability of inputs.