A Socio-Economic Study on Adoption of Modern Agricultural Technologies in Bihar, India

Technology adoption has been the main obstacle in realizing agricultural potential in the country in general and Bihar in particular. The present study focuses on level of adoption, access of farmers to farm technology, quality of modern technology, access to agricultural extension institutions and problems faced by extension officials in transfer of farm technology. It has been observed that the coverage of agricultural development programmes is limited to few villages, however, line department still dominates in spreading of modern agricultural technology. Small size of land holding and fragmented land emerged as main constraint to adoption of modern horticultural technology in Bihar. While analyzing use of modern varieties of principal crops, a comparatively high level of adoption on small and medium farms was observed. Hence, there is no relationship between size of farm and adoption of modern varieties of seeds in Bihar. Inadequate staff, infrequent supervision and lack of conveyance facility are some other factors responsible for poor transfer of technologies in Bihar.