Impact Assessment of Zinc and Sulphur Application through Front Line Demonstrations in Paddy in Tribal Region of Central India

Front-line demonstrations were conducted at farmer’s fields of tribal villages of Jabalpur (7 No.) and Mandla (6 No.) districts during Kharif 2012 and 2013, respectively. Results revealed that the application of 5 kg Zinc +Recommended Dose of Fertilizer (Zn+ RDF ha-1) significantly increased the grain yield (4.53 and 4.70 t ha-1) zinc content in grain (13.18 and 12.97 mgkg-1) and total Zn uptake (190.31 and 184.79 g ha-1) and post-harvest available Zn (0.73 and 0.71 mg kg-1) over farmer’s practices or RDF during both the years. While, the S content in grain and straw of rice, their total S uptake and post- harvest available S increased significantly with the application of 40 kg S ha-1 +RDF and 5 kg Zn+40 kg S ha-1+RDF over farmers practice/ RDF/5 kg Zn ha-1+ RDF during both the years.

With the application of 5 kg Zn +40 kg S +RDF ha-1, the extension gap was maximum (0.93 and 1.12 t ha-1) while, the least technology gap (0.47 and 0.30) and technology index (9.4 and 6.0%) were recorded. The performance of improved technology (5 kg Zn + RDF) emphasized the need to organize Kisan School in the deficient areas for the acceptance of improved technologies to bridge the wide extension gap.