Knowledge and adoption of cabbage management practices by farmers

Vegetables are the most important diet for human’s health, because they possess high nutritive value and are rich sources of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh was selected as the research area because it has temperate and good conditions for vegetable production. The area is suitable for production of different types of vegetation and their breeding. Himachal Pradesh has 12 districts. Out of the 12 districts, Kullu District was selected purposely. It covers five community development blocks namely Manali, Kullu, Banjar, Ani and Nirmand. Out of these five Blocks, two blocks (Kullu and Manali) were selected. Out of these two blocks, 10 villages were selected randomly in each block with the help of random number table. From the comprehensive list of farmers according to Gram Panchayts from 20 villages, 30 vegetable growing farmers (Small, Medium and Large) from each village were selected randomly. Thus, 600 farmers were included in this study. Data were collected with the help of developed and pre-tested questionnaire. Suitable statistical tools were applied for analysis of primary data to get the final results. All the cabbage growers had complete knowledge about the selection of soil, preparation of soil, spacing and harvesting. Majority of the respondents had complete knowledge about irrigation method (97.33%). Majority of the respondents had completely adopted inter-cultural operation (67.00%) and transplanting (63.00%). All the respondents suggested that the prices of improved varieties seeds be made available at reasonable rates in the open market. Key words: Knowledge, adoption, cabbage management practice, constraints.