6 Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu. 7 (1), January 2007 Accelerating Adoption of Zero Tillage Technology Randhir Singh 1 , Anuj Kumar 2 and Ramesh Chand 3 Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal, 132001, Haryana, India ABSTRACT India is the second largest producer of wheat. The country is producing more than 75.38 million tons of wheat from 28.34 million ha area with productivity of about 2660 kg per ha. Wheat is grown in most parts of the country, but nearly 70 per cent lies in northern plains and 20 per cent in central India. More than 90 per cent wheat area is sown to bread wheat, which is grown throughout the country. A total of 200 farmers, 100 each from adopter and non adopter categories were randomly selected from Gonder, Bhaini Khurd, Kacchwa, Pundrak, Jundla, Sultanpur, Gorgarh, Bastali, Brass, Dabri, Pakhana, Shonkra, Manjura, Janeshro, Hathlana, Northa, Jalmana villages of Karnal district. The adopters had favourable attitude and were more prone to change towards zero tillage technology as compared to non-adopters. The adopters had fairly good knowledge about zero tillage technology. The adopters exhibited satisfaction in terms of saving in time, money, timeliness of sowing and yield. The constraint like lack of adequate manpower with the state department of agriculture and input agencies was perceived as the major extension constraint in the study area. The farmers also mentioned lack of money to purchase new machines and inputs. The level of adoption can be accelerated through educational means and government policies. Key words : Zero Tillage, Adoption, Attitude, Knowledge, Change proneness, Constraints, Impact One of the transformations that is taking place in the cultivation of wheat in rice wheat cropping system is the evolution of zero tillage technology and there is a paradigm shift from conventional to zero tillage. Traditionally, just 10 years ago, the tillage practice for wheat showed that there were over 6 ploughing with the country plough behind the bullock and over 12 laddering (plankings to level the soil) ( Saunders, 1990, Meisner 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2001). By definition, zero tillage seeding is a one pass operation which places seed and fertilizer into an undisturbed seed bed, packs the furrow and retains adequate surface residues to prevent soil erosion. In Latin America, the Development Cooperation has achieved impressive results as a method combating soil degradation introducing zero tillage management, especially direct planting. The potential benefits of zero tillage are early planting, greater efficiency and less maintenance costs of machinery, more time for management decisions and technical upgrading, less dusty and muddy work environment, more time for family, less stress and greater satisfaction derived from caring for the environment. Gentil (1995) reported reductions in diesel fuel of 50 to 70%, or more and proportional reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Zero tillage per se has a major impact in reducing carbon dioxide emissions when compared to conventional tillage, by immobilizing carbon in incremental soil organic matter and surface residues (Derpsch, 1998). Zero tillage seeding offers the benefits of surface residues and reduced soil water losses, improve soil condition over time, availability of organic nitrogen is higher in long term zero tillage seeded fields, protect young seedlings from heat and wind stress during early growth stages. Standing stubble reduces wind speed at ground level and reflects rather than absorbs heat. The potential benefits of this technology may be attractive, but unless the farmers can obtain a suitable priced drill, the benefits will remain hypothetical. An attempt has been made in this paper to analyze the factors responsible for accelerating adoption of zero tillage technology. METHODOLOGY First of all, a list of the adopter and non adopter farmers was prepared, thereafter, 100 adopter and 100 non-adopter farmers from Gonder, Bhaini Khurd, Kacchwa, Pundrak, Jundla, Sultanpur, Gorgarh, Bastali, Brass, Dabri, Pakhana, Shonkra, Manjura, Janeshro, Hathlana, Northa, Jalmana villages of Karnal district were randomly selected for the purpose. The responses were recorded in a pre designed interview schedule.