Intl. J. Agric. Env. Biotech. 5(4): 483-487, December, 2012 Assessment of the level of knowledge and training needs of potato growing tribal farmers of Meghalaya A.K. Srivastava 1 *, V.K. Gupta 2 , B. Lal 3 , S. Roy 1 , S.K. Yadav 1 , M.S. Gurjar 1 , T.K. Bag 1 , N.K. Pandey 4 and B.P. Singh 4 1 Central Potato Research Station, Shillong, Meghalaya, India 2 Central Potato Research Institute Campus, Modipuram, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India 3 Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Rehmankhera, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India 4 Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India * Email: bhu.avinash@gmail.com Paper no: 72 Received: 23 rd February 2012 Received in revised form: 19 th August 2012 Accepted: 21 st October 2012 Abstract The present study was conducted in ten villages falling under six potato growing regions of East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya during 2009-2010. A semi structured interview schedule was administered on 150 randomly selected farmers from these villages. Findings of the study showed that regarding overall practices of potato cultivation a majority (71.3 %) of potato farmers had high level of knowledge followed by 16.6 per cent and 12.0 per cent of potato farmers who had medium and low level of knowledge respectively. Highest training need (mean score 3.34) was felt for plant protection measures followed by manures and fertilizer application, and land preparation and planting respectively. The variables education, occupation, social participation, sources of irrigation, annual income were found to be negatively and significantly correlated with the training needs of the respondents, while land holding under potato cultivation was found to have positive and significant correlation with the training need. @202 New Delhi Publishers.All right reserved Keywords: Potato, Tribal farmers, Meghalaya, Level of knowledge, Training needs In Meghalaya, nearly 10% of the total geographical area is under cultivation. The region is characterized by undulating topography having the plains, valleys, foothills and terraced slopes. Agriculture in the state is characterized by limited use of modern techniques and low productivity. Majority of the agrarian population of the region are marginal farmers following subsistence agriculture. As a result, despite the vast majority of the population engaged in agriculture, the contribution of agricultural production to the state’s GDP is low and most of the population engaged in agriculture remains poor (Bujarbarua et al., 2009). Potato is one of the important vegetable crops grown in Meghalaya occupying about 8.56% of the total cultivable area. The per capita availability in the state is about 93 Kg/person/ annum which is highest among the potato producing states in the country. Despite this, the potato productivity in the region is about 50% of national average (18 t/ha). This is due to the prevalence of diseases and pests throughout the crop season, undulating topography, rain-fed cultivation and inadequate management practices (Sah et al., 2007). Potato cultivation requires implementation of recommended management practices at proper time to realize full yield potential of the Agricultural Extension