Impact Assessment of Paddy Production Technology on Farm Income and Productivity K.G. SONAWANE 1 , R.R. NIRGUDE 2 AND S.A. KADAM 3 Department of Agricultural Economics, MPKV, Rahuri. email : kaveriyk@gmail.com Trends in Biosciences 10(29), Print : ISSN 0974-8431, 6111-6118, 2017 ABSTRACT Rice (Oryza sp.) is the staple food for more than half of the world’s population. It ranks as the second cereal crop grown in the world after wheat. In India, the major cereal crop paddy covers 44.1million ha area, respectively with the production of 106.6 million tones. The present study on was undertaken to study the employment, income and expenditure pattern ,to study the effects of improved paddy production technology on per hectare resource use structure, costs and returns and to estimate the input use gap and yield gap of paddy. Total 62 paddy growers were selected. The level of adoption was 100 per cent technologies viz;for land use, preparatory tillage, irrigation management and seed treatment. The total annual employment was 321.28 mandays, the engagement of family members in service/business and other sources of employment were observed to be 9.56 and 13.00 per cent, respectively. The annual gross income of the paddy growers was estimated to ‘ 1, 94,497.00, wherein the income from crop production contributed highest of 60.34 per cent followed by service and business income (11.74 per cent). The paddy growers made annual expenses of ‘ 1, 66,497.00 on various aspects. Seed has been utilized excessively (38.72 per cent) over the recommended seed rate. Major inputs like manure, N, P and K component of chemical fertilizers, considerable gap between the recommended and actual use levels (63.58, 3.63, 16.38 and 65.03 per cent, respectively), was noticed. The per cent increase in paddy yield levels in medium over low adopters was observed to be 30.63 per cent, while it was 25.97 per cent in high over medium adopters. The increase in the cost was at the total costs level but in per unit analysis it was noticed that the costs were actually reduced by 3.86 and 5.32 per cent in medium over low and high over medium adopters, respectively. The ICBR was estimated to 1.16 and 1.83 for medium and high adopters, respectively. There exists yield gap for paddy around 43.40 per cent. The paddy cultivators reported the constraints like high cost of ploughing, manure, non-availability of quality manure and high cost of chemical fertilizers. Key words Impact Assessment, Paddy Production Technology, Farm Income, Productivity The area under total cereals in India during 2014-15 was 98.97 million ha with 215.06 million tones of production and 2172 kg/ha productivity. The major cereal crop paddy covers 44.1million ha area, respectively with the production of 106.6 million tones. Paddy crop has productivity of 2416 kg/ha. In Maharashtra, area under total cereals during 2014- 15 was 8.05 million ha with 9.3 million tones of production and productivity of 1150 kg/ha. Among the total cereals crops, paddy occupied 1.55 million ha. area. The present study on “Impact Assessment of Paddy Production Technology on Farm Income and Productivity ’’ was undertaken to achieve the required production level of paddy crop through higher productivity, in depth analysis of paddy cultivation methods and adoption pattern of technology . Objectives 1. To study the employment, income and expenditure pattern among the different adoption groups of farms. 2. To study the effects of improved paddy production technology on per hectare resource use structure, costs and returns. 3. To study the resource use productivities of major inputs of paddy. 4. To ascertain the constraints in adoption of improved paddy technologies. 5. To estimate the input use gap and yield gap of paddy. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study has been carried out in 11 tahsils which were selected on the basis the proportionate area under selected paddy crop, from ten districts of Western Maharashtra. From each selected tahsil, a village having the highest area under paddy was considered for the study. Thus in all, 62 paddy growers from 11 clusters were selected for the study. The data pertaining to 2014-15 were collected by cost accounting method with the help of specially designed schedules for the purpose. The analysis is carried out by using tabular method as well as functional approach. Technology Adoption Index (T. A. I.) To assess the extent of adoption of improved crop production technology of paddy, the concept of technology adoption index was used. The score was assigned to each technology separately. Technology Adoption Index (TAI) was worked out as per Kiresur et. al. (1996) with the help of following formula, TAI = (Ai / Mi) x 100 Where, Ai = Average adoption score registered by the farmer for particular component Mi = Maximum adoption score registered for the particular component.