~ 4604 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2022; SP-11(7): 4604-4606 ISSN (E): 2277-7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.23 TPI 2022; SP-11(7): 4604-4606 © 2022 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 19-04-2022 Accepted: 22-05-2022 Dipak Nath Dy. Director of Extension Education, CAU, Imphal, Manipur, India Abhinash Moirangthem Assistance Professor, College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal, Manipur, India Ph. Ranjit Sharma Director of Extension Education, CAU, Imphal, Manipur, India Corresponding Author Dipak Nath Dy. Director of Extension Education, CAU, Imphal, Manipur, India Constraints encountered by the paddy growers of Manipur of north eastern region of India Dipak Nath, Abhinash Moirangthem and Ph. Ranjit Sharma Abstract The study was conducted in Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Imphal East and Imphal West districts of Manipur with 180 randomly selected paddy growers. The data collection was done with a structured interview schedule though personal interview method where identified constraints were grouped in three categories such as technological, infrastructural and economical constraints. Out of technological constraints, the most serious problem was lack of knowledge on scientific crop production with mean score 2.48 (Rank I) followed by occurrence of insect-pests and diseases with mean score 2.39 (Rank II). Among the infrastructural constraints the most serious constraints was lack of irrigation facilities (MS 2.88, Rank I) and non-availability of agricultural chemicals on time (MS 2.67, Rank II). Non-availability of labour during peak period (MS 2.88) was the most serious constraint under economical constraints which got 1 st rank followed by high cost of agricultural chemicals (MS 2.72) got rank II. Keywords: Constraints, paddy, paddy grower Introduction Paddy is an important food crop in North Eastern region of India covering 3.51 million ha that accounts for more than 80 per cent of the total cultivated area and 7.8 per cent of total paddy area of the country. The total rice production of North-Eastern region is estimated to be around 5.50 million tons and its share in national rice production is barely 5.9 per cent (Mohanty et. al., 2014) [5] . Manipur is one of the North-Eastern states of India, covering an area of 22,327 sq km which nearly accounts for 0.7 per cent of the total land surface of India. The state is unique in producing varieties of paddy. Agriculture being the backbone of the state economy and paddy is the dominant crop grown by farmers in Manipur. Imphal West district is classified under high productivity of paddy in the state of Manipur (Thangjam, 2020) [2] . Area under paddy cultivation in the state is 225.77 thousand ha with a production of 602.21 thousand MT (Anonymous, 2020-21) [1] . Keeping this in view, the study was undertaken to find out the constraints faced by the paddy growers of Manipur. Methodology The study was conducted in Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Imphal East and Imphal West districts of Manipur with 180 randomly selected paddy growers. A structured interview schedule was administered to individual respondents to collect the relevant data from the respondents. The socio personal characteristics viz., age, educational level, mass media exposure, marital status and social participation of the respondents were also measured. The identified constraints were grouped in three categories such as technological, infrastructural and economical constraints. In order to ascertain the degree of seriousness of the problems, the items under each category were measured in most serious, serious and not so serious level with score 3, 2 and 1 respectively. The weights mean score for each problem were also calculated to find out the seriousness of the problem (Nath, 2014) [3] Results and Discussion The socio personal characteristics of the respondents are presented in Table 1. Data presented in Table 2 reveals that out of technological constraints, the most serious problem was lack of knowledge on scientific crop production with mean score 2.48 followed by occurrence of insect-pests and diseases with mean score 2.39 which got 1 st and 2 nd rank respectively. Among the infrastructural constraints the most serious constraints was lack of irrigation facilities (MS 2.88) and non-availability of agricultural chemicals on time (MS 2.67) with 1 st and 2 nd rank respectively.