FRONTLINE DEMONSTRATION: AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR ENHANCING YIELD OF JUTE FIBRE IN SUB-HIMALAYAN PLAINS (TERAI ZONE) OF WEST BENGAL, India

This study was taken up for wider dissemination of the improved packages of practices for increasing the productivity of jute in the area. Participatory approaches were followed to identify different problems of jute cultivation in the selected villages. Based on the identified problems, frontline demonstrations (FLDs) were conducted involving 149 farmers covering an area of 19.86 ha. in three consecutive years viz. 2006, 2007 and 2008. The results revealed that the increase in yield of demonstration plots varied from 24.93 to 26.75 per cent in three years with an average of 25.95 per cent over the control plots. The technology gap and extension gap ranged from 6.48 to 8.51 q/ha and 5.49 to 6.02 q/ha, respectively with a technology index varying from 18.51 to 24.32 per cent during the period of study. Considering the benefit-cost ratio (ranging between 1.91 to 2.05), it can be stated that there is an enhanced scope for increasing the productivity of jute in the terai region as the agro-ecological environment is very much suitable for the cultivation of the crop and the frontline demonstration will help in accelerating the adoption of the demonstrated technology leading to an increase in productivity of jute to a considerable extent.