TRAINING NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF WHEAT GROWERS REGARDING QUALITY WHEAT SEED PRODUCTION - A. Yaqoob; S. Muhammad; K. Mehmood Ch.; Ehsanullah (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2017)
Seed has matchless position among various agricultural inputs as the efficiency of all other inputs mainly depends on the production prospective of seed. The sustainability of any crop depends upon seed quality. Meanwhile, being the staple food,- wheat occupies a significant position in agriculture of Pakistan. Wheat growers deserve special attention in terms of their training in quality seed production because seed is one of the most important farm input. The farmers producing quality seed have to be looked before giving them training. After finding their deficient areas, training should be organized. For conducting the research study, district Narowal of Punjab province was selected. A multistage random sampling technique was used for the selection of study sample of 360 respondents. The data were collected through a reliable and validated interview schedule and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-14). Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used for data analysis. Analysis of the data explains that a large majority of the respondents had no knowledge about the class of seed they used for seed production as well as no idea whether or not they had used the approved variety for seed production. A vast majority of the respondents had very low level of knowledge with respect to seed germination line spacing, seed depth, isolation distance and seed grading. Similarly above and below fifty percent of the respondents had very low level with respect to purity of seed, seed treatment, roughing, insect/pests control and use of farm machinery. The practices such as- source of quality seed, purity of seed, insect/pest control, seed germination, line spacing, seed depth, isolation distance, seed grading, roughing, use of farm machinery, harvesting, and threshing of seed crop, farmers knowledge is very low and low level and they needed medium to high level of training, while seedbed preparation, selection of land, seed rate, sowing method, weed management, and storage of seed, farmers knowledge is high and very high level and they required low to medium level of training. The aspects related to fertilizer application required medium to high level of training while low to medium level of training was required in case of irrigation aspects. The respondents knowledge fall in between low and very low level and they required training for succesful quality wheat seed production
Keywords: journal article; seed; farers knowledge; wheat seed production