Knowledge and Attitudes of Grape Growers about Grape Cultivation Practices in Distress Prone Area of Maharashtra State

The study was conducted in Chikhali Panchayat Samiti of Buldana district in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state, having more concentration on grape cultivation in this Panchayat samiti (91.65 hectares). An explora-tory research design of social research was used for the present investigation. The findings of the study revealed that, with regards to knowledge level, majority of the respondents (89.00%) were having high level of knowledge of grape cultivation while, few (11.00%) of the respondents were having medium level of knowledge. It is surprisingly to note that none of the respondents were observed in low level of knowledge category. In case of attitude of grape groweres majority (63.00%) of the respondents exhibited favorable attitude towards scientific grape production practices followed by nearly one fifth (19.00%) of the respondents showed less favorable attitude towards scientific grape cultivation practices. However, only 18.00 per cent were having highly favorable attitude towards the grape production practices.


INTRODUCTION:
Grape cultivation is one of the most remunerative farming enterprises in India. Grape is grown under variety of soil and climatic condition in three distinct agro climatic zones, namely, sub tropical, hot tropical and mild tropical climatic zones in India. The botanical name of grape is Vitis vinifera. L. Family-Vitiaceae and Origin Armenia near the Caspian Sea.
In India, total area under grape was 1,11,400 ha with annual production 12,34,900 tones during the year 2010-11. The major grape growing states in India are Maharashtra in the west, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu in the south and Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh in the North.
In Maharashtra, area under grape cultivation during year 2010-11 was about 86,000 ha with annual production is about 7,74,000 tones per year. At present the cultivation of grape is mostly concentrated in five districts namely Nashik, Sangli, Solapur, Pune and Osmanabad and the area under cultivation is also in Buldana district of Vidarbha region.
The by-products from grapes are rasins, sweet juice, beverages, wine, dry fruits, manuka, kismis etc. which are the only processed products in India. Grape juice is rich in vitamin B and is a good source of vitamin C; the juice contains fruit sugar, fruit acid, minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iron, which play the role of health promoting ingredients in human diet. The juice is used on a large scale for preparing wine.
The soil and climate in Vidarbha region is suitable for grape cultivation but due to different constraints faced by the grape growers, it is not grown under large area and therefore area under grape is rapidly decreasing specially in Buldana district. The yield levels of grape in Vidarbha were found less because of lack of proper resource management and use of the traditional methods of cultivation. So, in order to boost up the production within the available range of resources, farmers need to adopt new techniques of grape cultivation. Hence to know the reasons of low productivity of grape the present study was undertaken to know the knowledge and attitudes of the grape growers about grape cultivation practices.

METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in Chikhali Panchayat Samiti of Buldana district in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state, having more concentration on grape cultivation in this Panchayat samiti (91.65 hectares)

Selection of respondents
A list of grape growers whose orchards were in bearing stage was prepared from each of selected village and all these grape growers were selected as universe or population for the study to constitute sample size of 100 respondents.

Measurement of Knowledge
In the present study, knowledge has been operationally defined as body of understood information possessed by an individual grape grower about grape cultivation practices. A teacher made knowledge test having questions related to Grape cultivation was framed to measure the knowledge of individual grape grower. There are twenty sub practices under sixteen major practices. Responses on different practices of individual respondent was ascertained on two point continuum i.e. yes or no with score 2 and 1. The score of all atoms were added together and considered as an individual score. On the basis of knowledge score of individual the knowledge index was calculated by using following formula.

Measurement of Attitude:
It is operationally defined as an extent of positive or negative reaction of grape growers towards scientific production of grape.
The teacher made test was used to measure attitude. The added attitude score of each individual then was converted into attitude index by using formula Finally by using attitude index individual respondents was categorized into three categories as under on equal interval basis as less favorable, favorable and highly favorable. were having knowledge about type of soil selection of grape cultivation and practices necessary for land preparation respectively.

Results and Discussions
In case of variety use, great majority of respondents (91.00%) were having knowledge about varieties recommended in the study area whereas, 82.00 per cent of them were having knowledge about characteristics of recommended varieties.
With regards to propagation, planting and spacing, 75.00 per cent of the respondents possessed knowledge about propagation, whereas in case of planting 80.00 per cent of the respondents were having knowledge about suitable planting time (January and February) and knowledge about planting depth for grapes (50 to 75 cm) possessed by 67.00 per cent of the respondents. As concerned to spacing, the respondents (59.00%) and (73.00%) were having knowledge about recommended spacing and optimum grape vine population respectively.
The majority of the respondents (70.00%) and (68.00%) possessed knowledge about type of training and pruning time respectively.
As concerned to the organic manures, maximum number of the respondents (50.00%) and (69.00%) were having knowledge of recommended dose of FYM and suitable time of application respectively.
With respect to fertilizer application majority (62.00%) of the respondents possessed knowledge about recommended dose of fertilizers.
The large majority of the respondents (85.00%) and (86.00%) were possessed knowledge about recommended time of irrigation and suitable method of irrigation in the study area respectively.
As regards to dipping or spraying, great majority (73.00%)

RESEARCH PAPER
and (83.00%) of the respondents were having knowledge about the growth regulator use (GA, NAA) and numbers of dipping in one season (2-3) respectively.
The maximum numbers of the respondents (72.00%) were having knowledge of method used for thinning and 69.00 per cent of them possessed the knowledge about girdling practices.
As regards harvesting and marketing, 75.00 per cent and 32.00 per cent of the respondents were having knowledge about appropriate stage of harvesting of grape (Feb., March) and size suitable for marketing (large). It is seen from Table 2, majority of the respondents (89.00%) were having high level of knowledge of grape cultivation while, few (11.00%) of the respondents were having medium level of knowledge. It is surprisingly to note that none of the respondents were observed in low level of knowledge category.
These findings were in conformity with the findings of Pawar (2001) and Waman (2002), Sorate (2011) AG-Agree UD-Undecided DA-Disagree ( * The selected respondents were 100 numbers, hence value of percentage is same as that of value of frequency)

Attitude
From table 3 it is revealed that majority of respondents were agreed with the statements that, Grape cultivation required technical skill (81.00%), followed by Grape cultivation is beneficial over other field crops (72.00%), Grape cultivation is risky than the other crops (69.00%), There are large limitations on the grape cultivation (57.00%), Grape cultivation required high initial cost (48.00%), One can get more profit if he/she undertake take grape cultivation (42.00%), Grape cultivation is not possible to ordinary farmer (25.00%), Grape growing has helped in the rural youths in increasing the employment status in rural area (24.00%), I don't consider grape cultivation as creditable income generation (23.00%).
It is also evident from the data depicted in table 3 that moderate of the respondents undecided with the statement that, Grape cultivation is not possible to ordinary farmer (49.00%),followed by Grape growing has helped in the rural youths in increasing the employment status in rural area (48.00%), I don't consider grape cultivation as creditable income generation (38.00%), There are large limitations on the grape cultivation (35.00%), Grape cultivation required high initial cost (34.00%), One can get more profit if he/she undertake take grape cultivation (29.00%), Grape cultivation is beneficial over other field crops (23.00%), Grape cultivation is risky than the other crops (17.00%), Grape cultivation required technical skill (16.00%).
With regards to disagree feelings ,it is revealed that relatively less proportion of respondents were said that , I don't consider grape cultivation as creditable income generation (39.00%), followed by one can get more profit if he/she undertake take grape cultivation (29.00%), Grape growing has helped in the rural youths in increasing the employment status in rural area (28.00%), Grape cultivation is not possible to ordinary farmer (26.00%), Grape cultivation required high initial cost (18.00%), Grape cultivation is risky than the other crops (14.00%), There are large limitations on the grape cultivation (8.00%), Grape cultivation is beneficial over other field crops (5.00%),Grape cultivation required technical skill (3.00%).
Collectively, it could be said that, grape growers were having somewhat favorable attitude towards grape cultivation. It is seen from Table 4 majority (63.00%) of the respondents exhibited favorable attitude towards scientific grape production practices followed by nearly one fifth (19.00%) of the respondents showed less favorable attitude towards scientific grape cultivation practices. However, only 18.00 per cent were having highly favorable attitude towards the grape production practices.
These findings were in conformity with the findings of More (2002) and Bite (2009).

Conclusion:
In case of knowledge large majority (89.00) were in high level followed by favorable attitude reported by 63.00 per cent. From these findings it may be concluded that, though the grape growers were having high knowledge level, but the adoption behaviour was observed in medium level. This may be due to the constraints like high wages of labour, non availability of timely labours, fluctuation in market, inadequate sources of finance and low rainfall or irrigation facilities etc.