Correlation analysis for adoption studies of rice growers in district Baramulla of Kashmir Division, India

This study about the correlation analysis for adoption and knowledge of rice growers was carried in 12 randomly selected villages of 3 tehsils prominently growing rice of district Baramulla of J&K state. After multi-stage random 10 rice growers from each village were selected randomly and systematic sampling technique a sample of 120 rice farmers was drawn. It was found that Knowledge were found positively correlated with Education (0.449 Occupation (0.356, Social participation (0.205), annual income (0.229, Mass media exposure (0.375, Extension contacts (0.219 and Scientific orientation (0.341 and Adoption were also found positively correlated with Education (0.447 Occupation (0.348, Social participation (0.301), Annual income (0.243, Mass media exposure (0.309, Extension contacts (0.243 and Scientific orientation (0.338 whereas Age, Family size, Land holding and Farming experience have no significance with knowledge and adoption level of famers. The significance at 0.01 level of variables like Education, Occupation, Social Participation, Annual income, Mass Media Exposure, Extension contacts and Scientific Orientation with dependent variable Knowledge and adoption level of rice growers. The results of the study indicated that these selected variables might play a very important role in increasing the Knowledge and adoption level of the package of practices by rice growers of Kashmir Division.


INTRODUCTION
Rice production in the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is predominantly a mono cropped activity with very high consumption and most important staple food than other states of India. The area under the rice is distributed by both the regions in which about 40% of production is from Jammu division while as 60% from Kashmir division (DES,2016a). Rice plays an important role in the livelihood of the people in the state, although the area under the crop is very small as compared to other states of India with only 0.30 m hectare area, at the same time plays an important role in the state economy (Economic Survey, 2016). Rice will remain an important and staple food for the people of Jammu & Kashmir. However, there has been a considerable decrease in area under paddy cultivation in Kashmir valley due to switching over to horticulture crops, particularly apple orchards besides housing and developmental projects. Though, the productivity levels got improved over time still, the gap of self-sufficiency is widening which is evident from the growing import and offtake of rice stocks and burgeoning rationed population under PDS system of the state (Farhet et al.,2018). In District Baramulla the rice cultivated area has increased from 8094 to 8514 hectares and the production from 194.39 to 144.39 thousand metric tonnes has decreased during the year 2011-12 to 2014-15 respectively (DES, 2016b).It has been found that the production and productivity levels over the decade has fallen due to poor

Research Article
and deteriorating soils. The probable reason for this might be due to poor knowledge and adoption level of farmers about package of practices. The knowledge and adoption levels of respondents are mostly influenced by personal, socio-economical, psychological and communication characteristics of individuals. In this contest a study on the relation of farmer's selected characteristics with their Knowledge and Adoption of Rice Cultivation practices has been taken with the objectives-i) Correlation of selected profile characteristics of rice growers with their knowledge, ii) Correlation of selected profile characteristics of rice growers with their adoption.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The research study was conducted purposefully in the Sopore, Patten and Bomai tehsil of Baramulla District of Jammu and Kashmir. The twelve villages were selected randomly from these tehsils for the present study. After multi-stage random sampling, 10 rice growers from each village were selected and data were collected from 120 respondents by personal interview method containing questions which were retained after putting them to discrimination and difficulty Index. Eleven independent variables, i.e. Age, Family size, Landholding and Farming experience, Education, Occupation, Social Participation, Annual income, Mass Media Exposure, Extension contacts and Scientific Orientation were subjected to statistical analysis for the purpose of studying their relationship with two dependent variables knowledge and adoption. Correlation coefficient (r-value): It is to find out the relationship between independent and dependent variables and was calculated by employing the following formula suggested by Karl Pearson.
n Where, n = Number of respondents ∑XiYi =sum of product X and Y X and Y =Dependent and independent variables correlated ∑X =Summation of overall dependent variables ∑Y =Summation of overall independent variables X² =Sum of all squared values of dependent variables Y 2 = Sum of all values of independent variables

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In order to study the nature of relationship between the selected profile characteristics of rice growers and their level knowledge and adoption, correlation analysis was followed using standard Sreekanth Scientific Orientation 0.341 ** 0.000 **Significant p≤ 0.01 level of probability and *Significant p≤ 0.05 level of probability Table 2. Relationship of independent variables of respondents with their adoption (N=120).

Conclusion
The present study concluded that knowledge and adoption were found positively correlated with Education, Occupation, Social participation, annual income, Mass media exposure, Extension contacts and Scientific orientation whereas Age, Family size, Land holding and Farming experience had no significance with knowledge and adoption level of famers. The significance of the correlation coefficient to decide the strength of the linear relationship between dependent and independent variables. The results of study revealed that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that there is a significant relationship between two types of variables.