Impact assessment of cluster frontline demonstrations on soybean yield improvement in farmer’s fields

S. A. JAYBHAY; P. G. SURESHA; B. D. IDHOL; B. N. WAGHMARE; D. H. SALUNKHE

doi:10.61475/JFS.2025.v38i2.01

S. A. JAYBHAY Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune - 411 004, Maharashtra, India
P. G. SURESHA Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Sericulture, Chintamani University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru - 563 125, India
B. D. IDHOL Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune - 411 004, Maharashtra, India
B. N. WAGHMARE Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune - 411 004, Maharashtra, India
D. H. SALUNKHE Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune - 411 004, Maharashtra, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61475/JFS.2025.v38i2.01

Abstract

The yield gap between the improved package of practices and the farmer’s practice under cluster frontline demonstrations for improving the soybean yield was studied on the fields of 145 farmers of Pune and Satara districts duringthe kharif seasons from 2015 to 2024. The results revealed that the adoption of improved practices for soybean cultivationproduced an average seed yield of 2806 kg/ha, whereas the farmer’s practice produced 2357 kg/ha. The per cent increase inyield with improved practices over farmer’s practice was 19.05%. The extension gap and technology index ranged between338 to 562 kg/ha and 1.79 to 28.46%, respectively. Similarly, economic analysis showed that the average net returns andbenefit-cost ratio were higher under the improved practice (`72,812/- per ha and 2.86:1, respectively) as compared tofarmer’s practice (`57,253/- per ha and 2.56: 1, respectively). Likewise, with an average additional cost of `2246/- per ha,the additional average net returns of `15,559/- per ha were obtained with the adoption of improved varieties and productiontechnologies under the improved practice of soybean cultivation. The average break-even yield under the improved practice(980 kg/ha) was higher than the farmer’s practice (920 kg/ha), while the average break-even cost was lower under theimproved practice (`13.71/- per kg) compared to the farmer’s practice (`15.36/- per kg).