Vol. 10, Special Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
MC Ahire, Chavai AM and Mali SM

Abstract:
Turmeric is referred as Indian saffron scientifically known as Curcuma longa and commonly called as haldi. The research study was conducted in Sangli district of Maharashtra, India during 2020, with a sample size of 140, from two tahsils namely Walwa and Miraj with the objectives viz. to study the personal, socio-economic, communicational and psychological characteristics of turmeric growers, to study the constraints faced by turmeric growers using turmeric steam pressure cooker and to obtain their suggestions to overcome it and to find out the relationship between selected characteristics with perception of turmeric growers. An Ex-post facto design of social research was used for the present investigation. The results revealed that, majority of the turmeric growers using University recommended Turmeric Steam Pressure Cooker under the study were found to be middle age (36 to 56 years), secondary (up to 10 Std.) in education, medium family size, small land holding and moderate farming experience, medium income, medium level of marketing behavior, medium extension contract, medium level of Innovativeness and medium level of Scientific orientation towards University recommended Turmeric Steam Pressure Cooker. The constraints expressed by them were, the turmeric steam pressure cooker machine which is very heavy (55.71%), price of the turmeric steam pressure cooker is high (51.42%), construction of turmeric steam pressure cooker is complex (43.33%), timely availability of the turmeric steam pressure cooker is less during requirement (30.71%), tractor is not available during each time for transportation (27.14%), lack of knowledge about the subsidies for purchase of turmeric steam pressure cooker (22.14). The suggestions made by them were, TSPC machine should be less complex and lightweight (50.71%), price should be reasonable to purchase and affordable rent (48.57%), to avail on time it is require to increase numbers of TSPC in village (30%) make the changes in TSPC in order to increase its portability (26.66) and farmers awareness about the government subsidies need to be increased (17.50%). The selected variables viz., Education, Family Size, Land Holding, Annual Income, Farming Experience, Marketing Behaviour, Innovativeness, Scientific Orientation, Extension Contact, Area under turmeric, Varietal Preference were in positive and significant relationship with perception. Whereas, the variable age had negative and non-significant relationship with the perception.