Input use Pattern in Rainfed 'Kandi' Area of Jammu Region in Jammu and Kashmir

The present study conducted in the subtropical rain fed ‘Kandi’ belt of Jammu region aimed to find out the input use pattern and the adoption gap in seed and fertilizers. The results revealed that more than eighty percent of the respondents used urea in maize and wheat crops respectively. Only 14.1 percent of the respondents used Urea in Bajra. The extent of fertilizer use for different crops also reveals that there was no use of MOP in case of marginal farmers. In case of small farmers, MOP was used by only 15.5 percent of the respondents in maize crop only, whereas in case of semi medium farmers MOP was used by 50 percent of respondents in maize and 46.1 percent of respondents in Wheat. An adoption gap existed in seed rate as well as fertilizer dose. The average adoption gap in case of maize crop was 8.5 kg/ha which was less than the recommendation. Similarly the seed rate in case of til, moong and lentil was less than the recommended. The crops where the seed rate (kg/ha) was more than the recommended were wheat (+3.1), bajra (+2.7), mustard (+0.71), mash (+ 1.7) and cowpea (+2.6).The fertilizer application (kg/ha) was also far less than the recommendations. It was 47.8 for DAP followed by Urea (20.4) and MOP (9.3). The adoption gap for Wheat was 16.7 kg /ha for urea and 22.3 kg/ha for DAP.