ABSTRACT

The study on knowledge and adoption of tomato seed production technologies in Haveri district was conducted in 2023-24 using an ex-post facto research design. A sample of 120 tomato seed growers were selected from two talukas, each with two hoblies and 30 growers were randomly chosen from each hobli.
The findings revealed that majority (55.00 %) of the tomato seed growers were belonged to middle age group, 27.00 per cent were studied up to high school, 39.17 per cent were small farmers, majority (54.17 %) had medium family size, 48.33 per cent had medium experience in seed production. About 42.50 per cent belonged to medium annual income category, medium area under seed production (55.33 %), low extension contact (46.67 %), medium extension participation (35.83 %), 35.83 per cent had low farm resource availability, more than two fifth (45.83 %) had medium extension participation, two fifth (40.83 %) had high innovativeness, 41.67 per cent had medium risk orientation and 44.16 per cent had medium scientific orientation. About 45.83 per cent belonged to medium knowledge category and 37.50 per cent of them belonged to medium adoption category in tomato seed production technologies.
Correlation analysis highlighted that education, area under seed production, extension contact, extension participation, innovativeness, risk and scientific orientation had positive relationship with knowledge. Similarly, adoption was positively linked to education, area under seed production, extension participation, risk and scientific orientation of tomato seed growers.
Common constraints included pest outbreaks (100 %), high labour costs (88.33 %), lack of skilled labour (80.83 %) and delayed grow-out test reports (69.16 %). Growers suggested providing timely GOT reports (80.84 %), farm mechanization (58.33 %) and financial support for rain damage (40.83 %) as key solutions.