Title: ROLE OF DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS IN FOSTERING FERTILIZER BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Authors: Kemekar Pavankumar, Ch. Venu Gopala Reddy and K. Madhu Babu

Publisher: The President, Society of Extension Education Gujarat

Keywords: role performance, FBMPs, fertilizers, extension functionaries and activities

Volume: 40

Issue: 2

Year: December 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56572/gjoee.2025.40.2.0028

Abstract: The future of India is largely dependent on replenishing the plant nutrients. Various limitations existed in knowledge and attitude on Fertilizer Best Management Practices (FBMPs), fertilizer management and perception of stakeholders on indiscriminate use of fertilizers. Hence, there is a need to study the role performed by various public and private institutions in promoting FBMPs. It aimed to assess institutional performance, compare roles across systems, and test the hypothesis of no significant difference. Six districts of Telangana were randomly selected each representing one major filed crop. From each district, ten extension officials (comprising of KVK scientists, DAATTC scientists, DoA officials and NGO officials) and ten input dealers were selected randomly. Thus, a total of sixty extension officials and sixty input dealers were selected from a total of five KVKs, six DAATTCs, six NGOs and sixty input agencies. Students t-test was used to test the hypothesis. The results revealed that public extension institutions significantly outperformed private counterparts in conducting research, on-farm trials, frontline demonstrations, capacity building and service delivery related to FBMPs. However, NGOs played a notable role in capacity building and institutional support, while input dealers dominated input supply. Statistical tests confirmed highly significant differences in most domains, highlighting the complementary but uneven engagement of public and private systems in promoting FBMPs.