Abstract
In Pakistan, rice is the second most important food as well as a cash crop, which occupies 11% of the country s' cropped area. Pakistan is the fifth largest rice exporting country in the world. It has been generally observed that rice growers who adopt latest plant protection measures and follow other recommended practices; get much higher yield per hectare than those who do not adopt latest rice production technology. The Dept. of Agri. (Ext.) Govt. of the Punjab has been trying its best to increase per hectare yield of various crops including rice by using different extension methods especially the demonstrations. Demonstrations are considered to be the foundation stone of extension teaching. The present paper aims to assess the role of demonstrations in the adoption of recommended agricultural technologies by the farmers. The data show that a simple majority (56.67%) of the respondents was aware of the existence of rice crop demonstration plots in their area/village. None of the respondents acknowledged the role of demonstrations in the dissemination of rice crop recommendations including seed rate, seed treatments, time of sowing/transplanting, seed bed preparation, use of fertilizers, application of Zinc Sulphate, irrigation, weed control, application of plant protection measures and harvesting. While rating the contribution of demonstrations in the dissemination of information about rice recommendations with regard to sowing method of rice, one-fourth of the respondents rated the demonstrations as high, 12.50% rated very high. However, 9.17, 4.17 and 3.33% of the respondents rated the contribution as medium low and very low respectively. Key words: Demonstrations, dissemination of rice production technology.
