Creating awareness about the benefits of hybrid rice to the end users i.e. the farming community is considered as the most important activity in order to popularize hybrid rice in the country. This can be achieved by conducting frontline demonstrations in the farmers field. During 1999, two hundred fifty frontline demonstrations were conducted with 11 released hybrids in 7 target states. The minimum unit of each demonstration was one hectare. The details on the number of demonstrations, those found promising and the yield advantage are furnished in Table 6.2. Data from Andhra Pradesh was partly received and the same are included in the result presented here.

It is evident from the table that among the 11 hybrids evaluated in frontline demonstrations, 8 of them have reconfirmed their superiority with an yield advantage ranging from 1.4 t/ha to 3.0 t/ha. However, the performance of hybrids ADTRH 1, CORH 2 and CNRH 3 was not encouraging. The results indicated that the hybrid CNRH 3 which has been released for boro season in West Bengal is not suitable for the kharif season. The hybrid PHB 71 which has been released by CVRC performed exceedingly in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The performance of hybrids was found to be superior in more than 75 percent of test locations.

Most of the farmers who cultivated hybrids expressed satisfaction over the superiority of hybrids in respect of yield. Interestingly, many farmers felt that hybrids had better tolerance against pest and diseases under the similar management conditions. These demonstrations have convinced the farmers that, they can grow a bumper crop with a seed rate of 6-8 kg/acre and by planting a single seedling/hill. Though they had reservations initially, they become confident after seeing the results by themselves. Large number of frontline demonstrations are planned for the ensuing seasons.

To demonstrate the advantage of cultivation of hybrids vis-à-vis inbred varieties among the rice farmers, and to create the awareness about the potential benefit of this technology, front-line demonstrations of released hybrids were conducted. During the year 1999-2000, six hundred and thirty one front-line demonstrations were conducted with eight released hybrids in eight states (Number of demonstrations conducted state-wise are depicted in Graph - 1. The minimum unit of each demonstration was one hectare. The details of number of demonstrations in various states, yield of hybrid and check and the yield advantage for rabi 1999-2000 and kharif 2000 seasons are given in Table - 2 the performance of the hybrids in front-line demonstrations is depicted in Graphs - 2 and 3 respectively.

Most of the farmers who cultivated hybrids expressed satisfaction over the superiority of hybrids in respect of yield. Interestingly, many farmers felt that hybrids had better tolerance against pest and diseases under the similar management conditions. These demonstrations have convinced the farmers that, they can grow a bumper crop with a seed rate of 6-8 kg/acre and by planting a single seedling/hill. Though they had reservations initially, they become confident after seeing the results by themselves. Large number of frontline demonstrations are planned for the ensuing seasons.

During the rabi season, in 55% of the demonstrations and in kharif season in 66% of the demonstrations the yield advantage of the hybrid was more than 1.0 t/ha, in the rest of the demonstrations, it ranged from 200-900 kg/ha.

During rabi season, performance of KRH-2 in Karnataka, Sahyadri in Maharashtra and PA 6201 in West Bengal (Boro Season) was impressive with mean yield advantage of 1.07 to 1.55 t/ha. Mean yield advantage of CORH-2 in Tamil Nadu and CNRH-3 in West Bengal was marginal over the check varieties (0.55 and 0.58 t/ha respectively) - Graph - 2.

During kharif season, DRRH-1 and PHB-71 in Andhra Pradesh, KRH-2 in Karnataka, PA-6201 and PHB-71 in Orissa, NSD-2 Pant Sankar Dhan-1 and PHB-71 in Uttar Pradesh performed well with a mean yield advantage of 1.10 to 2.58 t/ha over the respective check varieties (Graph 3).

Farmers became convinced of superiority of hybrids in yield potential after conducting these trials, in addition to getting confident about raising a bumper crop by using the seed rate of only 6-8 kg/acre and planting a single seedling. Large number of front-line demonstrations are planned to be conducted in ensuing seasons for popularization and large adoption of hybrid rice.