<b>Farming proverbs: analysis of their dynamics and farmers’ knowledge</b>

276-286Proverbs are backed with profound wisdom and ideas of great practical utility. The present study was designed to explore and document different farming proverbs, used by Yadav community for their agricultural use. The study was conducted in three villages of Jahanaganj Developmental block of Azamgarh district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Using the focus group discussions with the farmers, data were collected and inference has been drawn with the help of descriptive statistics. Proverbs are most popular source of indigenous communication method in vogue among the Yadav community, which plays vital role in the exchanging the agricultural technological knowledge and to combat the particular problem. Of total 28 proverbs, 50 per cent were related with the rainfall prediction, within which 64 per cent fell under commonly used, followed by often used (21.42%) and rarely used (14.29%). Out of 25 per cent proverbs related to field operations, 57.14 per cent were found to be under the category of commonly used, followed by often used (28.57%) and rarely used (14.29%). Regarding the seed and transplantation, commonly used and often used were observed to be equal (50.0%). The major ways and centers of agricultural proverbs transmission were Choupal, Charagah and Kantiya Samuh, from where proverbs effectively diffused among the social system. Though the usefulness of farming proverbs validated by the group of farmers was found to be >80 per cent, usefulness of proverbs related to rainfall, field operations, seeds and transplanting was found to be > 40 per cent