English

Abstract

The failure of state actors/institutions in the country in delivering agricultural advisory and extension services to the rural community created a space for non-state actors to deliver these services at the door steps of majority of the rural poor people in order to improve their livelihoods. This situation prevails in all the four provinces of the country especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where rural poverty is evident. In order to access the impact of agricultural services rendered by different non-state institutions on the livelihoods of rural poor in this region, the current research study was designed. The study was conducted in district Mansehra (one of the most populated district of Hazara division). Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used for the collection of data from respondents. The data were collected from the rural community of those villages where the selected non-state organizations were involved in a variety of rural development related activities/tasks. The data were collected from 450 respondents randomly selected from 6 villages. The collected data were analyzed by using computer based statistical software – SPSS. From the results it was concluded that majority of the respondents had age between 36-50 years with secondary educational level. The land holding size of the respondents in the research was very small. It was also concluded that a large majority (>80.0%) of respondents said that agricultural services rendered by non-state institutions like extension education, trainings related to crop & livestock management, poultry & forestry services, vaccination for livestock and awareness campaigns regarding latest agricultural technologies improved their overall agricultural productivity as well as livelihoods. It was also concluded that regarding impacts of agricultural services rendered by non-state organizations, a large majority of the respondents (89.6%) said that their agricultural services increased their agricultural productivity. While exploring the reasons due to which agricultural related services of non-state organizations play role in improving livelihoods of rural people, the results of the study indicated that in extension and education services majority (54.6%) of the respondents said that social organizations provided good quality extension and education related services to the rural community. Finally, it was concluded that agricultural services of non-state organizations were very effective and played a significant role in upgrading the livelihoods of rural poor.