IMPACT OF KRUSHI VIGYAN KENDRA ON KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF POTATO GROWERS ABOUT POTATO PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

Agriculture is the most pivotal sector of Indian economy in the current phase of development. There is need for transfer of improved agricultural technology from research station to the farmer’s field. The ICAR mooted the idea of establishing KVK for imparting vocational training to the farmers and field level extension functionaries. The present study was conceived with measuring the impact of KVK in terms of knowledge of farmers about potato production technology in Deesa KVK of Banaskantha district of Gujarat State. For research study, from seven talukas of KVK, Banaskantha-I (Deesa) four taluka and total twelve villages from each selected talukas was purposively selected on the basis of maximum numbers of activities carried out by KVK, Deesa. From each selected villages 10 beneficiary and 10 non beneficiary potato growers were selected randomly. Thus, 120 beneficiary and 120 non beneficiary potato growers were selected for the study. Ex-post facto research design was used for this study. Results of the investigating showed that nearly three-fifths (57.50%) of the beneficiary farmers had medium level of knowledge followed by 25.00 per cent with high and 17.50 per cent with low level of knowledge about potato production technology. Whereas, half (50.00%) of the non beneficiary farmers had medium level of knowledge, whereas remaining 31.67 per cent and 18.33 per cent of non beneficiary farmers had low and high level of knowledge about potato production technology, respectively.