Agricultural Technology Management Agency Research Articles

Impact of agricultural technology management agency (ATMA) on livelihood of farm women: A review

Impact of agricultural technology management agency (ATMA) on livelihood of farm women: A review

Impact of Training on Modern Machineries and Improved Agricultural Technologies towards Cognitive Assessment of Farmers

In the era of fast changing technology, training has become an integrated part of investment for accelerating transfer of technology to people of all walks of life. The well-established network of organizations spread over the length and breadth of the country. The budget spent on training has tremendously increased over the past few years. with this background the study under taken at Trichy district, Tamil Nadu state of a country India by employing purposive sampling procedure. Agricultural Engineering College & Research Institute, Kumulur is one of the constituent colleges of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University located in Trichy. It is a pioneer institute in Tamil Nadu doing research on Agricultural Engineering technologies and Machinery. It is being chosen by the Tamil Nadu Govt. for state level capacity development trainings of farmers under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency and Agrl. Engineering Department (AED). Using simple random sampling procedure 10 farmers (trainees) were selected from 18 Districts of Tamil Nadu who were visited the institution during the study period. (180 sample size). The major objectives, as study of socioeconomic profile and knowledge assessment during pre and post training on Farm Machineries, Bio-energy, Agricultural Processing, Soil and Water Conservation, Drip irrigation and improved Agricultural sciences. Among 180 respondents, Majority of them were old age group (38.89 %) studied primary education (30.00 %) equally spread in marginal and small land holdings (around 75 %), possessed high level of farming experience (38.89 %) had medium level of extension agency contact (47.78 %), possessed medium level of Information seeking behaviour (53.89 %) with a medium level of Innovativeness (42.78 %). Knowledge test was assessed prior to training, among 180 respondents, Majority of farmers belonged to the medium level of knowledge category on all six categories and the after training knowledge test showed that the respondents belonged to low level were distributed in medium to high level of knowledge category and the medium level was elevated to high level category. The alternate hypothesis (H1)was proved through ‘ t’ test that there was a significant difference prevailed in the knowledge level of the respondents acquired through the trainings conducted on the recently developed Agrl. Technologies and modern machineries.

Fisheries Extension Interventions: A Review

Since India’s independence, several extension initiatives viz, production oriented programmes, area development initiatives, target group based service schemes and technology delivery mechanisms are implemented with the goal of agriculture and rural development. But most of these programmes failed to meet the needs as well as to utilise opportunities required for the majority of people (MANAGE, 2007). In order to tackle the different constraints as well as to meet the emerging challenges in our extension system, the Innovations in Technology Dissemination component of National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) implemented Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) as a pilot project in a few states in India and later it spread to other states. A review of different kinds of extension strategies practised through ATMA is studied here and finally the different factors that can qualitatively contribute to an effective extension service delivery are looked upon.

Impact of Aatmanirbharta (Self-reliance) Agriculture and Sustainable Farming for the 21st Century to Achieve Sustainable Growth

Purpose: Indian Agriculture is 3rd most significant contributor to GDP and more than 50% of the population is dependent on agriculture, Indian agriculture accounts for15% of the country’s Gross Value added to the economy, and agriculture policies and schemes implemented by the government to increase the production, income level of farmers, employment, growth of the rural area, provide Digital agricultural stack in area of IoT, block chain, Geographic Information System(GIS) Kisan Drones, Big data, as per the report of NITI Aayog AI in agriculture would be worth $ 2.6 bn and Agri-Startups promote the circular economy with sustainable farming in the area of Millet, organic farming and vertical farming. It is an important pillar of sustainability and it is recognized as 7 out of 17 Sustainable development goals. Sustainable agriculture farming is the order of the 21st century in India which currently has 4.43 million organic farmers, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23, and a much-needed alternative to conventional for protecting the well-being of the farmers and Society, Economy and Ecosystem. India is Self-reliant in the production of Sugar, Rice, Wheat and food grains. Due to Government Schemes like Atmanirbhar, Minimum Support Price(MPS), PM Kisan Scheme, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), PM Gati-shakti, National Agriculture Market(e-NAM), Young –Entrepreneurs Accelerator Fund for Agri-Startups, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PMVY), establishing more Farmer producers Organizations(FPO), National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), Agricultural Technology Management Agency(ATMA), NABARD in providing finance for farm and non-farm sector, PM-PRANAAM for protecting mother earth. These initiatives are to increase the investment opportunities in agriculture, efficiency, and productivity in agriculture for doubling the income of the farmers. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research article is a descriptive study with exploratory research and secondary data collected from News articles, Journals, Government websites, Books, magazines, and reports for the analysis. Findings: Organic farming and sustainable agriculture is good for the economy and environment. The study reveals that in India Sustainable green revaluation in Agriculture Technology and moving towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDG). Type of Paper: Case Study.

Performance appraisal of factors contributing to the development of aquaculture

Recent declining trends in landings from capture fisheries and increasing population has raised serious concerns about the food and nutritional security of millions of people. Aquaculture is thus seen as a viable alternative to fill the gap in supply of fish. Extension services in aquaculture provide adequate support in furthering the development of the sector. The current study focuses on identification of key factors for the development of aquaculture sector in Kerala, India. A questionnaire based survey was carried out among 550 randomly selected respondents of five selected districts of Kerala, India. The respondents composed of beneficiaries of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), staff of the Department of Fisheries (DoF), ATMA Governing Board (GB) members and ATMA Management Committee (MC) members. The major aquaculture development indicators closely associated with extension services were identified. The major indicators included extension contact, information acquisition, information dissemination, ATMA activities and expectations. Similarly sub indicators were identified and were used for the formulation of the performance evaluation matrix. Farmers’ score for extension contact (24.54%), farm information acquisition (49.23%) and expectation score (71.39%) indicated enough scope for improvement which implied lack of sufficient contact with resource persons, improper mechanism of obtaining information and high expectation from the extension service providers. Officials’ score on extension contact (36%), farm information dissemination score (49%) and expectation (53%) indicated low contact with the farmers, moderate information dissemination and fairly high level of expectation in providing efficient extension services to farmers. Officials’ score on farm information acquisition (62.5%) and ATMA activities (57.46%) showed that they need to vigorously conduct extension activities and acquire farm related information from traditional and modern mass media sources. The scores obtained for key performance appraisal indicators reflected scope for improvement in terms of the selected indicators. The findings could be utilised for developing improved policy measures for strengthening aquaculture extension system that could lead to a boom in aquaculture development.

Inter-collaboration Network among Institutional Actors of Agricultural Knowledge Information System (AKIS): A Comparative Study between Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri Districts of West Bengal, India

Agricultural extension institutions play different roles at village level. There is always a need of inter-collaboration network between different institutions. Information exchange among these organizations is important for technology generation, information dissemination and adoption. So, it is imperative to know the inter collaboration network among the institutional actors which requires proper investigation and analysis. A few works were found in India on inter-collaboration network among the institutional actors of Agricultural Knowledge Information System (AKIS). The objective of the study was to find out the inter-collaboration network among institutional actors of AKIS of two different districts of West Bengal and their comparative evaluation. The data were collected from 84 respondents from 19 different institutions employing a random sampling technique. The data were analysed through UCINET 6 and Netdraw software. It was found from the study that Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Comprehensive Area Development Corporation (CADC), Agricultural line department through Assistant Director of Agriculture (ADA), Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) and Farmer Producers’ Organisations (FPO) play a pivotal role in this network. It was found also from the study that Cooch Behar district had stronger inter-collaboration network among its institution’s actors than Jalpaiguri district.

Public-Private Partnership in Agricultural Extension: A Strategy for Increasing Farmers’ Income

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) involves a contract between public and private sector entities wherein the private entity provides a public service or project and assumes the substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project with specified roles and responsibilities. The PPP approach supplements scarce public resources created a more competitive environment and helped to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. Public-private partnerships have seen a large increase over the years in part because local and state governments rely heavily on the growing number of non-profits to provide many public services that they cannot. At this time, Public-Private Partnership in agricultural extension is required in India to overcome the wide extension worker: farmer ratio in India, to reduce the financial burden on the government, to confine the role of village-level extension worker and for commercialization of agriculture. Review of various studies indicated the different types of models for PPP, which are public funded and private management, both sharing funding with private management, Public Facilitation and Private Funding, Sharing of funding and utilization of facility/information created by both, Public Infrastructure-Private Resources and Management, Public Facilitation- Private Funding and Private Management, Partnership Sans Financial Involvement. Studies also explored the potential areas for Public-Private Partnerships such as technology dissemination, Sale of Inputs, Processing and Marketing of Agri products, Infrastructure support for production, processing and marketing and Participatory Technology Development and Dissemination (PTDD). Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) is the best example of the site for the successful Public-Private Partnership in agriculture extension. The concept of Public-Private Partnership should be implicated in the potential areas which will prove helpful in reducing the burden on government financial resources as well as creating more opportunities and increase their income resulting in raising their living standards.

Participation of ATMA (Agricultural Technology Management Agency) Members in Group Activities and Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Karaikal District, Puducherry

A study was conducted in among five selected ATMA (Agricultural Technology Management Agency) groups. A total of 100 farmers from five groups were selected by employing random sampling. Participation was studied in three dimensions viz., group sustainability, sustainable agricultural practices and participation in post harvest technologies. The study reveals that majority of the members belong to medium level of participation in sustainable agricultural practices and participate more in group activities viz., group planning, maintaining transparency, decision making, shouldering responsibilities planning, decision making and auditing. Further, the study reveals that information source utilisation and information sharing behaviour of the group members showed a positive and significant relation with the participation of ATMA group members in sustainable agricultural practices. Addition of new members and lack in guidance were the problems expressed by the respondents. Group promoting initiatives and training on sustainable function of groups were the suggestions offered by the members of the group.

SWOC Analysis of Extension Personnel at the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) in Madurai District of Tamil Nadu

SWOC Analysis of Extension Personnel at the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) in Madurai District of Tamil Nadu

Involvement of Farm Women Groups in the Planning, Production and Marketing Aspects of Vegetables in Kerala

Kerala is a consumer state as far as vegetables are concerned. Major share of the fresh vegetable supply for the state comes from neighbouring states. Promoting vegetable cultivation in the state coupled with suitable marketing mechanism will not only help to make the state self reliant in vegetable production but also ensure year round availability of quality vegetables. The study was conducted in six panchayats of Kollam district in Kerala which includes the selected women groups of Kudumbashree, Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK) and Agricultural Technology management Agency (ATMA). There were two categories of respondents viz, members of farm women groups and the extension facilitators. According to the study, majority of the women farmers showed medium level of involvement in the planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables. It can be inferred that the variable increase in income showed a positive and significant relationship with planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables. Achievement motivation also showed a significant positive relationship with production.

Relationship between personal characteristics of Assistant Technology Managers and perception of usefulness of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA)

Relationship between personal characteristics of Assistant Technology Managers and perception of usefulness of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA)

Impact of Agricultural Technology Management Agency on Different Enterprises for the Enhancement of Production and Income to the Rural Economy of Nagaland

Impact of Agricultural Technology Management Agency on Different Enterprises for the Enhancement of Production and Income to the Rural Economy of Nagaland

Study on knowledge about Organic Farming Practices in Soybean Crop under Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) programme in Guna District, of Madhya Pradesh

Study on knowledge about Organic Farming Practices in Soybean Crop under Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) programme in Guna District, of Madhya Pradesh

Individual level performance analysis of agricultural technology management agency in Assam

The agricultural technology management agency (ATMA) is a registered society of key stakeholders involved in agricultural activities for sustainable agricultural development in the district. It is a focal point for integrating research and extension activities and decentralizing day-to-day management of agricultural extension system. As the ATMA programme is under operation for the last ten years in Assam, the researchable questions may arise that to how and what extent the extension personnel (Members of ATMA Governing Body) from respective district performed their role to accomplish the functions/activities of ATMA. Keeping in view, a research study was carried out with the objectives i.e. 1. To assess role performance of members ATMA governing body, 2. To find out direct and indirect effects of a set of selected predictor variables on role performance of members of ATMA governing body. A multistage purposive cum random sampling method was followed for selection of the respondents of the study. The findings of the level of role performance of the GB members revealed that 80.00 per cent of the respondents had low to medium level of performance. Only 20.00 per cent of them were found with high level of role performance. The value of co-efficient of multiple regression (R 2 ) being 0.611 indicated that the independent variables viz. , job satisfaction, achievement motivation, motivational profile, job value cherished, attitude towards extension work, organizational climate, leadership ability, role conflict and job stress jointly contributed 61.10 per cent towards the role performance of GB members. The F value (F=4.937**) was also found to be significant. The results of the path analyses that the variables leadership ability, job stress, motivational profile, achievement motivation, organizational climate and job satisfaction emerged to be six most important variables which exhibited substantial direct effects on the level of role performance of the GB members.

Socio-economic Characteristics of ATMA (Agricultural Technology Management Agency) Extension Functionaries in Assam and Their Relationship to Their Training Needs

Socio-economic Characteristics of ATMA (Agricultural Technology Management Agency) Extension Functionaries in Assam and Their Relationship to Their Training Needs

Organizational Level Performance of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) under New Extension Reforms in the State of Assam

Organizational Level Performance of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) under New Extension Reforms in the State of Assam

Constraints Faced by Agricultural Technology Management Agency Extension Functionaries of Assam, India and Their Suggestions to Overcome Them

Constraints Faced by Agricultural Technology Management Agency Extension Functionaries of Assam, India and Their Suggestions to Overcome Them

Extent of Knowledge of ATMA Beneficiaries Towards ATMA Functions

The study was conducted in Arazilines and Kashivi dyapeeth blocks of Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh to know the extent of knowledge of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) beneficiaries of about ATMA functions. 120 ATMA beneficiaries were selected through the probability proportionate to size technique for study. ATMA beneficiaries possessed more knowledge about farm school (0.91MS), ATMA (0.81MS), other functions (0.75MS), trainees/beneficiaries(0.74MS) of ATMA functions. The majority(65%) of of ATMA beneficiaries were in medium knowledge level regarding ATMA functions. Besides that 17.50 per cent and 17.50 per cent ATMA beneficiaries were in high and low knowledge level. All the independent variables were found having positive correlation with knowledge level of ATMA beneficiaries.

Public Agricultural Extension System Support for the Natural Farming: A Case of Convergence Effort under ATMA, India

Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) of India is a huge public extension system, it usually converge different extension service providing agencies, research organizations, NGOs, and other such agencies at district level with the farming communities (FIGs). Recognizing the importance of group led extension approach; ATMA has developed and/or strengthens several common interest groups (FIGs). One of the active performing groups was studied about its dynamics and empowerment brought forth by ATMA is presented in this paper. The reason behind in selection of this particular farmers’ interest group (FIG) is it’s unique practice of paddy cultivation rather to use synthetic chemicals. ATMA has strengthened this group with its convergence activity in collaboration with department of animal husbandry and NGO at their locality. ATMA is acting upon this group since eleven years to empower the farmers through group led extension. To measure the impact of ATMA in empowering the group, present study was conducted with the following objective: To measure the group dynamics of FIG - Natural farming and to identify the extent of empowerment as perceived by the respondents. To measure the group dynamics of this FIG, group dynamics index (GDI) was developed for this study. This FIG natural farming scored 0.63 out of 1 on GDI. According to the members of FIG natural farming, most of the empowerment (25.71%) fell out in economic security dimension.

Aquaculture promotion through Agricultural Technology Management Agency - a case study in Kerala

Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) is an autonomous body that has linkage with all the line departments, like Department of Fisheries (DoF), that works towards raising farmer’s income and involved in formulation of suitable strategies for empowering the farmers. In this study, ATMA impact factors among fish farmers were reviewed and discussed with the local officers. The impact factors considered were the types of culture, number of species cultured, yield disposition, marketing and expenditure in fish farming. It was observed, from a sample of 225 fish farmers, that Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Kollam districts responded more towards ‘type of culture’ and less towards ‘marketing’, whereas Kottayam and Thrissur districts responded more towards marketing. Among all the impact factors, expenditure on aquaculture was found to be significantly associated with income in all the five districts. This was followed by marketing (4 districts), yield disposition (3 districts), fish species cultured (3 districts) and type of culture (2 districts). On the contrary, it was observed that ATMA support was not similarly associated with these factors, especially for yield disposition and marketing in aquaculture. Therefore, suitable strategies are recommended to strengthen the supply chain management through ATMA.