Extension Participation Research Articles

A socio-economical study of rural women under Mahila Samridhi Yojana of Gwalior district of Madhya Pradesh

The study was conducted in Morar block of Gwalior district. Total 300 rural women were selected for the purpose. It was found in study that Majority of the beneficiary respondents had medium to big size of family. Majority of the beneficiary respondents had nuclear family. Most of the respondents had poor family background. Majority of the respondents had medium participation in social activities. Majority of the respondents engaged in farming as a main occupation. Majority of the rural women had marginal to small land holding. Maximum of the rural women had moderate credit orientation. Maximum number of the rural women was in medium to high extension participation category. Majority of the rural women were in favorable category regarding attitude towards Govt. Schemes. More than half of the rural women were having medium knowledge about Mahila Samridhi Yojana.

A study on farmer’s perception on ill effects of agro chemicals in north eastern part of Karnataka

The present study was conducted in Yadgir district of Karnataka to know about the perception of farmers on the ill effects of agro chemicals. One hundred and twenty farmers were interviewed personally with the help of pre-structured schedule. The results revealed that a large number of respondents had perceived delay in ripening (70.83%), less resistance to diseases (76.66 %), through emission of toxic gases (80.83%) and changes in soil organic matter decomposition (80.00%). Cent per cent respondents expressed resistance developed to pesticides by helicoverpa, spodoptera and parthenium and beneficial organisms like earth worms and predators were affected. Killing of natural enemies by pesticides affect Trichograma (80.00%) and lady bird beetle (75.00%), while handling agro chemicals cent per cent perceived it is going poison human body. The correlation indicates attitude towards chemical fertilizers, extension participation and mass media had shown positive highly significant at 1% level. Regarding factors influencing on agro chemicals land holding and education observe 50.63 per cent of variation. On the other hand farmers were suggested to make the availability of pest resistance variety by majority (83.33%) of the respondents.

Adoption of vermicomposting technology by farmers of Gulbarga district in Karnataka

The present study was conducted in Gulbarga district of Karnataka during the year 2012-13. Based on highest number of vermicomposting pits, four taluks namely Gulbarga, Jewargi, Aland and Afazalpur were purposively selected and from each taluk, two villages were selected and from each village, fifteen farmers were selected randomly. Thus, the total sample size constitutes 120 respondents for the study. The ex-post facto research design was used for the study. The data were collected using pre-tested structured interview schedule personally. The collected data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. The results of the study revealed that, about 70 per cent of the farmers were between medium to high knowledge category about vermicomposting and majority of them were having knowledge in recommended pit size, pre decomposition of raw material before filling pits and management of ants and termites. More than 70 per cent of the farmers belonged to high adopter category. More than 80 per cent of farmers adopted the recommended practices like the chemical used for pest management, size of the pit and dosage of chemical used for management of ants and termites. The independent variables like land holding, extension participation, mass media utilization of the farmers had shown the positive and significant relationship with their knowledge level and land holding, annual income and scientific orientation exhibited positive and significant relationship with their adoption level.

Extent of Technological gap and its Relationship with Different Characteristics of Vegetable Growers

This research study was undertaken in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh under ex-post facto research design. A sample of 600 vegetable growers representing 20 villages of Kullu and Manali was drawn by using purposively random sampling technique. The results of the study indicated that the technological gap was found high in seed treatment, plant protection measures, water management, hoeing and weeding, field preparation and manure and fertilizer application. While low technological gap was observed in recommended varieties and harvesting. The overall technological gap of the respondents in respect of vegetable production technology was found about 35 per cent. The independent variables viz. cropping intensity, infrastructural experience, education, social participation, farm size, nature of irrigation, socio-economic status, economic motivation, innovativeness, knowledge about vegetable production technology, attitude towards vegetable production technology, source of information and extension participation were found statistically significant and negatively correlated with technological gap, whereas, ‘age’ didn’t show any relationship with technological gap.

LOCAL PARTICIPATION LEVEL OF RURAL WOMEN IN HALABJA GOVERNORATE IN KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ

The main objective of the study is to determine the Extension, social and political participation levels of rural women in Halabja Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan Region and identify the relative importance of problems and obstacles of the local participation of rural women in the studied area. A Random sample of 200 rural women was selected and the data were collected by using a questionnaire consisted of four parts: The first part included a scale for extension participation measurement, the second part included social participation scale, and the third part included political participation scale while the fourth part included the problems and obstacles hindering rural women’s participation. The main results of the study were: the majority of the studied rural women (52.5%) had medium local participation level, (53.5%) of them had medium extension participation level, (73.5%) of them had medium social participation and (46%) had medium political participation. The results also indicated that the (five) most important factors hindering rural women participation in the studied area are (Educational level and illiteracy among rural women in the studied areas, lack of confidence between rural women and politicians, political parties ignore the society objectives and interests, political life is centered in cities and highly populated and urban, the traditional attitudes of men toward women and the social role of each of them, the weak role of agricultural extension in supporting active participation of rural women in the region. Based on the results of the study, a number of recommendations were suggested, the most important was organizing awareness programs by agricultural extension and civil society institutions in order to increase local people’s understanding of the significance of women’s participation in sustainable rural development programs.

Participation and decision making pattern of farm women in agriculture

Agriculture can be an important engine of growth and poverty reduction. Women’s contribution to the farming sector in respect of participation and decision making has largely been ignored. Though women performed more than four-fifth of agriculture work, their decision were accepted only less than one-third of the case. The present study was attempted to ascertain the extent of participation and decision making pattern of farm women in agricultural activities. The present study was carried out in villages of Pali district of Rajasthan by selecting 120 Farm women. The findings of the study revealed that more number of farm women found to have high level of participation in agricultural operation 53.57 per cent followed by the medium participation (33.73%) and low participation (15.20%) in agricultural operations, respectively. The study also revealed that the higher number of farm women (57.11%) were observed in low category of decision making which was followed by 27.74 per cent and 15.15 per cent, respectively in case of medium and high decision making process. Study further revealed that age, education, size of family, size of land holding, social participation, extension participation, information seeking behaviour, cosmoploteness, economic motivation, exposure to training and management orientation factors had significantly influenced the participation and decision making pattern of farm women. The study also revealed that the socio-economic factors found to influence the agriculture operation and decision making of farm women positively and significantly.

Entrepreneurial behaviour and socio economic analysis of mushroom growers in Karnataka

Mushroom demand is showing tremendous growth worldwide due to its nutritional and medicinal qualities.In spite of huge potential and need to meet protein demand of large vegetarian population, India's progress in mushroom entrepreneurship is not that impressive. Entrepreneurial behaviour along with other personal and socio-psychological traits of entrepreneurs plays a prominent role in achieving success in any enterprise. In the present study conducted among the mushroom growing entrepreneurs across Karnataka State, an effort was made to understand influence of identified variables on farmers' entrepreneurial behaviour. Five attributes of farmers and their units, six attributes of socio-psychological traits and four extension variables were studied for investigating their effect on entrepreneurial behaviour of the respondents. Regression analysis showed that, academic qualification, cosmopolitanism, self-reliance, mass media participation, extension participation and training were significantly contributing to the entrepreneurial behaviour of the respondents.

THE KNOWLEDGE IMPACT OF FARMERS' EXTENSION PROGRAM IN THE FIELD OF IRRIGATION WATER USE AND RATIONALIZATION IN SOUTH SINAI GOVERNORATE

The current research was conducted to investigate the knowledge impact of farmers' extension program in the field of using and rationalizing irrigation water, to achieve the research objectives, Ras Sidr and Al Tore cities destrects, South Sinai Governorate were selected as a geographic field for the study sample, a randomized sample of 91 farmers representing (8.3%) of the farmers totaled 1102 at the study area, - Results showed that most of the respondents (74.7%) fell under the medium category of indicator of farmers' knowledge level to the optimum recommendations on using and rationalizing irrigation water before exposing to the extension program, indicating an average level of respondents' knowledge to the optimal recommendations before exposing to the extension program. Results indicated a knowledge gap for respondent farmers in terms of using and rationalizing irrigation water with (55.7%) of the total knowledge to the technical recommendations. It was also indicated that most of the respondents (93.4%) came under the high category of the indicator of farmers' level of knowledge to the optimum recommendations after exposing to the extension program, indicating a positive educational impact of the studied extension program on the trainees' respondents regarding using and rationalizing irrigation water at the study area. Results also showed six variables out of the total independent variables which explain around (36.4%) of the total variation of respondent farmers' level of knowledge to the optimal technical recommendations on using and rationalizing irrigation water at the study area after exposing to the studied extension program ( the subordinate variable) using the Step Wise regression i.e. readiness to change, source of irrigation water, size of animal holding, duration of the training program, attitude toward agricultural extension and non-official social participation.

Impact of adoption startup scenario of recommended potato production technology by the potato growers in Gujarat

Potato is an important vegetable crop of the Sabarkantha district of the Gujarat state occupying about 18.46 per cent of total potato cropped area of the state. It ranks second in area and production of potato after Banaskantha district. While it ranks fourth with average productivity 31.04 MT/ha after Gandhinagar (33.75 MT/ha), Anand (32.00 MT/ha) and Banaskantha (31.05 MT/ha).The following objectives were studied that are to find out the extent of adoption of potato production technology by the potato growers and to know the marketing management by the potato growers, to ascertain the association between the extent of adoption of recommended potato production technology by the potato growers and their selected characteristics.The following conclusions were, A great majority (61.67%) of the potato growers had medium level of knowledge regarding recommended practices of potato. The findings regards to the practice-wise knowledge of the respondents about recommended potato production technology are presented. It reveals that 'sowing time and method' and 'irrigation management' were the most important practices of potato cultivation and found having maximum mean knowledge score (93.33 mean score each).Majority (70.83 %) of the respondents had medium extent of adoption of recommended production technology of potato. The practice-wise adoptions of recommended production technology of potato concluded that among the different recommended potato production technologies, (86.57 mean score) of the respondents had adopted irrigation management technology.Majority (70.83%) of the respondents had medium marketing management by the farmers. The data about various aspect of marketing management concluded that it was portray that majority respondent (48.33%) were selling their produce through the commission agent, while 30.83 per cent of the respondents selling their produced to the wholesaler in the market yard. Further, it was found that 51.66 per cent of the respondents sold their produce when the prices are favorable, while 30.83 per cent of the respondents sold their produce immediately after the harvest. In case of grading it was found that 60.00 per cent of the respondents followed grading on the basis of the size of potato and 40.00 per cent of the respondents followed grading on the basis of quality of potato. The responses regarding storage facility revealed that 43.33 per cent of the respondents stored the potato in gunny bags, followed cold storage 40.84 per cent. The independent variables like age, education, annual income, extension participation, method of irrigation, innovative proneness, risk orientation and level of knowledge had positive and significant correlation with adoption of recommended crop production technology by farmers. While, the variables like size of family, social participation, land holding and cropping pattern had positive and non- significant relationship with adoption of recommended crop production technology by the farmers.

Extent of adoption of potato production technology by the potato growers in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat

Horticulture sector covering only 8.00 per cent of total cropped area in the country and it contributes 24.50 per cent to G.D.P. and 54.55 per cent to export earning in agriculture sector. Potato is an important vegetable crop of the Sabarkantha district of the Gujarat state occupying about 18.46 per cent of total potato cropped area of the state. It ranks second in area and production of potato after Banaskantha district. While it ranks fourth with average productivity 31.04 MT/ha after Gandhinagar (33.75 MT/ha), Anand (32.00 MT/ha) and Banaskantha (31.05 MT/ha). The specific objectives studied were, to study the personal, socio-economic, situational and psychological characteristics of the potato growers, to find out knowledge level of the potato growers about potato production technology, to find out the extent of adoption of potato production technology by the potato growers. The results revealed that majority (56.67 %) of the potato growers were found in the middle age group and majority (35.83%) of the potato growers were educated upto high secondary level. Nearly half (54.17%) of the respondents belonged to medium size of family, majority (60.83%) of the potato growers had membership in one organization, more than two-fifths (42.50 %) of the potato growers were semi-medium farmers having 2.01 to 4.0 ha of land, majority (67.50 %) of the potato growers were found with medium annual income and majority (71.67%) of the potato growers fell in medium category of the extension participation. Three-fifths (61.67%) of the potato growers had adopted drip as a method of irrigation and majority (63.33%) of the farmers had adopted groundnut-potato-fodder sorghum potato based cropping pattern, more than three-fourths (75.83%) of the potato growers had medium innovative proneness and nearly three- fifths (60.00%) of the potato growers had medium risk orientation. A great majority (61.67%) of the potato growers had medium level of knowledge regarding recommended practices of potato. The findings regards to the practice-wise knowledge of the respondents about recommended potato production technology are presented. It reveals that 'sowing time and method' and 'irrigation management' were the most important practices of potato cultivation and found having maximum mean knowledge score (93.33 mean score each). Majority (70.83 %) of the respondents had medium extent of adoption of recommended production technology of potato. The practice-wise adoptions of recommended production technology of potato concluded that among the different recommended potato production technologies, (86.57mean score) of the respondents had adopted irrigation management technology.

Knowledge level of sericulture farmers by adoption of improved production technologies and profile analysis from Koppal district of Karnataka

The case study was conducted to know the knowledge level of improved sericulture production technologies of farmers in Koppal district of Karnataka during the year 2016–17. Major findings revealed that more than half (55%) of the respondents belonged to medium knowledge level category. While 22% of the respondents possessed low knowledge and high knowledge level was noticed among only 23% of respondents about improved sericulture production technologies. The variables, namely, age, education, occupation, land holding, family annual income, farming experience in sericulture, mass media participation, extension participation, extension contact, scientific orientation and risk orientation were found important in influencing the knowledge level of the sericulture farmers about improved sericulture production technologies.

Study on Profile Characteristics of Women Self Help Group Members

In recent years, SHGs have become significant institutions for rural development. It is now being increasingly realized that instead of targeting the individual in the process of development, it would be more useful to adopt the approach of group development. The group approach makes available the collective wisdom and combined resources for any task. With this background, a critical study of the evaluation of the profile characteristics of the SHGs and Non SHG members was carried out. The diagnostic study was confined to 10 villages from which 90 SHGs and 90 Non SHG respondents were selected for the study. The result revealed that the independent sample ‘Z’ test showed that there was significant difference in the mean values of SHG members and Non SHG members in case of education, family size, social participation, land holding, annual income, material possession, source of information, extension participation, achievement motivation, market orientation, risk orientation, innovativeness and attitude towards SHGs whereas, there was no significant difference in the mean values with respect to age, family type and marital status.

Problems faced by sericulture farmers by adoption of improved production technology practices from Koppal district of Karnataka

The case study was conducted to know the adoption of improved sericulture production technologies and problems faced by farmers in Koppal district of Karnataka during the year 2016–17. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents (54.00%) belonged to medium adoption category with respect to sericulture production technologies. Whereas 34% of the respondents belonged to low adoption category and only 12% of the respondents belonged to high adoption category. The variables, namely, age, education, occupation, land holding, family annual income, farming experience in sericulture, mass media participation, extension participation, extension contact, scientific orientation and risk orientation were found important in influencing the adoption of mulberry sericulture production technologies by farmers. With regard to problems, the major problems faced by the farmers are lack of knowledge regarding control of pests and diseases like uzifly, ants, pebrine, white muscardine and yellow muscardine (100.00%), lack of marketing facility and fluctuation in price of cocoon (100.00%), lack of information about crossbred races of silkworm (94.00%), lack of information about concentration of the disinfectant (87.00%), lack of knowledge regarding controlling of pest and diseases (84.00%), lack of supply of disease free laying (DLFs) from govt. sources (84.00%), high cost of establishment at initial stage (80.00%), high incidence pest and disease like stem borer (78.00%), lack of knowledge about training and pruning of mulberry plant (70.00%) and inadequate training facilities (70.00%).

Profile Study under Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Young Farmers of Navsari District

This study reports the profile of the young farmers under the broad objective of Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Young Farmers. This study was conducted at Navsari, Gujarat (1014–2015) with 60 young farmer entrepreneurs belonging to age group of 15 to 35 years who were sampled following simple random sampling. The profile was studies using a structured schedule. The results indicated here are the major findings, majority of the young farmers belonged to age group of 29–35 years, had secondary level of education, medium level of farming experience, big land holding, higher annual income, medium material possession, low level of extension contact, medium extension participation, high social participation and medium mass media exposure.

Socio-Economic Profile of Maldhari Dairy Farmers of South Saurashtra Region

Dairy farming plays an important role in social and economic livelihood of the Maldhari dairy farmers. The present study was conducted in Junagadh and Gir Somnath districts of Saurashtra region. Two talukas were randomly selected from each district. Three villages were selected from each talukas and from each village 10 respondents who possess minimum five dairy animals were selected randomly. The data were collected with the help of predesigned interview schedule by personal interview. The collected data were analyzed by using simple statistical methods like frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient. The results indicate that majority (70.83 %) of the Maldhari dairy farmers belonged to middle age group, 40.83 per cent of them educated up to secondary level and 78.33 per cent from them belonged to OBC category, majority (59.17 %) of Maldhari dairy farmers had medium annual income, 47.50 per cent of Maldhari dairy farmers had large size of family and 70.83 per cent of them belonged to joint family, majority (54.17 per cent) of Maldhari dairy farmers had animal husbandry plus agricultureas main occupation. The socio-economic parameters viz. extension participation among Maldhari farmers was of medium level, they had medium level of experience in animal husbandry activities, used medium level of sources of information and had small heard size of animals.

Managing Fisheries Development in Maharashtra

In order to develop fisheries sector, there is need to educate fishermen with respect to dissemination of information relating to modern/mechanized fishing techniques and efficient marketing of fish catch. Equally important is the need for more innovative technologies in this sector, diffusion of developed technology by extension workers and adoption by the clients. Education of fishermen about modern fishing techniques is reported to have a significant impact on adoption of recommended fish culture practices by the farmers. It is also pointed out that extension and mass media participation have strong positive relationship with adoption of fish culture practices. Nonetheless, inadequate infrastructure and flow of information technology have been cited as the major barriers for better market integration in the existing marine fish markets of India.

Involvement of rural youth in agricultural activitiesin Ludhiana district of Punjab, India

The study aimed at specifying the involvement of rural youth in agricultural activities. The rural youth were actively involved in production and marketing activities bit empirical data to support it was lacking on their participation. The study has been conducted on a sample of 120 rural youth who were already engaged in agriculture from randomly selected six village of Ludhiana district. The data was collected through personal interview schedule. The interview schedule composed of two parts: one for personal characteristics and, the second, information about their involvement in agricultural activities in different crops. The schedule consisted of common field activities. Against each activity, it was designed to obtain responses as fully involved, partially involved/supervised and not involved. The scoring pattern was 3, 2, and 1 for fully involved, partially involved/supervised and not involved. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents were either fully involved or partially involved with regard to common agricultural activities of land preparation. Majority the respondents were fully participated in most of the major activities such as variety selection, sowing and marketing in all crops that were grown by them except in transplanting in case of paddy where they were partially involved. Again majority of them were partially involved in harvesting, disease and pest management and fertilization. Education and extension participation involvement in the cultivation of fodder were found to be positively correlated. Family type, Farming experience, Operational land holding and Extension participation were significantly and positively co-related with the involvement in summer moong, potatoes and berseem.

Listeners knowledge and perception on programme broadcasted by KCRS in Dharwad

The study was carried out to examine the Krishi community radio listeners perception about the farm broadcast and also to learn the impact on knowledge level of the listeners. The modern farm technologies evolved by scientists has tremendously helped the farmers to increase the farm production, still the big educated and innovative farmers were able to get the maximum benefits of new technology. The present study conducted in two villages of Dharwad district which is covered by KCRS Dharwad. The study revealed that the KCRS listeners were middle aged (30.00%), had about upto middle school (25.00%), medium extension participation and innovativeness. The listeners 37.50 per cent belonged to most favourale perception, majority felt that programmes were easy to follow and understand (67.50%) and more interest to listen my voice and neighbors voice in the radio (59.20%), majority of respondents has total knowledge index score of 68.18 for Jola and a score of 57.57 for maize was obtained in case of broadcasted dramatized programmes.

Rural Extension Service Delivery and Participation among Smallholder Farmers in Amathole District, South Africa

Assisting farmers to recognize and evaluate their production hitches and become abreast of the inherent prospects for perfection has been the focus of rural extension services. A total of 70 farmer...

Participation of farm women involved in chilli cultivation

Women comprise about 43 per cent of the global agricultural labour force. Their participation in agriculture and rural economies, vary considerably between and within regions. Even within regions their participation varies based on land holding status of farm/household and the crop cultivated by them. The present investigation was undertaken to study the socio-personal characteristics and participation level of women involved in chilli cultivation. This study was conducted in Kundgol taluk of Dharwad district in Karnataka purposively as it is the highest chilli growing area. Five villages were selected randomly and from each village 30 farm women were selected making a sample of 150. Personal interview method was used to collect the data and suitable statistical tools were used for analyzing the data. The study revealed that majority if the respondents were growing ByadagiKaddi variety of chilli. The respondents were mainly between the ages of 36-50 with low level of education. They were from joint and medium sized families. Their average land holding was less than five acres with an annual family income of less than Rs. 1,32,000. The extension participation was low while social participation was high.The participation index for pre sowing and sowing operations was 62.69, for inter culture operations it was 61.63 and for harvesting and post harvesting operation it was 72.49. The overall index was 65.88 meaning that nearly 66 per cent of all activities are carried out by women, it being higher in post-harvest activities than other activities. A high participation implies that there is increasing feminization of agriculture. The programmes and policies of government often biased in favour of men should target farm women.