Gujarat Journal of Extension Eductiongjoee.org/pdf/volume/Volume_18_19.pdfFor the Authors.... Gujarat Journal of Extension Education is the official publication of Gujarat Society

«Mkkh

Society of Extension Education, Anand (Gujarat)Directorate of Extension Education

Anand Agricultural UniversityAnand-388110, Gujarat, INDIA

Gujarat Journal of

Extension EductionVol. : XVIII-XIX

Year :2007-2008

For the Authors....Gujarat Journal of Extension Education is the official publication of Gujarat Society of Extension Education. It publishes original research paper in the field of extension education and allied fields.

Submission of manuscript :

An author belongs to Gujarat state would like to publish his/her paper in Gujarat Journal of Extension Education should be submitted his/her manuscript to associate editor of their Western /Northern / Southern or Middle Gujarat region and for the authors out side of the Gujarat state should be submitted his/her manuscript directly to Chief Editor. Two hard copies of the manuscript should be submitted along with the soft copy preferably in the form of CD, Rich Text Format or Microsoft Word format. The length of the manuscript should be typed in double space and not exceed than 10 typed pages with the year of research actually done.

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Arrangement of manuscript : Title, Name of author/s (Complete address with e-mail address), Abstract (About in 150 words), Introduction, Methodology, Findings & Discussion, Conclusion and References.

The manuscript should be printed on A4 size paper format with a provision of top, right and bottom of 2.5 cm space. The left margin must be of 4 cm. Title and all major heading should be centre aligned, capital and in 14 point size while, running mater should be justified and typed in Times New Roman font of 12 point size. Table should be prepared by using the table facility of Microsoft word and should not more than five tables. Only computer generated charts/graphs/ figure or photographs which must be submitted in JPEG files will be accepted.

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«Mkkh

Society of Extension Education, Anand

GujaratHAPPY TO ANNOUNCE

SHRI KHUSHALBHAI REVABHAI PATEL

MEDAL -CUM -CASH PRIZE

FROM: APRIL - 1992

For the Students of B. Sc. (Agri.) Of GAU

It would be no exaggeration when I say that there is a phenomenal growth in the discipline of Extension Education during the past five decades.

There is a dire need to meet the expectations of the public, through new technologies and new improved processes and methods. The process through which these expectations are met is called ‘technology transfer’.

Existing agricultural system is suffering from constraints like – multiplicity of technology transfer system, narrow focus on agricultural extension system, lack of farmer focus & feedback, inadequate technical capability and caliber of acute assessment, refinement and validation of technology, poor research-extension linkage, non-effective communication skills, inadequate system operation & financial constraints and much more.

Considering all these factors, the goals of technology dissemination components have been set forth to develop a unique technology transfer system which is built on certain inter-related concepts viz., firstly to develop an effective public extension system that is farmers demand driven and accountable, thorough integration with research and economically viable, secondly to strengthen research and extension capacity to disseminate location specific system based & sustainable technology; and finally to utilize the expertise and capacity of NGOs to organize & empower farmers, specially resource poor farmers.

We, the extension professionals, need to probe into the issue and find a plausible solution answer through deliberations and research so that efficiency, accountability and cost effectiveness of extension system is maintained ensuring equity and social justice.

The Gujarat Journal of Extension Education is a prominent Journal, covering the in-depth researches in extension education in the country. The task of maintaining standard of the publication is ours, hence we should ensure that whatever we contribute by way of papers for publication should reflect quality in terms of originality, creativity, distinctness and concrete addition to the body of knowledge.

The present issue of the journal is a compilation of 34 research papers, all comprehensive of a wide range of topics in the discipline of Extension Education. I fondly hope that the readers would certainly find these articles to be beneficial and informative, besides the planners, executives and policy makers engaged in agricultural development.

I heartily congratulate to all the extension educationists and members of editorial board for their sincere efforts and hard work for quality publication of this issue.

MESSAGE

President SEEG & Director of Extension EducationAnand Agricultural University, Anand

Dr. P. P. Patel

From the Chief Editor’s desk...........

Every year near about 200 masters and doctoral thesis in agricultural extension are submitted by

postgraduate students in SAUs of west zone of India. Research in the from of postgraduate thesis work has

become an important component of overall extension research. In the past, students’ research works have

effectively contributed towards basic and applied aspects of extension education discipline. However, it is my

observation that the quality of students’ research has come down considerably in recent years. The reasons

of this situation are many. To improve the quality of research I have a few suggestions to make have in. First

of all, there is a need to make the research ‘demand’ driven rather than convenience’ driven. One has to

identify suitable filed problems which can be solved through research. This often calls for the use of action

and experimental research which is very much lacking. Today, a vast majority of extension researchers follow

‘ex-post facto’ design, a post-mortem analysis, with little scope for making any meaningful interventions

and I think this situation should change. Secondly, our obsession with quantification has resulted in paying

little attention to qualitative research as well as case studies which need gain deeper insights and come out

with solutions for different rural development issues. Thirdly, instead of continue to tread upon the beaten

track of adoption-diffusion studies, we have to explore new avenues such as application of information

technology, implication of globalisation, environment & sustainability issues, indigenous knowledge system,

management development, entrepreneurship development, etc. I know most of the extension professionals

will not agree with my suggestions at once, but I make you assured that after suggestive implementation,

it will definitely provide prolific results in a long run. Further, extension professionals should also develop a

holistic view of extension and its role in overall agricultural and rural development, which must be reflected in

their projects / programmes and activities undertaken in their jurisdiction. I also welcome your comments and

ideas to improve the quality of students’ research.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge for inspiration provided by Dr. Ashok Patel, Former Chief

Editor, brainwave by Dr. Manu Prajapati, Professor of Extension Education, SDAU, Sardarkrushinagar and Dr.

Narendrasinh Chauhan, Head, Dept. Extension Education, AAU, Anand.

Not last but foremost; I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the associate editors Dr.

Sunil R. Patel, Dr. P. R. Kanani, Dr. G. R. Patel and Dr. K. D. Solanki who have helped me a lot to shoulder this

responsibility and in bringing out this issue of the journal. I extremely appreciate the support provided by Dr.

J. K. Patel, and Dr. M. R. Bhatt throughout the period of publication of this issue.

The paper included in the journal contains a wide spectrum of topics ranging from scale development

to effectiveness of extension services. I hope that the readers will find them useful and interesting.

Rajesh Dilip Pandya Chief Editor [email protected]

SR. NO. CONTENTS PAGE

NO.

1DEVELOPMENT AND STANDARDIZATION OF A SCALE TO MEASURE THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE FARMERS C.D. Pandya and R.D. Pandya

7

2SCALE TO MEASURE ATTITUDE OF FARMERS TOWARDS POULTRY FARMINGA.C. Vaidya and N.B. Chauhan

15

3SCALE TO MEASURE ATTITUDE OF WOMAN RESEARCH SCHOLARS TOWARDS THE USE OF COMPUTER FOR THEIR EMPOWERMENTB.M.Christian and N.B.Chauhan

18

4 A SCALE TO MEASURE ATTITUDE TOWARDS IMPROVED BANANA CULTIVATION PRACTICES H. B. Patel, P. M. Bhatt and P. P. Patel 21

5 SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGE IN TRIBAL FARM WOMEN THROUGH SELF HELP GROUPSArti N. Soni and C. D. Pandya 24

6 IMPACT OF KRUSHIGOVIDYA FARM MAGAZINE ON SUBSCRIBER FARMERSN.V. Soni, P.P. Patel and V. V. Mayani 27

7IMPACT OF FRONT LINE DEMONSTRATIONS ON BENEFICIARIES OF KRISHI VIGYAN KENDRAS IN WESTERN MAHARASHTRAG.K. Waman, P.G. Khalache and R.P.Khule

33

8 INFLUENCE OF KRISHI VIGHAN KENDRA ON OKRA GROWERS B.M. Tandel, N.M. Chauhan and G.R. Patel 37

9 DETERMINENTS OF INFORMATION NEEDS OF THE BANANA GROWERSA.R. Makwan, J.K. Patel and N. P. Patel 40

10SOURCES OF INFORMATION UTILIZED BY TRIBAL FARMERS AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF ADOPTION IN NAGLI CULTIVATIONR.M. Naik, H.V. Pandya and G.G. Chauhan

43

11READERS’ NEEDS REGARDING AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION TO BE PUBLISHED IN KRUSHIGOVIDYA FARM MAGAZINEMahesh R. Patel, N.V. Soni and D. D. Patel

48

12 UTILITY VALUE OF VARIOUS TOPICS COVERED IN KRISHI JIVAN FARM MAGAZINE V.J. Savaliya and M. N. Popat 50

13 SALES AND PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR OF AGRO-SERVICE PROVIDERS AND BENEFICIARIESS. R. Salunkhe, M. R. Bhatt and R. D. Pandya 53

14FACTORS INFLUENCING KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF COTTON GROWERS ABOUT INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT J.B.Patel, K.M. Joshi and A.G. Sukhadia

58

15GAIN IN KNOWLEDGE REGARDING HOME SCIENCE SUBJECTS THROUGH EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONK. B. Kamaliya, Dipal N. Soni and H. H. Chavda

62

16KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF FARMERS ABOUT MODERN PRACTICES OF COTTON CULTIVATION IN BHAL AREAP. J. Joshi, N. B. Chauhan and K. F. Patel

65

17ROLE PERCEPTION OF ELECTED WOMEN SARPANCHES UNDER PANCHAYATI RAJ SYSTEMJ.J. Mistry, V.B. Patel and M.C. Soni

68

«Mkkh Gujarat Journal of Extension EductionVol. : XVIII-XIX Year :2007-2008

18 PERCEPTION OF TEACHERS ABOUT THE ROLES TO BE PERFORMED BY THEMJ. K. Patel, Mahesh R. Patel and N. P. Patel 71

19 ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED PACKAGE OF PRACTICES BY THE SUMMER BAJARA GROWERSK.S.Patel, D.B.Patel and M.R.Prajapati 73

20 ADOPTION OF MODERN PRACTICES OF COTTON CULTIVATION BY THE FARMERS IN BHAL AREAP. J. Joshi, N. B. Chauhan and K. F. Patel 77

21ADOPTION OF IMPROVED CUMIN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY BY THE GROWERS OF JALORE DISTRICT M.S. Chandawat, M. S. Chouhan and R. F. Thakor

80

22ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED HYBRID CASTOR CULTIVATION TECHNOLOGY BY THE CASTOR GROWERSB. K. Patel, J. J. Mistry and G. J. Patel

83

23 FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION LEVEL OF COTTON GROWERS ABOUT IPM TECHNOLOGYJ.B.Patel, Sunil R. Patel and B.D. Patel 87

24RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF COTTON GROWERS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT EFFICIENCYA. A. Darandale and P. M. Bhatt

90

25RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF BRINJAL GROWERS AND THEIR ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY D. K. Badhe, A. S. Saiyad, N. C. Nehete and S. R. Patel

92

26 INVOLVEMENT OF FARM WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY ACTIVITIESN.M.Chauhan and N.B. Chauhan 94

27 ASPIRATIONS OF WOMEN AGRICULTURAL LABOURERSK.D. Solanki Vaishali Pagar and Ashok Sen 99

28ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ATTRIBUTES OF THE FARMERS AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND ADOPTION OF MICRO IRRIGATION SYSTEM V.M.Modi, S.H. Patel and J.K.Patel

102

29CONSTRAINTS AND SUITABLE EXTENSION STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE ADOPTION OF IPM TECHNOLOGY IN COTTONJ.B.Patel, A.G. Sukhadia and K.M. Joshi

106

30 CONSTRAINTS FACED BY DAIRY FARM WOMEN IN RELATION TO FARM OPERATIONS Durgga Rani.V and Subhadra M.R. 110

31CONSTRAINTS FACED BY THE ROSE GROWERS REGARDING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF ROSE CULTIVATION D. D. Patel, Mahesh R. Patel and P. P. Patel

113

32SOCIAL PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY WOMEN AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH SOCIAL STRATAVaishali Pagar, K.D. Solanki and Ashok Sen

116

33 APPRAISAL OF IPM TECHNONLOGY IN Bt COTTONN. B. Jadav, G. M. Parmar and P. S. Gorfad 122

34 OPINION AND SUGGESTIONS OF FARMERS REGRADING KRUSHI MAHOTSAVSurendra Kumar Rai , R. D. Pandya and Sumit R. Salunkhe 123

Guj. J. Extn. Edu. XVIII-XIX 2007-2008

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INTRODUCTION

As such, worldwide there is a strong feeling that the solution of problems of conventional farming now lies in organic farming. The organic farming has been ecological balance and microenvironment suitable for sound health and growth of soil micro flora, plants, animals and human beings who consume farm products. Today, India has significant strengths in selected tropical organic produce in world market and its contribution reaches up to 20 million US $.

Notwithstanding the growing opportunities in this field, there has been little effort in research front regarding socio-economic status of organic farming followers. There is an urgent need to create a data base on various aspects of organic farming followers in order to reorient the research agenda and train extension and development workers in organic farming. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to develop and standardize a scale to measure the socio-economic status

(SES) of the farmers of South Gujarat.

METHODOLOGY

This study was confined to an Ex-post facto research design. A two stage stratified proportionate random sampling technique was followed to standardize the SES scale. First of all, the list of urban and rural villages of the South Gujarat with categorization of farming community was obtained from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics Bureau, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. The farmers doing agriculture and or holding a land was considered as the criteria for selection of the farmers, hence in the present study the land is understood to be the chief influencing item in determining the SES of farming community. For the basic requirement for identifying the items from the universe and item analysis, 7 villages from urban and 7 villages from rural areas with total 6,457 categorized farming communities were selected. Out of these, three per cent of the total farming communities from each category was randomly selected. In all, 200

DEVELOPMENT AND STANDARDIZATION OF A SCALE TO MEASURE THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE FARMERS

C.D. Pandya1 and R.D. Pandya2

ABSTRACT

The present study was undertaken to develop a scale to measure the socio-economic status of the farmers of South Gujarat. The scale consists of twelve main items such as caste, occupation, education, annual income, family type, family size, land holding, socio-political participation, material possessions, herd size, house holding and personal achievement. Relevant sub items against main items were also identified. The reliability and validity of the scale was established through appropriate methods.

1. SMS (Ext.), KVK, NAU, Vyara. Dist. Tapi 2. Professor and Head, Department of Extension Education, NMCA, NAU, Navsari


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respondent size was obtained under this study.

FINDINGS

1 Development and standardization of SES scale for the farm families of South Gujarat

For the present study the procedure followed is given below:

1.1 Collection of the scale items

The items related to scale were collected by reviewing the literature viz., books, magazines, research journals, souvenirs etc. Moreover, a rigorous discussion with experts of this field was also made to create clarity of concept about items to be incorporated for construction of SES scale. At last, a list of 249 items were scrutinised /prepared.

1.2 Preliminary selection of the items

It is a process which involves scrutinizing the items on the base of its essentiality from the list. For preliminary selection of the items, following criteria were used.

(i) Items must be good indicators of SES,

(ii) Items should be suitable for the study area,

(iii) Items must be objectively observable, and

(iv) Items should be scorable.

The points considered for eliminating the items were;

(i) Duplication of items, and

(ii) Non-specific or indistinguishable items.

Thus, a abridge list prepared which consisted of one hundred & twenty five items. An interview schedule for identification of items was prepared.

According to the procedure, it was pre-tested on 50 farmers in non-sample area. The interview schedule was used for collecting information from the sample. Information thus collected was tabulated under main and sub items.

1.3 Allocation of weightage to items

A schedule was prepared for the purpose to allot the weightage to each main and sub items. The schedule was translated in to local language and pre-tested on fifty farmers of non-sample area to eliminate the ambiguity of the schedule.

After necessary corrections, it was administered to a group of forty experts who have been working in the field of agricultural extension. The experts were identified and requested to rate each main and sub items mentioned in the schedule on a five point continuum. The continuum was ranging from most important, important, some what important, less important and least important to indicate its relative contribution for determination of SES of farm families of South Gujarat. The item wise obtained information was tabulated by giving the weightage; five score for ‘most important’, four for ‘important’, three for ‘some what important’, two for ‘less important’ and one for ‘least important’. In case of family type, two score for ‘most important’ and one score for ‘least important’ were assigned. Lastly, the mean scores for main items and sub items were calculated.

A Wilcokson Sign test was used to determine the differences between the mean scores of the two items. The probability value for each pair was found. The test showed that the differences among the various items or weightages were not significant. So, it was


9

decided that the main items may be given equal weightage in the scale. Weightages for sub items were also decided based on the mean scores in the same way as was done for main items. The obtained mean scores after calculation of main items are presented in table 5. The final weights were assigned to all main and sub items. These weights were used to calculate the scores secured by the 200 farm families for the information given through item identification schedule.

1.4 Item analysis

The particular situation or object that evokes the response, together with a specified set of response categories is called an item. It is a manifest variable. It was done by a method of external criterion to assess the discriminating power of the items.

1.5 Final selection of items

Item wise analyzed data were used for the selection of items. These were utilized only as tool for selection. The low discriminate value did not necessarily disqualify any item. Some items were excluded because of the problem encountered in defining them or in obtaining reliable responses on them. A final list of items was prepared for inclusion in the scale.

1.6 The first draft

With the selected items, a draft of the scale to measure SES of farm family was prepared. Mean scores in the item weightage schedule were utilized in assigning scores to different items and sub items. Zero was assigned for the absence/Nil information of an item and one for its presence/availability/possession (Lundberg, 1949). Multiples of one was assigned for successive levels in case of items in list.

1.7 Administration of SES scale

An interview schedule for getting information for scoring on SES scale was prepared. Instructions for administration of SES scale followed by brief explanation about the items and sub-items were also prepared for convenience and precision in administering the scale.

1.8 Working of the scale

The scale took five to ten minutes to collect information. No difficulty was expressed, if the rapport between investigator and respondent has been developed.

1.9 The final scale

The final format of SES scale was prepared. Except family type, the items were equally weighed. Each of them had a maximum score of five while in case of family type, a maximum score was two. The sub items were differently weighed.

1.10 Obtaining the reliability and validity of SES scale

1.10.1 Reliability of the scale

The concept of internal consistency does not apply to the present scale. Along with stability of scales the inter judge reliability is equally important. Coefficient of inter judge reliability would refer to the correlation between measurement, mode of the sample by the independent interviewers.

1.10.1.1 Test-retest method

This method was used to find out the coefficient of stability or what Wood (1961) calls “temporal reliability”. The correlation of the scale score’s taken at two times at one and half month interval from two farm families of 14 villages selected randomly in Stage-I. The


10

0.817 value of coefficient of stability indicates that the scale is highly reliable; it infers that the scale is able to give uniform measurement under similar conditions in terms of its stability.

1.10.1.2 Inter judge reliability

For testing the stability of the scale, it was applied to 28 randomly selected families by the two independent persons of Stage-I. The “sign test” and “rank order correlation test” were applied to know whether the difference in scores given by two persons were significant. The sign test was not significant. It indicates that the difference between the scores given by two persons were not significant. The rank order correlation between the scores obtained by two independent judges (0. 829) was very high.

1.10.2 Validity of the scale

The validity is the property of the scale which ensures that the obtained SES score correctly measure the variable they are supposed to measure. The joint committee of three organizations (APA, 1954) recommended that the instrument ought to take into account four aspects of validity i.e. content validity, predictive validity, concurrent validity and construct validity. In the present case the validity of the scale was established by using following methods.

1.10.2.1 Content validity

Garret and Woodworth, (1967) stated that the content validity is also called face validity. The content validity of this scale is borne out by the method of collecting items. The content validity is the validity when it appears to measure whatever the author had thought to measure. Judgement of content validity is

very helpful in helping the author to decide whether the items are relevant to some specific situation. Therefore, the choice of the item in content validity depends upon the judgement of competent person about its suitability for the purpose of the test. In present study, the universe of the concept was covered widely. Each item of the scale was selected and judged by the experts and farmers, thus it can be said that the scale possesses content validity.

1.10.2.2 Concurrent validity

To test the concurrent validity of the scale, known group method was used. This method indicates that how well the scores relate to some outside criterion. A random sample of twenty eight farm families from Stage-I was taken as the judging group. They were requested to name persons of very high and very low SES. Thus the total number of farmers named was four for high SES and thirty six for low SES.

1.10.2.3 Construct validity

Construct validity is evaluated by demonstrating that certain exploratory constructs account to some degree for performance on the test (APA, 1954). It was verified by the test of normal probability.

1.11 Norms of distribution of scores

While constructing and standardizing a scale, it is necessary to work out the norms of distribution of scores. Norms are helpful in providing a basis for understanding and interpreting the raw scores. Also, they help in determining the relative position of an individual on a scale. Raw scores earned by individuals or particular group do not indicate the relative position of this individual or


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group in the total distribution of population. Singly considered such scores do not provide a comprehensive view of the community studied and are not usable for the purpose of comparative study. Hence, the determination of norms is a part of the process of standardization of a measuring instrument.

1.11.1 Score distribution

The procedure recommended by Garrett (1967) was used to tabulate the frequency distribution and also to work out other graphical representations. The scores obtained were grouped into ten convenient classes with an interval of five points.

1.11.2 Tests of normality of distribution

A rough and ready test lay in the comparison of simple statistics such as the mean, median and mode. Theoretically, in normal distribution, these values coincide. The difference between mean (27.311) and median (29.000) is 1.689. However, mode (29.000) is higher than the mean and is equal to median.

1.11.3 Variability measures

The mean value was 27.311, while median and mode are equal (29.000). A low value of standard deviation (σx=7.538) indicated narrowness of deviations from the mean. The value of Absolute Mean Deviation (AMD) was 6.210. This has been utilized for expressing an individual score in terms of norms. The variance (σx2) for the present study measured was 56.817.

1.11.4 Use of norms

The norms, in whatever way these be expressed, are meaningful with reference to the particular normative population from which these are derived. These are calculated from the scores obtained by the subjects

constituting the standardized sample, so these have to be used specifically in the population for which these are reported.

1.11.5 Socio-Economic Status categories

The categorization of SES is based on the assumption that an individual stands on continuum of SES scale, which may be classified into a social system of status categories ranging from very low to very high. Science and scientific investigation require standardized tools and concepts which should be understood by all in the same way and in the same context. The lack of standard SES categories put the researcher in an embarrassing position. So, an attempt has been made to identify the standard SES categories for the present study based on scores of developed SES scale for farm families of South Gujarat.

1.11.5.1 Method Used

There are some methods for status categorization; (i) interval scales, usually taking the mean and standard deviation on basis of scaling. Here, the mean of the value of distribution is taken as the basis and multiples of standard deviation is used for getting desired number of categories on both sides of the mean, and (ii) Percentile scaling, usually in quartiles or percentiles. Here different quartiles are calculated and scores are divided into categories.

The categorization based on the mean and standard deviation does not appear to provide the realistic picture which obtained in the field of investigation. It has provided wider differences in numbers in the upper and lower status classes and larger concentration at the middle. Satisfactory categories could not be provided by percentile method also.


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Therefore, an attempt has been made to categorize the farm family on the basis of median and AMD. This provided a symmetrical distribution of categories. Selltis et al. (1959) and Rogers (1962) suggested that the set of categories should be exclusive, exhaustive and derived from a single classificatory principle. Accordingly, it was decided to have five categories viz., higher, higher middle, middle, lower middle and lower.

The median of the distribution of status scores was 29.00 and AMD was 6.21 (rounded to 6.00). The middle group was bound by median minus AMD to median plus AMD whereas, other categories were formed on the basis of median + AMD, median + 2 AMD, above median + 2 AMD and below median + 2 AMD. This has resulted in the five categories which are mutually exclusive, exhaustive and derived from a single classificatory principle.

Table 1: Classification of SES

Sr. Categories Class

1 Higher Above 412 Higher middle 36 - 413 Middle 23 - 354 Lower middle 17 - 225 Lower Below 17

1 Caste Score

a General 5

b OBC (Baxi/SEBC) 4c ST 3d SC 2e Migrating Cast 1

2 Occupationa Professional/Service in Govt. 5b Farming/Business/ Farming with service/Farming with other enterprise 4c Skilled occupation 3d Service in Private 2e Unskilled occupation 1

3 Educationa College /Post graduation 5b High school 4c Middle school 3d Primary school 2e Functionally literate 1f Illiterate 0

4 Annual incomea above 2,00,000 5


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b 1,50,001 to 2,00,000 4c 1,00,001 to 1,50,000 3d 50,001 to 1,00,000 2e up to 50,000 1

5 Family type a Joint 2b Nuclear 1

6 Family sizea 1 to 2 members 5b 3 to 4 members 4c 5 to 6 members 3d 7 to 8 members 2e Above 8 members 1

7 Land holding (in Ha.)a Big (above 10 ha) 5b Medium (4.01 to 10 ha) 4c Semi medium (2.01 to 4 ha) 3d Small (1.01 to 2 ha) 2e Marginal (0.01 to 1 ha) 1f Landless 0

8 Socio-political participationa Involvement in community work 5b Active office bearer 4c Financial contribution or raising fund for community 3d Official position in social and political committee 2e Official position in one or more socio-political organisation 1f No participation 0

9 Material possessionsa Tractor/Mini tractor/Gobar gas plant/ Refrigerator /Cooler /Green house/

Internet /Car, Truck 5

b Pump set/ Mobile/ Telephone/ Drip irrigation set /Sprinkler irrigation Set/LPG gas connection /Television/ Improved farm implements

4

c Motorcycle/Electricity/News paper/Sofa/VCD / DVD 3d Bullock cart /Fan/Radio/Camera 2e Watch/Table/Clock/Chair/Bicycle 1

10 Herd sizea Buffalo/Cow 5b Bullock 4c Poultry 3d Bulls/Heifers/Goats/Sheep/Donkey/ 2e Pig 1f No animal 0


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11 House holdinga Concrete double storied 5b Concrete 4c Tiled and brick wall 3d Mud walled/Metal sheet roof 2e Thatched shed 1

12 Personal achievementa Award in agriculture 5b Award in society 4c Award in education 3d Award in sports 2e Award in bravery 1f No award 0

REFERENCES

Amer, Pay Assoc. (A.P.A.). 1954. Technical recommendations for psychological tests and diagnostic techniques, Washington: Amer Pay. Assoc.

Garret, H. E. and Woodworth. 1967. Statistics in psychology and education. Bombay, Vikas, Feffer and Simons, Pvt. Ltd.:50-101.

Garret, N. S. 1967. Statistics in psychology and education. Vakilo, Peffer & Simons P. Ltd., Bombay.

Lundberg, G. A., 1949. Social Research. N.V. Longmans, Green & Co. P: 289-308.

Rogers, E. M. (1962). Diffussion of innovations. The Free Press of Glensgo, New York, P: 76-81.

Selltis, Jahoda, Deutagh and Cook. 1959. Research methods in Social Relations. Heary Wolt & Co., Inc:391-406.

Wood, D. A. 1961. Test constructions. Columbus (ohio). Charles E., Nerrill Books, Inc.

A teacher to be effective should always be a learner. If he ceases to be a student. he ceases to be a good teacher. Today, we are growing more and there is an increase in lawlessness. The teachers should set on example to the pupils by their behaviour vichara (Inquiry), achara (Practice) and prachara (Teaching) should go together. We should develop the habits of self - scrutiny and self-discipline.

- Dr. S. Radhakrishnan


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1 Assistant Extension Educationist, Sheth M.C. Polytechnic in Agriculture, AAU, Anand2 Professor and Head, Department of Extension Education, BACA, AAU, Anand3 Corresponding author email: [email protected]

SCALE TO MEASURE ATTITUDE OF FARMERS TOWARDS POULTRY FARMING

A.C. Vaidya 1 and N.B. Chauhan 2

INTRODUCTION

The population of the world especially in Asian countries is growing at an alarming rate. In India the population has crossed the 110 corers masks. Although there are large numbers of projects for agriculture development, there is no surety of filling the number of empty stomachs of the people of our country in the years to come. Searching the other area of food production can solve this problem. The poultry is one of the sources of food in India. The importance of poultry sector in solving the problems of unemployment and underemployment is well conceived by planners and personnel involved in the developmental programmes for rural farmers. Along with livestock vocations, the poultry farming has added its importance in the rural area. However, many areas of the country are there, where farmers feel unusual to start poultry profession in spite of possibility to gain high profit. The attitude is one the factors, that plays significant role in motivating an individual

to adopt any technology. To achieve desirable success in the implementation of poultry profession, attitude of the farmers towards this profession needs to be identified. However, to conduct systematic study adopting scientific tool or well developed scale to measure attitude of the farmers towards poultry was not available. Realizing this, researchers have developed a scale to measure attitude of the farmers towards poultry as profession.

METHODOLOGY

Among the techniques available for construction of scale, the methodology suggested by Likert (1932) and Edward (1957) was used in this study for scale construction and for ascertaining the response of the scale. The technique chosen to construct the attitude scale was of “Scale Product Method” which combines the Thurston’s (1946) technique of Equal Appearing Interval Scale for selection of the items and Likert’s techniques of summated rating for ascertaining the response on the scale.

ABSTRACT

Realizing need of research tool, researchers have developed a scale to measure attitude of the Farmers towards Poultry Farming. Among the techniques available for construc-tion of scale, the methodology suggested by Likert (1932) and Edward (1957) was used in this study for scale construction and for ascertaining the response of the scale. The technique chosen to construct the attitude scale was of “Scale Product Method” which combines the technique of Equal Appearing Interval Scale of Thurston (1946) for selec-tion of the items and Likert’s techniques of summated rating for ascertaining the re-sponse on the scale. The scale contains total 14 statements out of these. The co-efficient of reliability was calculated by the Rulon’s formula (Guilford, 1954), which came to 0.83. The responses can be collected on five points continuum viz. strongly agree, agree, un-decided, disagree and strongly disagree with respective weights of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the unfavourable six statements no.2,4,6,8,10 and 12and with the respective weights of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for the favuorable statements no1, 3,5,7,9,11,13 and 14.


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1 Item collection

The items making up an attitude scale are known as statements. A statement may be defined as anything that is said about a psychological object. As a first step in the developing the scale, 30 statements about Agricultural FM Radio collected from the relevant literature, articles published on significance media and extension personals. The statements, thus selected were edited and again finally 23 statements were selected on the basis of the suggested criteria by Edward (1957).

2 Editing of items

The statements collected were edited in the light of the criteria suggested by Thurstone and Chave (1929) and Edward and Kilpatrick (1948). At last, 26 statements were selected as they were found to be non-ambiguous.

3 Judge’s rating of attitude statements

In order to judge the degree of “Unfavorableness” to Favorableness” of each statement on the five point equal appearing interval continuum a panel of 50 judges was selected. The judges selected for the study comprised experts working in Department of Extension Education, Extension Education Institute, Directorate of Extension Education, Statistics Department, Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology, Agricultural Economics and AICRP on Poultry and Animal Nutrition Department. The judges were visited personally along with letter of instructions to guide them for rating the statements in desired manner for each set of the statements.

4 Determination of scale and quartile value

The five points of the rating scale were assigned, ranging from 1 for most unfavourable and 5 for most favourable. On the base of judgment, the median value of the distribution, and the Q value for the statement concerned was calculated, the inter-quartile range (Q = Q3 - Q1) for each statement was also worked out for determination of ambiguity involved in the statement.

5 Final statements for attitude scale

When there was a good agreement among the judges, in judging the degree of agreement or disagreement of a statement, Q was smaller compared to the value obtained, when there was relatively little agreement among the judges it was reserved. Only those items were selected whose median (scale) values were greater than Q values. However, when a few items had the same scale values, items having lowest Q value were selected. Based on the median and Q values 10 statements were finally selected to constitute attitude scale. The scale values were ranging from 1.42 to 4.35.

6 Reliability of the scale

A scale is reliable when it consistently produces the same results when applied to the same sample. In the present study, split-half method of testing reliability was used. The 14 statements were divided into two halves with seven odd numbered in one half and other seven even-numbered statements in the other. These were administered to 30 respondents. Each of the two sets of statements was treated as a separate scale and then these two sub-scales were correlated. The co-efficient of reliability was calculated by the Rulon’s formula (Guilford, 1954), which came to 0.803.

7 Content validity of the scale

The validity of the scale examined for content validity by determining how well content were selected by discussion with specialists, extension academicians, etc. thus, the present scale satisfied the content validity.

8 Scoring system

The selected 14 statements for the final format of the attitude scale are randomly arranged to avoid response biases, which might contribute to low reliability and detraction from validity of the scale. The responses can be collected on five points continuum viz. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with respective weights of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for the favourable


17

statements and with the respective weights of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the unfavourable statements.

REFERENCES

Edward, A.L., 1957, Techniques of Attitude Scale Construction. Appleton Century Crofts, Inc., New York. pp. 22-41.

Guilford, J.P., 1954, Psychometric Methods, Tata McGraw-Hill Publication Co. Ltd., Bombay, pp. 55-60.

Likert, R.A., 1932, A Technique for the measurement of Attitude Scales, Psychol, New York, p. 140.

Thurston, L.L., 1946, The measurement of Attitude. American Journal of Sociology, Chicago University, Chicago Press.

The thinking in a decision


18

1 Agricultural officer, Sheth M.C.Polytechnic in Agriculture, AAU, Anand. Gujarat2 Professor and Head, department of Extension Education, BACA, AAU, Anand

SCALE TO MEASURE ATTITUDE OF WOMAN RESEARCH SCHOLARS TOWARDS THE USE OF COMPUTER FOR THEIR EMPOWERMENT

B.M.Christian1 and N.B.Chauhan2

INTRODUCTION

In present age of information and technology, computer has been considered as an important tool to carry out almost any possible tasks. Starting from very small work to amazing task, the computer has become a part and parcel of the life. In the field of education, research and development also it has significant potential to straighten effectiveness of academicians, researcher scholars and officeholders. Many experts have suggested that to develop agriculture as whole, there is need to encourage women to

work as agricultural educationists, researchers and extension educationists to motivate, empower and accelerate effectiveness of farmwomen in agricultural development. The association of woman research scholars to harness maximum advantages of facilities available on computer needs to be encouraged by the academic institutions. To understand woman research scholars’ attitude towards the use of computer for their empowerment was felt needed by researchers to motivate young and energetic woman research scholars to obtain utmost benefits of ICT.

ABSTRACT

Considering immense potentiality of computer in the development of overall personality of woman research scholars through making their research, management, education and extension related activities more meaningful and effective; there is a need to have positive feeling of them towards application, use and potentials of computer. Realizing this, researchers felt need to develop a scale to measure attitude of woman research scholars towards the use of computer for their empowerment. To develop and standardize the attitude scale, researchers used ‘Scale product method’ which combines the Turnstone’s Technique (1928) of equal appearing interval scale for selection of items and Likert’s Technique (1932) of summated rating for ascertaining the response on the scale as proposed by Eysenck and Crown (1949). The scale contains total 10 statements viz.(1) I am sure that Computer affinity accelerates girl scholars to know various job opportunities, (2) I accept that Computer affinity helps girl scholars to develop overall personality, (3) I am sure that Computer affinity gives confidence to girl scholars to be a good research manager, (4) I consider that Computer affinity is a need of hours for girl scholars to be a good value addition processor of agricultural product, (5) I believe that each girl student should learn computer, (6) I think that inclination with computer is bad activity for girl students, (7) The computer motivates me in self-learning, (8) I don’t think any girl can reach on the top with the help of computer, (9) The computer improves the quality of work and (10) I feel that Computer is demoralizing girl students at work. The co-efficient of reliability was calculated by the Rulon’s formula (Guilford, 1954), which came to 0.94. The responses can be collected on five points continuum viz. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with respective weights of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the unfavourable statements no 6,8 and 10 and with the respective weights of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for remaining favourable statements.


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METHODOLOGY

Attitude refers to the “degree of positive or negative feelings associated with some psychological object” (Thurston 1946). In this study attitude is conceptualized as positive or negative feelings of woman research scholars towards the use of computer for their empowerment. To measure this, researchers have developed and standardize the attitude scale. Among the techniques available, researchers have used ‘Scale product method’ which combines the Turnstone’s Technique (1928) of equal appearing interval scale for selection of items and Likert’s Technique (1932) of summated rating for ascertaining the response on the scale as proposed by Eysenck and Crown (1949). To develop the attitude scale following procedure was used.

1 Item collection

The items of attitude scale are called statements. At the initial stage of developing the scale, 51 statements reflecting feelings of the woman research scholars about the usefulness of computer for their empowerment were collected from relevant literature and discussion with experts of extension personnel. To decide relevancy, a list of the statements was sent to 50 judges. They were requested to give response in terms of ‘relevant’ or ‘non-relevant’ for each statement included in the list. The responses for all the statements were collected personally and their relevancy in percentage was calculated. Primarily 40 statements which were found relevant to include in the attitude scale by more than 90 per cent of the experts were selected for the further procedure. Thereafter these statements were edited according to the criteria suggested by Edward (1957). From the 51 primarily selected statements, 40 unambiguous and non-factual statements were selected.

2 Judge’s rating of attitude statements

In order to judge the degree of importance of each statement more critically, a panel of other judges was selected and their opinion was collected

in terms of relevance of each statement on the five points equal appearing interval continuum from ‘Fully Agree’ to ‘Fully Disagree’. 75 slips of the selected statements were handed over to the experts working in Department of Extension Education, Extension Education Institute, Directorate of Extension Education, Department of Statistics, Department of Economics, IT centre and other centers of Anand Agricultural University. Out of 75 experts, 50 experts returned list of the 40 statements with their judgment, which was considered for the next step of analysis.

3 Determination of scale and quartile value

The five points of the rating scale were assigned score ranging from 1 for fully disagreement and 5 for fully agreement. Based on judgment, the median value or scale value and the Q value for the statement were worked out. The inter-quartile range (Q = Q3 - Q1) for each statement was worked out for determination of ambiguity involved in the statements. Only those statements were selected whose median values were found greater than Q value. Thurston and Clave (Edwards, 1957) described criteria in addition to Q as a basis for rejecting statement in scales constructed by the method of the equal appearing interval. Accordingly, when a few items had the same scale values, the item having lowest Q values were selected. Based on the scale values or say median and Q values, 10 statements were finally selected to constitute attitude scale.

The selected 10 statements for final format of the attitude scale were randomly arranged to avoid response bias. Against each of 10 statements, there were five columns, representing a five point continuum of agreement or disagreement to the statements as adopted by Likert (1932). The five points continuum were strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with weight of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, respectively for favourable or positive statements and with weight of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively for unfavourable or negative statements. The final format of the scale is presented in below table. Among the selected


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10 statements, statement no.6, 8 and 10 were negative while, others were positive statements.

Table1 : Statements finally selected to constitute attitude of woman research scholars towards the use of computer for their empowerment

No. Statement SA A UD DA SDA1 I am sure that Computer affinity accelerates girl scholars to know

various job opportunities.

2 I accept that Computer affinity helps girl scholars to develop overall personality.

3 I am sure that Computer affinity gives confidence to girl scholars to be a good research manager.

4 I consider that Computer affinity is a need of hours for girl scholars to be a good value addition processor of agricultural product.

5 I believe that each girl student should learn computer.6* I think that inclination with computer is bad activity for girl students.7 The computer motivates me in self-learning. 8* I don’t think any girl can reach on the top with the help of computer. 9 The computer improves the quality of work.

10* I feel that Computer is demoralizing girl students at work.

SA=Strongly Agree, A=Agree, UD=Undecided, DA=Disagree SDA=Strongly Disagree


The split-half technique was used to measure the reliability of the scale. The 10 statements were divided into two equal halves as two separate sets with 5 odd numbered and 5 even numbered statements in order. These were administered to 25 respondents. Each of the two sets was treated as separate scale and obtained two scores for both the sets from the 25 respondents. Co-efficient of reliability between these two sets of score was calculated by Rulon’s Formula (Guilford 1954), which was 0.94.

5 Validity of the scale

The validity of the scale was examined for content validity determining how well content were selected by discussing it with specialists of extension and academicians. Thus, the present scale satisfied the content validity.

6 Scoring system

The selected 10 statements for the final format of the attitude scale are randomly arranged to avoid response biases, which might contribute to low reliability and detraction from validity of the scale.

The responses can be collected on five points continuum viz. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with respective weights of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for the favourable statements and with the respective weights of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the unfavourable statements.

REFERENCES

Edward, A.L. (1957). Techniques of scale construction. Appeton Century Crafts Inc., New York.

Eysenck, H.J. and S. Crown.[1949]. An Experimental study in pinion attitude methodology. International J. of Attitude Research. 3: 47-86.

Guliford, J. P. (1954). Psychometric Methods. Tata McGraw-Hill Publication Co. Ltd., Bombay: 378-382.

Likert, R.A. (1932). A Technique for the measurement of attitude scale. Psychology, New York, PP; 140.

Thurston, L. L. (1946). The Measurement of attitude American J. of Sociology. Chicago University Press, 39-50.


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A SCALE TO MEASURE ATTITUDE TOWARDS IMPROVED BANANA CULTIVATION PRACTICES

H. B. Patel1, P. M. Bhatt2 and P. P. Patel3

ABSTRACT

The present study was confined to develop a scale which can scientifically measure the attitude of banana growers towards improved banana cultivation practices. Among the techniques available, ‘Scale product method’ combining Thurston’s technique of equal appearing interval scale for selection of items and Likert’s technique of summated rating for ascertaining the response on the scale was used. The final scale constitutes 19 statements. The calculated reliability co-efficient is 0.83.

INTRODUCTION

Improvement in agricultural practices is the product of modern science and technology. Generally, the development of new technology is not a major problem now-a-days, but the main issue is of its adoption by the farmers. For the new technology to be adopted, the farmers must have first positive attitude towards that. In case of banana crop, the package of practices based on scientific investigation is recommended to achieve greater production. However, one of the important factors affecting its adoption is the attitude of banana growers towards improved banana cultivation practices. With this in view, an attempt has been made to develop a scale which can scientifically measure attitude of banana growers towards improved banana cultivation practices.

METHODOLOGY

Among the techniques available, ‘Scale product method’ which combines the Thurston’s technique of equal appearing interval scale ( 1929 ) for selection of items and Likert’s technique of summated rating (1932) for ascertaining the response on the scale as proposed by Eysenck and Crown ( 1949 ) was used.

1 Item Collection

The items of attitude scale here refer to the

statements about improved banana cultivation practices. In initial stage of developing the scale, large numbers of such statements were collected from relevant literature, discussion with experts and extension workers. The statements, thus selected were edited according to the criteria laid down by Edward (1957). From the 72 statements, 48 statements were selected as they were found to be non-ambiguous and non factual.

2 Item Analysis

The above 48 statements were handed over to judges consisting of the professors and extension educationists, horticulturist and extension officers of Gujarat State. The judges were requested to judge each statement in terms of their agreement or disagreement on five point equal appearing interval continuum. The responses of those 50 experts who returned the statements after dully recording their judgments were considered for the analysis.

3 Determination of scale value and Q. values

The five points of the rating scale were assigned scores ranging from 1 to 5. For positive statements, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 score was given to strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree responses respectively, while for negative statements scoring system was reversed. Frequency distribution of the scores of judges

1 Programme Coordinator, KVK, Devataj, AAU, Anand2 Director, Distance Education, AAU, Anand3 Director of Extension Education, AAU, Anand


22

was than prepared. Based on the judgment, scale (median) value and ‘Q’ value for each of 48 statements were calculated by using following formula:

S = L + (0.50-Pb)/Pw X i

Where,

S = The median or scale value of the statement

L = Lower limit of the interval in which the median falls

Pb = The sum of the proportion below the interval in which the median falls

Pw = The proportion within the interval in which the median falls

i = The width of the interval and is assumed to be equal to 1.0 ( one ).

The inter-quartile range (Q = Q3 - Q1) for each statement was worked out for determination of ambiguity involved in the statement. Based on the median and Q values, 19 statements were finally selected to constitute attitude scale.


The reliability of the test was examined by employing test-retest method. In this method, the developed attitude scale with 19 items was administered twice to the 20 banana growers

at 15 days interval, who were neither previously interviewed nor had a chance to come in the final sample of study. Thus two sets of attitude scores were obtained for each of 20 respondents. Co-efficient of reliability between the two sets of score was calculated by Rulon’s formula (Guliford 1954), which came to be 0.832, which indicated the stability of the instrument.

5 Scoring Techniques

The selected 19 statements for final format of the attitude scale were randomly arranged to avoid response bias, which might contribute to low reliability and direction from the validity of the scale. Against each of 19 statements there were five columns representing a five point continuum of agreement or disagreement to the statements as followed by Likert (1932). The points on continuum were strongly agree, agree ,undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with weight of 5,4,3,2 and 1 respectively for favourable (positive) statement and with weight 1,2,3,4 and 5 respectively for unfavourable (negative) statement. The weights of Likert’s technique and scale values of Thurston’s techniques were combined in form of a product and the total score for an individual was the sum of the product. The final format of the scale is presented in Appendix -I.

Appendix I Final format of the attitude scale

Sr.No.

Statements SA A UD DA SDA

1 Improved banana cultivation is adopted extensively by most of farmers(3.4) 5 4 3 2 1

2 Adopting improved banana cultivation technology one should get higher yield.(3.4) 5 4 3 2 1

3 Improved banana cultivation is an instrument for social and economic change.(1.7) 5 4 3 2 1

4 There is no risk in adoption of improved banana cultivation technology.(3.0) 5 4 3 2 1

5 Only big farmers can do improved banana cultivation efficiently.(2.6) 1 2 3 4 5


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Sr.No.

Statements SA A UD DA SDA

6 I would like to advise my son to continue improved banana cultivation.(3.2)

5 4 3 2 1

7 As one of the new technology, drip irrigation in banana cultivation is not preferable because of higher installation cost.(0.9)

1 2 3 4 5

8 Acceptance of new technology is not a solution of perishable nature of banana fruit.(1.4)

1 2 3 4 5

9 Proper technical guidance is essential on agronomical practices on improved banana cultivation.(3.5)

5 4 3 2 1

10 Fertilizer requirement in improved banana cultivation is more, which is not economically affordable.(2.8)

1 2 3 4 5

11 Improved banana cultivation practices are more complex and technical in nature.(3.3)

1 2 3 4 5

12 Improved banana cultivator becomes an example for other fellow farmers.(3.7)

5 4 3 2 1

13 Transplanting of tissue-cultured plants is at all not remunerative.(0.8)

1 2 3 4 5

14 After introduction of new banana cultivation technology, economic condition of farmers has improved.(3.3)

5 4 3 2 1

15 People having less income can also be successful in improved banana cultivation.(3.1)

5 4 3 2 1

16 Tissue culture is the only resort for banana growers.(1.8) 5 4 3 2 117 Improved banana cultivation is costly affair for small and

marginal farmers.(2.5)1 2 3 4 5

18 A banana grower should adopt new farming ideas, which may earn him more money.(3.6)

5 4 3 2 1

19 The most successful banana grower is one who gets maximum of return with minimum cost.(4.6)

5 4 3 2 1

SA: Strongly agree, A: Agree, UD: Un decided, DA: Disagree, SDA: Strongly Disagree

REFERENCE

Eysenck, H. J. and Crown, S. (1949). An experimental study in opinion-attitude methodology. Int.J.Opin. Attitude Res., 3: 47-86.

Guilford, J. P. (1954). Psychometric methods. Tata McGraw hill publishing Co., Bombay pp 597.

Likert, R. A. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitude scales. Arch. Psychol. New York, No.140.

Thurstone, L. L. (1946). The measurement of attitude. American J. of Socio, Chicago Univ. Chicago Press, 39-50


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SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGE IN TRIBAL FARM WOMEN THROUGH SELF HELP GROUPS

Arti N. Soni1 and C. D. Pandya2

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted in adopted villages of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Mangal Bharti, Dist. Vadodara.. Women of these families doing daily wages work in farm which is available only in particular season. Therefore KVK has made total 20 Self Help Groups in adopted villages of Sankheda taluka since the year2002-2006 having total 246 tribal farm women members. From each SHG, five members were selected randomly for the study making total respondents 100. The information about personal, socio-economic characteristics and aspects of social change were collected through structured interview schedule. This study concluded that the majority of the SHG members had middle aged, illiterate, joint family, landless and low landholding and low income. The major socio-economic change was seen in team building, decision making, participation in SHG activities and awareness regarding loan interest calculation due to SHG membership. The great majority (84 per cent) of the tribal farm women had medium to high socio-economic level due to SHG membership.

INTRODUCTION

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (ICAR), Mangal Bharti, District vadodara has carried out women empowerment work in adopted villages. Majority of families found poor economic status. Women of these families doing daily wages work in farm which is available only in particular season. So, to generate the regular income, it has been decided to do such activities i.e. formation of women Self Help Groups. Self Help Groups (SHG) means “ A small, economically homogeneous and affinity group of rural voluntarily formed to save and contribute to a common fund to be lent out its members as per the group’s decision and for working together for social and economic upliftment of their families and community”. Here, we have tried to know the impact of SHG’s on socio-economic change of tribal farm women through saving, training,

income generation activities and Bank financial support at grass root level.

METHODOLOGY

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Mangal Bharti has made total 20 Self Help Groups in different villages of Sankheda Taluka during the year 2002-2006 having total 246 tribal farm women members. From each SHG, five members were selected randomly for the study. Thus, total number of respondents was 100. The information about personal, socio-economic characteristics and aspects of social change were collected through structured interview schedule.

The aspects of socio-economic change were measured with the help of three point response continuums as full, partial and no socio-economic change having the score of 3, 2 and 1 respectively. On the basis of score, the aspects of socio-economic change were grouped into

1 Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Navsari Agricultural University, Vyara, Dist.Tapi2 Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Navsari Agricultural University, Vyara, Dist.Tapi


25

high, medium and low socio-economic change by using mean and S.D.

For measuring the level of socio-economic change, total score of each respondent was obtained by summing up the score of all aspects. Then, the respondents were grouped into three categories by using mean and S.D.

Profile of SHG Members

Table 1 : Distribution of SHG members according to their profile n = 100

Sr. No.

Age Group No. Percent

1 Young (18 to 35 years) 31 31.00

2 Middle (36 to 50 years) 61 61.00

3 Old (above 50 years) 08 08.00

4 Illiterate 69 69.00

5 Primary (1 to 7 std.) 25 25.00

6 Secondary (8 to 10 std.) 06 06.00

7 Joint 67 67.00

8 Nuclear 33 33.00

9 Landless 46 46.00

10 1-5 Vigha 26 26.00

11 6-10 Vigha 21 21.00

12 Above 10 Vigha 07 07.00

13 Up to Rs.5000/- 51 51.00

14 Rs.5000/- to Rs.10,000/- 38 38.00

15 Above Rs.10,000/- 11 11.00

The Table 1 indicates that the majority of farm women (61 per cent) had middle aged, 69 per cent of farm women had illiterate, 67 per cent farm women had joint family, 46 per cent had landless and 26 per cent had 1-5 vigha land holding and 51 per cent farm women had low income.

RESULTS

Table 2 : Various aspects of socio-economic change in tribal farm women n = 100

Sr. No.

Socio-economic change Mean score

A High Socio-economic change

1 Team spirit 1.82

2 Capacity of decision making 1.57

3 Participation in SHG activities 1.57

B Medium Socio-economic change

1 Confidence 1.40

2 Benefit of internal landing 1.38

3 Receiving grated education 1.19

4 Social status 1.09

5 Maintain the account of SHG 1.08

6 Communication skill 0.84

7 Awareness regarding banking procedure

0.81

8 Awareness regarding loan in-terest calculation

0.81

9 Enthusiasm to improve eco-nomic status

0.60

10 Leadership 0.59

11 Income enhancement 0.57

C Low Socio-economic change

1 Taking loan from bank 0.44

2 Standard of living 0.39

3 Entrepreneurial skill 0.38

4 Reduction in indebtedness 0.37

Mean: 0.9772 S.D.: 0.4852

The data presented in Table 2 indicates that tribal farm women had high socio-economic change in team building, decision making and participation in SHG activities due to SHG membership, whereas low socio-economic change in entrepreneurial skill, standard of living, reduction in indebtedness and taking loan from bank.


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Table 3 : Level of socio-economic change of tribal farm women n = 100

Level of socio-economic change

No. Per cent

High (>24.59) 19 19.00

Medium (10.65 to 24.59) 65 65.00

Low (<10.65) 16 16.00 Mean: 17.62 S.D.: 6.97

Table 3 shows that majority (65 per cent) of tribal farm women had medium level of socio-economic change followed by 19 per cent had high and 16

per cent had low level of socio-economic change. It can be concluded that the great majority (84 per cent) of the tribal farm women had medium to high socio-economic level due to SHG membership.

CONCLUSION

From the above result and discussion, it could be found that the majority of the SHG members had middle aged, illiterate, joint family, landless and low landholding and low income. The major socio-economic change was seen in team building, decision making and participation in SHG activities due to SHG membership. The great majority of the tribal farm women had medium to high socio-economic level due to SHG membership.

Blocks in thinking


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1 Asso. Ext. Edu., Publication Dept., DEE, AAU, Anand.2 Director of Extension Education, AAU, Anand3 Ex. Extn. Educationist, EEI, Anand

IMPACT OF KRUSHIGOVIDYA FARM MAGAZINE ON SUBSCRIBER FARMERS

N.V. Soni1, P.P. Patel2 and V. V. Mayani3

INTRODUCTION

The farm magazine is one of the important media to disseminate agricultural information to the farming community. Among various farm magazine published in Gujarat, Krushigovidya Farm Magazine (KFM) is the oldest farm magazine. It is publishing regularly since May 1948 with the main aim to ‘disseminate and to popularize the scientific methods of agriculture in farming community’.

There was hardly any research work carried out in past to measure the impact of farm magazine in terms of adoption of agriculture technology and techno-economic change on subscriber farmers. The main objective of this investigation was to study the impact of AFM on extent of adoption of selected agriculture technology and techno-economic change.

METHODOLOGY

The Anand and Vadodara districts of the

ABSTRACT

The farm magazine is one of the important media to disseminate agricultural information to the farming community. Among various farm magazine published in Gujarat, Krushigovidya Farm Magazine (KFM) is the oldest farm magazine. There was hardly any research work carried out in past to measure the impact of farm magazine in terms of adoption of agriculture technology and techno-economic change on subscriber farmers. The Anand and Vadodara districts of the Gujarat state having more number of life members of KFM were selected for the study. The total 80 KFM subscriber farmers and 80 non-subscriber farmers were included for the study. The farmers having the higher education were more subscribers of KFM. Due to the subscriber of KFM subscriber farmers, the membership had significant increase in their knowledge and adoption of selected agriculture technology which was resulted in significant techno-economic change in them. The significant impact of KFM was observed on many characteristics of the KFM subscriber farmers were : Social participation, Socio-economic status, Cropping intensity, Farm machinery and implements possession, Annual income, Market intelligence, Scientific orientation, Innovativeness, Risk-preference, Economic motivation, Overall modernity, Reading behaviour, Attitude towards farm literature, Mass media exposure and Extension participation. It means there was a great impact of KFM on the KFM subscriber farmers.


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Gujarat state having more number of life members of KFM were selected for the study. Among Anand district, Anand, Borsad and Petlad talukas whereas in Vadodara district, Dabhoi, Jetpur Pavi and Sankheda taluka and from each talukas, three villages were purposively selected. Total 40 KFM subscriber farmers were selected proportionately and 40 non-subscriber farmers were randomly selected from each village for district. Thus, total 80 KFM subscriber farmers and 80 non-subscriber farmers were included for the study. An interview schedule was prepared and data were collected by personal interviews.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Some personal, social, economic, psychological and communication characteristics were selected to find out

impact of KFM. In case of techno-economic change, 8 aspects viz., change in irrigation area, change in land use, change in cropping pattern, change in crop production, change in farm machinery and implements possession, change in savings and investment and change in annual income were studied. For the study of knowledge and adoption of selected agriculture technology, eleven agriculture technology viz., soil testing, high yielding varieties, seed treatment, vermicompost, bio-fertilizers, micronutrients, fertilizer management, irrigation management, weed management biological control and value addition were studied. The impact regarding all the characteristics of the KFM subscriber farmers and non-subscriber farmers were presented in Table 1 .

Table 1 : Impact of krushigovidya farm magazine on the selected characteristics of the respondents n=160

Characteristics Mean value ‘t’valueKFM subscriber

farmers

(n=80)

Non-subscriber farmers

(n=80)I PERSONAL1 Age 46.83 46.24 0.74NS2 Education 4.85 3.84 3.82**II SOCIAL 1 Social participation 1.94 1.18 3.17**2 Socio-economic status 108.76 78.06 9.75**III ECONOMIC 1 Size of land holding 5.26 2.88 1.30NS2 Irrigation potentiality 94.03 93.00 0.73NS3 Cropping intensity 148.75 114.25 2.11*4 Farm machinery and implements

possession35.05 15.30 8.49**

5 Occupation 2.45 2.06 0.03NS6 Annual income 188015.00 109281.88 7.27**7 Credit orientation 8.36 6.90 0.01NS8 Market intelligence 8.59 5.79 8.03**


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farmers

(n=80)


(n=80)IV PSYCHOLOGICAL 1 Scientific orientation 33.16 29.06 2.36*2 Innovativeness 2.51 1.65 3.48**3 Risk preference 31.60 26.84 4.32**4 Economic motivation 33.04 27.69 4.66**5 Overall modernity 20.68 17.05 3.37**6 Reading behaviour 18.74 9.66 5.31**7 Knowledge regarding selected

agriculture technologyA Soil testing 4.08 3.05 2.36*B High yielding varieties 5.84 3.88 1.54NSC Seed treatment 4.98 2.59 3.23**D Vermicompost 4.83 2.14 3.51**E Bio-fertilizers 7.11 2.21 7.22**F Micronutrient 4.86 1.41 8.43**G Fertilizer management 8.01 6.19 3.54**H Irrigation management 6.90 4.18 3.68**I Weed management 8.48 5.38 6.17**J Biological control 5.46 1.26 4.41**K Value addition 7.71 2.84 8.59**L Overall knowledge of selected

agriculture technology68.33 35.11 2.40*

8 Attitude towards farm literature 72.85 64.13 2.34*V COMMUNICATION1 Mass media exposure 11.34 7.43 2.25**2 Extension participation 26.95 11.73 4.02**VI ADOPTION OF SELECTED AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY A Soil testing 7.44 1.93 6.98**B High yielding varieties 9.83 9.65 0.27NSC Seed treatment 8.16 2.06 2.21*D Vermicompost 1.94 0.56 0.01NSE Bio-fertilizers 4.75 1.35 2.67**F Micronutrient 7.75 1.50 1.99*G Fertilizer management 8.67 7.48 0.01NSH Irrigation management 9.23 7.63 5.16**I Weed management 8.27 8.28 0.95NSJ Biological control 0.69 0.63 0.32NSK Value addition 6.41 5.06 4.32**L Overall adoption of selected

agriculture technology66.59 42.00 2.73**


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farmers

(n=80)


(n=80)VII TECHNO-ECONOMIC CHANGE A Change in irrigation area 21.73 2.23 2.43*B Change in land use 0.94 0.46 0.16NSC Change in cropping intensity 45.81 6.93 5.31**D Change in cropping pattern 1.95 1.43 2.91**E Change in crop production 39.14 9.36 2.22*F Change in farm machinery and

implements possession54.88 7.73 7.21**

G Change in savings and investment

2.98 2.08 3.03**

H. Change in annual income 50.00 14.46 7.65**I. Overall techno-economic

change217.94 44.66 4.09**

* Significant at 0.05 level of probability

** Significant at 0.01 level of probability NS Non-Significant

1 Impact of KFM on personal characteristics

The Table 1 clearly indicates that there was highly significant difference in the level of education between the KFM subscriber farmers and non-subscriber farmers. It means that farmers having the higher education were more subscribers of KFM.

2 Impact of KFM on social characteristics

The social participation and socio-economic status of the KFM subscriber farmers were observed significantly superior than the non-subscriber farmers. It means that the KFM showed highly significant impact in improving social participation and socio-economic status of the KFM subscriber farmers.

3 Impact of KFM on economic characteristics

The significant difference shown between cropping intensity of KFM subscriber farmers and non-subscriber farmers. It means that cropping intensity was significantly more

due to KFM. This might be because of the possibility of taking more than one crops in a year in some piece of land due to canal irrigation facility and better knowledge as well as higher adoption of improved agricultural technology.

The highly significant progress was observed in the KFM subscriber farmers in terms of their farm machinery and implements possession due to KFM. It is quite natural that KFM subscriber farmers have more crop production and more earning. The farmers with higher earning will always think to bring changes in their farm machinery and implements possession. Thus, KFM acts as an initiating factor for promoting overall picture of economic condition of the farmers.

4 Impact of KFM on psychological characteristics

There was significant difference between


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scientific orientation, innovativeness, risk preference, economic motivation and overall modernity of KFM subscriber farmers and non-subscriber farmers. It means that the KFM subscriber farmers had more faith in science and improved agricultural technology by gained scientific knowledge through KFM.

There was highly significant difference between the KFM subscriber farmers and non-subscriber farmers regarding their reading behaviour. It means that the KFM subscriber farmers and non-subscriber farmers were differ with reading behaviour due to KFM as it is received regularly, it leads to conformity to see the new things in farm magazine. The another reason might be that they were well educated and had favourable attitude towards farm literature.

This indicates highly significant impact on knowledge of selected agriculture technology (viz, soil testing, seed treatment, vermicompost, bio-fertilizers, micronutrients, fertilizer management, irrigation management, weed management, biological control and value addition) of the KFM subscriber farmers. It means that significant impact of KFM was observed in improving knowledge of selected agriculture technology of the KFM subscriber farmers. The probable reason for above finding might be the membership of KFM could have expanded their knowledge regarding improved agricultural practices and more extension as well as social participation.

The attitude of KFM subscriber farmers was more favourable than the non-subscriber farmers towards farm literature. It was due to the facts that KFM subscriber farmers were in advantage of reaping maximum benefits of improved agriculture technology through

KFM. Secondly members were found better contact with various extension agencies and personnel. Moreover due to their participation in various extension programmes.

5 Impact of KFM on communication characteristics

KFM showed its impact on mass media exposure and extension participation of the KFM subscriber farmers. The KFM subscriber farmers had higher level of mass media exposure though using radio, television, newspapers, magazine etc. It means KFM had played significant role in establishing a larger contact with various extension agencies.

6 Impact on adoption of selected agriculture technology

The highly significant impact on the KFM subscriber farmers regarding adoption of soil testing, seed treatment, bio-fertilizers, micronutrients, irrigation management and value addition. It means that KFM has shown its impact on adoption of selected agriculture technology of the KFM subscriber farmers. This might be due to favourable attitude towards farm literature, knowledge of agricultural recommendations increased through KFM. Moreover, frequent extension contact, utilization of mass media, socio-economic status and social participation which might have motivated the members for adoption of selected agriculture technology.

7 Impact on techno-economic change

The Table 1 indicates highly significant difference between cropping intensity, cropping pattern and crop production of KFM subscriber farmers and non-subscriber farmers. It means that cropping intensity and crop production were significantly increased


32

due to taking more than one crops in a year in some piece of land for minimizing the risk and better knowledge as well as higher adoption of improved agricultural technology.

The Table 1 clearly indicates that highly significant progress was observed in the KFM subscriber farmers in terms of their change in farm machinery and implements possession due to higher income. It is quite natural that KFM subscriber farmers have more crop production and more earning. The farmers with higher earning will always think to bring changes in their farm machinery and implements possession. Thus, KFM acts as an initiating factor for promoting overall picture of economic condition of the farmers.

The change in savings and investments of KFM subscriber farmers was significant at 0.01 level of probability than the non-subscriber farmers. This might be due to more possibility of earning more money through the higher adoption of improved agriculture technology by the KFM subscriber farmers.

The Table 1 indicates that the impact on change in annual income of the KFM subscriber farmers was significantly higher than the non-subscriber farmers. It means that KFM played significant indirect role in increasing annual income of the KFM subscriber farmers. This might be due to various changes occurred as a result of impact of KFM, which might have made the KFM subscriber farmers economically more sound and technically well-equipped by adopting improved agriculture technology.

The Table 1 clearly indicates that significant difference was observed in the KFM subscriber farmers in terms of their overall techno-economic change. It is quite natural that

KFM subscriber farmers having influence and impact of KFM will have more crop production and more earning. The farmers with higher earning naturally will always think to bring changes in their social status as well as techno-economic changes of various aspects. Thus, KFM acts as an initiating factor for promoting overall picture of techno-economic condition of the KFM subscriber farmers. This might be the possible reason for above findings.

CONCLUSION

The farmers having the higher education were more subscribers of KFM. Due to the subscriber of KFM subscriber farmers, the membership had significant increase in their knowledge and adoption of selected agriculture technology which was resulted in significant techno-economic change in them. The significant impact of KFM was observed on many characteristics of the KFM subscriber farmers were : Social participation, Socio-economic status, Cropping intensity, Farm machinery and implements possession, Annual income, Market intelligence, Scientific orientation, Innovativeness, Risk-preference, Economic motivation, Overall modernity, Reading behaviour, Attitude towards farm literature, Mass media exposure and Extension participation. It means there was a great impact of KFM on the KFM subscriber farmers.

IMPLICATION

The study implies that more and more farm literature should be published and distributed among the farming community to increase the knowledge and adoption level of the farmers for getting higher crop production and annual income which can be resulted in higher techno-economic change.


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INTRODUCTION

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under the philosophy of Transfer of Technology (TOT) has devoted a Frontline Extension Activity system being organized and conducted by the Agricultural Scientists with the aim of demonstrating promptly latest agricultural technologies to the farmers and extension workers, testing and verifying the technologies in the socio-economic conditions of the farmers and getting the first hand feedback to reorient the research, education and training systems. To achieve these objectives, a number of transfer of technology projects have been sponsored by the ICAR viz; All India Co-coordinated Project on National Demonstrations (AICPND), Operational Research Project (ORP), Lab to Land programme (LLP) and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Farm Science Centre )from time to time.

However, from 1st April 1992 all the above first line transfer of technology projects of the ICAR

viz., ND, ORP and LLP have been merged under the concept of KVK. In the reorganized system, the major mandates of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) are to conduct the need based activities viz., training programmes, front line demonstrations, on farm trials and extension activities. The KVK organize front line demonstrations (FLDs) which aim at demonstrating the production potentialities of newly released and pre- released production technologies of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds on farmer’s fields. These are called front line demonstrations because the technologies are demonstrated for the first time before being fed into the main extension system. The KVK has also been given the responsibility of conducting at least some good integrated farming system demonstrations which would serve as model for extension agencies. From the FLD, it is possible to generate some data related to factors contributing to higher yield and also constraints of production under various farming situations. Field day is conducted at the demonstration field when the crop is at maturity stage and interaction between the scientists, farmers and

ABSTRACT

The present investigation was conducted in ten Krishi Vigyan Kendras under the jurisdiction of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri (M.S.) to access the impact of Front Line Demonstrations on the beneficiaries of Krishi Vigyan Kendras. The results of study revealed that FLDs has positive impact on the beneficiaries in respect of change in their cropping pattern, yield and productivity levels of crops and overall gain was always more. It was observed that FLD programme is an effective tool for increasing productivity and yield of the crops. The demonstration also acts as source of information for other farmers. Cultivation created greater awareness and motivation to the other farmers to adopt appropriate production technology. Therefore, it is suggested that every KVK should organize maximum number of FLDs and more coverage needs to given to various categories of farming communities by following ICAR norms.

IMPACT OF FRONT LINE DEMONSTRATIONS ON BENEFICIARIES OF KRISHI VIGYAN KENDRAS IN WESTERN MAHARASHTRA

G.K. Waman1, P.G. Khalache2 and R.P.Khule3

1 Assistant Professor, Directorate of Extension Education, MPKV, Rahuri(M.S.) 2 Head, Dept. of Extension Education, MPKV,Rahuri Dist.Ahmednagar (M.S.)3 JRA MPKV, Rahuri


34

extension functionaries takes place at the spot itself. The crop is harvested in the presence of the interested group of farmers which helps to visualize the importance of new technology easily and effectively. Very few studies are conducted in the country to know the impact of FLDs therefore, the present investigation was carried.

METHODOLOGY

The jurisdiction of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV), Rahuri comprises ten districts of Western Maharashtra viz; Ahmednagar, Pune, Solapur, Satara, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon and Nandurbar. Every district has Krishi Vigyan Kendra for transfer of technology on location specific conditions. All the 10 KVK’s were purposively selected for the present investigation. Out of 10 KVK’s only one KVK (KVK, Dhule) is under

the university administrative control of MPKV, Rahuri while other nine KVK’s are run by NGO’s. A total of 315 FLD beneficiaries in 10 KVKs were interviewed by using a personal interview schedule. To measure the impact of front line demonstrations on the respondent beneficiaries, a scale specially developed by Waman and Khalache (2009) was usd.

FINDINGS

The impact of FLDs conducted by KVK is studied in respect to change in cropping pattern, yield potentiality and productivity of respondent beneficiaries.

A Impact of FLD’s on the cropping pattern

The information pertaining to the impact of FLD’s on the cropping pattern of the respondent beneficiaries were collected, tabulated and analyzed. The findings are presented in Table-1.

Table-1 Distribution of respondent beneficiaries according to the impact of FLD’s on their cropping pattern n=135

Sr. No. statements Frequency Per cent

1 FLD’s accelerates to change the cropping pattern of the farmers 191 60.63

2 Farmers becomes enables to manage cropping pattern due to the exposure of FLD’s

215 68.25

3 Crop production technologies exercised through FLD’s are easily understood by the client

198 62.86

4 Due to FLD’s area under particular crop of recommended cropping systems is increased.

175 55.57

5 FLD’s helps to promote integrated crop nutrient management systems.

218 69.21

The data presented in Table-1 clearly reveals that FLD’s promoted integrated crop nutrient management system among the farmers (69.21 per cent) followed by cropping pattern is well managed by the farmers through FLD’s (68.25 per cent); crop production technologies through FLD’s accelerates easily understood by the client (62.86 per cent); FLD’s accelerates change the cropping pattern of the farmers (60.63 per cent) and area

under particular crop in recommended cropping system was also increased (55.57 per cent).

B Impact of FLD’s on the yield levels

The data pertaining to the impact of FLD’s on the yield levels of the respondent beneficiaries were collected, tabulated and analyzed. The findings are presented in Table-2.


35

Table-2 : Distribution of respondent beneficiaries according to the impact of FLD’s on their crop yield levels n = 315

Sr. No. Impact showing statements Frequency Per cent

1 As the yield of demonstration plot obtained is more, respondents are automatically motivated for adopting the technology 203 64.45

2 Household income of respondents is increased 214 67.94The data from Table-2 indicates that due to adoption of FLD’s, household income of the respondents had increased (67.94 per cent) and as the yield of demonstration plot obtained is more, respondents were automatically get stimulated for adopting the recommended technology (64.45 per cent).

C Impact of FLD’s on the productivity levels

The information pertaining to the impact of FLD’s on the productivity levels of the respondent beneficiaries were collected, tabulated and analyzed. The findings are given in Table-3.

Table-3: Distribution of beneficiaries according to the impact of FLD’s on their crop productivity levels n = 315


1 There was a direct impact on increasing productivity of different crops 206 65.402 FLD’s is well thought practical approach for boosting the agriculture

production 207 65.71

3 FLD’s encourages the respondents to adopt newly released crop production technology. 197 62.54

The data depicted in Table-3 clearly reveals that FLD’s is well thought practical approach for boosting the agriculture production (65.71 per cent). There was a direct impact on increasing productivity of different crops (65.40 per cent) and FLD’s encourages the farmers to adopt newly

released crop production technology (62.54 per cent)

D. Impact of FLD’s on the overall gain of the respondent beneficiaries:

The impact of FLD’s on the overall gain of the beneficiaries were collected, tabulated.

Table-4 Distribution of respondent beneficiaries by their overall gain due to FLD’s n = 315


1 Proven technologies are demonstrated for the first time by the Scientists through FLD’s 211 66.98

2 FLD’s convinced to extension functionaries and farmers together about the potentialities of technologies for its rapid dissemination 197 62.54

3 FLD’s developed self confidence among demonstrated farmers. 252 80.004 Increased knowledge regarding crop production technology 271 86.035 Ability to overcome the constraints in crop production 208 66.036 FLD’s lead to change the traditional ways of farming into modern farming 260 82.547 Scientists provides research based information through FLD’s 212 67.308 FLD’s has established strong linkage between the farmers and scientists 241 76.51


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From Table-4 it is observed that knowledge levels regarding crop production technology of a large majority of respondent beneficiaries (86.03 per cent) were increased due to front line demonstrations followed by lead to change the traditional ways of farming into modern farming (82.54 per cent) and FLD’s also develop their self confidence (80.00 per cent).

The Table-4 further reveals that 76.51 per cent of the beneficiaries has established strong linkage with scientists; scientists provides research based information through the FLD (67.30 per cent), proven technologies are demonstrated for the first time by the scientists through FLD’s (66.98 per cent); ability to overcome the constraints in crop production (66.03 per cent) and they got convinced about potentialities of technologies for its rapid dissemination (62.94 per cent).

CONCLUSIONS

From the above crucial findings, it can be concluded that the FLDs has positive impact on the beneficiaries in respect of change in their cropping pattern, yield and productivity level of crops. Therefore, it is suggested that KVKs should organize more number of FLDs to demonstrate the newly released crop production/protection technologies and its management practices in farmer’s fields. The SAU’s needs to provide continued technological back stopping to the

KVK while conducting these FLD’s and Subject Matter Specialists of KVK should have made regular contact with the University Scientist for technical know-how and in order to conduct FLD’s effectively.

REFERENCES

Anonymous, 2008 Annual Progress Report 2007-08. Krishi Vigyan Kendras in Western Maharashtra.

Kalarani, M. K., Raja, D. and Janki, P. 2009. Effective way of transfer of technology to boost the sunflower yield through front line demonstration in Salem district, Tamilnadu. Agriculture Update. 4(1&2): 114-116.

Katare S. and Shrivastava M. K. 2009. Front line demonstrations is an effective technology for increasing productivity of Soyabean in Ratlam (M.P.) Agriculture Update : 4 (1&2) : 174-176.

Raja, D., Kalarani M.K. and Janaki P. 2009. Performance of Front line Demonstrations on green gram and black gram in Salem district of Tamil Nadu, India, Agriculture Update. 4(1&2) : 17-19.

Waman, G.K. and Khalache P.G. 2009. Impact of Krishi Vigyan Kendra on the Beneficiaries in Western Maharashtra. Ph.D. Thesis (Unpublished) M.P.K.V., Rahuri (M.S.).

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an examination.

- Francis Bacon.


37

INTRODUCTION

Tapi is one of the tribal dominated districts of the South Gujarat where 38 per cent area of cultivable land is under irrigation. The farmers of this area are very much conscious about the judicious use of irrigation water and comical fertilizers in their crops. Since beginning, the KVK, Vyara is frequently organising the training progrmmes to motivate the farmers for higher crop production. In recent time the okra crop is being cultivated by the large number of farmers due to assured market. The okra dominant pockets are more or less connected with Dolvan vegetable market yard. The farmers are much habituated about to use of hybrid seeds of okra from private seed agencies. Though the higher production, the okra growers are not getting reasonable prise. It was observed that after harvesting the okra growers were not taking enough care while transport and in selling. Value addition concept in okra is missing therefore; the quality of harvested okra becomes deprived. From their total budget, they spent more behind fertilisers and plant protection measures which resulted in higher cost of production. At

alternate day’s not less than one container being exported from market yard. This export has been around 33 carors per season. The okra cultivation in this area has created an identity at National as well as international level. Considering all these facts an influence of KVK, Vyara was under taken for present study.

METHODOLOGY

Ex-post-facto research design was used in the present study. Several on and off campus training, field days, meetings and other techniques were used during last three years by the KVK, Vyara to enhance the level of knowledge and adoption of okra growers. Ten villages nearby Dolvan vegetable market yard were randomly selected and from each village ten farmers were also randomly selected. This makes 100 sample size for the present study. A structure interview schedule was developed to obtain the responses. The data from respondents were collected personally and by using simple statistics the data were analysed.

FINDINGS

Basically, the data were collected and tabulated in following tables.

INFLUENCE OF KRISHI VIGHAN KENDRA ON OKRA GROWERS B.M. Tandel1, N.M. Chauhan2 and G.R. Patel3

1. SMS (Horticulture) KVK,NAU, Vyara, 2. Programme Coordinator, KVK, NAU, Vyara 3. Associate Ext. Educationist, DEE, NAU,Navsari

ABSTRACT

The study revealed that due to KVK,Vyara intervention, the knowledge and adoption level of okra growers raised significantly and had great influence on adoption of all improved cultivation practices in general and high yielding varieties and nutrient management in particular.

Table 1 : Distribution of okra growers according to overall knowledge regarding scientific package of practices n=100Categories Before contact with KVK (%) After contact with KVK (%)

Low level of knowledge 55 16Medium level of knowledge 35 56High level of knowledge 10 28


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Table 1 indicates that before contact with KVK, Vyara, majority of the okra growers belonged to medium (35.00 per cent) to low (55.00 per cent) level of knowledge while after rigorous approach

the majority of them were found in the categories of medium (56.00 per cent) to high (28.00 per cent) level respectively.

Table 2 : Distribution of okra growers according to their level of Knowledge regarding selected scientific innovations n=100

Sr. No. Selected scientific innovations Low (%) Medium (%) High (%)1 New high yielding varieties 16 28 562 Seed rate 11 16 733 Integrated nutrient management 26 35 394 Integrated pest management 25 61 145 Knowledge regarding yellow mosaic virus

and powdery mildew26 43 31

6 Plant growth regulator 7 11 827 Value addition 6 16 78

The data presented in Table 2 indicates that the majority of the okra growers had high level of knowledge about plant growth regulator (82.00 per cent) followed by value addition (78.00 per cent), seed rate (82.00 per cent), new high yielding varieties (56.00 per cent) and integrated nutrient

management (39.00 per cent) whereas, 61.00 and 43.00 per cent of them had medium level of knowledge about integrated pest management and knowledge regarding yellow mosaic virus and powdery mildew respectively.

Table 3 : Overall adoption of scientific package of practices of okra n=100

Sr. No. Categories Before contact with KVK (%) After contact with KVK (%)1 Low level of adoption 14 42 Medium level of adoption 69 283 High level of adoption 17 68

The data presented in Table 3 indicates that before contact with KVK, Vyara, the majority of okra growers belong to medium (69.00 per cent) level

of adoption category while after contact with KVK, Vyara majority of them found in medium (68.00 per cent) category respectively.

Table 4 : Distribution of okra growers according to adoption of okra production technology n= 100

Sr. No. Selected scientific innovations Adoption (%)1 New high yielding varieties 832 Seed rate 763 Integrated nutrient management 824 Integrated pest management 615 Knowledge regarding yellow mosaic virus and powdery mildew 726 Plant growth regulator 737 Value addition 77

The data presented in Table 4 indicates that the majority of the okra growers had adopted new high yielding varieties high (83.00 per cent) followed by

integrated nutrient management (82.00 per cent), value addition (77.00 per cent), seed rate (76.00 per cent), plant growth regulator (73.00 per cent),


39

knowledge regarding yellow mosaic virus and powdery mildew (72.00 per cent) and integrated pest management (61.00 per cent) respectively.

CONCLUSION

From above discussion it can be conclude that after intervention of KVK Vyara the influence on level of knowledge and adoption of okra growers were improved.

REFERENCES

Das S., Laharia S.N. and Dixit V.B. (2005). Impact of Leadership Style on Job Satisfaction. Indian J. of Ext. Edu, 41:12-19.

Kokate K.D. and Kharde P.B., (2006). Extension Strategies for increasing Sugarcane production. Asian J. of Ext. Edu, 25:10-14.

Kothari, G. L.; Intodia, S. L. and Sharma, F. L. (2006). Extent of Knowledge and Adoption of Maize production Technology by the Farmers of Agro-climatic ZoneIV Rajasthan. Asian J. of Ext. Edu, 25:23-27

Kumar Nirmal, Rautary S.K., Gupta M. and Singh A.K. (2005). Impact of Summer School and Mechanization of Rice Production System. Indian J. of Ext. Edu, 41:54-57.

Meena S.R. and Jhamtani Anita (2005). Change in Cropping Pattern Subsequent to Farm Mechanization. Indian J. of Ext. Edu, 41:31-36.

Tulsiram, J. and Sambrani Ravi M. (2006). A study on Adoption Pattern of Farmers in Different Drought Areas. Asian J. of Ext. Edu, 25:28-31.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is that we

think of it, the tree is the real thing.

- Lincoln.


40

1 Asstt. Ext. Educationist, Agril. School, BACA, AAU-Anand2 Asstt. Professor, Deptt. of Extension Education, BACA, AAU-Anand 3 Agril. Officer, State Agril. Deptt., GOG

DETERMINENTS OF INFORMATION NEEDS OF THE BANANA GROWERSA.R. Makwan1, J.K. Patel2 and N. P. Patel3

INTRODUCTION

India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables each in the world after china. Because of its varied agro-climatic conditions temperate, sub tropical and tropical, India can produce a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. India ranks first in the production of mango, banana, sapota, and citrus fruits in the world. The union government has given top priority to horticulture in the tenth five year plan. The aim is to increase a growth rate and generate employment. The union government has delinked fruits from APMC regulations to boost their marketing and reduce cost of procurement and is providing subsidies for setting up post harvest facilities cold chains and cold storages.

Banana being the important fruit crop plays a significant role in socio-economics across the globe. There is a growing appreciation for the improvement of the production and utilization of this fruit to provide nutritional and food security to millions. Therefore, investigation of information needs was considered vital for catalyzing the efforts of investigators, entrepreneurs and growers

to have effective interaction and dissemination of information.

METHODOLOGY

Keeping in view the importance of the information needs of banana growers, the study was conducted in Anand, Borsad and Anklav talukas of Anand district on the basis of higher area in banana cultivation. Then 15 banana growing villages comprising of five from each taluka were randomly selected on the basis of maximum area under banana cultivation. Ten banana growers from each of selected villages were chosen as respondents. Thus, 150 banana growers were selected for this study. Required information was collected with the help of pre-tested gujarati version interview schedule by survey method.

The information needs of the banana growers were assessed for the areas such as, weather, soil & its preparation, variety, tissue culture, transplanting techniques, fertiliser management, irrigation management, inter culturing & inter crops, weed management, plant protection, harvesting &

ABSTRACT

Banana is the major fruit crop of Anand district and therefore, present study was conducted in Anand district of Gujarat state. 15 villages of 3 taluka were selected purposively based on higher area under banana cultivation. 10 banana growers from each village were selected at random, thus making total sample size of the study was 150. The banana growers have expressed their needs for information about market management (1.207 MS), tissue culture based varieties of banana (1.076 MS) and plant protection measures (1.053 MS) were the basic information needs of the banana growers. Education, information sources, extension participation, size of land holding, land under banana cultivation, irrigated land, annual income, economic motivation, scientific orientation as well as market orientation were positively and significantly associated with the information needs of the banana growers.


41

post harvest technology, market management and supportive facts of the banana cultivation. Thus, information needs of the banana growers about various aspects of banana cultivation were ascertained. The extent of information needs of banana growers was availed on three-point continuum ranging from most needed, needed and not needed. These three categories were attributed with 2 score, 1 score and 0 score respectively. The information needs were

computed for each of the major areas considering the total score for information gained by the respondents. On the basis of the mean score, the rank to the major areas of information needs were assigned to know relative importance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1 Distribution of the respondents according to their information needs

Table 1 : Distribution of the respondents according to their information needs n = 150

Sr. No.

Areas of Information Mean Score (MS) Rank

1 Weather 0.577 XIII2 Soil and soil preparation 0.803 VIII3 Variety 1.048 IV4 Tissue culture 1.076 II5 Transplanting techniques 0.655 XII6 Fertilizer management 0.875 VII7 Irrigation management 0.735 X8 Inter culturing 0.753 IX9 Weed management 0.707 XI

10 Plant protection 1.053 III11 Harvesting & post harvesting technology 0.930 VI12 Market management 1.207 I13 Supportive facts 0.999 V

The data presented in table-1 reveals that information needs on market management ranked first with mean score 1.207, followed by tissue culture (1.076), plant protection (1.053), variety (1.048), supportive facts (0.999), harvesting & post harvesting technology (0.930), fertilizer management (0.875), soil and soil preparation (0.803), inter culturing (0.753), water management (0.735), weed management (0.707), transplanting techniques (0.655) and weather (0.577).These results are in the line with the findings of Patel and Patel(2004).

Thus, it can be concluded that information related to market management ranked top. It might be because of the fact that banana growing is most expensive and banana fruit is highly perishable, market management becomes

a crucial factor to get higher net profit. They are also conscious about tissue culture as well as plant protection measures. This may be due to tissue culture plants of banana are free from insects, pests, nematodes, diseases etc. and generally more homogenous resulted into uniform and high quality and quantity produce. The data also shows that the respondents have become more wakeful about variety. The reason might be that the farmers are ready to sow improved variety but they perceive chances of being cheated in purchasing suitable varieties and suckers.

2 Relationship between selected characteristics of respondents and their information needs about banana


42

Table 2 : Relationship between selected independent variables of banana growers and their information needs

Sr. No.

Independent variables Correlation Co-efficient(‘r’ value )

1 Age -0.013002 Education 0.17640 *3 Occupation 0.024594 Size of family 0.039135 Social participation -0.017956 Use of information sources 0.24988 *7 Training received -0.004778 Extension participation 0.21307 *9 Size of land holding 0.18331 *

10 Land under banana cultivation 0.17444 *11 Irrigated land 0.17810*12 Annual income 0.17503 *13 Economic motivation 0.23118 *14 Scientific orientation 0.26914 *15 Market orientation 0.24629 *16 Cosmo politeness 0.04292

* Significant at 0.05 percent level of probability Critical value (2 tail, 0.05) = 0.16030

The data shown in Table 2 indicate that education, information sources, extension participation, size of land holding, land under banana cultivation, irrigated land, annual income, economic motivation, scientific orientation as well as market orientation were positively and significantly associated with the information needs of the banana growers. It means that higher level of education, information sources and extension participation of the banana growers would be responsible for creating interest for the latest technology of the banana crop. It can be also said that size of land holding, land under banana cultivation, irrigated land , economic motivation, market orientation and scientific orientation of the banana growers motivate them for adopting latest technology of banana crops for getting higher profit.

The data also reveal that information needs of the banana growers had negative and non-significant correlation with their age. This might be due to fact that majority of the respondents (54.00 percent) were from the middle age group. Thus,

they may gain information from any source and be knowledgeable regarding latest technology of banana cultivation.

There was no significant relationship between the age, occupation, size of family, social participation, training received and cosmopoliteness of the respondents with the information needs.

CONCLUSION

On the basis of above discussion, it could be concluded that market management, tissue culture based varieties of banana and plant protection measures were the basic information needs of the banana growers. Education, use of information sources, extension participation, size of land holding, land under banana cultivation, irrigated land, annual income, economic motivation, scientific orientation and market orientation of banana growers play significant role in determination of their information needs pertaining to different aspect of composite banana cultivation technology.


43

INTRODUCTION

India has largest concentrations of tribal population in the world after Africa. Gujarat ranks fourth in the size of schedule tribes’ and among all the states were first three are Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar. According to 1981 census Gujarat State has 37.34 lakhs tribal population out of 13.99 per cent of the total. It means one out of ten tribal in the country lives in Gujarat. The tribal population of Gujarat state is mainly concentrated in eastern parts of the Gujarat state from Valsad in South to Banaskantha district in North.

Agriculture is a mainstay of tribal people of Dharampur taluka. Their main agriculture consists of raising coarse food grains such as, rice and millets with the use of traditional low yielding varieties and poor or no application of manures and fertilizers. Moreover, traditional cultivation practices are also prevailing. It involves cleaning of forest slopes, burning the fallen trees and bushes and dibbling or broadcasting the seed in the ash covered soil. The rest is left to nature. Dharampur taluka has54, 074 cultivated hectares, 10, 025 hectares are cultivated under Nagli cultivation

with an average production of about 1000 kg / ha.

Agricultural researches have obviously reaches the stage where none could possibly overlook the immense potentially that the science processes and exploitation of the research for progress. Hence, as is stated above, effective communication is the essence of progress in different sources of information through which farmers become aware about the agriculture techniques and the sources used at every stage of adoption after being aware of the innovation. Question arises as to why the cultivators do or do not use a particular information source therefore, it become necessary to know which source they accord maximum authenticity and trustworthiness.

METHODOLOGY

Dharampur taluka of Valsad district which was purposively selected. Ten village from Dharampur taluka were selected at random. Twenty respondents from each selected village were chosen at random. The sample consisted of 200 respondents. The data of this study were collected by arranging personal interview by using a pretested interview schedules with 200

SOURCES OF INFORMATION UTILIZED BY TRIBAL FARMERS AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF ADOPTION IN NAGLI CULTIVATION

R.M. Naik1, H.V. Pandya2 and G.G. Chauhan3

ABSTRACT

India has largest concentrations of tribal population in the world after Africa. Gujarat ranks fourth in the schedule tribal population with 37.34 lakhs. Dharampur taluka of Valsad district, has dominated under nagli cultivation with an average production of about 1000 kg / ha. Dharampur taluka purposively selected for present study and out of them ten villages were selected at random. Twenty respondents from each selected village were chosen at random which makes 200 sample size. The data of this study were collected by arranging personal interview and were analyzed by simple percentage, mean, standard, division and chi - square in light of objectives. In all the practices, and in all the stages of adoption, mostly personal localities source like neighbours, friends, relatives were mostly utilized by the nagli cultivators followed by the VLW, Extension officers, Radio etc.

1, 2 and 3 Krushi Vigyan Kendra, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari


44

respondents. The data were analyzed by simple percentage, mean, standard, division and chi - square in light of objectives. Four selected improved practices of Nagli cultivation were taken to know the adoption level and were calculated by using the adoption index.

Actual adoption of practicesAdoption index = ------------------------------------------X 100 Recommended practices

For quantifying the data, one score was given to each practice adopted either fully or in part and adoption index was calculated for each respondent. Moreover, frequency and percentage of practices were calculated for extent of adoption. L a t e r on for grouping the respondents into different categories of adoption, the following statistical procedure was adopted.

FINDINGS

This part dealt with the sources of information utilized by the nagli cultivators at different stages of adoption for different practices. We had seen that none of the respondent followed the improved varieties and storage facilities for nagli crop.

Above table clearly indicated that for obtaining information for seed treatment of nagli cultivation, the nagli cultivators used friends (21.00 per cent), neighbours (15.00 per cent), radio (14.50 per cent) and relatives (13.00 per cent) at awareness stage of adoption. They utilized neighbours (19.00 per cent), local leader (15.50 per cent), relatives (15.00 per cent) and friends (13.00 per cent) at interest storage of adoption. They were also used the sources like local leader (24.00 per cent), VLW (15.00 per cent), friends (14.00 per cent) and extension officers (12.50 per cent) at evaluation stage of adoption. The respondents used local leader (20.00 per cent) , VLW (18.50 per cent) radio (14.00 per cent) and extension officers (12.50 per cent) sources of information of trial stage of adoption. The respondents used VLW (22.00 per cent), local leader (20.00 per cent), extension officer (16.00 per cent) and radio (14.00 per cent) sources of information at adoption stage of adoption stage

of adoption process.

Now, in case of manure and fertilizers, farmers used the source of information, neighbors (43.50 per cent), demonstration (40.00 per cent), VLW (36.50 per cent) and radio (35.00 per cent) at the awareness stage of adoption process. They were utilized demonstration (16.00 per cent), radio ( 41.50 per cent), local leaders (38.00 per cent) and neighbors (35.00 per cent) at interest stage of adoption. At the evaluation stage they utilized local leaders (44.50 per cent), VLW ( 42.50 per cent), extension officer (4.50 per cent) and friends (36.00 per cent) as a source of information. At the trial stage they utilized local leaders (41.50 per cent), extension officer (4.00 per cent) as a source of information. The respondents utilized the source like VLW (41.00 per cent), local leaders (38.50 per cent), extension officers (36.50 per cent) and radio (34.50 per cent) of adoption stage of adoption process.

The nagli cultivators used the different information sources for plant protection measures in nagli crop at different stage of adoption process. It is evidently clear from the table that respondents used radio (12.50 per cent), neighbors (11.00 per cent), friends (10.00 per cent) and demonstration (09.00 per cent) at awareness stage of adoption process. At the interest stage the respondents’ utilized demonstration (12.00 per cent), radio (10.50 per cent), local leaders (09.50 per cent), and friends (08.00 per cent) as source of information. At the evaluation stage, they used local leaders (12.50 per cent), extension officer (11.50 per cent), friends (11.00 per cent and VLW (10.00 per cent) as a source of information. The farmers utilized extension officer (11.50 per cent), local leaders (10.00 per cent), neighbors (08.50 per cent) and friends (07.00 per cent) as a source of information at trial stage of adoption process. At the adoption stage, they used radio (10.50 per cent), demonstration (10.00 per cent), extension officer (08.00 per cent) and friends (06.00 per cent) as a source of information in adoption process.


45

Table 1 : Sources of information utilized by the farmers during adoption stage n-200

Practice Adoption Stage Sources of information No. of respondents %1 Seed Treatment

I Awareness a. Friends 42 21.00II b Neighbours 30 15.00

c. Radio 29 14.50d. Relatives 26 13.00

II Interest a. Neighbors 38 19.00b Local Leader 31 15.50c. Relatives 30 15.00d. Friends 26 13.00

III Evaluation a. Local Leader 48 24.00b VLW 30 15.00c. Friends 28 14.00d. Extension officer 25 12.50

IV Trial a. Local Leader 40 20.00b VLW 37 18.50c. Radio 28 14.00d. Extension officer 25 12.50

V. Adoption a. VLM 44 22.00b Local Leader 40 20.00c. Extension Officer 32 16.00d. Radio 28 14.00

2 Manures and Fertilizers

I Awareness a Neighbours 87 43.50

II b Demonstrator 80 40.00

c VLW 73 36.50

d Radio 70 35.00

II Interest a Demonstrator 92 46.00

b Radio 83 41.50

c Local Leader 76 38.00

d Neighbors 70 35.00

III Evaluation a Local Leader 89 44.50

b VLW 85 42.50

c Extension officer 81 40.50

d Friends 72 36.00

IV Trial a Local Leader 83 41.50

b Extension officer 80 40.00

c Neighbors 74 37.00

d Realtives 71 35.50

V Adoption a VLM 82 41.00

b Local Leader 77 38.50

c Extension Officer 73 36.50

d Radio 69 34.50


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Practice Adoption Stage Sources of information No. of respondents

%

3 Plant protection measures

I Awareness a Radio 25 12.50b Neighbours 22 11.00c Friends 20 10.00d. Demonstrator 18 09.00

II Interest a Demonstrator 24 12.00b Radio 21 10.50c Local Leader 19 09.50d Friends 16 08.00

III Evaluation a Local Leader 25 12.50b Extension officer 23 11.50c Friends 22 11.00d VLW 20 10.00

IV Trial a Extension officer 23 11.50b Local Leader 20 10.00c Neighbors 17 08.50d Friends 14 07.00

V. Adoption a Radio 21 10.50b Demonstrator 20 10.00c Extension Officer 16 08.00d Friends 12 06.00

4 Weeding and interculturing

I Awareness a Radio 105 52.50II b Neighbours 97 48.50

c Friends 90 45.00d Relatives 83 41.50

II Interest a Local Leader 107 53.50b Friends 103 51.50c Relatives 92 46.00d Neighbours 87 43.50

III Evaluation a Local Leader 103 51.50b Extension officer 98 49.00c Friends 89 44.50d VLW 76 38.00

IV Trial a Relatives 97 48.50b Neighbors 93 46.50c Friends 91 45.50d. Radio 81 40.50

V. Adoption a. VLW 109 54.50b Local Leader 96 48.00c. Radio 93 46.50d. Friends 88 44.00

In case of weeding and inter-culturing practices of nagli, the farmers used radio (52.50 per cent),

neighbors (48.50 per cent) friends (45.00 per cent) and relatives (41.50 per cent) as a source


47

of information at awareness stage of adoption process. At interest stage, they utilized local leaders (53.50 per cent), friends (51.50 per cent) relatives (46.00 per cent), and neighbours ( 43.50 per cent) as a source of information. At the evaluation stage, respondents were utilized local leaders (51.50 per cent), extension officers (49.00 per cent), friends (44.50 per cent) and VLW 38.00 per cent), as a source of information. At the trial stage, relatives (48.50 per cent), neighbors (46.50 per cent), friends (45.50 per cent) and radio (40.50 per cent) were utilized as a source of information by the farmers. At the adoption stage, the farmers used VLW (54.50 per cent), local leaders (48.00 per cent), radio (46.50 per cent) and friends (44.00 per cent) as a source of information in the adoption process.

CONCLUSION

In all the practices, and in all the stages of adoption, mostly personal localite source like neighbours, friends, relatives were mostly utilized by the nagli cultivators, which are followed by the VLW, Extension officers, Radio etc. The probable reason might be that the tribal farmers have more confidence and faith in their localite resources.

REFERENCES

Deb, P. C., Singh, H. and Sharma, M. L. (1968). Source of information used in the adoption of improved practices. Man in India, 48 (2) : 167 – 173.

Dwarkanath, R., Sethu Rao, M.K. Murthy, J. S. and Sudhani, C. M. (1970). Barriers to change as expressed by adopters in relation to high yielding varieties. Mysore J. agric. Sci., IV (4) : 451 – 459.

Kazi, K. S. (1981). The constraints in transfer of bajara technology in Dahegam taluka of Ahmedabad district in Gujrat State. M. Sc. (Agri.) thesis (unpublished), submitted to G. A. U., Anand Campus, Anand.

Rahudkar, L. B. (1962). Farmers characteristics associated with adoption and diffusion of the farm practices. Indian J. agric. Econ., XXIII (3): 296 – 97.

Sharma, D. K. (1966). Role of information source and communication channels in adoption of improved farm practices. Indian J.Ext. Edn. N., 2 (3 & 4):143- 48.

Sinha, P. R. R. and Prasad, R. (1966). Source of information as related to adoption process of some improved farm practices Indian J.Ext. Edn., II(1 & 2):86- 91.

Vijayraghavan, K. and Subramanyan, V. S. (1980). Communication behaviour of garden land and dry land farmers. Indian J. Ext. Edn., XVI (1 & 2): 77.

Wilkening, E. A. (1956). Roles of community agents in technical change in agriculture. Social forces. 34:361-367.

To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice.

- H.W..Beacher.


48

1 Asso. Ext. Edn., DEEE,AAU Anand2 Asso. Ext. Edn., DEEE,AAU Anand3 Assistant Extension Educationist, DE office , AAU, Anand

READERS’ NEEDS REGARDING AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION TO BE PUBLISHED IN KRUSHIGOVIDYA FARM MAGAZINE

Mahesh R. Patel1, N.V. Soni2 and D. D. Patel3

INTRODUCTION

The agricultural prosperity is directly connected with the publication and use of agricultural literature through dissemination new technology among farming community Among farm literature, KRUSHIGOVIDYA (KGV) farm magazine is being published by Anand Agricultural University (AAU) from Anand in local language Gujarati since May,1948. For the effective and practical utility of the magazine, readers’ needs for requirement of agricultural information and nature of articles, the research study has been planned readers’ needs regarding agricultural information to be published in KRUSHIGOVIDYA farm magazine.

METHODOLOGY

An Interview schedule was constructed with respect to collect the information regarding important aspects of readers needs. A perforated interview schedule was kept along with each KGV magazine from November’ 2007 to January’ 2008 and sent through postal circulation to subscribers. The total 153 subscribers had sent duly filled

interview schedule at their own cost. The data were analyzed in the light of the objectives with frequency and percentage.

RESULTS

1 Readers’ needs for requirement of agricultural information

The Table-1 indicated that the majority of the readers’ needs for requirement of agricultural information were, Post harvest and storage (92.15 percent), Plant protection (86.92 percent), Information of seed rate (83.66 percent), Varieties (76.47 percent), Agronomical practices (72.54 percent), Chemical fertilizers (71.89 percent), Value addition (70.58 percent), Irrigation (64.70 percent) and Weed control (64.05 percent) respectively.

Nearly one third of the readers’ needs for requirement of agricultural information viz, Sowing distance (50.98 percent), Soil conservation (50.32 percent), Crop production and economics (43.79 percent), Seed suppliers (39.86 percent), Vegetable crops (37.90 percent) and Intercropping (32.67 percent) respectively.

ABSTRACT

Among farm literature, KRUSHIGOVIDYA farm magazine is being published by Anand Agricultural University from Anand in local language Gujarati since May,1948. An Interview schedule was constructed and sent to subscribers. Total 153 subscribers had sent interview schedule. The majority of the readers’ needs for requirement of agricultural information were: Post harvest and storage Plant protection, Information of seed rate, Varieties, Agronomical practices, Chemical fertilizers, Value addition, Irrigation and Weed control respectively. The great majority of readers were most preferred Experience based articles followed by Information, Visit based and Calendar respectively.


49

Table-1 : Readers’ needs for requirement of agricultural information n=153

Sr.No. Agricultural Information No Percent

1 Post harvest and storage 141 92.152 Plant protection 133 86.923 Information of seed rate 128 83.664 Varieties 117 76.475 Agronomical practices 111 72.546 Chemical fertilizers 110 71.897 Value addition 108 70.588 Irrigation 99 64.709 Weed control 98 64.05

10 Sowing distance 78 50.9811 Soil conservation 77 50.3212 Crop production and economics 67 43.7913 Seed suppliers 61 39.8614 Vegetable crops 58 37.9015 Intercropping 50 32.6716 Soil testing 41 26.7917 Horticultural crops 31 20.2618 Agricultural machinery & implements 26 16.9919 Medicinal crops 18 11.7620 Organic farming 18 11.7621 Animal husbandry 9 5.8822 Tissue culture 6 3.9223 Micronutrient application 3 1.96

Few readers needs for requirement of agricultural information viz, Soil testing (26.79 percent), Horticultural crops (20.26 percent), Agricultural machinery & implements (16.99 percent),

Medicinal crops (11.76 percent), Organic farming (11.76 percent), Animal husbandry (5.88 percent), Tissue culture (3.92 percent), Micronutrient application (1.96 percent).

2 Readers Preference for Nature of ArticleTable 2 : Readers preference for Nature of Article n=153

Sr.No.

Nature of ArticleMost Preferred Medium preferred Least PreferredNo. Percent No. Percent No. Percent

1 Informative 87 56.86 46 30.06 20 13.072 Question Answer form 79 51.63 52 33.98 22 14.373 Experience based 118 77.12 27 17.54 8 5.224 Visit based 83 54.24 58 37.90 12 7.845 Success story 72 47.05 55 35.94 26 16.996 Calendar 68 44.44 56 36.60 29 18.95

The Table-2 shows that the great majority (77.12 Percent) of readers were most preferred Experience based articles followed by Information (56.86 percent), Visit based (54.24 percent) and Calendar (44.44 percent) respectively.

The nearly one third of readers were medium

preferred articles namely Visit based (37.90 percent),Calendar (36.60 percent), Success story (35.94 percent), Question Answer form (33.98 percent), Informative (30.06 percent) respectively and only 17.64 percent readers were medium preferred Experience based articles.


50

INTRODUCTION

The improved and new techniques of research should reach to the farmers’ fields at fastest rate without losing their completeness and clarity to get the maximum returns. Farm magazine is one of the media that play important role in such extension of new technologies to the farmers’ fields. Through farm magazine, the aspects related to the technology and recommendations are converted and simplified in local language so that their practical utilization on farmers’ fields can be possible. However there is a growing realization for improving the standard of farm magazines in order to make them more popular, understandable, informative and effective. As one of the aspects to improve the standard of farm magazine, utility of various topics covered in the magazine should be studied.

METHODOLOGY

The study was undertaken with 180 readers of Krishi Jivan farm magazine selected from Junagadh and Rajkot district. An interview schedule was prepared for collecting the data from the respondents in

light of the objectives. The data were collected by personal interview of the respondents. Utility refers to the extent of usefulness of the content published in farm magazine as per the needs of readers (Nain, 2003).To measure the utility of content for readers, the responses were received from them on extent of usefulness of various topics in three point continuum i.e. highly useful, useful and least useful with score of 2, 1, and 0, respectively. The mean index of utility was calculated for all the topics separately. The various topics were classified as highly useful, useful and least useful on the basis of mean and standard deviation.

RESULTS

1 Utility value of various topics

The data in Table 1 revealed that the most useful topic as perceived by the readers was success stories of farmers with utility index of 1.62, followed by improved varieties (1.56) and agricultural extension and Government schemes beneficial to the farmers (1.41) which ranked second and third, respectively.

UTILITY VALUE OF VARIOUS TOPICS COVERED IN KRISHI JIVAN FARM MAGAZINE

V.J. Savaliya1 and M. N. Popat2

ABSTARCT

Farm magazine is a very useful medium of communication because the information can be stored as reference and can be utilized at any time. But at the same time, it becomes important to know the utility value of topics covered in the magazine. Therefore, the study was designed to determine the utility value of topics, taking 180 Krishi Jivan farm magazine readers as respondents from Junagadh and Rajkot district. The results revealed that the most useful topics as perceived by the readers were; success stories, improved varieties and agricultural extension and government schemes beneficial to farmers. The most important suggestions offered for improving magazine were; good quality of paper should be used in magazine and more illustrations and photographs should be used.

1. Asstt. Professor (Extension Education), College of Agriculture, JAU, Junagadh2 Professor and Head, Dept. of Extension Education, College of Agriculture, JAU, Junagadh


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Table 1 : Utility value of various topics covered in Farm magazine n=180

Sr.No.

Topics Totalscore

Mean score

Degree of usefulness

Rank

1 Plant protection 221 1.23 U V2 Soil testing and fertilizers 157 0.87 U XV3 Weed control 135 0.75 U XVI4 Irrigation methods 160 0.89 U XIII5 Post Harvesting, value addition and marketing 236 1.31 U IV6 Fruit and vegetable crop production 200 1.11 U VIII7 Animal husbandry 176 0.98 U XI8 Soil and water conservation 167 0.93 U XII9 Home science 97 0.54 LU XIX

10 Improved varieties 281 1.56 MU II11 Organic farming practices 205 1.14 U VII12 Crop production practices 214 1.19 U VI13 Medicinal crop production practices and treatments 189 1.05 U IX

14 Success stories of farmers 292 1.62 MU I15 Agricultural implements and farm machinery 158 0.88 U XIV16 Agricultural extension and Government Schemes

beneficial to the farmers 254 1.41 MU III

17 Spices crop production 184 1.02 U X18. Environment and Pollution control 110 0.61 LU XVIII19. General articles 117 0.65 LU XVII

Mean=1.04 S.D.= 0.3036 MU=Most useful U=Useful LU=Least useful

Further, the topics which were perceived useful were; post harvest techniques, value addition and marketing (1.31), plant protection (1.23), crop production practices (1.19), organic farming practices (1.14), fruit and vegetable crop production (1.11), medicinal crop production practices and the treatments for human diseases (1.05), spices crop production practices (1.02), animal husbandry (0.98), soil and water conservation practices (0.93), irrigation methods (0.89), agricultural implements and farm machinery (0.88) and weed control methods (0.75). The practices which were perceived least useful by the respondents were; general articles (0.65), environment and pollution control (0.61) and home science (0.54).

2 Suggestions from farm magazine readers to make magazine more effective

The suggestions to make the magazine more

effective were invited openly from the farm magazine readers. The frequency for each suggestion was worked out and converted into percentage. The ranks were assigned to the suggestions based on the percentage. The perusal of Table 2 indicated that some most important suggestions offered by the readers were pertaining to use of good quality paper in magazine (82.22 per cent), inclusion of more illustrations and photographs (80.00 per cent), publication of information about content for next issues of magazines in previous issues (77.22 per cent), information regarding prevailing different beneficial schemes from Government and other organizations(73.33 per cent), month wise agricultural operations of major crops (72.78 per cent), more articles according to crops and farming practices of respective region (71.67 per cent) and use of local words and language instead of technical writing (70.56 per cent).


52

Table 2 : Suggestions from the farm magazine readers to make the magazine more effective

n=180

Sr.No.

Suggestions F P R

1 Information regarding different beneficial schemes from government and other organizations should be published

132 73.33 IV

2 Information of content for next issues should be published in previous issue

139 77.22 III

3 Information regarding weather should be included. 61 33.89 XVI4 Month wise agricultural operations of major crops should be

published131 72.78 V

5 Information on home science and grain storage should be published

72 40.00 XIV

6 Information about post harvest processing should be published 125 69.44 VIII7 Illustrations and photographs should be included 144 80.00 II8 Information about different agricultural (revenue) records and

the form should be published89 49.44 XII

9 Size of magazine should be increased 96 53.33 XI10 Good quality paper should be used 148 82.22 I11 Magazine should be reached to the farmer well in advance for

getting knowledge and timely adoption in their farms 122 67.78 IX

12 Titles of the articles should be more attractive 56 31.11 XVII13 More articles should be according to crops and farming practices

of respective regions.129 71.67 VI

14 Messages should be more useful to solve the farming problems 112 62.22 X15 The advertisements about different inputs and agricultural

extension activities should be published54 30.00 XVIII

16 The details of the authors should be published in all the articles for getting more information.

75 41.67 XIII

17 Trustworthiness of text as messages should be checked. 62 34.44 XV

18 Content should be in local words and language instead of technical writing.

127 70.56 VII

P=Percentage F= Frequency R=Rank

CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded that the most useful topics as perceived by the readers were: success stories of farmers, improved varieties and information about agricultural extension and Government schemes. The most important suggestions offered by the readers were about use of good quality paper and inclusion of more illustrations and photographs in the magazine. They further suggested to publish information about content for next issues

of magazines in previous issues, information regarding prevailing different beneficial schemes from government and other organizations and month wise agricultural operations of major crops.

REFERENCE

Nain, Manjeetsingh (2003). Effectiveness of farm magazine: A comparative analysis of various components as viewed by readers. Raj. J. Extn. Edu., 11: 9-15.


53

INTRODUCTION

The Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operation has been lunching various situational as well as need based location specific agricultural development programmes for the enhancement of adhere population in India. The State level Line Departments are also have an eagle-eyed look and well planned network for development of agriculture. However, human resources engaged in transfer of technology are now found insufficient due to budgetary restrictions, area under his jurisdiction, inadequate advance knowledge etc., hence, several agricultural oriented agencies have shown their presence in numerous ways.

During seventh five year plan, the government considered the presence of private service providers and its role in agriculture as another contributor. The agro-service provider is one who delivers various inputs to the farmers, at his place, at right time, in sufficient quantity with affordable

prices and in required quality. When the farmers perceived any field problem, they normally approach to near by agro-service providers. The extension personnel at different level are helping the farmers with information and with their statutory limitation and this often compel to the farmers to consult private service. It was observed from the primary and secondary sources that the private service providers are playing a major role indirectly in rural areas.

METHODOLOGY

The present investigation was purposely conducted in five talukas of Navsari district with an ex-post facto research design. A proportionate random sampling method was used to obtain 100 Agro-Service Providers (ASPs) from respective talukas. According they were approached personally and name of five villages as well as farmers obtained who came to purchase critical inputs for their ASP during last six months. Once

SALES AND PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR OF AGRO-SERVICE PROVIDERS AND BENEFICIARIES

S. R. Salunkhe1, M. R. Bhatt2 and R. D. Pandya3

1. Postgraduate student (Extension)2. Associate Ptofessor (Extension)3. Professor & Head, Department of Extension Education, NMCA, NAU, Navsari

ABSTRACT

The agro-service provider is one who delivers various inputs to the farmers, at his place, at right time, in sufficient quantity with affordable prices and in required quality. When the farmers perceive any field problem, they normally approach to near by agro-service providers. An ex-post facto research design was adopted to conduct the study. The five talukas of Navsari district was purposely selected while a proportionate random sampling method was used to obtain Agro-Service Providers and their beneficiaries were obtained by simple random sampling. The collected information through structural schedule was analyzed by using simple statistics. Majority of the agro-service providers and beneficiaries had medium level of sales and purchasing behaviour and the majority of respondents shown their behaviour towards five areas; from insecticide, Monocrotophos and Malathion, followed by Streptomycelene and Spade from Bacteriocide and equipment, Mancozeb from fungicide, 2 4-D and Petialachlor from herbicide. While the majority of agro-service providers and nearly half of beneficiaries had moderately performed their role.


54

again, the list of suggested villages and farmers was prepared and from this one village and two farmers were selected randomly. Thus, the sample for the study comprised of total 200 beneficiary respondents. The data about sales and purchasing behaviour and role performance of agro-service providers and beneficiaries were collected through structured schedule. The collected data were analyzed by using simple statistics.

FINDINGS

1 Sales and purchasing behavior of agro-service providers and beneficiaries

There are kinds of technical grades of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides equipments being sold by the ASPs and purchased by the farmers along with seasonality of the products and technical grades were ranked according to their sale.

It is observed from table 1 that the majority of the agro-service providers (61.00 per cent) and beneficiaries (63.00 per cent) had medium level of sales and purchasing behaviour followed by21.00 each had lower level of sales and purchasing behavior and 18.00 and 16.00 per cent of them had higher level of sales and purchasing behavior respectively.

In general, nearly half of the respondent (48.00 per cent) had medium level of sales and purchasing behavior. This might be due to that the respondents are not aware about the new remedial chemicals, spectrum of control and cost benefits ratio of the same.

By providing necessary inputs at right place, at right time, in adequate quantity with proper quality and with affordable price are not enough for the farmers to bring the development in every corner of life. There are several crucial

elements working with the farmers as well as to the affiliated agencies. Out of all, season is that plays vital role in agriculture, hence the input and output mainly depends on season. Considering its importance the investigator had tried to collect information about the purchasing behaviour of agro-service providers and beneficiaries towards insecticides, bactericides, fungicides, herbicides and equipments. Information in this regards is presented in Table 2.

Table 2 clearly indicated that the majority of respondents assigned first rank to Monocrotophos (96.66 per cent) followed by Mancozeb and Malathion (96.33 per cent) as second, Carbaryl (94.00 per cent) as third, 2,4-D and Petialachlor (92.66 per cent) as forth, Carbofuron (91.66 per cent) as fifth, Streptomycelene and Spade (88.33 per cent) as sixth , Endosulfan and Sickle (85.33per cent) as seventh, Sulphur and Paraquat (85.00

Table 1: Distribution of the agro-service providers and beneficiaries according to their level of sales and purchasing behaviour n=300

Level of sales and purchasing behavior

ASPs BRs PooledNos. % Nos. % Nos. %

Lower level of sales and purchasing behaviour 21 21.00 42 21.00 80 27.00

Medium level of sales and purchasing behaviour 61 61.00 126 63.00 145 48.00

Higher level of sales and purchasing behaviour 18 18.00 32 16.00 75 25.00

Total 100 100.00 200 100.00 300 100.00

Mean 68.85 S.D 13.33


55

per cent) as eight, Carbendazine (84.66 per cent) as ninth, Copper oxychloride (84.00 per cent) as tenth, Trizophos and Buttachlor (81.66 per cent) as eleventh, Wooden Plough (80.66 per cent) as twelfth, Carboxin (78.66 per cent) as thirteen, Ethyl Mercuric Chloride (Ceresan) (78.00 per cent ) as fourteen, and Cartaf (77.33per cent) ranked fifth teen.

Further, same table clearly indicated that 76.66 per cent had ranked sixteenth to the Phospamidon, 76.33 per cent had ranked seventh to the Quinalphos, 75.00 per cent ranked eighteen to the Dimethoate, 73.00 per cent had ranked nineteen to the Fenvelerite, 71.66 per cent had ranked twenty to the Captan, 71.33 per cent had ranked twenty-one to the Agrimycene, 71.00 per cent had ranked twenty-

two to the Harrow, 70.66 per cent had ranked twenty-three to the Knapsacks sprayer, 68.33 per cent had ranked twenty-four to the Phorate, 66.66 per cent had in rank twenty-five to the Idiofungine, 66.33 per cent had ranked twenty-six to the Edifanphos, 66.00 per cent had ranked twenty-seven to the Dicofol, Phenyl Mercuric Acetate (ceresin dry) and Seed drill, 65.33 per cent had ranked twenty-eight to the Acephate, Methixy Ethyl Mercuric chloride (Agallol) and Glyphosate, 64.00 per cent had rank twenty-nine to the Methyl Parathion and Mould board plough, 63.00 per cent had ranked thirty Cypermethrin, 59.33 per cent had ranked thirty-one to the Chloropyriphos and Bla-s, and 58.00 per cent had ranked thirty-two to the Pheromen trap.

Table 2: Seasonality of agro-service providers and beneficiaries n =300

Sr.No.

Technical Name Seasonality RankINSECTICIDES Frequency Percentage

1 Phospamidon 230 76.66 XVI2 Ouinalphos 229 76.33 XVII3 Endosulfan 256 85.33 VII4 Phorate 205 68.33 XXIV5 Methyl Parathion 192 64.00 XXIX6 Cypermethrin 189 63.00 XXX7 Monocrotophos 290 96.66 I8 Carbofuron 275 91.66 V9 Trizophos 245 81.66 XI

10 Chloropyriphos 178 59.33 XXXI11 Acephate 195 65.00 XXVIII12 Dimethoate 225 75.00 XVIII13 Fenvelerite 219 73.00 XIX14 Carbaryl 282 94.00 III15 Dicofol 198 66.00 XXVII16 Malathion 289 96.33 II17 Cartaf 232 77.33 XV

BACTERIOCIDES18 Streptomycelene 265 88.33 VI19 Agrimycene 214 71.33 XXI20 Idiofungine 200 66.66 XXV

21 Bla-s 178 59.33 XXXI


56

Sr.No.

Technical Name Seasonality RankFUNGICIDES Frequency Percentage

22 Mancozeb 289 96.33 II23 Carbendazine 254 84.66 IX24 Edifanphos 199 66.33 XXVI25 Copper oxychloride 252 84.00 X26 Captan 215 71.66 XX27 Carboxin 236 78.66 XIII28 Sulphur 255 85.00 VIII29 Ethyl Mercuric Chloride (ceresan) 234 78.00 XIV30 Methixy Ethyl Mercuric chloride (Agallol) 196 65.33 XXVIII31 Phenyl Mercuric Acetate (ceresin dry) 198 66.00 XXVII

HERBICIDES32 Butachlor 245 81.66 XI33. Paraquat 255 85.00 VIII34 2,4-D 278 92.66 IV35 Glyphosate 196 65.33 XXVIII36 Petialachlor 278 92.66 IV

EQUIPMENTS37 Seed drill 198 66.00 XXVII38 Sickle 256 85.33 VII39 Wooden Plough 242 80.66 XII40 Harrow 213 71.00 XXII41 Mould board plough 192 64.00 XXIX42 Knapsacks sprayer 212 70.66 XXIII43 Spade 265 88.33 VI44 Pheromen trap 174 58.00 XXXII

Further, same table clearly indicated that 76.66 per cent had ranked sixteenth to the Phospamidon, 76.33 per cent had ranked seventh to the Quinalphos, 75.00 per cent ranked eighteen to the Dimethoate, 73.00 per cent had ranked nineteen to the Fenvelerite, 71.66 per cent had ranked twenty to the Captan, 71.33 per cent had ranked twenty-one to the Agrimycene, 71.00 per cent had ranked twenty-two to the Harrow, 70.66 per cent had ranked twenty-three to the Knapsacks sprayer, 68.33 per cent had ranked twenty-four to the Phorate, 66.66 per cent had in rank twenty-five to the Idiofungine, 66.33 per cent had ranked twenty-

six to the Edifanphos, 66.00 per cent had ranked twenty-seven to the Dicofol, Phenyl Mercuric Acetate (ceresin dry) and Seed drill, 65.33 per cent had ranked twenty-eight to the Acephate, Methixy Ethyl Mercuric chloride (Agallol) and Glyphosate, 64.00 per cent had rank twenty-nine to the Methyl Parathion and Mould board plough, 63.00 per cent had ranked thirty Cypermethrin, 59.33 per cent had ranked thirty-one to the Chloropyriphos and Bla-s, and 58.00 per cent had ranked thirty-two to the Pheromen trap.


57

2 Role Performance Of Agro-Service Providers And Beneficiaries

Role performance was operationalized as the degree to which the agro-service providers and beneficiaries were receptive to modern values and practice in their daily life style. The collected data were classified into three categories; viz. (i) poor role performance (up to 4 score), (ii) moderate role performance (5 to 6 score) and (iii) higher role performance (above 7 score). Information about

role performance of agro-service providers and beneficiaries is presented in table 3.

It is observed from Table 3 that the majority of agro-service providers (53.00 per cent) and nearly half of beneficiaries (46.50 per cent) had moderately performed their role followed by 29.00 and 31.50 per cent belonged to higher and 18.00 and 22.00 per cent to poor role performance categories respectively.

Table 3: Distribution of the agro-service providers and beneficiaries according to their role performance n=300

Level of role performance ASPs BRs Pooled

Nos. % Nos. % Nos. %Poor role performance 18 18.00 45 22.00 55 18.00Moderate role performance 53 53.00 93 46.50 180 60.00Higher role performance 29 29.00 62 31.50 65 22.00

Total 100 100.00 200 100.00 300 100.00

Mean 9.20 S.D 3.80

The pooled data indicated that the majority of respondents (60.00 per cent) had performed their role moderately. The probable reason for this finding might be due to their different style of interest towards their enterprise.

CONCLUSIONS

From the above discussion it can be concluded that majority of the agro-service providers (61.00 per cent) and beneficiaries (63.00 per cent) had medium level of sales and purchasing behaviour.

The majority of respondents shown their behaviour towards five areas; from insecticide, Monocrotophos (96.66 per cent) and Malathion (96.33 per cent), followed by Streptomycelene and Spade (88.33 per cent) from bacteriocide and equipment, Mancozeb (94.00 per cent) from fungicide, 2, 4-D and Petialachlor (92.66 per cent) from herbicide. The majority of agro-service providers (53.00 per cent) and nearly half of beneficiaries (46.50 per cent) had moderately performed their role.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability. - Becon


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1 Asstt.Extn. Educationist, EEI, Anand Agril.University,Anand 2 Asstt.Extn. Educationist, SDAU, SKNagar3 Asstt.Extn. Educationist,EEI, Anand Agril.University,Anand

FACTORS INFLUENCING KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF COTTON GROWERS ABOUT INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

J.B.Patel1 K.M. Joshi2 and A.G. Sukhdia3

INTRODUCTION

Cotton is one of the Principal commercial crops and has been one of the main sources of India’s economic growth and foreign exchange earner. India ranks first in area under cotton crop in the world and stands third in terms of production. In Gujarat, Vadodara is one of the districts having the major area under cotton crop. However it is interesting to note that cotton, which occupies only five per cent of the total cultivable land consume more than 55 per cent of the pesticides used in India. Excessive and indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides has lead to several complications such as resistance development, resurgence, secondary pest out break, toxicity to beneficial organism, residue in food, feed, fodder etc and above all environmental pollution. The cotton crop is attacked by a number of insect, pests, diseases, nematodes and weeds. Yield losses due to these pests range from 15 to 25 per cent. The approach to overcome these ill effects of pesticides to a certain extent is Integrated Pest Management practices. The IPM approach is gaining importance and is being increasingly by adopted in the country.

METHODOLOGY

Vadodara district was selected purposively on the basis of leading hybrid cotton growing area. Four block namely Karjan, Dabhoi, Shinor and Sankheda were selected on the basis of maximum coverage of hybrid cotton area in the district. Two villages of each block were selected purposively from IPM trained villages. Hence, all eight villages from four blocks were selected for the study. Similarly from the same blocks the neighboring village of selected villages was also selected as the control villages for the study. Thus, total sixteen villages eight IPM trained and eight IPM untrained villages were selected for the study. There were 1509 cotton growers who were trained in different villages of these four blocks between the year 2000-01 to 2004-05 on IPM technology by district extension functionary out of that 8 % of trained cotton growers i.e. 120 respondents were selected for the study. There were 15 trained cotton growers selected randomly from each of eight selected IPM trained villages purposively. Thus, total 120 respondents were selected as trained cotton growers. Similarly, from the neighboring villages a list of cotton growers was obtained

ABSTRACT

The results indicated that the vast majority of the IPM trained and untrained cotton growers had medium to high and low to medium level of knowledge regarding IPM technology in cotton, respectively. In case of trained cotton growers, independent variables like age, education, extension contact, mass media exposure, training received, land holding, area under cotton crop, productivity, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, attitude and awareness were found highly and significantly related while, occupation was not found significant. Incase of untrained cotton growers, independent variables like, education and training received were significantly correlated with knowledge while, remaining were not related with the knowledge.


59

from the concern village level workers and 15 cotton growers were selected from each of the neighboring village random. Thus, the total 120 respondents were selected as untrained cotton growers. Thus, making together 240 respondents (120 trained and 120 untrained) was covered from the total research operational area.

The data was collected with the help of pre tested well structured schedule by using interview with the cotton growers. The data were statistically analyzed with the help of correlation Coefficient in this study. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

A perusal of the data presented in Table 1 showed that majority (64.17 per cent) of the IPM trained cotton growers were having medium level of knowledge regarding IPM technology in cotton crop followed by 30.00 per cent and 5.83 per cent with high and low level of knowledge, respectively. Incase of untrained cotton growers more than half (54.17 per cent) had medium level of knowledge followed by 42.50 per cent and 3.53 per cent with low and high level of knowledge, respectively.

The calculated ‘t’ value (68.93) was observed highly significant at 1 per cent level of probability indicating highly significant difference between trained and untrained cotton growers in respect of their knowledge level of IPM technology in cotton crop.It can be concluded that majority of cotton growers had medium to high level of knowledge. While majority of the untrained cotton growers had low to medium level of knowledge about IPM technology. Highly significant difference was found in knowledge levels of both the groups. Hence, it proves on knowledge

level of trained cotton growers IPM technology had increased strikingly.

The data presented in Table:2 clearly indicated that age had positive and significant relationship with level of knowledge of trained cotton growers. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers, age had no significant relationship with knowledge level of IPM technology in cotton crop. The farmers with middle age group were more interested in gaining knowledge about IPM technology. This might be the probable reason for the positive and significant relationship between age and knowledge of trained cotton growers.

The data presented in Table-2 further revealed that the level of education had positive and significant relationship with level of knowledge of trained and untrained cotton growers. From the above results it can be said that educated cotton growers have greater reception power, owing to their ability to understand, read and write than less educated cotton growers.

A perusal of data in Table-2 revealed that extension contact was significantly related with knowledge level of IPM trained cotton growers. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers, significant relationship was not found with knowledge. The trained cotton growers who have got more extension contact with extension personnel would have more knowledge about IPM technology because of source of information. This might be the possible reason for having the above relationship between extension contact and knowledge for trained cotton growers.

Table 1:- Distribution of cotton growers according to their knowledge n = 240

Knowledge level Category of farmersTrained n1 = 120

Untrained n2 = 120

Number Per cent Number Per centLow 07 5.83 51 42.50Medium 77 64.17 65 54.17High 36 30.00 04 3.33Total 120 100.00 120 100.00

‘t’ value : 68.93**


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TABLE 2 : Relationship between personal social communicational and psychological characteristics of trained and untrained cotton growers and their knowledge

Sr. No.

Characteristics ‘r’ valueTrained Untrained

12

AgeEducation

0.3292**0.6846**

0.0070 NS

0.2464*345

Extension contactMass media exposureTraining received

0.2454**0.3864**0.5748**

0.0798 NS

0.1060 NS

0.3612**6789

Land holdingArea under cotton cropOccupationProductivity

0.2920**0.2512**0.1501 NS

0.3190**

0.0290 NS

0.0310 NS

0.0139 NS

0.1426 NS

1011121314

Economic motivationScientific orientation Risk orientationAttitude towards IPM technologyAwareness about IPM technology

0.2517**0.4463**0.2522**0.5644**0.2519**

0.1614 NS

0.0445 NS

0.0430 NS

0.1680 NS

0.0036 NS

Data shown in Table-2 indicated that mass media exposure of trained cotton growers had significant relationship with the knowledge level of IPM technology in cotton crop. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers significant relationship was not found with knowledge. It is clear from the data that level of knowledge increased with increase in media exposure.

A perusal of data in Table-2 revealed that trainin g received has significantly related with knowledge level of IPM trained and untrained cotton growers. It shows that level of knowledge increased with increase in training received.

Data shown in Table-2 indicated that landholding of trained cotton growers had significant relationship with knowledge level. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers significant relationship was not found with knowledge about IPM technology.

A look on the Table-2 indicated that area under cotton crop of trained cotton growers had positive and significant relationship with the knowledge level of IPM strategy in cotton crop. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers there was no significant relationship between the area under cotton crop and knowledge of IPM technology in

cotton crop. Knowledge of trained cotton grower increased with increase of area under cotton cultivation as they sought more information about cotton crop.

Data shown in Table-2 revealed that occupation and knowledge level of IPM technology in cotton was not significantly related in case of trained and untrained cotton growers. The reason for this might be that majority of the trained (84.17 per cent) and untrained (81.67 per cent) cotton growers had agriculture and animal husbandry as their main occupation for livelihood.

Perusal of data presented in Table-2 indicated that productivity of cotton crop was highly correlated with knowledge level of IPM technology in cotton crop for trained cotton growers. It means that cotton yield in case of trained cotton growers increased with increase in their level of knowledge regarding IPM technology. High level of knowledge regarding IPM technology by trained cotton growers provides favourable opportunity for repeated exposure to new technology, high adoption and finally obtained higher crop yield.

The data presented in Table –2 revealed that economic motivation was highly and significantly correlated with knowledge level of IPM technology


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in cotton for trained cotton growers. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers, the economic motivation had no significant relationship with knowledge of IPM technology in cotton crop. It means that trained cotton growers who possessed more economic motivation had more knowledge. To get more yield and improve their economic level they have to know about latest agricultural practices.

A look on the Table-2 indicated that scientific orientation was highly and significantly correlated with knowledge level of IPM technology in cotton crop for trained cotton growers. Whereas, incase of untrained cotton growers there was no significant relationship between scientific orientation and knowledge about IPM technology. It means that level of scientific orientation of trained cotton growers significantly increased with increase in level of knowledge of trained cotton grower about IPM technology having good scientific orientation would naturally try to know advanced technology in agriculture.

The data presented in Table-2 indicated that risk orientation was highly associated with the knowledge of trained cotton growers about IPM technology in cotton crop. Whereas, incase of untrained cotton growers there was no significant relationship between risk orientation and knowledge. Risk orientation is expressed as the degree to which a trained cotton grower is oriented to take risk and has courage to face uncertainties in cotton cultivation. This is possible when a farmer has better knowledge.

Perusal of data presented in Table-2 indicated that attitude was highly associated with the knowledge of trained cotton growers about IPM technology in cotton crop. Whereas, increase of untrained cotton growers, attitude had no significant relationship with knowledge about IPM technology. It can be concluded that positive favourable attitude towards IPM technology in cotton cultivation had significant influence on the knowledge level of trained cotton growers. The reason may be that positive attitude might have helped trained cotton

growers and motivated them to gain knowledge.

The data shown in Table-2 indicated that awareness about IPM technology was observed to be highly correlated with knowledge level of IPM technology of trained cotton growers. Whereas, incase of untrained cotton growers, awareness about IPM technology had no significant relationship with knowledge about IPM technology. It is clear from the data that greater awareness about IPM technology had significant influence on knowledge level of trained cotton growers. The probable reason may be that high awareness has helped trained cotton growers to gain knowledge.

CONCLUSIONS

The vast majority of the IPM trained (94.17 per cent) and untrained (96.67 per cent) cotton growers had medium to high and low to medium level of knowledge regarding IPM technology in cotton, respectively. It was also seen that in case of trained cotton growers Independent variables like age, education, extension contact, mass media exposure, training received, land holding, area under cotton crop, productivity, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, attitude towards IPM technology, and awareness about IPM technology were found significantly correlated with knowledge regarding IPM technology in cotton. In case of occupation, there was no significant relationship between occupation and knowledge level of trained cotton growers regarding IPM technology.

Incase of untrained cotton growers education and training received were significantly correlated with knowledge. It means there was a significant relationship between education and training received and knowledge, level regarding IPM technology in cotton. While age, extension contact, mass media exposure, land holding, area under cotton crop, occupation, productivity, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation attitude towards IPM technology and awareness about IPM technology were not related with the knowledge.


62

1 Principal, Polytechnic in Food Science and Home Economics, Anand Agricultural University, Anand2 Subject Matter Specialist (Home Science), Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Navsari Agricultural University, Surat3 Assistant Professor, Polytechnic in Food Science and Home Economics, Anand Agricultural University, Anand

GAIN IN KNOWLEDGE REGARDING HOME SCIENCE SUBJECTS THROUGH EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION

K. B. Kamaliya1, Dipal N. Soni2 and H. H. Chavda3

INTRODUCTION

Rural women in our country share abundant responsibilities and perform a wide spectrum of duties in running the family. Besides this they are also time honored partners of men in various agricultural operations. All these activities are very strenuous and time consuming. It also involves lots of human resources. That results in decline in life span and affects whole family life. So it is necessary to equip them with scientific knowledge or systematic way to perform their day to day tasks. Anand Agricultural University runs School of Home Science for the same purpose for the daughters and wives of rural farmer since long time. Now, it is high time to study the impact of educational intervention on knowledge of the students of the school regarding home science subjects and household tasks.

METHODOLOGY

A self developed questionnaire under the guideline of Extension Education Department of B. A. College

of Agriculture was used for data collection. The knowledge of students of two successive batches of School of Home Science for the academic year 2005-06 and 2006-07 was assessed by interview method immediately after admission and was considered as ‘Pre Test’. Out of them data of only those students who completed the study was used for analysis. For studying the impact of scientific knowledge about household tasks / home science subjects students were exposed through various effective communication media which included lectures, discussions, field visits, demonstrations, practicals, quizes, competitions etc during the study period. The twenty one students of both the batches were interviewed again after completion of two years course and was considered as ‘Post Test’. The same questionnaire was used for both the times. The data was analysed on the basis of frequency, percentage, mean and SD.

FINDINGS

Majority of students were belonging to Aanad district, SEBC category and nuclear family; were

ABSTRACT

Anand Agricultural University runs School of Home Science to equip daughters of rural farmer to perform their day to day tasks in systemetic way with scientific knowledge. The study was conducted to assess the same. Data were collected from two successive batches of students of School of Home Science before and after completion of course by interview method using questioner. It was found that, overall knowledge of the students after completion of the study was increased by 33.48%. The highest gain in knowledge was found in the Gruh udhyog subject. Most of the students had gained medium level of knowledge. This showed the training given at the school had positive effect on the knowledge gain so the training might be useful to students for performing their day to day household tasks in a systematic way in their future life.


63

residing in their own houses and had separate kitchen for cooking; level of education of their father were from illiterate to higher secondary and were engaged in agriculture. The knowledge of such students measured before and after

completion of the course and is discussed below.

1 Gain in knowledge :

The knowledge of the students measured was analyzed and mentioned in Table 1.

Table 1 : Knowledge gained by the home science school students n=60

Sr.

No.

Subject Max

Marks

Pre - Test Post - Test Increase Rank

Average Percent Average Percent Average Percent

1 Nutrition 13 3.76 28.94 6.48 49.82 02.71 20.88 VII

2 Home management

25 07.43 29.71 18.24 72.95 10.81 43.24 II

3 Child development

11 03.29 29.87 05.81 52.81 02.52 22.94 VI

4 Gruh udhyog 14 02.48 17.69 12.29 87.76 9.81 70.07 I

5 Sewing 26 03.90 15.02 15.14 58.24 11.24 43.22 III

6 Arogya vigyan 25 09.76 39.05 13.05 52.19 03.29 13.14 VIII

7 Agricultural science

19 09.38 49.37 14.67 77.19 05.29 27.82 IV

8 Animal science 14 04.19 29.93 07.90 56.46 03.71 26.53 V

9 Overall 147 44.19 29.95 93.57 63.43 49.38 33.48

Table 1 shows that, the highest gain in knowledge was found in the Gruh udhyog subject (71.07%). The subject was mostly practical oriented might be the reason for the same. The similar observation was also found in case of Home management (43.24%) and Sewing (43.22%) subject. It was surprise to note that though majority of the girls were belonging to farming community their percent increase in the knowledge was only 27.82% and 26.53% for Agricultural science and Animal science subject, respectively. The gain in knowledge was the least in case of the Arogya vigyan.

This table also indicated that overall the average score of all the students was 44.19 marks at the

time of ‘Pre-Test’ and was increased to 93.57 marks at the time of ‘Post-Test’. This shows that there was 33.48% increase in the overall knowledge of the students after completion of their study. This increase shows that the training given at the school had positive effect on the knowledge gain. That might be useful them to perform their day to day household tasks in a systematic way.

2 Subjectwise knowledge level of the home science school students

The subjects taught were grouped into areas and their level of knowledge were analyzed. The results obtained are presented in Table 2.


64

Table 2 : Subjectwise knowledge level of the home science school students n=60

Sr.No.

Subject High Medium LowNo. Percent No Percent No Percent

1 Nutrition 02 09.52 14 66.67 05 23.81

2 Home management 01 04.76 19 90.48 01 04.76

3 Child development 02 09.52 17 80.95 02 09.52

4 Gruh udhyog 02 09.52 15 71.43 04 19.05

5 Sewing 02 09.52 15 71.43 04 19.05

6 Arogya vigyan 04 19.05 15 71.43 02 09.52

7 Agricultural science 06 28.57 11 52.38 04 19.05

8 Animal science 02 09.52 13 61.90 06 28.57

9 Overall 03 14.29 14 66.67 04 19.05

Most of the students gained knowledge in the medium level. In the Agricultural science subject the highest number of students gained high level of knowledge (28.57%) followed by Arogya vigyan (19.05%). Rest in all the subjects the high level knowledge gain was found 9.52% except Home management subject in which it was found the least i.e. 4.76%. In the same subject the gain in low level knowledge was also found the least i.e. again 4.76%. It showed that most of all the student gained similar level of knowledge. Additionally, the total percentage of knowledge increased was also high. It shows that all the students learned this subject properly. The low level of gain in knowledge was the highest in the Animal science subject and the percent increase in this subject was also observed low. It had indicated that some students were weak in gaining the knowledge. Similar observations were also made in case of Nutrition subject. In case of the Child development subject the gain in knowledge was low (22.94%) but most of the students (80.95%) gained knowledge in the

medium level. It proved that all the students could not learn the subject properly.

CONCLUSIONS

It was observed that gain in knowledge was higher in case of practical oriented subjects. Overall 33.48% knowledge was increased during their study. It had indicated that the training given at the school had positive effect on the gain in knowledge. Most of the students had gained medium level knowledge in all the subjects. The increase in gain in knowledge and knowledge level combinedly indicated that all the students learned Home management subject properly.

IMPLICATION

The increase in knowledge shows that the training given at the school had positive effect on the knowledge gain which might be useful them to perform their day to day household tasks in a systematic way in their future life.

To be intersting be intrested


65

KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF FARMERS ABOUT MODERN PRACTICES OF COTTON CULTIVATION IN BHAL AREA

P. J. Joshi1, N. B. Chauhan2 and K. F. Patel3

ABSTRACT

The knowledge of any technology is a key factor for its adoption. The present study was conducted in Bhal area of Gujarat to study cotton growers’ level of knowledge and to analyze correlates of their level of knowledge about modern practices of cotton cultivation. The results depicted that majority of the cotton growers had low to medium level of knowledge regarding modern practices of cotton cultivation. Selected eleven characters of cotton growers were more important towards their level of knowledge about modern practices of cotton cultivation.

INTRODUCTION

Cotton is one of the most important commercial fiber crops grown by the farmers of our country. Knowledge acquired on modern practices of cotton cultivation by the cotton growers is essential to harvest potential yield of the crop.

Gujarat is one of the major cotton producing states in the country. Cotton is widely grown, particularly in all the districts of the state and it is divided into four well-defined cotton zones. The Wagad cotton zone occupies 72.00 per cent of the total area under herbaceum cotton in Gujarat state. In Bhal area, Wagad cotton has been adopted as a major crop by the farmers. Majority of this area (96.50 per cent) is covered by rainfed cultivation (Acharya, 2000).

The Wagad cotton zone faces the complex problems and it has remained terribly neglected in comparison to American and irrigated cotton cultivated area. At present, an average productivity of the zone is very low. The productivity of cotton crop can be increased through the use of suitable modern practices including high yielding varieties and for that, knowledge of farmers regarding modern practices of cotton cultivation can play crucial role.

METHODOLOGY

In order to achieve the above objectives, the present study was undertaken in the villages of Dholka and Dhandhuka talukas located in southern part of Ahmedabad district of Gujarat state. From selected eleven villages, a random sample of 110 cotton growers was selected for the study. To measure the knowledge of respondents about the recommended modern practices of cotton, a teacher made scale developed by Jha and Singh (1970) was used in the study. The respondents were grouped into three levels of knowledge viz., low (below mean – 0.5 SD), medium (mean + 0.5 SD) and high (above mean + 0.5 SD) by using mean and standard deviation for modern practices of cotton. To find out the relationship between profile of the cotton growers and their knowledge level, the Pearson’s Product Moment Method suggested by Chandel (1978) for computing correlation co-efficient was used. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Knowledge is the cognitive behaviour of an individual. The body of knowledge is the product of learning process. Once the knowledge is acquired, it produces changes in thinking process of an individual, which would lead to further

1. Asstt. Prof., Planning Cell, Anand Agricultural University, Anand.2. Prof. & Head, Dept. of Ext. Edu., BA College of Agri., Anand.3. Ex Director of Ext. Edu., Anand Agricultural University, Anand.


66

changes in rational decisions, that is prerequisite for the adoption of any innovation. Keeping this in view, an attempt was made to determine the level of knowledge of the cotton growers about

modern practices of cotton cultivation. The data collected and analyzed in this regard are presented in Table-1.

Table-1 : Distribution Of Respondents According To Their Knowledge Level Of Modern Practices Of Cotton Cultivation n=110

Sr. No. Knowledge level Frequency Per cent1 Low 42 38.182 Medium 37 33.643 High 31 28.18

The data indicated that slightly less than two-fifth (38.18 per cent) of the respondents had low level of knowledge regarding modern practices of cotton cultivation, whereas 33.64 per cent and 28.18 per cent of them had medium and high level of such

knowledge, respectively.

The result pointed out that majority (71.82 per cent) of the cotton growers had low to medium level of knowledge regarding modern practices of cotton cultivation.

Table-2 : Relationship Between Profile Of The Cotton Growers And Their Level Of Knowledge About Modern Practice Of Cotton Cultivation n=110

Sr. No.

Profile of the cotton growers Correlation coefficient with knowledge(‘r’ value)

1 Age – 0.12992 Education 0.4682 *3 Social participation 0.3710 *4 Extension contact 0.4382 *5 Media exposure 0.6027 *6 Size of land holding 0.13867 Cotton cultivated area 0.2542 *8 Animal possession 0.01959 Material possession 0.4429 *

10 Income 0.2202 *11 Economic motivation 0.4680 *12 Risk orientation 0.6030 *13 Market orientation 0.5622 *14 Attitude 0.5411 *

*Significant at 0.05 per cent level of probability.

Selected characteristics of the respondents like education, social participation, extension contact, media exposure, cultivated land under cotton, material possession, income, economic motivation, risk orientation, market orientation

and their attitude towards modern practices of cotton cultivation were found to have positive and significant correlation with their knowledge level about modern practices of cotton cultivation while, age, size of land holding and animal


67

possession didn’t show significant association with level of knowledge about modern practices of cotton cultivation.

CONCLUSION

Based on the findings, it may be concluded that majority of the cotton growers had low to medium level of knowledge regarding modern practices of cotton cultivation. Out of fourteen selected characteristics, eleven characters viz. education, social participation, extension contact, media exposure, cultivated land under cotton, material possession, income, economic motivation, risk orientation, market orientation and attitude towards modern practices of cotton cultivation of the cotton growers were relatively more important

as they were found to be significantly correlated with their level of knowledge about modern practices of cotton cultivation.

REFERENCES

Acharya, S. (2000). Herbaceum Cotton of Gujarat, Paper Presented in Review Meeting of ICDP under MMII at WALMI, Anand on November 7-8, 2000.

Chandel, R. S. (1978). A Handbook of Agricultural Statistica, Achal Prakashan Mandir, Kanpur.

Jha, P.N. and Singh, K.N. (1970). A Test of Major Farmers’ Knowledge About High Yielding Variety Programme, Interdiscipline, 7(1): 65-78.

Tools for thinking


68

ROLE PERCEPTION OF ELECTED WOMEN SARPANCHES UNDER PANCHAYATI RAJ SYSTEM

J.J. Mistry 1, V.B. Patel 2 and M.C. Soni 3

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted in purposively selected two non-tribal talukas viz; Him-matnagar and Idar and one tribal taluka viz; Bhiloda having highest number of women sarpanches in Sabarkantha district. The sample of study was 80 women sarpanches. The findings indicated that majority of women sarpanches had medium overall role perception of leadership roles, while most of the women sarpanches had medium to high level of role wise perception of different leadership roles.

1. Subject Matter Specialist (Extn. Edu.), Krishi Vigyan Kendra, S.D. Agricultural University, Khedbrahma, Dist. : Sabarkantha. 2. Subject Matter Specialist (Horti.), Krishi Vigyan Kendra, S.D. Agricultural University, Khedbrahma, Dist. : Sabarkantha.3. Director of Extension Education, S.D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, Dist. : Banaskantha.

INTRODUCTION

The women are active participants in day to day family life and economic activities of family. If they are left out in the development efforts, the chariot of the social and economic process gets hampered. With this in view, the first major attempt was the inclusion of the right to equality in various articles of the constitution of India. But, this was poorly enacted. However, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, which came into force in April 1993, made a new era in the federal democratic set up of the country by providing constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. This Amendment to the constitution has distinctly broken new grounds and laid the foundation for establishing a strong and vibrant Panchayati Raj Institution. An important aspect of the Act is the political empowerment of women by providing them one-third reservation of seats at all levels.

METHODOLOGY

Out of 26 district of Gujarat state, Sabarkantha district was selected purposively. The district is composed of 13 talukas having 709 Gram Panchayats, out of which, 244 Gram Panchayats

are headed by women sarpanches. Two non-tribal talukas viz, Himmatnagar and Idar and one tribal taluka viz; Bhiloda having highest number of women sarpanches were selected purposively. There were 86 Gram Panchayats headed by elected women sarpanches in these selected talukas, however 6 women sarpanches were dropped from the study as they were reluctant to reply or had resigned as sarpanches. Hence, 80 women sarpanches formed the sample of study. Selected women sarpanches were interviewed personally with the help of pre-tested interview schedule. Data were subjected to statistical analysis.

FINDINGS

1 Women sarpanches’ overall role perception

The roles of women sarpanches selected for this study were: planner, executor, communicator, decision maker, motivator, group organizer, leader and initiator.

Number and percentage of women sarpanches having low, medium and high level of overall role perception have been given in Table 1.


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Table 1: Distribution of women sarpanches according to their role perception n = 80

Sr. No. Level of perception Frequency Per cent1 Low 13 16.252 Medium 51 63.753 High 16 20.00

X = 172.163 S. D. = 16.107

The results in Table 1 reveal that overall 63.75 per cent of the women sarpanches had medium level of role perception followed by 20.00 per cent of them with high level of role perception. The percentage of women sarpanches who had low level of overall role perception was 16.25.

It was found that majority (63.75 per cent) of the women sarpanches had medium level of perception regarding their role perception in panchayat. The probable reasons behind such type of result might be that majority of the women

sarpanches were elected first time and possessed primary to secondary education.

2 Perception of different leadership roles by women sarpanches

The leadership roles of women sarpanches selected for this study were: planner, executor, communicator, decision maker, motivator, group organizer, leader and initiator.

The data in relation to perception of different roles by women sarpanches are depicted in Table:2

Table 2 : Distribution of women sarpanches according to their perception of different leadership roles n=80

Sr.No.

Name of role Level of role perceived

XS. D.Low Medium High

F P F P F P1 Planner 08 10.00 52 65.00 20 25.00 28.787 3.0752 Executor 10 12.50 54 67.50 16 20.00 24.200 2.5733 Communicator 05 06.25 62 77.50 13 16.25 28.025 3.1344 Decision maker 15 18.75 48 60.00 17 21.25 20.550 2.1695 Motivator 26 32.50 40 50.00 14 17.50 20.337 2.2556 Group organizer 05 06.25 50 62.50 25 31.25 12.475 1.5007 Leader 14 17.50 48 60.00 18 22.50 24.962 2.7008 Initiator 16 20.00 55 68.75 09 11.25 12.912 1.940

F: Frequency P: Per cent1 Planner

It can be seen from Table 2 that 65.00 per cent of the women sarpanches had medium perception while, 25.00 per cent of them belonged to high perception, only 10.00 per cent of women sarpanches had low level of perception of their role as a planner. As an elected local leader, the responsibility to plan different activities rests with them. Thus, they might have perceived planning as an important role in the village development programmes.

2 Executor

Referring to the leadership role of executor,

the data show that 67.50 per cent of women sarpanches had medium perception, while 20.00 per cent women sarpanches had high perception followed by 12.50 per cent with low perception of the role as an executor. The different development activities, plans, programmes and projects are being implemented through the gram panchayat institution. The women sarpanch and panchayat members generally involve themselves from planning to execution stage. Majority of women sarpanches had medium level of role perception as executor. This might be due to their more contacts with Government officers during various meeting,


70

more mass media exposure and cosmopolitness.

3 Communicator

It can be seen from the Table 2 that 77.50 per cent of women sarpanches had medium perception while 16.25 per cent of them belonged to high perception. Only 6.25 per cent of women sarpanches had low level of perception of their role as a communicator. It can be concluded that majority of the women sarpanches had medium level of perception and trend was found from medium to high. The probable reasons might be that the extension workers might have used them as a communicator for diffusing the new technologies and developmental programmes.

4 Decision maker

As regards to the role perception as a decision maker, 60.00 per cent had medium role perception, while 21.25 per cent had high role perception and remaining 18.75 per cent of them had low perception. The inception of new programme / activities in village may not be accepted initially by the villagers in the village. At that time women sarpanches have to play their role as decision-maker.

5 Motivator

Referring to the role of motivator, half (50.00 per cent) of the women sarpanches had medium role perception, 32.50 per cent had low perception and 17.50 per cent had high perception. Women sarpanches might not have perceived the need for motivation of the panchayat members for different development programmes. Therefore, this role might not have been considered more important by the women sarpanches at gram panchayat.

6 Group organizer

More than three-fifth (62.50 per cent ) of women sarpanches had medium level of perception of leadership role as a group organizer followed by 31.25 per cent with high level and only 6.25 per cent women sarpanches with low level of role perception. The probable reason might be that

the developmental activities require group efforts. They might be willing to get elected for next term. Hence, this role might have been considered more important by women sarpanches.

7 Leader

Referring to the leadership role, the data show that 60.00 per cent of the women sarpanches had medium perception, while 22.50 per cent had high perception and 17.50 per cent had low perception of the role as a leader. Since, women sarpanches are elected by people they might perceive their role as a leader of the village.

8 Initiator

More than two-third (68.75 per cent) of the women sarpanches had medium level perception of leadership role as initiator, while 20.00 and 11.25 per cent of them had low and high level perception, respectively. The women sarpanch might have felt that by taking initiatives in different activities, their prestige would be increased in community and it would also help in maintaining their social status. Being the first citizen person in a village, any government officers, agencies or functionaries contacted sarpanches first and sarpanches might be initiator to adopt new ideas and recommendation.

CONCLUSION

The findings indicated that majority of women sarpanches had medium overall role perception of leadership roles. In role wise perception, it has been found that the most of women sarpanches had medium to high level of perception regarding different leadership roles. The different roles perceived medium and high by women sarpanches in aggregate were found in following sequence : Communicator (93.75 per cent), group organizer (93.75 per cent), planner (90.00 per cent), executor (87.50 per cent), leader (82.50 per cent), decision maker (81.25 per cent), initiator (80.00 per cent) and motivator (67.50 per cent).


71

PERCEPTION OF TEACHERS ABOUT THE ROLES TO BE PERFORMED BY THEM

J. K. Patel2, Mahesh R. Patel2 and N. P. Patel3

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine teachers’ perception of their different roles to be performed in the University for Agricultural Advancement. The study was carried out at the Anand Agricultural University which is situated in the middle part of Gujarat State. About seventy per cent of the teachers in three constituent colleges of the university were taken as respondent for the investigation. The findings of the study revealed that almost half of the teachers of Anand Agricultural University had high role perception.

1 Asstt. Professor of Extension, B. A. C. A., A.A.U., Anand.2 Associate Extension Educationist,DEE, A. A. U., Anand3 Agril. Officer, Dept. of Agriculture, Govt. of Gujarat

INTRODUCTION

Imparting education is one of the important mandates of Agricultural Universities. Anand Agricultural University (prior 2004, it was a part of Gujarat Agricultural University) has been imparting effective education up to graduate and post-graduate level in Agriculture, Dairy Science and Veterinary Science since long. Certain new faculties viz., Food Processing Technology and Bio-energy, Agriculture Information Technology, Agricultural Engineering and International Agri-business Management have been added after establishment of Anand Agricultural University.

Teachers’ role is very crucial and vital in bringing improvement in the standard of education. It is the teacher who will have to provide a good environment for the students in which students can learn better. For that, teacher needs to be well prepared and should have good perception of their roles. In view of this, an investigation was conducted with an objective to determine the perception of teachers about the roles to be performed by them.

METHODOLOGY

The study was carried out at the Anand Agricultural

University. About seventy per cent of the teachers of Assistant Professor cadre from three constituent colleges of the University namely Agriculture College, Dairy Science College and Veterinary College were taken in the sample for the investigation. All in all 104 teachers (42, 34 and 28 from Agriculture College, Veterinary College and Dairy science College, respectively) were selected randomly as the respondents. The data were collected using structured interview schedule. A five point rating scale developed by Suryavanshi (1974) was used with some modifications for determining the perception of teacher’s role in five segments viz. teaching, research, extension works, communication and administration. For each role, statements were developed to determine the extent of perception and accordingly scores were assigned, thus the total score of each teacher was calculated for each role. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The data in regards with number and percentage of teachers having low, medium and high level of role perception in general are given in Table 1.


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Table 1 : Distribution Of The Teachers According To Their Role Perception In General n= 104

Sr. no. Category No. Percent1 Low (<mean – SD) 13 12.502 Medium (mean ± SD) 43 41.353 High (>mean + SD) 48 46.15

X = 100.98 S.D. = 17.61

Data presented in Table 2 reveal that nearly half of the teachers of Anand Agricultural University had medium level of perception in teaching (47.12 per cent) and communication (46.15 per cent), while exactly half of them had medium level of perception about administration role. In case of research and extension work, more than half (53.85 and 56.73 per cent, respectively) of the teachers were found with high level of role perception. This might be because of their more inclination towards research and extension work as these are also the mandatory activities along with teaching.

CONCLUSION

Majority of the teachers (87.50 per cent) had high

to medium role perception in general. In case of research and extension work, slightly more than half had high level of perception, whereas in case of teaching, communication and administration, about half of them had medium level of perception.

REFERENCES

Suryavanshi, V.D. (1974). ‘Value orientation of local leaders and their role perception’. M.Sc. (Agri.) thesis (unpub.) G.A.U., Navsari Campus, Navsari.

Welster (2005). ‘Extension teaching methods’. International Journal of Statistics and Management System. Vol.4. no. 1-2, 2005, pp:45-53.

As observed from the Table 1 that slightly less than half (46.15 per cent) of the respondents had high level of role perception followed by 41.35 per cent with medium level of role perception. Only 12.50 per cent of the respondents were found with low level of role perception. It can be inferred from the findings that majority of the teachers (87.50 per cent) had high to medium role perception. It is indicative of the fact that majority of them had good understanding about their roles in

the University. The finding is supported by the observation of Welster (2005).

Perception of different role by teachers

The roles of teachers selected for this study were: teaching, research, extension works, communication and administrator. The Table 2 indicates perception of different roles by the teachers.

Table 2 : Distribution Of Teachers According To Their Perception Of Different Roles n=104

Sr. No.

Role Level of role perceived

Low Medium High

No. Percent No. Percent No. Percent

1 Teaching 13 12.50 49 47.12 42 40.38

2 Research 21 20.19 27 25.96 56 53.85

3 Extension works 19 18.27 26 25.00 59 56.73

4 Communication 16 15.38 48 46.15 40 38.47

5 Administration 24 23.08 52 50.00 28 26.92


73

ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED PACKAGE OF PRACTICES BY THE SUMMER BAJARA GROWERS

K.S.Patel 1, D.B.Patel2 and M.R.Prajapati3

ABSTRACT

The study was purposively conducted in Banaskantha District of Gujarat. Twenty four villages were selected for this study on the basis of maximum area under summer Bajara cultivation. Five summer bajara growers from each village were selected by using proportionate random sampling method that comprising sample size of 120 respondents. This study concluded that majority of the summer bajara growers were reported medium level of adoption of recommended cultivation practices followed by low and high level of adoption recommended cultivation practices. The maximum adoption gap was reported in sowing method and sowing distance whereas minimum gap was reported in pesticide/ insecticide / weedcide and soil treatment. The independent variables namely occupation, social participation of the farmers was found highly significant relationship with adoption of recommended technologies of summer bajara. Most-important constraints faced by bajara growers were non availability of sufficient labour, high cost of fertilizers and irregular supply of irrigation.

INTRODUCTION

Appropriative production technologies suitable for different agro-ecolological situation have been generated by the Agricultural scientists to counter new challenges faced by the farmers. Despite of efforts made by the various development and extension agencies, it is realized that either the technologies have not reached to the farmer’s field or farmers are reluctant to use these technologies. Still there is a large gap between technological development and its full application in the field of common farmers.

Bajara, a major cereals crop of Banaskantha District of Gujarat State, contributes for about 60.00 per cent of cereals production of the State. Under the circumstances, with a view to know the actual level of adoption of Bajara production technologies at farmer’s level, it was planned to conduct a study on adoption of recommended package of practices of summer bajara by the farmers.

METHODOLOGY

The Banaskantha District was purposively selected for the present study because bajara crop production is highest in this District in Gujarat state. Two stage simple random sampling technique was used for the study for the selection of the respondents. The Deesa, Amirgadha, Dantiwada, Palanpur, Vadgam and Tharad Talukas were purposively selected as areas under bajara crop were more compared to other talukas. From the list of bajara growing villages, four villages from each taluka was randomly selected. The list of bajara growers was obtained from each village panchayat and using proportionate random sampling method 5 farmers from each village were selected by simple random sampling technique. Thus, the sample consisted of 120 farmers. The data were collected by personal interview with the help of structured interview schedule.

The interview schedule was developed with the help of experts keeping in view the objectives of

1: Asstt. professor (Extension Education), ATIC, Directorate of Extension Education, SDAU,Sardarkrushinagar.2: Asstt. professor (Extension Education), Horticulture Polytechnic, SDAU, Jagudan. 3: Professor (Extension Education),C. P. College of Agriculture, SDAU,Sardarkrushinagar.


74

the study. The data were transferred into master table and analyzed in terms of frequency and per

centages in order to make findings meaningful.

FINDINGS

Table - 1 : To study the level of adoption of package of practice of Summer Bajara crops by armers

n=120

Sr. No. Level of adoption No of Farmers Per cent

1 Low(below 10.69 score) 15 12.50

2 Medium (Bet. 10.69 & 15.13 score) 93 77.50

3 High (Above 15.13 score) 12 10.00

The data pertaining to levels of adoption of recommended Packages of practice of Bajara crops are furnished in table 9 The data clearly indicate that majority of the farmers were found to have medium level of adoption of Package of practice of

Bajara crops followed with low and with high level adoption of package of practice of Bajara crops. It can be concluded that majority of the farmers were found to have medium level of adoption of Package of practice of Bajara crops.

Table-2 : Distribution of the farmer according to their adoption of different packages of Summer Bajara crops n=120

Sr. No. Practices Extent of Adoption RankNo of Farmers Per cent

1 Use of Hybrid /improved seed 108 90.00 IV

2 Method of sowing 120 100.00 I3 Seed treatment 47 39.17 VII4 Seed rate 110 91.66 III5 soil treatment 37 30.83 X6 sowing distance 115 95.83 II7 Fertilizers and manure 82 68.33 V8 thinning / interculturing 55 45.83 VI9 Irrigation method 39 32.50 IX

10 Use of Pesticide / insecticide / weedcide

37 30.83 XI

11 Storage 43 35.83 VIII

Practice wise extent of adoption was also studied and data in this regards are presented in table 2. The data revealed that all the farmers had adopted the important practices like method of sowing (100.00 per cent). An overwhelming majority had also adopted practices like sowing distance (95.83 per cent), seed rate (91.66 per cent), use of improved / hybrid seed (90.00 per cent), fertilizers

and manures (68.33 per cent). The practices having poor adoption were thinning/ inter culturing (45.83 per cent), seed treatment (39.17 per cent), storage (35.83 per cent), irrigation method and soil treatment (32.50 per cent) and use of pesticide / insecticide / weedicide (30.83 per cent).

It can be concluded from the result that farmers


75

were having high adoption of no cost and low cost technologies instead of practices which are

complex and more technical in nature

Table -3: Correlation between profile of farmers and the Adoption of recommended package of practice Summer Bajara crop

Sr. No. Personal Characteristics Correlation Coefficient1 Age 0.0177 NS2 Education 0.3517 **3 Family size 0.0202 NS

4 Family type 0.0234 NS5 Social participation 0.4701 **6 Land holding 0.3559 **

7 Annual income 0.4215 **8 Occupation 0.4940 **

NS - Non significant **- significant at 0.01 level of probability

It can be seen from table 3 that only five variables namely, education (0.3517**), social participation (0.4701**), land holding (0.3559 **), annual income (0.4215**) and occupation (0.4940**) of the farmers were found having significant relationship

with adoption of recommended technologies of bajara crop. Remaining three variables namely, age, family size and family type have failed to establish significant relationship with adoption of recommended technologies of bajara crop.

Table-4: Constraints in Adoption of recommended package of practices of summer bajara

Sr. No. Constrains No. Per cent Rank

1 Lack of knowledge about improved Varieties 40 33.32 XII

2 Fragmented and undulated land 58 48.33 VI

3 High cost of equipment for plant protection 55 45.83 VII

4 High rate of electricity Supply 49 40.83 VIII

5 Irregular Supply of irrigation 70 58.33 III

6 Non availability of inputs in the village 65 54.16 IV

7 Non availability of sufficient labour 76 63.33 II

8 Poor marketing facilities 42 35.00 XI

9 Non remunerative price 45 37.50 X

10 High cost of fertilizer 72 60.00 III

11 Non availability of credit in time 47 39.16 IX

12 Lack of timely technical advise 60 50.00 V


76

The data collected in regard to the constraints in adoption of recommended package of practices of summer bajara crop are presented in Table-12. It is clear from Table-4 that most-important constraints faced by bajara growers were non availability of sufficient labour (63.33 per cent), high cost of fertilizers (60.00 per cent), irregular supply of irrigation (58.33 per cent), non availability of inputs in the village (54.16 per cent), lack of timely technical advise (50.00 per cent) were the important constraints followed by the Bajara growers. While less-important constraints faced by bajara growers were fragmented and undulated land (48.33 per cent), high cost of equipment for plant protection (45.83 per cent), high rate of electricity Supply (40.83 per cent), non availability of credit in time (39.16 per cent), non remunerative price (37.50 per cent), poor marketing facilities (35.00 per cent) and lack of knowledge about improved varieties (33.32 per cent).

CONCLUSIONS

Summer bajara growers were reported in medium level of adoption followed by low and high level of adoption of recommended cultivation practices. The education, social participation, land holding, annual income, and occupation were having highly significant relationship with adoption of recommended technologies of bajara crops. Most-important constraints faced by bajara growers were non availability of sufficient labour, high

cost of fertilizers, and irregular supply of irrigation, non availability of inputs in the village and lack of timely technical advice.

REFERENCES

Bhople, R. S.; Shide, P. S. and Nimje, V. R.(1996). “Production of Marketing constraints faced by orange growers.” Maha. Jour. of Exten. Edu. Vl-XV .

Meena, S. R and Sisodiya S. S. (2005-06).”Extent of Adoption of Recommended Guva. cultivation practices” Guj. Journal Extn. Edu. XVI-XVII

Mohammad, A. and Panjabi, N. K. (1997). “A study on knowledge and adoption of improved cultivation practices of mandarin among farmers in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan.” M.Sc (Ag.) thesis Abstract, Raj. Agril. Univ. Bikaner. campus; Udaipur

Poonia, A. (2002). “Technological gap among the kinnow (Citrus deliciosa) orchad owners in Sriganganagr district of Rajasthan.” M.Sc (Ag.) thesis (unpublished) M.P.U.A.T.,Udaipur RCA, Udaipur

Verma, P. D.; and Munshi, M. A (1998) “A study on Adoption of kharif groundnut Production technology.” Guj. Journal Exten. Edu. X & XI(1998-2000)

Good or bad health makes our philosophy. - Chaulieu


77

INTRODUCTION

Cotton is one of the most important commercial fibre crops of India. Besides food and housing, clothing is one of the prime needs of human beings. Although the country has recorded remarkable increase in cotton production, the productivity is admittedly low with 313 kg/ha of lint as against world’s average of 580 kg/ha. This is due to nearly 70.00 per cent of the area is being grown under rainfed condition, seasonal incidence of insect-pests and diseases leading to instability in yield/unit area (Satishkumar, 2002).

Gujarat is one of the major cotton producing states in the country. Cotton is widely grown, particularly in all districts of the state and it is divided into four well-defined cotton zones. Among these zones, wagad cotton zone faces the complex problems like drought, occasional frost, soil salinity and shallow soil depth. At present, the average productivity of the zone is very low. It affects the productivity of the state. Adoption of modern practices of cotton cultivation by farmers is very vital to increase the productivity.

METHODOLOGY

the present study was undertaken in the villages of Dholka and Dhandhuka talukas located in southern part of Ahmedabad district of Gujarat state. From selected eleven villages, a random sample of 110 cotton growers was selected for this study.

The information regarding the extent of adoption of each of the selected practices and potentiality of its adoption was collected. The adoption quotient developed by Chattopadhyay (1974) was used with slight modification as per local situation. The adoption quotient of each respondent for each of the selected practices was worked out.

In the case of overall adoption, the total score obtained by each individual was worked out and totaled up and mean of the score was calculated. The respondents were grouped into three categories viz., low (below mean – 0.5 SD), medium (mean + 0.5 SD) and high (above mean + 0.5 SD) level of adoption.

ADOPTION OF MODERN PRACTICES OF COTTON CULTIVATION BY THE FARMERS IN BHAL AREA

P. J. Joshi1, N. B. Chauhan2 and K. F. Patel3

ABSTRACT

The present study was undertaken with the objective to find out practicewise adoption of cotton growers about modern practices of cotton cultivation in the villages of Dholka and Dhandhuka talukas located in southern part of Ahmedabad district of Gujarat. It was evident that nearly three-fourth of the cotton growers had low to medium level of adoption of modern practices of cotton cultivation. The majority of the cotton growers adopted modern practices viz. preparatory tillage, depth of sowing, crop variety, time of sowing and method of sowing as per recommendations. In the opposition, no adoption was found for practices viz. seed treatment, gap filling, plant protection measures and supplementary irrigation by the majority of the cotton growers.

1. Asstt. Prof., Planning Cell, Anand Agricultural University, Anand.2. Prof. & Head, Dept. of Ext. Edu., BA College of Agri., Anand.3. Ex. Director of Ext. Edu., Anand Agricultural University, Anand.


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1 Practice wise adoption

The findings regarding adoption of modern practices of cotton cultivation are presented in Table-1. It was observed that great majority of the farmers adopted the practices such as preparatory tillage (92.72 per cent), depth of sowing (89.09), crop variety (99.09 per cent), time of sowing (99.09 per cent) and method of sowing (99.09 per cent) as per recommendation.

Above findings may be due to fact that all recommended varieties have been observed suitable for cultivation in the area. Moreover, as the cotton growing is dependent on rain in this area, most of them might have prepared land to sow seed at proper time and used proper method as well as depth of sowing for better germination of the crop.

The adoption above the recommendations was found with more than four-fifth of the farmers for practices viz., spacing (85.45 per cent), interculturing (99.09), weeding (96.36 per cent) and harvesting (83.64 per cent). The probable reason for wider spacing might be the use of traditional implements for sowing which are not adjustable as per the recommended distance.

Adoption less than recommendation was found with more than 70 per cent of farmers for practices like seed rate (73.64 per cent) and application of FYM (97.27 per cent). The probable reason for less application of farmyard manure by the farmers might be non-availability of FYM in required quantity. Further, no adoption at all was found in modern practices viz., seed treatment (100 per cent), gap filling (70.91per cent), plant protection measures (71.82 per cent) and supplementary irrigation (99.09 per cent).

Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to adoption level of different modern practices of cotton cultivation n=110

Sr. No.

Package of Practices

Adoption LevelNot

adoptedLess than

recommendationAs per

recommendationAbove

recommendationNo. Per

centNo. Per cent No. Per cent No. Per cent

1 Preparatory tillage - - 4 3.64 102 92.72 4 3.642 Crop variety - - 1 0.91 109 99.09 - -3 Seed rate - - 81 73.64 23 20.91 6 5.454 Seed treatment 110 100 - - - - - -5 Time of sowing - - 1 0.91 109 99.09 - -6 Method of sowing - - - - 109 99.09 1 0.917 Depth of sowing - - 1 0.91 98 89.09 11 108 Spacing - - 2 1.82 14 12.73 94 85.459 Application of FYM 2 1.82 107 97.27 1 0.91 - -

10 Application of chemical fertilizer as a basal dose

75 68.18 1 0.91 - - 34 30.91

11 Application of chemical fertilizer as a top dressing

13 11.82 74 67.27 18 16.36 5 4.55

12 Gap filling 78 70.91 - - 19 17.27 13 11.8213 Interculturing - - - - 1 0.91 109 99.0914 Weeding - - - - 4 3.64 106 96.36


79

Sr. No.

Package of Practices

Adoption LevelNot

adoptedLess than

recommendationAs per

recommendationAbove

recommendationNo. Per

centNo. Per cent No. Per cent No. Per cent

15 Plant protection measures

79 71.82 29 26.36 2 1.82 - -

16 Supplementary irrigation

109 99.09 - - 1 0.91 - -

17 Harvesting/Picking

- - - - 18 16.36 92 83.64

2 Overall adoption

The data presented in Table-2 indicate that nearly three-fourth of the cotton growers had low to medium level of adoption of modern practices of cotton cultivation. The reason for such finding may

be due to problematic geographical condition, limited extension contact, low to medium level of economic motivation, lack of knowledge and less use of mass media. This finding is in line with the findings of Mundhwa and Patel (2000), Patel et al. (2000) and Verma and Munshi, (2000).

Table 2 : Overall extent of adoption of modern practices of cotton cultivation by the cotton growers n=110

Sr. No. Level of adoption Frequency Per cent1 Low adoption level 31 28.182 Medium adoption level 50 45.463 High adoption level 29 26.36

Mean : 60.06 S.D. : 4.18

CONCLUSIONS

The adoption data presented in this study indicates that the majority of the cotton growers adopted modern practices viz., preparatory tillage, depth of sowing, crop variety, time of sowing and method of sowing as per recommendations, while in case of spacing, interculturing, weeding and harvesting; adoption level was above the recommendations. For practice like seed rate, application of FYM and application of chemical fertilizers, adoption was less than recommendation in majority cases, while no adoption at all was found to a greater extent in case of seed treatment, gap filling, plant protection measures and supplementary irrigation. Overall adoption was found to be medium to low with about three-fourth of the farmers.

REFERENCES

Chattopadhyay, S. N. (1974). Study of Some Psychological Correlates of Adoption of

Improved Practices, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, IARI, New Delhi.

Mundhwa, A.B. and Patel, A.A. (2000). Growers’ Adoption Rationale for Production Technology of Rainfed Wheat, Guj. J. Ext. Edn., X & XI: 20-23.

Patel, V.A, Prajapati, M.R., Joshi, K.M., Chaudhari, N.V. and Soni, M.C. (2000). Adoption of Recommended Dry farming Technology of Cotton in North Gujarat, Guj. J. Ext. Edn., X&XI: 32-36.

Satishkumar, G. D. (2002). Knowledge and Extent of Adoption of Recommended Practices for Cotton Crop by Farmers, Madras Agric. J., 89(4-6): 293-296.

Varma, P.D. and Munshi, M.A. (2000). A Study on Adoption of Kharif Groundnut Production Technology, Guj. J. Ext. Edn., X&XI: 37-40.


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INTRODUCTION

India has been known from time immemorial as the “Home of Spices” producing almost all spices and condiments known to the world. Cumin is the dried fruit of a small herbaceous plant and was quite popular even during biblical times as an efficient digestive and a food flavor for a ceremonial feast. In the developing spice growing countries like India, the spices are being almost exclusively used in house hold sector as natural food flavorings while in industrially advanced countries of the west where processed foods are consumed in large quantities. This sector prefers to use the spices extractives as essential oils and oleoresins because of certain advantages. Nearly 90 per cent of its production is being carried out in Rajasthan and Gujarat states of India. In the year 2005-06, the farmers of Rajasthan had cultivated in 135113 ha. with the production of 152239 tonnes. The export during 2007-08 was 28000 tonnes fetches Rs. 2,915 million from the overseas market.

It is surprise to note that the improved cumin production technology by the farmers Rajasthan have not recognized seriously which, might be one of the essential elements for higher production.

Thus, there is a great need for the adoption of improved agricultural practices of cumin crop by the farmers to enhance quality production and thereby income. In order to access the extent to which the farmers knows about improved cumin technologies and extent to which technology adopted by the farmers, the study was undertaken.

METHODOLOGY

This study was purposively conducted in Jalore district of Rajasthan as Jalore district having large area under cumin crop and also leading in its production. A multistage sampling design was adopted to select sample for data collection for the present study. Four villages namely Arnay, Sarnau, Jhontra and Sinwara of Sanchore panchayat samiti of Jalore district of Rajasthan state was selected randomly. From each selected villages a comprehensive list of cumin growers was obtained from patwari and from which 25 farmers were selected randomly from each village. Thus the sample size consisted of 100 respondents. Data of the study were collected with the help of personal interview schedule. In order to measure the knowledge and adoption score of the individual respondents, nine practices of cumin

ADOPTION OF IMPROVED CUMIN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY BY THE GROWERS OF JALORE DISTRICT

M.S. Chandawat1 M. S. Chouhan2 and R. F. Thakor3

ABSTRACT

Cumin is one of the important and ancient spices and it is almost exclusively cultivated in Rajasthan and Gujarat. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of the cumin. It is used as powder, medicinal, beverages, cumin sips, organic cumin, oil and oleoresin, besides manifold medicinal uses. The present investigation was undertaken in Jalore district of Rajasthan. The farmers were found medium to low adoption level of improved cultivation practices of cumin production technology. The highest adoption gap was found in practice of seed treatment followed by plant protection measures and use of high yielding varieties. There was highly significant difference found between extent of knowledge and level of adoption about the improved cultivation practices of cumin production technology among respondents.

1 SMS (Ext.) Krishi Vigyan Kendra-Kheda2. Assist. Professor (Ext.),RAU, Bikaner3. Programme Coordinator, Krishi Vigyan Kendra-Valsad


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production technology viz., use of high yielding varieties, field preparation, seed treatment, fertilizer application, irrigation, weed control, plant protection measures, harvesting and storage of cumin seed were selected. Each selected practice was assigned one score for correct answer and zero

score for incorrect answer. The possible maximum score obtainable by the individual respondent was 58. Differences in knowledge level possessed by respondents from selected villages were also calculated.


Table 1 : Adoption of cumin production technology by the cumin growers n=100Sr. No.

Improved practices Mean score adoption(In MPS)

Adoption gap in MPS

Rank

1 Use of high yielding varieties 1.00(3) 33.33 66.67 VIII2 Field preparation 3.17(4) 79.25 20.75 II3 Seed Treatment 0.07(3) 2.33 97.67 IX4 Sowing practices 6.27(15) 40.18 59.82 VI5 Fertilizer Application 7.31(15) 48.73 51.27 IV6 Irrigation 3.25(4) 81.25 18.75 I7 Weed Control 3.31(9) 36.78 63.22 VII8 Plant protection measures 1.00(3) 33.33 66.67 III9 Harvesting & storage 4.65(6) 77.50 22.50 V

Overall (58) 48.80 51.20 Figures in parenthesis indicate maximum possible score in respective practices.

Table 2: Significance of difference in level of adoption of cumin production technology by the farmers of different villages

Sr. No. Source of variance d. f. S. S. MPS ‘F’ value1 Between the villages 3 16.04 5.3467 0.7146 NS2 Within the villages (Error) 96 718.72 7.4867

Overall 99 734.76NS : Not significant at 1 per cent levelTable 3 : Relationship between extent of knowledge & level of adoption among respondents n=100

Sr. No. Improved practices Knowledge MPS Adoption MPS ‘Z’ value1 Use of high yielding varieties 87.40 33.33 50.006**2 Field preparation 82.71 79.25 24.538**3 Seed Treatment 56.50 2.33 17.434**4 Sowing practices 69.33 40.18 1.419 NS5 Fertilizer Application 70.25 48.73 5.862**6 Irrigation 85.00 81.25 10.102**7 Weed Control 73.83 36.78 10.35**8 Plant protection measures 91.25 33.33 51.186**9 Harvesting & storage 92.67 77.50 17.288**

Overall 78.80 48.80 29.784** ** Significant at 1 per cent level of significance, NS: Not significant

Table value of ‘Z’ at 1 per cent level of significance is 2.58. 1 Adoption of cumin production technology by the respondents:

Majority of the farmers (60per cent) had medium

level of adoption while 24 per cent respondents had low level of adoption. Only 16 per cent farmers found to have high level of adoption. Data regarding level of adoption of improved cultivation


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practices of cumin are depicted in Table-1. The overall mean percentage score of respondents were 48.80. The highest level of adoption was found in case of irrigation practices with mean per cent score 81.25. Time of irrigation and method of irrigation is an important factor in cultivation of cumin. The growers have vast experience of their field condition i.e. soil structure, soil texture, soil profile and hence found higher knowledge about method of irrigation. This was followed by field preparation practices with mean per cent score (MPS) 79.25, the level of adoption about harvesting and storage practices of cumin crop was kept on third with the mean per cent score of 77.50 and adoption gap 22.50 per cent. Adoption regarding use of high yielding varieties, sowing practices, fertilizer application, weed management and plant protection measures found low and exhibit highest adoption gap i.e. 66.67, 59.82, 51.27, 63.22 and 66.67 for the respective practices. The farmers had minimum adoption level about seed treatment which was 2.33 per cent and adoption gap was as high as 97.67 per cent.

2 Knowledge possessed by the farmers of different villages about cumin production technology:

The data in the Table 2 depicts that there is a non significant difference in the level of adoption among the farmers of different villages regarding improved cultivation practices of cumin. This may be because the cumin growers of the selected villages were found localite in nature, utilizing local sources of information in the vicinity of the village such as progressive farmer, input supply dealers, friends and neighbours etc.

3 Relationship between extent of knowledge & level of adoption about improved cultivation practices of cumin.

An attempt were also made to find out relationship between extent of knowledge & level of adoption about improved cultivation practices of cumin (Table-3). The calculated ‘Z’ value is greater than its tabulated value at 1 per cent level of significance conclude that there is a significant difference between knowledge and overall adoption

of improved cultivation practices among the respondents. In all the practices, except sowing, there was highly significant difference between the knowledge and adoption of improved cultivation practices of cumin among the respondents.

4 Personal characteristics of cumin growers :

Based on the data presented in Table 4, it is concluded that most of the respondents (47.00 per cent) were in the middle age group and belonged to higher caste (59.00 per cent). Most of them were literate and having agriculture as a main family occupation though they have small land holding. Majority of the respondents were belonged to joint family. As far as social participation is concerned a few number of the respondents were found having actively participate in different social activities. Majority of the respondents reside in pacca house and possessed one pair of bullock. It is also found that though they possessed localite nature they were partially inclined towards mechanized farming as they were partially equipped with small farm implements to carry out various operations.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that out of nine cumin production technologies adoption of seed treatment technology is very poor followed by use of high yielding varieties, sowing practices, fertilizer application, weed management and plant protection measures. In all the practices except sowing there was highly significant difference was observed between the knowledge and adoption of improved cultivation practices of cumin. Difference in the level of adoption of various cumin production technology among the farmers of different villages was found non significant.

REFERENCES

Desai, C. P., Pandya D. N., Patel M. R. and Patel, Arun A. (1996). “Farmer satisfaction with adoption of cumin cultivation in five talukas of Bhavnagar district.” G.A.U., Res. J. 21(2): 72-75

Tavethia, B. H. and Chauhan, N. B. (2009). “A study on adoption of cumin production technology.” Agriculture Update 4(3&4): 354-355.


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ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED HYBRID CASTOR CULTIVATION TECHNOLOGY BY THE CASTOR GROWERS

B. K. PATEL1, J. J. MISTRY2 and G. J. PATEL3

ABSTRACT

The present study was undertaken in Mehsana district of Gujarat state to know the adoption of recommended hybrid Castor cultivation technology. The sample of the study was 120 Castor growers. The findings revealed that majority of the castor growers had medium level of adoption of recommended hybrid Castor cultivation technology. The variables viz; education, land holding, annual income, social participation, extension contact, sources of information, economic motivation, scientific orientation, innovativeness and knowledge level were found positively and significantly correlated with extent of adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology. The knowledge level and innovativeness contributed significantly to the prediction of the adoption of the hybrid Castor cultivation technology. The major constraints faced by the castor growers in adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology were unavailability of certified seed, high costs of inputs, insufficient irrigation facility and high rate and irregular supply of electricity.

1 P.G. Scholar, Department of Extension Education, C.P. Collage of Agriculture, S.D.A.U., Sardarkrushinagar2 Subject Matter Specialist (Extn. Edu.), Krishi Vigyan Kendra, S.D. Agricultural University, Khedbrahma, Dist. : Sabarkantha.3 Programme Coordinator, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, S.D. Agricultural University, Khedbrahma, Dist. : Sabarkantha.

INTRODUCTION

Among all the oilseed crops, castor is an important industrial non-edible oil seed crop of India and Gujarat is the leading castor growing state of the country. The area, production and productivity of castor were reported as 3.41 lac hectares, 6.65 lac tonnes and 1946 kg/ha, respectively (Desai and Shah, 2007).

Mehsana is one of the most important hybrid castor growing districts of Gujarat state. The area under hybrid castor in this district was 34,800 hectares with production about 59,900 metric tonnes and productivity of 1719 kg/ha during 2004-2005 But the harvested yield of research station was recorded as 2230 to 3000 kg/ha. Thus, the average yield of hybrid castor in the district was lower in comparison to its potential yield. Lower adoption of recommended technology by hybrid castor growers might be the reason for this situation.

METHODOLOGY

The present study was undertaken purposively in Mehsana district of Gujarat State. Three talukas viz.; Kadi, Vijapur and Mehsana having higher area under hybrid castor cultivation were selected purposively. Four villages from each selected taluka were purposively selected which had higher area under hybrid castor cultivation. From each selected village, ten respondents were selected randomly. Thus the study was conducted with total 120 respondents. The data were collected by personal contact method with the help of structured interview schedule. To know the association between independent variables with adoption, correlation coefficient was worked out. Similarly to know the combined effect of the independent variables in explaining the variation in the adoption of castor cultivation technology, the multiple regression analysis was done. Responses in regards with constraints were


84

analyzed to find out frequency and percentage and then rank order was assigned.


1 Adoption of hybrid castor cultivation technology

The results regarding adoption of hybrid castor cultivation technology are presented in Table:1

Table 1 :Distribution of the respondents according to their extent of adoption n = 120

Sr. No. Extent of adoption Frequency Percentage

1 Low (Up to 15 score) 23 19.17

2 Medium (16 to 21 score) 87 72.50

3 High (Above 21 score) 10 08.33

X = 18.19 S.D. = 2.86The results in Table 1 indicate that majority (72.50 %) of the castor growers had medium extent of adoption followed by 19.17 and 8.33 per cent castor growers who had low and high extent of adoption, respectively.

Thus, it could be inferred that majority of the castor growers (72.50 %) had medium extent of adoption. This might be because of their medium level of knowledge, extension contact, utilization of information sources, scientific orientation, innovativeness etc. as well as several constraints

faced by them in adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology.

2 Association between selected independent variables and extent of adoption of recommended hybrid Castor cultivation technology

The results regarding association between the independent variables and extent of adoption of recommended hybrid Castor cultivation technology are presented in Table 2.

Table 2 : Correlation between selected characteristics of the castor growers and their extent of

adoption n = 120

Sr. No. Independent Variables Correlation coefficient (‘r’ value)1 Age -0.11202

2 Education 0.45487**

3 Land holding 0.24457**

4 Annual income 0.30582**

5 Irrigation facility -0.01561

6 Social participation 0.22881*

7 Extension contact 0.37131**

8 Sources of information 0.28544**

9 Economic motivation 0.30871**

10 Scientific orientation 0.20253*

11 Risk preference 0.07629

12 Innovativeness 0.42006**

13 Knowledge level 0.7750**

** = Significant at 0.01 level of significance * = Significant at 0.05 level of significance NS = Non Significant


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In respect of the results of multiple regression analysis (Table 3), all the 13 independent variables together explained 67.78 per cent total v2ariation in adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology by the castor growers. Further the results also indicated that out of 13 independent variables, two variables viz.; knowledge level and innovativeness were

found significantly contributing for adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology by the castor growers.4 Constraints faced by castor growers in adoption of castor cultivation technology The data regarding constraints faced by Castor growers in adoption of hybrid Castor cultivation technology are presented in Table 4.

The results of coefficient of correlation analysis (Table 2) indicate that out of the 13 independent variables, ten variables viz.; education, land holding, annual income, social participation, extension contact, sources of information, economic motivation, scientific orientation, innovativeness and level of knowledge had positive and significant correlation with extent of adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology by the castor growers. Remaining

variables viz.; age, irrigation facility, risk preference failed to establish any significant association with extent of adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology.

3 Variables predicting extent of adoption of Castor cultivation technology

The results regarding multiple regression analysis are presented in Table 3.

Table 3 : Multiple regression analysis of independent variables of the castor growers with their

extent of adoption n = 120

Sr. No.

Independent variablesRegression

coefficient (bi)Standard error

of bi

‘t’ value (d.f. = 106)

1 Age 0.0161 0.0200 0.807

2 Education 0.0762 0.2419 0.315

3 Land holding -0.6500 0.4374 -1.486

4 Annual income 0.0187 0.0133 1.405

5 Irrigation facility 0.0667 0.7235 0.158

6 Social participation -0.0354 0.2788 -0.127

7 Extension contact 0.0650 0.1986 0.327

8 Sources of information -0.1299 0.0663 -1.959

9 Economic motivation -0.0698 0.1324 -0.527

10 Scientific orientation -0.1207 0.1220 -0.990

11 Risk preference -0.1555 0.0894 -1.740

12 Innovativeness 0.8190 0.3356 2.440*

13 Knowledge level 0.8432 0.0764 11.042**

Multiple regression (R2) = - 0.6778 Multiple R = 0.8233 Constant = 6.0055** = Significant at 0.01 level of significance* = Significant at 0.05 level of significance


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Table 4 : Distribution of respondents according to constraints faced by them in adoption of Castor cultivation technology n = 120

Sr. No.

Constraints Frequency Percentage Rank

1 Unavailability of certified seed 105 87.50 I

2 Insufficient irrigation facility 86 71.67 III

3 High rate and irregular supply of electricity 84 70.00 IV

4High cost of inputs (i.e. fertilizer/seed/insecticide etc.)

96 80.00 II

5High wages and shortage of labour at the time of picking

75 62.50 VI

6 Non-availability of technical guidance 65 54.17 VII

7 Non-availability of finance 61 50.83 VIII

8 Low market price of produce 81 67.50 V

The major constraints faced by the castor growers in adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology were: unavailability of certified seed (87.50 %), high costs of inputs (80.00 %), insufficient irrigation facility (71.67 %), high rate and irregular supply of electricity (70.00 %), low market price of produce (67.50 %), high wages and shortage of labour at the time of picking (62.50 %), non-availability of technical guidance (54.17 %) and non-availability of finance (50.83 %) which were ranked as I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII, respectively.

It can be inferred from the above results that unavailability of certified seeds, high cost of inputs and insufficient irrigation facility were the main constraints.

CONCLUSIONS

Majority of the castor growers had medium extent of adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology. The independent variables viz.; education, land holding, annual income, social participation, extension contact, sources of information, economic motivation, scientific orientation, innovativeness and knowledge level were found positively and significantly correlated with extent of adoption

of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology by the castor growers. The independent variables explained 67.78 per cent of total variation in extent of adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation for which two variables viz.; knowledge level and innovativeness were found significantly contributing in extent of adoption. The unavailability of certified seed, high costs of inputs, insufficient irrigation facility and high rate and irregular supply of electricity were the major constraints faced by the castor growers in adoption of recommended hybrid castor cultivation technology.

REFERENCES

Anonymous (2004). Agricultural situation in India. Vol. VIII. August-2004, No. 5 : 221-223.

Anonymous (2007a). Agricultural Research Data Book, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi-110 001.

Desai, D.B. and Shah, J.V. (2007). Contribution of Gujarat in production and productivity of castor. GAAS News Letter, The Gujarat Association For Agricultural Sciences. 11 (1) : 4-5.


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FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION LEVEL OF COTTON GROWERS ABOUT IPM TECHNOLOGY

J.B.Patel1, Sunil R. Patel2 , B.D.Patel3

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted in Vadodara district of Gujarat State with total 240 respondents including 120 trained and 120 untrained cotton growers who were selected from sixteen villages of the district. A perusal of the data indicated that majority of the trained (66.67 per cent) cotton growers had medium extent of adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop followed by 30.83 per cent with high and only 2.50 per cent with low extent of adoption of IPM technology. In case of untrained cotton growers, more than half (53.33 per cent) of them had medium extent of adoption followed by 45.00 per cent with low and only 1.67 per cent with high extent of adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop. Independent variables of trained cotton growers like age, education, extension contact, training received, land holding, productivity, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation and awareness about IPM technology were significantly correlated with extent of adoption of IPM technology. While, mass media exposure, area under cotton crop, occupation and attitude towards IPM technology of trained cotton growers had no significant relationship with extent of adoption. In case of untrained cotton growers, there was no significant relationship between selected variables and extent of adoption of IPM technology.

INTRODUCTION

Cotton is an important cash crop in India. During recent years cotton is becoming more susceptible to different insects, pests especially bollworms in the country. This is because of excessive and indiscriminate use of pesticides against certain pests and also disturbance of natural balance. Koranne(1996) reported that out of the total pesticides used in agriculture in India, cotton alone consumed more than 55 percent of them. This figure reflects the excessive use of pesticides on cotton. The approach to minimize the use of pesticides and thereby to overcome its ill effects to a certain extent is adoption of Integrated Pest Management practices in cotton. Hence, it was thought imperative to study the status of adoption regarding IPM technology by cotton growers. IPM is an approach that envisages combination of

techniques that may contribute to suppression of pests by cultural methods, conservation and augmentation of natural enemies and specific chemical pesticides as needed so as to keep pests populations at levels below those causing economic injury.

METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted in Vadodara district of Gujarat state. Vadodara district was selected purposively because of its higher hybrid cotton growing area. Out of eleven blocks/talukas of Vadodara district, four blocks viz. Karjan, Dabhoi, Shinor and Sankheda were selected on the basis of maximum coverage of hybrid cotton area in the district. Two IPM trained villages and two neighbouring untrained villages from each block were selected. Thus, total sixteen villages eight IPM trained and eight IPM untrained villages

1 Asstt.Extn. Educationist, EEI, AAU, Anand2 Asstt. Professor, Directorate of Research, AAU, Anand3 Asstt.Extn. Educationist, EEI, AAU, Anand


88

were selected for the study. From each village, 15 cotton growers were selected randomly. Thus all in all, total 120 respondents were selected as untrained cotton growers and 120 were selected as trained cotton growers making total sample of 240 respondents. The data were collected with the help of pre tested well structured schedule by using interview with the cotton growers.

The data were statistically analyzed with the help of frequencies percentage and rank. To measure the Adoption of the respondents about Integrated Pest Management Technology, a simple adoption scale developed by Sengupta(1967) was used

in the present study with some modification. To find out the relationship between dependent and independent variables the Pearson Product Moment Method (Garette-1967) was used for computing correlation Coefficient in this study.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

1 Extent of adoption of ipm technology by the ipm trained and untrained cotton growers.

In the present study an attempt has been made to investigate the extent of adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop. The data in this regard are presented in Table-1.

Table:1 Distribution Of The Cotton Growers According To Their Extent Of Adoption Of IPM Technology In Cotton Crop n = 240

Adoption level Category of farmersTrained n1 = 120

Untrained n2 = 120

Number Per cent Number Per centLow 03 2.50 54 45.00Medium 80 66.67 64 53.33High 37 30.83 02 1.67Total 120 100.00 120 100.00

Category Mean S.D.Trained 20.75 1.46Untrained 13.20 1.92Pooled 16.97 1.69

‘t’ value : 34.25**

A perusal of the data in Table –1 indicated that majority of the trained (66.67 per cent) cotton growers had medium extent of adoption of IPM technology followed by 30.83 per cent with high and only 2.50 per cent with low extent of adoption of IPM technology. Incase of untrained cotton growers, more than half (53.33 per cent) of the cotton growers had medium extent of adoption of IPM technology followed by 45.00 per cent with low and only 1.67 per cent with high extent of adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop.

The calculated‘t’ value (34.25) was observed significant at 1 per cent level of probability indicating highly significant difference between trained and untrained cotton growers in respect of their extent of adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop.

2 Relationship Between Selected characteristics Of Ipm Trained And Untrained Cotton Growers And Their Adoption Level

Adoption behaviour of users is affected by numerous factors such as personal, social,


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communicational, economic and psychological characteristics of the cotton growers. The data

in this regard are presented in Table-2

Table-2: Relationship Between Personal, Social, Communicational, Economic And Psychological Characteristics Of Trained And Untrained Cotton Growers And Their Extent Of Adoption.

n=240

Sr. No.

Characteristics(Independent Variables)

Correlation co-efficient with adoption (‘r’ value)

Trained Untrained 1 Age 0.2675** 0.0344 NS

2 Education 0.2176** 0.0323 NS

3 Extension contact 0.2094** 0.0958 NS

4 Mass media exposure 0.0183 NS 0.0395 NS

5 Training received 0.2364** 0.1520 NS

6 Land holding 0.3771** 0.2530 NS

7 Area under cotton crop 0.0259 NS 0.0135 NS

8 Occupation 0.0942NS 0.0627 NS

9 Productivity 0.5262** 0.0169 NS

10 Economic motivation 0.3414** 0.0860 NS

11 Scientific orientation 0.3795** 0.0363 NS

12 Risk orientation 0.1782** 0.0412 NS

13 Attitude towards IPM technology 0.0272 NS 0.1172 NS

14 Awareness about IPM technology 0.2958** 0.0416 NS

The data presented in Table-2 revealed that in case of trained cotton growers, the independent variables viz. age, education, extension contact, training received, land holding, productivity, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, and awareness about IPM technology had positive and highly significant correlation with adoption of IPM technology. In other words, these are the influential factors for adoption of IPM technology by trained cotton growers. Further, mass media exposure, area under cotton crop, occupation and attitude towards IPM technology didn’t exert any significant influence on adoption of IPM technology by trained cotton growers. In case of untrained cotton growers, not a single variable under study showed significant association with adoption of IPM technology. Hence for them, these factors were not influential for adoption of IPM technology.

CONCLUSIONS

The vast majority of IPM trained (97.50 per cent) and untrained (98.33 per cent) cotton growers

had medium to high and low to medium level of adoption regarding IPM technology in cotton, respectively. It was also seen that in case of trained cotton growers, independent variables like age, education, extension contact, training received, land holding, productivity, economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, and awareness about IPM technology had highly and significantly correlation with adoption of IPM technology, while in case of untrained cotton growers, not a single variable showed significant correlation with adoption of IPM technology.

REFERENCES

Garette,H.E.(1967). Statistics in Psychology and Education. Vakils Feffers and Simons Pvt. Ltd.,Bombay.

Koranne,K.D.(1996).Cotton R and D gains urgency,Survey of Indian Agriculture:

Sengupta,T.(1967). A Simple adoption scale used for farmers of high yielding Programme for Rice.Ind.J.Ext.Edn.,3(3):107-115


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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF COTTON GROWERS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT EFFICIENCY

A. A. Darandale 1 and P. M. Bhatt2

ABSTRACT

The present investigation was conducted in Vadodara district of Gujarat state in the year 2009-10. Findings of this investigation reveal that independent variables viz. experience in cotton cultivation, social participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, cosmopoliteness, scientific orientation, economic motivation, education, risk orientation and knowledge had positive and highly significant correlation with management efficiency of cotton growers.

INTRODUCTION

Considering the major challenges in agriculture including the need for enhanced productivity, issues of sustainability and enhanced profitability; there is a need for greater thrust for technology dissemination without any transmission loss.

The recent advances in cotton production technology have demonstrated that scientific management has great potential for increasing the cotton production. Therefore, raising management efficiency is of paramount importance for cotton growers. This will open up new vistas and make possible for cotton growers to achieve substantial gains in income. Management efficiency of cotton growers can be affected by their various characteristics. In this context, an attempt has been made to carry out the present investigation.

METHODOLOGY

Vadodara district of Gujarat state was chosen for the study. Vadodara, Dabhoi, Karjan and Sankheda talukas of Vadodara district were purposively selected, because these talukas have more cotton growing area as compared to other talukas. Twelve cotton growing villages were randomly selected from those four talukas. Total 120 cotton growers who had minimum 3 years of experience in cotton

cultivation were selected randomly. The data were collected with the help of well-structured, pre-tested, Gujarati version interview scheduled through personal contact and data were compiled, tabulated and analyzed to get proper answers for objectives of the study. To know the various characteristics of cotton growers, structured schedule was developed by taking base of scale developed by Pareek and Trivedi (1963) study, while the relationship between independent and dependent variables was determined with help of Karl Pearson’s coefficient correlation. The statistical tools used were percentage, mean score and standard deviation.

FINDINGS

The action of individual cotton growers is governed by personal, social, economic, psychological and cultural factors involved in situation. Some farmers adopt new improved cotton cultivation practices more quickly than others because of the difference in personal characteristics. Hence, considering the importance of these characteristics, relationship between management efficiency of cotton growers with their characteristics was worked out and results obtained are presented in Table 1.

1 P.G. Student, B.A.C.A., A.A.U., Anand e-mail- [email protected], Distance Education, A.A.U., Anand. [email protected]


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Table 1: Relationship between the characteristics of cotton growers and their management efficiency of cotton growers n = 120

Sr. No. Independent Variables ‘r’ value1 Age -0.0365 (NS)2 Education 0.2751 **3 Experience in cotton cultivation 0.2927 **4 Size of family -0.0807 (NS)5 Social participation 0.2400 **6 Extension contact 0.2646 **7 Mass media exposure 0.2865 **8 Cosmopoliteness 0.2667 **9 Economic motivation 0.2964 **

10 Scientific orientation 0.2562 **11 Risk orientation 0.2547 **12 Knowledge level 0.2902 **

NS = non significant at 0.05, *=significant at 0.05 ** = significant at 0.01 level

It is apparent from the data presented in the Table 2 that variables like social participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, cosmopoliteness, scientific orientation, economic motivation, experience in cotton cultivation, education, risk orientation and knowledge had positive and highly significant correlation with the management efficiency of cotton growers. It clearly indicates that with increase in social participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, cosmopoliteness, scientific orientation, economic motivation, experience in cotton cultivation, education, risk orientation and knowledge of the cotton growers, their management efficiency increased and vice versa. The variables like age and size of family showed negative and non-significant relationship with the management efficiency of cotton growers. It clearly indicates that age and size of family do not influence the management efficiency of cotton growers.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded from the above findings the independent variables studied viz. education,

social participation, economic motivation, risk orientation, cosmopoliteness, scientific orientation, extension contact, experience in cotton cultivation, mass media exposure, and knowledge had showed positive and highly significant correlation with management efficiency of cotton growers, whereas age and size of family of the cotton growers had negative and non-significant correlation with management efficiency.

REFERENCES

Karl, Pearson. (1978). Hand Book of Agricultural Statistics .284-285.

Pareek, U. and Trivedi, G. (1963). Factor analysis of socio-economic status of farmers in India. Rural India, 30: 311-323.

Patel, H. B. (2005). A study on management efficiency and economic performance of banana grower in Anand District of Gujarat state, Ph.D. thesis (Unpublished) AAU, Anand.


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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF BRINJAL GROWERS AND THEIR ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

D. K. Badhe 1, A. S. Saiyad 2, N. C. Nehete3 and S. R. Patel4

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted with 120 brinjal growers of four selected talukas of Anand district. The finding revealed that all the independent variables except age, experience and size of family had positive and highly significant correlation with the adoption of recommended production technology of brinjal by the brinjal growers.

INTRODUCTION

Botanical name of brinjal is Solanum melongea L. and it belongs to Solanaceae family. It is originated in India. According to USDA, production of eggplant is highly concentrated. China is the top producer with 55 per cent of world production followed by India with about 28 per cent production lining to 8 lakhs MT. (Anonymous 2006)

The action of individual farmers is governed by personal, social, economic, psychological and cultural factors involved in situation. Some farmers adopt new technology more quickly than others because of difference in personal characteristics. Similarly if there is difference in economic factors, process of action is also changed, there by changing the pattern of adoption.

METHODOLOGY

Anand district, where the researcher studied was chosen for the study. Anand, Borsad, Anklav and Umreth talukas of Anand district were purposively selected, because these talukas have more brinjal growing area as compared to other talukas. Twelve brinjal growing villages were randomly selected from those four talukas and from each village, 10 brinjal growers

with minimum 3 years of experience in brinjal cultivation were selected randomly making a sample of 120 brinjal growers. The data were collected with the help of well-structured, pre-tested, Gujarati version interview schedule through personal contact and data were then compiled, tabulated and analyzed to get proper answers for objectives of the study. Relationship between profile of the brinjal growers and their adoption of recommended brinjal cultivation technology was determined with Karl Pearson’s coefficient correlation test. On the basis of scale developed by Pareek and Trivedi (1963), structured schedule was developed to know the various characteristics of brinjal growers. The statistical tools used were percentage, mean score and standard deviation.


Relationship between adoption of recommended technology by brinjal growers with their characteristics

The relationship between adoption of recommended technology by brinjal growers with their characteristics was worked out the results of which are presented in Table 2.

1. P.G. Student, B.A.C.A., A.A.U., Anand e-mail- [email protected] 2. Associate Extension Educationist, E.E.I., A.A.U., Anand. e-mail- [email protected] 3. P.G. Student, B.A.C.A., A.A.U., Anand e-mail- [email protected]. Assistant Professor, E.E.I., A.A.U., Anand


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Table 2: Relationship between the characteristics of brinjal growers and their adoption of recommended production technology of brinjal crop. n = 120

Sr. No. Independent Variables (‘r’ value)

1 Age -0.0915 (NS)2 Education 0.2328**3 Experience in brinjal cultivation -0.1811 (NS)4 Size of family -0.1166 (NS)5 Land holding 0.2584**6 Annual income 0.5772**7 Social participation 0.4780**8 Extension contact 0.4148**9 Mass media exposure 0.4034**

10 Cosmopoliteness 0.2717**11 Economic motivation 0.3426**12 Scientific orientation 0.3245**13 Risk orientation 0.3798**14 Knowledge level 0.7339**

NS = non significant at 0.05 level, * = significant at 0.05 level, ** = significant at 0.01 level

It is apparent from the data presented in the Table 2 that variables like land holding, annual income, social participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, cosmopoliteness, scientific orientation economic motivation, education, risk orientation and knowledge had positive and highly significant correlation with the adoption of recommended production technology of brinjal by the brinjal growers. It clearly indicates that with increase in land holding, annual income, social participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, cosmopoliteness, scientific orientation economic motivation, education, risk orientation and knowledge, the adoption level of brinjal growers also increased and vice versa.

The variables like age, experience and size of family showed negative and non-significant relationship with the adoption of recommended production technology of brinjal by the brinjal growers. It clearly indicates that age, experience and size of family did not influence the adoption level of

brinjal growers.

CONCLUSION

The majority of the independent variables had positive and highly significant correlation with adoption behaviour of brinjal growers, whereas age, experience and size of family of the brinjal growers had negative and non-significant correlation with adoption behaviour.

REFERENCES

Anonymous (2006). Food and agricultural organization (FAO)

Chadha, K. L. (2001). Hand book of Horticulture I.C.A.R. Publication, New Delhi.

Karl, Pearson. (1978). Hand Book of Agricultural Statistics .284-285.

Pareek, U. and Trivedi, G. (1963). Factor analysis of socio-economic status of farmers in India Rural India, 30: 311-323.


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INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian. The farm technology is changing at faster rate and farmer has to adopt this in order to become a competitive one. Growing agriculture has been an interminable saga of women’s life in tribal areas. Involvement of women in livestock production is also a long standing tradition, where domestic animals have been an integral part of the family farming system. Empowerment of the Farm women is a current need of the time in agrarian country like, India. The census data of 2001 reflects the fact that out of the total 496 million of rural female population 23.90 % are workers and about 87.00 % female workers are found in Agriculture. Keeping in view the present investigation on Involvement of the Tribal Farm Women in crop and animal husbandry in Navsari District of South Gujarat was undertaken with following specific objectives.

METHODOLOGY

Navsari district of the Gujarat state is one of the tribal dominated districts of the state. Out of 131 villages six villages viz Adda, Aat, Chhapra, Hansapore, Matwad and Mogar were randomly selected for the study. Twenty tribal farm women were selected randomly from each of the selected villages. Thus, the total sample size was confined to 120 farm women. Data was collected by personal interview during the month of March 2005. Ex-Post-Facto research design was employed. The mean score and coefficient of correlation was computed to find out the relationship between each of the independent variables and the dependent variable.


1 Involvement of the tribal farm women in Crop husbandry

1.1 Participation of tribal farmwomen in pre-sowing and sowing operation

INVOLVEMENT OF FARM WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY ACTIVITIES

N.M.Chauhan1 and N.B. Chauhan2

ABSTRACT

The highest participation of farmwomen was found in pre-sowing to sowing operations followed by stubble collection and manuring while in case inter-culturing weeding followed by gap filling, application of fertilizer, bird scaring, irrigation and bunding. In harvesting to post harvesting stage, the highest participation found in nipping / picking and threshing followed by harvesting, winnowing, bagging and storage. Majority of the decisions regarding farm management was dominated and taken by their husbands. The relationship between independent variables like age, education, herd size, land holding, family size and number of children of the respondents and their participation in crop husbandry was observed positively significant.

1. Programme Coordinator, KVK, Mangalbharti, Vadodara, Gujarat,

2. Professor and Head, Dept. of Ext. Edu. BACA,AAU Anand**


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Table 1: The role of tribal farmwomen in pre-sowing and sowing operation n = 120

Sr. No. Pre-sowing and sowing operation Mean value Rank1 Sowing / transplanting 2.63 I2 Stubble collection 2.51 II3 Clode crushing 2.40 III4 Manuring 2.02 IV5 Seedbed preparation / nursery 1.32 V

The perusal of the data in Table 1 revealed that the highest participation of tribal farm women were observed in sowing / transplanting followed by stubble collection, clode crushing, manuring and seedbed preparation / nursery, respectively.

1.2 Involvement of the tribal farmwomen in intercultural operation

Frequency of participation by farmwomen in various intercultural operations was measured with the help of 4 point rating scale. Most frequently, frequently, least frequent and no participation with scale value of 4, 3, 2 and 1, respectively.

Table 2 : Distribution of tribal farm women according to involvement in inter-culturing operation n= 120

Sr. No. Inter-culturing operation Mean value Rank1 Weeding 3.16 I2 Gap filling 2.22 II3 Application of fertilizer 2.14 III4 Bird scaring 1.69 IV5 Irrigation 1.24 V6 Bunding 1.09 VI7 Hoeing with hand 1.07 VII

The data presented in Table 2 revealed that the highest participation of the tribal farmwomen were observed in weeding, followed by gap filling, application of fertilizer, bird scaring, irrigation, bunding and hoeing with hand, respectively.

1.3 Involvement of tribal farmwomen in harvesting and post-harvesting operation

Data collected from the respondents regarding frequency of participation in harvesting and post harvesting operations were given in Table 3.

Table.3 : Classification of tribal farmwomen according to their participation in harvesting and post-harvesting operations n = 120

Sr. No. Harvesting and post-harvesting operations Mean value Rank1 Nipping / picking and threshing 3.22 I2 Harvesting 2.93 II3 Winnowing 2.34 III4 Storage 2.12 IV5 Making threshing yard 1.93 V6 Bagging / packing 1.54 VI

7 Marketing of agricultural produce 1.29 VII


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Perusal of the data presented in Table 3 indicated that the highest participation of the tribal farmwomen were observed in nipping / picking and threshing followed by harvesting, winnowing, storage, making threshing yard, bagging / packing and marketing of agricultural produce, respectively. The roles of tribal farmwomen in all the operations were observed up to the importance level.

2 Involvement of the tribal farm women in livestock management

The data presented in Table-4 regarding the involvement of tribal farm women in livestock management which indicates that the highest mean score of involvement of tribal farm women was obtained in case of cutting and bringing a fodder.

Table. 4: Involvement of tribal farmwomen in Livestock management n=120

Sr. No. Livestock management operations Mean value Rank1 Cutting and bringing a fodder 3.62 I2 Compost making 3.61 II3 Watering and feeding to animals 3.40 III4 Milking 3.22 IV5 Cleaning cattle shed 3.01 V6 Selling of milk and its products 2.23 VI7 Bathing animals 2.04 VII8 Preparation of milk products 1.64 VIII9 Grazing 1.63 IX

10 Taking animal for bull service 1.57 X11 Taking the animal for veterinary service 1.48 XI

Moreover they were involved in compost making, followed by watering and feeding to animal, milking, cleaning of cattle shed, selling of milk and

milk products, bathing of animals, preparation of milk products, grazing of animals ,taking animals for bull and veterinary services.

3 Relationship between independent variable of the respondents and their participation in crop husbandry

Table 5 : Relationship between independent and their involvement in crop husbandry n = 120

Sr. No. Independent variables Correlation coefficient (‘r’ value)1 Age 0.8430 **2 Education 0.7409 **3 Occupation - 0.5553 *4 Herd size 0.7854 **5 Land holding 0.7774 **6 Family size 0.8074 **7 Type of family 0.6284 **8 Number of children 0.4918 *9 Age of marriage - 0.8709 *

* Significant at 5 %, ** highly at significant at 1 %. Data presented in Table 5 indicated that age, education, heard size, land holding, family size and type of family were found highly significant with their involvement in crop husbandry. Further, number of children was significant but

the occupation and age of marriage were found negatively significant. It means age of marriage and occupation were the key factors of involvement of tribal farm women in Navsari district of South Gujarat.


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4 Relationship between independent variable of the respondents and their participation in animal husbandry

Data presented in table 6 reflects that age, education, occupation, heard size, land holding family size number of children and age of marriage were found negatively significant with

their involvement in animal husbandry practices while only type of family found significant.. It means increasing the age, higher education, other source of income, number of heard, land holding family members and age of marriage may decrease their involvement in animal husbandry activities.

Table. 6: Relationship between independent and their participation in animal husbandry n=120

Sr. No. Independent variables ‘r’ value1 Age -0.8888*2 Education -0.8411*3 Occupation -0.3014*4 Herd size -0.9464*5 Land holding -0.8881*6 Family size -0.9322*7 Type of family 0.8646*8 Number of children -0.8036*9 Age of marriage -0.8709*

*Significant at 5%

5 Tribal farmwomen’s involvement in the process of decision making about the crop husbandry

Data collected from the respondents regarding their involvement in the process of decision-making about crop husbandry are given in Table 7.

Table 7: Involvement tribal farmwomen in decision making process for crop husbandry n= 120

Farm management aspectsOnly self Husband Joint

decision Not related

F % F % F % F %Deciding area to be sown under different crops 05 4.17 75 62.50 40 33.33 --

Introduction of a new crop variety 04 3.33 99 82.50 17 14.17 --Selection of seed 03 2.50 78 65.00 39 32.50 --When to irrigate fields 01 0.83 105 87.50 06 5.00 08 6.67Quantity and type of fertilizers used on the farm -- -- 102 85.00 12 10.00 06 5.00

Using plant protection measures 01 0.83 92 76.67 05 4.17 22 18.33Hiring farm labours -- 25 20.83 80 66.67 15 12.50Buying farm machinery / equipment 02 1.67 96 80.00 22 18.33 -- --Installing oil engine and electric motor -- -- 80 66.67 40 33.33 -- --Buying and selling of land -- -- 34 28.33 86 71.67 -- --Borrowing money for farm operations -- -- 84 70.00 36 30.00 -- --Selling of surplus farm produce 03 2.50 47 39.17 70 58.33 -- --


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It is evident from the data that in majority of the decisions regarding farm management were dominated by their husbands such as when to irrigate the fields (87.50 per cent), quantity and type of fertilizers to be used in the farm (85.10 per cent), introduction of new crop variety (82.50 per cent), buying farm machinery / equipment (80.00 per cent), using plant protection measures (76.67

per cent), borrowing money for farm operation (70.00 per cent), respectively.

6 Involvement of farmwomen in decision making process for Animal husbandry

Data collected from the respondents regarding their involvement in decision making for animal husbandry are presented in table-8.

Table. 8 : Involvement tribal farmwomen’s in decision making process for animal husbandry n=120

Animal Husbandry Only self Husband Joint Decision Not RelatedF % F % F % F %

Selection of animal breed 07 5.83 29 24.17 72 60.00 12 10.00Selection of fodder and feed 98 81.67 04 3.33 06 5.00 12 10.00Sale and purchase of animals 13 10.83 15 12.50 78 65.00 14 11.60Sale of milk and its products 63 52.50 08 6.67 18 15.00 31 25.8Keeping size of herd 42 35.00 15 12.50 48 40.00 15 12.5

The results indicated that the selection of fodder and feed was dominantly decided by tribal farmwomen (81.67 per cent) followed by sale of milk and milk products (52.50 per cent). The decision regarding sale and purchase of animal (65.00 per cent), selection of animal breed (60.00 per cent) and keeping size of herd (40.44 per cent) were taken jointly by family members.

CONCLUSIONS

1 The highest involvement of tribal farmwomen was seen in sowing/transplanting, weeding and nipping/picking.

2 The majority of the decisions regarding farm management were not performed by tribal farmwomen.

3 The positive and significant relationship were found between their role of tribal farmwomen in crop husbandry and their age, education,

herd size, land holding, family size and number of children. Whereas, the negative relationship was observed among occupation, type of family, age at marriage and their role in crop husbandry.

4 The frequency of involvement of tribal farmwomen was seen the highest in cutting and bringing a fodder

5 The relationship between independent variables of the respondents and their involvement in animal husbandry were found negative with all the independent variables except type of family.

6 Selection of fodder and feed was dominantly decided by farmwomen.

Character is the real foundation of all worthwhile success. - Jhon Hays Hommond.


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ASPIRATIONS OF WOMEN AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS

K.D. Solanki1 Vaishali Pagar2 and Ashok Sen3

ABSTRACT

In order to know the aspirations of women agricultural labourers and the association between the characteristics of women agricultural labourers and their aspirations, the study was conducted with 60 women agricultural labourers of all the 15 research stations of Sardar Krushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardar Krushinagar falling under three districts viz., Banaskantha, Mehsana and Sabarkantha. It was found that majority of the (80%) women agricultural labourers had medium to high level aspirations owing to young age group. The independent variables viz., age and marital status were negatively and significantly associated with aspiration at 0.01 level of significance, while education and mass media exposure were found positively and significantly associated with aspirations at 0.05 level of significance. Remaining variables failed to establish any significant association with the aspirations of the women agricultural labourers.

1 Associate Extension Educationist, Directorate of Extension Education, S.D. Agricultural University, 2 Sardar Krushinagar-385506 Dist: Banaskantha (Gujarat).3 P.G. Student 4 S. R. F. Directorate of Extension Education S.D.A.U., Sardar Krushinagar-385506 Dist: Banaskantha (Gujarat).

INTRODUCTION

Indian rural woman have been always an important and prominent partner in agriculture sector. Nearly 78 per cent of women are actively engaged in agriculture as compared to 68 per cent of men. According to recent studies 50-90 per cent of all the agricultural activities are carried out by women and women produce 44 per cent of the world food today (Sarvanan and Rasmy, 2001).

Aspiration can be defined as a level of possible goals set by an individual. Aspirations are goal statement concerning future level of achievement. The level of inspiration of an individual is a decisive determinant of raising the standard of living of an individual. A higher aspiration level certainly compels an individual to achieve his/her goal. Similarly a higher level of aspirations among the women agricultural labourers would certainly lead to a greater

level of development among them and gives an impression of their living standard.

Aspiration of the women agricultural labourers would certainly help to indicate their mental disposition and would definitely help to indicate their standard of living, their level of adoption and ways and means to be adopted by the government and other agencies to bring about an all-round development in this underprivileged but indispensable group of the Indian population.

METHODOLOGY

The present study was confined to “Ex-post facto” research design. The multistage sampling technique was used for selection of area, districts and research stations/schemes. The study was undertaken in jurisdiction of Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University. Three districts of north Gujarat viz., Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, and Mehsana, which cover 15 main and lead research stations, were purposively


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selected. Using proportionate random sampling technique, a sample of 30.00 per cent respondents was drawn from the list obtained from the head of the selected research stations. Accordingly, respondents were included in the sample, however, 60 respondents were available at the time of data collection and they were interviewed.

An objective type teacher made test was developed for measuring the aspirations of the respondents. The score on each item was assigned by the conference method and then added to arrive at total aspiration score. The respondents were grouped in to three categories viz., low, medium and high level of aspirations on the basis of ± S.D. from mean.

The coefficient of correlation was computed to find out the association between personal, socio-

economic and psychological characteristics of women agricultural labourers and their aspirations.

FINDINGS

1 Aspirations Of Women Agricultural Labourers

The women agricultural labourers who mostly belonged to the lower social strata are expected to have aspirations in life like any other individual.

The scores obtained by an individual respondent for each of the aspects were added up to give her total aspiration score. The total score that the respondent obtained varied from 9 to 74. The women agricultural labourers were then categorized on the basis of mean ± standard deviation in three groups as depicted in Table1:

Table 1: Distribution of the respondents according to their aspirations n = 60

Sr. No.

Level of Aspirations Number Per cent

1 Low level (Up to 37 score) 12 20.00

2 Medium level (38 to 49 score) 40 66.67

3 High level (Above 49 score) 08 13.33

Mean = 43.133 S.D. = 6.1049

The data depicted in the Table 1 indicate that two-third (66.67 %) of the respondents had medium level of aspiration; while 20.00 per cent of the respondents had low level and only 13.33 per cent of the respondents had high level of aspirations. From the finding, it can be concluded that majority of the (80.00%) women agricultural labourers had medium to high level aspiration.

The probable reason for this finding might be that majority of the respondents belonged to young age group. The finding is similar to the findings of Tawade and Nirban (1995).

2 Association between selected personal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics of the women agricultural labourers and their aspirations

Association of selected attributes of the women agricultural labourers with their level of aspirations was worked out by calculating coefficient of correlation, ‘r’. The data in this regard are presented in Table: 2


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Table 2 : Association between selected independent variables of the respondents and their level of aspirations n=60

Sr. No. VariablesCorrelation coefficient

(‘r’ value)1 Age -0.41245**

2 Education 0.26513*

3 Habit -0.09928

4 Type of family -0.03371

5 Size of family 0.11296

6 Marital status -0.34804 **

7 Caste 0.01260

8 Social participation 0.22828

9 Social mobility -0.20134

10 Annual income -0.02696

11 Indebtedness 0.03561

12 Mass media exposure 0.29711*

13 Awareness about Government aid schemes for landless -0.10527Table value at 0.01 level = 0.325 Table value of 0.05 level = 0.250*, ** Significant at 0.05 and 0.01 level of significance, respectively.

The independent variables viz., age and marital status were negatively and significantly associated with aspirations at 0.01 level of significance, while education and mass media exposure were found to have positive and significant association with the level of aspirations at 0.05 level of significance. Remaining variables viz., habit, type of family, size of family, caste, social participation, social mobility, annual income, indebtedness and awareness about Government aid schemes could not establish any significant association with the aspirations of the respondents.

CONCLUSION

Majority of the women agricultural labourers had medium to high level of aspirations. The age and

material status had negative, while education and mass media exposure had positive and significant association with aspiration at 0.01and o.05 level of significance, respectively. Remaining variables failed to establish any significant association with the aspirations of the women agricultural labourers.

REFERENCES

Sarvanan, R. and Rasmy, C. (2001). Strategies for Empowering women cultivators. Agril. Ext. Rev.

Tawade, N.D. and Nirban, A.J. (1995). Aspiration of schedule caste about their children. Maha. J. Ext. Edn., 14 : 121-124.


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ABSTRACT

Study was conducted to assess knowledge and extent of adoption of Drip and Sprinkler irrigation system in Deesa, Dantiwada and Palanpur talukas where such irrigation sys-tem is widely adopted. Total 120 farmers who adopted the micro irrigation system were selected purposively from the above three talukas for the study,information collected with the help of structured interview schedule and level of knowledge and extent of adoption were measured. The majority of the MIS adopter’s possessed medium level of knowledge and extent of adoption regarding the techniques of MIS. The extent of adop-tion of the respondents was positively correlated only with type of irrigation system. The majority of the respondents had adequate knowledge regarding the various tech-niques of MIS but very few respondents know about the chemical (sulphuric acid) which is used for cleaning the lateral pipe and saving of chemical fertilizers if applied through drip irrigation system. In case of adoption of MIS recommendation only 3.33 percent and 42.5 per cent of the respondents adopted the recommended installation distance (12x12 meter) inter and intra row of sprinkler and pressure (2.75 kg/cm2) respectively. None of them adopted the irrigation schedule.

INTRODUCTION

The Banaskantha District falls under arid and semi arid region with erratic rainfall. Traditionally, crop irrigation is done through flooding of the fields which resulted in loss of the valuable natural resource and hardly 30 to 40 percent of total water is utilized, the remaining resulted in the sprouting of extensive emergence of weeds and hence the related consequences of disease, insect pest, etc.

Now a day quality of water and its availability is one of the major issues in the district, as the water table of the area is continuously going down.

Micro irrigation system such as drip and sprinkler irrigation is one such technique which has received wide acceptance in this district for last five years, it

has proved advantage such as efficiency besides, it is effective in utilizing water and saves 50 to 70.00 per cent water in various crops, it is also effective in increasing the productivity & quality of produce, minimum growth of weed, more area can be covered under irrigation with available water and electricity. In this study our emphasis was to carry out excessive survey work of the villages where drip and sprinkler irrigation system adopted with a view to check the level of knowledge and extent of adoption of Drip and Sprinkler irrigation system.

METHODOLOGY

This investigation was carried out in Deesa, Dantiwada and Palanpur talukas. These talukas were selected purposively because farmers of

1. Asstt. Professor, CRCT cum FM and PE,S.D.Agril. University,S.K. Nagar2. S.M.S.(Agronomy), Krushi Vigyan Kendra ,SDAU,Deesa3. Asstt. Professor, CPCA,S.D.Agril. University,S.K. Nagar

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ATTRIBUTES OF THE FARMERS AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND ADOPTION OF

MICRO IRRIGATION SYSTEM V.M.Modi, 1 S.H. Patel2 and J.K.Patel3


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these talukas adopted the micro irrigation system. 120 farmers who adopted the micro irrigation system were selected purposively from the above three talukas for the study, and information collected with the help of structured interview schedule. Level of knowledge and extent of adoption were measured by scale developed

by Jha and Singh (1970) and formula developed by Sengupta (1967), respectively with due modification. The appropriate statistical tools were used for analyzing the data.


The result found after the analysis of research data are depicted below.

Table: 1 Level of knowledge regarding micro irrigation system n=120

Sr.No Particulars No. percent1 46 percent water can be saved by using sprinkler irrigation system in potato

crop.70 58.33

2 70 percent water can be saved by using drip irrigation system in potato crop.

73 60.83

3 Irrigate the potato crop through MIS at early morning or late night for minimize the evaporation losses.

116 96.67

4 Water soluble fertilizers can be applied through MIS. 118 98.335 Filter, main pipeline, lateral line and dripper are the main parts of drip

irrigation system.117 97.50

6 20 percent Nitrogenous and potash fertilizers can be saved in drip irrigation system.

46 38.33

7 On and average 20 percent potato production can be increased in drip irrigation system.

93 77.50

8 Advantages of MIS : 1. water saving 2. Fertilizers and insecticide saving 3. irrigate the crop at any time by water tank. 4. labour saving 5.crop production increase.

114 95.00

9 sulphuric acid chemical is used for cleaning the lateral pipe 23 19.1710 Sprinkler irrigation system is useful in those crops which are dwarf in height,

narrow sowing distance or broadcasted crops and tuber crops.117 97.50

11 MIS irrigation system is recommended for potato crop. 110 91.6712 Sprinkler and drip irrigation system is used in leveled as well as sloppy and

undulated land.115 95.83

13 Filter is the heart of MIS. If it is not working, whole system chocked. 117 97.5014 Drip irrigation system is more suitable when distance between two rows

and within plant is wider.111 92.50

Data in Table 1 reveal that majority of the MIS adopters had adequate knowledge regarding various techniques of micro irrigation system viz., water saving through sprinkle in potato (58.33%); through drip (60.83%); time of irrigation (96.67%); chemical fertilizers application through MIS (98.33%); main parts of MIS system (97.50%); yield increase through MIS application (77.5%); advantages of MIS (97.5%); use of MIS in potato crop (91.67%); land topography for the use of MIS

(95.83%); filter and its importance in MIS (97.5%) and drip is more suitable for wider spacing crop (92.5%).

Very less number (19.17%) of MIS adopters know about the chemical (sulphuric acid) which is used in cleaning the lateral pipe. Nitrogenous and potash fertilizers can be saved in drip irrigation system (38.33%).This finding is in line with the finding of Suthar (2010).


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Table 2: Adoption of sprinkler irrigation system n=120

Sr. No.

Technology No Percentage

1 12 X 12 meter distance is recommended for inter and intra row of sprinkler in potato crop.

04 03.33

2 Irrigation through sprinkler in potato crop.- First irrigation at sowing time.- Second irrigation 8 DAS-Remaining irrigation 12 -14 days interval.

00 0.00

3 2.75 kg/cm2 pressure in sprinkler irrigation system is recom-mended for potato crop.

51 42.50

Data in Table 2 revealed that very few (3.33 percent) of the respondent adopted the recommended inter and intra row spacing distance between two sprinkler for the installations of sprinkler irrigation system. Most of the farmers adopted 10 X 10 meter distance between inters and intra row of sprinkler subject to design parameters of the product.

None of the farmers adopted the recommended irrigation schedule of sprinkler irrigation. Most of the farmers irrigated their crop at every alternate

day and run the system 2.0 hours per day.

In case of pressure maintenance in sprinkler irrigation, only 42.50 percent of the farmers adopted the (2.75 kg/cm2 pressure) recommended pressure.

Table 3: Distribution of the respondents according to their knowledge level regarding recommended technology of MIS n = 120

Sr. No. Categories Score range Number Percent

1 Low level Up to 24.00 38 31.66

2 Medium level 24.01 to 27.00 80 66.66

3 High level above 27.00 02 1.68

Mean: 25.33 SD= 1.47Data in Table: 3 reveal that majority of the respondents (66.66 percent) had medium level of knowledge while 31.66 percent of the respondents

had low level of knowledge. The findings are in conformity with finding of Jat (2010)

Table 4: Distribution of the respondents according to their extent of adoption of recommended technology of MIS n=120

Sr. No. Categories Score range Number Percent

1 Low extent of adoption Up to 4.00 00 00.00

2 Medium extent of adoption 4.01 to 8.00 116 97.00

3 High extent of adoption above 8.00 04 03.00

Mean = 6.05 SD= 1.70

Data in Table: 4 reveal that majority of the respondents (97.00 percent) had medium extent of adoption while 03.00 percent of the respondents

had high extent of adoption. This finding was in accordance with Patel (2008).


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Table 5: Correlation of MIS adopters’ selected characteristics with their level of knowledge and adoption. n = 120

Sr. No.

Characteristics r valueKnowledge Adoption

1 Age 0.08507 0.18350 2 Education -0.18574 0.11034 3 Type of family -0.15824 0.15787 4 Size of family -0.01186 0.02559 5 Type of Irrigation 0.05840 0.50332** 6 Social participation -0.00737 0.02791 7 Extension contact - 0.0000 0.00424 8 Annual Income -0.03387 -0.09635 9 Size of land holding -0.04056 -0.0739910 Occupation 0.03113 0.1103411 Economic motivation -0.09472 -0.0548012 Risk preference - 0.03233 - 0.0306613 Scientific Orientation -0.01290 - 0.1270414 Cosmopoliteness-Localiteness -0.00468 0.00745

* Significant at 0.05 level of probability **Significant at 0.01 level of probability A perusal of data presented in Table - 5 reveal that none of the characteristics of the farmers had established significant association with knowledge & adoption but only type of irrigation was highly significant with adoption of micro irrigation system.

CONCLUSIONS

From the above findings it can be concluded that majority of the MIS adopter’s possessed medium level of knowledge and extent of adoption regarding the techniques of MIS.

Results revealed that majority of the respondents had adequate knowledge regarding the various techniques of MIS but very few respondents know about the chemicals (sulphuric acid) which are used for cleaning the lateral pipe and saving of chemical fertilizers applied through drip irrigation system.

In case of adoption of MIS recommendation only 3.33 percent and 42.5 per cent of the respondents adapted the recommended installation distance (12x12 meter) inter and intra row of sprinkler and pressure (2.75 kg/cm2) respectively. None of them adopted the irrigation schedule.

It could be also concluded from the results that

the extent of adoption of the respondents was established positively correlated only with type of irrigation.

REFERENCES

Jha,P.N. and Singh,K.N.(1970) A test to measure farmer’s knowledge about high yielding varieties programme inter discipline 7(1):65-78.

Sengupta T. (1967),A simple adoption scale used for farmers for high yielding varities programme in Rice, Indian J.Ext. Edu. 3:107-115.

Jat,A.K.(2010) Knowledge and adoption of recommended wheat grain storage practices among the tribal farm women of sabarkantha district of Gujarat state, M.Sc.(Agril.) Thesis, S.D.A.U, Sardarkrushinagar.

Patel,V.M.(2008) Impact of watershed management in agriculture development in sabarkantha district of Gujarat state, M.Sc.(Agril.) Thesis, S.D.A.U, Sardarkrushinagar.

Suthar,K.D.(2010) Socio-economic impact of drip irrigation system among the farmers of sabarkantha district of Gujarat state, M.Sc.(Agril.) Thesis, S.D.A.U, Sardarkrushinagar.


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1 Asstt.Extn. Educationist, EEI, Anand Agril.University,Anand 2 Asstt.Extn. Educationist,EEI, Anand Agril.University,Anand 3 Asstt.Extn. Educationist, SDAU, SKNagar

CONSTRAINTS AND SUITABLE EXTENSION STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE ADOPTION OF IPM TECHNOLOGY IN COTTON

J.B.Patel1, A.G. Sukhdia3 and K.M. Joshi2

INTRODUCTION

Cotton is one of the Principal commercial crops and has been one of the main sources of India’s economic growth and foreign exchange earner. Among cotton growing states of India, Gujarat is one of the main cotton producing states. In Gujarat, Vadodara is one of the districts having the major area under cotton crop. Excessive and indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides has lead to several complications such as resistance development, resurgence, secondary pest out break, toxicity to beneficial organism, residue in food, feed, fodder etc and above all environmental pollution. The approach to overcome these ill effects as pesticides to a certain extent is Integrated Pest Management practices. The Integrated Pest Management(IPM) approach is gaining importance and is being increasing by adopted in the country. There are number of problems encountered by cotton growers in adoption of recommendation of IPM practices. Keeping the above point in mind the present study aim to identify some of the constraints affecting the rate of adoption of IPM recommendations and to develop suitable extension strategies for effective adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop in Vadodara district of Gujarat state.

METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted in Vadodara district of Gujarat state.. Out of twelve blocks, four block namely Karjan, Dabhoi, Shinor and Sankheda were selected on the basis of maximum coverage of hybrid cotton area in the district. Two villages of each block were selected purposively from IPM trained villages by district extension functionary. Hence, all eight villages from four blocks were selected for the study. Similarly from the same blocks the neighboring village of selected villages was also selected as the control villages for the study. Thus, total sixteen villages eight IPM trained and eight IPM untrained villages were selected for the study. There were 15 trained cotton growers selected from IPM trained villages purposively. Thus, total 120 respondents were selected as trained cotton growers. Similarly, from the neighboring villages a list of cotton growers was obtained from the concern village level workers and 15 cotton growers were selected from each of the neighboring village random. Thus, the total 120 respondents were selected as untrained cotton growers. Thus, making together 240 respondents (120 trained and 120 untrained) was covered from the total research operational area.

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted in Vadodara district of Gujarat State on total sample size of 240 respondents including 120 trained and 120 untrained cotton growers were selected from sixteen villages of the district. The major constraints with regard to technological, economical, service and supply and marketing and transfer of technology were : Lack of desired knowledge and skill for determining Economic Threshold Level (ETL), High cost of pesticides, bio-pesticides, bio-agents and equipments, Irregular supply of electricity and Lack of dedicated and competent extension personnel respectively


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The data was collected with the help of pre-tested well structured schedule by using interview with the cotton growers. The data were statistically analyzed with the help of frequencies, percentage and rank.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

Constraints mean the impediments faced by the cotton growers in adoption of IPM technology in

cotton crop. Four dimensions of constraints were identified viz 1) Technological 2) Economic 3) Service, supply and marketing and 4) Transfer of technology. Cotton growers are asked to express constraints faced by them in adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop. The frequencies against each constraint were counted and converted into percentage. The each constraint was assigned aspect wise rank as well as overall rank.

Table 1 : Constraints faced by the cotton growers in adoption of IPM technology n=240

Sr. No. Constraints

Trained cotton growers n1 = 120

Untrained cotton growersn2 = 120

Percent Aspect wise rank Percent Aspect

wise rank

I Technological constraints

1 Lack of desired knowledge and skill for determining Economic Threshold Level (ETL) 30.00 I 78.33 II

2 Lack of knowledge about recommended dose of pesticides, bio-pesticides and fertilizers 18.33 III 74.16 III

3Lack of knowledge regarding using trichogramma, traps and raising trap crops for the control of pests.

15.00 VII 68.33 IV

4Lack of knowledge about identifying the harmful and beneficial insects and to conserve natural predators

22.50 II 86.66 I

5 Lack of knowledge about time of application of spray. 17.50 IV 65.00 IV

6 Lack of knowledge about seed treatment 15.83 VI 71.66 V

7 Lack of knowledge about improved spraying equipment 16.66 V 62.50 VI

II Economic constraints

8 High cost of pesticides, bio-pesticides, bio-agents and equipments 80.83 I 75.00 III

9 High cost of skill labour charges 54.16 III 57.50 III

10 Lack of finance for purchase of pesticides, bio-pesticides and bio-agents 74.16 II 76.66 I

III Service, supply and marketing constraints

11 Pesticides are adulterated and substandard quality 76.66 IV 80.83 III


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Sr. No. Constraints

Trained cotton growers n1 = 120

Untrained cotton growersn2 = 120

Percent Aspect wise rank Percent Aspect

wise rank12 Exploitation of farmers by shopkeepers 90.00 II 91.66 II

13 Non-availability of bio-pesticides, bio-agents and traps 71.66 IV 66.66 IV

14 Timely unavailability of labourers 53.33 VI 60.83 VI

15 Non-availability of Irrigation in time 40.00 VII 45.00 VII

16 Irregular supply of electricity 93.33 I 95.00 I

17 Timely unavailability of seeds of pest and diseases resistant variety 68.33 V 67.50 V

IV Transfer of technology constraints

18 Lack of timely and appropriate transfer of technology measures by extension organization 6.66 V 75.83 II

19 Lack of supply of farm literature on IPM practices in cotton crop. 14.16 IV 72.50 IV

20 Lack of regularity/dependability/credibility of extension personnel visits 20.00 III 77.50 I

21 IPM recommendation not communicated in an understandable form 28.53 II 64.16 VI

22 Lack of dedicated and competent extension personnel 37.50 I 73.33 III

1 Technological constraints

The data in Table-1 revealed that lack of desired knowledge and skill for determining economic threshold level ranked first and lack of knowledge about identifying the harmful and beneficial insects ranked second by the trained cotton growers, respectively.

Whereas, incase of untrained cotton growers were perceived lack of knowledge about identifying the harmful and beneficial insects and to conserve natural predators and lack of desired knowledge and skill for determining economic threshold level first, second and third constraints, respectively.

2 Economic Constraints

It is evident from the Table-1 that high cost of pesticides, bio-pesticides, bio-agents and

equipments ranked first followed by lack of finance for purchase of pesticides, bio-pesticides and bio-agents and high cost of skill labour charges perceived as second and third constraints by cotton growers, respectively. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers, lack of finance for purchase of pesticides, bio-pesticides and bio-agents ranked first followed by high cost of pesticides and bio-pesticides, bio-agents and equipments and high cost of skill labour charges perceived as second and third constraints, respectively.

3 Service, supply and marketing constraints

Table-1 highlights that irregular supply of electricity ranked first. Exploitation of farmers by shopkeepers ranked second and pesticides are adulterated and substandard quality ranked third


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by trained cotton growers in adoption of IPM technology. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers irregular supply of electricity ranked first followed by exploitation of farmers by shopkeepers and pesticides are adulterated and substandard quality, perceived as second and third constraints, respectively.

4 Transfer of technology constraints

The data continued in Table-1 explain that lack of dedicated and competent extension personnel ranked first followed by IPM recommendation not communicated in an understandable form and lack of regularity/dependability/credibility of extension personnel visits perceived second and third constraints by trained cotton growers. Whereas, in case of untrained cotton growers, lack of regularity/dependability/credibility of extension personnel visit ranked first. While, lack of timely appropriate transfer of technology measures by extension organization and lack of dedicated and competent extension personnel ranked second and third respectively. Other constraints were mentioned in table with their rank for both the categories of cotton growers.

The data presented in Table-1 also indicated that irregular supply of electricity, exploitation of farmers by shopkeepers, High cost of pesticides, bio-pesticides, bio-agents and equipments, pesticides are adulterated and substandard quality and lack of finance for purchase of pesticides, bio-pesticides and bio-agents were major constraints faced by the trained cotton growers in order to first five overall ranks, respectively.

While, incase of untrained cotton growers irregular supply of electricity, exploitation of farmers by shopkeepers, lack of knowledge about identifying harmful and beneficial insects to conserve, natural predators, pesticides are adulterated and substandard quality and lack of desired knowledge and skill for determining Economic threshold Level (ETL) were the first five important

constraints based on overall rank, respectively. Other constraints were mentioned in the table with their magnitude of rank.

CONCLUSIONS

The investigator had developed suitable extension strategy based on observation, discussion held with cotton growers, extension personnel, and researchers for effective adoption of IPM technology in cotton crop. In order to sustain momentum in IPM implementation there is a need to create greater awareness among the farming community on large scale. Majority farmers of cotton growing area once trained of got information about IPM before on set of monsoon through training programme which helps in increasing adoption of IPM technology from first to last operation. Use various extension materials like pamphlet, calendar, poster, hoardings and folder of parasite and predators in farming communities which helps in identification of friends and enemies and also help in identification of various stages of pest. All this materials should be pasted on panchayat and community houses of each village. Preparation of Bio-control agent video cassette for practical information of their functioning. Easily and cheaply availability of IPM inputs like Nuclear Polyhydrous Virus, Crysoperla, Trichocard etc by establishing new bio-control laboratories at Transfer of Technology centers in respective areas at nominal price. Along with frontline demonstration more fund should sanctioned for varied extension activities like khedut shibir, gram sabha, field day, farmer’s day, and exhibition for extensive coverage under IPM programme. Effective quality control measures are needed to check sale of adulterated and substandard quality of pesticides by establishing pesticides analysis laboratory at district level. Most of the plant protection techniques used in IPM are not very attractive to provide entrepreneurs.


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INTRODUCTION

Dairying is one of the important enterprise, which supports the rural households by providing gainful employment and steady income. The importance of milk and milk products for the physical development and well being of human beings is universally recognized.

In India, women’s involvement in livestock management is a longstanding tradition and dairy farming has been an integral part of homestead farming system. Although much of the work related to livestock farming is carried out by women, their problems and difficulties are not taken into consideration while designing development, training and extension programmes. Hence the studies on accessing the problems of farm women engaged in dairy farming are of paramount importance to the policy makers and extension agencies involved in rural development. So, the study has been undertaken with an objective to understand the problems perceived by farm women engaged in dairy farming.

METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted in Thrissur taluk of Thrissur district of Kerala state. Out of the 43 milk co-operative societies in two randomly selected blocks of Thrissur taluk, namely Cherpu and Ollukkara 12 milk co-operative societies were randomly selected. Further, a total of 120 members were drawn from the 12 milk co-operative societies by stratified random sampling procedure using proportional allocation. The women actively involved in dairy farming in the household of 120 selected members constituted respondents of the study. Data were collected by personal interviews using a pre-tested structured schedule. Ranking of problems was done based on mean score

FINDINGS

The data collected through structured interview schedule where tabulated, analysed and presented in the following tables. The data in table 1 reveals that problems in health care ranked first followed by those in feeding and management, housing, marketing and finance and breeding

CONSTRAINTS FACED BY DAIRY FARM WOMEN IN RELATION TO FARM OPERATIONS

Durgga Rani.V1 and Subhadra M.R.2

1. Assistant Professor (Vet. Extension), VCVSAH, NAU, Navsari2. Asso. Prof. & Head Dept. of Ext. College of Ver Sc. & A. H., Mannuthy, Thrissur, Kerala

ABSTRACT

A study was undertaken to understand the problems in dairy farming perceived by the farm women in Thrissur taluk of Thrissur district. It was found that inadequate knowledge about scientific housing, repeat breeding in crossbreds, high cost of concentrates, reduction in milk yield due to diseases and low price of milk and milk products were the most serious problems perceived by the farm women in dairy farming.

Table 1 : Problems perceived by farm women pertaining to major farm operations in dairy farming n = 120

Sr. No. Major farm operations Mean Score Rank1 Health care 2.28 I2 Feeding and management 2.07 II3 Housing 2.00 III4 Marketing and finance 1.72 IV5 Breeding 1.49 V


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Further, an attempt was made to understand the problems perceived by farm women pertaining to minor farm operations in dairy farming

Table 2 : Problems perceived by farm women pertaining to minor farm operations in dairy farming n = 120

Sr. No. Farm operations M.S. RankI Health care1 Reduction in milk yield due to diseases 2.62 I2 Inadequate supply of medicines from hospitals 2.35 II3 Inadequate knowledge of vaccination. 2.16 III4 High cost of medicines 2.15 IV5 Low disease resistance of crossbred animals 2.11 VII Feeding and management1 High cost of concentrate 2.35 I2 Non-availability of green fodder throughout the year 2.24 II3 Scarcity of land for fodder cultivation 2.21 III4 Non-availability of adequate fodder. 2.04 IV5 Inadequate knowledge of balanced feeding 2.00 V6 Scarcity of water 1.59 VIIII Housing1 Inadequate knowledge of scientific housing 2.03 I

2 Lack of facilities like funds, land, construction material etc for construction of cattle shed 1.97 II

IV Marketing and finance1 Low price of milk and milk products 2.57 I2 Financial difficulties 2.12 II3 Problem of spoilage 1.13 III4 Irregular payment by the milk societies 1.07 IVV Breeding1 Repeat breeding problems in cross breds 2.38 I2 Failure to diagnose pregnancy at correct time 1.67 II3 Distant location of AI centers 1.17 III4 Inability to take animals in accordance with the timing of AI centers 1.13 IV5 Lack of knowledge of proper heat detection. 1.09 V

From the data in table 2, it could be observed that under the problems in healthcare, reduction in milk yield due to diseases was perceived as the most serious one followed by inadequate supply of medicines from hospitals. Diseases among dairy animals would in turn result in reduced production, mortality and heavy losses. These might be the reasons why the farm women might have perceived healthcare problems in their animals as the most serious one. Inadequate supply of medicines from the veterinary hospitals was pointed out as serious problem by the farm women. This observation was in agreement with that of Thirunavukkarasu and

Prabaharan (1992). Podikunju et al.(2001) reported higher susceptibility to disease as the important constraint encountered by the farm women.

As for feeding and management, high cost of concentrate was perceived as the most serious problem followed by non-availability of green fodder throughout the year. This finding is in agreement with that of Podikunju et al. (2001) who reported that high price of concentrate was an important constraint encountered by farm women. Since crossbred animals require more concentrate feed, the farm women might have found it difficult to afford the cost of concentrates.


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Inadequate knowledge of scientific housing was perceived as the most serious problem under housing. This points out to the need of imparting training in this area. This finding is in consonance with that of Bairathi et al. (1997) who reported that lack of technical guidance was expressed as a very serious constraint faced by the respondents. Considering the escalated production cost, milk production was not perceived economical by the farm women. To be economical, milk price need to be commensurate with production cost. This is why farm women perceived price of milk and milk products to be not satisfactory. The observations of Balaji (1990), Bairathi et al. (1997) Chinnadurai et al. (2002) and Dabas et al. (2004) agree with that of present study.

Among the minor operations in breeding, repeat breeding in crossbreds was perceived as the most serious problem followed by failure to diagnose pregnancy at correct time. Probably, this could be due to the fact that these are two major problems which affect the profitability in dairy farming.This finding is in agreement with those of Dabas et al. (2004) who reported that repeat breeding was a major problem and Podikunju et al. (2001) who reported poor results of AI as most important constraint.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded on the basis of the results of this study that problems in health care ranked first followed by those in feeding and management, housing, marketing and finance and breeding. Under the problems in healthcare, reduction in milk yield due to diseases was perceived as the most serious one followed by inadequate supply of medicines from hospitals. As for feeding and management, high cost of concentrate was perceived as the most serious problem followed by non-availability of green fodder throughout the year. Inadequate knowledge of scientific housing was perceived as the most serious problem under

housing. Among the minor operations in breeding, repeat breeding in crossbreds was perceived as the most serious problem followed by failure to diagnose pregnancy at correct time. So, all the necessary technical inputs such as vaccines, medicines, fodder seeds and concentrate feed in adequate quantity and acceptable quality need to be made available to the farm women. Adequate supply of medicines from veterinary hospitals should be ensured. Extension organizations and local institutions should take adequate steps to impart information regarding credit facilities to procure the necessary inputs for dairy farming. Also farm women should be made aware of insurance facilities available.

REFERENCES

Bairathi, R., Chandra, R. and Sharma, F.L. 1997. Constraints in milk production in Rajasthan. J. Ext. Edu. 8(4): 1893-1895

Balaji, S.R. 1990. Role of farm women in ground nut farming and allied agro-enterprises unpublished M.Sc. (agri) Thesis, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 289 p.

Chinnadurai, S., Chinnadurai, P. and Markanday, T.C. 2002. Farm women in commercial dairy farming. J. Dairying, Foods and Home Sci. 21(1): 63-65

Dabas, Y.P.S., Bardhan, D. and Mustafa, S. 2004. Constraints in adoption of dairy technology by rural women in Tarai area of Uttaranchal. Indian Dairyman. 56(5): 25-28

Podikunju, B., Sharma, F.L. and Panwar, J.S. 2001. Constraints encountered by farm women in management of dairy animals in Southern Rajasthan. Indian Dairyman. 53(7): 53-57

Thirunavukkarasu, M. and Prabaharan, R. 1992. Rearing crossbred cattle – some constraints. Milcow. 14(2): 13-16


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INTRODUCTION

In our country, a large number of people earn their livelihood either by producing or marketing the flowers. Cultivation of flowers provides better net realization from a unit area of land.

Among flowers, rose (Rosa indica) is one of the nature’s beautiful creations and is universally acclaimed as the “Queen of flowers”. Rose is certainly the best known and most popular of all garden flowers through out the world and has been grown on the earth for many millions of years because of its attractive blooms and pleasing fragrance besides wide array of colours, commercial uses and medicinal properties (Biswas, 1983).

Gujarat state has 2558 hectares of area under rose cultivation and 16479 M. tones of loose flowers production with an average productivity of nearly 6.5 Metric tones per ha. According to the statistics, the area under rose in Amdavad district was 236 hectares with production of 1652 Metric tones (Anonymous, 2007). In this region, the average productivity comes out to be approximately nearer to the state average, even though the potential of rose production and export have not yet been fully exploited in Gujarat and particularly in Amdavad district. The constraints faced by the farmers hinder

the production and hence desired result could not be achieved. Constraints in farming never end but they can be minimized if known to policy makers and planners. Therefore, an attempt was made to know the constraints faced by the rose growers regarding various aspects of rose cultivation.

METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted in Dholka taluka of Amdavad district of Gujarat state. There are 71 villages of Dholka taluka. A List of rose growing villages along with area under rose cultivation was obtained from office records of the Deputy Directorate of Horticulture, Amdavad and Taluka Panchayat, Dholka. Out of that, six villages were selected based on specific criteria. These selected villages were considered as stratum and with the help of proportional allocation method, sample size of each stratum was determined. A random sampling procedure was adopted for the selection of respondents from the selected villages. Thus, total 127 rose growers were selected randomly. Keeping in view the objectives of the study an interview schedule was prepared and data were collected by personal interview approach. The rose growers were asked to express the constraints faced by them in rose cultivation. Frequency and percentage for each constraint were calculated.

CONSTRAINTS FACED BY THE ROSE GROWERS REGARDING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF ROSE CULTIVATION

D. D. Patel1, Mahesh R. Patel2 and P. P. Patel3

ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken in Amdavad district of Gujarat state to know the constraints faced by the rose growers regarding various aspects of rose cultivation on a sample of 127 rose growers. It was observed that the most important constraints faced by rose growers were fluctuation in prices of rose flowers, non-availability of labours for various rose cultivation practices, high cost of inputs, commission rates of agents very high, weed problem, high cost of transportation, lack of technical guidance at proper time, natural calamites/flood and lack of marketing facility near by villages.

1 Assistant Extension Educationist, DE office , AAU, Anand2 Associate Extension Educationist , DEE, AAU, Anand3 Director of Extension Education, AAU, Anand


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Then, they were assigned rank on the basis of percentage.


The efforts were made to identify the constraints perceived by the rose growers. It is evident from Table that the rose growers encounter many constraints regarding various aspects of rose cultivation. The main constraints as encountered by them were: Fluctuation in prices of roses (90.60 per cent), non-availability of laborers for various rose cultivation practices (74.80 per cent), high cost of inputs (67.70 per cent), commission rates of

agents very high (66.10 per cent), weed problem (64.60 per cent), high cost of transportation (61.40 per cent), lack of technical guidance at proper time (59.80 per cent), natural calamities /flood (53.50 per cent) and lack of marketing facility nearby villages (50.40 per cent), respectively.

The other important constraints as opined by them include ‘only single time subsidy is available’ (46.50 per cent), ‘insufficient training programme’ (45.70 per cent), ‘non-availability of sufficient credit in time’ (44.90 per cent) and ‘difficulty in calculation of doses of fertilizers’ (38.60 per cent), respectively.

Table 1 : Constraints faced by rose growers regarding various aspects of rose cultivation n=127

Sr No Constraints Frequency Per cent Rank

1 Fluctuation in prices of rose flowers 115 90.60 I2 Non-availability of laborers for various rose cultivation practices 95 74.80 II3 High cost of inputs 86 67.70 III4 Commission rates of agents very high 84 66.10 IV5 Weed problem 82 64.60 V6 High cost of transportation 78 61.40 VI7 Lack of technical guidance at proper time 76 59.80 VII8 Natural calamities/flood 68 53.50 VIII9 Lack of marketing facility near by villages 64 50.40 IX

10 Only single time subsidy available i.e. only at the time of new plantation

59 46.50 X

11 Insufficient training programme 58 45.70 XI12 Non-availability of sufficient credit in time 57 44.90 XII13 Difficulty in calculation of doses of fertilizers 49 38.60 XIII14 Lack of information about sources of loan and subsidy 45 35.40 XIV15 Irregular supply of electric power for irrigation 44 34.60 XV16 Quality of irrigation water/ low level of water table in the soil 43 33.90 XVI17 Unavailability of sufficient literature about rose cultivation in

local language42 33.10 XVII

18 Unavailability of good quality of grafts from nursery 38 29.90 XVIII19 Less coverage of rose related information in communication

media34 26.80 XIX

20 No proper intimation about relay / broadcast of programme on TV / Radio

32 25.20 XX

21 Lack of availability of improved varieties of rose 28 22.00 XXI22 Insufficient rose grafts availability from Govt. nursery 24 18.90 XXII23 High cost of irrigation on rent base 22 17.30 XXIII24 Difficult to store picked roses due to perishable one 16 12.60 XXIV25 Information is not available at co-operative societies 14 11.00 XXV26 Marketing of low grade rose after grading is difficult 12 09.40 XXVI27 No export related knowledge 08 06.30 XXVII


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CONCLUSION

Based on the findings, it is recommended that rose growers of study area need to be provided support price for their product during peak season as well as timely inputs at reasonable cost and sufficient credit in time. Marketing aspects also need attention so as to minimize commission rates charged by the agents and smoothen the marketing of produce by creating marketing facilities. Technical guidance and other extension

services need to be strengthened to facilitate the rose growers overcome the problems.

REFERENCES

Anonymous (2007). Deputy Directorateof Horticulture, Krushi Bhavan, Amdavad.

Biswas, T. D. (1983). Rose growing – Principle and practices. Associated Publishing Co., New Delhi.

Improving your thinking


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ABSTRACT

It was found that Majority of respondents were revealed that No due recognization by the society in the major social problem which rank first followed by low societal status. Most of respondents were indicated their major familial problem as necessary attention is not given towards rearing of children followed by low familial status due to underprivileged job of husband. It was observed that, unavailability of the medical support from employer in case of accident at work as their main health problem followed by health get deteriorated due to excess work. Majority of respondents were focused the problem of unavailability of time to take care of children education as their major problem followed by children are engaged in household work instead of education. Major cultural/religious problems faced by majority of respondents were unable to participate in religious rituals followed by not allowed to participate in social activities. It was shown by the respondents that poor residence facility is the major residential problem followed by lack of necessary amenities in the locality of residence and unavailability of portal water at the residence. All the variables viz., age, education, habit, type of family, size of family, marital status, caste, social participation, social mobility, annual income, indebtedness and awareness about Government aid scheme did not show any significant association with the social problems experienced by the respondents. Only mass media exposure of the respondents showed a positive and significant association at 0.05 level of significance (r= 0.25083*) with the social problems of respondents.

1. P.G. Student M.Sc. (Agri)2. Associate Extension Educationist, Directorate of Extension Education, S.D. Agricultural University, Sardar Krushinagar-385506 Dist:

Banaskantha (Gujarat).3. S. R. F. Directorate of Extension Education S.D.A.U., Sardar Krushinagar-385506 Dist: Banaskantha (Gujarat).

SOCIAL PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY WOMEN AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH SOCIAL STRATA

Vaishali Pagar1, K.D. Solanki 2 and Ashok Sen3

INTRODUCTION

Historians believed that it was woman who first demonstrated crop plant and thereby initiated the art and science of farming. Woman is regarded as “the creator of all green things in the world.” Intellectual decision making and physical participation of women in agriculture production system is substantial. Indian rural woman have been always an important and prominent partner in agriculture sector.

Nearly 78 per cent of women are actively engaged in agriculture as compared to 68 per cent of men.

34.55 per cent of women cultivators are engaged in agriculture. According to recent studies 50-90 per cent of all the agricultural activities are carried out by women and women produce 44per cent of the world food today (Sarvanan and Rasmy, 2001). Women play indispensable part in Indian agriculture. The women agricultural labourers perform the bulk of the agriculture and other allied activities. As such in-depth study of this indispensable workforce in agriculture was found to be imperative. A study of various social problems faced by the women agricultural labourers would


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be very useful in finding reliable solutions to their problems and prove to be a decisive determinant in raising their standard of living.

METHODOLOGY

The present study was confined under the jurisdiction of Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University of North Gujarat and North-west Gujarat predominantly encompassing semi-arid and arid climate. Among all these districts, 26 research stations are carried out the research activities on agricultural and allied subjects to agriculture. Considering the number of research stations and remoteness of the research station from the main campus of Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, three districts viz., Banaskantha, Mehsana and Sabarkantha were choosed for the study. All the 15 research stations working in the above three districts were selected as the study area. The present study was confined to the “Ex-post Facto” research design and the multistage random sampling technique was used for the selection of jurisdiction area, districts, research stations and respondents. There were total 214 women agricultural labourers working in 15 research stations. It has been planned to select 30 per cent women labourers from each research stations using proportionate random sampling technique. Accordingly, 64 labourers were included in the sample. However, 60 respondents

were available at the time of data collection and they were interviewed.

To measure the social problems a teacher made structured schedule was developed. First of all social problems were divided in six sub-groups viz., social problems, familial problems, health problems, educational problems, cultural/religious problems and residential problems. Then five statements for social problems, seven statements for familial problems, four statements for health problems, eight statements for educational problems, three statements for cultural problems and four statement for residential problems were formulated.

To know the response of the respondents regarding the degree of the problem, frequency of degree was arranged on three points continuum. These points were No, Less and More with a score of zero, one and two, respectively.

Total score for each statement under each problem was calculated and statements under each problem were ranked on the basis of mean score.


1 Social problems

The women agricultural labourers as a part of the society are found to face number of social problems. The data regarding the same were collected and presented in Table.1

Table 1 : Distribution of the respondents according to the degree of their social problems experienced by them and rank order of the problems n = 60

Sr. No. Social problems

Degree of problem Total score

Average score RankNo

(1)Less (2)

More(3)

1 Familial restrictions on social participation 25 27 8 103 1.716 IV

2 No due recoganization by the society 11 31 18 127 2.116 I

3 Low societal status 8 37 15 127 2.116 I

4 Inability to accomplish familial responsibilities 17 29 14 117 1.95 III

5 Discrimination on the basis of caste 33 19 8 95 1.58 V


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The data from Table 1 reveal that, No due recognization by the society and low societal status are the main social problem experienced by the women agricultural labourers followed by inability to accomplish familial responsibilities due to employment. The remaining social problems were ranked in low degrees.

From this finding, it can be concluded that there was not due reorganization by the society to the women agricultural labourers and they had low

social status among the society.

2 Familial problems

The women agricultural labourers like other women are reported to face number of familial problems. The low socio-economic conditions of the women agricultural labourers make them vulnerable to a considerably large number of familial problems. The information regarding the same was collected and the data are presented in Table.2

The data from Table 2 showed that the major familial problems faced by the women agricultural labourers were necessary attention is not given towards rearing of children which ranked first followed by low familial status due to under privileged job of husband, never consulted for any important decision in the family and problems at home due to addicted husband which ranked second, third and fourth, respectively. The

remaining problems were extended in low level of ranks.

3 Health problems

The women agricultural labourers because of continuous manual work are bound to face a number of health problems. The information regarding the same was collected and presented in Table.3

Table 2 : Distribution of the respondents according to the degree of their familial problems experienced by them and rank order of the problems n = 60

Sr. No. Familial problems

Degree of problemTotal score

Average score RankNo

(1)Less (2)

More(3)

1 Necessary attention is not given towards rearing of children 16 13 31 135 2.25 I

2 Family problems due to excess of family members 28 17 15 107 1.78 VI

3 Never consulted for any important decision in the family 13 26 21 128 2.13 III

4 Low family status because of under privileged job of husband 14 22 24 130 2.16 II

5 Problems at home due to addicted husband 25 16 19 114 1.9 IV

6 Frequent quarrel among wife and husband 28 23 9 101 1.68 VII

7Difficulties in carrying out family responsibilities without elders and male members

26 20 14 108 1.8 V


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Table 3: Distribution of the respondents according to the degree of their health problems experienced by them and rank order of the problems n = 60

Sr. No. Health problems

Degree of problem Total score

Average score Rank

No Less More

1Health get deteriorated due to excess work

13 38 9 116 1.93 II

2 Unavailability of local medical help 27 22 11 104 1.73 IV

3

Unavailability of medical support from employer in accident at work

12 14 34 142 2.36 I

4 No suitable care during illness 14 41 5 111 1.85 III

The data represented in Table 3 reveal that unavailability of medical support from employer in case of accident at work as main health problem among the women agricultural labourers followed by health get deteriorated due to excess work while, no suitable care during illness and unavailability of local medical help were sequentially third and fourth ranked health problems faced by the women agricultural labourers.

4 Education problems

The educational condition among the women agricultural labourers and their family and their attitude towards education was studied. Like others, they are also faced some educational problems. The data regarding the same is presented in Table.4

Table 4: Distribution of the respondents according to the degree of their educational Problems experienced by them and rank order of the problems n = 60

Sr. No. Educational problems


Average score Rank

No Less More

1 Educational facilities are not available in locality

32 19 09 97 1.61 V

2 Children education is purposely neglected by family members

34 21 05 91 1.52 VII

3 Unavailability at time to take care of children education

7 14 39 152 2.53 I

4 Unavailability of suitable educational guidance to children

11 26 23 132 2.2 II

5 Less importance is given to education

43 12 05 82 1.36 VIII

6 Children are engaged in household work instead of education

19 32 09 110 1.83 III

7 Children have no interest in education

31 23 06 95 1.58 VI

8. Boys and girls are discriminated as regards education

24 29 7 103 1.72 IV


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The Table 5 reveal that unable to participate in religious rituals is the major cultural problem experienced by the women agricultural labourers, followed by not allowed to participate in social activities and unable to execute cultural programme which were ranked first, second and third, respectively.

6 Residential problems

The women agricultural labourers were also found to face a number of problems related

to their residence accommodation. The data regarding the same was collected and presented in Table 6.

The data from Table 6 show that poor residence facility is first ranked residential problem of women agricultural labourers followed by lack of necessary amenities in the locality of residence, unavailability of portable water at the residence and unavailability of electricity, which were ranked second, third and fourth, respectively.

Table 5: Distribution of the respondents according to the degree of their cultural problems experienced by them and rank order of the problems n = 60

Sr. No. Cultural problems


Average score RankNo Less More

1 Not allowed to participate in social activities 49 11 - 71 1.18 II

2 Unable to execute cultural programme 51 8 1 70 1.16 III

3 Unable to participate in religious rituals 44 9 7 83 1.38 I

Table 6: Distribution of the respondents according to the degree of their residential problems experienced by them and rank order of the problems n = 60

Sr. No. Residential problems


Average score Rank

No Less More

1 Poor residence facility 14 32 14 120 2 I

2 Unavailability of portable water at the residence 19 35 6 107 1.78 III

3Lack of necessary amenities in the locality of residence

24 21 15 111 1.85 II

4 Unavailability of electricity 46 - 14 88 1.46 IV

The data presented in Table 4 show that major education problems like unavailability of time to take care of children education, unavailability of suitable education guidance to children, children are engaged in household work instead of education and boys and girls are discriminated as regards education were faced by the women agricultural labourers which were ranked first, second, third and fourth respectively. The remaining problems were

ranked in low extent of ranking.

5 Cultural problems

The women agricultural labourers as part of working occupation face lots of problems in carrying out the various cultural and religious aspects. The various problems faced by the women agricultural labourers under this aspect are presented in Table 5.


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4 Association between selected characteristics of the respondents and social problems experienced by them

The result with regard to association between selected independent variables and social problems of respondents is presented in Table 7.

The data presented in Table 7 clearly show that

all the selected characteristics of the respondents viz., age, education, habits, type of family, size of family, marital status, caste, social participation, social mobility, annual income indebtedness and awareness about government aid schemes except mass media exposure had non-significantly associated with social problems of the respondents.

Table 7: Association between selected independent variables of the respondents and social problems experienced by them n = 60

Sr. No.

Variables Correlation coefficient ‘r’ value

1 Age -0.03223 NS

2 Education -0.12485 NS

3 Habit 0.09077 NS

4 Type of family -0.12741 NS

5 Size of family 0.10596NS

6 Marital status 0.04874 NS

7 Caste 0.06246 NS

8 Social participation -0.10390NS

9 Social mobility 0.01979 NS

10 Annual income -0.01980 NS

11 Indebtedness 0.11820NS

12 Mass media exposure 0.25083*

13 Awareness about Government aid schemes for landless -0.20218NS

Table value at 0.01 level = 0.325 Table value of 0.05 level = 0.250*, ** Significant at 0.05 and 0.01 level of significance, respectively. NS = Non-Significant

Only mass media exposure has positive and significant association with social problems at 0.05 level of significance (r = 0.25083*). From this finding, it can be concluded that mass media exposure had impact on social change. The probable reason might be that majority of the respondents used television for getting information.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded that majority of the women agricultural labourers were faced the problems like, no due recognization by the society, low societal status, necessary attention is not given towards rearing of children, low familial status due

to under privileged job of husband, unavailability of the medical support from employer in case of accident at work, unavailability of time to take care of children education, unable to participate in religious rituals, poor residence facility, etc. only mass media exposure of the respondents showed a positive and significant association at 0.05 level of significance (r= 0.25083*) with the social problems of the respondents.

REFERENCE

Sarvanan, R. and Rasmy, C. (2011). Strategies for empowering women cultivators. Agril. Ext. Rev.


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APPRAISAL OF IPM TECHNONLOGY IN Bt COTTONN. B. Jadav, G. M. Parmar and P. S. Gorfad

ABSTRACT

During 2002 the Indian Government approved the release of Bt. Cotton variety for commercial cultivation. The results revealed that ball damage by H. armigera larvae was 2.76 % in IPM plot as against 13.60 % in farmers’ practices. The cost benefit ratio recorded in IPM plot (1:3.2) was higher than farmers’ practices plot (1:1.8).

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Millet Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Jamnagar – 361 006

INTRODUCTION

Cotton is an important commercial crop of the world and India ranks first in area and third in production in the world. During 2002 the Indian Government approved the release of Bt. Cotton variety for commercial cultivation. In order to compare the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) technology with farmers’ practices (local practices of pest management) to manage the insect-pest of Bt. Cotton, large scale demonstration trials under Cotton Mini Mission – II scheme were conducted at different locations on farmers’ fields of Jamnagar

districts of Gujarat state during 2007-2008.

MEHTODOLOGY

The IPM technology was compared with farmers’ practices and cost benefit ratio was also worked out. IPM package included pheromone trap @12/ha, growing castor crop as trap crop for Spodoptera litura, raising marigold for Helicovopa armigera, spraying of NPV @ 500 lit/ha, spraying of imidacloprid 17.8 SL against sucking pest and need based application of Traizophos 40 EC against white fly, Bemisia tabaci.

RESULT

Table : 1 Evaluation of IPM technology in Bt. Cotton

Particulars IPM plots Farmers practices

American boll worm (incidence) in % 2.76 13.60

Fiber yield (q/ha) 25.20 20.00

No. of sprays 1-2 4-5

CB ratio 1:3.2 1:1.8

Results on demonstrations conducted on 25 locations. The result indicated that ball damage by H. armigera larvae was 2.76 % in IPM plot as against 13.60 % in farmers’ practices (Table -1). The number of sprays with plant protection chemical was low in IPM plot (1-2 spray) compared to non –IPM practices (4-5 sprays). The fiber yield in IPM plot to the tune of

25.20 q/ha was higher as compared to farmers’ practices plot (20.00 q/ha). Likewise cost benefit ratio recorded in IPM plot (1:3.2) was higher than farmers’ practices plot (1:1.8). Therefore, the farmers of that locality were encouraged to adopt IPM technology that is safe and cost effective for Bt. Cotton.


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OPINION AND SUGGESTIONS OF FARMERS REGRADING KRUSHI MAHOTSAV

Surendra Kumar Rai 1, R. D. Pandya 2 and Sumit R. Salunkhe3

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted in Navsari district of Gujarat state. 20 villages were selected from two talukas of Navsari district. Respondents of the present study were beneficiary farmers of Krushi Mahotsav Programme which is organized every year by Government of Gujarat. Simple random sampling method was used to identify 200 respondents for the study. The study revealed that majority of the farmers had medium level of opinion about Krushi Mahotsav, while for improvement of programme majority of the farmers suggested that in programme emphasis should be given on small and marginal farmers and ranked first, followed by Krushi Mahotsav must be organized before onset of monsoon, more number of farmers should include for distribution of seed kits.

INTRODUCTION

India is predominantly an agricultural country nearly 82 per cent of its population lives in rural area and engaged in agriculture and allied sectors. For effective growth and development of agriculture sector particularly in rural area, it is necessary to establish contacts with the farmers and provided them new technologies. Scientific research has no longer crystallization into the four walls of Lab; it must percolates down to the stakeholders by informing them about the findings of experiments done at University-Plots and Farms. Keeping this in view Gujarat has modeled Krushi Mahotsav and was first successfully tried in 2005 and continues every year to establish mass contact with farmers. It is the most enlightened initiative and India’s one of the biggest extension initiatives so far. Gujarat has achieved Agricultural Growth rate at 9.6 per cent and have carved a niche in the field of Agricultural Development in India. (Anonymous, 2009). During Krushi Mahotsav the ‘Krushi Raths’ cover entire state and visits each village of Gujarat. A multi-disciplinary team of scientists are present on each rath. The raths are major vehicle for directly promoting scientific

farming and improved agricultural practices to the farmers within their own villages. (Raval, 2010).

METHODOLOGY

The present study was conducted in Navsari district of Gujarat state. The ex-post facto research design was used for the study. Two talukas Navsari and Jalalpore of Navsari district were selected purposely. Ten villages from each taluka along with ten farmers from each village were selected randomly. A random sampling method was used to obtain the respondents from the identified villages. In this way (100+100) 200 respondents were selected for the study. Simple statistics viz. mean and standard deviation were used to analyze and categorized the collected data.

FINDINGS

Opinions of the farmers about Krushi Mahotsav

Opinion indicates the personal view which may not necessarily based on the fact or knowledge. The data regarding the opinion of the farmers about Krushi Mahotsav were collected and grouped into three categories viz., lower level of opinion (up to 20 score), medium level of opinion (between 21 to

1 Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Extn. Edu., NMCA, NAU, Navsari, 2 Professor & Head, Dept. of Extn. Edu., NMCA, NAU, Navsari 3 PhD Scholar, Dept. of Extn. Edu., NMCA, NAU, Navsari


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22 score), higher level of opinion (above 22 score). The collected data are presented in Table 1.

The data presented in table-1 revealed that majority (48.00 per cent) of the farmers had medium level of opinion about Krushi Mahotsav followed by 35.50 and 16.50 per cent farmers had higher and lower level of opinion about Krushi Mahotsav respectively. From the above table it can be concluded that more than two fifth of the farmers (83.00 per cent) had medium to higher level of opinion about Krushi Mahotsav therefore we can say that this programme has developed good rapport among the farmers community of

Gujarat state.

2 Suggestions given by the farmers to improve the programme

The respondents were requested to express their suggestions to improve the programme. The frequency for each suggestion was calculated and converted into percentage, and then rank was assigned. The suggestion receiving high percentage was considered as an important one. The data in this regards presented in the table 2.

Table-2 : Suggestions given by the farmers to improve the programme n= 200

Sr. No. Suggestions Frequency Percentage Rank1 Main emphasis given on small and marginal farmers 180 90 I

2 More facilities provided to the fruit growers 80 40 V

3 Include more number of farmers for distribution of seed kits 164 82 III4 Motivate farmers to participate in Krushi Mahotsav 148 74 IV5 Krushi Mahotsav must be organized at proper time (Before

onset of monsoon)174 87 II

It was evident from the Table 2 that majority of the farmers were suggested that emphasis should be given on small and marginal farmers (90.00 per cent) and ranked first followed by Krushi Mahotsav must be organized at proper time (Before on set of monsoon) (87.00 per cent) and ranked second, include more number of farmers for distribution of seed kits (82.00 per cent) ranked third, motivate farmers to participate in Krushi Mahotsav (74.00 per cent) ranked fourth, and more facilities should be provided to the fruit growers (40.00 per cent) ranked fifth.

CONCLUSIONS

On the basis of results obtained in the present study it can be concluded that majority of the respondents had medium to higher level of opinion about Krushi Mahotsav and they

suggested that emphasis should be given on small and marginal farmers in programme and followed by Krushi Mahotsav must be organized before onset of monsoon, include more number of farmers for distribution of seed kits, farmers should be motivated to participate in Krushi Mahotsav and more facilities should be provided to the fruit growers. These all were considered as important suggestions for further improvement in Krushi Mahotsav programme.

REFERENCES

Anonymous (2009). Agriculture Projects & Initiatives. http://www.gujaratindia.com

Raval, A. (2010). Krushi Mahotsav: Has been on the Golden Run for the past five years. Information Bureau, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar.

Table-1: Distribution of farmers according to their level of opinion n=200 Sr.No.

Level of opinion about Krushi Mahotsav

Frequency Percentage

1 Lower level of opinion 33 16.502 Medium level of opinion 96 48.003 Higher level of opinion 71 35.50

Documents

Gujarat Journal of Extension Eductiongjoee.org/pdf/volume/Volume_18_19.pdfFor the Authors.... Gujarat Journal of Extension Education is the official publication of Gujarat Society