5727 from the editor’s desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, wish you a happy and prosperous new year! access to digital technologies has enabled increased access to information to farmers. however, several ict projects in agriculture that were designed and implemented for the marginalized sections of the society in the last decade have failed to scale and sustain. many feel that such failures could be attributed to avoidable reasons. i was recently going through a publication entitled, ‘from principle to practice: implementing the principles for digital development’ by waugaman (2016) of the u.s. agency for international development’s global development lab. the nine principles enlisted in the publication seek to institutionalize lessons learned in the use of ict in development projects. 1. design with the user: develop context appropriate solutions, including all user groups in planning, implementation and assessment. 2. understand the existing ecosystem: participate in networks and communities of like-minded practitioners and align to existing policies. 3. design for scale: design for scale from the start, and assess and mitigate dependencies that might limit ability to scale. be replicable and customizable in other countries and contexts. demonstrate impact before scaling a solution. 4. build for sustainability: plan for sustainability from the start, including planning for long-term financial health e.g., assessing total cost of ownership. engage with local governments to ensure integration into national strategy. 5. be data driven: design ict projects so that impact can be measured at discrete milestones with a focus on outcomes rather than outputs. 6. use open standards, open data, open source, and open innovation: adopt and expand existing open standards. develop software to be open source by default 7. reuse and improve: use, modify and extend existing tools, platforms, and frameworks whenever possible. 8. address privacy & security: assess and mitigate risks to the security of users and their data. ensure equity and fairness in co-creation, and protect the best interests of the end-users. 9. be collaborative: engage diverse expertise across disciplines at all stages. document work, results, processes, and best practices and share them widely. publish materials under a creative commons license by default, with strong rationale if another licensing approach is taken. though it may not be feasible to implement all the aforementioned principles simultaneously, they might be of help to the practitioners and policy makers in achieving a balance between adoption of these principles and usage of resources. i am happy to inform you that jee is now being indexed by doaj (directory of open access journals https://doaj.org/toc/2456-1282 ). this issue of jee has papers on topics such as information seeking behavior, adoption of crop insurance schemes, and mobile advisory services. i hope you find them interesting. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com. chief editor jee 29(1) from the editor’s desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, welcome to a special issue of the jee, on agricultural communication. the earliest form of agricultural communication should have been when farmers shared information by word-of-mouth. arthsasthra (around 2nd – 3rd century bc), an ancient indian treatise on statecraft and economic policy, had discussed different methods of seed treatment for grains, pulses, sugarcane and tuber crops in detail. thirukkural , a classic tamil text (1st century bc/6th – 7th century bc) too had a separate chapter on farming. the history of agricultural communication, in an organized form, can be traced back to 1440, with the invention of the movable type printing press by johannes gutenberg. starting with face-to-face and print, communication has taken different forms such as radio, television and now, the web, over the years. today, agricultural communication is considered as a social process designed to bring together agricultural technicians and farmers in a two-way process where people are both senders and receivers of information and co-creators of knowledge (fao, 2006). during 2006, fao & gtz had laid down six success factors for effective rural communication: success factor 1: policy: formulating policies enabling effective communication between research, advisory services, and farmers’ organizations in rural areas success factor 2: capacities: ensure that service providers are skilled in communication and have a positive attitude to communicate with clients success factor 3: monitoring and evaluation (m&e): facilitate systematic learning from experiences in communication approaches success factor 4: farmers’ organizations: engage representative farmers’ organizations as partners in communication success factor 5: participatory methods: use of participatory methods for active involvement of all partners in communication success factor 6: media strategy: integrating a mix of media in a strategic manner to achieve the desired objectives these aforementioned factors could be kept in mind while we design and implement projects in agricultural communication. i hope you find the papers in this special issue, interesting. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com. d. puthira prathap chief editor mailto:editorextension@gmail.com 1 from the editor’s desk wish you all a happy and prosperous new year! the “international agricultural extension academy” is part of the college of agricultural and environmental sciences at uc davis, usa. the academy has recently formulated a guide entitled “ask me” to help extension professionals plan and implement a development programme. this guide has been based on interactions and discussions with more than 1,000 farmers, extension and development workers in more than 25 countries. “ask me” provides a framework for the different extension methods (commodity-based 2. cost-sharing 3. educational institution 4. farmer field schools 5. farmer participatory 6. farming systems 7. centralized 8. land grant (in us) 9. project 10. training and visit) to be implemented: 1. audience understand and engage the audience, 2. solutions find appropriate solutions, 3. key message – identify the key message 4. message form and delivery package and deliver the needed information in forms appropriate to the audience and, 5. evaluation improve the overall process. further, in one of his recent articles, mark bell, the academy’s director, has identified three elements required for the success of icts for agricultural extension and advisory services. he has termed them as the a.i.d factors: a – available. the information has to be easily available. this is possible when people receive the same message from multiple and distinct sources. integration of communication channels makes the message more believable. i interest. do people want to learn more? the information should to meet peoples’ interests & needs and the clientele need to trust the extension functionaries. further, the information that is being shared needs to be “right”, “logical” and “emotional”, if it has to lead to a behavioural change. d doable. can people act? the clientele need to be able to easily test and do something with the information. the extension functionaries need to make sure that the instructions are simple and clear for the farmers to act upon. this issue of jee contains papers on different topics such as entrepreneurship motivation, ict, self-help groups and social capital formation. i thank the associate editors and the reviewers for their kind help in bringing out this issue of jee. chief editor 6088 technological mitigation strategies to overcome drought situations in tamil nadu p. sanjeevi1 and k. mahandrakumar2 abstract monsoon failure is experienced in many parts of india almost every year. in order to assess the effect of this stress the study was conducted in namakkal district of tamil nadu state, with the objective to identify and document the technological mitigation strategies that are currently adopted by the farmers in the study area to overcome the adverse effects of drought. simple random sampling method was used in selection of 100 farmers. the findings revealed that more than 75.00 per cent of the respondents were aware of most of the technological mitigation strategies. a gap between awareness and acceptance was found during acceptance of technological mitigation strategies. keywords: drought; technological mitigation strategies; awareness; adoption; tamil nadu received : 02-06-2018; accepted : 09-08-2018 1. pg scholar and 2. professor (agricultural extension), department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, agricultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) madurai – 625 104 india meteorological department (imd) (2014) had reported that approximately 16 per cent of india’s geographic area, mostly arid, semi-arid and sub-humid is droughtprone. due to high temporal and spatial variability in rainfall and wide variations in physiographic and climatic conditions in the country, droughts are experienced in varying intensities (moderate or severe) almost every, year irrespective of a good monsoon. since 2001, the country has experienced six major droughts, in the years of 2002, 2004, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2016. tamil nadu has been witnessing severe drought leading to poor agricultural productivity, rural distress, acute shortage of drinking water and fodder in the last consecutive five years and the state government had declared the state as drought hit in 2012-2013 & 2016-17 (state planning commission report 2016). in tamil nadu, drought had been viewed as a long term development challenge and efforts were made to tackle the challenges. such efforts mainly concentrated on the aspects like access to risk-reducing and productivity-enhancing technologies, diversification of livelihoods, better access to crop insurance and improved infrastructure for reducing vulnerability of poor due to failure of monsoon. in order to assess the adoption level of drought mitigation strategies the present study was taken up. methodology namakkal district of tamil nadu was purposively selected for this study. it had research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6088-6090 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6089 received normal rainfall only two years out of the past five years (rainfall data 2017, jda office namakkal). two blocks namely kabilarmalai block and vennandur block out of 15 blocks of namakkal district were chosen for major area of annual crops (namely sugarcane and tapioca) and seasonal crops (maize and groundnut) respectively. villages were chosen based on major area under cultivation and the respondents were chosen randomly to constitute a sample size of 100 from five villages. data were collected through pretested semi-structured interview schedule. findings and discussion among different mitigation strategies adopted by farmers, the technological mitigation strategies were taken into consideration. the coping mechanism followed by the farmers to mitigate the drought through some proven scientific technologies, recommended by the tamil nadu agricultural university and popularized by the state department of agriculture and horticulture was assessed. the awareness, acceptance and adoption level of farmers regarding technological mitigation strategies are given in table 1. table 1. awareness and adoption level of farmers regarding technological mitigation strategies (n=100) sl.no technological mitigation strategies followed awareness adoption 1. drip/sprinkler method of irrigation 88 (88%) 37 (42.05%) 2. mulching (stubble, straw or plastic mulching) to reduce moisture loss 75 (75%) 31 (41.33%) 3. selection of drought tolerant varieties 79 (79%) 38 (48.10%) 4. shifting to less water consuming crops 86 (86%) 72 (83.72%) 5. changing of planting dates 85 (85%) 58 (68.24%) 6. formation of farm pond or other rain water harvesting structures for effective management of scarce water 57 (57%) 5 (8.77%) 7. application of anti-transpirant chemicals, foliar spray of pink pigmented facultative metholotrophs, spraying crop boosters etc. 47 (47%) 21 (44.68%) 8. preserving dry fodder for livestock 100 (100.00%) 81 (81.00%) technological mitigation strategies to overcome drought situations in tamil nadu 6090 from the table, it could be observed that more than 75.00 per cent of the respondents were aware of most of the technological mitigation strategies. as preservation of dry fodder was a traditional mitigation strategy being followed generation after generation, the awareness level was found to be higher. due to intensive extension strategies being promoted through various programmes like natp (national agricultural technology project), nhm (national horticulture mission), precision farming etc, the awareness level on drip/sprinkler method of irrigation, selection of drought tolerant varieties and mulching to reduce moisture loss, was found to be higher. though formation of farm pond was promoted by the state agricultural department for the past one decade, such establishments were not well routed, as farmers had the fear of losing their cropped area. the study has indicated that the respondents were not having full realization of water conservation and preservation methods that were being promoted through different extension programmes. a higher level of technological adoption gap was observed in formation of farm pond or other rain water harvesting structures among the farmers, as the initial investment for establishment of rain water harvesting structures was found to be higher. though many modern technologies are being promoted by state department of agriculture and tamil nadu agricultural university for farmers to mitigating drought situation, the farmers are interested in adopting only traditional mitigation practices that are being followed generation after generation, it could be concluded. references : bradshaw, b, dolan, h & smith, b. (2004). farm-level adaptation to climate climatic variability and change: crop diversification in the canadian prairies. climate change 67: 119-41. habtamu, taddele menghistu, tadesse, teferi mersha & amanuel, zenebe abraha. (2018). farmers’ perception of drought and its socioeconomic impact: the case study of tigray and afar regions of ethiopia, journal of applied animal research, 46(1) india meteorological department, (2014). country report prepared for the regional workshop for asia-pacific. as un-water initiative on “capacity development to support national drought management policies” organized from 6-9th may 2014 in hanoi, vietnam. saravanakumar, v., balasubrmanian, r., kumaran, s.t. & venkadesan, k. (2014). strategies to mitigate the impact of poor monsoon on agriculture’. final report. state planning. commission, chennai. journal of extension education untitled-1 5638 1 & 3 ph.d scholars, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, ac & ri, madurai-625104, 2 assistant professor, forest college & research institute , mettupalayam, coimbatore district. received : 04-10-2016; accepted : 31-10-2016 journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 knowledge level of sugarcane growers on sustainable sugarcane initiative (ssi) k. qudsiya jamal1, m. shanthasheela2 and s. vasanthapriya3 abstract the study aims to assess the knowledge level on sustainable sugarcane initiative (ssi) of sugarcane growers in villupuram district. it was found that more than three fourths of the respondents had high level of knowledge on ssi. it was inferred from the study that the awareness created through trainings, demonstrations, field days and exposure visits under tamil nadu irrigated agriculture modernization and water bodies restoration and management project might be the reason for high level of technology-wise knowledge on ssi among the beneficiary respondents. keywords : sugarcane, knowledge, farmer, tamil nadu. introduction sugarcane occupies a prominent position on the agricultural map of india, covering large areas in sub-tropics and tropics. in 2014-15, there were 538 sugar mills in the country when compared to 139 mills in 1950-51 and the acreage under sugarcane increased from 1.71 million ha in 1950-51 to 4.90 million ha in 2015-16 . there is hardly any possibility of additional area forthcoming under sugarcane, primarily due to decreasing availability of arable land. monoculture of sugarcane has resulted in substantial reduction in productivity. it is apparent that, in future, the production target of sugarcane has to be met mainly by increasing the productivity of the crop. depending on the yield level of the crop and the climatic conditions prevailing in different parts of the country, the water requirements vary considerably from 1200 to 3000 mm. the common method of irrigation followed for sugarcane was the surface irrigation, either by flood or through furrows. however, the irrigation efficiency of surface irrigation is only 3050 per cent and there was considerable wastage of water. micro irrigation and water use efficient cultivation techniques become relevant in this context, for conserving water and optimizing its use. the water resources organization (wro), government of tamil nadu 5639 with the aim to augment sugarcane production and to achieve 100 per cent capacity utilization by the sugar mills had implemented various technologies under tn-iamwarm project (tamil nadu irrigated agriculture modernization and water bodies restoration and management project) a multidisciplinary project funded by world bank. to achieve higher production by means of ensuring efficient utilization of water and fertilizers, the sustainable sugarcane initiative (ssi) under tniamwarm project was implemented in the year 2011 by raising bud-chip seedlings in the shade nets. to expand the sugarcane area under drip irrigation, the government has increased the subsidy from 65 to 100 per cent for micro irrigation to small and marginal farmers and 75 per cent to other farmers, which will save around 40 per cent of irrigation water and increase the cane yield by about 35 to 45 per cent. cultivating sugarcane crop through sustainable sugarcane initiative (ssi) along with drip fertigation, enhances yield , conserves water and other input costs like labour, fertilizer etc., any first –hand information gained on this new initiative would help the policy makes and extension agents to reorient their strategies. keeping the above points in mind, a research was undertaken to study the knowledge level of sugarcane growers on sustainable sugarcane initiative (ssi) . methodology villupuram district in tamil nadu has the highest share of area under sugarcane cultivation (79,437 ha) in tamil nadu (season and crop report of govt. of tamil nadu : 2013-14). gadilam, gomukinadhi, ongur and varahanadhi sub-basins were purposively selected for the study since these sub-basins had enhanced projection for ssi sugarcane cultivation than other sub-basins. ssi under tn-iamwarm is operated in 5 taluks, 15 blocks and 78 villages covered under gadilam, gomukinadhi, ongur and varahanadhi sub-basins of villupuram district. the total ssi beneficiaries in 15 blocks under the tn-iamwarm project were 124. all the 124 beneficiaries of ssi were selected for the study. findings and discussion knowledge is a pre-requisite for adoption of innovation, as this would enable the farmers to completely understand a technology and its relative advantage. hence, an attempt was made to assess the knowledge. overall and technology-wise knowledge level of the respondents were studied and the findings are presented in table 1 and table 2. technology wise knowledge level of the respondents the technology-wise knowledge level of the respondents on the ssi was studied and the results are presented in table 1. knowledge level of sugarcane growers on sustainable sugarcane initiative (ssi) 5640 table 1. distribution of respondents according to their technology wise knowledge level (n=124) sl. no. recommended practices number* per cent 1. using protrays for ssi nursery 120 96.77 2. nursery duration for sugarcane -25 days 111 89.51 3. main field planting in sugarcane 5000 numbers of single budded seedlings per acre 95 76.61 4. plant spacing 5’ x 2’ 79 63.70 5. sub surface drip irrigation method used to irrigate the field in ssi 122 98.38 6. spacing for placing drippers 75 cm 86 69.35 7. irrigation interval 3 days or daily 100 80.64 8. fertigation method of fertilizer application for ssi 116 93.54 9. fertigation interval 15 days 87 70.16 10. detrashing and mulching at 5th and 7th month of sugarcane crop 89 71.77 *multiple responses obtained it is observed from table 1 that 98.38 per cent of the respondents had knowledge about sub-surface drip irrigation method used to irrigate the field in ssi, followed by use of protrays for ssi nursery (96.77%); 93.54 per cent of the respondents had knowledge about applying fertilizer through fertigation method, followed by knowledge about allowing 15 days of nursery duration for sugarcane (89.51%). the possible relative advantages of ssi over conventional cultivation have made it popular among the beneficiaries which might have been the reason for increased knowledge on basic features like sub surface drip irrigation method, protray nursery and fertigation method of fertilizer application for ssi. in addition, awareness created through trainings, demonstrations, field days and exposure visits under journal of extension education 5641 tn-iamwarm project might have resulted in high level of technology-wise knowledge on ssi among the beneficiary respondents. overall knowledge level of the respondents in order to assess the overall knowledge level of the respondents, necessary data were collected and they were categorized into three groups namely low, medium and high using cumulative frequency . more than three-fourths of the respondents (82.30%) had high level of knowledge on ssi, followed by 9.70 per cent with medium level and the remaining (8.0%) had low level of knowledge on ssi. the increased awareness created through trainings, demonstrations, field days and exposure visits under tniamwarm project might be the reason for this high level of knowledge on ssi among the beneficiary respondents. conclusion the overall knowledge level of the sugarcane growers on ssi was high. further, it was observed from the technology wise knowledge level that respondents had less knowledge about intercultural activities, fertigation interval, dripper spacing and spacing between plants compared to the other components of ssi. hence the agriculture department officials may take steps to increase awareness and knowledge on those practices through distribution of printed literature like leaflets on ssi, regular field visits, frontline demonstrations and trainings. references palanisamy, a. & sriram, n, (2001). modernization characteristics of sugarcane growers. journal of extension education, 11(4), 29062915. knowledge level of sugarcane growers on sustainable sugarcane initiative (ssi) 6739 my dear readers of journal of extension education, recently, the indian council of agricultural research (icar) had organized a brainstorming session on ‘mainstreaming agricultural curriculum in school education’ with experts from icar, ncert (national council of educational research and training) and cbse (central board of secondary education) in order to introduce agriculture as a subject in course curriculum and provide the option for students to explore a career in the various arenas of agriculture. agricultural education in all the schools in the country is likely to play a key role in preparing farmers, researchers, and educators, to make positive contributions, it was stated during the session. while discussing the approaches to having agriculture as a subject in primary schools, bergmann (1985) had identified three approaches viz., the vocational/pre-vocational training approach, the science-related approach and the extensionist approach. in the extensionist approach, the orientation towards ‘teaching in the classroom’ will be on covering the recommendations of the extension service, while the ‘orientation towards school farm work’ will be on demonstration of extension recommendations & aiming at high yields as detailed below: aims: school leavers to have confidence in the extension service and to be ready to follow their advice. syllabus: content to be exclusively agricultural , common core of basic knowledge , regional options open according to the regional programmes of the extension service. teaching methods: largely lecturing, use of extension aids and farm items (plants, animals) as teaching aids. teaching will be closely related to farm work. school farm work: partly production for income; practice as a drill for skill development according to extension recommendations. school farm to serve as a demonstration plot for the community. resource persons needed besides regular primary teachers: extension service staff on a regular basis. compared to the other two approaches mentioned above, when the extensionist approach is followed, the primary school teachers need not master the scientific bases of agriculture. the extension service would provide assistance for difficult demonstrations. though this approach has its demerits such as not relating agriculture to science and could be handled by teachers with minimum agricultural knowledge and skills, it can be used in conjunction with other approaches. this issue of jee has papers on topics such as the role of organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition, socio-economic prospects & major constraints of vannamei shrimp farming and work -life balance of women entrepreneurs. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com. jee 34 (1) chief editor from the editor's desk 5827 factors responsible for paddy growers’ diversification e. sathyapriya1 and rexlin selvin2 abstract in tamil nadu, a constituent state of india, the cultivable area under paddy had reduced over the period of time due to various factors. this study aims to enumerate the factors responsible for paddy growers’ diversification in the study area. altogether 60 respondents were asked for the factors responsible for diversification. the major push factor responsible for diversification was inadequate labour availability & irrigation and availability of farm inputs was the major pull factor. keywords: paddy; diversification; pull factors; push factors 1 ph.d. scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore and 2 professor, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, ac & ri, madurai. received : 12-09-2017; accepted : 20-10-2017 sustainable paddy production is the key to india’s food security. paddy is one of the most important food crops of india. however, the cultivable area has been reducing over the period of time. this study identified the factors responsible for diversification from paddy to cultivation of other crops. the factors are classified into two categories. i.e., push factors and pull factors. push factors can be defined as the factors which are pushing the respondents to go out of the traditional old practices. push factors are not rigid in nature, it varies across specificity. push factors are the pathway for finding new dimensions of opportunities. it could be simply depicted as “the impulse we have, the response we give”. pull factors could be defined as the factors which are responsible for pulling up or attracting people towards the newer dimensions or opportunities. pull factors should prick the minds towards the newer dimensions. methodology palani block of dindigul district was purposively selected for this study as it had more shifted area from paddy cultivation. altogether, 60 respondents were randomly selected to enquire the factors responsible for paddy diversification in palani block. the push and pull factors responsible for diversification of paddy farmers were collected from various related sources and classified as crop production and protection factors, marketing factors, economic factors, postharvest factors research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5827-5830 5828 and social factors. the respondents were asked to express the factors responsible for their farm diversification. percentage analysis was used for predicting the results. findings and discussion factors responsible for diversification from paddy cultivation the push and pull factors responsible by the diversified paddy growers were studied, analyzed and presented in table 1. table 1. factors responsible for diversification from paddy cultivation (n=60) push factors no.* % pull factors no.* % crop production and protection crop production and protection fragmented holding 1 1.67 low level of water consumption 34 56.67 poor soil fertility 8 13.33 industrialization of agriculture 14 23.33 inadequate irrigation 46 76.66 availability of farm inputs/implements 37 61.67 inadequate labour availability 48 80.00 low pest and disease occurrence 29 48.33 high wage rate of labour 25 41.67 availability of advisory services 7 11.67 high incidence of pests and diseases 3 5.00 marketing factors marketing factors changing consumer demand 7 11.67 lack of marketing opportunity 13 21.67 availability of various marketing opportunities 15 25.00 low price of product/ commodity 23 38.33 possibility of export services 2 3.33 economic factors financial factors lack of credit facility 8 13.33 less cost with increased remuneration 38 63.33 increased cost of cultivation 18 30.00 high price for specific commodity 11 18.33 increased family expenditure pattern 32 53.33 abundant credit/subsidy facility 17 28.33 factors responsible for paddy growers’ diversification 5829 push factors no.* % pull factors no.* % post-harvest practices post-harvest practices lack of storage facility 11 18.33 storage facility 9 15.00 inadequate processing/ value addition unit 10 16.67 value addition/processing unit 9 15.00 social factors social factors nuclear family 5 8.33 social recognition 13 21.67 conscious of health control 20 33.33 social cohesion 25 41.67 joint decision by family members 11 18.33 improved social status 25 41.67 *multiple responses push factors it could be seen from table 1 that the farmers had shifted from paddy to other crops or entrepreneurial activities for various reasons. concerning crop production and protection factors, more than three fourths of the respondents revealed that inadequate labour availability (80.00 per cent) and inadequate irrigation (76.66 per cent) were the major push factors for shifting their regular activity. regarding marketing factors, low price range of product/commodity and lack of marketing opportunity were quoted by a range of 22 – 38 per cent of respondents as the push factors for diversification. increased family expenditure pattern (53.33 per cent), increased cost of cultivation (30.00 per cent) and lack of credit facility (13.33 per cent) were the reasons attributed by the respondents as financial factors for diversification. as post-harvest factors, lack of storage facility (18.33 per cent) and inadequate processing/value addition unit (13.33 per cent) were stated by less than one – fifth of the respondents. regarding social factors, majority of the respondents expressed that conscious of health control (33.33 per cent), joint decision by family members (18.33 per cent) and nuclear family status (8.33 per cent) were the push factors for diversification. pull factors as for the pull factors in crop production/protection, majority of the respondents stated ‘availability of farm inputs/implements’ (61.67 per cent), low level of water consumption (56.67 per cent), low incidence of pests and diseases (48.33 per cent) as the major pull factors. availability of advisory services was quoted by nearly 12 per cent, as the reason for diversification. regarding journal of extension education 5830 marketing factors, availability of various marketing opportunities (25.00 per cent), changing consumer demand (11.67 per cent), possibility of export services (3.33 per cent) were stated as the pull factors for diversification. regarding economic factors, majority of the respondents had revealed that, less cost with increased remuneration (63.33 per cent), abundant credit/subsidy facility (28.33 per cent), and more price for specific commodity (18.33 per cent) as the pull factors for diversification. regarding post-harvest practices, 15.00 per cent of them and stated storage facility, value addition/ processing units as the pull factors for diversification. regarding social factors, nearly 42 per cent of them expressed both social cohesion and improved social status as the pull factors for diversification, followed by social recognition (21.67 per cent). paddy cultivation can greatly benefit small –scale cultivators and help end hunger in countries like india. this study has identified the factors that lead to diversification of paddy farmers. varied employment opportunities and availability of regular wages to the skilled labourers during the cropping season and successive seasons might be the major reasons for non-availability of labour. the respondents were forced to move towards crop cultivation and other enterprise activities (farming + other enterprises) for which they need minimum number of laborers over a period of time, and the availability of various marketing opportunities also had attracted respondents towards changing their enterprise activities in the study area. references bala, b. & sharma. s.d. (2005). effect on income and employment of diversification and commercialization of agriculture in kullu district of himachal pradesh. agricultural economics research review, 18, 261269 ellis, f. (2004). occupational divers ification in developing countries and implications for agricultural policy. programme of advisory and support services to dfid (pass). project no. wb0207. university of east anglia, norwich. hari, a. & kishore kumar n. (2016) scenario analysis of rice cultivation in kerala. journal of extension education, 28(4) factors responsible for paddy growers’ diversification pages 2021-4.cdr my dear readers of journal of extension education, in the previous issue of jee (jee-33-3) , we discussed what the governments, agricultural development organizations, entrepreneurs and academics need to do for improving data-driven agriculture. yu et al (2021) have however expressed concerns that farmers may lose ownership and control of their raw data (such as soil moisture data from a farm) from which atp agriculture technology providers (who develop or introduce the advanced technologies to help farmers be�er manage their farming opera ons ) derive high-value products. the farming data with ownership concerns is mainly raw data that helps in decision-making. hence, in order to help the farmers in owning their raw data, the following few privacy and security principles have been derived. education: resources, courses, and extension workshops need to be provided to help farmers learn more about the data collection processes on their farms ownership: when uploading data to atp portals, it is the farmers' responsibility to determine whether the atp owns this data or has permission to access. collection, access and control: these are the fundamental ac ons surrounding data, the rights of which should be explicitly described in the contracts between farmers and atps. notice: the contract for the partnership should clearly state who will collect, control, or access the data, as well as why, how, and when. transparency and consistency: contracts should be wri�en in a clear, concise, and consistent manner to ensure full comprehension. choice: the explanations of farmers' choices in purchasing different kinds of services, usually addi onal packages, offered by atps are important. portability: farmers should have the right and ability to use their data across different applica ons for more opportunities and improvement of data values. terms and definitions: farmers and atps should clearly understand the defini ons of all the terms of their contracts. disclosure, use and sale limitation: farmers' agreement is required for the sharing or sale of the original farming data to a third party. data retention and availability: the length of the existence of farming data in an atp's system needs to be defined clearly, as well as how the data will be treated a�erward (i.e., removed, returned, or destroyed). contract termination: the contract should state what will happen to the data if an agreement is cancelled. as the problems of data ownership are likely to crop up in the coming years, we, as extension professionals, need to keep the aforementioned principles in mind and should make the farmers aware of their data ownership and allay their fears. this issue of jee has papers on topics such as attitude of doctoral students towards research, economic mo va on among the dairy entrepreneurs and the impact of agricultural extension ins tu ons on farm efficiency. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com jee 33 (4) d puthira prathap chief editor 6682 mailto:editorextension@gmail.com 6183 comparative analysis of scale of social capital formed in kollam and palakkad districts of kerala as an impact of a pilot extension project (leads) preethu k. paul1, dhanusha balakrishnan1 and g. s sreedaya2 abstract lead farmer centered extension advisory and delivery services (leads) is a pilot extension project revolving around lead farmer – satellite farmer concept on an agro ecological zone basis within in a district. presently leads project is being implemented in four districts of kerala, namely kollam, palakkad, kannur and wayanad. the present study was conducted in the kollam and palakkad districts of kerala. the study aimed to compare social capital formed in kollam and palakkad districts as an impact of leads project. from the study conducted, it was clear that the social capital formed was found to be more in kollam than in palakkad district. keywords: leads; lead farmer; satellite farmer; social capital; kerala 1. asst. professor (contract), and 2. asst. professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, kau, thrissur, kerala. research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6183-6185 agriculture technology management agency (atma) is responsible for coordination and management of agricultural extension related work in the district level (nair, 2013). but it has major shortfalls like poor farmerto-farmer extension and lack of periodic field visit. this thought has led to the design and implementation of a pilot project by the kerala state planning board. lead farmer centred extension advisory and delivery services (lead) was proposed for implementation in the state during 2010-11. leads project was found to be successful enough in creating the social capital among the farmers (sreedaya, 2016). social capital is an instantiated informal norm that promotes co-operation between individuals (francis, 2010). it is defined as trust, norms or networks existing in the social organization which by its coordinated actions, helps in improving the efficiency of the society (putnam,1993). the study aimed to compare the scale of social capital formed among the farmers of kollam and palakkad districts through the leads project. methodology the study was conducted in five developmental blocks of kollam and 5 blocks of palakkad districts of kerala with 90 respondents. comparison of impact created by leads in kollam and palakkad districts in terms of scale of social capital formed was done by using socat (social capital received : 25-04-2018; accepted : 24-08-2018 6184 assessment tool) developed by world bank in 2010 with slight modifications. socat is designed to collect and gather social capital data at organizational or community levels (revathy, 2015). socat includes the various data collection methods like questionnaires, pretested interview schedules and focus group discussions. it employs both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data. here, impact in terms of social capital formation was ascertained by using quantitative method which involves the use of structured and pre tested questionnaire (table 1) with the help of eight statements with slight modifications. table 1. statements to ascertain impact of leads project sl. no statements yes no 1 does the group interact with other groups with different goals in the panchayat ? 2 does the group interact with other groups with different goals outside the panchayat ? 3 do you think this members of the group generally trust one another ? 4 do you think over the last few years the level of trust has between members increased? 5 do all the members of the group have similar economic status? 6 in the past years you worked with your neighborhood for the benefit of the community 7 do you feel that you have the power to make important decisions in your life ? 8 do you think that feeling of togetherness in the group is very strong? findings and discussion scale of social capital formed was compared using the socat tool. on the basis of the scale of social capital formed the farmers of both the districts were classified into three categories, namely low, medium and high. in kollam district, 68.89 per cent and in palakkad district, 64.44 per cent of the respondents belonged to the medium category of social capital formation. while, 24.44 % of the respondents of both kollam and palakkad districts showed a low level of social capital formation, 6.67 % respondents of kollam and 11.12% of the respondents of palakkad district showed a higher level of social capital formation. the data are presented in the table 2. journal of extension education 6185 majority of the farmers in the districts had a neutral and stable perspective regarding the cooperation, mentality to help each other and volunteership. farmer groups are promoted by leads, which created a wave in the farming community which might be the reason for the majority of respondents to be in medium category and for a considerable deduction of farmers in low category. similarly, the famers of kollam district had possessed higher level of perception regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads, when compared to farmers of palakkad district (paul et al, 2018) table 2. distribution of respondents based on the scale of social capital formed sl. no. kollam (n= 45) palakkad (n= 45) category frequency percent category frequency percent 1. <14 (low) 11 24.44 <11(low) 11 24.44 2. 14-15(medium) 31 68.89 11-14(medium) 29 64.44 3. >15 (high) 3 6.67 >14(high) 5 11.12 total 45 100 total 45 100 a comparative analysis on the scale of social capital formed among the farmers through leads in kollam and palakkad districts was conducted and the results showed that among the farmers of kollam district, there was a higher degree of social capital formation when compared to the farmers of palakkad district. references francis, fukuyama (2010) social capital, civil society and development, third world quarterly, 22:1, 7-20 nair, m. g. (2013). review report of leads submitted to kerala state planning board, trivandrum, 15p. paul, p.k, sreedaya, g.s & balakrishnan, p. (2018) perception of farmers about a pilot extension project (leads) in two districts of kerala, journal of exension education, 30(1). putnam, r. (1993). making democracy work: civic traditions in modern italy. princeton: princeton university press,432p. revathy, c. (2015). social capital formation through farm women groups in vegetable production in kollam district. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 100p. sreedaya, g. s. (2016). monitoring and evaluation of lead farmer centered extension advisory and delivery services (leads)pilot project in four districts of kerala a final report, trivandrum. 138p. comparative analysis of scale of social capital formed in kollam and palakkad districts of kerala as an impact of a pilot extension project (leads) 1 from the editor’s desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, a couple of months ago, when the executive council (ec) of extension education society decided to re-introduce special issues of journal of extension education (jee), ‘indigenous technical knowledge’ (itk) was the overwhelming favourite-theme of all the members for the inaugural issue. this was probably stemmed from the fact that itk, in spite of the importance given to its preservation in the recent times, has been disappearing alarmingly fast. there is no gainsaying the fact that itk still has the potential to offer solutions for many of the problems being encountered due to unsustainable ‘modernization’ of agriculture in the last few decades. recent studies show that 80% of the world’s population depends on indigenous knowledge to meet their medicinal needs and at least 50% rely on indigenous knowledge for food supply. agricultural extension therefore has a predominant role to play in collecting, documenting and applying indigenous strategies to help in enhancing food security, while protecting the natural resources. further, the importance given to centralized solutions with the help of formal r&d set-ups need to give way to decentralized r&d efforts in rural environments involving the local people, at least for a few appropriate farm technologies. only such initiatives can offer feasible solutions to the real problems being faced by the farmers. in order to resolve these issues, the institute of development studies, uk had come up with the following six proposals for the national and international research organizations in the early eighties and appreciable progress has been made only in few of these proposals, over the years. (1) rural exposure for extension and research staff: this could be arranged for the professional personnel during initial training and at intervals thereafter, so that they appreciate the difference between their way of looking at the world and that of the people who were supposed to benefit from their work. (2) checklists: checklists could be used to draw attention to factors such as implications for rural women, affordability of an innovation, social significance ,risk and labour requirements, which might otherwise not be considered in determining research priorities or extension advice. (3) local-level influence on research priorities: to improve the criteria chosen in research and then to see they are acted on, producers could sit on the boards of agricultural research institutions. (4) a cafeteria system: farmers could be offered different packages and left to decide for themselves which they would adopt. (5) starting with indigenous practice : a more radical and difficult proposal is that research should take existing indigenous practice as its starting point, seeking to refine this in various ways and then to feed results back into the system. (6) experimental work in rural conditions: the process might be taken a stage further, perhaps through full-blown experimental work on farmers’ fields and with farmers’ collaboration. the research and development institutions of the country need to have a sincere look at these proposals and initiate action on those which are feasible. from this special issue, digital object identifiers (dois) have been assigned to papers published in jee. a doi provides a persistent and unique link for each research paper making easy for jee authors to track when and where their research is cited, discussed, shared, bookmarked, or used across the web. the papers in this special issue deal with various dimensions of itk. i hope the jee readers find them interesting. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com chief editorjee 28(3) 5864 communication behaviour of farmers adopting rice fallow pulse technologies s.parthasarathi1 and a.shaik alauddin2 abstract a study was conducted to assess the communication behaviour of farmers adopting recommended rice fallow pulse crop technologies in karaikal district. karaikal district is a part of union territory of puducherry located in the tail end of cauvery delta zone where most of the farmers follow the rice fallow pulse crop with the availabe moisture, which fetches more income to them. the communication behaviour was studied under two dimensions viz., information source utilisation and information sharing behaviour. correlation was worked out to assess the contribution of communication behaviour in the knowledge and adoption of rice fallow pulse technologies. in the case of regular contact, group members, neighbours and family members were the major sources of information. information source utilization and information sharing were significant in their relationship with knowledge level of farmers whereas information sharing of farmers alone contributed positively to the adoption of technologies. keywords : communication behaviour; information source; mass media; rice-fallow pulse; adoption; puducherry journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5864-5869 1. assistant professor (agrl. extn.) and 2. professor and head, dept. of agrl. economics & extension, pandit jawaharlal nehru college of agriculture & research institute (pajancoa), karaikal, u.t. of puducherry received : 13-10-2017; accepted : 23-11-2017 introduction india is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses with a production of 1215 million tonnes in the last two decades. india is facing a severe shortage of pulses since many decades and is dependant heavily on exporting countries. overall, gaps in technology adoption in major pulse crops both in rainfed and irrigated conditions had been identified. in the case of rice fallow pulse, an important remunerative crop for cauvery delta farmers, the adoption of recommended technologies is very meagre. since pulse is a secondary crop in rice fallow pulse cropping system, the farmers were not paying much attention to get the technical support or guidance from their preferred communication sources as in the case of main crops. with this background, in order to strengthen the communication behaviour in order https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5864-5869 5865 to enhance the adoption of recommended technologies, a study was conducted with an objective to assess the communication behaviour of farmers of karaikal district growing rice fallow pulses. methodology the study was conducted in karaikal district of union territory of puducherry located in the tail end of cauvery delta region. the respondents were selected from six villages of four communes based on the area under rice fallow pulse crop. from each village, 20 farmers were randomly selected arriving at 120 respondents. the communication behavoiur was studied under two dimensions viz., information source utilisation and information sharing. correlation was worked out to assess the contribution of communication behaviour in the knowledge and adoption of rice fallow pulse technologies. findings and discussion the findings of the study are discussed in two sections viz., communication behaviour and its contribution in the extent of knowledge and adoption of rice fallow pulse technology. communication behaviour of farmers information source utilisation the results on the distribution of respondents according to their information source utilisation are presented in table 1. table 1 distribution of respondents according to information source utilisation behaviour (n=120) information sources frequency of contact regular occasional rare no. % no. % no. % a. personal localite sources 1. family 40 33.33 59 49.17 21 17.50 2. friends 33 27.50 62 51.67 25 20.83 3. neighbours 42 35.00 54 45.00 24 20.00 4. relatives 23 19.17 52 43.33 45 37.50 5. village leaders 34 28.33 48 40.00 38 31.67 6. contact farmers 39 32.50 47 39.17 34 28.33 7. trained farmers 37 30.83 41 34.17 42 35.00 8. group members 45 37.50 45 37.50 30 25.00 communication behaviour of farmers adopting rice fallow pulse technologies 5866 information sources frequency of contact regular occasional rare no. % no. % no. % b. personal cosmopolite sources 1. asst.agriculture officer/ village extension worker 12 10.00 24 20.00 84 70.00 2. agricultural officer 20 16.67 26 21.67 74 61.66 3. ngo 6 05.00 27 22.50 87 72.50 4. input agencies 53 44.16 23 19.17 44 36.67 5. scientists of krishi vigyan kendra / pajancoa 15 12.50 39 32.50 66 55.00 c. mass media sources 1. t.v 39 32.50 51 42.50 30 25.00 2. radio 67 55.83 48 40.00 05 04.17 3. newspaper 53 44.17 39 32.50 28 23.33 4. leaflets 19 15.83 43 35.83 58 48.34 5. exhibitions 23 19.17 47 39.17 50 41.66 6. posters/charts/ photographs 09 07.50 29 24.17 82 68.33 7. farm publication 11 09.67 30 25.00 79 65.83 d. use of modern gadgets 1. internet 12 10.00 20 16.67 88 73.33 2. cell phone 25 20.83 32 26.67 63 52.50 3. kisan call centre 05 04.17 06 05.00 110 91.67 4.cds/dvds 02 01.67 03 02.50 115 95.83 it could be inferred from table 1 that the frequency in contacting the personal localite sources of information for pulse technology by majority of respondents was occasional. in the case of regular contact group members (37.50 %), neighbours (35 %) and family members (33.33 %) were the major sources of information. regarding personal cosmopolite sources of information, input agencies (44.16 %) were regularly contacted for information. radio was the most preferred source (55.83 %) of mass method among the pulse growers followed by newspaper and tv. table 1 further reveals that the utilisation of modern ict gadgets was found to be minimal for access of information related to rice fallow pulse crop. rice fallow pulse is considered as a secondary crop which required less input and management techniques. hence, the farmer might have been reluctant in accessing various sources in adopting rice fallow pulse technology. journal of extension education 5867 overall information source utilisation the results on distribution of respondents according to their overall information source utilisation pattern showed that nearly half (45.00 % & 40.00 %) of the farmers had low and medium level of information source utilisation, whereas only 15.00 per cent of the farmers fell under high category. farmers might have had poor access to information through various sources viz., extension personnel, scientists, ngos, private companies, ict gadgets for growing pulse crop, since it is widely perceived as an additional crop. information sharing the results on distribution of respondents according to their information sharing is presented in table 2. table 2 distribution of respondents according to their information sharing (n=120) sl. no. receivers type of information* varietal selection management practices market no. % no. % no. % 1. friends 70 58.33 31 25.83 78 65.00 2. family members 35 29.11 22 18.33 49 40.81 3. neighbours 42 35.00 34 28.33 44 36.67 4. village leaders 89 74.17 71 59.16 80 66.67 5. relatives 32 26.67 31 25.83 29 24.16 6. group members 90 75.00 81 67.50 89 74.17 7. participants of agricultural meetings 92 76.67 85 70.83 80 66.67 8. officials/ scientists 35 29.17 40 33.33 32 26.67 (* multiple responses) the results presented in table 3 reveal that a majority of the respondents were sharing varietal selection and management practices in agricultural meetings (76.67 % and 70.83 %), among group members (75.00 % and 67.50 %) and with village leaders (74.17 % and 59.16 %). sharing of market information was found predominantly among group members (74.17 %). this shows that their preference in information sharing among the farmers was confined to communication behaviour of farmers adopting rice fallow pulse technologies 5868 localite sources. the possible reasons for the above findings might be due to the use of own seeds by the farmers and satisfaction with their routine regular practices. overall information sharing the results on distribution of respondents according to overall information sharing behaviour show that nearly two-thirds (68.30 %) of the farmers shared information to a medium level, whereas 20.00 per cent of farmers fell under high category. this indicates that the farmers show poor interest to share these pulse technologies among their contacts. relationship of communication behaviour with the knowledge and adoption of pulse growers on recommended technologies. zero order correlation was computed to know the contribution of communication behaviour on knowledge and adoption of pulse growers on recommended technologies. the results are given in table 3. table 3. zero order correlation of communication behaviour with knowledge and adoption of pulse growers on recommended technologies sl.no. variables ' r ' values knowledge adoption 1. information source utilization 0.5422 * -0.2828 ns 2. information sharing 0.5205 * 0.3599* (ns – non significant, * significant at 0.02 % level ) a cursory look at table 3 shows that, ‘information source utilization’ and ‘information sharing’ were significant in their relationship with knowledge level of pulse growing farmers. the correlation values were found to be positive and contribute to the extent of knowledge. from this, it might be concluded that those farmers with more of information access could have possess more knowledge on recommended pulse technologies. in the case of adoption, information sharing of farmers showed a positive and significant relationship. interest in receiving the information and making use of it in their fields and sharing with fellow villagers might have resulted in a positive correction. conclusion the communication behaviour of farmers might vary according to the crops grown. rice fallow pulse is a relay crop in cauvery delta zone which gives more remuneration than the main crop on many occasions. the results of the study showed that still farmers are relying on journal of extension education 5869 personal localite channels and mass media channels like radio and tv. little or no use of ict gadgets was observed. if the farmers are to be made to pay more attention to the cultivation for rice fallow pulses, they need to be made aware of the importance of improving the pulse productivity, utilizing the cosmopolite channels of communication. references hossain, k.z., islam, m.r., bhuiyan, m.h., wazed. m.a & rahman, m.m. (2011). farmers’ communication behavior in receiving information on improved rice production technologies, journal of innovation and development strategy 5(1), 28-33 communication behaviour of farmers adopting rice fallow pulse technologies 5806 sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation : a multidimensional analysis k. namitha1 and b. seema2 abstract the present study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala. one hundred farmers engaged in commercial vegetable cultivation were selected based on the maximum area under commercial vegetable cultivation. sustainability was the dependent variable of the study. sixteen independent variables were selected based on judges’ relevancy rating. a well-structured interview schedule was used for data collection from the respondents. majority of the respondents belonged to medium category with respect to sustainability. economic dimension of sustainability contributed seventy two percent of the total sustainability, followed by sociopsychological dimension, environmental dimension, technological dimension and temporal dimension. keywords : sustainability; commercial vegetable cultivation; multidimension; knowledge; adoption 1pg scholar and 2. professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani,695522, kerala. received : 08-09-2017; accepted : 30-10-2017 introduction vegetables are important constituents of indian agriculture and nutritional security. india is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world which accounts for a total of 6.2 million hectares forming three per cent of the total cropped area which is 15 per cent of the world’s production. commercial vegetable cultivation can be defined as the large scale production of vegetables for sale or vegetables grown for market. in kerala, vegetables are being cultivated as a commercial crop oinly in the recent past. however, sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation is an unexplored area and hence this study was takenup. sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation is operationally defined as the ability of commercial vegetable growers to profitably maintain vegetable production over time. with this background, the study was undertaken. methodology thiruvananthapuram district was selected for the study because of the presence of college of agriculture, vellayani from where many of the high yielding vegetable varieties are released and distributed. kerala agricultural university (kau) in thiruvananthapuram district is one of the major producers journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5806-5810 5807 of the vegetables and these vegetables from the district usually fetch higher price in the foreign market. selection of respondents was through random sampling procedure. from the list of 11 blocks based on larger area under commercial vegetable cultivation, two blocks based on area under commercial vegitable cultivation were selected,viz., pallichal and neyyattinkara. from each block, two panchayats were selected having maximum area under vegetable cultivation. from pallichal block, two panchayats namely pallichal and kalliyoor were selected and kottukal and venganoor were selected from neyyattinkara block. in the next stage, a list of twenty five farmers engaged in commercial vegetable cultivation having at least 20 cents of land under vegetable cultivation and having five years of experience in vegetable cultivation was prepared with the help of respective krishibhavans, thus making a total of hundred farmers as respondents. thus 25 farmers from each panchayat were interviewed for data collection. sustainability encompasses various dimensions and those dimensions relevant for the current study were identified based on review of literature and discussion with experts in the respective disciplines. thus, five dimensions namely economic dimension(ed), sociopsychological dimension (sd), environmental dimension (end), technological(tcd) and temporal dimensions (tpd) were selected for the study. the operational definitions for each dimensions and statements contributing to each dimensions of sustainability were identified and included in the interview schedule. finally, the sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivators was measured using sustainability index, and the relationship between sustainability and independent variables were calculated. findings and discussion the distribution of respondents based on sustainability indices is provided in table 1. table 1. distribution of respondents according to sustainability indices (n = 100) category percentage economic dimension sociopsychological dimension environmental dimension technological dimension temporal dimension low(<q1) 16.00 9.00 27.00 24.00 24.00 medium (q1 – q3) 12.00 55.00 66.00 71.00 72.00 high(>q3) 72.00 36.00 7.00 5.00 4.00 q1 = 16.64, q3 = 22.90 journal of extension education 5808 a perusal of table 1 reveals that, among these five dimensions of sustainability, economic dimension of sustainability had contributed seventy two per cent of the total sustainability followed by socio – psychological dimension (36 %), environmental dimension (7 %), technological dimension (5 %) and temporal dimension (4 %). the results depicted that majority (72 %) of the respondents had high rate of economic sustainability, which points towards the economic well-being of the commercial vegetable growers with the optimum level of production, efficient and eco-friendly use of resources, assured market and stable per capita income. the result also showed that, a commercial vegetable farmer become sustainable only if he had higher level of economic sustainability. thirty six percent of the respondents belonged to the high category with respect to socio – psychological dimension which indicates that the commercial vegetable growers gives importance to the recognition, prestige and status they got from the society. table 2 shows that more than half (55 %) of the respondents belonged to medium category in respect to sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation, whereas it was twenty three per cent in high category and twenty two per cent in low category. majority of the commercial vegetable cultivators of thiruvananthapuram district had table 2. distribution of respondents according to total sustainability (n = 100) category frequency percentage low (<q1) 22 22.00 medium ( q1 – q3) 55 55.00 high (>q3) 23 23.00 q1 = 13.20, q3 = 15.47 medium level of sustainability which was possibly due to the higher economic stability and social satisfaction they got from being a commercial vegetable grower. while comparing the four panchayats in terms of sustainability, the results showed that the f value of anova table was 0.3988 which was less than f critical value (2.6993), indicating that there was no significant difference in relation to sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation in these four panchayats. the respondents from the four panchayats had similar level of economic stability with optimum level of production, stable per capita income, and assured market. relationship between profile characteristics and sustainability the relationship between the profile characteristics of the vegetable growers and sustainability is presented in table 3. sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation : a multidimensional analysis 5809 table 3. correlation between sustainability and independent variables (n=100) independent variables correlation co efficient age -0.122 annual income 0.27** educational status 0.11 knowledge about kau practices 0.25** adoption of kau practices 0.24* perception towards feasibility of organic vegetable cultivation -0.22* farming experience 0.23* economic motivation 0.21* credit orientation -0.19 extension agency contact -0.13 market orientation 0.22* exposure to mass media 0.20* entrepreneurial behaviour 0.27** risk orientation 0.16 trainings undergone 0.25** incentives received 0.22 * * significant at 5 percent level ** significant at 1 percent level sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation was positively and significantly correlated with annual income, knowledge about kau practices, adoption of kau practices, farming experience, economic motivation, market orientation, exposure to mass media, entrepreneurial behaviour, trainings undergone and incentives received for commercial vegetable cultivation and it was negatively and significantly correlated with perception about the feasibility of commercial vegetable cultivation. a farmer with high innovativeness would be curious enough to use all improved practices related to commercial vegetable cultivation and initiate an enterprise of his/her own for income generation. this would have encouraged them to continue in commercial vegetable cultivation. trainings attended showed a significant and positive relationship with sustainability. trainings help the farmers to get aware and motivated about the economic and social advantages of commercial vegetable cultivation and would have led to sustainability. perception about feasibility of commercial organic vegetable cultivation had a negative but significant correlation with sustainability. factors such as less market options & profits might have been in the mind of the vegetable growers on organic vegetable cultivation, leading to this negative relationship. conclusion the sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation in thiruvananthapuram district was found to be medium. economic dimension of sustainability stands first among the various dimensions affecting journal of extension education 5810 sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation. to maintain the sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation in thiruvananthapuram district a comprehensive strategy is needed focusing on productivity enhancement and marketled extension approach. more investment in research and extension should also be undertaken to meet the upcoming challenges of commercial vegetable cultivation especially for pest and disease incidence. references anilkumar, a. s., jayakrishnakumar, v., john, j., govindan, m., farsanashamin, p., & sruthilakshmi, p. g. (2014). sustainable agriculture and organic farming study materials for stakeholders interested in participatory development of homestead farms of kerala. [study material]. college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, kasaragod, 123p. hani, f.j., laszlo, p. & hans, r. h. (2003). sustainable agriculture – from common principles to common practice. international institute for sustainable development and swiss college of agriculture. kau [kerala agricultural university]. (2011). package of practices recommendations: crops (14th ed.). kerala agricultural university, thrissur. sustainability of commercial vegetable cultivation : a multidimensional analysis 5984 attitude and perception of local inhabitants towards mangrove ecosystems k. dinesh, e.r. chinchu2 and m.t. geeji3 abstract conservation of the mangrove habitat is highly essential to protect the coastal regions and the livelihood of the local folk, mainly comprising fishermen community. involvement of local inhabitants is the key factor for the success of all ecosystem conservation activities. in the present study, the attitude and perceptions of local people of puduveypu area of ernakulam district, kerala towards the conservation of mangrove ecosystem were examined. a total of 1966 respondents were surveyed. among these, 52.3% of the villagers were positive and showed interests in the ecological importance of mangrove ecosystems. a small group of people viewed that mangroves restrict their developmental activities and consider them as a menace. the study illustrates that it is important to inculcate a mangrove friendly lifestyle among these communities for better conservation of this ecosystem. keywords: environmental awareness; environmental education; mangrove conservation; kerala 1. associate prof. and head, 2 & 3, research associates, kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies (kufos), panangad p.o., cochin, kerala 682 506. received : 23-01-2018; accepted : 03-04-2018 mangrove ecosystem is defined as an association of halophytic trees, shrubs, palms, vines and ferns. these plant groups have special physiological adaptations suitable for the saline and oxygen deficient growth conditions. most of the tropical and subtropical coastal wetlands are inhabited by mangroves, offering multiple uses (medicine, food, fire wood etc.) to the local inhabitants. this ecosystem enhances fishery of the region due to its high level of primary productivity and also can act as the coastal ‘bio shield’ to protect the coastal population from tsunami and other natural calamities. it is a fact that globally mangroves have been facing severe loss at a rate of 1 to 2% per year. the remaining segments of the global mangroves are also degraded very fast. this is mainly due to the conversion of mangrove forests to agriculture, aquaculture and urban development (giri et al., 2011). this study examines the attitude and research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5984-5987 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 5985 perception of people towards mangrove ecosystem. methodology the present study was conducted in puduveypu area, kochi, kerala as part of the project entitled “mangroves for fisheries and environmental enhancement in cochina comprehensive intervention through participatory approach” funded by science and engineering research board (serb), government of india. the major objective of the study was to assess the knowledge level of local inhabitants residing in puduveypu on the ecosystem services of mangroves and their perception on mangrove conservation. to have a first hand estimate about the overall public knowledge on mangrove habitat, a questionnaire survey was carried out among the local inhabitants with the help of 25 kudumbasree groups (bonafide groups formed under the women empowerment programme by the state poverty eradication mission (spem) of the government of kerala). altogether 1966 people were surveyed under the programme. the questions used for the survey were both semistructured and open ended, which helped to derive qualitative and quantitative information (guba and lincoln, 1994). the data were collected on many aspects including: 1. personal information 2. economic activities 3. awareness regarding the ecological services of mangroves 4. knowledge level on the nearest mangrove ecosystem 5. attitude towards conservation and developmental issues. descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data. findings and discussion among the respondents, 52.4% came under 26 to 35 years of age group and 34.4 % of the respondents are of the age group of 36 to 45 years. the comparatively young respondents (1525 years old) are less in number (6.2%) and the elderly adults (50-70 years old) participated in the survey constituted 6.8%. according to the survey, all the respondents were literate and had studies at least to the primary level. 59.4% had completed their graduation while the highest level of education was post graduation (21.6 %). daily labour (52.9%) and small scale business (13.1%) were the major livelihood agenda for the local communities. the average land holding size was about 4 to 20 cents. families which have the land area of more than 40 cents were very less. the average monthly income of the respondents ranged between rs. 5000/ and rs. 9000/-.the data show that all the households had mangrove plants in their premises. ample percentage of the households (65.3%) had high density of mangrove plants with more than one species in their premises. this shows that people who have good understanding on the ecological importance of mangrove ecosystem is very low in number (7.5%). the proportion of respondents who had heard about the ecological services of 5986 mangroves was 53.2%. percentage of the inhabitants who are ignorant on this aspect was 33%. only 7.5% of the respondents were well educated in this area (fig.1). 51.9% of the respondents had reported that they had heard about the mangrove ecosystem. only 4.9% of them do know about the mangrove ecosystem near their premises (fig.2). in general, the respondents were not much skilful in identifying mangrove plants from other coastal vegetation. among the total respondents, 39.7% felt that mangrove vegetation nearby their premises was a nuisance and restrict the developmental activities(fig.3). it is also noted that the people living near the mangrove ecosystem of puduveypu were not directly using these plants in their day to day life. but the elderly people reported that they had used mangroves as fire wood and house construction materials in their early ages. success of all ecosystem restoration programmes always depend upon the community participation. social and ecological systems should be linked scientifically for better sustainable conservation programmes. the current study clearly shows puduveypu area is rich in mangroves but the inhabitants of the region are not well aware about the ecological importance of these ecosystems. all the inhabitants have either true mangroves or mangrove associates within their house premises but their expertise in identifying the plants to species level remains minimal. in general, the people of the area including the educated class are not keen about the conservation need of mangroves. this highlights the need of improved environmental education. fig.1: ecological services fig.2 : knowledge on mangroves fig.3 : ability to differentiate mangroves from other coastal plants 5987 hence, the negative attitude of the inhabitants of the puduveypu mangrove ecosystem could be attributed to the lack of direct benefits from this ecosystem. this issue may be addressed with due care by implementing various awareness programmes by the scientific community, planners and policy makers. it is a proven fact that the relationships between coastal communities and their environment are complex and it is essential to gain the support from the rural communities who live adjacent to every ecosystem for the successful ecosystem management. therefore, in order to attain the sustainable local support for the conservation projects, the attitude and perception of different classes of people towards the specific ecosystem need to be understood. from the current study on the attitude and perceptions of the local inhabitants of puduveypu towards the mangrove ecosystem, it is concluded that most of the respondents showed positive attitude towards the need of awareness programme on the ecological importance of mangrove ecosystem. the planners and policy makers may look into the fact that so long as the cost of ecosystem conservation is more expensive than the benefits from that ecosystem, it may gradually bring down the people’s interest and participation. all the conservation programmes on environment should be designed in such a way that adequate care is given to facilitate the sustainable utilization of the resource potential. references giri, c.,e. ochieng, l.l. tieszen, z. zhu, a.singh, t. loveland, j. masek, & duke n. (2011). status and distribution of mangrove forests of the world using earth observation satellite data. global ecology and biogeography 23:154-159 guba, e.g. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in: denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (eds.), handbook of qualitative research. sage, london, pp. 105-117. mcclanahan, t.r., maina, j., & davies, j., (2005). factors influencing resource users and m a n a g e r s ’ perceptions towards marine protected area management in kenya. environmental conservation 32 (1): 4249. patton, m.q. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods, sage, newbury park, california, 532 pp. 5811 farmers’ preferences for mobile agro advisory services d. prabha 1 and r. arunachalam 2 abstract this study was conducted in coimbatore district of tamil nadu to understand the service preferences of the mobile agro advisory services offered by the public extension system. the agro advisories offered by the e-extension centre of tamil nadu agricultural university were selected for the study. a sample of 200 respondents was selected employing proportionate random sampling method. the study was carried out in terms of dimensions viz., technical components, message frequency and timings, message physical dimension, message channel and message follow up. results of the survey showed that among the technical components majority of the respondents opined that the information on advance warning of weather risks was very much adequate, the messages on plant protection were relevant and that the messages on advance warning of weather risks were timely. with reference to the message frequency, a majority preferred frequency of the messages on daily basis and preferred to receive messages during mornings. keywords : agro-advisory service; mobile phone; preferences; tamil nadu 1. ph.d. scholar and 2. professor, dept. of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-3 received : 14-03-2017; accepted : 4-08-2017 introduction mobile phone is a key component of agricultural development of farmers to improve the production and productivity of the cultivation. all over india, agricultural universities, krishi vigyan kendras, private sector and non government organizations send agricultural information to farmers through short message services (sms) and voice calls. messages covering agricultural inputs such as seed, fertilizer and cultivation techniques, plant protection, harvesting, weather forecasting and other location based information are sent to farmers. a national survey of farmers had found that only 40 per cent of farmer households accessed information about modern agricultural techniques and inputs (nsso, 2005). in overall information and communication technologies (ict) usage and applications, the mobile phone has been regarded as a more accessible and less expensive means to bridge the digital divide (wade, 2004). with regard to the usage of mobile phone networking in agricultural journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5811-5817 5812 development, tamil nadu has huge number of farmers subscribed to the mobile agro advisory services from public, private and ngos sectors. among the public sector mobile agro service providers viz., tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) and state department of agriculture are providing sms advisories to farmers in tamil nadu. among these, tnau is the prominent technology provider and its subscribers density, geo graphical coverage and technology coverage are comparatively higher and hence sms based agro advisories of tnau was selected for the present study. the e-extension centre of tamil nadu agricultural university facilitates the sms agro advisory services in tamil nadu. the main objective of the present study is to understand the farmers’ preferences of mobile agro advisory services in tamil nadu. methodology the study was conducted in coimbatore district of tamil nadu considering the vast subscription by farmers in the district. annur and kinathukadavu blocks of coimbatore district were selected for the study considering the coverage of subscribers the of the service. the study sample comprised 200 farmers (annur 107, kinathukadavu – 93). the respondents from each block were selected by employing proportionate random sampling method. an ex post facto research design was used and structured questionnaire was prepared and administered to collect data, by face to face interaction. data were coded and tabulated. the statistical software spss was used to analyze the data. service preference was assessed in the terms of technical components, message frequency and timings, message physical dimension, message channel and message follow up. findings and discussion technical components under technical components, respondents’ preferences were assessed with the response categories such as ‘adequacy (adequate or inadequate)’, ‘relevancy (relevant or not relevant) ’, and ‘timeliness (timely or untimely)’. message adequacy it is apparent from table 1 that majority (74.00 %) of the respondents expressed that the technical input on advance warning of weather risks was adequate, followed by crop disease (71.00 %), price of raw materials (68.00 %), fertilizers application (67.50 %), and pesticide related information (54.00 %).with regard to the inadequate services, 100 per cent of the respondents had expressed that the information on cold storage networks and transportation were inadequate, followed by 98.50 per cent stated that the information input related with the export price, new crop varieties (93.50 %), seeds (89.00 %), local price (81.00 %) and cultivation techniques (62.50 %) were felt inadequate. farmers’ preferences for mobile agro advisory services 5813 message relevancy it could be inferred from the findings that majority of the respondents expressed that they received relevant messages on table 1. service preferences of the respondents (n=200) sl. no. particulars adequacy* relevancy* timeliness* adequate inadequate relevant not relevant timely untimely no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % a) technical components 1. cultivation techniques 75 37.50 125 62.50 136 68.00 64 32.00 172 86.00 28 14.00 2. new crop varieties 13 6.50 187 93.50 43 21.50 157 78.50 67 33.50 133 66.50 3. crop disease 142 71.00 58 29.00 173 86.50 27 13.50 189 94.50 11 5.50 4. seeds 22 11.00 178 89.00 57 28.50 143 71.50 73 36.50 127 63.50 5. fertilizers application 135 67.50 65 32.50 163 81.50 37 18.50 185 92.50 15 7.50 6. pesticides 108 54.00 92 46.00 155 77.50 45 22.50 181 90.50 19 9.50 7. advance warning of weather risks 148 74.00 52 26.00 164 82.00 36 18.00 191 95.5 9 4.50 8. cold storage networks 200 100.00 200 100.00 200 100.00 9. transportation 200 100.00 200 100.00 200 100.00 10. price of raw materials 136 68.00 64 32.00 97 48.50 103 51.50 126 63.00 74 37.00 11. local price 38 19.00 162 81.00 94 47.00 106 53.00 129 64.50 71 35.50 12. export price 3 1.50 197 98.50 2 1.00 198 99.00 9 4.50 191 95.50 (* multiple responses) crop disease (86.50 %), advance warning of weather risks (82.00 %), fertilizers application (81.50 %), pesticides (77.50 %) and cultivation techniques (68.00 %). journal of extension education 5814 message timings it is observed from table 1 that majority (95.50 %) of the respondents had expressed that they received timely messages on advance warning of weather risks, followed by crop disease. further, they considered the receipt of some of the messages as untimely such as those related with cold storage networks and transportation (100.00 %), export price (95.50 %), new crop varieties (66.50 %) and the seeds (63.50 %). preferred frequency of messages it was found out that majority (53.50 %) of the respondents preferred to receive the messages on daily basis, followed by 23.50 per cent of the respondents preferred to receive the messages once in 2 days, weekly basis (9.50 %), monthly basis (7.00 %) and the rest 6.50 per cent of the respondents preferred to receive the messages occasionally receiving. preferred time of receiving messages it was found out that majority (55.00 %) of the respondents preferred to receive the messages during ‘morning hours’, followed by 21.00 per cent of the respondents’ preferred timings of the messages was during ‘anytime’. the other preferences such as during ‘afternoon’ (12.50 %), during ‘night’ (7.50 %) and during ‘evening’ hours (2.50 %) were also observed in this study. preferred length of the messages the distribution of respondents according to their preferred length of the messages is presented in table 2. table 2. distribution of respondents according to their preferred length of the messages sl. no. preferred frequency of the messages number (n=200) percen tage 1. 100 words 7 3.50 2. 150 words 19 9.50 3. 180 words 13 6.50 4. 200 words 4 2.00 5. as per the regular length (50 – 100 words) 157 78.50 total 200 100.00 it could be seen from table 2 that a vast majority (78.50 %) of the respondents stated that the present regular length of the messages was their choice, followed by 9.50 per cent of the respondents preferred their choice of length as 150 words per message. preference on the language usage it was found out that little less than half (48.00 %) of the respondents preferred the message strictly to be their local language, followed by 21.50 per cent of the respondents stated that the farmers’ preferences for mobile agro advisory services 5815 scientific terminologies can be included in messages. mix up of english with local language was preferred by about one tenth of the respondents (19.00 %). the rest 11.50 per cent of the respondents stated that they are not very specific with the use of language with regard to the sms based advisories. form of the messages the distribution of respondents according to their preferred form of the messages is presented in table 3. table 3. distribution of respondents according to their preferred form of messages (n=200) sl. no. form of messages number* percen tage 1. text alone 200 100.00 2. voice alone 97 48.50 3. video alone 112 56.00 4. picture alone 105 52.50 5. text to be supported with audio 130 65.00 6. text to be supported with video 137 68.50 7. text to be supported with pictures 145 72.50 (* multiple responses) it is clear that 100 per cent of the respondents preferred only text based messages, followed by nearly three-fourth (72.50 %) of the respondents preferred text messages with pictures, 68.50 per cent preferred as text to be supported with video, 65.00 per cent preferred as text to be supported with audio. fifty six per cent of the respondents preferred only video messages, followed by picture alone (52.50 %) and 48.50 per cent of the respondents preferred voice alone. message channel the distribution of respondents according to their preferred message channel is presented in table 4. table 4. distribution of respondents according to their preferred message channel (n=200) sl. no. preferred frequency of the messages number percen tage 1. sms 200 100.00 2. whatsapp 77 38.50 3. telegram app 0.00 4. viber app 0.00 5. e mails 47 23.50 6. other social media tools like fb / twitter / blogs / linkedin / others 47 23.50 (* multiple responses) journal of extension education 5816 it is revealed from table 7 that 100 per cent of the respondents preferred to receive messages through sms, followed by 38.50 per cent of the respondents preferred whatsapp mode and 23.50 per cent of the respondents preferred emails and social media tools like facebook as their choice of channels. the findings reveal that 100 percentage of the respondents preferred follow-up messages. even though 100 percent of the respondents preferred only follow up messages, 14 respondents were also willing to receive the same messages repeatedly. their preference on the choice of technical information was also stated. they stated that they were very much willing to receive technical messages on seed varieties, cultivation techniques, marketing, application of fertilizers, weather forecast and crop protection. futher, the above 14 respondents were found to differ in their preference on the frequency of message repetition such as once, twice and thrice. here 13 per cent of the respondents stated that they were willing to receive the same message in one week interval and the remaining respondents preferred 15 days interval. conclusion this study assessed the farmers’ preferences of mobile agro advisory services in tamil nadu. according to the findings, messages on crop disease, fertilizer application, pesticides and advance warning of weather risks of the messages were felt as adequate, relevant and timely messages by the farmers. but messages on new crop varieties, seeds, cold storage, transportation and export price were felt as inadequate, irrelevant and untimely by the famers. most of the farmers preferred to receive messages on daily basis and during morning hours. farmers preferred the regular length of the messages and strict use of local language (75100 words). they preferred text form of messages through sms mode. timeliness is a factor that impacts agricultural information to a great extent. late or too early messages do not have much utility for the farmers. in addition to text messages, picture, voice, video text to be supported with pictures and voice based services need to be initiated to make them more interactive and be in line with the changing needs of the next generation users and mobile phones. agricultural information should be beyond the regular length of the messages to provide clarity of information for the farmers. references jayanthi, m. & asokhan, m. (2016) constraints faced by m-kisan users. journal of extension education, 28(1) nsso.(2005). situation assessment survey of farmers: access to modern technology for farming. national sample survey, 59th round report, 499 (59/33/2). new delhi: goi. farmers’ preferences for mobile agro advisory services 5817 rebello, j. (2010). indian cell phone penetration to reach 97 percent in 2014. retrieved from http://www. isuppli.com/ mobile-and-wirelesscommunications/news/pages/indiacell-phone-penetration-to-reach-97percent-in-2014.aspx. wade, r.h. (2004) bridging the digital divide: new route to development or new form of dependency, new york: oxford university press. journal of extension education 6173 involvement of farm women groups in the planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables in kerala revathy chandran 1 and g. s. sreedaya2 abstract kerala is a consumer state as far as vegetables are concerned. major share of the fresh vegetable supply for the state comes from neighbouring states. promoting vegetable cultivation in the state coupled with suitable marketing mechanism will not only help to make the state self reliant in vegetable production but also ensure year round availability of quality vegetables. the study was conducted in six panchayats of kollam district in kerala which includes the selected women groups of kudumbashree, vegetable and fruit promotion council keralam (vfpck) and agricultural technology management agency (atma). there were two categories of respondents viz, members of farm women groups and the extension facilitators. according to the study, majority of the women farmers showed medium level of involvement in the planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables. it can be inferred that the variable increase in income showed a positive and significant relationship with planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables. achievement motivation also showed a significant positive relationship with production. keywords : farm women, production; marketing; vegetables; planning; kerala 1. pg. scholar (agricultural extension) and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6173-6176 introduction there are so many constraints which restrict the production of vegetables. the most important constraint is the average size of land holding which is subjected to fragmentation. the recommended intake. india is the largest producer of many fresh fruits and vegetables (fao, 2010). india is the second largest producer of vegetables with an annual production of 87.53 million tonnes from 5.86 million hectare having a share of 14.4% of the world population. in india, fruits and vegetables occupy nearly 4.24 percent of area (haque, 2003). until recently kerala was a consumer state, when the total requirement is 27 lakh tonnes the state could produce only 6 lakh tonnes (anonymous, 2015). methodology the study was conducted in six panchayats of kollam district of kerala which includes the selected women groups of kudumbashree, vegetable and fruit promotion council keralam (vfpck) and agricultural technology management agency (atma). there were two categories of respondents viz., members of farm women groups and the extension received : 15-03-2018; accepted : 26-04-2018 6174 facilitators. six panchayats were identified from the district based on the number of maximum farm women groups i.e, purposeful sampling and one group was selected from each panchayat by random sampling, thus six groups were selected and 15 members were selected randomly from each of the selected six groups. thirty extension functionaries from kollam district were selected randomly. thus a total of 120 respondents was the sample size for this study. the data was collected using pre tested interview schedule, pra (participatory rural appraisal) and focus group discussions. findings and discussion the findings of the study are given in this section. a perusal of table 1 showed that majority of the women farmers (58 %) showed medium level of involvement in the planning and 23 per cent of the farm women exhibited low involvement in planning, whereas only 19 percent of the farm women showed high level of involvement in the planning. according to table 1, 56 per cent of the farm women had medium involvement in production aspects of vegetables. only 24 % of the farm women showed higher involvement and 20 percent of the farm women showed low involvement. majority of the respondents (58%) showed medium involvement in the marketing aspects of vegetables. on the contrary, 24 per cent showed high involvement in marketing and an 18% showed low involvement in the marketing of vegetables. from table 2, it can be inferred that the variable increase in income showed a positive and significant relationship with planning (0.236), production (0.446) and marketing aspects of vegetables (0.301). achievement motivation also showed a significant positive table 1 distribution of respondents based on their involvement (n=90) sl. no category score range freq uency percen tage distribution of respondents based on their involvement in planning 1 low <96 21 23 2 medium 96-105 52 58 3 high >105 17 19 distribution of respondents based on their involvement in production of vegetables 1 low <37 18 20 2 medium 37-44 50 56 3 high >44 22 24 sl. no category score range freq uency percen tage distribution of respondents based on their involvement in marketing aspects of vegetables 1 low <19 16 18 2 medium 19-24 52 58 3 high >24 22 24 journal of extension education 6175 relationship with production (0.212). rest of the variables possessed a non significant relationship with planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables. increase in income motivates the farmers to have a systematic and scientific approach towards farming. an increase in income would make the farm women realize the importance of planning and knowing the market for the production of vegetables. so this may be the reason for the positive and significant relationship between increase in income and planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables. the urge to achieve something is a motivating factor that raises the energy of the group members and hence it helps in enhancing the productivity. the people with achievement motivation have a high positive energy which helps to overcome the different barriers in production and thereby improves the productivity. conclusion the study in planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetable cultivation revealed that majority of the respondents had medium involvement in planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetable cultivation. from the correlation analysis it was found that the variable increase in income showed a significant positive relationship with planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables. achievement motivation showed a positive significant relationship with the production aspect. since an increase in income showed a positive relationship with planning, production & marketing aspects of vegetables, the extension agents need to focus on ‘income generation’ while formulation extension strategies for such women groups. references anonymous. (2015). reduction in vegetable table 2 correlation of planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables with independent variables (n=90) sl. no independent variables planning production marketing 1 age -0.005 0.073 0.203 2 education 0.155 0.173 0.122 3 annual income -0.037 -0.019 -0.052 4 increase in income 0.236* 0.446* 0.301* 5 area under vegetable cultivation -0.091 0.198 -0.043 6 social participation -0.108 0.133 -0.089 7 achievement motivation 0.015 0.212* -0.050 8 economic motivation 0.002 -0.035 0.083 *-significant at 5% level. involvement of farm women groups in the planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables in kerala 6176 flow to trivandrum from tamil nadu. mathrubhumi, 3 june.2015,p.4. fao. (2010). the state of food and agriculture. food and agriculture organisations of united states, rome. haque, t. (2003). decent work in agriculture in india in. a report of the asian regional workshop 18th to 21st august 2003, international labour office, bangkok. journal of extension education 5719 role of women in ethno veterinary practices s.vigil anbiah1 and r.vijayalakshmi2 abstract a study was conducted to assess the involvement of women in various components of ethno veterinary practices in cuddalore and nagapattinam districts of tamil nadu state. it was found that assisting the traditional practitioner was the most preferred activity where women involved with much enthusiasm in both cuddalore and nagapattinam districts. keywords: ethno veterinary, women, livestock, india 1.head-in-charge, central animal house, rajah muthiah medical college, annamalai university and 2. associate professor and head, department of animal husbandry, annamalai university. annamalai nagar – 608 002, tamil nadu, india. received : 17-07-2017; accepted : 01-08-2017 medicinal plants, since time immemorial, have been used in virtually all cultures as a source of medicine. the use of traditional medicine and medicinal plants in most developing countries, as a normative basis for the maintenance of good health, has been widely observed (unesco, 1996). ethno-veterinary medicine (evm) is a system that is based on folk beliefs, traditional knowledge, skills, methods and practices pertaining to the healthcare of animals that are rarely codified and transmitted orally from generation to generation (mathiasmundy & mccorkle, 1989; tabuti et al, 2003). this knowledge is based on close observation of animals and/or the oral transmission of experience from one generation to the next. it is perceived as simple, cost-effective, environment friendly, contextually appropriate and culture-based (kolawale et al, 2007) women possess indigenous knowledge to treat diseases using medicinal plant compounds, manipulative techniques, herd management as well as socio-cultural procedures. involvement of women in small holder livestock system would improve the livelihood standards by more profit oriented activities. however the participation of women in ethno-veterinary practices is decreasing. hence a study was conducted to assess the role of women in ethno veterinary practices among the livestock farmers of cuddalore and nagapattinam districts of tamil nadu. methodology the study was conducted in research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5719-5722 5720 cuddalore and nagapattinam districts of tamil nadu state. these districts were identified by the planning commission of india as disadvantaged districts of tamil nadu and the farmers are engaged in low cost livestock rearing activities. hence a low cost treatment facility to livestock farmers will be of much use and therefore an initiative to assess the role of women in ethno veterinary practices was taken up to know their respective roles in handling medicinal plants and herbs. a sample of 150 respondents in each of the districts was finalised for the data collection.to understand the role of women in ethno veterinary practices, the respondents were given a set of questions in the regional language designed for this purpose. a well structured and pretested interview schedule was used for the collection of data. findings and discussion the details of participation of women in various ethno veterinary practices in cuddalore & nagapattinam districts are furnished in table 1. table 1. role of women in ethno veterinary practices in cuddalore & nagapattinam districts (n=150) sl. no. activities district cuddalore nagapattinam no. % no. % 1. assisting the traditional practitioners 99 66.00 101 67.30 2. preparation of herbal extract 40 26.70 34 22.70 3. marketing of poly herbal medicines 06 4.00 09 6.00 4. feeding poly herbal extract to animals 04 2.70 06 4.00 5. gathering medicinal plants 01 0 .60 0 0.00 total 150 100 150 100 from table 1, it is understood that nearly two-thirds of women in both the districts (66.00% in cuddalore district and 67.30 % in nagapattinam district) were actively involved in assisting the traditional practitioners in treating the animals. assistance to traditional practitioners is the most preferred activity of women because of their knowledge reinforcement and learning opportunities to prepare and market herbal preparations. by this, women get a chance to know about the ethnoveterinary practices. the traditional healers also expect the active assistance of the owners of the herds while treating role of women in ethno veterinary practices 5721 the animals. about one-fourth of the women respondents (26.70 % and 22.70% respectively from cuddalore and nagapattinam districts) played a very significant role in the preparation of herbal extract for treating the animals. in indigenous treatment women prepared the herbal extract under the guidance and supervision of indigenous practitioners. marketing of poly herbal medicine for domestic livestock is done by a very few respondents. (4.00 % in cuddalore district and 6.00 % in nagapattinam district). as more number of modern (allopathy) veterinary clinics are established in these districts the marketing of poly-herbal extract does not remain a lucrative enterprise. hence very less number of women are involved in it. gathering of medicinal plants in the nearby forest areas, bushes, meadows etc were usually done by women in earlier days. but at present gathering of medicinal plants is a hectic task which could not be accomplished by women work force. it requires enormous trekking in high altitude ranges to gather medicinal plants. women did not show interest possibly due to their family responsibilities. also it provides them very poor revenue. hence women respondents had almost stopped this practice. in general, people prefer to get treatment for their livestock in modern veterinary dispensaries instituted by the government where free services are offered. hence the number of ethno veterinary practitioners is decreasing and women also play very little role in ethno-veterinary treatment. however considering the significance of ethno veterinary medicines it is high time to document these practices and preserve the wealth of the knowledge of the indigenous veterinary practices. it is concluded that ethno veterinary practices is traditional knowledge which is based on close observation of animals and oral transmission of management as well as treatment experience from one generation to the other. though it is perceived as simple, cost-effective and eco friendly , the role of women in this activity brings rural sustainable livelihood with low external input for livestock rearing. though there are certain demerits in the involvement of women in terms of their family commitments, their association with the traditional practitioners in the preparation of herbal formulations would give a sustainable income to their families. this trend was observed in the respondents interviewed in both the cuddalore and nagapattinam districts of tamil nadu. references kolawole, o.d., okorie. v.o., ogidiowa. m.t., & adeogun m.o. (2007). ethno-veterinary practices amongst smallholder farmers in ekiti state, nigeria. african journal of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine. 4,434–442 journal of extension education 5722 mundy mathias, e. & mccorkle c. m. (1989). ethnoveterinary medicine: an annotated bibliography, bibliographies in technology and social change. technology and social change program, series no 6, iowa state university. tabuti, j.r.s., dhillion, s.s. & lye, k.a. (2003). ethno veterinary medicine for cattle (bos indicus) in bulamogi county uganda: plant species and mode of use. journal of ethnopharmacology, 88:279-286. unesco (1996). culture and health, orientation texts – world decade for cultural development 1988 1997, document clt/dec/pro – 1996, paris, france. role of women in ethno veterinary practices 6195 factors influencing the adoption of recommended package of practices by pepper growers of wayanad district, kerala meenu eliyas1 and p. sumathi2 abstract the study aims to assess the relationship between the profile of the farmers with their adoption level on recommended package of practices on pepper cultivation. the study was conducted in panamaram block of wayanad district in kerala and proportionate random sampling was employed to select a sample of 120 members from the selected three villages of the block. it was observed that the factors viz., educational status, farm size, area under pepper cultivation, income, social participation, extension agency contact, mass media exposure, innovativeness, trainings undergone, market decision and market potential showed positive significant correlation at one per cent level of probability and market perception showed positive significant correlation at five per cent level of probability towards adoption level. results revealed that one unit increase in the independent variables viz., farm size, extension agency contact and market decision would increase the adoption level by 2.549, 1.033 and 1.159 units respectively. keywords: pepper, wayanad, adoption; factor; kerala 1pg scholar and 2professor (agricultural extension), department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore 641 003, tamil nadu. research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6195-6198 black pepper (piper nigrum l.), called as ‘black gold’ and the ‘king of spices’ has been an important agricultural commodity in india since pre-historic period. it is the most important and mostly widely used spice in the world. pepper is a woody climber, grown in the south western region of india, comprising the states kerala, parts of karnataka, tamil nadu and goa, the entire region once known as malabar, a name now used restrictively to mean only the northern part of kerala. the humid tropical evergreen forests bordering the malabar coast (the western ghats, one of the hot spot areas of plant bio-diversity on earth) is the centre of origin and diversity of pepper. the malabar coast was involved in the cultivation and trade of pepper from very early times. from here pepper was taken to indonesia, malaysia and subsequently to other pepper growing countries. in pepper production, vietnam is followed by indonesia, india, brazil and china. improved levels of adoption in india might have contributed to its high pepper production. this emphasises the need to study the factors influencing adoption of pepper cultivation practices so that appropriate strategies may be designed to further improve the production and productivity levels. in india, kerala has the maximum area (84,065 ha) under pepper received : 27-04-2018; accepted : 07-06-2018 6196 cultivation and stands first in its production (20,000 tonnes). over 75 cultivars of pepper are being cultivated in india. karimunda is the most popular cultivar in kerala. a total of 18 improved varieties of pepper have been released for cultivation. panniyur-1, panniyur-3 and panniyur-8 are hybrids evolved at the pepper research station, panniyur (kerala agricultural university). iisr girimunda and iisr malabar excel are the two hybrids released from icar-indian institute of spices research (department of agriculture, 2013). methodology the study was conducted in wayanad district of kerala as the district is one among those districts having more area under pepper cultivation and taking in to account the familiarity of the researcher with the socioeconomic conditions of pepper growers, cultural milieu and local dialect of the people. out of the four blocks in wayanad, panamaram bock was purposively selected for the reason that it had more area under pepper cultivation. among the nine villages in panamaram block, three villages namely irulam, padichira, pulpally were purposively selected for the study considering maximum area under pepper cultivation. a sample of 120 farmers were selected using proportionate random sampling technique. fifteen factors viz., age, educational status, occupational status, farm size, area under pepper cultivation, farming experience in pepper cultivation, annual income, social participation, extension agency contact, mass media exposure, innovativeness, trainings undergone, market perception, market decision and market potential found to influence adoption were considered for the study. data were collected through a wellstructured and pre-tested interview schedule. the statistical tools such as percentage analysis, mean and standard deviation, simple correlation and multiple regression were used to analyse the collected data. findings and discussion the analysis on relationship between the profile characters and the adoption level of pepper growers in wayanad district revealed that the variables viz., educational status (x2), farm size (x4), area under pepper cultivation (x5), income (x7), social participation (x8), extension agency contact (x9), mass media exposure (x10), innovativeness (x11), trainings undergone (x12), market decision (x14) and market potential (x15) showed positive significant correlation at one per cent level of probability and market perception (x11) showed positive significant correlation at five per cent level of probability. remaining three variables did not show any significant association with adoption level of pepper growers. multiple regression analysis was taken up to find out contribution of independent variable to the adoption level of respondents. the r2 value was 0.500. the r2 value has shown that all variables contributed to 50.00 per cent of variation in the adoption level among the respondents. therefore the equation was worked out and given below. y1 = 53.810 – 0.024 (x1) + 0.287 (x2) + 0.125 (x3) + 2.549 (x4)* – 0.050 (x5) – 0.134 (x6) – journal of extension education 6197 0.00001268 (x7) + 1.169 (x8) + 1.033 (x9)* + 0.287 (x10) + 0.489 (x11) + 1.526 (x12) + 0.186 (x13) + 1.159 (x14)* – 0.136 (x15) the results indicated that the variables viz., farm size (x4), extension agency contact (x9) and market decision (x14) showed positive and significant contribution at five per cent level of probability. results also revealed that one unit increase in the following independent variables viz., farm size (x4), extension agency contact (x9) and market decision (x14) would increase the adoption level by 2.549, 1.033 and 1.159 units respectively. since pepper has got more importance in the study area, farm size (x4) had shown positive and significant contribution table 1. relationship of profile of the farmers with adoption level of recommended technologies (n=120) sl. no. variables ‘r’ value regression co-efficient standard error ‘t’ value x1 age -0.101 -0.024 0.078 -0.310 ns x2 educational status 0.278** 0.287 0.439 0.655 ns x3 occupational status -0.075 0.125 0.475 0.262 ns x4 farm size 0.340** 2.549 1.204 2.116* x5 area under pepper cultivation 0.286** -0.050 0.463 -0.108 ns x6 experience -0.059 -0.134 1.192 -0.113 ns x7 income 0.342** -0.00001268 0.000 -1.120 ns x8 social participation 0.547** 1.169 0.641 1.824 ns x9 extension agency contact 0.454** 1.033 0.487 2.123* x10 mass media exposure 0.278** 0.287 0.439 0.655 ns x11 innovativeness 0.387** 0.489 1.158 0.423 ns x12 trainings undergone 0.540** 1.526 0.820 1.862 ns x13 market perception 0.218* 0.816 0.562 1.452 ns x14 market decision 0.454** 1.159 0.464 2.498* x15 market potential 0.593** -0.136 0.256 -0.530 ns significant at five per cent level r2 = 0.500 ** significant at one per cent level f = 7.490 ns non-significant factors influencing the adoption of recommended package of practices by pepper growers of wayanad district, kerala 6198 with adoption level. due to the need for technological guidance to understand the scientific cultivation practices of pepper, extension agency contact (x9) among the farmers also had a positive significant contribution with adoption level. the findings are in line with the findings of venkatesan (2000). the contribution of market decision (x14) with adoption level was found to be positive and significant which is due to the knowledge that farmers had obtained through high level of experience in pepper cultivation. references department of agriculture (2013). facts and figures of agriculture in kerala. department of agriculture, thiruvananthapuram. venkatesan, s. (2000). awareness, knowledge and adoption level of recommended tomato cultivation practices. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, tnau, coimbatore. journal of extension education untitled-1 5633 farmers’ perception on innovations in technology dissemination (itd) methods namitha reghunath1 and n. kishore kumar2 abstract innovations in technology dissemination (itd) is a part of agricultural extension system, concerned with transmitting information and knowledge of important agricultural technology from research to farmer. the present study was conducted in kannur district of kerala to identify the perception of farmers on itd methods implemented by different agricultural institutions in kannur district with special reference to kannur krishi vigyan kendra (kvk). thirty farmers each from four selected grama panchayats (ezhome, kankolalapadamba, kadannapallipanapuzha and mayyil) of kannur were identified using simple random sampling and a total of one hundred and twenty respondents were included in the study. a well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting the data from the respondents. the data were tabulated and inferences were drawn after appropriate statistical analysis. majority of the farmers had medium level of perception on itd methods followed by low level. keywords : itd, kvk, personal interview, perception, kerala, farmer. journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 1p.g. scholar and 2professor, department of agriculture extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani, kerala. received : 03-11-2016; accepted : 06-12-2016 introduction most of the farmers in india are small and marginal farmers with less land holding and poor in idea about new technologies. extension in many countries has come to encompass a wide range of activities in both the public and private sectors, yet the exchange of information continues to be the primary focus of all extension activities. earlier, agricultural extension in india was considered to be the monopoly of the public sector but with the wide range of demands for agricultural technology in changing scenarios there is a growing recognition that public extension by itself cannot meet the specific needs of various regions and different classes of farmers. this has lead to the emergence of pluralistic system, that include public, private and all other agencies which serve as knowledge or information agents that facilitate mutually meaningful and equitable knowledge based transactions among agricultural researchers, trainers and primary producers. the major activities of public extension system 5634 journal of extension education at the district level are assessment, refinement and demonstration of technology / products through a network of krishi vigyan kendras (kvks), the departments of agriculture, agricultural technology management agency (atma) and agricultural technology information centres (atic) established under indian council of agricultural research (icar) institutes, state agricultural universities (saus) etc. along with public extension agencies non-governmental organizations (ngos) play an important role in technology dissemination. innovations in technology dissemination (itd) is part of the agricultural extension system which is primarily concerned with transmitting information and knowledge of important agricultural technology. kannur kvk had introduced a variety of innovations for technology dissemination and in 2009 it bagged the national best kvk award among the 589 kvks in the country. the itd methods implemented by the kvk include compact area group approach (caga), farmers science congress, farmers science museum, tele cine drama (thengukalude nilavili), nabard kvk farmers club, training programmes for farm entrepreneurs, kvk mall, sbi kvk loan window, formation of mussel farmers club, participatory production of planting materials and vegetable seeds, formation of farmer producer organizations, agrobio pharmacy, release of video and multimedia cds related to various practices, farmers field school and distributing various brochures and publications. methodology the study was conducted in kannur district with special reference to kannur kvk. from the eleven block panchayats present in kannur, taliparamba, kalliasseri, payyanur and irikkur blocks were selected based on the agro ecological zones of the district and from these four blocks, four grama panchayats viz, ezhome, kankol alapadamba, kadannapallipanapuzha, and mayyil were selected after consulting each block panchayat office. a list of progressive farmers from each grama panchayat were collected from successive krishi bhavans and thirty farmers each were selected by simple random sampling, the total number of respondents were one hundred and twenty. a well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting the data from the respondents. perception of farmers on innova tions in technology dissemination (itd) methods perceptions indicate the users view of a technology/method/initiative, which is formed based on his or her previous experiences. (sivakumar and sulaiman, 2015). perception in this case was operationalized as the farmer’s opinion towards various innovations in technology dissemination implemented by different agricultural institutions in kannur district. to measure the perception of farmers, the scale 5635 developed by preethi et al.,(2014) with slight modification was used. this scale consists of ten statements measured in a five point continuum namely, strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. table 1. scale to measure farmers’ opinion towards itd sl.no. statements sa a ud da sda 1. innovations in technology dissemination(itd) methods are more effective than conventional methods 2. itd helps farmers to access new technologies and products easily. 3. social media play a crucial role in technology dissemination 4. group approach of itd is more effective than individual approach 5. innovations using ict is more effective for technology dissemination 6. participative decision making is ensured in the implementation of the itd methods 7. farmers get an opportunity to take leadership in technology dissemination process. 8. greater economic prosperity can be achieved through the itd methods. 9. participative skill training helps farmers to adopt new technologies and methods. 10. farmers get an opportunity to introduce their own innovations to the farming community. scoring procedure for measuring perception of farmers are 5 for strongly agree (sa), 4 for agree (a), 3 for undecided (ud), 2 for disagree (da) and 1 for strongly disagree (sda) based on the scores the perception index was calculated using the formula individual subject’s score x 100 perception index (pi) = total score farmers’ perception on innovations in technology dissemination (itd) methods 5636 findings and discussion the data collected were tabulated and inferences were drawn after appropriate statistical analysis. perception of farmers on itd methods were categorized into low, medium and high based on mean and standard deviation. majority of the respondents had medium level (62.5%) of perception on itd methods followed by low level (27.5%). only 10 percent of the respondents had high level of perception on itd methods implemented by kannur kvk and other agricultural institutions in kannur district. perception index was calculated based on individual statement scores and it is shown in table 2. table 2. perception index (pi) sl. no. statements pi 1. innovations in technology dissemination(itd) methods are more effective than conventional methods 81.16 2. itd helps farmers to access new technologies and products easily. 81 3. group approach of itd is more effective than individual approach 80.5 4. participative skill training helps farmers to adopt new technologies and methods. 76.17 5. innovations using ict is more effective for technology dissemination 75.5 6. participative decision making is ensured in the implementation of the itd methods 75 7. greater economic prosperity can be achieved through the itd methods. 74.6 8. social media play a crucial role in technology dissemination 70.33 9. farmers get an opportunity to take leadership in technology dissemination process. 68.17 10. farmers get an opportunity to introduce their own innovations to the farming community. 61.17 journal of extension education 5637 from table 2, it is observed that the statements viz., ‘innovations in technology dissemination (itd) methods are more effective than conventional methods’, ‘itd helps farmers to access new technologies and products easily’ and ‘group approach of itd is more effective than individual approach’ were perceived as best by the farmers with perception index of 81.16, 81, and 80.5 respectively. more than half of the farmers opined that latest ict based farmer oriented technology dissemination methods will be more effective than conventional methods, but majority of them were not aware of the newly introduced methods for technology transfer. conclusion the concept of innovations in technology dissemination (itd) was initiated as a component of national agriculture technology project (natp) and it is primarily concerned with transmitting information and knowledge of important agricultural technology from research to farmer. perception of farmers on innovations in technology dissemination methods implemented by different agricultural institutions in kannur district was calculated and it shows that majority of the respondents had medium level (62.5%) of perception on itd methods followed by low level (27.5%). only 10 percent of the respondents had high level of perception on itd methods implemented by kannur kvk and other agricultural institutions in kannur district. references preethi, m. s., nataraju. m.s. & lakshminarayan, m. t. (2014). development of a scale to measure perception of farm youth towards agriculture. international journal of extension education, 10, 165-167. sivakumar, p.s., & sulaiman, v.r. (2015). extension research in india : current status and future strategies. retrieved from: http://www.g-fras. o r g / e n / f o r u m / 2 a l l t o p i c s / 8 2 9 extension-research-in-india-currentstatus-future-strategies.html farmers’ perception on innovations in technology dissemination (itd) methods untitled-1 5659 technology utilization of banana in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala s. thasneem1 and b. seema2 abstract the present study conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala involved 90 commercial banana growers, the objective of the study was to assess the level of adoption of selected kau (kerala agricultural university) practices in banana cultivation a wellstructured interview schedule was used for data collection from the respondents. the study revealed that majority of the farmer respondents had medium level of adoption. keywords : banana, farmer, level of adoption, kerala 1-pg scholar and 2professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani-695522, thiruvananthapuram, kerala received : 15-09-2016; accepted : 10-10-2016 introduction banana is the second important fruit crop in in india. it is being cultivated in climates ranging from humid tropical to dry mild subtropical. thirty-three percent of the world’s banana is produced in india. it is an important fruit crop in the state of kerala too. india leads the world in banana production with an annual output of about 14.2 million tonnes / year. the fruit ranks first in production and third in area among fruit crops. it accounts for 13 per cent of the total area and 33 per cent of the production of fruits. in 1985-86, the area under banana cultivation was 16500 ha and in 2004-05 the area had increased to 59000ha. on the otherhand, productivity of banana had decreased from 13816 kg/ ha in 1995-96 to 8075 kg/ha in 2004-05. for greater improvement in banana cultivation kerala agricultural university (kau) and research institutions have developed many innovative technologies. kau has evolved and standardized many technologies such as selection and curing of suckers, planting and spacing, manurial practices, sulphate of potash bunch covering, inter-cropping, tissue culture, double sucker etc. the success of a technology depends on how far it is adopted by the people and how it continues to provide welfare to the social system. because of the crop specific complexity of agricultural technology, different institutional arrangements are needed to transfer different types of technologies to technology users. for profitable cultivation of banana, it becomes essential for the farmers to choose the journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 5660 appropriate technology released by the research system. hence an attempt was made to assess the adoption of selected kau practices on banana cultivation by commercial banana growers. methodology the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala involving 90 commercial banana growers. from the eleven blocks of thiruvananthapuram district, three blocks having maximum area under banana cultivation were selected based on secondary data and in consultation with agricultural department officials. from each block, one panchayat was selected which is having maximum area under banana cultivation. from each panchayat 30 commercial banana growers were selected with a holding size not less than 0.5 ha each using simple random sampling. thus a total of 90 commercial banana grower respondents were selected for the study. from the package of practice recommendation of kau for banana, nineteen practices were selected based on judges rating of which ten were production practices, four plant protection practices and five tissue culture cultivation practices. a wellstructured interview schedule was used for data collection from the respondents to measure the adoption of selected kau practices. the results were analysed with the help of different statistical tools like mean, frequency, percentage and standard deviation. findings and discussion the findings of the study are being presented hereunder. adoption of production practices values in table 1 reveal the comparison of awareness and adoption of each production practices. wide variation in awareness and adoption was found in selection of sword suckers and paring and pralinage. more than 85 per cent of respondents were aware about these two practices. but only 66.7 per cent of respondents actually adopted in the field. farmers were making use of ready made planting material from market for cultivation. so they were not actually selecting sword suckers or practicing paring and pralinage directly. about 71.1 per cent of farmers were aware about method of planting in pits, but only 61.1 per cent had actually adopted in the field because majority opined that easy bud initiation is possible when suckers are planted in pits with more tilt. about 44 per cent had of respondents were aware about spacing, but only 35.6 per cent adopted it. this is because they got higher yield while practicing lesser spacing. they could accommodate more number plants in lesser spacing. similar finding was reported by bennur (2011). when it comes to awareness about fertilizer recommendation, 38.9 per cent were aware about it but only 30 per cent had adopted in the field. the decrease in percentage of adoption might be because journal of extension education 5661 most of them use organic fertilizers in the field instead of chemical fertilizers. it also indicates the need for creation of awareness among farmers about chemical fertilizer application. intercropping with cucumber and amaranthus was done by 75.6 per cent farmers but 77.8 per cent had awareness about this practice. propping is a method of giving support to banana plant to overcome lodging by wind and 88.9 per cent farmers were aware about propping and 83.3 per cent farmers adopted propping. but most of the farmers can’t afford the price of the support used in popping. bunch covering is practiced by 74.4 per cent farmers and 77.8 per cent were aware about the method. in the case of pre harvest bunch spraying with 3 per cent k2so4,only 5.5 per cent of the farmers were aware aboutthis which points to the need for creation of awareness about this practice among farmers. however, in this case as well as in the case of irrigation those who table 1. distribution of respondents according to adoption of production practices n = 90 sl. no. practices awareness adoption f p f p 1 selection of 3-4 month old disease free sword suckers. 77 85.6% 60 66.7% 2 treatment of suckers : smeared with cowdung solution and ash and dried in sun for about 3-4 days. 79 87.8% 60 66.7% 3 plant suckers upright in the centre of pits with 5cm pseudostem remaining above soil level. 64 71.1% 55 61.1% 4 spacing 2m x 2m. 40 44.4% 32 35.6% 5 fertilizer recommendation 190:115:300. 35 38.9% 27 30% 6 intercropping with cucumber and amaranthus. 70 77.8% 68 75.6% 7 propping 80 88.9% 75 83.3% 8 pre harvest bunch sprays of 3% k2so4. 5 5.5% 5 5.5% 9 bunch covering 70 77.8% 67 74.4% 10 irrigation 80 88.9% 80 88.9% f frequency, ppercentage technology utilization of banana in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala 5662 were aware were found to be adopting it too. adoption of plant protection practices from the table, we can interpret that 50 per cent of respondents were aware about the chemical control of leaf spot but only 42.2 per cent adopted this practice. the percentage of farmers who were aware about pseudo stem trap for controlling rhizome weevil was 33.3 per cent and 25.5 per cent had adopted this method. the low awareness about trap for checking pseudostem weevil points to the need for creating awareness about it among farmers. control of pseudo stem weevil is being done by 23.3 per cent but 31.1 per cent were aware. nearly 78 per cent of respondents were aware about the control of diseases like banana bunchy top and 66.6 per cent were controlling it by using disease free planting material. here we can observe that there is a wide gap between awareness and adoption because most of the farmers opine that chemical control of pests and diseases are not sustainable. hence, most of the farmers go for traditional chemical free methods . table 2. distribution of respondents according to adoption of plant protection practices n = 90 sl. no. practices awareness adoption f p f p 1 spray 1% bordeaux mixture soon after the appearance of the initial symptoms of the leaf spot. 45 50% 38 42.2% 2 set traps using pseudostem of approximately 0.5m length, which are split length wise and laid in the field for controlling rhizome weevil. 30 33.3% 23 25.5% 3 apply quinalphos 0.05% or chlorpyrifos 0.03% for controlling pseudo stem weevil. 28 31.1% 21 23.3% 4 use disease free planting material for controlling viral diseases like banana bunchy top 70 77.7% 60 66.6% f frequency, ppercentage journal of extension education 5663 the finding derives support from studies reported by benner (2011) and sujitha (2015). adoption of tissue culture banana cultivation about 61.5 per cent of farmers were aware about spacing of tissue culture banana but only 38.46 per cent had practiced this method. they obtain good yield when practicing lesser spacing. pit size recommended was 50 cm3 and only 38.5 per cent farmers were aware about the pit size and 23.07 per cent of them adopted this pit size. about 46.15 per cent of them were aware about the table 3. distribution of respondents according to adoption of tissue culture banana cultivation n = 13 sl. no. practices awareness adoption f p f p 1 spacing 2m x 2m. 8 61.5% 5 38.50% 2 pit size 50 cm x 50cm x 50cm. 5 38.5% 3 23.07% 3 double sucker planting at a spacing of 3mx2m. 6 46.15% 3 23.07% 4 fill the pits with top soil and fym 15-20 kg per plant per pit. 7 53.9% 6 46.15% 5 high density planting with 1.75mx1.75m with one plant per pit. 3 23.07% 3 23.07% f frequency, ppercentage double sucker planting but only 23.07 per cent adopted it. only 23.07 per cent of farmers had awareness about high density planting and, adopting it too. hence more efforts should be made to create awareness among farmers about advantages and correct recommendations to be followed in cultivating tissue culture banana. from the study of adoption of kau practices on banana cultivation it could be observed that majority of them (73.3%) had medium level of adoption. moreover 14.4 per cent of them had low level followed by 12.2 per cent with high level of adoption. perusal of table 4 reveals that there were 1.1 per cent innovators, 13.3 per cent early adopters, 35.5 per cent early majority, 34.4 per cent late majority and 15.5 per cent laggards among the respondents. there is slight variation from standard roger’s curve of adoption. as per standard roger’s curve, 2.5 per cent innovators and 34 per cent of early majority will be there normally. in this study, only 1.1 per cent innovators and 35.5 per cent early majority were technology utilization of banana in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala 5664 present, which could be attributed to the poor faith of banana growers on the new technologies. the scientists and the extension personnel in the state should take a cue from this and strengthen the research and extension system in banana farming. conclusion from the study of adoption of kau practices on banana cultivation it could be observed that majority of them had medium level of adoption. though more than 85 percent of respondents were aware about selection of sword suckers and paring & prolinage, they were not directly adopting it. in the case of preharvest bunch spray with 3 percent k2so4, awareness was only negligible. also awareness about correct spacing, fertilizer recommendation, table 4. distribution of respondents based on adopter categories n=90 sl.no. category frequency percentage 1 innovators 1 1.10% 2 early adopters 12 13.30% 3 early majority 32 35.50% 4 late majority 31 34.40% 5 laggards 15 15.50% spraying one per cent bordeaux mixture for controlling leafspot, use of traps in rhizome weevil, chemical control of pseudostem weevil and high density planting were poor. hence efforts should be taken to create awareness about these practices among banana growers, there by increasing the adoption level. references bennur (2011). adoption of banana farming practices and constraints of growers in gulbarga district of karnataka, international journal of farm sciences 5(1) : 210-213, 2015 sujitha, p. s. (2015). technology assessment of plant protection practices of economically dominant crops in homegardens. unpublished m. sc. (ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara journal of extension education 5921 knowledge of recommended pesticide usage among cabbage growers m. naveen kumar1 and s. palanisamy2 abstract this study aimed to access the knowledge level of cabbage growers on recommended pesticide usage practices. it was carried out in two blocks of krishnagiri district of tamil nadu. krishnagiri district was selected based on maximum acreage under cabbage cultivation. two blocks viz., shoolagiri and hosur were selected considering the area covered under cabbage. a sample of 120 cabbage growers was selected random selected for the study. a well structured interview schedule was used for data collection and collected data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. the findings of the study revealed that majority of the cabbage growers had medium to low level of knowledge on recommended pesticides usage. keywords : cabbage; knowledge level; pesticide usage; tamil nadu 1. relationship manger, hdfc bank, pudupatti road, tirupathur – 635 601 and 2. former professor & head, training division, directorate of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore – 641 003 deceased received : 15-08-2017; accepted : 19-09-2017 cabbage (brassica oleracea) is a leafy green vegetable crop and dense multi-layered vegetable. cabbage is a good source of vitamin k, vitamin c and dietary fiber, mostly cultivated in northern india as it requires cooler climate to grow. its annual output in india is around 90.39 lakh tonnes from an area of more than 4 lakh hectares. at present, the states of west bengal and odisha are the largest producers of cabbage in india. there is a wide gap between the present availability and the vegetable demand per person/day. the area and production of vegetables are increasing year after year after the green revolution. vegetable cultivation had increased in india from 55.93 lakh ha in 1992 to 93.96 lakh ha in 2014 (national horticulture board, 2014). india contributes about 14 per cent of the world vegetable production and occupies first position in okra & chickpea production in the world. noted scientist norman borlaug had indicated that, the whole ban on pesticide use in agriculture might result in 50 per cent reduction in crop production and 4-5 fold increase in food prices. pesticides are still the most important key in pest management and it is also found to be responsible for increasing the yield in cabbage crop. on the other journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5921-5924 journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5902-5909 5922 hand there is a serious concern about the indiscriminate use of pesticides. tamil nadu had ranked first in usage of pesticides in india in 2010 (pesticide and documentation unit, 2010). experts feel that the damage caused by prolonged pesticide use could be minimized if farmers use them at recommended donage. hence the present study was designed to find out the knowledge level of recommended use of pesticides among cabbage growers. based on the results of the study, appropriate extension training strategies can be formulated. methodology this study was conducted at shoolagiri and hosur blocks of krishnagiri district in tamil nadu as it is one of the major cabbage growing districts in the state. fourteen independent variables and one dependent variable namely knowledge about recommended pesticide usage among cabbage growers were selected based on discussion with extension scientists and extension practitioners. data were collected by using a wellstructured and pre-tested interview schedule. the data collected were coded, tabulated and analyzed using mean, percentage, correlation and multiple regressions for interpretation. straight questions were asked in respect of variety, seed treatment, recommended pesticides, dosage, traps used, and pests of cabbage crop. the photographs of the symptoms of pest and diseases were used to ascertain the knowledge level of cabbage growers. based on the total score, the cabbage growers were classified into low, medium and high knowledge level categories using mean and standard deviation. findings and discussion knowledge level of cabbage growers the study revealed that majority of the cabbage growers (43.33%) had medium level of knowledge followed by low (33.33 %) and high (23.34 %) levels. this might be due to the fact that majority of them had medium level extension agency contact, better level of scientific orientation and most of the farmers were middle aged. the findings are in conformity with the results of jeyalakshmi (2004). practice-wise knowledge level of cabbage growers on the recommended pesticide usage attempts were made to find out the practice wise knowledge level of the cabbage growers. the results are presented in table 1. it could be observed from table 1 that more than 95 per cent of the cabbage growers had knowledge on major pests of cabbage. more than 85 per cent of the cabbage growers had knowledge on use of traps to control aphids in cabbage cultivation and knowledge on following the recommended dosage of pesticides. journal of extension education 5923 the identification of major pests by the cabbage growers was mainly based on experience. more than 80 per cent of the respondents had knowledge on recommended chemical pesticides for the cabbage pests, while over 70 per cent of the cabbage growers had knowledge on symptoms of diamond-back moth, recommended control measure for downy mildew, cutworms and leaf spots. it was observed that 60.83 per cent of the respondents had knowledge on seed treatment used to control the club root diseases. farmers mostly buy already treated seeds from branded companies which are sold in bags of different sizes. this might be the reason for not knowing about the seed treatment methods. only 59.16 per cent of the respondents had knowledge on the recommended pesticides for diamond back moth. though the farmers identify the major pests of cabbage easily, they lack knowledge on application of table 1. practice wise knowledge level on the recommended pesticide usage followed by cabbage growers (n = 120) sl. no. statements number* per cent 1. recommended seed treatment chemical used in cabbage 89 74.16 2. knowledge about recommended pesticides 97 80.83 3. major pests of cabbage 116 96.66 4. symptoms of diamond backmoth infestation 93 77.50 5. recommended control measure for leaf spots in cabbage 88 73.66 6. recommended pesticides for diamond back moth 71 59.16 7. recommended control measure for downy mildew 92 76.66 8. methods of seed treatment used to manage club root diseases 73 60.83 9. recommended management measure used to control cut worms 91 75.83 10. traps used to control aphids 104 86.66 11. following the recommended dosage of pesticides 103 85.83 (* multiple responses) knowledge of recommended pesticide usage among cabbage growers 5924 recommended chemical pesticides to the specific pests and more respondents apply high dosage of pesticides without knowing the population of insect pests, natural enemies and the crop condition. by this study, one could interpret that farmers are growing cabbage only for commercial purpose and not for their own consumption, which could have been the reason for not giving importance on the pesticide residues and harmful effects of chemicals. waiting period was not taken into consideration and frequent spraying of pesticides without knowing the threshold level was being done. hence, the farmers should be encouraged to attend trainings, meetings, demonstrations and watch agricultural programmes on pesticide usage. suitable training strategies need to be formulated to educate the farmers on handling of recommended pesticides and spraying methods. references jayalakshmi, m. (2004). awareness, knowledge and adoption of organic farming practices among tribal farm women. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac&ri, tnau, coimbatore. national horticultural board. (2015). all india area, production and productivity of vegetables in 2014–2015. indian horticultural database. retrieved from www.nhb.gov.in. pesticide and documentation unit. (2010). statewise demand of pesticides during the last five years 200506 to 2009-10. retrieved from www. indiastat.com journal of extension education 6062 constraint analysis of farming on house terraces b. binsa1 and g.s. sreedaya2 abstract a study was carried out to identify the constraints in farming on house terraces and in the distribution of grow bags in thiruvananthapuram corporation in kerala. the study was conducted in seven wards of thiruvananthapuram corporation namely poojappura, pettah, manacaud, kumarapuram, karamana, industrial estate and enchakkal. one hundred and five members of urban households involved in farming on house terrace, fifteen extension officials and thirty office bearers of selected residents’ associations of the selected wards were the respondents of the study. regarding the constraints perceived by the respondents on farming on house terrace, ‘crop loss due to pests and diseases attack’ was perceived as the major constraint and ‘low quality grow bags and potting mixture issued by the private agencies’ was the major constraint in the distribution and usage of grow bags as perceived by the respondents and office bearers of residents associations. ‘lack of timely availability of funds’ was the major constraint in the scheme on farming on house terrace and growbag distribution as perceived by the extension officials. keywords: constraints; farming on house terraces; kerala received : 10-05-2018; accepted : 11-07-2018 1. pg scholar and 2. assistant professor, department of agriculture extension, college of agriculture, vellayani – 695 522 introduction in the indian state of kerala, there are lot of initiatives from directorate of environment and climate change, kerala irrigation and infrastructure development corporation and state horticulture mission to support and encourage the farming on house terraces. still people are facing a lot of constraints in this field. the present investigation is therefore taken up to analyze the constraints in farming on house terraces including the distribution of grow bags. the results of the study would help in eliminating the bottlenecks in the present set up of farming on house terraces and help the planners, policy makers and administrators to further strengthen the farming on house terraces. methodology the study was conducted in seven wards of thiruvananthapuram corporation namely poojappura, pettah, manacaud, kumarapuram, karamana, industrial estate and enchakkal. one hundred and five members of urban households involved in farming on house terrace, fifteen extension officials and thirty office bearers of selected residents associations of the selected wards were the respondents of the study. in this research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6062-6066 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6063 study, delphi technique was followed by the researcher to identify the constraints. this technique was developed by dalkey and helmer (1963) and followed by prakash (1990) and carson (2005). delphi technique was used for the present study in order to obtain data on the three aspects such as identification of major constraints, breaking them into component constraints and ranking them. it had three steps which includes two steps for identification of constraints and the third step for rating them according to the priority of importance. step i in this phase, respondents were asked to list out the major problems which they felt important while involving in farming on house terrace. personal interview was conducted with farmers practicing farming on house terrace and extension officials involved directly in farming on house terraces. step ii all the constraints obtained during the first phase were pooled together and was again presented to all the respondents. in this phase also data were collected through personal interview with the respondents. they were asked : (1) to state if there is any change in previous responses. (2) to state their agreement or disagreement to all the expressed constraints. (3) to list out more specific constraints if any. (4) to list out any other additional constraints. step iii in this phase, all the collected constraints were again pooled together. the respondents were asked to rate them in a five point continuum based on its importance ranging from ‘most important’, ‘more important’, ‘undecided’, ‘less important’ and ‘least important’. the scores assigned were 5,4,3,2 and 1 respectively. then the frequencies of respondents ranking each problem in each point of the continuum were found out. this was multiplied by weightage of each response category and was summed up to get the score of particular item. the constraint with the higher score value was considered as the most serious constraint, followed by other constraints in the order of decreasing score values based on the response. thus the interview schedule would help to measure the perception of respondents about the constraints identified during the farming on house terraces and the distribution of grow bags. findings and discussion respondents in farming on house terrace had certain constraints identified through delphi technique, which have been tabulated and are presented in table 1. crop loss due to pests and diseases attack was perceived as the major constraint. even though the incidence of pests and diseases are comparatively lower in farming on house terrace, it was perceived as a major constraint. constraints faced by the respondents and office bearers of residents associations in the distribution and usage constraint analysis of farming on house terraces 6064 of grow bags are presented in table 2. low quality grow bags and potting mixture issued by the private agencies was perceived as the major constraint. constraints in farming on house terrace and grow bag distribution as perceived by the extension officials are presented in table 3. lack of timely availability of funds was perceived as the major constraint. table 1. constraints in farming on house terrace as perceived by the respondents (n = 105) sl. no. constraints score rank 1 crop loss due to pests and diseases attack 409 i 2 difficulty in getting good quality inputs such as seed material, biocontrol agents, biopesticides etc 315 ii 3 difficulty in getting water on house terraces 280 iii 4 inadequate extension support and lack of proper training 267 iv 5 frequent damaging of drip emitters and difficulty to repair them. 226 v 6 difficulty in transferring inputs from the ground to house terrace 219 vi 7 difficulty in getting good quality potting mixture especially with pgpr mix-1 204 vii 8 seasonal variation 201 viii 9 lack of time for house terrace farming activities 187 ix 10 frequent wetting of ceilings will cause leakage problems and floor would become dirty very fast 158 x 11 difficulty in getting labour 145 xi 12 kitchen wastes can’t be converted into organic manure due to the lack of physical facilities and technical knowhow. 132 xii 13 lack of availability of cowdung and cow’s urine for the preparation of panchagavya and dasagavya. 114 xiii journal of extension education 6065 table 2. constraints in the distribution and usage of grow bags as perceived by the respondents and office bearers of residents’ associations n=135 sl. no. constraints score rank 1 low quality grow bags and potting mixture issued by the private agencies 485 i 2 grow bags become damaged in every one or two crop seasons and difficulty in replacing them 360 ii 3 high cost of grow bags 174 iii 4 difficulty in disposing damaged plastic grow bags 149 iv table 3 constraints in farming on house terrace and grow bag distribution as perceived by the extension officials (n = 15) sl. no. constraints score rank 1 lack of timely availability of funds 73 i 2 lack of adequate number of officials for executing the project 64 ii 3 less participation of farmers in the training sessions 55 iii 4 difficulty to get good quality potting mixture 51 iv thiruvananthapuram corporation is implementing a number of projects encouraging farming on house terraces. inspite of this, they were not very successful due to inproper follow up activities. the enthusiasm showed in the initial establishment had faded away later. these agencies had also failed to impart training after identifying the training need analysis. by ensuring timely availability and quality of inputs and infrastructural facilities, ervice of the experts at the time of necessity, frequent training programmes along with improved techniques, timely availability of fund for executing the projects etc, we could tackle the constraints to a great extent. crop loss due to pests and diseases attack constraint analysis of farming on house terraces 6066 was perceived as the major constraint in farming on house terrace, which can be controlled to a great extent by daily observation and by mechanical methods such as hand picking, mechanical traps etc. conclusion all the above cited measures would improve the overall scenario of farming on house terrace. this will not only help the overall development of the urban households, but also will help to bring more area under safe vegetable production helping the socio-economic and health position of kerala. references carson, w.a. (2005). successful implementation of enterprise resource planning software: a delphi study. digital abstracts international. 66(1): 242. dalkey, n. c., & helmer, o. (1963). an experimental application of the delphi method to the use of experts. management science. 9 (3): 458-467. prakash, r. (1989). sequential analysis of constraints in increasing production of rice and coconut in kerala. unpublished phd. thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur. journal of extension education 5695 a quantitative study on indigenous medicinal plants used by tribes of kerala simi asharaf1 and m. sundaramari2 abstract a quantitative study of indigenous medicinal plants with detailed documentation among tribal people was carried out in idukki wildlife sanctuary, idukki district, kerala state. nine tribal settlements were selected for the study based on the area and availability of information. accordingly 120 informants were selected purposively. direct observation, semi structured interview and group discussion were used to collect the data from the informants. the collected data was analysed using micro-soft excel spreadsheet 2010 and summarized using descriptive statistical methods. five different quantitative statistical tools such as relative frequency of citation (rfc), use value (uv), relative importance index (ri), relative importance index (ri), fidelity level (fl) and informants’ consensus factor (icf) were analysed with score. acacia caesia (l.) wild had the highest rfc with rank i,; adhatoda beddomei c.b. clarke gave the highest use value with the maximum number of medicinal purposes (four). a majority of species were found to be most used among the community. the highest level of icf was obtained for urological ailments (ua) followed by gynaecological ailments (gaa) and dermatological ailments (da) in that order. keywords : indigenous medicinal plants, quantitative factors, idukki district, kerala 1. ph.d.scholar, faculty of agriculture and animal husbandry, gandhigram rural institutedeemed university, gandhigram-624 302 and 2. professor (agricultural extension), faculty of agriculture and animal husbandry, gandhigram rural institute-deemed university, gandhigram-624 302 received : 15-05-2017; accepted : 15-06-2017 introduction indigenous knowledge is the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities practiced around the world. developed from experience, gained and tested over centuries and adapted to the local culture and environment, such knowledge is transmitted orally from generation to generation (pushpangadan et al., 2002). indigenous medicine is a special type of indigenous knowledge with the integration of information, practices, technologies, beliefs, experimentation, biological resources, human resources and communication. in developing countries, many people (more than 80%) depend on indigenous medicines because they have no access to modern medicines and accepted as it is safe (runyoro et al., 2006). traditional healers act as journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5695-5702 5696 a core of the community, taking more advantages over diverse species of flora and fauna and they are carrying it to next generation. indigenous medicinal inventories are today recognized as the most effective method of identifying new medicinal plants or refocusing on those plants reported in earlier studies for the possible extraction of beneficial bioactive compounds (thirumalai et al., 200). the present study was designed to document the medicinal uses of plants and to determine relative frequency index (rfc), use value (uv), relative importance (ri), fidelity level (fl) and informants’ consensus factor (icf) of such species/ ailments of kannampadi, part of idukki wild life sanctuary, in order to evaluate their potential for new drugs of herbal origin. methodology study area and selection of respondents the study was undertaken during 2015-2016, in remote tribal settlements located inside the idukki wildlife sanctuary, idukki in kerala, india. it is the natural abode of the aboriginal tribes – such as malayarayans and uralis whose main occupation is agriculture. nine tribal settlements namely memari, kannampadi, kathitheppan, thekkuthottam, vakkathi, kollathikkadu, keezhukaanam, mullam and punnappara were selected after consulting with integrated tribal development office, thodupuzha. a list of tribal healers/ elderly persons who have rich knowledge in medicinal plants was prepared with the support of hamlet headman (oorumooppan) and a total of one hundred and twenty respondents were selected purposively. method of data collection taking in to consideration of the scope and objective of the study, direct observation, semi structured interview and group discussion were followed for data collection. the field survey was undertaken with the help of hamlet headman and two local tribal men having through knowledge about the area. statistical tools used : quantitative analysis i. relative frequency of citation (rfc) this index, which does not consider the variable u (use-category), is obtained by dividing the number of informants who mention the use of the species, also known as frequency of citation (fc), by the number of informants participating in the survey (n). using the same terminology, the numerator can be seen as the summation of the ur of all the informants interviewed for the species without considering the use-category (tardio & pado-de santayana, 2008). for example, acalypha indica l. was a quantitative study on indigenous medicinal plants used by tribes of keral 5697 reported as useful by 72 out of 120 informants; hence, rfc acalypha indica l 72/120=0.600. this index theoretically varies from 0, when nobody refers to the plant as useful, to 1 in the unlikely case that all the informants would mention the use of the species. ii) use value (uv) the use value (uv) demonstrates the relative importance of plants known locally. it was calculated using the following formula: where ui is the number of uses mentioned by each informant for a given species and n is the total number of informants (gazzaneo et al., 2005). iii) relative importance index (ri) this index takes into account only the use-categories not the subcategories using the following formula. where rfcs(max) is the relative frequency of citation over the maximum, i.e., it is obtained by dividing fcs by the maximum value in all the species of the survey (rfcs(max)= fcs/max fc) and rnus(max) is the relative number of usecategories over the maximum, obtained dividing the number of uses of the species by the maximum value in all the species of the survey (tardio and pado-de santayana, 2008). iv. the fidelity level (fl) the percentage of informants claiming the use of a certain plant species for the same major purpose was calculated for the most frequently reported diseases or ailments as: where, np = number of informants that claim a use of a plant species to treat a particular disease; n = number of informants that use the plants as a medicine to treat any given disease. (zashim uddin, 2014) v. informants’ consensus factor (icf) where, nur = number of use reports from informants for a particular plant-use category; nt = number of taxa or species that are used for that plant use category for all informants (zashim uddin, 2014) findings and discussion diversity of ethnomedicinal plants a total of 70 medicinal plants representing 33 families with 57 genera were used to treat various human ailments in the study area. of the medicinal plants documented in the study area, 71.42% were collected from wild, 18.57% were from cultivated home garden and 10.01% from road side and wasteland. the same journal of extension education 5698 result was also reported elsewhere in idukki, kerala (simon, 2011, sudeesh, 2012 & ajesh, 2012 ).this shows that the culture of biodiversity conservation along with medicinal plants is well established in this area. the analysis of plant habit in the area indicated that, herbs (40%) dominated the domain of medicinal plants reported in the study area followed by trees (35.71%), shrubs with (21.42%) and climbers (2.87%) (table 1). table 1. indigenous medicinal plants used by tribes of idukki wildlife sanctuary sl. no. scientific name 1. acacia caesia (l.)willd. 2. acacia catechu (l.) willd., oliv. 3. acacia nilotica (l.) willd. ex delile 4. acalypha indica l. 5. acorus calamus l 6. achyranthes aspera 7. adenanthera pavonina l. 8. adhatoda beddomei c.b. clarke 9. adhatoda vasica nees 10. aegle marmelos (l.) corrêa 11. aerva lanata 12. aganosma dichotoma (roth) k. schum. 13. alangium salviifolium (l. f.) wangerin 14. albizia lebbeck (l.) benth. 15. aloe vera (l.) burm.f. 16. alstonia scholaris (lin) r (brown) 17. amaranthus spinosus l. 18. andrographis paniculata (burm.f.) wall. ex nees 19. artocarpus heterophyllus lam. sl. no. scientific name 20. azadirachta indica a.juss., 21. azima tetracantha lam. 22. bacopa monniera (l.) pennel 23. bambusa bumbos 24. bauhinia malabarica roxb. 25. bauhinia purpurea 26. biophytum sensitivum 27. boerhavia diffusa l. nom. cons. 28. borassus flabellifer l. 29. bridelia retusa (l.) a.juss. 30. butea monosperma (lam.) taub. 31. caesalpinia coriaria (jacq.) willd. 32. caesalpinia crista 33. caesalpinia pulcherrima (l.) sw. 34. caesalpinia sappan 35. calotropis gigantea (l.) w.t.aiton 36. calotropis procera (aiton) w.t.aiton 37. camellia sinensis (l.) kuntze 38. capsicum annuum l. 39. carum carvi l.m 40. carica papaya l. a quantitative study on indigenous medicinal plants used by tribes of keral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/willd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-baptiste_lamarck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/adrien-henri_de_jussieu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/conserved_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/l. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-baptiste_lamarck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/olof_swartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus 5699 sl. no. scientific name 41. carthamus tinctorius 42. cassia tora/ obtucifolia 43. datura fastuosa 44. datura metel l. 45. emilia sonchifolia (l.) dc. ex wight 46. eupatorium adenophorum spreng 47. euphorbia antiquorum l. 48. euphorbia hirta 49. ficus hispida 50. ficus religiosa 51. gliricidia sepium 52. hyptis suaveolens (l.) poit. 53. ixora coccinea l. 54. jasminum angustifolium 55. jasminum grandiflorum l. 56. jatropha curcas l 57. lantana camara var. aculeate l. 58. lawsonia inermis l 59. leucas aspera 60. melia azedarach l. 61. mesua ferrea 62. monochoria hastifolia c.presl 63. ocimum basilicum l. 64. ocimum sanctum 65. persicaria chinensis 66. sida acuta burm.f. 67. sphaeranthus indicus linn. 68. tragia involucrate l. 69. vernonia cinerea less. 70. woodfordia fruticosa (l.) kurz quantitative analysis i. relative frequency of citation (rfc) soap bark tree (acacia caesia (l.) willd) had the highest rfc (0.925) with rank i in study followed by biophytum (biophytum sensitivum) (0.775) and hog weed (boerhavia diffusa l. nom. cons.) (0.766) with rank ii and iii (see table 1). this means that this species has been mentioned by maximum of informants and is the most recognized plant in the region having the most diverse use. ii. use value (uv) the most commonly used species was malabar nut (adhatoda beddomei c.b. clarke) with 82 use reports by 85 informants, giving the highest use value of 0.683. it is attributed to its use in the treatment of various diseases and it is well recognized by maximum of informants to cure asthma, wound, bleeding, blood heat, piles, cough, stomach pain and phlegm. hog weed (boerhavia diffusa l. nom. cons.) with 80 use reports by 92 informants scored second highest use value of 0.666 followed by broom weed (sida acuta burm.f.) with 76 use reports by 87 informants with use value of 0.633, bael (aegle marmelos (l.) corrêac.b.) with 75 use reports by 77 informants with use value of 0.625 and holly basil (ocimum sanctum) with 74 use reports by 85 informants with use value of 0.616. it reveals that the informants were found to have high rate of dispersal of knowledge about ethnomedicinal plants and their use. journal of extension education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/a._p._de_candolle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/robert_wight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/l. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carolus_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nicolaas_laurens_burman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nicolaas_laurens_burman 5700 iii. relative importance index (ri) the plants with the maximum number of medicinal purposes (four) were found to be soap bark tree (acacia caesia (l.)willd) followed by neem tree (azadirachta indica a.juss,) (three). thee high relative importance index of soap bark tree (acacia caesia (l.)willd) with ri of 0.833 reported might be an indication of its high availability and affordability in the study area. iv. the fidelity level (fl) to determine culturally important medicinal species in the society, fidelity level (fl) of plants has been calculated based on use reports which have been cited by ten or more informants for being used against a given ailment. the highest fl value was found in soap bark tree (acacia caesia (l.)willd.) with 92.50% followed by biophytum (biophytum sensitivum) with 77.50% and hog weed (boerhavia diffusa l. nom. cons.) with 76.60% respectively. while selecting the most preferred plant species for each ailment category, the high fidelity level (%) in each category of ailment could be used. v. informants’ consensus factor (icf) the informant’s consensus a quantitative study on indigenous medicinal plants used by tribes of keral table 2. informants' consensus factor (icf) for ailment categories sl. no. ailment categories number of use reports(nur) number of taxa (nt) informant consensus factor (icf) 1. urological ailments (ua) 205 9 0.9607 2. ear, nose, throat ailments (enta) 45 4 0.9318 3. general health ailments (gha) 594 30 0.9510 4. eye ailment (ea) 60 5 0.9322 5. gynaecological/ andrological ailments (gaa) 181 9 0.9555 6. fever ailment (fa) 142 8 0.9503 7. dermatological ailment (da) 446 23 0.9505 8. respiratory ailment (ra) 167 11 0.9397 9. gastro-intestinal ailment (gia) 298 18 0.9427 10. skeletomuscular ailments (sma) 95 7 0.9361 11. poisonous bites ailments (pba) 137 8 0.9485 12. lifestyle ailments (lsa) 312 20 0.9389 total 2682 152 5701 references ajesh, t.p, naseef, s.a.a, & kumuthakalavalli, r. (2012). ethnobotanical documentation of wild edible fruits used by muthuvan tribes of idukki, keralaindia. international journal of pharma and bio sciences, 3(3): 479 – 487. cordell, g.a. (2000). biodiversity and drugs discovery a symbiotic relationship. phytochemistry, 55: 463 468. gazzaneo, l.r.s., lucena, r.f.p. & albuquerque, u.p. (2005). knowledge and use of medicinal plants by local specialists in a region of atlantic forest in the state of pernambuco. journal of ethnobiology & ethnomedicine. 19. pushpangadan, p., rajasekharan, s. & george, v. (2002). indigenous knowledge and benefit sharing. a tbgri experiment in ik strategies for kerala. nse publication, thiruvananthapuram. runyoro, d.k.b., ngassapa, o.d., matee m.i.n., joseph, c.c. & moshi, m.j. (2006). medicinal plants used by tanzanian traditional healers in the management of candida infections. journal of ethnopharmacology,106, 158 -165. simon, s.m., norman, t.s.j., suresh, k. & ramachandran, v. (2011). ethnomedicinal plants used by the urali tribes of idukki district, kerala this indicates that the culture of the people had focused on biodiversity conservation. various quantitative analyses show that this indigenous knowledge is valuable for the communities and the future generation as a scientific consideration. the study also indicates that the knowledge on indigenous medicinal plants collected and analysed would contribute to a great potential of research and discovery of new drugs to cure various ailments. the professionals involved in animal husbandry extension have a major role to play in this regard. journal of extension education factor (icf) of 12 ailments has been represented in table 2. the urological ailments (ua) were reported to have highest icf value of 0.9607 followed by gynecological ailments (gaa) with icf of 0.955, dermatological ailments (da) with icf of 0.950 respectively (table 2). high icf value can be used to select interesting species in search of bio active compounds. conclusion findings of the study had indicated that, the study area is rich in knowledge on traditional medicines and their uses which were blended with the culture of local people. fabaceae was the most used plant family for the treatment of various ailments in the area. herbs stood first in the plant use for medicinal purpose. most of the plants were collected from the wild environment and from medicinal gardens. 5702 which are hitherto un reported in codified ayurveda system of medicine. international journal of research in ayurveda and pharmacy, 2(2) 469472. sudeesh, s. ( 2012). ethnomedicinal plants used by malayaraya tribes of vannapuram village in idukki, kerala, india. indian journal of science and technology. 1(1):7-11 tardio, j. & pardo-de santayana, m. (2008). cultural importance indices: a comparativeanalysis based on the useful wild plants of southern a quantitative study on indigenous medicinal plants used by tribes of keral cantabria (northern spain). economic botany. 62, 24–39. thirumalai, t., kelumalai, e., senthilkumar, b. & david, e. (2009). ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by the local people in vellore district, tamilnadu, india. ethnobotanical leaflets 13, 1302–1311. zashim uddin. m. & abul hassan, m. d. (2014). determination of informant consensus factor of ethnomedicinal plants used in kalenga forest, bangladesh. journal of plant taxonomy. 21(1): 83-91, 2014 6037 farmers’ perception towards a ragi expert system c. bhagavathsingh1, k. mahandrakumar2 and n. sriram3 abstract a total of 46 statements, that determine the perception of ragi expert system, were spread among three main components viz., over all perception, message and technical components. responses were obtained through structured interview schedule from a sample of 120 respondents who were selected from ten villages of krishnagiri district of tamil nadu. the usefulness, merits and difficulties that they perceived in deriving information and diagnosis symptoms and knowledge gained on remedial measures through expert system were tabulated. though expert system is powerful to motivate the people, still some more pictorial representation, easy navigation, concurrent information simple and understandable language should be incorporated to reach the farmers on a large scale. keywords : expert system; ragi; perception, tamil nadu 1-pg. scholar, 2-professor, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology,agricultural college and research institute, madurai and 3programme coordinator, icar-kvk, salem. received : 23-04-2018; accepted : 17-05-2018 agricultural production has evolved into a complex business requiring the accumulation and integration of knowledge and information from many diverse sources. in order to remain competitive, the modern farmers often rely on agricultural specialists and advisors to provide information for decision making. unfortunately, agricultural specialist assistance is not always available when the farmer needs it. in order to alleviate this problem, expert systems were identified as a powerful tool with extensive potential in agriculture. (prasad and babu, 2006). keeping the importance of ict enabled interventions in agriculture and providing timely expert advice to farmers, ragi expert system, one among the six expert systems was developed by tnau (tamil nadu agricultural university) with the help of the icar (indian council of agricultural research) sponsored network project. the degree of effectiveness of ragi expert system can be assessed through respondents’ perception. in this context, perception is the process, by which one can be able to see, hear, and understand things. hence, it is assumed that greater the perception of ragi expert system by its users was in terms of satisfaction derived from various components of ragi expert system, greater would be the users’ exposure and post exposure activities. a detailed analysis on various components of ragi expert system as research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6037-6041 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6038 perceived by the respondents is discussed in this study. based on the scores obtained by the respondents, they were grouped into three categories viz., highly satisfied, satisfied and not satisfied. a total of 41 sub components, which determine the perception of ragi expert system, were spread among three main components viz., over all perception, message component and technical components. methodology krishnagiri district was purposefully selected based on the potentiality of ragi cultivation. purposive sampling was followed for selecting 120 respondents. respondents’ perception towards various components of ragi expert system was studied. the required data were collected by using wellstructured, pre-tested interview schedule. findings and discussion overall perception of ragi expert system the overall perception and componentwise details are presented in table 1. table.1. distribution of respondents according to their overall perception of ragi expert system sl. no perception statements highly satisfied satisfied not satisfied no. percentage no. percentage no. percentage 1 adequate information provided 11 9.17 64 53.33 45 37.50 2 motivation to learn subject matter 7 5.83 35 29.17 78 65.00 3 simple to operate 9 7.50 48 40.00 63 52.50 4 interesting to use 4 3.33 28 23.33 70 58.34 5 possibility of stored information 14 11.67 41 34.17 65 54.17 6 provides complete knowledge 17 14.17 62 51.67 41 34.17 7 motivate to adopt the messages in farm 9 7.50 49 40.83 62 51.67 adequacy of the information provided out of 120 respondents above half of the respondents (53.33%) were satisfied with the adequacy of information provided through ragi expert system. but still 37.50 % of the respondents were not satisfied with the adequacy of information provided in expert system. they felt that information regarding input sources and videos for explaining pest and disease management are inadequate. motivation to learn subject matter even after the adequacy of information provided, majority of the respondents (65%) were not motivated to learn the subject matter through expert system. it might be because the combination of videos and texts were very poor. detailed information on recent practices journal of extension education 6039 were not provided in expert system. simple to operate about half of the respondents (52.50%) felt that expert system is difficult to operate. as the profile characters shows that most of respondents are only mobile users and they were not exposed to various modern gadgets. moreover, the expert system does not have the prelude of how to use it, might be the reason. interesting to use nearly 60 % of the respondents (58.30%) reacted that handling of ragi expert system was not as interesting. as mentioned earlier, ragi expert system is not simple to operate and it was not provided with more interactive videos are the reason for dissatisfaction, however nearly one fourth of the respondents (23.33 %) felt that it was interesting to use. possibility of stored information above half of the respondents (54.17%) were not satisfied towards possibility of stored information. only one–third (34.17%) of the respondents were satisfied on possibility of storing the information. this is due to their inadequate knowledge about the computer and its operations, as most of them are new to computer usage. provides complete knowledge over half (51.67%) of the respondents were satisfied on completeness of provided information and nearly one third (34.17%) of respondents were not satisfied with the completeness of information provided. the respondents felt that the crop production aspects alone are being covered. but detailed information on pest and disease management and function of different machinery used for ragi cultivation are lacking. motivation to adopt the messages in farm half (51.67%) of the respondents were not motivated to adopt the messages in farm. they revealed that the benefits of complex practices are not explained and the details on the source of availability on farm machineries, seeds and traps are not revealed. the results revealed that the provided messages in the expert system are inadequate and incomplete to motivate the farmers to enthusiastically involve in operation. hence efforts should be made to make it more lightly through incorporation of videos and pictures with hassle free navigation. message components perception of various message components on ragi expert system as evaluated by the respondents is provided in table 2. understandability of the message above half (67.50%) of the respondents were satisfied on understandability of the message. this is because the messages were given in regional language and simple sentences were used. however, nearly one fifth (21.67 %) of the respondents were not satisfied. the names of varieties were given in numerical (eg. co 1, py 1) rather than vernacular names and chemical names for the insecticides made the farmers hard to grasp the message. farmers’ perception towards a ragi expert system 6040 accuracy of message nearly sixty percent of respondents (58.33 %) were satisfied with the accuracy of the provided message. messages are relevant to ragi cultivation practices and inappropriate message have been totally avoided. explaining complex ideas above two-thirds (65.83%) of the respondents were not satisfied on explanation of complex ideas. explanation on installing traps, parasitoid release, nutrient management and functions of machinery have not been explained in detail. moreover, videos on those aspects are not provided in the ragi expert system. clarity of message over two-thirds (68.33%) of the respondents were satisfied on the clarity of the message provided in ragi expert system. the provided messages are in regional language and simple words are used. appropriateness of message about three-fourths (77.50%) of the respondents were satisfied on appropriateness of message given in ragi expert system. messages were given with appropriate tittle and cultivation practices are depicted to local conditions. reinforcing key ideas two-thirds (66.67%) of the respondents were not satisfied on the subcomponent of reinforcing the key ideas. information on nutrient management and pest management were not available by giving more clear information with videos. table.2. distribution of respondents according to their perception of message components sl. no perception statements highly satisfied satisfied not satisfied no. percent no. percent no. percent 1 understandability of the message 13 10.83 81 67.5 26 21.67 2 accuracy of message 16 13.33 70 58.33 34 28.33 3 explaining complex idea 5 4.17 36 30.00 79 65.83 4 clarity of message 15 12.50 82 68.33 23 19.17 5 appropriateness of message 6 5.00 93 77.50 21 17.50 6 reinforcing key ideas 8 6.67 32 26.67 80 66.67 7 giving source of information for inputs 0 0.00 13 10.83 107 89.17 8 multidisciplinary nature of the subject 5 4.17 51 42.50 64 53.33 journal of extension education 6041 giving source of information for inputs nearly 90 % of the respondents (89.17 %) were not satisfied on the information regarding giving source for inputs. details on inputs like seeds, micro nutrients, bio fertilizers, light trap, pheromone trap and machinery were not provided in the ragi expert system. multidisciplinary nature of the subject just over half (53.33%) of the respondents were not satisfied on the multidisciplinary nature of the subject. information was in text format. videos and audios regarding field preparation, planting, nutrient management, plant protection and post-harvest practices were not provided. it is found that message components need more refinement in the aspects of explanation on complex ideas, reinforcing key ideas, source of information on inputs and incorporating multidisciplinary expert judgment on subjects. the study has revealed that, majority of the respondents were just satisfied on text used in ragi expert system. improvements in the colour combination for the text would result in higher satisfaction among farmers. the results clearly depict that, video clippings available in the ragi expert system were inadequate to meet the need of the farmers and messages in videos were understandable to the farmers. rectification of the errors in the video clippings of the ragi expert system would help to reach many farmers. most of the respondents were just satisfied on many components of ragi expert system. this indicates that there is lot of scope for improving the ragi expert system to reach the farmers at grass root level. references anandaraja, n. (2002). developing farmer friendly interactive multimedia compact disc and testing its effectiveness in transfer of farm technology. unpublished ph.d. thesis, tnau, coimbatore. farmers’ perception towards a ragi expert system 5775 performance of a farmer interest group in tamil nadu m.r.naveen kumar1 and t. rathakrishnan 2 abstract the present study was undertaken with an objective to find out the performance of old ayakudi guava farmers’ interest group (fig), dindigul district, tamil nadu. the overall performance of the fig were analysed using six variables viz., mobilizing support, exploitation resistance, identifying market opportunities, business orientation, marketing network and responsibility sharing the study revealed that majority of the fig members perceive the performance of fig at moderate level performance followed by high and low level performances. keywords : farmer interest group, exploitation resistance, market opportunities, business orientation, marketing network, responsibility sharing, tamil nadu. 1. phd scholar, department of agricultural extension, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore and thirunelveli & 2. dean, thangapazham agricultural college, tirunelveli. received : 06-01-2017; accepted : 13-02-2017 around the globe it is evidenced that the profitability in farming would be possible in groups rather than practicing it individually. patil et al. (2014) had analyzed the impact of collective action of farmers through fig (farmer interest group) and found that, there was reduction in cost of cultivation by sharing inputs and gained additional returns. in india, most of the farmers had only small marketable surpluses and therefore, a strategy is needed to increase their bargaining power in purchase of inputs and sale of produce. assessing the performance of existing figs could lead us to frame a comprehensive strategy to inculcate the livelihood promotion among the rural agrarian masses. the performance of fig was calculated by assessing several variables such as, mobilizing support, exploitation resistance, identifying market opportunities, business orientation, marketing network and responsibility sharing. the present study was undertaken with an objective to find out the performance of an fig in the view of its members with the help of primary data on above-mentioned six variables. methodology for this study, dindigul district of tamil nadu state was selected for reasons such as, unique climatic condition facilitating diversified crop cultivation, effective functioning of the farmers’ interest group on guava in old ayakudi of palani block, presence of old ayakudi research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5775-5779 5776 guava market and also familiarity of the student researcher with the study area. an ex-post facto research design was used. five villages namely old ayakudi, vaeppan valasu, erama nayackanpatty, tkn pudhur and rookvarpatty of palani block were selected purposively for this study due to the effective functioning of figs. a total of ten groups were selected at random. one hundred respondents were selected at the rate of ten members from each group using simple random sampling technique and data were collected from the respondents through a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule. the statistical tools used were percentage analysis and cumulative frequency. findings and discussion the overall outcome of the fig is calculated by its performance. hence, an attempt was made to study the “performance” of fig by carefully investigating the previous activities of old ayakudi guava fig. hence, six variables namely mobilizing support, exploitation resistance, identifying market opportunities, business orientation, marketing network and responsibility sharing were assumed to fulfil the purpose and were selected for the study. mobilizing support is referred as the ability of the fig officials to extend their support to the members of fig. the responses were recorded and tabulated. table 1. mobilizing support (n = 100) sl.no. category number percentage 1. less mobilizing 7 7.00 2. moderately mobilizing 88 88.00 3. highly mobilizing 5 5.00 types of support rendered by the fig officials were technical support for cultivation, marketing of produce, input supply to farmers, preservation of produce, post-harvest practices / processing. in general most of the farmers were inclined towards adopting innovative ideas needing more skill and technical support. exploitation resistance has been referred as the extent of avoidance of threats to members and officials of fig, kinds of threats posed by various sources viz., intermediaries in the market, wholesale agents, retail agents, in-group impediments and local pressure groups. journal of extension education 5777 majority of the fig members (81.00 %) expressed that exploitation from agents such as intermediaries in the fig, whole sale agent, retail agents and in-group impediments were managed by the fig officials. (table 2) identifying market opportunities table 2. exploitation resistance (n = 100) sl.no. category number percentage 1. low level resistance 19 19.0 2. moderate level resistance 55 55.0 3. high level resistance 26 26.0 table 4. business orientation (n = 100) sl.no. category number percentage 1. low orientation 7 7.0 2. medium orientation 75 75.0 3. high orientation 18 18.0 table 3. identification of market opportunities (n = 100) sl.no. category number* percentage 1. soon after harvest 92 92.00 2. when price is attractive 25 25.00 3. when in need of cash 23 23.00 4. on contract 47 47.00 5. when it is convenient 25 25.00 *multiple responses is referred as the appropriate time of marketing the produce in order to obtain maximum profit by the members of fig. majority (92.00 per cent) of the fig members were selling their product soon after harvest. as guava gets more demand, it gets disposed through performance of a farmer interest group in tamil nadu 5778 table 5. marketing network (n = 100) sl.no. category number* percentage 1. nearby 99 99 2. village merchant / local traders 90 90 3. retailers 51 51 4. wholesalers 50 50 5. commission agents 43 43 6. export 34 34 *multiple responses table 6. responsibility sharing (n = 100) sl.no. category number percentage 1. low level sharing 14 14.0 2. moderate level sharing 74 74.0 3. high level sharing 12 12.0 table 7. overall performance of fig (n = 100) sl.no. category number percentage 1. low performance 14 14.00 2. moderate performance 68 68.00 3. high performance 18 18.00 farmers’ market, mobile market, road side mandies, head loads etc., (table3) business orientation is referred as the existence of capacity and interest among the members’ of fig towards establishing their own enterprise. the findings are presented in table 4. from the interaction with farmers, it was observed that training and creation of new avenues for knowledge gain and exposure visits enhance the fig members’ interest to start a new venture and improve their risk taking ability. another notable point is some of the guava growers were getting converted as first generation entrepreneurs through group training (such as guava juice making enterprise). marketing network is referred as a profitable results are been collected, analyzed and presented in table 5. journal of extension education 5779 it was found that 99 per cent of the respondents sold guava in the nearby shandies. the reason might be due to the demand and sufficient income generation in the locality itself. another major reason might be obtaining prior advance from the commission agent forcing the farmers to sell their produce only to the local commission agents. responsibility sharing is referred as the mirror image of cohesiveness of the group that is how well the members of fig and officials of fig are coordinating and sharing their roles with less conflict. the findings are presented in table 6. in general, every member in fig possessed equal responsibility to work hard for the achievement of figs’ goal and hence, 86.00 per cent had moderate to high level of responsibility sharing nature. the primary data obtained on the above mentioned six variables have been compiled and percentage analysis was worked out and by using cumulative frequency the overall performance was ascertained. it could be concluded from table 7 that majority (68.00 per cent) of the fig members observed that fig is performing at moderate level, followed by high (18.00 per cent) and low (14.00 per cent) level performance. from the above results, it could be understood that the variables namely mobilizing support, exploitation resistance, business orientation and responsibility sharing of this fig had fallen under medium category. their identification of market opportunities and marketing network has also been satisfactory. hence, it shall be concluded that old ayakudi guava fig is performing at moderate to high level in the perspective of its members. from the field interaction with fig members it was implicit that majority of the growers who participated in every extension oriented programmes had gained knowledge and adopted new technologies which might have influenced the responses. references patil, s., hiremath, g.m., & lokesh. g.b. (2014). economic sustainability through farmers interest groups and their linkage with institutional agencies an evidence from karnataka, agricultural economics research review, 27 (conference number) 141146. venkatesan, s. (2001). performance of leadership roles by farmers discussion group convenors of madurai district. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac&ri, tnau, madurai. performance of a farmer interest group in tamil nadu 5831 gender disparity in access to information and extension services in dairy farming maneesha bhuyan1* and k. ponnusamy2 abstract a study on the role of men and women in accessing different communication sources and extension services in dairy farming was undertaken during 2016-17 in haryana, india with 120 randomly selected women farmers. personal interview and pra (participatory rural appraisal) methods were used for data collection and analyzed using frequency and percentage. majority of males had land ownership, livestock and credit. majority of the women respondents had occasional contact with veterinary surgeons & icar-national dairy research institute and animal feed dealers. however in case of informal sources, majority of the males had contact with relatives/ friends. women’s role is highly reflected in fodder collection, feed preparation, cleaning of animal shed, milking and taking care of animals. this gender disparity brings urgent need to sensitize the dairy farmers/farm women and enable them to have equal access of resources, input and opportunities through appropriately designed extension models for ultimate empowerment of farm women and the progress of the country. keywords: dairy farming; gender role; extension services; women empowerment; gender disparity journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5831-5837 1. phd scholar & 2. principal scientist, dairy extension division, icar-ndri, karnal-132001, india received : 29-09-2017; accepted : 02.01.2018 introduction women are integral part of dairying and nearly 70 per cent of them are involved in various activities. dairy enterprise has been regarded as an important socio economic instrument to supplement the income and employment to the women (ponnusamy et al., 2017). women generally contribute more labour inputs in the areas of fodder cutting, watering, cleaning of animals cattle sheds etc (arshad et al., 2013). the possession of cattle is also increasing with landless farmers where women play a pivotal role in ensuring food and nutritional security. although more than 70 per cent of dairying activities are being carried out by women, there is a limited level of ownership of animals. although much of women labour work is non-monetized, they often decide the amount of milk to be sold and how to use the revenues generated from milk sales. women don’t have much role in marketing of milk and milk products, purchase and disposal of dairy animals and investment 5832 in animal shelter, equipments and machineries (ponnusamy, 2006). the role and contribution of women in dairying other than usual household responsibilities had been interpreted in economical pretext (upadhyay et al., 2007). further, few women had access to ownership of livestock and they do not have any access to extension or veterinary services. evidence from the study on role-responsibilities, access and control over the resources would help in understanding the socio-economic status of gender in general and women in particular in the study area. methodology the study was carried out in two villages namely pingli and jundla of karnal district in haryana during 201617. altogether, 120 farm women were randomly selected, 60 each from pingli and jundla villages. respondents were chosen from landless, marginal, small and large categories based on simple random sampling. data were collected by well structured and pretested interview schedule apart from participatory rural appraisal (pra) methods. data were analyzed for descriptive statistics (i.e. percentages, frequencies) using statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 16. findings and discussion the role of gender in dairy farming indicated that both men and women were involved in various dairy activities. however female participation was found maximum in dairy activities such as collection of fodder (75.8%), cleaning of cattle shed (92.5%), feed preparation (83.3%), milking and processing of milk (92.5%) and taking care of animal during pregnancy (90%) in both the villages. farm women did not participate in marketing of animals (cows/ buffaloes/ calves). few women respondents (19.2%) were engaged in marketing of milk. the access to resources by male, female or by both is shown in table 1. the results revealed that in pingli access and ownership of resources such as land property, livestock, credit, implement, machinery and investment belonged to male members of respondent’s family, which accounts for 88.30, 71.70, 90.00, 78.30, 90.00 and 81.70 per cent, respectively and in jundla 88.30, 70.00, 85.00, 83.30, 86.70 and 83.30 per cent, respectively. during investigation it was found that majority of families in jundla and a few families in pingli belonged to landless group. hence, the landless respondents did not have much access to land property. it was also observed that among remaining respondent’s families in both the villages who owned land, few respondents had the legal title of land in their name. few per cent of women had legal title of land due to death of husband or divorce. government of haryana is also encouraging the farm families to register property in female in order to avail concessional stamp duty. it was found that, the income obtained from sale of milk was utilized by 53.3 per cent male in pingli and 60 per cent male in jundla. journal of extension education 5833 table 1. access of men and women to resources in dairy farming sl. no. resources category pingli (n = 60) jundla (n = 60) total (n=120) 1. land property men women both 53(88.3) 5(8.3) 2(3.3) 53(88.3) 4(6.7) 3(5) 106(88.3) 9(7.5) 5(4.2) 2. livestock men women both 43(71.7) 6(10.0) 11(18.3) 42(70.0) 4(6.7) 14(23.3) 85(70.8) 10(8.3) 25(20.8) 3. credit men women both 54(90.0) 3(5.0) 3(5.0) 51(85.0) 5(8.3) 4(6.7) 105(87.5) 8(6.7) 7(5.8) 4. implement men women both 47(78.3) 7(11.7) 6(10.0) 50(83.3) 4(6.7) 6(10.0) 97(80.8) 11(9.2) 12(10.0) 5. machinery men women both 54(90.0) 3(5.0) 3(5.0) 52(86.7) 2(3.3) 6 (10.0) 106(88.3) 5(4.2) 9 (7.5) 6. investment men women both 49(81.7) 7(11.7) 4 (6.7) 50(83.3) 8(13.3) 2(3.3) 99(82.5) 15(12.5) 6(5.0) 7. income from sale of milk men women both 32 (53.3) 17 (28.3) 11 (18.3) 36 (60.0) 14 (23.3) 10 (16.7) 68 (56.7) 31 (25.8) 21 (17.5) (figures in parentheses depict the percentage to total) about onesixth (18.3% in pingli and 16.7% in jundla) were jointly utilizing the income derived from sale of milk. hence, it is concluded that as per access to resources are concerned, in both the villages, men were having dominant share over women. data in table 2 reveal that, in pingli, men were accessing variety of information sources. about 81.7 per cent of respondents revealed that men were taking advice or information about dairy or about any government scheme from their friends/ relatives. only 18.3 per cent women respondents utilized friends and relatives. brokers and commission gender disparity in access to information and extension services in dairy farming 5834 agents were utilized by 91.7 per cent of men and only 8.3 per cent women utilized them. eighty five per cent men utilized local newspaper as compared to 15 per cent of women. television was used by 86.7 per cent of men against 13.3 per cent by female for getting information on agriculture and related information. community leaders were utilized by 93.3 per cent men. table 2 access to extension services from informal sources regarding dairy farming sl. no. particulars category pingli jundla total 1. relatives, friends, neighbours men women 49(81.7) 11(18.3) 45(75.0) 15(25.0) 94(78.3) 26(21.7) 2. brokers and commission agents men women 55(91.7) 5(8.3) 53(88.3) 7(11.7) 108(90.0) 12(10.0) 3. local newspaper men women 51(85.0) 9(15.0) 56(93.3) 4(6.7) 107(89.2) 13(10.8) 4. television men women 52(86.7) 8(13.3) 50(83.3) 10(16.7) 102(85.0) 18(15.0) 5. community leaders men women 56(93.3) 4(6.7) 52(86.7) 8(13.3) 108(90.0) 12(10.0) 6. ngo men women 0(.0) 0(.0) 53(88.3) 7(11.7) 53(44.2) 7(5.8) (figures in parentheses depecit the percentage to total) while 75 per cent men were depending on friends and relatives to know about dairy related information or about any government scheme, 88.3 per cent of them utilized brokers and commission agents as their source of information. local newspapers were utilized by 93.3 per cent of men and 6.7 per cent women utilized the same while television was used by 83.3 percent of male. regarding community leaders, 86.7 per cent of male utilized them. during investigation it was found that ngos such as “jan kalyan samiti” help the women in organising shg, arranging bank loans and other capacity building activities. respondents were requested to reveal the various extension agents who were visiting their village and their frequency of visit. the responses were recorded and the results are presented in table 3. journal of extension education 5835 table 3. access to extension services from formal sources regarding dairy farming sl. no. extension agent frequency of contact pingli (n=60) jundla (n=60) pooled (n=120) 1. village level extension worker never 60 (100) 60 (100) 120 (100) 2. agricultural extension officer never 60 (100) 60 (100) 120 (100) 3. university / institute personnel regular 8 (13.3) 0 (0.0) 8 (6.7) occasional 47 (78.4) 0 (0.0) 47 (39.2) never 5 (8.3) 60 (100) 65 (54.1) 4. veterinary assistant surgeon regular 13 (21.7) 22 (36.7) 35 (29.8) occasional 47 (78.3) 38 (63.3) 85 (78.2) 5. para veterinarian occasional 60 (100) 60 (100) 120 (100) ngo personnel regular 0 (0.0) 7 (11.7) 7 (5.8) occasional 0 (0.0) 14 (23.3) 14 (11.7) never 60 (100) 39 (65.0) 99 (82.5) 6. veterinary feed dealer occasional 27 (45.0) 0 (0.0) 27 (22.5) never 33 (55.0) 60 (100) 93 (77.5) (figures in parentheses depict the percentage to total) gender disparity in access to information and extension services in dairy farming 5836 100 per cent of the respondents in both the villages did not have any contact with village level extension workers and agricultural extension officers. majority of respondents in pingli i.e. 78.4 per cent had occasional contact with university/ institute personnel followed by regular contact i.e. 13.3 per cent whereas, in jundla none of the respondents had any contact with this extension agencies. majority of respondents in pingli (78.3%) as well as in jundla (63.3%) had occasional contact with the veterinary surgeon followed by regular contact i.e. 21.7 per cent and 36.7 per cent respondents respectively. hundred per cent of respondents had occasional contact with para veterinarians. in jundla, 23.3 per cent of respondents had occasional contact with ngo personnel whereas, 11.7 per cent of respondents had regular contact with them. but there is no presence of ngo in pingli. it was also found that 45 per cent of respondents in pingli had occasional contact with animal feed dealers. conclusion the gender issues vis a vis their communication sources in dairy farming as found across the country are also prevalent in the villages typically reflecting the patriarchal nature of society which could be gradually addressed as per the strategic gender needs (sgn) and practical gender needs (pgn). this includes access to education, community participation, decision making in the family and control over income of the family. special efforts are required to address the genuine concerns of female headed farm families which comprise around 10 per cent of respondents in the project villages. access to training and critical farm inputs is the major requirements of these families. in view of very low utilization of formal information sources such as extension functionaries of agricultural and animal husbandry departments, atma and nabard should extend group approaches such as commodity groups and farmer clubs in order to push the technology transfer for sustainable farming. while men dominated information seeking behaviour from variety of sources, women restrict themselves to seek information from family members, which needs to be looked into. references arshad, s., muhammad, s & ashraf, i. (2013). women’s participation in livestock farming activities. the journal of animal & plant sciences, 23 (1), 304-308. jayakumar, n & surudhi, m. (2015). gender equality in agricultural extension. journal of extension education, 27(1), 5381 – 5391. ponnusamy, k. (2006). multidimensional analysis of integrated farming system in the coastal o system of tamil nadu. unpublished ph.d. thesis. karnal, icar-ndri journal of extension education 5837 ponnusamy, k., chauhan, a. k & meena, s. (2017). testing the effectiveness of pasu sakhi: an innovation for resource poor farm women in rajasthan. indian journal of animal sciences, 87 (2), 229–233. upadhayay, m & intodia, s. l. (2007). involvement of women dairy cooperative society members in decision making process. rajasthan journal of extension education, 15, 97-101. gender disparity in access to information and extension services in dairy farming 6249 developing a scale to measure the trend in millet farming and attitude of farmers towards millet cultivation p. jaisridhar1 and p. parasuraman2 abstract in the recent years concern for millets has been on the rise. sources had shown that there is an existence of valid linkage between millets and poverty reduction. a study was designed to develop a scale to measure the current trend in millet farming and changing attitude of farmers towards millet cultivation. the study was conducted in tiruvannamalai and vellore districts of tamil nadu. twenty statements reflecting the changing trends towards millet farming were generated. likert’s method was employed in the scale construction and the final scale comprising 10 statements was standardized. keywords: millet farming; scale construction; likert’s method; item analysis; reliability; validity; tamil nadu. 1. assistant professor (agrl. extension), and 2. professor & head, centre of excellence in millets(tnau), athiyandal, tiruvannamalai – 606 603 one of the historically under emphasized areas within agriculture is rainfed agriculture. despite india’s significant investments in irrigation, around 60 percent of total area remains rainfed, responsible for about 40 percent of national food supply (season and crop report, 2012). given the physical and institutional limits to the indefinite spread of irrigated systems, rainfed farming will remain a central and conspicuous feature of the national agricultural landscape. despite its importance, some of the areas requiring attention in rainfed farming are lack of reach of improved methods of production and technologies like improved varieties to small millet farmers, lack of organized seed distribution mechanism to supply good quality seeds for small millet crops in accordance with farmers preferences, lack of appropriate postharvest processing technologies for small millets except finger millets, competition from other market friendly remunerative crops, lack of public procurement and marketing support and lack of available information primarily about small millets, which reduces the ability to introduce policy measures (dhan foundation, 2012). to promote millet research, the tamil nadu agricultural university had establishied the centre of excellence in millets at tiruvannamalai district of tamil nadu. the institute has been functioning since 2014 and it was felt that it would be the right time to focus on the attitude of millet growing farmers of tiruvannamalai and the adjacent vellore districts towards current trends in research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6249-6254 received : 19-04-2018; accepted : 28-01-2019 6250 farming and changing attitude towards millet cultivation. moreover, millet cultivation is declining due to several reasons few of which are processing hardship, low economic gains and lack of awareness about nutritional significance. hence in view of these facts, a study was undertaken to develop a scale to measure the current trend in farming and changing attitude of farmers towards millet cultivation. methodology the research was undertaken in the state of tamil nadu and tiruvannamalai & vellore districts were selected purposively for the study due to the growing awareness on millets among farmers of these district and willingness shown by farmers in acquiring tips on new cultivation practices in millets. to have representative sample of millet growing areas of tiruvannamalai and vellore districts, three blocks from each district viz., chengam, thandrampattu and jamunamuthur blocks of tiruvannamalai district & jolarpet, gudiyatham & k.v. kuppam blocks of vellore district were purposively selected, having the highest millet cultivation area. a total of 30 respondents for item analysis and 30 for testing reliability were selected based on the production of millets in various blocks. it was ensured that the thirty farmers selected for item analysis were removed from their respective lists before the selection of thirty farmers for testing reliability. thus the total number of farmers respondents selected for the scale construction was 60. likert’s method was employed in the construction of the attitude scale. the relevant items covering the universe of content in the measurement of changing trend towards millet farming were collected by extensive review of literature and discussion made with experts in the concerned field. a total of 50 statements reflecting the attitude of the respondents towards changing trend towards millet farming were generated. the statements were then edited using the criteria suggested by edwards (1969) and finally 20 statements were retained after deleting ambiguous, irrelevant and non-conforming statements as per the above said criteria. the relevancy of the items generated was established by sending these statements to 58 judges with appropriate instructions. the judges comprised experts in the field from agricultural universities across south india. the experts were to rate the degree of relevancy of each items in measuring the indigenous wisdom orientation of the stakeholders on a five point continuum as ‘most relevant’, ‘relevant’, ‘undecided’, ‘less relevant’ and ‘not relevant’ with scores of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. out of 58 judges, 29 responded within a time span of one month. the scores for each items were summated over all the respondents and a relevancy index was worked out using the formula : relevancy index = x 100 actual score obtained for each statement maximum possible score obtained by each statement journal of extension education 6251 those items, which secured a relevancy index of 49 and above were finally selected, thereby retaining 15 items to be included in the scale. item analysis was performed for the statements selected and was standardized by testing its validity and reliability. item analysis is a set of procedures that are applied to know the indices for truthfulness (or validity) of the items in a scale (singh, 2006). the 15 items selected based on the relevancy rating by the judges were administered to 30 farmers and the responses were obtained on a five-point continuum (‘most relevant’, ‘relevant’, ‘undecided’, ‘less relevant’ and ‘not relevant’). for carrying out item analysis, two types of scores were used. these were the item score, referring to the score of an individual on a particular item and the total score referring to the summation of the item scores of an individual. these scores were used to arrive at the discrimination index and the item score total correlation. the index of discrimination indicates the power of an item to discriminate the low effectiveness category of the respondents. following the suggestion of edwards (1957), 25% of subjects with high total score and 25% of subjects with lowest total score were selected. the critical ratio (t-value) of each item was calculated using the formula t = where, xh – mean score on a given statement with high group xl mean score on same statement with low group s2h – variance of distribution of response of high group s2l – variance of distribution of response of low group nh – number of subject in high group nl – number of subject in low group in item score-total score correlation, the correlation between the individual item score and total score is computed as a measure of the discriminatory power of the items. the scale developed was standardized by testing its reliability and validity. the reliability of the scale refers to consistency of test scores obtained by the same individual on different occasions or with different sets of equivalent forms. split-half reliability was used in the present study using odd-even method. the scale developed was administered to 30 respondents and their responses were collected. the scores obtained for all the odd items and all even items were pooled. the two sets of scores thus obtained were correlated using pearson’s product moment correlation. the reliability of the full test was obtained using the formula: s2h s 2 l + nh nl √ xh xl 2 x reliability of the ½ test 1 + reliability of the ½ test reliability of the full test = developing a scale to measure the trend in millet farming and attitude of farmers towards millet cultivation 6252 findings and discussion the results of the study have been presented in this section on t-value and r-value of the statements, standardization of the scale and administration of the scale. the discrimination index and the item score total score correlation of the 15 items performed are presented in table 1. it could be observed that the calculated ‘t’value were found to be distributed between 1.98 and 4.34. after computing the ‘t’value for all the items, statements equal to or greater than 1.96 at 1% level of significance were chosen for the final scale. standardization of scale a scale should measure what it intends to measure and it should be consistent in its measurement. a scale thus has to be standardized before it is administered. the table 1. item analysis sl. no. statements ‘r’ value ‘t’ value 1 millets play a supportive role in marginal agriculture* 0.362 3.00 2 millet based food and beverages are not preferred by many across the country* 0.523 4.34 3 millets are cheaper in market making easy access of purchase by everyone* 0.393 4.13 4 since millets are locally cultivated, the grains are readily available for the farmers 0.100 1.40 5 over the last few years, there is an increasing recognition of millets in their favorable nutrient consumption and benefits as health foods* 0.306 1.98 6 public distribution system does not procure or distribute millets and due to this below poverty line people do not have awareness on millets. 0.277 3.90 present scale developed was also standardized by verifying its reliability and validity. reliability of the scale the correlation co-efficient (r = 0.437) for the half test was obtained. the reliability of the full test was found to be 0.493, which indicates appreciable reliability of the scale. validity of the scale determination of content validity essentially involves the systematic examination of the test content to determine whether it covers a representative sample of the behavior domain being measured. care was taken to include the important items covering the universe of content with respect to current trend in farming and changing attitude of farmers towards millet cultivation thereby satisfying the content validity criterion. journal of extension education 6253 administration of the scale the final scale consisting of 10 statements in random order can be presented to respondents to indicate their response on a three point scale consisting of agree, neutral and disagree with scores 3, 2, and 1 respectively for positive statements and reverse score for negative statements. the total score for all the statement of each respondent can be worked out and categorized into ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’ attitude to changing trends towards millet farming on the obtained scores. the scale developed to measure the attitude of millet farmers would serve to quantify the orientation level of farmers towards changing trend in farming and the data so obtained could be replicated elsewhere to understand the current trend and changing attitude of farmers towards millet cultivation which in turn will help in formulating strategies for encouraging conservation / sustainable farming. sl. no. statements ‘r’ value ‘t’ value 7 millets being drought tolerant when promoted, the utility of land will be boosted to many folds* 0.396 2.93 8 millets’ value addition is the main focus of urban market 0.123 1.35 9 involving millet farmers in state planning will help bring better change in state’s agriculture.* 0.131 2.97 10 lack of modern technology for effective millet processing and utilization is an important reason in decline of millets* 0.356 2.00 11 considering the views of millet famers in the planning process will help bring a change in state agriculture policies 0.103 1.65 12 value added product in millets mostly focus on urban market than rural market due to the margin they fix for millet value added products* 0.148 3.18 13 improved seed production technologies in millets through block demonstration may help create awareness on the importance of millets among farmers 0.070 1.10 14 government should ensure access to appropriate millet seeds for farmers with financial support and subsidy for nutritious underutilized crops 0.081 1.74 15 lack of awareness among farmers on environmental sustainability and nutritional health benefits of millets reduces its demand in present scenario* 0.284 2.80 *statements selected to construct the final scale developing a scale to measure the trend in millet farming and attitude of farmers towards millet cultivation 6254 references dhan foundation. (2012). supporting millets in india, policy review and suggestion for action. dhan foundation, 11pp edwards, a. l. (1969). techniques of attitude scale construction. vakils, feffer and simons pvt. ltd., bombay. season and crop report. (2012). area, production and productivity of millets. department of economics and statistics, chennai singh, a. k. (2006). tests, measurements and research methods in behavioral sciences. new delhi: bharti bhawan publishers and distributors. journal of extension education 5768 constraints faced by stakeholders under agriculture technology management agency (atma) j.yoga narasimhulu naidu1, h. philip2, m. asokhan3, r. balasubramanian4 and m. r. duraisamy5 abstract agriculture technology management agency (atma) is a registered society in india with key stakeholders enmeshed with various agricultural activities for sustainable agricultural development in the state, with focus at district level. it is a hotbed for integrating research, extension and marketing activities and decentralizing day-to-day management of the public agricultural technology development and dissemination system. the present study was carried out in andhra pradesh state to explore the constraints faced by the extension functionaries at each level of decentralized management. moreover, constraints perceived by the farmers with the support of atma in realizing their needs were also studied. keywords : atma, agricultural development, stakeholders, constraints, andhra pradesh. in india, the public extension system was working at state level by integrating research, extension and marketing activities for the development and dissemination of technology to the farmers. during 1998 to 2005, extension reforms in india were pilot tested in 28 districts in seven states. this successful experiment served as a basis to launch the scheme “support to state extension programmes for extension reforms” in the year 2005-06 which is called agricultural technology management agency 1.ph.d., scholar, dept. of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore3, 2.director of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-3, 3professor and head, dept. of agricultural extension & rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-3, 4. professor & head, dept. of market extension, directorate of extension education , tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-3 and 5. professor and head, department of physical science and information technology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-3. received : 10-02-2017; accepted : 08-04-2017 (atma). it was revamped, expanded and strengthened comprehensively in the year 2010. coverage of the scheme was increased in a phased manner. it is currently operational in 639 districts allover india and the remaining uncovered rural districts are also proposed to be covered. in andhra pradesh, the atma was functioning in all six agro climatic zones viz., north coastal zone, godavari zone, research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5768-5774 5769 krishna zone, southern zone, scarce rainfall zone and high altitude & tribal areas zone covering all the 13 districts of the state. objectives of atma in bringing sustainable agricultural development can only be achieved through effective researcher-extension-farmer linkage, synergy between public and private agencies in technology dissemination and funding activities like receiving funds and spending on projects. therefore, the critical analysis of this objective achievement process is crucial to seek the problems of the stakeholders involved in atma in the districts. hence, an effort has been made to identify the constraints faced by extension officials. a similar attempt was also made to study the constraints perceived by farmers under atma. the constraints perceived and suggestions offered would be useful in implementation of the atma programmes effectively. methodology for the present study, andhra pradesh state was selected purposively since the state was bifurcated during 2014 and there is need for research studies on agricultural planning and development through extension reforms. there are 13 districts in the state with atma functioning in all the districts. among 13 districts, two districts from different agro-climatic zones i.e., one from scarce rainfall zone and the other from godavari zone were selected purposively to study the atma operations in different agroclimatic zones. two mandals / blocks from each district were selected based on activities of atma concentrated at block level. three villages were selected randomly from each block making a total sample of 12 villages. atma with governing body (gb) and management committee (mc) at district level along with block technology team (btt) and farmer advisory committee (fac) at block level performed the extension activities. about 60 members were selected randomly as respondents from those groups for identifying the constraints faced by the extension functionaries under atma. besides, 120 farmers were selected through random sampling method at the rate of 10 farmers from each village for studying the constraints perceived by the respondents in availing services from atma. a pretested semi-structured interview schedule was prepared for collecting the data from both extension officials and farmers. focus group discussion with the extension officials and personal interview with farmers was adopted for collecting the required information. simple per cent analysis and ranking methods were used to draw inferences. findings and discussion constraints faced by extension officials in performing extension activities the constraints perceived by different stake holders under atma are given in table 1. extension officials constraints faced by stakeholders under agriculture technology management agency (atma) 5770 while performing extension activities under atma faced inadequate financial support. this was considered as one of the major constraint as perceived by 100 per cent of respondents. as compared to other states there was financial support mostly through one or two schemes only in andhra pradesh state. another major constraint reported by 100 per cent of extension officials was lack of separate chairman with technical background in agriculture at district level. lack of computer operators at block level was a major constraint to the block level functionaries as suggested by 100 per cent of the respondents. at block level, where the information collection and pooling takes place, computer operators were lacking. lack of sufficient deputy project directors (dpd), delayed approval and release of funds and lack of sufficient guidelines for block action plan were the other major contrains. constraints perceived by farmers under atma atma in partnership with krishi vigyan kendras (kvk) offers trainings to the beneficiaries regarding latest technology and practices. even if farmers, after attending training programmes desire to adopt those technologies, there is unavailability of the required production inputs at the farmer’s doorstep. this was perceived as a constraint by majority (97.50 per cent) of the respondents. an overwhelming majority (95.83 per cent) of respondents noticed that, at farmers level there was still a demand of trainings over improved technologies which are being practiced by neighboring districts and states. atma follows participatory approach method for delivering its activities with its body comprising farmer representative members and groups. however the voice of those representatives is being neglected by the table 1. constraints perceived by the respondents sl.no. constraints frequency* percentage rank a. constraints faced by extension officials in performing extension activities (n=60) 1. inadequate financial support under the atma scheme 60 100 i 2. additional staff requirement a) lack of separate chairman at district level b) lack of deputy project director c) lack of computer operators at block level 60 59 60 100 98.33 100 i ii i journal of extension education 5771 3. approval and release of fund is delayed 59 98.33 ii 4. lack of guidelines for block action plan 58 96.67 iii 5. lack of prior information on work plan 58 96.67 iii 6. lack of tablets and hand held projectors for block technology team 57 95.00 iv 7. lack of trainings to block level team regarding ict tools 55 91.67 v 8. block level technology team jurisdiction is more 53 88.33 vi 9. there is no separate amount for transport and daily allowance 51 85.00 vii 10. red tapism 49 81.67 viii 11. lack of delegation of authority to the block level functionaries 47 78.33 ix 12. less time for review 46 76.67 x 13. panchayat body is not being involved under atma 46 76.67 x 14. farmers showing lack of interest in attending polambadi (farm school) 44 73.33 xi b. constraints perceived by farmers under atma (n = 120) 1. unavailability of production inputs at the farmer’s doorstep 117 97.50 i 2. lack of trainings on improved technologies 115 95.83 ii 3. voice of farmer representatives have been often neglected 111 92.50 iii constraints faced by stakeholders under agriculture technology management agency (atma) 5772 4. no proper planning in input distribution 103 85.83 vi 5. no training programmes on ict and its application 101 84.17 v 6. less exposure visits outside the state 98 81.67 vi 7. political hindrance affecting the selection of beneficiaries 95 79.17 vii 8. poor r-e-f linkage 87 72.50 viii 9. less demonstrations on farming system research 85 70.83 ix 10. lag in information dissemination 79 65.83 x * multiple responses extension officials. this was considered as one of the constraints by 92.50 per cent of the respondents. about 85 per cent of the respondents perceived that distribution of inputs to the beneficiaries was unplanned. almost 84 per cent of the respondents believed that it is not only the extension functionaries who require trainings on ict tools, but also the beneficiary farmers. suggestions given by the respondents for successful implementation of atma programme in order to promote technical leadership for atma a separate chairman position to atma programme should be appointed. this step will help in achieving departmental as well as atma goals with supplementary time for reviewing, identifying problems, finding table 2. suggestions given by the respondents sl.no. suggestions frequency*(%) rank a. suggestions offered by extension functionaries (n=60) 1. separate chairman to atma programmes at district level 60 (100) i 2. additional staff required a) deputy project director officer cadre b) computer operators 58 (96.67) 60 (100) ii i journal of extension education 5773 3. timely approval and release of funds 57 (95.00) iii 4. simplify the bureaucratic procedures 55 (91.67) iv 5. trainings on ict tools should be given for extension functionaries 53 (88.33) v 6. separate guidelines for block and village action plan needed 47 (78.33) vi b. suggestions offered by farmers (n= 120) 1. make the required inputs available at the farmers convenience 117 (97.50) i 2. offer trainings on improved technologies 111 (92.50) ii 3. require more demonstrations on farming system research 103 (85.83) iii 4. need more number of exposure visits (other than own district) 101 (84.16) iv 5. trainings on ict tools should be given for farmers 97 (80.83) v 6. strengthen the r-e-f linkage 88 (73.33) vi 7. fortify the feedback mechanism 85 (70.83) vii * multiple responses alternatives and implementing strategies as suggested by 100 per cent of the respondents. majority (97.50 %) of the farmers suggested that production inputs were not available to the farmers during the cropping season. therefore government should make efforts in offering the inputs according to the farming situations of the farmers. farmers should be provided with adequate trainings on improved technologies developed within and outside the state as proposed by 92.50 per cent of the respondents. the major constraints faced by atma extension functionaries in andhra pradesh were lack of financial support for atma, non-appointment of separate chairman (other than collector) at district level and lack of supporting staff such as computer operators at block. the major constraint perceived by the atma farmers was non-availability of production inputs to the farmers which needs to constraints faced by stakeholders under agriculture technology management agency (atma) 5774 be addressed seriously by the atma officials. if the constraints considered by extension functionaries and farmers are not immediately addressed it might affect the overall success of the atma scheme in andhra pradesh. the constraints are related primarily to administration and management aspects and this need to be rectified for formulation of effective planning and strategies by atma. references bortamuly, d., & khuhly, b.l. (2013). constraints faced by block level extension functionaries in facilitating commodity interest groups and farm schools under atma in ne indian states. journal of academia and industrial research. 2(5), 291-294. kumar, k.a., eswarappa, g. & manjunatha, b.n. (2011). constraints faced by stakeholders in implementation of agricultural technology management agency programme. karnataka journal of agricurtural sciences. 24 (2),255257. journal of extension education 5672 relative importance of farmers’ characteristics in predicting their knowledge about indigenous agricultural practices a. sakeer husain1, m. sundaramari2 and j. sreekumar3 abstract this study was conducted to identify the farmers’ characteristics that act as factors in influencing their knowledge on indigenous agricultural practices. the study was conducted in the state of kerala among 40 farmers each of ten selected horticultural crops. step wise regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were employed to identify the influencing factors. the study revealed that age, farm power status, innovativeness, rational orientation, communication status, and social participation status positively influence knowledge of farmers on indigenous agricultural practices whereas material status, educational status, and family status were the important characteristics of farmers negatively influencing the knowledge of indigenous practices. keywords : traditional agricultural practices, indigenous technical knowledge, knowledge determinants, kerala 1.associate professor, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala, india 2. professor, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, tamil nadu, india and 3. principal scientist, central tuber crops research institute (icar), thiruvananthapuram, kerala, india received : 19-05-2017; accepted : 12-06-2017 introduction indigenous knowledge (ik) is the knowledge that the people in a given community have developed over time and continue to develop (iirr, 1996). it is based on experience, often tested over centuries of use, adapted to local culture and environment, and it is dynamic and changing. any community possesses ikrural and urban, settled and nomadic, original inhabitants and migrants. according to iirr (1996), indigenous knowledge in agriculture may be classified into different types such as information, practices and technologies, beliefs, tools, materials, experimentation, biological resources, human resources, education, and communication. indigenous knowledge being the knowledge of local people is important in many ways, mainly due to the unique nature of such technologies/practices. ik is the social capital of the poor, their main asset to invest in the struggle for survival, to produce food, to provide for shelter, or to achieve control of their own lives. prasad and ramaprasad (2006) reiterated that the best traditional practices serve as a knowledge pool for the small and marginal farmers without journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5672-5679 5673 high risk. however, the lacuna is lack of effective communication to disseminate this knowledge to the resource poor farmers. various studies have revealed that the awareness level of traditional knowledge is declining at an alarming rate. but this knowledge coupled with biological diversity is vital for the survival of mankind, especially for the future generations. before making efforts to perk up the knowledge and adoption of various practices, attempts should be made not only to analyse the validity of the practices, but also to ascertain the present status of the target group with regard to their knowledge. hence, it is worthwhile to analyse the knowledge level of people on indigenous practices in all spheres of life, including the agricultural sector, and also to analyse the factors that may determine knowledge. in this backdrop, the present study was undertaken with the objective of identifying the factors that may influence the knowledge of farmers about indigenous technical knowledge in agriculture. methodology the study was conducted among the farmers of the state of kerala. it was decided to have the analysis on the knowledge of farmers among horticultural crops, since they contribute more than 80 percent of the cultivated crops in kerala. after careful analysis of the available literature and keeping the objectives in view, more of qualitative and attitudinal variables were selected for the study. most of the selected variables were of expost facto in nature and the researcher had very little chance to control them. hence an expost facto research design was used for the present study. among the five agro climatic zones of kerala viz. southern zone, central zone, northern zone, high altitude zone, and problem area zone., excluding the problem area zone, which is scattered in many districts of kerala, one district each, from the other four agro climatic zones was purposively selected based on the larger coverage of horticultural crops. thus, four districts out of the fourteen districts of kerala were selected. from each district, two blocks each having predominant area under horticultural crops were selected purposively, and from each block two village panchayats were selected purposively. thus, a total of 16 village panchayats spread over the state of kerala were selected. based on the area under cultivation of various horticultural crops in the study area, the economic importance of the crops and the number & importance of indigenous practices collected, ten crops were selected for the study, which include coconut, banana, amaranth, vegetable cow pea, bitter gourd, elephant foot yam, pepper, ginger, arecanut and coffee. in addition, indigenous practices on general agriculture were also included. the knowledge of concerned farmers on indigenous practices of various crops was assessed. journal of extension education 5674 it was intended to approach 40 farmers for the selected ten crops, and thus a total of 400 farmers formed the sample of the study. for each of the 10 crops, ten farmers were required to be contacted from each district, except in the case of coffee. for the high elevation crop viz. coffee, it was decided to contact 40 farmers exclusively from wayanad district. within a district, five farmers each for each crop from each of the selected block were identified. when respondents were selected from the village panchayats, proportionate random sampling was used i.e. proportionate to the area under cultivation of each crop. accordingly, after collecting the list of farmers from the concerned agricultural offices (krishibhavan) of the department of agriculture in each of the earlier selected 16 village panchayats, farmers were contacted at random. when a total of 127 farmers were contacted, sufficient responses (40 set of responses in each crop) were obtained, since many of the selected farmer respondents had been cultivating one or more of the selected crops. the crop-wise and villagewise distribution of the farmers selected for the study is given in table 1. table 1. crop wise and village wise distribution of farmer respondents sl. no. d is tr ic t v il la ge p an ch ay at number of farmer respondents contacted (crop wise) actual number contacted c o co n u t b an an a a m ar an th v eg . co w p ea b it te r go u rd e le p h an t fo o t y am p ep p er g in ge r a re ca n u t c o ff ee t o ta l 1. 2. 3. 4. i ii iii iv 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 4 1 3 2 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 4 1 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 4 1 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 ------------------------10 10 10 10 22 23 26 19 23 22 20 25 21 24 21 24 31 34 34 31 6 7 9 8 6 7 8 7 7 6 7 6 10 11 12 10 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 127 relative importance of farmers’ characteristics in predicting their knowledge about indigenous agricultural practices 5675 the objective of the study necessitated knowledge of farmers about indigenous horticultural practices as the dependent variable of the study. based on extensive review of literature on the subject, and consultation with the agricultural extension scientists, followed by screening out variables by judges rating, 13 variables with a relevancy score above the mean relevancy score (4.2) were identified, as followed by nataraju (1991) and sundaramari (2001). the identified variables were: age, farming experience, livestock possession, socio-economic status, extension agency contact, mass media exposure, fatalism, decision making ability, innovativeness, rational orientation, environmental orientation, belief in traditional agriculture, and attitude towards indigenous knowledge. to study the influence in detail, the subcomponents of socio economic status such as educational status, family status, occupational status, farm status, social participation status, communication status, farm power status, material status were also used in the analysis along with the independent variables, replacing the socio economic status step wise regression analysis was done to know the relative effect of the independent variables in the study in predicting the dependent variable and for elimination of unimportant ones. thus it gave information regarding the best subset of components and the relative contribution of each of these components in the variation in dependent variables after eliminating unimportant components. here, the step wise (forward) regression analysis was done using the criterion, adjusted r-squared for selecting the best model among all possible models. this analysis was done at two stages. accordingly models were suggested in each case. multiple linear regression analysis was carried out to determine the combined contributions of the independent variables considered (contribution of each model) for the variations in the dependent variable. it was also meant to find out the variables which have contributed significantly for the changes in the dependent variable. to find out the extent of influence of independent variables on the dependent variable, knowledge of indigenous agricultural practices (iaps) step wise regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were performed. the step wise (forward) regression analysis was done here so as to find out the best model among different models predicting the dependent variable. it is an accumulated analysis of deviance resulting from stepwise regression starting with no candidate terms in the model. the criterion used in this analysis was adjusted r-squared. after identifying the best model, multiple linear regression analysis was subsequently done in the particular model to know the extent of influence of different independent variables. journal of extension education 5676 findings and discussion as mentioned, the relative importance of independent variables in predicting the knowledge of indigenous agricultural practices (iaps) was analysed using regression analysis. the step wise (forward) regression analysis to identify the best knowledge model had suggested the final model as follows: knowledge of iaps = constant + age + livestock possession + belief in traditional agriculture + innovativeness + socio-economic status + extension agency contact + decision making ability (knowledge modeli) to know the relative importance of these variables in predicting the knowledge on iaps, multiple linear regression analysis was done on this model, and the results are given in table 2. table 2. multiple linear regression analysis of knowledge model – i (n = 127) sl. no. particulars regression coefficients standard error t value* t probability 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. constant age livestock possession belief in traditional agriculture innovativeness socio-economic status extension agency contact decision making ability 18.59 0.3360 1.544 3.98 4.16 0.0792 0.233 -0.306 6.47 0.0709 0.422 1.05 1.26 0.0413 0.113 0.263 2.87 4.74 3.66 3.78 3.29 1.92 2.05 1.16 0.005 <.001 <.001 <.001 0.001 0.058 0.042 0.247 f = 14.79 f pr. <.001 r2 = 0.434 se = 7.90 * df =119 table 2 reveals that the variables such as age, livestock possession, belief in traditional agriculture, and innovativeness had the major role in developing the knowledge of iaps at 1% level of significance, whereas extension agency contact had influence on knowledge level, which is significant at 5% level. but this model explained only 43.40% of the total variation. hence, instead of socio-economic status, all the constituent variables of socio-economic status were included along with other independent variables, and a step wise regression analysis was done again, which has given the following final model. knowledge of iaps = constant + age + farm power status+ material status+ relative importance of farmers’ characteristics in predicting their knowledge about indigenous agricultural practices 5677 innovativeness + belief in traditional agriculture + occupational status + rational orientation + educational status + communication status + livestock possession + social participation status + family status + mass media exposure + farm status (knowledge modelii) the result of multiple regression analysis done on this model is given in table 3. table 3. multiple linear regression analysis of knowledge model – ii (n = 127) sl. no. particulars regression coefficients standard error t value* t probability 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. constant age farm power status material status innovativeness belief in traditional agriculture occupational status rational orientation educational status communication status livestock possession social participation status family status mass media exposure farm status 35.19 0.3144 0.380 0.2721 3.24 1.64 -1.112 3.51 -3.10 1.610 0.887 1.443 -1.339 0.594 1.000 9.29 0.0640 0.115 0.0663 1.07 1.03 0.623 1.26 1.06 0.773 0.458 0.695 0.550 0.363 0.693 3.79 4.91 3.31 4.11 3.02 1.59 1.78 2.78 2.92 2.08 1.94 2.08 2.44 1.64 1.44 <.001 <.001 0.001 <.001 0.003 0.114 0.077 0.006 0.004 0.040 0.055 0.040 0.016 0.104 0.152 f = 14.63 f pr. <.001 r2 = 0.602 se = 6.80 * df =112 the results given in table 3 reveal that the model explained 60.20 percent of the total variation. among the variables, age, farm power status, innovativeness, and rational orientation had positive and significant influence while material status and educational status had negative and significant influence on journal of extension education 5678 knowledge at 1 per cent level. at the same time, communication status, and social participation status had shown significant positive influence at 5 per cent level, and family status had shown significant negative influence at 5 percent level. it is quite natural that the age of farmers may be expected to have significant positive influence on the knowledge about indigenous practices, as the old farmers are the treasure house of information especially the indigenous knowledge. hence the saying, ‘when an old man dies a library is lost’. similarly farmers with high farm power status, innovativeness and rational orientation would also try to gain more knowledge whether it is about indigenous knowledge or not. the increased communication status and social participation status would also definitely enable the farmers to gain more knowledge on indigenous practices by way of more contact, interaction and communication. on the other hand, when material status, educational status, and family status increase, people will go behind modern, sophisticated, so called advanced technologies, and try to get more information on it, ignoring the old techniques and practices with an intention to get quick results, more profit and to have comfort without considering the advantages of indigenous knowledge. thus the influence of all the independent variables mentioned above has been justifiable and logical.the findings are partly in conformity with those of jayawardana (2007) conclusion knowledge is the precursor of adoption; without knowledge and adoption, a practice cannot be propagated. to propagate and promote a practice, careful understanding of the factors that influence the knowledge of farmers and adoption of indigenous technical practices in agriculture is vital. the present study concludes that age, farm power status, innovativeness, rational orientation, communication status, social participation status material status, educational status, and family status were the important characteristics of farmers in influencing the knowledge of indigenous agricultural practices, of which the latter three variables were negatively influencing knowledge. thus, by improving the social participation status, communication status, innovativeness, rational orientation of farmers as well as operating through aged farmers, knowledge of farmers on indigenous technical knowledge in agriculture can be nurtured. references iirr. (1996). recording and using indigenous knowledge: a manual. international institute of rural reconstruction, silang, cavite, philippines. 211p. jayawardana, j. k. j. p. (2007). organic agricultural practices in coconut based homesteads in thiruvananthapuram district. unpublished m. sc. (ag.) relative importance of farmers’ characteristics in predicting their knowledge about indigenous agricultural practices 5679 thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, india, 124p. nataraju, m.s. (1991). effectiveness of farm magazinesa component analysis. unpublished ph.d. thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, india. prasad, g. k. & ramaprasad, v. (2006). disseminating traditional seed storage practices through people’s participation. leisa india, 8(3): 3435. sundaramari, m. (2001). adoption and perceived effectiveness of indigenous agricultural practices in different farming systems. unpublished ph. d. thesis, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, india. journal of extension education 6019 perception of farmers about a pilot extension project (leads) in two districts of kerala preethu k. paul1, g. s. sreedaya2 and dhanusha d balakrishnan3 abstract lead farmer centered extension advisory and delivery services (leads) is a pilot extension system revolving around lead farmer – satellite farmer concept on an agro ecological zone basis within a district. the present study was conducted in the kollam and palakkad districts of kerala state to compare the perception level of the farmers towards leads regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads of both districts. from the study conducted, it was clear that the perception of farmers was found to be more in kollam than in palakkad district in terms of effectiveness of the extension system. keywords : pilot extension project; leads; perception; perception index; lead farmers; satellite farmers; kerala introduction 1 & 3 assistant professor (contract) and 2 assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture vellayani, kerala agricultural universitythrissur, kerala, india received : 26-03-2018; accepted : 02-05-2018 kerala, a premier state in india with a tradition of many innovative social development programmes has implemented many novel projects across the state in the past sixty years, which aimed at developing the state’s agriculture. there was a noticeable gap in the provision of agricultural extension services to the farmers. with many peculiarities in the agricultural sector of kerala, the gap in agricultural extension was particularly disadvantageous to the small and marginal farmers. while one could observe some farmers reaping record yields, majority of the other farmers had to grapple with poor yields and this led to reduced returns making the agricultural system, an unviable economic activity. many of the developmental programmes pin pointed shortfalls like lack of farmer to farmer extension and lack of periodic field visits. this thought has led to the implementation of the leads pilot project by the kerala state planning board (sreedaya, 2016). leads is lead farmer centered extension advisory and delivery services which is a pilot extension system revolving around lead farmer – satellite farmer concept on an agro ecological zone basis within a district. lead farmer concept follows the farmer to farmer (f2f) extension approach. f2f extension system is a cost-effective and potentially sustainable service delivery mechanism to rural farmers. lead farmers are those farmers who possess high amount of innovativeness and satellite farmers are the research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6019-6024 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6020 farmers who revolve around the lead farmers and adopt the technologies recommended by the lead farmers. the performance of the agricultural development projects always possesses a cumulative effect in attaining the objectives and even well conceived agricultural development programmes in the past years have suffered from many implementation problems. impact assessment of the projects are essential to ascertain the success of any project. the present study was proposed to compare the perception of farmers regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads in kollam and palakkad districts. methodology the study was conducted in five developmental blocks of kollam district and 5 blocks of palakkad district of kerala. fifteen lead farmers and 30 satellite farmers were selected from both the districts as respondents. comparison of perception of farmers regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads in kollam and palakkad districts was done by modifying the scale developed by (preethi et al.,) 2014.the statements were scored by using the perception index. (individual subject score (total score) x 100perception index, pi = findings and discussion perception is the process by which an individual becomes aware of the objects around him and of the events that takes place. results of the study are categorized into the perception of lead farmers and perception of the satellite farmers. perception of the lead farmers regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads the respondents were categorized into three groups, viz., low, medium and high based on the quartile deviation. from the data, it is clear that majority of the lead farmers of kollam and palakkad district possessed a table 1. distribution of lead farmers based on their perception regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads. sl. no. kollam palakkad category percentage category percentage 1. <88 (low) 6.67 <76(low) 3.33 2. 88-97(medium) 80 7680(medium) 73.33 3. >97 (high) 13.33 >80(high 20 4. total 100 total 100 5. q1 88 q397 q1 76 q3 – 80 journal of extension education 6021 medium level of perception i.e. 80 per cent and 73.33 per cent respectively regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads. on comparing the perception of lead farmers of both the districts, perception regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads was found higher for the lead farmers of kollam district than that of palakkad district (table 1). based on the perception, perception index of lead farmers for the statements was assessed, and the results are depicted in table 2. the perception scale selected consisted of eight statements measured in a five-point continuum, viz., strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. table 2. perception index (pi) of lead farmers of kollam and palakkad districts sl. no statements kollam-pi palakkad – pi 1 leads methods are more effective than conventional methods 93.33 73.33 2 leads helps farmers to access new technologies and products easily 73.33 86.66 3 group approach of leads is more effective than individual approach 86.66 66.67 4 participative decision making is ensured in the implementation of leads methods 80 53.33 5 farmers get an opportunity to take leadership in technology dissemination process 53.33 73.33 6 greater economic prosperity can be achieved through leads 80 60 7 participative skill training helps farmers to adopt new technologies and methods 60 73.33 8 farmers get an opportunity to introduce their own innovations to the farming community 73.33 80 from the perception index, it is clear that in kollam district, statements such as ‘leads methods are more effective than conventional methods’ and ‘group approach of leads was more effective than individual approach’ were having a perception score of 93.33 and perception of farmers about a pilot extension project (leads) in two districts of kerala 6022 86.66 respectively and in palakkad district the statements viz., ‘leads helps farmers to access new technologies and products easily’ and ‘farmers get an opportunity to introduce their own innovations to the farming community’ were having a perception score of 86.66 and 80 respectively. in kollam district, leads was being implemented under the supervision of expert extension officials and clearly proved the results. whereas in palakkad district due to lack of supporting staff, farmers awareness was found to be less about the concept of leads. this might be the reason for the above findings. perception of the satellite farmers regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads the distribution of the satellite farmers regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads is shown in table 3. the respondents were categorized into three groups viz., low, medium and high based on the quartile deviation. from table 3, it is clear that majority of the satellite farmers of kollam and palakkad district possessed a medium level of perception 63.33 percent and 43.33 percent respectively regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads. on comparing the perception of satellite farmers of both the districts, perception regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads was found higher for the satellite farmers of kollam district than that of palakkad district. table 3. distribution of satellite farmers on perception regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads. sl. no kollam palakkad category percentage category percentage 1 <73 (low) 13.33 <64 (low) 26.67 2 73-84(medium) 63.33 64-72 (medium) 43.33 3 >84 (high) 23.33 >72 (high 30 4 total 100 total 100 q1 73 q384 q1 64 q3 – 72 perception scale consisted of ten statements measured in a five-point continuum viz., strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. majority of the respondents of kollam district strongly agreed with the perception statements such as ‘leads methods are more effective than conventional methods’ and ‘group approach of leads is more effective than individual approach’. journal of extension education 6023 in palakkad district majority of the respondents strongly agreed with the perception statements such as ‘leads helps farmers to access new technologies and products easily’ and ‘farmers got an opportunity to introduce their own innovations to the farming community’. based on the perception, perception index of satellite farmers for the statements was assessed out using the formula, and the results are depicted in table 4. table 4. perception index of satellite farmers of kollam and palakkad districts sl.no statements kollam-pi palakkad – pi 1 leads methods are more effective than conventional methods 96.66 93.33 2 leads helps farmers to access new technologies and products easily 90 80 3 group approach of leads is more effective than individual approach 86.67 90 4 participative decision making is ensured in the implementation of leads methods 66.67 70 5 farmers get an opportunity to take leadership in technology dissemination process 73.33 86.67 6 greater economic prosperity can be achieved through leads 70 63.33 7 participative skill training helps farmers to adopt new technologies and methods 83.33 73.33 8 farmers get an opportunity to introduce their own innovations to the farming community 76.67 83.33 conclusion a comparative analysis on the perception of farmers regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads in kollam and palakkad showed that farmers of kollam district possessed higher level of perception regarding the effectiveness in implementation of leads, when compared to the farmers of palakkad district. the policy makers & extension professionals can take a cue from the results of the study and act accordingly. perception of farmers about a pilot extension project (leads) in two districts of kerala 6024 references preethi, m., nataraju, s., & lakshminarayan, m. t. (2014). development of a scale to measure perception of farm youth towards agriculture. international journal of extension education, 10, 165-167. sreedaya, g. s. (2016). a final report submitted to the director, state department of agriculture: monitoring and evaluation of lead farmer centered extension advisory and delivery services (leads)pilot project in four districts of kerala, trivandrum. p.14. journal of extension education 5972 capacity development of agricultural stakeholders in coimbatore district of tamil nadu – an analytical study m. r. naveen kumar1, p. suganthkumar2 , h. philip3, m. asokhan4and n. sriram5 abstract this study was taken up to understand the training gaps and training needs of the agricultural stakeholders such as public, private extension officials and farmers in tamil nadu. the data were collected using pre tested well-structured questionnaire from public and private extension officials and using semi-structured interview schedule in case of farmers. the results show that training gaps are relatively higher among public extension officials than private extension officials. demonstrations, group discussions, field visits, video lessons and sms are the preferred training methods by the stakeholders. keywords : capacity development; agricultural stakeholders; training gaps; training needs; tamil nadu 1. phd scholar, 2. pg scholar, 4. professor & head, 5. associate professor, dept. of agricultural extension and rural sociology and 3. director of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 64 1003. india received : 21-11-2017; accepted : 26-04-2018 introduction capacity development is dependent on the local context. hence, no two stakeholders need the same capacity to prevail on. stakeholders either are the group of people who gets affected in the positive or negative way by the decision whichever took in the organizational or institutional or at national level. for example., the agricultural stakeholders involves international organisations such as fao, national organisations as ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, several ngos, agricultural input manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, public and private extension officials, farmers and their agents etc., in order to cope up with several contemporary transitions such as, shrinking per capita agricultural resources, changing farmer’s and consumer needs, climate change, introduction of new technologies, changing preference of knowledge on social systems, information and communication technology tools’ influence, gender mainstreaming etc., the capacity development among the agricultural stakeholders becomes inevitable. in order to frame effective capacity development programmes an understanding of the capacity needs of journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5972-5977 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 5973 the stakeholders are necessary for which the analytical study have been conducted among the three kinds of agricultural stakeholders, viz., public extension officials, private extension officials and farmers. methodology the research design used was ex-post facto. simple random sampling procedure was followed to select the samples. the respondents were public extension officials such as, agricultural officers, assistant agricultural officers and subject matter specialists of atma scheme; with regard to private extension officials, marketing executives and business managers were surveyed. farmers belonging to pasuvoor, as kulam, maadhampatti, chinavedampatti and thondamuthur of coimbatore district of tamil nadu were included. the sample size was 90 i.e., 30 samples per category. data collection tools used were, pre tested well-structured questionnaire for public and private extension officials and semi-structured interview schedule in the case of farmers. modes of data collection were, through personal interview, online mailing, social media and telephonic interview. the statistical tools used were percentage analysis and cumulative frequency. findings and discussion training gaps are denoted as, the vacuum that exists on already provided training components such as training interval, understanding level, interactiveness, approachableness and feedback obtainment of the trainers. the result shows that the training gap existence was more in terms of government extension officials than the private extension officials, as the government officials fell under the category of medium to high. training need refers to the focused area in which the respondents desired training. data were collected on several sub variables such as training content for public and private extension officials and farmers, training venue for all three kinds of stakeholders, training duration, training period, trainers and training methods. the sub variable ‘training content’ refers to the content or message of the training programme. training venue denotes the places where the chosen agricultural stakeholders wish to undergo training. training duration denotes table 1. distribution of respondents based on training gaps (n = 60) sl. no. category government officials private officials no. % no. % 1 low 4 13.33 8 26.67 2 medium 12 40.00 8 26.67 3 high 14 46.67 14 46.67 5974 the number of days the agricultural stakeholders would like to undergo per training. training period denotes the season in which the trainees would like to attend the training. the ‘trainers’ refers to the qualified persons in specialized fields under whom the trainees are willing to attend the training and the training methods relate to methods of table 2. distribution of respondents based on training skill for officials (n = 60) sl. no. cate gory government officials private officials no. % no. % 1 technical skills 21 70.00 16 53.33 2 soft skills 5 16.67 11 36.67 3 technical + soft skills 4 13.33 3 10.00 4. total 30 100.00 30 100.00 *multiple responses training such as, power point lectures, group discussion, demonstrations, field visit, video lessons, sms and kisan voice calls. table 2 implies that both public and private extension officials have favoured technical training alone than the soft skills training and the combination of both technical and soft skill training. table 3. distribution of respondents based on training content for farmers. (n = 30) sl. no particulars frequency* percentage 1. crop production and protection 21 70.00 2. post-harvest technologies 4 13.33 3. marketing techniques 19 63.33 4. savings and investment 8 26.67 5. formation of farmer groups and associations 11 36.67 *multiple responses 5975 table 3 infers that farmer respondents were showing much interest towards the crop production table 4. distribution of respondents based on training needs (n = 90) particulars category government officials private officials farmers no. % no. % no. % training venue own village 11 36.67 -6 20.00 research institutes 5 16.67 10 33.33 4 13.33 agrl. office --2 6.67 success farmer fields 14 46.66 5 16.67 18 60.00 star hotels -15 50.00 --training duration 1-3 days 16 53.33 30 100.00 25 83.34 4–7 days 8 26.67 --5 16.66 >1 week 6 20.00 ----training period before cropping season 16 53.33 27 90.00 11 36.67 on cropping season 6 20.00 3 10.00 13 43.33 after problem arises 4 13.33 --4 13.33 without affecting routines 4 13.33 --2 6.67 trainers academicians / scientists 13 43.33 5 16.67 4 13.33 agri. dept. officials 10 33.33 7 23.34 6 20.00 private officials 5 16.67 16 53.33 3 10.00 progressive farmers ----17 56.67 bureaucrats 2 6.67 2 6.67 --and protection aspects trainings followed by marketing techniques. 5976 table 4 indicates several phases of training needs. the public extension officials and farmers have shown interest towards attending trainings at the progressive farmer fields for better understanding of the clientele’s mindset. whereas, majority of private extension officials have shown interest towards attending trainings at the star hotel as it ensures conducive learning environment. irrespective of the classification, majority of the respondents have shown keen interest to attend the training of less than 3 days. this might be due to their fear of affecting their routines if the training prolonged more than 3 days. in the case of training period, due to their busy working schedule, public and private extension officials were interested to attend the training before the start of the cropping season. however, majority of the farmers were interested to attend the training once the cropping season starts, the reason quoted by the farmers while inquiry was their lack of ability to retain the knowledge for longer time obtained through training. when it comes to trainers, public extension officials were interested to be trained from the academicians and scientists. private extension officials were interested to get trained from their own experienced senior colleagues. farmers were interested to learn from their locally successful progressive farmers. the training methods, which were desired by the majority of the public extension officials for their effective learning, demonstrations and field visits. private extension officials were interested towards learning through group discussion and video lessons. whereas, farmers had shown interest towards learning through demonstrations particulars category government officials private officials farmers no. % no. % no. % training methods power point lectures 5 16.67 6 20.00 9 30.00 group discussion 17 56.67 16 53.33 19 63.33 demonstrations 23 76.67 13 43.33 30 100.00 field visit 19 63.33 8 26.67 18 60.00 video lessons 3 10.00 15 50.00 3 10.00 sms ----27 90.00 kcc voice calls ----17 56.67 5977 and sms, as they felt normal training which engages them completely for whole day as hectic; providing the information in simple local language and in several small parts in a regular basis shall help them in better retainment. conclusion from the study, it could be concluded that majority of the farmers are in need of trainings related to crop production, protection and marketing aspects. they should be trained for less than three days by the onset of cropping season in the local progressive farmer fields by the progressive farmers using demonstration method. they should send regular smss for making the training programme effective. majority of the public and private extension officials have favoured technical training alone. public extension officials shall be trained for less than 3 days before the start of cropping season in the local progressive farmer fields by the academicians and scientists using demonstrations and field visits for making the training programme effective. in case of private extension officials, the training programme formulated for less than 3 days in the star hotels before the onset of cropping season by the senior private extension officials using group discussions and video lessons shall be effective. references mani, s. (1996). a study on training needs of agricultural officers under tamil nadu agricultural development project. unpublished m.sc. thesis. tnau, coimbatore. untitled-1 5642 subject matter specialists and organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras of tamil nadu and kerala bimal p bashir1, n. narmatha2 and k.m. sakhtivel3 abstract the study was undertaken with the objective of determining the socio-personal characteristics of subject matter specialists (sms) of krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) and their relationship with organizational effectiveness. altogether 65 sms’ from 12 kvks across tamil nadu and kerala were selected. the study has concluded that most of respondents were middle aged with more than half of them being female. majority of them was married, had work experience of below five years and had attended three to five trainings. most of the respondents had high level of job satisfaction team-work and one-fourth felt a medium to high job stress. more than half of the respondents felt medium level of work load. there was a positive and significant correlation at one per cent level between job satisfaction / team work and organizational effectiveness of kvks whereas job stress had a negative and significant correlation at five per cent level. hence it may be concluded that team work, job satisfaction and job stress play a significant role in improving the organizational effectiveness of kvk. more emphasis must be given for team building enhance the job satisfaction level and reduce the job stress among subject matter specialists of kvks. key words: job satisfaction, team work, job stress, subject matter specialists, krishi vigyan kendra journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 1.ph.d scholar & 2. professor and head, department of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, veterinary college and research institution, namakkal – 637002 and 3. professor, department of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, veterinary college and research institute, orathanadu – 641625. received : 21-12-2016; accepted : 13-01-2017 introduction krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) are organizations meant for application of technology through assessment, refinement and demonstration of proven technologies under different ‘micro farming situations in a district. organizational effectiveness of kvks plays a pivotal role in effective delivery of its services to the extension system. it reflects how effectively an organization can discharge its function with respect to all of its constituents in its internal and external environment (pathak & patwardhan, 2011). a study on personal profile of subject matter specialists and organizational effectiveness of kvk will provide a better insight into the 5643 functioning of kvks. it will be useful for policy makers and expert officials while setting administrative reforms in kvks. keeping these things in view, the objectives were set to study the sociopersonal characteristics of subject matter specialists of krishi vigyan kendras and their relationship with organizational effectiveness. methodology selection and description of krishi vigyan kendras the study was undertaken during 2012-2014. during the time there were 641 krishi vigyan kendras functioning in india, managed through eight different zones. the eighth zone comprises tamil nadu, kerala, karnataka, goa, pondicherry and lakshadweep. tamil nadu and kerala were purposively selected based on familiarity of the researcher with study area and language. in tamil nadu, there are 30 krishi vigyan kendras and kerala is having 14 krishi vigyan kendras. out of the total 30 krishi vigyan kendras in tamil nadu, 19 are hosted by state universities / deemed universities and 11 are hosted by non-government organisations (ngo), whereas out of 14 krishi vigyan kendras in kerala, 11 are hosted by state universities / icar (indian council of agricultural research) institutes and three are hosted by non-government organizations. a list of kvks in tamil nadu and kerala which were established during or before 2004 was prepared. from the list, three state university kvks and three ngo kvks from each state were randomly selected for the study. selection of respondents all subject matter specialists of krishi vigyan kendras were selected for the study. thus, a total of 65 subject matter specialists constituted the sample for the study. selection, operationalizaiton and measurement of variables concerning the characteristics of subject matter specialists organizational effectiveness being a psychological variable and in order to have a deep understanding of it, an attempt has been made to analyze the socio-personal profile and working environment of sms in addition to various components of organizational effectiveness. the socio-personal variables studied include age, gender, marital status, education, trainings attended, field of specialization, work experience, transportation facilities and linkage with other development institutions. method of data collection taking into consideration of the scope and objectives of the study, a well-structured interview schedule was prepared for subject matter specialists. before finalizing the interview schedule, subject matter specialists and organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras of tamil nadu and kerala 5644 it was pre-tested in a non-sample area to probe into the relevancy of the schedule to suit the areas under study. based on the results of pre testing, suitable modifications were made and a final interview schedule was prepared. the data were collected from the subject matter specialists by making personal visits. statistical tools used the data collected from the subject matter specialists were coded, compiled and analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, equal class interval, delinious-hodges cumulative method of classification, pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. the data were analyzed with the help of statistical package for the social sciences (ver.17). findings and discussion socio-personal characteristics of subject matter specialists in krishi vigyan kendras an analysis of characteristics of the subject matter specialists in krishi vigyan kendras was done in order to get better understanding about their background. age two-thirds of the respondents (66.00 per cent) were in middle age group, 26.00 per cent of them were in young age group and 8.00 per cent were in old age group. this finding derives support from the findings of tayade et al. (2011). sex and marital status more than half of the respondents (57.00 per cent) were female. majority (88.00 per cent) of the respondents was married. education more than two-thirds of the respondents (69.00 per cent) had post graduation followed by doctoral degree (26.00 per cent) and graduation (5.00 per cent). the probable reason attributed to this might be that minimum qualification for the subject matter specialists as specified by icar is master’s degree in the respective subject. this finding is in conformity with the findings of jyothi (2006). trainings attended more than two-thirds of the respondents (45.00 per cent) attended three to five trainings followed by one to two trainings (34.00 per cent) and six or more trainings (21.00 per cent). this finding derives support from the findings of tayade et al., (2011). because of technological advancement, frequent trainings are needed to enhance the efficiency of human resources and to improve the capabilities of staff members. deputing sms’ for attending various trainings, workshops etc. would increase the overall performance of sms’ journal of extension education 5645 and in turn improve the organizational effectiveness of the kvk. field of specialization among the respondents studied, 18.00 per cent of them were specialized in veterinary / animal sciences followed by 17.00 per cent in agronomy, 15.00 per cent each in home science and horticulture, 12.00 per cent in entomology / plant pathology, 6.00 per cent in soil science, 5.00 per cent each in extension, fisheries and agricultural engineering and 2.00 per cent in plant breeding. as per the guidelines, the programme co-coordinator of kvk is preferably an extension scientist or at least one sms should be an extension specialist in each kvk. out of 12 kvks studied, only one kvk was headed by extension specialist and three kvks had sms’ specialized in extension. giving importance to extension scientists would help to develop location specific technology dissemination methodologies in the changing context of agriculture. table-1. linkages with other development institutions n=65 sl. no. category excellent good satisfactory poor f % f % f % f % 1. agricultural department 28 43.08 33 50.77 4 6.15 0 0 2. agricultural university 24 36.92 38 58.46 2 3.08 1 1.54 3. animal husbandry department 16 24.62 26 40.00 20 30.77 3 4.61 4. veterinary university 19 29.23 24 36.92 19 29.23 3 4.62 5. ngos 12 18.46 34 52.31 18 27.69 1 1.54 6. investors 1 1.54 20 30.77 35 53.85 9 13.84 7. local bodies 7 10.77 37 56.92 21 32.31 0 0 8. nabard 19 29.23 31 47.69 11 16.92 4 6.16 9. lead bank of the district 9 13.85 29 44.61 20 30.77 7 10.77 subject matter specialists and organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras of tamil nadu and kerala 5646 work experience more than two-fifths (43.00 per cent) of the respondents had below 5 years of experience followed by 6-10 years (32.00 per cent) and 11 years and above (25.00 per cent). most of the respondents are young and middle aged, hence they are having less work experience. transportation facilities among the respondents studied, more than half (52.31 per cent) of the respondents had their own four wheelers for transportation followed by both two as well as four wheelers (29.23 per cent) and two wheelers only (17.47 per cent). linkage with other development institutions around three-fourths of (74.00 per cent) (table 1) of the respondents had medium level of linkage with other development institutions, followed by high (17.00 per cent) and low (9.23 per cent) respectively. it also indicates that 43.00 per cent and 37.00 per cent of the respondents had excellent linkage with agricultural departments and agricultural universities respectively whereas 37.00 per cent to 56.00 per cent of respondents had good linkage with animal husbandry departments, veterinary universities, ngos, local bodies and nabard (national bank for agriculture & rural development). it was also noted that 13.84 per cent and 10.77 per cent of respondents had poor linkage with investors and lead banks. the strong linkage of kvk personnel with the state agricultural departments might be due to the fact that most of the development schemes, agricultural schemes in particular are being operated by the state department of agriculture. working environment prevailing in krishi vigyan kendras majority (47.69 per cent) of the respondents were moderately satisfied with the people’s participation followed by high (41.54 per cent) and low (10.77 per cent) levels. in the domain of team work, 66.15 per cent of the respondents had high level of satisfaction in team work followed by medium (23.08 per cent) and low (10.77 per cent) levels. more than half (52.31 per cent) of the respondents had high level of satisfaction in the job followed by medium (41.54 per cent) and low (6.15 per cent) levels of satisfaction. more than three-fourths (75.38 per cent) of the respondents felt that there was a low level of job stress followed by medium (23.08 per cent) and high (1.54 per cent) levels. the present findings gain support from the finding of jyothi (2006). more than half of the respondents (55.38 per cent) felt that the work load was medium followed by high (40.00 per cent) and low (4.62 per cent). this finding gains support from the finding of sandika (2006). journal of extension education 5647 relationship between independent variables and organizational effectiveness among the subject matter specialists of krishi vigyan kendra in order to understand the association between the characteristics of subject matter specialists and their perception about the organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras, pearson correlation analysis was carried out and the results are presented in table 2. it could be seen from the table that out of 13 independent variables studied, satisfaction with people’s participation and team work had positive and significant relationship at 1 per cent level. job stress had negative and table-2. correlation between independent variables and organizational effectiveness among the subject matter specialists of krishi vigyan kendra variable no. variable overall organizational effectiveness ‘r’ values x1 age 0.027 x2 sex 0.156 x3 marital status -0.045 x4 educational level 0.083 x5 working experience -0.043 x6 number of training attended -0.119 x7 transportation facilities 0.029 x8 linkage with other developmental institutions 0.095 x9 satisfaction with people’s participation 0.184 x10 satisfaction with team work 0.333** x11 satisfaction with job 0.601** x12 job stress -0.286* x13 work-load -0.012 ** significant at 1 per cent level, * significant at 5 per cent level subject matter specialists and organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras of tamil nadu and kerala 5648 significant relationship at 5 per cent level. the relationship between stress and job satisfaction is interrelated and found to be negatively correlated, where stress is an emotional, physical reaction generated because of a situation, person or environment whereas job satisfaction is the end state of feeling, the feeling that is experienced after a task is accomplished (jui-chen, 2006). the study has showed that job stress and job satisfaction definitely decide the level of commitment of subject matter specialist of kvks which in turn decides organizational effectiveness. teamwork can also help in accomplishing the organizational duties. reduction of human errors and promotion of job satisfaction are the outcome of teamwork, while in complex and stressful environments it is teamwork that can help in providing a safe working condition (benrazavi and silong, 2013). the results of this study depict the importance of team work and its influence over organizational effectiveness of kvks. contribution of independent variables towards the organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras in order to find out which of the independent variables explained the influence over dependent variables and also to know the extent of their contribution made by these variables, multiple regression analysis was carried out. among the 13 variables, based on correlation co-efficient value six table3. regression analysis of organizational effectiveness with selected independent variables sl. no variables overall organizational effectiveness partial regression co-efficient standard error ‘t’ value 1 sex 15.189 18.117 0.838 2 linkage with other development institutions 2.030 2.256 0.900 3 team work -2.788 5.279 -0.528 4 job satisfaction 10.094 2.329 4.334** 5 people’s participation 1.485 4.777 0.311 6 job stress -0.355 1.237 -0.287 r square = .382, f= 5.986** ** significant at 1 per cent level journal of extension education 5649 variables have been included for multiple regression analysis. the results are presented in table 3. it could be observed that all the selected independent variables put together could explain 38.20 per cent of variation in perception of subject matter specialists on organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras. among the six variables taken for analysis, only one variable viz. job satisfaction was found to be positively significant at 1 per cent level. from the results it could be stated that a unit increase in the job satisfaction variable would correspondingly increase the perception of sms’ on organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras by 10.094 units. this finding reinforces the general feeling that employees who are satisfied with their jobs would help in improving the effectiveness of organizations. conclusion the present study underlines the importance of job satisfaction and team work among sms’ in krishi vigyan kendras. a significant and positive correlation was observed between job satisfaction /team work and organizational effectiveness of kvks. the study also stresses the need of reducing the job stress among sms’ in order to improve the overall efficiency of kvks as a farmers’ institution. proper management of work force must be ensured by the policy makers for better organization effectiveness of kvks. references benrazavi, s.r & silong, a.d. (2013). employees job satisfaction and its influence on willingness to work in team. journal of management policy and practice, 14(1):127-140. jui-chen, c.y. (2006). organization communication, job stress, organizational commitment and job performance of accounting professionals in taiwan and america. leadership & organization development journal, 27(4):242-249. jyothi, v. (2006). decision making process of krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) in northern karnataka. unpublished ph.d. thesis, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, karnataka, india. matteson, m.t & ivancevich. (1982). managing job stress and health. the free press, new york. pathak, r & patwardhan, m. (2011). impact of job involvement on organizational effectiveness: a study among faculty members. prabadhan indian journal of management, 4, (5) 36-42. prasad, m.s & mahipal. (1997). impact of training programme on knowledge gain of subject matter specialists. journal of extension education, 8 (5) 1596-1599. subject matter specialists and organizational effectiveness of krishi vigyan kendras of tamil nadu and kerala 5650 sandika, a.l. (2006). a study on organizational climate perception by veterinary officers (vos) and veterinary livestock inspectors (vlis) of department of animal husbandry and veterinary service, karnataka. unpublished m.sc. thesis, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, karnataka. tayade, a., chinchmalatpure, u.r & supe, s.v. (2011). information and communication technology used by the scientists in krishi vigyan kendra and regional research centre. journal of global communication, 4 (1) 16-26. journal of extension education 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers m. elavarasi1 and k.a. ponnusamy2 abstract the study mainly focused on organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers for coconut, millets, sugarcane and turmeric. the study was conducted in coimbatore, erode and dharampuri districts of tamil nadu. a sample of 100 organic farmers was the respondents for the present study. the data were collected from each respondent through personal interview method with the help of interview schedule. the data were analyzed using percentage analysis. the results revealed that, majority of the respondents followed seed treatment with azospirillum, beejamrutha and panchakavya, application of jeevamruthum and panchakavya through drip irrigation, application of farm yard manure and insitu ploughing of green manure crops, mulching with crop leaf residues and weeds, spraying of agni astram to repel pests, post harvest technology like oil extraction and jaggary preparation, storage techniques like using neem and pungam leaves. the result of the present study shows that, the farmers have the inclination for adoption of organic production practices. hence it may be concluded from the study that, there is an imperative need to raise the level of adoption of these organic farming practices in order to reduce the quantum of environmental hazards by inorganic farming. in india green revolution in agriculture has made a significant contribution on aggregate supply of food grains, ensuring food security to the growing population. however, the momentum gained during the period of green revolution slowly declined. now, agricultural growth faces a serious challenge in terms of sustainability. excessive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides has long lasting and deleterious effects on soil health, on the quality of food produce, health of farm workers, consumers of agricultural produce and other terrestrial and aquatic life and environment. in order to mitigate these health hazards and bring out natural balance and protection of ecosystem, organic movement has started in several parts of the world, in which no chemical fertilizers and plant protection chemicals are used in the cultivation of field crops, vegetables and fruits. the farmers follow most effectively the traditional practices of crop rotation with legumes, tillage practices to improve soil texture, application of adequate organic matter to sustain and retain soil moisture, nutrient to match crop needs and correction factors of soil health. keeping these facts in mind the present study was designed to study the organic farming technologies followed by the farmers in selected crops. siddaraju and rajendran (2006) indicated that organic agriculture system is based on 1-ph.d. scholar and 2-professor(agrl. extension) directorate of open and distance learning, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore641 003. journal of extension education5458 ecological principles and applying ecological practices to maintain soil fertility, to manage crop and animal health and to keep soil and water in a good condition without the use of chemical inputs. noorjehan (2004) in a study on extent of adoption of organic farming practices in sugarcane observed that, cent per cent were found to adopt of farm yard manure, green manure, bio fertilizers and bio pesticides. weed compost was adopted by 63.33 per cent, followed by application of neem cake /castor oil cakes (50.00%) and neem oil 3% neem seed kernal extract 5% was applied by cent per cent of respondents as a bio pesticides. release of trichogramma japanicum was followed by cent per cent of the respondents. methodology a diagnostic cum exploratory research design was used for the research study. based on interaction with officials from tamil nadu organic seed certification department (tnocd), coimbatore and myrada kvk, gobichettipalayam the researcher came to know that the farmers in the three districts, namely, coimbatore, erode and dharampuri have been successfully practising organic farming. moreover organic farming association has been functioning effectively in coimbatore, erode and dharampuri. hence these three districts were selected. by reviewing the record and documents from tnocd, coimbatore and myrada kvk gobichettipalayam, a list of farmers practising was prepared and a total of 100 farmers were selected and personally interviewed and data were collected using and semi structured interview schedule. findings and discussion organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers the results on organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers for coconut, millets, sugarcane and turmeric are presented in table1. (multiple response obtained) an exam ination of table 1 projects the organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers for coconut, millets, sugarcane and turmeric. the data show that 52.00 per cent, 28.00 per cent and 20.00 per cent of the farmers followed seed treatment for millets with azospirillum, trichoderma viride and cow urine respectively, in which the seeds were treated for half an hour, shade dried and broadcasted in main field. in the case of sugarcane 30.00 per cent, 16.67 per cent and 53.33 per cent of the respondents followed setts treatment with panchakavya, pseudomonas fluorescens and trichoderma viride mixture and beejamurutha respectively, in which the seedling materials were dipped for 30 minutes and planted in the main field. in the case of turmeric 28.00 per cent , 28.00 per cent and 44.00 per cent of the farmers followed seed treatment with panchakavya, pseudomonas fluorescens and 5459organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers no % no % no % no % 1. seed treatment a) seed treatment with azospirillum 13 52.00 b) seed treatment with trichoderma viride 7 28.00 c) seed treatment with cow urine 5 20.00 d) seed treatment with panchakavya 9 30.00 7 28.00 e) seed treatment with pseudomonas fluorescens and trichoderma viride mixture 5 16.67 7 28.00 f) seed treatment with beejamurutha 16 53.33 11 44.00 2. irrigation management a) application of jeevamruthum 17 85.00 23 76.67 15 60.00 b) application of panchakavya 7 35.00 12 40.00 7 28.00 c) application of effective microorganism 4 20.00 4 13.33 d) application of fish amino acid 3 15.00 6 20.00 e) application of liquid bio fertilizers and bio control agents 6 30.00 3 10.00 7 28.00 f) application of amirtha karaisal 12 48.00 3. manuring a) application of farm yard manure 20 100.00 21 84.00 16 53.33 16 64.00 b) application of goat manure 11 55.00 6 24.00 4 13.33 2 8.00 c) application of poultry manure 8 40.00 7 28.00 2 6.67 2 8.00 d) application of vermi compost 6 30.00 3 10.00 4 16.00 e) application of neem seed cake 8 40.00 f) application of neem seed cake, groundnut cake, castor cake and pungam cake mixture 15 60.00 11 44.00 g) application of neem seed cake, groundnut cake, castor cake and illupai cake mixture 15 60.00 15 60.00 h) green manure 9 45.00 7 28.00 24 80.00 22 88.00 i) application of bio fertlizers and bio control agents mixture 4 20.00 3 12.00 5 16.67 3 12.00 j) spraying of panchakavya 12 48.00 10 40.00 4. weed management a) mulching with coconut leaves/ husks 20 100.00 b) mulching with weeds 20 100.00 25 100.00 30 100.00 25 100.00 c) cattle grazing 7 35.00 d) intercropping with legumes 30 100.00 15 60.00 e) sugarcane trash mulching& mulching with turmeric leaves 30 100.00 25 100.00 table 1. organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers in four crops sl. no. organic farming technologies andpractices followed coconut ( n=20) millets (n=25) sugarcane (n=30) turmeric (n=25) journal of extension education5460 5. pest and disease management a) releasing of parasitoids 2 10.00 7 23.00 b) spraying of pest repellent solution”eindhu ilai karaisal” 18 72.00 c) spraying of pest repellent solution “agni astram “ 9 36.00 6 20.00 7 28.00 d) spraying of pest repellent solution “neem, pungam and illupai oil mixture” 3 12.00 9 30.00 7 28.00 e) spraying of pest repellent solution 15 50.00 8 32.00 6. post harvest technology a) during copra processing 1 litre of jaggary solution and 300 ml lemon juice are added 5 25.00 b) during jaggary prepartion, 300 ml lemon juice and 100 ml of coconut oil are added. 8 26.67 7. storage a) the pungam and neem leaves are mixed with harvested grains and leaves bunch are kept in between gunny bags. 25 100.00 b) the leaves bunch of pungam and neem are kept in between gunny bags. 4 16.00 c) methane gas is released at three months once intervals to kill storage insects. 4 16.00 sl. no. organic farming technologies and practices followed coconut ( n=20) millets (n=25) sugarcane (n=30) turmeric (n=25) no % no % no % no % trichoderma viride mixture and beejamurutha respectively, in which the seedling materials are dipped for 30 minutes and planted in main field. under irrigation management techniques in coconut, application of jeevamruthum, panchakavya and liquid bio fertilizers and bio control agents mixture through drip irrigation was followed by 85.00%, 35.00% and 30.00 % of the respondents, respectively. in the case of sugarcane the same practices were followed by 76.67%, 40.00% and 10.00% of the respondents and in turmeric 60.00%, 28.00% and 28.00 % of the respondents. in millets, application of amirtha karaisal through drip irrigation was followed by nearly half (48.00%) of the respondents. regarding manuring, the following inference can be drawn from the table 1. in coconut application of farm yard manure, goat manure, poultry manure, in situ ploughing of green manure crops and bio fertilizers and bio control agents mixture at various intervals, namely, monthly once in six months and yearly once were followed by 100.00%, 55.00%, 40.00%, 45.00% and 20.00 per cent of the of the respondents, respectively. in the case of millets it was noticed among, 84.00%, 24.00%, 28.00%, 28.00% and 12.00 percent of the respondents. in sugarcane it was observed among 53.00%, 13.33%. 6.67%, 80.00% and 16.67 per cent of the respondents and in turmeric by 64.00%, 8.00%, 8.00%, 88.00% and 12.00 per cent of the respondents. as regard weed management technique, cent percent of the farmers followed mulching 5461organic farming technologies and practices followed by the farmers with weeds in coconut, millets, sugarcane and turmeric in which the weeds were removed using hand hoe and kept in ridges as a mulching material. similarly, the practices like mulching with dried coconut leaves, trash mulching and mulching with turmeric leaves were also followed by all the respondents. in the case of mulching for coconut, dried coconut leaves, fronds, fallen immature flowers and husks were kept around the basin of coconut tree. for sugarcane, cent percent of farmers practised mulching the ridges with sugarcane trashes from next day after planting. similarly, in the case of turmeric also, the turmeric leaves residues were spread as a mulching material in ridges from next day of sowing. with regard to the intercrop under weeds management, intercrop with legumes was also one of the techniques to control weeds effectively followed by cent percent of the sugarcane growers in which they practised sowing the seeds of black gram, cow pea, sunhemp and thakkapondu at the rate of 15 kg per acre along the centre of ridge on the next day of sugarcane planting. after 45 days the crops were removed and kept in ridges as a mulching material which prevents the growth of weeds. with regard to turmeric, it was observed among 60.00 per cent of the respondents, who practised intercrop with narripayiru at the rate of 15 kg per acre. the seeds were sown next day after turmeric sowing. after 45 days the crops were removed and kept in ridges as a mulching material which prevented the growth of weeds. under pest and disease management for coconut, release of larval parasitoids namely (bethylid, goniozus nephantidi) and pupal parasitoid namely (eulophid) to control black headed caterpillar were followed by 10.00 per cent of the respondents. similarly in the case of sugarcane also release of parasitoid namely trichogramma chilonis for control of internode stem borer was followed by 23.00 per cent of the respondents. spraying of pest repellent solution namely “agni astram” for millets at monthly once interval to repel pests was followed by 36.00% of the respondents. likewise for sugarcane and turmeric also it was observed among 20.00% and 28.00 % of the respondents respectively. the agni astram solution was sprayed at monthly once intervals in evening time to repel caterpillars and sucking pests. spraying of pest repellent solution namely “neem, pungam and illupai oil mixture” was followed by 12.00% for millets, 30.00% for sugarcane and 28.00% for turmeric in which 100 ml each of neem oil, pungam oil, illupai oil and 50 ml kadhi soap solution were added in 10 litres of water, mixed and sprayed at monthly once intervals in the evening time to repel beetles, caterpillars and sucking pests. half (50.00%) of the respondents in sugarcane and 32.00 per cent of the respondents in turmeric followed spraying of pest repellent solution at monthly once intervals to control sucking pests. journal of extension education5462 further, in post harvest technology 25.00 % of the respondents extracted coconut oil in which 1 litre of jaggary solution and 300 ml lemon juice were added during the process of copra crushing. similarly in the case of sugarcane 26.27 per cent of the respondents prepared jaggary in which 300 ml lemon juice and 100 ml coconut oil were added during the process of jaggary preparation. in the case of storage techniques, cent percent of the respondents in millets followed storage method in which the pungam and neem leaves were mixed with harvested millets grains and then stored in gunny bags. the leaves bunch of pungam and neem were kept in between the gunny bags to prevent attack from storage insects. for turmeric, the leaves of pungam and neem were kept in between gunny bags to prevent attack form storage insects and to kill the storage pest methane gas was released at three months once intervals. this practice was followed by 16.00 percent of the respondents. thus it is evident from the results that majority of the farmers successfully practised organic farming by adopting various practices and technologies. they efficiently utilized various on farm resources such as crop residues, dried leaves and weeds as a mulching material. they used cow dung and cow urine as the main input sources under organic farming. conclusion the increasing awareness among both producers and consumers for organically grown commodities has the challenge to create favourable situation for greater acceptance of organic cultivation in agriculture. the results of the present study show that, the farmers have the inclination for adoption of organic production practices. the organic inputs are mostly produced on the farms by the farmers themselves. proper practising will lead to higher net return to the farmers because of the premium price offered for the organic products. hence, the agricultural development agencies need to make all concentred efforts to validate and disseminate organic production practices and technologies for large scale adoption. references noorjehan, a.k.a. hanif., 2004. organic farming in tamil nadu: a multi dimensional analysis. unpub. ph. d. thesis, tnau, coimbatore siddaraju, v.g and rajendran, s, 2006. organic farming system: issues and concerns. kurukshetra. 54(9):20-23. 5703 1. research scholar, dairy extension division, icar-national dairy research institute, karnal, haryana132001, india received : 14-06-2017; accepted : 30-06-2017 perceived effectiveness of indigenous technical knowledge in dairying maneesha bhuyan1 abstract a study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of indigenous technical knowledge (itk) as perceived by 120 farm women in two villages of haryana. the farm women rated each of six identified itk practices based on seven parameters on a three point scale and mean perceived effectiveness index score for each itk was then calculated. based on this score, all six indigenous technical knowledge practices were categorised into three categories as less, moderate and highly effective. the practice relating to mastitis control was perceived as less effective while feeding neem leaves for endoparasite control was found to be highly effective. extension strategies should be designed based on the perceived effectiveness of each itk practice based on the actual users i.e., the farmers. keywords : indigenous technical knowledge, dairy farming, perceived effectiveness, haryana introduction enormous efforts have been made on validation of itk practices based on judgment of researchers and in a few cases useful products have been developed. in view of cultural compatibility, social acceptability and economic viability, itk plays a predominant role in dairy farming dominated by resource poor farm families especially women who perform more than 70 per cent of activities. their indigenous knowledge and incidental practice of the same in the farm help to manage the dairy farming sustainably (ponnusamy et al, 2009). since some of the itk practices have a significant bearing on profitability of dairy farming, the present study was undertaken to ascertain the effectiveness of prevalent itk practices as perceived by farm women. methodology the study was undertaken in 2016 under a research project of natio-nal dairy research institute (ndri), karnal entitled, empowerment of farm women through livestock technologies –a collaborative project with central institute for women in agriculture journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5703-5708 5704 (ciwa), bhubaneswar. pingli in nissing block and jundla in assand block of karnal district in haryana were indentified for project implementation. indigenous technical knowledge (itk) possessed by farm women was assessed using pra technique. six practices were then identified based on their expert validation from the published reports (ponnusamy et al. 2017). later, 60 farm women each from both the villages were requested to provide the opinion on the selected itk practices which have been already validated by experts in order to understand the perceived effectiveness. perceived effectiveness implies the degree to which the farm women perceive that a positive outcome is obtainable by using a particular itk practice in solving the field problems. it is the prception of the respondent about the attributes of the indigenous technology like relative advantage, compatibility, trail-ability, sustainability and observability. it was measured using the mean perceived effectiveness index (mpei) methodology (sundaramari, 2001). the index consisted of seven traits, with their relevancy weightage as given in table 1. table 1. weightage scores of various parameters of itk practices sl. no. parameter relevancy weightage 1. cost effectiveness 0.88 2. adaptability 0.76 3. observability 0.80 4. trailability 0.72 5. complexity 0.81 6. relative advantage 0.84 7. sustainability 0.86 the farm women were asked to rate each identified itk practice based on these traits on a three point scale (concurred, no idea and not concurred). the perceived effectiveness index (pei) score of a particular itk practice was calculated using the formula: where, r1, r2, r3.......r7 were relevancy weights of the seven traits and w1, w2, w3................ w7 were scores obtained for the traits for itk from a respondent. the above formula was used to calculate the mean perceived effectiveness index perceived effectiveness of indigenous technical knowledge in dairying 5705 (mpei) score for a particular itk practice. based on mpei score, all the indigenous technical knowledge practices were categorised into three categories: sl. no. category mpei score 1. less effective less than 2.00 2. moderately effective 2.00 – 2.25 3. highly effective more than 2.25 findings and discussion six practices which were prevalent in both the villages were administered to 120 farm women and the responses have been calculated and presented in table 2. table 2. perceived effectiveness of itk for addressing various problems in dairy farming sl. no. itk prac tice res ponse cost effec tive ness ada pta bility obser vabi lity traila bility comp lex ity rela tive adva ntage sust ain ability mpei score 1. use of chapatti made from mixture of 250 g jaggery 150 g ghee and wheat flour (triticum aestivum) to feed animal once a day for inducing heat concur 67.5 68.8 62.5 67.5 59.4 60.7 71.6 2.247 no idea 15.7 15.5 17.3 16.8 22.7 20.2 15.3 do not concur 16.8 15.7 20.2 15.7 17.9 19.1 13.1 journal of extension education 5706 sl. no. itk prac tice res ponse cost effec tive ness ada pta bility obser vabi lity traila bility comp lex ity rela tive adva ntage sust ain ability mpei score 2. 200 g wheat flour (triticum aestivum) boiled in water and mixed in 100 gm ghee and 100 g jaggery apply to animal body for retention of placenta concur 46.7 68.7 60.4 51.6 57.5 54.3 56.4 2.131 no idea 27.2 15.3 20.2 23.5 26.1 21.4 21.9 do not concur 26.1 16 19.4 24.9 16.4 24.3 21.7 3. application of common salt on teats or combination of turmeric (curcuma longa), alum and black pepper grind and apply on teats or application of only alum or phitkari on teats for mastitis control concur 59.4 37.3 54.3 35.4 39.6 40.7 42.5 1.998 no idea 20.5 34.0 26.0 24.8 28.2 25.8 26.2 do not concur 20.1 28.7 19.7 39.8 32.2 33.5 31.3 perceived effectiveness of indigenous technical knowledge in dairying 5707 sl. no. itk prac tice res ponse cost effec tive ness ada pta bility obser vabi lity traila bility comp lex ity rela tive adva ntage sust ain ability mpei score 4. powder of half ripe bael (aegle marmelos) fruit +powder of shisam (dalbergia sissu) leaves give to animal for diarrhoea control concur 52.6 59.7 70.2 55.1 61.4 52.5 61.4 2.138 no idea 24.0 22.1 14.6 18.3 20.5 23.1 20.7 do not concur 23.4 18.2 15.2 26.6 18.1 24.4 17.9 5. salt added to mustard oil (brassica compertris) applied all over the body for control of ectoparasites concur 75.6 56.6 65.4 65.7 71.0 47.5 56.7 2.243 no idea 11.9 27.3 17.8 21.5 19.2 29.3 19.2 do not concur 12.5 16.1 16.8 12.8 9.8 23.2 24.1 6. feeding leaves of neem (azadirachta indica) to animal for endoparasite control concur 67.3 61.4 67.2 69.1 61.3 64.1 59.5 2.307 no idea 20.5 25.5 17.6 19.5 20.9 16.4 21.9 do not concur 12.2 13.1 15.2 11.4 17.8 19.5 18.6 the itk on mastitis control was perceived to be less effective by farm women (table 2). an ndri study had revealed that rs.4000 is being lost by the farmer when he misses each heat in dairy animal. itk can play a major role in inducing heat in animals at right time. cereals being the rich source of protein can have significant effect on inducing heat in the animals. molasses or jaggery is journal of extension education added to increase palatability of mixture. (ponnusamy et al., 2017). perusal of table 2 shows that decoction prepared from wheat flour, ghee and jaggery as a treatment is practised commonly in study area instead of feeding whole plant or parts of it as a solution for retention of placenta. mastitis disease causes heavy economic losses and also affects the 5708 quality of milk. turmeric contains curcumin, and terpenoids which work as cooling agent, astringent, antiinflammatory and antibacterial effect. this itk practice is not perceived as so effective in curing mastitis but only aids in reducing swelling and pain in affected udders. diarrhoea is most common in dairy animals. the problem is more acute in calves. bael fruit might have antidiarrhoea ingredients such as alkaloids, tannins, flavanoids, saponins and triterpenes which may be responsible for ameliorative potential of bael. shisam (dalbergia sissu) leaves contains alkaloids, tannins and saponins. salt is used in certain combinations as it restores electrolytic imbalance. ectoparasites such as mosquitoes, flies, triatomines, fleas, bees and ticks cause severe health problems to the dairy animals. salt added to mustard oil was perceived to be moderately effective. use of neem (azadirachta indica) helps in effective control of both ectoparasite and endoparasites as it contains azadirachtin and other compounds which act against insects such as antifeedancy, growth regulation, fecundity suppression and sterilization, oviposition repellence changes in biological fitness and blocking development of vector-borne pathogens. implications of the study documentation on mastitis control in dairy animals needs to be further explored in view of the low perceived effectiveness score. a ready to use (rtu) product prepared from well validated itk would enhance the adoption, profitability and sustainability. there is a need to develop appropriate extension mix to disseminate the locally relevant itk targeting the resource poor farm families. local innovators need to be promoted as role models for outscaling the adoption of itk. conclusion the itk practices used for treating various ailments of animals are wealthy traditions in animal husbandry. with the trend of modernization, knowledge of itk practices are disappearing fast. making use of local biodiversity is very important for treating animals at low cost. the traditional healers need to be motivated to spread this vital knowledge to future generations for promoting sustainable dairy husbandry. references ponnusamy, k., gupta, j. & nagarajan, r. (2009). indigenous technical knowledge (itks) in dairy enterprise in coastal tamil nadu, indian journal of traditional knowledge, 8 (2), 206-11. ponnusamy, k., kale, r.b., ravi, k.n., arulmozhi devi.m.c. & sharma, p. (2017) cross-regional analysis on usage of indigenous technical knowledge in dairy farming. indian journal of animal research, 51 (3) 2017 : 549-556. sundaramari, m. (2001). adoption and perceived effectiveness of indigenous agricultural practices in different farming systems. unpublished ph.d thesis gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram. perceived effectiveness of indigenous technical knowledge in dairying 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 1-assistant professor (agricultural extension), adhiparasakthi agricultural college, g.b.nagar, kalavai, vellore 632 506 and 2 pg scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 641 003 schooling background and academic achievement of agricultural students n. jayakumar1 and m. surudhi2 in our society academic achievement is considered as a key criterion to judge one’s total potentiality and capability. academic achievement is seen as a students’ grade point averages in many academic settings. academic achievement has become an index of students’ future in this highly competitive world and agricultural education is no exception. hence it becomes necessary to find out the factors that determine better academic performance. in this context the present study had been carried out to find out the possible relationship between schooling background and academic achievement of agriculture students. the students admitted in adhiparasakthi agricultural college, kalavai, vellore between 1999 and 2009 formed the subjects of the study. findings of the study revealed that determinants like gender, type of school and stream of education had a significant role in the academic achievement of the students. medium of instruction in hsc did influence the academic achievement but not significantly. it was also found that students who performed well in their hsc did perform well in their undergraduate programme also. this confirms that previous educational outcomes are the most important indicators of student’s future achievement and schooling background has a significant role in academic achievement of students. education, in its broadest sense, may be defined as a process designed to inculcate the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to enable individuals to cope effectively with their environment. its primary purpose is to foster and promote the fullest individual selfrealization for all people. agricultural education is the teaching of agriculture, natural resources, and land management through the hands on experience and guidance to prepare students for entry level jobs, to further education and to prepare them for advanced agricultural jobs. classes that may be taught in an agricultural education curriculum include agronomy, plant pathology, entomology, plant breeding, horticulture, plant-biotechnology, farm machinery, post-harvest technology, food science, forestry, livestock management, crop physiology, industrial microbiology, agricultural economics, agricultural extension and nanotechnology etc. (tnau syllabus). in our society academic achievement is considered as a key criterion to judge one’s total potentiality and capability. hence academic achievement occupies a very important place in education as well as in the learning process. academic achievement denotes the knowledge attained and skill developed in the subject, usually designated by test scores. the term ‘achievement’ is 5469schooling background and academic achievement of agricultural students defined as “accomplishment or proficiency of performance in a given skill or body of knowledge”. academic achievement has become an index of students’ future in this highly competitive world. it has been one of the most important goals of the educational process. the importance of students’ grade point average in relation to their overall academic accomplishment has been highlighted by the body of literature on academic achievement, and academic achievement is seen as students’ grade point averages in many academic settings. from the last two decades it has been noticed significantly that there is great addition in research literature and review material relating to indicators of academic achievement with much emphasis on this dialogue, whether traditional achievement measures of academic performance are best determinants of future academic gain at university or higher levels. miller and birch (2007), in their study on the influence of high school attended on university performance argued that outcome at university differs according to the type of high school attended. the studies cited led the researcher to hypothesize that the student’s school background is positively related to academic performance of undergraduate students. it is generally assumed that the students who showed better or higher performance in the starting classes of their studies also performed better in future academic years at degree level. however, it is also observed that many of the researchers do not agree with this view point or statement. reddy and talcott (2006) disagree with the assumptions that future academic gains are determined by preceding performance. in this context, the present study was formulated, with the following objectives: 1. to study the gender and schooling perspective or background of agricultural students 2. to study the academic achievement of agricultural students 3. to study the relationship between the schooling background characters and academic achievement of agricultural students. methodology the study was taken up during the year 2013 2014. the students who have completed their b.sc. agricultural course at adhiparasakthi agricultural college, kalavai, vellore district, tamil nadu by 2013 formed the subjects of the study. the institution was purposively selected because this was the first private agricultural college in tami nadu affiliated to tamil nadu agricultural university. the list of students who were admitted in the college between 1999, the year the college was started and 2009 were taken from the college registers. schooling has been operationalized in this study as the education received at school. for this purpose the information regarding gender, school last studied, educational stream and medium of instruction in higher secondary course, percentage of marks journal of extension education5470 obtained in hsc were collected. the ogpa was collected for the students who had completed their course by 2013. statistical analysis like frequency, percentage analysis, correlation coefficient, independent sample t test and anova were carried out. findings and discussion gender worldwide, there is a gap of 10 percent between women’s literacy rates and those of men. in some regions of the world, this gap is more than 25 percent. women’s participation in higher agricultural studies is significantly lower than that of men. the number of women in higher agricultural education as compared to men is lowest in precisely those regions where women constitute the majority of food producers. world bank (2013) has suggested “increased women’s enrollment in agricultural courses” as one among the strategies when addressing gender issues in the education and training components of agricultural development projects. table 1. year wise categorisation of students based on gender, schooling background and academic achievement the study revealed that majority of the students (59.5%) was found to be males. females contributed to 40.5 percent of the total student strength. similar findings have been reported by anitha (2001), that majority of the students undergoing higher education were males. the distribution of students over different years revealed that the highest percentages (79.2%) of male students were admitted in the year 2006, which was followed by 68.2 per cent in the year 2001. in the case of females, the highest percentage of intake was in the year 2000 with an intake of 48.1 per cent. m f ta en te ma g p r v i 1999 54 55.6 44.4 46.3 53.7 — — 24.1 75.9 94.4 5.6 74.25 8.53 2000 54 51.9 48.1 57.4 42.6 —— 31.5 68.5 98.1 1.9 68.79 8.55 2001 44 68.2 31.8 54.5 45.5 — — 20.5 79.5 93.2 6.8 67.23 8.57 2002 51 62.7 37.3 52.9 47.1 — — 19.6 80.4 92.2 7.8 73.49 8.43 2003 55 61.8 38.2 23.6 76.4 — — 1.8 98.2 98.2 1.8 78.88 8.47 2004 55 58.2 41.8 41.8 58.2 — — 10.9 89.1 92.7 5.5 1.8 79.97 8.38 2005 73 53.4 46.6 58.9 39.7 1.4 — 30.1 69.9 68.5 28.8 2.7 73.92 8.00 2006 24 79.2 20.8 70.8 25.0 4.2 — 54.2 45.8 33.3 66.7 70.91 7.65 2007 68 64.7 35.3 61.8 33.8 4.4 — 55.9 44.1 52.9 39.7 7.4 70.33 7.75 2008 62 64.5 35.5 58.1 38.7 1.6 1.6 51.6 48.4 74.2 21.0 4.8 64.15 7.66 2009 122 54.1 45.9 39.3 59.2 1.6 23.0 77.0 90.2 7.4 2.5 70.97 7.84 year number of students gender medium of instruction type of school educational stream hsc marks (%) m = male, f = female, ta= tamil, en=english, te = telugu, ma=malayalam, g= government, p= private, r= regular, v= vocational and i = intermediate ogpa % of students 5471schooling background and academic achievement of agricultural students schooling background in tamil nadu, the medium of instruction followed in hsc is either tamil or english, whereas in colleges the medium of instruction is english. we call english a second language and not a foreign language because it has become the medium of instruction in higher education and also in schools. the study revealed that majority of the students (49.7%) had tamil as their medium of instruction which was followed by 48.9 per cent of the students having english as their medium of instruction in hsc. there was not much difference between the percentage of students from english and tamil as their medium of instruction. similar results have been reported earlier by planning commission (2007) which found that almost half of the students had english as medium of instruction. students with malayalam and telugu as their medium of instruction in hsc constituted 0.5% and 0.9% respectively. the distribution of students over different years revealed that the highest percentage (70.8%) of students with tamil as their medium of instruction was in 2006 and the lowest (23.6%) in 2003. students with telugu as medium of instruction started joining the course from 2005 onwards with the highest percentage of intake (4.4%) in the year 2007. malayalam medium students joined the course from 2008 onwards with 1.6% of intake in the same year and the following year. kwesiga (2002) states that school has an effect on the academic performance of students but argued that school facilities determine the quality of the school, which in turn influences the achievements, and attainment of its pupils. crosnoe et.al. (2004) found that school ownership (that is schools owned by private individuals and those owned by the government) is an important structural component of the school. private schools, they argue, tend to have both better funding and small sizes than public schools. the study revealed that majority of students (71.5%) are from private schools and 28.5 percent are from government schools. this is supported by the findings of saleemi (1997) who reported the students with high admission points, high socio economic background and good school background will perform well on admitting in universities. the distribution of students over different years revealed that the students coming from government schools were found to be highest (55.9%) in 2007 batch and lowest (1.8%) in 2003 batch. the intake of students from private schools was maximum (98.2%) in 2003 batch and minimum (44.1%) in 2007 batch. hsc is offered under two streams in tamil nadu and kerala viz. regular and vocational, whereas students coming from andhra pradesh term their hsc as intermediate. majority of the students (82.6%) were from regular stream followed by vocational stream with fifteen percent. students from intermediate stream constituted about 2.3 percent. the distribution of students over different journal of extension education5472 years revealed that the highest percentage of intake of vocational students was in the year 2006 with 66.7 per cent which was followed by the year 2007 with 39.7 per cent. the intake of students from intermediate stream was since 2004 batch with a maximum percentage of 7.4 in 2007 batch. academic achievement the academic achievement of students in hsc was highest (77.97%) in 2004 batch and lowest (64.15%) in 2008 batch. the mean percentage of marks obtained by the students over the years have shown that their marks have been around 70 percent. maximum mean ogpa (8.57) was attained by the students of 2001 batch and minimum mean ogpa (7.65) was obtained by students of 2006 batch. the lower performance of students of 2006 batch might possibly be due to the fact that 66.7 per cent of the students were from vocational stream and 70.8 per cent of the students had tamil as the medium of instruction in hsc. there has been a decrease in mean ogpa over the years from 1999-2009. from the year 2006 onwards the mean ogpa has moved from 8 points to 7 points. moreover, students who have not completed their course also started increasing during this period. in the year 2007, 16 students did not complete their course of which 7 students discontinued the course. the highest number of students (26 students) who did not complete their course was found in the year 2008.this was the period when the intake of students were highest from vocational stream, tamil as medium of instruction and government schools. relationship between gender and academic achievement it is a common notion that girls perform better than boys in academic achievement. girls usually perform better at school leaving examinations at the end of compulsory education and upper secondary school. on average, girls also achieve higher grades or passing rates. many researches have revealed that most pronounced gender difference in achievement is the advantage of girls in reading. on average, girls read more and enjoy reading more than boys. girls’ advantage is consistent across countries, different age groups, survey periods, and study programmes (eacea, 2010). independent samples t test to compare the mean ogpa of female and male students revealed that there was a significant difference in mean ogpa of female and male students. female students had secured higher ogpa than male counterparts even though the difference between mean values was not much. the mean ogpa of females were 8.29 and the t value was 3.663 which was highly significant at 1% level. this is in line with the studies of vijayalaxmi and natesan (1992), dlamini, barnabas m., and nelisiwe l. sithole (1997), anitha (2001), and girma berhanu (2011). research shows that, in general, the range of differences is small compared to the similarities existing between the sexes. 5473schooling background and academic achievement of agricultural students relationship between schooling background and academic achievement the relationship between the mean ogpa and type of school of the student was studied using independent samples t-test. the study revealed that there was a significant difference in mean ogpa of students based on type of school. private school students had secured higher ogpa (8.27) than students from government schools. the t value was found to be 6.481 which was highly significant at 1% level. similar findings were also reported by the planning commission (2007) which found that almost 40 percent of the students considered that quality of institution last attended was a major factor in influencing their performance. this proportion was higher at 48.5 percent among sc students. study on the relationship between mean ogpa and medium of instruction made through one way anova, gave f value of 22.604, which was highly significant at 1% level. the study revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean ogpa and the mediums of instruction. the average ogpa of english medium students were found to be 8.36 which was higher than the mean ogpa of 8.18, whereas students from other mediums of instruction scored less than 8. similar findings were also reported by table 2. anova table for schooling background and mean ogpa sl. no. schooling background n mean std. deviation f value p value 1. medium of instruction tamil 259 7.9981ab 0.54182 22.604 0.000(**) english 297 8.3600b 0.54349 malayalam 3 7.6100a 0.11533 telugu 4 7.7575ab 0.41748 2. educational stream regular 484 8.2628b 0.54035 41.319 0.000(**) vocational 66 7.6256a 0.46715 intermediate 13 8.1400b 0.63033 ** significant at 1% level karthikeyan and nirmala (2012) and jancirani et.al (2012). this supports the claim made by students from tamil medium schools that they struggle to learn and to get good marks in the subjects. duncan multiple range test (dmrt) was conducted to find out the variance between the four different language mediums viz. english, tamil, telugu and malayalam. there was not much difference between the mean ogpa of malayalam and telugu medium students with tamil medium students, but there was a difference between the mean ogpa of english medium students with malayalam medium students. dmrt did not show much variance between english and tamil medium students. majority of students came from regular stream followed by vocational stream. moreover it was found that the mean ogpa journal of extension education5474 was found to be lower from 2006 onwards which was a period from which the intake of students from vocational stream was higher. in order to study whether there exist any relationship between the mean ogpa and the educational stream of the students, a one way anova was carried out. the study revealed that there was a significant difference between mean ogpa of students from regular and vocational stream in hsc. the students from regular stream obtained a mean ogpa of 8.26 whereas students from vocational stream obtained a mean ogpa of 7.63. the analysis of variance revealed an f value of 41.32 which was highly significant at 1% level. there exist a third group of students with intermediate as their stream of education. the dmrt revealed that there was no variance between regular and intermediate students whereas they differed from vocational stream students. the above findings reveal that former school background has a significant role in determining the academic performance of undergraduate students. similar findings has been reported by kyoshaba martha (2009). relationship between ogpa and hsc marks in order to study whether there exists any relationship between the marks obtained by the students in their hsc and the ogpa obtained by them on completion of the degree course, correlation study was carried out. the mean ogpa of the students was 8.18 and the mean percentage of marks obtained in hsc was 72.02. the coefficient of correlation was found to be 0.331 and highly significant at 1% level. it could be incurred from the r value that there is 33 percent relationship between hsc marks and ogpa and since this is positive it could be incurred that students with high hsc marks obtained higher ogpa in their degree programme. similar findings were reported by bratti and staffolani, (2002), who observed that the measurement of students previous educational outcomes are the most important indicators of students future achievement, this refers that a higher previous performance, the better the student’s academic performance in future endeavors. conclusion it could be concluded that there was a significant difference in academic achievement of male and female students. female students had secured higher ogpa than male counterparts even though the range of differences is small. the type of school last attended has a definite influence on the academic achievement in future endeavors. in the case of medium of instruction, though english medium students had better ogpa than tamil medium students, dmrt did not show much variance between the mean ogpa of english and tamil medium students. majority of students came from regular stream followed by vocational stream and there was a significant difference between mean ogpa of students from regular and vocational 5475schooling background and academic achievement of agricultural students stream in hsc. the mean ogpa of the students was 8.18 and the mean percentage of marks obtained in hsc was 72.02. there was a significant relationship between the marks scored in hsc and ogpa obtained. students who had scored better in their hsc also scored better in their undergraduate programme. this confirms that previous educational outcomes are the most important indicators of student’s future achievement and schooling background has a significant role in academic achievement of students. references anitha. 2001. an analysis of academic stress among the undergraduate students of angrau, m.sc.(ag.) thesis, angrau, hyderabad. bratti, m. and staffolani, s. 2002, ‘student time allocation and educational production functions’, university of ancona, department of economics, working paper no. 170. crosnoe, r., johnson, m. k and elder, g. h. 2004. school size and the interpersonal side of education: an examination of race/ethnicity and organizational context. social science quarterly, 85(5): 1259-1274. dlamini, barnabas m., and nelisiwe l. sithole. 1997. factors related to agriculture students academic performance in swaziland, journal of international agricultural and extension education: 39. education, audiovisual and culture executive agency (eacea). 2010. gender differences in educational outcomes: study on the measures taken and the current situation in europe. http://www.eurydice.org girma berhanu. 2011. factors affecting students’ quality of academic performance: a case of secondary school level. journal of quality and technology management, 7(1): 4. jancirani, r., dhevakrishnan and s. devi. 2012. a study on scientific attitude of adolescence students in namakkal district, international educational e-journal, 1(4): 2 8. karthikeyan and nirmala. 2012. academic achievement through english: an analysis through gender lens mier journal of educational studies, trends & practices, 2(2): 144 157. kwesiga, c.j. 2002. women’s access to higher education in africa: uganda’s experience. kampala: fountain publishers ltd. kyoshaba martha. 2009. factors affecting academic performance of undergraduate students at uganda christian university. unpub. master of arts in educational management dissertation, makerere university, uganda. miller, w.p and birch, r.e. 2007. the influence of type of high school attended on university performance. retrieved on december 3, 2008. from http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/ journal/118538313. planning commission.2007. career perception of sc/st students in institutions of higher learning, http://www.cerpaindia.org reddy, p and talcott, j. 2006. predicting university success in psychology: are subject-specific skills important? saleemi, n. a.1997. systems theory, analysis and design simplified. n.a saleemi publishers: nairobi. vijayalaxmi, n. and natesan, h. 1992. factors influencing academic achievement. research highlights, 2: 62. world bank. 2013. http://go.worldbank.org/ erdqnlzo40 5885 information management behaviour of rice farmers under collective farming in kerala anusha anwar1, p. rambabu2 and t. gopikrishna3 abstract the study was conducted in kannur district of kerala state, to assess the information management behaviour of rice farmers under the collective farming project of kudumbashree mission. expost facto research design was followed for the study. a sample of 120 farmers was selected by using proportionate sampling procedure and information was gathered and analyzed. the results showed that majority of the women rice farmers belonged to medium category of information management behavior. keywords : information management; information input; information processing; kerala 1. ex-pg scholar, 2. professor & univ. head and 3. professor, department of agricultural extension, agricultural college, bapatla 522101, andhra pradesh. received : 10-10-2017; accepted : 07-02-2018 journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5885-5891 introduction indian agriculture plays a major role in economic development. besides technological advancement, extension plays a great role in agricultural development. rapid changes in the agricultural scenario of the country are posing multiple challenges to the extension functionaries. farmers need updated information on new, cost effective and adoptable crop production, post harvest and plant protection technology along with market information and weather reports. however, farmers are not accessible to all these. a big gap exists between the available technologies and their rapid transfer to the farmers. there is a gap between those who use ideas and those who produce them. a good technique of information management will certainly reduce this gap, if not eliminate it. the information management behaviour has been conceptualized as a composite measure of information seeking, evaluation, storage, utilization and dissemination behaviour of the individual farmer. agricultural information management has been defined as the process of identifying, collection of information on agricultural technologies of origin, storing, updating and retrieving it whenever necessary to process, manipulate and disseminate the processed information to various users (raju, 2005). 5886 rice cultivation has been the part and parcel of kerala’s culture and it is the state's major food crop. however, the area and production of paddy continues to be declining over the past 20 years. large area of cultivable land is kept idle in the state due to the waning interest in agriculture. when paddy cultivation became a non-lucrative affair, farmers of the state deserted paddy fields. the kudumbashree mission of the state found this as an opportunity and in 2004, the programme on ‘collective farming’ by joint liability groups was started under the kudumbashree mission which assists poor women to lease land in a group and thereby create an income source for them. collective farming programme, also called as ‘harithashree’ in local language, lends helping hands to those cultivators who are having no land at all. keeping this in view, the present research was carried out to study the ‘information management behaviour (imb) of rice farmers under the collective farming of the kudumbashree mission in kannur district of kerala’ with the following objectives: v to study the personal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics of the rice farmers. v to study the information management behavior of rice farmers. v to unearth the relationship between information management behavior and the selected independent variables methodology the research design adopted for the present study was ex-post-facto, since the phenomenon of information management behaviour (imb) had already taken place. the kannur district of kerala state was selected as it is one of the districts where the collective farming under the kudumbashree has been successful in its attempt. out of 11 blocks in kannur, two blocks namely thaliparamba and kalliasseri were selected purposively for the study, where the number of rice farmers under the collective farming of kudumbashree was comparatively high. from each block selected, six villages were purposively selected based on the highest number of rice farmers doing collective farming successfully under the kudumbashree mission. thus, a total of 12 villages were selected from the two blocks and 10 members from the selected villages, thus, in all, 120 women rice farmers were selected. the data from the respondents were collected through personal interview method with the help of an interview schedule in an informal atmosphere either at home or at field. the mean, standard deviation and correlation co-efficiency were worked out for interpretation of results. the characteristics of respondents namely age, education, occupation, farming experience, family size, land holding, marriage status, annual income, social participation, extension contact, training journal of extension education 5887 received, loan borrowing and utilization behaviour, economic motivation, scientific orientation and market orientation were selected as independent variables. the dependent variable for the study was information management behaviour which was studied on three dimensions viz., information seeking, information processing and information dissemination behaviour. in the context of the present study, the information management behaviour (imb) was operationally defined as the activities performed by an individual farmer for seeking, processing and dissemination of information with regard to the improved cultivation practices of rice crop. the information seeking behaviour refers to the activities performed by an individual women rice farmer in relation to acquisition of scientific information with regards to the improved cultivation practices of rice crop from various information sources. information processing referred to all the activities performed by the women rice farmers for evaluation, storage and utilization of information. information dissemination behaviour was operationalized as the activities performed by the women rice farmers to disseminate the information regarding rice cultivation. findings and discussion a majority of the rice farmers belonged to middle age (70.83%). age influences the behaviour of an individual by exposing to varied situations. therefore, the influence of age of the women rice farmers was considered an essential aspect in this investigation. majority (40.00%) of the women rice farmers of kudumbashree belonged to high school level of education, ie., more than one-third of the rice farmers (40.00%) were well educated. this may be due to the importance given for education by the state government. around onethird of the beneficiaries were employed in agriculture and animal husbandry. this might be because the job requires less training and was traditionally followed by the members. majority (57.50%) of the women rice farmers had farming experience of more than 15 years which enables them to understand and communicate the agricultural information effectively. majority (52.50%) of the women rice farmers had medium family size. the members from medium family size might have taken initiative in joining kudumbashree. a vast majority (93.33%) of the women rice farmers belonged to the marginal land holding category i.e. less than 2.5 acres. very few of them belonged to small land holding category which can be justified by the fact that majority of the women rice farmers were living below poverty line and thus hold very less land. this established the fact that majority of the women rice farmers information management behaviour of rice farmers under collective farming in kerala 5888 of kudumbashree were poor and joined to improve their socio-economic status. generally by the age of 20, rural girls get married. these married women might have joined kudumbashree in order to earn some income and save money, thus a majority (74.17%) of the women rice farmers of kudumbashree was married. the present study revealed that over three-fourths of the women rice farmers belonged to medium income category, i.e. earning between rs.10,000 40,000/ per month. this may be because kudumbashree has been conceived as a mechanism to uplift the downtrodden women especially for those who are below poverty line. nearly two-thirds (81.67%) of the women rice farmers had medium level of social participation. more participation was shown by members who had received higher education and who are from supporting family background. majority of the women rice farmers (84.17%) had very good extension contact which shows that women rice farmers could improve their extension contact of the women after joining the kudumbashree mission. majority of the women rice farmers (74.80%) had undergone both skill and knowledge based training. more than half (52.50%) of the women rice farmers had medium loan borrowing and utilization behaviour. further, most of the women rice farmers (82.50%) had medium level of economic motivation, which might be due to reason that majority of women rice farmers had medium and small land holdings and are mostly engaged in agriculture for table 1. dimensions of information management behaviour sl. no. behaviour women rice farmers frequency percentage 1. information seeking behaviour low ( < 46.84) 13 10.83 medium ( 46.85 – 58.44) 98 81.67 high ( > 58.44) 9 7.50 2. information evaluation behaviour low ( < 29.94) 11 9.17 medium (29.95 – 34.81) 87 72.50 high ( > 34.81) 22 18.33 3. information dissemination behaviour low ( < 12.63) 13 10.83 medium (12.64 – 18.34) 92 76.67 high ( > 18.34) 15 12.50 journal of extension education 5889 their livelihood. more than twothirds (87.50%) of the women rice farmers had medium scientific orientation which might be due to their better education, extension contact and economic motivation that helped them to develop better scientific orientation. kudumbashree has started more marketing centers, conducted more trade fairs and organizes monthly markets which may be the reason behind the majority of the respondents (80.83%) falling under the medium market orientation category. the detailed analysis of the dimensions of information management (table 1) reveals that the majority of the respondents was belonging to medium category. the same trend was observed in all phases of information management behaviour. the reasons for majority of them falling under medium information management behaviour might be due to better education, more trainings undergone, better economic motivation, and better scientific and market orientation. table 2. relationship between independent variables and dependent variable sl. no. independent variables ‘r’ values 1. age -0.0231ns 2. education 0.5750* 3. occupation 0.1385ns 4. farming experience -0.1763ns 5. family size 0.0886ns 6. land holding 0.0918ns 7. marital status -0.0717ns 8. annual income 0.2336* 9. social participation 0.3772* 10. extension contact 0.4863* 11. training undergone 0.4943* 12. loan borrowing and utilization behaviour -0.0652ns 13. economic motivation 0.3212* 14. scientific orientation 0.4117* 15. market orientation 0.3350* from table 2, it is observed that education, annual income, social participation, extension contact, training received, economic orientation, scientific orientation and market orientation was found to be positively significant with information management behaviour of rice farmers under collective farming in kerala 5890 the information management behaviour at 0.05 level of probability. whereas age, occupation, farming experience, family size, land holding, marital status and loan borrowing & utilization behaviour were found to be non-significant. the women rice farmers irrespective of their age had the same information sources and channels used for dissemination of agricultural information to the farmers. the comprehensive ability of an individual enhance with possessing educational qualification, which facilitates to understand various information input and output channels. the women rice farmers irrespective of their occupation had the same information channels used as source and for dissemination of agricultural information. the farming experience of the farmers does not bear any relation with information managing skills of the women rice farmers. the family size did not significantly influence the information management behaviour of the women rice farmers. also the women rice farmers irrespective of their land holding, marital status and nature of the loan had the same level of exposure to different channels of agricultural information. there was a positive and significant relationship between annual income and information management behaviour of the women rice farmers. when annual income increases, it helps in more accessibility to various channels of agricultural information. it can be visualized that social participation played an important role in imb of women rice farmers. high social participation can naturally be aware of various channels of information and their effective utilization. further, it is also likely that they have frequent contacts with the extension agencies like kudumbashree agencies and panchayath offices thereby acquiring more information. imb was also positively correlated with training received as trainings impart the knowledge skills about utilization of all the available channels to the effective communication of agricultural information to the farmers. women rice farmers with more economic motivation would be oriented towards effective agricultural information channels. farmers having good scientific orientation will naturally prefer to know the various sources information channels, their utilization and dissemination. women who might have good orientation towards market news, information sources, facilities and networks were able to disseminate the latest information through various channels. it could be concluded from the findings that education, social participation, extension contact, training received, economic motivation, scientific orientation and market orientation had contributed significantly to the information management behaviour of the women rice farmers. journal of extension education 5891 conclusion factors like education, annual income, social participation, extension contact, training received, economic motivation, scientific orientation and market orientation influenced the information input, information processing, information output and overall information management behaviour of women rice farmers. hence any improvement on these characteristics may bring significant change in the overall information management behaviour of rice farmers. the findings also indicated that information management behaviour with regard to modern channels, like internet and website is very meager. references aparna, r., meti, s.k & goudappa, s.b. (2014). information management behaviour of papaya growers of karnataka: a comparative study. indian research journal of extension education. 14 (2): 31-35. raju, d. (2005). agricultural information management behaviour of indian farmers. 22nd annual conference proceedings, retrieved from https:// w w w . a i a e e . o r g / a t t a c h m e n t s / article/852/535.pdf. state planning board, government of kerala. (2012). evaluation study on kudumbashree a report. evaluation division. information management behaviour of rice farmers under collective farming in kerala https://www.aiaee.org/attachments/article/852/535.pdf 6759 journal of extension education vol. 34 no.1, 2022 doi: https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2022.1.34.6759-6765 attitude of beneficiary farmers towards the service delivery system of agro service centres in kerala, india safna vatakke kandy meethal and b. seema abstract the attitude of farmers and other stakeholders towards farming is formed based on the way they have been treated by the agricultural extension and service delivery system. the present study was conducted among the beneficiary farmers of agro service centres (ascs) in thrissur, kannur and kottayam districts of kerala, india, representing the central, northern and southern kerala. the sample of the study comprised 120 farmers i.e., 45 farmers from thrissur, 45 farmers from kannur and 30 farmers from kottayam. the purpose of this study was to examine and understand the beneficiary farmers’ attitudes toward the agro service centers’ service delivery system and to determine whether there are any appreciable differences in those attitudes between the three districts. based on the analysis of data, it was observed that half of the respondents had a medium level of favourable attitude towards the service delivery system of agro service centres. the result of kruskal wallis test indicated that there was significant differences in the attitude of farmer beneficiaries towards the service delivery system of agro service centres among the three districts. the correlation analysis revealed that the attitude of beneficiaries towards the agro service centre was positively and significantly correlated with farming experience, annual farm income, resource utilization, and change proneness and it was negatively and significantly correlated with risk orientation. keywords: agro service centre; attitude; beneficiary farmers; information ; technology; service delivery system; kerala introduction agriculture is the foundation of any economy. different services and farming information provided by agencies such as agro service centres (ascs) enable the consecutive growth of the agriculture sector, thereby strengthening the agriculture foundation of the country. favourable attitudes of both farmers and other stakeholders involved in farming and related activities are required for proper delivery of technologies among the beneficiary farmers and its rapid spread and thereby enhancing productivity and income from farming. agro service centre (asc) is an agency which is delivering different farming inputs and services to farmers based on their requirement at a single point (meethal, 2019). moreover, they are the extension agencies providing integrated services and supply of agro-inputs in rural areas according to local needs and also provide advice research article department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala695522 received : 19.12.22 ; accepted : 29.01.23 journal of extension education 6760 to farmers regarding the efficient utilization of available resources and create employment opportunities to rural youth (vitthaldas, 2016). quality information and advisory services in farming have long been recognized as influential factors in boosting agricultural productivity and production, which ultimately lead to the development of the agricultural economy of the country. the services provided by agricultural extension have significant public good attributes and play a pivotal role in increasing farmers’ income through increased yield and reduced farm expenses. today, agriculture is viewed from a different perspective, with a greater focus on commercial crop cultivation, for which farmers need scientific and technical information and guidance that is not readily available in the current extension service networks. farmers require quick, practical, and scientific advisory services to address their field problems. agro service centers were established by kerala’s department of agriculture to primarily meet the needs of farmers, including those related to input demands, the newest agricultural techniques and technologies, the availability of farm machinery and labour, guidance and advisory services, etc. this study was conducted to examine and understand the attitude of beneficiary farmers towards the service delivery system of agro service centers, as well as to determine whether there are any significant differences in those attitudes between the three districts. ex-postfacto research design was employed. it is therefore hoped that this study will help in revising the working norms and conditions as preferred by the beneficiary farmers, popularize the services of ascs among farmers and other stakeholders in agriculture, and help in rectifying problems that lead to the development of unfavourable attitudes among beneficiaries, such as difficulty in access, other procedural formalities, etc. the results of the study will be useful to the department of agriculture in kerala and to other planners and policymakers related to agricultural extension systems for developing a farmer-friendly atmosphere and easy access to agricultural information and services. methodology the study was conducted in three districts of kerala, india , viz., kottayam from the southern region, thrissur from the central region, and kannur from the northern region, which had the highest number of agro service centers established until 2016–17. the respondent groups of the study comprised of beneficiary farmers of agro service centres. the number of farmers in the districts was determined in proportion to the total number of agro service centers in each district. a total of 120 farmers with a sample size of 30, 45, and 45 farmers were randomly selected from the 6, 10, and 10 agro service centers that were functioning in kottayam, thrissur, and kannur districts, respectively. the farmer beneficiaries of ascs were classified into three categories namely unfavourable attitude, medium favourable attitude and highly favourable attitude based on their responses. attitude of beneficiary farmers towards agro service centre is operationally defined as the degree of positive and negative mental disposition of respondent towards the service delivery system of agro service centre. an arbitrary scale was developed for the study with ten statements reflecting the attitude of farmer beneficiaries towards asc. the scale consist of ten statements with six positive and four negative statements. the respondents were asked to give their agreement (or) disagreement on a five point continuum as ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘undecided’, ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’ with the scoring attitude of beneficiary farmers towards the service delivery system of agro service centres in kerala, india 6761 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively in the case of positive statements and vice-versa in the case of negative statements. the score ranged from 10 to 50. frequency and percentage analysis was carried out to find the distribution of beneficiary farmers based on their attitude towards the service delivery system of ascs and the farmer beneficiaries were classified into three categories based on the obtained data score range: farmers with an unfavourable attitude, farmers with a moderately favourable attitude, and farmers with a highly favourable attitude. eleven independent variables for farmers, such as age, education, farming experience, size of land holding, resource utilization, annual farm income, change proneness, information source utilization, decision making ability, extension agency contact and risk orientation were selected, and correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the significance of the attitude of beneficiary farmers towards ascs with the selected independent variables. the kruskalwallis test was used to compare the attitude of beneficiary farmers of asc in the three regions of kerala. findings and discussion attitude of beneficiary farmers towards ascs the attitude of beneficiary farmers towards the services of ascs was measured using an arbitrary scale developed for the purpose, and based on the scores obtained and the data score range, the respondent farmers were categorised into three groups, such as farmers with an unfavourable attitude, a mediumly favourable attitude, and a highly favourable attitude. table 1. distribution of beneficiaries based on their attitude towards ascs overall thrissur kannur kottayam category no. % no. % no. % no. % unfavourable attitude(10 – 24) 27 22.5 5 11.12 6 13.33 16 53.34 medium favourable attitude (24 – 38) 60 50 23 51.11 25 55.55 12 40 highly favourable attitude (38 – 52) 33 27.5 17 37.77 14 31.12 2 6.66 mean 33.33 35.71 34.86 27.46 total 120 45 45 30 from table 1, it was clear that majority (50%) of the respondents had a medium favourable attitude towards the agro service centre followed by 27.5 % who had a highly favourable attitude and 22.5% had an unfavourable attitude towards ascs. majority of the farmers from thrissur and kannur district belonged to the category of people with moderate attitude. but in the case of kottayam district, 53.34% had unfavourable attitude followed by 40% who had a medium attitude and only a very few farmers (6.66%) had a favourable attitude towards ascs. some of the ascs from kannur and thrissur were not delivering some of the offered services as per the agro service centers and service delivery scheme launched by the department of agriculture and farmers welfare in kerala. this might be the reason for the medium favourable attitude of beneficiary farmers. the results are journal of extension education 6762 in line with the findings of sobanbhai (2014) and koshy (2016), who reported that most of the farmers were having a medium favourable attitude towards the services of kisan call centres. according to meethal (2019), the performance effectiveness of ascs is reflected in the unfavourable attitude of farmers towards ascs in kottayam district, where some of the ascs fail to render many of the proposed agroservices to farmers. the performance of the agro service centres in rendering different services to farmers affected the attitude of beneficiaries towards the centre. the unfavourable attitude of the beneficiary farmers may be caused by the subpar performance of the majority of the ascs in kottayam. therefore, asc system authorities and extension agents must emphasise the services, information, and technology dissemination systems of ascs. comparsion of three districts of kerala with respect to attitude of beneficiaries towards ascs a meticulous comparison is required to know the difference in the response of farmers towards the single window mechanism of information and services delivery. table 2. comparison of the attitude of beneficiaries towards ascs between the districts thrissur kannur kottayam minimum 18 22 19 maximum 47 46 39 mean score 35.71 34.87 27.47 mean rank 72.50 66.73 33.15 kw statistics 25.46 ꭓ2 (0.05, 2) 5.991 inference significant from table 2, the result of the kruskalwallis test showed that the estimated kw value was 25.46 which is greater than the chi-square value at 2 degrees of freedom (5.991). therefore, the result indicated that there was significant difference in the attitude of farmer beneficiaries towards ascs among the three districts. hence it is clear that the beneficiary farmers had different mental disposition towards the service delivery system of agro service centres of department of agriculture, kerala. the result of this comparison paves a way to improve the existing functioning of ascs. the area of investigation was restricted to three districts in kerala, representing the three zones. the working conditions, farming culture, cropping pattern, soil and climatic conditions, pest and disease incidence, and the like in each area were quite different. farmers’ awareness and exposure to resources and extension services also differ. this might be the reason for the difference in the attitude of farmers towards ascs among the three districts. relationship between the attitude of beneficiary farmers towards ascs and their profile characteristics a perusal of table 3 revealed the relationship between attitude of farmers and their profile characteristics such as age, education, size of land holding, annual farm income, farming experience, resource utilization, change proneness, decisionmaking ability, information source utilization, risk orientation, and extension agency contact. attitude of beneficiary farmers towards the service delivery system of agro service centres in kerala, india 6763 table 3. correlation of the profile characteristics of farmers with performance effectiveness index and attitude of beneficiaries towards ascs. sl. no. independent variables attitude (r value) 1 age (years) -0.073 2 education  0.133 3 size of land holding (ha) 0.070 4 annual farm income 0.185* 5 farming experience 0.246** 6 resource utilization  0.232* 7 change proneness 0.332** 8 decision making ability -0.106 9 information source utilization  0.094 10 risk orientation  -0.307** 11 extension agency contact -0.139 if n = 120, r-table value = 0.179 (5%) & r-table value = 0.234 (1%) (**1 per cent significant level *5 percent significant level) the attitude of beneficiaries towards agro service centre was positively and significantly correlated with farming experience, annual farm income, resource utilization and change proneness and it was negatively and significantly correlated with risk orientation. the result also showed that farming experience and change proneness was positively and significantly correlated with attitude of farmers at 1 per cent. annual farm income and resource utilization were positively and significantly correlated with the attitudes of beneficiaries of asc at 5 per cent and risk orientation was negatively and significantly correlated with the attitudes of beneficiaries of asc at the 1 percent level of significance. the computed r-value (-0.073) for age and attitude of farmers showed a negative and nonsignificant relationship between age and the attitude of farmers towards ascs. this indicates that the age of the farmer did not significantly influence their attitude towards ascs. the finding was in accordance with the findings of rebecca (2012). the r-value calculated (0.133) for finding the relationship between farmers education and attitude showed positive and non-significant relationship of education with attitude of farmers towards ascs. this indicates that the education of the farmer did not significantly influence their attitude towards the services of ascs. similar observations were reported by rebecca (2012) in her study on the attitudes of women farmers towards agricultural extension services. it is evident from table 3 that the computed r-value (0.070) for assessing the relationship between the size of landholdings and the attitudes of beneficiaries showed a nonsignificant relationship between land size and farmers’ attitudes. this implies that the size of the land owned by the farmer had no influence on developing a favourable attitude towards ascs. the finding was in accordance with the findings of rebecca (2012). a significant and positive correlation was found between the attitude of beneficiaries towards ascs and their annual farm income while comparing the computed r-value (0.185) with the r-table value (0.179). this indicates farmers with high incomes will have a favourable attitude towards ascs. farmers earning a good journal of extension education 6764 income from agriculture will try to utilize all ways to improve their farming. the farmers who earn income from farming will try to adopt all possible means and technologies for the further improvement in production and productivity of crops. these farmers will be having a favourable attitude towards any agency which is providing different agricultural services and information regarding the new farming technologies. the finding was in accordance with kiranmayi and vijayabhinandana (2018). table 3 revealed the calculated r-value of farming experience and attitude to be 0.246, indicating a positive and significant association between the experience of the farmer and their attitude. farming experience plays an important role in determining the attitude of farmers. experienced farmers are more conscious about the different agro advisory systems around them and they know the importance of such a system. so they will have a positive attitude towards all the interventions for the upliftment of the farming community. the findings are not in line with the findings of kiranmayi and vijayabhinandana (2018) and rebecca (2012). it is evident from table 3 that the computed r-value (0.232) for resource utilisation and attitude of beneficiary farmers showed a nonsignificant relationship with attitude. resource utilization is the ability of the farmer to utilize the available on farm and off-farm resources and services at its fullest potential. resource utilization directly influences the attitude of farmers. so these farmers recognise everything around them as an opportunity for agricultural growth and hence they perceive ascs as a better source of resources. this leads them to develop a favourable attitude towards ascs. the calculated r-value of 0.332 for change proneness and attitude of beneficiaries towards asc indicates a positive and significant correlation between farmers’ proneness to changes and their attitude. those who are ready to accept the changes will definitely support the changes in the agricultural information and technology disseminating system. therefore, they will be having a favourable attitude towards agro service centres. the result is in agreement with the findings of bhosale et al. (2021) where he observed that farmers with favourable attitude are prone to new ideas. the computed r-value (-0.106) for farmers’ decision-making ability and attitude toward ascs indicates a non-significant relationship between farmers’ decision-making ability and attitude toward ascs.  the calculated r-value (0.094) for information source utilization and the farmer’s attitude revealed a positive but non-significant relationship between them. this indicates that farmer’s information source utilization behaviour does not significantly influence their attitude toward ascs. the extension agency contact of the farmer and his attitude towards asc did not significantly influence each other as per the calculated r-value (-0.139) in the correlation analysis between them. the finding was not in agreement with the findings of shankaraiah and swamy (2012). the calculated r-value (-0.307) for risk orientation and attitude of farmers showed a significant and negative correlation between attitude and risk orientation. farmer’s attitude becomes more favourable according to the performance effectiveness of agro service centres. consequently, the tendency of farmers who depend on such centres for the support will increase. this leads to a shift in their decisionmaking habit and ultimately it might have reduced the risk-taking propensity of farmers, which explains negative significant relation between attitude and risk orientation observed attitude of beneficiary farmers towards the service delivery system of agro service centres in kerala, india 6765 in the study. the result is not in agreement with the findings of kiranmayi and vijayabhinandana (2018) where risk orientation of farmers showed positive and significant relationship with attitude of farmers. conclusion agro service centre (asc) is an agency which is delivering different farming inputs and services to farmers based on their requirement. time-bound, high-quality agro-services are essential for the growth and development of the agricultural sector.  agro service centres satisfy the needs of small and marginal farmers by addressing their problems and also by providing support services to them. the study was intended to evaluate and comprehend how the services of agro service centers were perceived by the benefiting farmers and to see if there were any notable discrepancies in the attitude of farmers towards ascs across the three districts. the results of the study concluded that fifty percent of the respondents had a moderately favourable attitude towards the services of agro service centers in kerala. therefore, the performance efficiency and farmer-friendly environment of such centres are essential for building a positive and supportive attitude among farmers. references bhosale, g. b., bhoyar, s. d., & bhosale, g. v. (2021). relationship between profile characteristics of farmers and their attitude towards use of information and communication technology. the pharma innovation journal. 10(12): 17851788. kiranmayi, k., & vijayabhinandana, b. (2018). profile characteristics and attitude of farmers towards farming a critical analysis. international journal of agriculture innovations and research. 7(3): 2319-1473. koshy, s. m. (2016). agricultural information support service vis-à-vis kisan call centre: a performance auditing. unpublished ph.d thesis, kerala agricultural university. thrissur, kerala. meethal, s.v.k., & seema, b. (2019). performance effectiveness of agro service centres in kerala. journal of extension education. 31(2): 6269-6273. rebecca, a. a. (2012). attitude of women farmers towards agricultural extension services in ifelodun local government area, osun state. american journal of social and management sciences. 3(4): 125-131. shankaraiah, n., & swamy, b. k. n. (2012). attitude of farmers and scientists towards dissemination of technologies through mobile message service (mms). tropical agricultural research. 24(1): 3141. sobanbhai, p. v. (2014). knowledge and attitude of farmers towards the use of kisan call center in south gujarat region. unpublished m.sc.(ag) thesis, navsari agricultural university. navsari. vitthaldas, s. s. (2016). role performance of agro-service centres in transfer of technology. unpublished msc.(ag.) thesis, vasantrao naik marathwada krishi vidyapeeth. parbhani 5910 kisan call centre services to the farming community: an analysis s. kavitha1 and n. anandaraja 2 abstract kisan call centre (kcc) is one of the major initiatives taken up by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, government of india to provide timely agriculture and allied sector information to the farming community through landline or mobile connection. the service is provided through a toll-free number of 1800-180-1551. considering the importance of kcc, the research study was conducted in mahaboobnagar district of telangana state in india with a sample size of 90 farmers to find out and analyze benefits obtained by the farming community through kisan call centre services. the results revealed that maximum number of the respondents expressed that kcc advisory was able to save cost of cultivation and in forecasting the pest and disease outbreak in a particular region. the study also showed that farming experience, source of irrigation, contact with extension agencies, participation in extension methods, perception towards mobile phones in farming and innovativeness showed positive and significant relationship with the benefits obtained by respondents. keywords : kisan call centre; advisory, benefits; telangana 1. ph. d. scholar, department of agricultural extension, professor jayashankar telangana state agricultural university (pjtsau), rajendranagar, hyderabad-500 030 and 2.assistant professor (agrl. extension), agricultural college and research institute, kudumiyanmalai, pudukkottai-622104. received : 30-08-2017; accepted : 02-03-2018 introduction agricultural extension and farmeroutreach programmes are facing major challenges in terms of cost-effective outreach, solutions tailored to needs of individual farmers and an image that is farmer-friendly (ramamritham, 2006). the mobile technologies have created new channels to communicate with others. the final produce should provide better marketable price to farmers, where the market intelligence is the key, which provides regular information about nearby markets in local language. the scheme kisan (farmer) call centres (kcc) was launched by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, government of india, on 21st journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5910-5916 journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5902-5909 5911 january 2004. the farmer call centre is a synthesis of two hitherto separate technologies namely, the information and communication technology (ict) and the agricultural technology both having specialized domains. a toll-free telephone number “1800-180-1551” has been provided that is operational on all days from 6.00 am to 10.00 pm. beyond these hours the calls are attended in the interactive voice response system (ivrs) mode. a kisan call center is expected to bridge the information gap between the expert agriculturists and farmers. replies to the farmers’ queries are given in 22 local languages. the present study was undertaken with the objective to enlist the benefits obtained through kisan call centre and to find out the relationship between different independent variables and the benefits obtained by the farmers. methodology expost facto research design was followed for the study, which was conducted in mahaboobnagar district of telangana state. this district has the highest net sown area under main crops among all the districts in telangana (season and crop report 2012-13). in addition, this district had registered highest kcc services as per the dashboard data of m-kisan portal (mkisan.gov.in) the mahaboobnagar district has been divided into 64 mandals (blocks). out of the 64 mandals, two mandals namely manopad and gattu were selected since they have maximum area under cultivation of crops. three villages from each block were selected at random. all togehter six villages in two blocks were chosen for the study. from each village, 15 beneficiary farmers were selected for the study with a total sample size of 90 respondents which was felt adequate. simple random sampling method was followed while selecting the farmers. data were collected by using wellstructured interview schedule with pretesting procedure. percentage analysis and correlation technique was performed to interpret data. findings and discussion benefits of kcc to the farming community farmers are availing many benefits out of kcc services. the benefits are classified into technological, economic, communication and other benefits. the distribution of beneficiary respondents according to benefits obtained through kcc is given in table 1. kisan call centre services to the farming community: an analysis 5912 table 1. distribution of respondents according to benefits (n = 90)* sl.no. benefits yes rank no.* % i. technological benefits 1. kcc helps in forecasting the pest and disease outbreak in particular region 69 76.66 i 2. use of kcc services for weather forecasting for crops 54 60.00 ii 3. kcc helps to gain knowledge to the farmers 54 60.00 iii 4. kcc provides required and correct information on specific problems 54 60.00 iv 5. kcc helps the farmers to be updated on recent technologies 30 33.33 v ii. economic benefits 1. able to save cost of cultivation due to advices from kcc 75 83.33 i 2. kcc helps in improving the economic condition of the farmers 63 70.00 ii 3. kcc helps in increasing productivity of crops 45 50.00 iii iii. communication benefits 1. easy to communicate to kcc rather than other similar service providers. 66 73.33 i 2. it facilitates the farmers to exchange the information among the farming community. 63 70.00 ii 3. kcc helps the farmers to provide instant feedback to the scientists 45 50.00 iii iv. other benefits 1. it benefits all the farmers irrespective of their landholding pattern 69 76.66 i 2. useful to the farmers for getting information on govt. schemes 54 60.00 ii 3. kcc services assist the farmer in planning and decision making aspects in agriculture and allied sectors 45 50.00 iii 4. useful to the farmers in getting information on training programmes 45 50.00 iv *multiple responses obtained journal of extension education 5913 technological benefits it could be inferred from table 1 that the forecast on the pest and disease outbreak in a particular region ranked first (76.66%) among the services through kcc because pest and disease incidence was more as the farmers are growing multiple crops. the second benefit availed by the farmers was the usage of kcc services for weather forecasting for crops (60.00%). the reason may be that weather plays a crucial role in all farming activities. the farmers might have preplanned their farm activities according to weather conditions. kcc helps the farmers to gain knowledge (60.00%) by explaining technical advisories in a proper and understandable manner. in order to increase their income, the kcc service would have aroused their interest to acquire more knowledge. further, the agricultural scientists and level-i officials (koshy & kishore kumar, 2016), also played a significant role in providing information to the farmers through mobile and landline telephone connectivity. since level-i officials are agrigraduates with experience in practical knowledge sharing through kcc, significant number of farmers (60.00 %) benefited to avail exact information on specific problems. besides, kcc helps the farmers to be updated on recent technologies (33.33%) through monthly training programmes conducted by the nodal agency to the kcc officials. economic benefits economic benefits gained by farmers on using kcc in the order of their importance were saving cost of cultivation due to advice from kcc, improving the overall economic condition of the farmers and increasing productivity of crops. the kind of advisories provided by the kcc operators to farmers is timely without any time lag. the solutions offered by the operators are pragmatic and easy to adopt at the field level. communication benefits the list of communication benefits perceived by the farmers are, easy communicate with kcc rather than other similar service providers, kcc facilitating the farmers to exchange information among the farming community and helping the farmers to provide instant feedback to the scientists. as the kcc service provider receives the phone call in local language, he/she tries to understand the farmer’s issues in a clear manner and offers technological advice immediately which helps the farmer to save the crop from pest and diseases. other benefits other benefits obtained by the farmers were kcc provides services to all kisan call centre services to the farming community: an analysis 5914 farmers irrespective of their landholding pattern (76.66%) followed by helpful to the farmers for getting information on govt. schemes (60.00%), kcc services assist the farmers in planning and decision making aspects in agriculture and allied sectors (50.00%) and is useful to the farmers for getting information on training programs (50.00%). overall benefits based on the data of technological, economical, communication and other benefits, overall benefits were calculated. the beneficiary respondents are classified into low, medium and high category according to benefits obtained through kcc and given in table 2. table 2. distribution of respondents according to overall benefits (n = 90) sl.no. overall benefits categories beneficiaries no. per cent 1. low 22 24.44 2. medium 54 60.00 3. high 14 15.56 total 90 100.00 the data presented in table 2, shows that 60% of the respondents had expressed medium level of benefits, followed by low and the rest of the respondents obtained high level of benefits through kcc. it could be concluded from the results that two thirds of the beneficiaries had benefited through call centre. the possible reason for that is kcc is providing services to farmers free of cost. further, the farmers may make calls any number of times in the prescribed hours and they could get the solutions to farm problems. correlation analysis of socio-economic profile with benefits correlation analysis was carried out between the independent variables and benefits and the results are presented in table 3. journal of extension education 5915 table 3. correlation of independent variables with benefits (n = 90) sl. no. independent variables r value 1. age -0.092ns 2. educational status 0.017 ns 3. farm size -0.226* 4. farming experience 0.309** 5. cropping pattern 0.008ns 6. source of irrigation 0.210* 7. material possession -0.392** 8. contact with extension and other agencies 0.317** 9. information seeking behavior 0.095ns 10. participation in extension methods 0.236* 11. perception towards mobile phone in farming 0.376** 12. innovativeness 0.270** **significant at 0.01 level of probability * significant at 0.05 level of probability ns = non-significant the data in table 3 shows that six variables out of twelve variables such as farming experience, source of irrigation, contact with extension and other agencies, participation in extension methods, perception towards mobile phone in farming and innovativeness showed positive cum significant relationship with the benefit level of respondents. it could be seen from the results that out of twelve variables taken for the study, four variables namely farming kisan call centre services to the farming community: an analysis experience, perception towards mobile phone in farming, innovativeness exhibited significant and positive correlation with benefits at one per cent level of significance. source of irrigation, contact with extension and other agencies, participation in extension methods showed positive cum significant association with benefits at five per cent level of significance. whereas, material possession showed negative and significant association with level of benefits at one per cent level of significance and farm size showed negative and significant association with level of benefits at five per cent level of significance. 5916 helpline services such as kcc provide valuables information to the farmers free of cost. hence, perception towards mobile phone, in farming could have showed positive and significant relationship with level of benefits. innovative farmers rely on modern technologies. by using services like kcc and adopting modern technologies, farmers can get more profits, hence, innovativeness might have showed positive and significant relationship with benefits. conclusion the kcc is a unique free service provided by the department of agriculture and cooperation govt of india throughout india. kcc is at present providing free sms services to as well the enrolled farmers in english and regional languages. the results show that the benefits accrued upon using kcc are significant. therefore awareness on this useful service need to be spread among the farming community. references koshy, s. & kishore kumar, n. (2016). attitude of farmers towards kisan call centre, journal of extension education, 28(4) doi: https://doi.org/ 10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5753-5759 ramamritham, k. (2006), innovative ict tools for information provisioning via agricultural extensions, 1st ieee/acm international conference proceedings on ict4d, berkeley. journal of extension education https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5753-5759 5688 developing a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of rice farmers k.p. smitha1 and anil kumar2 abstract the traditional rice farmers had adopted various indigenous technologies in rice farming which in due course of time was forgotten after the advent of high yielding varieties that warranted excessive use of chemical inputs. hence a study was designed to develop a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of stakeholders in rice farming. the study was conducted in palakkad district of kerala. fifty statements reflecting the indigenous wisdom orientation were generated. likert’s method was employed in the scale construction and the final scale comprising 14 statements was standardized. keywords : indigenous wisdom orientation, scale construction, likert’s method, item analysis, reliability, validity 1. research assistant, dept. of soil survey & soil conservation, govt. of kerala and 2.dean, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani, kerala. received : 07-04-2017; accepted : 08-06-2017 introduction rice is life as it plays an important role in the environment, society, culture, politics, business and above all it is the life saving grain of 3 billon people of this planet. rice wetland eco-system is very important in maintaining ecological balance. it has relevance in influencing the microclimate of the ecosystem, preventing floods and drought and conserving the floral and faunal diversity. rice area in india increased from 30.81 million hectares in 1950-51 to 43.97 million hectares in 2011-12, while the production has scaled greater heights from 20.58 to 104.32 million mt during the same period (department of agriculture and co-operation, 2013). this increase may be attributed to green revolution, which was a milestone in the agrarian history. though green revolution contributed significantly in increasing production and productivity in the initial years, the adverse effects visibly stands out as deterioration of soil quality, environmental pollution due to unscientific use of inorganic inputs, loss of biodiversity and genetic erosion. rice wetland eco-system being highly fragile, the adverse effects of input intensive farming is prominent and far-reaching. traditional farmers had journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5688-5694 5689 adopted indigenous technologies, which were mostly on the “live and let live” concept. they used low external input technologies relevant to local resources. indigenous technical knowledge (itk) is the systematic body of knowledge acquired by local people through the accumulation of experiences, informal experiments and intimate understanding of the environment in a given culture (rajasekaran, 1993). most of the indigenous technologies were eco-friendly and expressed high concern for the environment we live in. environmental concerns of the stakeholders in rice cultivation have a greater voice on the future of sustainable rice farming and traditional farmers with an orientation towards indigenous wisdom were found to express concern for environment. indigenous wisdom orientation was defined for the study as the degree to which an individual is oriented towards the knowledge generated over a period of time by the local community through trial and error and/or deliberate experiments in order to meet their needs. this study was undertaken to develop a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of farmers in rice farming and to standardize the scale constructed to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of farmers in rice farming. methodology the research was undertaken in the state of kerala, india, palakkad district was selected purposively as the district accounts for about 1/3rd of the total area under rice cultivation of kerala state and has all the agro-socio-economic conditions suited for paddy cultivation. there are 13 block panchayats in palakkad district. of these, four predominantly rice growing blocks viz. kollengode, kuzhalmannam, chittur and alathur were purposively selected with the highest net rice area. a total of 25 farmer respondents for item analysis and 30 for testing the reliability were selected based on the production of rice in the various blocks. it was ensured that the twenty-five farmers selected for item analysis were removed from their respective lists before the selection of thirty farmers for testing reliability. thus the total number of farmer respondents selected for the scale construction was 55. the relevant items covering the universe of content in the measurement of indigenous wisdom orientation were collected by extensive review of literature and discussion with experts in the concerned field. a total of 50 statements reflecting the indigenous wisdom orientation of the respondents were generated. the statements were then edited using the criteria suggested by (edwards, 1957) and finally 35 statements were retained after deleting ambiguous, irrelevant and nonconforming statements as per the above said criteria. journal of extension education 5690 the relevancy of the items generated was established by sending these statements to 50 judges with appropriate instructions. the judges comprised experts in the field from agricultural universities across south india. the experts were to rate the degree of relevancy of each item in measuring the indigenous wisdom orientation of the stakeholders on a five point continuum as ‘most relevant, ‘relevant’, ‘undecided’ ‘less relevant’ and ‘not relevant’ with scores 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. out of the 50 judges, 40 responded within a period of one month. the scores for each of the items were summated over all the respondents and a relevancy index was worked out using the formula: those items, which secured a relevancy index of 80 and above, were finally selected, thereby retaining 26 items to be included in the scale. item analysis was performed for the statements selected and was standardized by testing its validity and reliability. item analysis is a set of procedures that are applied to know the indices for truthfulness (or validity) of the items in a scale (singh, 2006). the indices used in the selection of the items for the study are a) index of discrimination (‘t’-test), suggested by edwards and b) item score – total score correlation (pearson’s ‘r’), suggested by anastasi (1961) and guilford (1971). the 26 items selected based on the relevancy rating by the judges were administered to 25 farmer respondents and the responses were obtained on a five point continuum (‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘undecided’, ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’). for carrying out item analysis, two types of scores were used. these were the item score, referring to the score of an individual on a particular item and the total score referring to the summation of the item scores of an individual. these scores were used to arrive at the discrimination index and the item score total score correlation. the index of discrimination indicates the power of an item to discriminate the low effectiveness category from the high effectiveness category of the respondents. following the suggestion of edwards (1957), 25% of the subjects with the highest total score and 25% of the subjects with the lowest total score were selected. the critical ratio (t-value) of each item was calculated using the formula: where, xh = mean of the score of an item for the high group xl = mean of the score of an item for the low group developing a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of rice farmers 5691 n = number of subjects in a group in item score-total score correlation the correlation between the individual item score and total score is computed as a measure of the discriminatory power of the item. the scale developed was standardized by testing its reliability and validity. the reliability of the scale refers to the consistency of the scores obtained by the same individuals on different occasions or with different sets of equivalent forms. split-half reliability was used in the present study using odd-even method. the scale developed was administered to 30 respondents and their responses were collected. the scores obtained for all the odd items and all the even items were pooled. the two sets of scores thus obtained were correlated using pearson’s product moment correlation. the reliability of the full test was obtained using the formula : a scale is said to be valid when it actually measures, what it tends to measure and the scale was also assessed for its content validity. findings and discussion the results of the study have been presented in this section under the subheads viz. t-value and r-value of the statements, standardization of the scale and administration of the scale. the discrimination index and the item scoretotal score correlation of the 25 items performed are presented in table.1. it could be observed that 20 items had discrimination index values above 2.228 and 21 items had significant item score total score correlation (‘r’ value above 0.4) considering these two factors, 17 items which had both ‘t’-values and ‘r’value high were chosen for the scale. table 1. item analysis sl. no. statements r value t value 1. development activities to be participative should consider the indigenous wisdom of the local people. * 0.937 2.445 2. indigenous wisdom mostly fits to the local needs 0.339 1.69 3. compared to many modern technologies that harms the environment indigenous practices are mostly sustainable. * 0.844 8.062 4. indigenous knowledge ought to be eradicated as soon as possible through education and modernization process. * 0.825 6.708 journal of extension education 5692 5. indigenous wisdom is a resource that local people can use to further their own development. * 0.656 6.761 6. indigenous wisdom has to be preserved in situ, as they are foundation to strengthen the existing knowledge. * 0.67 4.025 7. we have to recognize indigenous wisdom as an important national resource. * 0.869 8.485 8. indigenous wisdom has no scientific basis and hence need not be preserved. * 0.862 11.783 9. indigenous practices use less costly external inputs 0.487 2.15 10. indigenous practices are better as they require less external inputs. * 0.765 3.503 11. indigenous wisdom can be utilized more effectively for grassroots participatory development process. * 0.703 2.907 12. indigenous wisdom documentation and compilation ought to be a research priority of highest order. * 0.624 4.781 13. newer technologies have to be developed considering the indigenous practices of the locality. * 0.816 7.319 14. traditional methods of farming has to be neglected in order to raise the living of farmers 0.325 1.928 15. modern technologies should judiciously make use of indigenous knowledge base for designing and developing effective technologies. * 0.959 4.568 16 indigenous wisdom is not important, as it does not cover the management of natural environment. 0.738 11.000 17. indigenous wisdom is very important, as they are cumulative, representing generations of experiences. * 0.819 7.906 18. indigenous knowledge systems are highly reliable as they are the result of careful observation and trial and error experiments. 0.447 1.928 developing a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of rice farmers 5693 19. indigenous knowledge systems are static with no new knowledge added to it. 0.301 2.236 20. introduction of market-oriented agricultural and forestry practices had no effect on indigenous wisdom. 0 1.348 21. research on indigenous wisdom need not be gender sensitive. * 0.91 2.907 22. indigenous knowledge systems minimize disruption of existing practices compared to modern technologies. 0.641 2.236 23. indigenous wisdom ought to be conserved as it integrates culture and religion.* 0.843 5.814 24. indigenous knowledge systems minimize risk rather than maximize profit. 0.325 1.039 25. unique and promising technologies have to be patented by the communities that have generated it. * 0.753 4.385 26. the younger generation has to be made aware about the value of indigenous wisdom. * 0.752 6.581 * statements selected to construct the final scale. standardization of the scale a scale should measure what it intends to measure and it should be consistent in its measurement. a scale thus has to be standardized before it is administered. the present scale developed was also standardized by verifying its reliability and validity. reliability of the scale the correlation co –efficient (r = 0.632) for the half test was obtained. the reliability of the full test was found to be 0.774, which indicates appreciable reliability of the scale. validity of the scale determination of content validity essentially involves the systematic examination of the test content to determine whether it covers a representative sample of the behavior domain being measured. care was taken to include the important items covering the universe of content with respect to the indigenous wisdom orientation of farmers thereby satisfying the content validity criterion. journal of extension education 5694 administration of the scale the final scale consisting of 17 statements in random order can be presented to respondents to indicate their responses on a five point scale consisting of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly with scores 5,4,3,2 and 1 respectively for positive statements and the reverse scores for negative statements. the total score for all the statements of each respondent can be worked out and categorized into ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’ orientation to indigenous wisdom based on the obtained scores. conclusion a scale was developed and standardized to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of farmers. it was found to be reliable and valid. the scale developed to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of farmers in rice farming is not specific for use with any particular category of respondents. the scale is not location specific and can be used in any geographical area with slight modification. it can also be effectively used among respondents involved in growing other crops. the scale developed to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of rice farmers would serve to quantify the orientation level of farmers towards indigenous wisdom and the data so obtained could be replicated elsewhere to understand the indigenous wisdom orientation of the people, which in turn will help in formulating strategies for encouraging conservation/sustainable farming. references anastasi, a. (1961). psychological testing. new york: the mcmillan co. department of agriculture and cooperation. (2013). agricultural statistics at a glance. retrieved from http://eands.dacnet.nic.in/. edwards, a .l. (1957). techniques of attitude scale construction. new york: appleton century crofts inc., guilford, j. p. (1971). psychometric methods. new delhi: tata mcgraw hill publishing co. rajasekaran, b. (1993). indigenous technical practices in a rice based farming system. ames: cikard singh, a.k. (2006). tests, measurements and research methods in behavioural sciences. new delhi: bharti bhawan publishers and distributors. developing a scale to measure the indigenous wisdom orientation of rice farmers http://eands.dacnet.nic.in/ 5857 improving livestock services delivery by mobile veterinary units in odisha anupama jena1 and mahesh chander2 abstract mobile veterinary unit (mvu), an ingenious way of livestock service delivery at the farmers’ doorstep is being operational under the rastriya krishi vikas yojana (rkvy) in all the 314 blocks of odisha. the study was carried out in kandhamal district of odisha to find out the suggestions from both the stakeholders, farmers who had availed the services of mvu and service providers (veterinary surgeon (vs) and livestock inspector (li)) who had delivered the services to improve the efficacy of services of mvu. the analysis shows that most of the respondents expressed homogenous views and suggested more extension activities, adequate supply of free and good quality veterinary medicines, increasing manpower in mvus, increasing frequency of repeated or follow up visits to villages, increasing salary of mvu professionals and making advanced diagnostic facility at field level to increase the livestock service delivery by mvus. keywords : mobile veterinary unit; livestock service delivery; veterinary surgeon; livestock inspector; odisha journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5857-5863 1. ph.d., scholar and 2. principal scientist and head, division of extension education, icar-indian veterinary research institute, izatnagar, uttar pradesh-243122 received : 11-11-2017; accepted : 25-12-2017 introduction livestock is an important productive asset and source of income for about two-thirds of india’s farm households (birthal, 2008). the productive potential of animals mainly depends on quality of nutrition, genetic material and animal health system, and, on all these counts, india has a poor record (ahuja et al., 2008). hence, livestock service delivery is an important area for optimizing livestock production and productivity. though there is an ongoing global policy of economic liberalization, still the government is trying hard to hold its feet on livestock service delivery which continues to play a central role in livestock production. india has one of the largest animal healthcare infrastructure and technical expertise in the world. it has built a vast network of over 50,000 veterinary dispensaries and centers, which together employ over 1,00,000 veterinarians and para-veterinary staff (pratap et al., 2012). with the changing global economic scenario, public services 5858 are coming under pressure all over the world for not performing adequately (sen and chander, 2003). in order to support its large number of livestock farmers, the department of animal husbandry must strive hard towards moving all livestock services to farmers’ doorstep by moving away from stationary veterinary institutions and partnering with other veterinary agencies, ngos, cooperatives, private entrepreneurs in extending the outreach of services to the farmers (ahuja et al., 2008). to this end, it would be pertinent to have a look on unique and innovative approaches to livestock service delivery for extending it to rural poor. few of the examples are, african countries joint delivery of public health and veterinary services (schelling et al., 2005), community based animal health workers (cbahw) in countries like africa, afghanistan, and kenya (mugunieri 2004). in india, trained personnel for the same are called as paravets, gopalmitras, link workers, sanghamitras etc. besides this, a number of government initiatives to deliver services at farmers doorstep, such as, cattle breed improvement programme (cbip) under gram vikas yojana (gvy) through jk trust and similar approach in the name of mobile veterinary dispensary, mobile veterinary clinic, ambulatory clinic etc. in many states like karnataka, tamil nadu, andhra pradesh, odisha, arunachal pradesh, meghalaya, rajasthan, gujarat, madhya pradesh and chhattisgarh. considering this, the study was carried out to focus on livestock service delivered at doorstep through mobile veterinary unit (mvu), an initiative of odisha government funded under rastriya krishi vikas yojana (rkvy). mobile veterinary units (mvu) have been initiated in all the 314 blocks of odisha since 10th july 2010 with an objective of delivery of service at farmers’ doorstep in remotest locations of the districts, according to the preferred time of the farmers, so as to enable livestock owners and consider animal husbandry (a.h) activities as potential livelihood option and maximize profit through livestock rearing. a team comprising one veterinary surgeon (vs), one livestock inspector (li) and one attendant with a vehicle called mvu van reach out to organize animal health camps at distant and inaccessible villages where stationary veterinarian could not able to deliver services. total working days for mvu in a month are 20 days. in every working day, the team organizes one camp, which caters to the livestock owners of a minimum of two villages. the camps are organized on normal working days i.e. monday to friday. the remaining two days are meant for compiling monthly report and attending meetings. the study was carried out with an objective of finding out the suggestions from both the farmers and mvu team as they are directly being involved in consuming and providing livestock service. journal of extension education 5859 methodology the study area, kandhamal district in odisha state of india was purposively selected considering its geographical location i.e., high altitude, inaccessible or less accessible geographical terrains and poor communication facilities. inadequate transportation facility and remotely located veterinary institutions made it an appropriate area for veterinary intervention through mobile veterinary services. in the 12 administrative blocks of kandhamal district, 12 mvus were in operation. three blocks were selected randomly for this study. from each block, 3 villages receiving mvu’s services to a total of 9 villages were selected purposively. from these villages, 10 farmers from each village, who had availed the services of mvu, were selected. thus, 90 farmers in total were selected for the study. again from 12 mvus of kandhamal district, 12 veterinarians and 11 livestock inspectors, who were working in mvus, were selected to study the perspectives of service providers. data collection primary data were collected from the farmers and the service providers through a pre-tested interview schedule. a pretested questionnaire was distributed to all the veterinarians and livestock inspectors during the monthly meeting to get their response on functioning of mvus. both the respondents, farmers and service providers (vss and lis) were requested to give their 5 most important suggestions to improve the livestock service delivery of mvu in an order from most important to least important. from both categories of respondents, seven most important suggestions came up separately. analytical framework the collected primary data were subjected to weighted mean score analysis. total weighted score (tws) was calculated by adding each respondent’s score. using the following formula, total weighted mean square (twms) was calculated. where, twms=tws/n tws= total weighted score n= no of respondents based upon the values of twms, the stakeholders’ suggestions to improve the efficacy of service delivery by mvu were ranked. findings and discussion suggestions of farmers to improve efficacy of livestock service delivery by mvu data in table 1 reveal that adequate supply of free veterinary medicine was prioritized as most imp suggestion for improving efficacy of livestock service delivery by mvu, felt by maximum livestock farmers of kandhamal district improving livestock services delivery by mobile veterinary units in odisha 5860 of odisha followed by more number of training programmes with twms of 4.62 and 4.33 respectively. it could further be inferred that frequent visit to same village covering the width and breadth of the jurisdiction, well-equip diagnostic facility in field, strengthening human resources in mvu, following up the cases and service delivery limited to early morning were the suggestions revealed by farmers in the order of priority with respective twms values of 2.92, 1.05, 0.88, 0.83 and 0.58, respectively. table 1. ranking of farmers’ suggestions to improve livestock service delivery by mvu (n=90) sl. no constraints tws twms rank 1. adequate supply of free veterinary medicine 416 4.62 i 2. more number of training programmes 390 4.33 ii 3. frequent visit to same village 263 2.92 iii 4. well-equipped diagnostic facility in field 95 1.05 iv 5. strengthening human resources in mvu 80 0.88 v 6. follow-up of cases 75 0.83 vi 7. service delivery limited to early morning 53 0.58 vii suggestions of service providers to improve efficacy of livestock service delivery by mvu data in table 2 envisage that conducting ‘extension activities’ such as awareness camps, training programmes was the most important suggestions expressed perceived by both the service providers i.e. vss and lis to improve livestock service delivery of mvus. increased remuneration to staff was the second most important suggestion by lis with twms of 4.09 while the same was the 4th most important suggestion by most of the vss. adequate medicine distribution and increased ‘staff strength’ to deliver the veterinary services properly was the second and third most felt suggestion by the service providers, respectively. achievable target in terms of number of villages to be covered, number of cases journal of extension education 5861 to be treated, number of vaccination to be done in a month etc. should be well designed by taking all the factors into table 2. ranking of service providers’ suggestions to improve livestock service delivery by mvus sl. no suggestions li (n=11) vs (n=12) 1. tws twms rank tws twms rank 2. quality medicine in adequate quantity 34 3.09 ii 38 3.166 ii 3. staff strengthening in mvu 18 1.636 iii 35 2.916 iii 4. hike in remuneration 45 4.09 i 24 2 iv 5. more extension activity 45 4.09 i 58 4.833 i 6. determining achievable target 16 1.454 iv 3 0.25 vi 7. facilities to follow-up cases 4 0.363 v 17 1.416 v 8. frequent visit to same village 3 0.272 vi 1 0.083 vii consideration was the 4th and 6th most important suggestions by lis and vss, respectively. husbandry practices of the rural poor. in this aspect sdah(state department of animal husbandry) has to relook its policy to improve livestock extension services, since extension is one of the vital responsibilities of department of agriculture cooperation and farmers’ welfare. hefferman (2002) reported in his study that the most desirable feature in odisha was, ‘access to advisory service’ which was an interesting finding unlike in other states, where ‘credit facility’ while looking into the suggestions given by both the service providers and farmers for improving efficacy of livestock service delivery by mvu gave an outlook that most of the stake holders were having homogenous type of suggestions which are discussed as follows. suitable extension strategies should be formulated to make people aware about the importance of livestock services. further, effective media mix for dissemination of livestock related information can enhance animal improving livestock services delivery by mobile veterinary units in odisha 5862 was deemed more desirable. improved veterinary care using quality medicines, balanced cattle feed and quality fodder seeds in adequate quantity may be provided to poor farmers through mvus for service delivery. service providers, viz., vss and lis perceived that the remuneration paid for their services was satisfactory. providing adequate remuneration will motivate them to perform better in their jurisdiction, despite the distance and difficult accessibility of villages. shortage of staff in mvu, kandhamal district was the major hindrance in service delivery by mvu, leading to overburdened work to block veterinary officers and additional block veterinary officers, who had simultaneously to work at veterinary dispensary and mvu and thereby the service delivery become less effective noticeably. policy decisions should be made to introduce more than one mvu in each block considering livestock population and farmers’ need. appointing adequate number of vss and lis in each mvu will make the service providers to perform well so that they can easily achieve their target delivery of quality services would be possible and follow-up of major cases with more focus on diagnostic and breeding aspects. exclusive staff in mvus may be appointed to carry out animal health and livestock development activities. the animal health activities should include prevention, control, diagnosis and curative services, whereas, veterinarians involved in livestock development activities should focus in extension and other activities in order to disseminate the needy technologies adopting suitable transfer of technology (tot) strategies. according to service providers on an average, 77 villages were under coverage of each mvu, while they can only serve 40 villages maximum in a month. it delays the frequent visit of a particular village. according to prescribed guidelines, each mvu should treat 1000 cases in a month, with an average of 50 cases per day, within the short service delivery period from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. besides vaccination, deworming and awareness camps for two villages every day. hence, targets may be reduced for effective service delivery. diagnostic services by mvu should be given emphasis by establishing regional laboratories, covering a cluster of villages, for early diagnosis of diseases and proper treatment. diagnostic tools that are fast, simple and cost effective (especially penside tests) should be developed and disseminated. it will reduce the cost and time required to dispatch samples to the central diagnostic laboratory. it will also enable farmers and veterinarians make the right/timely decisions early enough since sometimes farmers never know the results that come from the tests done in entebbe and belated results mostly fails to save the animals. in such situation, empirical treatment incurs more expense and questions the cure. (nakayima et al. 2016) journal of extension education 5863 conclusion more focus towards extension activities with more number of training programmes, campaign, goshthi etc. will attract the farmers towards the services of mvu and will make them aware enough. again, adequate supply of free and good quality veterinary medicines is a major factor by which more number of farmers will avail the services of mvu. increasing manpower in mvus, increasing salary of mvu professionals, increasing frequency of repeated or follow up visits to villages and making advanced diagnostic facility at field level would increase the livestock service delivery by mvus. all these suggestions will help the policy makers to tune the policies accordingly, to improve livestock service delivery by mvus. references ahuja, v., kurup, m. p. g., bhasin, n. r & joseph, a. k. (2008). assessment and reflection on livestock service delivery system in andhra pradesh, in: proc. workshops and consultations, mahbubnagar, chittoor, nalgonda and rampachodavaram. available at www.intercooperation.org. birthal, p. s., negi, d. s., jha, a. k & singh, d. (2014). income sources of farm households in india: determinants, distributional consequences and policy implications, agricultural economics research review, 27 (1), 37-48. heffernan, c. (2002). the delivery of veterinary services to the poor: findings from orissa. in: livestock services and poor. proceedings and presentations of the international workshop, bhubaneswar, india. mugunieri, g. l., irungu, p & omiti, j. m. (2004). performance of community based animal health workers in the delivery of livestock health services, tropical animal health and production, 36(6), 523-535. nakayima, j., nerima, b., sebikali, c & magona, j. w. (2016). an assessment of veterinary diagnostic services needs in uganda, journal of veterinary medicine and animal health, 8(7), 5055. pratap, s., bardhan, d & dabas, y. p. s. (2012). can privatization improve animal health care delivery system? an ex-ante analysis of dairy farmers in tarai region of uttarakhand, agricultural economics research review, 25, 507-514. schelling, e., wyss, k., bechir, m., moto, d. d & zinsstag, j. (2005). synergy between public health and veterinary services to deliver human and animal health interventions in rural low income settings, british medical journal, 331 (7527), 1264-1267. sen, a., & chander, m. (2003). privatization of veterinary services in developing countries: a review, tropical animal health and production, 35, 223-236. improving livestock services delivery by mobile veterinary units in odisha 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 adoption and impact of eco-friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats l. murali krishnan1, h. philip2, v. ravichandren3 and m. chinnadurai4 abstract the study was under taken to find out the relationship between the profile of the farmers of the nilgiris district and the impact in their adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. the study revealed that educational status, risk orientation, training undergone, progressiveness, self reliance, innovativeness and contact with extension agency were found to have positively contributed to the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. with respect to impact majority of the farmers opined that the cost of cultivation decreased followed by increased farmers confidence level, improved fertility status of the soil and improved biodiversity in the farm fields. commercial agricultural practices plays major threats and challenges to human and animal health as well as to our ecological niche of the nilgiris biosphere reserve in various dimensions. these non eco friendly agricultural practices have increased agricultural productions but resulted in the rapid erosion of crop and livestock diversity, loss of inherent soil fertility, break down of biological pest regulation, soil erosion, salinization and environmental problems. due to increased use of expensive and poisonous chemicals fertilizers and pesticides which finally made the farmers poorer and more dependent on markets and outside agencies. (r. j. daniels, 1996). eco-friendly conservation practices is a comprehensive system of widespread introduction of eco-friendly conservation which could be justified through the following arguments: (i) eco friendly conservation 1-ph.d. scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, 2-director of extension education, tnau, 3-dean, vanavarayar institute of agriculture, pollachi and 4-director, cards, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641003. practices offer the possibility of long term sustainability (ifoam. 2000). (ii) eco-friendly agriculture is affordable for resource poor farmers (iii) problem of farm unemployment could be minimized through ecological based alternate livelihood activities. (iv) the nilgiris biosphere reserve’s traditional farmers have a long heritage of farming with traditional wisdom, which acts as the basis for ecological knowledge. methodology the nilgiris district of tamil nadu was purposively selected due to the prevalence of wide biodiversity. all four blocks was taken for this study. the samples of 80 farmers were selected from each block. totally, 320 respondents were selected from the district. the respondents have been selected based on the simple random sampling technique with the support of the state department of 5445adoption and impact of eco-friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats agriculture. post stratification work was done to categorize the farmers in to adopters of eco friendly conservation practices (118) and non adopters of eco friendly conservation practices (202). the data were collected using a pre-tested interview schedule. 1. (x1) age 0.064 -0.008 0.032 -0.250 2. (x2) educational status 0.619** 0.103 0.015 7.023** 3. (x3) occupational status 0.298** -0.047 0.019 -2.528** 4. (x4) farming experiences -0.063 0.030 0.033 0.931 5. (x5) farm size 0.025 -0.043 0.029 -1.465 6. (x6) annual income -0.059 -0.038 0.026 -1.449 7. (x7) social participation 0.606** 0.019 0.020 0.927 8. (x8) economic motivation -0.610** -0.125 0.026 -4.764** 9. (x9) risk orientation 0.462** 0.102 0.039 2.600** 10. (x10) scientific orientation 0.583** -0.030 0.032 -0.951 11. (x11) information seeking behaviour 0.523** 0.074 0.037 1.983 12. (x12) training undergone 0.583** 0.130 0.034 3.875** 13. (x13) progressiveness 0.536** 0.103 0.035 2.958** 14. (x14) perception on environmental degradation 0.448** -0.002 0.043 -0.041 15. (x15) perception on environmental conservation 0.644** 0.040 0.031 1.273 16. (x16) innovativeness 0.699** 0.055 0.025 2.250* 17. (x17) self reliance 0.730** 0.104 0.024 4.381** 18. (x18) contact with extension agency 0.566** 0.028 0.012 2.315* 19. (x19) socio cultural linkage -0.606** -0.061 0.028 -2.199* 20. (x20) leadership abilities 0.646** 0.039 0.032 1.197 findings and discussion it could be observed from the table 1 that educational status, risk orientation, training undergone, progressiveness and self reliance of farmers exhibited positive and significance relationship at one per cent level of probability. table 1. association and contribution of profile towards the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices r2 = 0.849 f = 61.50 constant = 0.297 *p < 0.05significant at 5 per cent level;**p < 0.01 significant at 1 per cent level; ns–nonsignificant; na-not applicable ‘t’ value sl. no. profile characteristics respondents correlation r regression (‘b’ value) coefficient se of b journal of extension education5446 the other variables like innovativeness and contact with extension agency had positive and significant relationship at the five per cent level of probability. it could be further observed from the table 1 that occupational status and economic motivation level of the farmers had negative and significance relationship at one per cent level of probability. the variable socio-cultural linkage of the farmers had negative and significance relationship at the five per cent level of probability. the regression results revealed from table 1, indicated that all the selected twenty variables acted as cause to bring 84.90 per cent variation in adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. the prediction equation fitted for adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. adoption of eco friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats in (y) = 0.297 0.008 (x1) + 0.103 (x2) 0.047 (x3) + 0.030 (x4) 0.043 (x5) 0.038 (x6) + 0.019 (x7) 0.125 (x8) + 0.102 (x9) 0.030 (x10) + 0.074 (x11) + 0.130 (x12) + 0.103 (x13) 0.002 (x14) + 0.040 (x15) + 0.055 (x16) + 0.104 (x17) + 0.028 (x18) -0.061 (x19) + 0.039 (x20) this revealed that an one unit increase in (x2) educational status, (x9) risk orientation, (x12) training undergone, (x13) progressiveness, (x16) self reliance, (x17) innovativeness, (x18) contact with extension agency, ceteris paribus would result in an increase of 7.023 units, 2.600 units, 3.875, units, 2.958 units, 2.250 units, 4.381 units and 2.315 units in overall adoption of eco friendly conservation practices respectively. also, it is revealed that an one unit increase in (x3) occupational status, (x8) economic motivation, (x19) socio cultural linkage, ceteris paribus would result in a decrease of 2.528 units, 4.764 units, 2.199 units of adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. it could be further observed from the table, that among the 20 variables, educational status, risk orientation, training undergone, progressiveness, self reliance, innovativeness and contact with extension agency were found to have positively contributed to the adoption of eco-friendly conservation practices. the educated farmers because of their perception would have adopted the eco friendly agricultural products are facing marketing problems. so, the risk bearing abilities would help the farmers to adopt the eco friendly conservation practices. direct impact table 2 infers that with respect to direct impact, nearly onefifth (18.63%) of respondents reported that increase in yield. also, nearly half (43.22%) of the respondents reported that increase in income and 77.11 per cent of the farmers indicated that the cost of cultivation decreased. the eco friendly conservation practices naturally do involve less cost of cultivation. however, the increased net income by reduced cost of cultivation was reported by the majority of the respondents. and so, the eco-friendly 5447adoption and impact of eco-friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats conservation practices were more profitable though in the low yield condition. indirect impact personal impact from the table 2, 71.18 per cent of farmers suggested that their confidence level had increased, followed by 3.40 per cent of farmers perceived no change in the confidence level, and 25.42 per cent of farmers opined that the confidence level had decreased. further, 57.63 percent of farmers suggested that the exposure to media sources had been increased, followed by 6.08 percent of farmers perceived no change in the exposure and 35.59 per cent of farmers opined that the exposure to media sources had been decreased. awareness campaigns on the benefits of eco friendly conservation practices should be organized and there should be proper publicity and propaganda through mass media about the importance of eco friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district. table 2 further infers that in the case of personal impact, 46.61 percent of farmers suggested that the farmer’s food and nutrition status had increased followed by 34.75 percent of farmers perceived no change in the farmer’s food and nutrition status and 18.64 per cent of farmers opined that the farmer’s food and nutrition status had decreased. majority of the farmer’s food and nutrition status has been increased with the support of the increased concentrations of antioxidants and nutritional values in vegetables, fruits, grains, and dairy products. table 2 suggested that, 72.03 percent of farmers suggested that the farmer’s health condition had improved, followed by 16.95 percent of farmers perceived no change in the farmer’s health condition and 11.02 per cent of farmers opined that the farmer’s health condition had declined. the health status of the farmers has increased due to decreased health hazards in food chain because of their preference is very high for the eco friendly farm products. table 2 indicates that in the personal impact, 68.64 percent of farmers suggested that the farmer’s decision making capacity had improved, followed by 6.78 percent of farmers perceived no change in the farmer’s decision making capacity and 24.58 per cent of farmers opined that the farmer’s decision making capacity had declined. majority of the farmers decision making ability were found increased in the eco friendly conservation practices. as these practices produce significantly higher yield under drought conditions, it has high market price. these factors enhance the decision making ability of the farmers. social impact table 2 reveals that in the case of social impact, 62.70 per cent of farmers suggested that their participation in social organization journal of extension education5448 table 2. impact of eco friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats (n=118) no. % no. % no. % i direct impact 1. yield 22 18.63 6 5.1 90 76.27 2. income 51 43.22 3 2.54 64 54.24 3. cost of cultivation 21 17.79 6 5.10 91 77.11 ii indirect impact a personal impact 1. confidence in eco-friendly cultivation 84 71.18 4 3.40 30 25.42 2. opportunity to know about development activities 38 32.20 52 44.07 28 23.73 3. exposure to media sources 68 57.63 8 6.08 42 35.59 4. consultation by fellow farmers 48 40.68 27 22.88 43 36.44 5. food and nutrition 55 46.61 41 34.75 22 18.64 6. health condition 85 72.03 20 16.95 13 11.02 7. decision making capacity 81 68.64 8 6.78 29 24.58 b social impact 1. participation in social organization 74 62.70 6 5.10 38 32.20 c economic impact 1. investment in savings 56 47.46 41 34.74 21 17.80 2. purchase of agricultural implements 25 21.19 71 60.17 22 18.64 3. purchase of vehicles 28 23.73 72 61.02 18 15.25 4. livestock and poultry ownership 66 55.93 30 25.43 22 18.64 d environmental impact 1. soil fertility 87 73.73 16 13.56 15 12.71 2. improvement in water level 88 74.57 6 5.10 24 20.33 3. biodiversity conservation 80 67.80 24 20.34 14 11.86 no changesl. no. impact increased decreased had increased, followed by 5.10 per cent of farmers perceived no change in the participation in social organization and 32.20 per cent of farmers opined that the participation in social organization had decreased. in the eco-friendly conservation practices, the social motivation factor helps to improve the decision making ability and increased participatory technology development (ptd) practice. so, through the trainings, motivation and campaigns, change agents can improve 5449adoption and impact of eco-friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats knowledge and skill on eco friendly conservation practices. economic impact from table 2 it could be seen that, 47.46 per cent of farmers suggested that their investment in savings had increased, followed by 34.74 per cent of farmers perceived no change in savings and 17.80 per cent of farmers opined that the savings had decreased. the savings of the farmers had increased due to less expenditure towards usage of external inputs. practicing intercropping increases effective utilization of land, reducing the weed growth and providing additional income. it could be further observed from the table 2 that 55.93 per cent of farmers suggested that the purchase of livestock and poultry ownership had increased, followed by 25.43 per cent of farmers perceived no change in the purchase of livestock and poultry and 18.64 per cent of farmers opined that in the livestock and poultry ownership had decreased. the increased livestock and poultry ownership helps to support the eco friendly conservation practices and the possibility of effectively converting all the available crop and solid waste recycling into various types of composts and manures to sustain the soil fertility and production. it reduces the indiscriminate application of inorganic fertilizers and the less application of external organic manures. environmental impact in the case of environmental impact, 73.73 per cent of farmers suggested that the fertility status of the soil has improved followed by 13.56 per cent of farmers who perceived no change in the fertility status of the soil and 12.71 per cent of farmers opined that the fertility status of the soil had been decreased. majority of the farmers inferred that the eco friendly conservation practices prevent soil, nutrient depletion and increase soil health by less usage of chemical fertilizers. table 2 further infers that in the case of environmental impact, 74.57 per cent of farmers suggested that the ground water level was increased in the farm level followed by 5.10 per cent of farmers perceived no change in the ground water level and 20.33 per cent of farmers opined that the ground water level had decreased. majority farmers suggested that the ground water level increased with the adoption of eco friendly soil and water conservation practices. it also helps to improve the efficiency of irrigation water. it could be observed from the table 2 that 67.80 per cent of farmers suggested that the biodiversity of the farm had improved with the result of a number of indigenous species cultivated in the field level, followed by 20.34 per cent of farmers perceived no changes in the biodiversity of the farm and 11.86 per cent of farmers opined that the biodiversity of the farm had decreased. journal of extension education5450 majority of the farmers suggested that the bio diversity of the farm increased with the increased impact of floral diversity, faunal diversity, habitat diversity, landscape, soil organic matter improvement, soil biological activity, soil structure, soil erosion, reduced nitrate leaching and pesticide residues, nutrient use efficiency, water use and energy use efficiency. eco friendly conservation practices like integrated nutrient management (inm), integrated farming system (ifs). eco-friendly conservation practices helps to control pests, use of pest resistant varieties, preservation and conservation of household waste, increases the usage of bio-fertilizer, farm yard manure and compost as the best soil microbial activity . conclusion educational status, risk orientation, training undergone, progressiveness, self reliance, innovativeness and contact with extension agency were found to have positively contributed to the adoption of eco-friendly conservation practices. with respect to impact, majority of the farmers opined that the cost of cultivation decreased followed by increased confidence level, improved fertility status of the soil and improved biodiversity in the farm fields. references ifoam. 2000. organic agriculture and fair trade: two concepts based on the same holistic principal. online report. international federation of organic agriculture movements. germany. available at: www.ifoam.org. r. j. daniels. 1996.the nilgiri biosphere reserve: a review of conservation status with recommendations for a holistic approach to management (india). pages 2021-4.cdr introduction the demand for fish and fishery products is increasing day-by-day. the brackish water fishery resources consist of 75 species, out of which 28 species were iden�fied as commercially important fishes (harikumar and rajendran 2007). the annual fish produc�on from brackish water areas of kerala was es�mated at 3000 tonnesout of total produc�on of 3.93 lakh tonnes in india (nfdb 2017). the state of kerala is witnessing a rapid increase in brackish water cage farming which not only increases produc�vity but also results in addi�onal income genera�on for the fishing c o m m u n i t y . e ffi c i e n t u � l i z a � o n o f informa�on and technology increases fish produc�on, employment crea�on, and income genera�on. contribu�ons from different sources and interven�ons by various agencies have made brackish water research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.4, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/ 1 4 3 6 6699jee.202 . .3 .6 91sources of informa�on and their role in influencing the decision-making process among the brackish water cage farming community in kerala k. v. unnikrishnan and k. dinesh abstract in recent years, the kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies (kufos) along with the state fisheries department has been promo�ng brackish water cage farming by providing extensive online and field-level technical support to the farmers. there are various sources from which farmers gather informa�on for adop�ng cage culture. a study was carried out among the brackish water cage farmers located in different regions of kerala to iden�fy the significance of various sources of informa�on in adop�ng sustainable cage culture prac�ces. the informa�on pla�orms having various sorts of tools and methodologies are generally categorized into four: print media, visual media, social media, and the tradi�onal type of training programme. all the sources selected for the study are a rich repository of informa�on and insights on the subject under discussion. from the study, it was possible to iden�fy the sources of informa�on according to the magnitude of popularity among various farmers and corela�ng the same with the rate of adop�on of a technology. the maximum number of farmers gathered informa�on through training programme. least number of farmers with mean score of 208 u�lized print media as a medium to gather informa�on on cage culture. kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies, panangad, kochi, kerala 682 506, india. received : 24-04-2022 accepted: 24-09-2022 6691 keywords: farmers; information source; socio-demographic; cage culture; kerala cage farming more profitable. in addi�on to st ate gove r n m e nt a ge n c i e s , s eve ra l research ins�tutes and departments were also involved in guiding and implemen�ng various brackish water and aquaculture projects. indian council of agriculture research (icar) is exclusively focusing on aquaculture research ac�vi�es. central ma r i n e f i s h e r i e s re s e a rc h i n s � t u t e (cmfri) deals with aquaculture and mariculture research studies. the central ins�tute of brackish water aquaculture (ciba) is focused on brackish water aquaculture projects and research ac�vi�es. kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies (kufos) contributes by impar�ng educa�on in fisheries and technology. the na�onal fisheries development board (nfdb), part of the ministry of agriculture, is ac�vely providing training in the field of aquaculture and fisheries (de jong, 2017). i n r e c e n t y e a r s , k u f o s i n a s s o c i a � o n w i t h t h e st a t e fi s h e r i e s department was involved by providing field-level informa�ve training programs on brackish water cage culture for poten�al farmers and entrepreneurs. the informa�on sourced by the farmers acts as a catalyst for i n c r e a s e d p r o d u c � v i t y a n d i n c o m e genera�on. the informa�on thus acquired enables farmers to take appropriate decisions on adop�ng the right methods of cage farming (mi�al and tripathi, 2009). a �me-bound, trustworthy, and quality informa�on source are the important aspects that are required by farmers to meet their needs and expecta�on. the op�mum technology iden�fied can be considered as an eye-opener for the players in cage farming. hence this study was taken up to iden�fy the sources of informa�on and their role in brackish water cage farming. methodology the study was carried out from different brackish water areas located in the state of kerala encompassing farmers of various demographic features. a total of 121 beneficiary farmers adop�ng brackish water cage farming from three districts (ernakulam, alleppey & trichur) with different socio-demographic features were considered for the survey. data were collected as respondents from farmers with the help of pre-specified ques�onnaires and response forms. the respondents included in the study area were from different age g r o u p s a n d d i ff e r e n t e d u c a � o n a l backgrounds. farmers' responses on the sources of informa�on u�lized by them for prac�cing cage culture were collected. a total of 17 types of informa�on sources that were influencing the farmers in adop�ng brackish water cage culture were iden�fied. the informa�on sources were categorized into four groups based on the nature of the tool u�lized; namely the print media, visual media, social media, and the tradi�onal type of training programmes. the “responses were recorded” by the standard three-point like summated ra�ng scale technique (likert 1932) viz; always, some�mes, and never respec�vely and were ranked based on the respondent's view. the weighted scores (w) for each response with points 1 to 3 as ra�ngs were thus obtained were mul�plied 6692journal of extension educa�on with the frequency (f) of the respondent to obtain the weighted frequency (wf) which is compounded as weighed cumula�ve frequency distribu�on (cf). the rela�ve frequency (rf) of each informa�on source and its percentage (%) were iden�fied by dividing the frequency of response by the total number of respondents. the rank order was computed for each source iden�fied based on the final weighted frequency scores and compared. similar rank order was computed for the social demographic c h a r a c t e r i s � c s o f t h e f a r m e r s a n d correlated for its significance in decision making. sta�s�cal test, analysis of variance (anova) was used to test the significance o f s o c i o d e m o g r a p h i c v a r i a b l e s w i t h maximum u�lized informa�on sources. findings and discussion the various sources of informa�on u�lized by farmers were ranked based on the frequency distribu�on of different informa�on tools. from this study, it was revealed that the maximum number of farmers preferred to get guidance and support from state fisheries department (dof) by a�ending to the training programs provided under various schemes. of the four different groups of preference, mobile whatsapp, youtube channels, magazines & periodicals, and state fisheries department were preferred by most farmers and ranked one respec�vely in each group(table 1&2). the cumula�ve scores obtained for u�lizing different informa�on sources in this study were 273, 267, and 264 which includes the h i g h e s t s c o r e f o r s t a t e f i s h e r i e s department training, followed by the internet tools like youtube channels (visual media) and whats app groups (social media) re s p e c � v e l y. g a t h e r i n g i n fo r m a � o n through youtube channels has been i n c r e a s i n g d u e t o t h e e m e r g i n g a d v a n c e m e n t i n c o m m u n i c a � o n technology. the mobile-based extension is a good medium for reaching youth and educated farmers (n�ri et al., 2022).social and visual media tools act as cross-pla�orm mone�za�on solu�on that connects farmers with relevant content and thus enable interac�ons with the exper�se (thakur et al., 2017). the best possible coverage of informa�on about farming ac�vi�es would be by the usage of mobile phones and mobile extensions supported by the internet (joshua et al., 2015). farmers who feel confident to learn new technology are likely to find the technology easier to use than someone who is not as confident. more farmers preferred to follow the tradi�onal methods of collec�ng informa�on directly from exper�se and resource persons, and the overall mean cumula�ve score among the different informa�on sources also showed the highest preference for u�lizing informa�on from training and technical support. fewer farmers gather informa�on from the print media with the lowest mean cumula�ve score of 208. this is mainly due to the preferen�al decision of farmers t o w a r d s u � l i z i n g t h e i n t e r n e t pla�orm.table1 and table 2 describe the maximum and minimum scores obtained for u s i n g va r i o u s t o o l s a n d m e t h o d s i n gathering informa�on for cage farming. 6693 sources of informa�on and their role in influencing the decision-making process among the brackish water cage farming community in kerala 6694 table 1. informa�on sources through various tools groups type of sources w f wf rf (%) cf rank social media through mobile whatsapp groups a(3) 33 99 0.27 27.27 099 i st(2) 77 154 0.64 63.64 253 n(1) 11 11 0.09 09.09 264 through google search and links a(3) 24 72 0.19 19.83 072 ii st(2) 80 160 0.66 66.11 232 n(1) 17 17 0.14 14.04 249 through networks like facebook, twitter, etc a(3) iii st(2) 58 116 0.48 48.00 116 n(1) 63 63 0.52 52.06 179 mean cumula�ve score 230 visual media through television channels a(3) 08 24 0.06 06.61 024 iii st(2) 87 174 0.72 72.00 198 n(1) 26 26 0.21 21.48 224 through online seminars a(3) 10 30 0.08 08.26 030 ii st(2) 98 196 0.80 80.99 226 n(1) 13 13 0.10 10.74 239 through youtube channels a(3) 34 102 0.28 28.09 102 i st(2) 78 156 0.64 64.46 258 n(1) 09 09 0.07 07.43 267 through big screens/documentary a(3) iv st(2) 66 132 0.54 54.54 132 n(1) 55 55 0.45 45.45 187 no. of samples 121, a -always, st some�mes, n -never, w -weighed score, f -frequency, wf -weighed frequency, rela�ve frequency, ( %) percent, cf -cumula�ve frequency. mean cumula�ve score 229 print media through local and na�onal newspaper a(3) 11 33 0.09 09.09 033 iii st(2) 61 122 0.50 50.41 155 n(1) 49 49 0.40 40.50 204 through magazines and periodicals a(3) 4 12 0.03 03.31 012 i st(2) 97 194 0.80 80.17 206 n(1) 20 20 0.17 16.53 226 through research papers, ar�cles, and publica�ons a(3) 11 33 0.09 09.09 033 iv st(2) 41 82 0.33 33.88 115 n(1) 69 69 0.57 57.02 184 through brochures, pamphlets, notices a(3) 10 33 0.08 08.26 033 ii st(2) 77 154 0.63 63.64 187 n(1) 34 34 0.28 28.09 221 mean cumula�ve score 208 journal of extension educa�on group type of sources w f wf rf (%) cf rank training & technical support kerala state fisheries department a(3) 41 123 0.33 33.88 123 i st(2) 70 140 0.57 57.85 263 n(1) 10 10 0.08 8.26 273 kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies a(3) 34 102 0.28 28.09 102 iii st(2) 67 134 0.55 55.37 236 n(1) 20 20 0.16 16.53 256 marine product export development authority a(3) vi st(2) 53 106 0.43 43.80 106 n(1) 68 68 0.56 56.20 174 central marine fisheries research institute a(3) 33 99 0.27 27.27 99 ii st(2) 70 140 0.57 57.85 239 n(1) 18 18 0.14 14.87 257 by agencies or groups a(3) 14 42 0.11 11.57 42 v st(2) 57 114 0.47 47.10 156 n(1) 50 50 0.41 41.32 206 information from other farmers. a(3) 44 132 0.36 36.36 132 iv st(2) 33 66 0.27 27.27 198 n(1) 44 44 0.36 36.36 242 mean cumula�ve score 234 other table 2 . informa�on sources through training programmes 6695 no. of samples 121, a -always, st some�mes, n -never, w -weighed score, f -frequency, wf -weighed frequency, rela�ve frequency, ( %) percent, cf -cumula�ve frequency. among the farming community, s o c i o d e m o g ra p h i c fe at u re s p l ay a n important role in decision-making to gather informa�on. the informa�on on the availability of seeds are vital for the farmers. cost effec�ve species selec�on can be adopted by fisher folks on a small scale basis for addi�onal income (kappen et al., 2018). the present study also revealed that the decisions taken by the farmers to choose a par�cular informa�on source largely depend on socio-demographic features. maximum number of farmers who gathered informa�on from internet pla�orms were from larger family sizes and with family m e m b e r s h a v i n g h i g h e r e d u c a � o n backgrounds. one of the most important sources of informa�on was through internet sources of informa�on and their role in influencing the decision-making process among the brackish water cage farming community in kerala pla�orms, especially for more coverage of aquaculture extensions (pieniak et al., 2013). moreover, the larger the family size, the more the number of par�cipants in cage culture ac�vi�es and off-field culture management prac�ces. among the sociodemographic features, the family size and educa�on background of farmers was ranked highest (rank i & ii) when compared to other associated demographic features (table 3).the educa�on of farmers was posi�vely correlated to decision-making and significant whereas age and designa�on were nega�vely correlated (nirmalkar et al., 2022). the educa�on and experience gained provided the basic knowledge to understand technical aspects and improve farmers' standards (unnikrishnan and dinesh 2020). it can be understood that farmers from larger family sizes with average educa�on status are more likely to gather more informa�on by a�ending the maximum number of training programmes than farmers from smaller family sizes. 6696 table 3 . socio-demographic features of cage farmers sl. no. category 1 age 2 educa�onal status 3 no. of family members 4 experience in cage farming 5 (w) f wf rf (%) cf rank <30 years (1) 33 33 0.27 27.27 33 iv 30-50 years (2) 55 110 0.45 45.45 143 > 50 years (3) 33 99 0.27 27.27 242 primary school (1) 11 11 0.09 9.09 11 ii high school (2) 77 154 0.63 63.64 165 ≥ graduate (3) 33 99 0.27 27.27 264 up to 2(1) 11 11 0.09 9.09 11 i 5 and above (2) 44 88 0.36 36.36 99 3 to 4 (3) 66 198 0.54 54.55 297 1 -4 years (1) 33 33 0.27 27.27 33 iii 5-10 years (2) 44 88 0.36 36.36 121 >10 years (3) 44 132 0.36 36.36 253 < 1 lakh (1) 77 77 0.63 63.64 77 v 1 to 5 lakh (2) 33 66 0.27 27.27 143 > 5 lakh (3) 11 33 0.09 9.09 176 average annual income no. of samples 121, w-weighed score in ascending order, ffrequency, wf-weighed frequency, rf-rela�ve frequency, (%) percent, cf-cumula�ve frequency. sta�s�cal analysis (anova) proved the significance of socio-demographic features and their influence on decisionmakingin choosing a source. farmers' family size and educa�onal background were significant (p<0.05) in choosing the required tool and gathering more informa�on. this coincides with the findings by furtan ., et al journal of extension educa�on 6697 (1985), about the influence of family size in choosing the type of informa�on tool for gathering informa�on. the efforts in onfarm par�cipa�on and off-farm ac�vi�es were higher among larger families than the families with lesser ac�ve members. thus, it was established from this study that, a larger family size influences the decisionm a k i n g t o c h o o s e a t o o l t o g a t h e r informa�on for cage farming ac�vi�es. similar findings were also observed by mi s h ra a n d go o d w i n ( 1 9 9 7 ) o n t h e significance of farming community size towards decision-making. according to reed and harford (1989), farmers with more family members especially grown-up children tend to work more hours and support more on informa�on for farming ac�vi�es. in this study area, the least number of farmers with a lower annual income (< 1 lakh) did not prefer to use the internet pla�orm to gather informa�on; rather they depended mostly on the fieldlevel guidance and support provided by state fisheries department. though family income is one of the socio-economic requirements of the farming community, they have the least impact on choosing an informa�on tool and were insignificant (p>0.05). this contradicts the finding by raza ., (2020), where socio-economic et al condi�ons significantly impact the farmers' preference to choose an informa�on tool. the informa�on's on the availability of seeds are vital for the farmers. cost effec�ve species selec�on can be adopted by fisherfolks on a small-scale basis for addi�onal income (kappen et al., 2018a). though there are various constrains faced by cage culture farmers, by organizing b e n e fi c i a r y g r o u p s w i t h i n n o v a � v e promo�onal ac�vi�es the profitability increases (kappen et al., 2018b). conclusion t h e r e a r e v a r i o u s s o u r c e s o f informa�on, from which farmers gather informa�on for adop�ng cage culture. socio-demographic elements like age, educa�onal background, number of family members, and family income have greater explanatory power for gaining knowledge as they are directly linked to farmers' a�tudes toward using a par�cular informa�on tool. a�tude may be posi�ve or nega�ve with some physiological objec�ves (edwards, 1957). though most farmers follow the tradi�onal methodology of gathering informa�on by a�ending training sessions and seminars, the use of informa�on technology medium is on the rise among the younger genera�ons and entrepreneurs. also, due to the rapidly emerging informa�on technology, maximum number of farmers tend to move towards the internet pla�orm to gather informa�on. though the internet pla�orm plays an important role in communica�on, most farmers preferred to gain informa�ve knowledge directly from on-field exper�se sources of informa�on and their role in influencing the decision-making process among the brackish water cage farming community in kerala 6698 which is one of the tradi�onal methods. the field-level informa�ve training and support provided by various agencies like cmfri and kufos in associa�on with state government bodies were found to be more effec�ve in increasing the awareness of cage culture protocols, thus maximizing the produc�vity of brackish water cage farming, employment opportuni�es, and livelihood security to fisherfolk. the preference of farmers in u�lizing a par�cular source for g a t h e r i n g i n f o r m a � o n n e e d s t o b e ascertained beyond the study area. references de jong, j. (2017). aquaculture in india. r i j k s d i e n s t v o o r o n d e r n e m e n d nederland. 1-15. edwards, a. l. (1957). techniques of a�tude scale construc�on (no. 04; qa276, e39). furtan, w. h., van kooten, g. c., & thompson, s. j. (1985). the es�ma�on of off-farm labour supply func�ons in saskatchewan. journal of agricultural economics, 36(2), 211-220. harikumar, g., & rajendran, g. (2007). an overview of kerala fisheries with par�cular emphasis on aquaculture. souvenir, integrated fisheries project (ifp), kochi, india, 1-19. joshua, n. e., ojha, s. n., immanuel, s., & b a b u , s . ( 2 0 1 5 ) . a q u a c u l t u r e informa�on exchange facilita�ng f a r m e r s . i n t e r n a � o n a l j o u r n a l o f fisheries and aqua�c studies 2015; 2(4). kappen, d. c., kumar, d., & divya, n. d. (2018a). pioneer a�empt on cage culture of giant trevally, caranxignobilis through farmer par cipatory approach in thiruthipuram backwaters, kochi, kerala, india. ambient science, 5(2), 6-8. kappen, d. c., dinesh, k., &divya, n. d. (2018b). constraints in the adop�on of c a g e a q u a c u l t u r e p r a c � c e s i n ernakulam district, kerala. journal of extension educa�on, 30(4). likert, r. (1932). a technique for the measurement of a�tudes. archives of psychology,22(140), 1-55. mishra, a. k., & goodwin, b. k. (1997). farm income variability and the supply of off-farm labor. american journal of agricultural economics, 79(3), 880-887. mi�al, s., & tripathi, g. (2009). role of mobile phone technology in improving small farm produc�vity. agricultural economics research review, 22(3472016-16874), 451-460. na�onal fisheries development board (2017), mission brackish water2022, retrieved from h�ps://nfdb.gov.in/ pdf/e%20publica�ons/6%20mission%20 brackishwater-saline%20 aquaculture% 202017.pdf. nirmalkar, c., lahiri, b., ghsoh, a., pal, p., baidya, s., shil, b., & kurmi, r. k. (2022). perceived knowledge and a�tude of journal of extension educa�on https://nfdb.gov.in/pdf/e%20publications/6%20mission%20brackishwater-saline%20aquaculture%202017.pdf https://nfdb.gov.in/pdf/e%20publications/6%20mission%20brackishwater-saline%20aquaculture%202017.pdf https://nfdb.gov.in/pdf/e%20publications/6%20mission%20brackishwater-saline%20aquaculture%202017.pdf https://nfdb.gov.in/pdf/e%20publications/6%20mission%20brackishwater-saline%20aquaculture%202017.pdf https://nfdb.gov.in/pdf/e%20publications/6%20mission%20brackishwater-saline%20aquaculture%202017.pdf 6699 fisheries extension professionals on usage of icts intripura. indian journal of extension educa�on, 58(2), 58-64. n�ri, p., ragasa, c., anang, s. a., kuwornu, j. k., & torbi, e. n. (2022). does ictb a s e d a q u a c u l t u r e e x t e n s i o n contribute to greater adop�on of good management prac�ces and improved incomes? evidence from ghana. aquaculture, 557, 738350. pieniak, z., vanhonacker, f., & verbeke, w. (2013). consumer knowledge and use o f i n f o r m a � o n a b o u t fi s h a n d aquaculture. food policy, 40, 25-30. raza, m. h., khan, g. a., shahbaz, b., & saleem, m. f. (2020). effec�veness of i n fo r m a � o n a n d c o m m u n i c a � o n technologies as informa�on source among farmers in pakistan. pakistan journal of agricultural sciences, 57(1). reed, w. r., & harford, k. (1989). the marriage premium and compensa�ng wage differen�als. journal of popula�on economics, 2(4), 237-265. thakur, d., chander, m., & sinha, s. k. (2017). a scale to measure the a�tude of farmers towards social media use in agricultural extension. indian research journal of extension educa�on, 17(3), 10-15. unnikrishnan, k. v., & dinesh, k. (2020). s o c i o e c o n o m i c a n a l y s i s o f brackishwater cage culture in kerala. journal of extension educa�on, 32(2), 6500-6507. sources of informa�on and their role in influencing the decision-making process among the brackish water cage farming community in kerala page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 page 58 page 59 page 60 page 61 page 62 6031 participation of women members in a community – driven development project s. elakkiya1 and m. asokhan2 abstract a community-driven development project named ‘pudu vazhvu’ was launched in tamil nadu in november 2005 with world bank assistance. the goal of the project was to reduce poverty among the rural poor and other vulnerable groups and to promote their empowerment, through targeted assistance for productive livelihood activities, in a more enabling village environment, adopting community driven development (cdd) approach. under this project, rural women were grouped into self help groups to promote their livelihood status. hence there is a need to study the cdd-shgs effectiveness. the study was carried out in namakkal district in tamil nadu as it is one of the districts in tamil nadu where pudu vazhvu project was implemented. a sample of 132 respondents was selected from two blocks (six villages) following proportionate random sampling technique. the present study was undertaken to find out the participation of women project members in various activities of cdd project. the study revealed that pudu vazhvu project shg women members had participated in group meetings record and account maintenance, formulating the rules and regulations and in getting loans. keywords : community driven development project; women members; participation; self help group; pudhu vazhvu; tamil nadu 1 pg scholar & 2 professor and head (agricultural extension), department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore-641003 received : 27-04-2018; accepted : 08-05-2018 a community – driven development project entitled, ‘pudu vazhvu project’ was approved and launched in november 2005 and it was implemented over a six year period with world bank assistance. the target population of this project was poor households, the most vulnerable section including the physically challenged and the marginalized communities. the project adopted community driven development approach involving village communities at every stage of project implementation. the target population was identified by village communities using participatory methodologies. the project was implemented in 2,509 village panchayats in 70 backward blocks spread over 15 districts. the goal of the project was reduction of poverty among the rural poor and other vulnerable groups and to promote their empowerment through targeted assistance for productive livelihood activities in a more enabling village environment adopting community driven development (cdd) approach. the project was based on cardinal principles of equity, inclusion, facilitation, participation, transparency and accountability which are research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6031-6036 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6032 adopted as key non-negotiable principles. in participatory methodologies, social mapping and wealth ranking method is used to identify the target population i.e. below poverty line family members. the social mapping depicts the habitation pattern, nature of housing, social infrastructure: roads, drainage systems, schools, drinking water facilities, etc. it is made by people not by experts, not and drawn based on any scales. after social mapping, wealth ranking is conducted to select the self help group members from below poverty line families. a self-help group is a group of about 10 to 20 people, usually women from a similar class and region, who come together to form savings and credit organization. they use seed money and pool financial resources to make small interest bearing loans to their members to help pay for important needs (nabard 2009). this paper describes the participation of group members in project activities. methodology the study was carried out in namakkal district in tamil nadu as it is one of the districts in tamil nadu where pudu vazhvu cdd project was implemented. erumapatti and vennandur blocks were selected based on year of implementation of the project. three villages from each block (altogether six villages) were also selected based on the earliest year of implementation. a sample of 132 respondents was selected from six villages following proportionate random sampling technique. data were collected with the help of a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule and analysed with suitable statistical techniques. findings and discussion the extent of participation in this study was operationalized as the degree to which cdd project women members participate in various activities.. the findings on the level of participation are given under the following subheadings. participation in the cdd project shg activities the findings relevant to the participation in project shg activities are given in table 1. table 1. distribution of respondents according to their participation in the project self help group activities (n=132) sl. no. participation in project shg activities total score mean score rank 1. in group meetings 388 2.93 i 2. in electing the office bearers 380 2.87 iv 3. in record and account maintenance 383 2.90 ii 4. in formulating the rules and regulations 382 2.89 iii journal of extension education 6033 sl. no. participation in project shg activities total score mean score rank 5. in running the shg according to rules and regulations 372 2.81 v 6. in formulating plans for the development of the women members 358 2.71 vii 7. in training the women members 310 2.34 xii 8. in organizing trainings 287 2.17 xv 9. in sharing the experiences of trainings undergone 291 2.20 xiv 10. in giving technical advice to other members 291 2.20 xiv 11. in imparting skills to other members 291 2.20 xiv 12. in conducting exposure visits 314 2.37 xi 13. in creating cohesiveness among the group members 315 2.38 x 14. in reviewing the progress made 316 2.39 ix 15. in conflict resolution 313 2.37 xi 16. in getting loans 364 2.75 vi 17. in meeting government officials 303 2.29 xiii 18. in taking group decisions 317 2.40 viii overall mean score = 2.51 based on the total and mean scores, ranks had been allotted to each activity, in group meetings (2.93), record and account maintenance (2.87), formulating the rules and regulations (2.89), electing the office bearers (2.87), running the shg according to rules and regulations (2.81), getting loans (2.75) , formulating plans for development of the women members (2.71) were the activities with more mean scores than the overall mean score (2.51) and have been observed in the order of participation. the activities such as taking group decision (2.40), reviewing progress made (2.39), creating cohesiveness among the group members (2.38), conflict resolution (2.37), exposure visit (2.37), training the women members (2.34), meeting government officials (2.29), sharing the experiences of trainings undergone (2.20), giving technical advice to other members (2.20), imparting skills to other members (2.20), organizing trainings (2.17) were the activities with less mean scores than the overall mean score (2.51). most of the respondents in the study area were found to be in middle to young age categories and had middle level education. this might be the reason for majority of the respondents to participate regularly in group meetings, record and account maintenance, formulating the rules and regulations, electing the office bearers, running the shg according to rules and regulations, getting loans, formulating plans for development of the women members. whereas the involvement in other activities is less because shg representative and the women members who participation of women members in a community – driven development project 6034 availed loans occasionally played a major role. group leaders regularly motivate the members to actively participate in the project shg activities. hence more participation was observed among the respondents in project shg activities. thus, the activities which were simple and regularly carried out during the meetings of the shg had more mean scores. the possible reason might be that the women members who received loans and attended trainings regularly had showed regular participation in project activities. this finding is in conformity with findings of sujeetha (2012). participation in economic developmental activities the findings related to the participation in economic developmental activities are given in table 2. table 2. distribution of respondents according to their participation in economic developmental activities (n=132) sl. no participation in economic developmental activities total score mean score rank 1. in deciding about loan lending to members 350 2.65 i 2. in fixing interest rate for purpose oriented loans 349 2.64 ii 3. in running the commercial venture 287 2.17 iii 4. arranging to get resources from supporting institutions 249 1.88 v 5. purchasing raw materials for their commercial venture / entrepreneurial activity 252 1.90 iv 6. in marketing their produce 248 1.87 vi 7. participation in the product exhibitions conducted by government and other agencies. 200 1.51 vii over all mean score = 2.09 data furnished is table 2 reveal that deciding about loan lending to members (2.65), fixing interest rate for purpose oriented loans (2.64), running the commercial venture (2.17) were the economic activities that got higher mean scores than overall mean score (2.09). purchasing raw materials for their commercial venture / entrepreneurial activity (1.90), arranging to get resources from supporting institution (1.88), in marketing their produce (1.87), participation in the product exhibitions conducted by government and other agencies were the economic activities journal of extension education 6035 that got low mean scores than the overall mean score (2.09). in the study area, credit institutions and the banks were helpful to shg members in sanctioning loan for starting entrepreneurial ventures and also the interest changed was very low compared to other financial institutions. this might be the reason for majority of the respondents to participate regularly in deciding about loan lending to members, fixing interest rate for purpose oriented loans and running commercial ventures. to enable project shg members to sell their products, exhibitions were organized under the scheme mahalirthittam in namakkal district. thus the respondents had regular participation in marketing their produce which was one of the economic activity. the above finding is in agreement with the findings of mary (2012). participation in social developmental activities the responses regarding participation pattern project shg members in social developmental activities were collected and are given in table 3. table 3. distribution of respondents according to their participation in social developmental activities (n=132) sl.no participation in social developmental activities total score mean score rank 1. participation in village developmental works 285 2.15 vi 2. participation in social action programmes 288 2.18 v 3. participation in gram sabha meeting 326 2.46 iv 4. participation in vprc (village poverty reduction committee) 368 2.78 i 5. participation in sac (social audit committee) 353 2.67 iii 6. participation in plf (panjayat level federation) 366 2.77 ii overall mean score = 2.50 table 3 indicates that more participation was observed with participation in village poverty reduction committee (2.78) followed by participation in panchayat level federation (2.77), participation in social audit committee (2.67). participation in gram sabha meeting (2.46), participation in social action programmes (2.18) and participation in village developmental works (2.15) respectively. the possible reason might be that the cdd project shgs had better linkage with local institutions and they are actively involved in addressing social issues viz., creating awareness on school drop out participation of women members in a community – driven development project 6036 children, dengue awareness campaign and women rights campaign this project, vprc and plf were giving the loan amount to cdd project shg members. this might be the reason for more participation in village poverty reduction committee, panchayat level federation and social audit committees. after joining the pudu vazhvu (cdd) project, the rural women members were able to participate in shg’social and economic activities. due to these activities, the women project members were able to avail loan and run commercial ventures. important activities like cohesiveness among the group members, marketing their produce are not known to the project women members. thus, adequate training, meeting and exposure visits can be organized to train the project women members in these areas. references mary, k.j, (2012). impact of dynamics of self help group on rural women empowerment– a critical analysis. unpublished ph.d thesis, ac & ri, tnau, coimbatore. nabard, (2009). banking with the poor: shgbank-linkage programme in andhra pradesh. department of rural development, government of andhra pradesh, hyderabad, india. sujeetha, t.n. (2012). empowerment of tribal women through shgs– an analysis. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac & ri, tnau, coimbatore. h t t p : // w w w . c o i m b a t o r e . n i c . i n / d r d a / pudhuvaazhvu.pdf h t t p : // p u b d o c s . w o r l d b a n k . o r g / e n / 6 2 3 5 6 1 4 5 9 8 7 2 4 0 7 0 2 9 / a retrospective-impact-evaluation-of-thetamil-nadu-empowerment-and-povertyalleviation-pudhu-vaazhvu-project.pdf journal of extension education pages 2021-3.cdr my dear readers of journal of extension educa�on, these days, we hear a lot about data-driven farming. data-driven farming is the use of data to augment decision-making in farming systems and thus improve food system outcomes such as crop yields, profits, environmental sustainability and food security. many studies (fabregas et al. 2019) support the percep�on that the future of agriculture depends on the adop�on of new technologies that gather, transfer, manage, and analyze data. in a recently published paper in nature sustainability, mehrabi et al (2021) had reported that substan�al gaps s�ll exist in the availability of, and access to, data services for the world's farming popula�ons, especially the smallholders and have outlined the following recommenda�ons for for governments, agricultural development organiza�ons, funders, entrepreneurs and academics. invest in 'last-mile infrastructure' innova�on: closing the coverage gap will require con�nued innova�on in terms of energy, cell towers, and other infrastructure -innova�ons such as google's loon, elon musk's starlink or greg wyler's one web. increase handset affordability: business model innova�on will be required to provide handsets that are both affordable and capable of a seamless broadband experience, par�cularly for women and underserved groups in rural communi�es. make data access universal: innova�on in infrastructure can help to reduce the cost of deploying the last-mile infrastructure, to ensure data accessibility to all farmers. iden�fy interim solu�ons: the lean front-end, interim solu�ons such as sms-based advisories and alerts, and interac�ve voice response services that can run on low-end mobile handsets, offer an important opportunity for addressing bundled issues of produc�vity, market connec�vity, financial transfers, credit access, input use and within-season management, across large areas of farming landscapes globally. while espousing the uses of data-driven agriculture, experts also cau�on that (maru et al, 2018), mobile phone 'apps' alone cannot introduce digital and data-driven agriculture to farmers. successful 'apps', therefore, need to use localized and specific data to provide localized and specific solu�ons for the farmers. this issue of jee has papers on topics such as factors affec�ng the adop�on of silvopastoral system in zimbabwe and climate change strategies in bundelkhand, india. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com 6631 jee 33 (3) d puthira prathap chief editor mailto:editorextension@gmail.com 5892 training need assessment on communication competencies of extensionists working in krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centres) jagriti rohit1 and c.n. anshida beevi2 abstract training need assessment has always been an important area in the designing the capacity development programme for the extensionists. it helps to make the extensionists updated, upgraded and competent in their field. training need using borich need assessment model was carried out in the four zones of krishi vigyan kendras (kvk) to assess the communication competencies of the extensionists. the zones of kvks were selected using simple random sampling without replacement method. from each zone, 20 kvks were selected randomly and 3 extensionists from each kvk were selected by using simple random sampling technique. the total sample size was 240. mean weighted discrepancy score (mwds) was used to study the training needs. the results of the study indicated that the highest level of training need was expressed in their ability to use computer (internet) and powerpoint presentation followed by their “ability to prepare visual aids to help deliver information” while lowest mean weighted discrepancy score was given to their ability in presenting the seminar. kruskal wallis test was carried out to find the differences among the zones of kvk. attention should be given to designing inservice training programmes which can adequately address the present training needs of the extensionists. keywords : extensionists; krishi vigyan kendra; kruskal-wallis test; training need; borich need hierarchy; 1 & 2. scientists, icarcentral research institute for dryland agriculture, hyderabad-500059. received : 14-11-2017; accepted : 13-01-2018 journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5892-5901 introduction agriculture holds an important place in the indian economy and currently india is among the top two agricultural producers in the world. though agriculture employs about 51 per cent of the total work force, its contribution towards gross domestic product is merely 11.8 per cent (agricultural statistics at a glance, 2014). india saw remarkable progress in food production which has increased four folds in the last six decades. policy, research and extension support are among the various drivers which helped to attain this herculean task. in agricultural development, extension and advisory services play a vital role for nutritional security, food sovereignty, and 5893 economic stability. in order to contribute better towards agricultural development, these extension and advisory need new capacities to confront the present challenges in agriculture. agricultural extension is said to be a public service for human resource development of people engaged in agriculture including farmers. along with development of the clientele, extension professionals need to be upgraded and updated with the existing and new skills. success of an organization is directly related to the skill of its human resource. competent human resources are the valuable assets to the extension organization. farm extension services have reaffirmed their essential role in agrarian development, poverty reduction and rural prosperity (birner and anderson, 2007). the ability of extension professionals to design, develop, deliver and evaluate extension programmes determines the effectiveness of an extension organization as they are directly responsible to the people. their ability to perform extension tasks is generally said to be a function of their job competencies. communication skill is an important component of the professional competencies. communication competencies assume a greater role in agricultural extension. extension professionals need to be efficient in communicating with the farmers so that latest technologies and information is provided to them. communication competency may be defined as the ability to listen and to communicate effectively orally and in writing. effective and efficient communication of farm information is an important pre-requisite for affecting adoption of agricultural innovations. the extension workers as communicators of farm information became an indispensable element in the process of communication in implementing and securing desired change in agriculture. the development in agriculture depends on communication. thus, there is need to understand training needs of extension personnel in communication competencies. competency of extension professionals can be enhanced by providing training opportunities that are focused on areas related to competency (mitchell, 2002). cyr (2008) showed that the extension functionaries enhanced their facilitation competency by participating in the training. in this scenario, the present study is an attempt to identify and prioritize the communication training needs of extensionists, so that necessary measures would be suggested to develop suitable capacity building modules and conduct capacity enhancement programmes for them. methodology krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) were selected purposively as an organization for the present study due to the immense importance given to them in providing training need assessment on communication competencies of extensionists working in krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centres) 5894 extension services to the farmers. four kvk zones selected were 1. zone i: delhi, haryana, jammu and kashmir, himachal pradesh, and punjab 2. zone ii: bihar, jharkhand, west bengal and andaman and nicobar 3. zone iv: uttar pradesh and uttarakhand 4. zone vii: chhattisgarh, madhya pradesh and odisha from each zone, twenty icarkvks and three extensionists from each kvk were selected following simple random sampling technique. hence, the total sample size was 240. an extensionist, for the present study, was operationalized as an extension professional having acquired a specialised degree in agricultural sciences or allied sciences, working in krishi vigyan kendras and directly in contact with the clientele/ farmers. extensionists can be synonymously used for subject matter specialist in krishi vigyan kendra. communication competency was operationalized as ability of extension professionals to delivering radio talks, establishing rapport with the farmers, visual aids prepration to help deliver information, use computer (internet) and power point presentation, convey extension messages effectively, presentation in seminars, persuade farmers to adopt technologies, write effectively for target audience, provide feedback of researchable problems to researchers and delivering tv talks. the questionnaire comprising these ten items was administered to the sample respondents. training need is operationalized in this study as the difference in the skills expected or required by extensionists in their job and the actual skills possessed by them. the present study adopted the borich need assessment model (borich, 1980) which relies on the extension agents’ judgments about their own performances. a dichotomous importance vs possessed competency five point continuums, from least important to most important and very low to very high was developed. a score of 1 on the scale signified the least important competency/very low possession and number 5 denoted the most important competency/very high possession. the extensionists were asked to give their self-perceived responses on the identified 10 communication competency statements for both importance and possessed competency. reliability as a measure of internal consistency was established using cronbach’s alpha and the values were 0.864 for the importance level and 0.835 for the competence level. discrepancy score = i-c weight discrepancy score = i (i-c) mean weight discrepancies scores = σ i (i-c)/n journal of extension education 5895 in the above equations, i is importance level, c is competency level and n is number of extensionists. findings and discussion personal profile of extensionists the personal profile of the extensionists is presented in table 1. table 1. personal profile of the extensionists n=240 sl. no. variables category frequency percentage 1. age <35 48 17.5 35-50 150 62.5 >50 52 20.0 2. gender male 157 65.4 female 83 34.6 3. experience 1-10 years 81 33.8 11-21 years 93 38.8 > 21 years 66 27.5 4. education post-graduation 75 31.3 ph.d. 165 68.7 5. position subject matter specialist 177 73.8 programme coordinator 63 26.3 6. type of kvk icar 69 28.8 sau 129 53.8 ngo 42 17.5 training need assessment the results of the training need analysis for communication competencies based on mean weighted discrepancy score are depicted in table 2. the highest mean weighted discrepancy score (5.044) was accorded to the “ability to use computer (internet) and powerpoint presentation”. this means that highest training need is in the use of computer and internet is perceived by the respondents. as computers and ict have become indispensible part of work culture, the extensionists felt the need to get training in these areas. okeowo (2015) also laid emphasis on training in the field of ict in agriculture for the extension agents. visual aids are important tools to communicate with the rural people. it is very effective even with the illiterate masses. so, the extensionists felt the need to enhance their abiltiy to prepare different types training need assessment on communication competencies of extensionists working in krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centres) 5896 of visual aids. the third rank in the perceived training need was “ability to convey extension method effectively” (mwds 5.012). extension professionals need to build good relationships and rapport with farmers so as to enable the later to develop trust and confidence of the extension professionals. the lowest rank on the training need assessment was given to their ability to present a seminar (mwds 2.659). majority of the extensionists had ph.d. as their highest degree and so they were well versed in their subject. it helped them to prepare and present seminar well. table 2. training need analysis for communication competencies n=240 sl. no. competencies level of possession level of importance mwds rank mean std dev mean std dev 1. delivering radio talks 2.966 0.683 4.179 0.514 3.601 ix 2. establishing rapport with the farmers 3.195 0.707 4.358 0.530 3.708 vii 3. ability to prepare visual aids to help deliver information 2.728 0.705 4.320 0.485 5.039 ii 4. ability to use computer (internet) and power point presentation 2.539 0.909 4.416 0.579 5.044 i 5. ability to convey extension messages effectively 3.1 0.707 4.725 0.456 5.012 iii 6. ability to present in seminar 3.237 0.657 4.058 0.553 2.659 x 7. ability to persuade farmers to adopt technologies 3.004 0.705 4.570 0.504 4.7 iv 8. effective writing for target audience 2.616 0.745 4.033 0.516 3.693 viii 9. provide feedback of researchable problems to researchers 3.087 0.729 4.341 0.500 3.875 v 10. delivering tv talks 2.929 0.690 4.212 0.680 3.760 vi journal of extension education 5897 t ab le 3 . z o n e –w is e c o m p ar is o n o f t ra in in g n ee d o f e xt en si o n is ts n = 2 4 0 s l. n o . c o m m u n ic at io n c o m p et en cy z o n e i n =6 0 z o n e ii n =6 0 z o n e iv n =6 0 z o n e v ii n =6 0 c h i sq u ar e p ro b. m w d s s td d ev m w d s s td . d ev . n =6 0 s td . d ev . m w d s s td . d ev . m w d s 1 . d el iv er in g ra d io ta lk s 3 .7 5 2 .3 4 3 .1 6 2 .5 3 3 .7 3 2 .4 5 4 .7 3 2 .2 2 1 .0 1 .5 4 1 2 . e st ab li sh in g ra p p or t w it h t h e fa rm er s 4 .2 5 2 .1 8 3 .2 1 2 .5 8 3 .6 0 2 .3 6 2 .5 1 2 .7 9 1 .5 2 .1 3 6 3 . a b il it y to p re p ar e vi su al a id s to h el p d el iv er in fo rm at io n au d ie n ce 3 .4 6 2 .3 5 9 3 .5 8 2 .4 8 4 .3 9 2 .3 2 4 .4 4 2 .4 5 3 8 .3 1 ** .0 0 0 4 . a b il it y to u se co m p u te r (i n te rn et ) an d p ow er p oi n t p re se n ta ti on 4 .5 1 5 3 .2 4 3 .8 3 3 .0 0 3 .5 8 2 .5 7 3 3 .5 9 2 .9 8 1 4 .7 4 1 .0 4 1 training need assessment on communication competencies of extensionists working in krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centres) 5898 s l. n o . c o m m u n ic at io n c o m p et en cy z o n e i n =6 0 z o n e ii n =6 0 z o n e iv n =6 0 z o n e v ii n =6 0 c h i sq u ar e p ro b. m w d s s td d ev m w d s s td . d ev . n =6 0 s td . d ev . m w d s s td . d ev . m w d s 5 . a b il it y to c on ve y ex te n si on m es sa ge s ef fe ct iv el y 5 .1 6 2 .3 0 5 .2 7 2 .5 8 4 .9 5 2 .3 3 3 .9 7 7 2 .9 0 4 6 .0 1 .1 1 1 6 . a b il it y to p re se n t se m in ar 2 .7 0 2 .4 7 4 2 .0 3 2 .3 4 7 3 .2 5 2 .5 7 2 .5 7 2 .5 7 1 .4 5 4 .9 2 9 7 . a b il it y to p er su ad e fa rm er s to a d op t te ch n ol og ie s 4 .5 7 2 .3 1 4 .9 8 2 .8 0 4 .7 6 2 .3 7 4 .4 4 2 .7 0 3 1 8 .9 7 ** .0 0 0 8 . w ri te e ff ec ti ve ly f or ta rg et a u d ie n ce 3 .9 7 1 .9 7 2 3 .3 2 2 .1 9 3 .8 5 1 .8 0 3 .5 9 2 .2 7 3 .2 4 6 .3 5 5 9 . p ro vi d e fe ed b ac k of r es ea rc h ab le p ro b le m s to r es ea rc h er s 4 .4 2 2 .4 7 4 3 .0 2 2 .6 4 4 .0 5 2 .2 6 3 .9 4 2 .4 2 2 .4 2 .5 2 4 1 0 . d el iv er in g t v t al k s 4 .0 8 5 2 .6 9 2 3 .0 7 2 .3 2 3 .5 9 2 .2 1 4 .2 2 2 .3 8 5 3 1 .4 1 ** .0 0 0 journal of extension education t ab le s 3 . co n ti n u ed .. . 5899 a comparison among the training needs of extensionists in the selected zones of kvk was studied using kruskal wallis test statistics and depicted in table 3. out of 8 competencies statements, a significant difference was observed in training needs among extensionists in the selected zones of kvk on the following competencies statements; ability to prepare visual aids to help deliver information and write effectively for target audience, ability to use computer(internet) and powerpoint presentation (chi-square 14.741 at 0.05 level of significance), ability to persuade farmers to adopt technologies (chisquare18.997 at 0.01 level of significance), delivering tv talks (chi-square 31.417 at 0.01 level of significance). training need for communication competency was assessed based on the gender of the extension professionals (table 4). “ability to convey extension messages effectively” was accorded the highest mwds for both male (mwds 5.033) and female (mwds 5.045) extensionists respectively. while the second rank for the perceived training need was given to “ability to persuade farmers to adopt technologies” for both male and female extensionists. “ability to use computer (internet) and powerpoint presentation” was ranked third (mwds 4.117) for the female extensionists whereas it was accorded sixth rank in terms of mwds (3.781) by the male extensionists. the third highest mwds (3.925) for the male extensonists was delivering tv talks. the lowest rank for both male and female extensionists was their ability to present in seminars. table 4. comparison of training need between male and female extensionists n=240 sl. no. communication competency female n=83 (mwds) rank male n=177 (mwds) rank 1. delivering radio talks 3.928 vi 3.417 ix 2. establishing rapport with the farmers 3.736 viii 3.703 vii 3. ability to prepare visual aids to help deliver information to audience 4.064 iv 3.830 v 4. ability to use computer (internet) and power point presentation 4.117 iii 3.781 vi training need assessment on communication competencies of extensionists working in krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centres) 5900 5. ability to convey extension messages effectively 5.045 i 5.033 i 6. ability to present in seminar 2.688 x 2.640 x 7. ability to persuade farmers to adopt technologies 4.700 ii 4.709 ii 8. write effectively for target audience 4.052 v 3.516 viii 9. provide feedback of researchable problems to researchers 3.829 vii 3.894 iv 10. delivering tv talks 3.446 ix 3.925 iii conclusion communication being one of the core competencies is vital for overall professional competency of the extensionists. the extension professionals should be able to communicate effectively with their clientele to improve their efficiency at job. these differences in the competency levels could be attributed due to the lack of in-service training programmes. the approaches and practices of delivering extension services are consistently evolving and curriculum of training institutions being improved based on new developments. the communication training need to be further analyzed in terms of depth, content and scope for improvement. the in-service training should be systematized and regularized or at least the frequency of in-service training should be increased in the future so that communication skills of extension agents in the field are consistently upgraded and their confidence levels on communication competencies further enhanced. references agricultural statistics at a glance. (2014). ministry of agriculture, government of india. new delhi. oxford university press. retrieved from http://eands. dacnet.nic.in/pdf/agriculturalstatistics-at-glance2014.pdf birner, r. & anderson, j. r. (2007). how to make agricultural extension demand driven? the case of india's agricultural extension policy. international food policy research institute, 729. borich, g. d. (1980). a needs assessment model for conducting follow-up studies. journal of teacher education, 31(3), 39-42. cyr, l. f. (2008). facilitation competence: a catalyst for effective extension work. journal of extension, 46(4). journal of extension education 5901 mitchell, b.o. (2002). core competencies for the cooperative extension system. executive report, sub-competencies study. administrative county leaders. north carolina cooperative extensions, p. 20. nath, dipak., jain, p. k., talukdar, r. k & hansra, b.s. (2016). constraints encountered by the beneficiaries of krishi vigyan kendra in north eastern region of india, journal of extension education. 28(2), 5665-5668. okeweo, a.t. (2015). analysis of competency and training needs among agricultural extension personnel in lagos state, international journal of forestry and horticulture. 1(2), 14-21 training need assessment on communication competencies of extensionists working in krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centres) 5727 understanding learning style variations among undergraduate students n. jayakumar1, anu suresh2, m.sundaramari3 and d.puthira prathap4 abstract a study was conducted in vellore district of tamil nadu state to understand the learning styles of students. the term learning style refers to the way or method or approach by which a student learns. the study explored the possible learning style variations among agricultural, horticultural, engineering and arts & science students and their association with academic achievement. one hundred and twelve students were randomly selected from the four streams and their learning styles were analyzed. in the agricultural and horticultural streams, a majority of the students were auditory learners. they were also found to be predominantly unimodal learners. overall, it was found that majority of the students were visual learners followed by auditory and kinesthetic style. the highest percentage of kinesthetic learners was found among engineering students. trimodal learners scored the highest mean percentage of marks. the influence of learning styles on the academic achievements of the students did not show a significant relationship. keywords : learning styles, visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, undergraduate students, academic achievement, india 1. assistant professor, adhiparasakthi agricultural college, g.b.nagar, kalavai, vellore district -632 506 2. pg scholar, sam higginbottom university of agriculture, technology and sciences, allahabad, uttar pradesh 211007 3. professor (agricultural extension), faculty of agriculture and animal husbandry, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram 624 302 and 4. principal scientist (agricultural extension), icar-sugarcane breeding institute, coimbatore – 641 007 received : 05-07-2017; accepted : 20-07-2017 introduction students have different levels of motivation, different attitudes about teaching and learning and different responses to specific classroom environments and instructional practices. the more thoroughly instructors understand the differences, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of all of their students (felder & brent, 2005). students learn in many ways by seeing and hearing; reflecting and acting; reasoning logically and intuitively; journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5727-5734 5728 memorizing and visualizing and drawing analogies.the term learning style refers to the way or method or approach by which a student learns. learning styles are “characteristic cognitive, affective, and psychological behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment” (keefe,1979). the problem is that no two students are alike. they have different backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses, interests, ambitions, senses of responsibility, levels of motivation, and approaches to studying. teaching methods also vary. some instructors mainly lecture, while others spend more time on demonstrations or activities; some focus on principles and others on applications; some emphasize memory and others understanding. how much a given student learns in a class is governed not only by student’s native ability and prior preparation but also by the compatibility of the student’s attributes as a learner and the instructor’s teaching style (felder & brent, 2005). diagnosing and interpreting learning styles provide data as to how individuals perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment. according to cronbach and snow(1977), learning styles could be used to predict what kind of instructional strategies or methods would be most effective for a given individual and learning task. effective learning will take place if prior analysis of learning preference of the learners is done and instructions are designed accordingly (pashler et al., 2008). in specialized fields such as agricultural education, for learning to be successful, the teaching style of the instructors should complement the students’ learning style. however, the general feeling is that many teachers do not realize that in the class room, students differ among themselves in the way they process and comprehend information. the professional courses like agriculture, horticulture and engineering are considered to be more practical oriented differing from arts & science courses. hence, it is assumed that the learning styles requirements of the students need to vary as per the requirement of the courses. the present study was taken up to understand the learning style of students and to relate it to their academic achievement. the following were the objectives: • to study the learning styles of the undergraduate students. • to analyze the relationship between academic achievement and learning styles of the undergraduate students. methodology the study was conducted in adhiparasakthi educational institution located in vellore district of tamil nadu. journal of extension education 5729 the institution offers undergraduate programmes in agriculture, horticulture, biochemistry, microbiology, mathematics, computer science, computer application, commerce, business administration and engineering programmes. stratified random sampling technique was used to select 112 respondents from the four streams, belonging to four colleges of adhiparasakthi educational institution viz., agriculture stream (18 students) adhiparasakthi agricultural college (apac), horticulture stream (8 students) adhiparasakthi horticultural college (aphc), engineering stream (51 students) adhiparasakthi engineering college (apec) and arts & science stream (35 students) adhiparasakthi arts & science college (apcas). the learning styles were analyzed using vak learning style model (barbe et al,1979). the vak learning style model the vak learning styles model (barbe et.al, 1979) provides a simple way to explain and understand learning styles. the vak learning style uses the three main sensory receivers (vision, auditory and kinesthetic) to determine a person’s dominant or preferred learning style. these three styles are as follows: visual learning style they have preference for seen or observed things, including pictures, diagrams, demonstrations, displays, handouts, films, flip chart etc. these people will be best able to perform a new task after reading the instructions or watching someone else does it first. these are the people who will work from lists and written directions and instructions. auditory learning style they have preference for the transfer of information through listening: to the spoken word, of self or others, of sounds and noises. these people will be best able to perform a new task after listening to instructions from an expert. these are the people who are happy being given spoken instructions over the telephone, and can remember all the words to songs that they hear. kinesthetic learning style they have preference for physical experience touching, feeling, holding, and doing practical hands-on experiences. these people will be best able to perform a new task by going ahead and trying it out, learning as they go. no one possesses exclusively one single style or preference. learners use all three methods to receive information. however, one or more of these receiving styles is normally dominant. for the purpose of studying the learning style by this method, the questionnaire developed by swinburne university of technology, was utilized. the questionnaire contains 30 questions with three options in each. the option “a” is related to the visual style of learning. the option “b” is related to the auditory style of learning and option “c” is related to the kinesthetic style of learning. understanding learning style variations among undergraduate students 5730 based on the total score obtained by the respondent in each category, he/she may be classified to have a visual, auditory or kinesthetic style of learning. academic achievement can be defined as the extent to which a learner is profiting from instructions in a given area of learning i.e., achievement is reflected by the extent to which skill or knowledge has been imparted to him. in our society academic achievement is considered as a key criterion to judge one's total potentiality and capability. academic achievement has become an index of student’s future in this highly competitive world.hence academic achievement occupies a very important place in education as well as in the learning process. the academic achievement is measured by means of marks/ grade point average obtained by the student. since the different streams had different grading systems, the academic achievement was calculated as the percentage of marks obtained by the student before administering this test (jayakumar & surudhi, 2015). findings and discussion the results of the study revealed that majority of the students were visual learners (52.69%). these learners need to see the teacher’s body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson. they prefer sitting at the front of the classroom. they remember best what they see: pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, demonstrations. if something is simply said to them they will probably forget it. the next highest percentage was the auditory learners (32.14%). they learn best through verbal lessons, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say. these learners often benefit from reading text loud and using a tape recorder. kinesthetic learners were just 8.03 per cent. they learn best through a hands on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. they may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration. few of the students also exhibited a combination of these styles, but were fewer in number. the combination of visual and auditory (3.57%) was followed by a combination of visual, auditory and kinesthetic which was found to be 1.79 per cent. the stream wise distribution of the students (table 1) showed that the highest percentage (66.66%) of visual learners were found in engineering stream followed by arts and science stream (51.43%). only 38.89 per cent of the students were visual learners in agriculture stream. a majority of the students were auditory learners in the horticultural and agricultural streams with 62.50 per cent and 61.11 per cent respectively. the results also reveal that agricultural journal of extension education 5731 students are unimodal learners (students who indicated only one option for each question administered). in the case of horticultural stream, no visual learners or kinesthetic learners could be identified. bimodal (v + a) learners constituted 12.5 per cent and trimodal learners (v + a + k) constituted 25 per cent, though the majority were unimodal learners (62.50 %). it could be seen from the table that majority of students in agricultural and horticultural stream were auditory learners. the findings therefore reveal that these students would remember much of what they hear. they get a lot out of discussion, prefer verbal explanation to visual demonstration, and learn effectively by explaining things to others. it could also be inferred that teaching methods such as lectures, audio books and group discussions, therefore, cannot be done away with and has to be an integral part of the instructional methodology, for the students of agricultural and horticultural learners. kinesthetic learners were not reported from both agricultural and horticultural streams. the results are contrary to the general feeling that agricultural and horticultural students would prefer a kinesthetic learning style as the curricula of these two streams have a significant space allotted for practical and field applications. table 1. stream wise distribution of students based on vak learning style sl. no. stream learning style visual (v) auditory (a) kinesthetic (k) v+a v+k a+k v+a+k 1. agriculture 7 (38.89%) 11 (61.11%) -----2. horticulture -5 (62.50%) -1 (12.5%) --2 (25%) 3. engineering 34 (66.66%) 7 (13.73%) 7 (13.73%) 1 (1.96%) 1 (1.96%) 1 (1.96%) -4. arts & science 18 (51.43%) 13 (37.14%) 2 (5.71%) 2 (5.71%) ---total 59 (52.69%) 36 (32.14%) 9 (8.03%) 4 (3.57%) 1 (0.89%) 1 (0.89%) 2 (1.79%) understanding learning style variations among undergraduate students 5732 while in the case of engineering stream, it was found that 66.66 per cent were visual learners, where teaching through presentations, diagrams and handouts would be most effective. the arts and science stream students preferred both visual and auditory learning styles, 51.43 per cent and 37.14 per cent respectively. the highest percentage (13.73%) of kinesthetic learners was found among engineering students. relationship between learning styles and academic achievement academic achievement is the percentage of marks obtained by the respondent before administering this study. the relationship between learning styles and academic achievement was studied using correlation and one way anova. table 3. students’ mean scores for different learning styles sl. no. learning style frequ ency mean percentage of marks standard deviation minimum marks maximum marks 1. visual 59 75.02 7.66 52.00 90.00 2. auditory 36 76.14 7.69 62.00 94.00 3. kinesthetic 9 70.73 4.26 63.25 80.00 4. visual+auditory 4 76.25 4.99 71.00 81.00 5. visual+kinesthetic 1 80.00 . 80.00 80.00 6. auditory + kinesthetic 1 81.00 . 81.00 81.00 7. visual+auditory+ kinesthetic 2 82.80 8.77 76.60 89.00 total 112 75.32 7.45 52.00 94.00 table 4. one way anova for significant score differences between learning style groups sum of squares df mean square f sig between groups 356.59 6 59.43 0.418 0.866within groups 14928.44 105 142.18 total 15285.03 111 according to the findings of one-way anova, existence of possible differences between the means among seven learning styles were not significant as shown in table 04. f (6, 105) = 0.418, p>0.05. table 2. relationship between learning styles and academic achievement correlation mean s.d r sig learning styles 54.93 6.680 0.031 (ns) 0.74 academic achievement 75.32 7.448 ns= non significant journal of extension education 5733 from table 2, it could be seen that the mean academic achievement was 75.32 and the mean score obtained for the divergent learning styles was 54.93. the correlation coefficient ‘r’ was 0.031 at a significance level of 0.74. the data indicate that there is no significant association between the learning styles and the academic achievement of students. the one way anova (table. 3) revealed that, the mean percentage of marks for unimodal learners ranged from 70 to 76 per cent, whereas for bimodal learners it was 80 per cent. trimodal learners (82.80%) obtained the highest mean percentage of marks. from table 4, it could be seen that none of the learning style groups showed significant statistical association with academic achievement. the findings of the study reveal that learning styles do not have a significant influence on academic achievement. this is in accordance with earlier findings (karalliyadda, 2017; turky & almigbal, 2015; victor, 2011), who concluded that there is no substantial association between learning styles and academic performances. though this study could not find possible significant relationship between learning styles and academic achievement, this cannot be generalised, as earlier researches have indicated contrary (loulwa, 2013). this may be possibly because these learning style models have not completely comprehended the students’ learning process. further studies, are therefore needed to identify other methods to assess learning styles and their relationship with academic achievement. conclusion the results of the study revealed that majority of the students are visual learners, followed by auditory learners. the streamwise distribution of the students showed that the highest percentage of visual learners was found in engineering stream. a majority of the students were auditory learners in the horticultural and agricultural streams with 62.50 percent and 61.11 percent respectively. most of the students of agricultural stream were found to be unimodal learners. the highest percentage (13.73%) of kinesthetic learners was found among engineering students. studies on correlation and one way anova did not show any significant association between the learning styles and the academic achievement of students. the mean percentage of marks for unimodal learners ranged from 70 to 76 per cent, whereas for bimodal learners it was 80 per cent. the highest mean percentage of marks was obtained by trimodal learners (82.80%). the key to utilizing these results on the undergraduate students’ learning styles is to incorporate students’ learning styles in the planning and delivery of instruction by the teaching faculty. it is also imperative that the teachers should understanding learning style variations among undergraduate students 5734 equip the students with knowledge of their own learning styles, so that they make necessary efforts for inducing a change in their learning behaviours, if warranted. with the students of agricultural and horticultural streams being mostly auditory learners it is essential that teachers incorporate more of discussions, brain storming etc into their teaching repertoire to make their teaching more effective. trimodal learners had the highest mean percentage of marks, which implies that a combination of learning styles would be more beneficial. though it was observed that academic achievement was not dependent on learning styles, it would be most appropriate to attempt to cater for all learning styles during lessons to enable the most efficient learning to take place. references barbe, walter burke, swassing, raymond, h. & milone, michael, n. (1979). teaching through modality strengths: concepts and practices. columbus, ohio: zanerbloser. cronbach, l., & snow. (1977). aptitudes and instructional methods: a handbook for research on interactions. new york: irvington. felder, r.m. & brent, r. (2005). understanding student differences, journal of engineering education, 94 (1), 57-72. jayakumar. n & m. surudhi. (2015). schooling background and academic achievement of agricultural students, journal of extension education, 27(2): 54685475. karalliyadda,s.m.c.b. (2017). learning style and academic performance of first year agricultural undergraduates: a case in rajarata university of sri lanka, the journal of agricultural sciences 12(1) 34-42. keefe, j.w. (1979). learning style: an overview, reston, va.: national association of secondary school principals, 1-17 loulwa, mohammed, s.a. (2013). learning style preference of firstyear dental students at king saud university in riyadh, saudi arabia: influence of gender and gpa, journal of dental education, 77(10),1371-1378. pashler, h., mcdaniel, m., rohrer, d. & bjork, r. (2008). learning styles: concepts and evidence. psychological science in the public interest, retrieved from http://www. psychologicalscience.org/index.php/ publications/journals/pspi turky, h.,& almigbal, t.h. (2015). relationship between the learning style preferences of medical students and academic achievement, saudi medical journal, 36 (3), 349-355. victor, m. (2011). an analysis of some factors affecting student academic performance in an introductory biochemistry course at the university of the west indies, caribbean teaching scholar, 1(2), 79-92. http://www.swinburne.edu.au/stuserv/ workshops/onlinematerials/web%20 e f f e c t i v e % 2 0 s t u d y % 2 0 s k i l l s _ files/1vak%20assessment.pdf journal of extension education 5797 stakeholder analysis for farmer inclusive value chain development in mango k. nadhika1 and jayasree krishnankutty2 abstract mango is being cultivated over a substantial area in palakkad district of kerala state. being one of the significant agricultural commodity value chains existing in kerala, the mango value chain of palakkad district needs urgent attention to improve its performance. the study highlights the stakeholder analysis and swoc matrix analysis of the mango sector. stakeholders were asked to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges in the mango sector. based on the highest score obtained, four strategic options viz., enhancing value addition and product development, promotion of branding, educating the farmers on building competitiveness and increasing export potential by addressing quality parameters were identified. keywords : value chain; stakeholders; swoc analysis; strategic options; mango; kerala introduction mango is cultivated over a substantial area in palakkad district of kerala state and is being exported to a number of countries, the remaining is being sold in domestic markets. in a rural area like palakkad, mango industry plays a vital role in bringing about a revolution in cultivation practices and also in the lives of mango cultivators. muthalamada is one of the biggest centre of mango production in south india. the mango orchards in muthalamada cover around 45,000 hectares, with about 5000 mango 1.pg scholar and 2professor, department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara-680 656, thrissur, kerala received : 21-08-2017; accepted : 30-08-2017 cultivators. the annual production of mango in muthalamada panchayat is approximately 40,000 tons. the mangoes from muthalamada are famous for their flavor, taste and juiciness. however, the mango sector in palakkad district is not devoid of any problems. radha & nair (2000) had identified ignorance of the growers about the real price of their produce and lack of marketing facilities which result in interference of middle men, as the major problems in mango sector in palakkad district. being one of the few substantial agricultural commodity value chains existing in kerala, which provides hope for journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5797-5805 5798 the small holder farmers, the mango value chain of palakkad district needs urgent attention to improve its performance.the current paper discusses the stakeholder analysis and swoc matrix analysis done as part of the study which contributed to formation of strategic options to strengthen the value chain in favour of farmers. methodology the present study was conducted using exploratory research design. muthalamada panchayat in palakkad district of kerala was selected as the location of the study as it had the largest area under mango cultivation. the sample consisted of 60 farmers selected through random sampling. thirty respondents were also chosen separately representing other stakeholder groups in the value chain through random sampling and snowballing technique. primary data collection was carried out using pre tested structured interview schedule by conducting group discussions and interviews. stakeholder analysis stakeholder analysis is the identification of the key stakeholders, an assessment of their interests, and the ways in which these interests affect project riskiness and viability. stakeholder analysis contributes to project design through the logical framework and by helping to identify appropriate forms of stakeholder participation. procedure inventory of stakeholders was formed after key informant interviews, referring secondary sources and also consultation with experts. the interests of each stakeholder were identified in relation to the problems being addressed by a project and its objectives. the relative priority which the project should give to each stakeholder was to be worked out. assessment of importance and influence of each group of the stakeholders was done using perceptions by key stakeholders. by combining influence and importance, a total score was obtained and the stakeholders were arranged in descending order of their scores (dfid, 1995). swoc analysis the stakeholders comprising growers, collection agents, development personnel, land owners and input suppliers were requested to point out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the mango sector in muthalamada (vermeulen et al., 2008). the strengths theoretically denote the internal positive factors (ipfs), weaknesses denote the internal negative factors (infs), opportunities denote the external positive factors (epfs) and the challenges denote the external negative factors (enfs). steps in swoc analysis 1. the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges were recorded stakeholder analysis for farmer inclusive value chain development in mango 5799 2. the weaknesses were rephrased in a positive tone without losing the central idea 3. the strategic options were formulated from these positive statements and represented in a horizontal manner 4. the strengths (positives) and challenges (negatives) were given in the vertical axis 5. based on consultation with the experts, scores were given by comparing the strategic options with the treatments 6. subtotal of both the scores obtained from positive statements (st1) and negative statements (st2) in comparison with the strategic options were calculated 7. balance score was obtained by subtracting the subtotal of negative statements (st2) from the subtotal of positive statements (st1) 8. the strategic options having the highest scores were selected findings and discussion stakeholders and their role in mango value chain the major stakeholders and their functions in the mango value chain of muthalamada were identified through key informant interviews and group discussions. table 1 lists out the stakeholders and their respective functions. table 1. stakeholders and their role in mango value chain sl.no. stakeholders role / function 1 nursery developers provide good quality planting materials to the farmers 2 input suppliers supply inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, etc. 3 growers they can be either the orchard owners, leased contractors, farmer cum merchants who are involved in cultivation activities 4 land owners owners of the orchard who lease out the land on contract basis for a particular period of time. they are unaware about the marketing of the produce from their orchard 5 pre-harvest contractor they take orchards for lease on contract basis for a pre fixed rate and undertake the harvesting activities and market the produce. journal of extension education 5800 sl.no. stakeholders role / function 6 collection agent they own individual collection units or sheds. they procure mangoes directly from the producers. sometimes, they are farmers themselves, and they market their produce through their shed along with the produce of other farmers 7 traders they are large merchants from other states, especially north india. they procure mangoes either directly from large farmers or through the collectors and distribute to the distant market suppliers 8 mandiwalas mandiwalas are the wholesalers who collect the produce from the traders at the terminal market and supply the produce to retailers and processors 9 retailers they are the fruit stall owners, roadside vendors and supermarkets from where the consumers buy the products. they may sell the produce as such or after value addition and processing 10 processors they convert the raw product into value added products such as pulp, jams, jellies, juice, pickle and other canned products 11 exporters exporters are involved in international trade. they supply high quality fruits to other countries by taking into account their quality implications 12 consumers they are the end users from within the locality to other country. with change in the area, the preference of the consumer also changes. in india, less fibrous sweet fleshy mangoes are mostly preferred 13 development personnel they are extension workers of institutions such as krishibhavan, research stations, university, etc. who provide services to the farmers and other stakeholders 14 local body members they are mainly involved in political and organizational activities wherein policies regarding various aspects of value chain are formulated by them stakeholder analysis for farmer inclusive value chain development in mango 5801 interdependencies among the stakeholders fig.1: relationship and linkage among the stakeholders in case of input provision, the farmers and farmers cum traders showed a persistent relationship with both nursery developers and input suppliers. in the procurement stage, the farmers cum traders had more persistent relationship with the traders, retailers and processors when compared to ordinary farmers as they themselves act as the collection agent and directly market the produce to these actors. the ordinary farmer maintains only a sporadic relationship with traders, retailers and processors but they have a persistent relationship with the collection agent/ farmer cum trader. in the case of terminal market, the traders and retailers had a persistent relationship with the domestic terminal market and the collection agent and processors depended on the traders and retailers to market the produce. the traders had only sporadic relationship with the exporters. table 2. stakeholder analysis: importance-influence ranking sl. no. stakeholder importance influence total 1 nursery developers 13 14 27 2 input suppliers 6 12 18 3 growers 1 13 14 4 landowners 11 11 22 5 pre-harvest contractor 7 7 14 6 collection agents 5 6 11 journal of extension education 5802 sl. no. stakeholder importance influence total 7 traders 4 2 6 8 processors 8 5 13 9 retailers 9 4 13 10 mandiwalas 2 1 3 11 exporters 10 3 13 12 consumers 3 10 13 13 development personnel 12 9 21 14 local body members 14 8 22 fig.2 : arrangement of stakeholders based on the total score (a) (b) stakeholder analysis for farmer inclusive value chain development in mango 5803 stakeholder analysis table 2 shows the stakeholder inventory in which ranks were assigned to stakeholders based on their importance and influence and final score was obtained by adding the two. according to the scores obtained, the stakeholders are arranged in descending order in fig. 2 (a). it was observed that the intermediaries like mandiwalas, traders and collection agents were dominating the value chain. fig. 2 (b) shows the rearrangement of stakeholders according to the importance that should be given to each stakeholders for farmer inclusiveness wherein the growers, consumers and development personnel were given higher position in the value chain. the intermediaries like collection agents and pre-harvest contractors were given much lower position in the value chain. swoc analysis the respondents identified the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges in the mango value chain of muthalamada. strengths (internal positive factors) 1. large area under cultivation 2. commercialization 3. long term investment 4. high density planting 5. diversity in mango varieties 6. availability of technical support 7. capture early market weaknesses (internal negative factors) 1. labor shortage 2. high cost of labor 3. high input usage 4. perishability 5. lack of infrastructure facility 6. ignorance of the farmers 7. harvesting loss 8. lack of funding 9. improper management practices opportunities (external positive factors) 1. export potential 2. processing demand 3. large scale market demand 4. related industries 5. job opportunities 6. large number of markets 7. branding of the produce 8. involvement of women and youth 9. ecological benefits 10. investment from mncs challenges (external negative factors) 1. unexpected change in climatic condition 2. lack of market information 3. price fluctuation 4. incidence of pest and diseases 5. change in consumer preference 6. political intervention 7. lack of policies for mango sector 8. lack of research by subtracting the subtotal of negative statements (st2) from the subtotal of positive statements (st1), strategic options were obtained (table 3) and the strategic options having the highest value were selected as the best strategic options. the strategic options derived from swoc analysis were enhancing value addition and product development, promoting branding of the produce, educating the farmers on building competitiveness, increasing export potential by addressing quality parameters. journal of extension education 5804 t ab le 3 . s w o c m at ri x a n al y si s s l. n o. s w o c t o in cr ea se ex p or t p ot en ti al t o ex p an d th e d om es ti c m ar k et t o p ro m ot e in ve st m en t by m n c s an d n r is t o p ro m ot e br an d in g of t h e p ro d u ce e n h an ci n g va lu e ad d it io n an d p ro d u ct d ev el op m en t t o es ta bl is h la bo r ba n k s t o ad d re ss p er is h ab il it y is su e by p ro m ot in g st or ag e an d tr an sp or ta ti on t o ed u ca te th e fa rm er s on b u il d in g co m p et it i ve n es s 1 l ar ge a re a u n d er cu lt iv at io n 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 c o m m er ci a li za ti o n 5 4 5 5 4 3 2 4 3 l o n g te rm in ve st m en t 4 3 5 4 4 3 3 3 4 h ig h d en si ty p la n ti n g 4 2 2 2 4 1 2 5 5 d iv er si ty i n m an go v ar ie ti es 4 3 3 4 5 1 4 4 6 a va il ab il it y o f te ch n ic al su p p o rt 5 3 2 4 5 3 5 5 7 c ap tu re e ar ly m ar k et 2 3 4 5 3 2 4 4 s t 1 2 9 2 3 2 5 2 7 2 7 1 5 2 2 2 7 1 u n ex p ec te d ch an ge i n cl im at e 5 4 2 1 1 1 4 1 2 l ac k o f m ar k et in fo rm at io n 5 5 2 2 2 1 1 4 3 p ri ce fl u ct u at io n 4 5 3 4 3 1 4 4 4 l ac k o f fu n d in g 3 3 5 3 3 2 2 3 5 p o li ti ca l in te rv en ti o n 2 3 3 2 1 2 1 1 6 la ck o f re se ar ch an d po li ci es 3 3 3 2 2 1 4 4 s t 2 2 2 2 3 1 8 1 4 1 2 8 1 6 1 7 b al an ce (s t 1 -s t 2 ) 7 0 7 1 3 1 5 7 6 1 0 stakeholder analysis for farmer inclusive value chain development in mango 5805 conclusion the mango sector in muthalamada is highly competitive as it captures the early markets all over the world.the high demand for mangoes in the arabian countries is a key factor that keeps this sector thriving and dynamic. among the stakeholders currently the collection agents, traders and mandiwalas were seen to dominate the scenario. but for farmer inclusive development of value chain, the growers, consumers and development personnel should be able to influence the chain more. the study has shown that the strategic options of enhancing value addition and product development, promoting branding of the produce, educating the farmers on building competitiveness and increasing export potential by addressing quality parameters are potential ways in which this can be achieved. these deductions will apply to the mango sector in kerala in general. it is one of the few sectors in agriculture that keeps the farmer benefitted. hence, every effort should be taken for its sustainable development in line with the findings of the study. references dfid [department for international development]. (1995). guidance note on how to do stakeholder analysis of aid projects and programmes. retrieved from: https:// beamexchange.org/uploads/filer_ p u b l i c / 5 d / 4 c / 5 d 4 c 7 b 0 2 a 2 5 d 43ab-ae33-0e4811b7c5fb/guidance_ stakeholderanalysis.pdf. jayarajan, m.r. (2011). biodiversity analysis of traditional mango types of kerala and studies on the reproductive biology of selected popular types. unpublished m.sc. (hort.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 89p. mannambeth, r., parameswaran, n.k.,rajeevan, p.k., zucker, j., & sthapit, b. (2015). a preliminary appraisal of mango biodiversity in kerala, india. indian journal of plant genetic resource, 28(1), 62-71. radha, t & nair, s.r. (2000). status of mango cultivation in kerala. actahorticultrae, 509, pp.117-121. vermeulen, s., woodhill, j., proctor, f., & delnoye, r. (2008). chain wide learning for inclusive agrifood market development: a guide to multistakeholder processes for linking smallscale producers to modern markets. international institute for environment and development, uk and wageningen university and research centre, wageningen, netherlands, 5.865.87. vignesh, g. & santhiya, r. (2014). a study on difficulties in growing and marketing mango (with special reference to palakkad district). intercontinental journal of marketing management, 2(2),141-148. journal of extension education 1 from the editor’s desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, the general complaint which we keep hearing is that the performance of public extension services in developing countries such as india, has not been satisfactory. demand-driven public extension services are hardly in practice today. they have difficulty in facing the growing challenges of the agricultural sector such as globalization-induced competitiveness and ecological threats. private extension, earlier thought of as a viable alternative to public extension has not been nuch promising either. major reforms in the public extension system are therefore essential for enhancing its effectiveness. in one of its policy briefs, the ncap (icar-national institute of agricultural economics and policy research) had suggested that to be effective and to remain relevant in the years to come, the public extension agencies in india should initiate the following structural reforms in the organization. • strengthen understanding on matters with respect to technology, markets, prices, demand and policies by hiring or recruiting professionals in these important areas. • recruit better qualified staff among the 1,10,000-odd agricultural extension staff in the states, only around 20 percent are agricultural graduates. • improve social science skills of extension personnel with respect to need assessment, group formation, negotiation, conflict resolution, mobilization, management of cprs, use of it, data collection, analysis and documentation • increase the allocation for operational expenditure: allocation of operating expenses in state departments of agriculture in the country is around 15% whereas a fully functional extension system should have 30-35% of its total expenses as operational expenses. • decentralize the operations of the department and provide flexibility to field level officers to decide appropriate extension programmes. • improve the capabilities of extension managers to operate effectively in the pluralistic extension environment. as public-sector extension system continues to be the predominant extension provider in the country, it needs to refine its roles in line with the reforms mentioned above. i am happy to inform that jee is now indexed/listed in google scholar, j-gate, ciard-ring of gfar and miar (information matrix for analysis of journals). the journal is under review in several other agencies. this issue of jee has an interesting mix of topics ranging from learning styles of agricultural students to work participation of tribals to farmer interest groups. do give your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com. chief editorjee 28(4) pages 2021-4.cdr 6718 socioeconomic status and its associa�on with economic mo�va�on among the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala s.r. shyam suraj abstract the study analyzed the socioeconomic variables of the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala (india) and their rela�onship with economic mo�va�on; specifically, in the three physiographical regions of highland, midland and lowland. data were collected through survey using structured interview. the results revealed that maximum number of dairy entrepreneurs were male and belonged to elderly group. they were educated mostly up to secondary level and had dairying experience of fewer than 13 years. largely herd size was between 12-22 animals; and possession of farm assets was weaker than household assets. majority of the entrepreneurs had gross annual income of below ₹25 lakh from sale of milk and milk products; and local/private sales were more beneficial than co-opera�ve sales. the results showed variance in the socioeconomic variables among the three divisions and hence demands exclusive entrepreneurship development strategies. regression analysis showed that while milk produc�on and household assets were posi�vely related; experience and sales to dairy coopera�ves were nega�vely related to the economic mo�va�on of the dairy entrepreneurs. keywords: dairy entrepreneurs; socioeconomic variables; kerala; lowland; highland; midland; economic mo�va�on research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.4, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.4.33.6718-6730 college of dairy science and technology, mannuthy, kerala received: 13-07-2022; accepted: 20-01-2023 introduction th kerala state ranks 14 among the milk-producing states of the country; with a share of just 1.5 percent of the total milk produc�on. the annual milk produc�on of the state is undula�ng with a recent reduc�on from 25.48 lakh mt (2018-19) to 25.44 lakh mt (2019-20), along with the per capita availability of milk declining from 200 g/day to 198 g/day during the same period (nddb, 2021); which is far below the na�onal average of 406 g/day and the rda of 300 g/day endorsed by icmr (nin, 2020). the figures indicate the gap in requirement and availability; which is es�mated to be 34%. the floods in kerala during 2018 and 2019 affected milk produc�on by loss of ca�le; destruc�on of fodder plots and ca�le sheds; reflected in the decrease in milk procurement by dairy co-opera�ves (gok, 2019). also the advent of the covid-19 pandemic disrupted the 6719 journal of extension educa�on procurement and marke�ng systems; and decelerated the race of the state to a�ain milk self-sufficiency in the subsequent years. a study conducted by the kerala state planning board with the technical consultancy of the na�onal council of applied economics research (ncaer) found that if the growth trend in the number of in-milk animals and milk yield con�nues to be the same in the future (business-asusual scenario), total milk produc�on would decline to 19.13 lakh mt in 2030 from 27.91 lakh mt of 2012-13 (gok, 2014). th e ma j o r co n s tra i nts to i n cre a s i n g produc�on, produc�vity and profitability of milk produc�on in the state are increased price of ca�le feed, non-remunera�ve price of milk, high cost of credit, lack of ca�le management skills and green/dry fodder shortage (sreeram et al., 2018). the key c h a l l e n g e i s t o m a k e t h e s e c t o r remunera�ve. a crucial element to address t h e s e c o n s t r a i n t s i s t o f a c i l i t a t e entrepreneurial ini�a�ve, business linkages and know-how to ensure compe��veness. this requires the transforma�on of small livelihood family dairy farms in kerala (owning 87.7% of the total ca�le of the state) into highly compe��ve marketoriented small to medium-sized commercial dairy farms. (gok, 2014). also another document released by government of kerala reiterates this phase shi� to entrepreneurship with encouragement to establish profitable dairy farms. (gok, 2019). t h e a b o v e a n a l y s i s a n d recommenda�ons on the dairy scenario of kerala demand appropriate interven�ons in developing entrepreneurship to enhance and manage the milk produc�on gap for the future on one hand; and project dairying as a profitable and venturesome enterprise for employment genera�on on the other. for this, it is important to understand the present socioeconomic status of the dairy entrepreneurs of the state so that policies and plans can be framed to facilitate their growth from the present level to highly commercial entrepreneurs; and promote the entry of fresh dairy entrepreneurs. further, the economic mo�va�on of the dairy entrepreneurs was studied as it has a p r e d i c � v e c a p a c i t y r e g a r d i n g t h e willingness to become an entrepreneur; a l o n g w i t h t h e r e l a � o n s h i p o f t h e socioeconomic variables to it. methodology t h e s t u d y f o l l o w e d a s u r v e y research design (non-experimental) using cross-sec�onal survey. it used structured interviews for data collec�on, with the intent of generalizing from a sample to a popula�on (sivakumar et al., 2017). the respondents were dairy entrepreneurs opera�onally defined as 'a person engaged in dairying ac�vity who has a minimum herd size of 4 crossbred dairy animals, selling 75 6720 percent of the produced milk per day to the market throughout the year and the sold milk is not less than 10 liters per day'. data was collected from 240 dairy entrepreneurs d u r i n g 2 0 1 9 2 0 ; 8 0 e a c h f ro m t h e physiographic divisions of highland, midland and lowland (cess, 1984) selected randomly from 4 blocks each of three districts. the districts were wayanad ( h i g h l a n d ) , er n a k u l a m (m i d l a n d ) a n d thiruvananthapuram (lowland). the variables studied were gender, age, educa�on, land holding, herd size, possession of assets (household and farm), annual income, experience in dairying, milk produc�on and sales; and economic m o � v a � o n . d i r e c t q u e s � o n i n g a n d structured schedules were used for the measurement of the variables. economic mo�va�on was opera�onally defined 'as the degree to which a dairy entrepreneur was oriented towards profit maximiza�on in dairy farming and the rela�ve value placed by the entrepreneur on economic ends'. the scale developed by supe and singh (1969) was used with adequate modifica�ons. it consisted of six statements (5 posi�ve and 1 nega�ve) with response categories from strongly agree to strongly disagree with scores ranging from 5 and 1 for posi�ve statements and reverse for nega�ve statement. the respondents were classified into three categories using cumula�ve square root of frequency (csrf) method (mtc, 2001) for family size, experience, herd details, possession of household and farm assets, annual income, milk produc�on and milk sales. age was classified in accordance with na�onal youth policy (goi, 2003). educa�on was classified as per indian standard classifica�on of educa�on (goi, 2014) and land holding based on agriculture census (goi, 2016). gender and ownership of assets were expressed using frequency and percentage. the expected frequencies of economic mo�va�on were classified into equal class intervals and the respondents were categorized into low, medium and high using mean and standard devia�on. findings and discussion t h e r e s u l t s o f t h e s t u d y a r e discussed below with added tables and figures followed by descrip�on. socioeconomic status and its associa�on with economic mo�va�on among the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala 6721 journal of extension educa�on table 1: distribu�on of respondents according to age, gender, educa�on, family size and experience in dairying variables categories highland (n=80) midland (n=80) lowland (n=80) total (n=240) f % f % f % f % age young (up to 35 years) 8 10.00 6 7.50 7 8.75 21 8.75 middle (36-50 years) 39 48.75 39 48.75 28 35 106 44.17 elderly (>50 years ) 33 41.25 35 43.75 45 56.25 113 47.08 mean 48.93 49.45 50.32 49.57 sd 9.40 9.08 9.87 9.43 gender male 64 80.00 63 78.75 52 65.00 179 74.60 female 16 20.00 17 21.25 28 35.00 61 25.40 educa�on (years of study) illiterate (0) 0 0.00 0 0.00 3 3.75 3 1.25 primary(1-5) 2 2.50 1 1.25 6 7.50 9 3.75 upper primary (6-8) 11 13.50 6 7.50 10 12.50 27 11.25 secondary (9-10) 32 40.00 26 32.50 28 40.00 86 35.80 sr. secondary (11 -12) 19 23.75 17 21.25 10 12.50 46 19.20 graduate(13-15) 13 16.25 25 31.25 18 22.50 56 23.35 pg and above(>15) 3 3.75 5 6.25 5 6.25 13 5.40 mean 10.95 12 10.56 11.17 sd 2.73 2.76 3.91 3.23 family size large(>7) 7 8.75 0 0.00 4 5.00 11 4.60 medium (5-7) 43 53.75 45 56.25 32 40.00 120 50.00 small (<5) 30 37.50 35 43.75 44 55.00 109 45.40 mean 5.1 4.6 4.6 4.8 sd 1.84 1.06 1.55 1.53 experience in dairying (years) high (> 25) 16 20.00 13 16.25 15 18.75 44 18.30 medium (13-25) 24 30.00 18 22.50 23 28.75 65 20.10 low (< 13) 40 50.00 49 61.25 42 52.50 131 54.60 mean 13.96 12.74 14.31 13.67 sd 10.48 10.23 10.06 10.23 6722 from table1, it could be seen that most of the respondents belonged to elderly age group of above 50 years; majority of the dairy entrepreneurs were male;. a higher number of the respondents in the three regions had studied up to secondary level ; there was difference in family size between the three regions, with lowland having majority of small families (55%); while highland and midland having more medium sized families (5-7 members); majority of the dairy entrepreneurs in the three regions had low experience of below 13 years, which meant that there was increase in new entrants to this sector since last two decades, which is posi�ve. the average land holding was higher in highland, followed by midland and lowland as presented in table 2. the average opera�onal land holding of kerala as per agricultural census was 0.22 ha (goi, 2016). hence it was inferred that the dairy entrepreneurs of the three regions were holding compara�vely more land when matched with the average land holding of the state. a glance at the table shows that a good percentage of entrepreneurs in both highland and midland were having fodder cul�va�on; but the per capita land area was below 1 ha. though as per nddb (2016), only 43% of dairy farmers cul�vated fodder; the study showed that a higher percentage of dairy entrepreneurs (81.25%) cul�vated f o d d e r . i t i s u n d e r s t o o d t h a t t h e entrepreneurs recognize the significance of fodder cul�va�on more than dairy farmers. table 2. distribu�on of respondents based on landholding, land under fodder and possession of cross-bred animals variables landholding categories highland (n=80) midland (n=80) lowland (n=80) total (n=240) f % f % f % % marginal (< 1 ha) 42 52.50 63 78.75 76 95.00 181 75.30 small (1-1.99 ha) 18 22.50 14 17.50 4 5.00 36 15.00 semi medium (2-3.99ha) 13 16.25 3 3.75 0 0.00 16 6.70 medium (4-9.99 ha) 7 8.75 0 0.00 0 0.00 7 3.00 large (> 10 ha) 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 mean 1.46 0.56 0.26 0.76 sd 1.65 0.55 0.33 1.14 socioeconomic status and its associa�on with economic mo�va�on among the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala land under fodder cross bred animals variables categories highland (n=80) midland (n=80) lowland (n=80) total (n=240) f % f % f % % sd 1.65 0.55 0.33 1.14 no fodder 2 2.50 17 21.25 26 32.50 45 18.75 below 1 ha 60 75.00 57 71.25 53 66.25 170 70.85 1 ha to 1.99 ha 13 16.25 4 5.00 1 1.25 18 7.50 2 ha to 3.99 ha 5 6.25 2 2.50 0 0 7 2.90 above 4 ha 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 mean 0.71 0.39 0.19 0.46 sd 0.58 0.42 0.25 0.51 high(>22) 16 20.00 20 25.00 10 12.50 46 19.20 medium ( 1 2 -22) 35 43.75 31 38.75 32 40.00 98 40.80 low (<12) 29 36.25 29 36.25 38 47.50 96 40.00 mean 17.69 18.75 16.39 17.61 sd 15.68 12.16 20.81 16.56 6723 journal of extension educa�on crossbred animals kerala has the highest crossbred ca�le popula�on; where 94% of the ca�le are crossbred (goi, 2020). majority of the herd strength as per the study was medium (12-22 animals) in highland and midland region; while majority was low (47.50%) in lowland with a stock below 12 animals. the average number of crossbred animals in the three regions did not have any noteworthy difference with the mean of 16-18 animals. the number of indigenous animals was very low and among all the respondents only 12 had kept them. and 42 respondents had kept buffalo; but mostly for the purpose of meat than for milk. possession of assets majority of the entrepreneurs had owned television, mobiles, refrigerator and two-wheelers as household assets. the possession of each and every item was compara�vely higher in midland and lower in lowland. washing machine and fourwheelers were also possessed by nearly 40% of the entrepreneurs; with their numbers rela�vely less in lowland. data presented in fig 1 shows that more number of entrepreneurs of the highland used farm 6724 equipment; while lowland numbers were the least. about 68.80% of highland and 58.80% of lowland entrepreneurs used milking machine; while it was only 19% in l o w l a n d , w h e r e t h e r e w a s m o r e dependency on milkers. rubber mat was p o s s e s s e d b y a l a r g e r n u m b e r o f entrepreneurs in the three regions. from the figure, it is clear that the highland entrepreneurs adopted technology at a faster rate and the lowland entrepreneurs were mostly tradi�onal. the midland dairy entrepreneurs were in the middle of them. fig 1: possession of dairy farm assets milk produc�on per household majority of the dairy entrepreneurs produced less than 200 litres per day (above 65% in all regions) on their farms, while few w e re p ro d u c i n g b e t w e e n 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 litres/day. only one entrepreneur each in highland and lowland had produc�on above 1200 litres as seen in table 3. the average produc�on was lowest in lowland owing to the less produc�ve animals and lag in technology adop�on by the entrepreneurs in coastal areas. sreeram et al (2018) in their study noted average milk produc�on of 13.1 litres per day and prasad et al (2017) found the milk produc�on range between 10-15 litres per day among the dairy farmers of kerala. the milk produc�on was higher among dairy entrepreneurs and in the present study the average per day was 116.90 litres. annual income from milk and milk product sales the gross annual income from the sale of milk and milk products is divulged in the table. majority of the entrepreneurs belonged to the low income category of below the ₹25 lakh in the three regions. number of entrepreneurs in each category socioeconomic status and its associa�on with economic mo�va�on among the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala 6725 journal of extension educa�on was comparable in the three regions. the net income received depended on the cost of produc�on; and an earlier survey by ke r a l a c o o p e r a � v e m i l k m a r ke � n g federa�on pegged ₹ 28 as the average produc�on cost per litre of milk when the price paid to coopera�ve member was ₹3032 (nddb, 2016). it was apparent that the profit margins were less in dairying and gain to the entrepreneur was through local sales, where a be�er price was received than coopera�ves. also, the income was directly propor�onal to the herd size of the entrepreneur and the produc�vity of his crossbred animals. table 3. distribu�on of households based on milk produc�on and annual income from milk sales va riables categories highland (n=80) midland (n=80) lowland (n=80) total (n=240) f % f % f % f milk produc�on (litres) high(> 1200) 1 1.25 0 0.00 1 1.25 2 medium (200-1200) 10 12.50 12 15.00 5 6.25 27 low (< 200) 69 86.25 68 85.00 74 92.50 211 mean 123.55 128.50 98.65 116.90 sd 158.53 113.88 180.97 153.59 annual income from milk sales ( in lakh) high (>₹75 lakh) 1 1.25 1 1.25 1 1.25 3 medium (₹25-₹75 lakh) 12 15.00 20 25.00 9 11.25 41 low (<₹25 lakh) 67 83.75 59 73.75 70 87.5 196 mean 16.50 19.56 13.93 16.66 sd 21.71 17.66 23.22 21.03 % 0.85 11.25 87.90 1.25 17.10 81.65 milk sales to dairy coopera�ves similar to produc�on, the sales to dairy coopera�ves were also following the trend where majority entrepreneurs were pouring less than 200 litres of milk to dairy coopera�ves in the three regions. the average sales were higher in highland; while no marked difference in midland and lowland. there was no notable difference in the average price paid by coopera�ves in 6726 the three regions; as the same price chart was followed by the three coopera�ve milk unions of kerala. local sales of milk t h e h i g h e s t p e r c e n t a g e o f entrepreneurs in highland (82.50%) did not have local sales; as the region lacked market due to surplus local milk produc�on. a smaller number of entrepreneurs (17.50%) sold milk below 30 litres locally in the highland region. but local sales were compara�vely higher in midland and lowland region. the average local sales were highest in midland region; evident from the fact that the entrepreneur travels more distance to sell milk (2.16 km) and gains higher price (₹50) when compared with the other regions. the gains in dairying for the entrepreneur were mainly through local sales as there was an average difference of ₹11.23 between the price received from coopera�ves and local sales. entrepreneurs selling milk to private agencies apart from coopera�ves and local sales, dairy entrepreneurs also sold milk to private dairies, vendors, milkers and to other e n t r e p r e n e u r s . t h e n u m b e r o f entrepreneurs involved in these sales is also given in table 4. only very few undertook these sales (that too only in midland and lowland); where the price received was h i g h e r t h a n t h e c o o p e r a � v e s . t h e entrepreneurs also travelled a longer distance (average 1.87 km) for these sales. economic mo�va�on: majority of the e n t re p re n e u r s b e l o n g e d t o m e d i u m category of economic mo�va�on in the three regions (table 4). excep�on was with the midland entrepreneurs having equal levels of high and medium economic mo�va�on (48.75% each). there were very negligible entrepreneurs with low economic mo�va�on. it was understood that the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala state had taken up dairying not as an ancillary source, but a primary source with the mo�va�on to get adequate monetary returns. the results agree with the findings of sarita et al (2016) and khuman et al (2014), who studied about the dairy farmers of haryana and assam respec�vely. table 4: distribu�on of respondents based on economic mo�va�on categories highland (n=80) midland (n=80) lowland (n=80) total (n=240) f % f % f % f % high (>21) 32 40.00 39 48.75 23 28.75 94 39.20 medium (14-21) 48 60.00 39 48.75 55 68.75 142 59.20 low (<14) 0 0.00 2 2.50 2 2.50 4 1.60 socioeconomic status and its associa�on with economic mo�va�on among the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala 6727 journal of extension educa�on the results of the mul�ple regression analysis to es�mate the rela�onship between economic mo�va�on of the dairy table 5. correlates of dairy entrepreneur's economic mo�va�on (mul�ple linear regression es�mates) dependent variable economic mo�va�on educa�on 0.11(0.076) experience (log) -1.17***(0.23) gender (1/0) -0.50(0.49) family size -0.12(0.12) milk production (log) 0.80*(0.31) share of milk sold to dcs -3.07**(0.96) share of milk sold to pdp -0.73(2.69) dairy farm assets (log) 0.076(0.19) household assets value (log) 0.56*(0.23) area (base: midland) highland 0.33(0.55) lowland -0.72(0.53) constant term 14.1***(3.00) n 219 r 2 0.38 adj. r 2 0.35 f 14.8 standard errors in parentheses + p< 0.10, * p< 0.05, ** p< 0.01, *** p< 0.001 rela�ve value on economic ends. it was also seen that higher the milk sales to the dairy c o o p e r a � v e s ( d c s ) , l o w e r w a s t h e economic mo�va�on as it was a risk free market op�on for the dairy entrepreneurs. further, household assets and economic mo�va�on was posi�vely related; higher the economic mo�va�on then higher the assets. the area (midland, lowland and h i g h l a n d ) d o e s n ' t a s s e r t e c o n o m i c mo�va�on; though it is higher in highland. the table shows that experience and economic mo�va�on were nega�vely and significantly correlated; which means that as age advances, orienta�on towards profit m a x i m i z a � o n w a s l e s s a m o n g d a i r y entrepreneurs. young dairy entrepreneurs have higher economic mo�va�on. milk produc�on and economic mo�va�on were posi�vely related; which indicate that if the m i l k p ro d u c e d by t h e e n t re p re n e u r household was more, then higher was his entrepreneurs and the socioeconomic variables are given in table 5. 6728 other variables didn't have any significant rela�on with economic mo�va�on of the dairy entrepreneur. conclusion the study concluded that at present, dairying was more of an elderly maledominated enterprise in kerala; and hence necessitates a�rac�ng youth and women to t h e s e c t o r t h r o u g h i n v e n � v e d a i r y entrepreneurship development ac�vi�es. the higher educa�on level and lower family size of entrepreneurs shall encourage increasing herd size to establish commercial family farms; provided there is �mely and adequate government support. despite limited land holding, dairy entrepreneurs were inclined to fodder cul�va�on; wherein usage of leased land, common property resources, intercropping, seasonal fodder crops and fodder conserva�on techniques shall assure required fodder availability. the interest of the entrepreneur is limited to crossbred ca�le; which suggests refining germplasm using semen of higher exo�c inheritance, sexed semen, embryo transfer etc. the entrepreneurs had possession of indispensable household assets, but were deficient in dairy farm assets; which can be enhanced through technical and financial support. though gross income from d a i r y i n g w a s s u p e r i o r, t h e c o s t o f produc�on pulls it down to subsistence level of net income. cost reduc�on techniques require immediate a�en�on in extension. the less experience of the dairy entrepreneur is a�ributed to their late entry t o t h e s e c t o r ; w h i c h r e c o m m e n d s mo�va�ng and assis�ng youth for early farm establishment. the data outcomes point to support the dairy entrepreneurs to sell more milk locally and to private agencies than coopera�ves to raise income. majority of the entrepreneurs had medium level of economic mo�va�on; and among the socioeconomic variables, experience in dairying and milk sales to dairy coopera�ves had significant and nega�ve rela�onship; while milk produc�on and household assets had posi�ve rela�onship with economic mo�va�on. the three physiographical divisions had their own merits and demerits for dairying, and hence urge separate development strategies for self-reliance in dairying. references cess. (1984). resource atlas of kerala. centre f o r e a r t h s c i e n c e s t u d i e s . thiruvananthapuram, kerala. goi. (2003). na�onal youth policy. retrieved from h� p s : / / w w w.yo u t h p o l i c y. o rg / n a � o n a l / i n d i a _ 2 0 0 3 _ n a � o n a l _ youth_policy.pdf goi. (2011). execu�ve summary of census k e r a l a 2 0 1 1 . r e t r i e v e d f r o m h�ps://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011cen sus/pca/pca_highlights/pca_highlights_ file/kerala/exeu�ve_summary.pdf goi. (2014). indian standard classifica�on of e d u c a � o n . m i n i s t r y o f h r d . socioeconomic status and its associa�on with economic mo�va�on among the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala https://www.youthpolicy.org/national/india_20%2003_national_youth_policy.pdf https://www.youthpolicy.org/national/india_20%2003_national_youth_policy.pdf https://www.youthpolicy.org/national/india_20%2003_national_youth_policy.pdf https://www.youthpolicy.org/national/india_20%2003_national_youth_policy.pdf https://www.youthpolicy.org/national/india_20%2003_national_youth_policy.pdf https://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/pca/pca_highlights/pca_highlights_file/kerala/exeutive_summary.pdf https://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/pca/pca_highlights/pca_highlights_file/kerala/exeutive_summary.pdf https://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/pca/pca_highlights/pca_highlights_file/kerala/exeutive_summary.pdf 6729 journal of extension educa�on department of educa�on. retrieved from h�ps://www.educa�on.gov.in/en goi. (2016). agriculture census 2015-16. department of agriculture, coopera�on and farmers' welfare. retrieved from h�ps://agricoop.nic.in/ en/divisiontype/agriculture-census t h g o i . ( 2 0 2 0 ) . 2 0 l i v e s t o c k c e n s u s . department of animal husbandry and dairying. government of india. r e t r i e v e d f r o m h � p : / / d a h d . nic.in/about-us/divisions/sta�s�cs gok. (2014). perspec�ve plan 2030 – kerala vol. 1. kerala state planning board. government of kerala. 226. retrieved f r o m h � p : / / t e s t n e w . n c a e r. o r g / image/userfiles/file/kerala%202030/kpp2030-vol-1.pdf gok. (2019). rebuild kerala development programme. government of kerala. 2 3 9 . r e t r i e v e d f r o m h�p://rebuild.kerala.gov.in/ reports/ rkdp_master%2021may2019.pdf khuman, s.l., hazarika, p., saharia, k.k., amonge, k.t. & johari, m. (2014). a�tudinal and mo�va�onal traits on communica�onal behavior of tribal and non-tribal dairy farmers. indian journal of veterinary and animal sciences., 43(3): 221-228. mtc. (2001). computer assisted audits – guidelines and procedures for sales tax audits. publica�on 132 (10/01). new york state department of taxa�on and finance. mul�state tax commission. 1 7 1 8 . re t r i e v e d f r o m h � p s : / / w w w . m t c . g o v / u p l o a d e d f i l e s / m u l � s t a t e _ t a x _ c o m m i s s i o n / audit_program/ resource/ pub132_ 1001. pdf nddb. (2016). dairying in kerala – a sta�s�cal profile 2016. retrieved from h�ps://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/file s/pdfs/nddb-kerala_11-4-16.pdf nddb. (2021). per capita availability of milk by states/uts (g/day). retrieved from h�ps://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/file s/sta�s�cs/per_capita_availability_of_mil k_by_states.pdf n i n . ( 2 0 2 0 ) . r e c o m m e n d e d d i e t a r y allowances and es�mated average requirements – nutrient requirement for adults – a report of the expert group. icmr-na�onal ins�tute of nutri�on. hyderabad (india). 299. prasad, k., savale, s., mahantesh, m.t., pavan, m., burman, d. & abraham, j. (2017). socio-economic profile and constraints faced by dairy farmers of wayanad district, india. interna�onal journal of current microbiology and applied sciences,6(6): 870-874. sarita., singh, s.p., malik, a., sharma, m. & ahuja, r. (2016). socio-economic and psychological characteris�cs of dairy farmers of hisar district. interna�onal journal of science, environment and technology,5: 3466-3472. https://www.education.gov.in/en https://agricoop.nic.in/en/divisiontype/agriculture-census https://agricoop.nic.in/en/divisiontype/agriculture-census https://agricoop.nic.in/en/divisiontype/agriculture-census http://dahd.nic.in/about-us/divisions/statistics http://dahd.nic.in/about-us/divisions/statistics http://dahd.nic.in/about-us/divisions/statistics http://testnew.ncaer.org/image/userfiles/file/kerala%202030/kpp-2030-vol-1.pdf http://testnew.ncaer.org/image/userfiles/file/kerala%202030/kpp-2030-vol-1.pdf http://testnew.ncaer.org/image/userfiles/file/kerala%202030/kpp-2030-vol-1.pdf http://testnew.ncaer.org/image/userfiles/file/kerala%202030/kpp-2030-vol-1.pdf http://rebuild.kerala.gov.in/reports/rkdp_master%2021may2019.pdf http://rebuild.kerala.gov.in/reports/rkdp_master%2021may2019.pdf http://rebuild.kerala.gov.in/reports/rkdp_master%2021may2019.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.mtc.gov/uploadedfiles/multistate_tax_commission/audit_program/resource/pub132_1001.pdf https://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/files/pdfs/nddb-kerala_11-4-16.pdf https://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/files/pdfs/nddb-kerala_11-4-16.pdf https://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/files/statistics/per_capita_availability_of_milk_by_states.pdf https://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/files/statistics/per_capita_availability_of_milk_by_states.pdf https://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/files/statistics/per_capita_availability_of_milk_by_states.pdf 6730 sivakumar, p.s., sontakki, b.s., sulaiman, r.v., saravanan, r. & mi�al, m. (2017). manual on good prac�ces in extension research and evalua�on. aesa.12-15. sreeram, v., jancy, g. & shyam, s.s.r. (2018). constraints perceived by dairy farmers of kerala state. indian journal of dairy science,71(1): 102-106. supe & singh. (1969). dynamics of ra�onal behaviour of indian farmers. new heights publishers and distributors. new delhi. socioeconomic status and its associa�on with economic mo�va�on among the dairy entrepreneurs of kerala page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 page 58 page 59 page 60 page 61 page 62 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 a scale to measure farmers attitude towards value addition in maize d. yavana priya1, k.a. ponnusamy2 and j. venkitapirabu 3 abstract the intent of this research is to identify the attitude of farmers towards value addition in maize. the purpose of scale construction is to design a questionnaire that provides a quantitative measurement of a theoretical variable. the present study aims to develop an attitude scale to measure farmers’ attitude towards value addition in maize. hence, the study “production, value addition and marketing behaviour of maize growers in tamil nadu a critical analysis” was contemplated to develop and standardize a scale for measuring the same and conducted during 2012. 1-ph.d. scholar, 2professor (agrl.extension), directorate of odl and 3-professor, ars, bhavanisagar, erode. in tamil nadu, maize is an important raw material for poultry feed industries and other food processing industries. the use of maize in poultry feed by poultry industry, particularly located in salem, namakkal, pollachi, and udumalpet areas are getting remarkable importance. though substantial quantity of maize is being produced in the udumalpet block, there is no value addition to it. here, large quantity of maize is being procured by the commission agents and transported to far off processing units. hence, the scope of value addition is sound enough for the reason of availability of raw material as well as the large market size. methodology attitude is the psychological disposition of the maize farmers about value addition in maize with varying degrees of favourableness or unfavourableness. the method of equal appearing intervals as suggested by thurstone and chave (1929) was followed in the development of scale. possible statements concerning the psychological object i.e. ‘value addition’ was collected based on review of literature, discussion with scientists and extensionists. the 95 statements collected were screened by following the informal criteria suggested by edwards (1969). based on the screening, 60 items were selected which formed the universe of content. item scoring and computation of scale values and q values the 60 statements were then subjected to judges opinion on a five-point continuum, ranging from most unfavourable to most favourable. the list of statements was sent to 60 judges comprising professors of post harvest technology, tnau, extensionists of state agricultural universities of tamil nadu, karnataka and avinashilingam university. of the 60 judges, 40 judges responded by sending journal of extension education5432 their judgements. the scale values and q values were computed for the 60 statements by applying the formula as suggested by thurstone and chave (1929) which is as follows. where, sthe median or scale value of the statement lthe lower limit of the interval in which the median falls “pb – the sum of the proportions 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 q = c75 – c25 where, q – interquartile range c75 – the 75 th\ centile, c25 – the 25 th centile, the scale values were arranged in descending order of magnitude and the difference between the successive scale values and the cumulative total of the computed differences were worked out. considering the time limitation from farmers’ point of view, it was decided to select 9 statements to constitute the attitude scale. since, the selected scale values should have equal appearing interval and distributed uniformly along the psychological continuum, it was necessary to form 9 compartments so as to select 9 statements, i.e one statement from each compartment. the basis for forming the compartments was that, each compartment should be equally spaced in the continuum. thereby, 9 items were selected with equal appearing interval and with a uniform distribution along the psychological continuum. the attitude scale thus constructed is given in the table 1. standardization of the scale reliability of the scale the reliability coefficient r of the scale (0.642), significant at one per cent level of probability was determined by ‘split-half’ method. further the reliability coefficient of the whole test rtt (0.784) was computed using the spearman-brown prophecy formula. according to singh (2008), when the purpose of the test is to compare the means of the two groups of narrow range, a reliability coefficient of 0.50 or 0.60 would suffice. hence, the constructed scale is reliable as the rtt was > 0.60. content validity of the scale content validation was carried out by subjecting the selected 9 items to judges’ opinion. they were asked to indicate the extent to which each attitude item covered the domains of the psychological object ‘value addition’. the responses were obtained on a four – point continuum of most adequately covers’, ‘more adequately covers’, ‘less 5433a scale to measure farmers attitude towards value addition in maize adequately covers’ and ‘least adequately covers’. scores of 4, 3, 2 and 1 were given for the points on the continuum respectively. totally 30 judges responded by sending their judgments. the mean score 2.5 was fixed as the basis for deciding the content validity of the scale. if the overall mean score of the attitude items as rated by the judges was above 2.5, the scale will be declared as valid and if not otherwise. in the present case, the overall mean score was worked out as 3.12 and therefore the constructed attitude scale is said to be valid. administration of the scale the final scale consists of 9 statements (table 1). from udumalpet block, three villages namely kuruchikottai, andiaya gavundanur and periavalavadi was selected based on the maximum area under maize cultivation. the scale was administered to 150 maize farmers selected using proportionate random sampling method. a five-point continuum of ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘undecided’ ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’ was used as response categories. si.no. statement sa a ud da sda 1 value addition is the next phase of development in commercial maize cultivation 2 value addition in maize would fetch more return in present days of living 3 previous experiences have no association with value addition * 4 certification shouldn’t be mandatory for value added products * 5 rural youths could be encouraged to do value addition as it has promising future 6 future market will be less for value added products from maize * 7 maize value addition doesn’t create new opportunities for enterprise development among farmers * 8 out-of-box thinking in business should be high to do value addition 9 farm women do have roles in value addition table 1. final set of attitude items selected for the scale * negative statements. sa: strongly agree, a: agree, ud: undecided, da: disagree, sda: strongly disagree journal of extension education5434 the scoring adopted for favourable statement was 7, 5, 4, 3 and 1 and vice-versa for unfavourable statements. the score obtained for each statement was summed up to arrive at the attitude score for the respondents. the responses were grouped as less favourable, moderately favourable and highly favourable based on the mean and standard deviation method. findings and discussion it is quite evident from the table 2 that majority (48.00 %) of the maize growers possessed a moderately favourable attitude towards value addition followed by one-third (36.00 %) of the respondents with less favourable attitude towards value addition. the left over 16.00 per cent of the respondents possessed a highly favourable attitude towards value addition in maize. about 36.00 per cent of farmers possessed a less favourable attitude towards value addition in maize since they could have considered value addition to be a least prospective business. they would have set back considering the challenges in value addition which requires lots of managerial expertise, and includes problems like general and specialty labor, packaging, transportation, rent, business taxes and many other costs. as majority of the maize farmers are indebted, they felt it is imperative to sell the produce immediately and use the money to pay back their credit. they might have also felt that income from value addition would have less stabilizing impact on their family economy and this might have pushed them towards the less favourable attitude on the continuum. on the other hand almost 48.00 per cent of the maize farmers possessed a moderately favourable attitude towards value addition in maize which might be due to the reason to si.no. category number per cent 1 low 53 36.00 2 medium 73 48.00 3 high 24 16.00 table 2. distribution of farmers based on their attitude towards value addition do value addition as one additional activity or doing during lean season rather than to do completely. moreover they might have also thought that it could be better for a family to do value addition than to be dependent on maize cultivation alone. the income from diversified occupations would also complement the family income during monetary crisis. the high favorableness towards value addition among the remaining 16.00 per cent of the respondents may be because they are often more open to new ideas and practices (n=150) 5435a scale to measure farmers attitude towards value addition in maize than the less and moderately favouring farmers. the education level, economic orientation, their exposure to outside world and availability of more number of family members might have also encouraged their attitude formation. ability to identify opportunities in the existing situation, confidence to start value addition business by pooling resources, adoption of innovation might be the underlying factors for the famers who liked to involve in value addition. conclusion the reliability and validity of the scale indicated the precision and consistency of the results. this scale can be used to measure the farmers’ attitude beyond the study area with suitable modifications. the present study revealed that maize farmers possed moderately favourable to low favourableness towards value addition. suitable extension teaching methods and programmes can be designed to change their attitude level. references edwards, a. l. 1969. techniques of attitude scale construction. vakils, feffer and simmons private limited, bombay. singh, a.k. 2008. test, measurements and research methods in behavioural sciences. bharati bhawan publishers & distributors, new delhi. thurstone, l.l. and e.j. chave. 1929. the measurement of attitude. chicago university, chicago press, chicago. 6067 constraint analysis of paddy promotion programmes under decentralized planning salpriya seby1, m.j. mercykutty2 and r. sendilkumar3 absract a study was conducted in thrissur district of kerala, with the objective to find out the constraints felt by the beneficiary farmers and extension personnel while implementing of paddy promotion programmes under decentralized planning. ex-post facto research design was employed and multi-stage sampling method was followed. thirty farmers, each identified from three gramapanchayats viz;adat, arimpur and chelakkara and 30 extension personnel representing 3 blocks of thrissur district were surveyed. analysis was carried out using kruskal wallis test. the dimension wise constraints perceived indicates that financial, time, infrastructural, knowledge, market and scheme feature were the most severe, followed by manpower and input constraints as more severe in arimpur panchayat. the major constraints perceived by the extension personnel were manpower constraints, financial, scheme feature, input, time and infrastructural constraints, in that order. keywords : constraints; paddy promotion programmes; beneficiaries; extension personnel introduction decentralized planning is an approach to balanced development and reduction of regional disparities by giving emphasis to beneficiary participation along with physical and economic factors. the distinctiveness of kerala’s decentralization is that, it has formularized a participatory framework with inbuilt social accountability measures to take in citizen’s involvement in local planning and governance in harmony with the national and regional policies. government of kerala has been implementing need driven agricultural development programmes under people’s planning with the help of local selfgovernment for improving crop production and food security. major responsibilities are vested with local bodies such as panchayats and the implementation process include coordinating various groups of farmers, agricultural labourers, extension functionaries, social activists and people’s representatives. though the achievement of these interventions have been impressive, there have been issues in implementation that need to be recognized and addressed to ensure the sustainability. the issues faced may differ due to diverse socio-economic and geographic conditions. keeping this in view the present investigation on constraint analysis of paddy promotion 1. p.g. scholar & 2. associate professor, department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, vellanikkara and 3. professor (agricultural extension), college of cooperation banking and management, thrissur (kerala agricultural university), kerala, india. received : 05-06-2018; accepted : 02-07-2018 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6067-6072 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6068 programmes under decentralized planning was conducted. against this backdrop, the objective of the study was framed to analyse the constraints felt by the beneficiary farmers and extension personnel while implementing these programmes. methodology the study was conducted during 2017 in thrissur district of kerala state. expost facto research design was employed. based on the secondary data and discussion with the officials of state department of agriculture, three leading blocks viz;pazhayannur, puzhakkal and anthikkad and from these one gramapanchayat each namely, chelakkara, adat and arimpur respectively with substantial cropped area under paddy cultivation were selected. the respondents included randomly selected 30 extension personnel from the three selected blocks as well as 30 beneficiary farmers each from the three selected grama panchayats. pre-tested structured questionnaires, focused group discussions and interview method were employed to identify the constraints as ‘the difficulties or problems felt by the beneficiary farmers and extension personnel while implementing the paddy promotion programmes’. the respondents were asked to mark their response on a three point continuum with weightage, as ‘most felt(3)’, ‘moderately felt(2)’ and ‘less felt(1)’ constraint based on the gravity with which they had experienced the difficulty. overall as well as dimension wise constraint index was calculated for each respondent using the following equation: constraint index (cii) = total score obtained by the respondent x 100 maximum possible score composite constraint index(ccii) = sum of individual constraint indices number of individual factors = ∑ nicii ∑ni , where ni is the dimension of ith factor the individual constraint indices of beneficiaries from three panchayats were further analyzed by employing kruskal wallis test and the major constraints for each panchayats were ranked based on the descending order. composite constraint index was calculated for identifying the constraints felt by extension personnel by dividing the summated constraint indices with the number of constraints under each dimension and were ranked in their descending order. journal of extension education 6069 findings and discussion constraints felt by the beneficiary farmers the constraints experienced by the farmers are listed in table 1. the kruskal wallis test results revealed that beneficiaries from the study area arimpur panchayat perceived maximum constraints in the implementation of paddy development programmes, as compared to chelakkara and adat panchayats. the dimension wise constraints perceived indicate that financial, time, infrastructural, knowledge, market and scheme feature constraints were the most severe, followed by manpower and input constraints as more severe in arimpur panchayat. the delay in receiving the payment for the harvest was found to be a more severe constraint in the case of financial dimension, followed by high labour and plant protection chemical cost. further they stated that the financial assistance provided at present was not adequate. lack of timely monitoring, release of funds and input availability were perceived as the major problems. the farmers disclosed that their dissatisfaction with respect to their quality and quantity of the inputs supplied. it was also identified that the absence of proper storage and logistic facilities and fragmented constraint analysis of paddy promotion programmes under decentralized planning table. 1 constraints felt by beneficiary farmers sl.no dimension kruskal wallis test (n = 30 each) adat arimpur chelakkara h value sub-dimension wise constraints 1 input constraints 24.20 (3) 47.70 (2) 64.60 (1) 39.3** 2 time constraints 17.77 (3) 61.97 (1) 56.77 (2) 60.1** 3 financial constraints 24.42 (3) 66.55 (1) 45.53 (2) 43.6** 4 infrastructural constraints 28.25 (3) 57.12 (1) 51.13 (2) 21.7** 5 manpower constraints 31.98 (3) 50.10 (2) 54.42 (1) 15.0** 6 knowledge constraints 17.35 (3) 72.12 (1) 47.95 (2) 67.9** 7 market constraints 35.43 3) 53.12 (1) 47.95 (2) 8.0* 8 scheme feature constraints 42.12 (2) 53.87 (1) (3) 5.4# dimensions i. overall constraints 23.47 64.93 48.10 38.4** ( ) ranks are given in parenthesis ** significant at 5 per cent * significant at 10 per cent # not significant 6070 land holdings also affected the successful implementation of scheme in the panchayat. the knowledge level of the famers were found to be poor especially the technical know-how and scientific practices relating to plant protection chemicals. among market constraints, the delay in payment made by supplyco was identified as the most severe constraint. in scheme feature, lack of trainings on skill development and value addition activities, absence of programmes promoting cultivation of local varieties were listed out as the main problems. non-availability of labour as well as lack of timely supply of required quantity of quality inputs were the moderately perceived constraints. chelakkara panchayat experienced severe input and manpower constraints followed by time, financial, infrastructural, knowledge and market constraints. in chelakkara panchayat, water scarcity was identified as a major problem, which resulted in frequent crop failure. in addition to this lack of timely availability of quality inputs in required quantity further aggravated the situation. labour shortage and non-availability of officers for regular field visits were also severe. lack of timely release of fund, low financial assistance, high labour and plant protection chemical cost, delayed payment for the produce, lack of storage facility, and lack of technical and scientific knowledge were also identified as predominant constraints. beneficiaries of adat panchayat perceived scheme feature constraints as more severe and others as less severe. adat farmers listed that the absence of programmes promoting for cultivation of local varieties, lack of training programmes on skill development and value addition activities, complexity involved in availing schemes as the major constraints followed by delayed payment, manpower shortage and lack of storage facilities. the findings of the study is in conformity with the results obtained by nath & patil (2014) who also reported that resources like seeds, fertilizer, plant protection inputs, scientific know-how, marketing facility and agricultural labour were available in varying degree in time but with great difficulty and similarly technological, infrastructural, economical constraints also viewed as most serious one. constraints felt by the extension personnel constraints felt by the extension personnel were studied and are furnished in table 2. it could be inferred from table 2, that the major constraints perceived by the extension personnel were manpower constraints (labour shortage and nonavailability of adequate implementing officers) followed by financial, scheme feature, input, time and infrastructural constraints. among financial constraints, high labour cost, delay in receiving payment for the produce sold to supplyco, high cost of plant protection chemicals and insufficient financial assistance were the main items. in scheme feature constraints, lack of components in the scheme addressing the crop loss due to various climatic vagaries, complexity involved in availing the scheme, absence of programmes promoting local varieties, lack journal of extension education 6071 of training programmes in value addition and skill development activities respectively were perceived as the major drawbacks. lack of quality inputs and water scarcity were the important constraints identified under input category while lack of timely availability of inputs and delay in release of fund were the major difficulties under time constraints. lack of storage facilities was the foremost limitation identified under infrastructural constraint. the results of the study reveal that the beneficiaries from arimpur panchayat perceived maximum constraints in the implementation of paddy development programmes, followed by chelakkara and adat panchayat. this emphasizes the need for inclusion of more schemes and scheme components. the dimension wise constraints perceived indicates that financial, time, infrastructural, knowledge, market and scheme feature constraints were the most severe, followed by manpower and input constraints as more severe in arimpur panchayat. the major constraints perceived by the extension personnel were manpower constraints, followed by financial, scheme feature, input, time and infrastructural constraints. conclusion in light of the results of the study, a few suggestions are made to overcome the constraints : • the yearly financial allocation should be increased and provision for timely disbursement of procurement price to the farmers should be made. • formulate projects for financial assistance for establishing infrastructural facilities at panchayat level. the procedure for availing schemes should be simplified. • create awareness about the features of every scheme before the implementation. • promote schemes on processing and value addition to capture the market. • merge with mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme for ensuring adequate labour supply. table 2. constraints perceived by extension personnel (n=30) sl. no dimension composite constraint index rank 1 input constraints 71.48 4 2 time constraints 64.81 5 3 financial constraints 80.56 2 4 infrastructural constraints 60.89 6 5 manpower constraints 85.56 1 6 scheme feature constraints 73.11 3 constraint analysis of paddy promotion programmes under decentralized planning 6072 • service of more field officers for regular monitoring of field activities may be ensured based on the geographical area of the panchayat. references nath, d., & patil, l.c. (2014). constraints encountered by paddy growers of tripura. agriculture update. 9 (2) 246-248. saran, s., sinha, m. m., & kumar, a. (1998). farming system development in flood prone basins, delhi: daya publishing house. singh, d.k., & singh, p. (2014). constraints in implementation of strategic research and extension plan of agricultural technology management agency in bihar. bioinfolet, 11(1b), 161-164. journal of extension education 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 designing of scale to measure the attitude of ars trainees towards focars programme of naarm p. prashanth1, p. vijender reddy2 and v. sudharani3 abstract the psychological object for the present study has been conceptualized as different components of a training programme. the attitude of the respondents towards focars (foundation course for agricultural research services). the focars is designed for the newly recruited entry level scientists to the agricultural research service of the icar. the extent of effectivenesss of the programme is depends on the attitude change of the trainees. to measure the attitude of the trainees a standardised scale was essential. hence, it was felt necessary to construct a comprehensive, valid and reliable scale for studying the attitude of trainees towards focars programme. method of equal appearing intervals developed by thurstone and chave (1929) was used. finally sixty statements were selected after the editing based on edwards criteria. the statements were then subjected for judging to 40 experts. each subject was asked to judge the degree of more favorableness or more unfavorableness of feeling expressed by each statement in terms of the 11 intervals. finally, 26 statements were selected from statements for which scale (s) and q values were worked out. the scale values of the statements on the psychological continuum were relatively equally spaced. attitude is commonly considered to be a mental state of readiness and preparedness organised through experience which exerts dynamic and positive influence upon an individual to respond in a particular way. psychological object may be any symbol, phrase, slogan, person, institution, idea or ideal towards which people can differ with respect to positive or negative affect. the cognitive component of an attitude consists of the beliefs, which involves attributes like favorable or unfavorable, desirable or undesirable, good or bad etc. the feeling component refers to the emotions i.e. likes or dislikes, pleasing or displeasing etc. which give attitude a motivating character or action tendencies. it is actually a physical manifestation. the action tendency component of an attitude includes all behavioral readiness associated with it. these three components of attitude are, however, consistently related to each other. the psychological object for the present study has been conceptualized as different components of a training programme. the attitude of the respondents towards focars (foundation course for agricultural research services). the focars is designed for the 1-assistant professor, agricultural college, jagtial,, pjtsau 2technical officer, national academy of, agricultural research management, hyderabad and 3-professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, rajendranagar, hyderabad-30. 5437designing of scale to measure the attitude of ars trainees towards focars programme of naarm newly recruited entry level scientists to the agricultural research service of the icar. the course aims at providing exposure to the trainees on the concepts and principles of project management with special emphasis on project formulation and implementation. it also includes capsules in related areas on human resources development, and information and communication management. the main objective of the programme to appraise the scientist trainees about agricultural scenario, and the agricultural research, education and development systems in the country and to sensitize the scientist trainees about the global agricultural scenario and its implications to indian agriculture. to stimulate critical thinking and multidisciplinary approach to agricultural research. training programme was measured by the attitude scale especially constructed to meet the objectives. attitude in the present study as defined by thurstone (1996) is “the degree of positive or negative affect associated with some psychological object”. focars training programme was taken as a psychological object towards which trainees could differ with respect to positive or negative effect. thurstone’s equal appearing interval techniques was used to construct the attitude scale because the technique has an absolute system of units and also show higher reliability. the steps used in construction of attitude scale are as follows : methodology i.collection and editing of items method of equal-appearing intervals, by thurstone and chave (1929) was used. a total of 100 statements were selected which varied in degree of more favorableness or more unfavorableness as expressed by each statement. sixty attitude statements about focars training programme were collected initially. these statements were obtained from all possible sources e.g. literature, discussion with experts, experience of investigator and trainees. the statements thus collected were edited for final selection on the basis of the criteria suggested by edwards (1969). finally, sixty statements were selected after the editing based on edwards criteria. the statements were then subjected for judging to 40 experts. each subject was asked to judge the degree of more favorableness or more unfavorableness of feeling expressed on each statement. as mentioned in the methodology attitude scale was constructed and administered on respondents to determine their attitude towards focars training programme ii. measurement of attitude: to determine the attitude of trainees towards focars programme, an attitude scale was developed for the study using thurstone’s equal appearing interval technique or attitude scale construction. the scale consisted of five point continuum i.e. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 score respectively for favourable and 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 scores journal of extension education5438 respectively for unfavourable statement. scale was administered to the trainees and mean scores were worked out for all the respondents by adding scores for all the statements for an respondent and dividing at by the number of statements. iii.judges’ rating of attitude statements: cyclostyled copies of all the 60 statements together with 5 point continuum against each statement were personally given / mailed to 50 judges with a request letter explaining procedure of judgement. the, judges selected for the study comprised of extension specialists, trainers, scientists, sociologists, educationists and course directors (focars). the judges were requested to sort out the statements on 5 point scale i.e. most favourable, favourable, neutral, unfavourable and most unfavourable statement in judging the attitude toward focars training programme. they were also requested to delete redundant statements and suggest modifications in the scale they deemed necessary. out of 50 judges, proforma was returned by 24 judges. iv.calculation of scale and q values: the data obtained from a large number of judges was then arranged. data obtained for each statement was arranged in three rows. frequency was arranged in the first row the way in which the statement was placed in each of the 9 categories. the second gives these frequencies as proportions. the proportions are obtained by dividing each frequency by the total number of judges or, more simply, by multiplying each of the frequencies by the median of the distribution of judgments for each statement was taken as the scale value of the statement; scale value was obtained by using the following formula. on the basis of judges rating in equal appearing interval, the scale values of 60 statements were obtained by computing their medians. the semi-interquartile range ‘q’ was computed as an index of dispersion of statements in the scale. the goal was to have smaller number of statements evenly placed on the continuum. the q value indicated the ambiguity or uncertainty of the meaning of the statements. the statements with larger q value were omitted. since the median of the distribution of judgement for each statement is taken as the scale value of the statement, the scale value was calculated with the help of the following formula. 0.50 σpb s = 1 + ______________ i pw where s = the medium or scale value of the statement. l = the lower limit of the interval in which the median falls, pb = the sum of the proportions below the interval in which the medium 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. to determine the q value, two other point 5439designing of scale to measure the attitude of ars trainees towards focars programme of naarm measures i.e. the 75th and 25th centile were calculated using the following formulae: 0.25 σpb c25 = 1 + ______________ i pw 0.75 σpb c25 = 1 + ______________ i pw where, c25 and c75 = the 25th and 75th centile respectively. i = the lower limit of the interval in which the 25th or 75th centile falls. pb = the sum of the proportion below the interval in which the 25th or 75th centile falls. interquartile range (q) was used as measure of variation of the distribution of judgments for a particular statement. to determine the value of q 75th and 25th centiles were calculated. the 25th centile was obtained. then the interquartile range or q value was obtained by taking the difference between c75 and c25. thus q = c75 c25 the scale value and q value for each of the 60 statements was thus calculated according to the above mentioned formula. (iv) final selection of the attitude statements 26 statements were selected from 60 statements for which we had scale and q values in such a way that the scale values of the statements on the psychological continuum are relatively equally spaced and such that the q values are relatively small. these statements were then arranged in random order and presented to subjects with instructions to indicate those that they are willing to accept or agree with and those that they reject or disagree with. taking only the statements with which the subject has agreed, an attitude score was obtained from the scale values of these statements that were regarded as an indication of the location of the subject on the psychological continuum on which the statements have been scaled. the attitude score is based upon the arithmetic mean or median of the scale values of the statements agreed with. when there was good agreement among the judges in judging the degree of favourableness or unfavourableness of a statement, q value was small as compared with the value obtained when there was relatively little agreement among the judges. based on the following criteria, 26 statements were finally selected for attitude scale representation of the universe of the opinion about the programme. the scale values should have equal appearing intervals and equal distribution of favourable and unfavourable attitude statements. the scale values of the selected statements ranged from 1.95 to 4.65 and q values from 0.77 to 3.16 with five class intervals. the scale and q values of attitude statements are given in table 1. journal of extension education5440 sl.no. statements s value q values selected/ rejected for attitude scale 1 the training improved my confidence to work at institute 4.24 1.28 rejected 2* training improved my decision making capacity * 4.12 1.12 selected 3* it helped me to work in a team/group* 4.33 1.12 selected 4 it has no direct implications on professional accomplishments 3.05 1.94 rejected 5 it helped to get self-motivation to accomplish my professional and organizational objectives 3.50 1.42 rejected 6* it has made me a good communicator* 2.36 1.45 selected 7* it helped to broaden my understanding of the national agricultural research systems in the country and world* 2.95 2.01 selected 8 there was no conformity between learning situation and working situation 3.95 2.39 rejected 9 i got an opportunity to interact with young professionals of different disciplines and cultural background 3.12 2.72 rejected 10 focars offers to tackle unexpected problems with skill and confidence 3.19 3.16 rejected 11* focars provided the opportunity to know office procedures* 3.44 2.18 selected 12 focars helped to understand diversity of culture norms, customs and values 4.28 1.29 rejected 13 foundation course is of no help for working in difficult situations 3.61 2.11 rejected 14 focars training helped me to work with persons of different cultural background 4.07 1.46 rejected 15* focars is necessary for all entry level scientists* 4.96 1.23 selected 16 focars is the most credible source for capacity building of ars scientists 4.22 1.15 rejected 17* it is not appropriate means to acquire knowledge* 4.24 1.14 selected 18* it provides excellent chance to learn innovative concepts through practical experience* 3.85 1.67 selected 19 management skills are in born and training (like focars) does not make any difference 4.31 1.18 rejected 20 it facilitated the ars scientists to improve their job performance by way of application of learned knowledge and skills in the job situation 3.84 1.06 rejected 21 practical sessions are not adequate during the programme to strengthen individual capabilities 4.36 1.46 rejected 22* field visits planned during focars are not adequate/appropriate to strengthen the individual capabilities* 3.11 2.49 selected table 1. selected statements attitude of the ars trainees towards foundation course on agricultural research service (focars) conducted by naarm 5441designing of scale to measure the attitude of ars trainees towards focars programme of naarm sl.no. statements s value q values selected/ rejected for attitude scale 23* exposure through field experience training (fet) programme in rural areas is quite useful* 4.02 0.77 selected 24* involvement of guest faculty is adequate* 4.64 1.02 selected 25* the ratio of practical sessions are not proportionate to lectures* 3.96 0.96 selected 26* during the fet programme application of pra tools for rural appraisal and problem identification is useful for my research carrier* 3.22 2.64 selected 27 field experience training is repetition of what we have learned during ug programme at university 3.05 1.92 rejected 28* project management techniques learnt during focars are useful at back home situation* 2.98 1.12 selected 29* focars training guided me in formulation of the research project and budgeting very well* 3.98 0.94 selected 30* foundation course helped me in improvement of my presentation skill* 4.26 1.24 selected 31 training programme was useful for effective use of av aids* 4.24 1.06 rejected 32* focars training is useful in knowing advanced photography and slide preparation (ppt)* 4.69 1.09 selected 33* training exposed us how to write a scientific paper writings* 3.12 2.82 selected 34 focars training helps in instant socialization with fellow trainees 4.89 1.89 rejected 35* focars training provides opportunities for holistic personality development including health management* 2.73 1.75 selected 36* focars training provides exposure to understand the administrative and financial system of icar* 1.95 2.13 selected 37 focars training is useful to manage stressful condition 3.84 1.08 rejected 38* focars provides necessary knowledge and skills for intellectual property protection and management* 2.02 1.94 selected 39* focars facilitates effective use of library resources for research project management* 3.92 1.11 selected 40 focars has built-in content and exercises to improve oratorical skills 4.36 1.58 rejected 41 focars does not help in improving scientific writing skills 3.12 2.84 rejected 42* focars gives a comprehensive understanding of national agricultural education and extension systems* 3.22 2.06 selected 43 focars training is biased towards social sciences 3.69 2.45 rejected 44 focars training provided me opportunities to understand the implications of emerging sciences like nanotechnology, biotechnology, geospatial technologies 4.32 1.34 rejected *45 the trained scientist can manage to overcome crisis situation on the job 3.96 2.86 selected journal of extension education5442 sl.no. statements s value q values selected/ rejected for attitude scale *46 focars-like training should be made compulsory for newly recruited teachers and extension professionals of agricultural university system 3.66 2.08 selected 47 focars training stimulated critical thinking and multidisciplinary approach to agricultural research 4.36 1.46 rejected 48 the information technology related content of focars is up-to-date and helped in improving my it skills 3.24 2.47 rejected 49 focars provides confidence for writing convincing research proposals 4.36 1.86 rejected 50 opportunities for cultural and literary activities are limited during focars 3.16 1.18 rejected 51 the schedule of focars is so tightly packed that it leaves no time for sports and physical exercises 3.84 1.06 rejected 52 focars is a well structured and managed programme 4.28 2.32 rejected 53* the most important contribution of focars is developing fraternity among agricultural scientists* 4.65 1.14 selected 54 focars training does not offer opportunities to develop initiative and responsibility sharing 4.31 1.16 rejected 55 focars training is waste of time and resources as it does not help scientists to focus researchers on stakeholders’ needs 3.12 2.82 rejected 56 focars has built-in measures to inculcate discipline, professional behavior and effective time management in young agricultural scientists 3.08 2.46 rejected 57 timing of different sessions are not appropriate 4.04 0.80 rejected 58 the boarding and lodging facilities are not adequate 4.64 1.25 rejected 59 the duration of fet is not adequate 4.50 1.16 rejected 60 naarm has convenient capacity building and ambience 4.39 1.24 rejected (v) scoring procedure and final format of the scale out of twenty six selected statements eleven statements were the indicators of favourable attitude towards the programme and remaining eleven statements were indicating unfavourable attitude. these finally selected twenty two statements were randomly arranged to avoid response bias. against each of these statements, thus arranged, there were five columns representing a 5 point continuum as strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with weightage of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively for favourable statements and weightage of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for unfavourable statements. the scale was then administered to the 30 respondents and attitude score of each individual was calculated. (vi) reliability of attitude scale according to kerlinger (1967) “reliability 5443designing of scale to measure the attitude of ars trainees towards focars programme of naarm is the accuracy or precision of measuring instrument”. to know the reliability of the scale split half method was used. the split half method total 26 statements in the scale were divided into two equal halves by putting the odd numbered items on one side and even numbered items on the other side. both halves were considered as separate schedule with 13 statements each. each set of half part of a schedule was administered on the same group of 30 respondents alternatively who were not included in the final sample. to find out the agreement between two sets of statements of the schedule, correlation coefficient was calculated and put to spearman brown prophecy formula as given here 2 (roe) r11 = ______________ 1 + roe where roe is the coefficient of reliability of two half test i.e. odd and even and r11 is the reliability coefficient of the entire test. reliability coefficient for attitude scale was found to be 0.71. the scores for the subjects on the two forms were correlated and this correlation was taken as a measure of the reliability of the scales. (vii) validity of attitude scale the validity of the test dependents upon the fidelity with which it measures what is expected to measure. in intrinsic validity of attitude scale was calculated by taking the square root of the reliability coefficient. the final scale was administered to 40 trainees for the validity of the scale. the value of test was found to be significant. the coefficient of validity was found to be 0.84. also the content, logical, construct and concurrent validity of the scale was ensured through jury validation and properly selecting the statements to cover the whole universe of the content with the help of literature. the scale thus met the reliability and validity test satisfactorily and indicated, its ability as an instrument for measuring attitude of trainers towards focars training programme. references edwards, a. l. 1969. techniques of attitude scale construction. vakils, feffer and simons private ltd. bombay thurstone, l.l and chave, e.j. 1929. the measurement of attitude. chicago university press, usa. 39-40. 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 1-pg scholar, 2asst. professor and 3professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, kau. analyzing technology adoption the case of kerala home gardens reeba jacob1, allan thomas2 and n. kishore kumar3 homegardens are traditional agroforestry system with a unique structure and function. it is the predominant farming system in kerala. the study was undertaken in thiruvananthapuram district covering a sample of 100 homegardens farmers from all the five agro-ecological units with an aim to assess the level of adoption of selected kerala agricultural university (kau) production practices in homegardens. results of the study identified that majority of the farmers (63%) belonged to medium level of adoption. adoption quotient was worked out and compared with standard rogers curve. correlation analysis of the independent variables with the dependent variable viz., level of adoption indicated that age, farming experience, knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media contribution, livestock possession and extension contribution had direct significant effect on level of adoption of kau production practices by homegarden farmers. kerala state, which accounts for a mere 1.18 per cent of the total land area of india, accommodates 3.1 per cent of the indian population. the state spreads over an area of 38,863 km2 has a population density of 860 people per km2. the per capita size of the farm holding works out to be less than one hectare. increased population pressure, emerging nucleotide family structure and decreased area under agriculture has resulted in fragmentation of land area which makes homegarden the ‘next generation farming system’ unique. intensive farming activities are undertaken by farmers on the limited area in order to obtain food, fuel, fodder, timber and cash from the sale of produce. homegardens are traditional agroforestry systems with complex structure and multiple functions where there is constant interaction and interrelation between various components. this type of farming system enables the farmers to cultivate annual and perennial crops in available limited space to satisfy the basic home requirement and market preferences if surplus is produced. ability of a country to attain the full potential of agricultural production depends upon the innovativeness and adoption of new technology by the stakeholders of agriculture. the capacity of farmers is based on the availability of various production technologies. a large number of need based agricultural production technologies have been developed by kau. generation, transfer and adoption of these developed technologies is influenced by the needs of farmers. the relevance of generated and disseminated technologies should be probed for further research in order to bridge the technology gaps. hence the present study was undertaken with the objective to measure the level of adoption of kau technologies for the production practices in homegardens and to assess the relationship journal of extension education5464 between adoption quotient and the selected independent variables. methodology the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district owing to the wide variability in the structure and cropping pattern of homegarden systems in the southern zone of kerala which is predominantly the erstwhile travancore state. 20 homegarden farmers with holding size not less than 0.1 ha were selected through simple random sampling from each of the 5 agro ecological units (aeu) thus making a sample size of 100. data were collected using a well-structured interview cum data enumeration schedule prepared for the purpose. a draft interview schedule was prepared for conducting a pilot study in a non sample area and suitable modifications were made in the final data enumeration schedule which was finally administered to the homegarden farmers by the researcher and the responses were recorded at the time of interview. level of adoption of various production practices were calculated using the general form: quotient of various practices. the original numerical data was given as extend of adoption (ei) for quantifiable data like seed rate, pit size, spacing, quantity of fertilizers applied etc and the recommended practice was considered as the potentiality of adoption of that practice(pi). a few practices were measured in terms of different stages of adoption. level of adoption of each farmer was indicated on a 15 point adoption scale. the response categories and weighted values were nonadoption (0), awareness (1), interest (3), evaluation (5), trial (10) and adoption (15). for example, if the farmer was placed in the evaluation stage his extend of adoption (ei) will be 5 and the potentiality of the adoption (pi) will be the maximum possible score i.e. 15.practices which could not be quantified were scored dichotomously as ‘yes’ or ‘no’ with the maximum possible score ‘1’ for ‘yes’ and ‘0’ for the response ‘no’. if the practice is not followed by the farmer, the response will be ‘no’ and the extent of adoption (ei) will be ‘0’ and potentiality of adoption will be ‘1’. after calculating the adoption quotient for the various production practices the adopters were categorised and compared with the standard rogers curve. the collected data were scored, tabulated and analysed using different statistical methods like mean, frequency, percentage analysis and correlation analysis. findings and discussion study was aimed to categorise homegarden farmers into different level of adoption viz., high, medium and low category of adoption. n ei ∑ pi x 100 i=1 n aq= where, aq= adoption quotient ei = extent of adoption of each practice pi = potentiality of adoption of each practice n = total number of practices selected. different scoring procedures were undertaken for measuring the adoption 5465analyzing technology adoption the case of kerala home gardens the distribution of homegarden respondents based on extent of adoption is presented in table 1. table 1 revealed that majority of farmers (63%) belong to medium category of adoption followed by 20 per cent of farmers coming under high category of adoption and 17 per cent of farmers under low category of adoption an attempt was made to categorise the homegarden respondents to different adopter table 1. distribution of respondents based on the extent of adoption of scientific production practices in homegardens n=100 sl.no. category class limits no. % 1. high (mean + standard deviation) >71.60 20 20 2. medium (between mean and standard deviation) 31.16– 71.60 63 63 3. low (mean – standard deviation) <31.16 17 17 categories as put forward by rogers, 1982. after identifying the level of adoption, adoption quotient (aq) was delineated using measures of mean and standard deviation. the obtained curve was compared with standard rogers curve. the distribution on homegarden respondents into different adopter categories are shown in fig. 1. adopter categorisation of homegarden respondents shown in fig. 1 revealed that there are no innovators in homegardens but the percentage of early adopters (17%) is higher than the standard rogers curve which was only 13.5 per cent. percentage of early majority is 34 per cent which is equivalent to that of standard normal curve which points towards the fact that 51 per cent of the homegarden respondents are fairly adopting kau production technology practices. though the respondents coming under early majority are less that rogers curve i.e 29 per cent, the percentage of laggards is 20 per cent which should be 16 per cent according to rogers innovation curve. the findings indicate that there is a need for effective and meaning full extension advisory and service supports so that the percentage of laggards and late majority can be further reduced which will invariably improve the percentage of respondents either under early majority, early adopter or innovators. thus the extent of adoption of kau production practices can be improved. the reason for the absence of innovators in the overall adoption curve could be due the extreme values assigned to the different and multiple selected production practices by the 100 respondents for seven different crops. in order to analyse the influence of independent variables on extent of adoption of farmers simple correlation analysis was done. correlation results between extent of adoption of scientific production practices by homegarden respondents and the journal of extension education5466 independent variables are shown in table 2. the results of correlation analysis which is presented in table 2 reveals that out of 13 independent variables seven variables showed positive and significant correlation with extend of adoption of scientific production practices. variables namely age, farming experience, knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media contribution and livestock possession were significantly related to extend of adoption irrespective of crop or practices at one per cent level of probability and extension contribution was significant at five per cent level of probability. hence it is inferred that all the seven variables mentioned above are directly influencing the adoption of scientific production practices or technologies in homegardens. age, knowledge and farming experience showed a positive significance to the level of adoption. it can be inferred that as age increases farming experience increases and hence it directly influences the knowledge level of the farmer. the higher level of education shows the developed educational system in the state and the literacy rate of people in the ** significant at 1 per cent level; *significant at 5 per cent level variable independent variable r x1 age 0.271** x2 education -0.189 x3 occupation 0.099 x4 effective homegarden area -0.123 x5 family size -0.035 x6 farming experience 0.264** x7 rational orientation -0.099 x8 irrigation potential 0.168 x9 knowledge 0.516** x10 evaluative perception 0.426** x11 mass media contribution 0.295** x12 extension contribution 0.210* x13 livestock possession 0.284** table 2. correlation results between extent of adoption of scientific production practices by homegarden respondents and the independent variables 5467analyzing technology adoption the case of kerala home gardens sample. majority of the homegarden farmers had high level of evaluative perception which states that farmers are following practices like mulching, resource recycling, judicious use of external inputs, soil and water conservation practices, use of itk practices, etc., in their farm which aids in maintaining sustainability of homegardens. mass media or the information support to the farmers can increase the level of adoption of scientific production practices. conclusion the study which was conducted to identify the level of adoption of kau production technology in homegardens revealed that 63 per cent of the farmers belong to medium category of adoption. on categorizing and comparing the farmers to different adopter categories as explained by rogers (1982) it was found that 17 per cent of respondents fell in the category of early adopters which was higher than that of standard rogers’s value (13.5%) and 29 per cent of respondents fell under the category of late majority that was lower than that of standard rogers’s value (34%). the findings indicates there is a need for effective and meaningful extension advisory and service supports particularly focusing on adopter categories viz., laggards and late majority which will enable improved adoption. also, it will indirectly help other categories as well, for further adoption. thus the extent of overall adoption of kau production practices can be still improved. the study thus validate that rapid technology progress and the increased rate of obsolescence of technologies, necessitate not only technology generation, but also, its dissemination and adoption. thus for any planning process in agricultural extension programmes, aimed for the socio-economic prosperity of the homegarden farming community, analyzing technology adoption becomes imperative. contribution has positive influence on level of adoption and it means that for easy dissemination of technology to farmers different mass media and information sources should be utilized to the maximum so as to increase the level of adoption. the wide range of technology be it visual or multimedia might have an influence in their adoption and hence the variable mass media or the other information support services had a positive and significant relationship with level of adoption of homegarden farmers. homegarden farmers consider homegardening as a source of income in addition to their other vocations. the extension contribution showed a positive significance to the level of adoption and an improvement in the extension services offered fig 1. distribution of homegarden respondents into adopter categories 5760 scenario analysis of rice cultivation in kerala h. athira1 and n. kishore kumar2 abstract rice is the staple food crop of kerala. at present only 12% of the gross cropped area in the state is under paddy. the paddy fields in kerala are constantly getting converted for other purposes. a steady decline in the area under rice cultivation occurred from 1980s onwards. this paper studies the changing trend in rice cultivation and provides the factors leading to shifting of rice cultivation. keywords : rice, scenario analysis, kerala. 1. pg scholar and 2. professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani-695 522 received : 28-03-2017; accepted : 13-04-2017 rice is the second largest cereal produced and consumed in the world. india occupies second position in terms of its production. india is one of the world's largest producer of white rice and brown rice, accounting for 20% of global rice production. kerala, a constituent state of india has a rich history and tradition of rice cultivation. the very first thing that comes to our mind when we say kerala, is her green cover and paddy fields. but today the situation is different. paddy fields in kerala are fast disappearing. lush green fields which once invoked prosperity and growth are now invaded by concrete buildings and sky touching malls showing a way to an uncertain future. the palakkad district, which is considered the rice bowl of kerala, has lost 1, 03,980 hectares of paddy fields in the last four decades. even though the food habits of the people of kerala had remarkably changed over the last few decades, rice still continues to be their staple food. the decline in paddy cultivation and large-scale reclamation of traditional rice fields have started to adversely affect groundwater availability in the state. paddy fields can regulate atmospheric temperature to some extent. studies attribute the increasing day time temperature in palakkad district as a consequence of large-scale reclamation of paddy fields. over the last ten years, however, there has been a commendable sign of revival in rice production in kerala. the average productivity rose from 2.21t/ha in 2002-03 to 2.87t/ha by the year 2015. this paper studies the changing trend in rice cultivation over the years and also reports the factors leading to shifting research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5760-5763 5761 of rice cultivation. it also attempts to find out various constraints faced by farmers. methodology the primary data for the study were collected from paddy farmers of palakkad district of kerala. four blocks were purposively selected for this study. palakkad district was selected because it occupies the first position in the production of rice in the state. according to the latest estimates, paddy is cultivated in around 83,998 hectares in the district. the secondary data for the study were collected from journals, publications by various academic organizations, research studies, and the data published in the official website of economics and statistics department of kerala. findings and discussion changing trend in rice cultivation over the years the area under paddy cultivation increased considerably during the first fifteen years after the state's formation – from 7, 60,000 hectares in 1955–56 to 8,80,000 hectares in 1970–71. in 1965– 66, rice accounted for the highest share of gross cropped area in kerala (32 per cent of the total). there was, however, a steady decline in the area under rice cultivation from the 1980s onwards – from 8, 50,000 hectares in 1980–81 to 5,60,000 hectares in 1990–91, and to 2,30,000 hectares in 2007–08 (thomas, 2011). presently rice is cultivated in an area of 1.98 lakh ha with a production of 5.62 lakh tonnes (gok, 2017). today, rice occupies only the third position among kerala's agricultural crops with respect to area under cultivation, and unfortunately it is far behind coconut and rubber. factors leading to shifting of rice cultivation it is often felt that seasonal shortage of agricultural labour is a major factor leading to shifting of rice cultivation in kerala today. movement of work force from agriculture to a diverse set of non-agricultural occupations has been occurring at a much faster rate in kerala when compared to the rest of india from the early decades of the 20th century. the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme can be better utilized for resolving the labour shortage in agriculture (thomas, 2011). inadequate irrigation facilities is another reason for shifting trends in rice production. productivity is found to be low in areas which lacks proper irrigation facilities. the factors perceived by the farmers for the declining trend in rice cultivation were ranked according to their importance and are presented in table 1. interestingly, some farmers pointed out that they are willing to enhance their cultivation if adequate irrigation facilities are available. wild animal menace is on the rise in the district . crop damage by wild animals in agricultural fields adjacent to forest areas is severe. scenario analysis of rice cultivation in kerala 5762 table 1 . factors leading to shifting of rice cultivation sl. no. dimensions factors rank 1. technological i) competition from other crops 3 ii) biotic stress caused due to insect, disease, nematode, rodent and weeds 2 iii) wild animal attacks 1 iv) unavailability of timely supply of inputs 6 v) lack of accessibility to mechanization 5 vi) unscientific storage facilities 4 2. economical i) less productivity 3 ii) low levels of profitability 2 iii) procurement problems and fluctuating prices 1 iv) high cost of inputs 4 v) credit problems 5 3. social / ecological i) seasonal shortage in labour supply 1 ii) forced to convert land for building purpose 3 iii) less support from family members 4 iv) uneven rainfall pattern and climate change 2 4. political i) changing governments and policies 2 ii) labour problems 1 journal of extension education 5763 this is primarily due to the straying of wild animals such as wild boar, asian elephant, indian porcupine and deer from the forest to the homesteads and plantations. consequent to this, conflict between wild animals and farmers in the fringe areas of the forests and protected areas are rising. this might have influenced the farmers to convert paddy lands to rubber plantations. rice being the staple food crop of keralites and as kerala‘s population continues to grow steadily, demand for rice is also growing. the challenge before the government for the next few years will be to feed the escalating population, keeping the prices low to benefit poor consumers and reducing production costs to benefit poor growers. the gap between demand and supply of rice which was around fifty percent till the mid-seventies is widening every year as the area under rice declined at a very fast rate due to large scale conversion of paddy lands for raising other cash crops such as coconut, rubber, banana, etc. or for residential purposes. with the gap between production and requirement of food grain widening every year, kerala’s food scene is showing a blurred picture. as a wakeup call much of the additional food demand in the future will have to be met through productivity enhancement. the current productivity of 2.8t/ha must be improved. the study has revealed that labour shortage is one of the major problems in rice cultivation. mechanization of agriculture operation may help to increase rice cultivation and curb the problems of labour shortage. many had felt that the increase in the frequency of droughts and floods and also an increase in temperatures is likely to to have a negative impact on rice yields. developing and promoting the spread of rice varieties that are less sensitive to such climatic changes is the one of the options for thriving such situations. greater investment in research and extension is inevitable to meet these challenges. references directorate of economics and statistics, kerala. (2015). retrieved from http://www.ecostat.kerala. g o v . i n / i n d e x . p h p / c o m p o n e n t / s e a r c h / r i c e % 2 0 p r o d u c t i o n . html?ordering=&searchphrase=all gok [government of kerala]. (2017). farm guide. farm information bureau, thiruvananthapuram, 320p. thomas, j. j. (2011). paddy cultivation in kerala. electronic journal of agriculture studies 2(1). retrieved from http:// www.ras.org.in/paddy cultivation in kerala/content/ vol.2/issue 1/index. html. scenario analysis of rice cultivation in kerala http://www.ecostat.kerala.gov.in/index.php/component/search/rice%20production.html?ordering=&searchphrase=all http://www.ecostat.kerala.gov.in/index.php/component/search/rice%20production.html?ordering=&searchphrase=all http://www.ecostat.kerala.gov.in/index.php/component/search/rice%20production.html?ordering=&searchphrase=all http://www.ecostat.kerala.gov.in/index.php/component/search/rice%20production.html?ordering=&searchphrase=all pages 2021-2.cdr my dear readers of journal of extension educa�on, the united na�ons has declared 2019-2028 as the 'decade of family farming'. as per fao, 'family farming', which includes all family-based agricultural ac�vi�es, is a means of organizing agricultural, forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture produc�on which is managed and operated by a family and predominantly reliant on family labour. small family farms would be playing a vital role in achieving food security for 9 billion people by 2050, as world agricultural produc�on will have to increase by 70 per cent. sta�s�cs say that globally, there are around 525 million family farmers, and they account for over half of all agricultural produc�on. of the 17 sdgs of the un, 10 are directly related to family farming. these family farms are es�mated to represent over 90 percent of the world's farms. for india, which accounts for over 24 % of the world's family farms, this exists as one of the most important factors in food produc�on. rural youth and women, who face numerous challenges in family farms, need to be at the centre of any development strategy during this 'decade', for improving their access to advisory services, credit facili�es and markets. while discussing the bo�lenecks faced by smallholder farmer groups in the arid and semi-arid lands to raising produc�on and produc�vity, kamanga (2014) had listed the following areas: 1. limited to no access to inputs: improved variety seeds, informa�on, crop protec�on inputs, and financial services; 2. limited skills and knowledge in good agronomic prac�ces required to exploit the full poten�al in improved inputs (par�cularly seeds); 3. limited knowledge of market requirements; 4. limited knowledge in harves�ng and post-harves�ng management; 5. limited access to labour-saving machinery for land prepara�on and harves�ng, to minimise the drudgery of labour-intensive agriculture; 6. limited capacity to operate as economic units that appeal to value chain players extension services have a predominant role to play in all the aforemen�oned constraints. innova�ve technologies and indigenous knowledge possessed by the farm families may have to be carefully integrated while developing strategies to overcome these constraints. this issue of jee has papers on topics such as swot analysis of milch buffalo rearing system in the wetlands of kerala, assessment of a mobile applica�on for dog breeders and group dynamics assessment of farmer producer companies. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com jee 33 (2) chief editor 6637 mailto:editorextension@gmail.com 5838 1.assistant professor (agrl. extension), triard, perambalur 621 212. 2. professor and head and 3. professor (agrl. extension), department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore – 641 003 received : 08-11-2017; accepted : 27-12-2017 journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5838-5849 utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by agricultural extension agents m.surudhi1, m.asokhan2 and r.arunachalam3 abstract a study was conducted in krishnagiri district of tamil nadu state to understand the utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by the agricultural extension agents. as ict revolution is slowly conquering the rural sector, it becomes imperative that the agricultural extension agents transform themselves to the changing times and develop competencies in utilizing these icts. the study explored the usage of various extension tools and methods by the change agents and the constraints faced in utilizing them. the findings revealed that the extension functionaries frequently used the individual contact methods viz., telephone, office calls and farm and home visits in the process of transfer of technology. least efforts were made in sending sms based communication. meetings were the common and frequently adopted group contact method. demonstrations, farmer field school, farmer interest groups, field trips and farmer training programmes were moderately adopted. posters, leaflets and pre-season campaigns were the widely adopted mass contact methods. they possess least skill in utilizing farm magazines and presenting television and radio programmes. keywords: extension method; extension agent; ict; individual contact method; group contact method; mass contact method introduction agricultural extension has a wider connotation, from providing non-formal – agriculturally related continuing adult education for multiple audiences viz., farmers, youth and community, to raise the production and profitability of their farms (agricultural production performance) and to providing a wide range of agricultural development tasks, such as credit, supplies, marketing and markets (agricultural process development). today, educational programmes delivered by extension agents are more varied than ever and will continue to change to meet the needs of the clientele they serve. given the need for sustainability in today’s world, agricultural extension agents (aeas) are expected to know more, and meet the increasing demands of a diverse farmer population. 5839 globally, some 6,00,000 extension workers are engaged in the provision of agricultural information to farmers (maalouf et.al., 1991), of which 95% is carried out by public extension (davidson et. al., 2001). however, serious reservations are being expressed about the performance and capability of this sector, placing the future of the public extension system in doubt. rogers (1987) argued that the performance of public agricultural extension in developing countries has been disappointing and has failed to transfer agricultural technology to the farmers. the challenge before the extension worker is that he needs to acquaint with the ever expanding pool of scientific knowledge to address the farm situation and become proficient in utilizing the varied options of extension methods that are developing day-by-day. with increasing penetration of internet and mobile telephony into the rural areas, the present day extension is dominated by e platform and m platform of extension service. the developments in the mass media are opening up a bouquet of opportunities to the extension worker (shuwa et.al, 2015). mass media and information and communication technologies have been widely used to supplement and complement the extension service. group approaches in extension has been promoted extensively. as the information and communication revolution is conquering the rural sector, it becomes imperative that the agricultural extension agents transform themselves to the changing times and develop competencies in utilizing these icts. in this context, the study was conceived with the following specific objectives; 1. to study the usage pattern of individual, group and mass contact methods 2. to rank the extension methods based on the preference of usage by the extension functionaries 3. to enumerate the constraints faced by the extension personnel in utilization of extension tools and methods. methodology the extension functionaries of the state department of agriculture in the entire krishnagiri district were considered for the study. a total of 98 extension functionaries available in the district in various capacities formed the population for the study. ex post facto research design was used and data were collected by using structured and standardized interview schedule by personal face-toface interview. the study utilized the classification of wilson and gallup (1954) for the purpose of studying the pattern of utilization of extension methods and tools. the extension methods and tools were classified into individual contact methods, group contact methods and mass contact methods and their usage and frequency of usage was studied. by utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by agricultural extension agents 5840 having elaborate discussions with social scientists, local extension functionaries and also the local progressive farmers, thirty nine extension methods and tools were finalized, which consisted of six items under individual contact methods, fifteen items under group contact methods and eighteen items under mass contact methods. the pattern of utilization of extension methods and tools were studied on two dimensions viz., usage and frequency of usage. the scoring pattern utilized by anand (2014) was adopted with slight modifications. findings and discussion usage of individual contact methods the findings on the usage of individual contact methods showed that all the six methods selected for the study were used by the extension functionaries. it was found that 100 per cent of the extension functionaries were using telephones and office calls. telephones were utilized by 89.80 per cent of them regularly and 72.40 per cent of them were utilizing office calls regularly. the findings of the study found 100 per cent usage of telephones by the extension functionaries and support this development. among icts, impressive penetration of mobile phones in many of the developing countries has changed the agricultural communication process and mobile phones have made personal communications readily accessible to the common man. the second individual contact with 100 per cent usage was office calls. just as the extension agent visits the farmer, from time to time, the farmer may also visit the agent at his office to obtain some information, assistance in diagnosis and treatment of some disease or deficiency, or securing some inputs, credit etc. this practice is becoming quite popular these days and many farmers visit the extension agent and this is a reflection of the interest which the agent might have aroused among the local farmers. the study found that 72.40 per cent of the extension functionaries had office calls regularly, which reflects the confidence the local farmers had on the extension agent. farm and home visits were used by 95.90 per cent of the extension functionaries and 66.30 per cent of them used it regularly. these visits help the extension functionaries to get a better understanding of the farm and home conditions of the farmer and maintain a personal rapport. the regular usage of this method by more than sixty per cent of the extension functionaries might be due to added advantage they get to know about their clients personally which would assist them in providing a tailor made extension advice to the particular farmer. journal of extension education 5841 table 1. distribution of extension functionaries according to usage and frequency of usage of individual contact methods (n=98) sl. no. contact method usage frequency of usage regularly occasionally rarely freq. % freq. % freq. % freq. % 1 telephones 98 100.00 88 89.80 10 10.20 2 farm and home visits 94 95.90 65 66.30 28 28.60 1 1.00 3 office calls 98 100.00 71 72.40 25 25.50 2 2.00 4 circular letters 57 58.20 13 13.30 35 35.70 9 9.20 5 sms 36 36.70 7 7.10 29 29.60 6 email 60 61.20 4 4.10 48 49.00 8 8.20 it could be seen from the table that, e-mails, circular letters and short messaging service were used by 61.20 per cent, 58.20 per cent and 36.70 per cent of the respondents respectively. the emails were used occasionally by 49.00 per cent of the respondents. the usage of emails by extension functionaries were mainly for official purposes rather than for contacting the farmers. the recent trend of usage of emails for official communication in government departments might have made many of the extension functionaries, at least at the middle and top level utilize it occasionally. similar is the case with circular letters, which was used by 58.20 per cent of the extension functionaries. though short messaging service (sms) was used by 36.70 per cent of the respondents, only 29.60 per cent of them used it as an extension tool. though text messaging offers significant advantage over voice-based delivery in terms of convenience and content flexibility, literacy of the farmers is a concern and most farmers preferred voice calls over sms. similar findings were also reported by jayakumar et al., (2015). moreover, merely receiving messages over mobile phone will not motivate the farmers to start using this information or apply as recommended. usage of group contact methods out of the fifteen group contact methods selected for the study, only twelve were used by the extension functionaries. remaining three methods viz. audio programmes, video programmes and through farmer producer organizations utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by agricultural extension agents 5842 were not used by any of the extension functionary. as given in table 2, 100 percent of the extension functionaries used meetings for their extension activities and 83.70 per cent of them used meetings regularly. group meetings formed the most commonly used group contact method, possibly because of the advantage of delivering the information to a group of farmers at the same time at a lower cost as well as being able to get their feed backs. more than fifty per cent of the extension functionaries used method demonstrations, result demonstration and through farmer field school. the findings are in accordance with the table 2. distribution of extension functionaries according to usage and frequency of usage of group contact methods (n=98) sl. no. group contact methods usage frequency of usage regularly occasionally rarely freq. % freq. % freq. % freq. % 1 method demonstration 52 53.10 2 2.00 47 48.00 3 3.10 2 result demonstration 65 66.30 8 8.20 50 51.00 9 9.20 3 frontline demonstration 24 24.50 21 21.40 3 3.10 4 lectures 22 22.40 21 21.40 1 1.00 5 farmer training 43 43.90 6 6.10 34 34.70 3 3.10 findings of ghanghas (2011) who reported that the most commonly used group contact methods were group meetings, demonstrations and crop competitions. forty to fifty percent of the extension functionaries used farmer trainings, field trips and through farmer interest groups. organizing farmer trainings and field trips are costly affairs and would have possibly restricted their usage. the advantages of using farmer field schools in promoting ipm has been well understood and the concept is being promoted widely through atma. hence, 52.00 per cent of the respondents reported to have used it. journal of extension education 5843 sl. no. group contact methods usage frequency of usage regularly occasionally rarely freq. % freq. % freq. % freq. % 6 meetings 98 100.00 82 83.70 16 16.30 7 tours 21 21.40 17 17.30 4 4.10 8 field trips 45 45.90 2 2.00 26 26.50 17 17.30 9 powerpoint presentations 29 29.60 24 24.50 5 5.10 10 through farmer interest groups 46 46.90 11 11.20 22 22.40 13 13.30 11 through farmer field school 51 52.00 17 17.30 23 23.50 11 11.20 12 through commodity interest group 5 5.10 5 5.10 farmer interest groups have been promoted for quite some time and it was found that 46.90 per cent of the respondents used these groups for information delivery. the advantage of group influence could be utilized effectively by the extension functionary. though commodity interest groups were used by 5.10 per cent of the respondents, farmer producer companies were not mentioned by any of the respondent. lectures, powerpoint presentations and tours were used by 20.00 to 30.00 per cent of the extension functionaries and most of them used these methods occasionally. lectures and power point presentations are mostly used in campus teaching and in intellectual forums, when coming to rural settings their usage is restricted due to availability of facilities. in the case of tours, programmes like atma has specific funds for tour programmes, whereas other schemes do not provide funds for tours. the exorbitant cost involved in organizing tours may possibly be a deterrent in their usage. usage of mass contact methods among the eighteen mass contact methods selected in the study, only twelve were used by the extension functionaries. mass contact methods like utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by agricultural extension agents 5844 television, farm journals, news stories, popular articles, feature articles and kisan melas were not used by any of the extension functionary. out of the twelve mass contact methods used, only three were used by a large number of extension functionaries. posters and leaflets were used by more than ninety per cent of the extension functionaries. the next highest mass contact method used was preseason campaigns by 73.50 per cent of the extension functionaries. the findings of the usage of mass contact methods are presented in table 3. poster as a visual media has quite an important role in creating awareness among the farmers, and this is widely accepted by the extension functionaries. the higher percentage of usage could be contributed to this reason. it is quite common to see information on agricultural practices being displayed as posters in our countryside. though 34.70 per cent of the respondents reported to use posters regularly, 56.10 per cent used it occasionally. leaflets were used by 95.90 per cent of the respondents, however only 75.50 per cent of the extension functionaries used leaflets regularly. the handy and precise information content of the leaflet and its attractiveness would have made it quite popular among the farmers. its popularity among the farmers and the cost effective nature would have made leaflets the most commonly used mass contact method. the other mass contact methods used by large percentage of extension functionaries was preseason campaigns, though most of them (73.50%) reported to use that, only 36.70 per cent used that regularly. it could be seen from table 3 that most of the mass contact methods were used occasionally by the extension functionaries including posters (56.10%) and pre-season campaigns (34.70%). similar was the case with charts (29.60%), organizing exhibitions (27.60%) and participating in farmers’ day (19.40%). this shows that the extension functionaries were not utilizing the same method repeatedly, providing opportunity for usage of other methods also. mass contact methods like television, farm journals, news stories, popular articles, feature articles and kisan melas were not used by any of the extension functionaries. this is in line with the findings of melak and negatu (2012) who found that the bottom and middle level functionaries rarely used radio or television programmes. the nonuse of the above methods might be due to the non-availability of these methods to them. production of programmes for television might not be within the reach of an extension functionary, similar is the case with the kisan melas which are difficult to organize. though farm publications like magazines, journals and news stories have become popular nowadays, only a meagre 3.10 per cent journal of extension education 5845 of the respondents reported to use farm magazines, while others were not at all utilized. journalistic skills need to be imparted to the extension functionaries so that they could effectively utilize the mass contact methods like farm magazines, news stories, popular articles and feature articles. table 3. distribution of extension functionaries according to usage and frequency of usage of mass contact methods (n=98) sl. no. contact method usage frequency of usage regularly occasionally rarely freq. % freq. % freq. % freq. % 1 through posters 89 90.80 34 34.70 55 56.10 2 through charts 33 33.70 3 3.10 29 29.60 1 1.00 3 through leaflets 94 95.90 74 75.50 18 18.40 2 2.00 4 through handouts 33 33.70 15 15.30 12 12.20 6 6.10 5 through hoardings 1 1.00 1 1.00 6 through wall paintings 10 10.20 2 2.00 8 8.20 7 through radio messages 2 2.00 2 2.00 8 through newspapers 18 18.40 1 1.00 15 15.30 2 2.00 9 writing for farm magazines 3 3.10 3 3.10 10 through organising exhibitions 27 27.60 27 27.60 11 participating in farmers’ day 20 20.40 1 1.00 19 19.40 12 through pre-season campaigns 72 73.50 36 36.70 34 34.70 1 1.00 utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by agricultural extension agents 5846 ranking of extension methods based on the preference of usage by extension functionaries out of the thirty nine extension methods selected in all the three categories, thirty were found to be used by the extension functionaries. in order to know which was the most preferred method among the extension functionaries, these methods were organized based on the mean usage score and ranked. extension methods which were used regularly obtained a maximum score of 8, while extension methods which were never used obtained a score of 1.the extension methods based on their mean usage score has been presented in table 4. it could be seen that telephones, meetings, office calls, leaflets and farm and home visits were the most preferred extension methods being utilized by most extension functionaries, which is evident from the mean usage score of above 7 out of 8. these methods are easy to handle and do not require any specialized equipment or instrument for usage, hence became more popular. the next to follow was the posters with a mean usage score of 6.23 out of 8. these are the time tested and conventional methods, quite popular for adult education throughout the world. hence their usage by majority of the extension functionaries is understandable. pre-season campaign is a routine programme organized by the department of agriculture. just before the onset of season, programmes are conducted to popularize new varieties and package of practices for specific crops. this might be the reason why pre-season campaigns secured a mean usage score of 5.34. similar is the case with result demonstrations, numerous demonstration plots could be seen along the roadsides in rural areas, especially to promote sri, being put up by the department of agriculture. extension functionaries of the department of agriculture are involved in setting up these demonstration plots. it is a wellknown fact that adult learners make maximum use of their senses in order to learn effectively and demonstrations enhance the use of their senses. table 4. distribution of extension methods based on preference of usage (n=98) sl. no extension contact methods mean usage score 1 telephone call 7.8 2 meetings 7.67 3 office calls 7.41 4 through leaflets 7.27 5 farm and home visit 7.1 6 through posters 6.23 7 through preseason campaigns 5.34 8 result demonstration 4.3 9 circular letters 3.99 journal of extension education 5847 sl. no extension contact methods mean usage score 10 emails 3.98 11 through farmer field schools 3.72 12 method demonstration 3.63 13 through farmer interest groups 3.31 14 farmers trainings 3.26 15 field trips 2.99 16 through handouts 2.87 17 through charts 2.72 18 powerpoint presentations 2.38 19 through organising exhibitions 2.38 20 sms 2.24 21 frontline demonstration 2.16 22 lectures 2.1 23 participating farmers day 2.04 24 tours 1.99 25 through newspapers 1.9 26 through wall paintings 1.55 27 through commodity interest groups 1.26 28 writing to farm magazines 1.15 29 through radio messages 1.1 30 through hoardings 1.05 the other extension methods like emails, circular letters, farmer field schools and method demonstrations were the next to follow with a better mean usage scores. the other eighteen extension methods have obtained a mean usage score of less than 3.5. constraints in the utilization of extension methods the extension functionaries were asked to enumerate the constraints they faced in the utilization of different extension methods. with regard to the constraints encountered by the extension functionaries in the usage of individual contact methods, more than fifty per cent of the respondents found that the short messaging services (sms) was not preferred by many farmers and many farmers did not use e mails. similarly e mails have become the major official communication tool in many of the offices, whether government or private, as reported by 48.98 per cent of the respondents. most of our farmers are still far away from computers and emails are still in the infancy and needs a long way to go for being an effective extension tool. a small proportion (25.00 to 35.00%) of the extension functionaries also reported the lack of time and transport facilities to reach the farmers regularly. presently, the grass root level workers depend on their personal vehicles for visiting villages. the exorbitant cost involved in conducting tours and field trips were reported by 63.26 per cent of extension utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by agricultural extension agents 5848 functionaries. the absence of facilities to make power point presentations, playing video or broadcasting audio programmes in the villages were reported by 58.16 per cent of the respondents. with regard to conducting meetings, the major problem encountered was the meagre attendance on the part of the farmers. more than fifty per cent (54.08%) of the extension functionaries were complaining about the meagre attendance. the reason for the meagre attendance may be the lack of interest or non-availability of time on the part of the farmers. the other major problem encountered was in organizing the farmers into groups, which was felt by 50.00 per cent of the extension functionaries. the village factions based on caste and politics make it difficult to bring farmers together. moreover, it was found that many farmers were not interested or shy in joining groups. with regard to usage of radio and television to provide extension messages, 40.82 per cent of the extension functionaries were of the opinion that they lack access to these media. the nearest radio and television station is chennai. though bengaluru is nearest to this district, the radio and television station there could not be utilized due to language problem. the high cost of conducting exhibitions and kisan melas were the problems reported by 55.10 per cent of the extension functionaries. the usage of magazines, journals etc. were found to be very meagre and the major problem reported for this was that they were not aware of where to send the articles for publication as reported by 40.82 per cent of the extension functionaries. fifty per cent of the respondents also reported that they lack the expertise in writing feature articles or news stories for magazines or journals. lack of time for writing the articles was reported by 38.78 per cent of the respondents. even though there were many constraints expressed by the extension functionaries in the utilization of different extension methods in their process of transfer of technology almost all the constraints could be well addressed by conducting appropriate training programmes, providing required facilities, supporting staff and other appropriate management functions. conclusion the extension functionaries need to be trained adequately on the wider use of electronic communication methods like e mails, and sms in the local language, so as to facilitate its usage among the farmers. efforts should be taken up to sensitize the importance of the usage of different group and mass contact methods for different purposes. the extension worker should also be trained on the procedure and principles of organizing these group and mass contact methods. journal of extension education 5849 references anand, k. (2014). information management patterns of extension personnel – an analysis, unpublished ph.d thesis, coimbatore, tnau. davidson, p. andrew, ahmad, m & ali, t. (2001). dilemmas of agricultural extension in pakistan: food for thought, agricultural research and extension network, network paper no. 116, isbn 085003 543 0 ghanghas, b.s. (2011). analysis of communication sources used by farm technology researchers, extension personnel and farmers, journal of progressive agriculture, 2(1): 79 – 83. jayakumar, n, sundaramari, m & sindhu, d. (2015). usage of mobile phones by farmer convenors for agricultural information gathering, paper presented at the global social science conference on management of sustainable livelihood systems, orissa university of agriculture and technology, 14-17 feb, 2015. maalouf, w.d., adhikarya, r & contado, t. (1991). ‘extension coverage and resource problems: the need for publicprivate co-operation’, in w.m. rivera and d.j. gustafson (eds). agricultural extension: worldwide, amsterdam, elsevier. melak, degsew & workneh, negatu (2012). agricultural education and technical competency of development agents in ethiopia, journal of agricultural extension and rural development, 4(11): 347-351. shuwa, m.i., shettima, l., makinta, b.g & kyari, a. (2015). impact of mass media on farmers agricultural production, case study of borno state, agricultural development programme, academia journal of scientific research, 3(1) : 008-014. trai (telecom regulatory authority of india) (2016). highlights of telecom subscription data as on 31st january 2016. press release no. 22/2016. wilson, m.c & gallup, g. (1954). teaching methodology, agricultural extension work, united states home economics, usda, no.495, 92. utilization pattern of extension tools and methods by agricultural extension agents 5958 extent of awareness of distance learners of tamil nadu agricultural university t.r. sridevi krishnaveni1, p. balasubramaniam2, a. anusuya3 and s. vasanthapriya4 abstract the present research was framed to assess the awareness level of distance learners of tamil nadu agricultural university. three certificate courses were selected based on maximum number of enrollment, viz, gardening & landscaping, mushroom production & solid waste management and vermicomposting. ex-post facto research design was employed. a total of 150 respondents were selected from the three courses by equal allocation method proportionate random sampling. a well-structured questionnaire was prepared and the information was collected by sending questionnaires through post. the 108 individuals who responded were taken as the sample for the study. the results of the research pointed out that nearly threefourths of the respondents possessed medium level of awareness on selected technologies. keywords : awareness, certificate course; tamil nadu agricultural university; open and distance learning introduction 1 & 4 – ph.d., scholars and 3. p.g. scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore; 2 – professor, department of social sciences, adac&ri, trichy. tamil nadu received : 128-08-2017; accepted : 06-11-2017 distance education, is a type that can be included under non-formal education. it is a structured learning in which the student and instructor are separated by place, and sometimes separated by time. it was once considered as a special form of education using nontraditional delivery systems but now has become an important concept in mainstream education even in agricultural education. the conventional agricultural schools at national, regional and state level could accommodate only two per cent of youth who desire to opt for agricultural education. quality wise, distance agricultural education has inherent limitations about practical sessions and laboratory experimentations and interactive learning. tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau), coimbatore beyond its tri-fold function started a separate directorate for open and distance learning (odl) for transfer journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5958-5965 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 5959 of technology with an objective to reach the unreached. several types of courses are being offered at tnau in distance mode and certificate course is one among them. this study has made an attempt to study the extent of awareness on critical technologies enhanced through odl certificate courses of tnau. methodology tamil nadu agricultural university offers different certificate courses through open and distance learning (odl) mode. among the entire certificate courses only three courses were selected based on maximum number of enrollment, viz, gardening & landscaping, mushroom production and solid waste management & vermicomposting. ex-post research design was employed. a total of 150 respondents were selected from the entire three courses by equal allocation method proportionate random sampling. a well-structured questionnaire was prepared and the information was collected through mailed questionnaires method. after giving considerable period of time to send back their responses, 108 registered learners were responded. these 108 respondents were taken as the sample for the study. findings and discussion profile of the respondents among the respondents, nearly half of the respondents (43.52 %) who had enrolled in certificate courses in distance learning mode belonged to middle age group i.e, 35 to 45 years. more than half of the respondents (63.89 %) enrolled in the certificate courses at directorate of open and distance learning (dodl) were male and 36.11 per cent of respondents were female. majority of them (30.60 %) were with higher secondary level education (28.70 %) and secondary level education (15.70 %). one third of them (33.30 %) had job in private sector followed by equal proportion of respondents having professions as self employment (23.20 %) and farming (22.20 %). considerable per cent of them belonged to unemployed category (13.90 %). the respondents were distributed equally among urban and rural background category with 54.60 per cent and 45.40 per cent respectively. the overall analysis revealed that more than half of the respondents (66.70 %) had medium level of information seeking behavior followed by 19.40 per cent of them with low information seeking behavior. awareness awareness was operationalized as the respondent’s familiarity with the subject matter dealt in certificate courses in distance mode. from the table 1, it could be observed that nearly three fourth of the respondents (74.00 %) possessed medium level of awareness followed by 13.90 per cent of respondents with low level of awareness and 12.10 per cent of respondents with high level of awareness. being a short duration vocational course, the certificate courses offered at dodl, 5960 tnau had imparted knowledge about all basic technologies to launch and manage table 2. correlation between the independent variables and awareness of respondents variable no. variables ‘r’ value landscaping mushroom vermicomposting x1 age 0.253ns 0.763** 0.443** x2 gender -0.224ns 0.206ns -0.038ns x3 educational status 0.440** -0.004ns 0.844** x4 marital status -3.07ns 0.370* -0.194ns x5 occupational status -0.013ns 0.086ns -0.267ns x6 annual income 0.000ns -0.058ns 0.804** x7 job experience 0.228ns 0.220ns 0.171ns x8 rural-urban background 0.116ns -0.363* -0.638** x9 geographic distance -0.121ns -0.883** -0.944** table 1. distribution of respondents according to their level of awareness (n=108) sl. no. category gardening & landscaping (n = 34) mushroom production (n = 38) solid waste management & vermicomposting (n = 36) total (n = 108) no % no % no % no % 1. low 2 5.90 4 10.50 9 25.00 15 13.90 2. medium 24 70.60 29 79.30 27 75.00 80 74.00 3. high 8 23.50 5 13.20 0 0.00 13 12.10 total 34 100.00 38 100.00 36 100.00 108 100.00 the relationship between the independent variables and awareness is given in table 2. an enterprise. this might be the reason for their increased level of awareness. 5961 variable no. variables ‘r’ value landscaping mushroom vermicomposting x10 medium of instruction 0.376* -0.252ns -0.928** x11 computer knowledge 0.269ns -0.029ns 0.673** x12 information seeking behavior 0.937** 0.719** 0.828** x13 information sharing behavior 0.810** 0.799** 0.945** x14 job aspiration 0.353* 0.827** 0.664** x15 determinant factors -0.891** 0.916** -0.850** x16 economic motivation 0.929** 0.730** 0.969** x17 attitude towards entrepreneurship 0.923** 0.862** 0.910** x18 evaluation of syllabus 0.872** 0.963** 0.860** x19 evaluation of course outline 0.845** 0.960** 0.841** x20 evaluation of course content 0.892** 0.931** 0.899** x21 evaluation of course material 0.813** 0.793** 0.838** x22 evaluation of physical facilities 0.0780** 0.860** 0.919** x23 evaluation of modes of teaching 0.929** 0.895** 0.792** x24 evaluation of teaching aids 0.946** 0.860** 0.853** x25 evaluation of teaching methods 0.935** 0.848** 0.773** 5962 variable no. variables ‘r’ value landscaping mushroom vermicomposting x26 evaluation of teacher-taught interaction 0.768** 0.883** 0.933** x27 evaluation of administration 0.821** 00.955** 0.878** *significant at 5 % level ** significant at 1 % level ns – not significant landscaping from table 2, it could be inferred that out of 27 variables, 15 variables viz, educational status (x3), information seeking behavior (x12), information sharing behavior (x13), economic motivation (x16), attitude towards entrepreneurship (x17), evaluation of syllabus (x18), course outline (x19), course content (x20), course material (x21), physical facilities (x22), modes of teaching (x23), teaching aids (x24), teaching methods (x25), teacher-taught interaction (x26) and administration (x27) had a positive significant relationship at one percent level. determinant factor (x15) had negative significant relationship at 1% level of significance with the awareness level of distance learners of gardening and landscaping course of dodl, tnau. job aspiration (x14) and medium of instruction (x10) had a positive and significant relationship with awareness at 5% level of significance. majority of the respondents (39.50 %) belonged to middle age group and hence age had a positive influence towards awareness. majority (64.70 %) had medium level of information seeking behavior and 70.60 % of the respondents’ possessed good information sharing behavior. as the respondents possessed these characteristics they would share information with their known circle of people and hence information seeking and sharing behavior had positive relationship with the awareness. more than half of the respondents (62.00 %) and majority of the respondents (82.00%) possess medium economic motivation and medium attitude towards entrepreneurship. these factors reveal the respondents’ interest towards livelihood upliftment and determination to achieve their career goals. therefore, it had a positive influence on awareness. as far as course effectiveness is concerned majority of the respondents felt satisfied with every aspect of the course like syllabus, course outline, course content, course material, pcp and administration. as the effectiveness increases the commitment, interest and 5963 involvement of the respondents towards the course, institution and subject. in turn the level of awareness also rises. hence, course effectiveness had a positive link with awareness. marital status explained that, 58.00 per cent of respondents were married and had children. the respondents with this marital status have higher desire to develop their family and also to achieve higher goals. hence, it had a positive link with awareness. as the geographic distance increases the frequency of respondents to attend the personal contact classes (pcp) decreases, which, ultimately leads to less awareness about concepts related to the subject. hence, geographic distance was linked negatively to awareness. similarly 47.40 per cent of respondents were with rural background. rural areas are lagging a little from urban areas in terms of social contact and ict developments hence it might have affected the awareness level. mushroom production from table 2, it could be inferred that out of 27 variables, 17 variables viz, age (x1), information seeking behavior (x12), information sharing behavior (x13), job aspiration (x14), determinant factors (x15), economic motivation (x16), attitude towards entrepreneurship (x17), evaluation of syllabus (x18), course outline (x19), course content (x20), course material (x21), physical facilities (x22), modes of teaching (x23), teaching aids (x24), teaching methods (x25), teacher-taught interaction (x26) and administration (x27) show positive significant relationship at one percent level. marital status (x4) had a positive influence at 5 % level of significance. geographic distance had negative significant relationship at 1% level of significance and rural-urban background had negative influence at 5% significance level on the awareness level of the respondents enrolled with the mushroom production course offered by dodl, tnau. majority of the respondents belonged to the educational status of undergraduate level of education, had medium level of information seeking behavior and possessed medium level of economic motivation and attitude toward entrepreneurship respectively. these factors might have contributed to their determination to achieve their career goal, hence it had a positive influence with awareness. as far as course effectiveness is concerned, majority of the respondents felt satisfied with every aspect of the course like syllabus, course outline, course content, course material, pcp and administration. as the effectiveness increases, it creates a positive attitude among the respondents towards the institute, facilitators and subject hence it ultimately lead to increase in awareness among the respondents. 5964 majority of the respondents had their previous education through mother tongue (i.e. tamil) as the medium of instruction, as the certificate courses were also offered in their mother tongue at dodl, tnau, the level of understanding was high and easy hence medium of instruction had positive relationship with the awareness. solid waste management and vermicomposting from table 2, it could be inferred that out of 27 variables, 19 variables viz, age (x1), educational status (x3), annual income (x6), computer knowledge (x11), information seeking behavior (x12), information sharing behavior (x13), job aspiration (x14), economic motivation (x16), attitude towards entrepreneurship (x17), evaluation of syllabus (x18), course outline (x19), course content (x20), course material (x21), physical facilities (x22), modes of teaching (x23), teaching aids (x24), teaching methods (x25), teacher-taught interaction (x26) and administration (x27) had positive significant relationship at one percent level with the awareness level of the beneficiaries of solid waste management and vermicomposting course offered at dodl, tnau. rural-urban background (x8), geographic distance (x9), medium of instruction (x10) and determinant factors (x15) had negatively significant relationship at 1% level of significance. majority of the respondents (52.80 %) belonged to middle age group. this age group people have a strong commitment towards family and strong desire to achieve their goals to uplift its socioeconomic condition. they were more attentive to gather information; hence age had a positive influence towards awareness. as regards, the effectiveness of the course effectiveness, majority of the respondents felt satisfied with every aspects of the course like syllabus, course outline, course content, course material, pcp and administration. hence, course effectiveness had a positive link with awareness. conclusion from this study, it is learnt that most of the respondents belonged to urban population and hence efforts should be taken to create awareness about the certificate courses among rural population. refinement of course material with more pictures and illustrations considering the heterogeneous nature of the group is highly needed. references archana, k. p. (2014). impact of certificate courses offered through odl mode at tnau. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tnau, coimbatore. asokhan, m. (2006). empowerment of rural women through self help groups an empirical analysis. unpublished 5965 ph. d. thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tnau, coimbatore. ghani, e. k., said, j & nasir, n. m. (2008). determinants of malaysian adult learners in the klang valley. proceedings of icde international conference held during november 1923. new delhi. thilagam, j. (2009). an evaluation study on gratification, perception and problems of odl students of tnau. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tnau, coimbatore. verma, s. r. (2014). impact of post graduate course on sugarcane technology offered through open and distance learning mode. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tnau, coimbatore. 6048 a study on extent of participation and perception of farmers on benefits of iwmp (integrated watershed management programme) vaithiyanath1, g. samuel2 and i. sreenivasa rao3 abstract watershed is a basin-like landform defined by highpoints and ridgelines that descend into lower elevations and stream valleys. watershed development involves conservation, regeneration and judicious utilization of natural resources. it aims to bring about an optimum balance between the demand and use of natural resources so that they remain sustainable over time. ex-post-facto research design was adopted for the study with the objective to find out the extent of participation of watershed farmers in integrated watershed management programme (iwmp) and to find out its benefits. majority of the watershed farmers had medium level of participation in iwmp followed by low and high participation. the independent variables viz., age, education, farming experience, training received, socio-political participation, efficiency of group leadership, group cohesiveness, decision making pattern and hard work oriented-ness were found positively and significantly related with the extent of participation of watershed farmers in iwmp. keywords: watershed, integrated watershed management programme; participation; telangana introduction watershed is a basin-like landform defined by highpoints and ridgelines that descend into lower elevations and stream valleys. watershed development involves conservation, regeneration and judicious utilization of natural resources. it aims to bring about an optimum balance between the demand and use of natural resources so that they remain sustainable over time. bhattacharya (2008) gave a new definition to watershed as “it is to harmonize the water, soil, forest and pasture in a way that conserves these resources while raising agricultural received : 06-01-2018; accepted : 22-11-2018 1. agriculture officer, 2 & 3 professors, dept. of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, pjtsau, rajendra nagar, hyderabad, telangana production both by conserving the moisture in the soil and by increasing irrigation through tank and aquifer based water harvesting”. for implementation of iwmp watersheds, state level nodal agency (slna) has been constituted by the state government, the principal secretary of the rural development being the chairperson and the commissioner, rural development department is the full-time ceo of the slna having an independent bank account. the district water management agency (dwma) implements these watersheds through project officers in 75 per cent of research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6048-6055 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6049 the sanctioned projects and 25 per cent of the projects through line departments, autonomous organizations under state/ central governments, government institutes / research bodies, intermediate panchayats, voluntary organisations (vos) by the village watershed committees. there is a close relationship between the environment and human community living within, for its livelihood. when the economic condition of a community deteriorates, it leads to over-exploitation and degradation of natural resources. it is necessary for the people to understand the relationship between their poverty and the degraded environment they live in. environmental regeneration is possible only when the concerned people realize a need for it and empowered to have control over the process of resource utilization, management and conservation. as human beings their activities are the primary cause of environmental degradation, they can restore the health of the environment they have ruined by resetting their ways and activities towards the environment around. hence, there can be no sustainable natural resource management unless it involves the participation of all inhabitants of the concerned environment in an active mode. keeping this in mind, efforts were taken to find out the extent of participation of watershed farmers in integrated watershed management programme and to find out the benefits of integrated watershed management programme. methodology the state of telangana in india, was selected purposively for the study as the researcher hails from the state and is familiar with the regional language and cultural patterns. telangana state, comprising 10 districts namely hyderabad, rangareddy, mahaboobnagar, nalgonda, nizamabad, karimnagar, adilabad, medak, warangal and khammam is divided into three agro climatic zones viz., southern telangana, northern telangana and central telangana. among the three agro climatic zones the southern telangana zone receives comparatively less rainfall than the other two. among the districts of southern telangana, medak district consists of significant area under dryland agriculture and large number of iwmps are being implemented in thes district. this district in telangana state was selected purposively for the study. out of total forty six (46) mandals in the district two mandals namely sadashivpet and kondapur were selected randomly for the study. from the two selected mandals three villages each namely atmakur, bobiligum and yellaram from sadashivpet and mallepally, terpole and guntapally from kondapur mandals were selected at random. a total of twenty (20) watershed farmers from each village were selected randomly making a total sample of 120 respondents. socio political participation was operationally defined as the degree of involvement of watershed farmer in social and political organizations prevailing in the village such as village panchayat, youth club, water user’s association (wua), self help group (shg), user group (ug) and village watershed development committee (vwdc). a study on extent of participation and perception of farmers on benefits of iwmp (integrated watershed management programme) 6050 scoring: the individual total score was obtained by summing up all the scores of different organizations. the maximum and minimum possible scores were 21 and 6 respectively. the maximum and minimum scores obtained were 20 and 6 respectively. findings and discussion extent of participation in iwmp the results indicate that majority of the farmers (54.20%) had medium level of participation, followed by low (24.10%), and high (21.70%) participation in iwmp. the medium level participation of farmers in iwmp might be due to the fact that majority of the farmers were small farmers and possess low level of education. due to their low education level they do not depend on reading newspapers, farm magazines and agricultural news articles, thus there could be medium information seeking behavior which results in redium level of participated. the government need to take measures to inculcate team spirit in forming the groups among the watershed farmers to follow the community approach for participation in iwmp. measures may also be taken up to conduct more awareness programmes on highlighting the importance of water harvesting structures. the state department of agriculture, dwma and kvks should conduct more awareness programmes, campaigns, exposure visits to inculcate the spirit of sensing the importance of water harvesting structures in watershed programme. saikat and surya (2015) and singh et al. (2010) also found similar results whereas meshesha et al. (2015) found poor community participation in watershed management. relationship between profile characteristics and extent of participation null hypothesis: there will be no significant relationship between profile characteristics of watershed farmers and their extent of participation of iwmp. empirical hypothesis: there will be a significant relationship between profile characteristics of watershed farmers and their extent of participation of iwmp. table 1. correlation coefficient values between profile characteristics and dependent variables n=120 sl. no variables participation 1 age 0.1782* 2 education 0.1564* 3 farm size 0.1232 ns 4 farming experience 0.2434** 5 training received 0.2583** 6 socio-political participation 0.2660** 7 efficiency of group leadership 0.1685* journal of extension education 6051 sl. no variables participation 8 group cohesiveness 0.1443* 9 decision making pattern 0.1590* 10 information seeking behaviour 0.0726 ns 11 annual income 0.0629 ns 12 hard work-orientedness 0.1497* 13 type of irrigation 0.0678 ns 14 enterprise possessed 0.0719 ns 15 net returns 0.0730 ns *significant at 5 % level of probability; **significant at 1% level of probability: nsnon-significant it is clearly evident from table 1 that, the calculated ‘r’ values between participation and farming experience, training received and socio-political participation were greater than ‘r’ table value at 1.00 per cent level of probability which indicated positive and highly significant relationship. age, education, efficiency of group leadership, group cohesiveness, decision making pattern and hard work orientedness were also positively and significantly correlated to participation at 5.00 per cent level of probability. hence, null hypothesis was rejected and empirical hypothesis was accepted for the variables. therefore, it can be concluded that there was a positive and significant relationship between the selected profile characteristics and extent of participation in iwmp. on the other hand, the calculated ‘r’ values between participation and farm size, information seeking behaviour, annual income, type of irrigation, enterprise possessed and net returns were less than ‘r’ table value. hence null hypothesis is accepted and empirical hypothesis was rejected for these variables. therefore, it can be concluded that there was no significant relationship between these profile characteristics and extent of participation in iwmp. it is also observed from table 2 that, the calculated ‘r’ values between perception and training received and decision making pattern were greater than table ‘r’ value at 1.00 per cent level of probability which indicated positive and highly significant relationship. age, farm size, farming experience, sociopolitical participation, efficiency of group leadership, group cohesiveness, decision making pattern and hard work orientedness were also positively and significantly correlated to perception at 5.00 per cent level of probability. hence, null hypothesis was rejected and empirical hypothesis accepted for these variables. therefore, it can be concluded that there is a positive and significant relationship between above profile characteristics and perception on the outcomes of implementation of iwmp. on the other hand, the calculated ‘r’ values between perception and education, a study on extent of participation and perception of farmers on benefits of iwmp (integrated watershed management programme) 6052 information seeking behaviour, annual income, type of irrigation, enterprise possessed and net returns were less than ‘r’ table value. hence null hypothesis accepted and empirical hypothesis was rejected for these variables. therefore, it can be concluded that there was no significant relationship between the profile characteristics and perception. relationship between profile characteristics and extent of participation: the relationship between profile characteristics and extent of participation is briefly discussed below : age and extent of participation age was found to be positively and significantly correlated with the extent of participation of watershed farmers in iwmp. the reason might be that majority of the respondents were of middle to old age group and the young farmers had not participated in watershed activities as compared to their counterparts. education and extent of participation from the findings it was revealed that most of the watershed farmers were educated up to primary level followed by illiterates and there was a positive and significant relationship between education and dependent variable participation. the reason might be that with the knowledge acquired as a result of education they could participated effectively. therefore the management should initiate education efforts among the farmers for better participation in watershed as quite a good number of farmers belong to illiterate category. farming experience and extent of participation from the findings it is evident that majority of the watershed farmers had medium experience in farming which may be attributed to similar trends in the independent variable age where middle age respondents were more in number. farming experience was found to be positively and significantly correlated with participation, as these is increase in experience the farmers tend to have more their interest in farming and thus participate more in watershed activities. training received and extent of participation training received was found to have a significant and positive correlation with participation. majority of the farmers had medium level of training received and it was observed that with increase in training, there was better participation. the iwmp gives importance to training on different stages and aspects of watershed which helps better participation. as there was good number of farmers with low training received, the management should look forward for more technical trainings to the farmers so that still better participation can be ensured and scientific based training on agricultural input and livestock management should be organized by efficient resource persons/ agencies. socio-political participation and extent of participation it was observed in the findings that socio-political participation had a positive and significant relationship with participation journal of extension education 6053 of the farmers in iwmp. with the trainings received, their participation increased and they played active role in village social organizations like youth clubs, water user association, user groups, shgs and village watershed committees. the activities of these social organizations should be improved as it had a direct and positive relationship with participation of the farmers in iwmp. all the participating farmers should be given special priority in the watershed management through shgs approach. similar findings were revealed by sahoo and dash (2013) and puhan and malla (2015). efficiency of group leadership and extent of participation from the findings it was revealed that the independent variable efficiency of group leadership was positively and significantly correlated with the dependent variable participation, which means better the efficiency of group leadership higher the participation of farmers in iwmp. the reason might be that with increased efficient leadership in the group, the participants could be motivated for more participation. the management should identify such efficient leaders from the community for better participation of the watershed farmers in iwmp. group cohesiveness and extent of participation from the findings it was evident that group cohesiveness was positively and significantly correlated with participation of watershed farmers in iwmp. the reason might be that mutual understanding, encouragement for group members, less conflicts disagreements the respondents feels better about the programme and participate more in iwmp activities. as the findings of the independent variable group cohesiveness shows medium to low trend the management should work towards better cohesiveness among the group members. decision making pattern and extent of participation the findings revealed that decision making pattern had a positive and significant relationship with participation. a democratic decision making pattern involving all stakeholders increases the trust among the participants which reflects in increased participation by the members. therefore, the groups should be encouraged to take decisions after due consultation with all the members of the group. hard work orientedness and extent of participation from the findings it is evident that the independent variable hard work orientedness had positive and significant relationship with participation. the reason might be that with their experience in farming they might have found better results with hard work, which was reflected in the findings. the farmers who achieve due to their hard work should be projected in the community with rewards and recognitions, which may motivate other farmers. perception on benefits of iwmp the results in table 2 indicate that a study on extent of participation and perception of farmers on benefits of iwmp (integrated watershed management programme) 6054 majority of the farmers had medium perception about all the three components viz. extent of table 3. distribution of farmers according to their perception on benefits of iwmp n=120 sl. no. category extent of usefulness extent of utilization extent of satisfaction f % f % f % 1 low (43-72) 23 19.16 16 13.33 12 10.00 2 medium (72-101) 59 49.16 70 58.33 66 55.00 3 high (101-130) 38 31.66 34 28.33 42 35.00 usefulness (49.16%), utilization (58.33%) and satisfaction (55.00%) on benefits of iwmp. a statement containing 43 items describing recent watershed technologies was presented to the farmers and were requested to express their perception of these technologies in terms of extent of their usefulness, utilization and satisfaction. based on the scores obtained on the rating scale, the data were classified under low, medium and high based on range of scores. it may be observed from the table that in terms of usefulness about half (49.16%) of the respondents perceived it as medium while about one fourth (31.66%) perceived it as high and the remaining (19.16%) perceived it as low. we can conclude that the perception of respondents on extent of usefulness was medium to high. in terms of extent of utilization majority (58.33%) perceived it as medium followed by high (28.33%) and low (13.33%) perception. this again led to the conclusion that the perception of respondents on extent of utilization was medium to high. in terms of extent of satisfaction, majority (55.00%) had perceived it as medium followed by high (35.00%) and low (10.00%) which followed the same trend of medium to high like the other two components. thus the overall perception of the respondents on benefits of iwmp was medium to high which appears to be logical as all usefulness, utilization and satisfaction were interlinked. conclusion the vision of the iwmp is to transform the elements of poverty into prosperity through effective watershed management programmes to sustain the rural livelihoods of the poor in drought prone areas. the mission of iwmp is to establish appropriate institutional structure for effective convergence in place and adopt holistic, integrated approach of managing various capitals, thus creating equal opportunities for communities through improved production systems as well as supportive employment generation. it is one of the tools, which can be utilized effectively for sustainable development of farmers, taking the results of the study in to consideration. journal of extension education 6055 references bhattacharya, a. (2008). sustainable livelihood based watershed management – watershed plus approach. 1st working group meeting of eria, manila, philippines. meshesha, yericho, b., birhanu & belay, s. (2015). assessment of the effectiveness of watershed management intervention in chena woreda, kaffa zone, south western ethiopia. journal of water resource and protection. 7(15): 1257-1269. puhan, r.r & malla, l. (2015). impact and effectiveness of watershed development programmes in education and health in keonjhar district of odisha: a critical analysis. american research journal of humanities and social sciences. 1(2): 6-16. sahoo, s & dash, a. (2013). involvement of shgs in watershed management an impact analysis. odisha review. 49-52. saikat, m & surya, r. (2015). social sustainability of natural resource management activities: a research in dry zone of west bengal. journal of human ecology. 50(2): 111-119. singh p, behera, h.c & singh, a. (2010). impact and effectiveness of watershed development programmes in india. centre for rural studies. 29-54. a study on extent of participation and perception of farmers on benefits of iwmp (integrated watershed management programme) editorial 1 from the editor’s desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, it is with great pleasure that i assume the role of chief editor of journal of extension education (jee). my appreciation and respect for the chief editors of jee, who have preceded me, since its launch 26 years ago, in 1990 : dr. k. a. ponnusamy, dr. j. oliver, dr. r. vijayaraghavan and dr. h. philip. it is indeed an honour to follow in the footsteps of prof. philip who served as the chief editor of this journal for the last 18 years and has now moved on to become the president of extension education society. thanks are due to prof. philip for his tireless commitment to make jee a reputed journal, as it appears today. among his many accomplishments, during his long tenure, prof. philip had ensured that the journal is published regularly, without a break, even while facing several challenges along the journey. i am indebted to him for allowing me to work alongside him during my tenure as associate editor, which helped me to gain a greater understanding of the nuances of editing jee. i am sure i would appreciate and seek his continued guidance as i begin my tenure as the chief editor. well. we now have an editorial board in place with accomplished scholars in their fields from india and elsewhere. their knowledge and experience are essential to uphold the professional standing of the journal and i sincerely look forward very much to work with them for the years to come. we also have five committed associate editors. in line with our objective to improve the visibility and impact of jee, we have gone online with the help of ojs (open journal systems). you can now access jee at www.extensioneducation.org. with this development, we are now in an excellent position to further improve the quality of journal output. we have also switched over to apa style of referencing. the manuscript submission and review process has also been changed from a mail/hard copy procedure to an electronic process, after going online. very soon, jee will be indexed in doaj (directory of open access journals) and other reputed abstracting/indexing agencies. special issues of jee on current topics are also in the offering. this jee issue is dominated by articles on krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) which i hope would make an important contribution to furthering our understanding of the role played by these grass root-level institutions in agriculture and rural development. i would like to take this opportunity to thank the previous editorial team members for their sincere commitment to maintain the tall standards to which jee aspires. i also thank the outgoing office-bearers while welcoming the new office-bearers of extension education society. with the earnest support of extension education society, tnau, editorial board members, associate editors, reviewers and authors, i see jee going from strength to strength, firmly positioning itself within the top five journals in extension education, globally. i invite jee readers to keep in touch with us with questions, comments, and suggestions by emailing at editorextension@gmail.com. chief editor untitled 6008 extent of adoption of house terrace cultivation of urban dwellers of thiruvananthapuram corporation, kerala greeshma udayan 1 and g. s. sreedaya2 abstract this paper assesses the adoption of recommended practices for house terrace cultivation in thiruvananthapuram corporation of kerala by the urban dwellers. majority of the urban dwellers came under medium level of adoption of recommended practices for house terrace cultivation of kerala agricultural university. with respect to rogers’ adoption curve, categorisation of respondents was done on the basis of adoption of the recommended practices for house terrace cultivation of kerala agricultural university the results revealed that there was high percentage of respondents in the early adopter category. keywords : house terrace cultivation; extent of adoption; urban dwellers; kerala agricultural university; recommended practice; adopter categories; kerala. 1. research associate (agricultural extension) & 2. assistant professor (sr: scale), department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. received : 15-03-2018; accepted : 12-05-2018 introduction house terrace cultivation had existed since the days of babylon in 2300 bc; today the concept has gained momentum in india due to population explosion and shrinkage of cultivable lands, the indiscriminate use of pesticides in the state and the increased dependence on imported vegetables from neighbouring states having a junk of synthetic chemicals, has resulted in the increase of cancer patients in kerala (krishnakumar, 2016). despite having good rainfall and sunlight, the state produces only 30-40 percent of its vegetable requirement. in order to confront the growing demand for food, the development of diverse agricultural production system in and around cities get activated by exploring the vacant places in cities like house or flat terraces and balconies. in view of its benefits and potential to contribute food and nutrition security, income generation and poverty alleviation, the present study was carried out among the urban dwellers, the new generation of farmers, of thiruvananthapuram corporation, kerala on the extent of adoption of the recommended practices for house terrace cultivation of kerala agricultural university. methodology the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram corporation of kerala where house terrace cultivation is very popular. many government initiatives are research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6008-6013 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6009 successfully running in thiruvananthapuram corporation for the augmentation of house terrace cultivation. six wards namely kazhakuttom, kudappanakunnu, nemom, vizhinjam, kadakampally and poojappura from thiruvananthapuram corporation were randomly selected. from each of these selected wards, 20 respondents were randomly selected having a total of 120 respondents. the respondents of the study were the members of urban households involved in house terrace cultivation. a structured pretested interview schedule was developed to measure the adoption of recommended practices for house terrace cultivation. a list of practices recommended for house terrace cultivation by kerala agricultural university was given to the experts. based on their perception, sixteen practices having higher scores were selected for determining adoption index. the respondents were asked to indicate their responses on the selected sixteen practices recommended for house terrace cultivation. the data collected from the respondents were scored, tabulated and analysed using statistical methods. the statistical tools like frequency and percentage were employed for the data interpretation. the adoption index was worked out with the help of formula given by jaganathan (2004) as mentioned below: the respondents were categorised adoption index = respondent’s total score total possible score x 100 into different adopter categories based on the adoption of recommended practices on house terrace cultivation as explained by rogers (1983) namely, innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. normally, the noncumulative adopter distribution takes the form of a bell-shaped curve. consequently, using two statistical parameters of the bell shaped curve -mean time of adoption of practices (m) and its standard deviation (σ)-provides the five adopter categories and categorised as follows sl. no. adopter category percentage of adopters (%) area covered under normal bell shaped curve 1 innovators 2.5 beyond m-2 σ 2 early adopters 13.5 between mσ & m-2 σ 3 early majority 34 between m & mσ 4 late majority 34 between m & m+ σ 5 laggards 16 beyond m+ σ extent of adoption of house terrace cultivation of urban dwellers of thiruvananthapuram corporation, kerala 6010 findings and discussion the distribution of recommended practices based on the respondent’s adoption regarding house terrace cultivation is depicted in table 1. table 1. adoption of recommended practices for house terrace cultivation (n=120) sl. no. practices adopted (no.) percentage (%) 1 potting mixture is soil, sand and cow dung in 2:1:1 ratio 115 95.83 2 kitchen waste is used as manures 81 67.50 3 to reduce the pest incidence, botanical pesticides are used 80 66.67 4 pest and disease incidence are reduced by collecting and destructing the pest (eggs, larvae, pupae) and disease affected plants. 70 58.33 5 drip irrigation is used to increase the water use efficiency. 57 47.5 6 the position of bricks and sacks, after each cultivation are changed. 68 56.67 7 to prevent water leakage on the building, sacks are placed on bricks. 66 55.00 8 hand sprayer is used for foliar application 61 50.83 9 bio-control agents are used to reduce the pest incidence. 51 42.50 10 to improve the water holding capacity, coir pith is used as growing medium. 29 24.17 11 crop rotation with pulse crop in each sack. 23 19.17 12 poultry rearing integrated with terrace cultivation 10 8.33 13 crops are raised in hydroponics method. 6 5.00 14 for proper limited space utilization, vertical garden structures are used. 5 4.17 15 azolla cultivation practised 0 0.00 16 to enrich the nutrients in growing media, pgpr (plant growth promoting rhizobacteria) mix i is applied. 0 0.00 journal of extension education 6011 from table 1, it is clear that the practices ‘use of potting mixture with soil, sand and cow dung in the ratio of 2:1:1’, ‘use of kitchen wastes as manures’ and ‘application of botanical pesticides to reduce the pest incidence’ were ranked 1, 2 and 3 respectively, by the respondents. it is interesting to note that, ‘azolla cultivation’ and ‘application of pgpr (plant growth promoting rhizobacteria) mix i’ were not adopted by the respondents. it might be due to the fact that the extension agencies gave less orientation to respondents towards these practices and hence they were unaware about the possibility and benefit of using these practices. table 2. distribution of respondents based on the extent of adoption of recommended practices for house terrace cultivation (n=120) sl. no. category frequency percentage 1 low (<q1) 22 18.33 2 medium (q1 q3) 65 54.17 3 high (>q3) 33 27.50 total 120 100.00 q1 = 60.41 q3= 70.31 it is clear from table 2 that 54.17 per cent of the respondents belonged to medium category, 27.50 per cent in the high category and 18.33 per cent in the low category of extent of adoption of practices recommended on house terrace cultivation. majority of the respondents came under medium category and this might be due to their access to knowledge and emerging technology. the outcome of the technology transfer is the respondent’s adoption and bringing that into practice. the results are similar to the findings of bandole (2011). table 3. categorisation of respondents based on adoption of recommended practices on house terrace cultivation of kerala agricultural university (n=120) sl. no. category score range frequency percentage of respondents rogers’s standard curve (%) 1. innovators <48.91 2 1.67 2.50 2. early adopters 48.91-56.72 26 21.67 13.50 3. early majority 56.73-64.54 41 34.16 34.00 4. late majority 64.55-72.35 34 28.33 34.00 5. laggards >72.35 17 14.17 16.00 total 120 100 100 extent of adoption of house terrace cultivation of urban dwellers of thiruvananthapuram corporation, kerala 6012 the urban farmers of thiruvananthapuram corporation were categorised into different adopter categories as explained by rogers (1983) namely, innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. 1 innovators, 2 early adopters, 3 early majority, 4 late majority, 5 – laggards fig. 1. categorisation of respondents based on adoption of recommended practices on house terrace cultivation with respect to rogers’ adoption curve table 3 and fig. 1 depict the categorisation of respondents based on adoption of recommended practices on house terrace cultivation with respect to rogers’ adoption curve. it is clear that the percentage of innovators was 1.67 per cent where as it was 2.5 per cent for the standard rogers curve. from this, it can be inferred that the respondents tend to take no risk voluntarily and considering their hectic schedules and life styles, most of the urban dwellers preferred technologies that were established and accepted so that time spent on trial and error of new technologies could be reduced. early adopters were 21.67 per cent which is greater than 13.5 per cent of the rogers curve which may be due to the respondents’ higher social status and increased knowledge on importance of vegetable consumption and environmental benefits of house terrace cultivation. early majority were 34.16 per cent which is in conformation with 34 per cent of the standard rogers’ curve which might be due to their contact with early adopters. late majority were 28.33 per cent and laggards constituted 14.17 per cent which is less than 34 per cent and 16 per cent of the rogers’ curve respectively. this might be due to the cosmopoliteness attribute of the people living in cities and they widely adopt majority of the journal of extension education 6013 practices which are accepted by their social network. the high percentage of respondents in early adopters is a good indication of adoption of recommended practices on house terrace cultivation. conclusion the study revealed that the majority of the respondents came under medium category of adoption and had high percentage of respondents in early adopters’ category. however the practices viz., ‘azolla cultivation’ and ‘application of pgpr (plant growth promoting rhizobacteria) mix i’ were not adopted by the respondents. this non adoption of the practices indicates that lack of awareness and technical knowledge on these practices by the urban dwellers. hence these practices require much more spread among the growers. the policy makers should give due consideration to this new generation of farmers as urban farming will soon conquer the face of indian agriculture. refernces bandole, s. (2011). a study on awareness and adoption of post-harvest management practices in maize among the farm women in khargone district of madhya pradesh. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, rajmata vijayaraje scindia krishi vishwavidyalaya, gwalior, 109p. jaganathan, d. (2004). analysis of organic farming practices in vegetable cultivation in thiruvananthapuram district, unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur. 132p. krishnakumar m. k. (2016). health crisis in kerala: the increase in cancer, kidney and liver diseases. the economic times, 23 april 2016, p.16. rogers, e. m. (1983) diffusion of innovations (3rd ed.). the free press, new york.460p. extent of adoption of house terrace cultivation of urban dwellers of thiruvananthapuram corporation, kerala 5680 exploring the psychological antecedents of attitude towards indigenous wetland practices n. jayakumar1, m.sundaramari2 and d.puthira prathap3 abstract a study was conducted in the north eastern agro-climatic zone of tamil nadu, india to analyze the possible impact of the psychological antecedents of attitude towards indigenous wetland practices(iwps) among the farming community. two hundred and nine farmers were selected at random from ten blocks in three districts of the state. their psychological characteristics and attitude towards iwps were assessed. the mean attitude score and the mean attitude index were analysed. the highest variable index was found in the case of progressivism and traditionalism, followed by self-reliance. environmental orientation and decision making ability had a positive and highly significant relationship while scientific orientation had a negative and highly significant relationship with attitude towards indigenous wetland practices. keywords : indigenous wetland practices, psychological antecedents, attitude, india 1. ph.d.scholar and 2 .professor (agricultural extension), faculty of agriculture and animal husbandry, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram 624 302 and 3. principal scientist (agricultural extension), icar-sugarcane breeding institute, coimbatore – 641 007 received : 18-05-2017; accepted : 05-06-2017 introduction global research efforts, through biological technologies and other methods helped in increasing crop yields, resulting in substantial increase in food production in developing countries and in turn commercialized the process of agriculture. however, the intensive use of land, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation had negative impacts on the environment and human health. stakeholders in agriculture are at a crossroads of balancing the increasing food requirements with limited damage to the environment. of late, sustainability issues have infused sanity in utilising interventions without much damage to the environment. the need for organic agriculture and use of eco-friendly technologies to increase productivity in order to feed the increasing population is the results of such thoughts. recent researches have aimed at documenting, rationalising, and blending the indigenous knowledge with the so called scientific or western knowledge so as to take care of the sustainability issues. indigenous knowledge (ik) is the sum total of knowledge and practices that are based on peoples accumulated journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5680-5687 5681 experience in dealing with situations and problems in various aspects of life and such knowledge and practices are special for a particular culture (wang, 1988).this pool of knowledge is fast expanding and efforts are being taken to popularise these knowledge among the farming community. in spite of these efforts, many of these documented practices are not that popular and many times are confined to the knowledge of few, presently called organic farmers or erstwhile traditional farmers (jayakumar & sundaramari, 2014). keeping this in mind, the study was conducted with the following objectives: • to study the attitude of the farmers towards indigenous wetland practices (iwps). • to analyse the psychological antecedents and their possible influence on the attitude towards indigenous wetland practices. methodology the present study was carried out in the north eastern agro climatic zone of tamil nadu, a constituent state of india. ten blocks with large area under rice cultivation were purposively selected from kancheepuram, thiruvallur and tiruvannamalai districts. a list of all the villages in these ten blocks was prepared and twenty villages were selected from the list using the random number table. a total of 209 farmers selected at random from these villages were interviewed for the study. the attitude of the farmers towards indigenous wetland practices was studied using a scale developed by venkatesan (2014) with a slight modification. in order to study the mind-set of the farmers, psychological antecedents namely, scientific orientation(sundaramari, 2001), progressivism – traditionalism (venkatesan, 2014), environmental orientation(jayawardana, 2007), innovativeness(devi 2003), self reliance(marimuthu, 2001), economic orientation(marimuthu, 2001) and decision making ability (parimaladevi, 2004) were used. the psychological antecedents were compared using mean and standard deviation. the mean indices for each variable was worked out and the mean psychological antecedent index (mpai) was obtained. correlates for the above variables were made for meaningful interpretation. findings and discussion attitude towards indigenous wetland practices attitude is a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation. attitude influences an individual's choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards. the acceptance of a technology or practice among the farming community is influenced by the attitude of the farmers towards them. the attitude scale had twenty items of which ten were positive statements journal of extension education 5682 and ten were negative statements. the maximum score that was possible was 60. it was found that the mean score obtained was 45.42. the mean attitude index was found to be 75.70 which is a welcome trend. moreover it was found that 55.00 per cent of the respondents scored above the mean value. this shows a favourable attitude towards indigenous wetland practices among the farmers. these findings are in accordance with the results reported by sakeerhusain (2010). the scale items were ranked (table 1) to know which were more agreed upon by the farming community. it was found that “iwps are environmentally friendly” was agreed by a majority of the farmers with the highest ranking. “indigenous wetland practiceshave high adaptability to the local areas” was the second highest agreed item followed by “indigenous wetland practices are locally available”. “indigenous wetland practices are very simple and easy to understand and practice” was the fourth ranked one on the list. it could be seen that all these items were ranked higher possibly due to the reason that they all dealt with availability and being local. moreover they were easy to use and environmental friendly. this supports the views of bhople & darbha(2000). table 1. ranking the scale items of iwps sl. no. scale items rank 1. indigenous wetland practices are environment friendly 1 2. indigenous wetland practices are efficient in solving farmers problems 11 3. indigenous wetland practices have scientific or other rationale 10 4. indigenous wetland practices are very simple and easy to understand and practice 4 5. use of indigenous wetland practices in farming reduces risks 6 6. availability of input will not be a problem in using indigenous wetland practices. 5 7. indigenous wetland practices are supplementary and complementary to modern technologies in agriculture 7 8. indigenous wetland practices have high adaptability to the local areas. 2 exploring the psychological antecedents of attitude towards indigenous wetland practices 5683 9. indigenous wetland practices are economical as the cost of the inputs requires is very low 8 10. indigenous wetland practices are locally available 3 11. indigenous knowledge does not lead to high productivity 16 12. indigenous wetland practices are outdated 15 13. indigenous wetland practices are baseless and short of any scientific evidence. 13 14. it is unwise to use indigenous wetland practicesin agriculture, as it does not guarantee for success 14 15. indigenous wetland practices are superstitious 9 16. farmers should not use indigenous wetland practices to have better yield and profit. 12 17. a farmer should not adopt indigenous wetland practices when there are proven alternate scientific technologies. 18 18. indigenous wetland practices are inferior to modern technologies. 19 19. indigenous wetland practices in agriculture are not sustainable on a long term basis. 17 20. it is difficult for a farmer to shift from modern ways of cultivation to indigenous ways of cultivation. 20 the items with the last four ranks revealed that farmers accepted that indigenous wetland practices were not sustainable, inferior to modern technologies and the shift from modern ways to indigenous ways were difficult. though there was an increased awareness about environment friendly nature, easy and local availability of wetland practices when it comes to putting into practice, modern ways had higher preferences compared to indigenous wetland practices. comparison of the psychological antecedents the mean psychological antecedent index was found to be 74.72 which is an appreciable value. this implies that majority of the farmers were higher on an overall basis. the highest journal of extension education 5684 variable index was found in the case of progressivism and traditionalism with 90.33 followed by selfreliance with 82.33. progressivism –traditionalism referred to the relative receptivity of the farmer towards modern values and practices. self-reliance is related to fiscal orientation and planning. better educational levels and exposure to mass media might have helped in ranking these variables higher. the mean score for progressivism and traditionalism was 8.13 out of the maximum possible value of 9 and 61.24 per cent of the respondents were above the mean score. in the case of self – reliance, the mean score was 2.47 out of 3 and 50.72 per cent of the respondents had obtained a score above the mean value. environmental orientation and decision making ability with 74.66 and 73.40 were the next to follow. environmental orientation is the degree to which a farmer is concerned about the environment. decision making ability is the ability of the respondents to select the most efficient means from among the available alternatives without depending on others. in case of variables viz., scientific orientation, innovativeness and economic orientation, the indices were found to be above 65.00. scientific orientation is the degree to which a farmer is oriented towards the use of scientific method of farming, while innovativeness is defined as the degree to which an individual is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than other members of the social system. economic orientation is the profit maximization and the relative value placed by farmers on economic needs. in the case of scientific orientation the mean score was 27.83 out of 42 and 54.55 per cent of the respondents were above the mean value. similar was the case with economic orientation (27.91 out of 42 and 52.63 above the mean score). table 2. comparison of the psychological antecedents sl. no. psychological variables maximum possible score mean score obtained mean variable index standard deviation respondents above the mean score freq. per cent 1. scientific orientation 42 27.83 66.26 4.772 114 54.55 2. progressivism – traditionalism 9 8.13 90.33 1.172 128 61.24 3. environmental orientation 6 4.48 74.66 1.173 95 45.45 exploring the psychological antecedents of attitude towards indigenous wetland practices 5685 4. innovativeness 3 2.08 69.33 0.703 60 28.71 5. self reliance 3 2.47 82.33 0.564 106 50.72 6. economic orientation 42 27.91 66.45 3.397 110 52.63 7. decision making ability 24 17.69 73.70 2.819 99 47.37 mean psychological antecedent index 74.72 influence of psychological antecedents on attitude towards iwps it was found that environmental orientation and decision making ability had a positive relationship with attitude towards indigenous wetland practices (table 3). they were found to be highly significant at 1% level of significance. the indigenous wetland practices are considered environmentally safe and possibly this might be the reason why environmental orientation had a positive and highly significant relationship with attitude towards iwps. when it comes to choosing the best available option, a farmer may consider the availability, cost, ease in use and its possible impact on the environment. iwps have been credited to be on a better position in all these factors. possibly this might have been the reason why decision making ability had a highly significant relationship with attitude towards iwps. table 3. correlation of psychological antecedents with attitude towards iwps sl. no. psychological antecedents correlation “r” value 1. scientific orientation -0.205(**) 2. progressivism traditionalism -0.021 ns 3. environmental orientation 0.255(**) 4. innovativeness -0.042 ns 5. self-reliance -0.004 ns 6. economic orientation -0.133 ns 7. decision making ability 0.229(**) ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. ns: not significant journal of extension education 5686 whereas scientific orientation had a negative and highly significant relationship with attitude towards indigenous wetland practices (-0.205**). this reveals that an increased scientific orientation will have a negative impact on attitude towards itk. in most cases, being oriented towards scientific methods of farming means being obsessed with western methods of farming and naturally this will have a negative influence on the traditional farming practices, which are not that modern. the other variables like progressivismtraditionalism, innovativeness, self – reliance and economic orientation did not have significant influence on the dependent variable. conclusion attitude to some extent has an influence on action. in this study, the respondents had showed a favourable attitude towards iwps. environmental orientation and decision making ability had a positive and highly significant relationship while scientific orientation had a negative and highly significant relationshipwith attitude towards indigenous wetland practices. it could be concluded that there is an increased environmental concern. an increased decision making ability of the farmers might develop a favourable attitude towards iwps, ultimately resulting in higher adoption of iwps. taking the findings of the study in to account, policy makers and academicians should see that natural resource management and sustainability options that are embedded in iwps are effectively documented. this should eventually find a place in the current institutional training programmes being organized by the extension system for the farmers in the country. references bhople, r.s. & darbha, s. (2000). indigenous grain storage practices adopted in rural households. agricultural extension review, 12 (6), 26-29. devi, p.r. (2003). micro credit and technology utilization in vegetable production by self-help groups in thiruvananthapuram district, unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, india 72p. jayakumar, n. & sundaramari, m. (2014). management characteristics and adoption index of indigenous agricultural practices by rice farmers, journal of extension education, 26 (4). retrievable from https:// extensioneducation.org/index.php/ jee/article/view/70 jayawardana, j. k. j. p. (2007). organic agricultural practices in coconut based homesteads in thiruvananthapuram district. unpublished m. sc. (ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, india, 124p. exploring the psychological antecedents of attitude towards indigenous wetland practices 5687 marimuthu, p. (2001). indigenous tribal wisdom for rural development: a multidimensional analysis. unpublished ph.d. thesis, tnau, coimbatore. parimaladevi, s. (2004). effectiveness of agriclinics and agribusiness training programme in kerala. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, india, 85p. sakeerhusain, a. (2010). knowledge, adoption and perceived effectiveness of indigenous horticultural practices in kerala, unpublished ph.d. thesis, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, india. sundaramari, m. (2001). adoption and perceived effectiveness of indigenous agricultural practices in different farming systems. unpublished ph.d.thesis, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, india. venkatesan. (2014). adoption and perceived effectiveness of indigenous tribal agricultural practices of kolli hills, tamilnadu. unpublished ph.d.thesis, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, india wang. (1988). indigenous communication systems in research and development, journal of extension systems, 4(2), 75 – 86. journal of extension education 5850 perception of farmers on usefulness of mobile service in manipur santha govind1, m. kavaskar2 and ajoickam christina3 abstract the revolution in mobile communication is providing a lifeline to agricultural communities around the developing world. mobile phones significantly reduce communication and information costs. mobile phones also provide new opportunities for farmers to obtain access to agricultural information, such as market prices, weather report, and agricultural techniques in various formats. hence, keeping this in mind, a study was taken up to assess the perception of respondents on the usefulness of technologies transferred through mobile service functioning in bishnupur district of manipur. a sample of 120 registered farmers belonging to intelligent advisory service for farmers (iasf) mobile service was selected by using proportionate random sampling technique. data were collected with the help of a well structured and pre tested interview schedule. the data collected were scored, tabulated and analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. the findings on respondents’ perception on usefulness of mobile service showed that most of the respondents expressed that they were satisfied with the language used by the iasf mobile service in transferring the information. keywords : mobile service; sms; perception; paddy farmer; manipur journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5850-5856 1.professor, 2. asst.professor, & 3pg scholar, dept. of agrl.extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalai nagar, 608 002 received : 12-09-2017; accepted : 20-02-2018 introduction today, in india, mobile phones are being used by farmers, not only as a person to person voice communication medium, but also, to provide access to information through short message service (sms), multimedia message service (mms) and access to the internet. mobile phones significantly reduce communication and information costs. poor communication facilities lead to limited access to information and this can lead to loss of income. mobile phones also provide new opportunities for farmers to obtain access to agricultural information, such as market prices, weather report, agricultural techniques in various formats like audio (voice), videos (internet) and text (sms). the revolution in mobile communication has already begun to benefit farmers, even in remote regions of the world. mobile services are at work in the field of agriculture, mostly 5851 for sharing and obtaining information. across the developing world, there are programmes that give farmers access to research and best practices, weather information and market prices via sms, interactive voice response (ivr) or call centres. hence, keeping this in mind, a study was taken up to assess the extent of utilization of information disseminated through mobile service. methodology the study was taken up to assess the extent of usefulness of information disseminated through mobile service. the present study was conducted in bishnupur district of manipur state during 2015. the study was taken up in four villages of bishnupur block which were selected based on the highest number of registered farmers under intelligent advisory service for farmers (iasf). a sample of 120 registered farmers under iasf mobile service was selected by using proportionate random sampling technique. data were collected with the help of a well structured and pre tested interview schedule. the data collected were scored, tabulated and analyzed using statistical tools viz., percentage analysis, cumulative frequency method. perception in the study referred to the extent to which the respondent perceived the information communicated through the mobile service as useful or otherwise. the selected subject matter, paddy and other general information was included in consultation with the co-ordinator of iasf, subject matter specialists and other ngo personnel involved in iasf mobile service. perceived usefulness of information through mobile service was measured under two dimensions viz., 1.recommended technologies were useful and 2. not useful. further, their perception on mobile service was also assessed against ten specific technologies and eight general items. findings and discussion practice-wise perception of the respondents on the usefulness of recommended paddy technologies majority (61.67%) of the respondents had high level of perception on usefulness of recommended paddy technologies. in order to have an in depth idea about the perception on the usefulness of the specific paddy technologies of the respondents, practice wise perception of respondents was worked out and the results are given in table 1. it could be observed from the data that out of ten paddy technologies, majority of the respondents (90.00 per cent) perceived the information on selection of varieties as useful followed by information on pest management (76.68 per cent) and nutrient management (63.33 per cent) as useful. the possible reason for better perception on selection of varieties, pest management and nutrient perception of farmers on usefulness of mobile service in manipur 5852 management in paddy could be due to the regular use of mobile phones and also due to obtaining timely information for taking up the operations without delay. it could be observed from the same table, that all the four technologies viz., weed management (63.33 per cent), disease management (60.00 per cent), marketing information (56.68 per cent) and time of sowing (53.33 per cent) were perceived to be useful by majority of the respondents. the probable reason could be that the mobile service provides solution to all technical problems of farmers pertaining to weed management and disease management. further, it also provides need based and timely information on marketing and time of sowing and there is no distortion of information provided through mobile service. table 1. distribution of respondents according to their practice-wise perception on usefulness of recommended paddy technologies (n=120) sl.no. subject matter number percentage 1. selection of varieties 108 90.00 2. time of sowing 64 53.33 3. nursery management 56 46.66 4. nutrient management 76 63.33 5. weed management 76 63.33 6. pest management 92 76.68 7. disease management 72 60.00 8. seed production technique 40 33.33 9. marketing information 68 56.68 10. post harvest management 44 36.68 further, it could be noticed from the same table, that a little less than fifty percent (46.66 per cent) of the respondents had perceived the information to be useful on nursery management (40.00 per cent) and post harvest management (36.68 per cent) to be useful. the reason could be that the information on nursery management and post harvest management is reaching the farmers in time. as majority of the farmers belonged to high level of innovativeness they were eager to get additional information. further, the farmers might have felt that the information received through mobile was very clear, easily understandable and the information transferred through mobile service network as appropriate and reliable. journal of extension education 5853 information on seed production technique (33.33 per cent) was perceived as useful by less percentage of respondents. the possible reason may be some of the information relevant to utilization of seed production techniques at the field level is not being transferred through mobile service. it could be observed that almost two-fifths of the respondents (39.17 per cent) and medium level of perception on the usefulness of the recommended general information, followed by 35.00 per cent with high level and 25.83 per cent with low level of perception. practice-wise perception of the respondents on usefulness of recommended general information eight practices were selected for assessing the perception of the respondents on the usefulness of recommended general information. results regarding the practice wise perception of the respondents are furnished in table 2. it could be observed from table 2 that majority of the respondents (70.00 per cent) perceived the information on latest technologies in agriculture as useful followed by weather information (66.68 per cent) and information on training programmes (63.33 per cent). due to the vagaries of monsoon, the farmers might have perceived the information about weather condition as more useful. further, the information on government schemes and latest technologies are helpful for improving the livelihood of the farmers and hence the respondents might table 2. distribution of respondents according to their practice wise perception on usefulness of recommended general information (n=120) sl.no. subject matter number percentage 1. latest technologies in agriculture 84 70.00 2. information on government schemes 60 50.00 3. information on training programmes 76 63.33 4. availability of agricultural inputs 32 26.68 5. weather information 80 66.68 6. crop insurance 24 20.00 7. value addition 33 27.50 8. marketing information on other commodities 68 56.68 perception of farmers on usefulness of mobile service in manipur 5854 have felt that the information provided on these technologies was reliable and accurate. further, it could be seen from the same table, that majority of the respondents (56.68 per cent) had perceived the information on marketing information on other commodities as useful followed by information on government schemes (50.00 per cent). most of them might have utilized the information on these technologies. hence, the respondents would have perceived these technologies as useful. a little more than one-fourth (27.50 per cent) of the respondents perceived the information on value addition and availability of agricultural inputs (26.68 per cent) as useful. further, only 20.00 per cent of the respondents perceived the information on crop insurance as useful. it may be due to lack of knowledge and awareness on these technologies. perception on usefulness of mobile service the results on distribution of respondents according to their perception on usefulness of mobile service are given in table 3. preferred language most of the respondents (95.00 per cent) expressed that they are satisfied with the local language used by the iasf mobile service in transferring the information. this finding is in line with the findings of zanello (2011). table 3. distribution of respondents according to their perception on usefulness of mobile service (n=120) sl.no. statement number percentage 1. accuracy of information 72 60.00 2. reliable 78 65.00 3. provides complete information 30 25.00 4. motivate to adopt 80 66.67 5. message is understandable 90 75.00 6. use of simple words and sentences 69 57.50 7. increase productivity 100 83.33 8. solve farmers’ problems 94 78.33 9. knowledge gained 77 64.16 10. saves time and cost 90 75.00 11. preferred language 114 95.00 journal of extension education 5855 increase productivity almost all the respondents (83.33 per cent) agreed that the information transmitted through mobile service increased their productivity. this finding is in line with the findings of rizvi (2010). solve farmers’ problems nearly eighty per cent (78.33 per cent) of the respondents opined that the iasf mobile service could solve farmers’ problems by means of providing meaningful information on specific problems. in the iasf mobile service, the information right from the selection of seed to post harvest management are updated regularly and comprehensive in nature. this finding is in line with the findings of kennedy (2013). message is understandable a vast majority (75.00 per cent) of the respondents reported that the information was under with the understandable. this might be due to the fact that iasf mobile service contained sequential presentation of message or information in simple sentences and in local dialect. this finding is in line with the findings of aker and mbiti (2010). provides complete information only one-fourth (25.00 per cent) of the respondents stated that the information provided was complete. this finding is in line with the findings of jagun et al. (2007). conclusion medium to high level of perception on usefulness of paddy technologies was observed among majority of the respondents. hence, the organisations concerned with transferring agriculture and allied technologies through mobile service need to realise the potential of mobile service for the speedy dissemination of information to farmers. further, the findings on perception on usefulness of few paddy technologies viz., nursery management, post harvest management and seed production technique was found to be low. with respect to the findings on perception on mobile service, three-fourths of the respondents expressed that the information was incomplete. hence, efforts should be made to disseminate complete and precise information on all aspects of crop and related information for harnessing the possibilities of utilizing the information, the mobile service authorities need to take extra care to streamline the system so as to prepare relevant content for maximum utility by the end users. references aker, j.c & mbiti, i. (2010). information from markets near and far : mobile phones and agricultural markets in niger, american economic journal of applied economics, 2 : 46-59. aloyce, m. (2005). ct for improved crop perception of farmers on usefulness of mobile service in manipur 5856 marketing in rural tanzania: project summary: 1-30. jagun, a., herks, r & whalley, j. (2007). mobile telephony and developing country micro-enterprise: a nigerian case study, institute for development policy and management. available at www.sed.manchester.ac.uk. kennedy, p. (2013). ic and farming information: an evaluation of institutions and users’ perception in andhra pradesh, american journal of research in humanities, arts and social sciences, 13(364): 142-147. mittal, s., gandhi, s & tripathi, g. (2008). role of mobile phone technology in improving small farm productivity, economic survey, ministry of finance, government of india. rizvi, s.m.h. (2010). livelihood solutions through mobile technology: an assessment, institute of rural research and development, technical paper no. 1: 1-70. zanello, g. (2011). does the use of mobile phone reduce transactions costs and enhance participation in agricultural markets? household evidence from northern ghana, csae conference 2011, economic development in africa: (1)23. journal of extension education untitled-1 5625 biodiversity implications of riparian home-gardens: the case of chalakkudy river based agro-ecosystem in kerala allan thomas1, usha c. thomas2 and n. kishore kumar3 abstract riparian home-garden farming system are human landscapes that are sustainable, fulfilling the different pillars of socio-economic and environmental stability. this explorative study conducted in the 60 selected home-gardens in the left-right riparian banks of chalakkudy river in kerala, india casting the upper reaches and middle to lower reaches aimed to assess the crop diversity of tropical riparian home-gardens in terms of diversity index. altogether 60 home-gardens were analysed and the shannon – wiener index of biodiversity was found to be 1.518 in the upper riparian reaches and for the middle to lower reaches the average diversity index was 1.453 indicating erosion in biodiversity in home-gardens cascading towards middle to lower reaches of the riparian corridors. keywords: biodiversity, landscapes, shannon – wiener index, ecosystem, species, anthropogenic journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 1 & 2 assistant professors and 3. professor, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala 695 522. received : 30-12-2016; accepted : 20-01-2017 introduction biodiversity describes the variety and array of life on earth. a common measurement of biodiversity is the total number of species found in an area often measured in terms of diversity index. high levels of ecosystem stability is ensured when system is more diverse and that lead to more resilience against extreme weather events, such as floods or drought. biodiversity gives us choices, options and flexibility to help us cope with variability, including long-term habitat changes. but, riparian (describes the land immediately surrounding water sources where water strongly influences the immediate ecosystem) areas, that support high levels of natural biodiversity is often the niche of intervention, exploitation and ironically the sites of conservation. historically, riparian areas that were important for natives facilitating early settlements owing to transitions have transcended to dwelling units with agricultural and riparian resource acting as the main resources for making them the ways and means of their life. home-garden forms the basic farming production system in kerala, a 5626 constituent state of india and is present in all agro-ecological zones. home-gardens of kerala supports 2.76% of india's people (the hindu, 2013) signifying the importance of this predominant type of agricultural production system. this system with a repository of highly diversified valuable plants and animals per unit area with inclusive interaction through intervention by man has resulted in a unique combination of high levels of productivity, dependability and sustainability. the same is the case of kerala riparian home-gardens. hodgkin (2001) articulated that home gardens contribute to the conservation of biodiversity at the ecosystem, species and within species levels. under the shrinking per capita land availability, dominance of nucleotide family structure, occupational shifts, resettlement after migration, cultural diversity, coupled with the intricacies of the global and market economy, home-garden systems are mushrooming and at the same time are facing their own challenges. the aesthetic and economic value of the riparian homegarden agro ecosystem facilitates both agricultural and allied interventions with other occupational interferences which is uniquely different from the general garden-land based home-garden farming system. one of the major challenges is its rapid influence of home-gardens in the riparian biodiversity. hence this study envisaged for a comprehensive study of crop diversity in the riparian homegardens. methodology measure of diversity index floristic richness of the kerala homegardens is quite substantial (kumar, 2011). in this study, shannon-wiener index of diversity based on information theory (the information content is a measure of the amount of uncertainty) was used to calculate the diversity index of the home-gardens. this index was purposively chosen as its measure enables a better understanding of the structural configuration of home-gardens. also, the whole of a home-garden as a single unit could be considered for the study unlike other cases where usually a portion of the ecosystem is considered by way of further sampling. the formula used for determining the diversity index was : h'= s (pi log2 pi)-∑ i=1 where, h' shannon-wiener diversity index (di) pi a proportion of total sample belonging to ith species s = number of species sampling a total of 60 riparian home-gardens were enumerated for its crop diversity. journal of extension education 5627 the sixty samples were selected from the upper reaches, middle reaches and lower reaches of chalakkudy river at every one km interval covering both left and right banks of the river covering a total of 30 km stretch on one side enabling an understanding on the agricultural biodiversity of the entire stretch of the river bank ecosystem. findings and discussion the influence of agricultural activities and home-gardens that caters to the livelihood of farm family has an influence on the riparian ecosystem diversity. irrespective of the nature of different agroecosystem, saikia et al. (2012) reported that high diversity and low concentration (density) of dominance in different home-garden categories may be due to variations in anthropogenic pressure in different home gardens. hence, region wise shannon diversity index (h') was worked out for a proper understanding of the diversity level of riparian home-gardens indirectly throwing light to the biodiversity status of the chalakkudy riparian tracts. the results are enumerated and discussed under the following subheads. region wise diversity index (di) of riparian home-gardens in the upper reaches and mid to low reaches the results of region wise diversity index presented for sixty samples of riparian home-gardens selected randomly from the upper and lower reaches are presented in table 1. table 1. biodiversity index of riparian home-gardens in the upper and mid to lower reaches of chalakkudy river n=60 sl.no. riparian reaches shannon diversity index (h') mean h' standard deviation 1 upper (n=10) 1.235 1.614 1.674 1.457 1.414 1.518 0.168 1.709 1.765 1.366 1.45 1.491 2 middle to lower (n= 50) 1.492 1.161 1.58 1.292 1.573 1.453 0.201 1.350 1.384 1.632 1.522 1.593 1.193 1.243 1.193 1.632 1.502 0.873 1.535 1.537 1.696 1.182 1.177 1.362 1.537 1.215 1.720 1.254 1.649 1.561 1.579 1.592 1.425 1.114 1.633 1.472 0.932 1.614 1.521 1.736 1.432 1.636 1.337 1.666 1.449 1.553 1.535 1.481 1.599 1.653 1.529 1.539 biodiversity implications of riparian home-gardens: the case of chalakkudy river based agro-ecosystem in kerala 5628 values in table 1 reveal that the biodiversity was more in the home-gardens of upper reaches (mean shannon h'=1.518) as against the biodiversity measures of mid to lower reaches wherein the mean shannon h' value was 1.453. the values of the table also revealed that the shannon biodiversity (h') of home-gardens ranged from 1.235 to 1.765 in the upper riparian reaches; wherein 60 per cent (table 2) of home-gardens were categorised as low biodiversity homegardens with mean as the check. in case of home-gardens stretching across the mid to lower reaches of the tributaries of chalakkudy river, the shannon h' value ranged between 0.873 and 1.736 and 52 per cent of riparian home-gardens were categorised as higher biodiveristy homegardens (52%) with its mean value as the check as presented in table 2. the values from table 1 and 2 reveal that, when more percentage of high biodiversity home-gardens was found in lower reaches of the stream, whereas more percentage of lower diversity homegardens appeared in the upper reaches. this could be because more number of home-gardens appeared in mid to lower reaches of the river and were small holdings when compared to the homegardens in the upstream, that were less in number and larger in size when compared to the riparian home-gardens in the lower reaches. also, the smaller holding size of home-gardens may have more number of taxonomically distinct crops in position as compared to that of larger holding size of home-gardens that may include more number of species of a dominating variety with high economic value. region wise diversity index (di) of riparian home-gardens in the right and left banks of chalakkudy river. chalakkudy river is unique with man intervention through the river diversion project splitting the river into right and left banks. this has led to unique forms of human landscapes dominated table 2. categorisation of region wise diversity index (h’) of riparian home-gardens (upper and mid to low reaches) sl.no. category upper reaches n=10 middle to lower reaches n=50 1 mean h' 1.518 1.453 2 high biodiversity home-gardens 4 (40%) 26 (52%) 3 low biodiversity homegardens 6 (60%) 24 (48%) journal of extension education 5629 with home-gardens. the biodiversity index of home-gardens in both banks were worked out and categorised. the results of the same are presented in table 3 and table 4 repectively. the results of region wise diversity index reveal that the biodiversity was more in the left banks (mean shannon h'=1.518) than the right banks wherein the mean shannon h' value was 1.453. the values in table 3 reveal that the biodiversity h' range of home-gardens in the right banks ranged from 1.161 to 1.674; wherein 55 per cent (in table 4) were home-gardens with low biodiversity with mean as the check. in case of home-gardens stretching across the left banks of chalakkudy river, the shannon h' value ranged between 0.873 and 1.765. the values in table 4 revealed that 51.67 per cent of riparian homegardens were categorised as higher biodiveristy home-gardens with its mean value as the check. hence, it could be inferred from table 4 that both banks consisted of more number of high biodiversity home-gardens. this does not mean that majority of the home-gardens were highly diversified as this kind of categorisation as high and low has been made based on the mean value of its overall biodiversity as a check and moreover such a table 3. biodiversity index of riparian home-gardens in the right and left banks of chalakkudy river n=60 sl.no. riparian reaches shannon diversity index (h') mean h' standard deviation 1 right bank (n=20) 1.235 1.614 1.674 1.457 1.414 1.518 0.168 1.492 1.161 1.580 1.292 1.573 1.35 1.384 1.632 1.522 1.593 1.193 1.243 1.193 1.632 1.502 2 left bank (n= 40) 1.709 1.765 1.366 1.45 1.491 1.453 0.201 0.873 1.535 1.537 1.696 1.182 1.177 1.362 1.537 1.215 1.72 1.254 1.649 1.561 1.579 1.592 1.425 1.114 1.633 1.472 0.932 1.614 1.521 1.736 1.432 1.636 1.337 1.666 1.449 1.553 1.535 1.481 1.599 1.653 1.529 1.539 biodiversity implications of riparian home-gardens: the case of chalakkudy river based agro-ecosystem in kerala 5630 type of conclusion can be made only while making comparisons with other studies on biodiversity. h' ranges from 1.235 to 1.765 in the upper riparian reaches with the average h' of 1.518 and for the middle to lower reaches the mean h' value ranged between 0.873 and 1.736 with an average diversity index of 1.453 is an indication of erosion of biodiversity in home-gardens cascading towards middle to lower reaches of the riparian corridors. this highlights the fact that anthropogenic interventions were more in the mid to lower reaches indicating the necessity of policy intervention to regulate unscrupulous interventions that affect biodiversity adversely, and there is a need to reclaim the biodiversity of the riparian region with more sound agro-forestry programmes. the better h' in the upper reaches revealed that irrespective of the size of holdings the homegardens tends to preserved the maximum taxonomically distinct variance within the region. this also has a reflection of the complementary exploitation of habitat resulting in more complete capture of resources. such complementarities have been reported by campbell et al. (1991). in addition to these, influence of management has also been reported by thomas (2004). as the middle to lower reaches were more dense, home-garden farmers could have being intervened to capacitate his garden with more number of specific imperative and remunerative species, intentionally and thus lowering the biodiversity in the lower reaches . considering the nature of selection of home-gardens for the study these values cannot be a representative of the home-gardens for whole of kerala as these were home-gardens selected from a specific table 4. categorisation of region wise diversity index (di) of home-gardens in the right and left banks sl.no. category right bank n=20 left bank n=40 1 mean h' 1.518 1.453 2 high biodiversity homegardens 11 (55%) 31 (51.67%) 3 low biodiversity homegardens 9 (45%) 29 (48.33%) journal of extension education 5631 type of useful and a unique type of agro-ecosystem that is riparian in its characteristics. however, there was a notion that agroforestry crops are on the decline in home-gardens which was a clear indication of cut and removal of the same for inclusion of economic dominant crops or as a result of spatial pressure due to the constraints of family compulsions. this is resulting in the overall decline of biodiversity in home-gardens which in real is negating the thinking of das and das (2005) who had described that home-gardens are the sites of conservation of a large diversity of plants both wild and domesticated, because of their multipurpose uses to the households. riparian homegardens need to be studied extensively and continuously as these are the owners and conservers of this river based ecosystem that is being widely exploited by man in multiple ways. conclusion the study has shown that there is a trend towards depleting biodiversity in the home gardens of middle to lower reaches of chalakkudy river. river based home-gardens are just not natural reservoirs or repositories of terrestrial biodiversity, but also the aquatic biodiversity. the diversity of crops with primary home-garden components along with vegetation, livestock, fisheries and other specialisations enables continuous produces/products and reduces the production risks that in turn keeps up the motivation level of farmers to try out with more of commodity crops-non commodity crops combination. this will ensure remunerativeness as well as maintain or augment biodiversity of the riparian agroecosystem. references campbell, d.d., grines, j.p. & mackey, g.n. (1991). a trade off between scale and precision in resource foraging. ecology 87:532-538 das t. & das a. k. (2005). inventorying plant biodiversity in home-gardens: a case study in barak valley, assam, north east india. current science, 89 (1): 155-163. hodgkin. (2001). home gardens and the maintenance of genetic diversity. home gardens and in situ conservation of plant genetic resources in farming systems, proceedings of the second international home gardens workshop, 17–19 july 2001, witzenhausen, federal republic of germany. p: 14-18. kumar, b.m. (2011). species richness and aboveground carbon stocks in the home-gardens of central kerala, india. agriculture, ecosystems and environment, 140: 430–440. biodiversity implications of riparian home-gardens: the case of chalakkudy river based agro-ecosystem in kerala 5632 saikia, p.s., bora, d., goswami, a., mudoi, d.k & gogoi, a. (2012). a review on the role of azospirillum in the yield improvement of non leguminous crops. african journal of microbiology research. 6(6) 10851102 the hindu. (2013 may 18) kerala census: child population declines. thomas, a. (2004). technology assessment in the home-garden systems. unpublished ph.d. thesis. kerala agricultural university, thrissur. 173 journal of extension education 5622 constraints faced by m-kisan users m. jayanthi 1 and m. asokhan2 1. research scholar, and 2. professor & head, dept. of agricultural extension & rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore, india received : 20-9-2016; accepted : 27-9-2016 mobile phone technology has been diffused rapidly in the rural areas of the developing countries in recent years. it has the advantage over other ict tools in terms of its appropriateness for the underdeveloped local conditions. other than mobile phones, other ict tools suffers from the problem of feasibility for the poor in geographically disadvantaged areas because of lack of enabling environments such as infrastructure and capital. internet enhanced technologies are not appropriate in the areas lacking electricity and network infrastructure. on the contrary, mobile phone technology has much less requirement on the infrastructure and hence wider applicability especially in mountainous areas. mobile phones enable both audio and video functions which can meet most of the basic needs of the poor. it also has greater affordability for the farmers than internet. in many developing countries more than 80 per cent of the population have access to mobile phones. jensen (2007) demonstrated that the ict helped fishers along the coastline in kerala, india learn about prices at different locations and decide where to sell their products profitably. as a result, price volatility and variation dropped; producer prices rose and at the same time consumer prices dropped. aker (2008) studied the impact of the mobile phone rollout on grain markets in niger and show that mobile phone service has reduced grain price dispersion across markets by a minimum of 6.4 percent and reduced intra-annual price variation by 10 per cent. the m-kisan sms portal was inaugurated by the president of india on july 16, 2013. sms portal for farmers enables all central and state government organizations in agriculture and allied sectors (including state agriculture universities, krishi vigyan kendras, agromet forecasts units of india meteorological department, icar institutes, organization in animal husbandry, dairying & fisheries etc.) for the purpose of giving information or services or advisories to farmers by sms in their language, preference of research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5623 agricultural practices and location. the project conceptualized, designed and developed in-house within the department of agriculture & co-operation has widened the outreach of scientists, experts and government officers posted down to the block level to disseminate information and to provide advisories to farmers through their mobile phones. the ict initiative has to be evaluated for better serving the farmers. the objective of the study was to find out the constraints faced by the farmers while accessing mobile agricultural extension services. methodology pudukottai and ramanathapuram districts were selected purposively for the study based on the familiarity of the researche. pudukottai and ramanathapuram districts had 13 and 11 blocks respectively. out of these, two blocks have been selected from each district and a total of four blocks were selected based on highest number of users in respective districts. the selected blocks were thiruvarakulam, karambakudi, kamudi and mudukulathur. two villages from each block were selected based on the discussion with the officials of state department of agriculture of the respective blocks. a list of farmers who were receiving agricultural information through m-kisan was obtained from the office of joint director of agriculture in pudukottai and ramanathapuram constraints faced by m-kisan users table 1. distribution of respondents according to constraints faced while availing mobile agricultural extension services (n=120) sl. no. constraints* m-kisan no. % 1. no direct contact with scientists 2. no follow-up visit by field coordinators after giving advice 63 52.50 3. untimely receipt of message 24 20.00 4. time of broadcasting and conferring is not convenient 32 26.67 5. clarification is difficult if any doubt arises 60 50.00 6. lack of information about multiple crops 48 40.00 7. problems of foreign language 49 40.83 8. lack of locally relevant information 70 58.33 9. lack of information about supporting services like logistics and storage 34 28.33 10. lack of clarity on price fixation in markets 83 69.17 *multiple responses 5624 district. totally 15 farmers from each village were identified which sum up to a total of 120 respondents. percentage analysis was used to study the constraints faced by m-kisan users. findings and discussion the distribution of respondents according to the constraints faced while availing mobile agricultural extension services is presented in table 1. it is concluded from table 1 that among m-kisan users, 69.17 per cent of the respondents expressed that lack of clarity on price fixation in markets followed by 58.33 per cent of the respondents were facing lack of locally relevant information and 52.50 per cent of the respondents indicated that there was no follow-up visit by field coordinators after giving advice. the respondents were also facing the constraints viz. clarification is difficult if any doubt arise (50.00 %), problems of foreign language (40.83 %), lack of information about multiple crops (40.00 %), lack of information about supporting services like logistics and storage (28.33 %), time of broadcasting and conferring is not convenient (26.67 %) and untimely receipt of message (20.00 %) respectively. m-kisan had made an attempt to offer location specific services to the farmers. to offer more effective location specific advice to farmers, a combination of both personal and ict approach is suggested. participatory rural appraisals may be carried out periodically to ascertain what information the farmers need. in the process, the farmers’ faith in the information services provided will be enhanced. it is further recommended that the farmers be instructed through various extensions efforts on how to get the best possible use out of the services provided. references aker, j. c. (2008). does digital divide or provide? the impact of mobile phones on grain markets in niger. bread working paper, 177. jensen, r. (2007). the digital provide: information (technology) market performance and welfare in the south indian fisheries sector, the quarterly journal of economics, 122(3), 879-924. koshy, s.m.& kishorekumar. n (2015). a scale to measure the attitude of farmers, towards kisan call centre journal of extension education, 27(4) planning commission. (2007). working group on agricultural extension for formulation of eleventh five-year plan. government of india. journal of extension education 5823 constraints faced by farmers in adoption of organic plant protection practices k.v. aparna1 and allan thomas2 abstract the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala with a view to identify the constraints faced by farmers during adoption of organic plant protection practices in vegetables. the three major constraints faced by farmers were crops being affected by drought, lack of proper and timely extension services for transfer of organic technologies and organic produce fetching non-remunerative price. the major suggestions for refinement were regular and frequent farm visits, diagnostic and consultancy by krishi bhavan officials and mechanisms to ensure premium price for products derived through organic practices. keywords : organic plant protection practices; extent of adoption; constraints; suggestions research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5823-5826 1. pg scholar and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani695 522 received : 02-10-2017; accepted : 16-10-2017 the side-effects of the modern agricultural chemicals and machines raise serious questions about the overall benefits of the new technology (oelhaf, 1978). chemical fertilisers and pesticides pollute our air and water. agricultural chemicals, including hormones and antibiotics leave residue in food that may cause cancer or genetic damage. soil and energy resources are being depleted. the un-sustainability of modern agricultural practices through its unscrupulous use have led farming communities world over to look for alternatives. the majority of these alternatives call for a back to nature policy, a return to traditional, eco-friendly practices. organic farming is one among them. organic farming over the last few decades has proved to be successful; but the differences in culture, ecology and geographical factors necessitate adoption of situationspecific principles and techniques. many reports recommend popularisation of biofertilisers and green manures; to initiate a ‘green manure perennial planting programme’; mechanical plants for manufacture of compost in corporations and municipalities, minimisation of use of insecticides; and to take up biological and mechanical control of rodents (nair, 1981). the study by balachandran (2004) reported the non-availability of organic plant protection formulations and 5824 adequate quality organic manure which forced farmers to choose the chemical option, much to their dislike. therefore constraints faced by the farmers using organic plant protection practices need to be identified and solutions to overcome the constraints as perceived by the farmers need to be probed. this paper is an attempt in that direction. methodology the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala involving 90 small and marginal vegetable growers. from the eleven blocks of thiruvananthapuram district, three blocks having maximum area under vegetable cultivation were selected. perumkadavila, nedumangad and parasala were the three blocks selected for the study. from each block one panchayat having maximum area under vegetable cultivation was selected in consultation with agriculture department officials. kunnathukal, chenkal and nedumangad were the three panchayats selected for the study. from each panchayat, 30 vegetable farmers were selected. thus a total of 90 farmers formed the sample. a well structured open ended interview schedule was used for data collection from the farmer respondents. the results were analyzed with the help of different statistical tools such as frequency, percentage and rankings. findings and discussion the constraints faced by the farmers using organic plant protection practices with more focus on vegetable cultivation were identified, documented and ranked. the results are presented in table 1. the primary constraint experienced by the farmers at the time of interview was that the crops were severely affected by drought. lack of extension service to facilitate transfer of technology scientifically on organic plant protection was ranked second . other major constraints that followed were, ‘produce fetching same price or even more than that of the produce obtained through inorganic practices; time consuming while resorting to organic plant protection input preparation, storage and its application; organic practices are labour intensive and non availability cum high cost of labour; krishi bhavan was not active in rendering support by way of helping farmers with quality inputs and services; lack of crop insurance schemes or facilities to help farmers mitigate the loss through price fall or crop loss as a result of practicing organic practices and lack of motivation resulting from low price for organic produce, in the decreasing order of importance as perceived by the farmers. constraints faced by farmers in adoption of organic plant protection practices 5825 table 1. constraints faced by the farmers in the adoption of organic plant protection practices n=90 sl.no. constraints score rank 1 lack of extension service to facilitate transfer of technology scientifically on organic plant protection 299 2 2 lack of crop insurance schemes or facilities to help farmers mitigate the loss through price fall or crop loss as a result of practicing organic practices 220 7 3 krishi bhavan not active in rendering support by way of helping farmers with quality inputs and services 234 6 4 time consuming while resorting to organic plant protection input preparation, storage and application. 292 4 5 low effectiveness and slow action of organic plant protection chemicals 120 10 6 lack of knowledge and awareness about organic plant protection practices 114 11 7 non availability of subsidies and credit for organic inputs 174 9 8 crops affected by drought (at the time of interview) 303 1 9 organic produce fetched same price or even more than that of the produce obtained through inorganic practices 297 3 10 lack of motivation resulting from low price for organic agricultural produce 181 8 11 organic practices are labour intensive/non availability and exorbitant cost of labour 240 5 journal of extension education 5826 the top five suggestions to overcome the constraints as perceived by the farmers and subsequently finalized through focus group discussions are listed in table 2. table 2. distribution of respondents based on suggestions from farmers. n=90 sl no. suggestions percentage 1 regular and frequent farm visit, diagnostic and consultancy by krishi bhavan officials 90.44 2 availability of low cost organic inputs and feasible technologies 88.33 3 inclusion of more no of classes, demonstrations and seminars about organic plant protection practices 75.22 4 timely access of organic plant protection inputs 70.22 5 construction of low cost mini dams or water storage facilities 65.22 majority of the farmers (90.44%) suggested that regular and frequent farm visits, diagnostic and consultancy by krishi bhavan officials should be ensured at farm plots with standing crops. ‘availability of low cost organic inputs and feasible technologies should be provided at the right time in required quantity and quality’ was the second popular suggestion as perceived by 88.33 per cent of the farmers. inclusion of more number of classes, demonstrations and seminars about organic plant protection practices; followed by farmers right to have timely access to organic inputs and the construction of low cost mini dams or water storage facilities like technologies developed and popularised by regional agricultural research station (rars), ambalavayal were the other suggestions for refinement as perceived by the farmer respondents. references balachandran, v. (2004). future in the past : a study on the status of organic farming in kerala. discussion paper no. 82. kerala research programme on local level development. centre for development studies, thiruvanthapuram, kerala, 110p. nair, j. m. (1981). report of the one man commission on the problems of paddy cultivators in kerala. govt. of kerala. oelhaf, r. c. (1978). organic agriculture. allanheld, osmun & co. publishers, inc. usa. constraints faced by farmers in adoption of organic plant protection practices 5709 adoption of indigenous dairy management practices among tribal farm women chigasil m. sangma1 and santha govind2 abstract the study was conducted among the tribal farm women of west garo hills district of meghalaya, india with the objective to determine the extent of adoption of indigenous dairy management practices. proportionate random sampling was used in selection of 120 respondents. practices having rationality for adoption of indigenous dairy management practices were collected and the data were analyzed using percentage analysis. the findings revealed that majority of the respondents adopted care and management of dry and pregnant cows. this was followed by adoption of other practices viz.., selection of breed and feeding, care during and after calving and milking technique keywords : adoption, indigenous farm practices, farm women, dairy management, meghalaya 1. p.g.scholar and 2. professor, department of agricultural extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai universiy, annamalainagar 608 002, tamil nadu received : 03-08-2017; accepted : 13-08-2017 introduction indigenous knowledge is usually adapted and specific to local ecological conditions and to community members’ social and cultural beliefs. this knowledge can be simple or complex. it is not static but evolves in response to changing ecological, economic and socio-political circumstances based on the creativity and innovation of community members and as a result of the influence of other cultures and outside technologies. serote (2001) defined indigenous knowledge system as human experience, organized and ordered into accumulated knowledge with the objective to utilize it to achieve quality of life and to create a livable environment for both human and other forms of life. indigenous knowledge is a set of perceptions, information and behaviour that guide local community members to use the land and natural resources. indigenous knowledge is created and sustained by local community members as a means to meet their needs for food, shelter, health, spiritual and savings. tribal women constitute half of the work force among tribals in india. tribal women have very little access to knowledge and skills on modern farm technologies and related resources. in spite of such shortcomings, tribal journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5709-5718 5710 women have contributed lion’s share to the family income through agriculture and allied sectors as compared to male counterparts. meghalaya state is one of the states in india where indigenous knowledge is extensively used for livestock and other allied activity. west garo hills is one of the districts of meghalaya where immense use of indigenous knowledge is widely seen in agricultural and allied activities. today many indigenous knowledge systems are at risk of becoming extinct because of rapidly changing natural environments and fast pacing economic, political and cultural changes on a global scale, practices vanish as they become appropriate for new challenges or because they adapt too slowly. keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to find out the extent of adoption of indigenous dairy management practices among tribal farm women in west garo hills district of meghalaya. methodology west garo hills district in meghalaya was selected for the study considering the availability of number of tribal women engaged in indigenous dairy management practices. among the eight blocks, two blocks namely selsella and betasing were selected based on the maximum number of tribal farm women engaged in dairy management practices. a list of farm women owning minimum of 5 cattle in each village of the selected blocks was obtained from the respective village livestock inspectors and accordingly six villages viz., apalgre, balachanda, balanggre, adugre, godalgre and bainapara were selected for the study. forty six indigenous practices under dairy management were collected from the elderly farm women belonging to west garo hills for determining the rationality. rationality of the collected indigenous practices was determined based on judges’ opinion. accordingly, forty indigenous dairy management practices were found to be rational and six indigenous practices were found to be irrational. data were collected from 120 tribal farm women identified based on simple random sampling method. the responses on adoption of forty rational indigenous dairy practices were sought under two categories viz., adopted and not adopted. simple percentage was used for interpretation of results. a well structured interview schedule was used for collection of data from the respondents. findings and discussion in order to have an in depth idea about the adoption of practices, practice wise adoption of indigenous dairy management practices was analysed and the results are presented in table1. selection of breed and feeding it is noted from the table that 100 per cent of the respondents had adopted the practices viz., feeding dry roughages such as straw and hay to calving cows adoption of indigenous dairy management practices among tribal farm women 5711 and feeding all types of fodder (100.00 % under each).this was followed by giving fresh water (75.00 %) and selection of indigenous breed (79.17 %). the respondents believed that feeding dry roughages and feeding fodder fulfilled the nutrient and mineral requirement of the animals. similar finding on feeding dry roughages was reported by bohra & samajdar (2015). table1. practice-wise adoption of indigenous dairy management practices (n=120) sl. no. indigenous practices adopted not adopted number per centage number percentage i selection of breed and feeding 1. selection of indigenous breed 95 79.17 25 20.83 2. feeding dry roughages such as straw and hay to calving cows 120 100.00 3. feeding all types of fodder to cows 120 100.00 4. giving fresh drinking water to the cattle 90 75.00 30 25.00 mean percentage 88.54 11.46 ii milking techniques 1. washing the animals and udder properly before every milking 65 54.17 55 45.83 2. full hand method of milking 120 100.00 3. tying feet and feeding fodder during milking to enhance work without disturbance 120 100.00 journal of extension education 5712 sl. no. indigenous practices adopted not adopted number per centage number percentage 4. maintaining 8 to 12 hours of milking interval 89 74.17 31 25.83 5. keeping bamboo leaves submerged in milk to preserve good quality of milk 49 40.83 71 59.17 mean percentage 73.83 26.17 iii care and management of dry and pregnant cows 1. isolation of pregnant cows from the rest 120 100.00 2. stopping milking 50 to 60 days before expected date of calving 93 77.50 27 22.50 3. feeding roughages to pregnant cows 120 100.00 mean percentage 92.50 7.50 iv care during and after calving 1. feeding colostrum to the new-born calves within 30 minutes of calving 120 100.00 2. applying turmeric paste to the naval cord of the new born calves as an antiseptic agent 120 100.00 3. within 2 hours after delivery, jackfruit leaves and rice bran with salt is fed to the cow to induce high milk secretion 85 70.83 35 29.17 4. feeding rice bran with salt to increase milk 86 71.67 34 28.33 adoption of indigenous dairy management practices among tribal farm women 5713 sl. no. indigenous practices adopted not adopted number per centage number percentage mean percentage 85.62 14.38 v treatment of ailments 1. local sword is heated and pressed against the teeth for toothache 88 73.33 32 26.67 2. smearing neem leaf paste on the affected parts to control foot and mouth disease 89 74.17 31 25.83 3. making animals walk on the mud to control foot and mouth disease 120 100 4. feeding country plantain and little amount of cumin seeds for gastroenteritis problem 88 73.33 32 26.67 5. the leaves, flowers and bark of the neem tree are ground well and fed to the cows for deworming 76 63.33 44 36.67 6. to control tympany, water mixed with salt is given 91 75.84 29 24.16 7. for dropping of placenta, additional quantity of bamboo leaves are fed to the animals 88 73.33 32 26.67 8. cactus (carnegiea giganta) fluid is applied on the eyelids for eye disease 76 63.33 44 36.67 journal of extension education 5714 sl. no. indigenous practices adopted not adopted number per centage number percentage 9. salt added with banana leaves are fed to control parasites 71 59.17 49 40.83 10. banana stem juice for treating all types of stomach disorders 85 70.83 35 29.17 11. using bamboo leaves for treatment of diarrhoea 84 70.00 36 30.00 12. feeding rice husk with banana to control diarrhoea 95 79.17 25 20.83 13. feeding tamarind leaves and mustard seeds to control bleeding dysentery 59 49.17 61 50.83 14. feeding of arjun bark (terminalia arjuna) and black pepper (piper nigrum) to control loose motion 80 66.67 40 33.33 15. feeding tea liquid in case of blood in urine 46 38.33 74 61.67 16. treating animals with turmeric against bloat 95 79.17 25 20.83 17. treating open wounds with lime, garlic and turmeric 70 58.33 50 41.67 18. applying warm coconut oil mixed with garlic extract to open wounds 89 74.17 31 25.83 adoption of indigenous dairy management practices among tribal farm women 5715 sl. no. indigenous practices adopted not adopted number per centage number percentage 19. treating the wounds of udder with neem leaf paste 78 65.00 42 35.00 20. application of ghee in case of cracking of udder 85 70.83 35 29.17 21. control of intestinal parasites with pineapple leaves 75 62.50 45 37.50 22. feeding sugarcane to the animals suffering from jaundice 55 45.83 65 54.17 23. applying doorva (cynodon dactylon linn.) leaves paste for bleeding from any injury 57 47.50 63 52.50 24. applying marigold (calendula officinalis) paste in case of bleeding from any injury 45 37.50 75 62.50 25. to prevent tick, lice and bovine flies, powder of calamus (acorus calamus) is mixed with the leaf extract of tulsi (ocimum sanctum) is smeared on the body 70 58.33 50 41.67 mean percentage 65.17 34.83 journal of extension education 5716 milking technique hundred per cent of the respondents had adopted full hand method of milking, tying feet and feeding fodder during milking to enhance work without disturbance. this was followed by other practices viz., maintaining 8 to 12 hours of milking interval (74.17 %) and washing the animals and udder properly before every milking (54.17 %), while only about twofifth of the respondents(40.83 %) kept bamboo leaves submerged in milk to preserve the quality of milk. full hand method of milking is perceived as easy and comfortable method by the farm women and hence all of them might have fully adopted. similar finding on washing the animals and udder properly before every milking was reported by gnanasekar & john christy (2013). care and management of dry and pregnant cows hundred per cent of the respondents had isolated pregnant cows from the rest and fed dry roughages in the shed to pregnant cows. stopping milking 50 to 60 days before calving was followed by 77.50 per cent of the respondents. majority of the respondents expressed that pregnant cows cannot be taken out to the field as it needed extra care. hence, they might have fed dry roughages in the shed itself. the finding on isolation of pregnant cows is in line with the findings of saha (2014). care during and after calving it could be further observed that 100 per cent of the respondents had fed colostrum to the new born calves within 30 minutes of calving and applied turmeric paste to the naval cord of the new born calves as an antiseptic agent. the other practices adopted by them to a greater extent were feeding rice bran with salt to increase milk (71.67 %) and feeding jackfruit leaves and rice bran with salt within 2 hours after delivery to induce high milk secretion (70.83 %). all the respondents would have fed colostrum to the new-born calves to ensure the good health of the calves and might have applied turmeric paste to the naval cord of the new born calves as they perceived it to be an effective antiseptic agent. similar finding on feeding colostrum was reported by bohra & samajdar (2015). treatment of ailments it is observed from the table that 100 per cent of the respondents made animals walk on the mud to control foot and mouth disease. adoption ranged from 80.00 to 70.00 per cent for the practices viz., feeding rice husk with banana to control diarrhoea and treating cows with turmeric against bloat (79.17 %), provided water mixed with salt to control tympany (75.84 %), smeared neem leaf paste on the affected parts to control foot and mouth disease and applied warm coconut oil mixed with garlic extract to open adoption of indigenous dairy management practices among tribal farm women 5717 wounds (74.17 %), pressed heated local sword against the teeth for toothache, fed country plantain and little amount of cumin seeds for the gastroenteritis problem, additional quantity of bamboo leaves was fed to the animals for dropping of placenta (73.33 %), banana stem juice was provided for all types of stomach disorders, bamboo leaves were given for treatment of diarrhoea and ghee was applied for cracking of udder (70.83 %). making animals walk on the mud to control foot and mouth disease was perceived as highly effective and easy method of treating the foot and mouth disease. turmeric was utilized to a greater extent by majority of the respondents to control bloat as it is perceived to be very effective. similarly, water mixed with salt was mentioned as very effective to control tympany compared to other methods. the finding on treating wounds of udder is reported by saha et al. (2010). treating open wounds with lime, garlic and turmeric had been also reported by mishra (2013). conclusion within the tribal populations, women traditionally have greater responsibility both in agriculture and livestock sectors, which drives them to interact more with the surroundings. as observed adoption of indigenous dairy management practices results with eco-friendly environment and is necessary to make promotional efforts for the preservation and spread of these practices. the findings of the study reveal that majority of the tribal farm women had adopted the indigenous dairy management practices to a higher extent. this shows the conviction of farm women in the adoption of indigenous dairy management practices. therefore extension workers should identify and include them in the technology transmission process for effectiveness. references anonymous. (2014). work participation of tribal women in india a development perspective, josr journal of humanities and social service, 19 (12 ), 35-38. bohra, sagarika & samajdar, t. (2015). dairy farming. krishi vigyan kendra, icar research centre for north eastern hill region, tura district, west garo hills. gnanasekar, r., & john christy, r. (2013). knowledge level of livestock keepers on clinical mastitis control measures in villupuram district of tamil nadu, journal of extension education, 25(1):4999. mishra, dibakar. (2013). cattle wound and ethno-veterinary medicine a study in polasara block, ganjam district, orissa, indian research journal extension education,12(1):62-65. mooventhan, p. kadian, k., senthilkumar, r., & karpagam, c. (2016). economic profiling of tribal dairy framers in northern hills zone of chattisgarh. journal of extension education 5718 journal of extension education, 27(3) saha, a. (2014). indigenous breeding and management practices of dairy animals-a study on documentation, scholars journal of agriculture and veterinary sciences, 1(4a), 216-221. saha, a., mukhopadhya, s.b. & das gupta, d., (2010). inventory of indigenous healthcare, indian journal of traditional knowledge, 9(2),326332. serote. (2001). the role of indigenous knowledge in environmental health risk, science education, 85(1),6-34. adoption of indigenous dairy management practices among tribal farm women 5780 adoption of crop insurance schemes in tamil nadu v. karthick1, a. anbarassan2 and c. cinthia fernandaz3 abstract the study was conducted in southern zone of tamil nadu a constituent state of india. one hundred and eighty farmers who had adopted crop insurance schemes were selected through random sampling procedure. the respondents were interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire for identifying factors influencing and constraints in adoption of crop insurance schemes. the study revealed that lack of scope for crop diversification and definite crop loss due to adverse climatic condition were the major factors influencing the adoption of crop insurance schemes. the study inferred that lack of compensation from the crop insurance scheme, delayed payment of indemnity, lack of awareness about the scheme and lengthy procedure to avail crop insurance were the major constraints. keywords : crop insurance; factors; constraints; suggestion; tamil nadu 1. & 3.assistant professors, forest college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, mettupalayam 641 301 and 2 research associate, department of agricultural economics, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore641 003. received : 09-09-2017; accepted : 29-09-2017 introduction agricultural risk is associated with negative outcomes that arise from imperfectly predictable biological variables like outbreak of pest and diseases, adverse climatic factors like drought, flood and storm, resource risks like nonavailability or poor quality of inputs, and price risks, which altogether are not within the control of farmers (mani et.al 2012). managing risks in agriculture is a big challenge to the farmers, researchers and the policy makers. the, adoption of appropriate risk coping measures are the prerequisites to protect farm economy and stabilize farm income. different strategies viz., providing tax reductions, waiving off loans and interest on loans, drought or flood relief measures, etc have been evolved by the government to combat the risks and uncertainties. however, a major hurdle in such types of relief is that they depend primarily on the policies as well as the resources of the government. therefore, though these measures guarantee some security in a situation of uncertainty, it makes the farmers to wait in anticipation for some relief when there is a loss. farmers, on the other hand, attempt to reduce journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5780-5786 5781 risks by utilizing modern technology, diversifying the agricultural operations through intercropping, flexible use of fertilizers, pesticides, etc., (mohanty & sandeep, 2012). crop insurance is one of the anticipatory adaptation measures proven worldwide as an effective institutional mechanism to overcome the adverse impacts of climate variability. helps in stabilization of farm production and income through promoting technology, encouraging investment, and increasing credit flow in the agricultural sector of the farming community. it helps in optimal allocation of resources in the production process. the basic principle underlying crop insurance is that the loss incurred by a few is shared among others in an area, engaged in a similar activity. also, losses incurred in bad years are compensated from resources accumulated in good years. crop insurance contributes to self-reliance and self-respect among farmers, since in cases of crop loss they can claim compensation as a matter of right. thus, it cushions the shock of crop loss by assuring farmers’ protection against natural hazards beyond their control. realizing the importance of crop insurance as a tool for managing risk and uncertainties in agriculture, the present study was conducted to identify factors which are influencing the purchase of crop insurance products by farmers and constraints faced by farmers in adopting crop insurance. methodology this study was conducted in southern zone of tamil nadu, which is highly vulnerable to climate change and variability (palanisamy et. al., 2011). in southern zone, pudukkottai, virudhunagar and sivagangai districts were selected purposively to represent the national agricultural insurance scheme (nais), weather based crop insurance scheme (wbcis) and modified national agricultural insurance scheme (mnais) based on maximum number of farmers enrolled under crop insurance scheme during 2012-13. one block (avuyadurkoil block in pudukkottai district, thiruchuli block in viridhunagar district and ilayankudi block in sivagangai district) were selected purposively from each district based on maximum number of farmers enrolled for the crop insurance scheme. primary data from the sample farms were collected with the help of a pre-tested interview schedule through personal interviews. a total of 180 farm households were randomly interviewed at the rate of 60 per district. the results were analyzed with the help of different statistical tools such as, percentage, and count. findings and discussion there were many important qualitative factors that influenced the adoption of crop insurance scheme. crop insurance formed a great support to resource poor farmers who had no alternatives other than borrowing under journal of extension education 5782 adverse situations. eventhough the crop insurance scheme was in operation for a long time, there existed many speculations and scepticism among farmers about the scheme. though the benefits of the scheme were well known, it still have not acheived the expected coverage from the point of view of either the implementing agency or the beneficieries. it would mean that the realisation of financial benefits out of the scheme was not the sole factor governing the adoption of crop insurance. instead, there must be some other factors which might influence the adoption. the factors that influenced the adoption of crop insurance were identified and the results are presented in table 1. table 1. factors influencing the adoption of nais, wbcis and mnais sl. no. particulars nais (n=60) wbcis (n=60) mnais (n=60) mean score rank mean score rank mean score rank 1 lack of scope for crop diversification 61.62 1 30.00 6 53.08 2 2 definite crop loss due to adverse climatic condition 54.02 2 62.53 1 60.92 1 3 aware of the benefits of crop insurance scheme 47.07 3 49.78 3 # # 4 mandatory for availing crop loan 39.97 4 55.25 2 42.50 4 5 encouraged by the experienced farmers 37.52 5 42.67 4 34.57 5 6 easy access to loan 36.17 6 35.02 5 32.56 6 7 financial security 0.0 0.0 50.52 3 the lack of crop diversification was the important factor that influenced the adoption of nais (pudukottai district) and mnais (sivagangai district). paddy was the only crop cultivated under rainfed condition in pudukkottai district during rabi season. the main source of irrigation was tank water, and soil in the study block was sandy coastal alluviam which can withhold the rain water upto 1015 days. in this field condition, growing paddy crop alone was feasible. farmers in the sivagangai district cultivated paddy and chilies in larger area and cotton in adoption of crop insurance schemes in tamil nadu 5783 smaller area under rainfed condition, if residual soil moisture was available. in a situation of prolonged drought, farmers failed to cultivate crop and therefore, the spread of prosopis into the cultivable land made the land unfit for crop cultivation. therefore, adoption of crop insurance offered the financial security (i.e., the indemnity that could be received in case of financial loss due to adverse weather parameters). hence, lack of crop diversification was the major factor influencing the adoption of crop insurance. farmers had a constant fear about crop loss due to adverse climatic conditions (either flood or drought or pest and diseases) and this was the important factor that influenced the farmers to adopt crop insurance in the study districts. the next important factor that influenced the adoption of crop insurance was awareness about the benefits of adopting crop insurance. farmers felt that adopting crop insurance would minimise income loss occurred due to adverse weather events, pest and disease and so on. crop insurance was mandatory to those farmers who were availing credit from institutional sources. at present, service for insurance to loanee farmers was provided by the institutions like primary agricultural co-operative credit banks or commercial banks. those farmers who availed crop loan from these institutions compulsorily came under insurance coverage. encouragement by the fellow farmers who had already reaped the benefit of crop insurance and easy access of loan from financial institutions (similar findings were observed in the study conducted by manohari and desai, 2015 in tamil nadu) were the other factors that influenced the adoption of insurance by the farmers. constraints in the adoption of crop insurance scheme farmers in the study area faced several constraints in taking up crop insurance. therefore, it was important to identify such constraints so that necessary remedial measures can be taken to increase the enrolment of the farmers under such scheme. based on the opinion of the selected respondents, the constraints were ranked and the results are presented in table 2. it is observed from table 2 that, lack of compensation from the nais to the farmers of pudukkottai district so far, whatever be the yield loss was the major constraint in adoption of nais which was expressed by 90 per cent of the respondents. around 83 per cent of the farmers who had adopted nais revealed that they were not satisfied with the delay in indemnity settlement. the main reason for this was that the banks did not notify about claims at the appropriate time to the farmers (the claim settlement process took a very long time-normally six months and even one year in some cases) and therefore, farmers were unable to get compensation against their losses at right time. journal of extension education 5784 table 2. constraints in adoption of crop insurance scheme sl. no. particulars nais (n=60) wbcis (n=60) mnais (n=60) 1 lack of awareness about the scheme 7 (11.67) 52 (86.67) 18 (30.00) 2 low premium paying capacity 10 (16.67) 15 (25.00) 31 (51.67) 3 availability of relief fund from the government 12 (20.00) 0 3 (5.00) 4 administrative reasons a banks were not available nearby 13 (21.67) 10 (16.67) 27 (45.00) b difficulty in opening bank account 9 (15.00) 12 (20.00) 15 (25.00) c lengthy procedures 46 (76.67) 45 (75.00) 32 (53.33) d lack of awareness about the cut off dates 25 (41.67) 37 (61.67) 21 (35.00) e delay in payment of indemnity 50 (83.33) 35 (58.33) 0 f insurance was not available for the farmer’s other crops 0 13 (21.67) 0 g indemnity level was very less 33 (55.00) 0 0 5 no compensation was paid even if loss occurred due to crop failure 54 (90.00) 0 0 the major constraints in the adoption of wbcis were lack of awareness of the scheme and its provisions (87 per cent) like crops covered, sum insured, premium charged and loss assessment method. in most cases, the deduction of premium from the loan amount was not informed to the borrowers and in some cases, the borrowers also did not take much care to know about the interest rate charged and deduction as premium from their accounts and so on. therefore, the insurers and bankers are required to clarify all the details about the various components of wbcis to the farmers. majority of the farmers in the study area were growing a variety of crops, but wbcis was available only for adoption of crop insurance schemes in tamil nadu 5785 paddy and sugarcane and this prohibited the farmers in adopting insurance to the other crops which were also affected by weather variability but not permitted to have insurance coverage. lengthy procedures to avail insurance coverage was the main constraint in adoption of insurance as expressed by 75 per cent wbcis farmers 53.33 per cent of mnais farmers. farmers’ suggestions to refine the crop insurance scheme the suggestions for improvement in implementation of the nais, wbcis and mnais schemes are presented in table 3. the beneficiary farmers highlighted several suggestions to refine the crop insurance scheme. a majority of nais beneficiaries (83 per cent) suggested that unit of insurance coverage should be village level or individual farmer level and they were not in favour of firka level. about 47 per cent of the beneficiaries suggested that there should be timely payment of compensation amount. a majority of the beneficiaries (43 per cent) suggested that there should be more number of crop cutting experiments, if individual based crop insurance was not practicable. table 3. suggestions of beneficiary farmers sl. no. particulars nais (n=60) wbcis (n=60) mnais (n=60) 1 unit area may be individual or village level 50 (83.33) 0 0 2 timely payment of compensation should be ensured 28 (46.67) 32 (53.33) 0 3 crop insurance should not be compulsory 18 (30.00) 15 (25.00) 28 (46.67) 4 more number of crop cutting experiment should be conducted 26 (43.33) 0 0 5 weather stations should perform more efficiently and their number should be increased 0 44 (73.33) 0 6 crop cutting experiment should be properly carried out 0 0 27 (45.00) the major suggestions made by the wbcis respondents were quick settlement of claims to (53 per cent) and prompt information about the claim settlement to be sent to the farmers by the bankers. about 73 per cent of the beneficiary farmers suggested establishment of more number of journal of extension education 5786 weather stations and improvement in their functioning. local representatives should be appointed to monitor and record the rainfall and temperature data. the major suggestions expressed by the mnais farmers were delinking crop insurance from the crop loan and conducting of crop cutting experiment (cce) at the respective field as identified strictly following appropriate statistical procedures i.e., random selection of field according to the allotment of random number. however, in most cases, the respondents observed that, the team of government officials conducted the cce along the road-side plots and not in an actual field number as identified by random number or following the appropriate statistical procedures. conclusion taking the results of the study into consideration, necessary steps should be taken up by the implementing agency and the agricultural department to conduct crop cutting experiments at the earliest possible and claims should be settled within one month after the receipt of the yield data. to make the scheme more administratively efficient, the implementing agency need to establish its branch offices atleast at district level for taking up monitoring and implementing the crop insurance schemes effectively. besides, it should appoint its own staff at grass-root level to gain the confidence of farmers. earnest efforts should be taken to make the farmers realize the real purpose of the scheme, beyond perceiving it as a mere fund granting developmental programme. references mani, k., chandrasekaran, m. & selvanayaki, s. (2012). adaptability of crop insurance schemes in tamil nadu. agricultural economics research review. 25(2), 279-290. manohari, p.l. & desai, g.r. (2015). factors influencing farmers decision in rainfed areas. journal of extension education. 27 (3), 5477-5484. mohanty, b.k. & sandeep, k. k. (2012). a perspective of crop insurance in india: approaches and challenges. journal of economics, commerce and research. 2(2), 25-33. palanisami, k., ranganathan, c. r. & kakumanu, k. r. (2011). a hybrid model to quantify the impact of climate change on agriculture in godavari basin, india. energy and environment research, 1(1), 32-52. adoption of crop insurance schemes in tamil nadu 5723 constraints in the adoption of indigenous farming practices k. kanagasabapathi1 and v. sakthivel2 abstract indigenous farming is a production system, based on renewal of ecological processes and strengthening of ecological functions of farm ecosystem to produce safe, healthy and sustainable food. indigenous agriculture is being adopted by the farmers of kolli hills in centre tamil nadu for different reasons. however, a lot of constraints prevent the farmers in adopting indigenous farming practices, that include poor yield, poor marketing facilities, higher production cost and urbanization. keywords: tribal farmers, indigenous farming, constraints, kolli hills 1. professor & head and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalainagar 608 002. received : 31-05-2017; accepted : 15-06-2017 the tribal farmers of kolli hills are noted for their rich traditional wisdom in agricultural operations. invariably they practice indigenous farming. but of late, these tribal farmers are moving towards inorganic agriculture because of the influence of ‘green revolution in india’. in recent days, the tribal farmers are again encouraged to practice indigenous agriculture. a lot of constraints / bottlenecks hinder the adoption of indigenous farming practices of the tribal farmers. keeping the above facts in mind the present study was taken up with the specific objective of identifying the constraints in the adoption of indigenous farming practices as perceived by tribal farmers. methodology there are fourteen villages in kolli hills located in namakkal district of tamil nadu and all the villages were included for the study. respondents from each village were selected using proportionate random sampling method. three hundred farmers were selected as respondents for the study. data collection was done primarily through personal interviews. the respondents were interviewed individually as well as in groups. constraints refer to all the impediments expressed by the respondents in the adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. the respondents were asked to mention the constraints that limited the adoption of indigenous farming practices. research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 3, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.3.28.5723-5726 5724 findings and discussion list of indigenous farming practices the following indigenous farming practices as adopted by many of the tribal farmers were observed during the investigation of the study. • application of farm yard manure to improve the fertility of the soil. • application of green manuring with leguminous crops • application of green leaf manuring • intercropping and cover cropping • sheep penning • cattle penning • crop rotation with leguminous crops • vermicomposting • application of crop waste, animal waste and other farm waste • application of neem extract to control the pests and diseases of the crops • application of cattle dung, cattle urine, poultry droppings • application of rural compost • application of forest litter • mulching most of these indigenous farming practices are eco-friendly, which hightlights the concern of the tribal farmers for environment. constraints expressed by the tribal farmers the constraints as perceived by the tribal farmers are presented in table 1 it is understood from table 1 that the constraints in the descending order of importance are ‘poor yield / poor income from agriculture’, ‘continuous pest and disease attacks’, ‘rain fall failure / climate change’, ‘less effective marketing and distribution of organic products’, ‘exploitation by middlemen in marketing of organic farming products’, ‘land tenancy system’, ‘urbanization’, ‘lack of support from extension officials for indigenous farming’, ‘young people moving away from agriculture’, ‘higher production cost’, ‘insufficient dairy population for organic manure’, ‘no special recognition for the organic producers’, and ‘insufficient land/ fragmented land’ . constraints in the adoption of indigenous farming practices table 1. constraints in the adoption of indigenous farming practices (n =300) sl. no. constraints number of respondents percentage rank 1. poor yield/poor income from agriculture 280 93.33 i 2. continuous pests and diseases attack 270 90.00 ii 5725 3. rainfall failure 260 86.66 iii 4. less effective marketing and distribution of organic products 240 80.00 iv 5. exploitation by middlemen in marketing of organic farming products 220 73.33 v 6. land tenancy system 216 72.00 vi 7. urbanization 214 71.33 vii 8. lack of support from extension officials for indigenous farming 212 70.66 viii 9. young people moving away from agriculture 210 70.00 ix 10. higher production cost 208 69.33 x 11. insufficient dairy population for organic manure 183 61.00 xi 12. no special recognition for the organic producers 182 60.66 xii 13. insufficient land / fragmented land 154 51.33 xiii suggestions for extension system based on the results of the study, the following suggestions are made. • steps should be made for the easy and efficient marketing of indigenous agricultural products. • more numbers of extension workers with hill experience may be appointed. such extension workers are likely to promote the adoption of indigenous farming practices. journal of extension education • extension workers should encourage farmers to adopt rational indigenous farming practices • special prizes, cash incentives and awards may be instituted for the farmers to take up indigenous farming practices. • regular trials and demonstrations on indigenous farming techniques should be arranged periodically to encourage the farmers to take up valid indigenous farming practices. 5726 suggestions for policy makers and administrators based on the results of the study, the following suggestions are made. • efforts should be made to reduce the role of middle men / brokers in the marketing of indigenous farming products by the tribes. • crop loans may be advanced to the farmers to encourage them to take up indigenous farming practices. • because of the land tenancy system many of the people from plains have occupied the lands of the tribal farmers and they are cultivating crops with inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. government should intervene and address this issue. • periodical trainings may be organized to create awareness among the tribal farmers and youth about the need for protecting the environment. references brokensha, d., warren, d.m., & werner, o. (eds.). (1980). indigenous knowledge systems and development. lanham: university press of america. chambers, r. pacey. a., & thrupp, l.a. (eds.). (1989). farmer first: farmer innovation and agricultural research. london: itp. warren, d.m. (1993). using ik for agriculture and rural development: current issues and studies. indigenous knowledge & development monitor, 1(1). constraints in the adoption of indigenous farming practices 5764 1. ph.d., scholar and 2. professor and head, department of agri. extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore – 641 003. received : 07.03.2017; accepted : 02-04-2017 improving the participation of tribal women in developmental programmes r. nisha1 and m. asokhan2 abstract tribal women are gradually becoming integrated into village organizations. the present study was conducted among 120 tribal women respondents in four selected panchayats of nilgiris district in tamil nadu. the respondents were selected using proportionate random sampling method. the data were collected from each respondent through a pre-tested interview schedule. the results were analysed with the help of statistical tools like mean, frequency and percentage. the results revealed that majority of the women respondents had more social taboos, superstitions and traditions as the major constraints in participating in various developmental programmes. keywords : tribal women, organizations, motivation, participation, the nilgiris. in the indian context, the attributes of a tribal woman are that they live in relative isolation of hills and covered forests, and often in geographical areas inaccessible to the mainstream population. tribes generally are groups which do not have a written letter or script. their sense of history is shallow or mixed with mythology, and in terms of their cultural ethos, language, customs, institutions and beliefs; they stand out from other sections of society. the government of india and state governments, through the ministry of tribal affairs and other agencies like the planning commission and tribal welfare departments, through their schemes and programmes are focussing on improvements of living standards, education, health care and skill upgradation of these tribal people. tribal society is normally conceptualized as clan-lineage based segmentary system characterized by mechanical solidarity. broadly, tribe is an aggregate of people sharing common social values, common dialect, territory and culture. but in a restricted sense, tribe means “a group of people under a chief and maintaining distinct cultural traits. over eight per cent of india’s total population, the tribals have a variety in their culture, lifestyle and above all different customs and worldview of their research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5764-5767 5765 own. today, despite their adaptation and exposure to the culture of larger society, modernization, industrialization, they live in a world of dynamic isolation that helps the tribals to maintain their distinct socio-cultural identity. many tribal development programmes are being implemented in the state of tamil nadu, wherein participation of tribal women is, in general, low compared to tribal men. the objective of the study was to find out the constraints and suggestions to increase the participation of tribal women in developmental programmes. methodology this study focused on participation of tribal women in developmental programmes. in accordance with the objectives of the study, the nilgiris district of tamil nadu was selected because it is one of the districts in tamil nadu where the percentage tribal population is higher. the nilgiris district comprises four blocks viz., udhagamandalam, coonoor, kotagiri and gudalur. of these, udhagamandalam and kotagiri blocks were selected based on the high population of the tribals. from each block, four revenue villages were selected based on the tribal population and thus a total of eight revenue villages from two blocks were selected. also, the familiarity of the researcher to the culture and local dialect of the district was considered during selection. findings and discussion the tribal women expressed a variety of constraints & suggestions for participation in department programmes (table 1.) table 1. constraints expressed by tribal women (n=120)* sl. no. constraints no. percentage 1. lack of adequate training facilities 40 33.33 2. lack of awareness about credit sources 82 68.33 3. insufficient credit facilities 80 66.67 4. indebtedness 81 67.50 5. less importance to actual needs 70 58.33 6. more social taboos, superstitions and traditions 100 83.33 7. lack of adequate communication skills 72 60.00 8. inadequate motivation from family members 60 50.00 9. lack of periodical trainings 34 28.33 10. suppression due to “ dependancy” 51 42.50 * multiple responses improving the participation of tribal women in developmental programmes 5766 among the problems faced, 83.33 per cent of tribal women had reported prevalence of social taboos, superstitions and traditions, followed by lack of awareness about credit sources (68.33%), indebtedness (67.50%) , insufficient credit facilities (66.67%), and lack of awareness about the tribal development schemes (60.83%). inspite of several development programmes initiated by the governments over the years, tribal women are hesitant to involve themselves in these programmes due to the restrictions imposed by the tribal society. the results of this study have confirmed this important problem which could be overcome primarily by ensuring education of tribal girls. table 2. suggestions offered by the tribal women (n=120)* sl. no. suggestions no. percentage 1. training facilities 100 83.33 2. loan facilities 85 70.83 3. information on banking and marketing 90 75.00 4. marketing facility for the products through taluk and district centres 80 66.67 5. awareness to be created on developmental programmes and their importance 79 65.83 6. counselling to be conducted periodically to solve the problems faced by tribal women 92 76.67 7. organizing exhibitions for displaying tribal products 80 66.67 8. purchase of products through government sources 82 68.33 * multiple responses it is observed from the table that majority of the respondents had reported that training facilities should be provided to tribal women followed by counselling to be conducted periodically to solve the problems faced by tribal women and providing information on banking and marketing (75.00%). if these suggestions are considered by the policy makers then the participation fo tribal women is likely to improve. the results of the study had indicated that indebtness is widespread in the tribal areas and among the problems faced by the tribal women, it is probably the most difficult one to tackle. further it was noted that these problems journal of extension education 5767 clearly indicate that in tribal areas, the tribal women are more bogged down by the constraints of customs and traditions and also their low economic status. overcoming these constraints and considering their suggestions while formulating strategies would go a long way in empowerment of tribal women. references asokhan, m. (2006). empowerment of rural women through self help groups an empirical analysis. unpublished ph.d. thesis, ac&ri, tnau, coimbatore. femina, p. (2003). role of voluntary organizations in empowering women through self help groups. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac & ri, tnau, coimbatore. sujeetha, t.n., ravichandran, v., & karuna jeba mary, m.v. (2015). participation of self help group tribal women in economic and social developmental activities. journal of extension education, 27(1) improving the participation of tribal women in developmental programmes 5966 social exclusion of tribal agricultural labourers of kerala dhanusha balakrishnan1 and preethu k paul2 abstract the literacy rate and standard of living of the tribal people in wayanad district in kerala is still very low and constant efforts are being made by the state government and central government to improve their conditions. the present study was conducted during 2016-17 in districts of thirunelly, mananthavady and panamaram panchayats. from each panchayat, 30 tribal women and 10 men agricultural labourers were selected making to a total of 120 respondents. the study shows that majority of the tribal women experienced high level of geographic, economic and political legal exclusion. keywords : tribe; adiya; geographic exclusion; economic exclusion; political exclusion; socio cultural exclusion; kerala 1 & 2 asst. professors (contract) department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala, india received : 25-4-2018; accepted : 24-05-2018 introduction the total population in wayanad district of kerala as per the 2011 census was 816558 and the scheduled tribe population forms 18.5% of the total population i.e. 151443. there are approximately 3200 tribal colonies in wayanad. literacy rate and standard of living of the tribal people is still very low and constant efforts are made by the state and central governments to improve their conditions. the major tribal groups in wayanad are adiya, paniya and the kurichians. the adiyan or ravulayar tribe adiya belong to the slave tribal sector of kerala. in a typical ‘adiya’ family, husband is the head of the household. divorce, widow marriage and polygamy are also practiced. the tribal community of ‘adiyan’ is divided into 20 classes called as ‘mandu’. the head of each ‘mandu’ is called as ‘chommikkaran’ or ‘peruman’. different from the non tribal communities, bride price is given to the parents of the bride from the groom. the ‘adiyans’ prefer themselves to be called as ravular and they belong to the slave tracts of wayanad. they are linguistically and ethnically related to the ‘ravula’ language speaking ‘yerava’ tribe in the neighbouring coorg district of karnataka (prabhu,2011). they are mostly agricultural labourers but as the agricultural fields are depleting they journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5966-5971 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 5967 are giving up agriculture and are now taking up jobs such as construction work and daily wage labours. women are active members of mahatma gandi national rural employment guarantee programme. the only agricultural work they do now is in coffee, tea and ginger plantations. even though there are a number of constitutional safeguards and governmental policies to bring the tribal people to the mainstream and to prevent the atrocities against them they still lack basic amenities. moreover they also face difficulty in enjoying the basic rights of a citizen. their security is still challenged and many are under the vicious grip of indebtedness and alcoholism. this study explores the social exclusion of the adiyan tribe, in detail. methodology in this study social exclusion is operationally defined as a multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which they live. generally, four categories of exclusion have been faced by the tribes. they are geographical exclusion, economical exclusion, political-legal exclusion and socio-cultural exclusion. the variable was measured by modifying the scoring procedure developed by anoop (2013). the scores given are: strongly felt (5) felt (4) unde cided (3) not felt (2) not at all felt (1) findings and discussion social exclusion is the process in which members of a group are excluded or denied access to the services and resources which are normally available to the members of another group. in this study the exclusion is analysed under the categories namely geographical, political, socio-cultural and political. geographic exclusion is mainly due to the remote geographic location of the groups. mainly due to this hurdle, basic services such as schools, hospitals and credit institutions are often inaccessible to the tribal people. this is directly correlated to social exclusion as lack of basic infrastructure and services is one major reason that leads to social exclusion. political rights and awareness about their rights is the basic need of every citizen. but when a group of people is excluded from enjoying their rights because of the caste, race or gender they belong to, that leads to political exclusion which is another factor that can cause social exclusion. economic exclusion is when a group of people is excluded on the basis 5968 of the income or on the basis of their financial status. this adversely affects his everyday life and there is a tendency among the non tribals to exploit them further more by giving them lower wages and incentives. this acts as a barrier before their dreams and goals leading to economic exclusion. socio cultural exclusion may be the end result of dominance of several other cultures and languages that are alien to them virtually creating a world that is unfamiliar to the tribal people. this drags the tribal people away from their roots, and leaves them marginalized. socio cultural exclusion arises when the tribal people are not allowed to mingle with the outside world and they are restricted in taking decisions of their interest. when the tribal people move away from their cultural roots, they are exposed to a condition that is alien to them, this will again make them excluded from the so called main stream. for this situation to be changed the attitude of the non tribals towards them should also be changed. geographic exclusion table 1 shows the distribution of respondents based on geographic exclusion. from the table it could be seen that 98.33% of the females and 90% of the male respondents in thirunelly panchayat experienced high level of geographic exclusion while only 6.67% of the females and 10% of the males said that they experience low level of geographic exclusion. in the case of mananthavady panchayat, 80% of the females, and 50% of the males experience high level of geographic exclusion and another 50% of the males experience low level of geographic exclusion. in the case of panamaram, 100% of both males and females experience low level of geographic exclusion. the higher level of geographic exclusion in thirunelly and mananthavady panchayat might be mainly due to the remoteness of the areas and lack of infrastructure like roads and transportation facilities table 1. distribution of respondents based on geographic exclusion sl. no category thirunelly mananthavady panamaram female male female male female male f % f % f % f % f % f % 1. below 12(low) 2 6.67 1 10 6 20 5 50 30 100 10 100 2. above 12(high) 28 98.33 9 90 24 80 5 50 0 0 0 0 5969 to these areas. low level of geographic exclusion in panamaram panchayat might be due to the proximity of the tribal hamlets to the city with proper transportation facilities. 90% of the females and 100% of the males experienced high level of economic exclusion in thirunelly panchayat, and about 10% of the females felt that they experienced low level of economic exclusion. in the case of mananthavady panchayat, 90% of the males and females experienced high level of economic exclusion.10% of both males and females experienced low level of economic exclusion. in the case of panamaram panchayat 83.3% of the females and 80% of the males experienced low level of economic exclusion. 16% of the females and 20% of the males said that they experienced high level of economic exclusion. economic exclusion might be due to the low level of economic status. they are not treated indifferently during the table 2. distribution of respondents based on economic exclusion sl. no category thirunelly mananthavady panamaram female male female male female male f % f % f % f % f % f % 1. below 30 (low) 3 10 0 0 3 10 1 10 25 83.3 8 80 2. above 30 (high) 27 90 10 100 27 90 9 90 5 16.6 2 20 economic exclusion table 2 shows the distribution of respondents based on economic exclusion. in the case of economic exclusion, financial transactions if they have money in their hands. but the situation might be different if their economic status is low. economic exclusion was severely faced by women as they are paid unequal wages and are not given timely incentives. this kind of economic exclusion is a major detrimental factor that hinders development. socio cultural exclusion table 3 shows the distribution of respondents based on socio cultural exclusion. on examining the data of socio cultural exclusion, it can be found that 73.33% of the females and 80% of the males in thirunelly panchayat, faced high level of socio cultural exclusion while 26.6% of the females and 20% of 5970 the males experienced low level of socio cultural exclusion. in mananthavady panchayat, 93.33% of the females and 90% of the males experienced low level of socio cultural exclusion, 20% of the females and 10% of the males experienced high level of socio cultural exclusion. in the panamaram panchayat, 96.67% of the females and 100% of females experienced low level of socio cultural exclusion. only 3.33% of the females experienced high level of socio cultural exclusion. higher level of socio cultural exclusion in thirunelly panchayat might be due to the age old traditions they follow and the main reason might be due to the sceptical attitude of the non tribals residing in the area. political legal exclusion table 4 shows the distribution of respondents based on political legal exclusion political legal exclusion in the case of thirunelly panchayat was recorded with 90% females and 80% of the males experiencing high level of political legal exclusion. in mananthavady panchayat 86.6% of the females and 90% of the males experienced high level of political legal exclusion. in the case of panamaram panchayat, 86.6% of the females and 50% of the males experienced high level of political legal exclusion.13.3% of the females and 50% of the males of the panamaram panchayat experienced low level of political legal exclusion. high level of political legal exclusion might be due to the low political orientation and mobility among the tribal communities. they were mainly unaware about their rights and therefore they got exploited by the non tribal people. there was even an instance where the land allotted to the tribals was procured by the non tribals using illegal means. the tribal people did not respond as they were unaware of the legal protection provided to them by the constitution. table 3. distribution of respondents based on socio cultural exclusion sl. no category thirunelly mananthavady panamaram female male female male female male f % f % f % f % f % f % 1. below 12(low) 8 26.6 2 20 28 93.33 9 90 29 96.67 10 100 2. above 12(high) 22 73.3 8 80 2 20 1 10 1 3.33 0 0 5971 conclusion from the study it can be concluded that, majority of the females and males of thirunelly panchayat experienced high level of geographic exclusion. in the case of economic exclusion mananthavady and thirunelly panchayat experienced high level of economic exclusion in the case of socio cultural exclusion, tirunelly experienced high level of socio cultural exclusion. in the case of political legal exclusion, majority of the females and males of thirunelly panchayat experienced high level of political legal exclusion, in the mananthavady panchayat majority belonged to the high level of political legal exclusion and in the panamaram panchayat also females and males also experienced high political legal exclusion. the tribes form a major part in wayanad and it is essential that they are not excluded from the mainstream. designing and implementing inclusive developmental programmes will reduce the wide gap between tribes and nontribes. references anoop, r. j. (2013). social exclusion of tribal agricultural labourers: the case of paniya tribe of wayanad. unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 83p. chandrakumar, a. (2016). a study on social exclusion of adiya tribal community of wayanad district, kerala, unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, university of agricultural sciences, karnataka, 146p. prabhu, p. (2011). sustainable tribal development. journal of public administration. 39(3): 479-487. table 4. distribution of respondents based on political legal exclusion sl. no category thirunelly mananthavady panamaram female male female male female male f % f % f % f % f % f % 1. below 12(low) 3 10 2 20 4 13.3 1 10 4 13.3 5 50 2. above 12(high) 27 90 8 80 26 86.6 9 90 26 86.6 5 50 untitled-1 5665 constraints encountered by the beneficiaries of krishi vigyan kendra in north eastern region of india dipak nath1, p. k. jain2, r. k. talukdar3 and b.s. hansra4 abstract the study was conducted among 200 farmers of ten purposively selected krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) in north eastern region of india. the respondents were interviewed using a questionnaire for identifying the constraints and their suggestions for future improvement of kvk activities. the study revealed that unavailability of labour, unavailability of good quality seed and other inputs, unavailability of information about pest and disease management at right time,(inability to purchase modern agricultural implements and lack of capital were the major constraints. the respondents suggested that timely availability of seed and other inputs, regular and continuous monitoring, linking farmers to financial institutuions for financial support, and more long term practical oriented training programme are important for strengthening kvk activities. keywords : kvk, constraints, suggestions, north eastern india. journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 1.subject matter specialist (agril. extension), krishi vigyan kendra, west tripura and ph.d., scholar, school of agriculture, ignou, new delhi 2.assistant professor, school of agriculture, ignou, new delhi 3.professor, dept. of extension education, faculty of agriculture, assam agricultural university, jorhat, assam and 4. professor emeritus (agriculture), amity international centre for pht and ccm, amity university, noida, uttar pradesh received : 25-12-2016; accepted : 15-01-2017 krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) is an innovative science-based institution in india with a mandate of technology assessment, refinement and demonstration of technology/products. kvks undertake need based training/ vocational training of farm-men, farm women and rural youths; conducts on farm trials for technology refinement and frontline demonstrations to demonstrate the latest agricultural technologies to the farmers as well as the extension workers, work as resource and knowledge centre of agricultural technology for supporting initiatives of public, private and voluntary sector for improving the agricultural economy of the district besides sale of seeds and planting materials to the farmers. imparting learning through “work experience” to those who are engaged in farming is the main purpose of the kvks. the syllabus and programme of each kvk are tailored to the felt needs of the farmers, resources and potential for agricultural growth in a particular area. “seeing is believing” and “learning research note 5666 by doing” are the main methods of imparting skill training. emphasis is also on employment generation to bring about equality of opportunities for socio economically deprived class of farmers and traditionally backward areas in the country including dry land areas (venkatasubramanian et. al., 2009). north eastern region has 78 kvks , out of which 18 nos. are under icar institutes, 27 are under saus/ caus/ gus, three are under non – governmental organizations (ngos) and 30 are under state governmental departments. kvks have been implementing their mandated activities covering the farm men, farm women, and educated youth in a district. in view of this, for better implementation of mandated activities there is an urgent need to study the constraints encountered by the beneficiaries of kvks and their suggestions for future improvement of kvk activities. hence, the present study was conducted among the beneficiary farmers of kvks in the north – east (ne) region. methodology the objective of the study was to find out the constraints encountered by kvk beneficiaries and invite suggestions to address those constraints. for the study, ten kvks were selected purposively from ne region under different administrative units viz., sau/ cau, state govt. departments, icar and ngo. the purposively selected kvks were cachar (sau), tinsukia (sau), imphal east (cau), phek (icar), west garo hills (icar), south tripura (icar), tirap (state dept.), mammit (state dept.), south sikkim (state dept.) and west tripura (ngo). a sample of 200 beneficiaries was selected purposively from the ten kvks. the respondents were interviewed with a structured questionnaire for identifying the constraints and their suggestions for strengthening the kvk activities. findings and discussion the constraints encountered by the respondents are presented in table 1 and their suggestions are highlighted in table. 2. data presented in table 1 reveal that majority (95.50 %) of the respondents had reported “unavailability of labour” as the major constraint. other major constraints, were “unavailability of good quality seed and other inputs” “unavailability of information about pest and disease management at right time”, “inability to purchase modern agricultural implements”, “lack of capital” and “unavailability of timely credit facilities”. the possible reason behind the major constraint, “unavailability of labour” might be due to the implementation of mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mgnrega) (reddy et. al., 2014). the constraint, “unavailability of good quality seed & other inputs” might have been experienced due to the remoteness of the region (north east region) and the large area of jurisdiction of kvk. these journal of extension education 5667 table 2 suggestions for future improvement of kvk programmes (n= 200) sl. no. suggestions frequency percentage rank 1. provision of assured irrigation 109 54.50 iv 2. timely availability of seed and other inputs 178 89.00 i 3. kvk farm to be made a model farm 87 43.50 vii 4. more nos. of exposure visit, awareness programme etc. 81 40.50 viii 5. more long term practical oriented training programme 101 50.50 v 6. kvk should be equipped with more manpower 70 35.00 ix 7. linking farmers to financial institutions for financial support 144 72.00 iii 8. linking farmers to other organizations 97 48.50 vi 9. regular and continuous monitoring 154 77.00 ii constraints encountered by the beneficiaries of krishi vigyan kendra in north eastern region of india table 1 constraints encountered by beneficiaries of kvk (n= 200) sl. no. constraints frequency percentage rank 1. no assured irrigation 113 56.50 viii 2. unavailability of timely credit facilities 132 66.00 vi 3. unawareness of govt. subsidy programme 78 39.00 x 4. unavailability of labour 191 95.50 i 5. unavailability of good quality seed and other input 172 86.00 ii 6. high cost of agricultural chemicals 109 54.50 ix 7. inability to purchase modern agricultural implements 145 72.50 iv 8. high labour wages 125 62.50 vii 9. lack of capital 142 71.00 v 10 unavailability of information about pest and disease management at right time 159 79.50 iii 5668 constraints could be addressed through collaboration with various government agencies and by motivating farmers to produce and use low cost inputs like biofertilizers and other organic manures thereby reducing the use of external inputs. suggestions from the respondents to overcome their constraints are presented in table 2. major suggestions are, “timely availability of seed & other inputs” (89.00 %); “regular and continuous monitoring” (77.00 %), “linking farmers to financial institutions for financial support” (72.00 %) and “provision of assured irrigation” (54.50 %) most of the suggestions could to be implemented by organizing more training programmes, exposure visits, method demonstrations, production of sufficient quantities of seed & planting material and convergence with other line departments. references reddy, n., d, reddy, a, a., nagaraj, n, & bantilan, m, c, s (2014). impact of mahatma gandhi rural employment gurantee act (mgnrega) on rural labour markets, hyderabad: icrisat cgiar. journal of extension education 5996 1. pg scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore 641 003 and 2. director of extension education (dee), tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641 003 received : 23-04-2018; accepted : 02-06-2018 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 adaptation strategies followed by the rice growers to mitigate the impact of climate change p. suganthkumar1 & h. philip2 abstract the study was conducted in orathanadu block of thanjavur district in tamil nadu. proportionate random sampling was employed to select the sample. it was observed that the variables viz., educational status and fatalism showed positive significant correlation at one per cent level of probability whereas awareness on climate change showed negative correlation. variables like annual income, extension agency contact and awareness on crop insurance showed negative correlation at five per cent level of probability keywords : climate change; adaptation strategy; livelihood; food security; tamil nadu introduction climate change is any significant long-term change in the expected patterns of average weather of a region (or the whole earth) over a significant period of time, that may have influence on adequate stock and flow of food and cash to meet the basic needs (livelihood), the ability of an individual to have all time physical and economical access to sufficient and safe food for a healthy life (food security). agriculture has been adversely affected by climate change. to sustain their livelihood in this changing climate, farmers are taking many alternative adaptive measures to manage its ill effects. according to undp (2005), adaptation is a process by which strategies to moderate, cope with and take advantage of the consequences of climatic events are enhanced, developed and implemented. conversely, the greater the degree of preparatory adaptation, the less may be the impacts associated with any given degree of climate change. adaptation at farm-level involves two stages: perceiving the change in climate, and deciding whether to adapt or not, or which adaptation strategy to choose (maddison, 2007). in this study, the farmers had taken many adaptive measures with respect to crop diversification, cropping intensity, farm operations, soil and water conservation measures and animal husbandry. the correlation and regression tests were applied to ascertain the relationship of profile of the farmers with the adaptation strategy and the results are discussed. 5997 methodology the selected study area was thanjavur district of tamil nadu. the study area was selected purposively for this study. among 14 agricultural blocks in thanjavur district, orathanadu block was selected for study as it had highest area of rice cultivation and more number of farmers. based on the number of farmers in the villages, the villages namely, thirumangalakkottai (east), poyyundarkottai, vadakkurnorth and vellur from orathanadu block were selected to represent the rice growers of the district. proportionate random sampling was used to select 120 respondents from the selected four villages. fifteen independent variables were selected to study the profile of the farmers. the scores obtained for each item by an individual respondent were summed up to obtain total score for adaptive behaviour towards climate variability. the correlation and regression tests were applied to ascertain the relationship of independent variable with the adaptation strategy followed by the farmers to ensure livelihood and food security. findings and discussion profile of the respondents the profile of the respondents were analyzed using percentage analysis and it was found that the majority (60.00 %) of the respondents in the study area belonged to old age category with middle and high school level of education. and majority (72.50 %) of the farmers was found to have medium sized family of four to six members with majority (65.00 %) of the respondents having medium level of annual income. majority of the farmers in the study area had diversified their crop (68.30 %) and enterprise (80.00 %). they cultivated other crops like pulses, oilseeds etc. the respondents were found to have high level of awareness on climate change and crop insurance with high level of decision making behavior. table 1. relationship of profile of farmers with adaptation to climate change variable no. variables correlation coefficient regression coefficient standard error ‘t’ constant 57.188 4.939 11.579 x1 age 0.110 0.862 0.423 2.038* x2 educational status 0.705** 1.098 0.159 6.901** x3 annual income -0.231* 0.001 0.123 0.010 x4 family size -0.069 0.420 0.322 1.304 x5 occupational status -0.008 0.220 0.408 0.539 x6 farming experience 0.118 0.259 0.325 0.796 x7 crop diversification 0.167 0.295 0.131 2.254* x8 enterprise diversification 0.522** 0.394 0.169 2.330* adaptation stratagies followed by the rice growers to mitigate the impact of climate change 5998 variable no. variables correlation coefficient regression coefficient standard error ‘t’ x9 fatalism -0.168 -0.164 0.127 -1.292 x10 extension agency contact -0.202* -0.012 0.127 -0.097 x11 exposure to weather advisory -0.207* -0.113 0.133 -0.853 x12 utility of weather based agro advisory services -0.086 -0.161 0.215 -0.748 x13 awareness on climate change -0.267** -0.312 0.212 -1.475 x14 awareness on crop insurance -0.227* -0.646 0.393 -1.647 x15 decision making on climate change 0.159 0.070 0.192 0.362 * significance at 0.05 level r2 = 0.605 ** significance at 0.01 level relationship of profile characteristics of farmers with adaptation to climate change from table 1, it is observed that the variables viz., educational status and fatalism showed positive significant correlation at one per cent level of probability whereas awareness on climate change showed negative correlation at one per cent level. variables like annual income, extension agency contact and awareness on crop insurance showed negative correlation at five per cent level of probability. multiple regression analysis was taken up to find out the contribution of independent variable with adaptation to climate change. the r2 value was 0.60. the r2 value has shown that all the variables contributed 60.50 per cent variation in the adaptation level of the respondents. the regression coefficient values were found to be positive and significant. therefore the equation was worked out. y1 = 57.188 +0.862 (x1) + 1.908 (x2) + 0.001 (x3) + 0.420 (x4) + 0.220 (x5) + 0.259 (x6) + 0.295 (x7) + 0.394 (x8) – 0.164 (x9) – 0.012 (x10) – 0.113 (x11) – 0.161 (x12) – 0.312 (x13) – 0.646 (x14) + 0.070 (x15). the results indicated that the variables viz., age, crop diversification and enterprise diversification showed positive significant contribution at five per cent level of probability. educational status alone showed positive contribution at one per cent level of probability. results revealed that one unit increase in the following independent variables viz., age (x1), educational status (x2), crop diversification (x7) and enterprise diversification (x8) would increase the adaptation to climate change by 0.862, 1.098, 0.295, 0.394 units respectively. journal of extension education 5999 as the farmers grow older, their experience in farming get increased which may increase their exposure on farming. increase in exposure to farming may make the farmers aware of the measures to cope up with the adverse situation of climate change. this might be the reason for positive contribution of age towards adaptation strategy. the farmers were well educated and their education status was primary, secondary level to collegiate level. it is an accepted fact that educated farmers always understood the changes in the climate and it influences farming very quickly than illiterate farmers and were able to take alternate measures to cope with the situation. the study is in accordance with the findings of dhaka et al., (2010) who revealed that education had increased the level of adaptation of improved technologies to mitigate the climate change. conclusion diversification of enterprises and crops helped the farmers to mitigate the ill effects of climate change. hence, higher the diversification of crops and enterprise, higher will be the adaptation. the results are in line with findings of rubina (2014) who revealed that enterprise diversification increases the level of adoption of technologies to climate change. references dhaka, b.l., chayal, k., & poonia, m.k. (2010). analysis of farmers perception and adaptation strategies to climate change. libyan agriculture research center journal international, 1(6), 388-390. maddison, d. (2007). the perception and adaptation to climate change in africa. ceepa. centre for environmental economics and policy in africa. discussion paper no. 10, university of pretoria , pretoria, south africa rubina, s. m. (2014). impact of climate change on adaptation and mitigation strategies of ponnaniyar and kalingarayan basin farmers a gender analysis. unpublished master’s thesis, ac&ri, tnau, coimbatore. sivaraj, p., & philip, h. (2014). climate change impact on paddy farming in erode and tiruchirappalli district of tamil nadu. journal of extension education 27(4) undp. (2005). adaptation policy frameworks for climate change. developing strategies, policies and measures. undp, new york. adaptation stratagies followed by the rice growers to mitigate the impact of climate change 6186 marketing behaviour of organic farmers in karur district of tamil nadu p. raahinipriya1 and r. jansi rani2 abstract in the recent past, most of the developed countries and some of the developing countries are returning to organic farming cultivation. for sustaining a healthy ecosystem there is a need for adoption of organic farming in india. the study was conducted in karur district of tamil nadu to assess the marketing behavior of organic farmers. nearly three-fourths of the respondents had medium level of marketing behavior. keywords: marketing behavior; organic farming; food security; market information; price fixing; tamil nadu 1.pg scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore and 2.professor (agrl. extension), dept. of sustainable organic agriculture, tnau, coimbatore-641 003, tamil nadu. research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6186-6189 the need for organic farming in india arises from the unsustainability of agricultural production and the damage caused to ecology through the conventional farming practices. many techniques used in organic farming like inter-cropping, mulching and integration of crops and livestock are not alien to various agriculture systems including the traditional agriculture practiced in old countries like india. however, organic farming is based on various laws and certification programmes, which prohibit the use of almost all synthetic inputs, and health of the soil is recognised as the central theme of the method (narayanan, 2005). organic agriculture is practiced in 172 countries, and 43.70 million hectares of agricultural land are managed organically by approximately 2.3 million farmers. the study assessed the marketing behaviour of the organic farmers which would provide an understanding about the status of organic farming in karur district of tamil nadu. methodology the study was conducted in karur district of tamil nadu. karur district comprises eight blocks, viz., karur, thanthoni, aravakurichi, k.paramathi, krishnarayapuram, kulithali, thogamalai, and kadavur. among these eight blocks, kadavur, aravakurichi and kulithalai blocks were selected for the study based on more number of organic farmers. among these blocks, a total of 90 organic farmers were selected for the study by using convenient sampling technique. the overall marketing behaviour of the organic farmers was studied using 10 components. simple percentage analysis was carried out for the study. received : 04-05-2018; accepted : 01-04-2019 6187 findings and discussion marketing behaviour of the organic farmers the distribution of respondents according to their marketing behaviour is presented in table 1. table 1. marketing behaviour of respondents (n = 90) particulars num ber * percen tage overall marketing behaviour low 14 15.60 medium 66 73.30 high 10 11.10 time of sale as soon as harvest is over 51 56.66 when price is attractive 23 25.56 when need of cash 16 17.78 price fixing criteria based on cost of production 75 83.33 based on demand for the produce 15 16.67 mode of sale local merchants 52 57.78 contractors 5 5.56 wholesalers 17 18.89 commission mandi 16 17.77 particulars num ber * percen tage mode of transport bicycle 3 3.33 tempo van/ tractor 49 54.45 moped 27 30.00 lorry 11 12.22 expenditure incurred on transport high 35 38.89 medium 40 44.44 low 15 16.67 place of sale field itself 23 25.56 in the village 16 17.78 nearby town 43 47.78 other state/ district 8 8.88 reasons for selection of market proximity to the place of production 52 57.78 higher price 31 34.44 cash payment 7 7.78 distance to the market up to 5 km 6 6.67 510 km 11 12.22 11-15 km 22 24.44 16-20 km 16 17.78 more than 20 km 35 38.89 marketing behaviour of organic farmers in karur district of tamil nadu 6188 particulars num ber * percen tage source of market information relatives and friends 51 56.67 local marketing centers 19 21.11 commission agents 13 14.44 contractors 6 6.67 retailers 1 1.11 collection of money immediately after sale 63 70.00 1-2 days after sale 16 17.78 a week after sale 7 7.78 15 days after sale 2 2.22 a month after sale 2 2.22 * multiple responses nearly three-fourth (73.30 %) of the respondents had medium level of marketing behaviour where as 15.60 per cent of the respondents had low level of marketing behaviour. item-wise marketing behaviour of the respondents the marketing behaviour of organic farmers was studied with the identified 10 components namely time of sale, price fixing criteria, mode of sale, mode of transport, expenditure incurred on transport, place of sale, reason for selection of market, distance of the market, source of market information and collection of money. more than half (56.66 %) of the respondents had sold the entire produce immediately after harvest because they would be in need of money for meeting their farm and home expenses. sivaraj et al (2018) had obtained similar results in an analogous study. majority (83.33 %) of the respondents fixed the price based on the cost of production, the reason being farmers would expect more returns as well as to overcome the future risks. more than half (57.78 %) of the respondents sold their produce directly to local merchants because they needed immediate payments for their produce. more than half (54.45 %) of the respondents used tempo van/ tractor for transporting their produce because most of the respondents owned tractor and therefore they utilized it to transport the produce to nearby towns and outside the towns. less than half (44.44 %) of the respondents had medium level of expenditure on transport and the reason behind this was that most of the respondents had used their own tempo van/ tractor for transporting their produce. nearly half (47.78 %) of the respondents sold their produce in nearby towns because they would have preferred marketing the produce at the markets located within 10 km distance. about 57.78 per cent of the respondents selected the market based on proximity to the place of production as the respondents did not want to spend more money on transport. more than one-third (38.89 %) of the respondents marketed their produce in the markets located at the distance of more than 20 km because they preferred to sell their produce in semi urban / urban areas. over half (56.67 %) of the respondents came to know the price trends in journal of extension education 6189 the market through relatives and friends and the reason might be that the farmers living in the villages were found to have acted as the sources of market information. more than twothirds (70.00 %) of the respondents sold their produce for immediate payment of money in order to meet their expenses of household activities and also to clear the debts. this study revealed that the respondents were found to have medium to high level of marketing behaviour. the result might be due to the reason that the respondents had a good knowledge about the marketing trend so as to get good price for their produce. the respondents also received market information through mobiles and some of the respondents were registered farmers of domestic & exports market intelligence cell (demic), tamil nadu agricultural university. most of the farmers had subscribed to monthly magazines like tnau’s valarum velanmai and pasumai vikadan. in order to improve the marketing behaviour of organic farmers, direct marketing / linkages by farmers groups with their end user institutions can be created by government intervention. government may provide price related information to the organic farmers for their organic produce at correct time for enhancing their marketing abilities. references narayanan, s. (2005). organic farming in india: relevance, problems and constraints, national bank for agriculture and rural development. sivaraj, p, philip, h & pirabu, jv.(2018) marketing behaviour of certified organic farmers in tamil nadu. journal of extension education, 30(3) marketing behaviour of organic farmers in karur district of tamil nadu 5870 farmers’ awareness level about ict tools and services in karnataka manjuprakash1, h. philip2 and n. sriram3 abstract a study was undertaken to elicit the farmers’ awareness about ict tools and services in karnataka. the study was conducted in koppal district of karnataka state with 120 respondents. it was found that more than half of the respondents had medium level of awareness on ict tools and services. majority of the respondents were aware of mobile advisory services by agricultural produce market committee (apmc). almost twothirds of the respondents were aware of kcc (kisan call centre) service. slightly less than two-fourths of the respondents were aware of touch screen kiosks. the paper also discusses the awareness level of farmers on many other ict tools. keywords : ict, mobile advisory; social networking; awareness; farmer; karnataka research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5870-5874 1. ph.d., scholar, department of agricultural extension, uas, bangalore, karnataka. 2. director of extension education, and 3. associate professor, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. india received : 10-10-2017; accepted : 02-02-2018 in the recent past, agriculture sector has become increasingly information-dependent, requiring a wide range of scientific and technical information for effective decision-making by the farming community (cash, 2001).the role of icts as a medium of dissemination of information and knowledge in agricultural development has been widely recognized and discussed in the existing literature (rao, 2008). agricultural institutions across the world have developed their own portals. individuals and identical groups have started their blogs wherein relevant information based on needs of the followers are posted and updated. though there are number of ict initiatives available to cater various solutions to the agricultural problems, farmers are not aware of several existing services. this study assesses the awareness and knowledge of the farmers on ict schemes and projects in karnataka methodology the study was conducted in koppal district of karnataka state. koppal district consists of four blocks and all the four blocks were selected for the study. by employing multi 5871 stage random sampling technique, two villages were selected from each block based on the area under more crops, progressiveness and the number of farmers. belur and mangalapur villages of koppal block, hanwal and basapatna villages of gangavathi block, gonagera and kandakur villages of kushtagi block and bevoor and kuknoor villages of yelaburga block were selected at random. fifteen farmers from each selected villages were selected by employing multi stage random sampling technique and care was given to include all types of farmers without any bias. in total, 120 respondents were selected. ex-post facto design was used for the study to meet out the objectives of the research. appropriate statistical tools were employed to analyse the data collected. findings and discussion table 1. itemized distribution of respondents based on their awareness on ict tools and services (n = 120) sl. no. ict tools awareness frequency of use aware not aware daily once in a week monthly never num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent 1. mobile advisory m-krishi 70 58.30 50 41.70 4 3.30 00 00.00 1 0.80 115 95.80 iffco – airtel 61 50.80 59 49.20 7 5.80 2 1.70 1 0.80 110 91.70 nokia life tool 39 32.50 81 67.50 2 1.70 0 0.00 0 0.00 118 98.30 rml (reuters market light) 14 11.70 106 88.30 0 00.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 120 100.00 dmi 14 11.70 106 88.30 1 0.80 0 0.00 2 1.70 117 97.50 kvk 77 64.20 43 35.80 21 17.50 6 5.00 5 4.20 88 73.30 apmc 86 71.70 34 28.30 30 25.00 2 1.70 3 2.50 85 70.80 2. e-mail 45 37.50 75 62.50 1 0.80 0 0.00 21 17.50 98 81.70 3. e-courses 3 2.50 117 97.50 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 120 100.00 4. e-books 1 0.80 119 99.20 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 120 100.00 5. kisan call centre 78 65.00 42 35.00 1 0.80 0 0.00 30 25.00 89 74.20 data in table 1 depict the item-wise extent of awareness of the farmers on ict tools and services. farmers’ awareness level about ict tools and services in karnataka 5872 sl. no. ict tools awareness frequency of use aware not aware daily once in a week monthly never num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent num ber per cent 6. video conferencing skype 45 37.50 75 62.50 0 0 1 0.80 4 3.30 115 95.80 imo 29 24.20 91 75.80 0 0 0 0.00 1 00.80 119 99.20 google talk 10 8.30 110 91.70 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 120 100.00 oovoo 1 0.80 119 99.20 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 120 100.00 7. touch screen kiosks 77 64.20 43 35.80 1 0.8 3 2.50 52 43.30 64 53.30 8. social networking tools whatsapp 81 67.50 39 32.50 27 22.5 18 15.00 5 4.20 70 58.30 facebook 80 66.70 40 33.30 27 22.5 16 13.30 5 4.20 72 60.00 twitter 47 39.20 73 60.80 1 .8 0 0.00 1 0.80 118 98.30 hike 43 35.80 77 64.20 0 0 1 0.80 0 0.00 119 99.20 instagram 34 28.30 86 71.70 0 0 2 1.70 0 0.00 118 98.30 blog 9 7.50 111 92.50 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 120 100.00 cent of the farmers had used once in a month. but, majority (70 – 80%) of the respondents had never used this facility by registering their mobile number for receiving text message. many of them being small and marginal farmers, they did not have surplus produce for sale in the market. less than two-thirds (64.20 %) of the respondents, were aware of the mobile advisory services provided by kvk and exactly one-fourth (25.00 %) of the respondents used this service on a daily basis. many farmers participate in kvk activities such as demonstrations 1. mobile advisory majority (71.70 %) of the respondents were aware of mobile advisory services by apmc (agricultural produce market committee) in regard of agricultural commodity prices and market for the various commodities. this is because of the presence of wellestablished apmcs in all the block of the district and the regular dissemination of text message to the registered farmers regarding the market conditions. onefourth (25.00 %) of the respondents were using mobile advisory facility offered by apmc on daily basis. about 2.50 per journal of extension education 5873 and meetings, and become aware of the mobile advisory service provided by the kvk. less number of respondents had awareness on mobile telephony by rml and dmi (dynamic market information) none of the respondents used rml facility due to lack of awareness on how to and where to register to avail the facility. a negligible percentage of the respondents used dmi mobile telephony on daily (0.80 %) and on monthly (1.70 %) basis. with respect to the awareness on mkrishi and iffco airtel mobile advisory, 58.30 per cent and 50.80 per cent of the respondents were aware of the services respectively. mkrishi & iffco airtel were used by 3.30 per cent of the respondents. almost one-third (32.50 %) of the respondents were aware of nokia life tool mobile advisory service and only 1.70 per cent of the respondents had used this service on daily basis. since these are paid services, awareness as well as usage is very low among the respondents. 2. e-mail e-mail is a medium of formal communication used mainly for official purposes. over one-third (37.50 %) of the respondents were aware of e-mail. 3. e-course and e-books very less number of respondents were aware of e-course (2.50 %) and e-books (0.80 %). this might be because of lack of digital literacy among the respondents. none of the respondents used e-course and e-books for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes. 4. kisan call centre (kcc) almost two-thirds (65.00 %) of the respondents were aware of kcc service. little less than three-fourths (74.20 %) of the respondents had never used kisan call centre for agricultural purpose. this might be due to inability of the persons working in the kcc to provide workable solutions. 5. video conferencing the respondents had awareness about video conferencing tools such as skype (37.50 %), imo (24.20 %), google talk (08.30 %) and very negligible per cent (0.80 %) of the respondents were aware of oovoo. the usage pattern of video conferencing was very poor. this might be due to the lack of proper connectivity available at villages, lack of guidance and skills in using the tools. 6. touch screen kiosks a little less than two-fourths (64.20 %) of the respondents were aware of touch screen kiosks. usage pattern of the respondents was very poor as they rarely visit the extension and departmental offices. more than half (53.30 %) of the respondents had never used kiosks. the probable reason might be due to the infrequent visit of these people to the development departments. farmers’ awareness level about ict tools and services in karnataka 5874 7. social networking tools majority of the respondents were aware of whatsapp (67.50 %) and facebook (66.70 %). majority of them had never used whatsapp (58.30 %) and facebook (60.00 %).this might be due to poor connectivity of the network, access to internet and usage of basic mobile handsets. as more than half of the respondents had medium level of awareness on ict tools and services, the potential of the ict tools may be harnessed in advisory services and data collection to improve agricultural production and uplift the economy of the farmers. references aker, j. c. (2011). dial “a” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries. agricultural economics, 42, 631–647. cash, d. w. (2001). in order to aid in diffusing useful and practical information: agricultural extension and boundary organizations. science technology human values, 26, 431– 453. koshy, s.m & kishore kumar, n. (2016). attitude of farmers towards kisan call centres. journal of extension education, 28(4) rao, s. s. (2008). social development in indian rural communities: adoption of telecentres. international journal of information management, 28, 474– 482. journal of extension education 5740 adoption of improved strain of backyard poultry p. athilakshmi 1 and s.v.n. rao2 abstract backyard poultry plays a major role in alleviating malnutrition in developing countries like india. the present study was undertaken among 120 backyard poultry farmers in karaikal region of puducherry an aim to assess the extent of adoption of improved strain of backyard poultry in karaikal region, a backward area in puducherry union territory. majority of the respondents were middle aged with primary school level of education belonging to small family group with 6-15 years of experience in backyard poultry rearing. nearly one third of the respondents had 1-5 birds in their backyard. majority of the farmers reared desi birds followed by giriraja strain. the average number of eggs per clutch and the average number of clutches per year were 16 and 6 respectively. majority of the respondents were aware of the improved strains of backyard poultry. most of them had discontinued rearing improved strain of backyard poultry mainly due to susceptibility to diseases and attack by predators. keywords: backyard poultry, adoption, ranikhet disease, giriraja strain, puducherry, india 1. asst. professor, dept. of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, madras veterinary college, chennai 600 007 and 2. professor and head (retd.) dept of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, rajiv gandhi institute of veterinary education and research, puducherry received : 20-11-2016; accepted : 13-12-2016 introduction indian poultry sector is mostly organized and holds an important place in the country’s gdp growth. though the backyard poultry (byp) population has dropped to 10 per cent in the total poultry population, it still plays a major role in rural household food security and income generation. the government of india is also supporting rural backyard poultry production by introducing improved strains of backyard poultry viz., vanaraja, giriraja krishibro, krishilayer, caribro, gramapriya, naked neck broiler, dwarf broiler etc. the backyard poultry farmers, however, are facing lot of challenges in rearing these improved strains of byp in their backyard. thus, training is essential for these backyard poultry farmers in the fields like disease control, feeding, brooding, housing, breeding and marketing to successfully rear these improved strain of birds in their backyard. journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5740-5746 5741 hitherto, the potential of backyard poultry (byp) in puducherry has been unexplored by the researchers even in karaikal region which ranks first in the backyard poultry population among the four regions of puducherry union territory (u.t.). keeping this in mind, a study was undertaken among 120 backyard poultry farmers in karaikal region of puducherry with an aim to assess the extent of adoption of improved strain of backyard poultry in karaikal region, a backward area in puducherry u.t. methodology karaikal was purposively selected to conduct the study since it ranked first in backyard poultry population among the four regions of puducherry union territory. altogether, 120 respondents were selected from the two communes namely nedungadu and thirunallar to study the socio economic profile of the backyard poultry farmers. from each commune, three villages were selected at random. a list of backyard poultry farmers was prepared for each of the six selected villages. from this list, 20 farmers from each village were selected randomly. thus, the sample size included 120 respondents drawn from six villages representing two communes to study the socio economic profile of the backyard poultry farmers. findings and discussion profile of the byp farmers the profile of the 120 backyard poultry farmers in terms of their age, gender, education, family size, type of house, religion and caste was assessed. almost half of the respondents belonged to middle age group. nearly one third were young and the rest belonged to old age group. about per cent of the respondents had only primary level of education. those who had secondary and higher secondary level of education were 24 per cent and 9 per cent respectively. there were about 10 per cent of the respondents who were illiterate. nearly 60 per cent of the respondents belonged to small family with less than or equal to four members. the respondents in medium and large family categories were 35 per cent and 5.8 per cent respectively. this showed that small family norm is being practiced even in rural areas. experience in poultry rearing about 45 per cent of the respondents had more than 15 years of experience in backyard poultry rearing. barring about a quarter of respondents, the rest had an experience of at least six years in rearing backyard poultry. flock size nearly one third of the respondents had less than six birds in their backyard. the number of respondents with 6-10 birds and 11-20 birds in their backyard were nearly equal (25% each). adoption of improved strain of backyard poultry 5742 number of birds reared majority of the respondents (109 families) were rearing native birds at their backyard. the average number of native birds reared per family was 10.7. in addition to native birds few respondents were rearing birds such as giriraja birds (26), leghorn birds (14) and aseel birds (9) the results are presented in table1. table 1. number of birds reared sl. no. type no.of families rearing * total average no. of birds per family 1. native birds 109 1171 10.7 2. giriraja birds 26 192 7.3 3. leghorn birds 14 86 6.1 4. aseel birds 9 96 10.7 *multiple responses categorization of the respondents based on the number of eggs per clutch the number of eggs laid per clutch by the birds was between 11 and 20 eggs in about 87 per cent of the respondents’ houses. the average number of eggs laid per clutch by the birds was 15.8. categorization of the respondents based on the number of clutches per year the number of clutches per year ranged from 3-8 for desi birds in the study area. a little more than half of the respondents indicated that on an average their birds had 5 or 6 clutches per year. the clutches per bird per year was more in study area because the respondents were following the peculiar practice of selecting one bird for brooding keeping other birds for laying purpose. when other birds start brooding, the respondents dip the birds in cold water to bring them out of brooding stage. adoption of improved strain of byp the respondents were categorised into adopters, discontinued and non adopters of improved strain of byp based on rogers’ (2003) classification. the findings pertaining to the adoption of improved strain of backyard poultry by the respondents, its discontinuance and rejection are presented below: a) rearing improved strain of byp although 80 per cent of the respondents were aware of the improved journal of extension education 5743 strain of backyard poultry (table 2), only about 27 per cent of them reared improved strain of backyard poultry at the time of study and hence were categorised as adopters. the number of the respondents who discontinued was 46 whereas, the non adopters who were aware of the improved strain of backyard poultry but rejected it were 24. table 2. adoption of improved strain of byp sl. no. contents f % n 1. no.of respondents aware of improved strains of byp 96 80.0 120 2. no.of respondents adopting at present 26 27.1 96 3. no.of respondents discontinued 46 47.9 96 4. no.of non adopters 24 25.0 96 table 3. adoption chracteristics of improved strain of byp sl. no. contents f % n 1. rearing improved strain of byp at present 26 27.1 96 2. strain – giriraja 26 100.0 26 3. age at purchase of chicks a) 4 weeks b) 8 weeks c) 24 weeks d) fertile eggs 15 09 01 01 57.6 34.6 3.9 3.9 26 4. source a) vendor b) dispensary c) neighbours/relatives d) farm 12 08 05 01 46.2 30.7 19.2 3.9 26 adoption of improved strain of backyard poultry 5744 the figures in the table reveal that out of 96 respondents who were aware of the improved strain, only 26 were found adopting improved strain (giriraja). this was the strain being distributed by the department of animal husbandry as well as sold by vendors in these villages. more than half of the respondents (57.6%) purchased these birds at four weeks of age. about 35 per cent of the respondents purchased these birds at 8 weeks of age. the study also revealed that none of the respondents purchased day old chicks of any improved strain including giriraja. b. reasons for adoption of improved strain of byp the major reason expressed by the respondents (65.3%) for rearing improved strain of birds was the requirement of eggs for home consumption, whereas 23.1 per cent of the respondents were rearing them for income purpose (table.4). very few respondents were rearing these birds as a hobby. these results indicate that the improved strains of byp were not popular among the respondents. table 4. reasons for adoption of improved strain of byp sl. no. contents f % n 1. no.of respondents adopting at present 26 27.1 96 2. reasons for adoption i) eggs for household consumption. ii) income iii) colour of plumage 17 06 03 65.4 23.1 11.5 26 c. reasons for discontinuing improved strain of byp nearly half of the respondents (47.9%) had discontinued the practice of rearing improved strain of backyard poultry for several reasons (table.5). the important reasons for discontinuing were disease outbreak (32.6%) and predators (26.1%). there were 10 respondents who could not get chicks again for rearing after they slaughtered and used the birds for home consumption. apart from these, most of the respondents did not develop bond with these birds since they got these birds at an age of more than six weeks and they reared them basically for meat purpose rather than allowing them to grow upto egg laying stage. journal of extension education 5745 table 5. reasons for discontinuing improved strain of byp sl. no. contents f % n 1. no.of respondents discontinued 46 47.9 96 2. reasons for discontinuing i) susceptibility to disease ii) predators iii) slaughtered & consumed iv) difficult to rear v) non availability of chicks 15 12 10 4 5 32.6 26.1 21.7 8.7 10.9 46 d. reasons for non adoption of improved strain of byp it could be inferred from the table that 25 per cent of the respondents though aware of the improved strain of backyard poultry did not adopt it for various reasons. one third of them (33.3%) did not adopt because of disease outbreaks. some of the respondents (25%) expressed the difficulty in rearing the improved strain of birds which need special care and protection from predators. table 6. reasons for non adoption of improved strain of byp sl. no. contents f % n 1. no.of non adopters 24 25.0 96 2. reasons for non adoption i) susceptibility to disease ii) difficult to rear iii) no interest iv) non availability of chicks v) predators 8 6 4 3 3 33.3 25.0 16.7 12.5 12.5 24 adoption of improved strain of backyard poultry 5746 conclusion almost all the respondents were aware of the improved strains of backyard poultry and had experience of rearing giriraja chicks purchased mostly from vendors and veterinary dispensaries at the age of 6 weeks. most of the 120 respondents disposed giriraja birds at a very young age without allowing them to reach egg laying stage probably due to lack of their attachment to the birds. except few, most of them had discontinued rearing improved strain of backyard poultry mainly due to their susceptibility to diseases and attack by predators. therefore, the animal husbandry sector should not only stop with supply of hybrid strain of birds but it also should aid the supportive services like vaccination, feeding, housing, marketing of these birds in order to encourage backyard poultry farmers. thus, the extension activities should be intensified to efficiently transfer the technology from the lab to the farmer’s doorstep. references mandal, m. k., khandekar, n. & khandekar, p. (2006). backyard poultry farming in bareilly district of uttar pradesh, india: an analysis, livestock research for rural development, 18 (7). rogers e.m. (2003). diffusion of innovations. free press, new york. journal of extension education http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd18/5/cont1805.htm http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd18/5/cont1805.htm 6000 an analytical study on turmeric cultivation m. s. shanthya1 and r. premavathi2 abstract a study was undertaken to study the characteristics of turmeric farmers and to assess the relationship between characteristics of turmeric farmers and adoption level, in kodumudi block of erode district in tamil nadu. a sample of 111 respondents was selected from five villages by using proportionate random sampling method. fifteen independent variables and one dependent variable were selected to analyze the relationship of characteristics of turmeric farmers with adoption level. the data were collected with the help of a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule. the collected data were analyzed with suitable statistical tools. the results of the study revealed that nearly one-fourth of the respondents was having secondary school education. more than half of the respondents had farming alone as their occupation. little more than two-fifths of the respondents were small farmers. the variables, occupation and credit orientation had positive and significant relationship with adoption at five per cent level of significance. keywords : adoption; practices; regression; turmeric; tamil nadu 1 pg scholar & 2 associate professor, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641003 received : 23-04-2018; accepted : 24-05-2018 introduction turmeric, known as ‘indian saffron’ is an important commercial spice crop grown in india. indian turmeric has been known to the world since ancient times. india is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of turmeric in the world. turmeric is grown only in 6 per cent of the total area under spices and condiments in india and india is the largest producer and exporter of turmeric in the world and accounts for 78 per cent of the world’s total production. further, turmeric is the second largest foreign exchange earner among indian spices. in tamil nadu, turmeric is cultivated in about 67246 ha with production of about 368411 tons with average productivity of 5.48 t/ha. (thiripurasundari & selvarani 2014). during the recent past, tamil nadu had witnessed sharp decline in total production due to varied weather conditions and several other constraints. with this background, the present study entitled “an analytical study on turmeric farmers” was carried out to know the adoption level of turmeric farmers with the following objectives : • to study the profile of the farmers. research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6000-6007 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6001 • to analyze the relationship between characteristics of turmeric farmers and adoption level. methodology the study was carried out in erode district since the district stands first in area under turmeric in tamil nadu. erode district has fourteen blocks and among them kodumudi block was purposively selected since it had more area under turmeric cultivation. (district directorate of statistics, 2017). in kodumudi block, five villages viz., vengapur, punjai kollanali, oongalur, kollathupalayam and kodumudi which were having maximum area in turmeric were selected for the study. a sample of one hundred eleven respondents were selected from the five villages by using proportionate random sampling method. fifteen independent variables viz., age, educational status, occupational status, annual income, farm size, experience in turmeric cultivation, extension agency contact, social participation, mass media exposure, trainings undergone, credit orientation, economic motivation, market intelligence, awareness on post-harvest practices and ict tool utilization behavior and adoption level of turmeric farmers as dependent variable were selected for the study. the data were collected with the help of a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule. the collected data were analyzed with suitable statistical tools. findings and discussion profile of the respondents the data collected on the profile of respondent farmers were analyzed and presented in table 1. table 1. distribution of respondents based on their profile (n = 111) sl. no category number percentage 1. age (in years) young (<35) 3 2.70 middle (35-45) 22 18.00 old (>45) 86 79.30 total 111 100.00 2. educational status illiterate 15 13.50 functionally literate 15 13.50 primary education 10 9.00 middle education 16 14.40 secondary education 23 20.70 higher secondary education 19 17.10 collegiate 13 11.70 total 111 100.00 an analytical study on turmeric cultivation 6002 sl. no category number percentage 3. occupation status farming alone 62 55.85 farming + wage earner 32 2.70 farming + business 3 28.82 farming + services 14 12.61 total 111 100.00 4. annual income rs.1,00,000-2,00,000 89 80.20 rs.2,00,000-5,00,000 22 19.80 rs. 5,00,000-10,00,000 0 0.00 rs.> 10,00,000 0 0.00 total 111 100.00 5. farm size marginal 46 41.44 small 27 24.32 medium 18 16.21 big 20 18.01 total 111 100.00 6. experience in turmeric cultivation low 32 28.80 medium 58 52.30 high 21 18.90 total 111 100.00 7. extension agency contact low 0 0.00 medium 98 88.30 high 13 11.70 total 111 100.00 8. social participation low 6 5.40 medium 90 81.10 high 15 13.50 total 111 100.00 journal of extension education 6003 sl. no category number percentage 9. mass media exposure low 0 0.00 medium 84 75.70 high 27 24.30 total 111 100.00 10. trainings undergone none 20 18.01 attended one training 47 42.34 attended more than one training 44 39.65 total 111 100.00 11. credit orientation low 16 14.40 medium 77 69.40 high 18 16.20 total 111 100.00 12. economic motivation low 19 17.10 medium 74 66.70 high 18 16.20 total 111 100.00 13. market intelligence low 19 17.10 medium 77 69.40 high 15 13.50 total 111 100.00 14. awareness on post-harvest practices low 0 0.00 medium 92 82.90 high 19 17.10 total 111 100.00 an analytical study on turmeric cultivation 6004 sl. no category number percentage 15. ict tool utilization behavior low 0 0.00 medium 92 82.90 high 19 17.10 total 111 100.00 it could be observed from table 1 that majority of the turmeric farmers (77.47%) belonged to old age category and the reason could be that most of the youngsters prefer only white collar jobs than doing farming even though they have their own lands. nearly one-fourth of the respondents (20.70%) were having secondary school education. most of the villages in the study area were having education facilities upto secondary school level. this could be the possible reason for majority of the respondents having literacy upto secondary school education level. few of the respondents would have studied in the colleges situated in nearby towns. the findings are in line with the findings of karthika (2014) who also reported that majority of the farmers were literates in their study. more than half (55.85%) of the respondents had farming alone as their occupation. majority (80.20%) of the respondents income category was between rs.1,00,000-2,00,000. the reason might be turmeric is one of the cash crops in the study area and also yields a good return to the farmers. little more than two-fifths (41.44%) of the respondents’ were small farmers. the reason might be due to drought condition in the study area since two years which could have made the farmers to reduce the cultivable land area under turmeric. more than half (52.30%) of the respondents possessed medium level of experience in turmeric cultivation. majority of the respondents had medium level of extension agency contact (88.3%), social participation (81.10%) and exposure to mass media (75.70%) respectively. this finding is in line with the findings of jergin (2014). the reason might be regular visits made by the extension functionaries like assistant agricultural officers and horticultural officers, regular distribution of horticultural / agriculture literature like leaflet, folder, books etc., by the horticulture office in kodumudi, farmers enrollment in turmeric farmers association and the prevailing high literacy rate in erode district. less than half (42.34%) of the respondents had attended one training on turmeric cultivation. majority of the respondents had medium level of credit orientation (69.40%), economic motivation (66.70%), market intelligence (69.40%), awareness on post-harvest practices(82.90 %) and ict tool utilization behavior (82.90%) respectively. the reasons might be the better availability of institutional and nonjournal of extension education 6005 institutional credit facilities like co-operative banks, nationalized banks etc., in the study area. apart from that respondent’s basic urge to earn more and their desire to improve their standard of living to clear old debts and to fulfil family commitments, medium to high level educational status, social participation and mass media exposure were some of the reasons. association and contribution of respondents’ characteristics with / to adoption level the relationship of selected 15 independent variables with the adoption level was studied through simple correlation and multiple regression analysis. the results have been presented in table 2. table 2. correlation and multiple regression analysis between respondents’ characteristics and their adoption level (n = 111) sl.no variables “r” value partial regression coefficient std error t value x1 age -0.111 0.050 0.043 1.160 x2 education 0.456** 0.435 0.204 2.136* x3 occupation 0.192* -0.372 0.396 -0.939 x4 annual income 0.282** 0.633 0.873 0.725 x5 farm size 0.069 0.140 0.278 0.504 x6 experience in turmeric cultivation -0.064 -0.894 0.542 -1.651 x7 extension agency contact 0.410** 0.153 0.207 0.738 x8 social participation 0.464** 0.304 0.137 2.214* x9 mass media exposure 0.362** 0.225 0.189 1.190 x10 trainings undergone 0.464** 0.985 0.485 2.029* x11 credit orientation 0.225* -0.171 0.276 -0.620 x12 economic motivation 0.050 0.095 0.068 1.393 x13 market intelligence 0.355** 0.334 0.171 1.958 x14 awareness on post-harvest technology 0.181 -0.197 0.534 -0.369 x15 ict tool utilization behavior 0.342** 0.023 0.144 0.162 * significant at 5% level r2 = 0.440 ** significant at 1% level f = 4.982 ns – non significant an analytical study on turmeric cultivation 6006 from table 2, it could be inferred that out of fifteen independent variables studied, eight variables namely, education (x2), annual income (x4), extension agency contact (x7), social participation (x8), mass media exposure (x9), trainings undergone (x10), market intelligence (x13) and ict tool utilization behavior (x15) had shown positive and significant association with adoption at one per cent level of significance. the variables occupation (x3) and credit orientation (x11) had positive and significant relation with adoption at five per cent level of significance. the other variables did not show any relationship with adoption. in general, higher the education level, annual income, extension agency contact, social participation, mass media exposure, trainings undergone, market intelligence and ict tool utilization behavior, the more will be the chances for knowing, understanding and adopting the practices and hence, the variables had shown positive and significant relationship with adoption. these findings on association of extension agency contact, social participation and mass media exposure with adoption are in accordance with the findings of shindhu (2015). multiple regression analysis was performed to find out the extent of contribution of each variable towards the adoption level of turmeric farmers on turmeric cultivation practices. the r2 value 0.440 revealed that 44.00 per cent of variation in the adoption level was explained by the fifteen independent variables selected for the study. the “f” value was also significant at one per cent level of significance. hence, the results fit in the regression equation. the prediction equation was fitted for adoption level of the respondents and is given below. y2 = 101.698 + 0.050 (x1) ns 0.435 (x2)* – 0.372 (x3) ns +0.633 (x4) ns +0.140 (x5) ns – 0.894 (x6) ns +0.153 (x7) ns +0.304 (x8)* +0.225 (x9) ns + 0.985 (x10)* – 0.171 (x11) ns +0.095 (x12) ns + 0.334 (x13) ns – 0.197 (x14) ns + 0.023 (x15) it could be seen from the equation that the regression co-efficient of variables educational status (x2), social participation (x8) and trainings undergone (x10) were found to be positive and significant at five per cent level of probability. this suggested a unit increase in educational status (x2), social participation (x8) and trainings undergone (x10) would also increase adoption level of turmeric farmers on recommended turmeric cultivation practices by 0.435, 0.304 and 0.985 units respectively. other variables namely, age (x1), occupational status (x3), annual income (x4), farm size (x5), experience in turmeric cultivation (x6), extension agency contact (x7), mass media exposure (x9), credit orientation (x11), economic motivation (x12), market intelligence (x13) and awareness on postharvest practices (x14) were found as nonsignificant variables respectively. conclusion the study revealed that the turmeric farmers differed widely in their profile. this finding stressed the importance of formulating different extension strategies for different kinds of clients by the change agency system. journal of extension education 6007 the study showed that majority of the turmeric farmers were educated and hence, literature pertinent to the modern methods of cultivation of turmeric may be provided to the farmers in order to make them in tune with the present trend in turmeric cultivation. to increase the level of adoption among the farmers, those variables that had a significant association to adoption level of turmeric farmers should be taken in to consideration while designing extension strategies. also, by organizing result demonstrations, the farmers could be convinced to adopt all the package of practices recommended for turmeric cultivation. references district directorate of statistics (2017), erode district. jergin, j.i. (2014). an analytical study on rubber growers in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu. unpublished m.sc (ag) thesis, ac&ri, tnau, madurai. karthika, a. (2014). a diagnostic study on aggregate onion cultivars in tiruppur district of tamil nadu. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac & ri, tnau, madurai. shindhu. (2015). an analytical study on turmeric growers in erode district of tamil nadu. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac&ri, tnau, madurai. thiripurasundari & selvarani. (2014). production of turmeric in india: an analysis. the international journal of business & management. 2(9): 230. an analytical study on turmeric cultivation 5747 marketing behaviour of jasmine growers p. bagya janani1, r. premavathi2, and r. sasikala3 abstract the present study was conducted in select villages of tirunelveli district of tamil nadu in order to know the marketing behaviour of jasmine growers with a sample size of 120 respondents. the respondents were selected based on proportionate random sampling method. the results of the study revealed that majority of the jasmine growers were using polythene bags for packing the produce and sold their produce through commission agents. more than two fifths sold their produce in the villages. majority of the respondents considered ‘immediate payment’ as the main criterion for the selection of market. majority of the respondents had reported that they were not having sufficient marketing facility. 1. rural development officer, union bank of india, madurai 2. associate professor (agrl.extension),department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore and 3. assistant professor (journalism), directorate of extension education, tnau, coimbatore. received : 21-06-2017; accepted : 13-08-2017 introduction tamil nadu is the leading producer of jasmine in the country with an annual production of 92951 tonnes and productivity of 8.75 tonnes per hectare from the cultivated area of 10623 ha (bagya janani et al, 2016). the flowers produced in the state are being exported to the neighbouring countries viz., sri lanka, singapore, malaysia and middle east countries. the major jasmine producing districts of tamil nadu are dindigul, salem, madurai, tirunelveli, virudhunagar and trichy. since the crop requires lots of manpower for harvesting and other operations, only small farmers are cultivating the crop. tirunelveli districts ranks first in area under jasmine cultivation with the area of 1267.25 ha (bagya janani et al, 2016). marketing of jasmine is more complicated as majority of the farmers are illiterate, unorganized and scattered. they do not have the required knowledge and skill for marketing of their produce. they are forced to sell their produce immediately after the harvest at low prices in the village itself to the local traders. taking into account these factors, the present study was take up. methodology tirunelveli district in tamil nadu was purposively selected, as area under jasmine cultivation in high. tirunelveli district consists of nineteen blocks, out of which vallioor block was selected, as journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5747-5752 5748 this block had more area under jasmine cultivation. in vallioor block, jasmine was cultivated in an area of 390.46 ha during 2011-12. a sample of 120 jasmine growers was selected from three revenue villages based on proportionate random sampling method. data were collected with the help of a well structured pretested interview schedule and analysed with suitable statistical techniques. findings and discussion the marketing behaviour of jasmine growers was studied with eleven components namely, mode of packing, mode of transport, place of sales, nature of sales, weighing behaviour, selling in open market, distance of market, payment pattern, reason for selection of market, middle man involvement and opinion about existing market facilities. the findings reveal that three-fifths of jasmine growers (65.00 %) had medium level of marketing behaviour where as one-fifth of the respondents (19.17 %) had low level of marketing behaviour. this was followed by 15.83 per cent of respondents with high level of marketing behaviour. it could be understood that most of the respondents possessed low to medium level of marketing behaviour. this might be due to varied reasons such as, poor access to market and poor knowledge on recent market trends. table 1. distribution of respondents according to their marketing behaviour (n = 120) sl.no. marketing behaviour number percentage 1. mode of packing gunny bags 48 40.00 polythene bags 72 60.00 2. mode of transport head load bicycle 13 10.83 bullock cart moped 60 50.00 city bus tractor tempo van 30 39.17 3. place of sale village itself 52 43.33 nearby town 39 32.50 faraway places 29 24.17 journal of extension education 5749 4. nature of sale local merchants 12 10.00 retailers commission agents 78 65.00 contractors 18 15.00 wholesalers 12 10.00 5. weighing behaviour checking the weights 120 100.00 not checking the weights 6. open market sale selling at open markets 4 3.33 not selling at open markets 116 96.67 7. payment pattern fully 52 57.78 partially 38 42.22 8. distance of market up to 10 km 1120 km 97 80.83 2130 km 23 19.17 9. reasons for selection of market nearness to the place of production 18 15.00 receipt of advance 24 20.00 higher prices immediate payment 88 65.00 10. middlemen involvement no involvement partially 43 35.83 fully 77 64.17 11. opinion about existing market facilities somewhat sufficient sufficient 42 35.00 insufficient 78 65.00 1. mode of packing majority of the respondents (60.00 %) were found using polythene bags for packing the produce. gunny bags were used by the remaining 40.00 percentage of the respondents. it was observed during the survey that polythene bags were the easily available packing material to the villagers marketing behaviour of jasmine growers 5750 and they felt that the polythene bags would prevent aeration inside, which will prevent the buds from blooming. hence, majority of the farmers used polythene bags as packing material. big farmers use gunny bags as packing material because polythene bags will not be sufficient to pack their produce. 2. mode of transport hundred per cent of the jasmine growers reported that they transported their produce to markets. with regard to mode of transport, 50.00 per cent of the jasmine growers had used moped for transporting their produce. there were 39.17 per cent of the respondents who used tempo van for transporting the produce. it was observed during the survey that the farmers themselves form groups and make arrangements for transporting their produce. they also used bicycles (10.83 %) for transporting the produce. it was observed during the survey that considerable proportion of the respondents had owned mopeds and therefore they utilized the moped to transport their produce. bicycles were used for transporting the produce within the village. 3. place of sale majority of the jasmine growers (43.33 %) sold their produce in the village itself with the help of moped and bicycle. following this 32.50 per cent of the jasmine growers had sold their produce in nearby towns and only 24.17 per cent of the jasmine growers sold their produce in faraway places with the help of tempo vans. as most of them possessed tractors they would have preferred to sell at the markets located within 10 km distance. those who possessed bicycles would have preferred the local sale in the village itself. those who had more area of cultivation and harvested huge quantity would have preferred the city bus for transport. 4. sales agency from table 1, it is inferred that majority of the respondents (65.00 %) sold their produce through commission agents, followed by contractors (15.00 %). majority of the respondents expected immediate payment for their produce. the commission agents and local merchants also supply gunny bags and provide financial assistance during the time of cultivation of jasmine. further, they are also easily approachable and familiar to the respondents. the above reasons would have motivated them to sell their produce through commission agents. 5. weighing behaviour from the table, it could also be seen that 100 per cent of the jasmine growers were found to be checking the weights. journal of extension education 5751 since the commission agents and contractors had friendly relationship with farmers and also the familiarity among the jasmine growers would have made the respondents to readily accept the weights. 6. open market sale it could be inferred from the table that majority ( 96.67 %) of the jasmine growers did not sell their produce in open market. only 3.33 per cent of the jasmine growers sold their produce in open market due to immediate payment. the reason might be because village merchants, commission agents and the wholesalers to whom the produce was sold by the farmers showed positive attitude in getting back the money in right time and hence they did not go to open market to sell their produce. 7. payment pattern majority of the respondents (80.00 %) received full payment and the rest (20.00 %) received only partial payment. the wholesaler, commission agents and village merchant who procure the entire produce from the farmers pay them the entire amount during procurement. the farmer who sells their produce to the contractor is paid partially because the farmer had got money from the contractor in advance. 8. distance of the market it is seen that 80.83 per cent of the respondents sold their produce in the markets located within the distance of 10 km. it has already been discussed under ‘place of sale’ that most of the respondents sold their produce in the village itself. wholesale market is located at the distance of about 30 km from the study area. it is too far and expensive for small and marginal farmers to take the risk of marketing the produce at wholesale market. 9. reasons for selection of market more than two-fifths (45.00 %) of the respondents considered the ‘immediate payment’ as the main criteria for the selection of market followed by receipt in advance (35.00 %). the commission agents in nearby towns give immediate payment to the farmers. hence, majority of the respondents expressed ‘immediate payment’ as reason for selection of the market. 10. middlemen involvement hundred per cent of the respondents had sold their produce through middlemen. no one had sold their produce directly. absence of institutional markets and prevailing dominance of private markets would have allowed the middlemen to flourish in marketing the produce of the farmers. 11. opinion about existing market facilities majority of the respondents (65.00 %) reported that existing marketing marketing behaviour of jasmine growers 5752 facilities were not sufficient and the rest (35.00 %) were satisfied with the existing market facilities. middlemen involvement and wholesale markets located at distance places were the major reasons for non satisfaction of the respondents. conclusion the present study revealed that threefifths of jasmine growers had medium level of marketing behaviour followed by low level of marketing behaviour. as mass media usage was found high among the respondents, latest technologies and marketing information may be disseminated through these media for effective utilization of marketing facilities. to reduce high production costs, market committees can therefore help the farmers to get pledge loans to meet out the cultivation expenses by relaxing and simplifying the existing procedures and that could recovered at the time of sale of the produce. further, as market potential plays a major role for high marketing behavior, field level marketing professionals under the control of directorate of agricultural marketing should help in creating awareness among jasmine growers. references bagyajanani, p., premavathi, r., & puthira prathap, d. (2016). technology adoption behaviour of jasmine grosersa critical analysis. journal of extension education, 28(1) ganeshamoorthy, r. (2005). a study on adoption and marketing behavior of turmeric growers in erode district of tamilnadu. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute. tnau, madurai heddybai, l. (1994). marketing behaviour of gardenland farmers. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tnau, madurai. jaisridhar, p. (2009). adoption and marketing behaviour of maize growers. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tnau, coimbatore. sathyachitradevi, m. (2006). spread and acceptance of low cost technologies of major crops by resources poor farmers. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute. tnau, coimbatore. journal of extension education 5753 attitude of farmers towards kisan call centres shely mary koshy 1 and n. kishore kumar 2 abstract the present study was conducted to measure the attitude of farmers in kerala, india towards kisan call centre (kcc). kisan call centre provides free agricultural advisory services to every citizen involved in agriculture through a toll free number. one hundred and fifty farmers who have utilized the kisan call centre service were selected from the database of kcc. the results showed that the respondents had moderately favourable attitude towards kcc followed by highly favourable attitude. the variables digital divide, temporal awareness on kcc, satisfaction towards kcc and utilization of kcc were found to have a positive correlation with the attitude of respondents towards kcc. keywords: attitude, kisan call centre, agricultural advisory service, kerala. 1. ph.d. scholar and 2. professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani – 695 522, kerala received : 21-06-2017; accepted : 13.07.2017 introduction india is home to 1.21 billion population where over 70 percent of rural households depend on agriculture. there are reports showing that the population dependent on agriculture grew 50 percent from a period of 19802011. this growth definitely needs to be accompanied by profitable and economically viable technologies and methods that would help to prosper and attract more and more farmers into farming. ict (information and communication technology) is bringing the world closer at an astonishingly faster rate, enabling people in the most remote places in earth to communicate with each other within seconds. ict encompasses all those technologies that enable the handling of information and facilitate different forms of communication among human actors, between human beings and electronic system (acharya et al.,2013). nowadays the use of ict is increasing and it plays an important role in developing agriculture and also helps in socio economic development (farooqi et al., 2002). the population in india is increasing day by day. the wide gap between farmers and the extension agents restricts the extension system from reaching the farmers to provide service. journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5753-5759 5754 moreover the farmers are geographically scattered. this is more pronounced in a state like kerala where people live in isolated homesteads. due to this, face to face dissemination of information would be costly. another problem is that the extension agents find it difficult to reach the targeted audience. icts, especially mobile phones can help to communicate to those who depend on the traditional communication sources. there are more than 43 mobile based extension services pertaining to agriculture provided by public, private and both private and public partnership mode. some of these services are paid and some of the services are free of cost. one among the services that is free of cost and which is provided all over india is the kisan call centre (kcc). ‘kisan’ is the hindi equivalent of farmer. the kisan call centre was launched on twenty first of january, 2004 by the department of agriculture & cooperation (dac), ministry of agriculture & farmers welfare, govt. of india to provide free tele agricultural advisory services to the farming community by exploiting the tele communication facility. the service can be availed from 6 am to 10 pm throughout the week by the farming community in their respective local language throughout the country through the toll free number 1800-180-1551. the kisan call centre consists of three levels namely level-i, where the calls from the farmers are directly connected to level i, handled by agricultural graduates in the local language who are in a position to answer the majority of the queries of the farmers. level-ii is the subject matter specialists from kvk and krishi bhavan. when the queries cannot be solved by the level i agents the calls are transferred to level ii. finally the level-iii is operated by the subject matter specialists (sms) from the nodal office. attitude is the positive or negative feeling associated with some psychological object. an attitude towards an item depends upon the information, knowledge and the emotional perception a person towards it. since the inception of kcc, very few studies have been conducted so far to understand the attitude of farmers towards kcc and hence the study was carried out. methodology the study was conducted during october 2015 to january 2016. one hundred and fifty respondents were selected purposefully from the database of kisan call centre in order to ensure that respondents from all over kerala were included. the data were collected with the help of a questionnaire. an attitude scale which would measure the attitude of farmers towards kcc was constructed. the attitude scale consisted of 15 positive and eight negative statements. the reliability of the scale journal of extension education 5755 was calculated using spearman brown formula and was found to be 0.969 which showed the scale was highly reliable. the final scale consisting of 23 statements was administered to the respondents and were asked to mark their response on a five point continuum as strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with scores of 5,4,3,2,1 respectively for positive statements and the scoring was reversed in case of negative statements. the statement score was obtained by multiplying the scale value for a particular statement with the score assigned by the respondent and the individual score was calculated by summing all the statement score with respect to a particular individual. the respondents were classified into three groups based on their scores as less favourable (if the score obtained was less than ‘meanstandard deviation’), moderately favourable (if the score obtained was greater than ‘meanstandard deviation and less than mean+ standard deviation’) and highly favourable (if the score obtained was greater than ‘mean + standard deviation’). findings and discussion the study revealed that 52% of the respondents using kcc belonged to the age category of 36-55 years of age. majority of the respondents were male. forty nine percent of the respondents had high school level education. majority of the respondents were involved in other occupations either in government or private sector along with agriculture. forty three percent of the respondents were found to earn an income of more than rs 50,000/annually. the respondents’ contact with various extension agencies was found to be medium. the innovativeness of the respondents was found to be low as majority (59%) of the farmers preferred to take their own time before accepting an innovation. the experience in internet use was very less among the respondents. only 13 percent of respondents had more than 6 years of experience in internet usage whereas sixty percentage of the respondents did not have any experience in internet usage. the respondents had medium level of information source utilization. sixty four per cent farmers was found to have more than three years of temporal awareness on kcc and 52% of the farmers had utilized the service more than six times. the major constraint faced by the respondents in using kcc was lack of good connectivity. to group the respondents based on their attitude towards kcc, the interval of standard deviation from mean was used. the attitude of 15 % (n = 24) of respondents towards kcc was less favourable. in addition, 26% (n = 39) of respondents had more favourable attitude and 58% of them (n = 87) had favourable attitude. attitude of farmers towards kisan call centres 5756 table 1. ranking of statements sl. no. statements mean standard deviation cv rank 1. solutions provided through kcc are very helpful 4.000 0.955 0.892 i 2. the centre provides solutions for only regular farm related problems* 3.833 1.172 0.895 ii 3. kcc extension services avoid the personal extension contact* 3.293 1.090 0.898 iii 4 kcc extension service is faster when compared to the traditional extension services 2.960 1.080 0.907 iv 5. kcc based extension services are alternative to the present extension system 2.747 1.050 0.981 v 6. work assignments are not fully explained in kcc by the officials* 3.627 0.994 1.096 vi 7. kcc services is a distant dream for resource poor farmers* 3.680 0.951 1.104 vii 8. kcc saves farmers’ time 3.293 1.288 1.138 viii 9. illiteracy will not deter farmers from availing kcc services 3.680 1.070 1.148 ix 10. all kinds of information exchange are possible through kcc 3.707 1.283 1.158 x 11. phone-in-line with scientists gives firsthand information about queries 3.427 1.131 1.179 xi 12. recommendations provided through telephone is clear and easy to understand 3.567 1.266 1.181 xii journal of extension education 5757 13. the farmers following kcc recommendations get positive results 3.593 1.280 1.183 xiii 14. kcc provides new methods for solving field problems 3.880 0.948 1.207 xiv 15. at times, kcc is not good at all in terms of dairying* 3.820 1.075 1.266 xv 16. kcc agents often fail to comprehend the queries* 3.473 1.091 1.271 xvi 17. kcc extension services had been helpful in building a skilled and knowledge community 2.660 1.054 1.366 xvii 18. kcc can never replace traditional method of extension service* 2.740 1.089 1.490 xviii 19. kcc is one of the potential tools of ict to reach needy farmers 3.387 1.225 1.592 xix 20. the benefits received from kcc are as good as most other organizations offer to farmers 3.893 0.949 1.628 xx 21. kcc provides fair amount of information for the queries farmers ask 3.753 1.129 1.634 xxi 22. for instant information kcc is always used 3.447 1.102 1.647 xxii 23. the chemicals recommended by the kcc agents are never available in the input shops* 2.38 1.293 1.662 xxiii *negative statements data in table 1 show that the statement namely, the solutions provided through kcc is very helpful was ranked first. this might be because of the benefits received by the respondents of using kcc. attitude of farmers towards kisan call centres 5758 table 2. correlation of attitude towards kcc with other variables sl. no. independent variables attitude towards kcc 1. age -0.133 2. education 0.012 3. income -0.057 4 occupation -0.076 5. extension agency contact -0.092 6. innovativeness -0.057 7. digital divide 0.233** 8. experience in internet use -0.120 9. information source utilization 0.045 10. temporal awareness on kcc 0.275** 11. satisfaction 0.293** 12. utilization of kcc 0.242** 13. constraints -0.364** it could be inferred from the table that digital divide, temporal awareness on kcc, satisfaction towards kcc and utilization of kcc were found to be positively correlated with attitude towards kcc. a negative correlation was found between the constraints in using kcc and attitude towards kcc. when the digital divide decreases, the accessibility and availability of other ict tools for information utilization reduces. in such a situation, respondents tend to depend on those ict tools that more accessible. the temporal awareness and utilization of kcc was also found to have positive relationship with the attitude towards kcc. when the temporal awareness increases the utilization also increases and an increased utilization might be due to the satisfaction derived in utilizing the service. conclusion the results of the study revealed that the respondents were found to have favourable attitude towards kcc. factors like easiness to access the call centre, time saving factor, quick response journal of extension education 5759 and its advantages over the traditional extension system could have aided its favorableness. the factors temporal awareness of kcc, utilization of kcc, satisfaction with kcc and the digital divide were found to positively influence the attitude of respondents using kcc and the constraints in using the kcc was found to negatively influence the attitude of respondents towards kcc. in this fast moving world, the farmers also are seeking for services which are quick and easy to access and kisan call centre can be the answer for this. the concerned authorities may make efforts to resolve the issues faced by the respondents in using the kcc. references acharya, h. s., dutta, s. r., & bhoi, r. k. (2013). information technology and its role to manage sustainable finance. international journal of advanced research management and social science, 2 (2),144-149. farooqi, m. s., singh, n. & islam, s. (2002). information technology potential and prospects. agricultural extension review, 14 (5), 25-27. koshy, s.m. & kishore kumar, n. (2015). a scale to measure the attitude of farmers towards kisan call centre. journal of extension education, 27(4) attitude of farmers towards kisan call centres 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 1-principal scientist and incharge 2,3 and 4 senior scientists, extension edudcation socio ecnomic section, central institute for research on goats, makhdoom, farach, mathura small farm goat production in semi-arid region of uttar pradesh a. brraj mohan1, k. dixit2, khushyal singh3 and vijay kumar4 majority of selected goat farmers were landless and marginal (69%) with an annual average income of rs.i9200.00. however, average income of small and medium goat farmers were about rs.25500.00.ownership pattern of goats revealed that about 78% goats were owned by the landless and marginal farmers. majority of the farmers had barbari/barbari type goats (54%) followed by non-descript (43%) and sirohi type goats (3%). furthermore, 69 per cent goat houses were of kaccha type and 49 per cent of selected respondent availed private veterinary services for their goats however, 40 per cent of the goat farmers used home remedies. merely, 11 per cent of the respondents visited government veterinary hospitals though, poor socio-economic status cannot be ignore for the goat improvement in study village, some policy support is imperative to encourage goat farmers for their overall development. india has the largest goat population in the world. as per food and agriculture organization statistics (fao stat), india was home to 157 million goats in 2011.goat population in india has increased from 61 million to 157 million between1961 and 2011 with an annual growth of 2%.goat sector contributes about 9 per cent to the country’s livestock gdp, india is the second largest producer of goat meat sharing 12 per cent global meat production. goat also contributes 4 per cent to country’s total milk production, furthermore, goats accounts for more than 25 percent of the total livestock and provide food and nutritional security to millions of poor farmers and landless labourers, a notable character of goat production in the country is that more than 75 per cent goats are reared by the marginal and small farmers and landless labourers. goat rearing is preferable to these categories because its farming is a low cost enterprise (sustain on zero-input based production system), having unique productive and reproductive characteristics like small size, clean habits, maintenance of low grade ration, high conversion ratio, and small inter kiding period and high prolificacy (dikshit et al., 1995),in recent past goat farming has become very popular as a pathway to poverty alleviation and nutritional security (ahuya et al. 2004). till recently, goat farming did not get desired pace in the rural development programs aimed at alleviating the problems of poverty and unemployment and the productivity of goats under traditional production system is very low. therefore, introduction of improved technologies of goat farming not only increase the returns but also improve the socio-economic status of goat farmers (mohan et a1; 2012) journal of extension education5452 central institute for research for goats (cirg), mathura (u.p.), has made extension efforts for transferring the improved goat production practices to the end users. keeping the importance of goat farming for poor, an attempt has been made to study the socioeconomic status of goat in the adopted village hayatpur in baldeo block of mathura district which falls under semi-arid tropic region. methodology to study the socio-economic status of goat farmers in adopted villages, survey was conducted in hayatpur village of mathura district. 35 goat farmers were randomly selected and data were collected through personal interview on key socio-economic indicators i.e. land holding size, livestock holding, caste and income. the other important indicators of goat farming were veterinary care and housing. these indicators were identified with the help of experts keeping its relevance to goat farmers. to study the inclusiveness in goat farming the analyses have been carried out according to land holding categories. the data collected were tabulated and statistical tools like frequency and percentage were used for logical conclusion. findings and discussion in the present section, the outcomes on the socio-economic status are presented and discussed in terms of land holding, livestock holding, caste and income. types of housing and veterinary care are discussed under prevailing management practices. socio-economic status of goat farmers in adopted village table 1 revealed that out of total sample households about 48.6 per cent were of landless followed by marginal (20%) and medium and small together constitute 31.4 per cent of total households. average land holding size with marginal farmers was 0.04 ha followed by 0.19ha with medium and small farmers. distribution of households according to social group indicated that 54.29 per cent households belonged to scheduled cast group followed by backward (20%) and general (17.14%) and minority group (8.54%). educational status of goat keepers revealed that 60 per cent were illiterate, 4 per cent were educated up to middle class and rest 6 per cent were matriculate and above., occupational status of the goat farmers indicated that more than 54 per cent were agricultural labour, 20 per cent were engaged with business and service and rest 17 per cent had agriculture and animal husbandry as main occupation. average annual income of households was rs.21000,00. however, it was rs.25,500,00 was reported for small and medium households. ownership pattern of livestock in adopted villages livestock in india is mainly reared by the marginal and small farmers. marginal and small households together comprised more 5453small farm goat production in semi-arid region of uttar pradesh table 1. socio-economic indicators of goat farmers in adopted village (n=35) si.no. particulars values i number of households (%) 1. landless 48.6 2. marginal 20.0 3. medium and small 31.4 ii average size of holding (ha) 1. landless 0 2. marginal 0.04 3. medium and small 0.19 4. all size 0.07 iii social groups (%) 1. sc 54.29 2. other backward class 20 3. minorities 8.57 4. general 17.14 iv educational status % ) 1. illiterate 60 2. up to middle 34 3. matriculate and above 6 v occupational status (%) 1. agriculture and a.h. 17.14 2. agriculture labour 54.29 3. others (business, service etc.) 28.57 vi average annual income (rs.) 1. landless 19352.94 2. marginal 18857.14 3. medium and small 25545.45 4. all size 21200.00 journal of extension education5454 than 60 per cent of total rural households and possess 74 per cent of country’s cattle, 71per cent of buffaloes, 78 per cent small ruminants, 89per cent pigs and 81per cent of poultry birds. however, their share to total land was only 44 per cent. since these groups of households operating tiny pieces of land and they face severe constraints of feed and fodder hence, the role of pastures and grazing lands for their livestock is very significant. furthermore, weakening stake of landless households in animal husbandry was mainly due to grazing based production system, deterioration of common lands in terms of quantitadvely and qualitatively and poor access to harvested field due to intensive cultivation (birthal et al 2013). distribution of different species of livestock according to landholding groups provides a clear picture of ownership pattern of livestock and their composition in the adopted village. data provided in table-2 revealed that more than 72 per cent of goats are reared by the landless and marginal farmers. however, 22 per cent of total goats in sample households were possessed by the medium and small farmers. similar patterns were observed in the case of sheep. in contrast, (60%) cows and (40%) buffaloes were reared by the medium and small farmers. this may be due to better availability of feed and fodder compare to landless and marginal farmers. however, more than 70 per cent birds were kept by the landless and marginal farmers. a study conducted in trans gangatic plains found that small stock (sheep, goat and pigs) were invariably kept by landless and marginal farmers and depended upon grazing the limited common property resources (erenstein, et al.,2007). breed wise distribution of goats the study revealed that sample households had three types of goats breed i.e. barbari, non-descript and sirohi. out of total goats kept by goat farmers, non-descript type goats were more dominant in terms of share (55.56%) followed by barbari (42.86%) and sirohi (1.58%). it is worthwhile to mention here that mathura is one of the home tracts of barbari breed. this finding indicates that there should be a need of breeding policy for this area to increase the production performance of barbari breed. table 2. ownership pattern of livestock sl.no. species landless marginal medium and small all 1. goat 100 (39.7) 97(38.5) 55(21.8) 252(100.0) 2. sheep 32 (80.) 8(20.0) 0(0.0) 40(100.0) 3. cows 1(10.0) 3(30.0) 6(60°0) 10(100.0) 4. buffaloes 15(41,3) 5(13.9) 16(44.4) 36(100.0) 5. poultry birds 20(46.5) 12(27.9) 11(25.6) 43(1000) figures in parentheses are % to total 5455small farm goat production in semi-arid region of uttar pradesh goat housing in adopted villages: a proper shelter controls the incidence of diseases, pests and enhances the productivity of the animal. poor housing can cause adverse effects in goats resulting in pneumonia and increased parasitic infestation (devendra & mcleroy, 1982). goat production system is. basically small farm activity. majority of goats are reared under extensive system with zero input concepts. similarly, majority of the goats are reared either in open yard or in mixed type houses without scientific basis. information collected through survey on goat house management revealed that about 68.57 per cent households kept goats under kaccha house whereas about 31.43 per cent respondents had used pucca type house. majority of kaccha house were found with landless and marginal farmers due to lack of space and resources. grazing pattern in adopted village the gap between demand and supply of fodder has widened over the periods due to increase in livestock population and degradation of fodder resources. the problems further aggravate as the critical dependence of millions of marginal, small households and landless labourers on shrinking pastures and grazing lands. in this paper, an attempt has been made to study the grazing pattern of sample goat farmers and their dependency on grazing lands in terms of grazing hours. information provided in table revealed that about 48.6 per cent sample households grazed their goats and other animals for 1 to 4 hours. however, 17.1 per cent households reported 5-7 hours grazing and 8.6 per cent households grazed their animals more than 7 hours. analysis of data on landholding wise hours of grazing revealed that on an average a goat household (excluding households reported no grazing) grazed their animals for 4.5 hours per day. grazing of goats was most important activity in goat production for landless and marginal farmers. out of total hours of grazing reported by the all goat households, about 83 per cent hours were reported by the landless and marginal farmers. however, 17 per cent hours were reported by the small and medium households. veterinary care availed by the goat farmers in adopted village increase in goat population in last three decades and its intensification to meet the increasing demand for goat meat has also created complex animal health and production problem in terms of stress (mohan, 2012) studies done on goat diseases revealed that diseases in goats result in mortality which ranges from 5 to 25 per cent in adults and 10 to 40 per cent in kids. therefore, timely supply of health input is not only reduce the incidence of mortality and morbidity losses but also increase the marketable surplus to goat fanners. about 50 per cent goat farmer availed services from private veterinarian for their animals. however, 23 per cent goat farmers used services of private veterinarian and home remedy while, 6 per cent used only home remedies. it is worthwhile to mention here that merely 12 per cent goat farmers consulted the government veterinary hospital for their animal’s treatment. journal of extension education5456 conclusion study revealed that there was a great dependence of goat farmers in general and landless and marginal in particular on common property resources for feed and fodder for their livestock. hence, there is a need to stop further degradation of common property resources and suitable. technology should be developed for their improvement and to stop their further degradation. apart from this, there is a need to improve accessibility of veterinary care services at low price, insurance and farmers should be linked with market for better returns. references ahuya,c.o., okeyo,a.m.,mwangi, d.m. and peacock,c.2004. developrentalehallenges and opportunitiesin the goat industry: the kenyan experience, 8th international conference on goats, july 4-9, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. birthal, p.s, dikshit, a.k. and negi, d.s. (2013). economic and environmental contributions of livestock in mixed farming systems in india, paper presented at the national seminar on “new paradigms in livestock production: from traditional to commercial farming and beyond” held at national dairy research institute, karnal on january 28-30, 2013. devendra, c. & mcleroy, g.b., 1982. goat and sheep production in the tropics. longman: london and new york. dikshit, a.k., p.s. birthal and a.b. bhatt 1995. role of credit in goat marketing, agricultural marketing: a quarterly journal, vol.xxvii, no.3. erenstem, 0, thorpe w, singh j and varma a., 2007. crop livestock interaction and livelihoods in the trans-gangatic plains, croplivestock interactions scoping study-report 1, research report 10, ilri (international livestock research institute), nairobi, k.enya.89pp. fao stat. food and agriculture organization (fao), www.fao.org mohan, braj., singh, khushyal and dixit, a.k.2012. socio-economic status of goat farmers in semi-arid zone of uttar pradesh. indian research journal of extension education special issue (volume i), january, 2012 5818 1. pg scholar and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani695 522 received : 02-10-2017; accepted : 06-11-2017 constraints perceived by students in school vegetable gardening s. dilip1 and allan thomas2 abstract the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala to identify the constraints experienced by students in the course of engaging in school vegetable gardening programme. ten schools were selected for data enumeration. a total of 130 respondents with 100 students comprising ten students each and 30 teachers comprising three each, from each school were selected for meeting the objectives of the study. the reaction to each constraint was obtained on a four-point continuum namely most important, important, less important and least important with the score 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. mean rank cumulative index for each constraint was worked out and the constraints were ranked and catalogued. the major constraints as perceived by students in school vegetable garden projects were, high input cost followed by lack of student’s participation, lack of teacher’s involvement, non-availability of implements, high labour cost, poor storage facilities and lack of knowledge about gardening. keywords : school; constraints; vegetable garden; the vegetable garden considered as livelihood laboratory, engages students by providing an energetic environment for them to observe, discover, experiment, nurture, and learn. lessons are internalized from real-life experiences rather than textbook examples, thus, allowing students to become active participants in the learning process. vegetables that form an important dietary requirement for the healthy development of a child necessitate specific programmes to sensitize them on the art and science of vegetable growing. in case of kerala, more than 70 per cent of the vegetable requirement is met from the neighboring states like tamil nadu, karnataka and andhra pradesh. kerala also has the limitation of land for agriculture owing to the high rate of fragmentation of land due to population pressure, increasing nucleotide family structure, and other demo-ecographic positioning (thomas, 2004). one way to address the issue of vegetable shortage is to scale up its production in schools using the under or unused lands and the young energy. to address this, many projects have been initiated by the kerala research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5818-5822 5819 government. the vegetable and fruits promotion council kerala (vfpck) has initiated a programme to develop vegetable gardens in 1,000 schools as part of its agri@schoolprogramme aimed at cultivating interest in agriculture among school children wherein 15 cents of land was used for vegetable gardens in schools with an objective to produce 600 tonnes of vegetables harnessing the vibrant energy of students in schools. (“vegetable garden plants in school”, 2006). methodology ten best performing schools in vegetable gardening were purposively selected in consultation with the officials of directorate of public instruction (dpi) of thiruvananthapuram district. ten active volunteers who were participating in the school vegetable gardening activities were selected at random from 10 schools after consulting with the respective school teachers. thus a total of 100 student respondents were selected for the study. based on discussion with school students and teachers involved in school vegetable gardening and also through relevant literature search, 25 constraints were identified and the responses of students were elicited through personal interview. the reaction to each constraint was obtained on a four-point continuum namely most important, important, less important and least important with the score 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. mean rank cumulative index for each constraint was worked out and the constraints were ranked and catalogued. findings and discussion students face a number of limitations in growing school vegetable garden and gardening activities. constraints experienced by the students were identified, ranked and presented as a list. the constraint with the highest score was designaed as the major constraint. the results of constraints faced by students in managing their vegetable garden are presented in table 1. journal of extension education it is evident from table 1 that the major constraints as perceived by students in school vegetable garden were, high input cost followed by lack of student’s participation, lack of teacher’s involvement, non-availability of implements, high labour cost, poor storage facilities and lack of knowledge about gardening etc. other constraints perceived by students in school vegetable garden included scarce water resource, inadequate capital, lack of student’s interest and lack of plant protection implements in the order of decreasing importance. these observations reflect the findings of monroe & kaplan (1988) and klein & merritt (1994). the major strategies suggested by the students and teachers screened after discussing with subject matter specialists are presented in table 2. 5820 6 uneconomic holding 243 15 7 lack of technology 246 14 8 lack of knowledge about gardening 272 7 9 scarce water resource 266 8 10 non availability of credit 261 12 11 poor storage facility 279 6 12 lack of teacher’s involvement 304 3 13 lack of student’s participation 314 2 14 non availability of implements 288 4 15 lack of protection implements 263 11 16 lack of extension service 241 16 17 lack of time 247 13 18 lack of motivation 217 20 19 poor economic status 231 18 20 surplus but insufficient for marketing 201 21 21 wild animals destroy produce 225 19 22 less profit 196 22 23 lack of proper training 195 23 24 difficult to work 181 24 25 pilferage of vegetables from school 154 25 table 1. constraints perceived by the students in managing and maintaining the school vegetable garden (n -100) sl. no. items students score rank order 1 high input cost 360 1 2 non availability of labour 232 17 3 high labour cost 282 5 4 inadequate capital 263 9 5 lack of student’s interest 263 10 constraints perceived by students in school vegetable gardening 5821 table 2. suggestions for refinement for sustenance of school vegetable gardening programme sl. no. suggestions f % 1 good quality inputs at required time and amount 126 96.92 2 alternative arrangements for garden maintenances during summer vacations 117 90.00 3 providing adequate number of training for knowledge enhancement of teachers and students on agricultural technology and its utilizations by competent subject matter experts 104 80.00 4 follow up of government schemes/projects with increased outlay in school vegetable gardens 95 73.07 5 making available of student friendly safe implements to be used for production and protection activities. 86 66.67 6 school vegetable garden as a compulsory subject in school curriculum 75 57.70 the results from table 2 indicate that majority of the students and teachers (96.92%) opined that ‘good quality inputs at required time and amount’ should be made available at school for the un-interrupted and successful conduct of the programme. ‘an alternative arrangement for garden maintenance during summer vacations’ (90 %) was another felt requirement by both students and teachers. the school council should consider devising a strategy to engage labour and supervisory team during vacations so that the crops in field are not affected. also, mechanism to provide incentives for teachers and students who come, attend and manage school vegetable garden could be thought of. all the above cited measures would improve the overall scenario of school vegetable gardening. this will not only help the overall development of the individuals be it teachers or students, but also will help to bring more area under safe vegetable production helping the socio-economic position of kerala. there is a growing movement globally for the “greening” of schoolyards through gardens at school sites, and much enthusiasm for the potential of gardenbased learning in promoting healthy youth development(hedley et al.) kerala, one of the best performing states in india in terms of literacy should be an example in this case so that others emulate this journal of extension education 5822 practice developing both the students and society positively. references hedley, a., ogden, c., johnson, c., carroll, m., curtin, l., & flegal, (2004). overweight and obesity among u.s. children, adolescents and adults. journal of american medical association.291(23), 2847-2850. klein, e. s. & merritt, e. (1994). environmental education as a model for constructivist teaching. journal of environmental education 25(3), 14-21. monroe, m. c. & kaplan, s. (1988). when words speak louder than actions: environmental problem solving in the classroom. journal of environmental education. 19(3), 38-41. thomas, a. (2004). technology assessment in the home garden systems. unpublished ph. d. thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 230p. vegetable garden plants in school (2006,june 24), the hindu. constraints perceived by students in school vegetable gardening from the editor’s desk chief editor in its recent e-publication entitled, ict in agriculture connecting smallholders to knowledge, networks and institutions, agriculture and rural development department (ard) of the world bank has identified two critical factors for using icts such as mobile phones and the internet in agriculture viz., policy change and collective action among extension agents, research institutions, governments and farmers. while policy initiatives can spur the development of the ict infrastructure for improved information sharing, collective action, facilitated by digital tools can push the agricultural agenda forward. after a thorough review, the world bank has listed out the following areas that require attention when using ict in agriculture: individuals: develop and diversify the skills and competencies of all stakeholders in applying icts for innovation. policies: generate or adapt institutional and national strategies and policies to make the introduction of ict innovations more frequent and more effective. institutions : adapt organizational structures at all levels to accommodate changes in ict systems and information management processes. content : stimulate open access to the increasing volume of outputs of agricultural research so that all can benefit. processes : use icts to facilitate and open up inclusive multi-actor processes in which knowledge flows and can be put to use by different stakeholders technologies : invest in greater connectivity, data and information generation and handling capacity, hardware, software, and improved human-computer interfaces that have been purposefully designed to enable innovation. ensure that rural ict infrastructure and connectivity are enhanced. specific actions are needed to overcome barriers to technology use, such as culture, language, and gender. monitoring and evaluation: develop new and improved tools and approaches to assess information and knowledge interventions more effectively. capacities : invest in the technical and organizational capacities of individuals and institutions so they appreciate and use icts as tools to enhance knowledge creation, transformation, and innovation. besides these considerations, one should also bear in mind that not all of the icts available for agricultural information systems will work in rural areas. the technical capacity as well as staff capabilities in the line departments, local institutions or research centers working in the rural areas need to be analyzed beforehand, for making the right choices for effective implementation of ict-enabled knowledge sharing. this issue of jee contains eight papers on various topics such as strategies of female -headed households, attitude & adoption of farmers & trainees and the impact of ecofriendly conservation practices. i would like to thank the associate editors and the reviewers for their time and effort to this issue. 5902 utilization of information disseminated through mobile telephones by farmers in tamil nadu p.anbarasan1 and neelam bhardwaj2 abstract farmers need dynamic information relating to agriculture and rural development. reuters market light (rml) offers information services via mobile phone-based short message service (sms) primarily aimed at satisfying the information needs of farmers. the study was carried out in the erode district of tamil nadu state. the results revealed that three-fourths of the respondents had medium degree of rml information utilization behaviour and farm size had a negative and significant relationship with rml information utilization behavior. keywords : mobile phone; reuters market light; short message service; information utilization behaviour journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5902-5909 1. assistant professor, kumaraguru institute of agriculture, sakthi nagar, erode-638315 and 2. director (communication), directorate of communication, g.b.pant university of agriculture and technology, pantnagar, uttarakhand-263153 received : 23-10-2017; accepted : 25-12-2017 introduction reuters market light (rml) is a unique, “bottom of the pyramid”, mobile-based information service for farmers in certain states of india from thomson reuters. launched in october 2007, it provides individual farmers with “customised, localised and personalised” weather forecasts, local crop prices, agricultural news and relevant information (i.e. crop advisory) – in the form of sms (short message service) sent to their mobile phones in their local language. this allows subscribing farmers to plan irrigation, application of fertilisers, and harvest – thus, managing some of their risks, as well as to decide when and where to sell their produce to maximise profit. since its launch in 2007, over 200,000 farmers in 15,000 villages across 13 states in india have subscribed to rml. it provides localized and personalized information via sms text messages on weather, market prices, local and international agriculture and commodity news, and crop advisory tips enabling farmers to make informed decisions, reduce waste and maximize their profits. rml has, at present, three channels for sales: through agri retailers 5903 to farmers (rml direct); bulk sales to agri input companies/ngos/large groups; bulk sales to mobile operators. in the latter two cases, intermediaries – those with well-developed distribution networks – are used to sell individual subscriptions. the current revenue model for rml’s service is ‘subscription’ and the service is available through major mobile networks. currently, rml carries out all activities – from content sourcing to customer support and accounting – in connection with the service that customers receive, other than operating a mobile network. to mobilize the convergence of ict in agriculture, there is a need to investigate various researchable issues to delineate the pre-requisites of a sound strategy of icts in agriculture. hence, it becomes important to know the information utilization behavior of farmers with regard to m-extension for overcoming the challenges faced by the farmers. the present study was conducted with the following objectives: to study the pattern of information utilization by the farmers using reuters market light. to analyze the association and relationship of identified variables towards the information utilization behaviour of rml short message service (sms) availing farmers. methodology the study was carried out in the erode district of tamil nadu state. among the 32 districts of tamil nadu, erode district was identified as the study area of this district as it constituted a major group of beneficiaries of reuters market light (rml) through mobile telephones. in erode district of tamil nadu, reuters market light (rml) utilizes pallavan grama bank (rural bank which is sponsored by indian bank) to distribute the messages. rml gets the farmers’ database from the pallavan grama bank and sends the messages to farmers. there are fourteen pallavan grama banks functioning in erode district. all the fourteen banks were selected for the study. from these fourteen banks, 180 respondents were drawn by using the stratified random sampling with proportional allocation method. then simple random sampling without replacement procedure was adopted, with the help of random number table. those respondents who availed the reuters market light (rml) service through the mobile phone short message service (sms) were selected for the study. the collected data were analyzed with appropriate statistical tools (spss) and techniques. findings and discussion information utilization behaviour of farmers the rml information utilization behavior of the respondents was studied. utilization of information disseminated through mobile telephones by farmers in tamil nadu 5904 ten items were identified namely; possession of media, use of media, place of use, purpose of use, frequency of use per day, information preference, decision on information, forwarding information to others, cross checking and satisfaction level of using rml. about three-fourths of the respondents (70 per cent) had medium degree of reuters market information utilization behaviour followed by low (16.7 per cent) and high (13.3 per cent) the rml project is operational in the selected study area for the previous two years and majority of the respondents are utilizing its services only for the last two years, which might be the reason for the medium level of rml information utilization behavior. pattern of rml utilization behaviour of the respondents the various aspects of reuters market light (rml) information utilization behaviour of the respondents are furnished in table 1. all the respondents (100.00 per cent) possessed mobile phones as the medium for receiving and forwarding the reuters market light (rml) information. none of the respondents possessed computer with internet, due to its high cost and lack of computer and internet skills. use of media majority of the respondents used the mobile telephones for general communication purposes other than using it for getting sms’ from rml. all the respondents used the media for the purpose of agricultural activities only. since their major occupation was agriculture, the sharing of information was predominantly on various aspects of agriculture like information sharing on inputs, crop management practices, communicating with experts in various institution, information sharing on market prices, information gathering on market arrivals and demand etc., possession of media it is inferred from table 1 that 18.88 per cent of the respondents used the mobile phone for entertainment purposes like hearing music, watching video clips and playing games installed in the mobile phone. though many of the respondents were aware of the entertainment and academic utilities of mobile phones, they did not find leisure time and interest to use them. place of use mobile telephones being a handy portable device it is obvious that all the respondents (100 per cent) used the mobile phones at their home, farm and market. this might also be the reason for higher level of penetration of mobile phones in rural areas. frequency of use per day data in table 1 reveal that nearly sixty per cent of the respondents used to view at the sms’ sent through rml journal of extension education 5905 information twice a day followed by 41.6 per cent of respondents using it for more than twice a day. this result further showed that reinforcement and retention of information is possible when it is sent through short messaging service (sms). information preference it is interpreted from the table that table 1. distribution of respondents based on various aspects of rml utilization behaviour (n=180) sl.no particulars number percentage 1. possession of media mobile 180 100 computer with internet 0.0 0.0 2. use of media general 146 81.11 entertainment 34 18.88 3. place of use all (home, farm & market) 180 100 4. frequency of use per day twice 105 58.3 more than twice 75 41.6 5. information preference price 62 34.4 market 50 27.7 traders 68 37.7 6. decision on information where to sell 113 62.7 when to sell 67 37.2 7. forwarding to others yes 112 62.2 no 68 37.7 8. cross checking yes 130 72.2 no 50 27.7 9 satisfaction yes 120 66.6 no 60 33.3 utilization of information disseminated through mobile telephones by farmers in tamil nadu 5906 37.7 per cent of respondents preferred to get information about commodity specific traders from various markets followed by 34.4 per cent of respondents who preferred market price information for more than one crop. about 24 per cent of respondents preferred to get information about various markets near their locality. during the study, the respondents expressed that the need to know about potential traders in the nearby markets was very important to them so that they might make an attempt to bypass the exploitative middlemen in the market. further, they preferred to get market price information for more than one crop because all the respondents in the study area cultivated more than one crop at a time and so they innovative in use of ict tools and old farmers were more conventional and highly resistant to change. decision based on information around 62 per cent of the respondents made decisions on where to sell their produce after getting the information from rml followed by 37.2 per cent who decided on when to sell the produce. the reason attributed to this result was; based on the price information given by rml about a commodity in various markets, the respondents made the decision on where (i.e. which market) to sell the produce. obviously their choice of selecting the market was based on high prices for the produce, distance of the market, transport, and infrastructure facilities available with the market. forwarding to others more than three-fifths (62.2 per cent) of the respondents used to forward the messages received from rml to their fellow farmers and friends who were not registered with rml or receivers of information about some other crop other than the information forwarded for a crop based on sms. it is followed by 37.7 per cent of respondents who did not forward the messages to other farmers probably because all the other known farmers were already registered users of rml. cross-checking nearly three-fourths (72.2 per cent) of the respondents used to cross check the information provided by rml with other sources like traders in various markets, commission agents and other farmers. they expressed that the information provided by rml is credible and useful. satisfaction all the respondents for this study expressed a high level of satisfaction regarding the overall utility of reuters market light (rml) information disseminated through mobile telephone. it was also observed by the researcher that respondents who were journal of extension education 5907 using modern electronic gadgets in home were more likely to use mobile phones frequently in their office. the findings are supported by the findings of balasubramaniam (2010). who observed that the respondents who were using modern electronic gadgets in home were more likely to use them frequently in the office. factors influencing the reuters market light (rml) information utilization behaviour of the respondents in order to determine the factors affecting the reuters market light information utilization behaviour of the respondents, co-efficient of correlation was calculated by finding out the relationship of information utilization behavior with select independent variables. table 2. correlation of characteristics of rml users through mobile phones with their information utilization behaviour (n=180) sl. no. independent variables ‘r’ value 1. age 0.105* 2. educational status 0.332** 3. family status 0.084 4. annual income 0.106 5. farm size -0.223* 6. farming experience 0.181* 7. source of irrigation 0.179* 8. cropping pattern 0.166 9. ict awareness and utilization behaviour 0.182* 10. market information seeking behaviour 0.242** 11. market information processing behaviour 0.435** 12. attitude towards market 0.306** 13. preference of market channel 0.081 14. perception towards mobile phone in farming 0.344** 15. gratification towards rml 0.356** *significant at 5 per cent level **significant at 1 per cent level utilization of information disseminated through mobile telephones by farmers in tamil nadu 5908 it was found that age had a positive and significant relationship at five per cent level with information utilization behavior it might be because young farmers are more innovative in use of ict tools and old farmers were more conventional and highly resistant to change. it was found that educational status had a positive and significant correlation at one per cent level with the information utilization behaviour. it might be due to the reason that respondents with higher education always know the significance of any valuable information provided to them. particularly in rml, the information is sent to the respondents through mobile phones and sms’ sent to the farmers both in english and in the local language, tamil, based on their interest. interpretation and application of such information could be accomplished effectively by the educated farmers only. farming experience was also found to have a positive and significant correlation at five per cent level with information utilization behaviour. it might be because an experienced farmer always knows the importance of marketing his/her produce and the need of relevant market information. it can be interpreted that more the number of years of farming experience higher will be utilization behavior. it was found that source of irrigation had a positive and significant correlation at five per cent level with information utilization behaviour. a farmer with an assured and adequate irrigation source is always expected to produce more and try different patterns of cropping to derive more income out of their occupation. for effective disposal of their produce in market the utilization behaviour of the respondents with good irrigation source was also high. ict awareness and utilization behaviour was found to have a positive and significant correlation at five per cent level with information utilization behaviour. the frequent exposure of the respondents towards various ict tools had resulted in increased the confidence of the respondents in utilizing them effectively. it was found that market information seeking behaviour had a positive and significant correlation at one per cent level with utilization behaviour because, the farmers with high level of market information seeking behavior were expected to obtain more information, which farmers could apply in changing market conditions which ultimately result in the increased information utilization behaviour of the respondents. analysis revealed that market information processing behaviour had a positive and significant correlation at one per cent level with information utilization behaviour. it might be because the farmers with high level of market journal of extension education 5909 information processing behaviour would possess superior skills of interpreting any information related to market and utilized the market information to maximum possible extent. farmers’ attitude towards market was also positively and significantly correlation at one per cent level with information utilization behaviour. the farmers with highly favourable attitude towards market would collect extensive information about various aspects of market and marketing. these farmers always preferred to act upon the collected information so as to accomplish maximum utilization of it. perception towards use of mobile phone in farming was found to have positive and significantly correlation at one per cent level with information utilization behaviour. as farmers used mobile phone for seeking information from rml it might be the reason for this. it was found that gratification towards rml had a positive and significant correlation at one per cent level with reuters market light (rml) information utilization behaviour. it is because as the majority of the respondents were found to be high on gratification. the variables such as farming experience, source of irrigation and exposure towards ict tools were significant at five per cent level and other variables like educational status, market information seeking behaviour, market information processing behaviour, attitude towards market, rml gratification and perception towards mobile phone in farming were significant at one per cent level. the result revealed that farm size had a negative and significant relationship at one per cent level with information utilization behavior. those with less farm size usually go for intensive cultivation putting in earnest efforts in getting agricultural information. this might be the season behind this finding. conclusion the study has shown that information disseminated through mobile phones has been effective. the satisfactory level of the farmers using this facility was also high. the public extension system should take the results of the study into account & incorporate them appropriately in their extension programmes. the business concept model of rml, through its information and advisory services to farmers and others, would contribute to the vertical integration of the agriculture sector with the increasingly organizing retail and other industry sectors and also to the value additions to the agri-production activity. references balasubramaniam, r. (2010). designing and testing the effectiveness of computer – based expert system on cognitive and domains of rubber growers. unpublished ph.d. thesis, tnau, coimbatore. jayanthi, m & asokhan, m. (2016) constaints faced by m-kisan users, journal of extension education, 28(1) utilization of information disseminated through mobile telephones by farmers in tamil nadu 6073 constraints faced by agripreneurs in adopting kau (kerala agricultural university) technology raju parashuram naik1 and s. helen2 abstract a study was conducted with the objective of studying the constraints faced by agripreneurs in adopting kau (kerala agricultural university) technology. a sample of 100 respondents who had adopted kau technology were selected using simple random sampling technique. the study revealed that lack of adequate money for day-to-day expenses was the most important financial constraint faced by the agripreneurs, followed by lack of market information. non-availability of input materials and high labour cost were the major production and labour constraints and multiple roles was the major personal constraint faced by the agripreneurs. keywords : agripreneurs; constraints; kerala agricultural university; technology 1. p.g. scholar and 2. professor, communication centre, kerala agricultural university, mannuthy-680 651, thrissur, kerala, india. received : 06-06-2018; accepted : 30-08-2018 introduction a shift from farming to agribusiness is an important pathway to rejuvenate indian agriculture and to make more appealing and profitable venture. agripreneurship have the potential to add to a scope of social and economic advancement, for example, income generation, employment creation, poverty reduction and development in health, nutrition and overall food security in the national economy. agripreneurship is defined as “generally, sustainable, community-oriented, directly-marketed agriculture. sustainable agriculture denotes a holistic, system oriented approach to farming that focuses on the interrelationships of social, economic, and environmental processes” (nagalakshmi and sudhakar, 2013). agricultural businesses are always coupled with inherent ambiguity associated with agricultural production. some significant sources of uncertainty in agribusiness include production risk, price risk, financial risk and changes in government programmes. in india, 52% of the total land is cultivable as against 11% in the world (uplaonkar and biradar, 2015). large population of india is dependent on agriculture for their source of revenue. but indian agriculture is low in productivity with large number of disguised unemployment. but it is clear that there is a great scope for entrepreneurship in agriculture and this potential can be tapped only by effective research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6073-6078 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6074 management of different components by an individual with risk bearing capacity and a quest for latest knowledge in agriculture sector to prove as right agripreneurs. agripreneurship is an employment strategy that can lead to economic self-sufficiency of rural people. in this direction, kau (kerala agricultural university) kerala has taken earnest and concerted effort to consolidate, showcase and disseminate the various technologies generated suitable for entrepreneurship and skill development. hence it was felt appropriate to study the constraints faced by the agripreneurs in adopting kau technologies. methodology the present study was conducted in central zone of kerala. the list of clients who had adopted kau technologies were collected from the extension centres of kerala agricultural university viz., krishi vigyan kendra, communication centre and central training institute of thrissur district during 2014 and 2015. one hundred clients who had adopted kau technologies were selected using simple random sampling technique to form the sample. constraints faced by the agripreneurs were classified under financial, marketing, production and labour and personal constraints. it was analyzed using the index method followed by aiswarya (2016) with suitable modifications. agripreneurs were asked to rate the constraints on a three point continuum scale. the response of the agripreneurs were assigned score of 3, 2 and 1 indicating ‘more serious’, ‘serious’ and ‘less serious’ respectively. the total score of each constraint was calculated by summing up the values obtained and index was calculated for consolidating and comparing the seriousness of the problems. the following formula was used for calculating the index of each statement and composite index for all the classified constraints: index of each statement = total score for each statment maximum score of the statement composite index = ∑ x mxnxs x 100 x 100 where, ∑ x = sum of total scores of all statements (sum of frequencies multiplied by weight) m = maximum score n = number of respondents s = number of statements findings and discussion constraints faced by the agripreneurs were classified under financial, marketing, production and labour and personal constraints and are presented here. journal of extension education 6075 table 1 financial constraints faced by agripreneurs (n=100) sl. no. financial constraints more serious serious less serious total scores index % % % 1 lack of adequate money for day-to day expenses 5.00 62.00 33.00 172 57.33 2 insufficient financial assistance by financial institutions 4.00 17.00 79.00 125 41.66 3 problems of security and margin money 4.00 16.00 80.00 124 41.33 4 tight repayment schedule 0 3.00 97.00 103 34.33 5 inadequate loan 0 29.00 71.00 129 43.00 6 delay in sanction of loan 0 0 100 100 33.33 7 entire loan is not disbursed at a time 0 4.00 96.00 104 34.66 8 less subsidy amount 2.00 20.00 78.00 124 41.33 composite index 40.87 lack of adequate money for dayto-day expenses was the most important constraint faced by the agripreneurs with index value of ’57.33, followed by insufficient financial assistance by financial institutions (41.66), problems of security & margin money (41.33) and less subsidy amount (41.33). table 2 constraints faced by agripreneurs in marketing (n=100) sl. no. constraints in marketing more serious serious less serious total score index % % % 1 long distance to the market 1.00 1.00 98.00 103 34.33 2 lack of transportation facilities 0 8.00 92.00 108 36.00 3 lack of market information 7.00 41.00 52.00 155 51.66 4 low price for the produce 10.00 26.00 64.00 146 48.66 5 delay in payments 2.00 7.00 91.00 111 37.00 composite index 41.53 constraints faced by agripreneurs in adopting kau (kerala agricultural university) technology 6076 lack of market information was the more serious constraint in marketing with index value ‘51.66’, followed by low price for the produce (48.66), as perceived by the agripreneurs. as the respondents were not aware of the real time market information available in the related websites, they expressed the constraint on lack of market information as more serious. exposure on the websites providing market information may overcome this constraint. table 3. constraints faced by agripreneurs in production and labour management (n=100) sl. no. constraints in production and labour more serious serious less serious total score index % % % 1 non availability of input materials 9.00 67.00 24.00 185 61.66 2 high labour cost 9.00 60.00 31.00 178 59.33 3 non availability of skilled workers 7.00 26.00 67.00 140 46.66 4 high cost of inputs 4.00 11.00 85.00 119 39.66 composite index 51.82 it is seen from table 3 that non availability of input materials (61.66) and high labour cost (59.33) were the major constraints, followed by non availability of skilled workers (46.66) and high cost of inputs (39.66) perceived by agripreneurs in production and journal of extension education table 4 personal constraints faced by agripreneurs (n=100) sl. no. personal constraints more serious serious less serious total scores index % % % 1 health problem 1.00 1.00 98.00 103 34.33 2 lack of leisure time 15.00 10.00 75.00 140 46.66 3 multiple roles 13.00 45.00 42.00 171 57.00 4 low education 0 4.00 96.00 104 34.66 5 non-cooperation of family members 0 0 100 100 33.33 composite index 41.19 6077 labour management. as the supply of most of the input materials are monopolized by few agencies, the agripreneurs were facing the shortage of supply of inputs during peak seasons and sudden price rise of the input materials. it is observed from table 4 that ‘multiple roles’ was the most important constraint faced by agripreneurs. most of the respondents were engaged in other activities along with agribusiness as their subsidiary occupation. therefore, they were not able to concentrate in agribusiness alone as they had to satisfy different responsibilities on various capacities. non availability of required inputs, skilled labour and high cost of labour were the serious problems faced by agripreneurs. production and labour constraints received the highest index value (51.82) among all constraints indicating that production and labour were the major constraints faced by agripreneurs, followed by marketing related constraints (41.53). conclusion the study has clearly shown that the agripreneurs face production and labour management constraints predominantly followed by marketing related constraints. non availability of required inputs, skilled labour and high cost of labour were the serious problems faced by agripreneurs. the extension centres of kerala agricultural university may prepare tailor made syllabus according to the specific demands, interests and requirements of a group of trainees. training need assessment studies may be conducted before organizing the training programmes. apart from imparting technical skills, the training modules should include the subject areas like, sources of funds available for starting agribusiness, services of financial institutions, details of government schemes available for agripreneurs, pro-active managerial skills and soft skills required for managing agribusiness, judicious use of available resources, maintenance of records, sharing responsibilities with fellow members, ways of enhancing entrepreneurial competencies, access to real time market information using ict tools and constraints faced by agripreneurs in adopting kau (kerala agricultural university) technology figure 1. constraints faced by agripreneurs 6078 available technologies on mechanizing agri enterprises. references aiswarya, s. (2016). emotional intelligence among the employees of esaf microfinance and investment (p) ltd. unpublished mba(abm) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 88p. nagalakshmi, t., & sudhakar, a. (2013). agripreneurs: a case study of dharmapuri farmers. international journal of science and research. 2(8): 208-214. uplaonkar, s. s. & biradar, s. s. (2015). development of agriculture in india through agripreneurs. international journal of applied research. 1(9): 1063-1066. journal of extension education 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd from the editor’s desk chief editor of late, extension practitioners are employing a range of participatory methods and media from community radio to video and modern icts to ensure more equitable access to information for farmers and rural communities. integrating the power of media such as rural radio, mobile phones and icts with local knowledge and communication systems can give rural stakeholders, more power to take action and change their lives for better. surprisingly, radio still is one of the most widespread means of communication in rural areas, capable to reach illiterate audiences and the most disconnected groups in the country. in its recent publication on "communication for rural development" (2014), fao has highlighted the phenomenal success of the first farm radio of bangladesh that was assisted by fao. the krishi radio, with the slogan, "my radio, my voice", was launched in 2012 and within a year had an estimated listenership of over 40000 local residents. though the agricultural officers initially ran the radio, a team of community volunteers currently performs the production and broadcasting tasks. community members, local authorities, cultural groups and ngos also participate in the radio management committees. further, during the devastating cyclone that struck the southern coast of bangladesh in 2013, krishi radio contributed to save people's lives and assets by spreading information about cyclone shelters, crop harvesting and other disaster preparedness measures in areas isolated due to power failures. the experience of krishi radio has proved successful in developing demand-driven communication services, agricultural research & policies and empowering local actors and enabling inclusive decision making at the community level. our extension practitioners should therefore keep in mind the usefulness of radio, which is still a force to reckon, with several advantages such as localized delivery of information, wide coverage and accessibility in rural areas and low production costs, while formulating communication strategies for rural development. this issue of jee contains a potpourri of articles on self-help groups, gender equality and entrepreneurship of farmers. i am sure the readers will find them interesting. 5978 a study on annual expenditure and income from goat farming in kerala bimal p.bashir1, r. thiruppathi venkatachalapathy2 and subin k.mohan1 abstract a study on goat farmers from three districts of kerala viz., kannur, kozhikode and malappuram districts was carried out to study the annual expenditure and income from goat farming under field condition in northern kerala. study revealed that small flock size (16-45) got the highest net return per goat per annum. the net return worked out to be rs. 1748, 2374, 2960, 2258 and 1602 per goat /annum, respectively. the net profit (per goat/annum) increases and reaches a maximum point and again decreases with the increase of flock sizes due to inadequate nutrition and management practices by larger goat keepers. b:c ratio also showed a similar pattern of change with flock size. selling of goats was the major source of income followed by milk, manures and urine. in the present study, shrinking of grazing resources, lack of good quality breeding stocks improper management practices, high and labour cost were found to be the major constraints in making the goat farming more remunerative. therefore, rearing of goat cannot sustain only on grazing resources and cut fodder and needs to switch over to systematic commercial goat farming systems via., semi-intensive / intensive system of management. recurring cost need to be curtailed by adopting mechanization and modernization especially in large farms and also cultivating fodder and formulating and preparing concentrate in the farm itself. keywords:goat farming; expenditure; income; net profit; kerala 1-assistant professor, department of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, college of veterinary and animal sciences, pookode, wayanad, kerala. 2professor, department of genetics and breeding, college of veterinary and animal sciences, mannuthy, thrissur, kerala received : 10-5-2018; accepted : 03-07-2018 introduction goat contributes significantly to the indian economy, especially as a sustainable livelihood for rural farming community. the share of goats to the total milk yield and meat production in india was recorded as 3.00% and 14.25%, respectively (goi,2017). the demand for goat meat (chevon) is progressively increasing. india possesses 18.60% (135.10 million) of world goat population and ranks first in goat milk production in world (nddb, 2017). journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5978-5983 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 5979 one of the important native breeds of goat in the state of kerala is malabari, which is a dual purpose goat breed and the home tract of its being northern part of kerala (raghavan and raja, 2012). land availability, high labour cost, ever shrinking of grazing land are the major constraint for farmers in the state and since goat farming can overcome these constraints easily, they have immense opportunities and potential for generating income and employment to landless, resource poor’s in the state. keeping this in view, a study was conducted to identify the expenditure and income from goat farming in northern kerala with the objective of assessment of rearing system followed in the area and the overall economics of goat farming in the study area. methodology the study was conducted in three districts viz., kannur, kozhikode and malappuram covering the northern part of kerala during 2016-2017. the data were collected on annual expenditure and income from goat production from primary as well as secondary sources using interview schedule. door to door survey of 373 households was carried out to find out the flock sizes, goat farming system, expenditure, income etc. in six taluks, covering 30 villages coming under the all india co-ordinated research project on goats (malabari units). participatory rural appraisal and farmer group discussions were recorded for assessing the situation related to goat rearing in the area. the information related to selection of goats, feeding, housing, breeding, healthcare management practices along with expenditure, income, net returns etc were recorded. the selected goat farmers were classified in to five categories based on flock size viz., catergory ivery small (15), category iismall (6-15), category iii-medium (16-45), category iv-large (46-100) and category vvery large (101 and above). the details of number of goat farmers in each category selected, land holding, flock range, average flock size, system of goat farming and benefit : cost ratio in different categories are given in table.1. findings and discussion small owners mostly followed household level stall feeding with little bit grazing mostly in common land like roadsides, open fields etc. while large goat keepers raised their goats solely on cut grass and follow intensive or semiintensive system of rearing with 3-4 hours of grazing especially in the evening. economics of different flock sizes of goat farming: average flock size for the five category of goat farmers based on flock holding were 2.98, 9.75, 27.2, 62.1 and 163.75 respectively (table 1). the results showed a marked difference in system of goat rearing among the five categories of goat farmers studied with flock size 5980 ranging one to five (very small, i) and 6-15 (small, ii); were mostly rearing their goats in the home and graze in their premises. medium sized flock sized goat farmers (16-45, iii) were following semiintensive type of rearing system. farmers rearing goat of the flock size ranging from 46 and above (large and very large categories) adopted intensive system of rearing, were goat are confined to the shed and cut-grass / total complete feed ration wee provided in the shed itself. the perusal of table 1. revealed that more than 60.00 per cent of goat farmers studied had flock size 15 or less and they were either marginal or landless farmers who reared goats besides their home and graze in their premises. whereas, around 18.00 per cent of goat farmers studied were keeping a flock of 46 and more goats and had small to large land holding. they followed semi-intensive to intensive system of rearing. it was also noted that one-fifth (21.00%) of goat farmers studied had a flock size ranging from 16-45 goats had marginal or small land holding and followed semi-intensive system of rearing system which allowed daily grazing of goats for 4-6 hours in confined grazing lands. category wise expenditure annual expenditure on goat farming was estimated based on investment on feeding, depreciation on shed, labour wages and veterinary aids spend in an year. this were tabulated and depicted in table 2. table 1. categorization of goat keepers on flock sizes categories very small (i) small (ii) medium (iii) large (iv) very large (v) no. of goat farmers 132 (35.39%) 100 (26.81%) 78 (20.91%) 46 (12.33) 17 (4.56) land holding landless / marginal marginal small/ marginal large/ small large flock ranges 1 to 5 6 to 15 16-45 46-100 101 and above average flock size 2.98 9.75 27.2 62.1 163.75 goat farming system household rearing household rearing / semi intensive semiintensive intensive / semi intensive system intensive system b:c ratio 1.3 1.49 1.53 1.55 1.54 (n=373) 5981 the average annual expenditure of rs. 32,628.00, rs. 1,44,603.00, rs. 3,39,771.00, rs. 7,38,918.00 and rs. 17,54,215.75 was incurred for category i, ii, iii, iv and v respectively. the major investment was found on the value of initial stock, which accounted alone for an average of 89.86 per cent of the total expenditure. the maintenance cost of goats i.e., the labour cost per year were found to be rs. 73000/and rs. 146000/ for category iv and v respectively. two full time labours required to maintain a farm with flock size between 101 to 150. whereas, one full time labour for category iv i.e., for flock size between 46 to 100 goats. among maintenance costs, highest was on feeding (74.85%) followed by shelter (12.72%) and veterinary aid (12.43%). it is evident from the table 2. annual expenditure (n = 373) sl. no. category very small small medium large very large 1. average flock sizes (no.) 2.98 9.75 27.2 62.1 163.75 2. value of initial stock 31020 137210 324130 617180 1146250 3. investment on feeding 1093 5412 10712 33721 349770 4. depreciation on shed 403 1474 3597 10942 51697 5. labour wages 0 0 0 73000 146000 6. veterinary aids 112 507 1332 4075 60498.75 7. total variable cost (i to iii) 1608 7393 15641 121738 607965.75 8. gross expenditure 32628 144603 339771 738918 1754215.75 table 3. that as the flock size increased the recurring expenditure increased, because the large goat keepers were mostly follow intensive type of rearing system and require more allocation in the form of feed, labour and veterinary aid. category wise income: annual income from goat farming was estimated based on sales of goat, milk, manure and goat urine in an year. this was tabulated and depicted in table 3. the gross and net profit worked out to be rs.37,838/and rs. 5, 210/ for category i, rs. 1,67,746/and rs.23,143/for category ii, rs.4,20,294/ and rs. 80,523/for category iii, rs. 8,79,165/and rs. 1,40,247/for category iv and rs. 20,16,620/and rs. 5982 2,62,404/for category v, respectively. other than existing stock value, major source of income was from the sales of goats (71.90%) followed by milk (15.10%), manures (9.20%) and urine (3.80%). the overall average value of existing stock over a year remained constant as compared to the initial stock value, after the selling of 71.57 per cent of individuals. the annual net profit per goat was highest in category iii (rs. 2960.40), followed by category ii (rs. 2373.64), category iv (rs.2258.41), category i (rs. 1748.32) and category v (rs. 1602.47) with an overall average of rs. 2188.68 respectively. the annual gross and net income per house hold/ goat farm appreciably increased with the increase of flock size but net return per goat showed an increasing trend initially and reaching a peak level at the medium level of flock size (category iii) and showed a decreasing trend afterwards. as the flock size increases above 60, additional labour, veterinary aid and more care is needed under farm level. most of goat farmers rearing goats above 100 were maintaining goat in either semi-intensive or intensive system and their recurring cost on feed, fodder, labour, veterinary aid etc. were more compared to household goat rearing. moreover, farmers found it difficult to provide individual attention and care when the flock size of their farms goes beyond 100. besides that, high incidence of diseases, ecto and endo parasites infestation were common in large farms. this might be due to lack of skilled labour and high labour table 3. annual income (n=373) sl. no. category very small (i) small (ii) medium (iii) large (iv) very large (v) 1. value of existing stock 22173 96910 189140 434700 1162000 2. sale of goats 14155 62155 141723 296300 576180 3. sale of milk 0 4317 50640 76650 120450 4. sale of manure 1510 3321 35780 61408 133590 5. sale of urine 0 508 3011 10107 24400 6. annual return (i to iv) 15665 70836 231154 444465 854620 7. gross income 37838 167746 420294 879165 2016620 8. net income 5210 23143 80523 140247 262404.25 9. net profit / goat 1748.32 2373.64 2960.40 2258.41 1602.47 10. b:c ratio 1.3 1.49 1.53 1.55 1.54 5983 cost forcing the farmers to maintain farm with limited labour for conducting routine farm activites like deworming, vaccination etc. on the other hand, small owners fed goats mainly on cut grass and allowed grazing, fed kitchen waste, cultivate fodder and took better care of their flock and achieved higher net returns. conclusion this study on economics of goat rearing, covering 373 goat farmers from three districts of northern kerala based on different flock sizes showed that apart from providing a subsidiary income to the families, rearing of goats, acted as a source of protein supplement to the family members of the household in the form of milk and meat in the study area. the shrinking of grazing resources, lack of good quality breeding stocks and improper management practices, high labour cost were found to be the major constraints in making the goat farming more remunerative. therefore, goat farms with large flock size needs to switch over to systematic commercial goat farming systems via., semi-intensive / intensive system of management. recurring cost need to be curtailed by adopting mechanization and modernization especially in large farms and also cultivating fodder and formulating balanced goat feed and preparing concentrate in the farm itself. in large farms, systematic management of sales need to be adopted and they must replace 10 to 15 percent of parent stock with the new once. unhealthy and weak goats needed to be sold before the rainy season in order to avoid heavy parasitic load and high mortality of kids during adverse climatic condition. references bashir, b.p. & venkatachalapathy, t.r. (2016). economics of household malabari goat farming in northern region of kerala. international journal of agricultural science research. 6:529-534. goi.( 2017). basic animal husbandry statistics. ministry of agriculture, govt. of india. nddb. (2017). retrieved from http:// www.nddb.org/information/stats/ outputvalue raghavan, k.c & raja, t.v. (2012). analysis on the socioeconomic status of the goat farmers of malabar regionof kerala. veterinary research 5: 74-76. 6092 determinants of rural women’s participation in agricultural extension services: case of irrigable vegetable production in oromia region, ethiopia mulutena sitachew1, j. paul mansingh2 & mulu debela3 abstract women rarely participate in extension services and have little contact with extension service organizations. increasing extension service to female farmers in rural areas of ethiopia remains challenging. reports say that there is low participation of women vegetable farmers in agricultural extension services in toke-kutayedistrict, oromia region, ethiopia.therefore, this study seeks to assess the factors influencing rural women participation in agricultural extension services employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. out of the 132 women vegetable producers selected for this study, there were 79 participants and 53 non-participants of agricultural extension services. quantitative data from primary sources were collected using a semi-structured interview schedule. qualitative data were collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions.the results of the binary logit regression model estimate indicate that out of the 16 explanatory variables included in the model, farming experience, sex of development agent, irrigable land holding size and access to credit shows significant and positive relation with participation whereas, time spent on domestic activities, distance from water source, mobility constraints and sex of household headship shows significant and negative relationship with women participation. keywords: rural women’s participation; vegetable cultivation; agricultural extension services; ethiopia received : 12-04-2018; accepted : 12-10-2018 1. post-graduate scholar, 2. professor, and 3. assistant professor department of rural development and agricultural extension, ambo university, ambo, ethiopia. introduction rural women are intimately involved in all aspects of agricultural production than men. a study conducted by cohen & lemma (2011) explains that it takes a short time observation for someone in rural ethiopia to recognize that women in most parts of the country are deeply involved in every aspect of agricultural activity, such as land preparation, hoeing, weeding, harvesting, threshing, transportation and usage. however, women rarely participate in extension services and have little contact with extension service organizations. global surveys show that women receive only five per cent of the total extension resources all over the world dedicated to programmes for female farmers. women form just 15 per cent research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6092-6099 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6093 of extension personnel in the world and their roles also remain largely unrecognized and have been virtually ignored by agricultural intervention programmes (world bank,2010). in ethiopia, in general and women vegetable producers in the study area in particular have limited participation in agricultural extension services (quisumbing et al., 2014). that is why, traditionally women are not considered as “farmers”, a predominant problem in many developing countries (world bank, 2010; cohen & lemma, 2011). even if females do participate in extension services, they may not be given equal recognition for their responsibilities and skills. they are also restricted and marginalized in terms of providing equal responsibilities, decision making power & access and control over resources. this is because farmers and farming activities continue to be perceived as “male” by planners and agricultural service deliverers, thereby ignoring the important and increasing role females play in agriculture. moreover, technology packages delivered by extension services sometimes reinforce stereotypic divisions of labour (manfre et al., 2013). recent reports suggest (tkdardo, 2016) that there is low participation of women vegetable farmers in agricultural extension services in toke-kutaye woreda, oromia region, ethiopia. therefore, this study was carried out to assess the factors influencing rural women participation in agricultural extension services in case of irrigable vegetable production in toke-kutay district. this will help facilitate the development of evidence-based polices for increasing the participation of women farmers in the agricultural extension services. methodology the study was conducted in tokekutaye district which is 122 km away from addis ababa, the capital of ethiopia. this research employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches and adopted cross-sectional survey research design. the population includes all the rural women in the selected kebele1, who are actively involved in irrigable vegetable farming in toke-kutaye district in the years of 2016 and 2017 farming season. the study employed both purposive and stratified random sampling techniques. toke-kutaye district was selected purposively because, this district is a model district for vegetable production and it has greater potential for vegetable production. among the 24 rural kebeles in the district, 18 of them are included for irrigable vegetable production scheme (tkadoi, 2016). then, out of the 18 kebeles, three rural kebeles namely birbirsa-duguma, emela-dawe and marufwere were selected purposively, because, these three kebeles are well known for their irrigation potential with high water recourse. the population was stratified based on the participation in agricultural extension services, as participants and nonparticipants. out of 132 women vegetable producers selected for this study, there were 79 participants and 53 non-participants of agricultural extension services. simple determinants of rural women’s participation in agricultural extension services: case of irrigable vegetable production in oromia region, ethiopia 1 a kebele is the smallest administrative unit of ethiopia, similar to a revenue village. 6094 random sampling technique was used to select participants and non-participants from the list available with the development agents in the three rural kebeles. probability proportion to size technique was used to determine the sample size from each selected kebele. the details of the selected household heads are presented in table 1. table1. details of household heads (hhs) study area sampled kebeles total number of hhs sampled household heads partici pants non participants total partici pants non participants total tokekutay district birbirsaduguma 186 90 276 29 14 43 emela-dawe 223 63 286 34 10 44 maruf 105 191 296 16 29 45 514 344 858 79 53 132 source:toke –kutaye district agriculture bureau, (2016) primary and secondary sources of data were used. quantitative data from primary source were collected through household survey using a semi-structured interview schedule. qualitative data were collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions. the secondary data were collected through a review of relevant reports of district agricultural and rural extension offices, published and unpublished sources. findings and discussion factors influencing rural women participation in agricultural extension services to study the factors influencing rural women participation in agricultural extension services, data gathered from 132 women vegetable farmers were subjected to binary logit regression analysis. results of binary logistic regression analysis the binary logit model results revealed that rural women participation in agricultural extension services was determined by the interaction of different demographic, socioeconomic, institutional and women related factors. the main objective of the model, in particular, is to analyze the factors that determine the probability of participation in agricultural extension services. the estimated parameter of the independent variables expected to influence rural women participation in agricultural extension services are presented in table 2. journal of extension education 6095 the variables viz., farm experience, sex of development agent, irrigable land holding and access to credit showed significant and positive relation with participation. this indicates that any increase in any of these variables will increase the probability of women participation in agricultural extension services. whereas time spent on domestic activities, distance from water source, sex of household headship, and mobility constraints shows significant and negative relationship with women participation. the negative relationship implies that an increment in any of these variables will reduce women participation in agricultural extension services among studied women farmers. table 2. binary logistic regression estimates of determinants of rural women participation in agricultural extension services sl. no variables in the equation β s. e wald df sig. exp(β) 1 level of education -.212 .733 .084 1 .772 .809 2 total number of dependents -.424 .292 2.113 1 .146 .654 3 sex of the household head -2.480 .977 6.442 1 .011 .084** 4 farm experience .156 .039 15.606 1 .000 1.169*** 5 irrigable land holding .207 .097 4.595 1 .032 1.230** 6 total livestok holding .443 .438 1.022 1 .312 1.557 7 annual income .000 .000 1.592 1 .207 1.000 8 access to credit 1.585 .783 4.099 1 .043 .205** 9 sex of development agents 2.467 .830 8.829 1 .003 11.783*** 10 contact wih development agents 1.443 1.163 1.539 1 .215 4.233 11 distance from ftc -.398 .503 .626 1 .429 .672 12 access to input -.861 .758 1.290 1 .256 .423 13 mobility constraint -1.121 .654 2.939 1 .086 .326* 14 reproductive role .944 .675 1.953 1 .162 2.570 15 distance from water source -.955 .486 3.859 1 .049 .385** 16 time spent on domestic activities -.566 .190 8.835 1 .003 .568*** 17 constant 4.455 2.725 2.673 1 .102 86.099 dependent variable participation in agricultural extension services note *, ** and *** = significant at 10, 5 and 1% respectively -2log likelihood = 75.456a cox &snell r square = .540 nagelkerke r square = .729 chi –square 102.380 sign. = .000 determinants of rural women’s participation in agricultural extension services: case of irrigable vegetable production in oromia region, ethiopia 6096 sex of the household headship the coefficient of this variable is negative and significant at less than 5 % probability level towards participation. the result indicates that, women in maleheaded households were .084 times less likely to participate in agricultural extension services than women-headed households. it implies that women in male-headed households have a less probability of participation than women headed households. this could be due to the reason that women in male headed households have to get the permission from their husbands. mostly in the maleheaded households, the head of the family takes all the responsibilities outside home and thrusts all the household works to the women. irrigable land holding size the effect of irrigable land holding size significantly influences the probability of participation. the coefficient of this variable is positive and significant at less than 5 % probability level towards participation. for a unit increase in farm size, the odd of being participate in agricultural extension services significantly increases by a factor of 1.23 times. this means that households who have access to more irrigable land are more likely to participate in agricultural extension services as compared to households who have less land. this finding is in line with the finding of marte yet al., (2013) who observed that farm size positively influenced the household heads’ decision to participate in agricultural projects. farming experience farming experience was positive and significant at less than 1% level of significance. it is consistent with the notion that farmers with longer years of experience accept and adopt the technology than farmers with low faming experience. women with more farming experience were more likely to participate in agricultural extension services than those who have less experience. the results also reveal that for one-unit increase in farming experience, the odd of being participate in agricultural extension services significantly increases by the factor of 1.169 times. therefore, women’s experience in vegetable production increases their probability of participation in agricultural extension programme. moreover, women who have been growing vegetable for more years are more likely to value the benefits from participating in agricultural extension services. the result is also in in line with the finding of chioma (2014) who reported that farming experience was found to be positively associated with participation. this finding is in contradiction with the finding of rehman & ibrahim (2007) who indicated that farming experience had no significant effect on the farmers’ access to agricultural information. access to credit access to credit helps the farmers by easing financial constraints to purchase inputs for vegetable farming. the coefficient of access to credit is positive and significant at less than 5 % probability level. as shown in table 2, women who had better access to credit were .205 times more likely to be participate in agricultural extension services than women journal of extension education 6097 had no credit access. women who have access to credit have a better possibility of getting farm inputs. credit helps farmers to purchase inputs such as seeds, fertilizers etc., the result is consistent with the finding of martey et al.,(2013) who reported that access to credit enables farmers to overcome their financial constraints associated with production and adoption of innovations. sex of development agents the beta coefficient is positive and significant at less than 1 % probability level. the results of logit model showed that those women farmers who have contact with female development agents were 11.783 times more likely to participate in agricultural extension services than those who had no contact. it implies that female extension workers are often in a better position to help female smallholder farmers in the adoption of innovations. distance from water source the coefficient of distance from water source is negative and significant at less than 5 % level of significance. this variable was found to influence women participation in agricultural extension services negatively and significantly at less than 5 % significance level. longer the distance from water source, lesser would be, the initiative of women to participate in extension services. the possible justification could be households who are farther to the water source incur much cost to have access to irrigation. so, they can’t follow up the farm activity closely and frequently and may not get a better yield; therefore, they delay in deciding to participate in agricultural extension services. conversely, shorter the distance from the a water source, higher the probability of participating in agricultural extension services due to the fact that the opportunity cost of the time lost in travelling to and from an irrigation-farm for households located a short distance from water source would be much lower than households located much farther. besides, households located near water sources enjoy the lower transaction cost, and also are likely to have a better awareness of the associated agricultural technologies due to their proximity. the odds ratio also revealed that for one kilometer decrease in distance from residence to water source the odds of being able to participate in agricultural extension services significantly increases by the factor of .385 units while other variables are kept constant. time spent on domestic activities as expected, the beta coefficient for time spent on domestic activities is negative and significant at less than 1% probability level. the relationship is negative, which means that the women who spend more time in domestic activities, are less likely to participate as compared to women who have leisure time. the result indicates that as time spent on domestic activities increases by one hour, the probability of women participation in agricultural extension services decreases by a factor of .568. the possible explanation for this result is that respondents who spent more time on domestic activities had less probability to participate in agricultural extension services. determinants of rural women’s participation in agricultural extension services: case of irrigable vegetable production in oromia region, ethiopia 6098 time-use surveys across a wide range of countries estimate that women spent 85–90 per cent of the time on childcare, water & food collection, cooking and other care activities (fao 2011b; flavia, josefine & sophia, 2015). mobility constraints the coefficient of mobility constraints is negative and significant at less than 10 % level of probability. as mobility constraints decrease by one unit the odd ratio increases by the factor of .326. those women who have no mobility constraints could participate in any association, development intervention, etc. time and mobility constraints may prevent women from accessing public extension and formal agricultural information services. in such situations, women need to rely extensively on their female social net-works to learn about new agricultural technologies. however, the remaining eight explanatory variables were found to have no significant influence on the probability of participation in agricultural extension services. the nonsignificant variables were education, number of dependents, livestock holding, annual income, contact with development agents, distance from ftc, access to input and reproductive role. these variables, therefore did not determine their participation in this study. conclusion the results of the binary logistic regression model estimate indicate that out of the 16 explanatory variables included in the model, the coefficients of the eight explanatory variables were found to be significant indicating that any change in this variable will substantially influence on the probability of being a participant in agricultural extension services. the study indicates that increase in variables viz., farming experience, sex of development agent,irrigable land holding size and access to credit will increase the probability of women participation in agricultural extension services. whereas time spent on domestic activities, distance from water source, mobility constraints and sex of household headshipshows significant and negative relationship with women participation. the negative relationship implies that an increment in any of these variables will reduce women participation in agricultural extension services among the women farmers. majority of the respondents have no contact with female agricultural extension workers.this implies that the linkage between the women farmers and the development agents (das) is very weak. therefore, to improve the rural women’s participation, assigning and allocating appropriate number of female agricultural extension workers (das) in the rural kebele associations (kas) is recommended. the study revealed that distance from water sources has its own contribution for women participation in agricultural extension services; therefore, the zonal and woreda (district) governmental bodies have to provide subsidies and incentives to women farmers to adopt water conservation practices. in addition, the regional water enterprise has to make provision to pump journal of extension education 6099 underground water for small-scale irrigation. participation in agricultural extension services could further increase women’s workload. hence all stakeholders should give great attention and priority to reduce the workload of women by providing access to labour saving household technologies. references chioma u. n. (2014). socio-economic factors influencing farmers’ participation in communitybased programme in abia and cross river states of nigeria.journal of agricultural extension, 18(1), 48-61. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ jae.v18i1.5 cohen, m. j. & lemma, m. (2011). agricultural extension services and gender equality: an institutional analysis of four districts in ethiopia. ifpri discussion paper 01094, development strategy and governance division, ifpri, washington, dc. retrieved from http://www.ifpri.org/publication/ a g r i c u l t u ra l e x t e n s i o n s e r v i ce s a n d gender-equality-0 manfre c., deborah r., andrea a., gale s., kathleen c., & mercy a. (2013). reducing the gender gap in agricultural extension and advisory services: how to find the best fit for men and women farmers. meas discussion paper series on good practices and best fit approaches in extension and advisory service provision, usaid. retrieved from http://meas.illinois.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2015/04/manfreet-al-2013-gender-and-extension-measdiscussion-paper.pdf martey e., wiredu a. n., asante b.o., annin k., dogbe w., attoh c., & al-hassan r. m.(2013). factors influencing participation in rice development projects: the case of smallholder rice farmers in northern ghana. international journal of development and economic sustainability, 1 (2),13-27. retrieved from https://www.researchgate. net/publication/237080930_factors_ i n f l u e n c i n g _ p a r t i c i p a t i o n _ i n _ r i c e _ d e ve l o p m e n t _ p ro j e c t s _ t h e _ c a s e _ o f _ smallholder_rice_farmers_in_northern_ ghana tkado.(2016). toke –kutay agricultural development office report. toke –kutay district, oromia, ethiopia. tkadoi.(2016). toke –kutay agricultural development office irrigation report. toke – kutay district, oromia, ethiopia. world bank. (2010). gender and governance in rural service: insight from india, ghana, and ethiopia. agriculture and rural development series, world bank, washington, d.c. isbn: 978-0-8213-7658-4, eisbn: 978-0-82138156-4, doi: 10.1596/978-0-8213-7658-4 determinants of rural women’s participation in agricultural extension services: case of irrigable vegetable production in oromia region, ethiopia pages 2021-1 final.cdr 6079 perceived level of importance and competency of agricultural extension officers in agriculture and allied activities khalilullah panjshiri1, n. sriram2 and p. suganthkumar3 abstract training is the process of assisting a person for enhancing one’s efficiency and effectiveness at work. a study was conducted in coimbatore district of tamil nadu to ascertain the perceived importance and competency of agriculture extension officials and their training needs. the first six ranked training needs of the respondents in the study area were found to be integrated nutrient management, integrated water management, integrated weed management, agricultural waste management, organic farming and integrated pest management. keywords: training need; extension officers; competency received : 28-06-2018; accepted : 04-07-2018 1. extension official, directorate of agriculture, parwan province, jangalbagh, afghanistan 2. associate professor and 3. pg scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore, tamil nadu, india training has been recognized as an important input in improving the professional competence of extension personnel for effective transfer of technology to the farming community. the success of agricultural extension and its role in agricultural development doesn’t stop its ability to transfer knowhow to farmers, but also on its capacity to create active and positive interactions between agriculture and the other officials involved in the process of agricultural development in order to understand and learn from practice and help them identify and clarify where the needs and experience (saleh, et al., 2015). training in any form is intrinsic to organizational effectiveness and efficiency. the study was conducted to ascertain the perceived importance and competency of agriculture extension officials and their training needs. methodology the study was conducted in coimbatore district of tamil nadu. random sampling was used to select 70 respondents from coimbatore district. block level extension officials were selected which includes assistant director of agriculture, deputy agricultural officer, agricultural officer and assistant agricultural officers. all the thirteen extension workers of these blocks were selected as sample for the study. a mean weighted discrepancy score (mwds) was calculated to describe overall rankings for each of the research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6079-6082 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6080 competencies. to determine the mean weighted discrepancy score (mwds), the following statistical methods were used: a discrepancy score was calculated for each individual on each competency by taking the importance rating minus the ability (competency) rating. a weighted discrepancy score was then calculated in each individual for each of the professional competency by multiplying the discrepancy score by the mean importance rating. a mean weighted discrepancy score for each of the competencies was calculated by taking the sum of the weighted discrepancy scores and dividing by the number of observations. using the mean weighed discrepancy scores, the competencies were then ranked and the area of training need by the farmers was found. findings and discussion extension officers’ overall perceived level of importance of agriculture and allied activities the overall perceived level of importance of agriculture and allied activities of the respondents were calculated and analyzed and presented in table 1. by using mean and standard deviation the respondents were categorized in to three categories. table 1. extension officers’ overall perceived level of importance and competency of agriculture and allied activities (n=70) sl.no. category frequency percentage extension officers’ perceived level of importance of agriculture and allied activities 1 low 15 21.40 2 medium 42 60.00 3 high 13 18.60 extension officers’ perceived level of competency of agriculture and allied activities 1 low 14 20.00 2 medium 44 62.90 3 high 12 17.10 it is found from table 1 that three-fifths (60.00%) of the respondents had perceived up to medium level on importance of agriculture and other allied activities for their job followed by 21.40 per cent and 18.60 per cent of the respondents had medium and high level. extension officers’ overall perceived level of competency of agriculture and allied activities it is found from the table that more than three-fifths (62.90%) of the respondent had perceived up to medium level on competency of agriculture and other allied journal of extension education 6081 perceived level of importance and competency of agricultural extension officers in agriculture and allied activities activities for their job followed by 20.00 per cent and 17.10 per cent of the respondents who had medium and high levels respectively. training needs of the respondents the ranking of training needs is given in table 2. table 2. training needs of the respondents sl. no. statement mwds rank 1 integrated nutrient management 2.235129 1 2 integrated water management 2.093076 2 3 integrated weed management 1.996622 3 4 agricultural waste management 1.915744 4 5 organic farming 1.771064 5 6 integrated pest management 1.745168 6 7 post-harvest management 1.646275 7 8 marketing intelligence 1.469319 8 9 farm crop management / crop planning 1.419779 9 10 integrated disease management 1.407394 10 11 nursery management 1.320698 11 12 agro forestry 1.231188 12 13 integrated farming system 1.122162 13 14 farm mechanization 0.697692 14 15 soil health management 0.57797 15 16 new extension methods (farmers’ field school, farm school etc.,) 0.477951 16 17 drought management / dry farming 0.404579 17 18 seed production technologies 0.118596 18 19 ict applications in agriculture 0.05067 19 20 farmers’ organization 0.05611 20 21 managerial skills 0.2721 21 from the table, it is found that the first six training needs according to mean weighed discrepancy score were integrated nutrient management, integrated water management, integrated weed management, agricultural waste management, organic farming, and integrated pest management. organic farming is also gaining momentum among farmers and other stakeholders for getting chemical free agricultural commodities. hence, the extension workers should upgrade their knowledge and skill through training programmes. 6082 majority of the respondents required training both in knowledge and skill level in the areas like allied enterprises, integrated nutrient management, integrated water management, integrated weed management, agricultural waste management, organic farming, and integrated pest management . so it is proposed that suitable trainings should be organized and imparted in the above mentioned areas so as to improve the knowledge and skill of the change agents. references rohit, j & beevi, c.n.a. (2017) training need assessment on communication competencies of extensionists working in krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centres) journal of extension education, 29(3) saleh, j. m., man, n., lafta, a. h., saleh, m. h., hassan, s., nawi, n. m., & kshash, b. h. (2016). a review: training requirement of agriculture extension officers in iraq. asian journal of applied sciences, 9(2), 34-40. journal of extension education 5875 role of social media as communication channel for veterinary extension workers s.vigil anbiah1 and r.vijayalakshmi2 abstract a study was conducted to assess the role of social media networks for effective digital communication among the veterinary extension workers. the study involved assessing the role and constraints of a social media group named as veterinary technical forum in the context of enhancing quality health service to the livestock by active networking with other experts of the world. it is concluded that the most important role of social media was the commonality of interest which could be achieved in sharing of knowledge. lack of broadband services in remote locations was considered as the major constraints in adopting social media as a communication channel for veterinary extension works. keywords : social media; veterinary extension professionals; constraints research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5875-5879 1. head-in-charge, central animal house, rajah muthiah medical college, annamalai university and 2. associate professor and head, division of animal husbandry, annamalai university. annamalai nagar – 608 002, tamil nadu, india. received : 16-11-2017; accepted : 12-02-2018 the most important issue with extension mechanism is the lack of technical human resource. a large number of positions in public extension system in india are vacant, leaving the extension workers personnel to overwork, thus decreasing their efficiency (mukherjee and maity, 2015). unique mobile user penetration in 2016-2017 has been 35 per cent, whereas the mobile’s share of web traffic is 79 per cent. india’s internet users grew by 40 per cent while globally the growth was of 9 per cent, making the growth 4 times higher in india (ettech, 2016). social media penetration is 14 per cent while growth of social media users in 2016-2017 has been 40 per cent (55 million), which is second highest in the world. social media platforms like facebook, youtube, twitter and google+ have higher levels of use among indians compared to us, uk and european countries. these developments have opened up new avenues for improving reach of extension services for the needy farmers and other stakeholders. keeping this in view, a study was conducted on a social media network group called as “veterinary technical forum” which had its inception in the year 2011 now networking nearly 1,100 veterinarians throughout the globe 5876 for online real-time interactions and knowledge sharing in the field of animal health management. methodology the study adopted a descriptive survey about “veterinary technical forum” , a social media closed group that caters to nearly 1,100 veterinarians throughout the globe since 2013. this forum was created to disseminate latest technologies in the field of veterinary science. through this forum, discussions regarding livestock management, therapeutics and prophylactic measures which are used in routine livestock management are held. this group consists of government as well as private extension workers. the social media tool used for networking is facebook. the study randomly sampled 300 veterinary extension workers from various states of india who are the members of “veterinary technical forum”. the respondents were contacted in person. in some cases, telephonic interviews were also used for the collection of data. a well structured and pretested interview schedule was used for the collection of data. respondents were asked to indicate the constraints they have faced while using social media as their communication channel for veterinary extension works. findings and discussion the response of veterinary extension workers about the role of social media as a communication channel as perceived by the veterinary extension workers are furnished in table 1. commonality of interest could be achieved in sharing of knowledge was perceived by 94.33 per cent of veterinary extension workers. 93.33 per cent of the veterinary extension workers felt that real-time sharing of information through social media is helpful during forecast of disasters or disease outbreaks. the view of 91.00 percent of extension workers expressed that the social media could be used to discuss about emergency health care of animals. through video and photographs shared are helpful in understanding the latest trends in animal health management was felt by 81.00 per cent of the respondents. the social media provide tools to extension professionals for sharing information and will be a part of discussions and debates on extension as perceived by 78.66 per cent of veterinary extension workers. the constraints of social media as a communication channel as perceived by the veterinary extension workers are furnished in table 2. lack of broadband services in remote location provides longer downloading time for photos and videos was the top most constraint as expressed by 96.33 per cent respondents. literacy of farmers is a concern in the usage of social media was perceived by 85.33 per cent respondents. 79 per cent of the extension workers felt that excessive time spent on social networks causes some individuals to experience withdrawal symptoms. journal of extension education 5877 table 1. perception of media as a communication channel for veterinary extension workers (n= 300)* sl. no. role of social media number of respondents percentage rank 1. commonality of interest could be achieved in sharing of knowledge. 283 94.33 i 2. real-time sharing of information through the social media is helpful during forecast of disasters or disease outbreaks. 280 93.33 ii 3. the social media discuss about emergency health care of animals. 273 91.00 iii 4. the video and photographs shared in the social media are helpful in understanding the latest trends in animal health management. 243 81.00 iv 5. social media provides tools to extension professionals for sharing information and to be a part of discussions and debates on extension 236 78.66 v 6. the reach of extension personnel in rural areas can increase manifold with the use of social media. 234 78.00 vi 7. networking, sharing ideas and opinions, even conducting research can ultimately help in career advancement of extension professionals and they become competent to serve the clients better. 220 73.33 vii 8. social media provides insights and evidences required to influence policy and policymakers 213 71.00 viii role of social media as communication channel for veterinary extension workers 5878 table 2. constraints of social media as communication channel (n= 300)* sl. no. constraints number of respondents percentage rank 1. lack of broadband services in remote location provides longer downloading time for photos and videos 289 96.33 i 2. literacy of farmers is a concern in the usage of social media 256 85.33 ii 3. excessive time spent on social networks causes some individuals to experience withdrawal symptoms 237 79.00 iii 4. social media could cause more stress related diseases among the users. 185 61.66 iv 5. social media perpetuates false and unreliable information to the farmers 164 54.66 v *multiple responses as per the views of respondents, the major advantages of ‘veterinary technical forum’ are, achievement of commonality of interest, discussion about emergency health care of animals and sharing of video and photographs for better understanding of the latest trends in animal health management. however , members of ‘veterinary technical forum’ expressed constraints such as lack of 9. capacity development is another issue that can be conveniently addressed through social media for field functionaries, rural youth and farmers 178 59.33 ix 10 social media can be used as the common platform for all stakeholders to have a dialogue and increase inclusion of generally disadvantaged groups like women and the socially marginalized. 143 47.66 x *multiple responses journal of extension education 5879 broadband services in remote location , lesser literacy among the farmers , exhibition of withdrawal symptoms in some users. based on the study, it is concluded that there is a wider scope for active involvement of social media as an effective communication channel for extension workers. references ettech. (2016). india’s internet user growth rate is 4x of global rate: mary meeker’s 2016 internet trends. available at http:// t e c h . e c o n o m i c t i m e s . i n d i a t i m e s . c o m / n e w s / i n t e r n e t / i n d i a s i n t e r n e t u s e r growth-rate-is-4xof-global-growthrate-mary-meeker/52550127 mukherjee, a & maity, a. (2015). public-private partnership for convergence of extension services in indian agriculture, current science, 109(9): 1557-1563. role of social media as communication channel for veterinary extension workers 5937 1. professor and 2. assistant professor, department of rural development and agricultural extension, ambo university, ambo, ethiopia received : 13-04-2018; accepted : 07-06-2018 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 knowledge on improved practices of teff by smallholder farmers in ethiopia j. paul mansingh1 and debella deressa bayissa2 abstract teff is one of the most important crops for farm income and food security in ethiopia. despite the importance of teff in ethiopia, yields are remarkably low mainly due to low adoption of improved agricultural technologies. technical knowledge is not only valuable as an outcome impact indicator but could also serve as a reasonably reliable predictor of the adoption of management practices, particularly for crops and technologies where there is a relatively long-time lag between adoption and impact. therefore, this study was carried out during 2016-17 to assess the knowledge of farmers on improved production practices of teff. the study used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. cross sectional survey research design was employed to collect data. chaliya district was purposively selected because this district has only 46 ha under improved practices out of 6815 ha of land under teff cultivation, which is very low when compared with the other 18 districts of west shoa zone. by using probability proportional to size (pps) and random sampling technique, 239 respondents were selected from the eight villages. the data were collected using well-structured interview schedule, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. the collected data were analysed using descriptive statistical tests. the findings revealed that majority of the respondents had no knowledge on row planting/ sowing, transplanting, stages of application of urea, optimum depth at which fertilizer is to be applied and quantity of urea to be applied at each stage. therefore, it is very much imperative to educate the farmers on row planting, transplanting and urea application. the extension agency must formulate the extension messages on the knowledge component of row planting, transplanting and fertilizer application while transferring the know-how. keywords : knowledge; teff; urea application; row planting; ethiopia introduction teff (eragrostis teff) indigenous to ethiopia furnishes flour for injera, sour dough pancake-like bread that is the principal form in which grain is consumed in the highlands and in urban centres throughout the country. it accounts for 5938 about 15 per cent of all calories consumed in ethiopia. approximately 6.9 million households grow teff (csa, 2017) and it is the dominant cereal crop in over 30 of the 83 high-potential agricultural districts (bekabil et al., 2011). teff is one of the most important crops for farm income and food security in ethiopia and the second most important cash crop (after coffee), generating almost 500 million usd income per year for local farmers. in the major agricultural season of 2016-17 (meher), teff was grown in 24 per cent of the total grain crop area i.e., 3,017,914.36 hectares, ranks first among the grain crops in area under cultivation (csa, 2017). despite the importance of teff in ethiopia, yields are remarkably low. while in 2016-2017, teff land productivity reached 16.64 quintals per hectare (csa, 2017), this is rather low when compared with on-farm research trial yields (22002800 kg/ha) (abewa et al., 2014). low yield due to low adoption of improved agricultural technologies is believed to be the main factor affecting the agricultural production in ethiopia. according to previous studies in ethiopia, low adoption of improved production technologies was attributed to unavailability of improved technologies, unavailability and high cost of required inputs, lack of access to and high interest rates on credit and policies that discourage improved technology adoption such as promotion of state farms (hailu and chilot, 1992; bekele et al., 2000; getahun et al., 2000). farmers’ adoption behaviour, especially in low-income countries, is influenced by a complex set of socioeconomic, demographic, technical, institutional and biophysical factors (feder, just & zilberman, 1985). adoption rates were also noted to vary between different group of farmers due to differences in access to resources (land, labour and capital) and information and differences in farmers’ perceptions of risks and profits associated with new technology. the determinant of degree and direction of impact of adoption are not uniform; the impact varies depending on type of technology and the conditions of areas where the technology is to be introduced (legesse, 1998). farmers’ decision to adopt new technologies can also be influenced by factors related to their objectives and constraints. these factors include farmers’ resource endowments as measured by (1) size of family labours, farm size and livestock ownership, (2) farmers’ socio–economic circumstances (age and formal education) and (3) institutional support system available for inputs (cimmyt economics program, 1993). but, the information an individual has about a new technology forms the basis of the perceptions and attitudes this individual develops towards the technology. the perceptions of farmers about an innovation are very closely 5939 related to the knowledge they have about the innovation. knowledge refers to factual information and understanding of how the new technology works and what it can achieve, whereas perception relate to the views of farmers about the technology based on their felt needs and prior experiences; and these do not necessarily align with reality. the knowledge and perceptions about an innovation then together determine the attitude towards it (meijer et al., 2014). the agricultural innovation literature suggests that knowledge only translates into adoption if a set of enabling factors and conditions exist, including farmers’ positive perception of the technology’s benefits (adesina and zinnah, 1993). technical knowledge is not only valuable as an outcome impact indicator but could also serve as a reasonably reliable predictor of the adoption of management practices, particularly for crops and technologies where there is a relatively long-time lag between adoption and impact. therefore, this study was carried out to assess the knowledge of farmers on improved production practices of teff. methodology research approach and design the study used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. cross sectional survey research design was employed to collect data. sampling procedures selection of the study area chaliya district in ethiopia was purposively selected because this district has only 46 ha under improved practices out of 6815 ha of land under teff cultivation, which is very low when compared with the other 18 districts of west shoa zone. (source: west shoa zone agricultural office, 2015) sample size determination the total number of farmers in the chaliya district is 26850. almost all the farmers are cultivating teff in the district. considering this as sampling frame, the sample size was fixed using the formula given by kothari (2004). where, n= sample size n= population (in this case, total households are 26,850) z= the value of the standard variate at a given confidence level (in this case, z = 1.96 using 95% confidence level) p= sample proportion, and q= 1-p, (p = 0.8) e = the acceptable error (in this case 5% since confidence level is 95%) the sample size of 243 was arrived out using the above-mentioned formula. at the time of data collection, 5940 four farmers refused to participate in the research study. therefore, the sample size was reduced to 239. selection of farmers the respondents to be selected from each randomly selected eight villages were determined based on probability proportional to size (pps). the respondents were selected from the eight villages by using random sampling technique. methods of data collection primary data the primary data were collected through: face to face interviews using a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule, focus group discussions (6) and key informant interviews (10). the key informants were six development agents from the woreda, two village leaders, two staff from co-operative societies. secondary data secondary data were obtained from published journal articles, books, national and regional policy documents, annual reports of concerned offices in the area, central statistical agency reports and relevant web sites, and the deficiencies in the present agricultural extension system were analysed. method of data analysis this study employed descriptive statistical tests. the collected data were coded, tabulated and analysed using spss package version 23. descriptive statistics like percentage and frequency were worked out to describe the findings. findings and discussion farmers’ knowledge on improved production practices of teff farmers’ knowledge influences the decision of household to adopt improved technologies. a knowledge test was developed and the reliability and validity of the tests were established through test retest method and face validity respectively. it was found that majority (75.31%) of the respondents possessed knowledge about the improved variety. regarding land preparation, nearly onethird (27.61%) of the respondents had knowledge on optimum/recommended number of ploughings followed by 23.85 per cent with knowledge on interval (number of days) between each ploughing. therefore, the knowledge on the interval between each ploughing has to be promoted. with respect to herbicide application, majority of the respondents (64.85%) had knowledge on recommended herbicide, whereas 46.44 and 36.40 per cent alone possessed knowledge on time of application of herbicide and recommended quantity of herbicide/ha respectively. hence, farmers should be educated about the time and quantity of herbicide application. 5941 the knowledge on optimum spacing between the rows in line sowing, optimum depth of sowing in line sowing method and recommended seed rate / ha was found to be possessed by 28.87, 28.87 and 26.77 per cent respectively. in general, majority of the respondents had no knowledge on method of planting/ sowing. row planting is being promoted on a large scale by the agricultural department as it is proved in the research stations and farmers’ holdings that the yield is increased by adopting row planting. even though much efforts have table 1. farmers’ knowledge on improved production practices of teff (n=239) sl.no. item correct no. % 1 knowledge on improved variety 180 75.31 land preparation 2 optimum/recommended number of ploughings 66 27.61 3 interval (number of days) between each ploughing 57 23.85 herbicide application 4 recommended herbicide 155 64.85 5 time of application of herbicide 111 46.44 6 recommended quantity of herbicide/ha 87 36.40 method of planting/sowing 7 optimum spacing between the rows in line sowing 69 28.87 8 optimum depth of sowing in line sowing method 69 28.87 9 recommended seed rate /ha 64 26.77 transplanting 10 day on which the seedlings are to be transferred to the main field from nursery 24 10.04 11 spacing to be followed in transplanting method 24 10.04 12 number of seedlings to be planted per hole 26 10.87 13 number of tillers to be allowed per hill 25 10.46 fertilizer application 14 recommended fertilizer/ha 136 56.90 15 fertilizers to be applied during sowing 155 64.85 16 optimum depth at which fertilizer is to be applied 108 45.19 17 distance at which urea is to be applied from the plant 122 51.04 18 depth at which urea is to be applied 123 51.46 19 stages of application of urea 101 42.26 20 quantity of urea to be applied at each stage 109 45.61 5942 been put forth, the knowledge on row planting was limited. therefore, it is very much imperative to educate the farmers on row planting. overall, the knowledge on transplanting was possessed by less number of respondents. slightly more than half of the respondents had knowledge on various items mentioned under transplanting viz., day on which the seedlings are to be transferred to the main field from nursery, spacing to be followed in transplanting method (10.04%), number of seedlings to be planted per hole (10.87%) and number of tillers to be allowed per hill (10.46%). upon studying the knowledge on fertilizer application, it was found that the percentage of respondents with knowledge on stages of application of urea (42.26%), optimum depth at which fertilizer is to be applied (45.19%) and quantity of urea to be applied at each stage (45.61%) was low when compared with other knowledge items under fertilizer application. therefore, the extension agency has to formulate the extension messages keeping more attention on these components while transferring the know-how. conclusion keeping in view the less knowledge level of respondents on the recommended practices of teff cultivation in the study area, extension strategies need to be streamlined to promote row planting, transplanting and balanced fertilization on massive scale due to its yield enhancing potential. references abewa a., yitaferu b., selassie y.g. & amare t. (2014). the role of biochar on soil reclamation and yield of teff (eragrostis tef [zucc] trotter) in northwestern ethiopia. journal of agricultural science, 6 (1): 1-12 retrieved from http://dx.doi. org/10.5539/jas.v6n1p1 adesina, a. a. & zinnah, m. m. (1993). technology characteristics, farmer’s perceptions and adoption decisions: a tobit model application in sierra leone. agricultural economics, 9 (4), 297311. https://doi.org/10.1016/01695150(93)90019-9 bekabil f., befikadu b., rupert s. & tareke b. (2011, november). strengthening tef value chain: in: tef improvement: achievements and prospects. proceedings of second international workshop, november 7-9, 2011. dreamland hotel and resort, debre-zeit, ethiopia. retrieved from https://boris.unibe.ch/id/ eprint/73185 isbn: 978-3-03303818-9. bekele h., verkuijl h., mwangi w. & tanner d. (2000). adoption of improved wheat technologies in adaba and dodola woredas of the bale highlands, ethiopia. mexico, d.f: international maize and wheat improvement center 5943 (cimmyt) and ethiopian agricultural research organization (earo). retrieved from http://libcatalog. cimmyt.org/download/cim/74427. pdf isbn: 970-648-063-3 cimmyt economics program. (1993). the adoption of agricultural technology: a guide for survey design. mexico, d.f: cimmyt. retrieved from https://repository. c i m m y t . o r g / x m l u i / b i t s t r e a m / h a n d l e / 1 0 8 8 3 / 8 9 5 / 4 2 4 1 2 . pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y isbn: 968-6127-77-1 csa (2017). report on area under production of major crops volume i, agricultural sample survey, statistical bulletin 584, the federal democratic republic of ethiopia, addis ababa. retrieved from http://www.csa.gov.et/ehioinfointernal?download=771:report-onarea-and-production-of-major-crops2009-e-c-meher-season feder, g., just, r & zilberman, d. (1985). adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries: a survey. economic development and cultural change, 33(2): 255-298. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1086/451461 getahun d., mwangi w., verkuiil h. & wondimu a. (2000). an assessment of the adoption of seed and fertilizer packages and the role of credit in small-holder production maize in sidama and north omo zone, ethiopia. mexico, d.f.: international maize and wheat improvement center (cimmyt) and ethiopian agricultural research organization (earo). retrieved from http://libcatalog.cimmyt.org/ download/cim/73324.pdf isbn: 970648-064-1 hailu b & chilot y. (1992). an adoption study of bread wheat technologies in wolmera and addis alem areas of ethiopia. in: tanner d.g., & mwangi w. (eds.). the seventh regional wheat workshop for eastern, central and southern africa. nakuru, kenya, (pp 254-259): cimmyt. retrieved from https://repository. c i m m y t . o r g / x m l u i / b i t s t r e a m / h a n d l e / 1 0 8 8 3 / 1 1 5 5 / 3 9 1 4 7 . pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y kothari, c. r. (2004). research methodology: methods and techniques (second edition), new age international publishers. isbn 8122415229, 9788122415223 legesse d. (1998). adoption and diffusion of agricultural technologies: the case of east and west shewa zones, ethiopia. phd thesis, school of economic studies, university of manchester. retrieved from http:// publication.eiar.gov.et:8080/xmlui/ bitstream/handle/123456789/1853/ l e g e s s e % 2 0 d a d i . p d f a b b y y y . pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y meijer s.s., catacutan d., ajayi o. c., sileshi g. w. & nieuwenhuis m. (2015). the role of knowledge, attitudes and perceptions in the 5944 uptake of agricultural and agroforestry innovations among smallholder farmers in sub-saharan africa. international journal of agricultural sustainability, 13, (1), 40-54. retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/ doi/abs/10.1080/14735903.2014.91 2493 6056 constraint analysis of livelihood systems in coral ecosystem anshida beevi1 and jagriti rohit2 abstract to secure people's livelihood security, it is important to determine the inhibiting factors so that necessary interventions may accordingly be made to create a conducive climate for them. a study was conducted in lakshadweep islands of india to evaluate various constraints for sustainable livelihood approach. respondents were classified into three livelihood classes based on their livelihood options. results of the study showed that personal constraints followed by economic, promotional and infrastructural constraints were significantly different among people engaged in different livelihood options. ecological and social constraints were not significantly different among groups. multiple comparison of different groups showed that people depending on non-farm sector only (group 2) and those engaged in both farm and non-farm sector (group3) were on par regarding personal, economic and promotional & infrastructural constraints. keywords: constraints; livelihood strategy; lakshadweep islands; sustainability received : 14-11-2017; accepted : 03-04-2018 1 & 2 scientists, icar-crida, central research institute for dryland agriculture, hyderabad -500059 introduction livelihoods are the sum of ways in which people make a living. livelihood security of a household is defined as its ability to meet basic needs like food, health, shelter and minimal levels of income, basic education and community participation. a livelihood is said to be environmentally sustainable, when it maintains or enhances the local and global assets on which livelihood depend. chambers (1988) has defined sustainable livelihood as a ‘level of wealth and of stocks and flows of food and cash which provide for physical and social well-being and security against becoming poorer’. swaminathan (1991a, b) has defined sustainable livelihood security as livelihood options that are ecologically secure, economically efficient, and socially equitable underscoring: ecology, economics and equity dimensions. to secure peoples’ livelihood security, it is important to determine the inhibiting factors so that necessary interventions may accordingly be made to create a conducive climate for them. several studies have been made in this direction nationally and internationally. sarah and atchuta (2003) conducted a study on problems faced by farm women in managing enterprises in guntur district of andhra pradesh and revealed that 92.50 per cent of the respondents research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6056-6061 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6057 faced financial problems, 78.33 per cent of them expressed inaccessibility of place as a constraint followed by improper marketing facility, lack of guidance and non-availability of raw materials. only 22.50 per cent of respondents expressed lack of competition and lack of experience as their constraints and 13.33 per cent of respondents expressed lack of family cooperation as a constraint. savitha (2004) from her study on the role of rural women in animal husbandry in dharwad district reported that majority of the respondents expressed the problems like nonavailability of fodder as their main problem (93.33%), followed by water scarcity (90.00%), low cost of milk (83.33%). letha devi (2007) reported that one of the key reasons for the change in agricultural sector and the resultant change in the livelihood pattern of the society can be attributed to the phenomenon of increasing rate of urbanization. livelihoods are the means, activities and entitlements by which people make a living. sustainable livelihood approach is a means for poverty elimination. it brings together the thinking and practice of poverty reduction strategies, sustainable development and participation and empowerment processes into a framework for policy analysis and programming. sustainable livelihoods are a systemic and adaptive approach that links issues of poverty reduction, sustainability and empowerment processes. people living in extreme poverty and outside the formal labor market, for example, constantly improvise their livelihood strategies due to high uncertainty and limited options. a livelihood is sustainable if it can cope with, recover from and adapt to stresses and shocks, maintain and enhance its capabilities and assets, and enhance opportunities for the next generation. coping strategies are often a short-term response to a specific shock such as drought. on the other hand, adaptive strategies entail a longterm change in behaviour patterns as a result of a shock or stress. a crucial element of the sustainable livelihood approach is the notion of mutuality and reciprocity. the approach provides a lens through which to view people and their environments in a reciprocal relationship. thus, people are neither cast as powerless objects, nor as free agents who can become whatever they choose. in other words, there is a feedback loop not only between people themselves, but also between people and the political, social, economic situations in which they find themselves. in view of above context the present study was conducted to analyze different constraints to ensure the sustainability of livelihood systems. methodology the study was conducted in lakshadweep islands of india. a total of 120 respondents represented the sample of the study. major constraints in the study area were identified through initial discussion with the respondents and from literature review. these were categorized into five different sets. with the help of a semi-structured interview schedule respondents were asked to rate these constraints on a three point continuum. the response scores were converted into ranks for one-way analysis of variance using a non-parametric test, kruskal-wallis test to ascertain the most important constraints constraint analysis of livelihood systems in coral ecosystem 6058 among the five sets of constraints as perceived by different groups. findings and discussion the test statistics value of kruskalwallis one-way anova and its level of significance is given in table 1. it is clear from the table that test statistic corresponding to personal constraints was most important among different sets of constraints which is in line with the studies of resmy et al., (2001) who found that the lack of knowledge was the major problem of majority of small farmers (88.30%) and big farmers (93%) than other constraints in adoption of sustainable practices in coconut and banana in alappuzha district of kerala state. personal constraints were followed by economic and promotional and infrastructural constraints. social constraints and ecological constraints were not significantly different among groups. table 1. comparison of different constraints as per kruskal-wallis test (n=120) constraints test statistics p value economic 35.86 <0.0001 promotional and infrastructural 25.29 social social 0.85 personal 39.19 ecological 0.00 further analysis was done for each of the constraint categories and the following were the results. economic constraints kruskal-wallis test results showed that the economic constraints were significantly different among three livelihood categories. hence, it can be inferred that the level of influence of economic constraints to different groups was different according to their perception (table 2). to explore it further, multiple comparisons procedure was adopted to identify the group, which is more prone to economic constraints. it shows that mean rank of group 2 (non-farm alone) is least and this group is less vulnerable followed by group 3 (farm + non-farm) and group 1 (farm alone). sarah et al., (2003) also reported that majority of the respondents (92.50%) faced financial problems as the major constraints. table 2. comparison of economic constraints based on mean ranks (n=120) particulars mean ranks test statistics p value group 1 113.19a 35.86** <0.0001group 2 49.33b group 3 58.95b mean ranks with same letters were not significantly different with each other **significant at 1% level of significance journal of extension education 6059 promotional and infrastructural constraints for this set of constraints too kruskal-wallis test statistic value was significant at 1 per cent level of significance (table 3). hence, perceptions of three groups were different. results of multiple comparison shows that group 2 and 3 were not significantly different in this. but group 1 is significantly different from other two groups. deepak (2003) in his study revealed that cent per cent of the farm women beneficiaries suggested that training should be organized based on practiced field problems, training should be imparted by using simple local language words rather than using technical words, the subject matter should have photographs/illustrations, rather than being theoretical oriented, more training should be organized on agrobased subsidiary enterprises and more importance to be given on integrated pest management. table 3. comparison of promotional and infrastructural constraints based on mean ranks (n=120) particulars mean ranks test statistics p value group 1 105.69a 25.29** <0.0001group 2 54.13b group 3 55.91b mean ranks with same letters were not significantly different with each other **significantly different at 1% level of significance social constraints it is clear from the table that the difference between different groups on social constraints is not significantly different. mean ranks of three groups indicated that social constraints for group 1 are more followed by group 3 and group 2 (table 4). table 4. comparison of social constraints based on mean ranks (n=120) particulars mean ranks test statistics p value group 1 66.58a 0.85 0.654group 2 57.97a group 3 61.58a mean ranks with same letters were not significantly different with each other constraint analysis of livelihood systems in coral ecosystem 6060 personal constraints test statistic value for personal constraints (table 5) shows that all the three groups are significantly different at one per cent level of significance. group 2 and 3 are on par regarding personal constraints. personal constraints of group 1 are more significantly different from other two groups. table 5. comparison of personal constraints based on mean ranks (n=120) particulars mean ranks test statistics p value group 1 114.00a 39.19** <0.0001group 2 53.19 b group 3 54.83b mean ranks with same letters were not significantly different with each other **significantly different at 1% level of significance ecological constraints table 6 shows that test statistic value for ecological constraints were 0.00. it means that three groups were not significantly different regarding ecological constraints. it can be attributed to its small geographical area and the constraints regarding ecological problems are common to all the three groups. table 6 comparison of ecological constraints based on mean ranks (n=120) particulars mean ranks test statistics p value group 1 60.50a 0.00 1.00group 2 60.50 a group 3 60.50a mean ranks with same letters were not significantly different with each other conclusion from the results of analysis for different constraints, it is obvious that all the enlisted constraints were important in one way or the other. to ensure the sustainability of any livelihood system personal and economic constraints play a significant role. however, those related to the promotional and infrastructural aspects had a major role in creating obstacles to livelihood security. farm sector diversification through animal husbandry, poultry and fisheries and its measurement in terms of value of outputs is a viable strategy for study area. the extension of farming activities to certain on-farm post harvest operations not only adds to the farm gate value creation but also expands the production entrepreneurship of the farmers to services. journal of extension education 6061 references chambers, r. (1988). sustainable rural livelihoods: a key strategy for people, environment and development. in the greening of aids, c. conroy & m. lituinoff (eds), earthscan, london. deepak, m. p. (2003). a study on perception of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries towards wytep programme in dharwad district. unpublished m. sc. (agri.) thesis, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, karnataka, india. letha devi, g. (2007). changing livelihood pattern of rural women: an analysis in the context of urbanization. unpublished ph. d. thesis, division of agricultural extension, indian agricultural research institute, new delhi, india. resmy, c., shivamurthy, m. & varshatapre (2001). constraints in adoption of suitable practices in coconut and banana. indian journal of extension education, 37(1 & 2): 99-101. sarah, k. t. & atchuta, r. k. (2003). problems faced by farm women in managing enterprises. manage extension research review, pp.74-78. savitha, s. s. (2004). role of rural women in animal husbandry. unpublished m. sc. (agri.) thesis, university of sciences, dharwad, karnataka, india. swaminathan, m.s. (1991a). greening of the mind. indian journal of social work, 52 (3): 401-407. swaminathan, m.s. (1991b). from stockholm to rio de janeiro: the road to sustainable agriculture. monograph no. 4, ms swaminathan research foundation, madras. constraint analysis of livelihood systems in coral ecosystem 6025 adoption behaviour of els cotton growers in vellore district of tamil nadu m. deepika1, m. asokhan2 and s. usha rani3 abstract the present study was taken up to analyse the adoption behaviour of els cotton growers in vellore district of tamil nadu. the study was taken up in two blocks of vellore district namely, tirupattur and kandhili blocks. the data were collected from 132 cotton growers using a well structured interview schedule and analysed.the study revealed that less than twothirds of the respondents had medium level of adoption followed by high and low levels. keywords : cotton technologies; cotton growers; adoption; tamil nadu 1 pg. scholar & 2 professor and head department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore641 003 and 3. principal scientist, icar-cicr regional station, coimbatore-641 003 received : 27-04-2018; accepted : 02-07-2018 cotton is considered as “white gold” among the cultivated crops on account of its importance in agricultural and industrial sectors. cotton occupies a prominent position in indian economy. it is the primary raw material for the huge domestic textile industry and makes substantial contribution to the country’s foreign exchange earnings. the term 'extra long staple' (els) cotton typically denotes a cotton fibre of extraordinary fibre length. the recognized industry standard for the minimum fibre length of an els fibre is 34.925 mm. this minimum length is significantly longer than traditional varieties of cotton, known as upland cottons, where the average staple length is 26-27 mm. along with its fibre length, els cottons are also recognized for their superior strength and better uniformity. however, even with all the benefits of the els fibre characteristics and its apparent desirability, it is grown only in limited area. els and ls (long staple) cottons represent only about 3.00 per cent of the entire world's cotton production. the els cotton varieties are specific in their needs to produce a successful crop. a proper crop management is required for els cottons, above that of upland cottons. els cottons are vigorous growing plants and if not managed properly may grow to be large plants with minimal fibre production. also, the relative yield of els cottons was less when compared to upland cotton. environmental conditions for els cottons are specific, and can be grown only in the areas having hot days and cool nights. all of these factors rest in increased production costs, with increased risks compared to upland cotton. this in turn is a major limiting factor for the production of els cotton. research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6025-6030 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6026 with this background, the present study was taken up to assess the adoption behaviour of cotton growers. methodology the study was conducted in two blocks of vellore district i.e., tirupattur and kandhili blocks. four villages from the two blocks were selected namelymadapalli, poongulam, udayamputhur and sevvathur with the selected sample size of 132 farmers. the data were collected using a well structured interview schedule and analysed using appropriate statistical analysis. findings and discussion adoption level of els cotton cultivation technologies adoption of innovation is perceived to be the success of extension workers. rogers and shoemaker (1971) defined adoption as a decision to make full use of new ideas as best course of action available. those who had modified the recommendation and adopted were not considered for interpretation of results. the information regarding adoption of cultivation practices on cotton cultivation are presented in table 1. table 1. distribution of respondents based on the adoption behaviour of cotton (n=132) sl. no critical technologies adopted (%) not adopted(%) i land preparation 1 removing and burning debris of previous crop 5.30 76.50 2 summer ploughings twice 77.30 0.00 3 repeated harrowing 18.20 39.40 ii suitable els bt cotton hybrids 4 kesinath 10.60 89.40 5 kisanjothi 7.60 92.40 6 mahyco 6918 40.20 40.20 7 ankur 2110 18.90 81.10 iii application of manures and fertilizers 8 application of organic manure (12.5 tonnes/ ha of fym) 5.30 0.00 9 1st top dressing of npk(33% of n on 45 das) 0.00 22.00 10 2nd top dressing of npk (33% of n on 60 das) 4.54 22.72 11 application of micronutrients (mixing of 12.5 kg of micronutrient) 23.50 3.80 12 foliar spray of 3% dap 37.10 21.20 journal of extension education 6027 sl. no critical technologies adopted (%) not adopted(%) 13 foliar spray of growth regulators (40 ppm naa at 60 and 90 das ) 4.50 84.10 14 arresting terminal growth varieties ( for less than 160 days duration nip the terminal portion of the main stem beyond 15th node on 75 to 80 das) hybrids (for more than 160 days duration beyond the 20th node on 80-85 das) 95.50 0.80 iv spacing 15 recommended spacing ( 120 *60cm) 48.50 1.50 v planting methods 16 seed rate and planting one seed/hill (2.5 kg/ha with fuzz) 94.70 4.50 17 planting under ridges and furrows system 86.40 12.10 18 planting five rows per acre of non-bt cotton seeds as refugee crop surrounding the bt cotton plot 13.60 86.40 19 planting seeds @4-5 cm deep & covering with soil 81.10 17.40 20 gap filling in the bt and non – bt areas a week after germination 6.80 93.20 vi inter cultivation and weed management 21 pre-emergence application of weedicide (pendimethalin @ 3.3 l/ha 3das) 15.20 84.80 22 hand weeding (45 das) 95.50 1.50 vii irrigation management 23 during germination 94.70 0.80 24 during seedling growth 80.30 0.80 25 during flowering 75.00 0.80 viii disease management 26 field sanitation 90.90 3.80 27 soil drenching 6.80 84.80 28 application of fungicides 21.20 5.30 adoption behaviour of els cotton growers in vellore district of tamil nadu 6028 sl. no critical technologies adopted (%) not adopted(%) ix pest management 29 crop rotation 62.90 9.10 30 summer ploughing and field sanitation 24.20 7.60 31 intercropping 86.40 9.10 32 trap cropping 2.30 97.00 33 use of biocontrol agents 9.80 84.10 34 pheromone spray 17.40 80.30 35 botanical insecticides 34.10 37.10 36 mechanical control 29.50 26.50 37 chemical control 36.40 23.50 x harvesting 38 harvesting at frequent intervals (less than 7 days of interval) 62.90 1.50 39 harvesting in the morning hours upto 10-11 am 30.30 43.90 40 picking kapas from well burst bolls 96.92 0.00 41 removing only the kapas not the bracts 98.50 0.00 42 separating the stained , discoloured and insect damaged kapas from good kapas 95.50 0.00 xi post harvest techniques 43 shade drying the kapas 93.90 86.40 44 grading the kapas 93.20 0.00 45 drying over dry sand 0.80 0.00 table 1 reveals that with respect to adoption of technologies in cotton more than threefourths (77.30%) of the respondents adopted summer ploughing for land preparation followed by repeated harrowing (18.20%) and removing and burning debris of previous crops (5.30%). the cotton growers before sowing the cotton seeds, ploughed the field across the slope during hot summer so that the hard crusted upper layer of the soil broken and it improved the soil structure. deep ploughing and over turning uprooted the weeds as a result, the weed control and less application of weedicide is one of the major advantages of summer ploughing. it could be seen from table 1 that about two-fifths (40.20%) of the respondents were adopting mahyco 6918 hybrid seed technology followed by ankur 2110 (18.90%), kesinath (10.60%) and kisanjothi (7.60%). journal of extension education 6029 the possible reason might be that mahyco 6918 is suited to the dry land and it had long duration potential of 108 to 200 days. this sturdy plant with high boll retention capacity grows as a tall spreading plant type. the extra long staple 35.0 to 35.5mm bears fluffy boll opening and remains green up to harvest. due to the absence of dealership of hybrids like kisanjothi, kesinath, the farmers resort to use these hybrids. regarding the planting methods, majority of the farmers had adopted the technologies as recommended for the following sub itemsseed rate, planting under ridges and furrow, planting seeds at 4-5 cm deep with 94.70 per cent, 86.40 per cent, and 81.10 per cent respectively. most (86.40%) of the respondents had not adopted the technology of sowing non bt seeds as refuge crop and 93.20 per cent of the respondents had not adopted the technology of gap filling. with respect to inter cultivation and weed management, majority (84.80%) of the respondents had not adopted the technology of application of herbicide and 95.50 per cent of the respondents adopted hand weeding as they found hand weeding more suitable for this operation. regarding irrigation management, majority of the respondents followed the recommended irrigation management practices like irrigating during germination, seedling growth and flowering with 94.70 per cent, 80.30 per cent and 75.00 per cent respectively. regarding pest management, it could be inferred that nearly two-thirds (62.90%) of the respondents had adopted crop rotation and 86.40 per cent of the respondents were practicing intercropping as red gram for their additional income. majority of the farmers had not adopted the recommended technologies like trap cropping, application of bio control agents, application of pheromone spray and botanical insecticide with 97.00 per cent, 84.10 per cent, 80.30 per cent and 37.10 per cent respectively. majority of the farmers did not adopt the practice of conservation of predators, parasitic wasps and introduction of bio control agents in the field. the farmers lacked technical skill in handling and using them in conservation of natural enemies. moreover, the farmers might not have been convinced about this practice due to slow impact on the control of pests. the farmers might have felt that the adoption of above technologies might affect their net income and this could be the possible reason for the non adoption of the technologies. from table 1, it could be seen that majority of the farmers adopted the following technologies like harvesting at frequent interval, picking kapas, removing only the kapas not the bracts, separating the stained kapas from good kapas with 62.90 per cent, 96.92 per cent, 98.50 per cent and 95.50 per cent respectively. more than two-fifths (43.90%) of the respondents had not adopted the technology of harvesting as recommended due to the labour demand and unsuitable time. with respect to post harvest techniques, majority of the respondents adoption behaviour of els cotton growers in vellore district of tamil nadu 6030 had adopted the shade drying and grading techniques as recommended with 93.90 per cent and 93.20 per cent respectively. it may be concluded from the study that since the respondents had medium level of adoption of recommended technologies there is an imperative need to raise the level of adoption. the extension officials could go for location specific reinvention of specific cotton technologies which improve the farmers’ understand ability on complex technologies. the study also indicated that fertilizers and pests management technologies must be popularised more through more number of meetings, demonstrations, field visits so that farmers can gain more knowledge on those and adopt the technologies accordingly. references savitha,v., jakesh, k., deep, p., & rashmi. (2014). adoption and impact assessment of conservation agriculture technologies with special reference to growing of cotton crop with drip irrigation. journal of cotton research and development. 28(1),154-160 shilpa, c.n., & nanjappa, d. (2014). knowledge and adoption behaviour of potato growers in hassan district of karnataka, journal of extension education, 26(1), 5179-5185. sudhakar, b., & muthukumaran, n. (2014). identifying the adoption level of ipm oriented cotton growers in an irrigated condition – an overview analysis, epra international journal of economic and business review, 2(1). usharani, s., & selvaraj, g. (2015). adoption behaviour of bt cotton growers in irrigated and rainfed conditions of tamil nadu .journal of cotton research and development. 29(1), 132-140. h t t p : // w w w . n f s m . g o v. i n / s t a t u s p a p e r/ cottonstatus2017.pdf 6129 construction of knowledge test to measure the knowledge on recommended groundnut production practices r.sureshverma1, g. samuel2, i. sreenivasa rao3, vidyasagar4 and srinivasa chary5 abstract the non-availability of a standardized scale to measure the farmers’ knowledge level influenced the researchers to construct a test for measuring the knowledge on recommended groundnut production package of practices. pertinent items were collected covering all aspects from the crop production guide developed by the department of agriculture, govt. of tamil nadu & tamil nadu agricultural university. after getting jury opinion on the items, test index of item difficulty, index of item discrimination and point biserial correlation for the items were worked out. all these were taken in to account to arrive at the final scale. while administrating the knowledge test a respondent was given one mark for each correct answer and zero for wrong answer. eleven (11) items were finally selected from a total of fifty five (55) items. keywords: knowledge test; unreached farmers; recommended practices; groundnut; tamil nadu. received : 16-08-2017; accepted : 02-03-2018 1. ph. d scholar, 2 and 3. professors, dept. of agricultural extension, 4. professor, agronomy, and 5. assistant professor, statistics, college of agriculture, prof. jayashankar telangana state agricultural university, rajendra nagar, hyderabad, telangana introduction in the present study, knowledge was operationalized as the quantum of information known to the unreached farmers on recommended groundnut production package of practices in order to lead a sustainable life. a knowledge test was developed with eleven (11) items to measure the knowledge of unreached farmers on recommended practices. each item was measured on two point continuum viz., correct and incorrect with ‘1’ and ‘0’ score respectively. the possible maximum and minimum scores to be obtained by unreached farmers were 11 and 0 respectively. the detailed procedure followed for the construction and standardization of the knowledge test is shown below. methodology collection of items on perusal of relevant literature and discussion with the experts in extension & biological sciences, a total of 74 items were collected focusing on various aspects of groundnut cultivation i.e., crop improvement, production and protection by referring to the crop production guide of the department of agriculture, govt. of tamil nadu & tamil nadu agricultural university. experts in the field of agronomy and agricultural entomology of prof. jayashankar telangana state agricultural university, hyderabad were consulted for screening, fine tuning and editing of the items. based on the opinion of the scientists, research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6129-6136 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6130 a total of fifty five (55) items were retained. these retained fifty five (55) items were then subjected to item analysis to have suitable items to be included in the final schedule based on the opinion of the respondents from non-sample area. item analysis the item analysis was carried out in terms of three indices viz., item difficulty index, item discrimination index and point-biserial correlation. the index of item discrimination provides information on how well an item discriminates well informed respondents from poorly informed. whereas item difficulty index indicates the extent to which an item was difficult. the main aim of calculating point biserial correlation (rpbis) was to work out the internal consistency of the items i.e., the relationship of the total score to a dichotomized answer to any given item. difficulty index (p) the selected items (55 items for groundnut) were administered to 60 non-sample respondents with two point continuum response for each statement. the scores allotted were one (1) for correct response and zero (0) for incorrect response. after computing the total score obtained for each of the 60 respondents on items, they were arranged in order from highest to lowest. based on which the 60 respondents were then divided into six equal groups. these groups were labelled as g1, g2, g3, g4, g5 and g6 with 10 respondents in each group. for the purpose of item analysis, the middle two groups g3 and g4 were eliminated keeping only four extreme groups with high and low scores. the index of ‘item difficulty’ was worked out as the percentage of the respondents answering an item correctly. the items with ‘p’ values ranging from 30.0 to 70.0 were considered for the final selection of the knowledge test. for each item the correct answer was calculated to get the difficulty index. the results are presented in table 1. total number of correct answers difficulty index = ----------------------------total number of respondents discrimination index (e 1/3) s1, s2 and s5, s6 are the frequencies of correct answers in the groups g1, g2, g5 and g6 respectively. ‘n’ is the total member of respondents of the sample selected for the item analysis that is 60. the discrimination index varies from 0 to 1. the items with discrimination index ranging from 0.30 to 0.70 were selected for the final test. this shows whether the items actually distinguished a well-informed person from one who is inadequately informed about the subject matter. the formula used was as below. this is the second criterion for item selection i.e., by the item discrimination index indicated by ‘e 1/3’ is calculated with the formula. the results are presented in table 1. (s1+s2) – (s5+s6) -------------------------------------------- (or) n/3 ru– r1 d = --------- n journal of extension education 6131 where, d : discrimination index ru : frequency of correct answers in high knowledge group r1 : frequency of correct answers in low knowledge group n : total number of respondents in sample taken for item analysis point biserial correlation (rpbis) the main aim of calculating point biserial correlation (rpbis) was to work out the internal consistency of the items i.e., the relationship of the total score to a dichotomized answer to any given item. it is the correlation between right/wrong scores obtained by farmers in the non-sample area (tiruvannamalai district of tamil nadu) on a given set of items. it is a special type of correlation between a dichotomous variable (the multiple-choice item score which is right or wrong, 0 or 1) and a continuous variable (the total score on the test ranging from 0 to the maximum number of multiple-choice items on the test). like in all correlations, point-biserial values range from -1.0 to +1.0. a large positive point-biserial value indicates that farmers with high scores on the overall test are also getting the item right and farmers with low scores on the overall test are getting the item wrong (seemavarma,2015). the results are presented in table 1. computation and interpretation of pointbiserial correlation the scores obtained by the farmers are arranged in matrix comprised of 55 items. the items were represented in the matrix columns from left to right and farmers represented as rows. a value of ‘1’ was assigned to correct response and ‘0’ for wrong. the steps followed for computing point-biserial correlationare 1. computed the total farmers score for each items 2.computed the total score minus each item score, 3.computed the point-biserial correlation for each item using the ‘correl’ function. a low point biserial implies that the farmer got the items incorrect. therefore, items with low-point-biserial correlation values need further examination. it was reported by seemavarma (2015) that the wordings, presentation or content of such items may explain the low point-biserial correlation. however, even if nothing appears visibly faulty with the items, it is recommended that they may be removed from scoring and future testing or may even be removed from final set of questions that may be included in the interview schedule. it is always recommended to use a minimum threshold value for the point-biserial correlation. a point biserial value of at least 0.15 is recommended (seemavarma, 2015) though experience has shown that a very good number of items have point-biserial correlation value. point biserial correlation: item discrimination the items to be considered for final inclusion into the interview schedule were based on its point biserial correlation value. penn (2009) and mcgahee and ball (2009) have categorized items based on items point biserial correlation value i.e., the items which possess the point biserial correlation value construction of knowledge test to measure the knowledge on recommended groundnut production practices 6132 of 0.20 and below said to be ‘poor’ and need revision, 0.20 0.29 said to be ‘fair’, 0.30 0.39 said to be ‘good’ and 0.40 0.70 said to be ‘very good’. in the present study, the items which belong to ‘very good’ category (i.e., the items with point biserial correlation value of 0.40 – 0.70) were selected for final inclusion in the interview schedule. table 1. calculation for selection of suitable knowledge items for groundnut crop sl. no. frequencies of correct answer of respondents in four extreme groups total frequencies of correct answers by all six groups percent of giving correct responses difficulty index (p) discrimination index (e 1/3) rpbis g-1 g-2 g-5 g-6 1 10 6 4 4 40 66.67 60.0 0.70 0.387 2* 10 10 0 2 32 53.33 55.0 0.65 0.611 3* 10 9 3 4 40 66.67 65.0 0.65 0.484 4 6 5 2 4 23 38.33 42.5 0.05 0.213 5 8 7 8 2 34 56.67 62.5 0.05 0.189 6 10 9 8 6 50 83.33 82.5 0.80 0.308 7 8 9 2 1 30 50.00 50.0 0.75 0.437 8* 7 7 1 1 26 43.33 40.0 0.35 0.426 9* 9 10 4 3 34 56.67 65.0 0.35 0.425 10 10 8 6 6 45 75.00 75.0 0.60 0.254 11 9 6 3 3 27 45.00 52.5 0.30 0.330 12* 9 10 7 2 45 75.00 70.0 0.70 0.446 13 8 9 2 3 29 48.33 55.0 0.25 0.378 14 6 7 8 4 35 58.33 62.5 0.40 0.074 15 8 6 2 3 34 56.67 47.5 0.45 0.304 16 5 3 1 4 14 23.33 32.5 0.10 0.196 17 10 4 3 3 28 46.67 50.0 0.40 0.345 18 10 6 0 6 31 51.67 55.0 0.50 0.330 19 10 5 3 3 28 46.67 52.5 0.45 0.374 20 9 8 2 4 35 58.33 57.5 0.65 0.308 21 5 4 2 2 23 38.33 32.5 0.05 0.217 22 8 5 3 5 26 43.33 52.5 -0.10 0.172 23 9 7 8 7 45 75.00 77.5 0.65 0.103 24* 10 5 1 2 19 31.67 45.0 0.40 0.525 25 6 7 3 4 28 46.67 50.0 0.30 0.197 journal of extension education 6133 sl. no. frequencies of correct answer of respondents in four extreme groups total frequencies of correct answers by all six groups percent of giving correct responses difficulty index (p) discrimination index (e 1/3) rpbis g-1 g-2 g-5 g-6 26* 9 8 6 1 39 65.00 60.0 0.55 0.491 27 8 6 4 2 28 46.67 50.0 0.35 0.348 28 9 5 3 4 24 40.00 52.5 0.40 0.311 29* 9 5 5 1 25 41.67 50.0 0.50 0.412 30 8 7 10 3 45 75.00 70.0 0.50 0.242 31 8 7 3 2 35 58.33 50.0 0.35 0.381 32 8 3 4 4 23 38.33 47.5 -0.05 0.213 33 9 7 8 4 42 70.00 70.0 0.55 0.239 34 9 3 3 2 22 36.67 42.5 0.20 0.402 35 8 3 3 5 30 50.00 47.5 0.15 0.156 36 9 6 3 5 37 61.67 57.5 0.10 0.235 37 10 6 8 5 47 78.33 72.5 0.55 0.287 38* 9 7 4 1 28 46.67 52.5 0.30 0.426 39 9 6 6 4 41 68.33 62.5 0.40 0.263 40 10 7 4 3 26 43.33 60.0 0.70 0.391 41 7 3 1 2 18 30.00 32.5 0.25 0.309 42 9 4 3 2 30 50.00 45.0 0.00 0.350 43 9 8 7 6 49 81.67 75.0 0.40 0.212 44 10 6 5 4 38 63.33 62.5 0.70 0.324 45 6 7 0 2 21 35.00 37.5 0.05 0.363 46 10 6 9 3 44 73.33 70.0 0.50 0.328 47 9 4 5 1 30 50.00 47.5 0.35 0.387 48 8 5 2 4 27 45.00 47.5 0.15 0.180 49 9 9 8 2 41 68.33 70.0 0.40 0.353 50 9 8 8 2 46 76.67 67.5 0.20 0.411 51 9 6 9 4 46 76.67 70.0 0.30 0.344 52* 10 6 9 1 40 66.67 65.0 0.30 0.406 53* 10 8 6 4 44 73.33 70.0 0.35 0.416 54 8 8 8 3 43 71.67 67.5 0.65 0.301 55 5 6 3 0 28 46.67 35.0 0.55 0.331 * items selected for final inclusion construction of knowledge test to measure the knowledge on recommended groundnut production practices 6134 item selection the items with difficulty level indices ranging from 30.0 to 70.0, discrimination indices ranging from 0.30 to 0.70 and the items with point biserial correlation ranging from 0.40 to 0.70 levels were selected finally to include in the interview schedule for assessing the level of knowledge of unreached farmers on recommended crop production package of practices. a total of 11 knowledge items for groundnut were finally selected (table 2). thus, the finally selected knowledge test items comprised different types of questions viz., multiple choice questions, yes or no type questions, true or false, fill up the blanks and direct one word answer. the selected items with frequency of correct response, p, e1/3 and rpbis values were included in the scale. reliability of knowledge test according to kerlinger (1973) “reliability is the accuracy or precision of measuring instrument”. to know the reliability of the items the split-half method was followed. split-half methodology the reliability of the scale was determined by split-half method. the selected items i.e., eleven (11) items were divided into two halves. the two halves were further administered separately to 30 unreached farmers in a nonsample area (tiruvannamalai district of tamil nadu) the scores were subjected to product moment correlation test in order to find out the reliability of the scale. the half-test reliability co-efficient (r) was 0.356. further, the reliability co-efficient of the whole test was computed using the spearman brown prophecy formula (singh, 1986) given below. 2x reliability co efficient of half test reliability co-efficient of whole test = ----------------------1+reliability co efficient of half test the whole test reliability co-efficient of the whole test was computed using the spearman brown prophecy worked out and the results were 0.526 for the items selected for groundnut crop. according to singh (1986), when the mean scores of the two groups are of narrow range, reliability co-efficient of 0.50 or 0.60 would be sufficient. hence, the constructed scale to assess unreached farmers knowledge was considered reliable. validity of the test items the validity of the test items was tested by the method of correlation coefficient (r) and content validity. the items which belonged to ‘very good’ category (i.e., the items with point biserial correlation value of 0.40 – 0.70) were considered to measure the knowledge of the unreached farmers on recommended crop production package of practices. also the content validity of the knowledge test was derived from a long list of test items representing the whole universe on recommended crop production package of practices on groundnut. it was assumed that the score obtained by administering the knowledge test of this study measures what was intended to journal of extension education 6135 measure. thus, the knowledge test developed, exactly measures the knowledge of unreached farmers on recommended crop production package of practices of groundnut as it showed a greater degree of reliability and validity. findings and discussion table 2 represents the final knowledge items selected for assessing the knowledge level of farmers on recommended crop production package of practices on groundnut table 2. knowledge items identified for groundnut crop sl. no. selected questions knowledge items for groundnut (included in the interview schedule) 1 2* what is the blanket recommendation of nutrient for groundnut ______ 2 3* at how many days after sowing, two hand weedings and hoeing are necessary to control weeds if no herbicide is applied 3 8* after application of which nutrient earthing up should be done _______________ a.gypsum b. water c. zinc sulphate d. none 4 9* which nutrient should be applied in the soil which is deficient in calcium and sulphur? 5 12* what is the recommended spacing for groundnut? ______________ 6 24* how many days after sowing, life irrigation is needed? 7 26* what is the important cultural operation to be carried out to provide medium for the peg development? 8 29* appearance of pustules on the lower surface of leaf is the symptom of ______________ a.leaf spot b. rust c. early leaf spot d. none of the above 9 38* what are the recommended management practices to overcome the problems of termite in groundnut field? 10 52* what is the quantity of gypsum to be applied _______? 11 53* do you agree that, seed treatment is to be done to overcome the problem of stem rot? crop. the scale standardized may be directly used by a researcher for assessing knowledge level of farmers on recommended groundnut production of practices. the items selected finally using standard procedures includes different aspects of crop production and different form of questions viz., multiple choice questions, yes or no type questions, true or false and fill up the blanks and direct one word answer. construction of knowledge test to measure the knowledge on recommended groundnut production practices 6136 conclusion the scale constructed following standard procedures may be used by the researchers for similar studies. the scale constructed will save the time of researchers working on similar lines. references kerlinger, f.n. (1973). foundations of behavioral research. holt, rinehart and winston. new york. mcgahee, t.w., & ball, j. (2009). how to read and really use an item analysis. nurse educator, (34) 166-171. penn, b.k. (2009). test item development and analysis. presented at creighton university school of nursing faculty retreat, omaha, nebraska, us. seemavarma.(2015). preliminary item statistics using point-biserial correlation and p-values, education data system, morgan hill, california. singh, a.k. (1986). tests, measurement and research methods in behavioural sciences. tata mcgraw-hill publishing company ltd., new delhi. journal of extension education 1 from the editor’s desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, recently i had an opportunity to handle a session on ‘open access journals in empowering extension researchers’ in an international conference. the webbased scholarly publishing system has travelled a long way since the inception of the journals, journal des scavans and philosophical transactions, in 1665. since then, journals have become one of the widely growing mediums whereby researchers can communicate their results to a national and international audience of peers. during the session, we discussed about the abundant data and information held by agricultural institutions that need to be publicly accessible online, and reusable. implementation of open access could be the right initiative in this direction, which could benefit research and researchers. the three principles of open access laid down (madalli, 2013) are: 1. ‘knowledge unto him who produces knowledge’ freeing knowledge from the shackles of economic compulsions. this completes the cycle of knowledge and spirals it into growth. 2. ‘scholarship is the same; priced or open’scholarship is the same no matter where. oa content is not low quality and all that is published in priced journals is not high quality. 3. ‘if one is convinced others will be’ working towards national level policies and mandates. open access is one way to bridge the gap by making information resources available freely. a systematic and persistent approach to open access will pave the way to true ‘democratization of knowledge’. we were under the impression that most of the journals in social/behavioural sciences such as agricultural extension would have gone open-access. this has not been the case so far, with penetration of open access publishing in social sciences much slower compared to other sciences. many journals in this discipline continue to be distributed in print form, not moving to online, open-access forms. a study conducted by edgar & willinsky (2010) on journals using open journal systems (ojs) found that only 30 % of the journals in social sciences are open-access. you may be aware that the online version of jee is open access and articles of jee are licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercialsharealike 4.0 international license. jee provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. we are indexed in doaj (directory of open access journals) which is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. i hope jee readers find the papers in this issue, interesting. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com. . chief editor jee 29(3) 5917 communication behaviour of cashew cultivators k. kanagasabapathi1 and v. sakthivel2 abstract in a country like india where agriculture is the main occupation, communication can serve better for the cause of development. cashew being one of the important cash crops, proper communication strategy need to be devised to reach the cashew cultivators to improve the cashew production and productivity. keeping this in mind, the present study was taken-up to analyse the communication behaviour of cashew farmers. a sample of 120 cashew farmers were selected from panruti taluk of cuddalore district, tamil nadu using simple random sampling technique. the data were collected using a well structured interview schedule and analysed with appropriate statistical tools. regarding communication behaviour, among personal cosmopolite sources, rural welfare officer & block development officials were the mainly utilized sources by the respondents for getting information on cashew. among the personal localite sources, panchayat offices and primary co-operatives were the most used sources by the respondents for getting information on cashew. keywords : communication; information processing; information storage; information output; cashew cultivators. research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 3, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.3.29.5917-5920 1. professor & head and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalainagar – 608 002. received : 21-09-2017; accepted : 13-02-2018 cashew nut cultivation assumes special significance as it is being grown in dry tracts of tamil nadu providing income to small and marginal farmers. tamil nadu occupies second place in terms of area under cashewnut in the country. however its production accounted only for seven per cent of the country’s production due to low productivity. communication has attained great importance in the community development and extension programmes. it is through this process that aims and objectives of the programmes are to be widely disseminated to the people and useful informations are passed to them to solve their problems (baskaran and rao, 1985). this necessitates that the extension workers should have a thorough understanding of the communication process, to influence the farmers for adopting modern recommended technologies (dubey and bisnol, 2008) hence, an attempt 5918 was made to study the communication behaviour of cashew farmers with the specific objective of studying information input behaviour, information processing behaviour and the information output beahviour of cashew cultivators. methodology cuddalore district has the maximum area under cashew in tamil nadu state. panruti taluk has the highest area in cashew cultivation in this district and hence it was purposively selected for the study. six villages were selected based on their higher area in cashew cultivation. a sample of 20 cashew farmers was randomly selected from each village to have a sample size of 120 representing all the six villages for the study. a well-structured and pretested interview schedule was used for the collection of data .the data collected were processed, coded and tabulated for statistical analysis. descriptive statistics analyses and correlation analysis were used for meaningful interpretation of data. findings and discussion a) information input behaviour the extent of utilization of various information sources by cashew cultivators is presented in table 1. table 1. information sources used by cashew cultivators sl. no. information sources percen tage (n=120) i personal cosmopolite 1. rural welfare officer 97.50 2. block development officials 94.16 3. demonstrations 67.50 4. campaign meetings 36.66 5. farmer’s training 35.83 6. query letters 20.83 mean 59.00 ii personal-localite 1. panchayat offices 88.33 2. co-operative society’s 69.16 3. progressive farmers 29.16 4. input merchants 27.50 5. friends and neighbours 20.00 6. school teachers 17.50 7. relatives 9.16 8. money lenders 0.83 mean 33.00 iii impersonal cosmopolite 1. farm radio broadcast 95.83 2. posters and charts 94.16 3. agricultural films 92.50 4. tea shop boards 86.66 5. written information material 80.83 6. newspapers 52.50 7. leaflets and bulletins 29.16 8. popular farm magazines 9.16 mean 67.00 it is seen from table 1 that the cashew cultivators approached journal of extension education 5919 all the personal cosmopolite sources. among them, ‘rural welfare officers’, ‘block development officials’ and ‘demonstrations’ were the three personal cosmopolite sources predominately contacted by more number of respondents for getting information on cashew cultivation practices, inputs, marketing strategies etc., regarding personal localite sources the farmers contacted ‘panchayat offices’, ‘co-operative societies’, ‘progressive farmers’ and ‘input merchants’ as sources of information in more proportion regarding cashew cultivation and marketing aspects. from the table, it may also be noted that all the eight impersonal cosmopolite sources were used in different proportions by 9.16 to 95.83 percent of respondents. the impersonal cosmopolite sources used by farmers were farm broadcast, posters and charts, agricultural films, tea-shop boards, written information materials, newspapers, leaflets and bulletins and popular farm magazines. b) information processing behaviour information processing behaviour of cashew cultivators is presented under two sub-divisions namely information evaluation and information storage. i) information evaluation generally farmers are likely to evaluate the information in consultation and discussion with other farmers immediately after receiving the information (laksmidevi, 2004).in addition, before deciding to use the information gathered, they also analyse the merits and demerits of the information received by them. table 2. methods of evaluation of information used by cashew cultivators sl. no. methods of evaluation percen tage (n=120) 1. discussed with family members 85.83 2. discussed with friends or neighbours 83.33 3. discussed with relatives 72.50 4. considered availability of seeds, fertilizers and inputs 64.16 5. discussed with progressive farmers 63.33 6. discussed with input agents 60.83 7. discussed with rural welfare officer 60.00 8. considered suitability 60.00 9. considered ease in operation 53.33 10. observed demonstrations and fields growth by others 51.66 11. considered profitability 50.00 12. discussed with block level extension personals 50.00 13. discussed with school teachers 40.83 14. conducted trials 23.33 communication behaviour of cashew cultivators 5920 ii) information storage after the evaluation of the information received, storage of the information is indispensable for its future use. table 3 reveals the different methods of storage of information used by the cashew cultivators. table 3. methods of information storage used by cashew cultivators sl. no. methods of information storage number percentage (n=120) 1. by memorising 117 97.50 2. by informing to family members to keep in mind 112 93.33 3. by making note in a specified notebook 70 58.33 4. by keeping leaflets, handouts, etc. in a specified safe place 60 50.00 5. by making note in a common note book 50 41.66 memorising was the most commonly used method for information storage by majority of the respondents. ‘informing to family members to keep in mind’ was the second most used method. c. information output behaviour the results of information output behaviour of cashew cultivators revealed that, ‘relatives’ was the category of persons with whom most of the respondents (95.83 per cent) shared the information. ‘neighbours’ and ‘friends’ were found to be the second and third type of persons with whom majority of the respondents (89.16 percent and 63.33 per cent, respectively) shared information. references baskaran, c & sethu rao, m. k. (1985). correlates of interpersonal communication behaviour of farmers in differentially progressive villages. indian journal of extension education, 21 (3 & 4): 76-79. dubey, v.k & bisnol, i. (2008). extension education and communication. new delhi: new age international publishers. laksmidevi, r. (2004). communication behaviour of women leaders in cuddalore district. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, department of agricultural extension, annamalai university, annamalai nagar. leagans, j.p. (1961). the communication process in extension education in community development. new delhi: directorate of extension, govt. of india, pp. 362-91. loomis, chals p & beagle j, allen. (1950) rural social system a text book in rural sociology, new york; prentice hall. journal of extension education 5880 role of mass media in changing the attitude level of farmers towards organic farming in the western zone of tamil nadu p. sivaraj1 and h. philip2 abstract the study aims to assess the role of mass media in changing the attitude level of farmers on organic farming. a sample of 180 certified organic farmers was selected from the districts of coimbatore, erode and tiruppur, tamil nadu. majority of the respondents in the study area had medium level of mass media exposure. findings revealed that majority of the certified organic farmers was found to possess moderately favourable attitude towards organic farming, followed by highly favourable attitude towards organic farming. different media were sought by the respondents for getting information on organic cultivation aspects. even though most of the respondents were literates, limited availability of magazines, journals and periodicals related to organic and the problems on their subscription were acting as the limiting factors for accessing agricultural information. leveraging traditional mass media and modern ict technologies will help in the long run to increase the adoption levels among farming communities and help in devising and disseminating organic farming cultivation practices. keywords : attitude ; mass media ; organic farmers 1. assistant professor (agricultural extension), rvs agricultural college, thanjavur and 2. director of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore – 641 003 received : 13-11-2017; accepted : 27-01-2018 research note journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 2, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.2.29.5880-5884 media play a vital role in educating and enlightening the people and the government to protect and preserve natural resources in the interests of future generations and the limatic chaos. sustainable development is attained by protecting the environment in a judicious use of natural resources. in this regard, media plays a crucial role in creating awareness and bringing the positive behavioral change among people in climate change. different media were sought by the respondents for getting information on agricultural aspects. now-a-days, every household have mass media like radio, television, newspaper etc., but the coverage of agricultural related by these sources are very limited when compared to other entertainment programmes. again, though most of the respondents were functionally literates, limited availability of magazines, journals and periodicals related to agriculture and the problems on their subscription were acting as the limiting factors for gathering agricultural information from these sources too. 5881 mass media play an important role in disseminating the farm technologies. agricultural information are disseminated through magazines, newspaper, radio and television. hence it becomes necessary to know about the level of mass media exposure. organic farming can be seen as an approach to agriculture where the aim is to create integrated, sustainable agricultural production systems. conventional farming is based on the use of high yielding varieties of seeds, chemical fertilizer, irrigation water, pesticides etc. whereas organic farming tends to satisfy the ever growing demand for food grains not only to fulfill the problem of food security but also to earn foreign exchange at the cost of environmental quality which cannot be sustainable in future. in india, still farmers are not aware about the importance of organic farming. promoting organic farming practices among the farming community in a large scale will be a promising strategy to face these challenges (elavarasi and ponnusamy, 2015). this paper discusses the role of mass media in changing the attitude of farmers towards organic farming among the certified organic farmers of western zone in tamil nadu. methodology ex post facto research design was adopted for the study. the western zone of tamil nadu viz. coimbatore, erode and tiruppur districts was selected purposively, as maximum number of organic farmers have registered under the category of individual certified organic farmers. farmers were practising organic farming in different crops like coconut, banana, pulses and turmeric in the study area. a total of 180 certified organic farmers were selected for the study. a sample size of 60 organic farmers was considered for the study in each of the districts viz., coimbatore, erode and tiruppur. in each district, three blocks were selected and in each block 20 certified organic farmers were selected through purposive random sampling method. a comprehensive semi structured interview schedule covering all aspects of organic farming practices was prepared. each of the selected certified organic farmers were contacted personally and interviewed. the data collected were subjected to statistical analysis to get inferences. findings and discussion mass media exposure it was found that more than half (52.22 %) of the certified organic farmers possessed medium level of mass media exposure followed by high (28.33 %) and low (19.45 %) levels. certified organic farmers were found to be habituated readers of farm magazines like uzavarin valarum velanmai which is published from tamil nadu agricultural university, tv programmes and radio talks. likewise listening to agricultural programmes in doordarshan and other commercial television channels also motivated them to adopt organic farming. moreover, role of mass media in changing the attitude level of farmers towards organic farming in the western zone of tamil nadu 5882 newspapers have been publishing organic farming articles highlighting the importance of organic cultivation, marketing and success stories in regional languages. this might be the reason for medium to high level of mass media exposure among the certified farmers. table 1. distribution of the respondents according to their different source/ form of mass media n= 180 sl. no. particulars certified organic farmers regularly occasionally never 1. listening to agricultural programmes in radio 51.11 (per cent) 26.68 (per cent) 22.21 (per cent) 2. reading newspapers 66.67 (per cent) 31.11 (per cent) 2.22 (per cent) 3. reading farm magazines and journals 47.78 (per cent) 37.78 (per cent) 14.44 (per cent) 4. reading leaflets/ folders/ pamphlets 33.34 (per cent) 41.66 (per cent) 25.00 (per cent) 5. viewing agricultural programmes in tv 75.55 (per cent) 22.22 (per cent) 2.23 (per cent) 6. attending agricultural meetings 60.00 (per cent) 28.88 (per cent) 11.12 (per cent) 7. demonstrations 47.77 (per cent) 38.89 (per cent) 13.34 (per cent) 8. attending field days 32.22 (per cent) 41.66 (per cent) 26.12 (per cent) 9. watching agricultural films 27.77 (per cent) 38.89 (per cent) 33.34 (per cent) 10. viewing exhibitions 75.55 (per cent) 16.67 (per cent) 7.78 (per cent) journal of extension education 5883 from table 1 it is revealed that majority (51.11 %) of the respondents are regularly listening to agricultural programmes in radio. the farmers were listening to radio programmes predominantly during evening hours. from the result we infer that radio is still one of the powerful media used by the farming community. majority (66.67 %) of the respondents were reading newspapers regularly followed by occasionally (31.11 %) and never (2.22 %). the farmers mostly read the regional news papers for agricultural information. nearly half (47.77 %) of the respondents regularly read farm magazines and journals to know the recent agricultural technologies, success stories and new trends in agriculture. the farm magazines such as uzhavarin valarum velanmai of tnau, pasumai vikatan & uzhavar osai (all tamil farm magazines) were subscribed by the respondents. moreover, 41.66 % of the occasionally reading leaflets, folders and pamphlets for form information. table 1 shows larger difference in viewing agricultural programmes in tv. majority (75.55 %) of the respondents were regularly viewing agricultural programmes in tv. the agricultural programmes broadcast by doordarshan and makkal tv were mostly viewed by the respondents. attitude of farmers towards organic farming it could be inferred from table 2 that majority (70.00 %) of the certified organic farmers were found to possess moderately favourable attitude towards organic farming, followed by highly favourable (18.33 %) and less favourable (11.67 %) attitude towards organic farming. table 2. distribution of respondents according to attitude towards organic farming (n=180) sl. no. category number percen tage 1. less favourable 21 11.67 2. moderately favourable 126 70.00 3. highly favourable 33 18.33 total 180 100.00 majority (70.00 %) of the organic farmers had moderately favourable attitude towards organic farming. the mass media exposure helps the farmers in understanding the nature of organic farming & its importance. moderate to higher level of mass media exposure could be the probable reason for the farmers to possess moderate to highly favourable attitude towards organic farming. in conclusion, limited sources of mass media coverage information related to organic cultivation and importance, hindered not only the attitude level of the respondents but also adoption level role of mass media in changing the attitude level of farmers towards organic farming in the western zone of tamil nadu 5884 of organic farming practices among farmers. there is an urgent need for creating effective and specific mass communication strategies for organic farming and extension activities among certified organic farmers of tamil nadu. it would be pertinent to propose to the policy makers, to draw new policies with a view to provide necessary skills to pursue organic practices through mass media. references elavarasi, m & ponnusamy, k. a. (2015). reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages perceived by the organic farmers. journal of extension education. 27 (3). 5485-5493. journal of extension education 5787 information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers and their perception towards technology dissemination through mobile phones p.r. anand1 and m.kumaran2 abstract a study was conducted among the shrimp farmers to ascertain their information seeking behaviour and perception concerning extension service through mobile phones. the findings indicate that the farmer respondents were of the perception that mobile phone-aided extension service is a viable, expedient, prompt, cost-effective and novel approach. further they expressed that a dedicated mobile app on shrimp farming with dynamic content modules on ‘disease diagnosis, calculations for water quality corrections, feed management, pond risk management and post your query ’would be very useful for farmers and extension workers to update their capacity and sharing of field experiences. therefore, developing a mobile app on shrimp farming, incorporating the above features would enhance the access to quality information and minimise the information gap among the shrimp farmers. keywords : aquaculture extension; m-extension; knowledge dissemination; mobile app. 1-ph.d scholar and 2principal scientist, icar-central institute of brackishwater aquaculture, 75, santhome high road, chennai – 600 028. received : 31-08-2017; accepted : 14-09-2017 introducion shrimp aquaculture, rearing of shrimps in brackishwater under controlled conditions is being practised in the maritime states along the coastal line of india. shrimp farming is taken up on a commercial mode as 90% of the production is exported, earning about rs.22,000 crores as foreign exchange. being a delicate organism, shrimp requires quality rearing medium, optimum feeding and health care. shrimp farming is subject to several production risk factors from pond preparation to harvest and the farmers should have adequate knowledge and skill in better management practices (bmps) to prevent and manage them. therefore information is a critical resource in operation and management of shrimp farming. estimates indicate that 60 percent of farmers do not access any source of information for the advanced agricultural technologies resulting in huge adoption gap. in india, there are about 120 million farm holdings and journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 1, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.1.29.5787-5796 5788 the number is growing year by year. to provide at least one village extension personnel to 800-1000 farm families, the requirement of field level extension personnel is estimated to be about 1.3 to 1.5 million, against the present availability of 0.1million (planning commission, goi, 2007). according to estimates, on an average a public worker personnel spends 40 minutes per year for a farmer (dileepkumar, 2012). there is a gap between the extension agents and farmers due to poor access and ineffective service (mruthunjaya & adhiguru, 2005). to minimize this gap many computer and internet based projects for providing rapid extension services were initiated but such initiatives have not been very successful, as farmers were either illiterate or not culturally attuned to access information through the internet (ganesan et al.2013). in this scenario, the increasing penetration of mobile phone networks and mobile phone usage in india presents an opportunity to use it as a tool for extension service. review on mobile phone based extension indicates that introduction of mobile phones for information sharing decreased the market price dispersion and wastage, significant improvements in knowledge of farmers, provided greater convenience on time saving, reduced grain price dispersion across markets by a minimum of 6.4 percent and reduced intra-annual price variation, enhanced the access to technology information and reduced communication costs for the farmers. similarly agricultural extension services delivery through mobile phones has significantly improved the amount, quality and speed of the services which in turn led to higher production level and income status, and reduced the gap between the better off and disadvantaged farmers. powerful means of increasing access to quality information to farmers and mobile based agro-advisories would play a significant role in reducing the information gap and information asymmetry between the farmers. in this context, the present investigation was undertaken to know the perception of shrimp farmers in using mobile phones for technology dissemination, required modules and preferred format of information delivery. methodology this study was taken up in tamil nadu, andhra pradesh and odisha states in the east coast and gujarat, maharashtra and karnataka states in the west coast considering their shrimp farming area and production. a proportionate sample size of 210 in the east coast and 120 in the west coast was chosen in line with the number of farmers operating shrimp culture in the respective states. a perception analysis was done following the methodology suggested by omotesho et al. (2015) and osondu & ibezim, (2015) to know the information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers and their perception towards technology dissemination through mobile phones 5789 sensitivity of the respondents towards technology information dissemination through mobile phones for shrimp farming, information modules and the format of delivery.the farmers rated each of the 12 selected mobile phone extension attributes for importance on a three-point scale (strongly agree-agree-disagree). the ratio of respondent’s total score to the maximum possible score multiplied by 100 formed the perception index. a comprehensive questionnaire was developed and pre-tested for the primary data collection. descriptive statistics and student t-test were employed to consolidate and interpret the data. findings and discussion information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers the information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers given in fig-1 indicates that three-fourths of east coast (73.20%) and majority of west coast (58.30%) respondents depend on the technicians of feed and other input companies and independent consultants for technical guidance and sourcing quality inputs. in shrimp farming, all the critical inputs (seed, feed etc.) were supplied by the private companies and they had their field staff to aid and advise the farmers. even though their services were paid indirectly through the cost of inputs they were trusted by the farmers due to their easy accessibility, regular contact and providing pond specific advice which were not quite possible for the government departments. however, in case of west coast, where the area under farming was less and the technicians were also a few, the farmers (61%) had to depend on the fisheries departments to source inputs and services which is evident in their information seeking. this could be the reason for 52% of farmer respondents in the west coast consulting on-line sources for technical information. similarly majority of the east (60%) and west (72%) coast farmers consulted progressive peers for practical solutions and triangulate the information obtained from other sources for validation. nsso(2005) had reported that the most popular information source of farm households for accessing information was ‘other progressive farmers’, followed by ‘input dealers’.shrimp farming is relatively high investment and high risk enterprise farmers need specific information which was possible mostly from the fellow progressive farmers and input technicians. institutional sources due to their limited manpower budget and pre-occupation with welfare, regulatory and administrative functions could not concentrate more on providing technical advisory services to the farmers. earlier studies reported similar findings (kumaran et al. 2007 and swathilekshmi et al. 2009) on the information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers. journal of extension education 5790 mobile phones and networks available with shrimp farmers the growth of mobile phones in india has been phenomenal during the last one decade. internet and mobile association of india (iamai) reported that india had 934.6 million mobile phone subscribers in 2017. the number of mobile internet users in india is projected to double and cross the 300 million mark by 2017 and the number of smartphone users is expected to reach 369 million by 2018. the data shown in table-1 indicate that 66% of the shrimp farmers were smart phone users which would mean that they were mobile internet users. most of them (63.83%) used android platform which should be kept in mind while developing any mobile phone based application for shrimp farmers. most of them (87%) had networks other than bsnl and 91% of farmers preferred english as the language of interaction. shrimp farmers were relatively better educated and afford to have advanced mobile phones, therefore, mobile phone based information exchange could be a viable strategy to provide information and services and interact with shrimp farmers. perception of shrimp farmers about mobile phone as an information channel the respondents’ sensitivity towards mobile phone as a potential medium for technology dissemination and forging technology-extensionfarmers-input and market linkage was attempted and results are presented in table-2. majority of the respondents (6675%) perceived that mobile phone could be the potential medium of information fig.1 : information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers in % (n=330) information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers and their perception towards technology dissemination through mobile phones 5791 exchange and m-extension services would be the information management mode especially for shrimp in the days to come (83-85%). further, they perceived that at present, most of the on and off-farm information in the supply chain shared was mainly through mobile phone (8494%). anbarasan & karthikeyan (2014) also reported that mobile phones with camera facility can be used to access extension advices from the experts for effective farming. majority of shrimp farmers had perceived (67-87%) that m-extension would be rapid, timely and cost effective. moreover, majority (5971%) felt that mobile phone provide scope for two-way interaction between the users and aid in obtaining feedback from the field and mobile phone has the scope to carry a customised content to the audience (58-85%), comprehensive modules on a subject matter can be delivered through mobile phone (60-71%). however, only 40-42% of the respondents perceived that mobile phones substitute physical meetings where the farmers could interact with researchers in person. further, the respondents asserted that they were even willing to pay for the information and advisory through mobile phones (63-66%). the perception of farmer respondents same irrespective of the state they belong to (p>0.05).this indicates the fact that farmers were looking for problem solving information and wish to get it even paying a cost. the findings show that farmers were of the opinion that mobile phone extension is convenient, rapid, cost-effective and efficient. table1. mobile phone infrastructure (type and networks) available with farmers (n=310) sl.no. mobile percentage 1 mobile handset model basic handsets 34.05 smart phone 65.95 2 mobile phone platform (operating system) android 63.83 ios 04.26 others 31.91 3 network service provider bsnl 13.00 other private networks 87.00 5 preferred language for information english 91.00 vernacular 09.00 journal of extension education 5792 table 2. perception of shrimp farmers on mobile phone as potential medium of information dissemination sl. no. attributes of mobile phone east coast mean perception score (n=210) west coast mean perception score (n=120) 1 mobile phone is an effective tool for dissemination of technology information on a rapid mode 84.76 ± 9.67 77.50± 9.87 2 mobile phones are being used for technical information dissemination in agriculture and weather forecast. 47.14 ± 12.84 43.33 ± 14.36 3 mobile phones aid in providing timely information 78.09 ± 9.54 67.50 ±11.33 4 mobile phones provide scope for sending feedback and field problems 71.42 ±8.96 59.17 ±12.36 5 comprehensive and value added information can be given through mobile phones. 70.95 ±9.64 60.00 ±6.74 6 customised content can be delivered through mobile phones 84.76 ±6.26 57.50 ±7.64 7 mobile phones could provide dynamic information access on mobility and it is interactive too. 86.67 ±3.65 80.08 ±3.64 8 mobile phone conversations substitute physical meetings 42.38 ±12.51 40.00 ±14.65 9 the information delivery through mobile phone is cost effective 86.67 ±5.57 71.67 ± 6.24 10 mobile phones are the medium of information sharing among the farmers/technicians/ consultants to get technical information 94.28 ±2.14 84.17 ±5.32 11 mobile phone aided information system would be future model of farm extension service 85.71 ± 6.32 83.00 ± 6.21 12 willing to pay for accessing information through mobile phone. 62.85 ± 3.32 66.00 ± 2.24 mean perception score 74.64± 16.44 65.83 ±14.55 information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers and their perception towards technology dissemination through mobile phones 5793 information requirements and format of delivery through mobile phones the information requirements (content), period and frequency of delivery through mobile phones expressed by the farmers are given in table-3. market intelligence (80.40%), growth assessment, feeding, water quality monitoring, disease preventive measures (78%), pond preparation protocols (77%), seed availability, seed selection and nursery rearing (74%) were the information requirements expressed by the shrimp farmers. it is observed that the frequency and duration of information delivery were as per the schedule of the cropping calendar and importance of the practices. the respondents were of the perception that a dedicated mobile phone application (mobile app) could provide the required information in time. the app should contain dynamic information along with static content. further, the respondents indicated the type of content required and format of delivery through the mobile app (table-4). the respondents (86%) were of the view that input requirements, feed rationing, assessment of pond stock and water quality corrections/amendments are to be provided in the form of calculators. for example, if a farmer gives average body weight, stocking density and survival percentage then the calculator should provide the biomass available in the pond, feed requirement and amount of feed to be given at different intervals of table 3. information needs of farmers and format of delivery through mobile phones sl. no. information needed format period & frequency % of responses (n=310) 1 pond preparation protocols interactive voice response (ivr) & graphical user interfaces (gui) 15th january to 15th march once in two days; 15th july to 30th august. 77.35 2 seed availability, sources, seed selection protocols and stocking density requirements and nursery rearing ivr & gui 1st feb to 15th march once in two days; 1st august to 30th august. 74. 50 3 feeding, water quality parameters and disease preventive measures ivr & gui 15th march to 15th june once in a week; 1st august to 15th december. 64.65 journal of extension education 5794 table 4. preferred features of a mobile application (mobile app) on shrimp farming sl. no. content format % of responses (n=310) 1 better management practices of farming text with photographs and faqs 72.50 2 feed quality & rationing management. arithmetic calculations for optimal use of inputs 86.25 3 input requirement &water quality amendments optimum and corrections for sub optimal conditions in text and photographs 78.60 4 health management & disease diagnosis probable disease diagnostic module with symptoms and management measures 81.53 5 risk factors and risk assessment risk assessment module in an online questionnaire mode. 67.05 6 feedback and interaction with technical experts post a query option / sharing an experience corner 78.80 sl. no. information needed format period & frequency % of responses (n=310) 4 sampling, growth assessment, feeding, water quality parameters and disease preventive measures ivr & gui 1st april to 15th june once a week; 15th september to 15th december. 78.20 5 market intelligence and price information ivr & gui 1st may to 30th june once in week; 1st november to 15th december. 80.45 6 harvest and post-harvest measures ivr & gui 1st june to 15th july once in a week; 15th november to 30th december. 62.70 information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers and their perception towards technology dissemination through mobile phones 5795 interaction would enhance information access. therefore, it is high time the brackishwater aquaculture institutions develop and launch mobile apps on shrimp aquaculture. references anbarasan & karthikeyan, c. (2014). evaluating the effectiveness of ‘e-velanmai’ (e-agriculture) model of extension through mobile telephony, trends in biosciences 7(19), 28702873 pp. dileepkumar, g. (2012). ict innovations for agriculture and rural development. presented in proceedings 8th convention of grameen gyan abhiyanrural knowledge movement, m.s. swaminathan research foundation, chennai, october 28-29, 2012. ganesan, m., karthikeyan, k., prashant, s & umadikar, j. (2013). use of mobile multimedia agricultural advisory systems by indian farmers: results of a survey, journal of agricultural extension and rural development, 5 (4), 89-99. journal of extension education the day. dynamic disease diagnostic and management module and time specific advisories (82%), production phase wise risk assessment module (67%), package of practices in the form of frequently asked questions (faqs) (72.50%) and a dynamic module of inputs sources with phone numbers and market intelligence (74%) might be the features of the mobileapp, the farmers expressed. the most important feature emphasized by the respondents (78.80%) was that the app should have a post-a-query option to send queries to the host institution and it should be answered in two working days. similarly it was opined that farmers can share their experiences and views on farming issues through this option. conclusion the study has indicated that shrimp farmers perceived mobile phone as a tool for capacity development and extension services in shrimp farming. it is suggested that a dedicated mobile app having dynamic disease diagnostics, faqs and farm inputs calculation modules with the scope for two way sl. no. content format % of responses (n=310) 7 quality input source and market information market information and technical advisories in text 73.60 8 govt. regulations, schemes guidelines and other institutional schemes in text 65.40 5796 jayanthi, m. & ashokan, m. (2016) constaints faced by m-kisan users journal of extension education, 28 (1), doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.26725/ jee.2016.1.28 5622-5624 kumaran,m., krishnan, m & ravichandran, p. (2007). extension services in coastal aquacultrure : need for a public and private partnership, indian journal of. fisheries, 54(1), 75-83. mruthunjaya & adhiguru, a. (2005). ict for livelihood security: a realitycheck. mainstreaming icts 2(2),14-18. nsso.(2005). situation assessment survey of farmers. report no.499(59/33)2. government of india new delhi. omotesho, k. f., ogunlade, i & ayinde, o. e. (2015). analysis of farmers’ perception of the accountability of agricultural extension services in oyo state, nigeria. sarhad journal of agriculture, 31(2), 94-100. osondu, c. k & ibezim, g. m. c. (2015). awareness and perception of farmers to the use of information and communication technologies (icts) in agricultural extension service delivery: a case study of imo state, nigeria, international journal of agriculture innovations and research, 4(1), 55-60. planning commission, govt. of india. (2007). recommendations of working group on agricultural extension for formulation of eleventh five year plan (2007-12), planning commission, government of india, new delhi. http://planning commission.nic.in/ plans/planrel/11thf.htm. swathilekshmi, p.s., chandrakandan, k & balasubramani, n. (2008), information utilization behaviour and constraint analysis among shrimp farmers. indian journal of social research, 49(3),265-272. information seeking behaviour of shrimp farmers and their perception towards technology dissemination through mobile phones pages 2021-4.cdr 6707 impact of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons on farm efficiency among rice farmers in kerala, india anikha s. kumar and c.s. shaijumon abstract this study assesses the role of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons in improving efficiency of rice produc�on in kerala, india. data were collected through a primary survey of 72 purposively selected rice farmers. three major extension ins�tu�ons were iden�fied. sa�sfac�on of farmers from extension was measured using principal component analysis and technical efficiency through stochas�c fron�er analysis. sa�sfac�on scores were poor. however, extension services were found to be significantly contribu�ng to technical efficiency of rice produc�on. efficiency of extension services could be improved through reforms in the current ins�tu�onal structure. keywords: agricultural extension; rice farming; technical efficiency; sa�sfac�on; principal component analysis; stochas�c fron�er analysis; kerala research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.4, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.4.33.6707-6717 department of humani�es, indian ins�tute of space science and technology, thiruvananthapuram, kerala received: 26-07-2022; accepted: 16-01-2023 introduction o v e r y e a r s , t h e c o n c e p t o f agricultural extension had undergone several changes. agricultural extension is a process with the purpose of transferring informa�on generated out of research from regional, na�onal and interna�onal levels to farmers (norton et al. 2020). tradi�onally, extension is perceived as a short term programme with short term goals including farm visit, field visit etc (davis et al. 2020). but nowadays extension is viewed as a con�nuous long term problem solving process. it is a process that can influence the behavior of its recipients and thereby influence decision making and produc�on p ro ce s s . e x te n s i o n s e r v i ce s a re n ot supposed to be simply an informa�on and technology transfer process as perceived in the past. it is intended to bring effec�ve c h a n g e s t h r o u g h d e v e l o p m e n t o f knowledge, a�tude and skills through advisory and informa�on delivery services (sulandjari et al. 2021). extension services are found to help bring improvement in agricultural produc�vity (sharifzadeh et al., 2021). thus the widening conceptual scope of extension ac�vi�es can contribute a lot to agricultural development. but these conceptual goals are o�en not in terms with reality. lack of responsiveness of extension agents, poor management of extension programmes, lack of support from farmers, centralized mode of extension delivery, lack of region specific programmes, poor coordina�on between farmers, local and central officials, poor on farm research and low budge�ng along with poor research funding for extension are cited as reasons for poor performance of extension ac�vity (albore, 2018; gula� et al., 2022), rice is the staple food crop of people of kerala but has only 0.43 percent of na�onal area under rice cul�va�on (13th p o s i � o n) . d u r i n g 1 9 5 5 5 6 r i c e w a s cul�vated in an area of 7.59 lakh hectares in kerala. by 1974-75, it increased to 8.81 lakh hectares. therea�er, area under rice in the state declined gradually reaching 2.02 lakh hectares in 2020-21 (government of kerala, 2021). the reason for this decline are many including conver�ng land for other purposes, loss of soil fer�lity, pest diseases a�ack, clima�c changes etc. food grains produced in the state account for only 15 percent of its total consump�on demand (government of kerala, 2021). with declining produc�on and produc�vity and increasing consump�on demand food security is under threat. with shortage of agricultural land, the area under rice produc�on can't be increased. factors like effec�ve extension services will help farmers make be�er produc�on decisions given the exis�ng constraints. in kerala, the frequency of extension services and availability of extension staff is rela�vely low. in general, extension agents are not trained in providing extension services using ict tools like mobile phone ( ) . e x t e n s i o n s e b a s � a n e t a l . , 2 0 1 9 programmes like atma are reported to be inefficient in transferring informa�on to farmers (vijayakumar, 2019). given this, mere existence of extension programmes alone is not sufficient. these programmes should be efficient to address the challenges of farming sector (mgendi et al., 2021). th e effe c � ve n e s s of ex t e n s i o n services in general (rivera et al., 2022) and effec�veness and impact of specific extension programmes like training and visit system, village aid programmes, integrated rice development programmes (baloch et al., 2019), atma (agricultural technology management agency), leads (lead farmer centered advisory delivery service) etc had been discussed in the previous literature (vijayakumar, 2019). but there are also ins�tu�ons involved in p ro v i d i n g e x t e n s i o n s e r v i c e s l o c a l government ins�tu�ons, and private agents. these are the ins�tu�ons that connect specific extension programmes to farmers, but specific studies were not designed to iden�fy them, list out their services, analyze their impact and measure the sa�sfac�on of farmers from these services etc. the economic impact of agricultural extension was measured using produc�vity (yield) changes or by measuring the extent of technology adop�on by farmers (takahashi et al., 2019).but how 6708impact of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons on farm efficiency among rice farmers in kerala, india ex t e n s i o n s e r v i ce s i m p a c t t e c h n i c a l efficiency of agricultural produc�on have not been widely discussed. this study therefore tries to focus on these two research gaps. thus the objec�ve of this study is to measure the role of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons in technical efficiency of produc�on by focusing on the rice farmers of kerala, india. methodology alappuzha district is one of the major rice producing districts in kerala with 32 per cent of the rice produced in kerala coming from the district (government of kerala, 2021). the declining soil fer�lity, increasing pest disease a�ack, increasing use of chemical pes�cides, huge losses from changing weather condi�ons put huge stress on the rice yield in the district (government of kerala, 2021). as extension services are meant to help farmers address the emerging challenges in produc�on, an analysis of how the current extension system in rice in the district works is significant. in total alappuzha district has 24, 864 rice farmers (data source: principal agricultural office, alappuzha). par�cipants of the study were iden�fied from rice producing households of padashekharam's (or farmer organiza�on) a large group of rice fields organized together) of kainakary and thakazhi krishi bhavans of alappuzha district. these 2 krishi bhavans were selected because they contain largest area under rice cul�va�on (3213.64 hectares in k a i n a k a r y a n d 1 7 2 5 . 8 6 h e c t a re s i n t h a k a z h i ) ( d a t a s o u r c e : p r i n c i p a l agricultural office, alappuzha). out of the total 24,864 rice farmers, 4176 (16.8 per cent) belong to kainakary and 2314 (9.3 per cent) belong to thakazhi a re a . th e s a m p l e s we re p u r p o s i ve l y selected to iden�fy rice farmers who get extension services from the 3 iden�fied extension ins�tu�ons in the district. the criteria of selec�on were that, the sample farmer should be the one who gets extension services from these ins�tu�ons at least once in a week. while purposively selec�ng the samples, more samples were selected from kainakary area (46 farmers) as it contains higher propor�on of farmers and 26 farmers from thakazhi area were selected resul�ng in a total sample of 72 rice farmers. study was based on primary data collected using a semi structured interview schedule. study was conducted from1st st december 2021 to 31 december 2021 and st from1st december 2022 to 31 december 2022. but for maintaining uniformity and accuracy of analysis, data on yield, land size and other input cost were collected for the harvest season of novemberdecember 2021. in this study context, extension refers to informa�on and advisory delivery services that help farmers understand their constraints and find possible solu�ons to it 6709 journal of extension educa�on so as to improve produc�on, produc�vity and income (davis, 2020). and technical efficiency refers to efficiency of inputs to create more outputs. sa�sfac�on of farmers from extension services was analyzed using a 5 point likert scale analysis (1= very dissa�sfied and 5= very sa�sfied) (azumah, 2018). farmers were asked to provide sa�sfac�on score for each category of extension services provided by the iden�fied ins�tu�ons. using descrip�ve analysis the ins�tu�ons that provide extension in rice in the study area were iden�fied along with types of extension ac�vi�es provided by each ins�tute. the role of extension ins�tu�ons in efficiency of produc�on was measured in two parts.the first part of the study focused on the analysis of sa�sfac�on scores of farmers regarding the extension services they receive. principal component analysis was used for ge�ng sa�sfac�on scores. this methodology was used for extrac�ng the factors that have significant impact on the dependent variable that is, value of produc�on (saithong et al., 2022). the second part of the study measured technical efficiency of rice produc�on in the study area and factors affec�ng technical efficiency of produc�on. stochas�c fron�er produc�on analysis was used for technical efficiency analysis (ogaraku et al. 2020). a produc�on func�on was described ini�ally. the value of the rice produc�on per acre (quan�ty mul�plied by price per quintal) in the year 2021 (harvest season novemberdecember 2021) was taken as the dependent variable. four independent variables included in the produc�on func�on were size of land (in acres), produc�on cost (including cost of all inputsland, labor, machinery and other m at e r i a l i n p u t s i n r u p e e s) , ye a r s of experience in rice farming and frequency of extension services received (number of days per month). a n a n a l y s i s o f c o n s t r a i n t s i n extension availability was also done using primary survey.the constraints were iden�fied and modified from the variables iden�fied from previous studies (takahashi et al., 2020; gula� et al., 2022) farmers were asked to rank the constraints on a scale of one to five. these scores were used for providing jus�fica�on to sa�sfac�on scores. findings and discussion extension ins�tu�ons and services the study iden�fied the major ins�tu�ons that provide extension services in rice produc�on in the study area. it was found that there were three ins�tu�ons that provide extension services in rice: krishi bhavans, rice research sta�ons and farmer organiza�ons krishi bhavans are local government body under department of agriculture that deals with the crea�on and implementa�on 6710impact of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons on farm efficiency among rice farmers in kerala, india of various programmes for the development of agricultural sector. rice research sta�ons are part of kerala agricultural university which mainly focuses on research ac�vi�es including produc�on of new seed varie�es, technology etc. but they also provide extension services to rice farmers in kerala. fa r m e r o rg a n i z a� o n s a re b a s e l eve l organiza�ons that contain a group of farmers of a group of paddy fields. the organiza�ons also called as padashekhara sami�s have a proper organiza�onal structure with a president and secretary. the organiza�on serves as a connec�ng link between farmers and all other extension ins�tu�ons. with respect to rice there are four major extension ac�vi�es: plant and soil health services, fer�lizer and pes�cide applica�on, pest disease iden�fica�on and solu�on and clima�c/ weather informa�on. informa�on in these areas are provided through field visits, farm visits, office visits by farmers, through phone calls, whatsapp groups, no�ces, adver�sements, mee�ngs, s e m i n a r s a n d f a r m e r t o f a r m e r communica�ons. farmer sa�sfac�on regarding services from agricultural extension ins�tu�ons ta b l e 1 s h o w s t h e re s u l t s o f sa�sfac�on scores of farmers for each extension ac�vity analyzed using principal component analysis. 6711 journal of extension educa�on 70.1 % of the varia�on in the observa�on was explained by the first four principal components, extracted out of 12 independent variables using principal component analysis. hence sa�sfac�on scores were derived using these 5 principal components. table 1 shows that farmers get the highest sa�sfac�on from extension services related to clima�c informa�on services (0.663) provided by the research sta�ons. extension services provided by farmer organiza�ons had the highest sa�sfac�on score (0.487) regarding pest disease iden�fica�on and solu�on. in extension services related to plant and soil health services also, farmer organiza�on sa�sfied farmers more (0.393). extension services of the research sta�on provided more sa�sfac�on to farmers regarding fer�lizer and pes�cide applica�on. of the three major ins�tu�ons that provide extension services to farmers, extension ac�vity by research sta�on was most effec�ve in sa�sfying farmers. it had sa�sfac�on scores of 0.295, 0.256, 0.482, and 0.663 for extension services related to p l a n t a n d s o i l h e a l t h , pe s t d i s e a s e iden�fica�on and solu�on, fer�lizer and p e s � c i d e a p p l i c a � o n , a n d c l i m a � c informa�on, respec�vely. krishi bhavan was the least effec�ve, with a sa�sfac�on score of 0.254, 0.295, 0.340, and 0.347 for extension services related to plant and soil health, pest disease iden�fica�on and s o l u � o n , f e r � l i z e r a n d p e s � c i d e applica�on, and clima�c informa�on. farmer organiza�on had sa�sfac�on scores of 0.393, 0.487, 0.390, and 0.454 for extension services related to plant and soil health, pest disease iden�fica�on and s o l u � o n , f e r � l i z e r a n d p e s � c i d e applica�on, and clima�c informa�on. these scores indicate that the farmer organiza�on is the next best op�on for farmers a�er the 6712impact of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons on farm efficiency among rice farmers in kerala, india rice research sta�on to get extension services. it can be inferred that farmers were not fully sa�sfied by the extension services provided by these three major ins�tu�ons. table 2 helps in understanding the reasons fo r fa r m e r d i s s a� s fa c � o n . fro m t h e interview, the constraints in extension service availability were iden�fied. farmers were asked to rank each constraint on a scale of 1-5 and average rank was calculated (1= least severe, 5= most severe). table 2: ranking of constraints faced in ge�ng extension services sl.no. constraints 1 lack of frequent extension services in the area 2 inadequate number of extension agents 3 lack of awareness of informa�on sources 4 informa�on not easily accessible 5 poor knowledge-sharing culture 6 lack of informa�on provision in �me average rank (sample size, n=70) 3.2 4.2 3.7 3.8 4.1 4.8 the major reason for dissa�sfac�on of farmers regarding extension services were lack of informa�on availability on �me (4.8highly severe). according to the respondent's informa�on on soil fer�lity, weather changes etc were given very late, so that they won't get enough �me to prepare. classes and seminars were there, but not when farmers need it. there was lack of early predic�on of pest disease a�ack. this makes informa�on, even if it is available, less useful to farmers. farmers were not able to find adequate solu�ons to their agrarian problems due to lack of frequent extension services and inadequate number of extension agents. there was also difficulty in accessing informa�on as farmers o�en have to go to these offices or ins�tu�ons to get informa�on services. considering travelling difficul�es (cos�ng �me and money) farmers become reluctant to visit these ins�tu�ons or become part of farmer organiza�ons mee�ng. along with all these issues poor communica�on among rice farmers had resulted in less diffusion of informa�on. role of agricultural extension on technical efficiency of rice produc�on the stochas�c fron�er approach was used for measuring technical efficiency. table 3 shows the results of stochas�c fron�er analysis performed using fron�er 6713 journal of extension educa�on (version 4.1) so�ware with trans log produc�on func�on for the analysis of technical efficiency. the study made use of the following form of produc�on func�on: where y is value of produc�on per acre (in rupees), x is size of land (in acre), x1 2 is cost of produc�on (including cost of all inputsland, labor, machinery and other material inputs in rupees), x is years of 3 experience in rice farming, x isfrequency of 4 extension services received (number of days per month) and v is the error termn table 3: maximum likelihood es�mates of the stochas�c fron�er analysis for the study area variables and parameters ml es�mates (sample size, n=70) coefficient standard error constant -0.512 0.516 size of land -0.0496 0.132 input cost 0.0541 0.133 experience in rice farming 0.519 0.202 extension 0.878 0.070 sigma 0.802 0.387 gamma 0.613 0.403 lr test 0.312 log likelihood func�on -74.027 sta�s�cally significant at 1 percent٭٭ sta�s�cally significant at 5 percent٭ source: primary survey among rice farmers using interview schedule t-ra�o -0.993 -0.376 0.407 ٭٭2.57 ٭٭12.46 ٭2.070 1.521 from table 3, it can be observed that elas�city of the variable associated with extension service frequency is posi�ve and highly significant. hence, if the frequency of extension services increase by 1 per cent, it would increase agricultural produc�on by 0 . 8 7 8 p e r c e n t . t h i s i n d i c a t e s t h e significance of extension services and its f re q u e n c y i n i m p rov i n g a g r i c u l t u r a l produc�on. the variable indica�ng the experience of farmers (years of experience in rice farming) also has posi�ve elas�city and is significant. with increase in the years of experience farmers improve their produc�on efficiency. the input cost variable is posi�ve but not sta�s�cally significant. the elas�city of size of land is nega�ve and not significant. the constant 6714impact of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons on farm efficiency among rice farmers in kerala, india term is not significant (-0.993) which shows that the omi�ed variables in the study are n o t s i g n i fi c a n t l y a ffe c � n g t e c h n i c a l efficiency. t h e g a m m a v a l u e (γ) o f t h e maximum likelihood es�mate of the stochas�c fron�er produc�on model is 0.613. this value is sta�s�cally not significant. from this it can be inferred that 61.3 percent of the variability of agricultural produc�on is related to the factors contribu�ng to the technical efficiency of agricultural produc�on. the rest of the variability (38.7 per cent), is due to random noises. the likelihood ra�o test (lr test) was used to measure the presence of technical inefficiency (table 3). it gave a value of 0.312 which is less than the cri�cal chi square value 12.483 (given by kodde & palm, 1986). therefore the null hypotheses that there is no technical inefficiency can be accepted. the produc�on technique is efficient. size of land and input cost or produc�on cost has nothing to contribute to improve technical efficiency. if technical efficiency of produc�on has to be improved the frequency of extension services should be improved. conclusion the study analyzed the role of agricultural extension services on technical efficiency of rice produc�on in kerala, india. the major inference was that extension s e r v i c e s c o n t r i b u t e s i g n i fi c a n t l y i n improving technical efficiency of rice produc�on in the study area. factors like l a n d s i z e a n d i n p u t c o s t w e r e n o t contribu�ng to technical efficiency. but apart from the sa�sfac�on regarding a few services provided by research sta�on, f a r m e r s w e r e d i s s a � s fi e d f r o m t h e extension ac�vi�es. the reason for this were lack of �mely informa�on provision, lack of extension staff, less frequent availability of services and poor coopera�on and communica�on among farmers. thus the policy sugges�on is to bring reforms in the current extension structure. krishi bhavans should improve the quality and frequency of extension services delivered. there should be separate extension officers who should be given the task of effec�ve transferring of informa�on. research sta�ons must be free from the double burden of research and extension and focus only on research. the farmer organiza�ons should be more ac�ve to improve communica�on among farmers and between farmers and these ins�tu�ons. an improved ins�tu�onal environment of extension will definitely contribute to improve produc�on, produc�vity and thereby improve farm income. references albore, a. (2018). review on role and challenges of agricultural extension service on farm produc�vity in ethiopia. interna�onal journal of agricultural educa�on and extension, 4(1), 93-100. 6715 journal of extension educa�on azumah, s. b., donkoh, s. a., &awuni, j. a. (2018). the perceived effec�veness of a g r i c u l t u r a l t e c h n o l o g y t r a n s fe r methods: evidence from rice farmers in no r t h e r n g h a n a . c o g e n t fo o d & a g r i c u l t u r e , 4 ( 1 ) , 1 5 0 3 7 9 8 . h � p s : / / d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 1 0 8 0 / 23311932.2018.1503798 baloch, m. a., & thapa, g. b. (2019). review of the agricultural extension modes and services with the focus to balochistan, pakistan. journal of the saudi society of a g r i c u l t u ra l s c i e n ce s, 1 8(2), 188194.h�ps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2017.0 5.001 davis, kris�n e., babu, suresh chandra, & ragasa, catherine, (2020). agricultural e x t e n s i o n : g l o b a l s t a t u s a n d performance in selected countries. interna�onal food policy research i n s � t u t e ( i f p r i ) . h � p s : //d o i . o r g / 10.2499/ 9780896293755 government of kerala. (2021). economic review 2021 gula�, a., & juneja, r. (2022). transforming indian agriculture. indian agriculture towards 2030 (pp. 9-37). springer, singapore. mgendi, g., mao, s., & qiao, f. (2021). is a training program sufficient to improve the smallholder farmers' produc�vity in africa? empirical evidence from a c h i n e s e a g r i c u l t u r a l te c h n o l o g y demonstra�on center in tanzania. s u s t a i n a b i l i t y , 1 3 ( 3 ) , 1 5 2 7 . h�ps://doi.org/ 10.3390/ su13031527 norton, g. w., & alwang, j. (2020). changes i n a g r i c u l t u r a l e x t e n s i o n a n d implica�ons for farmer adop�on of new prac�ces. applied economic perspec�ves and policy, 42(1), 8-20.h�ps://doi.org/ 10.1002/aepp.13008 ndubueze-ogaraku, m. e., & graves, a. (2020). measuring farm technical efficiency using stochas�c fron�er p r o d u c � o n f u n c � o n m o d e l approach.h�ps://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs -73513/v1 rivera, w. m., & schram, s. g. (eds.). (2022). agricultural extension worldwide: issues, p ra c � c e s a n d e m e r g i n g p r i o r i � e s . routledge. s a i t h o n g , a . , s a t u m a n a t p a n , s . , kanongdate, k., piyawongnarat, t., & srisantear, p. (2022). adap�veness to e n h a n c e t h e s u s t a i n a b i l i t y o f freshwater-aquaculture farmers to the e n v i r o n m e n t a l c h a n g e s : 1 0 . 3 2 5 2 6 /e n n r j / 2 0 / 2 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 7 . environment and natural resources journal, 20(3), 288-296. sebas�an, a. j., & jeyalakshmi, g. (2019). use of digital tools for horizontal spread of agricultural technologies by farmers of kerala. journal of extension educa�on, 31(4).h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4. 31.6411-6416 6716impact of agricultural extension ins�tu�ons on farm efficiency among rice farmers in kerala, india https://doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2018.1503798 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2018.1503798 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2018.1503798 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2017.05.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2017.05.001 https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896293755 https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896293755 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031527 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031527 https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13008 https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13008 https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-73513/v1 https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-73513/v1 https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6411-6416 https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6411-6416 sharifzadeh, m. s., & abdollahzadeh, g. ( 2 0 2 1 ) .t h e i m p a c t o f d i ff e r e n t educa�on strategies on rice farmers' knowledge, a�tude and prac�ce (kap) about pes�cide use.journal of the saudi society of agricultural sciences, 20(5), 3 1 2 3 2 3 . h � p s : / / d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 1 0 1 6 / j.jssas.2021.03.003 sulandjari, k., putra, a., sulaminingsih, s., adi cakranegara, p., yusroni, n., & a n d i y a n , a . ( 2 0 2 2 ) . a g r i c u l t u r a l extension in the context of the covid19 pandemic: issues and challenges in t h e fi e l d . c a s p i a n j o u r n a l o f environmental sciences, 20(1), 137-143. takahashi, k., muraoka, r., & otsuka, k. (2020). technology adop�on, impact, and extension in developing countries' agriculture: a review of the recent literature. agricultural economics, 51(1), 3 1 4 5 . h � p s : // d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 1 1 1 1 / agec.12539 vijayakumar, k. p. (2019). awareness and use of informa�on and communica�on technology (ict) among farmers in kerala: a study. library philosophy & prac�ce. 6717 journal of extension educa�on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2021.03.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2021.03.003 https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12539 https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12539 page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 page 58 page 59 page 60 page 61 page 62 1 from the editor’s desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, the extension professional, who is the linchpin in the whole extension process, needs to be effective enough to make a successful extension programme, a success. the role of extension agent has been undergoing a lot of changes in line with the rapidly changing farm scenario. they are expected to demonstrate exemplary professionalism and possess the required technical and non-technical skills. suvedi & ghimire (2015) had identified the core competencies for extension professionals in developing countries: programme planning and implementation : extension professionals have to plan programmes within their organizations, while facilitating their clients to do the same. communication skills : the extension professionals need to have an understanding of the process of diffusion of innovation and need to communicate effectively with their clients and stakeholders. leadership : a large number of stakeholders are involved in and/or associated with agricultural services. extension professionals have the challenge to lead, coordinate and facilitate these diverse stakeholders. they should uphold stakeholders’ participation and ownership in the programs. education & information technology : they need to be competent in the effective use of emerging icts and other communication tools and methods. diversity, pluralism, & multiculturalism : extension professionals need to be familiar with the diversities of the communities they serve. professionalism : extension professionals should practice integrity, honesty, transparency and inclusiveness to demonstrate their competency. extension & organizational management : extension professionals should be able to mobilize and monitor their resources, and lead change to obtain extension outcomes effectively. programme evaluation & research : programme evaluation is one of the important core competencies required for extension professionals. extension professionals should have information about what, where, how and when extension programmes are delivered and how successful these programs are. technical expertise : together with the process skills, extension professionals should have basic knowledge of the subject matter of their discipline. and we should also keep in mind that these competencies are subject to change as new situations unfold. i am sure jee readers would find the articles in this issue, interesting. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com chief editor jee 29(4) 6296 1. pg scholar and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalai nagar, tamil nadu received : 10-07-2018; accepted : 30-11-2018 research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6296-6299 constraints in adoption of recommended cultivation practices of medicinal plant growers s. dineshkumar1 and r. jeya2 abstract the objective of this study is to identify the constraints faced by medicinal plant growers in adoption of recommended cultivation practices. the present investigation was conducted in tiruvannamalai district of tamil nadu state. a total of 120 respondents were selected randomly by proportionate random sampling method and were interviewed personally with the help of a structured interview schedule. the collected data were processed and statistically analyzed. major constraints experienced by the medicinal plant growers were improper availability of seed/planting material, high cost of labour, lack of fixed price policy for medicinal plants by the government and lack of processing industries. keywords: constraints ; adoption; medicinal plant growers;tamil nadu ‘medicinal plants’ refers to various types of plants used in herbalism or herbal medicine. human beings relied on nature for their basic needs, for production of food, shelter, clothing, transportation, fertilizers, flavors, fragrances and medicines. plants have formed the basis of sophisticated traditional medicine systems that have been in existence for thousands of years and continue to provide mankind with new remedies. natural products and their derivatives represent more than 50 per cent of all the drugs in clinical use in the world today. treatment with medicinal plants is considered very safe as there is no or minimal side effects. these remedies are in sync with nature, which is the biggest advantage. hence this study was taken up with an objective to study the constraints faced by medicinal plant growers in adopting the recommended cultivation practices. methodology in tiruvannamalai district of tamil nadu, chengam taluk was selected for the study, as it has the maximum area under medicinal plant cultivation compared to other taluks. in this taluk, three blocks namely chengam, thandarampattu and pudupalayam were selected based on maximum area criterion. a total of 120 respondents were selected by proportionate random sampling 6297 method from selected villages and they were interviewed personally to collect the data with the help of structured interview schedule. the collected data were processed and statistically analyzed. findings and discussion the constraints faced by the respondents in cultivation of medicinal plants were documented and presented in table 1. as regards production constraints, nearly three-fourths of the respondents (77.50 per cent) indicated improper availability of seed / planting material as the major constraint, is followed by higher cost of the labour as expressed by 72.50 per cent of the respondents. these have emerged as the first and second major constraints due to the fact that the contractor or the private agent being the only supplier of seed materials and sometimes the seeds were not viable. the migration of laborers from the villages to cities resulted in the non-availability of laborers for the technical operations and hence higher wages were demanded. this finding derives support from the findings of ajjan (2004) and bhuse (2002). the third constraint experienced by 63.33 per cent of the respondents was inadequate credit facilities. most of the respondents were having inadequate savings for the purchase of vital inputs for future use. they depended on private money lenders. they in turn charged high interest rates and at times the farmers had to mortgage their properties. besides, the respondents opined that the amount sanctioned by the cotable 1 production constraints faced in cultivation of medicinal plants n=120 sl.no production constraints no. of respondents per cent rank 1 improper availability of seed/ planting material 93 77.50 i 2 high cost of labour 87 72.15 ii 3 inadequate credit facilities 76 63.33 iii 4 high cost of inputs 69 57.50 iv 5 lack of assured irrigation facilities 57 47.50 v 6 lack of extension services on the cultivation aspects 50 41.66 vi 7 lack of trained personnel 50 41.66 vi constraints in adoption of recommended cultivation practices of medicinal plant growers 6298 operative society and commercial banks in the study area were not adequate to purchase the inputs. the fourth constraint experienced by the respondents was high cost of inputs. this might be due to the fact that they get the inputs from the private agencies who sell fertilizers, pesticides, seeds etc., the fifth constraint experienced by the respondents was lack of assured irrigation facilities. basically the study area is a drought prone area. due to failure of monsoon and a poor storage in reservoirs, the water let in to canal for irrigation purpose is not adequate. other constraints were lack of extension services on the cultivation aspects and lack of trained personnel. most of the respondents reported that farm labourers need to be properly trained about the cultivation practices of medicinal plants. moreover, some of the practices are carried out simultaneously by all the farmers and hence there have been heavy demand for trained labourers. among the marketing constraints, the major constraint expressed by 91.66 per cent of the respondents was lack of fixed price policy for medicinal plants by the government. the contributing reasons for the problem of fixed price policy were fluctuating demands and supply in the regional, national and international levels. this indicates that there is a need to open co-operative marketing centre and regarding price fixation the government has to take steps to formulate comprehensive policy measures for price fixation. this finding derives support from the findings of bharathideepa (2003) and mary (2004). the second major constraint experienced by 82.50 per cent of the respondents was lack of processing industries in the nearby area. medicinal plants are processed within a few hours or weeks or months after harvesting and used for many other purposes like cosmetics, table 2 marketing constraints faced in cultivation of medicinal plants n=120 sl. no marketing constraints no. of respondents per cent rank 1 lack of fixed price policy for medicinal plants by the government 110 91.66 i 2 lack of processing industries in the nearby area 99 82.50 ii 3 lack of proper marketing channel 81 67.50 iii 4 lack of information on post-harvest technology and lack of standard specification of the produce 78 65.00 iv 5 inadequate transport facilities 63 52.50 v journal of extension education 6299 tablets etc. the growers process their produce at nearby processing industries only. so if the government encourages processing industries in each block then the area under cultivation of medicinal plant can be increased. the constraint experienced by 67.50 per cent of the respondents was lack of proper marketing channel. in the study area most of the farmers do not know the proper place to get the planting material and to market. generally, the middle men who have contact with the private industries, collect all the produce and supply to the industries. lack of knowledge on available marketing facilities for medicinal plants might be the reason for this constraint. the fourth constraint was lack of information on postharvest technology and lack of standard specification of the product. most of the farmers directly supply their produce to the contractors at the field itself. due to this they did not care much for postharvest technology. however the growers are aware of the fact that they can get better price if they store and sell the produce at an appropriate time. in the study area only for the past few years they have been cultivating the medicinal plants. inadequate transport facilities was also listed as a constraint. the study area was mostly rural and there were improper facilities to transfer their produce from one place to another. the contractors or commission agents collect extra charges for transport. references ajjan, n. (2004). farmers told to follow prescribed practices in production of medicinal plants, (electronic version), the hindu, p 4. retrieved may 27, 2004 from http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/18/ stories/2004 bharathideepa, m. (2003). adoption and marketing behaviour of senna growers. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, madurai. bhuse, v.h & ghule, s. t. (2002). constraints in cultivation of medicinal plants. kisan world, 29(12): 59-60. mary, s.e. (2004). integrated dry farming system in tamil nadu – a feasibility study, unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. constraints in adoption of recommended cultivation practices of medicinal plant growers 6091 jee 30(3) my dear readers of journal of extension education, recently i had a chance to interact with the participants of a model training course (mtc) on ‘market-led extension’, who were senior functionaries of the departments of agriculture from different parts of india. of late, apart from their conventional function of providing knowledge for improved agricultural productivity, the public extension system is expected to link small and marginal farmers with high-value markets. india has been effective in making its public extension system more market-driven, only to a certain extent (swanson, 2006) and there is an urgent need to link these farmers, with limited marketing capabilities, to markets with the help of effective ict-based agricultural market information services, so that they increase their bargaining power with knowledge of market prices without being dependent on middlemen and traders. during the interaction with the mtc trainees, it was felt that the present day extension agents too often jump in to ict-based solutions for the problems in marketing. those extension practitioners who use ict tools to improve the marketing ability of the farmers need to consider the following questions before formulating a strategy (usaid, 2013), it was felt: value is there a demonstrated value-add to users of the proposed ict solution? : in order for a solution to be sustainable, users must understand and be empowered to act upon the valueadd that they can gain. behaviour change what behaviour changes are required for the users to integrate the ict solution into their business cycle? : adopting new ict solutions will require farmers and other value chain actors to change their behaviours. technical literacy do users have the knowledge and skills to successfully use the solution? not having the literacy of ict tools has prevented many users, especially rural farmers, from accessing pricing information and other tools gender what are implications for gender dynamics? ownership have farmers invested their own resources (time, data or income) in the solutions? replicability is this model specific to a particular geographic area or agricultural sector? simplicity are there free or off-the-shelf alternatives? : extension agents should also consider that there might be simple and free technology solutions available. before identifying an ict strategy, the extension agents can ask these aforementioned questions, which would enable in finding out if it actually fits both the needs of the programme and those of the farmers who are involved. this issue of jee discusses contemporary issues such as people’s participation and impact of group formation. do send your feedback on the papers and suggestions for special issues to editorextension@gmail.com. from the editor’s desk chief editor 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 effectiveness of hub and spoke model for dissemination of innovative farm technologies to the farming community n. sriram* abstract hub and spoke model was established for dissemination of the innovative farming technologies at farmers’ doorstep. the study was conducted to measure the effectiveness of hub and spoke model for dissemination of innovative farm technologies at tiruvannamalai district of tamil nadu. the respondents were selected by adopting purposive random sampling technique. a sample of 75 respondents from five villages of polur block was selected for this study. the hub and spoke model was established and the knowledge gain of the subjects both at the pre and post exposure stages were collected using teacher made knowledge tests respectively. the data were collected using a well structured and pre-tested interview schedule. the data were analyzed by using appropriate statistical tools. the percentage of knowledge gained before the exposure to treatment was 40.20 per cent and after exposed it was 76.70 per cent. the mean knowledge gain is 36.50 per cent. the ‘t’ value 19.93 per cent indicates that the knowledge gained by the respondents was found to be significant at one per cent level. it was identified that there existed a significant differences in the effectiveness of the hub and spoke services in imparting knowledge. *assistant professor (agricultural extension), krishi vigyan kendra, salem the information and communication technologies (ict) can generate new opening to bridge the gap between information haves and information have-nots in the developing countries. farmers have enthusiasm to obtain knowledge, particularly in the field of modern agriculture to become psychologically strong and conducive with necessary capacities to adopt modern methods of agriculture. in india, it is very difficult to contact each and every farmer in limited time to communicate latest agricultural technology. to diminish this difficulty, various mass media are certainly most effective avenues to convey information to the broad means of people, particularly to the huge illiterate segment of the farmers. mahindra kisan mitra initiatives by mahindra tractor company, the company has established hub and spoke centre which links samriddhi and mahindra kisan mitra to further strengthening its service to farming community with power of information communication technologies. the study was conducted with objective to measure the effectiveness of hub and spoke model for dissemination of innovative farm technologies. the ‘hub’ is at the center and each of the ‘spokes’ extends outward from the center. the hub connects ‘remote’ offices in other cities. the remote offices are the ‘spoke’ sites. each 5395effectiveness of hub and spoke model for dissemination of innovative farm technologies to the farming community of the remote sites connects to the main ‘hub’ site. mahindra and mahindra has established its first samriddhi centre in tamil nadu at polur, tiruvanamalai to provide agro advisory service to the farming community in addition to the farm machinery solution. further, mahindra and mahindra also established hub and spoke centres with help of tnau interventions by linking samridhhi centres to spread the farm specific information at farmers door step and to study its effectiveness in terms of knowledge gain. methodology the study was conducted at tiruvanamalai district of tamil nadu. polur block of tiruvannamali district was considered as the study area and from that block five villages were selected as suggested by the sponsoring agency. the respondents were selected by adopting purposive random sampling technique. a sample of 75 respondents from five villages of polur block was selected for this study. the hub and spoke model was established and the knowledge gain of the subjects both at the pre and post exposure stages were collected using teacher made knowledge tests respectively. the data were collected using a well structured and pretested interview schedule. the data were analyzed by using appropriate statistical tools. one group is pre tested and exposed to the treatment, and then post tested. this is called a one-group pre test-post test design because the two tests are administered to the same group. findings and discussion knowledge gain of project farmers on paddy cultivation knowledge gain has been operationalised as the body of understood information possessed by the respondents on cultivation of paddy farming after hub and spoke intervention. the knowledge gain of the respondents was studied and the findings were presented in this section. a glance at table 1 pointed that there exists significant difference between before and after exposure of the treatment. the percentage of knowledge gained before the exposure to treatment was 40.20 per cent and after exposed it was 76.70 per cent. the mean knowledge gain is 36.50 per cent. the ‘t’ value 19.93 per cent indicates that the knowledge table 1. distribution of mean knowledge gain due to the exposure of treatment (n=75) s.no. particulars means per cent ‘t’ value 1. before exposure 9.65 40.20 19.93** 2. after exposure 18.41 76.70 3. mean knowledge gain 8.76 36.50 ** significant at 0.01 per cent level. journal of extension education5396 gained by the respondents was found to be significant at one per cent level. it is identified that there existed a significant differences in the effectiveness of the hub and spoke services in imparting knowledge. the reason might be the exposure of spoke services through different communication methods via computers, mobile phones, distribution of booklets, posters, and training. hence, majority of the respondents gain significant knowledge gain due to hub and spoke intervention. nazreen (2008) also reported that there was significant knowledge gain among the respondents in his study on effective agricultural information delivery system. from table 2, it could be observed that out of fifteen characteristics taken for the study, three characteristics namely educational status (x2), farming experience (x5) and contact with extension agency (x10) exhibited significant and positive correlation with knowledge gain at five per cent level of significance. it is quite natural that educational status, farming experience and contact with extension agency increases the level of knowledge gain. the educational status, farming experience and contact with extension agency have influenced the respondents to gain more knowledge. the other variables had non-significant x1 age -0.082 ns 0.060 0.021 1.517 ns x2 educational status 0.250* -0.090 0.170 2.523** x3 family type 0.000 ns 0.000 0.000 0.000 ns x4 occupational status 0.000 ns 0.000 0.000 0.000 ns x5 farming experience 0.246* 1.582 0.318 0.954 ns x6 farm size -0.119 ns -0.138 0.304 0.106 ns x7 annual income -0.115 ns -1.092 0.468 0.360 ns x8 farm power possession -0.275 ns -0.712 0.183 0.383 ns x9 social participation -0.119 ns -0.146 0.094 -0.115 ns x10 extension agency contact 0.118* 0.527 0.306 1.905* x11 participation in extension methods -0.211 ns -0.319 0.095 -1.306 ns x12 innovativeness -0.198 ns -0.132 0.066 1.210 ns x13 awareness about the training centers -0.044 ns -0.122 0.188 0.996 ns x14 perceived effectiveness of the training program -0.279 ns -0.256 0.165 -1.112 ns x15 perceived attributes 0.302 ns 0.127 0.062 1.392 table 2. correlation and multiple regression analysis of independent variables towards knowledge gain (n=75) ‘t’variable no. variables ‘r’ value regression coefficient se r2 = 0.5133 ** = significant at one per cent f = 1.849 * = significant at five per cent 5397effectiveness of hub and spoke model for dissemination of innovative farm technologies to the farming community relationship with dependent variable. the findings are in conformity with the findings of fernandaz (2002) who found that the variable educational status had shown a positive relationship with knowledge gain of the respondents. as shown in the table 2 the r2 value is 0.5133, which means that the fifteen variables together contributed 51.33 per cent of variation in the knowledge gain of the respondents. it could be seen from the table 2 that the variables educational status and extension agency contact had shown positive and significant contribution towards knowledge gain of respondents at one per cent level. here, one unit increase in educational status of the respondents would result in 2.523 units increase in the knowledge gain of the respondents, in the same way one unit increase in extension agency contact of the respondents, would result in 1.905 units increase in the knowledge gain of the respondents. extension agency contact was found to have positive and significant association with knowledge gain of the respondents. this finding explained that more contact with extension agency would enhance the knowledge gain of the farmers. extension agencies help the farmers to become aware of the latest technologies. this finding derives support from the finding of rajakumar (1981) who reported that extension agency contact showed a significant association with the knowledge gain of the respondents. conclusion the percentage of knowledge gained before the exposure to treatment was 40.20 per cent and after exposure was 76.70 per cent. the mean knowledge gain was 36.50 per cent. it shows that the treatment were effective in imparting knowledge. hence, it could be concluded that the hub and spoke model may be established in all the rural areas with power of information communication technologies for effective transfer of farm technologies to farmers at doorstep for accelerating the farmers’ production, productivity and livelihood status. references fernandaz, cinthia. 2002. hands on training to farmers computer usea feasibility study. unpub. m.sc. (ag.) thesis, tnau, coimbatore. nazreen, s. 2008. effective agricultural information delivery system–an action research among farmers. unpub. ph. d. thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala. rajakumar, n. 1981. an evaluation study of soil and water management scheme in madurai district. unpub. m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac & ri, madurai. 6083 profile characteristics of and constraints faced by banana growers n. amaladeepan1 and j. pushpa2. abstract this study explored the socio-economic characteristics of the banana growers and the constraints faced by them in banana cultivation in thoothukudi district of tamilnadu. the major constraints faced by them were, non availability of labour during cultivation time, inadequate irrigation facility, heavy damage by wind, high labour wages and fluctuation in market price. keywords: socio-economic characteristics; constraints; banana growers; tamil nadu received : 27-08-2018; accepted : 24-12-2018 1. pg scholar and 2. professor & head. department of social sciences, agricultural college and research institute, killikulam, vallanadu, tamil nadu agricultural university, tamil nadu, india. in india, tamil nadu is the leading producer of banana at 43,31,650 tonnes with a share of about 14.87 % in the overall production of banana (apeda, 2015 -16). though tamil nadu ranks first in production of banana, productivity is less compared to the other leading banana producing states in the country. hence, there was a need to study the socio-economic characteristics of banana growers and the constraints faced by them in banana cultivation in order to enhance the productivity of banana in thoothukudi district of tamil nadu. methodology this study was conducted in thoothukudi district of tamil nadu. in thoothukudi district, two blocks viz., srivaikundam and alwarthirunagiri were selected for this study where the area under banana cultivation is predominant. among them, two villages were selected from each block, where the area under banana cultivation was predominant. from these selected four villages, 120 farmers growing banana were selected by applying proportionate random sampling method. the respondents were interviewed individually with the help of a well structured interview schedule to assess the socio-economic characteristics. then they were asked to mention the constraints that limited the adoption of cultivation technologies of banana growers. finally, the results were analysed and interpreted. findings and discussions socio-economic characteristics of banana growers in social science research, it is essential to analyse the characteristics of farmers which research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 2, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.2.30.6083-6087 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6084 will give a basic and clear understanding about the background of farmers. the socio-economic characteristics of banana growers are given in table 1. table 1. socio-economic characteristics of banana growers (n=120) sl.no category number percentage i. age: 1. young 7 5.83 2. middle 27 22.50 3. old 86 71.67 ii. educational status 1. illiterate 2. functionally literate 3. primary school education 6 5.00 4. middle school education 48 40.00 5. secondary school education 22 18.33 6. high school education 26 21.67 7. collegiate education 18 15.00 iii. occupational status 1. farming alone 71 59.17 2. farming + wage earners 28 23.33 3. farming + business 19 15.83 4. farming+ services 2 1.67 iv. family type 1. joint family 48 40.00 2. nuclear family 72 60.00 v. farm size 1. marginal farmers <2.5 acres 33 27.50 2. small farmers (2.51 – 5.0 acres) 41 34.17 3. medium farmers (5.01 – 10.00) 25 20.83 4. big farmers (>10 acres) 21 17.50 vi. area under selected crop (banana) 1. < 2.5 acres 47 39.17 2. 2.5 -5.0 acres 37 30.83 3. 5.0110.0 acres 21 17.50 4. >10.0 acres 15 12.50 journal of extension education 6085 profile characteristics of and constraints faced by banana growers sl.no category number percentage vii. farming experience in banana cultivation 1. low 43 35.83 2. medium 66 55.00 3. high 11 9.17 viii. information seeking behaviour 1. low 36 30.00 2. medium 48 40.00 3. high 36 30.00 ix. social participation 1. low 6 5.00 2. medium 105 87.50 3. high 9 7.50 x. innovativeness 1. low 9 7.50 2. medium 68 56.67 3. high 43 35.83 xi. scientific orientation 1. low 33 27.50 2. medium 72 60.00 3. high 15 12.50 xii. risk orientation 1. low 21 17.50 2. medium 68 56.67 3. high 31 25.83 xiii. progressiveness 1. low 43 35.83 2. medium 35 29.17 3. high 42 35.00 xiv. credit orientation 1. low 24 20.00 2. medium 41 34.17 3. high 55 45.83 xv. economic motivation 1. low 33 27.50 2. medium 50 41.67 3. high 37 30.83 6086 sl.no category number percentage xvi. annual income 1. up to rs. 50000 2 1.67 2. from rs.50000 to 100000 20 16.67 3. above rs.100000 98 81.67 from table 1, it could be observed that, majority of the banana growers were old aged, had middle school education, had farming alone as their occupation, small farmers, had cultivated banana in less than 2.5 acres, had medium to high level of information seeking behaviour, had medium level of experience in banana cultivation, medium level of social participation, medium level of innovativeness, medium level of scientific orientation, risk orientation and economic motivation, had low level of progressiveness, had high level of credit orientation and had an annual income of more than one lakh rupees. constraints faced by the banana growers in banana cultivation constraint analysis is becoming one of the important components of research. without analysing the constraints, it is impossible to diffuse the needed technologies among the farming community. the constraints faced by the banana growers are given in table 2. table 2. constraints faced by the banana growers in banana cultivation (n = 120) sl.no. constraints number percentage 1. non availability of labour 97 80.83 2. inadequate irrigation facilities 95 79.17 3. heavy damage by wind 85 70.83 4. high labour wages 80 66.67 5. fluctuation in market price 64 53.33 6. more distance of market place 24 20.00 7. inadequate credit facilities 11 9.17 8. more incidence of pests and diseases 10 8.33 9. lack of storage facilities 8 6.67 10. inadequate extension support 6 5.00 11. lack of technical guidance 4 3.33 12. non availability of inputs in time 3 2.50 journal of extension education 6087 from table 2, it is concluded that non availability of labour during cultivation time was the major constraint reported by 80.83 per cent of the respondents. this might be mainly due to hundred days employment programme (mgnrega) followed by 79.17 per cent of the respondents who reported that inadequate irrigation facility as a constraint for them. nearly three-fourths of the respondents (70.83 %) expressed heavy damage by wind as a major constraint. the result is in accordance with the findings of poonam (2010) who had also reported that heavy damage by wind, fluctuation in market price, inadequate irrigation facilities and non-availability of input in time were the constraints faced by the banana growers. from the findings derived in this study, certain broad implications have been brought out in formulating strategies for the benefits of banana growers. the study revealed that the banana growers differed widely in their profile. it is essential to enhance the adoption level of the banana growers through proper demonstration and training. the study revealed that the major constraints in banana cultivation were heavy damage by wind, inadequate irrigation facilities and non availability of labour for intercultural operations. hence, it is recommended that extension personnel need to take steps in popularizing casuarina cultivation to protect banana crop from heavy winds. references apeda. (2016). indian production of banana. http://www.agriexchange.apeda.gov.in/ india%20production/india_productions. aspx?cat=fruit&hscode=1042 ncaer. (2015). india’s banana scenario a research paper prepared under the project agricultural outlook and situation analysis reports. new delhi: national council of applied economic research. pauline, d. a. (2014). a study on value chain of banana in tamil nadu. unpublished ph.d. thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. poonam. (2010). a study on adoption of recommended banana production technology among the farmers of durg district of chhattisgarh state. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, indira gandhi krishi vishwavidyalaya, raipur. thasneem, s & seema, b.(2016). technology utilization of banana in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala. journal of extension education, 28(2). profile characteristics of and constraints faced by banana growers 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 sources of data for micro level planning from village level institutions: an overview sulaja. o.r1 and jiju p. alex2 abstract a study was conducted to compile the databases related to agricultural development available at the local level that could be used for micro level planning. for this purpose, the details of legacy databases in offices of the department of agriculture and local self government institutions were collected to find out the frequency of updating information and completeness of data. further investigation was done to find out the static and dynamic nature of legacy registers and how best they could be used in building up a comprehensive database for facilitating micro level planning in agriculture. 1-ph.d. scholar and 2-associate professor, department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara, thrissur, kerala formalized planning for development has been a major feature of indian economy which was perceived as a national goal in the wake of independence. it is observed that the initial approach of planning based on macro level assessment of resources has not yielded the desired results (dutta and singh, 2007). considering the diversity of crops and geographical or socioeconomic characteristics regarding agriculture, micro level planning has been suggested as the best way to plan agricultural development projects. preparing micro level plan involves a series of steps which demand information on various aspects at each and every stage (issac and franke, 2002). development planners at micro level include officials from the department of agriculture, people’s representatives and experts from relevant development departments. ahanene (1991) reported that the extension personnel required information in development planning and decision making. they mostly depend on legacy databases in different government offices especially krishi bhavans and grama panchayat offices. the present study was undertaken with the specific objectives of compiling the databases in krishi bhawans and grama panchayat offices, classifying them based on purpose, and characterizing the legacy databases based on specific features. methodology the present study was conducted in kerala state. multi stage random sampling was adopted for selection of local self government institutions. from each of the five agro climatic zones as classified under narp (northern, southern, central, high altitude and problem area) and from onattukara region, one district was selected. two blocks were selected at random from each district. four grama panchayats and four krishi bhavans were selected from each block randomly. sample consisted of (i) offices of the local self government institutions which includes grama panchayat, block panchayat and journal of extension education5374 district panchayat (66 offices) (ii) offices of department of agriculture including krishi bhavans, offices of assistant director of agriculture, offices of principal agricultural officer (66 offices) thus forming a total of 132 offices. findings and discussion classification of registers in the krishi bhavan krishi bhavan, which is the nodal agency for formulation and implementation of micro level development plans in agriculture maintain 140 registers from where vital information for various subsectors and microsectors of agriculture could be extracted (table 1). the registers kept in the krishi bhavan could be classified into six categories viz. account based, establishment based, social security service based, comprehensive development based, basic registers and project management/ scheme registers based on the purpose for which they are used. out of the sl.no. category or purpose no. of types of registers in krishi bhavan frequency percentage 1 account 19 13 2 establishment 5 5 3 social security service based 4 3 4 comprehensive development 3 2 5 basic 3 2 6 project management/ scheme registers 106 75 total 140 100 table 1. classification of registers in the krishi bhavan 140 registers found out, account based registers (13 per cent) include all those which deal with cash transactions in the office. the grama panchayat also has an array of registers that deal with the multiple responsibilities of local body (table 2). while some of the registers would not seem to be important, many registers are sources of vital information that could be used in different stages of development planning and implementation. the gram panchayat office is the basic unit of the three tier system of panchayati raj institutions, which also include block panchayat and district panchayat at the higher tiers. as envisaged in the 73rd and 74th amendments of the constitution and the panchayati raj act of kerala, gram panchayat is responsible for most of the direct transactions of the local governments with citizens. major registers include those recording the details of civil registrations which include birth, death and marriage. taxation, another major mandate of local bodies accounts for registers for property tax, 5375sources of data for micro level planning from village level institutions: an overview table 2. classification of registers in the grama panchayat sl.no. category or purpose no. of types of registers in panchayat frequency percentage 1 establishment registers 8 5 2 accounts registers 26 15 3 finance registers 16 9 4 panchayat meeting registers 5 3 5 tax registers 17 10 6 public works registers 11 6 7 license fee (registers) 4 2 8 births & deaths ( registers) 5 3 9 kbr registers 2 1 10 office procedure (registers) 12 7 11 other items (registers) 10 6 12 marriage rules (register) 2 2 13 library (registers) 7 4 14 welfare registers 10 7 15 front office 6 3 16 scheme registers 30 17 total 171 100 entertainment and advertisement tax and appeals. similarly the local bodies give licenses for enterprises, shops, hotels etc. which require registers on licence fee remitted for various licenses issued by the local body. scheme registers amounts to 17 per cent table 3. frequency of updating information which deal with various schemes implemented by the panchayat through development departments under the panchayat. the registers in krishi bhavan and panchayat were further classified based on the frequency of updating information as seen in table 3. figures in parenthesis represent percentages 1 daily 2 (1) 8 (5) 2 as per transaction 132 (95) 154 (90) 3 as and when required 6 (4) 9 (5) total 140 171 sl.no. frequency of updating information no. of registers in krishi bhavan no. of registers in panchayat journal of extension education5376 attempts to classify registers on the basis of the frequency of updating revealed that only two registers in krishi bhavan are updated daily. six registers were found to be updated on the basis of needs that emerge from time to time. in the case of panchayat, only five per cent of the registers are updated daily. about 5 per cent of the registers are updated as and when required. an enquiry was also made to find out how many registers in krishi bhavans and panchayats are complete, with respect to data fields. this was found out by estimating whether the fields are blank are not (table 4). table 4. completeness of registers the results showed that about 58 per cent of the registers in krishi bhavan were found to be complete whereas 42 per cent of registers in krishi bhavan were incomplete in some respects.similarly while 64 per cent of registers in the panchayat were found to be complete and 36 per cent were found to be incomplete. looking further, it was found that mandatory registers and registers that are transaction based are complete to a great extent. whereas registers that deal with administration of schemes are mostly incomplete. figures in parenthesis represent percentages 1 complete 81 (58) 109 (64) 2 incomplete 59 (42) 62 (36) total 140 171 sl.no. whether complete/ not no. of registers in krishi bhavan no. of registers in panchayat figures in parenthesis represent percentages 1 static 6 (4) 3 (2) 2 dynamic 134 (96) 168 (98) total 140 171 sl.no. static/ dynamic no. of registers in krishi bhavan no. of registers in panchayat table 5. registers based on static/ dynamic nature an enquiry was also done to find out how many registers contain dynamic data that have to be entered on a regular basis in accordance with transactions. it is found that in krishi bhavans, about 4 per cent of the registers are static in nature with respect to data entry as they do not require to be updated on a regular basis whereas 96 per cent of the 5377sources of data for micro level planning from village level institutions: an overview registers which were found to be dynamic, require regular updating. moreover, these registers contain data fields that are filled mandatorily as the result of these transactions. these data are used to find out the status of various interactions with citizens. in panchayat offices, about 98 per cent of the registers were found to be dynamic in nature. only two per cent of the registers were found to be static in nature. conclusion the study compiled the databases available in krishi bhavans and panchayats. it was found that there were 140 registers in krishi bhavans under six major categories. panchayats keep large number of registers for smooth functioning which amount to 171, under 16 major categories. the registers in krishi bhavan and panchayats were further classified based on the frequency of updating information. it was found that two registers in krishi bhavan are updated daily and six registers were found to be updated on the basis of need. in the case of panchayat, only five per cent of the registers updated daily. about 90 per cent of the registers are updated as per the transaction. an enquiry was also made to find out how many registers in krishi bhavans and panchayats are complete, with respect to data fields. about 58 per cent of the registers in krishi bhavan are found to be complete whereas 42 per cent of them incomplete. similarly while 64 percentage of registers in the panchayat were found to be complete, 36 per cent were found to be incomplete. the investigation on dynamic/ static nature of registers showed that in krishi bhavans, about 4 per cent of the registers are static in nature whereas 96 per cent of them are dynamic and require regular updating. however, in panchayat it was 98 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. the status of maintenance of registers and the frequency of updating are indicators to the prospects of designing comprehensive databases and information systems for micro level planning in agriculture. references ahanene. e.m. 1991. use of library and information services in development planning – case of local government decision makers in imo state, nigeria. annals of library science and documentation 1991, 38(2): 74-78. dutta, u. and singh, y. 2007. micro-level planning using spatial database. current science, vol. 93(7): 921-926. issac, t. m.t. and franke, r. 2002. local democracy and development. rowman & little field publishers, new york, 241 p. pages 2021-4.cdr introduction commercial dog breeding in kerala has of late proved to be highly rewarding on account of the unprecedented event that made history, the covid-19 pandemic. this situa�on resulted in an escalated demand for puppies and a shortage in supply of the same because of lockdown a n d w o r k f r o m h o m e s i t u a � o n s . tradi�onally, dog breeding has not found a place among construc�ve ventures that have a likelihood of profitability and the poten�al to create jobs. the market for companion dogs has been flourishing, and this has resulted in a shi� in the scene w o r l d w i d e . t h e r e i s a b u i l d i n g acknowledgment of dog breeding as a lucra�ve venture and a reliable source of income. other than puppies and stud service, commercial dog breeding was not envisaged as an enterprise that would supply meat or other material products. unlike livestock farming, the produc�on process in the dog breeding sector is 6700 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.4, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.4.33.6700-6706 analysis of profitability of commercial dog breeding ventures in thrissur and ernakulam districts of kerala 1 1 1 2 rashmi ravindranath , t. s. rajeev , p. reeja george and safeer m. saifudeen abstract kerala's commercial dog breeding enterprise is a promising one with the poten�al to reduce youth unemployment and provide a livelihood. however, the state lacks authen�c informa�on on factors affec�ng profitability of commercial dog breeding business. the present study was conducted to iden�fy the associa�on between factors that affect profitability of commercial dog breeding in kerala. the study was conducted using an ex-post facto research design on 60 commercial dog breeding units selected randomly from thrissur and ernakulam districts of kerala. data collec�on was done using a pretested-structured interview schedule. study revealed that years of experience, number of dogs reared, number of puppies born, cost of veterinary care, level of adop�on and labour cost were correlated with profitability of commercial dog breeding enterprise. keywords: dog breeding; profitability; factors; kerala 1. department of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, college of veterinary and animal sciences, mannuthy, kerala and 2. department of animal genetics and breeding, college of veterinary and animal sciences, mannuthy, kerala veterinary and animal sciences university, kerala received : 25-04-2022; accepted: 15-01-2023 complex and it cannot be delineated into h o moge n e o us a ge , we i g ht, o r b re e d categories to ease the study. the profitability of any enterprise depends on the scien�fic organiza�on of factors that affect the cost incurred and returns obtained. like any other business enterprise, animal breeding and associated ac�vi�es are undertaken by ordinary folk to enhance their livelihood opportuni�es, all of which have assumed greater relevance in the post-covid riddled economic situa�on of today. thus, the trade-off principles of profitability operate in this sector. a comprehensive understanding of the factors that affect the profitability of animalbased produc�on units would be crucial to the success of these ventures. methodology i n o rd e r t o s t u d y t h e f a c t o r s affec�ng the profitability of commercial dog breeding units in kerala, two districts, thrissur and ernakulam, were purposively selected because these districts had the highest number of purebred dog li�ers registered with the kennel club of india. the sampling frame for both districts was p r e p a r e d s e p a r a t e l y u s i n g t h e k e y informants, such that 70 and 67 breeders w e r e i d e n � fi e d f r o m t h r i s s u r a n d ernakulam districts, respec�vely. from these lists, a sample of 60 commercial dog breeders was selected randomly. key i n f o r m a n t s i n c l u d e d v e t e r i n a r i a n s , members of the kennel club of india, and commercial dog breeders. data collec�on was done using a pretested-structured interview schedule along with direct nonpar�cipant observa�on in order to ensure t h e r e l i a b i l i t y o f d a t a . a pe a r s o n ' s correla�on analysis was done to iden�fy the independent variables that were associated with the profitability of the enterprise using spss version 26. findings and discussion a correla�on analysis was done to iden�fy the independent variables that were related to the profitability of the enterprise, the dependent variable. the study also finds the extent and nature of the correla�on using pearson's correla�on coefficient (r). years of experience in dog breeding, number of adult animals reared, number of puppies born and labor cost were posi�vely associated with profitability at a one per cent level of significance. veterinary expenses and the level of adop�on of improved prac�ces were also associated with profitability of commercial dog breeding at a five per cent level of significance. age of the respondents, number of breeds reared, feed cost, total fixed cost, and level of knowledge were nonsignificant. 6701 analysis of profitability of commercial dog breeding ventures in thrissur and ernakulam districts of kerala sl. no. independent variable pearson’s correla�on coefficient (r) p-value 1. age of commercial dog breeder .017 ns .896 2. years of experience in dog breeding .880** .000 3. number of adult animals reared .465** .000 4. number of breeds reared -.027 ns .835 5. number of puppies born .539** .000 6. veterinary expense .324* .011 7. feed cost .124 ns .344 8. total fixed cost .168 ns .198 9. labo r cost .388** .002 10. level of adop�on .245* .030 11. level of knowledge .209 ns .109 6702journal of extension educa�on table 1. rela�onship between independent variables and the profitability of commercial dog breeding (n=60) * significant at 5 per cent level ** significant at 1 per cent level ns not significant associa�on between years of experience in dog breeding and the profitability of commercial dog breeding units this study revealed a significant a s s o c i a � o n b e t w e e n t h e y e a r s o f experience of the commercial dog breeder in dog breeding and the profitability of the enterprise (r = 0.88, p < 0.001). a strong posi�ve associa�on was found to affect the profitability of the commercial dog breeding units. profitability rises in tandem with years of experience in dog breeding. prior experience in dog breeding ac�vi�es can thus prove to be crucial for aspiring dog breeders. this experience can be ensured by conduc�ng hands-on training sessions or workshops by veterinary universi�es, voca�onal schools, and kennel clubs so that v e t e r i n a r y s t u d e n t s a n d i n t e r e s t e d individuals can get first-hand experience of managing the kennel ac�vi�es in a kennel. before taking care of their kennels, poten�al breeders can be offered the choice of working as appren�ces in kennels so that they garner valuable experience that could be decisive for the success of their future entrepreneurship. similar findings were reported by ombasa (2017), ishola (2016), and schutjens and wever (2000). u 6703 associa�on between the number of adult d o g s r e a r e d a n d p r o fi t a b i l i t y o f commercial dog breeding units the number of adult dogs reared in the commercial dog breeding units was significantly associated with the profitability of the units (r = 0.465, p <0.001). a moderate posi�ve correla�on with pearson's correla�on coefficient (r) equal to 0.465 was found with a highly significant p-value (less than 0.001). rearing the breed with higher demand, an excellent pedigree and breed characteris�cs are strategies that dog breeders could employ to ensure higher returns. however, this needs to be supported by a favorable market study. ishola (2016) in his study reported that the total number of dogs in a kennel was not significantly correlated with the profitability of dog breeding ventures in nigeria. this contradictory finding may be b e c a u s e c u s t o m e r p re f e re n c e s a n d seasonal fluctua�ons caused varia�ons in the pricing of puppies in the country of the aforemen�oned study. tester et al. (2019) reported that herd size management played a no�ceable role in the profitability of beef cow produc�on. the study also reported that there was a slight loss in revenues in keeping the herd size stable. the correla�on coefficient between the n u m b e r o f p u p p i e s b o r n a n d t h e profitability of commercial dog breeding units the number of puppies born and the profitability of commercial dog breeding units was found to be highly significant (r = 0.539, p < 0.001). a moderate posi�ve associa�on was found between the number of puppies born and the profitability of commercial dog breeding units. the primary income of a commercial kennel is from the sale of puppies, and it is therefore clear that an increase in the number of puppies born coupled with a low mortality rate could boost profitability. breeders must explore strategies that could increase the total number of puppies born every year by i n c re a s i n g l i � e r s i ze t h ro u g h b e � e r selec�on and rearing of more breedable dogs. murat et al. (2018) also reported similar findings, asser�ng that increasing the number of puppies born and lowering the cost of produc�on could improve the profitability of commercial kennels. lima et al. (2020) observed that the li�er size of go a t s a n d t h e p ro l i fi c a c y ra t e we re s i g n i fi c a n t f a c t o r s t h a t r a i s e d t h e profitability of goat farmers. associa�on between veterinary expenses and profitability of commercial dog breeding units the findings of the present study revealed that veterinary expenses had a moderately posi�ve correla�on with the profitability of commercial dog breeding units (r = 0.324, p < 0.011). providing i m p ro v e d h e a l t h c a re f a c i l i � e s a n d analysis of profitability of commercial dog breeding ventures in thrissur and ernakulam districts of kerala 6704journal of extension educa�on employing the most up-to-date treatment and diagnos�c techniques could have resulted in the be�er health of animals, with consequent posi�ve implica�ons for produc�vity. many infec�ons can be avoided by regular vaccina�ons and deworming. because dogs are monocyclic animals, heat detec�on in bitches is a cri�cal aspect of the profitability in commercial dog breeding units. a lost cycle would have enormous economic repercussions. it is h e r e t h a t t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f u s i n g innova�ve scien�fic tools such as hormone assays and exfolia�ve vaginal cytology predic�ng the �me of breeding and confirming pregnancy would improve b r e e d i n g e ffi c i e n c y. lo s s e s c a n b e minimized by early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. the above factors might have contributed to the moderate associa�on b e t w e e n v e t e r i n a r y e x p e n s e s a n d profitability of the venture. ishola (2016) endorsed the findings of this study with his opinion that a bitch becoming pregnant at every ma�ng was a factor that affected the profitability of the dog breeding industry. associa�on between labour cost and profitability of commercial dog breeding units l a b o u r c o s t s i n c u r r e d o n commercial dog breeding units were moderately associated with profitability (r = 0.388, p = 0.002). close surveillance of the bitch during the peripartum period has been reported to be an important factor in the stress management of bitches. human i nte r ve n� o n s to re d u ce s t re s s we re iden�fied as one with significant preven�ve and cura�ve effects. human presence and close contact have been reported to promote the welfare of dogs by reducing their anxiety, as domes�c animals are very a�ached to their human the present study revealed that ac�vi�es in commercial kennels were carried out by the breeder and his family members themselves. saitone et al. (2020) also documented that labor costs increased with the number of animals reared. arno� et al. (2014) men�oned that minimizing the variable cost, opera�onal cost, and labor cost would maximize profitability. associa�on between the level of adop�on of scien�fic dog management prac�ces and profitability of commercial dog breeding units a d o p � o n o f s c i e n � fi c d o g management prac�ces would contribute to the welfare of the dog, besides enhancing the quality of puppies produced. the level of adop�on of scien�fic dog management prac�ces was weakly associated with the profitability of the venture (r = 0.245, p = 0.030). similar findings were reported by finlayson et al. (2012), who observed that profitability of livestock farms and adop�on of improved prac�ces were significantly associated. a system agency concerned 6705 with recognizing and grading kennels based on their adhesion to scien�fic management procedures could be crucial in promo�ng animal welfare while also ensuring an income from elite kennels. kerala, being the most literate state in the country, has a community that tends to adopt more scien�fic prac�ces into their business (shah, 2013). foltz and chang (2002) reported that educated farmers tend to adopt newer, more produc�ve technologies on their farms. since all the commercial dog breeding ventures were profitable, profitoriented technologies or prac�ces could be adopted to a greater extent. ombasa (2017) opined that the government should invest in current breeding technologies and pass on breeding knowledge to dog breeders for adop�on. conclusion the study concluded that the profitability of commercial dog breeding units in thrissur and ernakulam districts of kerala was significantly correlated with number of years of experience in dog breeding, number of adult animals reared, number of puppies born, labor cost, veterinary expenses and level of adop�on on scien�fic dog management prac�ces. factors like age, number of breeds reared, fixed cost, feed cost, and level of knowledge of scien�fic dog management prac�ces w e r e n o n s i g n i fi c a n t a n d w e r e n o t correlated with the profitability of the v e n t u r e . t h e s t u d y s u g g e s t s t h a t commercial dog breeders should seek addi�onal informa�on through specialized training and workshops to improve their financial skills in areas such as labor management and veterinary expenses. finally, the study also recommends that commercial dog breeders should mobilize enough breeding resources through credit or equity. they must also gain experience and enhance their abili�es through proper training. the findings stress the need for further research in this line to equip entrepreneurs to carry out a successful business. references arno�, e. r., early, j. b., wade, c. m., & mcgreevy, p. d. (2014). es�ma�ng the economic value of australian stock herding dogs. animal welfare, 23(2), 189–197. finlayson, j. d., lawes, r. a., metcalf, t., robertson, m. j., ferris, d., & ewing, m . a . ( 2 0 1 2 ) . a b i o e c o n o m i c evalua�on of the profitability of adop�ng subtropical grasses and pasture-cropping on crop-livestock farms. agricultural systems, 106(1), 102–112. foltz, j. d., & chang, h. h. (2002). the adop�on and profitability of rbst on connec�cut dairy farms. american journal of agricultural economics, 84(4), 1021–1032. ishola, o. o., awosanya, e. j., & adeniyi, i. s. analysis of profitability of commercial dog breeding ventures in thrissur and ernakulam districts of kerala 6706journal of extension educa�on (2016). management and socioe c o n o m i c d e t e r m i n a n t s o f profitability in dog breeding business in oyo state, nigeria. sokoto journal of veterinary sciences, 14(3), 32–39. lima, l. g., de souza, n. o. b., rios, r. r., de melo, b. a., dos santos, l. t. a., silva, kdm., murphy, t. w., & fraga, a. b. (2020). advances in molecular gene�c techniques applied to selec�on for li�er size in goats (capra hircus): a review. journal of applied animal research, 48(1), 38–44. murat, h., kockaya, m., & özşensoy, y. u. s. u. f. (2018). technical and economic analysis of kangal shepherd dog breeding farms. interna�onal journal of scien�fic and technological research, 4(10), 135–140. ombasa, j. k. (2017). determinants of success of dog breeding firms in kenya a c a s e o f d o g b r e e d i n g fi r m s i n kajiado north cons�tuency, kenya (unpublished doctoral disserta�on]. university of nairobi. saitone, t. l., & bruno, e. m. (2020). cost effec�veness of livestock guardian dogs for predator control. wildlife society bulle�n, 44(1), 101–109. schutjens, v. a. j. m., & wever, e. (2000). determinants of new firm success. papers in regional science, 79(2), 135–153. shah, n. (2013). literacy rate in india. interna�onal journal of research in all subjects in mul� languages, 1(7), 12–16. tester, c. a., popp, m. p., kemper, n. p., nalley, l. l., & west, g. (2019). impact of weather and herd size management on beef cow profitability. journal of agricultural and applied economics, 51(4), 545–567. page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 page 58 page 59 page 60 page 61 page 62 5988 sustainability of participatory technology development & transfer approach for sugarcane farmers j.vasanthakumar1 abstract participatory technology development and transfer (ptd & t) is an effective action research approach. it empowers all the stakeholders, especially the farmers who are many a time invisible. a ptd project was implemented for sugarcane development in tamil nadu and the outcome was a mixture of success and failures. the paper presents the findings and asserts that the approach is sustainable. keywords: participatory technology development and transfer; transect walk ; sugarcane; constraints; tamil nadu 1. former dean (agriculture), annamalai university, chidambaram, tamil nadu received : 02-08-2018; accepted : 16-08-2018 generally scientists develop high input technologies in research centres and development workers transfer the technologies to farmers. the approach worked well in many of the regions with sufficient resources. however, the technologies were not utilised in some of the regions operating under physical and socio-economic constraints (garforth and harford,1995). it is mainly due to the fact that real needs of the farmers of such regions were not reflected in the whole process of ‘technology generation and transfer’ (pretty,1995). methodology the study was taken up in three villages of nagappattinam district in tamil nadu under the jurisdiction of n.p.k.r.r cooperative sugar mills ltd., based on yield gap. the yield gap was operationally defined as the ratio between potential high yield recorded in the village and average yield of the village (dhamodaran and vasanthakumar, 1997). three villages namely, athukkudi, keelaiyur and thiruvali were selected based on high yield gaps. findings and discussion transect walk and analysis scientists from icar-sugarcane breeding institute, coimbatore and development workers of n.p.k.r.r sugar mills, mayiladuthurai and faculty of agriculture, annamalai university along with farmers of each village selected journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5988-5994 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 5989 undertook the transect walk initially and then assembled at a common place for a presentation of problems by farmers. problems in sugarcane production were presented by farmers after a transect walk in the three villages. the scientists listened carefully to the presentation of problems made by farmers (arulraj and vasanthakumar. 1996). table 1. problems presented by farmers in athukkudi village of nagappattinam district (n=27 ) sl. no. problem sl. no. problem sl. no. problem 1 lack of suitable varieties for brief drought condition 2 improper land preparation 3 inappropriate water management practices 4 non-adoption of drought management technologies 5 late planting of sugarcane 6 water logging during octobernovember 7 incidence of early shoot borer 8 heavy weed infestation 9 soil problems 10 rat problems 11 internode borer problem 12 top borer problem 13 red rot disease 14 smut disease 15 poor germination 16 inappropriate fertiliser management 17 lack of soil test details 18 lack of water test details 19 harvesting not done at ground level 20 detrashing not done 21 poor ratoon management 22 low level of use of organic manure 23 termite problem 24 whitefly problem 25 varietal mixture especially during gapfilling 5990 there were twenty-five problems listed by the farmers of athukkudi village (table1). the facilitators of the project facilitated a discussion among all the stakeholders and listed the priorities of the farmers of athukkudi village. the problems that required immediate attention were identified: (i) selection of sugarcane varieties suitable to brief table 2. problems presented by farmers in thiruvali village of nagappattinam district ( n=27) sl. no. problem sl. no. thiruvali sl. no. keelaiyur 1 poor level of ratoon management 2 soil problems due to sandy texture and improper land preparation 3 non-adoption of basal dose of fertiliser 4 heavy incidence of early shoot borer 5 repeated occurrence of water scarcity 6 late planting of sugarcane 7 inappropriate sugarcane varieties cultivated in the village 8 high incidence of internode borer problem 9 improper weed management 10 high incidence of termites 11 rat menace 12 profusely flowering nature of existing varieties 13 heavy lodging 14 non-adoption of harvesting at ground level 15 lack of availability of organic manure in sufficient quantities 16 lack of adoption of appropriate fertiliser management techniques 17 less adoption of soil testing 18 incidence of red rot disease in few plots drought condition, (ii) methods of land preparation, (iii) water management, (iv) management of early shoot borer and (v) use of organic manure. the farmers of thiruvali village identified twenty-four problems (table 2) in the presence of scientists and development workers. 5991 the problems that required immediate attention in thiruvali were identified: (i) selection of sugarcane varieties suitable to wetland condition, (ii) sandy soil management, and (iii) ratoon management. the farmers of keelaiyur village had listed out eighteen problems (table 3). the facilitators discussed the problems for a better understanding. the problems that required immediate attention in keelaiyur were sl. no. problem sl. no. thiruvali sl. no. keelaiyur 19 whitefly problem 20 improper water management practices 21 low level of germination 22 non-availability of good nursery plots 23 less adoption of half earthing-up 24 less adoption of deep ploughing table 3. problems presented by farmers in keelaiyur village of nagappattinam district (n=19 ) sl. no. problem sl. no problem sl. no. problem 1 non-availability of suitable varieties for upland condition 2 weed management 3 poor ratoon management 4 inappropriate sandy soil management 5 inappropriate planting methods 6 incidence of early shoot borer 7 incidence of red rot disease 8 rat menace 9 non-adoption of harvesting at ground level 10 heavy lodging 11 heavy incidence of flowering 12 problem soil 13 soil test not done 14 water sample not tested 15 inappropriate fertiliser management 16 non-adoption of basal dressing of fertiliser 17 inappropriate water management 18 inadequate land preparation 5992 identified: (i) selection of sugarcane varieties suitable to upland condition and (ii) sandy soil management. farmer experimentation it was decided by all the stakeholders to organise ten experiments accordingly in the three villages (table 4). then, volunteering farmers who would organise table 4. farmer experimentation in selected villages of nagappattinam district sl. no. village theme of experiment 1 athukkudi selection of sugarcane varieties suitable to brief drought condition 2 methods of land preparation 3 water management 4 management of early shoot borer 5 use of organic manure 6 thiruvali selection of sugarcane varieties suitable to wetland condition 7 sandy soil management 8 ratoon management 9 keelaiyur selection of sugarcane varieties suitable to upland condition 10 sandy soil management these experiments in their holding were finalised in the presence of the villagers in the meeting. the results of the ten experiments are given below : in athukkudi village eleven sugarcane varieties suitable to brief drought condition were planted. excess irrigation was given by the experimenting farmer during the early phase possibly due to over enthusiasm which seriously affected the germination. the experiment had to be discontinued. the second experiment on methods of land preparation resulted in a yield of 138 t/ha when deep ploughing and formation of ridges and furrows with controlled irrigation compared to formation of ridges and furrows yielding 118.50 tons/ha while the local practice yielded 95.90 tons/ha. the farmers decided to go for formation of ridges and furrows. 5993 the third experiment on water management did not take off as the identified farmer was hesitant. the fourth experiment was for managing early shoot bearer. the experimenting farmer ignored cultural and ipm and went for chemical control vitiating the experiment. the fifth experiment was on trying different choices of use of organic manures and the farmers decided to try trash compost, which was one of the choices. in thiruvali village, fourteen varieties were tried for identifying the varieties suitable for wetland situation. the farmers identified three varieties namely, cog93076,co 8021 and co 86010 and decided to go on a commercial scale and also make their village “red rot free”. for sandy soil management, the farmers decided to accept the application of additional dose of nitrogen (25%) along with local practice. in the experiment on ratoon management, the farmers preferred itk (indigenous technical knowledge) of uprooting the sprouts from a corner of the field plant those in the gaps in the remaining field. in keelaiyur village, the farmer who agreed to take up the experiment on selection of varieties suitable for upland condition did not try the eleven varieties offered. in the experiment on sandy soil management, the farmers decided to go in for application of additional dose of nitrogen (25%) along with local practice. the experimenting villages were visited again twice with a gap of ten years (2005 and 2015) and interacted with a sample thirty farmers. the impact of the participatory approach was satisfactory. the technologies like formation of ridges and furrows, use of trash compost, sandy soil management and ratoon management trickled down well in the system. the study area had some of the new varieties tried and free from red rot. the participatory rural appraisal methods like transect walk had empowered the farmers to participate in the technology development and transfer process. as the perception of farmers and that of scientists and development workers differed widely (elangovan and vasanthakumar,1997), the farmers were considered passive users of the technology. some of the technologies with higher returns were rejected while the ones that are compatible with the existing practices were adopted easily. the technologies adopted, thus get systematised to be part of the farmers’ technologies (ramasubramaniyan, et.al., 2016). the technologies accepted by the farmers through ptd get transferred rapidly among farmers. further, the study reveals that such technologies remain in the field for a longer time. 5994 the transect analysis, a participatory appraisal method, emerged as a useful tool in identifying the constraints and in evolving a suitable action plan to tackle the constraints. however, the priorities of the farmers differed from that of development workers who believed that adequate varieties have been presented. the farmers had a system perspective while the scientists had a narrow perspective due to specialisation. the transfer of technology especially the varieties suitable to local condition was rapid whereas the transfer of technology relating to land preparation and use of organic manures was far below the expectation. thus the participatory technology development and transfer is an important technique in identifying location specific technologies. references arulraj, a. & vasanthakumar, j. (1996). participatory technology development a case study, discussion paper, 96/11, sugarcane breeding institute,icar, coimbatore, pp.24. chambers,r., pacey, a & thrupp, la (eds.)(1989). farmer first farmer innovation and agricultural research, intermediate technology publications, london. garforth, c. & harford, n. (1995). issues in agricultural extension experiences of agriculture and natural resource management programmes through the 1980s and1990s, aerdd working paper 95/6,the university of reading,uk. pretty, j.n .(1995), regenerating agriculture : an alternative strategy for growth, earth scan, london.1825-1828. ramasubramaniyan, r., vasanthakumar, j. & b.s.hansra, (2016). knowledge and adoption of conservation agriculture technologies by the farming community in different agroclimatic zones of tamil nadu state in india, journal of agricultural science, 8(11):154-169 dhamodaran, t. & vasanthakumar, j (1997), yield gap and constraints to high yields in sugarcane, journal of extension education, 8(4) elangovan, r. & vasanthakumar, j (1997). perception of extension officials towards ecofriendly technologies. tamil nadu journal of extension education, 8 (3): 1755 1758. from the editor’s desk     my dear readers of journal of extension education,   wish you all a happy and prosperous new year!   with widespread internet access, the digital revolution is reaching every nook and corner of countries such as india offering new opportunities in agriculture. however, the rural digital divide is still a constraint, and the gap appears to be widening with the introduction of new internet technologies.   in 2015, fao’s e-agriculture 10 year review report on the implementation of the world summit on the information society (wsis) of the action line c7. ict applications: e-agriculture concluded that, while substantial progress has been made in making icts available and accessible for rural communities, challenges remain with respect to seven critical factors for success.   success factor 1: content:  dissemination of information may be constrained if the nature of information does not match farmers’ needs. content should therefore be created and adapted from reliable and trusted sources, including local languages and taking into account the local contexts.   success factor 2: capacity development: capacities need to be strengthened at all levels to enhance digital literacy by providing appropriate learning opportunities for men, women and youth.   success factor 3: gender and diversity: women’s and youth’s access to technology and equipment, as well as potential consequences for social dynamics within communities, should be assessed prior to project deployment in order to address ict gaps. gender disaggregated data must be collected in projects and in national ict related statistics.   success factor 4: access and participation:  collaboration and knowledge sharing in agriculture should be fostered via communities of practice, in order to showcase and promote models, methodologies and good practices, so as to achieve effective and equitable use of icts for sustainable agriculture and rural development.   success factor 5: partnerships: public-private partnerships with a wide range of non-state actors such as small, local private companies, local producer organizations and community-based ngos should be promoted for inclusive, affordable and sustainable ict services and initiatives in agriculture and rural development.   success factor 6: technologies: blended approaches, such as a combination of mass media, and locally relevant technologies selected on the basis of in-depth analysis of local needs and existing information systems, should be adopted to increase the efficiency of initiatives for ict in agriculture.   success factor 7: sustainability: access to mobile telephony, internet and information in general should be possible, and within the price range of the poor.  open access policies and initiatives should be encouraged.               we need to put in to use the aforementioned recommendations, specific to the success factors, in order to effectively use icts for sustainable agricultural development.               from this year, we have planned to carry the thesis abstracts in the field of agricultural extension, in jee’s online version.  we hope to continue to be an important channel for sharing extension literature. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com. jee 30 (1) d puthira prathap chief editor   11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 participation of self help group tribal women in economic and social developmental activities t.n. sujeetha1, v.ravichandran2 and m.v. karuna jeba mary3 abstract a study was taken up among the tribal women in the nilgiris district mainly to assess the extent of participation of tribal women shg members in various developmental activities. kotagiri and gudalur blocks were selected based on the presence of ngos specifically working for the tribes. totally eight shgs have been randomly selected for the study. this comprises four each from todas and kattunayakas. a sample of 10 members from each shgs have been randomly selected. thus the total sample size is 80. the results indicated that the overall analysis indicate that majority (55.00%) of the tribal women had medium level of participation followed by high and low levels. 1-ph. d scholar, department of agricultural extension & rural sociology, tnau,2-dean, vanavarayar institute of technology, pollachi and 3-research associate, centre for agricultural and rural development studies, tnau, coimbatore. in the tribal society, the tribal women have adjusted themselves to live a traditional life style in the local environment and followed occupations based on natural resources. (arangamallika, 2004). but they face problems and challenges in getting a sustainable livelihood and a decent life due to environmental degradation and the interference of outsiders (yamuna, 2007). due to the steps taken by the ngos, the tribal women have begun participating actively in the functioning of shgs which in turn has led to their empowerment and their own community (wilson et al.,2007). thus this paper has revealed in depth the results of the extent of participation of shg tribal women in the nilgiris district. methodology nilgiris district of tamil nadu was purposively selected because it is one of the districts where the percentage of tribal population is higher and the tribal shgs are actively functioning. kotagiri and gudalur blocks were selected based on the presence of ngos specifically working for the tribes. among these ngos, nawa (nilgiris adivasi welfare association) of kotagiri block and ctrd (centre for tribal and rural development trust) of gudalur block were purposively selected because both the ngos strive for the upliftment of the tribal communities viz., paniyas, kattunayakars, todas, irulas, kotas and kurumbas. among these tribal communities, todas and kattunayakars were selected since these communities have more number of women shgs engaged in the entrepreneurial activities. based on this, a sample of four shgs from nawa and four shgs from ctrd were selected. a sample of ten members from each shg was considered for the study. from these eight shgs, a sample of 80 members 5399participation of self help group tribal women in economic and social developmental activities was considered as respondents for the study. findings and discussion participation in economic developmental activities the findings related to the participation in economic developmental activities is given in table 1. it reveals that all the respondents participated in running the commercial venture, participation in the shg product exhibitions conducted by government / drda, participated in deciding about loan lending to members, purchasing raw materials for their commercial venture/ entrepreneurial activity and for the toda women, helping to get resources from supporting institutions (2.73), deciding about loan lending to members (2.7), running the commercial venture (2.70) and purchasing raw materials for their commercial venture/ entrepreneurial activity (2.66) got more mean scores followed by in marketing their produce (2.65) and participation in the shg product exhibitions conducted by government / drda (2.65). while in the case of kattunayaka women, activities like running the commercial venture (3.13), participation in the shg product exhibitions conducted by government / drda (2.7), in deciding about loan lending to members (2.38) and purchasing raw materials from supporting institutions (2.20) got more mean scores compared to overall mean score of 2.18. it is quite interesting to see that participation in marketing activities through exhibitions organized in the district is relatively more among all the groups. this is an essential economic activity as the livelihood of the shg tribal women depend on the marketing of their products. 1. in deciding about loan lending to members 108 2.7 95 2.38 203 2.54 2. in fixing interest percent for purpose oriented loans 72 1.8 65 1.63 137 1.71 3. in running the commercial venture 108 2.7 125 3.13 233 2.91 4. helping to get resources from supporting institutions 109 2.73 80 2.00 189 2.36 5. purchasing raw materials for their commercial venture / entrepreneurial activity 107 2.66 88 2.20 195 2.44 6. in marketing their produce 106 2.65 68 1.7 174 2.18 7. participation in the shg product exhibitions conducted by government / drda 106 2.65 108 2.7 214 2.68 overall mean score 2.56 2.18 2.40 table 1. participation in economic developmental activities (n=80) sl. no. category todas (n=40) kattunayakars (n=40) total (n=80)* total scores mean scores total scores mean scores total scores mean scores journal of extension education5400 participation in social developmental activities the responses regarding participation pattern of shg members in social developmental activities were collected and are given in table 2. most of the tribal women participated in the village developmental works such as awareness campaign, road maintenance, rain water harvesting, tree planting and also maintaining cleanliness in the temple during festivals and functions. (n=80) table 2. participation in social developmental activities 1. participation in village developmental works 109 2.72 82 2.05 191 2.39 2. participation in social action programmes 106 2.65 71 1.78 177 2.21 overall mean score 2.69 1.92 2.3 sl. no. category todas (n=40) kattunayakars (n=40) total (n=80) total scores mean scores total scores mean scores total scores mean scores based on total and mean scores, toda women exhibited more participation in both village development programmes (2.72) and participation in social action programmes (2.65). similar is in the case with the kattunayaka women. due to more inter-tribal communication nature, the toda and kattunayaka women would have participated more in social and village developmental activities compared to their counterparts. the group facilitators of each self help group are observed to have motivated the members to involve themselves in social welfare activities. these factors might be the reason for their high level of participation in social developmental activities. conclusion the tribal women have become well secured in their livelihood status due to their participation in self help groups. if every effort taken results in the expected positive ways, the tribal women could visualize and experience the better side of their lives. this has been proved in the study. once after the introduction of self help groups, the tribal women have begun to actively participate in all spheres of social activities. the income generation before and after participation in shg showed significant increase. this shows their empowerment status because of the stimulus shg. this would be possible by organizing more entrepreneurial training programmes to the tribal women. references arangamallika. 2004. economic and political empowerment of women. the hindu dt: mar, 25, 2004. wilson, f., j. kickul. and d. marlino. 2007. gender, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial career intentions: implications for entrepreneurship education. entrepreneur ship theory and practice, 31(3): 387–406. yamuna, g. 2007. women empowerment through self-help groups in solamadevi village. economic empowerment of women. new century, new delhi. 6576 relationship analysis between socio-economic variables and job performance of accredited social health activists in maharashtra manjusha manohar kharole* abstract national rural health mission (nrhm) was launched in india in 2005. it brought a new concept of accredited social health activist (asha) in to the arena of health sector of india. since it is a new concept it is imperative to study the effect of socio economic variables on the job performance of ashas. coefficient of correlation was applied to carry out the relational analysis between socioeconomic variables and job performance of ashas. it was seen that age was positively related with job performance whereas all other independent variables were negatively and significantly related with job performance. keywords : asha; job performance; correlation; maharashtra. *department of child development, sndt women's university, mumbai 400 020. india received : 18-07-2019; accepted : 03-06-2021 india is the second most populated country in the world and faces a number of developmental hazards. it is plagued by poverty, hunger, unemployment, corruption, illiteracy, unsafe drinking water, lack of sanitation, malnutrition and poor health. even though india has come a long way since independence and worked towards the upliftment of it’s people, the health front has remained little neglected since independence. the main cause of this is shortage of health care personnel serving in the rural areas. according to who , chws (child health workers) are men and women chosen by the community , and trained to deal with the health problems of individuals and the community, and work in close relationship with the health services. they should have a level of primary education that enables to read ,write, and do simple mathematical calculations. keeping this in mind, accredited social health activists (ashas) were introduced through national rural health mission, launched in 2005. the success of any welfare programme depends upon the job performance of the individuals working to carry out that programme.if the performance is not up to the mark, it may result in under achievement of the goals . it is therefore research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6576-6578 6577 imperative to study the relationship between socio-economic variables and job performance of ashas. it is in this context that the study was undertaken with the following specific objective: to study the relationship between socio-economic variables and job performance of ashas. methodology the study was carried out in jalgaon district of maharashtra state. a multistage random sampling technique was adopted for selection of panchayat samitis, villages and respondents. number of respondents was 240. job performance was the dependent variable.the socio-economic variables viz. age, caste,education,experience,trainings , husband’s occupation, and family income were the independent variables. the coefficient of correlation was applied to carry out the relational analysis between socio-economic variables and job performance of ashas.the relationship was significant if the calculated value of ‘r’ was greater than table value of ‘r’ at either 0.01 or 0.05 level of probability.step down regression analysis was done to identify the least significant independent variable and eliminating it at every other step. findings and discussion relationship between independent variables and job performance to determine the relationship between independent variables and job performance, correlation analysis was done.the results have been presented in table 1. the data revealed that age (r = 0.6953) was positively related with job performance. this is supported by yadav and dhillon (2013). this may be because of the fact that with increase in age, there is increase in general experience. they can perform better with increase in experience. job performance was found to be negatively related with caste (r = -0.6384), educational qualification (r= -0.6699), experience (r= -0.3189), trainings attended (r = -0.1915), husband’s occupation (r= -0.6290), income (r= -0.9392). increase in caste level tends to decrease job performance. this may be attributed to the possible reason that higher caste ashas do not freely mix with all the categories of people. this tends to decrease their job performance. increase in educational qualification decreases job performance. since higher education increases expectations of getting good jobs, highly qualified ashas may not show any interest in their jobs and hence their performance decreases. job performance decreases with increase in experience.as more experience could possibly make them aware of various escape routes of not doing the job, it tends to decrease their job performance. this is supported by the study conducted by yadav and dhillon (2013) who reported that the job performance of gbpuat respondents showed negative correlation with experience.increase in number of trainings attended decreases job performance .this finding is supported by lakoh (1988) who reported that high order of vew training in relationship analysis between socio-economic variables and job performance of accredited sociol health activists in maharashtra 6578 agriculture does not necessarily mean that his job performance was also high. table 1 coefficient of correlation between independent variables and job performance sl. no. independent variables coefficient of correlation ‘r’ 1 age 0.6953** 2 caste -0.6384** 3 educational qualification -0.6699** 4 experience -0.3189** 5 trainings attended -0.1915** 6 husband’s occupation -0.6290** 7 family income -0.9392** ** significant at 0.01 level of probability * significant at 0.05 level of probability stepdown regression analysis results revealed that, all the independent variables together caused 89.50 percent variation in job performance of ashas. in the second model, experience was excluded as it was causing least variation in job performance. in the third model, age was excluded for causing least variation. all the remaining five variables accounted for 89.50 percent variation in job performance and age alone accounted for 0.03 percent variation. the study has shown that that age was positively related with job performance whereas all other independent variables were negatively and significantly related with job performance. step down regression analysis showed that experience was causing least variation in job performance. therefore while making policies for improving job performance variables like age, caste, education, training, husband’s occupation and family income should be taken into account. references lakoh, a.k. (1988). extension agents’ job design, satisfaction, and performance model : determining interfaces. journal of extension systems. 4(1) : 90-94 yadav.k & dhillon.d.s. (2013). variations in specified factors among state agricultural universities of northern region with respect to job satisfaction and performance. indian journal of extension education. 13 (1) : 26-30. journal of extension education 6140 marketing behavior of certified organic farmers in tamil nadu p. sivaraj1, h. philip2 and j. venkata pirabu3 abstract a study was conducted to assess the marketing behavior of organic farmers. ex post facto research design was used in this study. the study was conducted in coimbatore, erode and tiruppur districts of tamil nadu. three blocks were selected purposively and a sample of 20 certified organic farmers were selected from each of the blocks purposively. a total of 180 certified organic farmers were surveyed for the study. three fourths of the certified organic farmers fell under the fully selling pattern of organic produce, and 38.89 per cent of the certified organic farmers sell the entire produce immediately after the harvest. keywords: marketing behavior; certified organic farmers; tamil nadu. research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6140-6145 received : 15-10-2018; accepted : 20-01-2019 1. assistant professor (agricultural extension), rvs agricultural college, thanjavur, 2. director of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore and 3. professor and head, training division, doee, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. india is bestowed with enormous potential to produce all varieties of organic products due to its various agro-climatic regions. in several parts of the country, the inherited tradition of organic farming is an added advantage which resulted in making the country to stand first in terms of number of organic farm producers and eight in terms of percentage of the area under organic farming practice to its total area under farming (apeda, 2010). this holds promise for the organic producers to tap the market which is growing steadily in the domestic market and that related to the export market. cultivated land under certification is around 5.71 million hectares (2015-16). this includes 1.49 million hectares under cultivation and the rest is under forest area (wild collection). the national programme involves the accreditation programme for certification agencies, norms for organic production, promotion of organic farming etc. states like; uttarakhand, karnataka, madhya pradesh, maharashtra, gujarat, rajasthan, tamil nadu, kerala, nagaland, mizoram, sikkim have been promoting organic farming. india produced around 1.35 mt (201516) of certified organic products which includes all varieties of food produces namely sugarcane, oilseeds, cereals and millets, cotton, pulses, medicinal plants, tea, fruits, spices, dry fruits, vegetables, coffee etc. research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6141 the scope of organic farming in india has been tremendously increasing day by day. with this background, a study was conducted among certified organic farmers in coimbatore, erode and tiruppur districts of tamil nadu to find out their marketing behavior in selected dimensions methodology ex post facto research design was used in this study to suit the objectives and type of information needed. a sample of 180 certified organic farmers was selected for the study, from a list of certified organic farmers provided by the directorate of tamil nadu organic seed certification department and indian society for certification of organic products (iscop), coimbatore using simple random sampling procedure. thus, a sample size of 60 certified organic farmers from each district were taken up for the study in coimbatore, erode and tiruppur districts. in each district, three blocks were selected and in each block 20 certified organic farmers were selected through purposive random sampling method. a well structured and pre-tested interview schedule was used for data collection. keeping in view the objectives and the variables under study, a comprehensive semi structured interview schedule covering all aspects of organic farming practices was prepared. the data collected were subjected to statistical analysis to get inferences. findings and discussion marketing behavior of certified organic farmers the marketing behaviour of certified organic farmers were evaluated with the identified five components namely selling pattern, post harvest technologies / value addition, marketing, mode of transport and distance of market. the results are presented in table 1. selling pattern it could be seen from table 1 that three fourths (75.00 %) of the certified organic farmers fell under ‘fully selling pattern’ of organic produce and remaining came under ‘partially selling (25.00 %) category’ of organic produce. in the recent years, there is a growing awareness among consumers about the importance of organic farming and its produces. high demand for organic produce might be the reason for this trend. the wholesaler and village merchants who procure the entire produce from the organic farmers pay them reasonable amount. the private organic shops which are involved in contract farming usually make onetime payment during procurement. this could be the possible reason for most of the organic farmers to be under fully selling pattern for their produce immediately after harvest. post harvest technologies/ value addition it is evident from the table that only 23.33 per cent of certified organic farmers were following value addition practices. to increase the economic value of the commodity, they prepare value added products like organic coconut oil, banana chips, millets cookies, pulses malt and organic soaps etc. about 26 per cent of the organic farmers were following grading for their produce / products. it could marketing behavior of certified organic farmers in tamil nadu 6142 be inferred from the findings that majority of the certified organic farmers were found to sell immediately after harvest in the nearby towns. only those who took the produce to the market places availed grading facility. among the respondents, 26.67 per cent of the certified organic farmers were using gunny bags followed by polythene bags (20.00 %), wooden box (7.23 %) and bottle (12.23 %). moreover, 34.45 per cent of the farmers were not following package of their produce. it was observed during the survey that gunny bags were reported as the easiest available packing material to the farmers and moreover they felt that the gunny bags allow free aeration, which would be helpful in storing the produce for a long period. hence, majority of the certified organic farmers preferred gunny bags as packing material. table 1. distribution of respondents based on their marketing behavior (n=180) sl. no. particulars organic farmers’ marketing behavior number* percentage i. selling pattern 1. fully 135 75.00 2. partially 45 25.00 ii. post harvest technologies/ value additions 1. value addition 42 23.33 2. grading 48 26.66 3. packing/ packing materials usage i. gunny bags 48 26.67 ii. polythene bags 36 20.00 iii. wooden box 13 7.23 iv. bottle 22 12.23 v. no packing 62 34.45 4. storage i. on farm 36 20.00 ii. storage godowns 27 15.00 iii. warehouse 13 7.23 iv. shops/market place 8 4.45 journal of extension education 6143 sl. no. particulars organic farmers’ marketing behavior number* percentage iii. marketing 1. time of sale i. soon after the harvest 70 38.89 ii. when need in cash 44 24.44 iii. when the price is attractive 56 31.11 iv. pre-harvest contract 10 5.56 2. place of sale i. in the village itself 60 33.33 ii. nearby town 95 52.78 iii. distant town 22 12.22 iv. export other states/ country 3 1.67 3. mode of sale i. primary merchant 67 37.22 ii. commission agent 46 25.56 iii. wholesale market 35 19.45 iv. cooperative society 2 1.11 v. regulated market 11 6.11 vi. super market chain 9 5.00 vii. supply to hotels 10 5.55 iv. mode of transport 1. own vehicle 72 40.00 2. public transport 30 16.67 3. hired vehicle 78 43.33 v. distance of market 1. up to 5 km 60 33.33 2. 5-10 km 25 13.89 3. >10-15 km 37 20.56 4. >15-20 km 12 6.67 5. >20-25 km 12 6.67 6. more than 25 km 34 18.88 * multiple responses obtained marketing behavior of certified organic farmers in tamil nadu 6144 i. time of sale with regard to time of sale 38.89 per cent of the certified organic farmers sell the entire produce immediately after the harvest, whereas, 31.11 per cent sell their produce when the price is attractive followed by 24.44 per cent of the certified organic farmers sell their produce when they need cash. only 5.5 per cent followed pre-harvest contract. ii. place of sale more than half (52.78 %) of the certified organic farmers sold their produce in the nearby town followed by village itself (33.33 %), distant town (12.22 %) and export to other states/ country (1.67 %). as majority possessed motor vehicles, selling would be done at the markets located within 10 km distance. those who possessed tractors would have preferred the local sale in the village itself. those who have more area of cultivation and harvested huge quantities of corn, would have preferred the public transport and hire vehicles. iii. mode of sale about 37 per cent of the certified organic farmers sell their produce to primary merchants followed by commission agents (25.56 %), whole sale market (19.45 %), regulated market (6.11 %), supply to hotels (5.55 %), super market chain (5.00 %) and only 1.11 per cent of the farmers preferred cooperative societies. the primary merchants were easily approachable and accessible. there existed pre-harvest contract, confidence on wholesalers and local merchants due to their familiarity, supply of gunny bags at the time of harvest and immediate payment of cash. these would have been the possible reasons for influencing majority of the farmers to sell their produce to village merchants. mode of transport there were 43.33 per cent of the certified organic farmers, who used hired vehicle for transporting their produce. moreover, 40.00 per cent of the certified organic farmers owned vehicles for transporting and only 16.67 per cent of the farmers were depending on public transport. it was observed during the survey that considerable number of the certified organic farmers owned hired vehicles and therefore they utilized the hired vehicle to transport their organic produce to nearby towns and distant towns. tractors have been used for transporting the produce within the local village itself. others used public transport like town bus for transporting the produce to far off places. moreover, certified organic farmers themselves form groups and they were joint arrangement for transporting their produce to differential market places. distance of market a glance at the table reveals that majority (33.33 %) preferred short distance markets (up to 5 km) followed by more than 10 km to 15 km (20.56 %), more than 25 km (18.88 %), 5 km to 10 km (13.89 %) and both more than 15 km to 20 km and more than 20 km to 25 km distance of market up to 6.67 per journal of extension education 6145 cent of certified organic farmers. the proxy of the market is wholly dependent on number of organic producers and consumers. the government should fix premium price for organic produce and establish more number of organic outlets in all the districts through commodity groups/ farmer producer organizations(fpos), which will encourage the farmers. policy interventions should be made in order to establish organic processing industries and organic oil extraction and organic soap making units. references apeda (agricultural and processed food products export development authority), (2010). national programme for organic production (npop). available at http:// a p e d a . gov. i n /a p e d a we b s i t e /o rg a n i c / organic_products.htm bagyajanani, p, premavathi, r & sasikala, r (2016). marketing behavior of jasmine growers, journal of extension education, 28(4) marketing behavior of certified organic farmers in tamil nadu 6740 department of agricultural extension education, bangladesh agricultural university, mymensingh, bangladesh received : 30.05.23 ; accepted : 08.08.23 journal of extension education vol. 34 no.1, 2022 doi: https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2022.1.34.6740-6749 role of government and non-government organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition as perceived by rural women kawsher ahmed, m zulfikar rahman, m golam farouque, m asaduzzaman sarker and md. rayhan sojib abstract the study was undertaken to have an understanding of rural women’s perception of the role played by the government and non-government organizations (gos and ngos) to boost agricultural production in lama upazila under bandarban district of bangladesh towards meeting household nutrition. besides, attempts were made to explore the quality of service provided by the gos and ngos to boost agricultural production and to explore the problems faced by them to meet the demand of household nutrition. eighty six percent of rural women perceived the role played by the gos and ngos as 'somehow satisfied' to 'satisfied level'. among the rural women, 90 percent of the respondents expressed that they face moderate to high level of problems to meet their demands for household nutrition. the services from the all concerned gos and ngos should be provided in such a way that could help more to boost agricultural production as well as meet the demand of household nutrition of the rural women in the study area. keywords: agricultural production; household nutrition; go and ngo; perception; bangladesh introduction agriculture remains a primary source of energy and nutrients for the population and also impacts human nutrition in both positive and negative ways. in this regard, agriculture is trying to encompass activities related to production, acquisition and utilization of food to prevent both under and over nutrition in an economically, environmentally, socially and culturally sustainable way (uccello et al, 2017). as bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the agriculture sector plays as a pillar of the economy, employing more than half the population (usaid, 2017). in recent years, new themes to emerge include climate change, nutrition, food safety, post-production and postemergency recovery in the agriculture sector (fao, 2014). government organizations (gos) likes bangladesh agricultural research council (barc), bangladesh agricultural development corporation (badc), bangladesh agricultural research institute (bari), bangladesh rice research institute (brri), bangladesh jute research institute (bjri) and bangladesh institute of nuclear agriculture (bina) are mainly responsible for the development of agricultural technologies in their respective fields (karim et al, 2009). these institutions have both national and international linkages to carry out research article role of government and non-government organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition as perceived by rural women 6741 research activities and disseminate agricultural technologies in large scale. in addition, activities are mostly handled by the public sector and the main agencies responsible for this job are department of agriculture extension (dae), department of fisheries (dof) and department of livestock services (dls) (moa, 2015). nongovernment organizations (ngos) and the private sector likes brac, proshikkhan shikkha karmo (proshika), grameen bank, bangladesh resource centre for indigenous knowledge (barcik) and congregations around richmond involved to assure shelter (caritas) are also responsible for the development of improved crop varieties and associated technologies to boost agricultural production (alam, 2012 and siddika et al, 2018). the main challenge for agriculture in bangladesh is to consolidate the growth that has been achieved over the past 20 years, in the face of declining arable land per person, depletion of ground water, periodic natural disaster due to extreme weather events, changing dietary patterns towards foods and other challenges (walsham, 2009 and fao, 2014). agriculture in bangladesh has become regularly vulnerable to the hazards of climate change–flood, drought and salinity in particular. in addition, poor management practices, especially those of pests and diseases, fertilizer, water and irrigation have largely contributed to significant decline in agricultural productivity (agrawala et al, 2003 and mondal, 2010). in bangladesh, women face serious challenges due to social and cultural norms that inhibit their ability to fully participate in the economy and must overcome the barriers to entirely realizing economic gains. of all food security indicators in bangladesh, improvements in food production have seen the slowest progress, especially in rural areas (gfss, 2018). access to adequate food may go together with malnutrition if food intake is not of balanced nutrition. both under nutrition and over nutrition are problems of malnutrition which may not be solved just by adequate food in imbalance of nutritional composition (nath, 2015). however, government has recognized the fact that equal participation of public and private organizations can solve the problem by doing various activities. apart from this, government encouraged the non-government organizations to undertake proper steps for the development of agricultural production by liberalizing its policy (shamsuddoha, 2009). so, the study was conducted by focusing the following objectives: (i) to assess rural women’s perception of the role played by the gos and ngos to boost agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition (ii) to explore rural women’s perception of the quality of services provided by the gos and ngos to boost agricultural production, and (iii) to explore the problems faced by the rural women to meet their demand of household nutrition. methodology the study area was confined to sarai, gajalia, lama sadar and fasyakhai unions of lama upazila of bandarban district in the hilly regions in bangladesh (fig.1). to obtain the real status on socio-economic condition of the rural women, rural women’s perception of the role played by the gos and ngos to boost agricultural production, rural women’s perception of the quality of services provided by gos and ngos and problems faced by the rural women are the main issues of investigation. the selected unions were suggested by the concerned officers of the upazila, especially the upazila agriculture officer, upazila fisheries officer and upazila livestock officer. journal of extension education 6742 a total of 300 rural women (those who played their functional role in maintaining the household farming) from 300 households in the four unions of lama upazila constituted the study’s key population. a simple random selection method was used to choose the sample from the population, which were 110 rural women. the empirical data were collected through personal interview along with focus group discussions and observations during the month of april, 2020. before collecting the final data, pre-testing of the interview schedule was made to locate any defects regarding the questions and statements. the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 20 was used to analyze the data. the role played by the gos and ngos were first identified through focus group discussions (fgds). the rural women were asked to give their responses to measure perception against 10 selected role revealed through fgd that played by the gos and ngos for boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition. a four-point rating scale was used for computing the perception score of a respondent while ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ was assigned to indicate the role played by the gos and ngos perceived as ‘not satisfied’, ‘somewhat satisfied’, ‘satisfied’ and ‘highly satisfied’ respectively by the respondents. finally, by adding all the frequency counts of each of the scale cells, the total value of rpi was calculated. the rank order was made based on the rpi score for better understanding of each item. by using the following formula, the rpi was calculated. rpi = (r0×0) + (r1×1) + (r2×2) + (r3×3) where, rpi = role played index; r 0 , r 1 , r 2 and r 3 represent the number of respondents who perceived the played role by the gos and ngos as ‘not satisfied’, ‘somewhat satisfied’, ‘satisfied’ and ‘highly satisfied’ respectively. as there were 110 respondents, role played index (rpi) could range from ‘0’ to ‘330’, where ‘0’ indicated not satisfied roles while ‘330’ indicated highly satisfied roles regarding contribution to boost agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition. two focus group discussions (fgds) were conducted from four unions (sarai, gajalia, lama sadar and fasyakhai) in order to assess the rural women’s perception of the quality of services provided by the gos and ngos. outcomes of the separate two fgds were merged together in order to attain a comprehensive idea about figure 1. map of the study area (lama upazila) role of government and non-government organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition as perceived by rural women 6743 the quality of services provided by the gos and ngos. for each fgd, eight women (included in the main sample of data collection) were selected and the quality of services during the fgd were discussed thoroughly and recorded accordingly. the problems faced by the rural women were first identified through focus group discussions (fgds). the rural women were asked to give their responses against 12 selected major problematic aspects which they confronted for the demand of household nutrition. a four-point rating scale was used for computing the problem score of a respondent while ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ was assigned to indicate extent of problem as ‘no’, ‘low’, ‘moderate’ and ‘high’ respectively. finally, by adding all the frequency counts of each of the scale cells, the total value of pfi was calculated. the rank order was made based on the pfi for better understanding of the problem items investigated. pfi was calculated by using the following formula: pfi = (p0×0) + (p1×1) + (p2×2) + (p3×3) where, pfi = problem faced index; p 0 , p 1 , p 2 and p 3 represent the number of respondents who faced the problem as ‘no’, ‘low’, ‘moderate’, and ‘high’ problem respectively. as there were 110 respondents, problem faced index (pfi) could range from ‘0’ to ‘330’, where ‘0’ indicated no problems and ‘330’ indicated high level of problems in respect to meet the demand of household nutrition. findings and discussion role of gos and ngos in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition an attempt was made to investigate the roles that the existing gos and ngos played in enhancing agricultural production and ensuring household nutrition, as well as rural women’s perceptions of the role played by the gos and ngos in the study areas. data presented in table 1 depict that the highest proportion of the rural women (86.4%) were with the perception upon somewhat satisfied to satisfied level of roles played by various gos and ngos to boost agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition. only 13.6 percent of the respondent rural women perceived the role of gos and ngos with highly satisfied level. miah et al., (2018) also found more or less similar findings in their study. this may be because of the remoteness of the study areas in hills. though the workers in different gos and ngos may have strong desire to work with the respondents, the geographical barriers as well as frequent unstable situation of the areas create hindrance to work with full potentials in many cases (begum et al, 2019). table 1. distribution of respondents based on their perception of role played by gos and ngos to boost agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition categories of perception (unit: score) rural women (n=110) mean sd number percent not satisfied (0) 0 0 6.65 4.57 somewhat satisfied (1 to12) 64 58.2 satisfied (13-24) 31 28.2 highly satisfied (>24) 15 13.6 journal of extension education 6744 data in table 2 reflect the rank order of different roles played by different organizations (both gos and ngos) to promote agricultural production in the study area and to mitigate the challenges of household level nutritional problems in the study area. table 2. the rank order of the roles played by gos and ngos in the study area to boost agricultural production and meeting household nutrition role rpi rank order provision of production related information 168 1 production input support 144 2 provision of varietal information 138 3 support to nutrition education 133 4 role rpi rank order women empowerment 129 5 credit support 125 6 household decision-making 119 7 agricultural training support 110 8 support to extension and study tours 105 9 research and development support 99 10 findings show that ‘provision of production related information (168)’, ‘production input support (144)’ and ‘provision of varietal information (138)’ got the highest scores playing roles by the gos and ngos to boost agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition as perceived by the rural women. ashley and maxwell (2001); fanzo et al., (2015) and mamunur-rashid et al., (2017) found that appropriate high-level support and capacity development, agricultural extension services, through provision of improved information, training, skills and services and well-trained human resources provide a substantial productivity that lead to higher nutritional quality. it is mentioned in table 2 that ‘support to nutrition education (133)’ and ‘women empowerment (129)’ took fourth and fifth position roles respectively played by the gos and ngos to boost agricultural production. alam and rahaman (2008); alam (2008) and alam et al., (2009) showed that major part of the population employed at agriculture earlier was the school drop-out from the primary, secondary and higher secondary school levels. the services provided by the gos and ngos to boost agricultural productions were also explored through conduction of fgds in order to triangulate the findings achieved through individual interview. in general, the perception of the rural women was good about the services of the organizations. some of the matters were not as satisfying as the women expected. anyway, the major outcomes of the discussion specifically indicate that the overall services and communications for major activities of the organizations were fair to good. in general, the credit functions of the ngos were very strict and sometimes inhuman. besides, the role of government and non-government organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition as perceived by rural women 6745 table 3. socio-economic characteristics of rural women characteristics (unit of measurement) range rural women (n=110) mean sd possible observed category % age (years) unknown 20-65 young (18-35) 37.3 38.69 10.48middle aged (36-55) 46.3 old (> 55) 16.4 years of schooling (years) unknown 0-10 illiterate (0) 31.8 4.92 6.41 primary (1-5) 33.7 secondary (6-10) 30.9 above secondary (>10) 3.6 household size (no. of members) unknown 1-12 small (14) 31.8 5.35 1.82medium (5-8) 63.7 large (9-12) 4.5 household farm size (hectares) unknown 0.02-6.48 landless (<0.02) 2.7 2.81 0.81 marginal (0.021-0.20) 33.6 small (0.21-1.0) 45.5 medium (1.01-3.0) 16.4 large (>3.0) 1.8 annual family income (‘000’ tk) unknown 6-306 low (≤80) 43.6 93.89 62.47medium (81-150) 40.0 high (>150) 16.4 involvement in local associations (no. of years) unknown 0-44 no (0) 10.9 4.66 7.34 low (1 to 10) 74.6 moderate (11-20) 10.9 high (>20) 3.6 interest rate of the loan was very high. moreover, saaos, who work for the upazila agricultural office, provided inconsistent and unsatisfactory services. no service was received by the rural women about product marketing and the input dealers’ information was not always thought to be credible. furthermore, less or no contact from livestock and fisheries offices of upazila. therefore, more services are expected from all the concerned organizations for better farm and household production. finally, the results of the fgd strongly support the findings received through the individual interview. profile characteristics of rural women perceptions of the rural women become influenced by their characteristics. in this study eight selected characteristics of the rural women were considered. the characteristics profile of the rural women has been presented in table 3. journal of extension education 6746 data in table 3 reveal that majority of the rural women (46.3%) were middle-aged and considerable proportion of the rural women (33.7%) was primary educated. the highest proportion (63.7%) of the rural women had the medium sized household while the farm size of the highest proportion of the rural women (45.5%) was small. data related to annual family income indicate that the highest proportion of the rural women (43.6%) were in low income category while the highest proportion of the rural women (74.6%) had low engagement with the local associations. more than half (53.7%) of the rural women were taking short duration of training while the highest proportion of the rural women (40.9%) had high level of exposure to farming information. uddin et al., (2017), wossen et al., (2017) and hasibuan et al., (2019) also found more or less similar findings in their study. problems faced by the rural women to meet the demand of household nutrition data in table 4 indicates that more than two-thirds (69.1%) of the rural women faced moderate problems followed by 20.9% high along with an average of 17.86 and the standard deviation of 2.84. table 4. distribution of respondents according to problems faced by the rural women to meet the demand of household nutrition categories of problem (unit: score) rural women (n=110) mean sd number percent no (0) 0 0 17.86 2.84 low (1 to 14) 11 10 moderate (15-28) 76 69.1 high (>28) 23 20.9 data show that about one fifth (20.9%) of the respondents were found with problems of high category in boosting agricultural production in the study areas. it was reported during field survey that a local level ngo namely, n z akota was involved in mid-day school meal programme under the guidance of upazila education office, furthermore, the upazila agriculture office took some initiatives for rural women to produce food and utilize them in a better way to ensure household nutrition. those initiatives were supposed to help them address issues of household food utilization. characteristics (unit of measurement) range rural women (n=110) mean sd training exposure (days of training) unknown 0-122 no (0) 21.8 6.47 17.15 short (14) 53.7 medium (5-14) 11.8 long (>15) 12.7 exposure to farming information (scale score) 0-33 0-24 no (0) 0.9 13.40 3.55 low (1 to 10) 22.7 moderate (11-20) 35.5 high (>20) 40.9 role of government and non-government organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition as perceived by rural women 6747 the intensity of individual problems faced by the rural women to meet the demand of household nutrition has been examined by computing rank order through the response of the rural women is shown in table 5. table 5. rank order of the problems faced by the rural women to meet the demand of household nutrition aspects of problem pfi rank order unstable food price 245 1 lack of nutritional knowledge 233 2 scarcity of food conserving facilities 229 3 lack of cooking materials 222 4 weak communication system 216 5 absence of refrigerator 213 6 lack of household food making knowledge 212 7 social and religious constraints 211 8 lack of money for buying nutritious food 206 9 electricity problem 203 10 sanitation problem 200 11 money shortness for food conserving materials 197 12 data shows that ‘unstable food price (245)’ got the highest scores facing problem by the rural women to boost agricultural production. nath (2015) also found instability in food price in his study which arised as a major problem in agricultural production. it is evident from table 5 that ‘lack of nutritional knowledge (233)’, ‘scarcity of food conserving facilities (229)’ and ‘lack of cooking materials (222)’ secured second, third and fourth ranks respectively in facing problems by the rural women. shelly and d’costa (2000); parveen (2008) and malone et al., (2013) found that most of the training sessions and extension activities are executed by male extension agents and that’s why the rural women were unable to involve themselves in such significant, gnostic programmes. because, the women and men outside the family are not encouraged, even prohibited to socialize with one another. additionally, the ‘weak communication system (216)’ in hilly areas was one of the vital problems faced by the rural women. duedu et al., (2014) and wanwimolruk et al., (2016) found that modernization of supply chains (e.g., refrigeration and quality control systems for preservation) only offer a partial solution for both own consumption and sold in supermarkets which is certified as conforming to safety and quality standards. conclusion the findings lead to the conclusion that majority of the rural women perceived somewhat satisfied to satisfied level of roles played by the gos and ngos. the existing organizations work and their nature of support may help accelerate the agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition. the organizations need more support in extending their service areas with enhanced capacities. regarding this, special fund allocation, training and awareness campaign from the part of the government are imperative in capacitating the organizations to discharge their duties duly. because, the hilly areas claim special attention for improvement of overall scenario of livelihood. although the overall perception of the rural women was favourable about the services of the organizations, some of the issues were not as satisfying as the women expected to boost their agricultural production to meet household nutrition. ninety percent of the respondents journal of extension education 6748 expressed that they faced moderate to high level of problems to meet their needs for household nutrition. majority of those problems were concerned to unstable food price, lacking in nutritional knowledge and scarcity of food preservation facilities. boosting of agricultural production to meet the demand of household nutrition would remain critical if the aforesaid problems are not addressed duly. specialized operations, awareness programmes and subsidies may overcome those problems in meeting demands of nutrition at household level. references agrawala, s., ota, t., ahmed, a. u., smith, j., & van aalst, m. (2003). development and climate change in bangladesh: focus on coastal flooding and the sundarbans. organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd), paris. alam, g. m. (2008). impact of the private universities on bangladeshi education system: an investigation on education policy. vdm: germany. alam, g. m., & rahaman, m. (2008). the impact of migration on development: a comparative study between skilled and semi/unskilled emigrants. journal of international business studies, 4, 117-131. alam, g. m., hoque, k. e., khalifa, m. t. b., siraj, s. b., & ghani, m. f. b. a. (2009). the role of agriculture education and training on agriculture economics and national development of bangladesh. african journal of agricultural research, 4(12), 1334-1350. alam, m. s. (2012). food security through gongo partnership. the daily star, dhaka, bangladesh. ashley, c., & maxwell, s. (2001). rethinking rural development. development policy review, 19(4), 395–425. begum, h. a., perveen, r., chakma, e., dewan, l., afroze, r. s., & tangen, d. (2019). the challenges of geographical inclusive education in rural bangladesh. international journal of inclusive education, 23(1), 7-22. duedu, k. o., yarnie, e. a., tetteh-quarcoo, p. b., attah, s. k., donkor, e. s., & ayeh-kumi, p. f. (2014). a comparative survey of the prevalence of human parasites found in fresh vegetables sold in supermarkets and open-aired markets in accra, ghana. bmc research notes, 7(1), 1-6. fanzo, j., marshall, q., dobermann, d., wong, j., merchan, r. i., jaber, m. i., souza, a., verjee, n., & davis, k. (2015). integration of nutrition into extension and advisory services: a synthesis of experiences, lessons, and recommendations. food and nutrition bulletin, 36(2), 120-137. fao (food and agriculture organization). (2014). towards sustainable agriculture and improved food security & nutrition, bangladesh country programming framework. fao, rome, italy. gfss (global food security strategy). (2018). bangladesh country plan. retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1867/ g l o b a l f o o d s e c u r i t y s t r a t e g y g f s s bangladesh-country-plan. hasibuan, a. m., gregg, d., & stringer, r. (2019). accounting for diverse risk attitudes in measures of risk perceptions: a case study of climate change risk for small-scale citrus farmers in indonesia. land use policy, 104252. karim, z., bakar, m. a., & islam, m. n. (2009). study of the implementation status and effectiveness of new agricultural extension policy for technology adoption. national food policy capacity strengthening programme (nfpcsp), dhaka, bangladesh. role of government and non-government organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition as perceived by rural women 6749 malone, p., akbar, s. u., bell, m., & bohn, a. b. (2013). report on the status of ict for agricultural extension in bangladesh. meas ict support project. retrieved from https:// agrilinks.org. mamun-ur-rashid, m., kamruzzaman, m., & mustafa, e. (2017). women participation in agricultural extension services in bangladesh: current status, prospects and challenges. bangladesh journal of extension education, issn. 1011, 3916. miah, m., alam, q. m., & mohabbatullah, m. (2018). household food security among indigenous hill people in khagrachari hill district of bangladesh. bangladesh journal of agricultural economics, 37. moa (ministry of agriculture). (2015). national agricultural extension policy (draft). ministry of agriculture, government of the people’s republic of bangladesh. mondal, m. h. (2010). crop agriculture of bangladesh: challenges and opportunities. bangladesh journal agricultural research, 35(2), 235-245. nath, n. c. (2015). food security of bangladesh: status, challenges and strategic policy options. bangladesh journal of political economy, 31(2), 189-250. parveen, s. (2008). access of rural women to productive resources in bangladesh: a pillar for promoting the environment. international journal rural studies, 15(1), 1-8. shamsuddoha, m. (2009). development of livestock sector through leading ngo in bangladesh. the university of suceava annals of economics and public administration, 9(1), 36-44. shelly, a. b., & costa, m. d. (2000). women in aquaculture: initiatives of caritas bangladesh. bangladesh institute of development studies (bids), bangladesh. siddika, a., kobra, m. k., tanin, s., & afrin, s. (2018). non-government organizations and their contribution in rural development: an example of bagatipara upazila, natore district, bangladesh. international journal of innovative science and research technology, 3(4), 747-752. uccello, e., kauffmann, d., calo, m., & streissel, m. (2017). nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems in practice: options for intervention. fao, rome, italy. uddin, m. n., bokelmann, w., & dunn, e. s. (2017). determinants of farmers’ perception of climate change: a case study from the coastal region of bangladesh. american journal of climate change, 6, 151-165. usaid (united states agency for international development). (2017). country profile: bangladesh. retrieved from https:// feedthefuture.gov/country/bangladesh. walsham, m. (2009). assessing the evidence: environment, climate change and migration in bangladesh. dhaka: iom bangladesh. wanwimolruk, s., phopin, k., boonpangrak, s., & prachayasittikul, v. (2016). food safety in thailand 4: comparison of pesticide residues found in three commonly consumed vegetables purchased from local markets and supermarkets in thailand. peerj, 4, e2432. wossen, t., abdoulaye, t., alene, a., haile, m. g., feleke, s., olanrewaju, a., & manyong, v. (2017). impacts of extension access and cooperative membership on technology adoption and household welfare. journal of rural studies, 54, 223-233. 6240 a study on the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship in kerala t radha1 and m .u renjini 2 abstract agriculture and allied activities are considered as the back bone of the indian economy. in kerala, farmers are withdrawing from their occupation since they consider farming as non-profitable to earn a living. thus, there is a need for revolutionary changes in agricultural sector, especially in the field of agribusiness. hence, the study is to assess the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship. both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. a well-structured interview schedule was prepared and administered to the selected respondents to collect primary data. observation and discussion with the selected respondents facilitated the data collection. fifty farmers, both men and women, from venganoor, kottukal and kalliyoor panchayats of thiruvananthapuram were taken as the sample for the study. the study focused on the socioeconomic profile, information on the crop varieties, land holdings, factors influencing the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship and future expectations of the respondents. keywords: agriculture, agripreneurship, involvement, farmers, economic, growth; kerala 1. assistant professor & 2. ph. d research scholar, department of home science extension education, avinashilingam institute for home science and higher education for women, coimbatore-641 043, tamil nadu. agriculture entrepreneurship or agripreneurship is the entrepreneurship in the field of agriculture. it establishes agribusiness in agriculture and allied sectors. traditionally farmers used to cultivate food and cash crops or rear animals and directly sell the products to customers. instead of sticking to traditional farming activities, farmers now engage in diverse farm related activities for better earning. new avenues are available for farmers to enhance their income from farming. technology, government assistance and entrepreneurship development training programmes have considerably contributed to the increase of agripreneurship. wide variety for farm related enterprises are establishing in the country (bairwa et al., 2014). areas of entrepreneurship in agriculture include the activities like dairying, sericulture, floriculture, apiculture, poultry, nursery farming, farmtourism etc. other emerging areas include integrated farming, organic farm products, service, supply and maintenance of farm machineries. the present study was conducted to know the extent of involvement of farmers in agripreneurship in thiruvananthapuram, kerala methodology the present study was conducted research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6240-6244 received : 08-01-2019; accepted : 11-03-2019 6241 among fifty farmers residing in venganoor, kottukal and kalliyoor panchayats of thiruvananthapuram. both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. survey method was adopted using a well structured interview schedule to collect primary data. using interview schedule, face to face interactions were made to collect the information. farmers were selected using random sampling method. secondary data were collected from books, journals, websites, etc. the collected data were pooled, tabulated, compared and analysed. findings and discussion the study had made an attempt to assess the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship in selected places of thiruvananthapuram district in kerala. the findings regarding the profile characteristics of the respondents are presented in table 1. table 1. profile characteristics of the respondents sl. no. particulars number (n=50) percen tage (%) 1 age ≤35 years 13 26 36 50 years 27 54 >50 years 10 20 2 gender male 44 88 female 6 12 3 marital status married 50 100 unmarried sl. no. particulars number (n=50) percen tage (%) 4 educational qualification illiterate 0 0 primary school 5 10 high school 20 40 higher secondary school 14 28 graduation 9 18 post graduation and above 2 4 5 type of family nuclear family 34 68 extended family 15 30 joint family 1 2 6 monthly income (in rs.) below rs. 50000 8 12 rs. 50000 rs. 100000 16 32 above rs. 100000 rs. 200000 12 24 rs. 200000rs. 400000 10 20 above rs. 400000 4 8 7 type of land own 39 78 rent 11 22 8 land holdings ≤25 cents 23 46 26 50 cents 19 38 >50 cents 8 16 9 experience in farming ≤5 years 11 22 6 10 years 13 26 >10 years 26 52 a study on the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship in kerala 6242 it is observed from table 1 that, regarding age, majority (54 per cent) of the respondents were in the age group of 3650 years. thus, it was interesting to know that participation in agriculture and allied activities is more among the middle aged groups. male farmers were more (88 per cent) in the study area and the educational status of the respondents reveal that they are qualified enough and are engaged in agriculture and allied activities. forty per cent of the respondents have an educational qualification up to high school level and it was welcoming to know that no one was illiterate among the study sample. about 32 per cent of the selected farmers earn an income of rs. 50000 to rs. 100000 annually from agriculture and only 8 per cent of the respondents earn above rs. 400000 per annum. majority (78 per cent) of the respondents make use of their own land for agriculture and agripreneurship activities. regarding the land holdings, it is less than 25 cents for forty six per cent of the respondents and 52 per cent of the respondents had more than ten years of experience in farming. regarding the type of agripreneurship activities among the selected respondents, 46 per cent of the respondents take part in agripreneurship activities. coconut farmers constitute 18 per cent of the samples. they maintain coconut farm for more than ten years and sell coconut, tender coconut and copra. the byproducts of coconut like coconut husk and shell are supplied to small scale industries, fertilizer units and handicraft units. a few farmers (5 out of 9) have their own oil mills to extract coconut oil and the residue is sold as cattle feed. about 16 per cent of the respondents are engaged in vegetable, tapioca and banana cultivation. only six per cent of the respondents are engaged in paddy cultivation. even though the proportion of paddy cultivation in the study area is very low, it is relatively good. dairying is another agripreneurship activity engaged in by 12 per cent of the respondents. cow, goat and buffalo are the major animals reared in the study area. milk and milk products are supplied from here to nearby households, milk societies and petty shops. it was observed that about 10 per cent of the respondents are engaged in poultry farming. hen, duck, quail and emu are the birds in the farms of study area. they have their own hatchery units and apart from selling meat, they supply chicks and eggs to other farmers and customers. journal of extension education sl. no. particulars number (n=50) percen tage (%) 10 type of farming coconut 9 18 vegetables 8 16 tapioca 8 16 banana 8 16 dairying 6 12 poultry 5 10 rice 3 6 mushroom cultivation 2 4 aquaculture 1 2 6243 mushroom cultivation is taken up by only four per cent of the farmers. they supply oyster and milky mushrooms to nearby shops and super markets. they sell value added products like mushroom pickle, cutlet, samosa and dried mushroom. they also provide 1 to 5-day training programmes for those who are interested in mushroom cultivation and byproducts preparation. ornamental fish culture is another agripreneurship activity that constitute only two percent in the study area. several species of ornamental fishes are cultured and marketed in small scale to nearby places. thus, from the data collected it can be concluded that except vegetable, paddy, banana and tapioca farmers, other 46 per cent of the respondents are engaged in various agripreneurial activities to supplement their income from farming. factors influencing the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship involvement of farmers in agribusiness or various agriculture related entrepreneurial activities are influenced by certain factors. these factors are presented in table 2. it could be seen from table 2 that, majority (34 per cent) of the respondents are involved in agripreneurship in order to improve their financial status. about 22 per cent of the respondents opined that it is a means of selfemployment opportunities for them. other factors that made the respondents to engage in agripreneurship are taking up family business (18 per cent), interest towards agriculture (4 per cent), means of improving standard of living (14 per cent) and to avail government schemes and loans (6 per cent). only two per cent of the respondents felt that since agriculture is seasonal occupation, it makes use of leisure time by engaging in various agripreneurial activities. future expectations of the respondents the study also focussed on revealing the future expectations of the selected respondents (table 3. ) it was found that majority (30 per cent) of the selected respondents expects better marketing avenues and online and offline ideas on entrepreneurship. about 12 per cent table 2. factors influencing the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship (n=50) sl. no. particulars number percen tage (%) 1 to improve financial status 17 34 2 means of self employment 11 22 3 family business 9 18 4 interest in agriculture 2 4 5 make use of leisure time 1 2 6 to improve standard of living 7 14 7 to avail government schemes and loan 3 6 a study on the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship in kerala 6244 of the respondents expect effective usage of farm services and 16 per cent of the samples looking for effective entrepreneurship training programmes. india provides a firm ground for table 3. future expectations of the respondents sl. no. particulars number (n=50) percen tage (%) 1 better marketing avenues 15 30 2 online and offline ideas 15 30 3 effective usage of farm services 12 24 4 effective agripreneurship training programmes 8 16 the development of entrepreneurial culture in agribusiness. a strategy must be designed to follow up with farmers to encourage agripreneurship among them. through the study, the extent of involvement of selected farmers in various agripreneurship activities, factors influencing their involvement and future expectations were analysed in detail. entrepreneurial potential of farmers have to be identified and measures must be taken to involve more farmers in agribusiness and related entrepreneurial activities. references bairwa, shoji lal, kushwaha, saket, meena, lokesh kumar & lakra, kerobim. (2014). present status of agriclinics and agribusiness centres scheme in india: an analysis, international journal of scientific research and management, 2(9): 1431-1440 journal of extension education 6216 participatory management process in natural resource management (nrm) by women groups waheeda munawer1, s. senthil vinayagam2 and d. raghunatha reddy3 abstract conserving the natural resources results in improved agricultural productivity which is a key driver for poverty reduction in rural areas. to empower the women and to enhance their socio-economic status for better livelihoods, self-help groups (shg) were formed by both the government organizations (go) and non-government organizations (ngo). they facilitated the participation of women through various means in natural resource management (nrm) activities. to find out the distribution of the women groups in different stages of nrm activities and to analyze the influence of profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics on participatory management in nrm activities, an ex-post facto study was conducted in telangana, coastal andhra and rayalaseema regions among 240 shgs. the study revealed that majority of the women respondents had medium level of ‘total participatory management’ followed by high level and low level. keywords: women; self help group; participatory management; natural resource mangement; telangana; andhra pradesh 1. ph.d scholar, national institute of agrl. extension management, rajendra nagar, hyderabad – 500 030. 2. principal scientist, icar-national academy of agrl. extension management, rajendra nagar, hyderabad – 500 030 and 3. professor, jawaharlal nehru technology university hyderabad, kukatpally, hyderabad – 500 085. introduction natural resource management and poverty alleviation are being considered as two-sides of the same coin. conserving the natural resource results in improved agricultural productivity which is a key driver for poverty reduction in rural areas. agricultural growth generates the income and livelihood for the poorest of the poor. the experiences gained in watershed management programmes proved that the livelihood of the rural people depends on agriculture which links with watersheds and natural resources importance. the challenges in sustainable natural resources management (nrm) are to be addressed by involving participation of communities who are living in close association with these natural resources. in general, participation of women in groups plays a vital role in natural resources management (nrm) and sustainable livelihood development. to empower the women and to enhance their socio-economic status for better livelihoods, self-help groups research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6216-6222 received : 17-05-2019; accepted : 02-07-2019 6217 (shg) were formed by both the government organizations (go) and non-government organizations (ngo). there is a need to assess the involvement of gos and ngos in women empowerment for the sustainable livelihood development among poor families in the rural societies. many approaches are employed to involve women in the planning, implementation, execution and monitoring of natural resources. many research programmes have been initiated to implement and enhance this participatory process management. the gos and ngos also facilitated the participation of women through various means. in this paper, an attempt has been made to find out the distribution of the women groups in different stages of nrm activities and to analyze the influence of profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics on participatory management in nrm activities. methodology an ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. all the three regions of united andhra pradesh (telangana, coastal andhra and rayalaseema) were selected for the study and from each region one district was selected based more number of women groups (shgs). a total of 240 shgs (120 from government promoted groups and 120 from non-government promoted groups) and 60 go and ngo officials were selected from three districts who constituted the sample. a pre-tested interview schedule was used for data collection. the obtained data was analyzed and tested with the help of standard statistical tools. findings and discussion participatory management is operationally defined as the involvement of women members of different women groups (shgs) in different development activities by way of interaction with natural resource management officials, expressing their views and sharing their responsibilities during pre-watershed stage, planning stage, implementation stage, maintenance stage and evaluation stage components. participatory management was quantified with the scale consisting 30 statements developed for the study based on the lines of scale construction procedure adopted by reddy (1992) with slight modification. the distribution of respondents according to their involvement in different stages of nrm activities (table 1) revealed that majority (38.75%) of the women in groups were involved in ‘high level’ during pre-watershed stage. this may be due to their involvement and interest towards establishment of watershed activities in their locality and to establish some economic activity for their livelihood. 42.08% of the women in groups were involved in planning stage at ‘medium level’. this may be due to minimum availability of experts in the groups to involve in planning process. majority of the respondents were at ‘low level’ at implementation stage (40.83%), maintenance stage (37.50%) and at evaluation stage (52.50%). this may be due to less income from watershed activities during planning stage, more expenditure and delay of release of amount from funding agency for maintenance purpose and involvement of participatory management process in natural resource management (nrm) by women groups 6218 group leader only for evaluation stage. table 1. distribution of respondents according to their involvement in different stages of nrm activities ( n=240) sl. no. stages no. of respondents 1 pre-watershed stage f % low(15-16) 61 25.42 medium(17-18) 86 35.83 high (19-20) 93 38.75 total 240 100 2 planning stage f % low (9-10) 55 22.92 medium (11-12) 101 42.08 high (13-14) 84 35.00 total 240 100 3 implementation stage f % low(25-26) 98 40.83 medium(27-28) 76 31.67 high (29-30) 66 27.50 total 240 100 4 maintenance stage f % low(7-8) 90 37.50 medium(9-10) 83 34.58 high (11-12) 67 27.92 total 240 100 sl. no. stages no. of respondents 5 evaluation stage f % low(7-8) 126 52.50 medium(9-10) 64 26.67 high (11-12) 50 20.83 total 240 100 6 total participatory management f % low(63-71) 58 24.17 medium(72-80) 119 59.58 high (81-89) 63 26.25 total 240 100 as regards total participatory management, it could be inferred that majority of the respondents (59.58%) had medium level of participation in watershed management activities under nrm. the reason for such trend could be medium level of awareness on nrm activities both by government and nongovernment organizations. relationship of profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics of women with their participatory management in groups in order to study the nature of relationship between the profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics and dependent variables, correlation coefficients (r) were computed and values are presented. journal of extension education 6219 table 2. correlation analysis of profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics with participatory management sl. no. independent variable correlation coefficient (r) valuesparticipatory management government (n= 120) ngo (n= 120) total (n= 240) 1. age -0.163 0.083 -0.018 2. family type 0.033 0.118 0.075 3. family size 0.177* 0.221* 0.199** 4. caste 0.047 0.086 0.119 5. education/ literacy level 0.351** 0.261* 0.278** 6. farming experience 0.041** 0.312** 0.187** 7. occupation 0.081 0.089 0.108 8. annual income 0.089 0.072 0.108** 9. awareness on nrm activities 0.194* 0.345** 0.162* 10. land holding 0.111 0.000 0.054 11. capacity building in nrm 0.077 0.089 0.104 12. extension contact 0.255** 0.289** 0.328** 13. socio-political participation 0.392** 0.169* 0.349** 14. mass media exposure 0.365** 0.338** 0.423** 15. information seeking behavior 0.177 0.119 0.089 16. decision making ability 0.095 0.103 0.065 17. working age of the group 0.074 0.185* 0.096 18. group size 0.211* 0.342** 0.369** 19. supportive environment 0.465** 0.262** 0.178* 20. nature of economic activity 0.194* 0.227* 0.152* 21. frequency of group meeting 0.141 0.149 0.103 22. group process 0.458** 0.079 0.280** 23. group sustainability 0.412** 0.208* 0.272** 24. group norms 0.450** 0.353** 0.347** 25. group leadership 0.714** 0.431** 0.597** 26. team work 0.372** 0.265** 0.303** 27. group achievement 0.442** 0.214* 0.309** * : significant at 5 per cent level participatory management process in natural resource management (nrm) by women groups 6220 it could be inferred from table 2 that the profile characteristics such as family size, education, farming experience and annual income, supportive characteristics such as awareness on nrm, extension contact, socio-political participation and mass media exposure, structural characteristics such as group size, supportive environment and nature of economic activity, functional characteristics such as group process, group sustainability, group norms, group leadership, team work and group achievement had positive and significant relationship with participatory management. it could be also inferred from the results that the functional characteristics of the women in groups had more significant and positive relationship with participatory management than profile, supportive and structural characteristics. hence strengthening the capacity of women in groups through developing leadership, group processing, team work, group achievement and formulating group norms will help in developing more participatory approach towards watershed management under nrm activities. influence of profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics on participatory management multiple linear regression analysis was carried out to determine the influence of the profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics in predicting the participatory management of women groups towards participatory approach in nrm activities. table 3. influence of profile, supportive, structural and functional characteristics on participatory management sl.no. independent variable regression coefficient standard error 't' value 1. age 0.07290 0.04320 1.69 2. family type 2.14018 0.72787 2.94** 3. family size 0.45932 0.17844 2.57* 4. caste (st, sc, bc, oc) 0.48953 0.31026 1.58 5. education/ literacy level -0.59833 0.28911 2.07* 6. farming experience 0.03765 0.03910 0.96 7. occupation -0.07011 0.16534 0.42 8. annual income 0.00001792 0.00000710 2.52* 9. awareness on nrm activities -0.01457 0.09740 0.15 10. land holding 0.05470 0.11773 0.46 11. capacity building in nrm 1.47517 0.78467 1.88 12. extension contact 0.20130 0.26176 0.77 journal of extension education 6221 on the whole it is observed that in both government and ngo-promoted women groups the selected independent variables on participatory management together explained the variation to the extent of 59.2 per cent (table 3). the unexplained variation to the extent of 40.8 per cent may be attributed by the variables which were not included in the study. the f value 11.39 was found to be showing significant variation. family type, supportive environment, nature of economic activity, group leadership, team work and group achievement were most visible and tangible aspect that made variation in the participatory management of the respondents at 1 per cent level of 13. socio-political participation -0.16353 0.12836 1.27 14. mass media exposure 0.46389 0.21385 2.17* 15. information seeking behavior -0.05250 0.08298 0.63 16. decision making ability -0.00820 0.05880 0.14 17. working age of the group -0.02616 0.07842 0.33 18. group size 0.33584 0.16607 2.02* 19. supportive environment -0.21825 0.06048 3.61** 20. nature of economic activity -2.13167 0.72987 2.92** 21. frequency of group meeting 0.01092 0.31627 0.03 22. group process -0.06072 0.04563 1.33 23. group sustainability 0.54997 0.24175 2.27* 24. group norms 0.22056 0.18818 1.17 25. group leadership 0.70222 0.10747 6.53** 26. team work 0.20323 0.08233 2.47** 27. group achievement 0.28102 0.09692 2.90** * : significant at 5 per cent level f value r2 intercept 11.39 0.5920 52.593 significance while family size, education, annual income, mass media exposure, group size and group sustainability contributed significantly to brought up the variation in the participatory management at 5 per cent level of significance. conclusion women are highly linked with different activities both farm and non-farm, by using appropriate natural / agricultural resources and / or their product. they also receive support from gos and ngos through various schemes and programmes which encourage their participation. this paper revealed that majority of the respondents of the participatory management process in natural resource management (nrm) by women groups 6222 women had medium level of total participatory management followed by high level and low level. the reason for such a trend could be the medium level of awareness on nrm activities both by government and non-government organizations. further, the capacity building programmes offered by promoting agencies are to be informed to the women groups well in advance. the results suggests attracting young women by creating more avenues and enterprises based on nrm activities and to develop strategies for promotion of marketing support for the women groups to market their produce for ensuring sustainable livelihood. references reddy,c.(1992). a study to identify the constraints in adoption of improved mango production technology in khammam district of andhra pradesh. unpublished msc.(ag.) thesis, apau, hyderabad. journal of extension education 6157 food consumption pattern among school going children in a rural area of kerala k.l.blossom1, shilpa jose2 and daisy c. kappen3 abstract a study was conducted to assess the socioeconomic details and food consumption pattern of school children in a rural community. a total of 100 children in the age group of 10-12 years in ernakulam district of kerala was selected using simple random sampling. interview method with the help of structured and pretested schedule was used to collect the data. the frequency of consumption of different foods was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire. the findings revealed high consumption of rice, milk & milk products, sugar & jaggery, fats & edible oils, medium consumption of vegetables & non vegetarian items, and low consumption of pulses, nuts, oil seeds & fruits. this indicates the poor socioeconomic status prevailing in the area under study. keywords: school children; socioeconomic status; food consumption; food frequency; kerala 1. assistant professor, department of fish processing technology and 3. associate professor & director of extension, kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies, ernakulam, kerala 2. assistant professor, department of home science, st.teresa’s college, mahatma gandhi university, kottayam, kerala research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6157-6164 introduction school age is a dynamic period of growth and development forming a strong foundation for good health and productive adult life. school children grow significantly, but at slower rate. their nutritional needs are high and critical and hence appropriate dietary intake is critical during this period as it provides the essential nutrients needed for growth as well as educational achievements. though the central and state governments are trying to overcome malnutrition among children through various household oriented programmes, the problem is still existing to a large extent in the country. the data on the food consumption pattern of children in rural areas will be useful for the government to monitor the food distribution system and make sure that it reaches the targeted population. hence, the present study was proposed in this direction with the following objectives. • to study the socioeconomic details of school going children. • to collect data on the food habits and preferences of the children 3.to assess the frequency of consumption of different foods methodology the study was purposively conducted at valakom village near muvattupuzha in ernakulam district of kerala. the village population consisted mainly of daily wage workers in the agricultural sector which received : 23-11-2018; accepted : 06-03-2019 6158 belonged to bpl (below poverty line) families. the population mainly resided in colonies with unconcreted houses and little property. the samples were randomly selected from the school register which comprised 100 school going children of 10 – 12 years from both sexes. a pre-prepared interview schedule was used in order to collect the required information about the socioeconomic status and food consumption pattern of the families. a food frequency questionnaire was used to collect information about the frequency of each food item consumed for the preceding month. the data were statistically analysed using percentage analysis. table 1. socio-economic details of the school children (n=100) sl. no. general information number percen tage 1 sex boys girls 47 53 47 53 2 age 10 11 12 60 30 10 60 30 10 3 religion christian hindu muslim 40 56 4 40 56 4 4 birth order 1-2 3-4 5-6 87 12 1 87 12 1 sl. no. general information number percen tage 5 education of the father illiterate primary school level high school level graduate level 3 26 67 4 3 26 67 4 6 education of the mother illiterate primary school level high school level graduate level 1 19 78 2 1 19 78 2 7 occupation of the father coolie agricultural labourer daily wages (employed for whole day) clerk 27 25 46 2 27 25 46 2 8 occupation of the mother sweeper agricultural labourer daily wages house maid 4 2 14 80 4 2 14 80 9 monthly income (rs.) low(rs.2000 3000) middle (rs.30004000) high (rs.40005000) 65 24 11 65 24 11 journal of extension education 6159 findings and discussion socio-economic details the socio-economic conditions are considered as the most important factor influencing the food purchasing power of the families which in turn affect the nutritional status. poor socioeconomic conditions are the root causes for most of the nutritional problems observed in our country. socioeconomic details in the present study included general information about subjects and are furnished in table 1. it was noted that the subjects consisted of 47 per cent boys and 53 per cent girls. the subjects were of the ages ten (60%), eleven (30%) and twelve (10%). details pertaining to religion revealed that majority of them were hindus (56%). regarding the birth order of the children, majority (87%) were either first or second borns. educational status of father indicated that majority (67%) had high school qualification and only three per cent were illiterate. majority (78%) of the mothers also had high school education and only one per cent was illiterate. literacy is an important demographic characteristic which is an indicator of level of advancement of people. bose (2011) also reported kerala as the most literate state with a higher literacy of 93.9 per cent as per the 2011 census report of india. the occupational status of family members is an important factor influencing the food purchasing pattern and thus the health and nutritional status of family members. the results indicated that majority (46%) of the fathers were daily wage workers whereas 80 per cent of the mothers were house maids. employed mothers were found to be more than employed fathers. this might be due to the increased wages of men when compared to women. most of the women were engaged in household activities and if the women are involved in income generating activities it will improve the family income which in turn improve the food and nutritional security of children. regarding the economic status of the family, the monthly income of 65 per cent of the families was in the range of rs.2000-3000. though there is a hike in the income of daily wage workers, the low income of the parents may be due to irregularity in the employment of fathers and unemployment of mothers. ramaraju (2015) also reported low monthly income among the bpl families in kerala. fifty per cent of the student’s mode of transportation to school was by walking and 43 per cent depended on public transport. eighty five per cent of the subjects used tube light for studying. even though they are residing in colonies, electricity facilities were found to be better due to the facilities provided by the sl. no. general information number percen tage 10 transportation to school walking bicycle public transport 50 7 43 50 7 43 11 source of light for studying candle tube light lamp 5 85 10 5 85 10 food consumption pattern among school going children in a rural area of kerala 6160 table 2. food habits of the children sl. no. categories number percen tage 1 regular time for food often sometimes never 47 67 7 47 67 7 2 skips breakfast yes no 13 87 13 87 3 takes packed lunch to school yes no 46 54 46 54 4 lunch items taken rice and vegetables breakfast items tapioca 98 1 1 98 1 1 5 types of snacks taken sweet items savoury items biscuits 14 44 24 14 44 24 6 intake of raw fruits and vegetables yes no 88 12 88 12 7 use of iodized salt yes no 49 51 49 51 sl. no. categories number percen tage 8 oil used for cooking coconut palmolein both 78 8 14 78 8 14 9 consumption of water per day (@150ml/glass) <8 glasses 8-10 glasses >10 glasses 55 29 16 55 29 16 government for bpl families. however, the low socio-economic status of the subjects is the result of their impoverished environment in terms of low educational and occupational status. food habits and preferences food habits may be defined as the way in which individuals in response to social and cultural pressures, select, consume and utilize portions of the available food supply. food table 3. food preferences of the children sl. no. categories number percent (%) 1 foods preferred ready to eat homemade 7 93 7 93 2 reason for the preference convenience taste 4 96 4 96 journal of extension education 6161 preferences is the selection of food items from choices available among acceptable foods. food habits and preferences are learnt, acquired and finally become a part of oneself. the results of the food habits (table 2) and preferences (table 3) of the selected subjects are given below. with respect to food habits, 47 per cent of the children had food at regular time. breakfast was not consumed regularly by 13 per cent of the children which may be due to unavailability at home. it was found that 54 per cent of the children had lunch at the school itself which is mainly due to the availability of lunch at school provided by the government for government schools. remaining (46 %) were to have it from home. rice and vegetables was the packed lunch taken by 98 per cent of the subjects. since the bpl families used to get rice or wheat at the rate of rs. 1/kg through the pds in kerala, they preferred so. this sl. no. categories number percent (%) 3 enjoys eating with friends family members alone 11 86 3 11 86 3 4 food preferred for breakfast uppuma tapioca puttu idli dosa rice 10 6 20 39 24 1 10 6 20 39 24 1 5 food preferred as evening snack home made snacks bakery items/ biscuits only tea only milk 73 16 6 5 73 16 6 5 6 food preferred for dinner rice chappathi kanji 89 2 9 89 2 9 7 taste preferred spicy fried sweet salty 22 13 64 1 22 13 64 1 8 influencing basis regarding food preferences parents peers advertisements 76 7 17 76 7 17 sl. no. categories number percent (%) 9 information sources about food newspaper radio television magazines 13 11 56 20 13 11 56 20 10 taking outside food yes no 59 41 59 41 food consumption pattern among school going children in a rural area of kerala 6162 indicates the effective utilization of the public distribution system prevalent in the state of kerala by the bpl families. details pertaining to the consumption of snacks in between meals were found to be among 82 per cent of the children. savoury items like chips, vada, puffs etc. were preferred as snacks by 44 per cent of the subjects followed by biscuits (24 %) and sweets (14 %). a study on the dietary habits of school children in pune observed snacks, fast food and processed food as most preferred items (mukherjee and chaturvedi, 2017). consumption of raw fruits and vegetables was noticed among 88 per cent of the children which may be those available in their locality like guava, papaya, mango etc. it was found that 93 per cent preferred homemade food. the reason for their preference was mainly the taste factor. majority (86%) of them enjoyed eating food with their family members. when enquired about favourite breakfast items, many of takers were for idli (39%) and dosai (24%). majority (73%) of the children preferred homemade snacks and the taste they liked mostly was sweet (64%) and spicy (22%). rice (89%) was preferred for dinner than chapathi (2%). majority (76%) were influenced by the food preferences of their parents. regarding the information sources about food, 56 per cent were influenced by television and 20 per cent by magazines. food advertising may result in unhealthy eating habits which could be due to taste of the advertised products. the intake of food from outside was seen among 59 per cent of children which indicates the ever-growing trend of children preferring processed food and sweetened carbonated beverages. food frequency this method involves assessment of the frequency of consumption of different foods using a food frequency questionnaire. the economic status of the families and the local availability of food items are the two important factors which influence the frequency of use of various food items table 4. frequency consumption of various foods sl. no. food items high atleast once a day (%) medium 1-6 times a week (%) low less than one week(%) never (%) 1 rice 100.00 2 other cereal or cereal products 2.50 47.50 50.50 1.50 3 pulses 1.00 59.02 100.00 4 leafy vegetables 1.00 61.70 53.25 journal of extension education 6163 in their diet. it was found that all the children (100%) had high consumption of rice the findings revealed high consumption of rice., milk and milk products., sugar and jaggery., fats and edible oils., medium consumption of vegetables and non vegetarian items., and low consumption of nuts and oil seeds and fruits. though majority of children have the habit of taking fruits, the frequency of consumption was found to be low. studies conducted by gharib and rasheed (2011) and latheef (2011) also observed almost similar dietary pattern among school children and labour households respctively. conclusion the study revealed low socioeconomic conditions which are considered as the root cause for most of the nutritional problems observed in our country. precise information on the food consumption pattern of children is essential not only for assessing the nutritional status of the children but also for elucidating the food needs of the children at regional and national levels. though we have attained food security, nutrition security has not yet been achieved. nutritional awareness programmes should become a part of all developmental sl. no. food items high atleast once a day (%) medium 1-6 times a week (%) low less than one week(%) never (%) 5 roots and tubers 26.30 59.20 27.20 2.0 6 other vegetables 1.00 68.30 31.50 7 nuts and oil seeds 2.00 4.30 95.30 8 fruits 1.00 43.10 56.60 1.00 9 fish and other seafoods 51.80 47.00 5.00 10 meat and poultry 2.00 57.50 41.50 11 milk and milk products 87.00 8.00 5.00 12 fats and edible oils 97.00 1.00 2.00 13 sugar 50.00 28.00 35.00 2.00 14 condiments and spices 99.00 1.00 food consumption pattern among school going children in a rural area of kerala 6164 activities. since the study has revealed that intake of vegetables and fruits is found to be low among children, importance of balanced diet and nutrition gardening in homesteads should be encouraged for achieving self sufficiency in case of vegetables and fruits. references bose, a. (2011). census of india 2011: some highlights. yojana, 55, 5-9. gharib, n., & rasheed, p. (2011). energy and macronutrient intake and dietary pattern among school children in bahrain: a crosssectional study. nutrition journal, 10, 1–12. latheef, n. (2011). food and nutrition security of paddy cultivators of kaliyoor panchayat unpublished msc (home science) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 81p. mukherjee, r., & chaturvedi, s. (2017). a study of the dietary habits of school children in pune city, maharashtra, india. international journal of community medicine and public health, 4(2), 593-597. ramaraju, a. (2015). health insurance scheme for low income groups in india with a focus on urban poor in cochin. international journal of marketing and human resource management, 6(1), 55-70. journal of extension education jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 the current day challenges in agriculture is focusing on higher profit by effective resource utilisation. the government’s interventions also remained focused to achieve this major goal and provide technological support to farmers through extension services, provide inputs and make them entrepreneurs. one such measure taken by government of tamilnadu is restructuring the state department of agriculture (sda) to give more emphasis to block level extension. a study was conducted with an objective to study the association and contribution of profile characteristics of block level officials and their role performance in reorganized extension system. association and contribution of profile characteristics of block level officials and their role performance in the reorganized extension system s. parthasarathi1 and r. ganesan2 abstract reorganisation of extension system as per the advances in the farming system is inevitable. the changes should meet the challenges of farmers and also should address the extension system. a study was conducted in cuddalore district of tamilnadu to assess the association and contribution of seven selected profile characteristics of block level officials viz., assistant director of agriculture, agricultural officers and assistant agricultural officers and their role performance in the reorganized extension system which focuses on block level. the profile charactersistics such as experience, workload perception, job involvement and time management were found to have positive and significant relationship with the role performance of the ada. organizational climate and experience were found to have positive and significant relationship for aos and experience and job involvement were found significant for aaos. methodology the study was conducted in cuddalore district which has different farming situations. the 62 extension officials available in the 13 blocks of cuddalore district were taken as whole. the block extension officials include 13 assistant directors of agriculture (adas), 21 agriculture/ deputy agriculture officers (aos / dy. aos) and 28 assistant agriculture officers (aaos). the questionnaire was finalized based on focus group discussion, discussion with extension scientists and officials of sda. the information about the duties and responsibilities of adas, aos / dy. aos and aaos were collected from the job charts as 1-assistant professor, pajancoa & ri, karaikal, puducherry and 2 former dean, ac &ri, killikulam, thoothukudi district, tamil nadu. received : 13 jan, 2016; accepted : 12 apr, 2016 5565association and contribution of profile characteristics of block level officials and their role performance in the reorganized extension system prescribed by the government. role performance, was operationalised as the extent to which an extension worker is able to effectively carry out his roles prescribed in the job chart. in order to assess the role performance self-rating method was followed. correlation and regression analysis were employed to find out the association and relationship between role performance and independent variables. findings and discussion the findings of the association and contribution of role performance with the profile characteristics of officials is discussed below. association and contribution of profile characteristics of adas and their role performance the correlation analysis indicated the variable organizational climate to be significantly associated with role performance at one per cent level of probability. the variables viz., experience, workload perception, job involvement and time management were found to have positive and significant relationship with the role performance of the adas at five per cent level of probability as shown in table 1. the guidance and supervision, interpersonal relations, team work and proposed facilities table 1. association and contribution between profile of the adas and their role performance to be established in the baecs, made them to realize conducive organizational climate might have resulted in the positive contribution of this variable with the role performance of the adas. by virtue of experience at various cadre and effective in managing their time towards various activities would also have resulted a positive relationship with the role performance. further, the ‘f’ value was 1.665, which was positive, and significantly influence at one per cent level. the regression analysis indicated that all the independent variables taken together explained a significant amount of variation on role performance. the r2 value reveals that all the seven independent variables explained to the extent of 85.00 per cent of variation in role performance of adas. (n=12) r2 =0.850 ** significant at 0.01 level ; f =1.665* significant at 0.05 level; standard error = 1.086 nsnon significant sl.no. variables ‘r’ value partial regression standard error ‘t’ value co-efficient 1. age 0.544 ns 0.240 1.314 0.183 ns 2. experience 0.786* -0.558 1.014 2.550* 3. workload perception 0.532* -0.120 0.806 -0.149 ns 4. job involvement 0.346* -0.012 0.092 1.135 ns 5. job stress -0.327 ns 0.393 0.895 -0.136 ns 6. time management 0.538* -0.311 0.807 2.386* 7. organizational climate 0.748** 0.085 0.187 2.454* journal of extension education5566 the variables viz., time management and organizational climate exhibited positive and significant contribution towards the role performance of adas. this indicates that an increase in organizational climate by one unit would increase the level of adas role performance. similar is the case with the other variable time management. association and contribution of profile characteristics of aos / dy. aos and their role performance the variables viz., organizational climate, experience and workload perception, job involvement and time management were found to have positive and significant sl.no. variables ‘r’ value partial regression standard error ‘t’ value co-efficient 1. age 0.348 ns 0.577 0.344 1.674 ns 2. experience 0.674** -0.423 0.327 2.294* 3. workload perception 0.455* 0.337 0.399 0.845 ns 4. job involvement 0.582* -0.092 0.062 -1.476 ns 5. job stress -0.087 ns -0.051 0.139 -0.370 ns 6. time management 0.452* -0.264 0.373 -0.707 ns 7. organizational climate 0.540** 0.185 0.107 3.724** table 2. association and contribution of profile characteristics of aos / dy. aos and their role performance (n=21) r2 =0.634 ** significant at 0.01 level; f =1.932 * significant at 0.05 level; standard error = 3.621 nsnon significant relationship. the reorganized setup of the department would give them more focus in their activities. thus the aos / dy. aos feel a conducive organizational climate. the experience gained by them would also help to perform their role effectively. effective time management, work commitment also make them to execute their role effectively as depicted in table 2. the calculated ‘f’ value was found to have positive and significant influence at five per cent level of probability. the r2 value shows 63.40 per cent of contribution by the seven independent variables. data in table 2 show the contributed variables viz., organizational climate and experience found to have positive and significant at five per cent and one per cent level of probability of regression coefficient respectively. it could be inferred that the experience would pave way for better performance of their assigned role. the favourable organizational climate also paves a platform for them in delivery of role. it could be inferred that a unit increase in experience would lead to an increase in a unit of role performance of the aos / dy.aos. association and contribution of profile characteristics of aaos and their role performance it could be observed from table 3 that out of seven variables, organizational climate alone was found to have positive and significant association with the role 5567association and contribution of profile characteristics of block level officials and their role performance in the reorganized extension system sl.no. variables ‘r’ value partial regression standard error ‘t’ value co-efficient 1. age 0.184 ns -0.136 0.316 2.430* 2. experience 0.386* 0.196 0.338 0.579 ns 3. workload perception -0.135 ns -0.177 0.258 -0.686 ns 4. job involvement 0.287* 0.088 0.103 2.559* 5. job stress 0.087 ns 0.005 0.186 0.028 ns 6. time management -0.224 ns 0.376 0.558 0.674 ns 7. organizational climate 0.463** 0.227 0.129 2.755** table 3. association and contribution of profile characteristics of aaos and their role performance (n=21) r2 =0.627 ** significant at 0.01 level ; f =1.971 * significant at 0.05 level; standard error = 4.821 nsnon significant performance of aaos at one per cent level of probability as well as experience and job involvement were found significant at five per cent level of probability. the new working environment under the restructuring would give ample scope for effective interaction with the officials at block level. the baecs could help the line department officials to share the common problems also contribute a favorable organizational climate to perform the role effectively. the results of multiple regression analysis as explained in table 3 reveals that all the independent variables taken together explained a significant amount of variation on effectiveness of role performance. the r2 value reveals that all the seven independent variables explained to the extent of 62.73 per cent of variation in the role performance of aao. the variables viz., experience, job involvement and organizational climate showed positive and significant contribution towards the role performance. this indicates that an increase in experience by one unit would increase the level of role performance. similar is the case with other two variables viz., job involvement and organizational climate. high experience in job would be helped the aaos to be aware of their role and they may easily accommodate with the restructuring. conclusion from the above findings the organizational climate, experience, job involvement were found to have positive and significant relationship with the role performance of the block level officials, whereas, organizational climate showed positive and significant contribution towards the role performance of adas and aos. the variables viz., experience, job involvement and organizational climate showed positive and significant contribution towards the role performance of aaos at block level. in all three cadres organizational climate was found to significantly contribute to the role performance of officials working in the reorganized extension system. hence, the policy makers should give more focus in this aspect for better serving for farming community by the sda. journal of extension education5568 references ganesan, r. 1989. participation pattern of officials, farm leaders and farmer beneficiaries in agricultural development schemes a critical analysis. unpub. ph.d. thesis, tnau, coimbatore. kalaivani, s. 1999. managerial competency, job perception, job performance of extension personnel in bbes. unpub. ph.d. thesis, tnau, coimbatore. mishra, p. and r.k. talukdar. 1997. role perception and role performance of teachers (teaching roles) in an agricultural university. journal of extension education. 9(1) : 1967 1969. wrapper.cdr 6405 market orientation of women dairy farmers of kerala reeja george pulinilkunnathil1 abstract the study explores the status of women dairy farmers of kerala state with respect to marketing variables that have a significant effect on their entrepreneurial behavior. the variables studied include the extent of utilization of marketing facilities, credit orientation and competition orientation. the study was conducted among 153 women dairy farmers, selected through the process of multistage random sampling from ernakulam, palakkad, and thrissur districts of the state. sharp contrasts with regard to the level of market utilization was observed among farmers with different herd sizes, while higher levels of market utilization were observed among around sixty percent of respondents with larger herd size. none of the respondents with small herd size had high level market facilities utilization. extent of utilization of market facilities was positively and significantly associated with entrepreneurial behavior of the respondents. similarly, respondents with larger herd sizes had significantly higher competition orientation scores when compared to those with smaller herd sizes. most of the respondents in this study fell in the medium level of credit orientation. however, non-significant correlation was observed between credit orientation and entrepreneurial behavior. none of the respondents with more than two cows had low level of competition orientation. most of the respondents fell in the medium level of competition orientation. competition orientation was positively and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial behavior of the respondents. keywords : market orientation; dairy farmer; entrepreneurial behavior; competition orientation, credit orientation; kerala 1 assistant professor, department of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, college of veterinary and animal sceience, mannuthy, thrissur, kerala 680 651 research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6405-6410 received : 27-09-2019; accepted : 23-01-2020 the important role that entrepreneurship plays in the economic growth and development of a nation has been documented in scientific literature. entrepreneurship has been described as a conscious activity that focuses on the creation, promotion and distribution of wealth and service. however, this change would not be possible without the crucial intervention of the entrepreneur who has been recognized as the trigger for economic growth and the accompanying social and economic transformation of communities all over the world. this endeavor involves calculations on the part of the entrepreneur, crucial decision making and taking risks in the faces 6406 of adversities. the process of engaging in entrepreneurial activities not only transforms society, but also results in the growth of the entrepreneur endowing him with critical traits that are crucial in his discharge of functions in this respect. animal husbandry in kerala has undergone a total transformation over the last few decades. the state of kerala is unique in that she boasts of significantly higher rates of literacy when compared to other states in the country. however as per the figures available with the 5th annual employmentunemployment survey 2015-16 conducted by ministry of labour and employment, government of india, kerala has the highest unemployment rate (ur) of 12.5 as against the all india level of 5 per cent and it is without doubt that the educational qualifications of the unemployed in kerala would be on the higher side. livestock entrepreneurship thus has a significant role to play in the state in ensuring a livelihood for the unemployed as well as augmenting incomes. unemployment among youth and women is also a serious problem in kerala where youth comprise around 23 per cent of the state population. the 5th annual employment-unemployment survey 201516 had reported that the unemployment rate of youth in kerala was 21.7 per cent in rural areas and 18.0 per cent in urban areas while unemployment rates for women in rural kerala stood at 47.4 per cent of women. it is against this background that the promotion of livestock entrepreneurial activities among the women of kerala assumes significance. the benefits of women’s control over resources has been documented to have significant association with better health outcomes for children (hossain et al 2007). variables such as extent of utilization of market facilities, credit orientation and competition orientation are important determinants of entrepreneurial behavior (george, 2013). past result has demonstrated the positive effects of entrepreneurship market orientation and performance (shahid et al., 2004). it was against the aforesaid background that an investigation among women dairy farmers of the state on their extent of utilization of marketing facilities, credit orientation and competition orientation, was taken up. methodology the present study was undertaken in three districts of the state of kerala selected from the six districts with the highest cattle population using simple random sampling. the three districts selected were ernakulam, palakkad, and thrissur. a multistage random sampling procedure was used to select the respondents. in the first stage, from each of the three districts selected, simple random sampling was used to select one block from among the first four blocks with the highest cattle population. accordingly, alathur block, angamali block and ollukara block were selected from palakkad, ernakulam and thrissur districts respectively. from among the nine panchayats in alathur block, vandazhi panchayat was selected while from among the nine panchayats in angamali block, journal of extension education 6407 karukutty panchayat was selected and from among five panchayats in ollukara block, nadathara panchayat was selected, in each case by using the procedure of simple random sampling. in the third stage of sampling, from each panchayat the main milk society with the highest milk collection was identified and from each society a list of all the women dairy farmers with one, two and more than two cows was prepared. a proportionate stratified sample of 51 women dairy farmers were selected from each panchayat so as to include 17 women each with one, two and more than two cow units. thus the final sample contained a total of 153 farm women, 51 each with one, two and more than two cow units from each of the three panchayats. data were collected using a pretested interview schedule using personal interviews of respondents on their homesteads. the marketing variables studied included the extent of utilization of market facilities, credit orientation and competition orientation. findings and discussion extent of utilization of marketing facilities nearly sixty percent of the respondents with large herd size had medium level of utilization of marketing facilities but none of the respondents with small herd size (one cow) had high levels of access to market facilities (table 1). access to marketing facilities was positively and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial behavior of the respondents. marketing is the cornerstone of all industries including livestock enterprises. milk marketing in kerala is undertaken in the organized sector by milmaa state agency for milk marketing, and to households and hotels in the unorganized sector. higher levels of entrepreneurial behavior associated with larger units could be due to the higher utilization of markets and consequent economic benefit of this association (table 2). somvanshi et al (2016) observed that access to market was positively and significantly associated with table 1. distribution of respondents according to their extent of utilization of marketing facilities (n = 153) sl. no. category herd size one cow two cows more than two cows total no. % no. % no. % no. % 1. low 15 29.41 17 33.33 5 9.80 37 24.18 2. medium 36 70.59 18 35.30 17 33.33 71 46.41 3. high 0 0 16 31.37 29 56.87 45 29.41 4. total 51 100.00 51 100.00 51 100.00 153 100.00 mean: 4.59 sd: 2.15 market orientation of women dairy farmers of kerala 6408 entrepreneurial behavior. etriya et al (2012) observed that farmers of warung kondang in indonesia had lower levels of entrepreneurial orientation which the authors posited could be due to the inaccessible nature of this region and the consequent lack of market opportunities for farmers in this area. credit orientation data on credit orientation are presented in table3. it is without question that the ready availability of credit is a critical factor in the establishment of an enterprise and any impediment to the continuous flow of credit would adversely affect the performance of the enterprise. so also, the larger the enterprise more would be its credit requirement. this was reflected in the findings of this study which showed that respondents with larger herd sizes had significantly higher scores when compared to those with smaller herd sizes. most of the respondents in this study fell in the medium level of credit orientation. however, non-significant correlation was observed between credit orientation and entrepreneurial behavior (table 2). this finding was in contrast to that of datta et al (2016) who observed a positive and significant correlation between credit orientation and entrepreneurial behavior of table 2. correlation coefficients of the marketing variables with entrepreneurial behaviour sl. no. variables correlation coefficient 1. competition orientation 0.616** 2. credit orientation 0.142 3. extent of utilization of marketing facilities 0.317** **significant at 0.01 level table 3. distribution of respondents according to credit orientation (n = 153) sl. no. category herd size one cow two cows more than two cows total no. % no. % no. % no. % 1. low 13 25.49 1 1.96 14 27.45 28 18.30 2. medium 25 49.02 32 62.75 17 33.33 74 48.37 3. high 13 25.49 18 35.29 20 39.22 51 33.33 4. total 51 100.00 51 100.00 51 100.00 153 100.00 mean: 3.67 sd: 1.20 journal of extension education 6409 rural women engaged in bamboo handicraft in tripura. competition orientation data on 'competition orientation' are presented in table 4. none of the respondents with more than two cows had low levels of competition orientation. most of the respondents fell in the medium level of competition orientation. competition orientation was positively and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial behavior of the respondents (table 2). the authors observed that this higher rate could be due to the fact that most of the respondents had attended formal trainings. patel et al (2013) however observed that competition orientation was not significantly associated with entrepreneurial behavior of poultry farmers in gujarat state. the results of this study point to the fact that more farmers with small herd sizes fell in the low category with regard to the three marketing variables studied. these results point to a greater need for entrepreneurial trainings among these farmers. farmers with two cow units though better off in this regard when compared to those with one cow units, they had larger number of farmers in the low category when compared to farmers with larger herd sizes for all the marketing variables except credit orientation. references datta, j., das, j.k., debnath, a., ram a. & haldar s. (2016). entrepreneurial behaviour of rural women on bamboo handicrafts in tripura, north-east india economic affairs doi: 10.5958/0976-4666.2016.00080.2 etriya, s., wubben, e.v. & omta, a. (2012). exploring factors related to entrepreneurial orientation and innovation capacity of farmfirms: a lesson from vegetable farmers in west java, indonesia. retrieved from http:// core.ac.uk/download/pdf/29224486.pdf table 4. distribution of respondents according to their competition orientation (n =153) sl. no. category herd size one cow two cows more than two cows total nos % nos % nos % nos % 1. low 25 49.02 3 5.88 0 0 28 18.30 2. medium 21 41.18 35 68.63 34 66.67 90 58.82 3. high 5 9.80 13 25.49 17 33.33 35 22.88 4. total 51 100.00 51 100.00 51 100.00 153 100.00 mean: 13.99 sd: 3.08 market orientation of women dairy farmers of kerala 6410 george, p.r.(2013). entrepreneurial behavior of women dairy farmers of kerala state, unpublished phd thesis. dindigul; the gandhigram rural insitute. hossain, m., phillips, b. & pence, b. (2007). the effect of women’s status on infant and child mortality in four rural areas of bangladesh. journal of biosocial science. 355-366. patel, t.r., gulkari, k.d. & patel j.k. (2013). entrepreneurial behaviour of poultry farmers. agriculture update 8(4): 586-590. shahid, n, bhuian, n.s., & habib m.(2004). the relationship between entrepreneurship, market orientation and performance. journal of transnational management. doi: 10.1300/j482viok01-06. somvanshi, r.m., deshmukh, a.n., mokhale, s.u & godase, s.k . (2016). entrepreneurial behaviour of vegetable growers agriculture update 11(3):239-241. journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6411 use of digital tools for horizontal spread of agricultural technologies by farmers of kerala alan jolly sebastian1 and g. jayalekshmi2 abstract in this digital era, integration of digital tools is common in every sector and agriculture is not an exception. the present study was conducted among the farmers of kerala who were using various digital tools, during the year 2018-2019. the sample of the study consisted of 120 farmers from three zones of kerala. awareness and preference of the respondents were studied in order to find out the horizontal spread. based on the results obtained it was found that all farmers were aware about tools like television, mobile phone and social media. most of the farmers had selected mobile phones as the most preferred tool. farmers were found to use mobile phones mainly for ‘crop protection’ purposes and social media for ‘marketing’ purposes. keywords: digital tools; information and communication technology; awareness; preference; farmers; kerala. 1 pg scholar, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala 695 522 and 2 assistant professor and programme coordinator, krishi vigyan kendra, kumarakom, kottayam, kerala686563. research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6411-6416 received : 19-08-2019; accepted : 05-06-2020 developing countries like india are having serious shortage of extension agents who play as intermediaries between farmers and researchers. this will adversely affect the overall development of agriculture because of the inefficiency to provide timely consultation and information. digital tools can complement this gap between the farmers and extension personnel by giving timely information provided from the extension agents without physical presence. the agricultural sector of kerala is unique mainly through the small land holdings and homestead farming, farmers focus to get more revenue by diversifying their crops which points out to the need of variety of information. the efficient method to provide this information in a quick time is through the use of digtal tools. the national commission on farmers had noted that knowledge deficits constrain agricultural productivity in india. it added that the use of information and communication technologies (icts) for agricultural extension is one way of addressing the information needs of farmers. utilizing such new applications and services on mobile phones help the extension personnel for accurate, speedy, and timely supply of information to the farmers in various 6412 aspects related to agriculture and allied sciences (kumari, 2016). in this scenario it is essential to study about the current status on the usage of digital tools by the farmers. the results obtained from the study will be useful to decide how to transfer the information effectively to reach the end users based on the popularity of various tools and also to modify the existing methods followed by the government and other institutes. methodology the present study was conducted in three districts of kerala representing the three zones of the state namely kannur from the northern zone, thrissur from the central zone and thiruvananthapuram from the southern zone. from each district, 40 farmers who were already using some sort of digital tools was selected comprising of a total of 120 farmers through purposive random sampling. the idea of the study was to find out the extent of awareness of farmers on various digital tools with the preference towards each tool and also to find the usage of various digital tools by the farmers. based on expert opinions 13 digital tools were identified which were as most common in the present situation. usage of digital tools by farmers was mainly focused on crop production, crop protection and marketing purposes. summing up of the scores was done for better interpretation of the results obtained. awareness was classified as aware and unaware, while preference was measured in a three point continuum as always, sometimes and never. farmers were then classified based on the data obtained to find the extent of awareness and preference for various digital tools. categorization of the respondents based on the usage of tools for crop production, crop protection and marketing was also done. findings and discussion awareness of farmers about digital tools it was observed that all the respondents were aware about tools like television, mobile phone and social media which was also the popular digital tool at the time of investigation. the results were found to be in agreement with findings of kumar (2018) and khidir et al. (2019). high level of awareness was also found for internet (96.67%), email (85%), search engines (80.83 %) and e newspapers (75.83%). while majority of the farmers were unaware about tools like agricultural expert systems (92.50 %), information kiosk (84.17%) and agricultural websites (72.50%).the unawareness for these tools may be due to lack of popularity and lack of accessibility of these tools. farmers were found to be bound to simple and easy technologies. about half of the respondents were aware about tools like computer (57.50%), video conferencing (50 %) and mobile agricultural applications (59.16 %). the results mainly shows that farmers were mostly aware of the tools that were most commonly used by everyone. these tools were having versatile uses. the tools which focused exclusively for the disbursement of agricultural information like agricultural websites, expert systems and information kisoks were less aware for the respondents and is usually used only by experts. these tools should be journal of extension education 6413 pushed forward in a compatible way since these tools can primarily focus on providing agricultural information of the farmers. table 1 shows distribution of the farmers based on the awareness for digital tools. preference for various digital tools by farmers the preference for various digital tools by farmers are given in table 2. it was identified that mobile phone (88.33 %) was the most preferred tool by the farmers followed by social media (64.17 %) and television (50.83 %). in case of least preferred tools agricultural expert systems (98.33 %) and information kiosks (95.83 %) were identified. the results were having similarity with the findings of kumar (2018). mobile phones and social media were mostly preferred by the farmers which may be due to the versatility and easiness to use, portable nature and relativity affordable. table 1. distribution of farmers based on awareness about digital tools (n=120) sl. no. digital tools awareness aware unaware frequency percentage frequency percentage 1. television 120 100 0 0 2. mobile phone 120 100 0 0 3. computer 69 57.50 51 42.50 4. internet 116 96.67 4 3.33 5. social media 120 100 0 0 6. information kisok 19 15.83 101 84.17 7. e mail 102 85 18 15 8. search engines 97 80.83 23 19.17 9. agricultural websites 33 27.50 87 72.50 10. video conferencing 60 50 60 50 11. agricultural expert systems 9 7.50 111 92.50 12. mobile agricultural applications 71 59.16 49 40.83 13 e newspaper 91 75.83 29 24.17 use of digital tools for horizontal spread of agricultural technologies by farmers of kerala 6414 (jain et al., 2015). mobile phones and social media can also provide a personal feedback for the queries of farmers by experts and fellow farmers. on the other hand information kiosks and expert systems might have been too complex for the farmers. information kiosks were only used to provide more of agricultural information and less of market information for the farmers. it is also essential to simplify these tools through developing in local languages which can improve the usability of these tools. categorization of the digital tools based on usage selected digital tools were categorized into three categories. crop production, which includes site preparation, selection of varieties, cultivation practices and harvesting of crops. crop protection, including pest and disease control. the third category was ‘marketing’ . it was revealed that television, mobile phones, computer and social media were the main tools used for these purposes. categorization of the selected tools from the table 2. distribution of farmers based on preference for various digital tools (n=120) sl. no. digital tool always sometimes never freq. % freq. % freq. % 1. television 61 50.83 54 45 5 4.17 2. mobile phone 106 88.33 13 10.83 1 0.83 3. computer 9 7.5 43 35.83 68 56.67 4. internet 50 41.67 65 54.17 5 4.17 5. social media 77 64.17 42 35 1 0.83 6. information kiosk 0 0 5 4.17 115 95.83 7. e mail 5 4.17 59 49.17 56 46.67 8. search engines 5 4.17 71 59.17 44 36.67 9. agricultural websites 0 0 27 22.5 93 77.5 10. video conferencing 0 0 27 22.5 93 77.5 11. agricultural expert systems 0 0 2 1.67 118 98.33 12. mobile agricultural applications 7 5.83 54 45 59 49.17 13. e newspaper 41 34.17 44 36.67 35 29.17 journal of extension education 6415 mentioned aspects were done as given in table 3. mobile phones were the tools used by most of the farmers for crop production (39.17 %) as well as crop protection (58.33 %) purposes. mobile phones provided instant information about cultivation practices and plant protection measures through phone calls and sms services. majority (82.50 %) of the farmers used social media for marketing the produce. marketing was mainly done through whatsapp and facebook groups. farmers preferred whatsapp and facebook than any other e-commercial sites which is similar to the findings of pichapillai (2020). social media can help farmers to connect the buyers in nearby area and also helped to fetch a better price than the market value. farmers’ groups in social media can improve the bargaining power of the farmers and fix the price according to the demand. it was observed that most of the farmers were having higher level of awareness for tools like mobile phones, television and social media. most of the farmers had preferred mobile phone as table 3. categorization of digital tools based on usage sl. no. digital tools crop production crop protection marketing freq. % freq. % freq. % 1. television 35 29.17 34 28.33 0 0 2. mobile phone 47 39.17 70 58.33 84 70 3. computer 0 0 27 22.5 3 2.5 4. social media 36 30 69 57.5 99 82.5 a general tool for frequent use. mobile phones were mainly used for gathering information for crop production and protection purposes whereas ‘social media’ was preferred mainly for marketing. the study indicates that the present usage of digital tools by farmers were restricted only for a few common tools due to its easiness to use and versatility. creating awareness among the farmers, use of local languages, updating information on regular basis and expanding the services should be done. creating an all in one portal by collecting all the scattered information on agriculture including plant production, plant protection, marketing and expert services can be a better solution to improve the usage of ict tools. references jain, l., kumar, h. & singla, r.k., (2015). assessing mobile technology usage for knowledge dissemination among farmers in punjab. information technology for development, 21(4), 668676. use of digital tools for horizontal spread of agricultural technologies by farmers of kerala 6416 khidir, a. a., oladele, o. i. & yusuf, o. j. (2019). use of mobile phone applications by farmers in northwest nigeria. journal of agricultural extension, 23(3), p.182-195. kumar, a. (2018). role of social media in dissemination of agricultural innovations in haryana. unpublished msc (ag.) thesis. chaudhary charan singh haryana agricultural university. 69p. kumari, n. s. (2016). tools and services for m-extension: problems and prospects. unpublished msc (ag) thesis. kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala, p154. pichapillai, s. (2020). an economic analysis of social media and agriculture marketing in tamil nadu. studies in indian place names, 40(12), 671-677. journal of extension education 6042 technology utilization pattern of cassava growers on recommended cultivation practices a. archana1, rexlin selvin2 and a. muhammed iqshanullah3 abstract a study was conducted to assess the technology utilization pattern of cassava growers in salem district of tamil nadu. farmers were selected based on the area of cultivation of cassava. the technology utilization pattern of cassava growers revealed that they had medium to low level of knowledge about cassava cultivation practices. keywords : technology utilization pattern; crop improvement technology; plant protection technologies; tamil nadu. cassava, popularly known as tapioca, is one of the most important crop in poorer areas, because of its ability to grow well even under drought condition. cassava supports food security and income for over 800 million people worldwide. ( howeler et al. 2013). india ranks tenth in the production of cassava cultivation. it is cultivated in many tropical states in india, as an industrial crop (tamil nadu and andhra pradesh), while in some states (kerala and north eastern states) it is being used as food crop. cassava industry is an agro based seasonal industry with huge employment potential in india. it is mainly processed into starch and sago. there are more than 1000 cassava processing units in india producing starch and sago in cottage and small scale sectors. in tamil nadu, cassava is a major horticulture crop and is ranked first both in its productivity (4344 mt) and processing like sago and starch (800 units approximately) industries. this is the major crop in the districts of salem, namakkal, erode, tiruvannamalai, villupuram, dharmapuri and karur, and sustains more than three lakh farmers. a significant section of them are tribals. with this background, the study was conducted to measure the technology utilization pattern of cassava growers on the recommended cultivation practices. technology utilization pattern is the process of making full use of the recommended technologies by the clients. the prime duty of extension functionaries is not only to spread improved farm technologies to the farming community but also to make the innovations adopted by the farmers in order to ensure 1 pg scholar, 2 professor (agrl. extension) and 3. ph.d scholar, dept. of agricultural extension and rural sociology, madurai. received : 10-09-2018; accepted : 25-10-2018 research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6042-6046 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6043 higher productivity. hence an attempt was made to assess the technology utilization pattern of cassava farmers under four sub heads crop improvement technologies, crop production technologies, crop protection technologies and harvest related technologies. methodology salem district was purposefully selected for its maximum area and production (83526 hectares and 2499280 tonnes) in the state of tamil nadu. about 80 per cent of country’s needs of starch and sago are supplied from salem and its neighboring districts. the district consists of twenty blocks. among them three blocks were selected based on the highest area and cultivation (6719 ha) viz., attur, gangavalli and pethanaickenpalayam. findings and discussion technology-wise technology utilization pattern of the respondents on cassava cultivation technology utilization pattern varies from individual to individual and practice to practice. the results of the study are given in table 1. regarding crop improvement technologies, 100 per cent of the respondents adopted the recommended suitable varieties, the suitability of the varieties for different soils and increase in yield were the criteria for the selection. as regards to crop production technologies, 84.16 per cent of the respondents adopted the recommended fym application. sett selection was followed by 80.83 per cent of the respondents and spacing of crops by 80 per cent of the respondents. table 1. distribution of respondents according to their technology wise technology utilization pattern (n=120) sl.no. particulars technology utilization pattern number * percentage crop improvement technology 1. varieties h226,kungumarose, ytp1, thailand white, thailand black, mud -1, burma, sree athulya, sree apoorva,co-1, co-2, co-3, co(tp) 4, co(tp) 5. 120 100.00 crop production technologies 2. sett selection setts of 15 cm long with 8-10 nodes from the middle portion of the stem 97 80.83 3. sett treatment technology utilization pattern of cassava growers on recommended cultivation practices 6044 sl.no. particulars technology utilization pattern number * percentage a. fungicides : dipping setts in dimethoate @ 2ml/litre of water + carbendezim 2g/l for 15 minutes before planting 30 25.00 b. biofertilizer : dipping setts (30g azospirillum + 30g phospho bacteria solution 1lit. of water for 15 minutes 14 11.67 4. planting method: ridges and furrows 87 72.50 5. depth of planting: 4-6 cm 95 79.16 6. sett rate; 17,700 setts/ ha or 14,800 setts/ ha 93 77.50 7. spacing; 90 x 90 cm(12,345 setts/ha) 96 80.00 8. irrigation; once in 7-10 days up to 3rd month and once in 20 days from 4th month to 8th month 88 73.33 9. intercropping: aggregatum onion, coriander, black gram, bengal gram, bengal gram, tomato, brinjal. 55 45.83 10. manures and fertilizers a. 25t/ha 101 84.16 b. basal30:60:75 kg npk/ha 39 32.50 c. top dressing-30:75 kg nk/ ha 90 75.00 d. neem blended urea-urea : neem cake (5:1) 21 17.50 11. micronutrient treatment; 0.5 % znso4 + 1% feso4 solutions sprayed on 60th, 75th and 90th day of planting. drip90:90:240 kg of npk/ha @ once in every three days 38 31.67 journal of extension education 6045 sl.no. particulars technology utilization pattern number * percentage plant protection technologies 1. white fly(neem oil 5ml/ lit. or methyl demeton 35 ec 2ml/ lit.) 50 41.67 2. papaya mealy bug(release of mealy bug parasitoid(acerophagus papaya)@ 100 nos./acre) 99 82.5 3. scales(dimethoate (2ml/lit.) or malathion (2ml/lit. or methyl dementon (2ml/lit.)) 22 18.33 4. red spider mite-wettable sulphur (2g/lit) or dicofol (2.5ml/lit.) 14 11.67 5. mosaicdimethoate(2ml/lit.) or methyl dematon (2ml/lit.) 59 49.17 6. tuber rot(copper oxychloride 2.5g/ lit.) 23 19.17 7. concentric ring leaf spot (or) phomadisease (carbendazim 250g or mancozeb 625g or coc 625g per ha) 41 34.17 8. cercospora leaf spot(mancozeb @ 2g/ lit.) 15 12.50 9. herbicide application(pendemethylin @ 1kg a.i/ha) 77 64.17 harvesting 1. correct time of harvesting(harvesting at correct time by pulling the stem up) 86 71.67 (*) multiple responses obtained in general, it could be concluded that medium level of adoption was followed by the respondents. medium level of risk orientation and economic motivation might be the contributing factors for the medium level of technology adoption among the cassava growers. overall technology utilization pattern of the respondents the cumulative frequency distribution of technological utilization pattern obtained from the analysis is presented in table 2. technology utilization pattern of cassava growers on recommended cultivation practices 6046 table 2. distribution of respondents according to their overall technological utilization pattern. (n=120) sl.no. category technology utilization pattern number percentage 1. low 20 16.67 2. medium 69 57.50 3. high 31 25.83 total 120 100.00 it could be observed from the table that the majority of the respondents(57.50%) had medium level of technology utilization pattern in cassava cultivation, followed by high level (25.83%) and low level (16.67%) of technology utilization pattern. the medium to high level of technology utilization pattern of the respondents might be due to their high level of knowledge on recommended practices, medium level of risk orientation and medium level of economic motivation. further, the agricultural scientists from tapioca and castor research station, yethapur, tamil nadu in the study area might have also played an important role in the dissemination of technologies on cassava cultivation. however low knowledge on biofertilizer application and plant protection measures for certain pests and diseases would have contributed for the low level of technology utilization. among the 120 cassava growers, even though high number of farmers were aware of the technologies like crop improvement, crop protection, crop production and harvesting they were not adopting some of the technologies due to the fear of economic loss since cassava is a long duration crop and it affects income. hence, intensive efforts like organizing training cum demonstrations, distributing extension literature and arranging exhibitions are to be undertaken by the extension personnel of department of horticulture to improve the technology utilization pattern of cassava growers. references howeler, r., lutaladio, n., & thomas, g. (2013). save and grow: cassava. a guide to sustainable production intensification: fao. journal of extension education 6113 adoption behavior of paddy farmers on soil health card recommendations d. vignesh kumar1 and a. janaki rani2 abstract the study was conducted in madurai district of tamil nadu to assess the adoption behavior of paddy farmers on soil health card (shc) based recommendations. a total of 120 paddy farmers who were the beneficiaries of shc scheme were contacted to collect the data. a pre tested interview schedule was used to collect the data. the results revealed that overall adoption on shc recommendations found to be medium (45.50%). with regard to straight fertilizers application before the introduction of shc 40.80 percent of the respondents had applied excess npk fertilizers. after the introduction, the excess range has been reduced up to 5.8 per cent and in the same way the deficient application was also rectified by 4.7 per cent of the farmers. with regard to complex fertilizers 12.8 per cent of the respondents had followed the exact recommendation of complex fertilizers. the adoption behavior of micronutrients showed that 29.50 per cent of respondents followed recommended dose of micronutrients after shc scheme. about 6.00 per cent respondents had started to follow the correct dose of bio fertilizers after the introduction of shc. overall adoption level of the farmers was up to medium level and hence emphasis is needed to inspire the farmers to adopt soil testing practices and soil fertility management. keywords: paddy farmers; adoption; soil health card scheme; tamil nadu. received : 13-01-2019; accepted : 01-02-2019 1. pg scholar, agricultural college and research institute, madurai and 2. assistant professor (agricultural extension), department of human development and family studies, community science college and research institute, madurai. introduction in india, agricultural sector still occupies a predominant position in the country’s economy, accounting for about 13.9 per cent of gross domestic product and one fifth of foreign exchange. with the success of green, white and blue revolutions, india is now self-reliant in food grains production. by 2025, about 118 million tonnes additional food grains need to be produced per year. but, the demographic projections indicated that the per capita land availability will shirk from 0.14 ha to 0.10 ha in the year 2025. the best option is to improve the productivity per unit area per unit time. this will lead to use the high intensive crops and extensive use of fertilizers which can led to consequences like deterioration of soil structure, wastage of nutrients, destruction of soil microorganisms and scorching of plants at the extreme cases. therefore it needs to be managed judiciously to restore its capacity to feed our population sustainably in the long run. to maintain the soil healthy, it is very essential to assess the quantity of nutrients present in it and applying research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6113-6118 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6114 only those nutrients which were present in less quantity in the soil. to achieve the above objective, government of india introduced a scheme of soil health card on 19 february, 2015. a soil health card (shc) is a printed card given to farmers that contains the status of various plant nutrients available in soil as well as the dosage of different fertilizers for the major crops grown in farmland based on the soil test results. the soil health card presently depicts the status of 12 essential parameters like ph, ec, organic carbon, available nitrogen (n), phosphorus (p), potassium (k), sulphur (s), iron (fe), manganese (mn), zinc (zn), copper (cu) and boron(b). realizing the importance of soil health card as a tool for efficient nutrient management the present study was conducted to identify the adoption behavior of paddy farmers towards soil health card recommendations. methodology the study was conducted in madurai district of tamil nadu which has larger population of rice growing farmers and maximum number of farmers who are in receipt of soil health cards. madurai east and madurai west block were purposively selected based on maximum area under paddy cultivation and receipt of more number of soil health cards. in the selected blocks, six villages were selected based on the maximum area under paddy cultivation and number of soil health card received viz., malaipatti, thodaneri, kulamangalam, vayalur, boothakudi, machampatti. primary data from the farmers were collected with the help of a pre tested interview schedule through personal interviews. a total of 120 ricegrowing farmers were randomly interviewed at the rate of 60 farmers per block. the results were analyzed using percentage analysis. findings and discussion the data presented in table 1 reveal that majority of the farmers (45.50%) had medium level of adoption followed by low (32.20 %) and high level (22.30 %) adoption. table 1. adoption behaviour of farmers towards soil health card (n=120) sl. no particulars number percentage 1. low 40 32.20 2. medium 55 45.50 3. high 25 22.30 total 120 100.00 overall, low to medium level of adoption was seen with majority (77.70%) of the respondents. the farmers felt that the shc is very useful to know the nutrients recommendations and the quantity to be applied in order to maintain the soil fertility. even though they know the recommended dose of fertilizers, they are not properly adopting the correct doses. the reason behind the this might be due to their unawareness about the benefits of optimum fertilizer use to improve their net income as well as ill effects of excess fertilizer application to the environment. the results are in agreement with chowdary & theodore (2016). journal of extension education 6115 table 2. distribution of respondents according to application of straight fertilizers (n=120) sl. no macro nutri ents exact application excess application deficient application before after % differ ence before after % diffe rence before after % diffe rence 1. n 28 (23%) 41 (34.1%) 13 (11.1%) 50 (41.6%) 43 (35.8%) 7 (5.8%) 42 (35.0%) 36 (30%) 6 (5%) 2. p 27 (22.5%) 38 (31.6%) 11 (9.1%) 54 (45%) 47 (39.1%) 7 (5.9%) 39 (32.5%) 35 (29.1%) 4 (3.4%) 3. k 30 (25.0%) 44 (36.6%) 14 (11.6%) 43 (35.8%) 36 (30.0%) 7 (5.8%) 47 (39.1%) 40 (33.3%) 7 (5.8%) average npk users 23.5% 34.0% 10.6% 40.8 % 34.9% 5.8% 35.5% 30.8% 4.7% with regard to straight fertilizers application before the introduction of shc, 40.80 percent of the respondents had applied excess npk fertilizers. but after the introduction, the excess range has been reduced up to 5.8 per cent and in the same way the deficient application also rectified by 4.7 per cent of the farmers after the shc. from this result it is evident that there is consistent increase in exact fertilizer application after the use of shc which is a positive sign of progress towards efficient nutrient management, whereby farmer can reduce the cost of cultivation and increase their net returns. further, many of the farmers used their own dosages because they felt that the shc recommendations are not suitable to their field conditions. from table 3 it is found that 40.50 per cent of the respondents had adopted excess application of complex fertilizers before shc and it has been reduced by 6.60 per cent of the respondents after shc. the deficient application of complex fertilizers is adopted by 34.70 of the respondents before the shc and 28.50 per cent of the respondents have been adopting the deficient quantity of recommendations after shc. hence a total of 12.8 per cent of the respondents had shown increasing trend in the adoption of exact recommendations of complex fertilizers application. shc helps the farmers to know about the condition of land and get crop specific prescription for the amount of manure and fertilizers. they started realizing the usefulness and trusting the soil testing adoption behavior of paddy farmers on soil health card recommendations 6116 and recommendations. this might be the reason for increasing trend in exact quantity of fertilizers application. table 3. distribution of respondents according to application of complex fertilizers (n=120) sl. no macro nutri ents exact application excess application deficient application before after % differ ence before after % diffe rence before after % diffe rence 1. dap 26 (21.6%) 41 (34.1%) 15 (12.5%) 52 (43.3%) 45 (37.5%) 7 (5.8%) 42 (35%) 34 (28.3%) 8 (6.7%) 2. ammonium phosphate 29 (24.1%) 45 (37.5%) 16 (13.4%) 49 (40.8%) 40 (33.3%) 9 (7.5%) 42 (35%) 35 (29.1%) 7 (5.9%) 3. potassium chloride 34 (28.3%) 49 (40.8%) 15 (12.5%) 45 (37.5%) 37 (30.8%) 8 (6.7%) 41 (34.1%) 34 (28.3%) 7 (5.8%) average complex fertilizers users 24.6% 37.4% 12.8% 40.5% 33.8% 6.6% 34.7% 28.5% 6.1% table 4. distribution of respondents according to application of micronutrients (n=120) sl. no macro nutri ents exact application excess application deficient application before after % differ ence before after % diffe rence before after % diffe rence 1. boron 26 (21.6%) 41 (34.1%) 15 (12.5%) 52 (43.3%) 45 (37.5%) 7 (5.8%) 42 (35%) 34 (28.3%) 8 (6.7%) 2. manganese 29 (24.1%) 45 (37.5%) 16 (13.4%) 49 (40.8%) 40 (33.3%) 9 (7.5%) 42 (35%) 35 (29.1%) 7 (5.9%) 3. iron 34 (28.3%) 49 (40.8%) 15 (12.5%) 45 (37.5%) 37 (30.8%) 8 (6.7%) 41 (34.1%) 34 (28.3%) 7 (5.8%) 4. zinc 34 (28.3%) 49 (40.8%) 15 (12.5%) 45 (37.5%) 37 (30.8%) 8 (6.7%) 41 (34.1%) 34 (28.3%) 7 (5.8%) average micronutrients users 24.6% 37.4% 12.8% 40.5% 33.8% 6.6% 34.7% 28.5% 6.1% majority of the farmers had neglected the adoption of micronutrients in their field due to lack of awareness and knowledge. journal of extension education 6117 but the overall micronutrient application showed that, there is a slight increase in the usage after the shc recommendations. as regards excess application even after the shc recommendations 2.3 per cent of farmers applied excess amount of micronutrients. because they felt that excess application of micronutrients will significantly influence the productivity of crops. in case of deficient application, farmers adopted less quantity than the recommended level even after the shc recommendations. they perceived that the smaller quantity of micronutrients than the recommended level is sufficient to attain the crop yield. since micronutrient is not considered as much important as like of macronutrient due to lack of knowledge and awareness, it is mostly neglected by farming community but the scenario is not quite the same after the introduction of shc scheme. as regards application of organic manure, it was found that none of the farmers had applied exact quantities of organic manure due to availability issues. table 5 shows that (27.50%) of the respondents had adopted exact quantity of bio fertilizers after shc, 37.50 per cent of the respondents had adopted excess quantity and 30.80 per cent of the respondents were adopting deficient quantity. from the above furnished information, it is concluded that complete adoption of shc is quite low because many of the farmers were unaware of shc and some of them got shc recently. farmers who applied deficient quantity of fertilizers reported that additional fertilizer table 5. distribution of respondents according to application of bio-fertilizers (n=120) sl. no bio fertili zers exact application excess application deficient application before after % differ ence before after % diffe rence before after % diffe rence 1. azospirillium 26 (21.6%) 33 (27.5%) 7 (5.9%) 56 (46.6%) 45 (37.5%) 11 (9.1) 40 (33.3%) 37 (30.8%) 3 (2.5%) cost was a burden and hence they have not adopted completely. conclusion it could be concluded from this study that majority of the farmers had low to medium level of adoption as regards soil health card recommendations. therefore much emphasis is needed to inspire the farmers to adopt soil testing practices and soil fertility management adoption behavior of paddy farmers on soil health card recommendations 6118 for sustainable crop production. the state department of agriculture and kvk (krishi vigyan kendra) should initiate efforts for fostering the adoption of soil heath card. it would result in assured national food security, nutritional security, maintenance of soil health & enhancement of soil fertility. reference chowdary, k. r & theodore, r. k. (2016). soil health card adoption behaviour among beneficiaries of bhoochetana project in andhra pradesh. journal of extension education, 28 (1) journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6381 1 pg scholar and 2 assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani, kerala research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6381-6385 received : 01-09-2019; accepted : 28-01-2020 performance analysis of vocational higher secondary education (vhse) agricultural teachers in kerala chhanda charana mahananda1 and g.s. sreedaya2 abstract the study was conducted in three zones of kerala during 2017-2019 to analyze the job performance of the vocational higher secondary education (vhse) agricultural teachers and to find out the relationship between their profile characteristics and their job performance level. altogether, 120 vhse agricultural teachers from three zones of kerala namely, northern zone, central zone and southern zone, formed the sample. the study revealed that training had a positive and significant relationship with job performance and with organizational climate. age on the other hand had a negative correlation with job performance. keywords: job performance; vocational education; agricultural teachers; training; organizational climate; kerala introduction in kerala, the vocational education in agriculture is mainly focused on developing skill, abilities, knowledge and personality of the students to make them employable and self-employed in agricultural and allied sector. it can be achieved by increasing the efficiency of the vhse (vocational higher secondary education) agricultural teachers and by creating awareness about vhse among the people in the state. job performance and quality of the employee are the important components for the effectiveness of an organization. according to getzels (1958), the function of both role and character is the performance of an individual. an individual’s role attitude in any organization will be good if the prospects of role and personality arrangements are consistent. employees should have a high-level job performance, strong mental abilities and skills, knowledge on subject matter, work interest, excellent personality and interpersonal relationship with all members of the organization to achieve the organizational objective. hence, for increasing the effectiveness of the vhse school, a high level of job performance and qualities of teachers are needed. all these can be attained by the human resource management of the organization (school), since teaching is multifaceted and 6382 need varieties of human traits and abilities such as teachers’ mental abilities and skills, their knowledge of the subject matter, personality, beliefs, attitude, interest and relationship with students, colleagues and all members of the school. accordingly this study was taken up. methodology the study was confined to the three zones of kerala viz., northern, central and southern. primary data were collected using a structured pre-tested interview schedule and multi stage sampling was done to identify the respondents. in the first stage, three districts each were selected from the three zones, i.e., kasaragod, kozhikode, malappuram from the northern zone; palakkad, thrissur, ernakulam from the central zone and thiruvananthapuram, kollam, kottayam were selected from the southern zone, considering the number of vhse agricultural teachers available in the vhse schools in these nine districts. a total of 120 available vocational course teachers in agriculture and allied sector were selected from the above-mentioned districts by using systematic random sampling. ex-post-facto research design was followed in the present study, since the phenomenon had already occurred. the job performance of the vhse agricultural teachers was evaluated with the help of the scale created by sundaraswamy (1987). the scale comprised seven positive statements and has been rated on a three-point continuum, viz. most efficient, efficient and least efficient with scores of 3, 2 and 1 respectively. the minimum and maximum scores for this scale were 7 and 21, respectively. the scores of all the statements were summed up to get the job performance scores of respondents. the organizational characteristics was measured by using the scale developed by kolb et al., (1974). the scale consisted of seven statements of which six are positive statements and one is negative statement. the statements were rated over a five-point continuum namely strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with scores of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively for positive statements and reversed scoring for the negative statements. the score of each statement were added to get the score of organizational climate. the possible scores ranged from 7 to 35. the profile characteristics of the teachers such as age, gender, educational level, training received, job experience and organizational climate were categorized and expressed in terms of frequency and percentage. the correlation between the profile characteristics and job performance were worked out at 1% and 5% level of significance. findings and discussion the results of the study revealed that majority of the teachers (95.83%) belonged to the middle age category and 72.5 per cent of them were females. furthermore, it was found that 59.17 per cent of teachers were having a master’s educational qualification, majority of the teachers (76%) belonged to the average (8-14 years) job experience category and more than half (55.83%) of teachers belonged to a low-trained (3-13 days) group. it was also observed that 60 per cent of the teachers felt that their schools had a good organizational climate, which might be due to the good journal of extension education 6383 organizational policies and relationship among the members of the school. the probable reason for better results in the school are due to 95.83 per cent of teachers were in young age group and most of them i.e., 76 per cent had good job experience (8-14 years). this might be due to the expansion of vhse schools and courses in kerala during 1995-96 and 2000-01, which was the highest, i.e., 389 schools and 1100 batches, which resulted in mass recruitment in that period of time. furthermore, majority (72.50%) of teachers were female and more than half (59.17%) had a master’s degree as their educational level. kerala is far ahead in all social development indicators having a literacy rate of 93.91 per cent, high sex ratio (1084 females per 1000 males), promoting woman education and empowerment. this might be the reason for 59.17 per cent teachers had a master’s degree and 14.16 per cent had a phd. degree and 72.50 per cent of teachers were female. there was lack of advance training for teachers 55.83 per cent of teachers in low trained category. it was observed that half of the teachers (50.00 %) had a high level of job table 1. profile of vhse agricultural teachers (n = 120 ) sl. no. variable category class interval frequency percentage 1. age young <35 5 4.17 middle 35 to 55 115 95.83 old >55 0 0 2. gender male 33 27.50 female 87 72.50 3. educational level (degree) bachelor 32 26.67 master 71 59.17 phd 17 14.16 4. job experience less 1-7 12 10 average 8-14 91 76 high 15-21 17 14 5. training received low 3-13 67 55.83 average 14-24 38 31.67 high 25-36 15 12.50 6. organizational climate poor 7-16 0 0 average 17-26 48 40.00 good 27-36 72 60.00 performance analysis of vocational higher secondary education (vhse) agricultural teachers in kerala 6384 performance whereas remaining 5.00 per cent and 45.00 per cent had a low and medium level of perception respectively. furthermore, the correlation analysis showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between training received and organizational climate with the job performance of the teachers. it was also found that there was a negative correlation between age and job performance of teachers. age of teachers showed a negatively significant correlation with the job performance of teachers. the probable reason for the result might be due to the statistic that most of old aged teachers felt more organizational stress, handling pressure, and lack in physical strength and energy than the young and middle-aged teachers. it was found that the high training received category teachers had a high job experience compared with the low and average training received teachers and also the pearson correlation coefficient value showed that training earned was positively and significantly correlated with the job performance of teachers. table 2. job performance level of vhse agricultural teachers (n = 120) sl. no. category class interval frequency percentage 1. low 7-11 6 5 2. medium 12-16 54 45 3. high 17-21 60 50 table 3. correlation between the profile and job performance of the vhse agricultural teachers (n = 120) sl. no. items coefficient of correlation ‘r’ values 1. age -0.210 * 2. gender 0.101 ns 3. education -0.052 ns 4. job experience 0.043 ns 5. training received 0.259 ** 6. organizational climate 0.206 * '*' significant at 5% level, '**' significant at 1% level, 'ns' non-significant journal of extension education 6385 normally, training was provided to enhance teachers ‘ technical abilities, knowledge, value and culture and soft skills. so, more number of trainings make teachers more effective and up-to-date and make a positive contribution to their job performance. the organizational climate was positively and significantly linked with teachers’ job performance. this may be due to the autonomy of teachers and the liberal policies, rules, and communication system of the school, which contributes a positive impact on the job performance of teachers. conclusion from this study it is concluded that more than half of the teachers were in low trained group which means there is lack of advance training and capacity building programmes. it was also seen that training received and organizational climate positively correlated with the job performance of the teachers. altogether the study points to the need of advanced training, capacity building programmes and a strengthened organizational climate with finest organizational culture with liberal policies, rules, regulations, norms, teachers ‘ autonomy, and clear hierarchical communication to improve the job performance of the vhse agricultural teachers. references getzels, j. m. (1958). administration as a social process. in. halpin, a. w. (ed.) administrative theory in education. midwest administrationcentre, chicago, 152 p. kolb, d. a., rubin, i. m. & mclntyre, j. m. (1974). organizational psychological: an experiential approach (2nd ed.). prentice hall inc., new jersey, 422p. sundaraswamy, b. (1987). a study on need achievement and job performance of assistant agricultural officers in karnataka state. unpublished ph.d thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, 321 p. performance analysis of vocational higher secondary education (vhse) agricultural teachers in kerala wrapper.cdr 6357 research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6357-6360 1 senior scientist, icar-nianp, adugodi, bangalore 560 030, india. received : 08-11-2019; accepted : 26-02-2020 awareness of livestock farmers on ict tools g. letha devi1 abstract a study was conducted to assess farmer capability, awareness and preparedness about ict tools for livestock farming. the data were collected from 60 respondents of karnataka, india regarding awareness about ict tools. the results indicate that 100 per cent of the farmers were aware about various ict tools and media such as tv, websites, mobile applications, sms based services, kisan call centres etc. all the respondents had knowledge about how to use sms based services, whereas 97 percent of them knew about use of mobile applications. many of them did not know how to use websites. keywords: icts; livestock; knowledge; awareness; karnataka in the context of globalizing agriculture, need for information becomes most critical. the smallholders, face challenges in access to digital tools, technologies, financial, insurance services as well as infrastructure facilities, as compared to industrial producers. many of these challenges can be addressed by information technology (it) effectively (aker, 2011). there is a vast amount of scientific and technological knowledge related to agriculture and food that has been generated over the last fifty years in the agriculture and food research system. the generation continues. the knowledge is scattered across in, theses, papers, annual reports, technical bulletins in universities, icar labs, etc. some of these are in digital form. what is needed is a well taxonomized, data and knowledge base, searchable by educated farmers and scientists. questions that need to be answered therefore are the likes of: how to acquire/accumulate this data? how to structure the huge amount of data? how to identify queries appropriate for other, interlinked databases, transmit them to those database, and forward replies received to the user? the study attempts to assess the awareness of livestock farmers on ict tools and evaluates a livestock advisory and information system. methodology the awareness of livestock farmers in karnataka, india was assessed and an information system was developed with the 6358 following steps. the sample size was 60, • identify the various topics under livestock farming • classification of areas into sets and subsets, creation/compilation of contents • structuring four forms of information under each topic • compiling the already available resources in various forms for digital network library • classification of resources, creating structured web page with links to respective resources • developing the web based platform as a structured tool for information dissemination through internet and uploading the contents into the web platform • validating the developed web tool through workshops/ feedback from stakeholders • modifications in the advisory and information system, as per the needs of the end users. • a semi structured interview schedule was prepared for collecting data regarding farmer capability, awareness and preparedness about it tools for livestock farming. the data collection was completed from 60 respondents regarding awareness about it tools. findings and discussion the results of the survey are presented in table 1. design and development of information system technical content under feeding, breeding, health care and general management of four species of cattle, sheep, goat and buffalo were organized into different modules with different formats like text, images etc. a portal/ web based advisory and information system based on the user requirements was developed for uploading the information. the portal was developed using php and back end data was with ms access. the portal is hosted on the institute website. an atlas of indian livestock information resources & disease outbreaks, with facility for keyword based search is a part of the information system developed. mapping of central and state resource centres/experts with key word search facility was also done. the web figure 1. general information on kvks (krishi vigyan kendras) figure 2. veterinary dispensaries journal of extension education (conference special) 6359 table 1. awareness and use of ict tools for livestock farming (n=60 ) sl. no. characteristics yes (%) no (%) i awareness 1 tv/ any other media 100 2 websites 96 4 3 mobile phones/ mobile applications 100 4 sms based services 100 ii knowledge to use 1 tv/ any other media 100 2 websites 34 66 3 mobile phones/ mobile applications 97 3 4 sms based services 100 iii actual use 1 tv/ any other media 100 2 websites 27 73 3 mobile phones/ mobile applications 97 3 4 sms based services 100 based livestock advisory system developed is compatible with all browsers and devices: pcs, laptops, tablets, mobiles. the screenshots of the information system are given in fig, 1, 2 & 3. figure 3. healthcare information awareness of livestock farmers on ict tools evaluation of information system testing and evaluation of the developed web based livestock advisory and information system was completed at the field level and modifications were brought in the advisory and information system, as per the needs of the end users. the results are given in table 2. indian livestock farmers face challenges in accessing information & services via digital tools that are crucial for decision making. this study has revealed that most of the livestock farmers did not know how to use websites, which the extension system needs to 6360 take care of. structuring scattered information in searchable interactive system, delivery by proper channel and creating trustworthiness of data is a challenge. a multi lingual web based livestock advisory and information system may help to address these issues. reference aker, j. c. (2011). dial “a” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries. agricultural economics, 42 (6), 631-647. table 2. evaluation of livestock advisory and information portal (n=60) sl.no. characteristics strongly agree (%) agree (%) disagree (%) don’t know (%) i usefulness 1 it is informative and logical 86 14 2 it saves time and money 75 25 3 it provides least cost practical solution 24 26 50 4 it is handy and easy to operate 26 31 43 ii technical component 1 layout is simple and systematic 90 10 2 information and options are easy to understand 4 84 12 3 steps involved is easy to navigate 4 64 32 4 it is user friendly 78 22 iii user attributes 1 improves self confidence 90 10 2 creates interest 3 87 10 3 favourable attitude towards ict 90 10 4 helps in decision making 2 48 50 5 motivate in improving the farm 85 15 6 motivate to learn computer 19 54 27 6579 extent of knowledge of coconut farmers in kozhikode district of kerala greeshma susan mathew* and allan thomas* abstract the present study was conducted among the coconut farmers of kozhikode district of kerala to assess the extent of knowledge on coconut cultivation. a total 120 farmers from purposively selected eight panchayats of the district formed the sample. extent of knowledge of the farmers was measured using a teacher-made test. based on analysis of data, it was found that more than half of the farmers possessed medium level of knowledge about the recommended coconut farming practices. keywords: extent of knowledge; coconut farmers; kerala * department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. india received : 28-11-2020; accepted : 30-01-2021 kerala’s share in area and production of coconut in the country has declined over time. while kerala accounted for 69.58 per cent of the area and 69.52 per cent of the production in the country in 1960-61, the corresponding shares declined to 40.2 per cent and 42.12 per cent respectively in 2011-12 (gok, 2016). the small size of holdings is the characteristic feature of land holdings in kerala. most of the holdings are less than 0.1 ha and only few farmers possess holdings of size above 0.40 ha. since the size of holdings is small and most of these are homestead gardens, it could not generate adequate income to support the dependent families. shortage of farm workers and high labour charges also force the farmers to ignore the timely adoption of agronomic practices and regular harvesting. also, shift in cultivation to other remunerative crops like rubber, high cost of cultivation and low returns from coconut, prevalence of pests and diseases like root wilt, bud rot and alike could be the reasons for the negative growth rate in area and production yield. to overcome these constraints and boost up the production and productivity of the crop, the knowledge level of the farmers should be improved. hence this study was taken up to assess the knowledge level of coconut growers. methodology extent of knowledge is operationally defined as the knowledge possessed by the coconut farmers on the recommended cultivation practices.in order to determine the extent of knowledge of the coconut farmers, a teacher made knowledge test was used. major practices as per the package of practice recommendation of coconut research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6579-6582 6580 table 1. teacher made test to measure extent of knowledge sl. no. questions score 1 what is the best time for planting the coconut seedlings? 2 what is the spacing recommended by kau (kerala agricultural university) in planting coconut seedlings? 3 do you know that there should be 6-8 leaves in 10-12 month old seedlings that are selected for planting? 4 what is the pit size for planting coconut seedlings 5 whether the pits are filled by top soil while planting? 6 what is the height below the ground level to be filled with top soil? 7 do you know that the seedlings are to be removed from nursery by lifting with spade and cutting the roots? 8 what should be the frequency of irrigation for young palms upto 2 years age, during dry summer months? 9 how many split doses of fertilizers are applied under rainfed conditions? 10 how many split doses of fertilizers are applied under irrigated conditions? 11 do you know the approximate quantity of fertilizers required for the following fertilizers for a bearing palm under good management conditions? 12 do you know about the beneficial effects of burial of husk in coconut gardens? 13 do you know that the husk is to be buried in layers with concave surface facing upwards? 14 how many years the effect of husk burial will last in retaining moisture in coconut gardens? 15 what should be applied on the trunk to minimize the sun scorch? 16 name the intercrops that are recommended in young coconut plantation upto 3-4 years? 17 do you know about the method of leaf axil filling in coconut which acts as a prophylactic measure? journal of extension education 6581 were included in the knowledge test to understand the existing knowledge of the respondent about coconut cultivation. scores of ‘one’ and ‘zero’ were given to the correct and wrong answers respectively. the respondents were categorized into three groups based on the range of score attained and the mean value of the respondents. a teacher made test was used to measure extent of knowledge (table 1.) frequency and percentage analysis were carried out to find the distribution of farmers based on their extent of knowledge and they were classified into three categories namely low, medium and high based on the range of knowledge score. findings and discussion considering the extent of knowledge of coconut farmers in kozhikode district of kerala, it was found that more than half of the farmers had medium level of knowledge about the recommended practices in coconut. the distribution of coconut farmers based on their extent of knowledge was recorded and are presented in table 2. from the data presented in table 2, it is clear that the mean value (14.85) was high indicating that majority of the respondents (about 85%)had clear knowledge on the cultivation practices in coconut. more than half of the farmers (56.67%) possessed medium level of knowledge about the recommended coconut farming practices. similar result was reported by jacob (2015). only a small fraction of farmers (12.5%) were yet to gain an equally better knowledge about the practices. this may be attributed to their low extension agency contact as ancertained by the author. it can be concluded that farmers possessed medium level of knowledge in coconut farming in kozhikode district of kerala. this implies the need to strengthen the knowledge level of coconut farmers in kerala for enhancing its production and productivity in farming. table 2 distribution of respondents based on extent of knowledge sl. no. knowledge score frequency percentage 1. low (<13) 15 12.50 2. medium (13-15) 68 56.67 3. high (>15) 37 30.83 total 30 100 mean=14.85; s.d=1.49; se=0.14 extent of knowledge of coconut farmers in kozhikode district of kerala 6582 references gok. [government of kerala]. (2016). farm guide. farm information bureau, trivandrum, 333p. jacob, r. (2015). technology assessment on the production practices of economically dominant crops in homegardens. unpublished m.sc.(ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 139p. journal of extension education 6165 constraints in the adoption of cage aquaculture practices in ernakulam district, kerala daisy c.kappen1, k dinesh2 and n.d divya3 abstract the kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies (kufos) implements a project entitled, “village adoption for empowerment and capacity building ensuring livelihood of fisherfolk in central kerala” from 2015 onwards with the objective of increasing fish production, creating employment opportunities to the fisher folk, thus ensuring livelihood security to them. the university is giving special emphasis on promoting cage aquaculture of variety of species in suitable areas and providing both technical and financial support to its beneficiary farmers for establishing small scale units. the present study was carried out in ernakulam district of the kerala state with the objective of identifying the constraints faced by 80 beneficiary farmers engaged in cage aquaculture of asian seabass. the constraints faced by the cage aquaculture farmers were classified into three categories namely technical, economic and infrastructural/ administrative constraints. the most important constraints were non -availability of quality seeds, high cost of feed and lack of timely and adequate supply of seeds. keywords: cage aquaculture; constraints; seabass; kerala 1. associate professor, college of fisheries, panangad, kochi-682506, 2. associate professor and head, dept of aqua culture, kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies, panangad, kochi-682506 and 3. research fellow, kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies, panangad, kochi-682506 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6165-6172 introduction though the state of kerala is endowed with vast resources in the form of fresh and brackish waters, the total fish production of the state from both marine and inland sector is insufficient to meet the growing demand for fish. the state depends on the neighbouring states to meet its daily requirement. among the diversified aquaculture practices, cage farming has enormous potential to augment fish production and it has made possible the large scale produce of commercial finfish and it is probably the most efficient way of raising fish. (roy et al. 2015). it is ideal for poor and landless fisherfolk and is becoming popular in the state of kerala where both fresh and brackish water resources suitable for promoting cage aquaculture are available. realizing the scope of cage aquaculture in the backwaters of kerala state, kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies ( kufos) is providing both received : 17-09-2018; accepted : 08-10-2018 6166 technical and financial support to the fisherfolk and motivating them in adopting the technology of cage aquaculture of seabass under the plan project “village adoption for empowerment and capacity building ensuring livelihood of fisherfolk in central kerala” funded by government of kerala from 2015 onwards the present study was undertaken to know the major constraints faced by beneficiary farmers of the above project in adopting the technology of cage aquaculture of asian seabass in kerala. methodology the present study was conducted in ernakulam district of kerala state. this district is endowed with rich resources in the form of backwaters which is ideal for promoting cage aquaculture practices. a total of 80 beneficiary farmers of the above project doing cage aquaculture of asian seabass was selected for the present study by using simple random sampling technique. data were collected by using a wellstructured interview schedule. the constraints faced by the cage aquaculture farmers were classified into three categories namely technical, economic and infrastructural/ administrative constraints. in all, six technical, 11 economic and 12 infrastructural/ administrative constraints in adopting the technology were identified and these constraints were measured using the procedure developed by singh et al.(2002). the constraints were weighed on a three point continuum scale viz. very serious, serious and not so serious respectively with weightage as 3, 2, and 1 respectively, depending upon the nature of the constraints from the view point of respondents. the constraint -wise total scores were worked out. the total scores thus obtained on each of the column were multiplied by the allotted weights. the weighted cumulative frequency method was used for computing the rank order of the constraints in each section. findings and discussion the major constraints experienced by respondents in adopting the cage aquaculture practices were ranked for their relative importance on the basis of weighted cumulative frequency score. the data regarding various constraints are presented in table 1. table 1 reveals that among the technical constraints, non availability of the quality seed ranked first with a cumulative score of 229 which is in conformity with the findings of singh et al.(2002) and haque and ray (1983). at present, rajiv gandhi center for aquaculture (rgca), sirkali, tamilnadu is the only institution commercially producing seeds of seabass and selling the seeds measuring upto 3cm. to the farmers. cost of transportation involved in the purchase of seeds from there for stocking in the cages fixed along the coastal areas of kerala will increase the total input cost of the farmers besides the cost of mortality. as the technology of seed production of seabass is complex in nature, requiring expensive infrastructural facilities including the service of technically qualified personnel, government departments working in journal of extension education 6167 this sector can take necessary steps for starting rearing units without much capital investment in areas where there is great scope for promoting cage aquaculture of asian seabass. as the survival rate of the fishes is positively related to the size of the fishes stocked, it is recommended to purchase the seeds measuring up to a size of 3cm available at rgca, rearing to a size of 7-8cm in the rearing units established table 1. technical constraints in adopting recommended practices in cage aquaculture sl. no. constraints category score frequency weighted frequency cumulative frequency rank 1. lack of knowledge vs ( 3 ) s (2 ) nss ( 1) 2 10 68 6 20 68 6 26 94 iv 2. non availability of quality seeds vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss ( 1) 71 8 213 16 213 229 229 i 3. non availability of feed vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 58 10 12 174 20 12 174 194 206 ii 4. lack of availability of good quality water throughout the culture period vs ( 3) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 4 15 61 12 30 61 12 42 103 iii 5. infection of disease vs ( 3 ) s (2 ) nss (1 ) 5 75 10 75 10 85 v 6. labour scarcity vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 4 76 8 76 8 84 vi vs very serious s serious nss not so serious in prospective areas of the state and supplying the same to the farmers for stocking and culturing to a period of 8-10 months. it is pertinent in the case of fishes like seabass which shows cannibalism especially during the early stages of their life cycle. these rearing units can be entrusted to the farmer groups trained in rearing of seabass seeds. such an approach will reduce the total input cost of the farmers constraints in the adoption of cage aquaculture practices in ernakulam district, kerala 6168 table 2. economic constraints in adopting recommended practices in cage aquaculture sl. no. constraints category score frequency weighed frequency cumulative frequency rank 1. poor market value of the product vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 2 5 73 6 10 73 6 16 89 x 2. high cost of feed vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 68 10 2 204 20 2 204 224 226 i 3. lack of money for cage construction vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 12 13 55 36 26 55 36 62 117 vii 4. lack of credit vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 6 11 63 18 22 63 18 40 103 viii 5. lack of insurance vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 40 12 18 120 24 18 120 144 162 iv 6. exploitation of farmers by commission agents vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 40 15 20 120 30 20 120 150 170 ii 7. perishable commodity resulting in losses vs ( 3 ) s (2 ) nss ( 1) 30 23 27 90 46 27 90 136 163 iii 8. erratic local demand for fish vs (3 ) s (2 ) nss (1 ) 4 8 68 12 16 68 12 28 96 ix 9. lack of transportation facilities vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss ( 1) 3 43 34 9 86 34 9 95 129 v 10. high labour charge vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss ( 1) 9 13 68 27 26 68 27 53 121 vi 11. poaching vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 2 3 75 6 6 75 6 12 87 xi vs-very serious s serious nss not so serious journal of extension education 6169 table 3. infrastructure/administrative constraints in adopting recommended practices in cage aquaculture sl. no. constraints category score frequency weighed frequency cumulative frequency rank 1. lack of timely and adequate supply of seeds vs ( 3 ) s (2 ) nss (1 ) 48 18 14 120 56 12 144 200 212 i 2. lack of trained officials vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss ( 1) 4 14 62 12 28 62 12 40 102 ix 3. lack of frequent technical supervision and guidance vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 3 21 56 9 42 56 9 51 107 vii 4. untimely supply of inputs and other materials vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 12 68 24 68 24 92 xi 5. lackof communication regarding the services and other facilities available for fish farming vs (3 ) s (2 ) nss (1 ) 9 71 18 71 18 89 xii 6. location of fish collection centers at distant places vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 15 24 41 45 48 41 45 93 134 iii 7. lack of demonstration and training on recommended practices vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 8 19 53 24 38 53 24 62 115 vi 8. lack of literature in simple language vs ( 3 ) s (2 ) nss (1 ) 3 20 57 9 40 57 9 49 106 viii 9. lack of cold storage facilities vs ( 3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 40 28 12 120 36 14 144 156 170 ii constraints in the adoption of cage aquaculture practices in ernakulam district, kerala 6170 to a great extent, ensure better survival rate of the seeds and act as a solution to overcome the problem of scarcity of seeds at present, in addition to creating more employment opportunities and income to them. the other important constraints were in the order of non availability of feed, lack of availability of good quality water throughout the culture period, lack of knowledge, infection of disease and labour scarcity. it is evident from table 2 that high cost of feed was the major economic constraint with a cumulative score of 226. about 60% of the total working capital expenditure of the farmer accounts for the cost of feed, which is a major constraint in aquaculture. this finding is in accordance with the finding of patel and triveni (1985) who reported that high price of feed is a major constraint in poultry farming. kappen and thomson (2009) also identified high cost of feed as one of the major constraints in adopting the improved freshwater fish farming. generation of low cost technologies and preparation of the feed using locally available ingredients together with suitable government policies will help to remedy this. other problems were exploitation of farmers by commission agents, perishable commodity resulting in losses, lack of insurance, lack of transportation facilities, high labour charge, lack of money for cage construction, lack of credit , erratic local demand for fish, poor market value of the product and poaching. it is evident from table 3 that lack of timely and adequate supply of seeds was the major economic constraint with a cumulative score of 212. vipinkumar and asokan (2008) had also reported unpredicted seed availability as a major constraint in promoting mussel farming technology. it is natural that as the scarcity of the seeds sl. no. constraints category score frequency weighed frequency cumulative frequency rank 10. poor transfer of technologies vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss ( 1) 2 6 78 6 12 78 6 18 96 x 11. lack of practical oriented training vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 16 15 49 48 30 49 48 78 127 iv 12. lack of facilities for testing soil and water quality. vs (3 ) s ( 2 ) nss (1 ) 6 24 50 18 48 50 18 66 116 v vs very serious s serious nss not so serious journal of extension education 6171 is the most important technical constraint, lack of timely and adequate supply of the seeds would be a major economic constraint experienced by the farmers in adopting the technology. other constraints were lack of storage facilities, location of fish collection centers at distant places, lack of practical oriented training, lack of facilities for testing soil and water quality, lack of demonstration and training on recommended practices, lack of frequent technical supervision and guidance, lack of literature in simple language, lack of trained officials, poor transfer of technologies, untimely supply of inputs and other materials, lack of communication regarding the services and other facilities available for fish farming. conclusion among the various constraints facing the cage aquaculture farmers, the most important constraints were non availability of quality seeds ( technical constraint), high cost of feed (economic constraint) and lack of timely and adequate supply of seeds (infrastructure/ administrative constraints). overcoming these constraints and creating an environment congenial to carry out various activities will definitely lead to an increase in fish production, providing livelihood security, creating more employment to the fisherfolk, thus leading to additional utilization of the inland water bodies of the state of kerala. it is suggested that department of fisheries in collaboration with different agencies like non-governmental organizations (ngo), self help groups (shgs), research stations, financial agencies and other departments concerned through planned extension activities should play a vital role in overcoming the constraints faced by the cage aquaculture farmers. organizing the beneficiary groups and promoting group farming will increase the profitability of this innovation which will reduce both recurring and non-recurring costs. references haque & ray,g.l (1983). fish farmers perception of the problems in composite fish culture and measurers suggested by them for increasing the yield of fish. indian journal of extension education. 14 ( 3 &4) : 56-61 joseph i.,ignatious, b.,joseph,s., & venugopalan ,k.m. (2015).asian seabass lates calcarifer (bloch, 1790) as the most prospective candidate species for cage culture in brackish water systems.proceedings of the 5th international symposium on cage aquaculture in asia caa5 :207-214. kappen,d.c & thomson, k.t.( 2009). constraints in adoption of recommended technologies for improved freshwater fish farming. journal of extension education 21(2) :4223-4229 patel, a.n & trivedi, j.c. (1985).constraints in adoption of poultry farming in valsad district of gujarat state. maharashtra journal of extension education, 4:145-146 roy.s.d,krishnan,p.,sarma,k.,george.g., anirudhan a.,angel j.r..,murugesan,s & varghese b.(2015). cage culture of groupers in protected bays & creeks of constraints in the adoption of cage aquaculture practices in ernakulam district, kerala 6172 andaman, proceedings of the 5th international symposium on cage aquaculture in asia caa5 :184-190 singh,s., makhija, v.k., malik, j.s. & dahia, s. (2002). sunflower production technology a constraint analysis. indian journal of social research.43(3):195-200 vipinkumar,v.p, & asokan,p.k. (2008).mussel farming technology dissemination to the self help groups. indian journal of extension education 44, (1&2):112-115 journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6386 1 pg scholar and 2 associate professor, department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara-680 656, thrissur, kerala research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6386-6390 received : 17-10-2019; accepted : 28-01-2020 perception on the effectiveness of school vegetable garden programme t.g. ajit1 and m.j. mercykutty2 abstract school vegetable garden is the practice of cultivation of vegetables in and around the school premises by the students. school vegetable garden programme is a promising tool that can teach cultivation of vegetable within the formal educational framework. it provides opportunities for young minds to understand the basic lessons of agriculture and develop an affinity towards it. a study was conducted among 180 student respondents among six schools by adopting the procedure of two stage random sampling, in nenmara and kollengode blocks of palakkad district in kerala. all the selected schools had functional school vegetable gardens and were practicing activities either through agriculture or nature clubs. the perceived effectiveness of school vegetable garden by students revealed that development of life skills was found to be the most important outcome. the constraints faced by students were more time spent for garden activities and difficulty in maintaining the garden during vacation. keywords: school vegetable garden; effectiveness; perception; constraint; kerala. introduction the future of indian agriculture is in the hands of today’s growing minds. the present indian condition is children are far away from agriculture, many children might not be able to recognize the rice plant, the staple food of india. the role of agriculture is greater in the present economy so that the growing generation need to mould according to the present situation. nowadays the majority of the aspirants focusing on non-agricultural careers, but according to indian economy agriculture are the backbone, for strengthening it in effective manner educational institutional gardens can play a vital role. in a focused future development, educational institutional gardens can contribute highly agricultural oriented citizens. in kerala, the school vegetable garden programmes are implemented by state agriculture and farmers welfare department as a component of vegetable development programme. the programme aims to mobilize the student community into the field of agriculture, make them aware of safe to eat food production and to bring uncultivable 6387 lands in the government and private institutions under vegetable cultivation. the vegetable and fruit promotion council of keralam (vfpck) initiated a programme namely agri@school with its main concept ‘a vegetable garden in my school’. the programme coverage is 1000 schools in the state with an aim to meet 600 tonnes of vegetable production. the programme was launched with a view to creating a curiosity, and awareness among children on the joys of being involved in agriculture. the council will provide seeds, manure, implements and technical inputs. the basic criteria for selection were that the school should have the minimum two cents and a maximum of 15 cents for a vegetable garden. besides cultivation of vegetables, students will also be trained in waste management and vermicomposting (the hindu, 2006). the school vegetable garden is one of the important components of government aided vegetable development programme. it provides opportunities for young minds to understand the basic lessons of agriculture and develop affinity towards it. growing crops gives a new appreciation for nature, when the learners have the opportunity to see how plants grow in order to mobilize the student community into the field of agriculture, make them aware of safe to eat products and to bring uncultivable lands in the government and private institutions under vegetable cultivation, this component provides assistance (gok, 2012). major advances in technology have led to more focus being given to nonagricultural majors and careers, with less focus on knowledge of agriculture and agricultural sciences. as a result, society has become further removed from agriculture. this disconnect has resulted in failure to gain knowledge about agriculture by society as a whole (nkembe, 2012). white (2012) stated that small-scale agriculture is the developing world’s single biggest source of employment, and with the necessary support, it can offer a sustainable and productive alternative to the expansion of large-scale, capital-intensive, labor-displacing corporate farming. even though it assumes a generation of young rural men and women who want to be small farmers, while mounting evidence suggests that young people are uninterested in farming or in rural futures. razia (2015) reveals that with growing urbanization, better literacy standards and greater skill attainment by rural youth, our younger generation is moving away from agriculture. in india, children get hardly any exposure to agriculture through a curriculum predominated by arts and science. when young children connect with nature, we can feel that they can change the world. the garden based learning in schools is pretty much obvious then. school gardens are the best place to teach what science and nature is all about and we most certainly need them in more numbers (basu, 2016). keeping this in mind, a systematic study was conducted on the perception of effectiveness of school vegetable of gardens. methodology ex-post facto research design was used for the study carried out in nenmara perception on the effectiveness of school vegetable garden programme 6388 and kollengode blocks of palakkad district, kerala. one school each was chosen from the three selected panchayats of each block. the six panchayats were nenmara, pallasana, and elavanchery from nenmara block and koduvayur, muthalamada, and vadavannur from kollengode. two stage random sampling procedure was adopted. the respondents were 30 students each from the six schools in which school vegetable garden programme was implemented, which constituted 180 student respondents. the age group of students ranged from 11 to 16 years old. a standardized tool was formulated to measure the perception on the effectiveness of school vegetable garden taking into consideration the procedure adopted by razia (2015). however the perception index was calculated using the formula findings and discussion the results represented in table 1 indicate that development of life skill is considered as the most perceived effectiveness of school vegetable garden by the students involved in school vegetable garden with 90.11 perception index and rank 1, followed by other indicators viz., performance of intercultural operations (85.03), knowledge aspects (84.97), participation and involvement of students (83.25), improvement in environment stewardship (82.22), selection of crop and season (71.54) and supply of agricultural inputs (54.92). constrains faced by students in maintaining vegetable garden the constraints faced by students were identified and were asked to rate. the responses were analysed using kendall’s coefficient of concordance (w). from table 2, perception index = respondents total score x 100 total possible score table 1. distribution of perception on the effectiveness of school vegetable garden as perceived by student respondents (n=180) sl. no. indicator perception index rank 1. development of life skills 90.11 1 2. performance of intercultural operations 85.03 2 3. knowledge aspects 84.97 3 4. participation and involvement of students 83.25 4 5. improvement in environment stewardship 82.22 5 6. selection of crop and season 71.54 6 7. supply of agricultural inputs 54.92 7 overall perception index 78.86 journal of extension education 6389 it is evident that time spent for garden activities and difficulty in maintaining during vacation were the major constraints with respect to the students. the major constraint they experienced was ‘time’ because the students have to find extra time for garden activities, as there was no predefined time in the academic curriculum. there must be an initiative from the government to include an hour a day for this type of vocational learning to be included in the academic curriculum. in order to take care the crops during vacation, students coming from nearby areas, premises need to get allotted the gardening duties. the input cost can be substantially reduced by making use of the available natural and organic sources like botanical and manual means. the availability of implements can table 2. constraints experienced by students (n=180) sl. no. constraints students mean rank rank order 1. inadequate irrigation facility 8.06 7 2. scarcity of land for cultivation 8.92 4 3. high input cost 8.80 3 4. inadequate fund 7.42 11 5. low level of student’s interest 8.13 6 6. poor knowledge about gardening 8.47 7 7. poor storage facility 7.50 9 8. less involvement of teacher’s 6.16 15 9. difficulty in obtaining implements 8.29 5 10. more time is spent for garden activities 9.35 1 11. crop damage by wild animals 7.37 12 12. inadequate training/ extension service 7.89 10 13. negative attitude towards physical work 7.28 13 14. theft of vegetables from school 7.00 14 15. difficulty in maintenance during vacation 9.34 2 kendall’s wa 0.06 chi-square 150.681 df 14 asymp. sig. 0.000 perception on the effectiveness of school vegetable garden programme 6390 either be improved by means of raising funds and purchasing implements through this garden clubs or by hiring from custom hiring centres. it was also noted that the constraints such as lack of teacher’s involvement, theft of vegetables from the school during vacation and negative attitude towards physical work were of least importance. it implies that the teachers were actively directing the students in all the garden activities and the members in the garden clubs were not hesitant in doing physical work. this result is similar to the the study report of dilip and thomas (2017). high input cost, lack of student’s participation, lack of teacher’s involvement, non-availability of implements, high labour cost, poor storage facilities and lack of knowledge about gardening were the major issues in managing a school vegetable garden. conclusion encouraging and equipping the children to do simple agricultural activities will offer physiological, psychological, recreational and cognitive benefits. analysing the various phases of crop production right from seed germination, taking care of small plants and different intercultural operations up to harvesting the final produce will itself help to develop enthusiasm among children. projects which encourage garden component in educational institutions and a teacher specially recruited to provide guidance and training in these aspects are vital for the emerging generation, as the results reveal. references basu, s. (2016). learning by doing. the hindu, 27 jan., 2016. dilip, s. & thomas, a. (2017). constraints perceived by students in school vegetable gardening, journal of extension education. 29(1):5818-5822. gok [government of kerala]. (2012). vegetable development programme 201213 circular, 48p. nkembe, e.n. (2012). agriculture: what do children really know? unpubished msc (ag) thesis, university of georgia, athens,81p. razia, f. (2015). perception of school students of kerala on agriculture and its implications. unpublished msc (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 188p. the hindu. (2006). 40 schools chosen for agri at school programme. the hindu, 4 july,2006. white, b. (2012). agriculture and the generation problem: rural youth, employment and the future of farming in:sumberg j, wellard k (eds), young people and agriculture in africa. ids bulletin, pp 9-19. journal of extension education 6119 socio-personal contour, information flow and productivity of brackishwater aquaculture systems an appraisal m. kumaran1, m. sundaram 2, shijo mathew3 and pr.anand4 abstract brackishwater aquaculture, the farming of shrimps and fishes in coastal areas is practiced both in traditional and scientific methods. a study was conducted to assess the connectedness between the profile characteristics, their information sourcing and productivity levels. the study indicated that systems and states differ significantly (p<0.01) both in terms of profile status and productivity levels. private extension services were dominant in scientific farming while traditional systems depend on state fisheries departments for inputs and technical advisory. therefore, taking into account the relative strengths the state departments may partner with research institutions and input companies respectively for technology support and reaching the farmers located in remote locations. mobile phone applications may be developed and launched for connecting the technology, inputs, services and market with the farming community. keywords : brackishwater aquaculture; information flow; mobile application; socio-economics; kerala; west bengal received : 27-10-2018; accepted : 15-12-2018 1. principal scientist, 2, 3, & 4, research scholars, icar-central institute of brackishwater aquaculture, 75, santhome high road, chennai – 600 028. introduction brackishwater aquaculture is the farming of shrimps and fishes in ponds using brackishwater which is being adopted in about 2.0 lakh ha along the coastal regions. india has a brackishwater potential of 1.2 million ha and out of which 15% is alone put in to use for fish production at present. traditionally brackishwater aquaculture was practiced in the form of ‘trap and hold’ system wherein the fishes come in the high tide waters were trapped, reared and caught as ‘continuous stocking and continuous harvesting mode’ as a livelihood avocation. scientific advancements aided induced seed production and feed processing technologies evolved the scientific brackishwater aquaculture which is relatively intensive with prescribed stocking density and inputs to produce marketable size of shrimp i.e 20-30 g in about 120-130 days. scientific brackishwater aquaculture is a commercial activity with relatively higher investments, high risk and high profit model. however, in states like west bengal and kerala both research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6119-6128 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6120 traditional and scientific mode of aquaculture is being taken up. traditional shrimp farming in kerala as chemmeen kettu in pokkali fields and bheris in west bengal has been practiced for centuries and still continued without much interventions in the technological aspects making them a low cost low profit sustainable production system (kiran and salim, 2012). considering the inputs used and practices adopted chandrasekaran et al (2009) viewed that traditional brackishwater aquaculture systems is tantamount to organic aquaculture. it is a common perception that socio-economic profile of producers and access to improved technology would led to enhanced productivity. however, such hypothesis needs to be validated in aquaculture. therefore, the present investigation was taken up to examine the connectedness between the profile characteristics of brackishwater aquaculture farmers, their information sourcing and the productivity levels. methodology the present investigation was taken up in west bengal (wb) and kerala (kl) states where both traditional and modern modes of brackishwater aquaculture are adopted. tidefed auto stocking of fish and shrimp seeds without much farm management was the phenomenon of traditional systems. whereas, scientific farms adopted the package of practices recommended throughout the cropping cycle. a respective sample of 45 and 22 scientific farmers in wb and kl ( 67 ) and a sample of 21 and 84 (105) traditional farmers respectively in wb and kl were selected using proportionate random sampling procedure to collect the primary data for the study in tune with the systems of farming practised in these states. the sociopersonal characteristics of aquafarmers were studied through 16 variables viz., gender, age, educational status, occupation, family type, family size, family annual income, community, farming experience, social participation, farm ownership, farm size, employment generation, farm infrastructure, training attended and cropping intensity. farmers’ access to technology information was ascertained through information sources and preferred mode of information delivery. the socio-economic characteristics and access to information data were pooled as personal profile of the respondents system and state wise to compare and interpret the data contextually. production particulars of the systems were measured on the basis of stocking density, feed conversion ratio, production cost, crop duration, sale price and cost benefit ratio of the systems. appropriate scoring and measurement procedures were employed to collect the data. the primary data were collected through personal contact survey using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. the data collected were cleaned and subjected to descriptive statistics viz., frequency, mean, standard deviation and percentage analysis for data consolidation. kruskal-wallis analysis a non-parametric test was employed to compare the results across the states and systems to ascertain the journal of extension education 6121 samples connectedness in terms of origination from the same distribution. findings and discussion socio-personal characteristics of brackishwater aquaculture farmers the socio-economic data of farmers practicing traditional and modern brackishwater aquaculture systems are presented in the table-1. the data indicate that aqua farmers irrespective of the system and states were males and involvement of women folk was negligible due to remote farming locations, timings and nature of farming operations. in case of age, majority of the traditional (58%) and scientific (76%) farmers of west bengal were belonged to 31-45 years. contrarily, half of scientific (54%) and traditional (49%) farmers of kerala (kl) were in the age group of 46-60 years. this signifies that the farmers of wb were relatively young compared to that of kerala and the entrepreneurial nature of scientific shrimp farming attracted more youth rather than traditional systems. in case of educational levels about 50% kl farmers were graduates, but 60 to 90% of wb respondents irrespective of the systems had education up to matric level only, which is in line with the literacy levels of the respective states. therefore, extension programmes and farming literature for wb farmers need to be prepared in their local language. aquaculture was the primary occupation for majority of the respondents irrespective of the system and state, however, in kl it was an additional occupation for 3040% of farmers. it was observed during the survey that many aqua farmers were either employed or had other businesses in addition to farming. this could be one of the reasons for slow progress of aquaculture vis-à-vis the resource potential available in the state. majority of the scientific farmers in kl (86%), traditional farmers of wb (62%) and kl (81%) were lived in nuclear families. however, majority of the scientific farmers in wb (62%) lived as joint families. this is because of the economics involved and requirement of own manpower to manage shrimp farming. majority of scientific farmers of wb (57.78%) and around half of traditional kl farmers (47.60%) reported that their annual income was up to rs.2, 40,000. farm size and system of production could be the reason for the reported income levels by the scientific farmers in wb. more than half of scientific farmers in kl (54%), and traditional farmers of wb (58%) reported that their income levels were between rs. 2, 40,000 to rs.4,80,000 per annum. majority of wb (89%), one third of kl (36.36%) shrimp farmers and majority of traditional farmers both in wb (62%) and kl (52.40%) had a farming experience of less than 10 years. this is in tune with their age categories reported earlier and the tenure nature of systems. majority of wb (93.33%) and kl (59%) farmers and 50% of traditional kl farmers had associated with formal or informal social institutions formed for the welfare of farmers. socio-personal contour, information flow and productivity of brackishwater aquaculture systems an appraisal 6122 table 1. socio-economic status of brackishwater aquaculture farmers sl. no socio-economic characteristics scientific systems traditional systems west bengal (n1=45) kerala (n2= 22) west bengal (n3=21) kerala (n4= 84) 1 gender male 97.77 95.45 100.00 96.40 female 2.22 4.55 0.00 3.60 2 age in years up to 30 years 17.77 9.09 9.50 4.80 31 45 years 57.77 13.63 76.10 27.30 46-60 years 20.00 54.54 9.60 48.80 above 61 years 4.44 22.72 4.80 19.00 3 educational status up to middle school 35.55 9.09 100.00 17.80 matriculate level 62.22 40.90 0.00 60.70 graduate 2.22 49.99 0.00 21.50 4 occupation aquaculture as primary 75.55 59.09 100.00 69.00 aquaculture as additional 24.44 40.90 0.00 31.00 5 family status joint family 62.22 13.63 38.00 19.00 nuclear family 37.78 86.36 62.00 81.00 6 family size up to 4 members 62.22 54.54 66.6 71.40 above 4 members 37.78 45.45 33.4 28.60 7 family annual income in rs. < rs.2.4 lakh 57.78 18.18 38.00 47.60 rs.2.41 to 4.8 lakh 4.00 54.54 62.00 39.30 > rs.4.8lakh 2.22 27.27 0.00 13.10 8 community gen 93.33 13.63 100.00 11.90 obc 0.00 81.81 0.00 79.80 sc/ st 6.66 4.54 0.00 8.30 journal of extension education 6123 sl. no socio-economic characteristics scientific systems traditional systems west bengal (n1=45) kerala (n2= 22) west bengal (n3=21) kerala (n4= 84) 9 farming experience in years up to 10 years 88.89 36.36 61.9 52.40 11 to 20 years 6.66 45.45 28.6 21.40 21 years & above 4.44 18.18 9.5 26.20 10 social participation associated 93.33 59.09 0.00 50.00 not associated 6.67 40.90 100 50.00 11 farm ownership owned 93.33 31.81 0.00 83.3 leased 6.66 68.18 100.00 16.7 12 farm size in ha up to 2 ha 91.11 50.00 52.3 67.9 2.1 to 5.0 ha 6.66 40.90 38.2 14.28 above 5 ha 2.22 9.09 9.5 10.71 13 avg.no. of days employed in aquaculture 212 ± 49.95 210.68 ± 76.28 295 ± 16.78 216.8 ± 64.4 14 farm infrastructure & biosecurity 6.26 ± 1.22 4.0 ± 1.59 2.0 ± 0.0 2.5 ± 1.3 15 training attended on aquaculture 86.67 50.00 0.00 61.90 16 cropping intensity one 22.22 13.64 100 5.95 two 75.55 86.36 0.00 64.05 majority of scientific shrimp farmers in wb (93.33%) and traditional farmers in kl (83.30%) had their own farms whereas majority of scientific farmers in kl (68.18%) and all the bheries in wb were leased farms. bheries were large embankments made by joining small plots owned by many individuals of varying size and a big firm or farmer took these lands on lease for taking up aquaculture. majority of scientific farms in wb (91.11%), kl (50%) and traditional farmers in wb (52.30%) and kl (67.90%) were small farms less with than 2 ha. this may be due to the land reforms taken place in these states. while scientific aquaculture provided employment for 210 to 222 days in a year, the traditional farms provided 217 to 295 days employment for the local people. scientific farms had better infrastructure and biosecurity measures than their traditional counter parts as the former are technology socio-personal contour, information flow and productivity of brackishwater aquaculture systems an appraisal 6124 driven production systems. majority of wb (87%), and 50% of the scientific farmers in kl had attended one or other structured training on aquaculture. aquaculture being a technology intensive farming participation in training on the subject could give the required knowledge and skill. the research centre of icar-ciba at kakdwip in south 24 parganas district of wb trained the shrimp farmers in wb on the better management practices (bmps) which might be the reason for many farmers to takeup farming of pacific white shrimp (penaeus vannamei) in that area. information seeking and communication behaviour of farmers farmers approach fisheries departments and institutions for technical advisories. the data given in the table-2 show that most of the traditional farmers in wb (100%) and kl (64%) were dependent on public funded extension systems like department of fisheries and offices of mpeda. however, in case of scientific shrimp farming, respondents are dependent on private extension service providers like feed company technicians and aquaculture consultants(44 and 50%) in both the states. it was informed that feed technicians were the primary source of information on the technical matters as they were accessible at any time and visited their client farms at weekly intervals for follow up. the farmers generally cross check the information obtained from other sources with their fellow farmers. farmers approached mpeda for development subsidy and market related information. in kerala, dof had implemented several subsidy oriented schemes for the development of aquaculture and provided 40,000 shrimp seed at free of cost to farmers. however, there was no technical support from the dof and the farmers dependent on consultants and fellow progressive farmers. scientific shrimp farmers need technology information constantly to minimize the risk factors in the production cycle. most of the respondents irrespective of the system preferred that group meetings at monthly intervals were the desired mode of communication to receive technical guidance. group meetings were preferred as it provided them the opportunity for horizontal learnings among the farmers and discuss the issues in an understandable manner. table 2. access and preferred mode of communication for brackishwater aquaculture farmers sl. no access and preferred mode communication scientific systems traditional systems west bengal (n1=45) kerala (n2= 22) west bengal (n3=21) kerala (n4= 84) 1 access to e-mail & internet yes 97.78 40.90 0.00 78.6 no 2.22 59.09 100 21.4 journal of extension education 6125 2 information seeking behaviour public funded extension (dof, mpeda, res.instt.) 17.77 27.27 100.00 64.4 private extension (consultants & feed company technicians) 44.44 49.99 0.00 16.70 progressive farmers 37.79 22.74 0.00 17.90 4 preferred mode of communication printed matter 0.00 4.54 0.00 9.50 e-mail 0.00 4.54 0.00 0.00 mobile sms 4.44 4.54 0.00 10.7 group meeting 95.56 86.36 100.00 79.8 4 frequency of information required weekly 6.66 4.54 0.00 5.95 fortnightly 2.22 0.00 0.00 0.00 monthly 91.11 95.45 100.00 90.5 profile status (socio-economic and information & communication behaviour) across the systems and states and their connectedness. 20.82 ± 2.89 22.36 ± 3.37 15.61 ± 1.75 16.78 ± 3.00 kruskal wallis test of significance: chi-square score = 61.667**; ** significant at 1% level the data on socio-personal and information access were pooled together to have a better indication about the profile of the respondents. the kruskal wallis test of significance done to assess the connectedness between the samples of states and systems showed that the respondents differ significantly (p<0.01) both in terms systems and states in terms of their profile status (table-2). it is obvious that the scientific shrimp farmers had better education, higher income and better access to technology than their traditional counterparts. similarly the kl respondents had a better profile vis-à-vis their wb counterparts which might be due to their differential nature of farming systems, educational, income and information seeking behaviour. productivity parameters of traditional and scientific shrimp farming it may be noticed from the table-3 that traditional systems adopted an average seed stocking density of 4.8 numbers of shrimp socio-personal contour, information flow and productivity of brackishwater aquaculture systems an appraisal 6126 post larvae (pl) per square meter or 48,000 larvae in one ha whereas the average stocking density followed in scientific farming was 35 pls/ sq. m. average seed stocking density is the indicator to determine the scale of farming. in case of kl the seed was given by the state government as a welfare measure at free of cost to traditional shrimp farms. traditional shrimp farms were auto fed, the supplementary seed stocked were of poor quality, applied homemade feeds and farm management were inadequate. however, scientific farms used formulated highly balanced feed and adopted efficient feed management. nevertheless the feed requirement for producing one kilogram of shrimp in both the systems were almost same but the cost of feed in scientific farming was rs.85 per kg and in case of traditional systems rice brawn, out dated wheat breads and oil cakes were used as feed and it was costing hardly rs.40-50/kg. this was evident in the cost of production in the systems as it was rs.248/kg in scientific farming and rs.183/kg in case of traditional systems. the average production in traditional systems was 1.0 t/ha where as in case of scientific farming it was 5.4 t/ha. however, the crop duration was more (144 days) in traditional systems because they preferred bigger sized shrimps up to 35-40 g which fetched them higher market price of rs.450-500 per kg. whereas in scientific farming the duration was 115-120 days and the average size of shrimp harvested was 22g. table 3. production parameters of traditional and scientific shrimp production systems sl. no parameters scientific (n1= 67) traditional (n2 = 105) 1 stocking density (pl/m2) 35.1 ± 14.7 4.8 ± 1.5 2 feed conversion ratio (fcr) 1.4 ± 0.2 1.3 ± 0.1 3 cost of production in rs. 248 ± 58 183.3 ± 56.1 4 crop duration in days 114 ± 11.5 144 ± 9.9 5 production tonnes/ha/crop 5.4 ± 3.2 1.0 ± 0.7 6 size at harvest in g 21.5 ± 10.6 35 ± 6.0 7 market price in rs. 357 ± 35.2 446.1 ± 87.2 8 cost benefit ratio 1.48 ± 0.5 2.3 ± 0.5 though volume wise scientific farms yielded higher productivity, the profitability was high in case of traditional shrimp farming considering the shrimp price and cost of production. however, higher production achieved in scientific farming enhanced their profitability. bhattacharya (2009) reported similar findings indicating higher benefit cost ratio for traditional shrimp farming than the scientific shrimp farming. it is also worth to note that pokkali systems in kerala received geographical indication (gi) tagging which provided further possibility for obtaining a premium price (anonymous, 2013). journal of extension education 6127 quality shrimp seed is the primary critical input and it was reported that the quality of free shrimp seed supplied by the govt. of kerala was poor. in order to enhance the productivity of traditional farms in kerala the govt. may support the farmers with provision of quality feeds, other supplements and capacity enhancement. in case of west bengal, the department of fishers may mobilise the farm youth and conduct skill development courses on scientific shrimp farming for enhancing their capacity. considering the above, it is suggested that appropriate extension efforts are needed to impart the required technical skills, quality inputs and diagnostic services to enhance the productivity of traditional shrimp farming systems. the results of the study indicated that the production system in-terms of traditional or scientific and their respective productivity are connected in tune with their operational protocols. since shrimp aquaculture needs technical skills irrespective of their size of operations, irrespective of the socio-personal profile of respondents the information sourcing was similar and hence there was no relationship between the profile and access to information. further, productivity of the system and access to information were closely connected may be because the investments incurred in the farming were relatively high in case of scientific systems and the farmers were looking for additional information to obtain a successful crop. this may be reason to notice that even a small scale scientific farmer had better information access than large scale traditional farmer. in the light of the above, aquaculture extension agencies are expected to provide the critical access to the knowledge, information and technology that farmers require to improve their farm productivity and advance their economic status. private input companies and progressive farmers are the major extension workers in scientific shrimp farming and dofs are playing key role in subsidy oriented welfare extension in traditional farming areas. however, none of the agency/institution could exclusively or independently cater the information and skill requirements of different segments of aquaculture systems and different strata of farmers in the aquaculture sector. therefore, the better approach is collaboration/ partnership between the institutions/ agencies, strengthening dofs and integration of information channels especially mobile phone based interfaces and harnessing ict medium for effective aquaculture extension service. conclusion the study indicated that the profile status of the aqua farmers and the production parameters of brackishwater aquaculture systems across the states were dissimilar in terms of production. however, the systems were profitable in tune with the investments made and technology adopted. the traditional systems need ‘system specific technology package’ to enhance their productivity and sustainability. traditional systems need adequate extension service support for skill enhancement, quality inputs and better diagnostics and management measures. the socio-personal contour, information flow and productivity of brackishwater aquaculture systems an appraisal 6128 state fisheries departments should partner with research institutions and input companies respectively for technology support and reaching the farmers located in remote locations. mobile phone applications may be developed and launched for connecting the technology, inputs, services and market with the farming community. references anonymous. (2013). shrimp, fish and paddy cultivation in same field is lucrative, aqua international, june 2013: 11-12 bhattacharya.p. (2009). economics of shrimp farming: a comparative study of traditional vs. scientific shrimp farming in west bengal, working paper 218, institute for social and economic change, bangalore. chandrasekaran, v.s., shanthi, b., kumaran, m., & krishnan, m. (2009). shrimp farming practice in goa, india. fishing chimes, 29 (8): 7-10 . kiran, r.b. & salim, s. (2012). shrimp aquaculture: diseases, health management, exotic introduction and regulations. manual on world trade agreements and indian fisheries paradigms: a policy outlook, cmfri, kochi,, 425-428 journal of extension education 6209 training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected information technology enabled systems for agriculture p.j. boniface1, a.m. jose2 and a. sakeer husain3 abstract the study analyses the training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists of kerala, india on selected information technology enabled systems (ites) such as web browsing, agricultural portals, agricultural expert systems, digitized databases and on line trading in agriculture. computer literate farmers and agricultural extensionists from the districts of thrissur, idukki and malappuram of kerala consisting of 300 farmers and 120 agricultural extensionists were the respondents of the study. training on agricultural portals was identified as the highest training need among both farmers and agricultural extensionists. the study points to the need of imparting it oriented training to both farmers and agricultural extensionists which would enable them to get right information at the right time for the overall development of agriculture. keywords: it in agriculture; training needs; farmer; agricultural extension worker; ict; kerala 1. associate professor & 2. professor, college of co-operation banking and management, kerala agricultural university and 3. professor and director, centre for e-learning, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala, india introduction information technology (it) has unmatched potential to assist and support farmers in their day-to-day farming activities like crop production, identification of pests and diseases, farm mechanisation, selection of cropping pattern, suitability of soil for different crops, fertilizer use, market intelligence and marketing of agricultural products and much more. in india, various it efforts have been made to meet all these requirements of farmers belonging to different parts of the country. husain et al., (2016) concluded that whenever agricultural portals and websites are developed they should be based on the needs of the intended users and stakeholders. they adopted a user centred design for developing an agricultural portal. according to ravikishore (2014), the major constraint faced by the extension personnel of kerala was lack of proper training. it was also found that only very less percentage (14%) of farmers (14 %) of kerala were aware of kisan call centre (koshy et al., 2015). adams et al., (2016) reiterated the need for creating more it awareness by giving training to both farmers and agricultural extensionists. with this backdrop, the present study was undertaken to identify the specific training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected information technology enabled systems namely web browsing, agricultural research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6209-6215 received : 17-03-2019; accepted : 01-04-2019 6210 portals, agricultural expert system, digitized databases and online agricultural trading. methodology the study was confined to the state of kerala. primary data were collected using structured interview schedule and multistage sampling was done to identify the respondents. in the first stage, three districts were selected from three zonal areas, i.e., malappuram district from northern zone, thrissur district from central zone and idukki district from southern zone, considering the it prominence / it efforts made in these districts with respect to farming / farmers. malappuram district became the first e-literate district in india through the akshaya project launched in 2002. thrissur district houses the headquarters of the state agricultural university of kerala which had developed various it tools and services for farmers apart from imparting trainings to farmers. similarly, many farmers of idukki district were engaged in online trading especially of pepper and cardamom. these factors were considered for the selection of these three districts. for the selection of farmers, the list of farmers who had accessed ites for agricultural and related purposes were collected from the websites, www.celkau. in, www.kissankerala.net and from the india pepper and spices trade association (ipsta) for the year 2016. from the list so collected, 100 farmers were selected at random from each district, thus constituting a sample of 300 farmers. for sampling of agricultural extensionists, computer literate agricultural officers and agricultural assistants of various krishi bhavan of the three selected districts were obtained. from this list, 60 agricultural officers (20 from each selected district) and 60 agricultural assistants (20 from each selected district) were selected at random constituting a sample of 120. thus the total sample size for the study constituted 420, consisting of 300 farmers and 120 agricultural extensionists. in order to identify the training need domains of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected ites, training needs were identified by extensive review of literature and discussion with non-sample respondents. then the sample respondents were asked to mark whether they required training on the identified domains. percentages were calculated for each need domain under each ites. similarly in order to find out the overall intensity of training need in each of the ites, index was calculated using the formula: training need index = (total score obtained / maximum possible score) * 100. findings and discussion in order to know the agreement among farmers as well as agricultural extensionists in their training needs on selected ites, kendall’s coefficient of concordance was calculated for each selected ites separately for farmers and agricultural extensionists and the results are given in table 1. it can be seen from table 1, that the kendall’s coefficient of concordance value (w) was significant at 1 per cent level for all the ites viz., web browsing (0.221**), agricultural portals (0.355**), agricultural expert system (0.682**), digitized databases (0.474**) and for online agricultural trading (0.210**) journal of extension education 6211 with respect to farmers. similarly, kendall’s coefficient of concordance value (w) was significant at 1 per cent level for web browsing (0.222**), agricultural portals (0.308**), agricultural expert systems (0.143**), digitized databases (0.157**) and online agricultural trading (0.125**) with respect to agricultural extensionists too. thus, in the case of both farmers and agricultural extensionists, there was agreement in rating the training needs. training needs on selected ites training is an integral part of any development activity. acquisition of new skills and knowledge can be achieved through training. the major training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected ites are identified and the results are given in table 2. the study reveals that as regards web browsing, majority (68.67 per cent) table 1. agreement among farmers and agricultural extensionists regarding training needs on selected ites sl.no. ites kendall’s w value farmers (n= 300) agricultural extensionists (n=120) 1 web browsing 0.221 ** 0.222 ** 2 agricultural portals 0.355 ** 0.308 ** 3 agricultural expert system 0.682 ** 0.143 ** 4 digitized databases 0.474 ** 0.157 ** 5 online trading 0.210 ** 0.125 ** **significant at 1%level of the farmers required more training on ‘searching over the internet’, while in the case of agricultural portals, majority needed training on ‘operating the most commonly used agricultural portals’(83.33 per cent of farmers), followed by availability of different portals and its contents (78 per cent farmers). as regards agricultural expert systems, majority (92.33 per cent), required training on ‘operating an agricultural expert system’, while for digitized databases training requirement was for the operation of relevant and useful digitised databases in agriculture by majority (93 per cent) of farmers. finally, for online trading, majority (80.67 per cent) of the farmers wanted training on the modus operandi of online trading, followed by hands on training on online trading. in addition, a considerable share of farmers demanded for training on the ‘how to use of internet’ in the case of all ites. further, training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected information technology enabled systems for agriculture 6212 though all the farmers were computer literate, some of them demanded for training on ‘how to use computer’ too. of the five selected ites, training on the operation of commonly used digitized databases topped the list, with 93 per cent farmers demanding it. this table 2. training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected ites sl. no. ites training needs farmers (n= 300) agricultural extensionists (n=120) no. % no. % 1 w eb b ro w si ng how to operate the computer system 28 9.33 14 11.67 how to use internet 124 41.33 22 18.33 searching over internet 206 68.67 44 36.67 2 a gr ic ul tu ra l po rt al s how to operate the computer system 28 9.33 14 11.67 how to use internet 121 40.33 40 33.33 availability of different portals and its contents 234 78.00 74 61.67 how to operate the most commonly used agricultural portals 250 83.33 44 36.67 3 a gr ic ul tu ra l ex pe rt s ys te m s (a es ) how to operate the computer system 28 9.33 14 11.67 how to use internet 121 40.33 34 28.33 how to operate an aes 277 92.33 34 28.33 availability of different aes and its contents na na 64 53.33 4 d ig iti ze d da ta ba se how to operate the computer system 28 9.33 14 11.67 how to use internet 88 29.33 12 10.00 how to operate the most commonly used digitized database 279 93.00 32 26.67 availability of different digitized databases and its contents na na 42 0.35 5 o nl in e tr ad in g how to operate the computer 28 9.33 14 11.67 how to use internet 72 24.00 12 10.00 how to do online trading 242 80.67 36 30.00 hands on training for online trading 197 65.67 24 20.00 journal of extension education 6213 might be because of the low awareness and knowledge of farmers about digitised data bases, as compared to other ites. a close look at the above results reveals that opinion of majority of the farmers were based on the most important items needed to access and use respective ites, which centres around operating the concerned ites, be it searching over internet, operating agricultural portals, agricultural expert systems and digitised databases, or doing online trading. in toto, the training needs of farmers were more or less practical oriented. with respect to agricultural extensionists, the most important training need on web browsing was ‘searching over the internet’ (36.67 per cent of the agricultural extensionists). regarding agricultural portals, majority (61.67 per cent) of the agricultural extensionists perceived ‘orientation on availability of different agricultural portals and its contents’ as the most important need, while majority (53.33 per cent) opined ‘orientation on availability of different agricultural expert systems and its contents’ as the most important training requirement in case of agricultural expert systems. in digitized databases, the top rated need was‘ mode of operation of relevant and useful digitised databases in agriculture’ (26.67 per cent) while in on online trading, the important training requirement was the modus operandi of online trading (30 per cent agricultural extensionists). here also, a small share of agricultural extensionists wanted to have training on the use of computer, and use of internet, in all the cases of selected ites. this may be forgetting in-depth knowledge and fine-tuned skill for it use, enabling them to utilize all the ites. of the five selected ites, the most top rated training need of agricultural extensionists was the availability of agricultural portals and its contents (index 61.67), which may be because, the agricultural extensionists were well aware of the potential and scope of agricultural portals in empowering them for their agricultural information dissemination. as in the case of farmers, the perceptions of majority of the agricultural extensionists were focussed on the most important items needed to access and use respective ites, and were related to operating the ites. thus, the training needs of agricultural extensionists were also practical oriented. the results were in tune with the studies of frempong et al., (2006), baghat et al., (2007), helen (2008), manty (2011), swafah (2011), ravikishore (2014), chitra (2015), kabir and roy (2015). intensity of training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected ites in order to have a comparison of the intensity of training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists with respect to each ites, indices were calculated. out of the five selected ites, farmers needed more trainings on agricultural portals (index: 51), followed by online trading (index: 44.75). here, three ites registered an index of more than 40. on the other side, the agricultural extensionists required more training on agricultural portals (index: 34.17), closely followed by web browsing training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected information technology enabled systems for agriculture 6214 (index: 33.89). none of the ites registered an index of 40, in the case of agricultural extensionists. it can be seen that, for all the selected ites, the intensity of training need was remarkably higher in case of farmers than that of agricultural extensionists. farmers are the ultimate practitioners of farming, and all these information are intertwined inextricably with their livelihood; hence there is every chance that the training need of farmers would comparatively be higher. conclusion there was agreement among farmers as well as agricultural extensionists in rating various training needs on selected ites. of the five selected ites, higher training need was recorded for agricultural portals while the least need was for digitized databases in the case of both farmers and agricultural extensionists. this shows the importance of agricultural portals in acquiring agricultural knowledge / information, as well as the need for providing training on agricultural portals to both the categories. altogether the study points to the need for imparting it oriented training to both farmers as well as agricultural extensionists on selected ites which in turn would help efficient use of available ites in agriculture thereby providing right information at the right time leading to agricultural development. references adams, oluwadamilola & kemi. (2016). role of information technology on agricultural production”, international journal for research in applied science and engineering technology, 4(8): 343-346. baghat, m., maksoud, a., & abdel, a.s.m. (2007). evaluation of extension personnel in assiut governorate of their levels of knowledge and use and the degree of importance of information communication technology. in: tenywa, j.s. (ed.), african crop science conference proceedings, 27-31 october 2007, el-minia, egypt, pp.1307-1311 table 3. intensity of training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists sl. no. ites farmers (n=300) agricultural extensionists (n=120) score index score index 1 web browsing 361 40.11 122 33.89 2 agricultural portals 612 51.00 164 34.17 3 agricultural expert system 426 35.50 134 27.92 4 digitized database 395 32.92 88 18.33 5 online trading 537 44.75 94 19.58 journal of extension education 6215 chitra, g. (2015). strategies for capacity building of extension personnel for using information and communication technologies. unpublished m.sc (ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala. 106. frempong, f.a., kwarteng, j., agunga, r., & zinnah, m.m. (2006). challenges of infusing information and communication technologies in extension for agricultural and rural development in ghana. journal of extension systems. 22(1): 69-82 helen, s. (2008). agricultural expert system – a participatory assessment. unpublished ph.d. thesis. kerala agricultural university, thrissur. 158p. husain, a.s., ahamed, p. & nithin, k.m. (2016). stakeholder participatory design and development of an agriinfotech portal. journal of agricultural extension management. 17(2): 25-33. kabir, k.h. & roy, d. (2015). preferences of ict tools by the upazila agriculture officers (uaos) for the information exchange in bangladesh. agriculture, forestry & fisheries. 4(2): 59-65. koshy, s., husain, s., & kumar, k. (2015). agricultural information delivery mechanism using ict: a case study from kerala, india. in: proceedings of ieee international symposium on technology in society (istas), 11-12 november 2015, dublin, ireland. society on social implications of technology, ireland manty, h. (2011). access and use of ict tools by extension personnel for transfer of technology in north karnataka. unpublished m.sc. thesis. university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, karnataka. 111p ravikishore, m. (2014). innovations in e-agricultural extension technologies (e-aet): diffusion and adoption of agri-expert systems among extension professionals in kerala. unpublished m.sc (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, trivandrum, kerala, 169p swafah, c. (2011). decision support system on nutrient recommendations for rice – an end user assessment. unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis. kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala. 89p. training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected information technology enabled systems for agriculture 6269 1 pg. scholar, and 2 professor and head, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala695522 received : 09-08-2019; accepted : 30-08-2019 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6269-6273 performance effectiveness of agro service centres in kerala safna vatakke kandy meethal1 and b. seema2 abstract agriculture is the back bone of indian economy. time bound high-quality agro services are essential for the growth of agriculture in our country. the present study was conducted among the beneficiary farmers agro service centres in kerala, during the year 2018-19. the sample of the study comprised 120 farmers from purposively selected 26 agro service centres. performance effectiveness of agro service centres was measured in terms of performance effectiveness index (pei). based on the analysis of data, it was found that 40 per cent of the farmers placed the ascs into high category of performance effectiveness index. most of the farmers had placed the ascs into highperformance effectiveness category in the dissemination of information and technology. keywords: agro service centre, performance effectiveness, services delivery, farmer’s income, kerala introduction agriculture plays an indispensable role in the indian economy. more than fifty per cent of india’s population finds their way of living through agriculture and allied activities. even though kerala is blessed with all natural resources, agriculture sector in kerala exhibits an abrupt decline. this is mainly because our farmers are not able to purchase good quality seeds and other inputs in small quantity due to their higher prices. also, they are not capable to buy equipment and machinery for farming activities and the farmers are suffering from different kinds of losses in their farming due to unavailability of clinical and diagnostic services from experts. availability of timebound high-quality agro services are essential for the growth of agriculture in our country. agro service centres (ascs) are the “onestop-shops” offering timely services and inputs to the desired extent at reasonable rates in time in order to improve the economic viability of farming and standard of living of the farming community (sidhu and vatta, 2012). the success of agriculture depends on the availability of the right quantity of inputs and services at the right place in right time. agro service centres facilitate the farmers to achieve these and thereby help to bridge the gap between farmers and the agriculture domain experts by providing need-based, diversified information and services to 6270 farmers (gok, 2016). this study will help in revising the modus operandi of agro service centres and thereby act as an impetus for the establishment of more agro service centres and productive functioning of the existing agro service centres. methodology performance effectiveness is operationally defined as the ability of agro service centres to achieve the predetermined goals and objectives in appropriate time and right quality. performance effectiveness was measured on the basis of three components namely performance effectiveness of asc in dissemination of information and technology, performance of asc in services delivery and performance effectiveness of asc on farmer’s income. performance effectiveness index (pei) was calculated for each component and later mean of these indices was found to obtain the performance effectiveness index as perceived by farmers. performance effectiveness of asc in information and technology dissemination (x1):the respondents were asked to give their opinion about the performance effectiveness of ascs in information and technology dissemination on a three point continuum as good, average and below average with the scoring 3, 2, and 1 respectively. performance effectiveness index of this component i.e. pei (x1) was measured using the formula pei (x1) = where x1max is the maximum obtained value of x1 x1i is the observed value of x1 range = maximum obtained value of x1 minimum obtained value of x1 performance of asc in services delivery (x2): the respondents were asked to give their response regarding the adequacy of different available services in ascs on a three point continuum as adequate, moderate and not adequate with the scoring 3, 2 and 1 respectively. performance effectiveness index of this component i.e. pei (x2) was measured using the formula pei (x2) = where x2max is the maximum obtained value of x2 x2i is the observed value of x2 range = maximum obtained value of x2 minimum obtained value of x2 performance effectiveness of asc on farmer’s income (x3):the respondents were asked to give their response regarding the perceived changes in their farming after utilizing the information and services from ascs on a three point continuum as ‘increase’, ‘no change’ and ‘decrease’ with the scoring 3, 2 and 1 respectively. performance effectiveness index of this component i.e. pei (x3) was measured using the formula. pei (x3) = journal of extension education x1max-x1i range ( (100 x 100 x2max-x2i range ( (100 x 100 x3max-x3i range ( (100 x 100 6271 where x3max is the maximum obtained value of x3 x3i is the observed value of x3 range = maximum obtained value x3 minimum obtained value of x3. performance effectiveness index (pei) of ascs as perceived by farmers was calculated as the mean of the indices of the three components of pei and it was calculated using the formula performance effectiveness index as perceived by the farmer (pei) = frequency and percentage analysis was carried out to find the distribution of farmers based on their perception regarding the performance effectiveness of agro service centres and the centres were classified into three categories namely low, medium and high based on the range of pei as perceived by the farmers. findings and discussion agro service centers in kerala were providing agricultural information, technologies and services to farmers through suitable disseminating systems. considering the overall performance effectiveness index of agro service centres in kerala, it was found that majority of the beneficiary farmers had placed the agro service centres in high and medium performance category. the perception of farmers about the performance of agro service centres in services delivery was low and for most of the farmers, the services of agro service centres have contributed to an increase in income from farming. performance of agro service centres (ascs) as perceived by beneficiaries table 1 shows the categorization of agro service centres based on performance effectiveness index as perceived by the farmers. table 1 categorization of agro service centres based on peformance effectiveness index as perceived by the farmers category frequency percentage low (<33) 26 21.66 medium (33 66) 46 38.34 high (>66) 48 40 mean 55.88 total number of farmers 120 from table 1, it is found that 40 per cent of the farmers scored the ascs into high category of performance followed by 38.34 per cent of the farmers scored the ascs into medium category of performance. over twenty per cent (21.66%) of beneficiaries opined that the performance of asc was low. hence it is inferred from the result that based on the perception of farmers, the overall performance and service delivery mechanism of agro service centres was satisfactory. performance effectiveness of agro service centres in the dissemination of information and technology (x1) performance effectiveness of agro service centres in kerala pei(x1) + pei(x2) + pei(x3) 3 6272 performance effectiveness of asc in information and technology dissemination is defined as the performance of agro service centre in the dissemination of information and technology for the welfare of farming community. table 2 shows the categorization of agro service centres based on its performance effectiveness in information and technology dissemination table 2 categorization of agro service centres based on its performance effectiveness in information and technology dissemination. category frequency percentage low (<33) 23 19.17 medium (33 66) 41 34.16 high (>66) 56 46.67 mean 60.31 total number of farmers 120 according to majority of the respondents, the performance effectiveness of ascs was found to be high in kerala in the dissemination of information and technology. around 46 per cent of surveyed beneficiary farmers scored the ascs into high category of performance in delivering different agricultural information and technologies to farmers. the result implies the adequacy, reliability and timeliness of ascs in disseminating the information and technology to the farmers. performance of asc in services delivery (x2) performance of asc in services delivery is defined as the adequacy of different services of asc to meet the requirements of farmers. table 3 shows the categorization of agro service centres based on its performance in services delivery. table 3 categorization of asc based on its performance in services delivery. category frequency percentage low (<33) 41 34.17 medium (33 66) 68 56.67 high (>66) 11 9.16 mean 41.94 total number of farmers 120 table 3 revealed that more than fifty per cent (56.67%) of the beneficiaries had scored the ascs into medium category of performance in services delivery followed by 34.17 per cent scored the ascs into low category. only 9.16 per cent of beneficiaries were satisfied with the performance of ascs in services delivery and hence they scored ascs into high performance category. hence it is clear from the above table that the performance of ascs in services delivery has not yet been able to meet the current service needs of farmers. lack of enough experience in handling the service delivery system of ascs may be the reason for the poor performance of ascs in services delivery. journal of extension education 6273 performance effectiveness of agro service centres on improving farmers’ income (x3) performance effectiveness of asc on farmer s’ income is defined as the perceived impact of the services of asc in farming and in farmer’s income. table 4 shows the categorization of agro service centres based on its performance effectiveness on farmer s’ income. table 4 categorization of ascs based on its performance effectiveness on farmers’ income category frequency percentage low (<33) 19 15.83 medium (33 66) 28 23.34 high (>66) 73 60.83 mean 65.41 total number of farmers 120 from table 4, it was found that majority (60.83%) of the beneficiaries scored the ascs into high category of performance effectiveness on farmer’s income followed by 23.34 per cent scored the ascs into medium category of performance and 15.83 per cent beneficiaries scored the ascs into the low category of performance effectiveness on farmer’s income. hence it is clear from the above table that, for most of the farmers the services of agro service centres have contributed to an increase in income from farming. conclusion it can be concluded that considering the 26 agro service centres brought under the purview of the study, 40 per cent of them were categorized in high performance group by the respondents and of the three indices, service delivery was identified as the least contributing factor to the performance effectiveness. this implies the need to strengthen the service delivery aspects of the agro service centres in kerala for enhancing its performance effectiveness in farming. references gok[government of kerala]. (2016). report of evaluation study on agro service centres in kerala. directorate of agriculture development & farmers’ welfare, thiruvananthapuram. pp112. sidhu r s, & vatta, k. (2012). improving economic viability of farming: a study of cooperative agro machinery service centres in punjab. agricultural economics research review. 25(1): 427-434. performance effectiveness of agro service centres in kerala 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 training needs of farm women towards entrepreneurial development p. venkatesan1 and p.vijayalakshmi2 abstract the study revealed that majority (45.83%) of the farm women had medium training need and 30.83 per cent of them had high training need in case of homestead vegetable production. in term of training need in nursery establishment, about 45.00 per cent of the farm women fell under medium training need category while 35.00 per cent of them fell under high training need category. as regards to their training needs in livestock & poultry rearing, the majority (49.17%) of the farm women had high training needs compared to 35.00 per cent of them having medium training needs. a big share (40.83%) of the farm women had high training needs in food processing, while 33.33 per cent of them had medium training needs. farmers’ education, farm size, annual income, organizational participation and agricultural knowledge showed negative significant correlation, while fatalism had significant positive association with the training needs. the major problems faced by the farm women in carrying out their edps were: lack of capital/credit, lack of irrigation water, lack of land, lack of knowledge about insect/disease control, marketing & communication facilities and attack of birds/animals, etc. 1-senior scientist, extension systems management, icarnaarm, rajendranagar, hyderabad. 2programme coordinator (i/c), krishi vigyan kendra, hans roever campus, perambalur. women now make up the majority of the agricultural sector in developing areas, but recent evidence suggests that not only is their productivity constrained by a lack of appropriate skills training, but also that they are particularly vulnerable to environmental changes. in the face of changing and increasingly erratic agricultural conditions, there is a huge premium on women’s ability to respond innovatively and to be adaptable, in order to ensure food security and the productivity of the agricultural sector in developing countries. on the economic point of view both men and women work shoulder to shoulder to increase the income of the family. the spirit for social and economic upliftment of members is the significant contribution of each and every women. training needs of the farm women refers to one’s need for gaining knowledge and skills on different aspects of edps .effective training program designed for the farm women in carrying out their income generating activities for better livelihood will go a long way in their required daily expenditure. hence, it is necessary to have a complete understanding of the needs of the farm women before launching afore mentioned training programme. in order to give proper direction to the study, the following objectives were set forth, which were: to study the extent of training needs of the farm women in carrying out journal of extension education5416 various edps; to determine the problem confrontation of the farm women in carrying out various edps; and to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the farm women and their extent of training needs. methodology the study was conducted in ten villages of veppanthattai block of perambalur district of tamil nadu, namely, brahmadesam, valikandapuram, annamangalam, vrss puram, mettupalayam, anukur, venbavur, narnamangalam, eraiyur and nergunam. data were collected from a randomly selected sample of 120 farm women by using an interview schedule. the interview schedule contained both open and closed form questions. eleven selected characteristics of the farm women were considered as the independent variables of this study i.e. age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, training experience, cosmopoliteness, organizational participation, extension media contact, fatalism and agricultural knowledge. training needs of farm women in carrying out entrepreneurial activities was the dependent variable in this study. the training need of the respondent were divided into four broad areas of edps, viz., homestead vegetables production, nursery establishment, livestock & poultry rearing, and food processing. the collected data were coded, compiled, tabulated, and analyzed in line with the objectives of the study. qualitative data were converted into quantitative data by means of suitable scoring, wherever necessary. descriptive statistics such as range, mean and standard deviation were used for describing the variables of the study. pearson’s co-efficient of correlation was used to explore the relationships between any two concerned variables. findings and discussion the majority (91.67%) of the farm women were young to middle aged. most of them (33.33%) were functionally literate but there were 40.84 per cent of them who could exceed primary level to collegiate, while rests of them were illiterate. most of them (86.67%) belonged to medium to small family category. almost all (85%) of the farm women were medium to small category in farm holdings. maximum number of respondents (74.16%) was placed in medium to low income category. almost half (48.33%) of them had no training at all. only 38.33 per cent of them had short training experience. around 83.33 per cent of them were low to very low in cosmopoliteness. in terms of organizational participation, almost all (78.34%) of the farm women had low to no participation. overwhelming majority (88.33%) of them had medium to low extension agency contact. most of the respondents had low fatalism (51.67%) followed by medium category (41.67%). in term of agricultural knowledge, the farm women had medium agricultural knowledge (70.83%) followed by low agricultural knowledge (20.00%). training needs of the farm women in carrying out edps about half (45.83%) of the farm women had medium training needs in homestead 5417training needs of farm women towards entrepreneurial development vegetable production compared to 30.83 per cent of them having high training need, 20.84 per cent having very high training need and only 2.50 per cent low training need. thus almost 97.50% of the respondents had medium to high training need in homestead vegetable production. establishment of homestead vegetable production is an important potential activity for the farm women for increasing their family income leading to better livelihood. feeling of high to very high training needs in this area is an indication that the farm women might lack needed knowledge and skills in homestead vegetable production. findings indicated that 45 per cent of the farm women had medium training needs in nursey establishment compared to 35 per cent of them having high training needs, 14.17 per cent having very high training needs and only 5.83 per cent having low training need. thus, 94.17 per cent of the farm women had medium to very high training needs in nursery establishment. these facts indicate that if proper arrangements are made for training of the farm women in nursery establishment then that might have positive contributing effect on improving their work efficiency in carrying out various nursery activities (table 1). about half (49.17 %) of the farm women had high training needs in livestock & poultry rearing compared to 35 per cent of them having medium training needs, 9.16 per cent having very high training need and only 6.67 per cent having low training need. the findings of the study indicate that overwhelming majority (84.17%) of the farm women had high to medium training need in livestock & poultry rearing. it is, thus, imperative that the concerned authorities should provide training opportunities for the farm women, if their income levels are to be improved through livestock and poultry rearing. about 40.83 per cent of the respondent, had high training needs in food processing compared to 33.33 per cent of them having medium training needs, 18.34 per cent having very high training needs and only 7.50 per cent having low training need. thus, the overwhelming majority (74.16 %) of the farm women had high to medium level of training needs regarding the food processing. the findings indicate that if arrangements are made for training of the farm women in food processing then that would have a conducive effect in carrying out income generating activities. task wise extent of training needs in different broad areas in case of homestead vegetable production task, insect and disease infestation in vegetables was a major problem mentioned by the farm women. as a consequence, the overwhelming majority (83.34%) of the respondents indicated high to very high training needs in this aspect. similarly, soil and fertilizer management was an important operation in vegetable production. about 75.84 per cent of the respondents expressed their training needs to the extent of high to very high in this respect. the training needs in selection of quality seeds and seedlings, seedbed preparation and seed sowing, land journal of extension education5418 table 1. distribution of the farm women according to their training need on different broad area sl.no. broad areas/categories no.of respondents percentage i homestead vegetable production 1. low training need 3 2.50 2. medium training need 55 45.83 3. high training need 37 30.83 4. very high training need 25 20.84 ii nursery establishment 1. low training need 7 5.83 2. medium training need 54 45.00 3. high training need 42 35.00 4. very high training need 17 14.17 iii livestock & poultry rearing 1. low training need 8 6.67 2. medium training need 42 35.00 3. high training need 59 49.17 4. very high training need 11 9.16 iv food processing 1. low training need 9 7.50 2. medium training need 40 33.33 3. high training need 49 40.83 4. very high training need 22 18.34 (n= 120) preparations and seedling transplantation, and irrigation and drainage management were mostly high to medium. the respondents either felt low training needs (38.33%) or no training needs at all (30%) in performing various intercultural operations in vegetable production, while their training needs in vegetable harvesting, preservation and marketing were mostly medium(39.17%) to low (34.17%). these facts lead to the conclusion that deriving meaningful income from the homestead vegetable production will be difficult unless effective steps are taken to provide effective training in insect & disease control, soil & fertilizer management, and other important aspects of the vegetable production. in case of nursery establishment, 81.66 per cent of the respondents had high to very high 5419training needs of farm women towards entrepreneurial development training needs in asexual propagation of planting materials such as cutting, budding and grafting management while about 82.50 per cent of them had high to medium training needs in site selection for establishment of a nursery. the training needs were also high to medium on seed bed preparation and seedling raising (79.17%). although management of mother plants is a very important task for the establishment and management of a nursery, 71.67 per cent of the farm women expressed their training needs with extent of medium to low. similarly, medium to low training needs in nursery product marketing were expressed by 70.84 per cent of the respondents. possibly there might be some gaps in the proper knowledge and understanding of these tasks in nursery management among the respondents. the most important aspect of the livestock and poultry rearing in which the overwhelming majority (84.17%) of the farm women expressed their high to very high training needs was ‘disease control of livestock and poultry’. in other aspects the training needs were mostly high to medium. the farm women expressed medium to low (66.67%) training needs in preservation and marketing of livestock & poultry products. pig rearing is a special enterprise for the farm women, 27.50 per cent of them did not feel that they need any training on pig rearing while another 30.00 per cent of them expressed low training need. for increasing their family income through various food processing activities, the overwhelming majority (75.83%) of the farm women expressed their feelings for high to very high training needs in packaging and branding. the other important activities under food processing in which the majority of the respondents expressed high to very high training needs was, value addition of vegetables (68.34%) the activity, grading of fruits and vegetables was with 50 per cent from high to very high and 69.16 per cent from medium to high. high to medium training needs existed among most of the farm women on activities such as, value addition of millets, pulses, cereals and fruits and the marketing of the value added products. constraints in carrying out edps the farm women faced different constraints in selected edps. the most important constraints as perceived by the respondents towards homestead vegetable production ranked from lack of irrigation facilities, lack of capital, lack of land/suitable soil, lack of marketing facilities, lack of training facilities, scarcity of labour, high cost of fertilizer, seed & fuel, lack of extension contact, lack of knowledge of disease/insect control, attack of birds and animals, lack of hyv seeds etc. the most important constraints as perceived by the respondents towards nursery establishment ranked from lack of irrigation facilities, lack of capital, scarcity of labour, lack of training facilities, lack of marketing facilities, attack of birds and animals, lack of land/suitable soil, lack of knowledge of disease/insect control, lack of extension contact, lack of hyv seeds, high cost of fertilizer, seed & fuel etc. journal of extension education5420 the most important constraints as perceived by the respondents towards livestock and poultry rearing ranked from lack of capital, lack of knowledge of disease/insect control, scarcity of labour, lack of feed for livestock & poultry, lack of training facilities, lack of extension contact, lack of marketing facilities, attack of birds and animals etc. the most important constraints as perceived by the respondents towards food processing ranked from lack of capital, lack of training facilities, lack of resources, scarcity of labour, lack of extension contact, lack of marketing facilities etc. relationship between selected characteristics of the farm women and their training needs in edps: education, farm size, annual income, organizational participation and agricultural knowledge had negative significant correlation, while fatalism had positive significant correlation, but rest of the variables had no significant correlation (table 2). independent variables correlation co-efficient (r) age -0.035 education -0.203* family size -0.137 farm size -0.271* annual income -0.262* training experience -0.128 cosmopoliteness -0.121 organizational participation -0.326** extension media contact 0.159 fatalism 0.282* agricultural knowledge -0.234* table 2. correlation between independent and dependent variables (training needs in edps) *significant at 5 per cent level; **significant at 1 per cent level; table value at 0.05 level = 0.202 and at 0.01 level = 0.333 with 93 df these indicated that the farm women with higher level of education had less training needs. education enabled individuals to gain knowledge which influenced to increase their skills in carrying out income generating activities. because of the interplay of these variables, the educated farm women might have gained adequate knowledge and skills on various activities of edps from different sources viz. electronic media, printed material, agricultural office etc. and consequently expressed lower training needs. in addition, the farm women with bigger farm size were expected to produce more diversified field crops and look for other off-farm or on-farm occupations because of their better economic standing, higher contact with extension media, and possession of higher agricultural 5421training needs of farm women towards entrepreneurial development knowledge. on the other hand, the farm women having smaller farms and being economically poor would be willing to increase their family income by growing vegetables in and around their homesteads. as they had less extension media contact and less agricultural knowledge, it was obvious that they would try to improve their knowledge and capabilities of producing vegetables through the process of training. accordingly, a significant negative relationship between farm size and training was observed. moreover, it can be concluded that the annual income of farm women had a negative significant relationship with their training. this means that the farm women with higher annual income had lower training needs. high annual income makes the economic base of a family strong which contributes to the development of cosmopolite behaviour among the individuals. furthermore, the farm women with high annual income were more educated and cosmopolite as well as they had more extension media contact and more agricultural knowledge. therefore, they would logically express lower training needs. besides, the farm women who had higher organizational participation also had higher agricultural knowledge and higher extension media contact. organizational participation increases an individual’s opportunities to gain knowledge and experiences through mutual interaction and sharing of ideas and opinions. those who had higher organizational participation also had larger farms and higher extension media contact. as large farm women with higher extension media contact might not be so interested in edps, their training needs in this respect were also lower. on the other hand, the farm women who had higher fatalism also had higher training needs. farm women with such characteristics are likely to engage different edps as a source of their family income. however, the farm women, who had higher agricultural knowledge, had lower training needs in edps. the explanation put forward for the negative relationship between agricultural knowledge of the farm women and their training needs in this case. conclusion the farm women are a special interest group of the population of tamil nadu. among the various edps executed for their entrepreneurial homestead vegetable production has been found as one of the major areas.farm women engaged in homestead vegetable production need training for improving their work efficiency in carrying out various vegetable production activities. in addition, they need proper training on asexual propagation for establishing nursery. it is also imperative for respective authorities to offer training opportunities on livestock and poultry rearing for the farm women to augment their income levels. training on disease control of livestock and poultry is also a major thrust sector for getting attention of authority. it might also be said that if arrangements are made for training of the farm women on food processing, it would have a salutary impact on the livelihood of the rural people. 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 gender equality in agricultural education n.jayakumar1 and m.surudhi2 abstract women play an important role in agriculture, especially in developing countries. promoting gender equality is crucial for agricultural development and food security. agricultural extension services have a long tradition of working predominantly with men and only 15 percent of the world’s extension agents are women. world bank has suggested “increased women’s enrollment in agricultural courses” as one among the strategies when addressing gender issues in the education and training components of agricultural development projects. in this context the study was carried out to ascertain the representation of women and their academic achievement in agricultural education. the study revealed that almost equal representation was found for women in agricultural course and they were also provided better quality education in their schooling, in the form of english medium education and education in private schools. recent trends for the past four years showed a higher percentage of enrollments of women in agricultural course than men. the growth rate was also higher for the female students. women also showed a significantly higher percentage of academic achievement than men. these positive indicators provide sufficient signals for equality of women in agricultural course and have positive implications for development of the agricultural sector in future. 1-assistant professor (agricultural extension), adhiparasakthi agricultural college, kalavai, vellore and 2-pg scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 641 003 women play an important role in agriculture, especially in developing countries. numerous studies have emphasized the need to empower women, providing them access to land, fertilizer, education and financial services. promoting gender equality is crucial for agricultural development and food security. gender equality is a state in which women and men enjoy equal rights, opportunities and entitlements in civil and political life. women comprise nearly 50 per cent of india’s population. agricultural extension programmes ensure that information on new technologies, plant varieties and cultural practices reaches farmers. agricultural extension services have a long tradition of working predominantly with men. a recent fao survey showed that female farmers receive only five percent of all agricultural extension services worldwide and that only 15 percent of the world’s extension agents are women. “if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent. this could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent, potentially reducing the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17 percent,” (fao, 2011). journal of extension education5388 the third of the united nations millennium development goals (mdgs) is to “promote gender equality and empower women”. it sets a target of eliminating gender disparity in all levels of education by 2015. achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning. without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women’s perspectives at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace cannot be achieved (fourth world conference on women, beijing, 1995). for a gender analysis, all data should be separated by sex in order to allow differential impacts on men and women to be measured. fao, esa working paper no 11, 2011, has concluded that accurate, current, regionally specific information and analysis is necessary for good gender-aware agricultural policy making. data are needed to better understand gender roles in agriculture and how they change over time and in response to new opportunities. in many parts of the world today, there is an increasing trend towards what has been termed as feminization of agriculture. as men’s participation in agriculture declines, the role of women in agricultural production becomes ever more dominant. world bank (2013) has suggested “increased women’s enrollment in agricultural courses” as one among the strategies when addressing gender issues in the education and training components of agricultural development projects. investment in the education of girls and women is one of the most effective means of raising the general level of development and promoting sustainable development, according to several studies by international agencies, including the world bank, unesco and the united nations development programme (united nations, 2010). in this context the study was carried out with the following specific objectives: to study the representation of female students in agricultural education and the growth rate. to study the medium of instruction of female students and the type of school attended for their higher secondary course (hsc). to study the academic achievement of female students. to study the relationship between the academic achievement of male students and female students. methodology the study was taken up during the year 2013 2014. the students of b.sc. agricultural course at adhiparasakthi agricultural college, kalavai, vellore district, tamil nadu formed the subjects of the study. the institution was purposively selected because this was the first private agricultural 5389gender equality in agricultural education college in tami nadu affiliated to tamil nadu agricultural university. the list of students who were admitted in the college between 1999 and 2013 were taken from the college registers. information regarding gender, medium of instruction in higher secondary course, school last studied were collected. the ogpa was collected for the students who had completed their course by 2013. statistical analysis like frequency, percentage analysis, r squared growth rate, correlation coefficient and independent sample t test was carried out. findings and discussion representation of female students in agricultural course worldwide, there is a gap of 10 percent between women’s literacy rates and those of men. in some regions of the world, this gap is more than 25 percent. women’s participation in higher agricultural studies is significantly lower than that of men. the number of women in higher agricultural education as compared to men is lowest in precisely those regions where women constitute the majority of food producers (unesco, 2000). the study revealed that there was almost equal representation of both male and female students in the course for the past fifteen years. the study further reveals that the difference in percentages was less than 2 per cent. the year wise distribution of students over the past fifteen years showed that, in the last four years the representation of female students were higher than the male students. this is evident from table 1. the higher enrollment in the past four years is a positive signal that more and more women are coming into agricultural course and in future there is a possibility that they will occupy positions in decision making capacities and extension activities, benefitting the women farmers. r squared growth rate the growth rate calculated showed that the growth rate in the representation of male students’ was 10.31% with r square value of 0.257 and that for the female students’ was 11.10% and the r square value was 0.399 (table 1).this shows that the female students had a higher growth rate in representation compared to boys and the r square value was found to be higher conforming more closely to the regression line. medium of instruction in higher secondary course (hsc) the medium of instruction followed in hsc is either tamil or english in tamil nadu. english in india is learnt and used as a second language. we call it a second language and not a foreign language because it has become the medium of instruction in higher education and also in schools. the medium of instruction in tamil nadu colleges is english. thus students from tamil medium very often complain that they struggle to learn and to get good marks in the subjects. journal of extension education5390 table 1. year wise distribution of students based on gender freq. per cent freq. per cent 1999 30 55.56 24 44.44 54 2000 28 51.85 26 48.15 54 2001 30 68.18 14 31.82 44 2002 32 62.75 19 37.25 51 2003 34 61.82 21 38.18 55 2004 32 58.18 23 41.82 55 2005 39 53.42 34 46.58 73 2006 19 79.17 5 20.83 24 2007 44 64.71 24 35.29 68 2008 40 64.52 22 35.48 62 2009 66 54.10 56 45.90 122 2010 36 39.56 55 60.44 91 2011 47 43.93 60 56.07 107 2012 36 34.29 69 65.71 105 2013 40 31.50 87 68.50 127 total 553 539 1092 growth rate 10.31% 11.10% r square value 0.257 0.399 totalyear male students female students the study reveals that majority (60%) of the female students had english as the medium of instruction in their higher secondary course, whereas 57 per cent of the males had tamil as the medium of instruction. this provides better competency on the part of the student to perform in their academic. jancirani et.al (2012) found from their study that there is significant difference in the scientific attitude of students according to the medium of instruction. english medium students have high level of scientific attitude than tamil medium students. english is perhaps best when it is the medium of instruction and it will improve the language skills and scholastic achievement among the students which is the main basis of admission and promotion into higher class (karthikeyan and nirmala, 2012). type of school in higher secondary course (hsc) kwesiga (2002) states that school has an effect on the academic performance of students but argued that school facilities determine the quality of the school, which in turn influences the achievements, and attainment of its pupils. crosne, et al., (2004) found that school ownership (that is schools owned by private individuals and those owned 5391gender equality in agricultural education table 2. categorization of students based on hsc marks frequency percentage frequency percentage lower 46 19.17 56 17.34 medium 155 64.58 223 69.04 higher 39 16.25 44 13.62 female students mean percentage: 73.12sd:8.999 male students mean percentage:73.31 sd:9.667category by the government) is an important structural component of the school. private schools, they argue, tend to have both better funding and small sizes than public schools. majority of the female students (81.26%) had studied in private schools, which shows that female students have been provided better opportunity even at school level so that they can be fully equipped for their higher studies. thilagavathy (2014) revealed that the government and private school students significantly differ in their mental health scores. the students of private schools have secured greater mean score than the students of government schools. academic achievement of female students academic achievement can be defined as the extent to which a learner is profiting from instructions in a given area of learning i.e., achievement is reflected by the extent to which skill or knowledge has been imparted to him. in our society academic achievement is considered as a key criterion to judge one’s total potentiality and capability. hence academic achievement occupies a very important place in education as well as in the learning process. the academic achievement is measured by means of marks obtained while completing the degree. although the literacy rate is more among boys than girls; it is quite interesting to observe that girls are securing better ranks than boys in almost all the academic examinations. there is a lot of variability and dispersion. gender has been found to play an important role in influencing student’s academic activities. academic achievement in hsc analysis of the percentage of marks obtained by the students in hsc revealed that there was not much difference between the achievement of the marks between the male and female students. the average percentages of marks obtained by both the categories were around 73 per cent (table 2). the categorization of the students into lower, medium and high based on mean and sd also did not show much difference. academic achievement in b.sc. (agriculture) academic achievement is represented as overall grade point average (ogpa) in the case of b.sc. (agriculture) program. in this journal of extension education5392 table 3. categorization of students based on ogpa study, it was found that the mean ogpa of female students was 8.28 out of 10. the standard deviation (sd) was found to be 0.5265. using mean and sd, the students were categorized into three viz., lower, medium and high on ogpa. it was found that majority of the female students (63%) were found in the medium category, followed by 20 per cent of the female students who were found to be high on ogpa (table 3). in the case of male students the mean ogpa was found to be 8.11 out of 10 and the sd was 0.5885. majority (61%) of the male students belonged to the medium category with regard to ogpa, followed by 21 per cent in the lower category (table 3). relationship between hsc marks and ogpa of female students in order to study whether there exist any relationship between the marks obtained by the female students in their hsc and the ogpa obtained by them on completion of the degree course, correlation between the two marks were carried out. the coefficient of correlation was found to be 0.348, which means that there is 34 percent relationship between hsc marks and ogpa and since the correlation value is found to be positive it could be incurred that students with high hsc marks obtained higher ogpa in their degree programme. the correlation value was found to be highly significant at 1% level of significance. relationship between the ogpa of male and female students independent samples t test to compare the mean ogpa of female and male students, revealed that there is a significant difference in mean ogpa of female and male students. female students had secured higher ogpa than male counterparts even though the difference between mean values was not much. the difference between the mean values was found to be highly significant. this is in line with the studies of vijayalaxmi and natesan (1992), dlamini et al., (1997), anitha (2001), and girma berhanu (2011). conclusion the study revealed that females had almost equal representation in the agricultural course and had higher advantage than the males regarding language of instruction and the school they studied. these provided them with frequency percentage frequency percentage lower 41 17 66 21 medium 151 63 198 61 higher 48 20 59 18 female studentsmean ogpa: 8.28sd:0.5265 male students mean ogpa: 8.11sd:0.5885category 5393gender equality in agricultural education better advantage over the males, when it came to scientific attitude, language capabilities and scholastic achievement. recent trends reveal that the percentage of women entering the agricultural education is higher than the men, which is a positive indicator for development of agricultural sector. the growth rate in the representation of the female students was also found to be higher. in case of academic achievement, female students out performed male students showing a significant difference in the mean scores they obtained. this shows that gender equality is present in agricultural education with respect to representation, resource utilization and academic achievement. this is a positive indicator for development in agricultural sector in developing countries, where farming is currently feminized with majority of agricultural activities performed by women. references anitha. 2001. an analysis of academic stress among the undergraduate students of angrau, unpub. m.sc.(ag.) thesis, angrau, hyderabad. dlamini, barnabas m., and nelisiwe l. sithole. 1997. factors related to agriculture students academic performance in swaziland, journal of international agricultural and extension education: 39. crosnoe, r., johnson, m. k and elder, g. h. 2004. school size and the interpersonal side of education: an examination of race/ethnicity and organizational context. social science quarterly, 85(5): 1259-1274. fao. 2011. esa working paper no. 11, agricultural development economics division, the food and agriculture organization of the united nations, www.fao.org/economic/esa fourth world conference on women, beijing. 1995. article 18). http://www.un.org/ w o m e n w a t c h / d a w / b e i j i n g / p d f / bdpfa%20e.pdf girma berhanu. 2011. factors affecting students’ quality of academic performance: a case of secondary school level. journal of quality and technology management, 7(1): 4. jancirani, r., dhevakrishnan and s. devi. 2012. a study on scientific attitude of adolescence students in namakkal district, international educational e-journal, 1(4): 2 8. karthikeyan and nirmala. 2012. academic achievement through english: an analysis through gender lens mier journal of educational studies, trends & practices, 2(2): 144 157. kwesiga, c.j. 2002. women’s access to higher education in africa: uganda’s experience. kampala: fountain publishers ltd. t. thilagavathy. 2014. academic achievement of adolescents in relation to their mental health, international journal of teacher educational research (ijter) 3(3): march, 2014 issn: 2319 unesco. 2000. world education report 2000. the right to education, towards education for all throughout life. unesco publishing: pp176. http://www.unesco.org/education/ information/wer/pdfeng/wholewer.pdf united nations. 2010. the world’s women 2010 trends and statistics, department of economic and social affairs, united nations, new york. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ p r o d u c t s / w o r l d s w o m e n / ww_full%20report_color.pdf vijayalaxmi, n. and natesan, h. 1992. factors influencing academic achievement. research highlights, 2: 62. world bank. 2013. http://go.worldbank.org/ erdqnlzo40 wrapper.cdr 6335 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6335-6337 1 subject matter specialist (agril. extension), 2 subject matter specialist (agril. engineering) and 3 head, krishi vigyan kendra, yashwantrao chavan maharashtra open university, nashik422 222 (maharashtra), india received : 19-11-2019; accepted : 29-01-2020 impact of greenhouse production technology training on knowledge of farmers thoke niteen1, rajaram patil2 and raosaheb patil3 abstract the krishi vigyan kendra (farm science centre), nashik, maharashtra organizes trainings regarding green house cultivation technology for aspiring entrepreneurs willing to venture into this area. this study was undertaken to measure the impact of a training programme on knowledge of the farmers. findings concluded that most of the respondents had shifted from low knowledge level category to middle and higher knowledge level categories after the training. there was not a single respondent in high knowledge level category before the test. there was a highly significant and positive relationship of knowledge gained by respondents with education, media exposure and risk orientation. keywords: green house; risk orientation; entrepreneurs; kvk, knowledge; maharashtra introduction nashik district is recognized as “fruit and vegetable bowl” of maharashtra. commercial floriculture has been added to the crops list in the recent years. training programmes are generally organized with the goal that the respondents after being trained will translate the knowledge into action. training includes understanding the basic needs of a greenhouse, its site selection process and major inputs, its erection, production process management of few popular greenhouse crops, etc. the krishi vigyan kendra (kvk), nashik organizes an innovative vocational training on green house cultivation technology for aspiring entrepreneurs periodically. as these are highly technical but compact trainings they require use of different training methods & tools to help participants comprehend the technological intricacies and management. the study was conducted to measure the impact of the training on knowledge of the farmers and to ascertain relationship of socio-economic factors of the trainees with knowledge gained by them. methodology the ‘one groupbefore and after’ experimental design was used for conducting the present study to find out the effectiveness of the green house production technology 6336 training in terms of gain in knowledge. data from 42 respondents from nashik district were collected with the help of a specially structured pre and post training questionnaire. findings and discussion training was conducted using a combination of various teaching tools including lectures, video presentation, discussions, exposure visit and hands on sessions in the field. the combined effect of this on the knowledge level of the respondents in the ‘before and after tests’ has been tabulated for a comparative study in table 1. the above depicted tabulation represents knowledge level of the respondents in the context of greenhouse production technology before attending the training and after the training. more than half of the respondents (57 per cent) of respondents belonged to the low knowledge level category while 42 per cent respondents belonged to the medium knowledge level category. in the after test not a single respondent was placed in low knowledge level category. almost 24 per cent respondents could be included in the high knowledge level category of scoring. moreover, 76 per cent respondents had managed to score well and be included in the medium knowledge level category. overall, it is apparent from the data presented in table 1 that that 57 per cent of the respondents had shifted from low knowledge level category to middle and higher knowledge level categories. above discussed points suggest that training and the teaching techniques used were proved successful with regard to knowledge gained by the respondents. the association between the independent variables namely age, education, experience and mass media exposure and risk orientation with the dependent variable, knowledge gained during the greenhouse production technology training was tested by computing correlation coefficients (r). the observations of correlation analysis are presented table 2. it is evident from table 2 that, there is significant positive relationship of ‘education’, ‘mass media exposure’ and ‘risk orientation’ of respondent farmers with ‘knowledge gain’ at 1% level of probability, while relationship between ‘age’ and ‘knowledge gain’ of the respondent farmers was found non table 1. distribution of the respondents on the basis of their knowledge gain (n=42) sl. no. category (score) number percentage before after before after 1. low (0 to 17) 24 00 57.2 00.0 2. medium (18 to 36) 18 32 42.8 76.2 3. high (37 and above) 00 10 00.0 23.8 journal of extension education (conference special) 6337 significant. however, the ‘experience’ factor showed negative as well as insignificant correlation with the knowledge gain. conclusion the pre-and post assessment of the training had showed that more than half of the respondents shifted from low knowledge category to high and medium knowledge category. after the training. there was significant positive relationship between ‘education’, ‘mass media exposure’ and ‘risk orientation’ of respondent farmers and ‘knowledge gain’. from this, it can be inferred that, for trainings like green house technology with technical, scientific and management intricacies, the selection of participants should be done with some criteria regarding education, exposure and risk orientation for better impact of the training. secondly, the ‘experience’ factor showed negative as well as insignificant correlation with the knowledge gain. this might be due to the fact that green house technology involves high level of precision and scientific crop management which evolved with the time and progress of technology and was not in practice in conventional & traditional agriculture. hence, experience of participants in conventional agriculture may not be considered as important criterion for selection of participants. thus, respondents with better educational background, more risk orientation ability and more mass media exposure are bound to gain more knowledge. table 2 correlation between socio-economic profile of the farmers and knowledge gained during the greenhouse production technology training sl. no. independent variables correlation with knowledge gain 1. age of respondents (x1) 0.211 ns 2. education of respondents (x2) 0.421** 3. experience of respondents in agriculture (x3) -0.014 4. mass media exposure of respondents (x4) 0.493** 5. risk orientation(x5) 0.528** note ** significant at 1% level of probability, ns: non significant, impact of greenhouse production technology training on knowledge of farmers 6190 training need analysis of farming on house terraces b. binsa1 and g.s. sreedaya2 abstract the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram corporation of kerala to analyze the training needs of farming on house terraces. the study was conducted in seven wards of thiruvananthapuram corporation namely poojappura, pettah, manacaud, kumarapuram, karamana, industrial estate and enchakkal. one hundred and five members of urban households involved in farming on house terrace, fifteen extension officials and thirty office bearers of selected residents associations of the selected wards were the respondents of the study. considering the training needs of respondents on farming on house terrace, plant protection was the most preferred subject for training by the respondents. keywords: training need; farming on house terrace; urban agriculture; kerala 1. p.g. scholar and 2. assistant professor (senior scale), kerala agricultural university college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6190-6194 farming on house terraces is fast growing today among the city dwellers, which include not only vegetable cultivation but also poultry rearing, azolla cultivation, vermi composting etc., it is considered as one of the healthy hobbies to keep one happily engaged. this practice will also facilitate better space and resource utilization, household waste disposal, reduction in family expenditure, reduced pests and disease incidence, access to fresh and safe food products (padmanabhan and swadija, 2003). farming on house terrace is also one of the base avenues where horticultural therapy can be practiced (jules, 1986). p r o p e r training is essential for improving the quantity and quality of farming on house terraces. in this aspect, the relevance of the study arises. the results of the study will help in eliminating the bottlenecks in the present set up of farming on house terraces and help the planners, policy makers and administrators to further strengthen the practice of farming on house terraces. methodology training need was operationally defined as the perceived level of training need for farming on house terrace by the urban households of the selected wards from thiruvananthapuram corporation. in the present study the training need of the respondents on different aspects of farming on house terrace were measured using average choice score method, which was developed by bhatnagar (1984). in addition, their preference on method, frequency, duration and venue of training were also studied. the study was conducted in seven received : 09-07-2018; accepted : 11-03-2019 6191 wards of thiruvananthapuram corporation in kerala namely poojappura, pettah, manacaud, kumarapuram, karamana, industrial estate and enchakkal. one hundred and five members of urban households involved in farming on house terrace, fifteen extension officials and thirty office bearers of selected residents associations of the selected wards were the respondents of the study. on the basis of the response of the respondents, priorities based on i, ii and iii choices could be tabulated and can be identified as training need. average choice score (acs) = (ci x 3) + (cii x 2) + (ciii x 1) / 3 [ci – first choice, cii – second choice, ciii – third choice] findings and discussion the training need analysis was carried out and the results are presented in table 1. table 1. training need analysis n = 105 sl. no. training methods acs preferences method of training preferred 1. demonstration 95 1 2. group discussion 90 2 3. film shows/any other visual aids like ppt 81.67 3 4. case study 78.33 4 5. field trip 64.67 5 6. role play 62.67 6 7. lecture (without any visual aids) 46.67 7 duration of training preferred 8. one day 100 1 9. two days 91.67 2 10. three-six days 41.67 3 11. one week 36.67 4 12. two weeks 35 5 13. one month 35 6 frequency of training preferred 14. once in six months 100 1 15. once in a year 98.33 2 16. once in two years 95 3 17 once in two months 61.33 4 training need analysis of farming on house terraces 6192 method of training preferred by the respondents among the various methods of training, demonstration was the most preferred training method by the respondents (acs = 95). this was followed by group discussion (acs = 90), film shows (acs = 81.67), case study (acs = 78.33), field trip (64.67), role play (62.67) and lecture (46.67). duration of training preferred by the respondents one-day training was the most preferred duration of training by the respondents (acs = 100). this was followed by two days training (acs = 91.67), three to six days training programme (acs = 41.67) and one week training programme (acs = 36.67). two weeks and one-month training sl. no. training methods acs preferences 18. once in a month 60 5 19. once in three years 50.67 6 20. once in more than three years 43.67 7 preferred venue of taining 21. off campus 102.67 1 22. on campus 64 2 training subjects preferred 23. plant protection 91 1 24. preparation of botanical pesticides and fungicides like nicotine oil emulsion, neem oil emulsion and bordeaux mixture 89.67 2 25. preparation of organic manures like vermicompost and cultivation of azolla 87.33 3 26. preparation of potting mixture, time of sowing and time of transplantation 74.33 4 27. manuring, usage of biocontrol agents like trichoderma, psuedomonas, pgpr mix-2 etc., and biofertilizers like rhizobium, pgpr mix-i etc., 74 5 28. irrigation techniques 47.67 6 29. grow bag filling and their suitable placement in terraces 46.33 7 30. selection of suitable crops and their varieties 44.67 8 (acs – average choice score) journal of extension education 6193 programmes were preferred by 35% of the respondents. frequency of training preferred by the respondents a perusal of the table reveals that the most preferred frequency of training by the respondents was once in 6 months (acs = 100). this was followed by once in a year (acs = 98.33), once in two years (acs = 95), once in two months (acs = 61.33), once in a month (acs = 60), once in three years (acs = 50.67) and once in more than three years (acs = 43.67). venue of training preferred by the respondents the most preferred venue of training was a convenient place nearby the place of the respondents (acs = 102.67) which was followed by the venue at agricultural college (acs = 91.67). training subjects preferred by the respondents the most preferred subject of training by the respondents was plant protection (acs = 91). this was followed by preparation of botanical pesticides and fungicides like nicotine oil emulsion, neem oil emulsion, bordeaux mixture etc., (acs = 89.67), preparation of organic manures like vermicompost and cultivation of azolla (acs = 87.33), preparation of potting mixture, time of sowing and time of transplantation (acs = 74.33), manuring, usage of bio control agents like trichoderma, psuedomonas, pgpr mix-2 etc. and bio fertilizers like rhizobium, pgpr mix-i etc. (acs = 74), irrigation techniques (acs = 47.67), grow bag filling and their suitable placement in terraces (acs = 46.33) and selection of suitable vegetables and their varieties (acs = 44.67). the finding is in confirmation with the findings of sreedaya (2004) who reported that ‘plant protection’ was the most preferred subject for training by the urban housewives. even though lots of efforts and measures were being implemented in thiruvananthapuram corporation on farming on house terraces, they were not successful in proper follow up activities. the enthusiasm showed in the initial establishment faded away later. these agencies also failed to impart training after identifying the training need analysis. by ensuring frequent training programs along with improved techniques, the constraints faced in terrace farming might have been controlled to a great extent. plant protection was the most preferred subject for training by the respondents. it is an important aspect in farming on house terrace. most of the respondents were worried about the pests and disease attack on their plants and were anxious about crop loss. proper crop protection is very much essential to produce high quality crops with minimal wastage and maximum output. that might be the main reason behind the preference of ‘plant protection’ as the most preferred subject for training by the respondents. preparation of botanical pesticides, bio pesticides and organic manures were also most preferred areas of training for the respondents. health consciousness of the respondents might be training need analysis of farming on house terraces 6194 the reason for their preference to get trained on these areas. references bhatnagar, o.p. (1984). evaluation methodology for training. oxford and ibh publishing co. pvt. ltd., new delhi, 310p. jules, j. (1986). horticultural sciences. w.h. freeman and company, new york, 746p. padmanabhan, v. b. & swadija, o. k. (2003). promotion of terrace farming for sustainable agriculture in homesteads – an integrated approach national workshop on homestead farming, march 6-7, 2003. farming system research station, kottarakkara. abstract:53p. sreedaya, g.s.(2004). promotion of terrace cultivation of vegetables by urban housewivesan action research, unpublished ph.d thesis. kerala agriculture university, thrissur 148p. journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6338 spread and acceptance of tps 5 paddy variety in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu r. premavathi1 and r.sasikala2 abstract the present research has been undertaken to study the spread and acceptance of tps 5 paddy variety in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu. ramapuram, andarkulam and manavalakurchi villages of agastheeswaram and kurenthenkode blocks of kanyakumari district were purposively selected based on more area under tps 5 rice cultivation. sixty rice growers were selected from the villages based on random sampling method. the data were collected using pre-tested interview schedule and analyzed by using appropriate statistical tools. the results revealed that most of the respondents belonged to old age and had followed agriculture as a primary occupation. most of the respondents had high level of extension participation. the analysis of extent of adoption indicated that seventy five per cent of the respondents adopted tps 5 variety in kannipoo season. more than eighty per cent of the respondents had adopted recommended seed rate, age of seedling and spacing. non availability of quality seeds and machineries in time, high weed infestation and improper usage of pre-emergence herbicide, lack of knowledge on application of recommended fertilizer and pest management practices were the major constraints encountered by the respondents. keywords: technology adoption; tps 5 rice variety; constraints; tamil nadu research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6338-6342 1 associate professor & 2 assistant professor, directorate of extension education, tnau, coimbatore641003. received : 25-11-2019; accepted : 14-02-2020 introduction in tamil nadu, around 153 rice varieties have been released and among them 86 are short duration varieties. in kar season short duration rice varieties like asd 16, adt 43 and adt 45 are grown by the farmers in tamil nadu. it is necessary to enhance the yield strata and narrow the yield gap for further increase in rice productivity. rice is one of the major crops being cultivated in kanyakumari district of the state. it occupies more than 12000 ha in two seasons (kharif and rabi) of the year. asd 16 is the only rice variety cultivated by the farmers in kannipoo season. low yield due to lodging, occurrence of pest and diseases (leaf folder, stem borer and tungro) and poor grain filling are the major constraints reported by the farmers while cultivating asd rice varieties. so, farmers need alternate high yielding, nonlodging, pest and disease resistant variety. this necessitates identifying suitable replacement for asd 16 that circumvent the stagnancy 6339 in productivity besides holding the key traits of the old variety. in this context, efforts were made at agricultural research station, thirupathisaram of tamil nadu agricultural university, to evolve high yielding, nonlodging rice variety having non-shattering bold grain type with resistance to major pests and diseases. it has released tps 5 rice variety during 2013 which is having almost similar duration of existing asd 16. also the new variety produces 10-15per cent of higher yield, non-lodging, tall growing and moderately tolerant to most of pest and diseases. in this background, the present study assessed the spread and acceptance of tps 5 rice variety in kanyakumari district. methodology kanyakkumari district was selected as the study area based on more area under tps 5 rice cultivation. kanyakumari district consists of nine blocks, out of which agestheswaram, rajakamangalam and kurenthenkode block of kanyakumari district were selected because of more area under rice cultivation. three villages were selected from the selected blocks viz., ramapuram, andarkulam and manavalakurchi. samples of 60 rice growers were selected from selected villages based on proportionate random sampling method. data were collected with the help of a well structured pre-tested interview schedule and analyzed with suitable statistical techniques. findings and discussion adoption of rice variety tps 5 and management technologies the results revealed that majority of the respondents (75.00 %) adopted tps 5 variety followed by asd -16 (25.003 %) table 1. distribution of respondents according to their adoption of tps 5 rice production technologies (n=60) sl. no particulars adoption number* percentage 1. variety thirupathisaram rice tps-5 asd 16 45 15 75.00 25.00 2. season kannipoo 60 100.00 3. seed rate 60 kg/ha 56 93.33 5. age of seedling 18-22 days 49 81.66 6. spacing 15 x 10 cm 51 85.00 7. weed management usage of pre emergence herbicide 23 38.33 spread and acceptance of tps 5 paddy variety in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu 6340 in kannipoo season (table 1). more than eighty per cent of the respondents adopted recommended seed rate, age of seedling and spacing due to interventions of kvk. meager percentage of the respondents adopted (26.66 %) recommended basal and npk fertilizer application. indiscriminate usage of fertilizer like dap and factomfos (ammonium phasphate sulphate) up to flowering stage might be the reason for non adoption of recommended fertilizers. thirty eight per cent of the rice growers had not adopted weed management practice due to labour scarcity, lack of awareness and poor knowledge of pre emergence herbicide. lack of awareness and interest on application sl. no particulars adoption number* percentage 8. fym 12.5 tonnes/ ha or green manure 6.25tonnes/ha 41 68.33 9. basal phosphorous -50 kg/ha potash -12.5 kg/h znso4 -25 kg/ha 16 26.66 10. npk 30: 0: 12.5 kg/ha 15-20 dfp 30: 0: 12.5 kg/ ha 35-40 dfp 30: 0: 0 kg/ha 55-60 dfp 30:0:12.5 kg/ha flowering stage 16 26.66 11. foliar spray urea 1% + dap 2% + murate of potash 1% 2 times after 10 days planting 14 23.33 13. early post emergence herbicide bispyripac sodium (nominigold)100ml 53 88.33 14. acid soil management in paddy dolomite 150kg/ ha 60 100.00 15. water management 58 96.66 19. plant protection measures stemborer 31 51.66 leaf folder 39 65.00 20. harvesting 25-30 days after flowering 60 100.00 21. machine harvesting 48 80.00 *multiple responses journal of extension education (conference special) 6341 of foliar spray at panicle initiation stage might be the possible reason for non adoption. more than fifty per cent of the respondents adopted recommended pest control measure for leaf folder and stem borer due to possible regular visits and technological interventions made by kvk officials during the front line demonstration and training programmes. eighty per cent of them had adopted paddy harvester for harvesting. most of the respondents expressed that non availability of the harvester in time which might be the possible reason for medium adoption. constraints faced by the rice growers the study reveals that non availability of quality seeds and machineries in time like transplanter, tray and paddy harvester were the major constraints expressed by ninety per cent (90.00 %) of rice farmers. more than eighty per cent of the farmers expressed that lack of knowledge on application of recommended fertilizers, high weed infestation and improper usage of pre-emergence herbicide and labor security. more than sixty per cent (68.33%) of them expressed that lack of knowledge on pest management practices especially stem borer and leaf folder. suggestions offered majority of the rice farmers suggested that state department of agriculture, krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) and research stations may take necessary arrangements to supply quality seeds for the farmers in time. it was also suggested that training cum demonstration may be conducted on technologies viz., seed production technology and application of soil test based recommended fertilizers. it was also suggested that the kvk scientists should motivate the farmers to go for soil testing and conduct demonstration on soil collecting methods. the kvk scientists and table 2 distribution of respondents according to the constraints faced by them in adoption of technologies (n =60) sl. no. constraints number* percentage 1. non availability of quality seed 54 90.00 2. labour scarcity 48 80.00 3. lack of knowledge on application of recommended fertilizer 52 86.66 4. high weed infestation improper usage of pre-emergence herbicide 53 88.33 5. non availability of machineries in time like transplanter, tray and paddy harvester 54 90.00 6. pest management especially stem borer and leaf folder 41 68.33 *multiple responses spread and acceptance of tps 5 paddy variety in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu 6342 state department officials must conduct awareness cum training programs for usage of pre emergence herbicide application. apart from this, front line demonstrations should be conducted on farmers fields to encourage them for wider adoption. conclusion effective introduction of on farm seed production may be enhanced table 3. distribution of respondents according to the suggestions offered (n=60) sl. no suggestions number* percentage 1. arrangement to supply the quality seed for the farmers in time by officials, seed production department and tnau 24 80.00 2. training cum demonstration to be given to the farmers on technologies viz., application of soil test based recommended fertilizer 52 86.66 3. creating awareness on usage of pre emergence herbicide application 49 81.66 4. department of agricultural engineering to take necessary action to provide machineries in time 38 63.33 5. motivate the farmers on farm seed production 47 78.33 * multiple responses to enable farmers to produce on-farm seeds especially tps 5 rice variety within their community in order to alleviate seed shortage. popularization of tps 5 rice variety including all packages of practices through front line demonstrations farmers are to be encouraged to form of rice commodity groups which will help them to find market for their products at profitable rates. journal of extension education (conference special) 5945 impact assessment of mechanical transplantation in cauvery delta districts of tamil nadu ravi kumar theodore1, n. venkatesa palanichamy2, v. ravi3, abstract during june 2015, the government of tamil nadu implemented the “kuruvai season special assistance 2015 for delta districts” programme to boost rice production. a study was conducted to assess the impact of machine transplanting, which was an important component of this special package. the comparative economics of conventional and machine planting revealed that yield increased by nearly 40.00 per cent; cost of cultivation decreased by 21.00 per cent; cost of production reduced by 43.00 per cent; and net returns increased by more than four times (448.00 %), over the manually planted fields. farmers’ feedback on machine planting was very optimistic with all the beneficiaries expressing that they had opted for machine planting to overcome labour scarcity and to increase yields. keywords : impact assessment; machine transplanting; rice; cauvery delta zone; tamil nadu. 1. dean i/c & professor (agrl. extension), kumaraguru institute of agriculture, sakthinagar, nachimuthupuram – 638 315, erode district, tamil nadu, 2. professor (agrl. economics), soil & water management research institute, tnau, thanjavur, tamil nadu and 3. director i/c, tamil nadu rice research institute, tnau, aduthurai – 612 101, thanjavur district, tamil nadu received : 110-11-2017; accepted : 17-01-2018 introduction tamil nadu is one of the leading rice growing states in india, cultivating rice since time immemorial. during 2013-14, the total area under rice was 17,25,730 ha, with production of 71,15,195 tonnes, and productivity of 4,123 kg per ha (source: department of economics and statistics, chennai-600 006). the cauvery delta zone (cdz) in tamil nadu comprising six districts viz., thanjavur, tiruvarur, nagapattinam, trichy, ariyalur and cuddalore is called as the rice granary of tamil nadu, due to its immense potential for rice production. any disturbance in rice production in the cdz will adversely affect the foodgrain production of the state of tamil nadu. for this reason, modernization of rice production is constantly pursued with fervor by the state government machinery with the active support of the tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau). journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5945-5957 research article journal of extension education vol. 29 no. 4, 2017 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2017.4.29.5937-5944 5946 among the several state government initiatives, during june 2015 the government of tamil nadu launched the “kuruvai special assistance 2015 for delta districts” to boost rice production and productivity. india can occupy 1st position in world rice production, provided appropriate policies and institutional mechanisms are implemented (vision 2030, crri, cuttack, 2011). one of the main components of this kuruvai (june to sep.) special package was the promotion of ‘machine transplantation’ of rice seedlings, for which the state departments of agriculture and agrl. engineering took substantial efforts for mobilizing machine transplanters. those farmers who went for kuruvai rice cultivation were covered under this programme, whose fields were machine transplanted at subsidized rates. in order to assess the impact of this machine transplantation programme, a study was conducted with the following objectives: to assess the economics of mechanical transplantation in rice cultivation, especially in terms of productivity and net profit advantages. to ascertain the feedback of farmers regarding mechanical transplantation in rice cultivation, so as to understand the potential for sustained adoption. methodology ex-post facto research methodology was followed in order to trace the effects of machine transplantation in rice cultivation. the study was conducted in the six delta districts of tamil nadu viz., thanjavur, tiruvarur, nagapattinam, trichy, ariyalur and cuddalore, in which the “kuruvai special assistance 2015 for delta districts” was implemented by the government of tamil nadu to boost rice production during kuruvai season in 2015. in order to select the sample farmers for the study, the list of beneficiaries covered under the “kuruvai special assistance 2015 for delta districts” was obtained from the office of the joint directors of agriculture of the respective delta districts. as on 31 july, 2015, a total number of 1,006 farmers were covered under the mechanical transplantation component of the kuruvai package. it was decided to select 25 per cent of the population as sample for the study, and accordingly the sample size was fixed as 250, which was selected from the six districts by following proportionate random sampling method. the selected 250 farmers were post-stratified into conventional and machine transplantation farmers. out of the 250 farmers, 72 of them had followed conventional planting also, and in order to compare the improvement, these farmers were also studied. the primary data were collected from the sample respondents through two rounds of survey. the first survey was conducted immediately after 5947 transplanting, during last week of july 2015 and first week of august 2015, and the second survey was conducted after harvest of the crop ie. during third and fourth week of october 2015. two well-structured and pre-tested interview schedules were used to collect the primary data during the two rounds of survey. the interview schedules covered different aspects in accordance with the objectives of the study, such as farmers’ profile characteristics, economics of conventional and machine planting, yield particulars, net profit, besides feedback of farmers on mechanical transplanting. the data collected were tabulated in excel sheet. percentage analysis was carried out for meaningful interpretation of the data generated. findings and discussion personal characteristics of the respondents majority (54.00 %) of the respondents were in the age group of 30-50 years, followed by 43.60 percent in the age group of more than 50 years. more than three-fourths (78.00 %) of the respondents had secondary, higher secondary or graduate level of education. farming experience of a majority (58.00 %) of the respondents ranged between 21 to 30 years and above. more than one-third (36.00 %) of the respondents were large farmers, followed by medium farmers (34.40%), small farmers (26.65 %), and the rest (3.60 %) were marginal farmers. a large proportion (42.00 %) of the respondents were in the income category of less than one lakh rupees per year, followed by the income category of one to two lakh rupees per year (39.60%). comparative economics of conventional and machine transplanted rice the comparative economics of conventional and machine transplanted rice per acre is given in table 1. nursery cost in this part of the analysis, three situations of seedling production were considered for computing the economics of nursery cost viz., (i) conventional method of seedling production for conventional planting (traditional method), (ii) mat nursery method of seedling production by farmers themselves for mechanical transplanting, and (iii) direct purchase of seedlings from commercial nurseries for mechanical transplanting. with regard to use of human labour in conventional nursery, for seven man days employed the cost incurred was rs.910.00 per acre. whereas, in the case of mat nursery seedling production, it was just three labour man days at a cost of rs.580.00. therefore, the net difference in human labour employed between conventional and mat nursery methods was four man days, which in monetary terms works out to rs. 330.00 per acre. 5948 table 1. comparative economics of conventional and machine transplanted rice (per acre) (n=250) sl. no. particulars conventional nursery mat nursery purchase from commercial nursery physical quantity cost (rs.) physical quantity cost (rs.) cost (rs.) i. nursery operational costs 2300 to 2800 human labour (man days) 6.40 910.00 2.60 580.00 machine power (hours) 1.16 604.80 0.80 320.00 seeds (kg) 38.26 1247.20 19.96 624.20 manures & fertilizers (kg) dap 17.00 360.00 2.20 36.00 plant protection chemicals (ml) 118.00 120.00 56.00 58.00 interest on working capital @ 7% 12% -307.99 -153.73 total cost 3549.99 1771.93 (17702550) ii. main field operational costs land preparation (bund clearing and cage wheel ploughing) 2 a type labour + 1.95 hours (tractor / power tiller) 3047.17 4 a type labour + 2.15 hours (tractor /power tiller) 4107.16 pulling of seedlings and transportation to main field 5.71 a type labour 1750.00 --planting 15.50 b type labour 1536.67 3 b type labour for gap filling 360.00* manures and fertilizers 160-180 kg 3307.50 144.83 kg 3127.50** 5949 sl. no. particulars conventional nursery mat nursery purchase from commercial nursery physical quantity cost (rs.) physical quantity cost (rs.) cost (rs.) plant protection 480 ml 1659.83 367.33 ml 1163.50 weed management (conoweeder as applied to mechanical transplanting @ rs. 300-400 per labourer for 33 cents) 11.83 labour 2148.50 9 b type labour 2193.83 harvest (combined harvester) 1.30 hours 2609.00 1.27 hours 2593.17 interest on working capital @ 7% 12% -1525.57 -1286.79 total cost (after planting) -17584.24 -14831.95 iii. (grand) total cost of cultivation (summation of i & ii) -21134.23 (100.00) -16603.88*** (100.00) productive tillers /sq. metre 334.17 467.83 yield (kg/acre) 1643.33 2281.00 *excluding the subsidy amount of rs. 2375/per acre for mechanical transplanter. **excluding the subsidy amount of rs. 315/per acre for micronutrients. *** excluding the subsidy amount of rs. 2690/per acre for mechanical transplanter plus micronutrients. similarly, with respect to use of machine power (power tiller) in nursery, the cost incurred was lesser for mat nursery method (preparation of nursery beds) to the tune of rs. 320.00, when compared to conventional method (rs. 604.80). in the case of seed rate, there was significant difference between seed rate followed in conventional method and mat system of seedling production. under conventional method, the seed rate generally followed per acre is 35 to 55 kgs, whereas for mechanical transplanting, the seed rate required per acre is just 20 kgs. therefore, the net difference in seed rate per acre was 20 to 35 kgs, equivalent to rs. 600 to 1,050.00/ as far as application of fertilizers is concerned, on an average 20 kgs of 5950 dap (diammonium phosphate) was applied in conventional nursery valued at rs.360.00; and on the other hand just two kgs was applied in mat nursery method at a cost of rs.36.00. as a result, there was a saving of rs.324.00 due to mat nursery method. in respect of use of plant protection chemicals, on an average 118 ml. of insecticides/fungicides was used in conventional nursery, which costs rs.120.00. compared with mat nursery method, the respondent farmers had used only 56 ml. of insecticides/fungicides costing rs.58.00. this has resulted in a saving of rs.62.00 under mat nursery method. further, the total cost of seedling production under conventional method of planting worked out to rs. 3549.99. in the case of mechanical transplanting, the cost of seedlings worked out to rs. 1771.93 per acre for mat nursery prepared by the farmers themselves, and rs. 2300 to 2800.00 per acre for purchase of seedlings from commercial nurseries. therefore, there was a saving of rs.1778.06 (50.08 %) under own mat nursery method, and rs. 1049.99 with purchase of seedlings (29.57 %). main field cost from table 1 it is seen that seven major components were considered to work out the cost of rice cultivation in the main field viz., land preparation, seedling pulling and transportation to main field, planting, manures and fertilizers, plant protection, weed management and harvest. the average expenditure incurred per acre on land preparation under conventional and mechanical transplanting worked out to rs. 3047.17 and rs. 4107.16 respectively. under mechanical transplanting, the expenditure incurred on land preparation was 34.79 per cent higher than that of conventional method, since extra efforts were taken by farmers for land leveling. further, farmers who did conventional planting had spent about rs. 1750.00 per acre towards pulling of seedlings and transportation to main field. this was one of the major cost components under conventional method of rice planting. with respect to planting, the conventional method required 15.50 women labourers per acre at a cost of rs. 1536.67 per acre. in the case of mechanical transplanting, gap filling was an additional activity to be undertaken after machine planting by employing about2 to 3 women labourers per acre leading to an additional cost of rs. 360.00 per acre. the average cost of manures and fertilizers for conventional and mechanical planted rice crop per acre was rs. 3307.50 and rs. 3127.50 respectively. as far as plant protection was 5951 concerned, the crop in the main field was found to be uniform and well established under machine planting when compared to conventional method due to optimum population coupled with young seedlings planted at shallow depth. machine planting with optimum inter and intra row spacing also paved way for better micro-climate with good aeration, which led to less incidence of pest and diseases, and as a result less expenditure was incurred on plant protection (rs. 1163.50/acre), which is 42.66 per cent less when compared to the conventional method of planting (rs. 1659.83/acre). the study indicates that there was more expenditure on weeding in the case of machine planted fields (rs. 2193.83 /acre) as compared to manually planted fields (rs. 2148.50 /acre). the increase in expenditure on weeding under machine planting might be due to excess wages paid for the cono weeder operators ranging from rs. 300-400 per person per 33 cents per time. but cono weeding is very much essential for better aeration besides facilitating formation of new roots thereby enhanced uptake of nutrients is made possible. there was no significant difference on expenses incurred on harvesting since all the farmers had used the combined harvester. the total cost incurred in the main field for conventional planting was rs.17584.24. at the same time it was 14831.95 in the case of mechanical transplanting, with a saving of rs.2752.29 (15.65 %) over the conventional planting. the total cost of cultivation figures indicate that rs.21134.23 has been incurred for conventional planting, while rs.16603.88 has been incurred under mechanical transplanting, with a saving of rs.4530.35 (21.44 %). cost and returns the cost and returns with respect to conventional and mechanical planting methods are presented in table 2. it is seen that the yield (productivity) increase of more than 38.83 per cent was reported in case of mechanically transplanted fields as compared to manually planted fields. cost of cultivation was almost 21.44 per cent lesser in the case of mechanically transplanted fields as compared to conventionally transplanted fields because of reduction in cost of seed, manures and fertilizers and plant protection chemicals. the reduction or saving in the cost of cultivation automatically resulted in the fall of cost of production by 43.41 per cent in the case of machine planting as compared to conventional planting. finally, it is observed that the gross return as well as net return were significantly higher, with 38.83 per cent increase in gross return and almost four times increase in net return (447.54 percent). almost 40 to 50 per cent increase in number of productive tillers per hill under machine planting 5952 would have paved way for increase in yield / productivity of the crop, which farmers’ feedback farmers’ feedback regarding mechanical transplantation in rice cultivation was elicited so as to understand the potential for sustained adoption. the analysis of farmers’ feedback is presented in tables 3-7. reasons for adoption of mechanical transplantation the reasons for adoption of mechanical planting method were analysed and the results are presented in table 3. table 2. cost and returns in rice cultivation sl. no. particulars conventional planting (rs.) mechanical transplanting (rs.) sign 1. yield (productivity) in quintals per acre 16.43 22.81 more (+) 2. average price received (per quintal) 1476.00 1476.00 nil 3. cost of cultivation (rs. per acre) 21134.23 16603.88* less (-) 4. cost of production (rs. per quintal) 1286.32 727.92* less (-) 5. gross return (per acre) 24250.68 33667.56 more (+) 6. net return (per acre) 3116.45 17063.68 more (+) *excluding the subsidy amount of rs. 2690/per acre (rs. 2365/plus rs. 315/-) for mechanical transplanter plus micronutrients. reflected in increased net income per acre. from table 3, it is seen that 100 per cent of the respondents had reported that ‘to overcome labour scarcity during planting season’, and ‘significant yield increase’ as the major reasons for adoption of machine planting arranged by the government. this was followed by ‘to maintain perfect spacing between plants and rows which ensured optimum population’(as per recommendation), which resulted in good aeration and less pest and disease incidence (there was no report of blast disease in machine transplanted fields, whereas blast occurrence was reported in conventionally planted fields). 5953 level of satisfaction on mechanical transplanting the level of satisfaction on mechanical transplanting as reported by the respondents were analysed and the results are presented in table 4. it is inferred from table 4 that nearly two-thirds (64.80 %) of the respondents had reported that they were 100 per cent satisfied with the machine transplantation programme of the state government. this was followed by table 3. distribution of respondents according to reasons for adoption of mechanical transplantation sl. no. particulars no. of respondents percentage rank 1. to overcome labour scarcity during planting season 250 100.00 i 2. significant yield increase 250 100.00 ii 3. to maintain perfect spacing(optimum plant population) 196 78.40 iii table 4. distribution of respondents according to level of satisfaction on mechanical transplantation programme sl. no. district level of satisfaction 0-25% 26-50% 51-75% 76-100% total 1. thanjavur -03 21 04 28 (11.20) 2. tiruvarur --27 103 130 (52.00) 3. nagapattinam --22 23 45 (18.00) 4. cuddalore --04 21 25 (10.00) 5. ariyalur -02 07 03 12 (4.80) 6. trichy --02 08 10 (4.00) overall cauvery delta 05 (2.00) 83 (33.20) 162 (64.80) 250 (100) 33.20 per cent of the respondents who expressed that their level of satisfaction was 51 to 75 per cent due to the reasons that: it may not be a suitable method of planting during rainy season as the field requires extra care for the first 20 days after mechanical transplantation in terms of providing proper drainage facility, and irrigation should be given as and when disappearance of water from the field. the rest (2.00 %) of the respondents were only satisfied up to the level of 26 to 50 per cent, since they felt 5954 that their fields were clayey in nature and machine planting the seedlings too deep in the soil caused delay in establishment of seedlings during the initial period, moreover providing proper drainage in clay soil also becomes difficult. reported that ‘mental agony of rice cultivation reduced significantly’, ‘increase in number of productive tillers’, and ‘reduction in seed rate resulted in decreased cultivation cost’ as the major merits in machine transplanting. demerits of machine transplanting the findings on the demerits of machine transplanting are given in table 6. it is seen from table 6 that cent percent of the respondents reported that ‘skill table 5. distribution of respondents according to merits of mechanical transplanting sl. no. merits no. of respondents percentage 1. mental agony of rice cultivation reduced significantly 250 100.00 2. increase in number of productive tillers 250 100.00 3. reduction in seed rate resulted in decreased cultivation cost 250 100.00 4. reduction in time period of planting 214 85.60 5. timely planting made possible 196 78.40 6. possible to plant young seedlings 179 71.60 7. labour scarcity addressed 107 42.80 8. nursery management significantly reduced 45 18.00 merits of machine transplanting the findings on the merits of machine transplanting are given in table 5. from table 5, it is seen that 100 percent of the beneficiaries have involved in nursery preparation’, and ‘more care should be given after planting in main field’ as the two major demerits in mechanical transplanting. suggestions for improvement of the programme the analysis of the suggestions for improvement of the programme is presented in table 7. from table 7 it is seen that two suggestions viz., ‘subsidy may be extended 5955 for few more years to increase adoption rates’ (42.80 %) and ‘cono weeder and laser leveler may be made available at agri. depots and pacs’ (35.60 %) were table 6. distribution of respondents according to demerits of mechanical transplanting sl. no. demerits no. of respondents percentage 1. skill involved in nursery preparation 250 100.00 2. more care should be given after planting in main field (minimum 15 days extra care should be taken) 250 100.00 3. cost of gap filling as additional expense to be incurred by farmer 205 82.00 4. not suitable for rainy (wet) season (thaladi season) 179 71.60 5. not suitable for (fluffy soils) with highly clayey content 116 46.40 6. non availability of cono weeder / power weeder 107 42.80 7. lack of expertise in mat / tray (cake) nursery making 89 35.60 8. proper drainage facility required 89 35.60 9. proper land leveling necessary before transplanting 89 35.60 10. uneven planting in fluffy soils with highly clayey content 27 10.80 11. difficulty in mobility of transplanter between fields (in small fields) and low lying lands 27 10.80 offered by the respondents for further improvement of the programme. majority of the respondents had realized the importance of land leveling 5956 as a pre-requisite for machine planting. as a result, farmers have insisted government support in terms of monetary or subsidized custom hiring facilities in all revenue villages. farmers have felt that cono weeding under machine planted field improves the crop growth and productivity and hence, they have demanded supply of adequate number of cono weeders through government depots under any subsidy scheme. it was also learnt that farmers need to be given hands-on training on mat nursery technology in their villages. conclusion the study revealed that nearly two-thirds (64.80 %) of the respondents were 100 per cent satisfied with the machine transplantation programme, followed by about one-third (33.20 %) of the respondents who had expressed 51-75 per cent level of satisfaction. this clearly indicates the reasonable success of the initiative of the tamil nadu government in ushering in the use of mechanical transplanter for rice cultivation in the state in large scale, which has resulted in increasing the efficiency of farm operations and solved the labour scarcity problem facing rice cultivation. farmers have demanded that ‘subsidy may be extended for few more years to increase adoption rates’, which was fulfilled adequately, as in the year 2016 and 2017 the subsidy package was again implemented in the delta districts. farmers have also expressed that ‘skill involved in nursery preparation’, and ‘extra care should be given after planting in main field’ as their major concerns in following mechanical transplanting, which needs to be addressed by the state department of agriculture for sustained adoption of the mechanical transplanter. table 7. distribution of respondents according to suggestions for improvement of the programme sl. no. suggestions no. of respondents percentage 1. subsidy may be extended for few more years to increase adoption rates 107 42.80 2. cono weeder and laser leveler may be made available at agri depots and pacs (primary agricultural cooperative societies) 89 35.60 5957 veerendranath.g & shailaja, a . (2009). impact of watershed development programme in mahaboobnagar district of andhra pradesh, journal of extension education, 21 (2): 4197-4203. references rajeshkanna, k., theodore, r.k & sivakumar, s.d (2005). evaluation of market-led-horticulture under the tamil nadu precision farming project, journal of extension education,17 (3&4): 3785-3791. 6422 1 department of agricultural extension and rural development, federal university of technology, minna, niger state, nigeria 2 atasp-1 outreach component, atasp-1 national office, abuja. nigeria. research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6422-6428 received : 14-10-2019; accepted : 05-01-2020 farmers' willingness to take part in sorghum-based innovation platform in niger state, nigeria ibrahim mohammed1 and nnanna ugochukwu adonikam2 abstract the research examined the determinants of farmers’ willingness to partake in sorghumbased innovation platforms, ascertained the factors influencing their willingness and constraints to their participation. structured questionnaire was used to elicit data from 350 registered respondents drawn from niger state, nigeria. data were analysed using descriptive statistics, probit and multiple regression. the result reveals that the farmers' mean age was 40. about 85 % of them were married with a household size of 1-5 persons. the result of probit showed that availability of active labour force, income from the sorghum, number of trainings, access to extension service and market access were the major determinants to farmers’ participation in sorghum innovation platform. major constraints were, untimely meetings, poor means of transportation, information gap and complexity of innovation. the study concludes that farmers were willing to participate in sorghum-based innovation platform but do not have enough capital base. the study recommends that farmers should be linked up with credit institutions and timely meetings should be conducted. keywords: innovation; sorghum; perception; nigeria introduction governments in various developing countries are seeking effective ways of mainstreaming agricultural research in the economic arena (drtd, 2008). in nigeria, just like in every other african country, there has been policy shift, over the decades, from investing in the establishment of national agricultural research systems (nars), to a two-step system of a nars complemented by a state run agricultural extension delivery system, to current thinking that a pluralistic, private sector driven space could provide the most effective and sustainable way for mainstreaming science and technology in agriculture.various agricultural research institutions have generated technologies and other outputs that are either not adopted if adoptable or not transferred appropriately to the end users. the resultant effect of this scenario is stagnation in the state of rural poverty despite series of investment by the development partners and government of different countries. the 6423 poor performance of the agricultural sector has been viewed by agricultural research development (ard) actors as a problem of the process rather than that of availability of technologies (ugbe, 2010). under this arrangement, each stakeholder group carries out the task they handle best, based on their competencies, resource domain and mode of operation. based on the above, the agricultural transformation agenda support programme phase-1 (atasp-1) a federal government programme assisted by the african development bank (afdb) utilizes the value chain innovation platform (vcip) approach to bring different value chain players together, to be able to solve their problems within their capacity. atasp-1 which was constituted based on staple crop processing zones (scpzs) as a pilot project that focuses on three commodities (such as rice, cassava and sorghum) has four scpzs bida-badeggi scpz in niger state. the agricultural transformation agenda support programme phase-1 has been operating in nigeria creating awareness on the need and benefits of farmers participation in vcips, just like other programmes in the past that have sought to increase the level of participation of farmers and other stakeholders but the level of participation by the farmers and other stakeholders have not been encouraging. and despite the overwhelming benefits of value chain innovation platforms especially in transforming different agricultural value chains and ensuring sustainability in agriculture, farmers have not fully understood the benefits and have not really adopted the approach of the platforms and are less willing to participate fully and be able to solve their problems within the platform. in addition, not much is done to establish the factors that influence farmers’ willingness to participate in this regard in nigeria especially in the study area. based on these facts, this study seeks to examine the determinants of the farmers’ willingness to participate and factors that influence the farmers’ willingness decision in this regard so that the future programmes can be well designed to ensure farmers participation in the innovation platform and reap the potential benefits.the aim of the study is to assess farmers’ willingness decision to participate in atasp-1 sorghum value chain innovation platform in niger state, nigeria. the specific objectives of the study were to : • describe the socio-economic characteristics of atasp-1 sorghum farmers; • examine the determinants of farmers’ willingness to participate in the innovation platform; • ascertain the socio-economics factors influencing their willingness; • examine farmers’ perceived constraints to participation in sorghum value chain. methodology this study was conducted in niger state of nigeria. niger state is located in the north central zone of nigeria and classified as one of the largest states in the country in terms of land mass spanning over 86,000 farmers willingness to take part in sorghum-based innovation platform in niger state, nigeria 6424 km2 in land area with 80% of the land mass conducive for agriculture (tologbonse, 2008). atasp-1 is operating in bida-badeggi scpz comprising of only niger state; the programme is been implemented in seven selected local government areas (lgas) of niger state namely: lapai, gbako, lavun, wushishi, mokwa, agaie and katcha lgas and the atasp-1 registered sorghum value chain farmers in both states formed the basis of this study. a multistage sampling technique was adopted for the study. the first step involved the random selection of two (gbako and wushishi) lgas each from the lgas benefiting in each state and participating in the sorghum production under the programme. the second stage involved the random selection of three communities each from the lgas. the third stage involved a random selection of 350 farmers from the communities based on proportion of the total sample of registered farmers derived with the taro yamane’s method from the total population of registered farmers in the areas. primary data were collected and analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics such as probit regression model, multiple regression model and t test statistics. findings and discussion socio-economic characteristics of farmers socio economic characteristics considered in this study were age, education, gender, marital status, active household size, number of training received, market access per week, income from sorghum and amount willing to invest. the result in table 1 reveals that 77% of the respondents were under 39 years. this implies that the younger ones have started realising the potential of taking up agriculture. majority had formal education. this may account for the high level adoption of some of technologies disseminated by the programme. since a greater percentage have high level of formal education, their ability to make independent and informed decisions might have been high. majority (86%) were male and married, majority (71%) had a house hold size of 1-5 persons. the implication is that the families with higher number of family members contributing to family labour tend to invest more labour. majority (86%) received 1-3 extension trainings per week. this implies that since the farmers already have cordial relationship with the other value chain actors, they will be able to function effectively in the innovation platform. majority (67%) had access to market twice a week. majority (77%) had income ranging from 51,000 to 100,000. this accounts for the low adoption in the mechanization technologies and implies that with the low income from sorghum value chain source, the farmers only adopt cheaper technologies. this means that farmers in the study area are willing to invest on the programme but their capital base was low. determinants of farmers’ willingness to participate in sorghum value chain the result in table 3 show that availability of active labour force , income from the sorghum , number of training, access to extension service and market access were the major determinant to farmers participation in sorghum innovation platform. this is consistent with the study journal of extension education 6425 table 1. socio-economic characteristics of the respondents sl. no. variables frequency percentage i age (in years) 1 1 39 270 77.1 2 40 80 80 22.9 3 >80 0 0 mean= 40 ii education 1 non-formal 5 1.4 2 formal 345 98.6 iii gender 1 male 300 85.7 2 female 50 14.3 iv marital status 1 single 20 5.7 2 married 300 85.7 3 separated 10 2.86 4 divorce 21 6.0 v active household size 1 1-5 250 71.4 2 6-10 60 17.1 3 >10 40 11.4 vi number of trainings per month 1 1-3 300 85.7 2 4-6 45 12.9 3 >6 5 1.4 vii market access per week 1 once 100 28.6 2 twice 240 68.6 3 thrice 10 2.9 farmers willingness to take part in sorghum-based innovation platform in niger state, nigeria 6426 of martey et al. (2013) which revealed that increase in family size increases the land for agricultural production. market access was also significant with willingness to participate. this means that as the farmers’ access to market increased, they were more likely to be willing to participate. socio-economic factors influencing farmers’ willingness decision the multiple linear regression model results shown in table 3 indicate that age, educational sl. no. variables frequency percentage viii income from sorghum 1 1,000-50,000 70 20 2 51,000-100,000 270 77.1 3 >100,000 10 2.9 ix amount willing to invest 1 1,000-5,000 5 1.4 2 6,000-10,000 20 5.7 3 >10,000 325 92.6 table 2. determinants of farmers’ willingness to participate in sorghum vcips sl. no. determinants values marginal effect willingness to participate coef. t-value p-value 1 active labour contributing to the programme .34029 2.000 0.046** 0.0013 2 income from sorghum sources 7.35e-06 1.930 0.004*** 0.0024 3 number of training .634234 3.280 0.001*** 0.0029 4 access to extension services 6.87650 2.675 0.003*** 0.0144 5 market access 0.00013 1.740 0.082* 1.51e-07 _cons -1.0523 -0.500 0.616 number of obs 350 log likelihood -18.31 prob> chi2 0.000 pseudo r2 0.795 lr chi2(22) 67.77 note: * implies significant at 10%, ** implies significant at 5% and *** implies significant at 1% journal of extension education 6427 level, number of members in the family and number of trainings received were major socio-economic factors considered in this research work. age was statistically significant; this means that the younger sorghum farmers were more willing to participate in sorghum vcips. level of education & house hold size was significant but negative. table 3. socio-economic factors influencing willingness to participate in sorghum vcip sl. no. willing to invest to adopt coef t-value p-value 1. age 2214.02 2.38 0.019** 2. level of education 4940.18 2.47 0.023** 3. number of members in family labour -4469.88 2.85 -0.067* 4. number of training 8494.391 3.59 0.001*** cons number of obs prob> f r squared -0.48 0.632 350 0.000 0.7939 0.7705 note: * implies significant at 10%, ** implies significant at 5% and *** implies significant at 1% table 4. perceived constraints to sorghum innovation platform sl. no. constraints weighted sum weighted mean ranks remarks 1. untimely conduct of meeting 950 2.71 1st serious constraint 2. poor means of transportation 930 2.66 2nd serious constraint 3. information gap 900 2.57 3rd serious constraint 4. complexity of innovation 890 2.50 4th serious constraint 5. contribution not forthcoming 850 2.42 5th serious constraint 6. distance to meeting place 620 1.77 6th not serious constraint 7. weather not favourable for the meeting 580 1.66 7th not serious constraint 8. tight schedules 500 1.43 8th not serious constraint 9. conflict of interest among stake holders 450 1.28 9th not serious constraint 10. uncertainties 350 1.00 10th not serious constraint farmers willingness to take part in sorghum-based innovation platform in niger state, nigeria 6428 perceived constraints to participation in sorghum innovation platforms the results in table 4 reveal that untimely meeting, poor means of transportation, information gap and complexity of innovation were the serious constraints faced by the respondents. conflict of meeting days with market days was found to be the most constraining factor of farmers’ willingness to participate in sorghum vcip. the success of the sorghum vcip is highly dependent on the attendance of meetings by stakeholders which includes farmers. the situation becomes aggravated where there were poor means of transportation and information gap. conclusion it is concluded that farmers are willing to participate and invest in the innovation platform but their financial base was found to be low. the study recommends that farmers should be linked up with credits institutions and meetings should be timely. references drtd (directorate research & technology development) (2008). national research and development strategy.department of agriculture, pretoria 3-6. martey, e., wiredu, a.n asante, b.o., annin, k., dogbe, w., attoh, c. & al-hassan, r.m. (2013). factors influencing participation in rice development projects: the case of smallholders rice farmers in northern ghana. international journal of development and economic sustainability, 1(2), 13-27. tologbonse, d. (2008). policy issues in meeting rice farmers agricultural information needs in niger state. journal of agricultural extension 12 (2): 84-94. ugbe, u, p. (2010). what does innovation smell like? a conceptual framework for analysis and evaluation dfid-riu experiments in brokering agricultural innovation and development research into use. discussion paper 10. london: department for international development journal of extension education 6455 1 icarkrishi vigyan kendra, wayanad, ambalavayal, kerala-673 593 2 government women’s college, kerala univeristy. received : 14-11-2019; accepted : 15-02-2020 research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6455-6462 effectiveness of home science vocational training programmes imparted by kvks (krishi vigyan kendras) safia n ebrahim1 and v. girija2 abstract vocational training programmes play a positive role in the empowerment of women. the present study was planned with a specific objective to study the effectiveness of vocational trainings in home science discipline as rated by women trainees of a krishi vigyan kendra (kvk). training effectiveness was evaluated on five levels, viz. coverage, utility, teaching quality, knowledge and skill acquired. it was found that a great majority of trainees had perceived training as moderately effective. programme effectiveness scores did not differ significantly among the four training groups. mass media exposure, information seeking behavior, attitude towards training and entrepreneurial behavior had significant relationship with training effectiveness. keywords: kvk ; training programme ; effectiveness ; kerala introduction effective training programmes designed for the farm women in carrying out their income generating activities for better livelihood will go a long way in improving their productivity. with this in view, the indian council of agricultural research (icar) during the fifth five year plan, launched an innovative project for imparting training in agriculture and allied areas to the farmers, school drop-outs and field level extension functionaries in the country by establishing krishi vigyan kendras (kvks). krishi vigyan kendra conducts many training programmes exclusively for rural women with the aim to make them competent in performing various activities related to homescience and agricultural sciences. hence, the present study was undertaken to find out the trainees’ perceptions about effectiveness of vocational training programmes in homescience discipline conducted by kvks in kerala. methodology the study was conducted in the state of kerala. among the kvks in the state, one kvk hosted by state agricultural university (gkvk) and one kvk hosted by non governmental organization (ngo kvk) active in homescience training for the past five years were chosen purposively for the study. to assess the effectiveness of trainings for rural women two vocational training progammes from home science discipline were selected 6456 from each institution based on frequency of training and number of women participants for in-depth study. respondents comprised a randomly selected 300 women who had undergone fruit preservation training, bakery training and soap making from the two kvks selected. the data was collected from trained women with the help of pre tested schedule by personal interview technique in an informal atmosphere. the collected data were coded, compiled, tabulated, and analyzed in line with the objectives of the study. qualitative data were converted into quantitative data by means of suitable scoring, wherever necessary. descriptive statistics such as range, mean and standard deviation were used for describing the variables of the study. pearson’s coefficient of correlation was used to explore the relationships between any two concerned variables. in this study, training effectiveness refers to perception of trainees about training in the following five dimensions, namely coverage, utility, teaching quality, knowledge gained and skill acquired. at the initial stage, five major topics were identified from the content of selected training programme and were rated on a 3 point scale. on the basis of this scoring individual effectiveness of training topics and overall programme effectiveness indices were developed. the individual effectiveness of training topics has been measured by training effectiveness index (tei) developed by desai and reddy (1987) to provide information on effectiveness of topic selected under training programme. tei = [ d1/p1 + d2/p2 + …….dn/pn] x 100/n di = total scores obtained over all the respondents for the dimension of the ith topic pi = potential score obtainable on each dimension of the ith topic where i = 1,2,…., n n = total number of dimensions included in study. programme effectiveness index (pei) is the standard to measure the programme effectiveness of training programme. the respondents were categorized into low, medium and high taking mean and standard deviation of pei as criteria. pei = ( tei 1 + tei 2 +………. + tei n ) n where, summation tei1, tei2,… tein = individual item effectiveness value of ith topic. n = total number of items included in the programme. findings and discussion the results of dimensions of training showed that the maximum score was assigned to teaching quality by all training groups. the mean scores of coverage and utility were ranked second and third. the knowledge gained and skill acquired got lowest score and were ranked as fourth and fifth. ‘coverage’ indicates how far the topic was covered or taught during training. journal of extension education 6457 the results indicate that contents of each training programmes was well covered as the mean scores ranges from 76 to 79. preservation group of ngo kvk got the highest score for this aspect followed by bakery group, preservation group of g kvk and soap making group. this high score may be due to several reasons like good selection of contents and their adequate coverage. the content of training might have been discussed with the trainees for improvement and modification before the training programme. ‘utility’ means how the trainees perceived the topic as useful. the utility scores presented in table 1 indicated that there is positive opinion towards utility. the mean scores of utility ranges from 74 to 79 indicating less variability in this aspect. preservation trainees of g kvk got the highest score for utility followed by bakery trainees, preservation trainees of ngo kvk and soap making trainees. the results show that while selecting content, its applicability, communicating compatability in practical situation and cost effectiveness may have taken into consideration. priority might have been given to improved practices tested at trainee’s situation of the various components involved in determining organizational effectiveness, component of human element had contributed much. teaching quality was ascertained based on trainees’ perception of competence in imparting the content of table 1. rank order of dimensions of training sl. no. dimensions of training mean training effectiveness score for dimensions of training overall mean overall rank bakery preservation g kvk preservation ngo kvk soap making 1. coverage 77.51 (ii) 76.71 (iii) 79.20 (i) 76.09 (iv) 77.38 ii 2. utility 78.58 (ii) 78.76 (i) 76.27 (iii) 74.13 (iv) 76.94 iii 3. t e a c h i n g quality 79.11 (ii) 81.24 (i) 77.42 (iv) 78.67 (iii) 79.11 i 4. k n o w l e d g e acquired 73.42 (ii) 74.75 (i) 71.82 (iv) 72.18 (iii) 73.04 iv 5. skill acquired 70.40 (ii) 72.53 (i) 69.60 (iv) 69.87 (iii) 70.60 v effectiveness of home science vocational training programmes imparted by kvks (krishi vigyan kendra) 6458 training programme. this aspect got the highest mean score for all training groups (7781). preservation trainees of g kvk got the highest score for teaching quality followed by bakery trainees, soap making trainees and preservation trainees of ngo kvk. trainers of kvk were postgraduates in their particular discipline and hence they are efficient in demonstrating the skill effectively to trainees. any training effort brings forth impact at different levels and it can be evidenced by knowledge gain, skill acquired and adoption. knowledge gain seemed to have scored fourth place only when mean scores were considered as a whole (71-75). preservation trainees of g kvk got the highest score for knowledge gain followed by bakery trainees, soap making trainees and preservation trainees of ngo kvk. this may be attributed to the small duration of training which the participants underwent and in this small duration of less than one week training the trainees may not be able to grasp all aspects of training content. extent of skill acquisition was ascertained totally on the basis of trainees’ opinion expressed. it is evident that preservation group of gkvk got the highest score for this aspect followed by bakery trainees, soap making trainees and preservation trainees of ngo kvk . this dimension when compared to other dimensions of training got the least score. this might be due to the fact that the training module was for short duration and trainees did not get ample opportunity to learn and practice the skill by self-performance. all these findings indicate that the effectiveness of each training programmes was high and there was less variation in the effectiveness of individual content thin the training programmes. the trainees had expressed positive opinion about the different table 2. comparison of dimensions of training among training groups sl.no. training groups mean training effectiveness score for dimensions of training coverage utility teaching quality knowledge gained skill acquired 1. bakery 77.51 (iii) 78.58 (ii) 79.11 (i) 73.42 (iv) 70.40 (v) 2. preservation (g kvk) 76.71 (iii) 78.76 (ii) 81.24 (i) 74.75 (iv) 72.53 (v) 3. preservation (ngo kvk) 79.20 (i) 76.27 (iii) 77.42 (ii) 71.82 (iv) 69.60 (v) 4. soap making 76.09 (ii) 74.13 (iii) 78.67 (i) 72.18 (iv) 69.87 (v) f value 1.34 1.50 0.77 2.12 0.34 figures in parantheses indicate rank journal of extension education 6459 aspects of training programmes. the results implied to accord more priority to skill practice during training session. for improving the quality of training programmes, there should be close link between kvk and trainees. this will not only facilitate selection of relevant topics for training programmes but will also make them conversant about the performance of practices and its relevant problems experienced in the field so that kvk may further improvise their training programmes. this finding confirms to the study by borker et al. (1991). comparison of dimensions of training among training groups teaching quality, utility, coverage, knowledge and skill acquired were ranked in that order as more effective as perceived by bakery trainees. in case of preservation trainees of g kvk, teaching quality, utility, coverage, knowledge gained and skill acquired were ranked sequentially as more efficient as perceived by them. coverage, teaching quality, utility, knowledge gain and skill acquired were ranked in order of efficiency as perceived by beneficiaries of ngo kvk. in case of soap making trainees, teaching quality got the highest index followed by coverage, utility, knowledge gain and skill acquired as more efficient as perceived by them. anova was applied to compare the mean score of selected dimensions among the four training groups. the results in table 2 reveal that the dimensions of training did not differ table 3. classification and distribution of respondents according to mean programme effectiveness index (pei) sl. no. category mean score frequency (percent) bakery n-75 preservation g kvk n-75 preservation ngo kvk n-75 soap making n-75 total n-300 1 low <64.18 6 (8) 9 (12) 9 (12) 9 (12) 33 (11) 2 medium 64.1885.96 58 (77.33) 55 (73.33) 56 (74.67) 58 (77.33) 228 (76) 3 high >85.96 11 (14.67) 11 (14.67) 10 (13.33) 8 (10.66) 39 (13) mean-75.07 sd -10.89 (figures in parantheses indicate percentages) effectiveness of home science vocational training programmes imparted by kvks (krishi vigyan kendra) 6460 significantly among the four training groups. this may be due to the fact that the dimensions were influenced more by the organizational setup of kvk especially coverage of subject, relevance to training topic and teaching quality. classification and distribution of respondents according to mean programme effectiveness index (pei) the programme effectiveness index (pei) values were calculated from tei scores of topics of training programme to measure the training effectiveness. the respondents of study were classified into low, medium and high group based on mean and standard deviation of overall programme effectiveness index and presented in table 3 a perusal of data from table 3 reveal that a great majority of trainees (76 percent) had perceived training as of medium effectiveness, where as 11 percent had felt training as less effective and 13 percent had felt training as highly effective. the findings of the study were in agreement with the results obtained by medhi et al. (2017) comparison of programme effectiveness index (pei) among different groups an in depth analysis of pei made in table 4 evidenced that each training programme was effective since pei score was high ranging from 74 to 77. the mean programme effectiveness score of training programmes was worked out to be 75.07, which was quite high and reveals good training exercise done in this direction. comparison of programme effectiveness score of each training revealed that preservation training of g kvk stood first with the programme effectiveness score of 76.80. this was developed by bakery trainees (75.80), preservation trainees from ngo kvk (74.86) and soap making trainees (74.19). analysis of variance (anova) was applied to compare the programme effectiveness index among the four training groups. the results reveal that the pei scores did not differ significantly among the four training groups. it could be inferred from the findings that pei of trained women was dependent on the setup of kvk and almost same facilities are available irrespective of type of kvk as both are sponsored by icar. table 4. comparison of programme effectiveness index (pei) among different groups sl. no. training groups pei f cd 1. bakery 75.80 0.8692 3.494 2. preservation (g kvk) 76.80 3. preservation (ngo kvk) 74.86 4. soap making 74.19 overall pei 75.07 journal of extension education 6461 there is no particular curriculum for training methods to be followed by trainers of kvks, but impart training by using appropriate method based on existing situation. relationship between selected variables and training effectiveness results reveal that except for mass media exposure, information seeking behavior, attitude by trainees towards by kvk and entrepreneurial behavior, none of the selected variables had any significant relationship with training effectiveness. the variables age, educational status of respondent and her family, land holding, annual income, occupation, social participation, contact table 5. relationship between selected variables and training effectiveness sl.no characteristics r 1. age -0.0485 2. caste -0.0552 3. educational status of respondent 0.0265 4. educational status of family 0.0514 5. land holding 0.0275 6. annual income -0.0584 7. occupation 0.0455 8. social participation 0.0294 9. contact with extension agency 0.0331 10. mass media exposure 0.1920** 11. information seeking behavior 0.1658** 12. level of aspiration -0.0417 13. attitude towards training by kvk 0.1266* 14. entrepreneurial behavior 0.1596** * significant at 5 percent level ** significant at 1 percent level with extension agency, level of aspiration, showed insignificant correlation with training effectiveness. mass media exposure, information seeking behavior and entrepreneurial behavior had significant positive relationship with training effectiveness at 1 percent level of significance and attitude of trainees towards training by kvk was significant at 5 percent level of significance. the high mass media exposure and information seeking behaviour ought to have inculcated a confidence in trainees that they can benefit from attending training and also created a better awareness among trainees effectiveness of home science vocational training programmes imparted by kvks (krishi vigyan kendra) 6462 about acivities of kvk and this might have resulted in receiving training in effective way. the data presented in table 5 show positive and significant relationship between attitude towards training by kvk and training effectiveness. a favorable mental disposition towards training by kvk necessarily improves the entrepreneurial behavior of a person. unless one has a favorable attitude towards the positive aspects of self-employment over and above its negative aspects, his entrepreneurial behavior will be lower. when entrepreneurial behavior increases, trainees are more likely to accept and adopt training practices and thereby training effectiveness increases. conclusion it can be concluded from the above results that majority of the respondents (trainees) were satisfied with the coverage, utility, teaching quality, knowledge gained and skill required in relation to training programme provided by kvk. the overall programme effectiveness index was very high which shows the effectiveness of training programmes provided by kvk. but there were some areas of concern where progress was limited like in the skill acquisition, in limited time. therefore, there is a need include these factors with suitable changes in training curriculum by the scientists for benefitting the farm women in particular & farming community in general. references borkar, m. m, kulkarni, v.v & shirke, r.a (1991). impact of skill training programmes on young farmers. maharashtra journal of extension education. 10(2) : 87-91. desai, r.g. & reddy, m.r (1987). training efficiency index : an evalution methodology for training. journal of rural development. 6(4): 349-354 medhil, s., singha, a.k., singh, r & singh, r.j (2017). effectiveness of training programmes of krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) towards socio-economic development of farmers in meghalaya. economic affairs, vol. 62, no. 4:677-68. journal of extension education 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 marketing strategies evolved by entrepreneurs in marketing the coffee products k .thangaraja1 and r. sasikala2 abstract results of conjoint analysis showed quality attributes preferred by the entrepreneurs. they were arabica and robusta (50:50) mixed variety, mixing of 70:30 coffee, chicory ratio, keeping quality up to 6 months, medium level of taste/aroma, filter size of the powder and roasting time of 15 minutes/ 10 kg of seeds. about 83.00 per cent of entrepreneurs produced coffee powder as a final form of coffee product, nearly two-third (63.00 %) of the entrepreneurs did not have any brand name or logo, cent per cent of them reported manual packing only. major criteria to fix different price rate of coffee product were international daily market price (90.00 %), factors affecting the price policy were market price fluctuation (93.33 %), season (90.00 %) and cent per cent of them had adopted coffee price forecasting broadcasted by various media. selection of the location depends on nearby town and coffee potential area, techniques to overcome the competitor were better pricing and supply of quality coffee product, attraction of customers depends on personal contact, attractive display boards, quality, taste, aroma and flavor. promotional activities carried out by the entrepreneurs were developing the customer base (83.33 %) and working towards building customer loyalty (76.67%). relationships followed among stakeholders were good partnership, price and profit sharing, commission basis, service and quality, supply-service and demand. further, market demand reported by entrepreneurs were: the demand for coffee beans peaked during july to november, coffee powder were more demand in three seasons namely rainy season (june-september), winter season (decemberjanuary) and summer holidays (april-may). feedback mechanism reported by coffee entrepreneurs were: quality analysis report received from the export organization, physical analysis, cup test, personal contact through phone, e-mail and also personal letters. 1-senior liaison officer, coffee board, ministry of commerce & industry, goi and 2assistant professor, directorate of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-3. to prove the foresaid adage, coffee trade ranks next only to petroleum and its products in the world business, with total exports worth 606.92 us million dollars (anonymous, 2010) and hence aptly described as the ‘brown gold’. its brew first concocted by abyssinian shepherds has an aroma so magical that it is now the world’s most consumed drink after water. currently coffee is grown nearly in 100 countries they depend largely on coffee for their foreign exchange earnings. coffee, the beverage is traditionally known for its aroma and flavor. it acts as a stimulator of human brain and activates it. earlier, juice extraction 5407marketing strategies evolved by entrepreneurs in marketing the coffee products from coffee leaf was consumed by labour to relieve from the body and muscular pain. recent research studies conducted by various coffee research centers worldwide have suggested that coffee is good for persons suffering from asthma and heart diseases. the province of ‘kaffa’ in ethiopia is considered to be the original habitat of arabica. coffee was grown under irrigation in the province of yemen over a number of years by the arabs. they valued the plant for its fragrant flowers as well as berries. central africa is reckoned to be the home of robusta (anonymous, 1996) coffee with its more than 400 years of history in india is regarded as the most important plantation crop. as an agro based rural enterprise, the industry is primarily a source of direct employment for about six lakh people in the area of cultivation, apart from providing indirect employment to many in the processing and trading sectors. coffee cultivation is also instrumental in preserving the precious eco system in traditional coffee growing region. in nontraditional area coffee was introduced to check the shifting cultivation, to control denudation of forests and prevention of soil erosion. the total planted area under coffee in the world accounts for 11.90 million ha. india shares in the global area around 2 per cent and occupies 14th place in the area under coffee. the world total production estimate for 2010-11 is 80.18 lakh metric tonnes (lmt) against the 3.02 lakh metric tonnes (comprising of 0.94 lmt arabica and 2.08 lmt robusta) of indian production. india share in the total estimated world production is 3.77 per cent. the export from india had reached during 2010-11 was 2.75 lmt of coffee and realized 606.92 us million dollars equivalent to rs 2835.73 crores . india contributed 3.37 per cent of the world exports (anonymous, 2011). in india coffee is an important plantation crop, which is mainly cultivated in the southern states of karnataka (56.90 %), kerala (21.20 %) and tamil nadu (7.80 %) and to a lesser extent, in non-traditional areas like andhra pradesh, orissa (12.70 %) and north eastern states (1.40 %). the major coffee growing areas are the districts of chickmagalur, kodagu and hassan in karnataka,wynad,travancore and nelliampathys in kerala and pulneys, nilgiris, shevroys (salem) and anamalais (coimbatore) in tamil nadu (anonymous, 2011). the entrepreneur is essentially an economic man, who strives to maximize his profits by adoption of innovations. entrepreneurs are not simply innovators, they are men with a will to act, to resume risk and to bring about changes through organization of human efforts (dannof, 1949). now, it is objectively fill that, the economic growth and development of the advanced countries is largely due to entrepreneurship quality among their community. coffee board prior to 1996 was undertaking promotional activities for the export of coffee. after 1996, due to changes in the government policies under liberalization discontinued the journal of extension education5408 promotional activities. the promotional activity under domestic promotion was carried out through participation in domestic events, media campaign and providing training to prospective entrepreneurs on setting up of coffee roasting, grinding and packaging units. hence, there is a need to identify the strategies adopted by coffee entrepreneurs in marketing the coffee products. methodology the study was conducted in karnataka. out of 27 districts in karnataka coffee was grown only in three districts namely chickmagalur, kodagu and hassan. among these three districts, chickmagalur was selected purposively. there are 12 liaison zones of coffee board in chickmagalur district. among these mudigere, gonibeedu, kalasa, koppa and balahonnur liaison zones were selected for the study on the basis of purposive sampling since they are compact zones. in addition, the researcher was familiar in these areas where extension services are concentrated. five villages were selected from each of the selected liaison zone based on the maximum area under coffee cultivation. totally 25 villages were selected considering the criteria of more area under coffee cultivation. coffee occupied the maximum area when compared to other crops cultivated in chickmagalur district. in each of the selected liaison zones, 30 coffee growers were selected. a sample of 150 coffee growers was selected randomly by using the simple random sampling technique. thus, six coffee growers were selected from each of the 25 villages, using simple random sampling technique. apart from that, 30 entrepreneurs were identified each six from five zones and they also formed part of the sample. findings and discussion conjoint analysis was done on the quality parameters followed during selling the coffee product by the coffee entrepreneurs. the important quality attributes considered by coffee entrepreneurs were variety/type of seed materials, mixing of chicory and coffee ratio, keeping quality, taste/aroma, size of the powder and roasting time of coffee beans and the above attributes were selected for conjoint analysis. for each trader the part-worths (coefficients) were estimated using ordinary least square (ols) regression analysis. the fit of the additive model was good. the pearson r value was 0.768 and found significant. the relative importance of the part–worth functions were compared across different attributes within segments in order to arrive at the relative importance of each attribute (moore, 1980) the results of conjoint analysis on the average part-worths and the relative importance of each attribute are presented in table 1. a higher positive part worth denotes ceteris paribus, a higher perceived quality. among all attributes studied variety/type of seed material was found to have the greatest influence on the quality parameters followed during selling the coffee product as it accounted for 31.49 per cent of relative 5409marketing strategies evolved by entrepreneurs in marketing the coffee products importance and the individual utility for each variety namely arabica + robusta, robusta and arabica were 5.289, -1.589 and -3.700, respectively. the most preferred by the entrepreneurs was arabica and robusta (50:50) variety/type of seed materials as they were adjusted the market price with reasonable profit. mixing of chicory, coffee ratio was also important factor influencing the entrepreneurs with a relative importance of 20.72 per cent. mixing of 70:30 ratios had the highest utility value of 2.967 followed by 80:20 and 90:10 ratios had the utility value of -0.019 and 2.948 respectively. keeping quality was the next important factor influencing the entrepreneurs with a relative importance of 5.82 per cent. up to 6 months had the highest utility value of 0.778 followed by 69 months and more than 9 months had the utility value of 0.107 and 0.885 respectively. table 1. the results of conjoint analysis pearson’s r =0 .768 (p <= 0.01) kendall’s tau =0 .556 (p <=0 .01) 1. variety/type of seed material arabica -3.700 31.49 robusta -1.589 arabica + robusta 5.289 2. mixing of chicory, coffee ratio 70:30 2.967 20.72 80:20 -0.019 90:10 -2.948 3. keeping quality up to 6 months 0.778 5.82 69 months 0.107 more than 9 months -0.885 4. taste/aroma low 2.200 27.77 medium 2.863 high -5.063 5. size of the powder nice -0.931 6.52 filter 0.931 6. roasting time 15 minutes /10kg of seeds 1.289 7.68 20 minutes /10kg of seeds -0.385 30 minutes /10kg of seeds -0.904 relative importance (in per cent ) sl. no. characteristics level utility journal of extension education5410 taste/aroma of coffee powder was also considered as an attribute influencing the entrepreneurs with a relative importance of 27.77 per cent. medium taste / aroma of coffee powder had a utility value of 2.863 while low and high aroma had a utility value of 2.200 and -5.063 respectively. the size of coffee powder was yet another important factor influencing the entrepreneurs with a relative importance of 6.52 per cent. filter coffee had the highest utility value of 0.931 whereas nice coffee had less utility value of -0.931. roasting time is the important factor influencing the entrepreneurs with a relative importance of 7.68 per cent. roasting period of 15 minutes/10kg of seeds had the highest utility value of 1.289 followed by 20 minutes/ 10kg of seeds and 30 minutes/10kg of seeds had the utility value of -0.385 and -0.904 respectively. it can be concluded from the above analysis that quality attributes preferred by the entrepreneurs are arabica and robusta (50:50) mixed variety, mixing of 70:30 coffee, chicory ratio, keeping quality of up to 6 months, medium level of taste/aroma, filter size of the powder and roasting time of 15 minutes/10kg of seeds. the finding draws support from the finding of arulanandu (2007). it was revealed that 83.00 percent of the entrepreneurs owned by individual enterprise unit and 17.00 per cent of them had partnership enterprise unit. it is evident from collected data that 80.00 per cent of entrepreneurs were engaged in mainly for grinding the final form of coffee powder as a nature of business followed by 10.00 per cent of them engaged in curing works. remaining few per cent (6.67 % and 3.33 %) of the entrepreneurs were engaged in roasting and export as a nature of business. regarding financial investment, 60.00 per cent of the entrepreneurs invested rs 5.0 to 10.00 lakh, 30.00 per cent of them invested less than 5.00 lakh and mere per cent of them invested more than 50 lakh to 3.00 crores. about half (50.00 %) of the entrepreneurs followed unplanned marketing strategy, 30.00 per cent of them followed partially planned and 13.00 per cent of entrepreneurs had planned marketing strategy. only 7.00 per cent of them not followed any marketing strategy. product it was revealed that, 83.00 per cent of entrepreneurs produced coffee powder as a final form of coffee product followed by 17.00 per cent of respondents as graded beans. nearly two-third (63.00 %) of the entrepreneurs did not have any brand name or logo due to financial crisis, complicated procedures forced by concerned authority to obtain brand name or logo. hence, majority of them sold coffee powder without any brand name or logo. about 37.00 per cent of entrepreneurs had own brand name. regarding packing methods and materials, cent (100.00 %) per cent of them reported manual packing only, whereas 83.00 per cent of entrepreneurs opined polythene bags used 5411marketing strategies evolved by entrepreneurs in marketing the coffee products for storing/packing seed materials. gunny bags were used by 17.00 per cent of the respondents. non availability and high cost of gunny bags had influenced the majority of them to use polythene bags for packing of coffee seeds. in addition to polythene cover, aluminum foil pouch, laminated poly bags, plastic covers, labeled plastic covers and nylon bags were used by the entrepreneurs for packing and selling the final form of coffee products like powder and graded beans. nearly two-third (63.00 %) of the entrepreneurs adopted roasting, grinding, mixing, packing and selling as a value addition technique followed by roasting, grinding, mixing and packing (20.00 %), de-husking and grading (10.00 %), de-husking, roasting, grinding, mixing and packing (3.00 %) and de-husking (3.00 %) respectively. cent per cent of the entrepreneurs expressed husk as the bye product obtained from the coffee value addition. more than half (53.33 %) of the respondents reported warranty period of coffee powder as up to 6 months, remaining (46.67 %) of them reported as more than 6 month to one year. current product / current market nearly three-fourth (70.00 %) of the entrepreneurs opined that customers were having awareness about their product through personal contact and also popularity of shop. about 30.00 per cent of them viewed that customers were not aware about their own product. nearly three-fourth (70.00 %) of the entrepreneurs reported that efforts were made to find out new customer in current market through contact visit, personal rapport and telephone contact for increasing the sale volume of individuals. remaining 30.00 per cent of them had not made any effort for finding new customers and promoting their sale volume. current product / new market more than half (57.00 %) of the respondents had assessed new regions such as bangalore, mysore, hassan, hubli, mumbai and kanpur etc., for promoting, extending their sales and services, whereas, 43.00 per cent of them did not take any effort for extending sales and services as there were sufficient market with their regular customers. more than threefourth (76.00 %) of the respondents expressed 10 per cent of profit expected from the new market for promoting current product, whereas 24.00 per cent of them expected more than 10-20 per cent of profit from the new market. new product / current market majority (83.00 %) of entrepreneurs viewed that, they had not attempted to develop a new product in current market as majority of entrepreneurs were unable to compete with leading coffee industries like coffee day, nescafe etc., difficulties faced by the entrepreneurs while launching a new product in current market were scarcity of labour and high cost of inputs journal of extension education5412 which were expressed by 70.00 per cent and 63.33 per cent respectively. timely delivery of product in to current market was expressed by 46.67 per cent of the entrepreneurs. few steps had been taken by the entrepreneurs to improve the new product in current market such as grading (10.00 %), processing (3.33 %) and packing (3.33 %). new product / new market about 23.33 per cent of the entrepreneurs willing to take risk for development of new product in new market, followed by 76.67 per cent of them had not showed enough interest to take any risk for development of new product. already existing product gave satisfaction to the customers. more than one fourth (26.67 %) of the entrepreneurs decided to invest high cost for development of new product, followed by 73.33 per cent of them who were not willing to high investment cost for developing a new product in new market. one fifth (20.00 %) of them reported new way of business viz., online marketing, attracting customers towards attractive packing, labeling and various packing size etc., whereas 80.00 per cent of the entrepreneurs had not attempt new way of business as they had adequate and consistent marketing. pricing from the analysis, it was revealed that criteria followed by the entrepreneurs to fix different price rate of coffee product were: international daily market price (90.00 %), types of coffee variety like arabica, robusta (83.33 %), mixture of coffee and chicory ratio (70 %) and quality of chicory (46.67 %). different prices of coffee products were sold by the entrepreneurs in the market. the prices were up to rs. 150/ kg, rs.150-200/ kg, rs. 200-250/kg, more than rs. 250-400/ kg for coffee powder and graded beans. a 10-20 % price variation took place depending on retail price, seasonal price and wholesale price. hence the price fluctuation affected the coffee price at regular intervals. regarding price policy of coffee product like coffee beans the price depended on daily international market price (80.00 %) followed by coffee powder price which depended on local market rate of coffee seeds. this was reported by 50.00 per cent of the respondents. market price fluctuation (93.33 %), season (90.00 %), quality of product (83.33 %), demand and supply (80.00 %), competition among traders (76.67 %), over production and productivity (73.33 %), cost of coffee beans (56.67 %), sale volume (46.67 %) and cost of chicory (36.67 %) were the factors affecting the coffee price policy. the strategies adopted by the entrepreneurs to overcome the price fluctuations were consistency in quality, updated market information through various media such as newspaper, radio, tv, mobile and internet, own experience, contact with marketing people at periodical intervals, 5413marketing strategies evolved by entrepreneurs in marketing the coffee products increased selling price of coffee products, storage of bulk coffee seed etc., cent per cent of them had adopted coffee price forecasting broadcasted by various media. place the entrepreneurs selected the location as nearby town, potential areas, no value addition unit in their locale, easy approachable by the customer, ideal location to produce quality coffee, centre of town, tourist place, main road towards tourist place etc., average processing volume of curing centre was 50-100 tons per day; value addition ranged from 25-50 to 50-100 kg/day. similarly volume sale noticed from the entrepreneurs were 25-50 kg/day, 50-75 kg/ day and 75-100 kg / day and more than 100 kg/day respectively. half of (50.00 %) the entrepreneurs had reported that local traders were the only competitors in the coffee business; remaining 50.00 per cent of them reported no competition among coffee traders. techniques followed by the entrepreneurs to overcome the competitors were better pricing, supply of quality coffee product with reasonable price and good service to the customers. attraction of customers depends on many ways such as better price, personal contact/ approach, way of talking, product explanation during selling to new customers, attractive display boards, quality, taste, aroma and flavour, supply of product on discount basis, display of coffee product in the shop, better service to customers, free sample offer to tourist/bus drivers and conductors, tourist agents and also maintaining good human relationship among buyers – sellers. promotion promotional activities carried out by the entrepreneurs were developing a larger customer base (83.33 %) and working towards building customer loyalty (76.67%). relationships followed among stakeholders were good partnership, price and profit sharing, offering commission, service and quality. market demand reported by entrepreneurs were: demanded for coffee beans from july to november, demanded for coffee powder was during rainy season (juneseptember), winter season (decemberjanuary) and summer holidays (april-may). feedback mechanism reported by coffee entrepreneurs were: quality analysis report received from the export organization, physical analysis, cupping/cup test, personal contact through phone, e-mail and also personal letters. in a nutshell, strategies adopted by entrepreneurs revolved around promoting and enhancing quality parameters (as depicted by conjoint analysis); innovating new procedures for roasting and packing; finding and opening up new avenues of market infrastructure; journal of extension education5414 taking proper management decisions in selecting new locale for sales and giving a boost to promotional activities. conclusion from the above findings the marketing strategy analysis revealed that results of conjoint analysis showed quality attributes preferred by the entrepreneurs. they were arabica and robusta (50:50) mixed variety, mixing of 70:30 coffee, chicory ratio, keeping quality up to 6 months, medium level of taste/ aroma, filter size of the powder and roasting time of 15 minutes/ 10 kg of seeds. about 83.00 per cent of entrepreneurs produced coffee powder as a final form of coffee product, nearly two-third (63.00 %) of the entrepreneurs did not have any brand name or logo, cent per cent of them reported manual packing only. major criteria to fix different price rate of coffee product were international daily market price (90.00 %), factors affecting the price policy were market price fluctuation (93.33 %), season (90.00 %) and cent per cent of them had adopted coffee price forecasting broadcasted by various media. selection of the location depends on nearby town and coffee potential area, techniques to overcome the competitor were better pricing and supply of quality coffee product, attraction of customers depends on personal contact, attractive display boards, quality, taste, aroma and flavor. promotional activities carried out by the entrepreneurs were developing the customer base (83.33 %) and working towards building customer loyalty (76.67%). relationships followed among stakeholders were good partnership, price and profit sharing, commission basis, service and quality, supply-service and demand. further, market demand reported by entrepreneurs were: the demand for coffee beans peaked during july to november, coffee powder were more demand in three seasons namely rainy season (june-september), winter season (decemberjanuary) and summer holidays (april-may). feedback mechanism reported by coffee entrepreneurs were: quality analysis report received from the export organization, physical analysis, cup test, personal contact through phone, e-mail and also personal letters. references anonymous, 1996. coffee guide, central coffee research institute, chikmagalur district, karnataka. anonymous, 2011, data base on coffee, coffee board, government of india, bangalore. available at: www.indiacoffee.org. anonymous, 2010, 70th annual report, coffee board, government of india, bangalore. arulanandu, u, 2007. an econometric analysis of international and domestic trade of spices. unpub. ph.d thesis, ac & ri, madurai, tnau. dannof, c.h., 1949. observations at entrepreneurship in agriculture change and the entrepreneur. harvard university press, cambridge, pp. 13-18. moore, w.l., 1980. levels of aggregation in conjoint analysis: an empirical comparison, journal of marketing research, 17: 516-523. 6288 1. pg scholar and 2. assistant professor (sel. gr.), department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture (kau), vellayani, thiruvananthapuram695 522 received : 16-08-2019; accepted : 27-09-2019 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6288-6295 content pattern analysis of selected parameters in social science post-graduate theses deinichwa dkhar1 and allan thomas2 abstract in this study, it was aimed to examine the postgraduate theses on social science research submitted at college of agriculture, vellayani, kerala during 2012-17 using qualitative content analysis. all the postgraduate theses that could be accessed in the college library were included in the scope of the study. as a result of the research, it was found that 66 post graduate theses under social sciences were conducted at college of agriculture, vellayani during 2012-2017. the same was subjected to qualitative content analysis. a total of seven attributes viz., number of words in title, number of words in abstract, number of references in thesis, types of sources of references, research design and statistical methods employed for social science pg research were studied for all departments in social science division. keywords: content analysis; social science; extension; postgraduate; research; kerala introduction agriculture as the cornerstone of indian economy plays a pivotal role in uplifting the socio-economic realm of the country. the agrarian research framework in india incorporates around 27,500 scientists and more than one lakh supporting staff effectively engaged with farming examination, which makes it the biggest and institutionally, the most multifaceted research system in the world (borthakur and singh, 2012). newcomb (1993) identified the need to transform university agricultural education programmes and also encouraged a different approach to research in agricultural education to include a defined programme of inquiry. the agricultural research and education accountabilities at the state level rest with the state agricultural universities (saus). kerala agricultural university (kau) focuses its strategy on synergizing multidisciplinary education and strengthening problem specific research, relevant to the state and aims at overall development of all agriculture related institutions. extension research is one of its major components is post-graduation research. therefore, a study was essential to comprehend the pattern of social science agricultural research that will 6289 enable to identify, scientifically document and publish the contribution of kau made to the agrarian society through pg research. hence, this study on content analysis is of great importance with special reference to analyze the pattern of post graduate (pg) social science research studies on its contents and related parameters. content analysis, in this study is operationalised as an organized, replicable procedure for analysis of textual documents based on unambiguous rules of coding (berelson, 1952; krippendorff, 1980; and weber, 1990). holsti (1969) offers a broad definition of content analysis as, “any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages”. methodology the study was conducted at college of agriculture vellayani campus of kerala agricultural university during 2017-2019. the entire theses submitted under social science division (department of agricultural extension, agricultural economics and community science) from 2012 to 2017 was enumerated and categorized year wise and department wise. based on the objectives set forth, a qualitative content analysis was followed. a desk study of content pattern was expended for content patterns of post graduate research studies in terms of different attributes viz., number of words in title, number of words in abstract, number of references in thesis, types of sources of references, research design and statistical methods employed for social science pg research. in order to check for significance between disciplines on selected content parameters, an ‘open access socscistatistics software’ was used to conduct f testone way analysis of variance (to compare the means of three or more independent samples simultaneously) and t test (to compare two independent means simultaneously). findings and discussion content patterns of post graduate research studies in terms of different attributes viz., number of words in title, number of words in abstract and number of references in thesis are illustrated in table 1. number of words in title: it refers to the distinct meaningful element of writing that constitutes the title of the theses. more than sixty per cent of agricultural extension (61.76), agricultural economics (66.67) and community science (73.91) theses were medium worded with 9-17, 9-15 and 7-15 number of words respectively. however, agricultural extension theses topped the list for low (<9 words) worded theses (23.53%) and agricultural economics theses exceeded agricultural extension and community science with 22.22 per cent of theses being high worded (>15 words). the minimum and maximum number of words was observed in community science with 5 and 25 respectively. number of words in abstract: it refers to the number of words in a thesis abstract. majority of agricultural content pattern analysis of selected parameters in social science post-graduate theses 6290 table 1 distribution of theses based on number of words in title, number of words in abstracts and number of references in theses sl. no. content pattern agricultural extension (n=34) agricultural economics (n=9) community science (n=23) h m l h m l h m l 1. number of words in title class limits >17 9-17 <9 >15 9-15 <9 >15 7-15 <7 f 5 21 8 2 6 1 4 17 2 % 14.71 61.76 23.53 22.22 66.67 11.11 17.39 73.91 8.7 mean=12.82;sd= 4.2 min-max=6-22 mean=11.78;sd= 3.19; min-max=8-17 mean=11.09;sd= 4.37; min-max=5-25 one way anova the f-ratio value is 0.2785. the p-value is < .758063; the result is not significant at p< .01 and p< .05 2. number of words in an abstract class limits >710 382710 <382 >803 489803 <489 >700 400700 <400 f 4 24 6 2 6 1 2 18 3 % 11.76 70.59 17.65 22.22 66.67 11.11 12.12 72.73 15.15 mean=546.47; sd=164.15 min-max=341-984 mean=646; sd=156.73 min-max=351-872 mean=549.91; sd=149.81 min-max=282-880 one way anova the f-ratio value is 1.49631. the p-value is < .231806; the result is not significant at p< .01 and p< .05 3 number of references in thesis class limits >162 78162 <78 >106 79106 <79 >284 130284 <130 f 5 24 5 1 7 1 1 20 2 % 14.71 70.58 14.71 11.11 77.78 11.11 4.35 86.96 8.69 mean=117.47; sd=44.59 min-max=51-245 mean=92.78; sd=13.59 min-max=69-116 mean=206.65; sd=77.03 min-max=87-477 one way anova the f-ratio value is 20.94061. the p-value is < .00001; the result is significant at p< .01 and p< .05 h-high, m-medium, l-low, sd-standard deviation. journal of extension education 6291 extension (70.59), agricultural economics (66.67), and community science (72.73%) theses were medium worded i.e. 382-710, 489-803 and 400-700 words respectively. however, agricultural extension theses topped (23.53%) the list for low worded theses (<382 words) and agricultural economics theses surpassed agricultural extension and community science with 22.22 per cent of theses being high worded (>803 words). the minimum (282) and maximum (984) number of words were from community science and agricultural extension respectively. even though there is no fixed limit prescribing number of words in a title for research, care should be taken to use fewer words yet descriptive enough to depict the research scope. cherry (2019) specified that the number of words in the title according to apa (american psychological association) style (6th edition) should not be more that 12 words and for an abstract the number of words should be between 150 and 250 words. number of references in thesis: references here refer to the list of all the sources from which the researchers obtained information for their research work and it is represented in the last page of the thesis. majority (70.58, 77.78 and 86.96%) of agricultural extension, agricultural economics and community science theses were having medium number of references i.e. 78-162, 79-106 and 130-284 references respectively. however, agricultural extension theses topped the list for both high (>162 references) and low (<78 references) category and surpassed agricultural economics and community science theses with 14.71 per cent in each category. the minimum (51) and maximum (477) of number of references were observed in agricultural extension and community science respectively. distribution of theses based on number of words in title, number of words in abstracts and number of references in theses for the three disciplines of pg study was subjected to ftest: one way analysis of variance (to compare the means of content parameter for the three disciplines simultaneously). it was found that there was a significant difference for the content parameter viz., number of references in the theses for the three different disciplines at 1% significance level. it was observed that the f-ratio value was 20.94061 and the pvalue was < 0.00001 indicating that there was significant difference. the difference could be attributed due to the varying number of references included in each theses by the post graduate scholar which was evident from the wide minimum to maximum means as indicated in table 1. a perusal of discussion forums available online indicates that there is no specific prescribed minimum or maximum numbers of references required for a theses to reflect upon its quality. ‘quality over quantity’ should be the focus of including references and it should help the researcher to derive fruitful discussions on results. however no significant differences (both at 1% and 5% level of significance) were observed for content parameters such as number of words in title of theses and the number of words in the abstract of theses across the three disciplines of study content pattern analysis of selected parameters in social science post-graduate theses 6292 distribution of social science theses based on years and types of sources references based on years the social science pg theses are enumerated and classified based on years and types of sources and its results are presented in table 2 and table 3. table 2 distribution of references based on years category social science (n=66) f % up to 1900 0 0.00 1901-1925 2 0.02 1926-1950 24 0.25 1951-1975 301 3.14 1976-2000 2671 27.88 2001 and after 6581 68.70 total 9579 100 reference based on years, in this study is operationalized as the date in which the sources of references were published. table 2 reveals that 68.70 per cent of the references were from publications made after 2001 followed by 27.88 per cent from 1976-2000 and 2.14 per cent from 1951-1975. a negligible percentage was taken from 1901-1950 indicating the probing habit of the researchers. this could be due to the fact that students might resort to the practice of searching the previous theses published recently or the wide variety of online journals that are available to the students for referencing. types of sources of references sources of references refer to the different sources such as print materials, online or offline sources the researchers come across while writing his/her thesis. the results are presented in table 3. table 3 distribution of references in pg theses based on their sources sl. no. types of sources social science (n=66) f % 1 books 1344 14.03 2 journals 5330 55.64 3 thesis 1467 15.31 4 reports 176 1.84 5 seminar/ conferences 324 3.38 6 magazines 83 0.87 7 newspapers 49 0.51 8 online sources-url 493 5.15 9 others 313 3.27 from the table 3 it can be seen that 55.64 per cent of the references were from journals followed by 15.31 per cent from thesis, 14.03 per cent from books, 5.15 per cent from online sources with url, 3.38 per cent from seminar/ conferences, 3.27 per cent from other sources and 1.81, 0.87 and 0.51 per cent from reports, magazines and newspapers respectively. many discussions on online platforms of research like ‘research gate’ suggest different views on the number and types of references based on sources. publishers of eminence like sage and elsevier have set as a general rule that one source per page average i.e., a paper that has 20 manuscript pages might have about 20 sources. some researchers are of journal of extension education 6293 the view that saturation point of ideas should be the basis of citing references. however, many of such opinion converge to the view that it should have ‘quality over quantity’ of references that matter in terms of number and sources. the researcher should learn how to integrate the literature based on the analytical and/or synthetical process of research. research design research design refers to the set of procedure or methods used in collecting and analyzing measures of variables on the research problem and the results are presented in table 4. from table 4, it is clear that almost fifty per cent (49.28%) of the theses in agricultural extension department used ex post facto designs and 4.35 per cent used exploratory design. only, 1.45 per cent of community science theses used crd (completely randomized design) and factorial crd respectively. social science researchers focus main by on incidents that have already occurred research which might be the reason for majority of the researchers using expost facto design. statistical methods statistical methods refer to the different statistical tools that were used for the data analysis for drawing meaningful interpretation of data so as to avail valid information from the study. the results are presented in table 5. in agricultural extension, 25.00 per cent of the theses had used percentage analysis followed by correlation (24.27%), mean (18.38%), quartiles (10.29%), frequency and standard deviation (5.88%), others (5.15%), anova (4.41%) and regressions table 4 classification of social science theses based on research design used sl. no. types of design agricultural extension (n=34) agricultural economics (n=9) community science (n=23) total (n=66) f % f % f % f % 1 ex post facto 34 91.89 0 0.00 0 0.00 34 49.28 2 explorative 3 8.11 0 0.00 0 0.00 3 4.35 3 crd 0 0.00 0 0.00 1 4.35 1 1.45 4 factorial-crd 0 0.00 0 0.00 1 4.35 1 1.45 5 not mentioned 0 0.00 9 100* 21 91.30 30 43.48 total 37 100 9 100 23 100 69 100 * concentrated on financial appraisal studies in the case of agricultural economicswith calculation such as b:c; npv; irr and sasensitivity analysis content pattern analysis of selected parameters in social science post-graduate theses 6294 (0.74%). in agricultural economics all the theses did not mention any statistical method. in community science department 37.26 per cent of the theses used anova followed by 29.41 per cent that used other methods, 15.69 per cent had used mean, 11.77 per cent used percentage and 1.96 per cent used frequency, regressions and range test. the results indicate that the pg researches undertaken by students are subjected to rigorous analysis through confirmed and sound statistical measures. a ‘t-test’ was conducted to know whether there was any significant difference on the statistical methods used for disciplines viz., agricultural extension and community science. theses from the department of agricultural economics was not considered table 5 distribution of statistical methods used in social science theses sl. no. statistical methods agricultural extension (n=34) agricultural economics (n=9) community science (n=23) total (n=66) f % f % f % f % 1 anova 6 4.41 0 0.00 19 37.26 25 12.76 2 correlation 33 24.27 0 0.00 0 0.00 33 16.84 3 frequency 8 5.88 0 0.00 1 1.96 9 4.59 4 mean 25 18.38 0 0.00 8 15.69 33 16.84 5 percentage 34 25.00 0 0.00 6 11.77 40 20.41 6 quartiles 14 10.29 0 0.00 0 0.00 14 7.14 7 range test 0 0.00 0 0.00 1 1.96 1 0.51 8 regression 1 0.74 0 0.00 1 1.96 2 1.02 9 s t a n d a r d deviation 8 5.88 0 0.00 0 0.00 8 4.08 10 not mentioned 0 0.00 9 100.00 0 0.00 9 4.59 11 others 7 5.15 0 0.00 15 29.41 22 11.22 total 136 100 9 100 51 100 196 100 t-test t-value was 1.78949 and the p-value was 0.044345 indicating that the result was significant at p < .05 but not significant at p < .01 * concentrated on financial appraisal studies in case of agricultural economicswith calculation such as b:c; npv; irr and sasensitivity analysis ** concentrated on specific empirical measures on qualitative parameters for the processing component included in the study in case of community science journal of extension education 6295 as all the theses employed financial appraisal components with calculation such as b:c; npv; irr and sasensitivity analysis. the results of the t-test revealed that the t-value was 1.78949 and the p value was 0.044345 indicating that the result was significant at p < .05. however the result was not significant at p < .01. the significance attributed at 5 % level of significance could be due to the uniqueness of subject wherein agricultural extension theses focus majorly on technosocio-economic aspects and psychological constructs of respondents unlike community science theses that also widely incorporates components related to processing aspects in each of their studies. conclusion the outcome of this study shows that majority of the theses in social science division have medium number of words in title as well as in abstract of thesis. more than seventy per cent of the theses have medium number of references, with class limits diverse for different departments. however, more references were from publications made after 2001. ex-post facto design is the most commonly used research design in agricultural extension theses and crd for community science theses. percentage analysis followed by correlation, mean, quartiles, frequency and standard deviation were the most used statistical tools. the study throws light to the importance of considering the parameters to be generalized and applied for enabling the quality of further research undertaken by the pg scholars of state agricultural universities. references berelson, b. (1952).content analysis in communication research. free press. new york, 220p. borthakur, a. & singh, p. (2012). agricultural research in india: an exploratory study. international journal of social science interdisciplinary research. 1(9):59-74. cherry, k. (2019). how to write an apa abstract: tips for creating an abstract in apa style [on-line].retrieved from :https:// www.verywellmind.com/how-to-write-anabstract-2794845#citation-1[22 march 2019]. holsti, o. r. (1969). content analysis for the social sciences and humanities.addisonwesley, reading, massachusetts, 256p. krippendorf, k. (1980). content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. sage publications, beverly hills, california, 441p newcomb, l. h. (1993). transforming university programs of agricultural education. journal of agricultural educaiton. 34(1): 1-10. weber, r. p. (1990). basic content analysis. sage university paper series on quantitative applications in the social sciences, series no. 07-049. sage publications, california, 97p. content pattern analysis of selected parameters in social science post-graduate theses 5588 soil health card adoption behaviour among beneficiaries of bhoochetana project in andhra pradesh k. raghavendra chowdary1 and ravi kumar theodore2 abstract a research study was carried out in order to evaluate the performance of the bhoochetana project of government of andhra pradesh initiated in the year 2010-11 for distributing soil health cards (shcs) to farmers. almost all the respondents were seen to be distributed between medium and high level categories in respect of value attribution to shc recommendations. with respect to comparative value attribution, third rank was assigned to shc recommendations. more than two-thirds (67.00%) of the respondents had high level of satisfaction on shc recommendations. out of the 100 respondents studied, 47 of them had followed shc recommendations all the five years. among adopters of shc recommendations, 100% per cent of the farmers had adopted the shc recommendations as such, without any deviation. whereas, among non-adopters of shc recommendations, an overwhelming proportion (92.45%) of farmers fell under excess adoption category. inadequate follow-up by extension agency was the foremost constraint expressed by majority of the respondents. keywords : soil health card, adoption behaviour, andhra pradesh introduction soil health plays a vital role to ensure sustainable agricultural production. however, deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern, which has led to sub-optimal utilization of farm resources. according to yadav, et al., 2006,“knowledge level and adoption of soil fertility management (sfm) practices are relatively less i.e. 65% of them have no knowledge about sfm practices and just eight per cent of them have adopted sfm practices”. judicious application of chemical fertilizers by farmers in crops is very much essential to achieve maximum production and to earn maximum profit. srivastava and pandey (1999) have reported that “research studies reveal that most of the farmers are using continuously larger quantities of chemical fertilizers to increase production without knowing the fertility status of the soils of their fields”. soil testing helps farmers in judicious application of chemical fertilizers to the crops. the soil testing of a particular field gives reliable information about 1 ph.d. scholar, dept. of agri. extn, s.v. agri college, tirupathi, andhra pradesh 2 professor, trri, aduthurai, thanjavur received : 26-5-2016; accepted : 13-6-2016 journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5589 the deficiency of nutrients in the soil as well as hazards such as soil acidity, alkalinity, salinity, etc. after testing the soil, farmers can know the exact amount of nutrients to be applied for a particular crop. however, in the past two decades, the fertility status of soils has decreased drastically due to indiscriminate use of fertilizers i.e. the soil nutrient response ratio has decreased from 14.06 in 199091 to 8.59 in 2010-11 (mission project to boost productivity in rainfed areas of andhra pradesh – 2011). therefore, the government of andhra pradesh initiated the bhoochetana project in the year 2010-11 for distributing soil health cards (shcs) to farmers in order to encourage judicious application of fertilizers, to increase productivity of crops, and to maintain soil fertility. the project is going for the last six years since its inception. soil samples are collected @ 10 samples per village from the farmers under this project, which are tested in the soil testing labs, based on which shcs are distributed to the farmers.in the light of the above a study was conducted to evaluate the project with the following specific objectives: 1. to analyze the adoption pattern of beneficiary farmers with respect to shc recommendations. 2. to identify the constraints faced by beneficiary farmers in adoption of shc recommendations. 3. to elicit suggestions to increase adoption level of shc recommendations by farmers. methodology the study was conducted in kurnool district of andhra pradesh. kurnool district consists of 54 mandals (blocks) and among them, orvakal and banaganapalli blocks were selected based on maximum number of shc holders. among the 20 villages of orvakal block, 10 villages were selected for the study, and among 39 villages of banaganapalli block, 10 villages were selected for the study, based on simple random sampling. based on proportionate random sampling method, 100 respondents were selected from the 20 villages who formed the sample of the study. the variables included in the study were: (i) value attribution to shc recommendations, (ii) comparative value attribution, (iii) satisfaction index, and (iv.) pattern of adoption of shc recommendations. value attribution to shc recommendations was operationalized as the degree to which a farmer respondent placed worth on the shc recommendations. the respondents were asked to indicate their value attribution on a scale of 1 to 10, with one score indicating low value attribution and a score of 10 meaning high value attribution. based on the minimum and maximum scores, the respondents were classified into low, soil health card adoption behaviour among beneficiaries of bhoochetana project in andhra pradesh 5590 medium, and high using frequency distribution. comparative value attribution was operationalized as the relative importance given to shc based recommendations by a farmer respondent in comparison to other farm technologies or farm operations recommended. the respondents were asked to rank the technologies / operations from 1 to 10, based on the comparative importance as perceived by them. the ranks were analyzed using garett ranking method. satisfaction index referred to the degree to which a respondent was satisfied with the shc recommendations. the index consisted of five statements developed for the study. the respondents were asked to rate each statement on a five point continuum viz., not satisfied, less satisfied, satisfied, very satisfied and fully satisfied, with scores of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. based on the minimum and maximum scores, the respondents were classified into low, medium and high categories using frequency distribution method. pattern of adoption of shc recommendations was assessed in terms of ‘period of adoption’, ‘years of adoption’ and ‘extent of adoption’.period of adoption referred to the time period of adoption of the shc recommendations by a farmer respondent between the year 2010-11 (year of implementation of bhoochetana project) and 2014-15 (study period). frequency distribution method was followed in order to categorize the respondents based on their time period of adoption.years of adoption referred to the actual years of adoption of shc recommendations by a respondent, which is a derivative of ‘period of adoption’. the respondents were classified into different categories based on frequency distribution method.extent of adoption of shc recommendations was operationalized as the degree to which a respondent actually adopted the shc based recommendations.the extent of adoption variable was measured by means of the adoption index followed by theodore (1988), which is given as follows: the extent of adoption was worked out for each of the shc recommendations, as indicated in the shc of each farmer respondent viz., (i) nutrients / fertilizers urea (n),ssp (p) / dap, mop (k), organic manure, and (ii) problematic soils -alkali – gypsum (t/ha), acidic caco3 (kg/ac).the recommendation-wise adoption values for a respondent were summed up and then divided by the number of recommendations, and finally the resulting value was multiplied by 100 to arrive at the extent of adoption score in terms of percentage. lower percentage indicated ‘less adoption’ and higher percentage meant ‘higher adoption’. based on the percentages, the respondents were classified into low, medium and high categories using frequency distribution method. journal of extension education 5591 findings and discussion value attribution to soil health card (shc) recommendations the classification of respondents based on their value attribution to shc recommendations and the corresponding frequency distribution is presented in table 1. from table 1 it is inferred that majority (60.0%) of the respondents had medium level of value attribution to shc table 2. distribution of respondents according to comparative value ttribution (n=100) sl.no. technologies / operations garrett’s mean score ranks 1. water management 66.65 i 2. hyv / hybrids 66.35 ii 3. shc recommendations 65.44 iii 4. crop protection (pests) 64.65 iv 5. weed management 52.75 v 6. land preparation 49.67 vi 7. market intelligence 41.25 vii 8. integrated farming system (ifs) 35.50 viii 9. post harvest technology -processing and value addition 30.35 ix 10. farm mechanization 28.75 x soil health card adoption behaviour among beneficiaries of bhoochetana project in andhra pradesh table 1. distribution of respondents according to value attribution to shc recommendations (n=100) sl.no. value attribution categories per cent 1. low (1-3 scores) 5.00 2. medium (4-6 scores) 60.00 3. high (7-10 scores) 35.00 total 100.00 mean 5.9 recommendations, followed by more than one-third (35.0%) with high level of value attribution, and the rest (5.0%) had low level of value attribution to shc recommendations. almost all the respondents are seen to be distributed between medium and high categories in respect of value attribution. this may be as a result of the efforts taken under bhoochetana project to popularize the importance of sfm. comparative value attribution the results of the analysis of comparative value attribution are presented in table 2. 5592 from table 2, it is inferred that water management was ranked first among all the 10 technologies / operations, followed by second rank to hyv / hybrids, third rank for shc recommendations, fourth rank for crop protection (pests), fifth rank for weed management, sixth rank for land preparation, seventh rank for market intelligence, eighth rank for ifs, ninth rank for post harvest technology processing and value addition, and finally the tenth rank was assigned to farm mechanization. water management was ranked first by the respondents, which may be due to the reason that the area under rainfed agriculture in kurnool district is about 6,85,000 ha (net irrigated area is around 1,75,000 ha), and therefore water management would have assumed greater importance. table 3. distribution of respondents according to satisfaction index sl. no. satisfaction index categories per cent (n=100) 1. low (5-11 scores) -2. moderate (12-1scores) 33.00 3. high (19–25 scores) 67.00 total 100.00 mean 23.17 it is seen that all the respondents were distributed between high and moderate categories with respect to satisfaction index. this finding may be as a result of the initiatives taken by the extension functionaries under the bhoochetana project. hyv / hybrids was ranked second by the farmers. the quality of seed decides the performance of the crop contributing for nearly 20 per cent of yield increase, which may be the reason for this finding. shc recommendations was ranked third in the order. this finding may have occurred as a result of the efforts taken under the bhoochetana project. satisfaction index the distribution of respondents based on satisfaction index is furnished in table 3. table 3 shows that more than two-thirds (67.00%) of the respondents had high level of satisfaction on shc recommendations, and the rest (33.00%) had medium level of satisfaction on shc recommendations. pattern of adoption of soil health card (shc) recommendations the results of the analysis of pattern of adoption of shc recommendations assessed in terms of ‘period of adoption’, ‘years of adoption’ journal of extension education 5593 soil health card adoption behaviour among beneficiaries of bhoochetana project in andhra pradesh and ‘extent of adoption’ are presented in tables 4, 5 and 6. period of adoption the results of the analysis with respect to period of adoption of shc recommendations are presented in table 4. years of adoption the results of analysis of years of table 4. distribution of respondents according to period of adoption of shc recommendations sl. no. adoption period no. of adopters (n=100) 1. 2010-11 to 2014-15 47 2. 2010-11 to 2013-14 9 2. 2010-11 to 2012-13 9 3. 2010-11 to 2011-12 6 4. 2011-12 to 2013-14 12 5. 2011-12 to 2012-13 8 6. 2012-13 3 7. 2013-14 4 8. 2014-15 2 table 4 shows that out of the 100 respondents studied, 47 of them had followed shc recommendations all the five years. the remaining respondents (53) had followed the shc recommendations for less than five years. adoption of shc recommendations are furnished in table 5. table 5. distribution of respondents according to years of adoption of shc recommendations (n=100) sl.no. years of adoption no. of adopters 1. 5 years 47 2. 4 years 9 3. 3 years 21 4. 2 years 14 5. 1 year 9 total 100 5594 table 5 indicates that out of the total five years of adoption period (which is the maximum period), 47 respondents had followed the shc recommendations for all the five years. this is followed by nine respondents who had followed for four years, 21 respondents for three years, 14 respondents for two years, and the rest nine respondents for one year. nearly half of the respondents were observed to have adopted the shc recommendations for the maximum period of 5 years, which may be as a result of the efforts taken under the bhoochetana project. discontinued adopters were to the tune of 53 per cent, who had followed the shc recommendations for less number of years i.e., 4 and less. this finding may be as a result of following reasons viz., inadequate follow-up by extension agency, no visible result, complex to adopt the recommendations, and less knowledge as expressed by a considerable proportion of the respondents as constraints faced in adoption of shc recommendations. extent of adoption the results of the analysis of extent of adoption of shc recommendations are presented in table 6. from table 6, it is seen that among adopters of shc recommendations, 100% per cent of the farmers had adopted the shc recommendations as such without any deviation. whereas, among nonadopters of shc recommendations, an overwhelming proportion (92.45%) of farmers fell under excess adoption category, and the rest (7.55%) belonged to less adoption category. table 6. distribution of respondents according to extent of adoption of shc recommendations sl.no. extent of adoption categories adopters of shc recommendations (n= 47) non-adopters of shc recommendations (n= 53) no. per cent no. per cent 1. less adoption (-) --4 7.55 2. recommended level of adoption 47 100.00 --3. excess adoption (+) --49 92.45 total 47 100.00 53 100.00 it was found that among the 100 respondents surveyed, 47 farmers had adopted the shc recommendations in toto, whereby they were classified as adopters. this may be due to the reason of medium to high level of value attribution, high level of comparative value attribution, and high level of satisfaction on shc recommendations observed among the respondents. journal of extension education 5595 it was observed that majority of the farmers i.e. 53 of them did not follow the shc recommendations, whereas they had followed their own dosages. among them, it is seen that a vast majority had applied excess quantity of inputs. on enquiry they reasoned that the recommendations are less reliable, exact application of fertilizer recommendations is difficult, unscientific method of soil sample collection, recommendations not suitable for specific village conditions, expectations of high returns by applying more than recommended doses, and following neighbouring farmers in applying fertilizers. constraints faced in adoption of shc recommendations the distribution of respondents according to the constraints faced in adoption of shc recommendations is presented in table 7. suggestions to enhance adoption level of soil health card (shc) recommendations the suggestions elicited from farmers and extension functionaries so as to improve the adoption level of shc recommendations are presented in this section. suggestions offered by farmers the distribution of respondents according to the suggestions given by table 7. distribution of respondents according to constraints faced in adoption of shc recommendations sl.no. constraints per cent (n=100) 1. inadequate follow-up by extension agency 63.00 2. no visible results 43.00 3. complex to adopt the recommendations 26.00 4. less knowledge 23.00 5. less benefit 14.00 6. lack of time 11.00 7. peers do not follow 9.00 8. unscientific method of collecting soil samples 9.00 9. high cost 3.00 it is observed from table 7 that the foremost constraint expressed by the respondents was inadequate follow-up by extension agency (63.0%), followed by no visible results (43.0%), complex to adopt the recommendations (26.0%), less knowledge (23.0%), less benefit (14.0%), lack of time (11.0%), peers do not follow and unscientific method of collecting soil samples (9.0%), and finally higher cost (3.0%). soil health card adoption behaviour among beneficiaries of bhoochetana project in andhra pradesh 5596 farmers for improving the adoption level table 8. distribution of respondents according to suggestions offered by the respondents for enhancing adoption level of shc recommendations sl.no. suggestions offered by respondents per cent (n=100) 1. quick distribution of soil health cards 96.00 2. follow-up by extension agency 84.00 3. all farmers to be covered under the bhoochetana project 71.00 4. conduct of more number of demonstrations 28.00 5. training on soil sampling and use of shc 13.00 6. weekly once visit by aeo to the farmers’ fields 6.00 of shc recommendations is presented in table 8. it is observed from table 8 that the foremost suggestion expressed by the respondents was quick distribution of soil health cards (96.0%), followed by follow-up by extension agency (84.0%), all farmers to be covered under the bhoochetana project (71.0%), conduct of more number of demonstrations (28.0%), training on soil sampling and use of shc (13.0%), and weekly once visit by aeo to the farmers’ fields (6.0%). suggestions offered by extension functionaries the suggestions offered by extension functionaries for increasing adoption level of shc recommendations are as follows: • to create more awareness on benefits of shc based recommendations. • inclusion of soil health management in school curriculum. • distribution of mobile soil testing kits. • to carry out gps based soil testing. • involving other line departments in collection of soil samples. • involvement of higher officials of state department of agriculture conclusion the bhootchetana project is a novel project implemented by the govt. of andhra pradesh in order to encourage farmers to adopt soil test based application of nutrients to soils. it is found through this study that farmers have placed high level of value on shc based recommendations, which needs journal of extension education 5597 to be carried forward and capitalized to make the bhootchetana project a greater success. on the other hand, itis seen that majority of the respondents had discontinued adoption of shc recommendations during the course of the five years of implementation of the project. this issue warrants top most attention and priority by the state department of agriculture, considering the time, energy, and money invested in the bhoochetana project. for this purpose, regular follow-up by the extension machinery is required, so as to prevent discontinuance of adoption of shc recommendations. in addition, considering the favourable opinion of the farmers on shc, a separate monitoring cell can be thought offor establishing at the district level. the main functions of the cell would be to educate farmers on shm, and encourage them to adopt the shc recommendations in a sustained manner. references srivastava, y.c. & pandey, a.p. (1999). knowledge and attitude of small and marginal farmers towards soil testing. agricultural extension review, 11(6), 3-6. theodore, ravi kumar. (1988). awareness, conviction and adoption of technological units of contingency farming practices for rice by contact and other farmers of thanjavur district, unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, tnau, coimbatore. yadav, v.p.s., raman, .r.s. & kumar, r. (2006) knowledge and attitude of farmers towards soil testing practices. indian research journal of extension education, vol. (6), 3. soil health card adoption behaviour among beneficiaries of bhoochetana project in andhra pradesh 6255 jee 31(2) my dear readers of journal of extension education, a ‘public notice on academic integrity’ was recently issued by the ugc (university grants commission) [f.1-1/2018 (journals/care) dated 14 june 2019] through which the commission had informed the indian academic community that: “1. they must avoid publication in predatory / dubious journals or participation in predatory conferences. it is further advised that they must not get associated (as editors / advisors or in any other capacity) with journals / publishers / conferences involved in fraudulent/ dubious / deceptive practices. 2. any publications in predatory / dubious journals or presentations in predatory / dubious conferences should not be considered for academic credit for selection, confirmation, promotion, performance appraisal, award of scholarship or academic degrees or credits in any form. with immediate effect, research publications only from journals indexed in ugc-care list should be used for all academic purposes”. the recent setting up of a consortium for academic and research ethics (care), by ugc to continuously monitor and identify quality journals across disciplines would go a long way in promoting high-quality research and academic integrity. it has also been informed that this care list of journals will be used in appointments and promotion of faculty members in universities. as the ugc notice says, of late, the mushrooming of ‘predatory’ online journals has risked the integrity of published research. several studies have revealed that india is among the major contributors of articles published in poor-quality ‘predatory’ journals (seethapathy et al , 2016). identifying a ‘predatory’ journal is itself a complicated task for a budding extension researcher. jeffrey beall, a librarian at auraria library and associate professor at the university of colorado denver, says that “not being listed in standard periodical directories or library databases” is one of the qualities of a ‘predatory’ journal. besides the ugc-care list, prospective authors can check the questionable journal’s membership in agencies such as doaj (directory of open access journals), open access scholarly publishers association (oaspa) and international of scientific, technical and medical publishers (stm). the real problem though, lies in the lack of awareness among indian researchers and regular conduct of workshops or training programmes on this issue by universities & research institutions across the country could help. well. at this juncture, i am happy to inform you that journal of extension education (jee) has been included in the ugc-care list of quality journals under the discipline, “social science”. recent studies taken up in kerala on various issues concerning agricultural extension dominate this issue of jee. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com. from the editor’s desk chief editor 1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 3, 2015 knowledge of precision farming beneficiaries a.v. greena1, s. kalaivani2 and s. palaniswamy3 abstract precision farming is one of the many advanced farming practices that make production more efficient by better resource management and reducing wastage. tn-iamwarm is a world bank funded project aims to improve the farm productivity and income through better water management. the present study was carried out in kambainallur sub basin of dharmapuri district with 120 tn-iamwarm beneficiaries as respondents. the result indicated that more than three fourth (76.67 %) of the respondents had high level of knowledge on precision farming technologies which was made possible by the implementation of tn-iamwarm project. the study further revealed that educational status, occupational status and exposure to agricultural messages had a positive and significant contribution to the knowledge level of the respondents at 0.01 level of probability whereas experience in precision farming and social participation had a positive and significant contribution at 0.05 level of probability. 1-pg scholar, dept. of agrl.extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore641 003, 2assistant professor (agrl.extension), ac&ri, eachangkottai, thanjavur – 614 902 and 3-professor & head, training division, tnau, coimbatore – 641 003. indian agriculture is characterized by small and marginal operational holdings. due to the small size of holdings and heterogeneity of cropping systems application of crude technologies of precision farming is not easy in india (shanwad et al., 2004). tamil nadu is one of the water deficit states in india, with only 925 millimeters of average rainfall in a year. agriculture is the largest consumer of water in the state, using 75 per cent of the state’s water. considering the huge demand of water for irrigation purpose, a state sponsored project, tamil nadu precision farming project (tnpfp) was implemented during 2004-05 to 2006-07 in dharmapuri and krishnagiri districts, aiming at improvement of agricultural sector with effective use of limited resources including water (tnau agritech portal). considering the huge impact of tamil nadu precision farming project, tamil nadu irrigated agriculture modernization and water bodies restoration and management (tn iamwarm), a world bank funded project was implemented with the prime motive of maximizing the productivity of water leading to improved farm incomes and products. precision farming is one of the important components of the project. under this project, 63 selected sub basins were covered from the year 2007 to 2015 covering an ayacut area of 6.17 lakh hectares with water resources organization as the nodal agency. in dharmapuri district this project was implemented in the year 2010 and the farmers were taught about water saving and improved production technologies of major crops. therefore a study was undertaken with an 5507knowledge of precision farming beneficiaries objective to assess the impact of recommended precision farming technologies on the knowledge of the tn-iamwarm beneficiaries. methodology expost facto research design was adopted with the beneficiaries of precision farming under tn-iamwarm project in kambainallur sub-basin of dharmapuri district as respondents of the study. from all the five blocks of the kambainallur sub-basin where the project was implemented 120 respondents were selected by employing proportionate random sampling method. the data were collected with the use of a well structured interview schedule. the collected data were analyzed using the statistical tools viz., percentage analysis, mean and standard deviation and multiple regression analysis. findings and discussion over all knowledge level of precision farming beneficiaries it could be inferred from table 1 that more than three fourth (76.67%) of the respondents had high level of knowledge on precision farming technologies followed by 17.50 per cent with medium level of knowledge leaving the remaining 5.83 per cent at low level. this might be due to the frequent field visits made by the scientists and field staff of tntable 1. distribution of respondents according to their overall knowledge level (n = 120) iamwarm project and the trainings and exhibitions conducted under the project. hence, the respondents got enough opportunities to gather more information about the technologies they are adopting as well to clarify their doubts regarding precision farming. the results are in line with satiyachitradevi (2006). technology wise knowledge of precision farming beneficiaries the knowledge of the respondents was measured in terms of a number technologies followed in precision farming. it could be observed from table 2 that all the respondents had knowledge about the type of irrigation used in precision farming. about 95.83 per cent and 88.33 per cent of the respondents had knowledge about the portrays used for preparing the nursery and the use of plastic mulching done in fields under precision farming. the water soluble fertilizers used in precision farming was known to 78.33 per cent of the respondents and 68.67 per cent sl. no. category number per cent 1. low 7 5.83 2. medium 92 76.67 3. high 21 17.50 total 120 100.00 journal of extension education5508 table 2. distribution of respondents according to their technology wise level of knowledge *multiple responses obtained sl. no. recommended technologies *number percent 1. trichoderma viride is used for seed treatment 82 68.67 2. plastic mulching is done in the field to conserve moisture as well as to suppress weeds 106 88.33 3. portrays are used for nursery preparation in precision farming 115 95.83 4. six mulching rolls are required per acre 82 68.33 5. the type of irrigation used in precision farming is drip irrigation 120 100.00 6. water soluble fertilizers are recommended under precision farming 94 78.33 7. planofix is used in vegetables to control flower shedding 66 55.00 8. acid used to clear clogging in drippers is hydrochloric acid 26 21.67 (n = 120) each had knowledge on the use of trichoderma viride which is used for seed treatment and number of mulching rolls required per acre. planofix which is used to control flower shedding was known to about 55.00 per cent of the respondents and only 21.67 per cent were knowledgeable about the name of the acid used to clear clogging in drippers. majority of the basic technologies in precision farming were known to most of the respondents. field visits by project staff, trainings, exhibitions, etc., might have helped them to gain more knowledge. contribution of the profile characteristics of respondents to their level of knowledge it could be seen from table 3 that the variables viz., educational status (x 2), occupational status (x3) and exposure to agricultural messages (x9) had a positive and significant contribution with the level of knowledge of the respondents at 0.01 level of probability whereas experience in precision farming (x7) and social participation (x11) had positive and significant contribution at 0.05 level of probability. it could be interpreted from the results that the level of knowledge would increase with increase in the educational status, occupational status, exposure to agricultural message, experience in precision farming and social participation. respondents with agriculture alone as their occupation would have more time to involve in activities that enhance their knowledge. exposure to agricultural messages, social participation and experience in precision farming would naturally contribute to the level of knowledge of the respondents as the respondents are getting more opportunities to get exposed to information on precision farming. as 5509knowledge of precision farming beneficiaries r2= 0.514; f=7.937 ** significant at 0.01 level of probability * significant at 0.05 level of probability ns = non-significant table 3. multiple regression analysis of profile characteristics of respondents with their level of knowledge x1. age 0.002 0.226 0.008 ns x2. educational status 0.505 0.072 7.039** x3. occupational status 0.152 0.141 1.075** x4. annual income -0.034 0.000 -0.226 ns x5. farm size -0.037 0.185 -0.202 ns x6. farming experience 0.010 0.009 1.063 ns x7. experience in precision farming 0.835 0.331 2.521* x8. shift in cropping pattern 0.170 0.141 1.209 ns x9. exposure to agricultural messages 0.094 0.031 3.022** x10. contact with extension and other agencies 0.002 0.054 0.029 ns x11. social participation 0.128 0.064 1.979* x12. attitude towards precision farming 0.006 0.065 0.090 ns x13. scientific orientation -0.064 0.063 -1.014 ns x14. economic motivation 0.029 0.047 0.631 ns ‘t’ value variable no. variables standarderror regression co-efficient precision farming is comparatively new, most of the agricultural programmes in television and radio focus on this in order to create awareness as well as to spread precision farming technologies among the people. various agricultural agencies such as tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) and state department of agriculture also take initiatives to enhance the knowledge of the farmers on precision farming. emanuele et al. (2013) also reported that the knowledge on precision farming mainly depended on previous experience of the farmers in similar area. conclusion the present study revealed that nearly two third of the beneficiaries of tn-iamwarm project possessed high level of knowledge on precision farming. the high level of knowledge can be attributed to the frequent field visits, trainings exhibitions etc. which were conducted under the project. since precision farming was felt as more innovative way of farming which would give higher income, almost all the beneficiaries had interest to gain more knowledge about precision farming journal of extension education5510 technologies. majority of the respondents were knowledgeable about the basic technologies followed under precision farming such as mulching, drip irrigation etc. since majority of the respondents were old aged it was difficult for many of them to memorize some of the technical terms used in precision farming. the practical exposure which the beneficiaries got from the tn-iamwarm project helped them to improve their knowledge. references emanuele pierpaoli., giacomo carli., erika pignatti and maurizio canavari. 2013. drivers of precision agriculture technologies adoption: a literature review. 6 th international conference on information and communication technologies in agriculture, food and environment (haicta). sathiyachitradevi, m. 2006. spread and acceptance of low cost technologies of major crops by resource poor farmers. unpub. m.sc. (ag.) thesis, tnau, coimbatore. shanwad, u.k., v.c. patil and h. honne gowda. 2004. precision farming: dreams and realities of indian agriculture, map india. tnau agrietch portal (agritech.tnau.ac.in) 1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 3, 2015 issues and preferences of horticulture farmers r. venkattakumar1 and b. narayanaswamy2 abstract a national farmers meet (nfm) was organized by indian council of agricultural research (icar) and tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) at regional research station (rrs), paiyur, tamil nadu on 14.3.2015. the purpose was to sensitize the farmers about improved horticultural production technologies and obtain first-hand information about issues of horticulture farmers of karnataka, tamil nadu, andhra pradesh and kerala. a brief survey was conducted at nfm with horticulture farmers as respondents (60) through a structured questionnaire. analysis of the survey data indicated that mango, tomato and marigold are the major fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops cultivated respectively. non-availability of critical inputs such as fertilizers, seeds/ planting material and lack of remunerative market price are the major issues in contemporary horticulture, apart from unawareness towards improved horticulture production technologies. field demonstrations and offcampus training programmes are the two major extension interventions preferred by the horticulture farmers; whereas mass media channels are preferred as information sources apart from institutional sources such as development departments and research institutes. appropriate extension strategies are suggested based on the findings of the survey. 1-principal scientist and head and 2principal scientist, division of extension and training, icar-iihr, bengaluru. the diverse agro-climatic scenario in india enables production of a variety of tropical, sub-tropical and temperate horticultural crops, thereby facilitating crop-diversification, employment generation and livelihood security. the horticulture sector in india is a sunrise sector. the growth of this sector is faster than other sectors in the overall agricultural situation. one of the reasons is the increasing demand for fresh and processed horticultural produce from both rural and urban consumers. horticulture sector in india encompasses production of fruits (32%), vegetables including tubers (60%), plantation crops (5%), spices (2%), flowers and medicinal plants and aromatic plants (1%). the export earnings through horticultural products revolve around rs.8761 crores (iihr annual report, 2013-14). though india leads in production of many fruits and vegetables, the productivity of fruits (about 11 tonnes/ha) and vegetables (about 17 tonnes/ ha) is less compared to leading countries in the world. amidst such circumstances, india aims to double its production of horticultural crops by 2030 to meet the ever growing demand. hence, there is an indispensable need for enhancing production and productivity of horticultural products. enhancing horticultural production is a factor of transfer of improved horticultural production technologies from research organizations to the horticultural farmers and other stakeholders. the transfer of improved journal of extension education5500 horticultural production technology should be need-based, aimed at solving the contemporary issues faced by the horticulture farmers and match their preferences towards information sources and extension interventions. to augment such transfer of technology efforts, frequent assessment of issues faced by horticulture farmers and their preferences etc., is essential. national farmers meet 2015 with the above-mentioned background, indian council of agricultural research (icar) in collaboration with tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau), coimbatore, organized a national farmers meet (nfm) at regional research station (rrs), paiyur, tamil nadu on march 13, 2015. it was an unique programme and first of its kind because about 1000 horticulture farmers from karnataka, tamil nadu, andhra pradesh and kerala participated in the programme. the immediate purpose was to create awareness about improved horticultural production technologies among the horticulture farmers and to understand the issues faced by them in horticulture production. the nfm employed different extension methods such as exhibition of improved production technology of horticulture crops exhibited by various institutes of icar and tnau, who mandated to work on horticulture crops; visits to demonstrations and experimental plots; method demonstrations of horticulture machinery and implements and farmers-scientists interface meeting. during the interface meeting, solutions were suggested by the scientists towards the queries/ doubts raised by farmers. the scientists too obtained first-hand feedback about the contemporary issues in horticulture prevailing in karnataka, tamil nadu, andhra pradesh and kerala. in a nutshell, this programme was a complete one that catered to the information needs of farmers and scientists. this programme was also used as a platform to assess and prioritize the issues and preferences of horticulture farmers as reported earlier (narayaswamy et al., 2005) . this papers discusses the salient findings that emanated from such assessment. methodology it was proposed during the nfm to conduct a survey in order to identify the major crops grown by horticulture farmers in karnataka, tamil nadu and andhra pradesh; to assess the contemporary issues in horticulture faced by them; their information seeking behaviour and the their preferences towards extension interventions. the purpose was to utilize such information for arriving at strategies towards pragmatic designing of extension programmes (venkattakumar and padmaiah, 2012). to this effect, a structured interview schedule was designed and employed to collect the data from farmers, who participated in nfm. the interview schedule was distributed to the farmers, who visited the exhibition stall of icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), established at nfm site. approximately 600 farmers (n-population) from karnataka, tamil nadu and andhra pradesh visited the exhibition stall of icar5501issues and preferences of horticulture farmers iihr. out of the 600 farmers, 60 farmers (10%), filled-in the schedule and returned back, thus constituted the sample (n) of the study. the collected data were tabulated and analyzed. the data pertaining to crops grown by the horticulture farmers was analyzed through percentage analysis, whereas the data pertaining to issues in horticulture as perceived by the farmers, their information seeking behaviour and their preferences towards extension interventions were analyzed through rank-based quotient (rbq) analysis. the rbq vale was arrived through the following formula (shenoy et al., 2006): factor; n= number of ranks; fi= number of farmers ranked a particular critical success factor under ith rank. findings and discussion major horticulture crops mango is the major fruit crop grown by nearly two-third of the participants (61.66%) of nfm, followed by banana, which is grown by more than two-fifth of the respondents (43.33%) (table 1). the horticulture farmers, who participated in the nfm also grow fruit crops such as papaya and guava. among the vegetable crops, tomato is the major one cultivated by three-fifth of the farmers (60.0%), followed by hot pepper, which is cultivated by nearly half of the farmers (48.33%). egg-plant and ladies finger are the rbq= i1n “ fi (n+1-i) x 100 n x n where, i= rank concerned; n= total number of respondents responded for a critical success table 1. major horticulture crops grown by farmers (n=60) sl.no. crop percent (%) 1. mango 61.66 2. tomato 60.00 3. chilli 48.33 4. banana 43.33 5. jasmine 35.00 6. brinjal 26.66 7. papaya 21.66 8. rose 20.00 9. chrysanthemum 15.00 10. marigold 13.30 11. guava 11.66 12. okra 11.66 journal of extension education5502 other major vegetable crops cultivated by the respondents. similarly, among the ornamental crops, jasmine is the major crop cultivated by more than one-third of the farmers (35%), whereas rose, chrysanthemum and marigold are the other ornamental crops cultivated. though, meaningful interpretations cannot be arrivedat about the crops cultivated by the respondents, the information given in table 1 gives the profile of horticulture crops in terms of predominant crops grown and such information provides implications towards research and extension priority setting in karnataka, tamil nadu and andhra pradesh. issues in horticulture non-availability of critical inputs such as fertilizers, seeds/ planting material (rank 1 & 4) and lack of remunerative market price (rank 3) are the major issues in contemporary horticulture, apart from unawareness towards improved horticulture production technologies (table 2). such information implies the ineffectiveness of existing extension mechanism of the state level development departments. hence, there is a need for promoting innovative extension models such as horticultural producers’ co-operative marketing and processing society ltd. (hopcoms), national dairy development board (nddb) safal, farmers’ producer organizations (fpos), contract farming, agriclinics and agribusiness centres (acabc) etc., who can cater to the broad-based needs of horticulture farmers. severe pest incidence, non-availability of timely market information, severe disease incidence, non-availability of sl.no. problems rbq value rank 1. non-availability of fertilizers 70.7 1 2. unawareness towards improved production technologies 65.7 2 3. lack of remunerative market price 65.4 3 4. non-availability of planting materials /seeds 62.6 4 5. severe pest incidence 51.1 5 6. non-availability of timely market information 48.5 6 7. severe disease incidence 40.7 7 8. non-availability of insecticides/chemicals 38.1 8 9. lack of irrigation source/ facilities 30.0 9 average 52.5 table 2. issues in production of horticulture crops (n=60) 5503issues and preferences of horticulture farmers insecticides/chemicals and lack of irrigation source/ facilities are the other issues in growing horticulture crops. information seeking behaviour of horticulture farmers it is interesting to note that the horticulture farmers seek information pertaining to horticulture production technology primarily from department of horticulture (rank 1) and research stations/ institutes (rank 3), apart from television programmes (rank 2) (table 3). radio (rank 4) and newspapers (rank 5) are the other important mass media sources from which the horticulture farmers seek information. this information implies that there is a need to effectively utilize the mass media channels to disseminate improved horticulture production technologies to farmers. the development departments and research organizations need to formulate special strategies to utilize the mass media channels such as sponsoring radio serials, trying innovative television formats and writing success stories in news papers. preferences of horticulture farmers towards extension interventions field demonstrations and off-campus training programmes are the two major extension interventions preferred by the horticulture farmers (table 4). the table 3. information seeking behaviour of horticulture farmers (n=60) sl.no. information source rbq value rank 1. department of horticulture 70.7 1 2. television 66.4 2 3. research stations/institutes 48.3 3 4. radio 45.2 4 5. newspaper 43.7 5 6. input dealers 38.1 6 7. kvks 36.3 7 8. progressive farmer / contact farmer 31.9 8 9. ngos 31.5 9 average 45.8 journal of extension education5504 table 4. preferences of horticulture farmers towards extension interventions (n=60) sl.no. intervention rbq value rank 1. field demonstration 67.1 1 2. off-campus training 50.2 2 3. krishi mela 46.0 3 4. exposure visits 45.0 4 5. exhibition 45.0 4 6. interaction meeting 42.9 6 7. on-campus training 38.1 7 average 47.8 development departments/kvks and extension wings of research institutes need to employ these interventions in order to effectively disseminate the improved horticulture production technologies. here, the important point to remember is that, wherever, the field demonstrations are organized, corresponding field days are to be organized at the peak period of the crop. krishi melas, exposure visits, exhibitions, interaction meetings and on-campus training programmes are the other extension interventions expressed by horticulture farmers and their respective order of preference has been given in table 4. conclusion the nfm organized by icar and tnau at rrs, paiyur, tamil nadu was a complete platform to analyse the issues and preferences in contemporary horticulture production. the analysis of the response of farmers from karnataka, tamil nadu and andhra pradesh implied meaningful suggestions towards effective extension strategies for dissemination of improved horticulture production technologies as follows: non-availability of critical inputs is the major issue in horticulture production; hence, there is a need for promoting innovative extension models in horticulture to cater to broad-based needs of horticulture farmers. mass media channels are the major sources of information for horticulture farmers in seeking information pertaining to improved horticulture production technologies; hence, the extension personnel need to effectively employ radio, television and newspapers for dissemination horticulture information. 5505issues and preferences of horticulture farmers field demonstrations coupled with field days and off-campus training programmes are the preferred extension interventions by horticulture framers; hence extension personnel need to effectively employ these methods effectively. references iihr annual report 2013-14. indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, karnataka. p 198. narayaswamy, b., ramakrishna, naika., nataraju, m s. and narayana, gowda k. 2005. opinion of farmers on krishi mela and their suggestions. journal of extension education. 16 (1&2). shenoy, sandhya n., rama, rao d., rao, n h., reddy, m n. and sontakki, b s. 2006. icts for sharing agricultural information in rural india, ap cess project report, national academy of agricultural research management (naarm), hyderabad, p 1-20. venkattakumar, r. and padmaiah, m. 2012. a strategic communication technique for transfer of castor and sunflower production technologies. journal of oilseeds research. 29 (1): 77-83. 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 relationship between knowledge level with characteristics of pulses seed growers s. janani1, a. palaniswamy2 and m. balarubini3 abstract the study was undertaken to study the relationship between knowledge level and profile characteristics of pulses seed growers. a sample of 90 pulses seed growing farmers was selected from 3 blocks of coimbatore district in tamil nadu. the blocks were kinathukadavu, thondamuthur and karamadai. for the study 30 farmers from each of the three blocks, where the highest number of farmers cultivating pulses for seed production were selected by employing simple random sampling technique in each block. collection of data was done with the help of semi structured interview schedule. the study revealed that experience in seed production, social participation, urban contact and information seeking behaviour would increase the knowledge level of seed growers. the variables experience in seed production was contributing more than 75 per cent of the variation in the knowledge level. 1&3 ph. d scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology and 2 professor, directorate of extension education, training division, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore – 3. the seed industry in india has been making great strides since independence. the indian seed industry is well placed to serve both domestic and international markets. the seed industry is now in a position to meet the demand of diverse agro-climatic conditions and intensive cropping systems. the everincreasing demand for agriculture products can only be met by sustained increase in production and productivity to which quality seeds of new and improved varieties contribute to a greater extent. the indian seed industry is now in a better position to face such challenges by investing more in research and developmental programmes, use of biotechnology, collaborations with like minded research companies to bring synergy, addition of new range of crops, products and technologies and also value-addition to the existing crops by traditional methods. given the growth of the seed sector in recent years, india has the potential to become the foremost player in the seed export business in the developing world with prospective markets in asia, africa and south america. the seed industry has made impressive strides from a modest beginning in seed production and the quality seed distributed increased from 1.83 lakh quintal in 1953-54 to 190 lakh quintal in 2008-09. (policy note, agriculture, 2010-11). making quality seeds available is the biggest challenge before the seed sector. thus, keeping in view the above said factors the study was undertaken to find out the relationship between knowledge and profile characteristics of pulses seed growers. methodology the study was conducted in 3 blocks of journal of extension education5402 coimbatore district in tamil nadu. the blocks were kinathukadavu, thondamuthur and karamadai. for the study 30 farmers from each of the three blocks, where the highest number of farmers cultivating pulses for seed production were selected. accordingly 90 pulses seed growing farmers were chosen by employing simple random sampling technique. data were collected by using semi structured and pre tested interview schedule. simple correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyse the data. findings and discussion the nature and degree of association between the characteristics and the knowledge level of pulses seed growers was worked out and the results are presented in the table 1. for studying the association and contribution, simple correlation and multiple regression analyses were used. the variables which exhibited only positive or negative relationship have been taken into consideration for discussion in detail and the variables which exhibited no significant relationship are not analysed. table 1. simple correlation analysis of knowledge level with profile characteristics of pulses seed growers (n= 90) variable no. variables ‘r’ values x1 age 0.546 ** x2 educational status 0.018 ns x3 occupational status 0.295 ** x4 farm size 0.021 ns x5 crops grown 0.180 ns x6 area under seed production 0.190 ns x7 experience in seed production 0.759 ** x8 annual income 0.150 ns x9 social participation 0.525 ** x10 urban contact 0.330 ** x11 information seeking behaviour 0.430 ** x12 economic motivation 0.204 ns x13 scientific orientation 0.016 ns x14 risk orientation 0.122 ns x15 decision making ability 0.193 ns ** significant at 1 per cent level * significant at 5 per cent level ns non – significant 5403relationship between knowledge level with characteristics of pulses seed growers it could be seen from table 1 that out of the 15 independent variables studied, four variables had shown positive and significant association with knowledge level of pulses seed growers. the variables namely experience in seed production (x7), social participation (x9), urban contact (x10) and information seeking behaviour (x11) had shown positive and significant association with knowledge level at one per cent level of probability. the variables namely age (x1), occupational status (x3) showed negative and highly significant relationship with the knowledge level at one per cent level. the variables like educational status (x2), farm size (x4). crops grown (x5), area under seed production (x6), annual income (x8), economic motivation (x12), scientific orientation (x13), risk orientation (x14) and decision making ability (x15) did not show any significant association with knowledge. age (x1) had negative and significant relationship with knowledge level of the respondents. this may be due to, as years pass by, a farmer accumulates experiences that are mostly successful in nature along with occasional failure in crop production, crop management etc., layer by layer. whenever situation demands, he recalls those experiences with the present conflict problem to be resolved on his own. if this strategy fails to give the answer then he will seek the opinion from his friends and relatives in tune with recommendation offered by the officials. hence age is not a deciding variable with respect to knowledge level. agriculture is the primary occupation of the respondents (85.00 per cent). the pulses seed production is mostly guided by ao/aso. they involved themselves with the farmers right from sowing to harvesting operations. due to buy back arrangements and need for seed multiplication. there is continuous demand for supply of pulses throughout the year. however, it is not matched with supply, creating a short supply of seeds which is not understood by the seed growers properly. only few innovative and progressive farmers are willing to raise the pulse crop other than summer season under irrigated condition by consulting university scientists and dealers. hence at present, a negative relationship has been found. experience in seed production, social participation and information seeking behaviour had showed positive and highly significant relationship with the knowledge level. this shows that knowledge is sine-quanon. farmers gain experience in cultivation by trial and error method, before seeking advice and guidance with respect to agriculture and allied activities. seed production being a specialized and technical nature would have made the farmers to develop positive attitude towards extension agency contact, greater mass media exposure and information seeking behaviour etc. all these above factors contributed to the positive relationship with the knowledge level. social participation had high significant relationship with knowledge level of the respondents. this indicates that when the social participation increases, the knowledge level correspondingly increases. this positive correlation is at one per cent level. social journal of extension education5404 participation includes the participation as a member or office bearer in village panchayat, panchayat union, co-op society and fdg. the participation in these organizations increases the interaction among the members and correspondingly the knowledge level increases. by way of becoming a member in many organizations, a lot of opportunities are provided in participating skill and knowledge oriented trainings, study visits, organization of exhibitions and similar knowledge upgrading extension activities over period of time. hence, the reported finding. information seeking behaviour had shown a positive and highly significant relationship with knowledge level gained. more knowledge could have provided more possibilities to interact with various kinds of people, which could have helped them to acquire more knowledge on the pulses seed production technologies. table 2. multiple regression analysis of characteristics of seed growers with their knowledge level x1 age -3.222 0.920 -3.503* x2 educational status -0.624 0.639 -0.977 ns x3 occupational status 0.382 1.836 0.208 ns x4 farm size 0.979 1.604 0.610 ns x5 crops grown -0.980 0.505 -1.939* x6 area under seed production -0.084 1.067 -0.079 ns x7 experience in seed production 7.946 1.502 5.289** x8 annual income 1.662 1.325 1.254 ns x9 social participation 0.113 0.133 0.848 ns x10 urban contact -0.116 0.309 -0.374 ns x11 information seeking behaviour -0.005 0.009 -0.542 ns x12 economic motivation -0.010 0.456 -0.021 ns x13 scientific orientation -0.026 0.193 -0.137 ns x14 risk orientation -0.121 0.516 -0.235 ns x15 decision making ability 0.265 0.395 0.672 ns r2 = 0.689 ** significant at 1per cent level a = 33.502 * significant at 5per cent level f = 10.928 ** ns non – significant variable no. variables regression coefficient ‘t’ valuestandard error 5405relationship between knowledge level with characteristics of pulses seed growers this finding is similar to the findings of deepa (2003), jayalakshmi (2004) and elakkia (2007). the multiple regression analysis was performed to find out the extent of contribution of each independent variable towards the knowledge level of pulses seed growers. table 2 indicates that the r2 value was 0.689 which revealed that 68.90 per cent of variation in the knowledge level was explained by the 15 independent variables selected for the study. since the ‘f’ value was significant at one per cent level of probability the prediction equation was fitted for knowledge level of the respondents as given below. y1 = 33.502 – 3.222x1 0.624x2 + 0.382x3 + 0.979x4 – 0.980x5 0.084x6 + 7.946x7 + 1.662x8 + 0.113x9 0.116x10 0.005x11 – 0.010x12 – 0.026x13 – 0.121x14 + 0265x15 it could be seen from the above equation that the regression coefficient of one variable namely experience in seed production (x7) was found to be positive and significant with the knowledge level of pulses seed growers at one per cent of probability. age (x1) and crops grown (x5) had negative and significant association with the knowledge level of pulses seed growers at five per cent level of probability. the strength of contribution of these variables can be explained as ceteris paribus, i.e., one unit increase in experience in seed production (x7) would bring 7.946 units increase in knowledge gain respectively. from the study it could be concluded that experience in seed production (x7), age (x1) and crops grown (x5) were the three variables significantly contributing for the knowledge. conclusion it could be concluded that the variables experience in seed production, social participation, urban contact and information seeking behaviour were significantly and positively correlated with the knowledge level of pulses seed growers. further, it could be concluded that the variable experience in seed production was found to be influential on knowledge level of pulses seed growers. the study would indicate the direction for the planners, administrators and extension experts to modernise the training strategy. references deepa, m. k. 2003. a study on technological gaps in adoption of eco-friendly technologies of vegetables. unpub. m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac & ri, tnau. coimbatore. elakkia, n. 2007. training needs of vegetable growers on organic farming practices in western zone of tamil nadu. unpub. m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac & ri, tnau, coimbatore. jayalakshmi, m 2004. awareness, knowledge and technological gap between system and contributing factors. unpub. m.sc. (ag.) thesis, ac & ri, tnau, coimbatore. policy note, 2010-2011. demand no. 5 – agriculture wrapper.cdr 6370 1 associate researcher in agricultural extension, socio economic and agricultural extension research directorate, sekota dry-land agricultural research centre, ethiopia research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6370-6380 received : 14-01-2020; accepted : 05-03-2020 participatory evaluation and promotion of improved bread wheat technology in the dry lands of wag-lasta, ethiopia: challenges and prospects ademe abera mihiretu1 abstract this study was conducted to evaluate the comparative advantage, farmers’ preference and stakeholders’ linkage in bread wheat technology, involving 100 farmers in wag-lasta, ethiopia. both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used to compare the improved technology with the local practice. cost-benefit ratio, descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for quantitative analysis. farmers’ technology preference and stakeholders’ linkage were assessed using likert scale and swot analysis. the improved technology had 116.7% yield advantage over the local practice and was economically profitable. nonetheless, the farmers were describing that full package application was tough due to lack of practical training, package complication and labor shortage in descending order. except resistance to pest, most farmers had positive attitude towards identified preference parameters. strengths and weaknesses of stakeholders in the promotion were recognized matching with opportunities and threats. therefore, the improved technology is suggested for wider diffusion in the study area. providing extension and training, on top of identifying viable sources and multiplying cooperatives to the technology would enhance the farmers’ uptake. keywords: bread wheat; cost-benefit ratio; preference; stakeholder linkage; swot analysis; ethiopia. introduction in ethiopia, wheat grows in humid and sub-humid agro ecological zones of the highland temperate mixed farming system. the land under wheat cultivation was expanded from 1.4 to 2.6 million hectare since 2004, and the production was also increased by 2.9 million tons in the last fifteen years (csa, 2019). it is cultivated annually on 1.66 million hectare in ethiopia with a total production of 4.23 million tons and an average productivity of 2.54 ton ha-1. this makes the country the second largest wheat producer in sub-saharan africa (csa, 2019). the national average productivity of wheat is below the east african average with a range of 11-12%. it is also inferior to the african and the world average by 23% 6371 and 44%, respectively. the domestic wheat production accounts 79 per cent of local supply while the rest is imported (csa, 2017). major wheat producing areas in ethiopia are arsi, bale, shewa, ilubabor, western hareghe, sidamo, northern gondar, and gojam zones. amhara region accounts for 529826.54 hectare area coverage under wheat and 1195986.83 ton of total production with an average productivity of 2.36 ton ha-1 (csa, 2019). eastern amhara especially north wollo zone is in the highland agro ecology suitable to wheat production. north wollo zone accounts 4.30% of total wheat production in the region, which makes one of the major wheat producing zone in amhara region next to east gojam, north gonder and south wollo zones (csa, 2019). however, its productivity is far below the crop’s potential mainly due to biotic and abiotic constraint. more specifically, due to low soil fertility, absence of improved wheat varieties, and other inputs such as less utilization of fertilizer and lack of decent management in general (ademe and asmiro, 2018). to overcome this problem, sekota dry-land agricultural research center in its crop research directorate had been adapting different bread wheat varieties and recommended the best performing and preferred variety called “hawi” with its technology packages to lasta areas of north wollo in eastern amhara. the new bread wheat technology1 was demonstrated on farmers’ small plot, and then farmers evaluate the technology from socioeconomic and agro ecological perspectives. they were hence highly interested with its performance and pursuing to cultivate and use the technology for future. this circumstance dictated the agricultural extension researchers to promote and upscale the technology in wider-scale trough creating and strengthening linkage among possible stakeholders. specifically, the study intended to assess the comparative advantage of improved bread wheat technology over the local practice, to examine farmers’ reaction and demand on the improved technology and finally to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of possible actors in the extension system. methodology study area the study was conducted in the potential areas of lasta district in northeast amhara region, ethiopia, for two consecutive production years (2016-2017). the district located at an altitude of 2400 meters above sea level having annual rainfall of 895.2 mm and average temperature of 26.20c. the dominant soil type of the district is black sandy and loam (mihiretu, asresu and wabet, 2019). sampling and experimental procedure in this study, the improved bread wheat technology was promoted in comparison with 1 in this study ‘bread wheat technology’ stands for full package application (using improved bread wheat variety with its recommended fertilizer and seed rates, on optimally tilled farms, in row and timely sowing as well as proper weed and pest management) participatory evaluation and promotion of improved bread wheat technology in the dry lands of wag-lasta, ethiopia: challenges and prospects 6372 local production practice through scale-wide participatory approach. in the first stage, lasta district was purposively selected by its production potential in moisture deficit areas of northeastern amhara region. in the second stage, 100 farmers who were willing to allocate 0.25-0.50 hectare of clustered land for the experiment were selected. before launching the experiment, researchers organized operational platform to create awareness, share duties, and responsibilities among concerned stakeholders (table 1). to strengthen the awareness level, farmers and experts were provided basic agronomic training on the improved bread wheat technology in particular and the extension approach in general. planting of improved wheat technology was in row using 110 kg ha-1 seed rate. urea and di-ammonium phosphate (dap) fertilizers were applied at the rates of 50 and 100 kg ha-1, respectively. however, the local farmers practice was sown in broadcast using 150 kg ha-1 seed rate and without fertilizer. cluster approach was preferred, because it helps to create competition among farmers in field management, pest and disease control. moreover, it attracts the eyes of neighbor farmers thereby inspire them to ask, observe table 1. duties and responsibilities of stakeholders in bread wheat technology promotion and diffusion in lasta district researchers preparing manuals and provide training for farmers and experts confirm selected cluster farms and deliver seed on time offer technical support to farmers and experts organizing field days with district agriculture offices experts from agriculture office sm s’ participate in workshops and trainings provide technical support in farm and farmer selection monitor the activities and participate in field days d a s select clustered farms and measure the size using gps provide technical support in technology application provide information to researchers on disease outbreaks facilitate farmers’ seed exchange system farmers collect fertilizer and prepare the farm to the optimum level planting on time, managing weed and harvest on time keeping seed quality to give back to the source center exchange the seed to interested farmers in any arrangement note: sms', subject matter specialists; das, development agents journal of extension education 6373 and finally to accept the technology (feder et al., 1985). finally, extension activities like field days and diagnostic visits were performed to create awareness about the technology thereby to benefit the farmers in the end. data collection and analysis both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. quantitative data such as grain and biomass yields of the technologies were collected at farm level using quadrant while farmers’ socioeconomic features were collected employing structured questionnaire (mihiretu and assefa, 2019). economic data, such as variable costs of fertilizer, seed and labour were collected using questionnaire, while the economic data was estimated from grain and biomass yields using the farm gate price. however, qualitative data such as farmers’ reaction and demand of the technology were collected with unstructured open-ended questions. secondary data was collected from different published and unpublished sources. the quantitative data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics (viz., percentage, mean and standard deviation). paired sample t-test was used to observe the yield significance between the improved technology and local practice (mihiretu et al., 2019a). likewise, the benefit-cost ratio analysis was used to analyse the comparative advantage of improved technology over the local practice. farmers’ reaction and demand to the technology were assessed in likert scale rating method. cronbach’s alpha test was employed to assess the internal consistency among opinion obtained through multiple likert-type items. besides, thematic oriented narration was used to describe information obtained from focus group discussions (fgds) (mihiretu, eric and lemma, 2019). moreover, swot analysis was used to assess the external and internal environments of stakeholders in the extension system. it was used to specify and categorize stakeholders’ strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats. this can finally help stakeholders to develop strategies based on strengths and vanishing weaknesses, as well as to gain maximum profit using opportunities and offsetting the threats (ibrahim et al., 2019). findings and discussion characteristics of participant farmers and farms the average age of participant farmers in bread wheat technology promotion was 42.10 with mean farming experience of 21.20 years, which shows that they were in active age strata, enabling them to understand the new technology. among participant farmers, 23.10 per cent were female-headed while the rest were male-headed households with the average family size of 3.9. likewise, more than half (59.10%) of the participant farmers were not going to school. all participant farmers were got training, but 25.60% agreed that the training provided was not adequate to apply the technology package. tilling frequency of farms governs the productivity of any crop technology; so that the agronomic findings suggest that ‘three times tilling is an optimum level’ for bread wheat technology. accordingly, participatory evaluation and promotion of improved bread wheat technology in the dry lands of wag-lasta, ethiopia: challenges and prospects 6374 78.50% of farmers involved in the promotion were tilling their land beyond and at sufficient level, while the remaining tilled below the optimum. this tillage difference was observed due to household’s dissimilarity in access to draft animals, labor, as well as soil gradient and slope variance of farms that farmers owned. moreover, timely completion of agronomic activities has a direct effect on crop technology’s productivity. hence, 94.10% table 2. characteristics of participant farmers and their farms in lasta district (n=100) category variables indicator estimates demographic characteristics gender of the head of the household (%) male female 76.90 23.10 age of the head of the household (years) mean s.d 42.10 10.41 educational level of the head of the household (%) literate illiterate 40.90 59.10 farming experience of the head of household (years) mean s.d 21.20 8.54 family size of the household mean s.d 3.90 2.34 improved wheat technology production characteristics size of land allocated for wheat technology (ha) mean s.d 0.25 0.14 farm tillage frequency (%) ≥3x <3x 78.50 21.50 planting was on time (%) yes no 94.10 5.90 weed management was on critical time (%) yes no 91.80 8.20 access to agricultural services the training provided was sufficient (%) yes no 74.40 25.60 the follow up of experts was adequate (%) yes no 93.80 6.20 s.d: standard deviation journal of extension education 6375 and 91.80% of farmers were planting on critical time and had good weed management, respectively. performance and efficiency of improved bread wheat technology yield is main criterion of farmers in adopting any crop technology. the combined analysis result revealed that the productivity of hawi improved bread wheat technology was better than the local practice. the mean yield of improved bread wheat technology was 2600 kg ha-1 hence it had asignificant yield increment of 1400 kg ha-1 from the local average production (1200 kg ha-1) (p<0.01). therefore, the use of hawi improved bread wheat with its technology packages had a yield advantage of 116.60 per cent over the local bread wheat production. in addition, the average straw biomass of 3688.7 kg ha-1 obtained from the improved technology was greater than the local practice. the improved bread wheat technology had a significant straw biomass yield advantage of 79.10 per cent over the local production practice in the study area (p<0.01) . this actual yield variation in grain and biomass might be due to differences in sowing date, fertilizer and other package components used for the improved technology. production costs that are fixed for both improved and local wheat production practices were not calculated because they were similar and thus have no effect among treatments (mihiretu & assefa, 2019). given the prevailing farm gate prices, the benefitcost ratio was computed on hectare basis. the variable costs of improved and local bread wheat production practices were etb 5885 and 3750, respectively. the farmers were able to generate a gross margin of etb 59410.1 and 26414.8 from the improved and local bread wheat technologies, respectively (table 4). therefore, the cost-benefit ratio result revealed that though both production practices are profitable, adopting the improved bread wheat technology could make the highest profit (etb11.8) after covering costs. this finding conveys that using improved bread wheat technology in lasta district is promising and profitable compared to the existing local production practice. with regard to technology profitability, fgd participant farmers stated that: the improved bread wheat technology is economically efficient as it reduces the seed rate by 36.40 per cent from the conventional production practice on a hectare basis. this is to mean that the improved technology uses a seed rate of 110 kg ha-1 while the local practice uses 150kg ha-1.[fgd, 21/03/2017]. farmers’ preference and demand for improved bread wheat technology as described in table 3, except for resistance to pest most farmers had positive view to the rest of preference parameters. in general, the responses average score is 4.1. this average score implies that farmers perceived and accepted the improved bread wheat technology with full confidence. participatory evaluation and promotion of improved bread wheat technology in the dry lands of wag-lasta, ethiopia: challenges and prospects 6376 with regard to resistance to pest, fgd participant farmers revealed that: the improved technology is poor in pest resistance. however, in terms of maturity the farmers said that it was early maturing because “planted lately as it has to be sown in good moisture but reaped as early as the local”. besides, the improved technology has higher market demand for its big and white seed, on top of its bread baking quality [fgd, 23/02/2017]. moreover, reliability test was carried out for internal consistency among 12 perception items in likert scale. the statistics table gives a coefficient score over 0.7 tells higher internal consistency. in this case, α = 0.83, revealing that items are reliable and appeared to be worthy of retention. among participant farmers, 85.90 per cent were highly interested to use the bread wheat technology by next year. likewise, 85.50 per cent of the participants recommended other eligible neighbor farmers to use the technology by reporting the merits via storytelling, physical invitation to visit and using both approaches. therefore, 85.90 per cent were positive to use in the future while the rest will not take due to labor shortage though they were pleased with the technology. table 3. farmers’ perception and demand to the improved bread wheat technology (n = 100) sl. no. parameters sd d n a sa sum mean 1. the germination performance is good ---59.00 41.00 441 4.41 2. the vegetative performance is good ---53.80 46.20 446 4.47 3. the seed setting performance is good ---34.60 65.40 433 4.33 4. the technology is disease resistant --7.60 46.20 46.20 344 3.44 5. the technology is pest resistant -59.00 -41.00 - 263 2.63 6. the technology is early maturing -3.80 -23.10 73.10 461 4.61 7. improved technology increased yield ---50.00 50.00 451 4.51 8. straw biomass of the technology is good --7.50 60.00 32.50 420 4.20 9. marketability of the technology is good -5.10 11.50 46.20 37.2 390 3.90 10. the food quality is good --10.20 28.30 61.50 444 4.44 averaged mean score = 4.10 cronbach’s alpha coefficient, α = 0.83 note: values are in percentage points; sd: strongly disagree, d: disagree, n: neutral, a: agree, sa: strongly agree journal of extension education 6377 constraints of full package application in bread wheat technology among factors, ease in application of technology is playing significant role in technology adoption. thus, with follow up by researchers and experts, most of the farmers were applied the full technology package but 55.20 per cent of them described package application in general and row sowing in particular was tough. this is due to lack of practical training, complexity of the technology, labor shortage in main agronomic periods, as well as a combination of lack of practical training and labor shortage in descending order. however, almost all farmers agreed that technology application as per the recommendation is very helpful to increase yield and yield components. linkages, technology diffusion and exchange system distribution of duties among stakeholders would consolidate the triple linkages of farmers-extension-research for sustainable technology promotion. as a result, agricultural experts at different levels were handling tasks to facilitate technology dissemination via continuous follow up, technical support, and consultation. at the end of experiment, field day was organized involving 540 participant farmers, agricultural experts, ngos, and political leaders. stakeholders who were participated in the field day, showed full interest and took lesson to work in alliance for the benefit of resource poor smallholder farmers. likewise, clustering approach was appreciated as it creates competition among farmers on farm management as well as for its “eye catching power” to impress individuals around the demonstration plots. among the methods used for wider dissemination of improved technologies, solid seed exchange system takes the front line. participant farmers thus shared the technology with interested farmers in and outside the village via different exchange arrangements (table 4). hence, participant farmers shared 880 kg bread wheat seed with fellow farmers. food and agriculture organization (ngo) has distributed 1380 kg improved bread wheat to similar agro-ecologies using earlier farmers as a source. generally, the cooperation among concerned actors in the promotion process boosted compared to the preceding years. table 4. improved bread wheat technology exchange and dissemination in lasta district (n=100) farmers shared the technology recipient farmers quantity exchanged (kg) inside village outside village farmers ngos frequency 68 180 125 880 1380 percentage 68 59.1 40.9 source: own survey computation (2016-2017) participatory evaluation and promotion of improved bread wheat technology in the dry lands of wag-lasta, ethiopia: challenges and prospects 6378 finally, closing workshop was organized involving stakeholders like seed enterprises, agriculture development offices and ngos engaged in the sector to devise ways to forward the technology to wider community in sustainable manner. in this regard, farmers advised to use their 1:5 administrative grouping to table 5. swot analysis of actors in bread wheat technology promotion and diffusion process list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats actors strengths • being optimist and higher demand for new technology • good contact amongst throughout the process • sowing in cluster using the package • including ngos as actors in the process • become seed sources for the technology • availing inputs and providing training on time • collecting and analyzing necessary data f f, e, r f r f r r weaknesses • inadequate follow up from nearby actors • gap in full package application • problem in maintaining the seed quality • stumpy technical backup to farmers • unwilling to weed at optimum level e f f e, r f opportunities • existence of ngos working on technology promotion in area • improved technology usage become focus of the government • farmers’ have good experience on bread wheat production • existence of seed exchange culture in the community threats • being dry-land, has low and erratic rainfall and high temperature • high risk of drought within 3/4 years interval • lower input access due to expensive cost • increasing relief aid dependency, especially psnp note: f, farmers; e, experts and r, researchers journal of extension education 6379 handover the technology to neighbors and peers easily. swot analysis of stakeholders’ linkage appropriate distribution of duties among stakeholders would consolidate linkage in the extension system. like many other sectors, the success of diffusing bread wheat technology depends on both internal and external factors. thus, there is a need to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the promotion and diffusion process to match with the opportunities and threats using the swot analysis. data presented in table 5, presents the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of stakeholders in bread wheat technology promotion and diffusion. conclusion except for pest resistance, most farmers had positive view to technology preference parameters. in addition, famers and extension workers appreciate the improved bread wheat technology for its economic and societal suitability than the conventional production practice. these stakeholders shared the improved technology with interested farmers in and outside their village using different exchange arrangements. nevertheless, more than half of farmers described technology package application was tough due to lack of practical training, complication of technology, labor shortage, as well as combination of lack of practical training and labor shortage in descending order. based on the findings, there is a need to scale out the improved bread wheat technology to similar agro-ecological conditions in moisture deficit areas of northeast amhara. both government and non-governmental organization should provide appropriate technical and input support services to facilitate the promotion and diffusion process. extension agents should also use different frontline demonstration extension methods such as observatory, clustering, mass media and farmer trainings to ensure the effective use of limited resources, personnel, time and finance on top of ensuring farmers’ active participation. similarly, establishing seed producing and marketing cooperatives would play a vibrant role in make technology multiplication and exchange system viable to satisfy emerging demands. the swot analysis accordingly revealed that actors in agricultural extension system had both positive and negative performances in accomplishing shared duties and responsibilities. as a result, agricultural experts at different levels should use strengths and opportunities of actors to overcome the weaknesses and avoid threats in technology promotion and dissemination. finally, the extension agents should go beyond technology supply to advance skill and knowledge of farmers for sustainable agricultural and rural development. references ademe, m. & asmiro, a. (2018). pre-scaling up of improved bread wheat technology in moisture deficit areas of wag-lasta, north eastern amhara. proceedings of the 9th annual regional conference on completed research activities of socioeconomics and agricultural extension research, march 9-20, 2015. bahir dar, ethiopia. participatory evaluation and promotion of improved bread wheat technology in the dry lands of wag-lasta, ethiopia: challenges and prospects 6380 csa (2017). report on area under production of major crops volume i, agricultural sample survey, statistical bulletin 584, the federal democratic republic of ethiopia, addis ababa. retrieved from http://www.csa.gov.et/ehioinfointernal?download=771:report-on-areaand-production-of-major-crops-2009-e-cmeher-season csa (2019). report on area under production of major crops volume ii, agricultural sample survey, statistical bulletin 592, the federal democratic republic of ethiopia, addis ababa. retrieved from http://www.csa.gov.et/ehioinfointernal?download=821:report-on-areaand-production-of-major-crops-2011-e-cmeher-season feder g., just r. & zilberman d. (1985). adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries: a survey. economic development and cultural change, 33 (2), 255-298. ibrahim m., alaa m., hamed e. & salahsaid a. (2019). environmental swot analysis for agricultural extension in north sinai governorate, egypt. turkish journal of agriculture food science and technology 7(10), 1503-1508. doi: https:// doi.org/10.24925/turjaf.v7i10.15031508.2216 mihiretu a., asresu m. & wubet a. (2019a). participatory assessment of lentil (lens culinaris medik.) production practices in marginal dry lands of wag-lasta, ethiopia. archives of agriculture and environmental science, 4 (3), 288-294. mihiretu a., eric n. & lemma t. (2019b). determinants of adaptation choices to climate change in agro-pastoral dry lands of northeastern amhara, ethiopia. cogent environmental science, 5: 1636548. mihiretu, a. & assefa, n. (2019). comparative evaluation and demonstration of field pea production practices in intermediate altitudes of northeastern amhara, ethiopia. turkish journal of agriculture food science and technology, 7(11), 1901-1907. journal of extension education 6485 1 department of planning research and statistics, niger state ministry of agriculture, minna, nigeria and 2 department of agricultural extension and rural development, federal university of technology, nigeria received : 29-02-2020; accepted : 05-05-2020 perceived effects of adoption of recommended practices among rural farmers of nigeria u. mohammed1 and j.j. pelemo2 abstract the study assessed the perceived effects of recommended practices on levels of hygienic practices, health-care expenditure, and productive time for agricultural activities and children school attendances among the rural farmers in mokwa local government area of niger state, nigeria. multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 311 of rural populace. data were collected using structured questionnaire as well as interview schedule and analyzed using descriptive statistics. the mean age of the respondents was 46 years while the mean household size was 9 persons. also, the mean years of experience was 20.8 years while 41.4% of the respondents had primary education. the mean household income was nigerian naira n175,500.00. the serious constraints to adoption of recommended practices were bad attitude and lack of credit facilities it is recommended that environmental health workers should be empowered to enforce sanctions on noncompliance with adoption of recommended practices and efforts should be made by stakeholders to sustain this channel of sensitization. keywords: perceived effect; hygienic practices; agricultural activity; nigeria. introduction the world health organization (who) estimated that 60% (80.7 million) of the global burden of disease and 2.8 million deaths per year were attributed to lack of good hygienic practices (who, 2019). related environment diseases such as diarrhea are still a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in children under the age of five. approximately, 3500 nigerian children die each year from diarrhea and dehydration (who, 2019). during the 2000’s there was a considerable investment in the provision of water supply and sanitation in developing countries. by 2016, however, a significant proportion of the world’s population still remained without access to improve environmental hygiene. in nigeria, rapid population, growth has not be accompanied by an increase in delivery of essential rural service, such as water supply, sewage and sanitation and collection and disposal of solid wastes. by 2017, it was estimated that only about 20% of rural population had access to research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 2, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.2.32.6485-6491 6486 reliable water supply of acceptable quality (federal ministry of water resourses, 2018). despite some improvements in coverage, a study by the fmwr (2019) reported that in 2018, only about 10 out of 36 states of the federation had more than 20 litres per capita water supply and good environmental hygiene. in order to ensure strategic approach to realization of the vision statement 20:20:20 on hygienic practices, health care expenditure productive time for agricultural activities and children school attendances in niger state, nigeria, the main goals and target set out for the state are: • increase in state improved water supply to rural dwellers • increase in state improved sanitation coverage to the rural areas and environmental hygiene • increase in improved health care expenditure and productive time for agricultural activities • increase in children enrolment in schools in the rural area. this study seeks to describe the socioeconomic characteristics, perception on effect of adoption of recommended practices and constraints of adoption of recommended practices, by the farmers. methodology niger state is located in the guinea savannah ecological zone of nigeria. in terms of land mass, it is the largest state in nigeria. it covers a total land area of 74,224 km2 accounting for about eight percent of nigeria’s land area. about 85% of its land area is good for arable crops production (niger state geographical information system, 2015). it is located within latitudes 8– 10on and longitudes 3 – 8oe with a population of about 3,950,249 (npc, 2006) and with a growth rate of 3.2%, the state has an estimated population of 5,586,000 in 2017 (niger state geographical information system, 2015). niger state experiences two distinct season dry and wet seasons with annual rainfall varying from 1,100 mm in the northern part to 1,600 mm in the southern parts. the average annual rainfall is about 1,400 mm. the duration of the rainy season is approximately 180 days. the wet season usually begins in april/may to october, while the dry season starts from november to march. the state has maximum temperature of 29oc, average temperature of 22oc and minimum temperature of 26oc. the mean average temperature is around 32oc. dry season commences in october (niger state geograhical information system, 2015). most of the communities in the state are predominantly agrarian. vegetables grown in the state are, spinach, pumpkin, bitter leaf and water leaf leave. tree crops grown are mango, citrus, coconut, cashew, banana and pawpaw. multi-stage sampling technique was used for the study. the first stage involved selection of agricultural zones in the state. at the second stage, one (1) local government area from agricultural zone 1 was randomly selected. the third stage involved random selection of nine communities from the selected lga. at the fourth stage, 10% of the farmers were randomly selected from the journal of extension education 6487 sampling frame of each communities. in all, a total of 311 respondents were selected from the sample frame of the selected communities. primary data were used for the study, the data were collected by researchers and trained enumerators using structured questionnaire complimented with interview schedule. data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentage, mean score standard deviation and ranking. findings and discussion socio-economic characteristics of respondents table 1 indicates that the mean age of the respondents was 46.0 years implying that majority of the respondents belong to the middle age, suggesting that the respondents have the knowledge and understanding of hygienic practices as well as productive time for agricultural activities which will make it easier since respondents with middle age class are expected to have had at least the minimum level of formal education with zeal in trying new ideas of handling hygiene issues. this finding agrees with adamu and solomon (2018) who reported that farmers with middle age class withstand stress and have better understanding of new innovation. table 1 further reveals that the mean household size was 8.5. this finding suggests that large household size will reduce family labour and improve livelihood. table 1 also indicates that the mean income of the respondent in the study area was #175,500 nigerian naira per annum. this result implies that the respondents in the study area are with low income which might affect their level of hygienic facilities like soap, detergents and disinfectants about 41% had studied upto primary level. this implies that since respondents had low educational level, they may not appreciate hygienic recommended practices. the mean years of experience falls in between 11 & 20 years with mean of 20.8 indicating that the respondents had long years of experience in both productive time for agricultural activities and hygienic practice that will aid in improving their health care and better their standard of living. the result also shows that majority of the respondents (68.4%) had access to hygienic practice, health care, productive time for agricultural activities and children school attendance that will improve their level of living. table 1 also shows that 62.7% of the respondents were visited by extension agents 1-2 times per year. perception in effect of adoption of recommended practices table 2 shows the respondents’ perception on effect of adoption of recommended practices. results show that adoption of recommended practices led to an improvement in their hygienic practices. about 60% of the farmers agreed that adoption of recommended practice actually led to decrease in their health care expenditure. about 78% were of the view that adoption of the introduced practices actually led to an increase in their productive time for agricultural activities and 81.0% of the respondents agreed that the adoption of recommended practices increased children’s school attendance in their households, meaning that the respondent perceived effects of adoption of recommended practices among rural farmers of nigeria 6488 table 1. socio-economic characteristics of the respondents sl. no. variable frequency percentage mean 1 age a 31-40 215 69.1 b 41-50 80 25.7 46.0 c 51-60 11 3.5 d >60 5 1.6 2 household size a 1-5 97 31.1 b 6-10 150 48.2 8.5 c 11-15 63 20.2 d 16-20 1 3.1 3 years of farming experience a 1-10 53 17.0 b 11-20 180 57.8 20.8 c 21-30 48 15.4 d 31-40 28 9.0 e above 40 2 0.6 4 educational level a non formal education 103 33.1 b primary 129 41.4 c secondary 48 15.4 d tertiary 22 7.0 e adult 9 2.8 5 income a upto 1,00,000 59 18.9 175,500 b 1,00,001-200,000 193 62.0 c 200,001-3,00,000 51 16.3 journal of extension education 6489 sl. no. variable frequency percentage mean d above 300,000 8 2.5 6 access to extension contact a access 213 68.4 b no access 98 31.5 7 number of extension visits a 1-2 195 62.7 b 3-4 32 10.2 c 5-6 69 22.1 d above 6 15 4.8 who adopted the recommended practices testified to the fact that they had positive effects on the respondents. the result further reveals that the four effect variable with combined mean score of 15.23 points which is above the cut-off of 10 points set in the measures of dispersion meant that adoption of recommended practices actually had high positive effects on respondents in the study area. table 2. perceived effects of adoption of recommended practices on farmer’s level of hygienic practices, productive time for agricultural activities, health-care expenditure and children’s school attendance sl. no. effects of recommended practices mean score percentage 1 level of hygienic practices 4.37 90.8 2 level of health-care expenditure 3.26 60.40 3 level of productive time for agricultural activities 3.79 78.80 4 level of children’s school attendance 3.81 81.00 constraints in adoption of recommended practices table 3 shows the distribution of respondents in their multiple responses on what they perceived as their constraints in adopting recommended practices in the study area. these constraints were ranked and the result indicate that negative attitude towards good hygiene was ranked first by 94.81% of the respondents. this means that perceived effects of adoption of recommended practices among rural farmers of nigeria 6490 despite the knowledge on recommended best practices, farmers’ negative attitude towards good hygiene, prevent them from adopting recommended practices. this was followed by lack of credit facilities, to buy some items like soap, disinfectants and build toilet. poor living conditions which are often overcrowded and without facilities makes it difficult for a respondent who might be willing to adopt recommended practices. from the results it can be concluded that negative attitude towards good hygiene was the biggest constraint in the adoption of recommended practices in the study area. conclusion findings revealed that adoption of recommended practices was perceived by farmers as having some positive effects on them. negative attitude towards good hygiene practices, lack of credit facilities and poor living conditions were important constraints to adoption of recommended practices. based on the findings of these study, the following recommendations are made. only 5% of the farmers had positive attitude towards recommended practices, hence low level of adoption is likely. the environmental health workers should be strengthened to enforce sanctions on noncompliance with adoption of recommended practices. this can be done through good legislation in the local government counsels by-laws. this will change the negative attitudes especially the practice of open defecation. formal education was a significant determinant of adoption of recommended practices, so concerted efforts should be made by stakeholders to sustain this channel of sensitization. table 3. distribution of respondents based on the constraints in adoption of recommended practices sl. no. constraints to the adoption of recommended practices frequency* percentage ranking 1. poor living conditions 258 87.10 3rd 2. cultural beliefs, norms and values 197 71.00 4th 3. lack of credit facilities 267 89.70 2nd 4. negative attitude towards good hygiene 289 94.81 1st 5. lack of sanitation staff 187 62.31 5th *multiple responses journal of extension education 6491 references adamu, m.h. & solomon, a.f (2018). basic hygienic recommended practices for human activities, international journal of hygiene, 22 (9), 12-17 federal ministry of water resources (2018). national water supply and sanitation policy report, 2018 federal ministry of water resources (2019). national water supply and sanitation policy report, 2019 national population census (2006). information on nigeria population, pp. 1-134 niger state geographical information system. (2015). background information. retrieved from www.nigersis.com/about niger-state. who (2019). un-water global annual assessment of sanitation and drinkingwater (glaas) 2019: target resources for better results, geneva: world health organization. perceived effects of adoption of recommended practices among rural farmers of nigeria   from the editor’s desk   my dear readers of journal of extension education,   tell me and i forget, show me and i may remember, involve me and i will understand -         a chinese proverb     i was going through an interesting paper entitled, participatory action research: easier said than done (simonson & bushaw , 1993) recently, wherein the authors explain through cases how an ideal participatory research model did not work during that time due to several challenges faced while implementing. it has been over 25 years since the study was taken up and the situation has not improved significantly. involving farmers as participants in the research process has still not been followed widely as it should have been, over the years.   farmer-led research, which is also sometimes called farmer participatory research, is an approach where farmers and researchers work together , from the design of the project, to meet the diverse needs of different categories of farmers. it is not just asking the opinion of the farmers or inviting them to visit field trials; it is letting farmers make decisions about what kinds of technologies will be developed to carry out research themselves.   in the late eighties, biggs (1989) had come out with four approaches to farmer participation: ü contractual: scientists contract with farmers to provide land or services. ü consultative: scientists consult farmers about their problems and then develop solutions. ü collaborative: scientists and farmers collaborate as partners in the research process. ü collegiate: scientists work to strengthen farmers’ informal research and development systems in rural areas.   of the four approaches, farmer participatory research stresses the third and, to a lesser extent, the fourth. there is a general complaint that scientists who develop farm technology packages do not realize the extent to which farmers conduct informal experimentation with components of these packages. before formal research and extension services existed, farmers' own experimentation had directed them to adopt or reject new technologies. sociologists say that this farmer-experimentation acts as a springboard for developing locally appropriate technologies. keeping this in mind, a project was taken up in icar-sugarcane breeding institute, coimbatore entitled, farmers’ participatory action research programme (fparp) , during 2008-11 with farmers’ participation in experimentation on improved sugarcane production technologies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl5kin1fzui). in india, fparp was implemented in 5000 villages, as suggested by the sub-committee on more crop and income per drop of water headed by prof. m.s. swaminathan.   this project, which adopted the participatory approach, had shown that about 9.5 % yield improvement is possible with about 19 % water saving. this approach had given the much-needed confidence among the sugarcane growers that yield improvement through adoption of improved sugarcane technologies is possible with optimum irrigation water usage. another significant achievement of this research is sustaining the farmer participation beyond the initial diagnostic stages of the project up to the evaluation stage. this was made possible as the experiments were conducted by the farmers in an independent manner facilitated by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the institute, working out holistic solutions applicable to the local situations.   therefore, it would be worthwhile for the extension practitioners to follow this participatory approach as and when necessary to initiate a systematic dialogue between the participating farmers and the scientists in order to provide sustainable solutions to the agricultural problems. this issue of jee contains papers on various interesting topics such as influence of social media, and food consumption pattern, marketing behavior and attitude towards eco-friendly farming practices. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com . d puthira prathap jee 30 (4) chief editor 6152 effects of social media on the academic performances of students of faculty of agriculture, kogi state university, anyigba, nigeria p.e. adejo1, m.k. ibrahim2 and o.a. ogurinde3 abstract the main purpose of this research study was to examine the effects of social media on students’ performances in faculty of agriculture, kogi state university, nigeria. all the 1673 full-time undergraduate students formed the sample. a multistage sampling procedure was used for this research & a well structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. descriptive statistics and pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to analyze demographic data. research findings showed that there was a positively significant relationship between the time spent on social media and academic performances of students. results also showed that socio-economic characteristics of students had an effect on the level of subscription to social media by students. keywords : agriculture; social media; university; students; academic performance; nigeria 1,2 & 3 lecturers, department of agricultural economics and extension, kogi state university, anyigba, p.m.b. 1008, kogi state, nigeria. research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6152-6156 introduction the evolution of internet technology has led to its use as the best medium for communication. whereby, twothirds of the world’s internet population visits social networking or blogging sites, thus serving as a communication and connection tool. social networking sites (snss) are online communities of internet users who want to communicate with other users about areas of mutual interest, whether from a personal, business or academic perspective. social networking sites include: twitter, yahoo messenger, facebook messenger, blackberry messenger (bbm), whatsapp messenger, 2go messenger, skype, google talk, google messenger, facetime, wechat, instagram, snapchat etc. these networking sites are used by most people to interact with old and new friends, physical or internet friends (asemah and edegoh, 2012). one component in determining how to use agriculture to improve the economy in nigeria is the training of more youths in tertiary institutions. students of agriculture are potential ambassadors of agricultural development, they are trained on how to use new technologies and innovations in agriculture as well as disseminate such innovations, and students of agriculture also provide skilled labor in the agricultural sector of the country. received : 03-12-2018; accepted : 06-03-2019 6153 a direct relationship exists between social media usage and the academic performance of students in universities. however, the darker side within technological evolution has resulted in dilemmas such as the setback of real values of life especially among students who form the majority of users interacting through the use of social networking sites. online social networking sites focus on building and reflecting social associations among people who share interests and or activities. with so many social networking sites displayed on the internet, students are tempted to abandon their homework and reading times in preference for chatting online with friends. many students are now addicted to the online rave of the moment, with facebook, twitter, whatsapp and other social-networking applications. lenhart and madden (2007) revealed through a survey that students strongly recommend social networking websites to stay in touch with friends to keep informed and aware. social information processing theory is an interpersonal communication theory which suggests that online interpersonal relationship development might require more time to develop than face-to-face relationships, but when developed, it has the same influence as face-to-face communication. this means, the more students use social media, the more they influence their disposition to studies, given the fact that friends from social media will begin to exert influence on each other. the objective of this study generally is to examine the effects of social media on students’ performances in faculty of agriculture, in kogi state university nigeria. specifically, the study seeks to: • identify the social media network that the students subscribe to; • examine the frequency of social media usage by students; • ascertain the time spent on social media by students; • ascertain the influence of time spent on social media on the academic performances of the students of faculty of agriculture in kogi state university, nigeria. methodology the study area for this research was kogi state university, anyigba. kogi state university which is located in anyigba in dekina local government area of kogi state in nigeria. the total population of full-time undergraduate students in the faculty of agriculture, kogi state university was 1673. a multistage sampling procedure was used for this research. the first stage was purposive selection of all departments in faculty of agriculture which include; agricultural economics and extension, animal production, crop production, soil and environmental management, fishery and aquaculture, food science and technology and home science. the second stage was random selection of 25 students from each of the departments, bringing it to a total sample size of 175 respondents. data used for this research were collected through primary source. a welleffects of social media on the academic performances of students of faculty of agriculture, kogi state university, anyigba, nigeria 6154 constructed questionnaire was used to elicit desired information from the students. randomly selected 25 students in each of the departments in the faculty of agriculture were administered the questionnaire. the tools used to analyze this research work were descriptive statistics, likert-type scale and pearson’ correlation coefficient. findings and discussion social media subscription the collected data were analyzed and the results are presented here. table 1 shows that majority (61.14%) of the respondents subscribed to whatsapp as it was the most trendy social media platform among the students especially for its friendliness and relative privacy attributes which students enjoy. this was followed by subscription to facebook (54.86%), and only 7.43% had subscribed to snapchat. the result indicates that a higher percentage had subscribed to whatsapp. social media usage by students higher percentages (42.30%, 30.30% and 29.70%) of the respondents strongly agreed to the fact that they use whatsapp to pass information about lectures with the mean score of 4.1, they also attested to the fact that they use video clips from youtube to compliment the practical with the mean score of 3.4 and chat with friends on nonacademic issues with the mean score of 3.5 respectively. this result is relatively in consonance with kolan and dzandza (2018) who indicated that the majority (84.3%) of the respondents agreed to using materials from social media platforms to enhance their academic work. again a majority (79.2%) indicated they agree to the fact that engaging in academic forums on social media increases their understanding of topics discussed in class and 76.6% thinks these discussions yield good results. table 1: distribution of respondents based on subscription to social media n= 175* sl.no. variables frequency percentage 1 whatsapp 107 61.14 2 facebook 96 54.86 3 instagram 68 38.86 4 youtube 39 22.29 5 bbm (black berry messenger) 24 13.71 6 twitter 25 14.29 7 snapchat 13 7.43 *multiple responses journal of extension education 6155 vo-very often, o-often, s-seldom, n-never frequency of social media usage analysis on the frequency of social media usage by respondents in table 2 shows that 48% of respondents use whatsapp very often while 42.3%, 6.3% and 3.4% of respondents use whatsapp often, seldom and never respectively with mean score of 3.3 which implies that respondents use whatsapp often. time spent on social media table 3 shows that 46.86% of respondents had spent 0-4 hours on social media in a day while 49.14%, 3.43% and 0.57% of respondents spent 5-9 hours, 1014 hours and 20-24 hours respectively. this means that higher percentage (49.14%) of respondents spent 5-9 hours on social media in a day. it implies that despite the benefits derived from social media in terms of it use for academic purposes, some students may be tempted to spend more time than necessary, doing things other than academic on social media in expense of their academic work. relationship between the time spent on social media and academic performances of students the study reveals that there is a significant (p<0.5) positive relationship between the time spent on social media and academic performances of students, an table 2. distribution of respondents based on frequency of social media usage sl.no. variables vo o s n sum mean 1 whatsapp 84(48%) 74(42.3%) 11(6.3%) 6(3.4%) 586 3.3 2 facebook 73(41.7%) 62(35.4%) 23(13.1%) 17(9.7%) 541 3.1 3 instagram 64(36.6%) 62(35.4%) 24(13.7%) 28(16%) 533 3 4 youtube 65(37.1%) 57(32.6%) 26(14.9%) 27(15.4% 510 3 5 bbm 31(17.7%) 39(22.3%) 57(32.6%) 48(27.4%) 403 2.3 6 twitter 30(17.1%) 36(20.6%) 59(33.7%) 50(28.6%) 396 2.2 7 snapchat 21(12%) 28(16%) 49(28%) 77(44%) 343 2 table 3. distribution of respondents according to time spent on social media. sl.no. time spent on social media (hours) frequency percentage 1 0-4 82 46.86 2 5-9 86 49.14 3 10-14 6 3.43 4 20-24 1 0.57 total 175 100.0 effects of social media on the academic performances of students of faculty of agriculture, kogi state university, anyigba, nigeria 6156 hour increase in time spent on social media improves individual grades by 0.129 (12.9%). the correlation coefficient shows that there is a positive relationship between the time spent on social media and academic performances of students and thus the null hypothesis that “the time spent by students on social media have no influence on their academic performancesed was therefore rejected. the increase in academic performances when more time is spent on social media may be due to the fact that students spent most of their time on academic related activities on social media or share useful academic information via social media to one another. this result is however, not in agreement with the study conducted by owusu and agatha (2015), wherein it was revealed that majority of students in ghana were engrossed in social networking sites. it also brought to light that most users utilized these sites for chatting and downloading purposes only which affected their academic performance negatively. also of the opposing view was a study by mingle and musah (2015), which revealed that most respondents in their study experienced negative effects such as poor grammar & spelling, late submission of assignments, less study time and poor academic performance. conclusion the outcome of this study shows that majority of students subscribed to at least two social media sites which were whatsapp and facebook. furthermore, results indicated that students spent more time on academic related activities on social media, as well as share and receive information among themselves such as lecture notes, time table for lectures, assessments, etc. students may be educated on the effects of social media on their academic performances and may also be encouraged to form online communities in order to plan for a project, have group discussions about class material, or use the social networking sites(sns) as a way to keep in contact and to update themselves on current academic issues. lecturers may endeavor to encourage the use of social media as a tool to improve the academic performance of students in universities. references asemah, e.s & edegoh, l.o.n. (2012). social media and insecurity in nigeria: a critical appraisal. proceeding of 15th national conference of africancouncil for communication education, federal university of technology, minna, nigeria. mingle j., & musah, a. (2015). social media network participation and academic performance in senior high schools in ghana. library philosophy and practice (ejournal). 1286 retrieved from http:// digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1286. owusu, a., & agatha, g. l. (2015). use of social media and its impacts on academic performance of tertiary students. a case study of koforidua polytechnic, ghana. journal of education and practice, 6. retrieved from https://www.iiste.org/journals/ ndex.php/jep/article/view/20048. journal of extension education 6264 1. pg scholar and 2. assistant professor (sel. grade), department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram695522. kerala. received : 24-07-2018; accepted : 25-10-2018 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6264-6268 job satisfaction of agricultural professionals in commercial banks of kerala vagvala suryaja1 and allan thomas2 abstract the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala, to analyse the factors affecting job satisfaction of agricultural professionals in commercial banks of kerala. ninety agricultural professionals working in two major banks viz., state bank of india and canara bank were randomly selected. ex-post facto research design was followed. it was found that about fifty per cent of respondents felt that they have high job satisfaction. the results of the principal component analysis based on eigen values obtained revealed that all the five components viz., pay, promotion, work, supervision and people were the factors influencing job satisfaction. keywords: job satisfaction; agricultural professionals; bank;performance; promotion; kerala introduction banking sector is an important sector in indian economy. it is considered to be reputed, sophisticated and less corrupted profession. youngsters especially agricultural graduates find it one of the most reliable job opportunities and are fascinated in getting an agricultural field officer or rural development officer job in various public sector banks. banks are diversifying their role in the agriculture sector. some of the new roles that banks have adopted are marketing, training and consultancy, insurance, and financing for infrastructure via private – public participation. changing environment and government policies are forcing banks to lend more to agricultural sector. agricultural field officers and bank managers are always supporting and assisting farmers in day to day credit related activities and timely sanction of loans. their performance, job satisfaction, quality of work life should be enhanced, which in turn improves the services provided to farmers. job performance of employees is positively related to job satisfaction and the same is inferred in studies by nadef (2018) and patel (1999). the present study on job satisfaction of agricultural professionals in commercial banks of kerala becomes important that will aid in deep analysis on the problems faced by agricultural professionals in bank. 6265 methodology thiruvananthapuram district in kerala was purposefully selected for the study because being the capital of the state most of the headquarters of the public sector commercial banks were located at this place. variables, both independent and dependent were selected based on objectives of study and literature search. survey method was employed for data collection. a pretested, structured questionnaire was prepared and administered to the respondents of the study. google forms were also used for data collection from distant respondents. ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. forty-five branches were selected with 30 branches from state bank of india (sbi) and 15 branches of canara bank. more number of branches from sbi were included because it is the bank with more number of branches compared to any other commercial public sector banks. thus, 60 bank officials from state bank of india and 30 bank officials from canara bank dealing with agricultural products were randomly selected for the study making a sample size of 90 respondents. the main dependent variable of the study was job satisfaction of agricultural professionals. independent variables of the study were age, education, monthly income, sex, experience, marital status, number of dependents, distance from work place, residential status, dwelling status, working hours and work load. the scale developed by smith (1974) was used for computing the job satisfaction. it consists of 5 components viz., pay, promotions, work, supervision and people. each component consists of 8 items, therefore making it 40 statements. all statements were ranked on scale of 0 to 5. scores varied from 40 to 200. all the scores were cumulated to find the final score of job satisfaction and the respondents were categorised into low and high category of job satisfaction based on below and above mean values. findings and discusssion job satisfaction was dependent variable of the study. it is clear from table 1 that 54.44 per cent of agricultural professionals in banks belonged to above mean (high) and about 45.56 per cent were grouped under below mean (low) for the component structure of job satisfaction.agricultural professionals were grouped into high-low categories based on mean value as check and the data are presented in table 1. table 1. distribution of agricultural professionals based on job satisfaction (n=90) sl. no. category frequency % 1 high 49 54.44 2 low 41 45.56 3 mean = 80.33; standard deviation = 21.71; standard error= 2.28 job satisfaction of agricultural professionals in commercial banks of kerala 6266 table 1 reveals that all the five factors viz., pay, promotion, work, supervision and peoplewere the contributors for the high mean value of job satisfaction. mean value of job satisfaction for all the five components together was 80.33. though it is certain from table 1 that 45.56 per cent of the respondents belonged to low category of job satisfaction, there could have been a situation where the respondents belonging to the low category of job satisfaction could have realized a score higher or close to mean value of job satisfaction score (80.33). from the results of the variablity from pca as revealed in table 2, it is inferred that component one was responsible for 48.41 per cent variability, component two was responsible for 23.74 per cent variability and component three was responsible for 14.72 per cent variability. table 2 and fig.1 depicting the cumulative variance clearly reveal that the first three components contributed to more than 80 per cent variability. it is interesting to note that the eigen values drawn through pca established the fact that all the five components viz., pay, promotion, work, supervision and people were the factors influencing job satisfaction and its results are presented in table 3. from table.3 it is evident that from first component, promotion (0.512) has highest eigen value followed by supervision (0.490), from second component, pay (0.759) was having highest eigen value and from third component, people (0.682) and work (0.590) were having highest eigen values. this shows that all the component factors influenced the job satisfaction of bank professionals. promotion gives employees a chance to explore table 2 total variance of components of job satisfaction (n=90) component initial eigen values total % of variance cumulative % 1 2.420 48.41 48.41 2 1.187 23.74 72.15 3 .736 14.72 86.87 4 .366 7.32 94.19 5 .291 5.81 100.00 figure 1. total variance of components of job satisfaction journal of extension education 6267 new areas of work that indeed improves overall working conditions and contributors to job satisfaction. frederick herzberg’s (1966) two factor theory states that work place motivation and employees recognition were effective in satisfying employees needs that further ensures positive attitude towards work. hence the study endorses the views of maslow (1954) and mc gregor (1960). bank employees exhibit high job satisfaction when encouraged and supported by their supervisors. hence, supervision becomes a factor of influence on job satisfaction which falls in line with the study of sowmya and panchanatham (2011). pay is the obvious motivating factor behind employee’s attitude to serve the customers even when they are overloaded. many studies revealed that salary is one of the prime reasons that bring about employees satisfaction and retention. studies by judge et al. (2010), swami et al. (2015) and sudha (2017) inferred the same. employees had significant inclination towards optimistic supervising behaviour. employees tend to be satisfied at work if they find commonalities among their co-workers and supervisors. people act as vent for stressed employees and aid each other in creating positive atmosphere at work place. therefore, as people are the support system for any organisation, interpersonal relationships could be stated as an influencing factor affecting job satisfaction. conclusion the indian banking sector is at an exhilarating point in evolution. the opportunities are immense to enter new business, to develop new ways of working, to improve efficiency and to deliver high level of customer service. therefore the interdependence of all stakeholders of banking system is increasing. kerala farmers being more literate and sensitive to social issues are believed to be more demanding and in the course to satisfy the need of the farmers the bank officials are subjected to different challenges and issues. from this study we can infer that all the five factors viz., pay, promotion, work, supervision and people are influencing the job satisfaction of banking professionals. necessary steps and policy changes can be adopted to improve the banking systems by focusing more on these factors inorder to incarnate the banking professionals to be more effective and farmer table 3 eigen values of each factor of job satisfaction. factors of job satisfaction component 1 2 3 pay 0.296 0.759 -0.017 promotion 0.512 0.317 -0.357 work 0.430 0.418 0.590 supervision 0.490 0.384 0.242 people 0.474 0.041 0.682 job satisfaction of agricultural professionals in commercial banks of kerala 6268 friendly. also, it will satisfy the needs of agricultural professionals to perform better contributing to the nations economy. references herzberg, f. (1966). work and the nature of man. new york: mc graw hill, p 118. judge, t. a., piccolo, r.f., podsakoff, n.p., shaw, j.c., & rich, b.l. (2010). the relationship between pay and job satisfaction: a metaanalysis of the literature. journal of vocational behavior. 77(2), 157-167. maslow, a.h. (1954). motivation and personalities. new york; harper and row publishers, pp 176. mc gregor, d. (1960). the human side of enterprise. new york; mc graw hill, pp 118. nadef, z.a. (2018).comparative study on job satisfaction of j & k bank employees. north asian international research journal of social science & humanities. 4(1), 281-293. patel, m.k. (1999). a study of impact of age on job involvement and organizational commitment of nationalized and cooperative bank employees.journal of indian academy of applied psychology. 25(12),65-70. smith, p.c. (1974). the development of measuring job satisfaction; the cornell studies. in e.a. fleishman& a.r. bass(eds.) studies in personnel and industrial psychology (3rd ed). homewood, il: dorsey. sowmya, k. r., & panchanatham, n. (2011). factors influencing job satisfaction of banking sector employees in chennai, india. journal of law and conflict resolution. 3(5),76-79. sudha, v. (2017). factors determining job satisfaction among private sector bank employees. international educational research journal. 3(3),31-32. swamy, d.r., nanjundeswaraswamy, t. s., & rashmi, s. (2015). quality of work life: scale development and validation. international journal of caring science. 8(2),281-286. journal of extension education from the editor's desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, have you heard of owl pellets? the regurgitated (coughed up through the beak), indigestible parts of the prey, which the owls swallow, are called as owl pellets, as per the barn owl trust, that functions from the uk. how are these owl pellets relevant to agricultural education? it is interesting to know that shoulders, baker & myers (2017) had created a successful communication programme to share agricultural education research to teachers, inspired by the owls and their pellets. like an owl, this team would take complex things in agricultural education, internalize them (mentally rather than physically), and repackage them into easier-to-manage "pellets" for use by the teachers to enhance the student experience in their agricultural education programmes. the owl pellets team followed a model which had the following steps: 1. set your goal: the potential goals to focus the communication efforts in an agricultural education programme (by an agricultural university, for instance) would be programme goals, student goals, community goals and agricultural industry goals. 2. identify your audience: every decision the planning team makes should be based squarely on the programme goals and target audience. without this focus it is easy for the team members to lose their way in terms of delivering a product that actually matters. 3. create a "home base" : it is critical to create a home base to house all of the elements of the communication campaign. this team had chosen to use wordpress.com, to post their infographics, podcasts, and engagement pieces all in one place. 4. create sharing accounts: if the home base is the keystone of the bridge, the platforms (e.g.social media sites) where one can share communication material on are the stones that complete the structure. 5. establish a publishing calendar: one of the best ways to keep the audience engaged is to keep the content in front of them every day by identifying the item to be posted, who is responsible for creating it and who is responsible for posting it, from the owl pellets team. 6. produce content and build your following : produce relevant content directly tied to the goals, be clearly applicable to the target audience and identify the format & equipment/software for the content. the development of a successful communication programme out of "regurgitated owl food", has a few lessons for us when we intend to share key messages by "pelleting" them in a format that suits the audience needs. jee readers could visit https://owlpelletsforag.wordpress.com/ to have firsthand information on this owl pellets concept. well. we had discussed the core competencies needed for extension professionals put forth by prof. murari suvedi (along with dr ramjee ghimire) of michigan state university, in a past jee editorial [jee 29(4)] and we are happy to publish his paper on the ways and means of revitalizing agricultural extension training, in this issue of jee . this jee issue is a conference special carrying select research papers presented at the international conference on extension for strengthening agricultural research and development (esard) organized jointly by extension education society, coimbatore , icar-atari, bengaluru and icar-jss kvk, mysuru. i do hope the jee readers find them, interesting. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com d puthira prathap chief editor   1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd chief editor of late, there is a general concern that public extension is not doing enough and is not always relevant in many developing countries. bureaucratic inefficiency and poor planning & implementation of extension programmes have been the major contributing factors, besides decreasing donor support and staff shortages. a recent world bank publication on ‘agricultural extension — generic challenges and some ingredients for solutions’ has expressed serious concerns over the plight of public extension. in asia, the growth rate fostered by the green revolution has slowed down and agriculture is facing a crisis in many parts of the developing world. in this context, agricultural extension faces two major challenges – information & organization and extension funding & delivery. as for the former challenge, extension has an important role to play in providing improved skills, information, and ideas in order to develop an agriculture that will meet complex demand patterns, reduce poverty, and preserve or enhance ecological resources. as for the latter challenge, the major difficulties in extension funding and delivery face happen to be: • problems in establishing the cause & effect necessary to obtain political and financial support and • liability for public service functions beyond agricultural knowledge and information transfer while seeking immediate solutions to these problems, the policymakers in developing countries such as india have difficult choices to make on what public extension should do. they may have to look for viable alternatives to public financing by involving the private sector, local authorities and producer groups. eventually, i am sure, they may have to involve a variety of stakeholders in forging contracts and collaborative partnerships, pluralistic arrangements have the potential to help resolve these issues. this issue of jee contains papers on a variety of topics such as constraints in adopting eco-friendly conservation practices, how agricultural students perceive the instructional methods and on working conditions of women journalists. i hope the jee readers find them interesting. from the editor’s desk 6230 job stress of agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture: a psycho–personal analysis reshma a. victor1 and a anilkumar2 abstract the present study was undertaken in three zones of kerala viz., kasaragod from north kerala, thrissur from central kerala and thiruvananthapuram from south kerala. a sample of 90 agricultural officers was selected by using simple random sampling and information was gathered and analyzed. job stress was the dependent variable of the study. a well structured interview schedule was used for data collection from the respondents. the results revealed that majority of the agricultural officers were in medium job stress category. keywords: job stress; agricultural officers; krishi bhavan; kerala 1. assistant professor (on contract), icar-kvk, ambalavoyal, wayanad-673593, kerala and 2. dean, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani, kerala. job stress is an important psychological factor which defines the performance effectiveness of a person on the job. this is equally true in the case of agricultural officers (aos) of the state department of agriculture. selye (1956) defined stress as “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand placed upon it”. responsibilities are always related with some sort of stress. an acute stress is always required for one to carry out their responsibilities better, but many times this balance is lost and people react in unacceptable manner, which is not suitable for a professional who is supposed to carry out various functions and implement umpteen numbers of decisions. development of our nation is in relation with development of farmers. it is through agricultural officers that the government executes various extension services, development polices and technology transfer for the development of farmers and agriculture itself. the effectiveness of all these programmes solely depends on the job performance and efficiency of agricultural officers who act as key extension personnel at panchayat level. it is highly significant for the management, to study the job stress and psychology of these officers, since this affects their interaction with farmers and various other decision making processes. therefore a study to analyze the job stress of agricultural officers of ‘kerala state department of agriculture’ is of high relevance and importance. this study can further streamline the duties and responsibilities of agricultural officers, working throughout the country. research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6230-6233 received : 25-10-2018; accepted : 12-11-2018 6231 methodology the study was undertaken in three zones of kerala viz., kasaragod from north kerala, thrissur from central kerala and thiruvananthapuram from south kerala. the agricultural officers working in the kerala state department of agriculture in thiruvananthapuram, thrissur and kasaragod were randomly selected for the study. altogether, 90 agricultural officers of which 30 from thiruvanathapuram, 30 from thrissur 30 from kasaragod district were selected using simple random sampling procedure of the 30 respondents from each district. it was ensured that 15 were female and 15 were male respondents. a well structured open ended interview schedule was used for data collection from the agricultural officers. the results were analyzed with the help of kruskal wallis test. job stress was measured by using the scale developed by shrivastav and singh (1981). this scale measures the amount of stress which employees perceive from various constituents and conditions of their work. role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, group and political pressures, responsibility for persons, under participation, powerlessness, poor peer relation, intrinsic impoverishment, low status, strenuous working conditions and unprofitability are the sub-components of job stress and these are related to all relevant components of work life which cause stress in one or another way. findings and discussion a comparative analysis of job stress score and its subcomponents of agricultural officers across the district was done by using kruskal-wallis test and the results are presented table in 1. it shows the overall job stress scores and job stress dimension scores of agricultural officers under three districts. kruskal wallis test was done to find whether overall job stress and job stress dimensions of agricultural officers vary among the three districts. it could be observed from the table that overall (8.737) there was significant difference in job stress of agricultural officers in three districts. the subcomponents role overload (10.52), role ambiguity (16.24), intrinsic impoverishment (13.33) and unprofitability (7.79) were also found to be significant in three districts. these dimensions vary with regards to region. role overload, role ambiguity, intrinsic impoverishment were significant at one per cent level of significance and unprofitability was significant at five per cent level of significance. hence, it was observed that job stress was varying with region. this might be due to the fact that the area cultivated and crops differ from region to region. in kasaragod district, each respondent has to handle two to three krishi bhavans (panchayat level office for technology transfer) unlike agricultural officers in other districts. cross culturation to regional standards could be another issue for job stress. it is possible that the agricultural officers could belong to a different district and culture but have to frequently interact with unique style of culture prevailing in their district of posting with varying socio job stress of agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture: a psycho–personal analysis 6232 table 1. dimensions of job stress of agricultural officers n = 90 sl. no. components thiruvananthapuram (n=30) thrissur (n=30) kasaragod (n=30) kw total (n=90) ms ms ms 1. role overload 22.33 22.57 24.7 10.512** 23.2 2. role ambiguity 10.6 11.97 13.57 16.241** 12.04 3. role conflict 15.4 16.3 14.63 5.556 15.44 4. group and political pressure 13.34 13.7 12.6 3.192 13.24 5. responsibility for persons 10.47 11.17 11.3 4.202 10.98 6. under participation 11.17 12.23 10.47 5.721 11.29 7. powerlessness 8.57 8.97 8.17 2.564 8.57 8. poor peer relations 10.67 10.7 10.07 1.48 10.48 9. intrinsic impoverishment 12.2 11.8 9.6 13.33** 11.20 10. low status 7.3 7.5 7.53 0.403 7.44 11. strenuous working conditions 13.33 13.27 12.6 2.395 12.73 12. unprofitability 5.03 6.1 5.77 7.790** 5.63 total 139.5 146.28 141.01 8.737* 142.26 x 2-5% (0.05) – 5.99 x 21%(0.01) 9.21 * significant at 5 % level ** significant at 1 % level kwkruskal – wallis, msmean sum journal of extension education 6233 – economic, political, technological and environmental situations. references selye, h. (1956). the stress of life. mcgraw-hill, new york. 515p. srivastava, a. k. & singh, a. p. (1981). construction and standardization of an occupational stress index: a pilot study. indian journal of clinical psychology. 8(2): 133136. job stress of agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture: a psycho–personal analysis jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 climate change impact on paddy farming in erode and tiruchirapalli districts of tamil nadu p. sivaraj1 and h. philip2 abstract climate change implies both direct and indirect impact on the general well-being of the people in the rural community such as agriculture and allied sectors for their livelihood security. a study was conducted on the small and marginal paddy farmers of tamil nadu. a sample of 200 paddy farmers was selected from the districts of erode and tiruchirappalli, tamil nadu. findings revealed that paddy farmers perceived climate change impacts include five major components viz. crop nature, pest incidence, disease menace, water crisis and agro climatic status. it was found that farmers were much aware of the variations in rainfall pattern and its distribution followed by variability in temperature and changes in wind speed and direction. receipt of low rainfall was found to be the most pertinent issue. 1ph.d scholar, department of agricultural extension and 2-director of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. india is a large country with 15 agroclimatic zones, with diverse seasons, crops and farming systems. for a majority of people in india, to this day, agriculture is the main stay of livelihood. agriculture is the most vulnerable sector to climate change as it is inherently sensitive to climate variability and climate change is going to impact on indian agriculture in different ways both directly and indirectly agriculture is inherently sensitive to climate conditions and is the most vulnerable sector to the risks and impacts of climate change (sagun, 2009). climate change is the long term conspicuous deviation from usual prevailing climate bringing variations in normal temperature, rainfall and atmospheric parameters. there is an urgent need to understand the effects of climate change on agricultural sector both at global and as well as at regional levels, especially from the point of view of providing food to vulnerable section of the population. developing countries are more vulnerable to climate change than developed countries because of the predominance of agriculture in their economies and scarcity of capital for adaptation measures (fischer, 2005). sinha and swaminathan (1991) have showed that an increase of 2o c in temperature would decrease rice yield by about 0.75 ton/ha. in this regard climate change impact especially among the small and marginal paddy farmers with limited resources is of great concern. mohanraj and karthikeyan (2014) reported that 92.72% perceived change in long term temperature in selected districts of tamil nadu. the study was conducted in the received : 02 jan, 2016; accepted : 08 apr, 2016 journal of extension education5540 vaiyampatty block of tiruchirapalli district (ponnaniyar basin) and erode block of erode district (kalingarayan basin) in tamil nadu. they were selected based on the water availability for farming situation. seven villages in ponnaniyar basin and eleven villages in kalingarayan basins were selected for the study. methodology paddy is the staple food crop of tamil nadu and is heavily exposed to the extreme and extraneous events of climate change. erode and tiruchirapalli districts were purposively selected for the study as the district has high range of variability in both rainfall and temperature. kalingarayan (erode) and ponnaniyar (tiruchirapalli) basins were then chosen as they have maximum acreage under paddy with majority of the farmers being small (2.5 to 5 acres) and marginal (< 2.5 acres). canal irrigation was also found to be prominent in these basins resulting in farmers becoming more vulnerable to climate change events. based on the discussions with the officials and subject matter specialists of the agricultural department one block was selected from each basin. for the selection of villages, an inventory of revenue villages in each block was collected. then ten villages from each block were randomly chosen. the total sample size was 200 with randomly selecting 100 paddy farmers (comprising 50 male farmers and 50 female farmers) from each of the blocks. findings and discussion a. impact of climate change on crop nature climate change is clearly recognized as a major threat to agricultural system. the expected increase in temperature, atmospheric co2, heavy and unseasonal rainfall, increased humidity, drought and table 1. impact of climate change on crop nature (n=200) mean score mean score 1. changes in cropping system 1.980 1.970 2. changes in harvesting time 1.990 1.950 3. changes in crop growing season 1.900 1.790 4. crop destruction 1.910 1.770 5. scorching of crops in direct sown paddy 1.800 1.580 6. scorching of crops in transplanted paddy 1.390 1.510 average mean score 1.828 1.761 sl.no. crop nature kalingarayan basin n=100 ponnaniyar basin n=100 5541climate change impact on paddy farming in erode and tiruchirapalli districts of tamil nadu cyclones are likely to affect paddy crop. hence, an attempt was made to assess the perceived impact of climate change on crop nature. it is referred from table 1 that the average mean score of impact of climate change on crop nature in kalingarayan basin was worked out to 1.828 where the sub items like changes in cropping system, changes in harvesting time, changes in crop growing season and crop destruction as identified with higher mean score of 1.980, 1.990,1.900 and 1.910 respectively. the mean score of other sub items fell below the average mean score. the average mean score of ponnaniyar basin worked out for the impact of climate change on crop nature was 1.761 where the sub items like changes in cropping system, changes in table 2. impact of climate change on pest incidence (n=200) mean score mean score 1. pest outbreak 1.310 1.190 2. arrival of new pests 1.480 1.430 3. stem borer infestation 1.940 1.900 4. leaf folder infestation 1.920 1.860 5. rice mite infestation 1.340 1.280 6. gall midge infestation 1.120 1.100 7. thrips infestation 1.180 1.120 8. plant hopper infestation 1.260 1.270 9. leaf hopper infestation 1.400 1.420 10. ear bug infestation 1.690 1.800 average mean score 1.474 1.432 sl.no. pest incidence kalingarayan basin n=100 ponnaniyar basin n=100 harvesting time, changes in crop growing season and crop destruction were identified with higher mean score of 1.970, 1.950,1.790 and 1.770 respectively. study area of kalingarayan and ponnaniyar basin is extremely vulnerable to the vagaries. moreover due to the erratic rainfall in quantity and distribution, the area is often subjected to drought which results in crop damage and low yield. monsoon failure and shifting of monsoon may adversely affect the crop growing season. b. impact on climate change on pest incidence the data presented in table 2 reveal that journal of extension education5542 the average mean score worked out for the impact of climate change on pest incidence in kalingarayan basin was found to be with1.474 and the stem borer infestation, leaf folder infestation, ear bug infestation and arrival of new pest secured higher mean score of 1.940, 1.920, 1.690 and 1.480 respectively. in ponnaniyar basin the average mean score table 3. impact of climate change on disease menace (n=200) mean score mean score 1. disease outbreak 1.330 1.300 2. occurrence of new diseases 1.500 1.450 3. blast occurrence 1.820 1.880 4. leaf spot occurrence 1.770 1.800 5. bacterial blight occurrence 1.640 1.760 6. sheath blight occurrence 1.280 1.260 7. sheath rot occurrence 1.240 1.160 8. rice thungro disease 1.200 1.150 9. false smut occurrence 1.010 1.180 average mean score 1.422 1.438 sl.no. disease menace kalingarayan basin n=100 ponnaniyar basin n=100 worked out for the impact of climate change on pest incidence was 1.432 and the stem borer infestation, leaf folder infestation and ear bug infestation secured higher mean score of 1.900, 1.860and 1.800 respectively. in other sub items the mean scores were found to be below the average mean score. climate change influences the ecology and biology of insects. table 4. impact of climate change on water crisis (n=200) mean score mean score 1. increased water salinity 1.300 1.100 2. deterioration of water nutrients 1.300 0.990 3. irrigation water shortage 1.820 1.770 4. damaged agro wells 1.740 1.670 average mean score 1.540 1.380 sl.no. water crisis kalingarayan basin n=100 ponnaniyar basin n=100 5543climate change impact on paddy farming in erode and tiruchirapalli districts of tamil nadu increased temperature and moisture might adversely affect specific pest species and could result in proliferation of destructive pest population. c. impact of climate change on disease menace the average mean score of disease menace in kalingarayan basin was found to be 1.422 (tables 3). blast occurrence (1.820), leaf spot occurrence (1.770), bacterial blight occurrence (1.640) and occurrence of new diseases (1.500) were the major impacts of climatic variation in paddy crop. whereas in ponnaniyar basin the average mean score was found to be 1.438 and the blast occurrence (1.880), leaf spot occurrence (1.800), bacterial blight occurrence (1.760) and occurrence of new diseases (1.450) were the major impact of climatic variation in paddy crop. impact of climate change like rise in temperature affects the pollination in paddy crop which resulted in poor grain setting. further the fungal diseases are common and can spread via spores carried by wind. d. impact of climate change on water crisis the average mean score (table 4) worked out for the impact of climate change on water crisis in kalingarayan basin was found to be with 1.540 and the irrigation water shortage and damaged agro wells secured higher mean score of 1.820 and 1.740 respectively. similarly in ponnaniyar basin the average mean score was worked out with 1.380 and the irrigation water shortage and damage agro wells secured higher mean score of 1.770 and 1.670 respectively. prolonged drought, variation in the temperature and less ground water potential lead to water scarcity. more amount of salinity in irrigation water source is one of the major problems that affect crop cultivation. in ponnaniyar basin due to severe water scarcity, they changed from food crops to fodder, flower, vegetable and perennial crops. the perennial crops like guava, coconut etc., flower crops like jasmine, vegetables like beans, bitter guard, ridge guard, tomato, fodder crop like fodder sorghum were grown. in case of kalingarayan basin water availability was decreasing, but not like ponnaniyar basin. so they had followed only summer ploughing and some of them had livestock. e. impact of climate change on agro climatic status kalingarayan basin the average mean score (table 5 ) of impact of climate change on agro climatic status was 1.422 where rise in temperature (1.970), reduction in number of rainy days (1.910) and monsoon shifting (1.900) are observed. likewise in ponnaniyar basin the average mean score of agro climatic status was 1.440 and had mean scores of 1.950, 1.940 and 1.950 respectively. the mean score of others fell below the average mean score. due to impact of climate change the climate variability is increased and this would lead to increase the risk of drought. severe drought has led to hardening of the land in worst-affected provinces, which would journal of extension education5544 table 5. impact of climate change on agro climatic status (n=200) mean score mean score 1. monsoon shifting 1.900 1.950 2. reduction of number of rainy days 1.910 1.940 3. rise in temperature 1.970 1.950 4. increased wind speed 1.090 1.020 5. increased humidity 1.120 0.970 6. severe drought 1.450 1.400 7. flash flooding 0.920 0.850 average mean score 1.422 1.440 sl.no. agro climatic status kalingarayan basin n=100 ponnaniyar basin n=100 increase the chance of rain or even light rain turning into flash flood. majority of the kalingarayan basin respondents were shifted from growing long duration varieties to short duration varieties from paddy crops to vegetable crops and fruit crops. most of the farmers changed their cropping pattern from paddypaddyturmeric to paddy turmeric banana. they were not interested to raise community nursery mainly to avoid conflict among farmers. ponnaniyar basin farmers also had changed their cropping pattern to flower crops and vegetable crops. all of them were not willing to grow community nursery because it would create problem among the farmers. most of them quit growing paddy crop and not cultivated intercrops due to water scarcity. conclusion adverse effects of climate change in the study area had made farmers to leave farming activities and migrate to urban areas as daily wage earners. this is a lightning call for policy makers and development departments to implement suitable programmes to reverse the scenario so as to build confidence and to improve status of farmers by making farming a profitable occupation. the action needed for farmers to mitigate ill effects of climate change were, early warning has to be given about environmental changes and creating awareness about appropriate adaptation measures against climate change. departments need to ....reasonable support price, insurance to all crops and subsidies has to be given to paddy farmers in order to sustain their livelihood security under adverse climatic change. these supportive measures taken by the government through respected and line department people will help the farmers to develop and adopt themselves from the climate change impacts. 5545climate change impact on paddy farming in erode and tiruchirapalli districts of tamil nadu references fischer, g., shah, m., francesco, n. and van velhuizen, h. 2005. socio-economic and climate change impacts on agriculture: an integrated assessment, 1990-2080. philosophical transactions of the royal society, b 2005, p360. mohanraj, k. and karthikeyan, c. 2014. perception of tank irrigated farmers towards climate change. journal of extension education. vol. 26. no. 3 : pp 5311 5314. sagun, c. n. 2009. climate change impacts on livelihood of poor and vulnerable communities and bio diversity conversation: a case study in banke, bardia, dhanding andrasuwa districts of nepal, usaid, care, nepal. sinha, a.k. and swaminathan, m.s, 1991. longterm climate variability and changes, journal of indian geographical union, vol. 7(3): pp.125-134. 6047 from the editor”s desk   my dear readers of journal of extension education,   as we are aware, india had witnessed several nation-wide public extension programmes starting from the launch of community development programme in 1952. since then, the public extension system has been criticized for not effecting changes in its focus and approach, in line with the changing agricultural scenario and needs, over the years.   however, it is interesting to note that in spite of its shortcomings, a worldwide study of agricultural research and extension institutions carried out by the international food policy research institute (ifpri), based on 80 studies worldwide, had estimated that the annual median rate of return was an average of 63 per cent for extension expenditures , while it was 48 per cent for agricultural research expenditures (alston et al. 2000). the most common drawback attributed to public extension systems is that the focus has been predominantly on transferring production technologies of major food crops with little attention given to the market potential of high-value crops.   a world bank study conducted in 2006 on enhancing agricultural innovations , had reported the following six findings, which hold good even today:   1.      markets, not production, increasingly drive agricultural development. 2.      the production, trade, and consumption environment for agriculture and agricultural products is growing more dynamic and evolving in unpredictable ways (e.g., due to energy costs, biofuels, climate change). 3.      knowledge, information, and, especially, proprietary technologies are increasingly being generated and diffused through the private sector. 4.      exponential growth in the development of information and communications technologies (ict) has transformed the capacity of some farmers, especially large-scale commercial farmers, to take advantage of new technologies being developed elsewhere. 5.      the structure for agricultural technology generation has markedly changed in many countries. 6.      agricultural development is increasingly taking place in a globalized setting.   taking this in to account the public extension systems need to play a pro-active, facilitating role in working with farmers, the smallholders, rural youth and women farmers, in particular. this would enable making farming profitable for them thereby retaining them in agriculture.   many constraints plague the agricultural extension system limiting its progress. concerted efforts need to be made overcome the identified constraints in order to achieve sustainable agricultural development. “constraint analysis” dominates this issue of jee, which i hope you would find interesting. do send your feedback to editorextension@gmail.com.     d puthira prathap chief editor jee 30(2)   6245 problems faced by rural youth in coimbatore district of tamil nadu p. radhakrishnan1 and p.p.murugan2 abstract to achieve the evergreen revolution in agriculture sector, retaining rural youth in agriculture is one of the important tasks of the government and other stakeholders in india. but there are less number of studies with conclusive evidence on the problems rural youth face while practicing agriculture. hence, a study on problems and suggestions for retaining rural youth in agriculture was taken up. it was found that most the respondents expressed lack of irrigation facilities, price fluctuations, involvement of intermediaries in marketing, inadequate crop insurance and insufficient inputs as the constraints. regarding suggestions, it was found that rejuvenation of rural youth clubs, timely input supply, creation of infrastructure facilities in the village and ict based transfer of technology would retain the rural youth in agriculture. keywords: agriculture; problems; rural youth; coimbatore; tamil nadu 1. assistant professor, pgp college of agricultural sciences, namakkal, district, 637 405, tamil nadu, india and 2. professor, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, ac&ri, madurai, 625104. tamil nadu, india the population of the state of tamil nadu according to the 2011 census is about 7.2 crore. more than half of them live in villages, although tamil nadu is fast becoming a urban state. more than half of the state population is below the age of 30. the younger generation will be interested in taking to agriculture as a profession only if agriculture becomes both economically and intellectually attractive. the future of food security in our country will depend on attracting the educated rural youth to agriculture and allied activities such as animal husbandry, inland and marine fisheries, agro-forestry, agro-processing and agri-business. rural youth are migrating from rural to urban areas due to unemployment opportunities and non remunerative income from rural areas. to achieve the evergreen revolution in agriculture sector, retaining of rural youth in agriculture is one of the important tasks. hence a study was undertaken to know the problems for rural youth in agriculture and to offer suggestions to retain rural youth in agriculture. methodology the study was taken up in annur, karamadai, thondamuthur and pollachi blocks of coimbatore district in tamil nadu, with a sample size of 200 respondents. coimbatore district consists of twelve blocks and out of these, annur, karamadai, thondamuthur and pollachi blocks were purposively selected based on the maximum area under agricultural research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6245-6248 received : 18-05-2019; accepted : 04-06-2019 6246 crops. the list of rural youth was obtained from various possible sources including state department of agriculture, ngos operating in the jurisdiction and nehru yuva kendra. the final list of rural youth was arranged alphabetically for each village. a sample of 50 youth from each block were selected by employing simple random sampling method. thus the total sample of 200 was arrived and included in the study as the sample. by having elaborate discussion with the planners, administrators, extensionists and others directly and indirectly concerned with the development of the rural youth, important suggestions were finalized. the responses were dichotomous, where ‘yes’ carried a score of two and ‘no’ carried a score of one. percentage analysis was done to get meaningful interpretation of the study. data were collected using well structured and standardized interview schedule. findings and discussion problems of rural youth the results are presented based on the responses of the rural youth on the problems faced by them while practising agriculture. table 1. problems of rural youth in agriculture n=200* sl.no problems respondents percentage rank 1 uncertainty in nature of job 180 90.00 viii 2 long working hours 160 80.00 xii 3 travelling distance and huge expenses in marketing farm produce 142 71.00 xiv 4 expensive farm machineries 200 100 iii 5 discrimination due to language/ community 173 86.50 ix 6 lack of irrigation facilities 200 100 i 7 insufficient required inputs 190 95.00 vi 8 price fluctuations 200 100 iv 9 lack of extension agency contact 129 64.50 xv 10 more involvement of intermediaries in marketing 200 100 ii 11 inadequate crop insurance 200 100 v journal of extension education 6247 the table shows that, 100% of the rural youth had reported lack of irrigation facilities in the village, extensive involvement of intermediaries in marketing, expensive farm machineries , price fluctuations and inadequate crop insurance as the constraints while practising agriculture. a big gap between the farm gate price and the consumer price might be the major reason for the felt problems. on the other side, fake and poor quality of inputs supply associated with lack of required inputs as well as lack of timely availability also hinders the agricultural related activities. the rural youth in agriculture would have been frustrated that their hard work did not bring in profits in comparison with traders involved in marketing of farm produce. venkatesan et al., (2018) too had reported that lack of proper marketing facility is one of the major problems faced by the rural youth most of the migrants in the study are temporary migrants who migrate during off-farm seasons to seek their fortune in urban centers. the lack of irrigation facilities, may be due to the shrinking of available irrigation water and failure of monsoon. this might have forced them to seek alternate job in rural or urban areas. imparting training on water management and use of improved water management practices could help the rural youth sustain profits in farming. intervention of intermediaries in market is also one of the major problems expressed by the rural youth. it is an accepted reality that the middle men always get more benefits than the producers. the famers are forced to go for farm mechanization due to non availability of skilled labours in the village. inspite of the exorbitant cost of equipment (or) hire charges of farm implements is failing the rural youth. suggestions for retaining rural youth in agriculture. the suggestions obtained from the respondents to overcome the constraints for retaining rural youth in agriculture are given in table 2. majority of the respondents (97.50 per cent) suggested the need for improved water management practices in agriculture for their sl.no problems respondents percentage rank 12 lack of village information centers 168 84.00 xi 13 lack of knowledge about ict 143 71.50 xiii 14 scarcity of labour 181 90.50 vii 15 lack of awareness about government schemes 171 85.50 x multiple responses* problems faced by rural youth in coimbatore district of tamil nadu 6248 income generating activities, 95.00 per cent of the respondents revealed that formation of rural youth clubs will develop their skill, knowledge, and act as motivation. from the above observations, it could be concluded that rural youth in agriculture are facing multifaceted problems with no viable solutions. despite their problems, the youth in agriculture are striving hard to overcome their problems. the problems of table 2. suggestions for retaining rural youth in agriculture (n=200)* sl. no suggestions no percentage 1 rejuvenation of rural youth clubs 190 95.00 2 timely input supply 166 83.00 3 making rural youth as successful agricultural entrepreneurs 182 91.00 4 creation of better infrastructure facilities in the village 174 87.00 5 ict based transfer of technology in agriculture 162 81.00 6 establishment of farm machinery hub 158 79.00 7 need for improved irrigation water management practices 195 97.50 8 regular visit of extension official on fixed dates 138 69.00 9 developing climate resilient technologies in agriculture 130 65.00 10 regulation of prices and distribution of inputs 122 61.00 11 strengthening of ict in agriculture development (e-governance) 114 57.00 12 training on current trends in agriculture 103 51.50 13 remunerative price for farm produce 183 91.50 14 bank loans on subsidy basis 190 95.00 * multiple responses rural youth should be addressed through appropriate extension methods, policy, schemes and services so that rural youth can be retained in agriculture. references venkatesan, s. indumathy, k. & murugan, p.p (2018). constaints faced by the rural youth in farm activities. journal of extension education, 30(3) journal of extension educationjournal of extension education 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 income generation pattern of self help group (shg) members m.v. karuna jeba mary1, v.ravichandran2 and t.n. sujeetha3 abstract the fulcrum of any micro credit scheme is savings. the shgs make it mandatory that savings are an inextricable part of their micro credit programme. each shg has a unique system of organizing and managing its own finance and operates as an independent unit. the shg also provides a forum for social interaction, which serves as an alternate social structure for peer level interaction. with this background, the present study was conducted in aundipatti, periyakulam and uthamapalayam blocks of theni district of tamil nadu, covering 220 shg women. the purpose was to obtain information on the participation of self-help group members in various income generating activities. all the members of shgs and grass root level workers of ngos were interviewed through a well-structured interview schedule. the various income generating activities are divided into agricultural, agricultural allied and non-agricultural enterprises. the study revealed that, most (45.45%) of the shg members had taken up paddy cultivation as their primary economic activity and less than half of the respondents had dairy (45.45%) as the major agricultural allied enterprise. the major group activities included napkin making (13.63) and curry leaf powder (11.36) preparation. 1-research associate, cards, tamil nadu agricultural university, 2dean, vanavarayar institute of technology, pollachi and 3-research scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-3. in the past decade, the number of women living under poverty has increased disproportionately to the number of men living under poverty. women contribute two-thirds of world work hours, comprise half of humanity yet she earns only one –third of total income and owns less than one-tenth of the world resources (anon, 1975). female poverty is directly related to the absence of economic resources including access to credit, land ownership and inheritance, lack of education and support services, minimal participation in the decision making process; credit is the most vital element in this combination of factors. self-help group concept is not new to india. but various constructive activities that can be undertaken to enhance the economic conditions of concerned members to boost their social status. in recent years, shgs have become significant institutions for accelerated rural development. this has been particularly so in the case of poor women. the poor women do not have enough capital to take up business enterprise on an individual basis. the group approach makes the available collective wisdom and combined resources for any task. shg members tend to pursue multiple income-generating activities to sustain their livelihood. further, attempt has 5383income generation pattern of self help group (shg members been made to analyze the involvement of women in income generating activities in those groups and to identify how the members of shgs have been financially self-sustainable. the various income generating enterprises are divided into three broad categories: agricultural, agricultural allied and nonagriculture. with this framework, an attempt has been made to document the participation of women in various entrepreneurial activities. shgs in tamil nadu multifold activities of shgs have paved the way for improving village economy. creating avenues for skill development, including leadership qualities and enabling economic independence are major functions of the “mahalir thittam”, a project of tamil nadu corporation for development of women ltd., (tncdw) which aimed at empowerment of women. tamil nadu doing well on the shg front has resulted in the boasting of more than 4.69 lakh of shgs with a membership of 60.63 lakh women. this includes 4.41 lakh of shgs directly covered by the tamil nadu corporation for development of women ltd., through the successful fostering of savings habit and promptness in loan repayment. mahalir thittam project is implemented in theni district from the year 1997 with the active participation of ngos. the review of performance of mahalir thittam in theni district reveals that there has been a commendable growth in respect of number of groups formed and women enrolled. in theni district, the total numbers of the self-help groups are 10,960 as on 31.3.2010. the number of women enrolled is 1, 73,080 and the total savings of the shgs is rs.5228.05 lakh. nearly two third (58%) of the shgs are formed in village panchayats. methodology the study was conducted in theni district of tamil nadu in view of its spectacular performance in shg movement as compared to other districts. moreover, the district has got ‘manimegalai award’ in recognition of its achievements on women empowerment front. three blocks viz., aundipatti, periyakulam and uthamapalayam were selected based on the availability of a number of functional shgs. from each block, two ngo’s were identified which have under their fold more number of shgs. two self-help groups in operation for more than two years were selected from the two selected ngos in each block. in this way, 12 self-help groups were selected for the study. all the members of the selected self-help groups were included in sample. thus, in all, there were 220 respondents. data collection was done with the help of a pre-tested, wellstructured interview schedule. findings and discussion income from agricultural enterprises table 1 reveals the wide range of agricultural activities undertaken by the shg members in the study area. a maximum of less than half (45.45%) of the respondents had paddy cultivation as their primary occupation followed by vegetable cultivation engaged by journal of extension education5384 34.00 per cent of the respondents and 20. 45 per cent of shg members were also involved in sugarcane cultivation. more than one-tenth (12.72%) of respondents had gone for banana cultivation and meager proportion of respondents (6.81%) had gone for coconut farming and vermi compost production (1.81%). the members of shgs could take up a number of income generating activities due to availability of easy credit and support services provided by their respective shgs. the most common activity was found to be paddy cultivation which was taken up by half of the respondents. this could be due to of the familiarity of women with these activities complemented by the easily mastered skills and the familiar nature of the jobs involved. it may be noted that vegetables, paddy and banana cultivation have been resorted to augment sustained income level. much more efforts are required to improve the performance of other activities like vermi compost and sale of banana leaf. these could provide subsidiary income from agriculture. these findings are in similar to the findings of asokhan (2006). income from non agricultural enterprises the relevant data were collected on nonagricultural enterprises carried out by the self help group members as shown in table 2. it is quite clear from the table that a number of respondents were engaged in individual enterprises apart from their group based activities. the respondents were found to be involved in tailoring (18.18%), pickles making (15.90%) and an equal numbers of respondents (13.63%) were found to be engaged in toys and terracotta making. with regard to group based activity, napkin preparation (13.63%), curry leaf powder preparation (11.36 %) foot mat preparation (9.09%) and areca plate preparation (8.18%) were the major income generating activities found in the study area. most of the shg women were engaged in table 1. distribution of respondents according to income generated from agricultural sources (n =220) sl.no. particulars no percentage 1. vegetable cultivation 75 34.00 2. paddy cultivation 100 45.45 3. banana cultivation 28 12.72 4. coconut cultivation 15 6.81 5. sugarcane cultivation 45 20.45 6. vermi compost 4 1.81 5385income generation pattern of self help group (shg members traditional occupations, which are suitable to the local conditions and for which raw materials are available within the village itself. some women had taken up non-conventional activities like pickles making, toys making and the like due to the training and exposure provided by the ngos as well as the table 2. distribution of respondents according to income generated from non-agricultural enterprises (n =220) sl.no. particulars no % i group ventures 1 printing and binding 15 6.81 2 jute bag making 17 7.72 3 foot mat preparation 20 9.09 4 korai mat preparation 14 6.36 5 napkin preparation 30 13.63 6 stick preparation 17 7.72 7 areca plate preparation 18 8.18 8 coir twisting 17 7.72 9 nutritious powder preparation 16 7.27 10 curry leaf powder 25 11.36 11 bio fertilizer 15 6.81 12 ration shop 16 7.27 ii individual ventures 1 tailoring 40 18.18 2 tea powder preparation 4 1.81 3 pickle making 35 15.90 4 toys making 30 13.63 5 candle making 20 9.09 6 embroidery work 25 11.36 7 petty shop 5 2.27 8 tiffin center 1 0.45 9 terra cotta 30 13.63 10 cloth sales 5 2.27 11 phenyl preparation 15 6.81 *multiple responses encouragement from the family members. as far as the group-based activities are concerned success rate was linked to micro market for tiny or small scale products. it is optional to the members to either engage in group based or individual based activities. however, synergy of the group provided the journal of extension education5386 stimulus to undertake any venture easily. focused group discussion with the members revealed that working in groups fulfilled all the requirements of the economic activity i.e. from arrangements of raw materials to the marketing of final product. in order to increase the living standard of the family, they are also engaged in more individual activities. sustainability of the activities however depends on the resource availability and management skills of the partners rather than group or individual based. the above findings are also in tune with the observations of asokhan (2006). conclusion the members of shgs could take up a number of income generating activities due to the credit availability and support services provided by their respective shgs. activities undertaken by shgs had a remarkable influence on the income generated by the group members. the most common activities were found to be raising of paddy nursery and pickle making which was taken up by onefourth of the respondents. this could be due to familiarity of the women with these activities complemented by the easily mastered skills and remunerative return from the jobs. references anonymous, 1975. world conference of the united nations, the decade for the women, nairobi, kenya. asokhan, m. 2006. empowerment of rural women through self-help groupsan empirical analysis. unpub. ph.d. thesis, ac&ri, tnau, coimbatore. 6137 constraints faced by the rural youth in farm activities v. shanjeevika1 , k. indumathy2 and p.p. murugan3 abstract rural areas are the economic backbone of the country and contribute to the economic growth for development of other sectors. major portion of the rural population depends on agriculture for their income. in recent years the participation of rural youth in agriculture is declining. this is due to the constraints faced by them and migration to urban areas. a study was conducted in nine villages of vaniyambadi taluk in tamil nadu to assess the constraints faced by rural youth in farm activities. the primary constraint faced by rural youth was lack of technical skills from resource persons, fear of external constraints like pests & disease followed by difficulty in accessing financial resources, low income generation and lack of proper marketing facilities. suggestions to overcome the constraints and methods to attract rural youth towards agriculture are also provided. keywords : rural youth; constraints; farm activities;tamil nadu. received : 16-10-2018; accepted : 26-10-2018 1. pg scholar, & 3. professor and head, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, ac & ri, madurai625 104 and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, adhiparasakthi agricultural college, g.b.nagar, kalavai-632 506, vellore dt. farm youth are the precious asset which have an important role in developmental agricultural activities. if the talents and abilities of them are properly nurtured and guided, agriculture will attain sustainable growth. but the participation and interest of the rural youth towards agriculture is in declining phase in the recent years. this is because of the constraints faced by them in farm activities and also migration to urban areas. though involvement and participation of youth in agriculture is necessary for economic development of a country the constraints faced by the youth are poorly understood in india. therefore to address this gap this study aims to assess the constraints faced by rural youth in farm activities. methodology from 20 blocks of vellore district in tamil nadu, alangayam block was selected for the study at random. among the nine taluks, vaniyambadi taluk was selected and among the 32 revenue villages of vaniyambadi taluk, nine villages were selected at random. in each village, 10 rural youths were identified based on random sampling method to make 90 respondents. data collection was done primarily through interviews with wellstructured interview schedule. constraints research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6137-6139 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6138 refer to all the hindrances expressed by respondent in farm activities. the respondents were asked to score for the constraints. if the respondent faces the constraint, a score of two was given and if he does not face a particular constraint a score of 1 was given. mean and percentage analysis were the statistical tools used for the study. findings and discussion the constraints faced by rural youth are given in table 1. table 1. constraints of rural youth participation in farm activities n= 90 sl.no constraints mean percentage rank 1. lack of technical skill support from resource persons 1.92 92.20 % i 2. fear of external constraints like pest, disease 1.92 92.20% i 3. low income generation 1.88 88.88% ii 4. difficulty in accessing financial resources 1.88 88.88% ii 5. lack of proper marketing facility 1.86 86.66% iii 6. lack of information about latest schemes and services in agriculture 1.83 83.30% iv 7. non availability of quality inputs 1.83 83.30% iv 8. poor government commitment 1.82 81.11% v 9. inadequate irrigation facility 1.81 81.10% vi 10. monsoon failure 1.80 80.00% vii 11. lack of awareness about important practices 1.77 77.70% viii it is understood from table 1 that the major constraints are lack of technical skills from resource persons and fear of pest and disease. low income generation was felt as a constraint by 88.8% of the rural youth as they undergo various risks in farming. the rural youth need to be trained to overcome those risks for better income generation. difficulty in accessing financial resources was also felt as a constraint by 88.8% percentage of rural youth. based on the results of the study the following suggestions are made. • agricultural colleges should concentrate more towards attracting rural youth towards agriculture. • government should establish technical and vocational institutes in villages for training the rural youth. • agriculture should be included in school curriculum. journal of extension education 6139 • youth cherish technology. hence, ict can be used to solve the problems and give recommendations to youth. • proper technical guidance should be provided to overcome and withstand risks. • youth should be assisted to have better access to necessary inputs. • location specific trainings for pest and disease eradication should be given by the extension agents. • location specific certificate courses can be offered • proper marketing facilities need to be created in rural areas so that farmers may get maximum return of their produce. references dhillon, d.s. & hansra, b. s. (1995). people’s participation in rural development programmes. kurukshetra, 43(4):7-9 janani, s., ravichandran, v & sujeetha, t.n. (2016), a study on marketing behavior of rural youth entrepreneurs among seven different ventures, journal of extension education, 28(1). constraints faced by the rural youth in farm activities 11545 v _1 04 _ july 15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 1, 2015 learning experience of small farmers in sugarcane cultivation v. balamurugan* abstract the effective learning experience can be had effective learning situations provided by a skillful instructor who knows what he wants, who has the materials to accomplish his goals and the skills to use them effectively. the study was conducted in cuddalore district of tamil nadu. a total number of ten sugarcane technologies with technical units were selected for the study. the result of the study small farmers possessed low level of learning experience. the learning experience may be further enhanced by majority of the small farmers to prefer personal localite channels for getting information. *assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalai nagar, tamil nadu. the key to agricultural development lies in the mind, heart and hands of the farmers. communication of agricultural information was inefficient and ineffective leading to an increase in the gap between innovations in the lab and the adoption in the fields by the farmers. thus, there is need to have more effective transfer of technology system. realizing the gap in research and accumulated felt needs at the grass root level, the present investigation was formulated as an attempt to study the following objectives 1. relationship of socioeconomics and psychological characteristics with the learning experience of small farmers. 2. to study the practice wise learning experience of small farmers in sugarcane cultivation methodology the study was carried out in selected six villages from six blocks of cuddalore district of tamil nadu. a total number of ten sugarcane technologies with technological units were selected for the study. the eighty respondent were selected from six villages using proportionate random sampling. fourteen independent variables were selected based on judges opinion. data collection was done through a well constructed and pre tested interview schedule. collected data were analysed by using appropriate statistical tests. learning experience in this study, learning experience was operationalised as a service of learning activities performed by the respondent to learn the selected sugarcane technologies. respondents were asked to indicate the learning activities performed by them under three major information sources viz., personal localite, personal cosmopolite and mass media sources to learn each and every selected sugarcane technology. assigning weightage to learning experience following the procedure adopted by athimuthu (1990) and mahendrapandian 5379learning experience of small farmers in sugarcane cultivation (1992), 48 learning activities were identified under three major categories of information source viz., personal localite, personal cosmopolite and sugarcane technology. the arithmetic mean of the weightages of the judges was taken as the activity weightages to the respective learning experience under selected sugarcane technologies. this resulted in a separate set of learning activity weightages for each sugarcane technology. computing learning experience this was quantified by utilizing the activity weightages of such learning activities reported to have been performed by the respondents to learn a particular sugarcane technology. the addition of activity weightages for all the 48 learning activities of particular sugarcane technology was calculated. then the actual learning experience score was divided by the maximum learning experience score and multiplied by 100 to yield the extent of learning experience for a particular sugarcane technology. in this way, the extent of learning experience for all the ten sugarcane technologies were added and then divided by 10 (the total number of sugarcane technologies), which yielded the extent of learning experience of sugarcane technology. besides this, the learning experience gained through various learning activities performed under three major information sources viz., personal localite, personal cosmopolite and mass media channels for the individual technologies was also worked out. findings and discussion the zero order correlation coefficient (r) was * significant at 5% level; ** significant at 5% level; ns non significant table 1. relationship of socio economics and psychological characteristics with the learning experience level of sugarcane cultivators sl. no variables 't' value small farmers (n = 80) x1 age -0.071 ns x2 educational status 0.014 ns x3 occupational status -0.06 ns x4 area under cultivation -0.026 ns x5 farming experience -0.028 ns x6 experience in sugarcane -0.021 ns x7 annual income 0.009 ns x8 social participation -0.084 ns x9 extension agency contact 0.385** x10 decision making 0.174 ns x11 mass media exposure 0.177ns x12 scientific orientation -0.081ns x13 information source utilization 0.491** x14 innovativeness 0.0247* journal of extension education5380 worked out to study the relationship of independent variables with the learning experience of small sugarcane cultivators and the results are presented in table 1. in could be seen from the table 1 that out of fourteen independent variables, only three variable viz., extension agency contact(x9) information source utilization (x13) and innovativeness (x14)were found to have positive and highly significant relationship with the learning experience of small categories sugarcane growers. the extension agency contact and information source utilization might have provided the opportunity for the farmers to contact authenticated sources of information to learn. this might have resulted in higher learning experience. similar finding was also reported by athimuthu (1990). practice wise learning experience of small farmers the data collected on the recommend practices learn by the small farmers through the learning activities under the personal locality, personal cosmopolite and mass media channels are presented in table 2. table 2. practice wise learning experience of small farmers in sugarcane learning activities personal localite personal mask media ho % ho % no % 1 sett selection 64 80.00 32 40.00 19 23.75 2 sett treatment 45 56.25 32 40.00 26 32.50 3 planting 67 83.75 20 25.00 11 13.75 4 herbicide application 40 50.50 43 53.75 19 23.75 5 bio-fertilizer application 66 82.50 27 33.75 17 21.25 6 phosphatic fertilizer 75 93.75 19 27.75 11 13.75 7 nitrogenous fertilizer 76 95.00 28 35.00 12 15.00 8 potash fertilize 72 90.00 14 17.50 15 18.75 9 control early short borer 61 76.05 37 46.25 17 21.25 10 bio-control agent for inter-node borer 39 48.75 37 46.25 21 26.25 sl. no. technology * multiple response from table 2, it could be observed that majority of the small farmers performed the learning activities under personal localite channels learning of nine practices viz., sett selection (80.00 %), planting (83.75 %), bio fertilizer application (82.50 %), phosphotic fertilizer application (93.75 %), nitrogenous fertilizer application (95.00 %) and potash fertilizer application (76.25 %). the learning activities under personal cosmopolite channels were utilized by majority of the farmers (53.75% %) for one practice namely, herbicide application. the mass media sources were utilized by comparatively less number of farmers. it could be inferred that the small farmers performed the learning activities under personal localite channels in their learning for 5381learning experience of small farmers in sugarcane cultivation most of the practices. it might be due to easy accessible, approaches and cost effective nature of personal localite channels. mass media sources were found to be less utilized by the respondents. this might be due to there poor accessibility and less affordability to buy mass media sources like television and radio. the same trend was reported by mahendra pandian (1992). conclusion in this light of the present investigation, it can be concluded that only three characteristic like extension agency contact, information sources utilization and innovativeness have significant and positive relationship with learning experience. the majority of the small farmers to prefer personal localite channels for getting information due to easy approachable, accessible and cost effective nature of personal localite channels this might have enabled the small farmers to use them frequently. hence it is necessary to identity the extension educational programmes such as trainings, discussion meetings, demonstration and field visit etc., for perceptual changes among the sugarcane cultivators. references athimuthu, p. 1990. diagnostic study on information management, learning experience and extent of adoption of nutrient use technology for the rice. unpub. ph.d. thesis, tamil nadu, agricultural university, coimbatore. mahendra pandian, p. 1992. learning experience and adoption behaviour of big and small farmers growing unirrigated cotton in chidambaranar district, unpub. m.sc., (ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, killikulam. 6274 1. pg scholar and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agriculture university, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala695522. received : 21-08-2019; accepted : 24-10-2019 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6274-6279 comparative analysis of attitude of agripreneurs towards agri-clinics and agribusiness centres (acabc) scheme in kerala and andhra pradesh dumpala santhosh reddy1 and allan thomas2 abstract agri-clinics and agribusiness centres (acabc) scheme is a credit linked subsidy based scheme for setting up ‘agriventure’ by trained agricultural graduates launched by government of india to strengthen public extension system, technology transfer and to augment employment in rural areas. the present study was conducted during the year 2017-19 in kerala and andhra pradesh (ap) among the agripreneurs trained under acabc scheme. the sample comprised 30 agripreneurs from each nodal training institute (nti) in kerala and ap.the purpose of the study was to assess the attitude of agripreneurs towards acabc scheme. majority of the agripreneurs from both kerala and ap had medium level of attitude towards acabc scheme. keywords : agriclinics and agribusiness centres; attitude; agripreneurs; kerala; andhra pradesh introduction india is basically an agriculture based economy. agriculture sector is the single largest employment provider in the country. in india the key to poverty alleviation and overall economic development is still rapid agricultural growth. however the rate of growth in agriculture sector is declining. in addition to these, increasing unemployment is a major concern in the country. to improve the agriculture sector and to tackle the unemployment problem, government of india in association with nabard ( national bank for agriculture & rural development) has launched agri-clinics and agri-business centres (acabc) scheme on 9th april, 2002. the scheme was intended to supplement the public agricultural extension service and to accelerate the technology transfer process as well as to provide self-employment openings to technically qualified personnel. however, the scheme has not gained the required momentum. the present study aimed to analyse the attitude of agripreneurs towards acabc scheme in kerala and andhra pradesh. methodology the study was conducted in two nodal training institutes (ntis) in kerala and andhra 6275 pradesh. in kerala there is only one nti i.e., training service scheme (tss) vellayani, kerala agricultural university (kau) and it was selected for the study. among 9 ntis in andhra pradesh the leading institute is bojjavenkata reddy agricultural foundation, nandyal. a sample of 30 agripreneurs from each nti in kerala and andhra pradesh was selected thus making a total sample of 60 agripreneurs. data were collected by using an interview schedule. to measure the attitude of agripreneurs towards acabc scheme, scale developed by chargotra (2007) was used with slight modifications. scale consists of seventeen statements, out of which ten were positive and seven were negative. the response for each statement was collected on a five point continuum as strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagreewith scores as 5,4,3,2 and 1 respectively for positive statements. while for negative statements reverse scoring was followed. the probable range of scores was 17 to 85. based on mean score and standard deviation the respondents were classified into three categories i.e. low, medium and high. statistical tools used for the analysis were mean, standard deviation and pearson’ correlation coefficient. findings and discussion socio-economic profile of agripreneurs trained under acabc scheme the study revealed that fifty per cent of the agripreneurs of kerala were old aged while majority (53.33%) were middle aged in andhra pradesh (table 1). majority of agripreneurs were male from both kerala (86.67%) and ap (93.33%). high proportion of male agripreneurs may be primarily attributed to risk taking capacity of male agripreneurs than female agripreneurs. majority of agripreneurs hailed from agriculture stream in both kerala (83.33%) and ap (76.67%). more than three fourths (76.67%) of agripreneurs belonged to general category in kerala whereas more than half (53.33%) belonged to obc in ap. majority of agripreneurs were graduates in both kerala (70.00%) and ap (63.33%). majority of agripreneurs were married in both kerala (93.33%) and ap (83.33%).73.33 per cent of kerala agripreneurs belonged to 4 member family, while in case of agripreneurs of ap majority (46.67%) belonged to 6 member family. it is inferred that agripreneurs of kerala belonged to nuclear families whereas agripreneurs of ap belonged to medium size families. more than half (53.33%) of the agripreneurs from kerala had other occupation in addition to agripreneurship, while 66.67 per cent of the agripreneurs from ap had only agripreneurship as the sole occupation. majority of the agripreneurs of kerala (73.33%) and ap (56.67%) had medium level of experience.83.33 per cent of agripreneurs of kerala had less than 2 acres of landholding while 80.00 per cent of agripreneurs of ap had great than 1 acre of landholding.80.00 per cent of agripreneurs of kerala had annual income less than 4 lakhs while 77.77 per cent of agripreneurs of ap had income greater than 2 lakhs. attitude of agripreneurs towards acabc scheme the distribution of agripreneurs in kerala and ap based on attitude towards comparative analysis of attitude of agripreneurs towards agri-clinics and agribusiness centres (acabc) scheme in kerala and andhra pradesh 6276 table 1 socio-economic profile of agripreneurs trained under acabc scheme (n=60) sl. no. characteristics category kerala (n=30) ap (n=30) f % f % 1 age young age (<35 years) 4 13.33 13 43.33 middle age (35-55 years) 11 36.67 16 53.33 old age (>55 years) 15 50.00 1 3.33 2 sex male 26 86.67 28 93.33 female 4 13.33 2 6.67 3 stream agriculture 25 83.33 23 76.67 horticulture 2 6.67 4 13.33 agril. engineering 0 0 1 3.33 veterinary 0 3.33 1 3.33 fisheries 2 6.67 1 3.33 mba/agribusiness 1 3.33 0 0 4 community schedule caste (sc) 1 3.33 2 6.67 schedule tribe (st) 1 3.33 1 3.33 other backward classes (obc) 5 16.67 16 53.33 general (gen) 23 76.67 11 36.67 5 educational status diploma/vhse (vocational hr. secondary) 2 6.67 4 13.33 b.sc. 21 70.00 19 63.33 m.sc. 5 16.67 7 23.33 ph.d. 2 6.67 0 0 6 marital status unmarried 2 6.67 5 16.67 married 28 93.33 25 83.33 7 family size 4 member family 22 73.33 5 16.67 5 member family 7 23.33 11 36.67 6 member family 1 3.33 14 46.67 8 means of livelihood agripreneurship + other 16 53.33 11 33.33 agripreneurship alone 14 46.66 19 66.67 9 experience low 4 13.33 6 20.00 medium 22 73.33 17 56.67 high 4 13.33 7 23.33 journal of extension education 6277 acabc scheme is presented in table 2. it revealed that majority (60.00%) of agripreneurs of kerala had medium level of attitude followed by 26.66 and 13.33 per cent who had low and high level of attitude towards acabc scheme. however in case of agripreneurs of ap, 70.00 per cent had medium level of attitude and 16.66 per cent who had high level of attitude towards acabc scheme. only 13.33 per cent had low level of attitude towards acabc scheme. from the results, it can be inferred that agripreneurs of ap had better attitude towards acabc scheme than agripreneurs of kerala. relationship between agripreneurs’ characteristics and their attitude towards acabc scheme the results of correlation analysis were taken into consideration for analysing the influence of characteristics of agripreneurs’ on their attitude towards acabc scheme. it revealed that out of 15 independent variables, four variables namely landholding, information 10 landholding <1 acre 18 40.00 2 6.67 ≥1-2 acres 10 33.33 14 46.67 ≥2-4 acres 0 0 10 33.33 ≥4 acres 2 6.66 4 13.33 11 annual income < 2 lakhs 9 30.00 7 23.33 ≥2-4 lakhs 15 50.00 12 40.00 ≥4-6 lakhs 1 3.33 2 6.66 ≥6-8 lakhs 3 10.00 5 16.66 >8 lakhs 2 6.66 4 13.33 table 2 distribution of agripreneurs based on attitude towards acabc scheme (n=60) sl. no category kerala (n=30) andhra pradesh (n=30) f % f % 1 low 8 26.66 4 13.33 2 medium 18 60.00 21 70.00 3 high 4 13.33 5 16.66 total 30 100 30 100 mean=61.63 s.d.=2.999 se=0.548 mean=66.83 s.d.=3.76 se=0.687 comparative analysis of attitude of agripreneurs towards agri-clinics and agribusiness centres (acabc) scheme in kerala and andhra pradesh 6278 source and motivation were positively and significantly correlated with attitude towards acabc scheme. with respect to agripreneurs of ap, out of 15 independent variables, five variables namely age, education, experience, landholding, annual income and seriousness were positively and significantly correlated with attitude towards acabc scheme. however, a detailed analysis showed that out of 15 independent variables only one variable i.e., annual income was positively table 3 correlation of characteristics of agripreneurs with attitude towards acabc scheme (n=60) sl. no. variables kerala (n=30) andhra pradesh (n=30) 1 age -0.09 0.48** 2 sex -0.12 0.28 3 stream -0.02 0.25 4 caste -0.08 0.13 5 education 0.09 0.44* 6 marital status -0.21 0.20 7 family size -0.16 0.28 8 means of livelihood 0.03 0.34 9 experience 0.01 0.52** 10 landholding 0.38* 0.28 11 annual income 0.45* 0.63** 12 information source 0.43* 0.26 13 motivation 0.37* 0.12 14 seriousness 0.16 0.41* 15 feedback 0.18 0.27 ** significant at 1% level of significance; * significant at 5% level of significance and significantly correlated with attitude of agripreneurs towards acabc scheme. conclusion majority of the agripreneurs had medium level of attitude towards acabc scheme in both kerala and andhra pradesh. annual income of agripreneurs was positively and significantly correlated with their attitude towards acabc scheme in both the states of kerala and andhra pradesh. the study suggests journal of extension education 6279 that state governments of both kerala and andhra pradesh need to take efforts to create awareness about the scheme, to identify the lacunae in the implementation of the scheme and foster the scheme among the graduates. references chargotra, m. (2007). evaluation study of agriclinic and agri-business centres in rajasthan. unpublished ph.d. thesis, maharana pratap university of agriculture and technology, udaipur, 171p. comparative analysis of attitude of agripreneurs towards agri-clinics and agribusiness centres (acabc) scheme in kerala and andhra pradesh 6177 attitude of farmers towards eco friendly farming practices in the nilgiris, tamil nadu l. muralikrishnan1 and h. philip2 abstract the farm lands in the western ghats ecosystem of india had been losing its fertility, bio diversity and ecological uniqueness due to long use of chemical fertilizers, commercial farm management practices and chemical pesticides. to solve these issues, adopting eco-friendly farming practices is one of the major solutions. the study aimed to analyse the attitude of farmers in western ghats towards eco-friendly conservation practices. majority of the farmers had moderately favorable attitude towards eco -friendly farming practices. regression analysis suggested that the leadership abilities and contact with extension agency had significant contribution with the attitude level of farmers towards the eco-friendly farming practices. keywords: attitude; eco-friendly farming practices; western ghats; the nilgiris 1. scientist, division of agricultural extension, icar-iari, new delhi-110012 and 2, director of extension education, tnau, coimbatore-641003 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 4, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6177-6182 indroduction the long-term implications of estate and plantation agriculture have been created ecological problems due to long use of chemical fertilizers, commercial farm management practices and chemical pesticides. this creates a hazardous situation for agro biodiversity agricultural biodiversity a vital sub-set of biodiversity, is a creation of humankind whose food and livelihood security depend on the sustained management of those diverse biological resources that are important for food and agriculture (ramakrishnan, 2002). in this context, the eco-friendly farming practices minimize the agricultural production risks and conserve the sustainable management of the western ghats ecosystem. eco friendly farming practices is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity (fao, 1999), the western ghats plays a significant role in determining the climate and physiography of india, spreading over six states namely gujarat, maharashtra, karnataka, kerala, goa and tamil nadu. it has a wide range of vegetation and topographical features. unfortunately during the 19th century, large tracts of forest lands of the western ghats region were cleared and converted the land for commercial agriculture practices of tea, coffee, exotic vegetables likes potato, carrot, etc. received : 13-07-2018; accepted : 12-02-2019 6178 the present study aimed to assess the attitude and of farmers towards eco-friendly farming practices in the nilgiris district in western ghats of tamil nadu. methodology the study was conducted purposively in the nilgiris district tamil nadu and data were collected by using an interview schedule. all four blocks of the district were taken for this study. a sample of 80 farmers was selected from each block. altogether, 320 respondents were selected from the district, based on simple random sampling technique with the support of the state department of horticulture. in order to measure the attitude of farmers towards eco-friendly farming practices, a scale was constructed by following ‘equal appearing interval’ scaling technique developed by thurstone and chave (1929). findings and discussion construction of attitude scale possible statements concerning the psychological object i.e., ‘eco friendly farming practices’ were collected based on the review of literature and discussion with social scientists, agronomists and environmental scientists. altogether 62 statements were collected which were organized and structured in the form of attitude items. the items were screened by following informal criteria. based table 1. final set of attitude items selected with corresponding s and q values and the nature of statements sl. no. statement no. scale value q value statement nature of the statement 1. 42 4.23 1.31 eco friendly farming practices will not get support from family members unfavourable 2. 24 2.61 2 eco friendly farming practices are market need oriented favourable 3. 54 4.11 1.17 eco friendly farming practices do not attract youth towards livelihood security unfavourable 4. 33 4 1.38 forest department schemes are encouraging eco-friendly farming practices favourable 5. 49 4.15 0.09 participation in eco-friendly farming practices is very much encouraging favourable 6. 15 4.15 1.08 eco friendly farming practices reduces the environmental uncertainties favourable 7. 2 4.76 0.94 eco friendly farming practices protect bio diversity favourable journal of extension education 6179 on the screening, 55 items were selected which formed the universe of the content. the 55 statements were then subjected to judges’ opinion on a five point continuum, ranging from most favorable to most unfavorable. the list of statements was sent to 50 judges comprising extenionists of state agricultural universities of tamil nadu, kerala, andhra pradesh and karnataka. of the 50 judges, 40 judges responded by sending their judgements. by applying the formula as suggested by thurstone and chave (1929), the scale values and q values were computed for the 40 statements. finally the seven statements having high scale values and low q values were selected. final set of attitude items selected with corresponding s and q values and the nature of statements are presented in table 1. this attitude scale was used to measure the attitude of the farmers towards the ecofriendly farming practices in the nilgiris district of tamil nadu. attitude level of farmers attitudes are formed by what an individual perceives to be true about the attitude-object. (willock et al., 1999). it refers to “a person’s evaluation of any psychological object. from table 2, it could be seen that more than half of respondents (55.31%) were found to possess a moderately favourable attitude towards the eco friendly conservation practices followed by 23.75 per cent of the respondents with less favourable and 20.94 per cent who had highly favourable attitude towards the eco friendly farming practices. though more than half of the farmers had moderately favourable attitude towards the ecofriendly farming practices, their awareness, knowledge and economic motivation level had affected their symbolic adoption behavior of the farmers to of eco-friendly farming practices. training programmes, exposure visits, case studies approach, participatory extension approach and farmer led extension approaches are some suggested solutions to improve their attitude level towards the adoption of the eco-friendly farming practices in their farm lands. association and contribution of farmers’ charasteristics with attitude. it could be observed from table 3 that the variable, ‘leadership abilities of farmers’ had a positive and significant relationship with the attitude towards eco friendly conservation table 2. distribution of respondents based on their attitude level towards eco-friendly farming practices (n=320) sl. no. attitude of farmers number percentage 1. less favorable 76 23.75 2. moderately favorable 177 55.31 3. highly favorable 67 20.94 total 320 100.00 attitude of farmers towards eco friendly farming practices in the nilgiris, tamil nadu 6180 table 3. association and contribution of farmers’ characteristics with attitude towards eco friendly farming practices sl. no. profile characteristics respondents correlation r regression ('b' value) coefficient se of b 't' value 1. (x1) age 0.063 0.008 0.078 0.100 2. (x2) educational status 0.350** 0.059 0.036 1.647 3. (x3) occupational status 0.175** -0.069 0.046 -1.510 4. (x4) farming experiences -0.015 0.061 0.080 0.768 5. (x5) farm size 0.017 -0.053 0.072 -0.732 6. (x6) annual income -0.027 0.028 0.064 0.439 7. (x7) social participation 0.365** -0.046 0.049 -0.928 8. (x8) economic motivation -0.385** -0.063 0.065 -0.974 9. (x9) risk orientation 0.299** -0.091 0.096 -0.946 10. (x10) scientific orientation 0.510** 0.099 0.078 1.272 11. (x11) information seeking behavior 0.361** 0.033 0.091 0.366 12. (x12) training undergone 0.467** 0.100 0.082 1.221 13. (x13) progressiveness 0.334** 0.023 0.085 0.275 14. (x14) perception on environmental degradation 0.370** 0.122 0.106 1.152 15. (x15) perception on environmental conservation 0.558** 0.061 0.077 0.800 16. (x16) innovativeness 0.564** 0.084 0.060 1.391 17. (x17) self reliance 0.568** 0.064 0.058 1.112 18. (x18) contact with extension agency 0.486** 0.053 0.029 1.822* 19. (x19) socio cultural linkage -0.411** 0.010 0.068 0.152 20. (x20) leadership abilities 0.617** 0.289 0.079 3.658** r2 = 0.514 f = 11.592 constant = 0.239 *p < 0.05significant at 5 per cent level; **p < 0.01 significant at 1 per cent level; ns–non-significant; na-not applicable journal of extension education 6181 practices at one per cent level of probability. the ‘contact with extension agency’ of the farmers too had positive and significant relationship with attitude at five per cent level. all the selected twenty variables acted as cause to bring 51.40 per cent variation in attitude level of farmers in the eco friendly conservation practices. the prediction equation fitted for adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. attitude level of farmers towards eco friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats (y) = 0.239 + 0.008 (x1) + 0.059 (x2) 0.069 (x3) + 0.061 (x4) 0.053 (x5) + 0.028 (x7) 0.046 (x7) 0.063 (x8) --0.091 (x9) 0.099 (x10) + 0.033 (x11) 0.100 (x12) + 0.023 (x13) + 0.122 (x14) + 0.061 (x15) + 0.084 (x16) + 0.064 (x17) +0.053 (x18) + 0.010 (x19) + 0.289 (x20) this revealed that a one unit increase in contact with extension agency and leadership abilities, ceteris paribus would result in an increase of 1.822 units, 3.658 units, in the overall attitude towards the eco friendly conservation practices. it could be further observed from table 3 that among the 20 variables, contact with extension agency and leadership abilities were found to have positively contributed to the attitude of the eco-friendly farming practices. in general, contact with extension agency and leadership abilities were the key elements in formation of attitude. the leadership abilities motivate the farmers and provides confidence in adoption of eco – friendly farming practices. contact with extension agency helps the farmer to build formal and informally known technology transfer mechanism with the relevance of the eco-friendly farming practices (muralikrishnan et al 2015). it is very important to change the attitude of the farmers to adopt eco-friendly farming practices conclusion attitude plays a very important role in the adoption process in the eco-friendly farming practices in the nilgiris district of tamil nadu. the eco-friendly farming practices are an effective and holistic system of farming practices for environmental friendly, economically viable, and socially acceptable way of adoption process. the present study revealed that the farmers of the nilgiris district possessed moderately favourable attitude towards eco friendly farming practices. in general, it was revealed that increased contact with extension agency and identification & promotion of leadership abilities would result in enhanced level of opinion leadership towards eco friendly conservation practices and faster adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. references fao. (1999). organic agriculture, food and agriculture organization of the united nations, rome. muralikrishnan, l, philip, h, ravichandran, v & chinnadurai, m. (2015). adoption & impact of eco-friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats. journal of extension education, 27(2) attitude of farmers towards eco friendly farming practices in the nilgiris, tamil nadu 6182 thurstone, l.l. & chave, e.j. (1929). the measurement of attitude. chicago university, chicago press. willock, j., deary, i.j., edwards-jones, j., gibson, g.j., mcgeregor, m.j., sutherland, a., dent, j.b., morgan, o & grieve, r. (1999). the role of attitude and objectives in farmer decision making: business and environmentallyoriented behavior in scotland, agricultural economics, 50 (2): 286-303. journal of extension education 1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 3, 2015 reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages perceived by the organic farmers m. elavarasi1 and k.a. ponnusamy2 abstract the study mainly focused on reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages and benefits perceived by the organic farmers. the study was conducted in coimbatore, erode and dharampuri districts of tamil nadu. a sample of 100 organic farmers were the respondents for the present study. the data were collected from each respondent through personal interview method with the help of interview schedule. the results revealed that, major reasons for resorting to organic farming were premium price ( 75.00%) conservation of environment (72.00%), production of high quality, toxic and pesticide free product (68.00%) and negative experiences face with inorganic farming(50.00%) and perceived benefits of organic farming were increased soil properties(100.00%), reduced cost on external inputs (82.00%), efficient use of local onfarm resources(77.00%) and water holding capacity of soil (75.00%) 1-pg scholar, dept. of agrl.extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore641 003 and 2 3 professor, directorate of odl, tnau, coimbatore 641 003. in india before 1960, only organic farming practice was followed without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. during late 1960s, there was threaten to food security due to population raise and frequent droughts, which brought “green revolution” in our country. green revolution has ensured food security to the growing population leading to selfsufficiency in food grain production. due to intensive agriculture, using high yielding varieties, more fertilizers, chemicals and irrigation to increase yields was introduced. excessive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides has long lasting and deterious effects on soil health, soil erosion, pollution of air, effects on environment, reduce quality of food produce, consumers of agricultural produce and increased cost of cultivation. therefore we look for organic farming which is a holistic production management system that promotes and enhance agro –eco system health, including bio diversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. promoting organic farming practices among the farming community in a large scale will be a promising strategy to face these challenges. organic farming is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compound fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, genetically modified organism and live stock food additives. to the maximum extent possible organic farming system relies upon crop rotations, use of crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off farm organic wastes, bio fertilizers, mechanical cultivation and aspect of biological control to maintain soil productivity (lamkin, 1990) journal of extension education5486 organic agriculture in india is being adopted by farmers for different reasons. first category of farmers are those who are situated in no-input or low-input use zones, for them organic is a way of life and they are doing it as a tradition. second category of farmers are those who have recently adopted the organic in the wake of ill effects of conventional agriculture, may be in the form of reduced soil fertility, food toxicity or increasing cost and diminishing returns. the third category comprised of farmers and enterprises which have systematically adopted the commercial organic agriculture to capture emerging market opportunities and premium prices. according to lukas and cahn (2008) the major motivation for the farmers to adopt organic agriculture was their negative experiences with conventional farming, e.g. deteriorating natural assets, continuous pest and disease problems, high costs for external farm inputs and health problems that were related to the use of pesticides. according to food and agriculture organization (2008) organic agriculture promotes ecological resilience, improved biodiversity, healthy management, off-farms and the surrounding environment, and building on community knowledge and strength. according to adesope et al. (2012) benefits perceived by the organic farmers were, 41.10% of the respondents perceived that organic farming practices increased soil organic matter content, 22.20% perceived that they reduced input cost of farming, 26.7% perceived that they involved low risk in crop failure. also, 81.10% indicated that it has a high social value of general acceptability. about 84.00% indicated that organic farming practices are compatible with their own cultural systems, 77.80% stated that they are inexpensive, 55.60% stated that organic farming practices are natural form of farming, while 22.20% indicated that they are environmentally friendly. keeping all these facts in mind the present investigation “reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages and benefits perceived by the organic farmers” was undertaken. methodology a diagnostic cum exploratory research design was used for the research study. based on interaction with officials from tamil nadu organic seed certification department (tnocd), coimbatore and myrada kvk, gobichettipalayam the researcher came to know that the farmers in the three districts, namely, coimbatore, erode and dharampuri have been successfully practising organic farming. moreover organic farming association has been functioning effectively in coimbatore, erode and dharampuri. hence these three districts were selected. by reviewing the record and documents from tnocd, coimbatore and myrada kvk gobichettipalayam, a list of farmers practising was prepared and a total of 100 farmers were selected and personally interviewed and data were collected using semi structured interview 5487reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages perceived by the organic farmers schedule. data were analyzed by using percentage analysis and the significant findings are given here under. findings and discussion reasons for resorting to organic farming the results on reasons for resorting to organic farming by the farmers are presented in table 1. premium price an overview of the data presented in table 1 indicate that, three-fourth of the respondents (75.00%) resorted towards organic farming because of to get high price premiums for their farm produces. the farmers, who realized the middle man problem under inorganic system and marketing opportunities under organic farming system such as premium price, demand for healthy food, marketing trends and export opportunity would have resorted towards the same. they (n=100)* exposed to the existing organic marketing system under organic farming in their area. moreover farmers realized and opined that the organic product is normally priced 20-30 % higher than a conventional product. table 1. distribution of respondents according to reasons for resorting to organic farming *multiple responses obtained sl.no. reasons for resorting to organic farming number percentage 1. premium price 75 75 2. conservation of environment 72 72 3. production of high quality, toxic, pesticide free and nutritious product 68 68 4. negative experiences face with inorganic farming 50 50 5. to reduce cost of production 44 44 6. participation in organic farming related training and field visit 32 32 7. awareness created through broadcasting program in mass media and publications such as magazines, journals and news dailies 22 22 8. gaining independence and self sufficiency under organic farming system 18 18 journal of extension education5488 conservation of environment nearly three fourth (72.00%) of the respondents were switched over to organic farming to conserve environment. they experienced various long lasting effects of chemical farming in soil, air and water such as depletion of soil health, loss of soil fertility, increased level of soil ph, reduced population of microorganism and earth worms, pollution due to pesticides and fertilizers, depletion of ground water level and contaminated water due to excessive spraying of fertilizers and pesticides which might be influenced them for resorted to organic farming. production of high quality, toxic, pesticide residue free and nutritious product more than half (68.00 %) of the farmers expressed that they resorted towards organic farming to produce high quality, toxic, pesticide residue free and nutritious product. they aware about ill effects of chemical food which cause adverse effects on human health. some farmers perceived that chemical would agriculture causes health hazard for themselves. however, personal health was not the only reason to convert to organic farming. the farmers who are conscious about their own health and of their families were more likely to be considered about their farm workers as well as consumers health by avoiding contact with toxic inputs and therefore it might be influenced them for resorting towards the organic farming. negative experiences faced with inorganic farming the farmers who resorted towards the organic farming as a result of negative experiences faced with inorganic farming were exactly 50.00 per cent. farmers converted to organic farming because of uneasiness experienced, with existing farming system which was predominantly based on chemicals. they experienced various negative experiences of chemical farming such as continuous pest and disease problem, pest resistance problem, pollution due to fertilizers and pesticides, pest resurgence problem, increased cost of cultivation, high cost of external farm inputs, reduced food quality and declining yield. as a result of realizing these long lasting effects of chemical farming at particular point they resorted towards organic farming. to reduce cost of production nearly half (44.00%) of the farmers were resorting towards organic farming in order to reduce the cost of production. they felt that under chemical farming system they had spent more money for purchasing fertilizers and pesticides which increased the cost of cultivation and also pushed them towards dept trap, also they aware of organic farming reduced the cost of cultivation by efficient utilization of local on farm resources. hence in order to lower the cost of production they might be resorted towards the organic farming. 5489reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages perceived by the organic farmers participation in organic farming related training and field visit more than one fourth (32.00%) of the farmers resorted to organic farming as a result of participation in organic farming related training and field visit. they had participated in different training programmes which were conducted by krishi vigyan kendra and organic farmers associations in which they visited to other successful organic farmer’s fields and discussed with organic farmers and learned organic farming technologies which might be influenced them for resorting to organic farming. awareness created through broadcasting program in mass media and publications such as magazines and journals nearly one fourth (22.00%) of the respondents resorted towards organic farming as a result of awareness created through broadcasting program in mass media and publications such as magazines, journals and news dailies. gaining independence and self sufficiency under organic farming system a very few only 18.00 per cent of the respondents were resorted towards organic farming to gain independence and to attain self sufficiency. after realizing that every requirement of farm should be met out within the farm itself and also who expected the final product alone reach the consumer might be resorted towards the organic farming. advantages and benefits the findings related to the advantages and benefits of organic farming as experienced by the organic farmers are presented in table 2. soil properties improved soil organic matter, soil structure, soil texture, soil nutrient enhancement, soil microorganisms, microbial activity, abundance of earthworms and fertility of soil were the major advantages of organic farming as experienced by all the respondents. they increased the soil organic matter with the application of vermicompost and manures such as farm yard manure, poultry manure and goat manure. they also expressed that application of various organic amendments like neem seed cake, ground nut cake, coconut cake and illupai cake are making the soil more friable. soil organic matter contributes to good soil structure, soil texture and soil nutrient enhancement. they also expressed that application of various organic inputs such as jeeva mruthum, amirtha karaisal, panchakavya, cow dung slurry, humic acid and fish amino acid at appropriate intervals enhanced the soil nutrients, soil microorganisms, microbial activity, earthworms and fertility of the soil. production of good quality, healthy and toxic free product production of good quality, healthy and toxic free product were also the major advantage of organic farming as experienced journal of extension education5490 table 2. advantages and benefits of organic farming *multiple responses obtained sl.no. advantages experienced number percentage 1. soil properties 100 100 2. production of good quality, healthy and toxic free product 100 100 3. longer storability of organic products 94 94 4. reduced cost on external inputs 82 82 5. efficient use of local onfarm resources 77 77 6. water holding capacity of soil 75 75 7. conservation of environment 71 71 8. high preference by the consumers 68 68 9. premium price 58 58 10. balance of pest and predators 55 55 11. increased yield 54 54 12. consistency of profit 46 46 13. preservation of natural agro biodiversity 44 44 (n=100)* by all the respondents. the farmers expressed that they have not used any chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides according to the certification norms hence the organic product always free from toxic and pesticides residues which improved the produce quality. they also realized that the quality attributes of product such as size, colour, appearance, smell, taste and nutritive value were found better compare to inorganic product. longer storability of organic products almost all the respondents (94.00 %) felt that longer storability of organic products as a major advantage. they felt that keeping quality, shelf life and storability of organic products were more than that of inorganic farm product. reduced cost on external inputs reduced cost on external inputs were also the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 82.00 per cent of the respondents. the farmers reported that they did not purchased costly organic inputs like growth promoters, organic manures and organic bio pesticides etc., rather they used selfproduced inputs such as seeds, seed treatment solution like beejamurutha, manures like jeevamruthum, amirtha 5491reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages perceived by the organic farmers karaisal, panchakavya, fish amino acid, effective microorganism and farm yard manure, botanical formulations like eindhu ilai karaisal and agni astram. hence farmers realized reduced cost on external inputs as one of the major advantages. efficient use of local onfarm resources efficient use of local onfarm resources were the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 77.00 per cent of the respondents. availability of inputs within their own field decreased their dependence on borrowings and prevented them from dept trap. they recycled various on farm resources such as cattle shed wastes, cow dung, cow urine, droppings of goats and sheep and fish wastes as a manures and crop wastes such as, sugar cane trashes, dried leaves, green manure, green leaves manure and weeds as a mulching material as well as manure. hence organic farmers were conscious about the importance of efficient use of local on farm resources. water holding capacity of soil water holding capacity of soil was the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 75.00 per cent of the respondents. they expressed that the mulching with green manures, green leaves manures, dried leaves and weeds prevented the entering of sunlight into the soil and making the soil always with sufficient moisture which improved the water holding capacity of soil, obviously farmers experienced these benefit. conservation of environment conservation of environment was the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 71.00 per cent of the respondents. organic farmers claimed that organic farming practices conserved various components of environment like soil, air and water. as they strictly avoided the spraying of any synthetic chemicals and pesticides it does not pollute soil, air and water. hence it will conserve environment for future generation also. high preferences by the consumers high preferences by the consumers were the major advantage of organic farming as perceived by 68.00 per cent of the respondents. farmers opined that after realizing the ill effects of consuming chemical foods consumers were preferred to buy organic food products. the growing awareness created among the consumers would have provided the marketing opportunity for organic products. premium price better price for the organic products compare to market price were the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 58.00 per cent of the respondents. the farmers getting better price for the product compare to market price. the certified organic farmers who sold their produces to various organic shops were getting premium price at the rate of 20% more than inorganic farming product also one of the advantages perceived among the farmers. journal of extension education5492 balance of pest and predators balance of pest and predators were the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 55.00 per cent of the respondents. organic farmers primary strategy in controlling pest and disease was prevention of through good plant nutrition and management. they considered pest and disease are part of nature. they used cover crops and mulching with green manure and green leaves manures and effectively disrupting habitat of weeds, insects and disease organism. they also used certain botanical formulations for control of pests. avoidance of chemicals and use of alternative under organic farming system helps to conserve biodiversity as it encourages a natural balance within the eco system. their aim was not to eradicate them altogether. their aim was nature will take care of it which restores natural balance between pest and predators. increased yield increased yield was the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 54.00 per cent of the respondents. after experiencing temporary decreased yield during the initial transition period the farmers were realizing the yield was increased. consistency of profit consistency of profit was the major advantage of organic farming as experienced by 46.00 per cent of the respondents. farmers opined that consistency of profit due to resorting towards organic farming was regular. they have opined that organic farming did not involved capital investment as high as that required in chemical farming which reduced that cost of inputs and their by increasing profit. preservation of natural agro biodiversity the finding of the present study show that 44.00 per cent of the respondents perceived that, preservation of natural agro biodiversity as a major advantage of organic farming. conclusion the study has shown that the major reasons for resorting to organic farming were premium price, conservation of environment, production of high quality, toxic and pesticide free product, negative experiences faced with inorganic farming, to reduce cost of production, and to gain independence and self sufficiency under organic farming system. it was also found that perceived benefits of organic farming are increased soil properties, reduced cost on external inputs, efficient use of local onfarm resources, water holding capacity of soil, conservation of environment and premium price. to promote organic farming, farmers should be given training by emphasizing the advantages of organic farming. according to seyed jamal hosseini and zahara ajoudani (2012) there is need for more training and education to change the 5493reasons for resorting to organic farming and advantages perceived by the organic farmers attitude of farmers and enhance their confidence about the role of organic farming in agriculture. it is also important to develop policies that benefit small-scale farmers. references adesope, o.m., e.c. matthews, njoku, n. s., oguzor and v.c. ugwuja. 2012. effect of socio-economic characteristics of farmers on their adoption of organic farming practices. available at www. intechopen.com fao. 2008. organic agriculture and climate change. food and agriculture organization, rome. lampkin, n.h. 1990. organic farming. farming press, ipswitch, uk. pp.165. lukas, m. and m. cahn. 2008. organic agriculture and rural livelihoods in karnataka, india 16th ifoam organic world congress, modena, italy, june 16-20, archived at http://orgprints.org/ view/projects/conference.html seyed jamal hosseini and zahara ajoudani. 2012. affective factors in adopting organic farming in iran. annals of biological research, 3(1): 601-608. available at http://scholars researchlibrary.com/archive.html wrapper.cdr 6391 1 assistant professor and 2 dean, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala 695 522 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6391-6395 received : 26-07-2019; accepted : 09-08-2019 emotional intelligence of agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture reshma a. victor1 and a. anilkumar2 abstract the present study was conducted in the three zones of kerala viz., kasaragod from north kerala, thrissur from central kerala and thiruvananthapuram from south kerala. in this study an attempt has been made to measure the emotional intelligence of panchayat level agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture, under krishi bhavan system. a sample of 90 agricultural officers was selected by using simple random sampling. emotional intelligence was the dependent variable of the study. a well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting the data from the respondents. the data were tabulated and inferences were drawn after appropriate statistical analysis. the results showed that the scenario of existing status of emotional intelligence skills of respondents was good as most of them were in medium to high category. keywords: emotional intelligence, agricultural officers, krishi bhavan, kerala introduction agricultural officer has a pivotal role to play in agriculture sector and they act as intermediaries between research and farmers. they operate as facilitators and communicators; helping farmers in their decision-making process. agricultural extension officers encourage farmers to adopt new, improved methods of farming, using a variety of methods to reach farmers i.e. organising study groups for farmers, ‘farmer days’, demonstrations, lectures and literature, as well as informing the media. the effectiveness of such usage solely depends on the job performance and efficiency of agricultural officers. the work load, the pressure in dealing with farmers, handling two or three offices at a time, burdened with office work and hence getting little time to be in farmers field thereby being in the unhappy list of farmers, are a few practical reasons that could affect the minds of agricultural officers while executing their duties. in this study, three districts in kerala were selected viz., kasaragod from north kerala, thrissur from central kerala and thiruvananthapuram from south kerala because job stress varies with region. the 6392 area cultivated and crops differ from region to region. in kasaragod district each respondents has to handle two to three krishi bhavans unlike agricultural officers in other districts (victor and anilkumar, 2019). job stress and emotions of these officers affect their interaction with farmers and various decision making process. research has revealed that, a person with high emotional intelligence can manage their negative emotions and stress in a better way. emotional intelligence plays a vital role in decisive interaction between individuals and their work environment. it is a crucial factor responsible for shaping success in life and psychological well being. emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, motivating ourselves for managing emotions well, in ourselves and in others (salovey and mayer, 1990). responsibilities are always related with some sort of stress. the officers who had high emotional intelligence manage their negative emotions in their workplace and report fewer psychological problems with high level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. emotionally intelligent people are more adaptive to the environment and more productive for the organization. there had been no testing system in place for emotional intelligence in kerala state department of agriculture. therefore a study to analyze the emotional intelligence of agricultural officers of ‘kerala state department of agriculture’ is of high relevance and importance. methodology the study was undertaken in the three zones of kerala viz., kasaragod from north kerala, thrissur from central kerala and thiruvananthapuram from south kerala. the agricultural officers working in the kerala state department of agriculture in thiruvananthapuram, thrissur and kasaragod were randomly selected for the present study. totally 90 agricultural officers of which 30 from thiruvanathapuram, 30 from thrissur and 30 from kasaragod district were randomly selected using simple random sampling procedure of the 30 respondents from each district. it was ensured that 15 were female and 15 were male respondents. a well structured open ended interview schedule was used for data collection from the agricultural officers. the results were analyzed with the help of different statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and kruskal wallis test. the emotional intelligence inventory scale, which was developed by goleman (1995) has been used for this study. the instrument had 50 statements that assess emotional intelligence based on the subcomponents viz., self awareness, managing emotions, motivating oneself, empathy and social skill. self awareness as the conscious knowledge or ability to monitor our own emotions, character and feelings. it is the key cornerstone to emotional intelligence. awareness of our own emotions improves our chance of making rational decisions based on conscious processes rather than unconscious journal of extension education 6393 emotional conditioning. improvement of self – awareness can enhance our overall effectiveness and job satisfaction. self regulation is the ability to monitor and manage our own feelings, behaviour, emotion, and thoughts. a person with high level of self regulation is better able to manage their behaviour in the workplace and develop and manage good relationships with their colleague. motivation is one of the most important things that a person should possess. motivation is the process of stimulating people to action to achieve their goal. empathy refers to the ability of a person to understand another person’s thoughts, feelings from their point of view, rather than from our point of view. social skill means handling skills well in interaction with others. social skills are the skills we use to communicate with each other both verbally and nonverbally. all these components directly or indirectly influence the agricultural officers work environment. findings and discussion total emotional intelligence score was calculated by adding the scores of 5 subcomponents viz., self awareness, managing emotions, motivating oneself, empathy and social skill. the emotional intelligence score ranged from 50 to 250 with an average score of 188. the total score was classified into low (<170), medium (170 205) and high (>205) and the results are presented in table 1. table 1 reveals that majority (76.67 %) of the respondents were having medium level of emotional intelligence followed by 13.33 per cent of the respondents having high level of emotional intelligence and 10 per cent were having low level of emotional intelligence. in thiruvananthapuram district, 80 per cent of the respondents were having medium table 1. distribution of agricultural officers based on the level of emotional intelligence sl. no. category thiruvananthapuram (n=30) thrissur (n=30) kasaragod (n=30) total (n=90) f % f % f % f % 1. low (<170) 1 3.33 7 23.33 1 3.33 9 10.00 2. medium (170-205) 24 80.00 20 66.67 25 83.33 69 76.67 3. high (>205) 5 16.67 3 10.00 4 13.33 12 13.33 min = 50, max = 250, mean = 188.01, sd =17.52 f frequency, % percentage emotional intelligence of agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture 6394 level of emotional intelligence whereas 16.67 per cent of the respondents were having high level of emotional intelligence and 3.33 per cent were having low level of emotional intelligence. in thrissur district, 66.67 per cent of the respondents had medium level of emotional intelligence, while 23.33 per cent and 10 per cent of the respondents were having low and high level of emotional intelligence. majority of the respondents (83.33 %) were having medium level of emotional intelligence, followed by 13.33 per cent of the respondents having high level of emotional intelligence and only 3.33 per cent were having low level of emotional intelligence in kasaragod district. hence it can be concluded from the results that the scenario of existing status of emotional intelligence skills of respondents were very good as most of them were in medium to high category. this could be because most of the respondents were under middle age category and they were having more than 10 years of job experience. so these officers can identify and express emotions of self and others. these respondents can manage their emotions well and motivate themselves to do their work very efficiently so that they can manage their work life very well. the overall emotional intelligence scores and emotional intelligence dimension scores of agricultural officers under three districts are presented in table.2. kruskal wallis test was done to find whether overall emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence dimensions of agricultural officers vary among the three districts. it was table 2. comparison of dimensions of emotional intelligence of agricultural officers among the three districts sl. no. components thiruvananthapuram (n=30) thrissur (n=30) kasaragod (n=30) kw total (n=90) 1. self awareness 40.2 38.93 39.87 0.986 39.67 2 managing emotions 35 33.07 35.2 4.307 34.42 3. motivating oneself 36.87 35.87 39.27 8.542* 37.33 4. empathy 39.53 38.27 37.83 2.948 38.54 5. social skills 40.47 36.17 37.5 9.956** 38.04 total 192.07 182.3 189.67 3.949 188.01 x 2-5% (0.05) – 5.99 x 21%(0.01) 9.21 * significant at 5 % level ** significant at 1 % level kwkruskal – wallis journal of extension education 6395 observed from the table that there was no significant difference in emotional intelligence of agricultural officers in three districts, but there was significant difference in the subcomponents viz., motivating oneself (8.54) and social skills (9.96). these dimensions vary with regards to region. motivating oneself was significantly different at five per cent level of significance and social skills was significantly different at one per cent level of significance. the table points to glaring difference in two dimensions viz., ‘social skills’ and ‘motivating oneself’ as highly significant in terms of its relationship with ei. ‘social skill’ was positively significant at 1% significance and the dimension ‘motivating oneself’ was significant at 5% significance. this could be attributed to different reasons. in thrissur district, agricultural officers had to deal with kole land farmers who are labour intensive. the production practices in a fragile ecosystem like this demands more effort from the agricultural officers in terms of time, space and resource use. this might have influenced their ei and hence the difference among the districts in terms of social skills and motivation. conclusion from the study, it can be concluded that there was no significant difference among districts in terms of overall emotional intelligence. however, there was significant difference in the case of dimensions of emotional intelligence viz., motivating oneself and social skills. this might be due to the fact that in thrissur district, agricultural officers have to deal with kole wetland farmers. the production practices in a fragile ecosystem like this demands more effort from the agricultural officers in terms of time, space and resource use. this might have influenced their emotional intelligence. the policy makers and the department of agriculture in the state of kerala need to take note of this and take appropriate action references carmeli, a. (2003). the relationship between emotional intelligence and work attitudes, behavior and outcomes. journal of managerial psychology. 18(8), 788–813. goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq for character, health and lifelong achievement. bantam books, new york, p50. salovey, p. & mayer, j.d. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality. 9(3): 185-211. victor, r.a & anilkumar, a. (2019). job stress of agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture; a psycho – personal analysis, journal of extension education, 31(1) emotional intelligence of agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture 6300 1. pg scholar & 3. professor & head, dept. of agricultural extension, indira gandhi krishi vishwavidyalaya (igkv), raipur, chhattisgarh. 2. principal scientist, icar-naarm, hyderabad research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6300-6304 socio-economic profiling of members of women’s groups in raipur district of chhattisgarh payal dewangan1, s. senthil vinayagam2 and k. k. shrivastava3 abstract in india, collective farming by women’s groups (wgs) was introduced as a strategy to improve needy women’s livelihood alternatives. the study was performed in raipur district of chhattisgarh. three villages were chosen from two selected blocks viz.,arang and dharsiwa, and five women groups were selected from each village. most of the women members of women’s groups were in the middle age category. more than one-third of the women members had education up to middle school level. about fifty percent of the women members had medium family size and almost ninety-six percent of the respondents were married. nearly 70 percent of the women member of women’s groups had marginal (<2.5 acres) landholdings. sixty percent of the respondents had medium level of annual family income. nearly sixty-eight percent of women members did not receive any training. majority of the members of women’s groups had medium level of participation in extension and mass media activities. keywords: women groups; livelihood; socio-economic characteristics; chattisgarh received : 06-09-2019; accepted : 19-09-2019 in agriculture, the significance of the concept of cooperation arises in the context of optimizing the contribution of marginal and small farmers as well as mainstreaming women in agriculture. another aspect is related to reforming agricultural extension, where group mobilization is perceived as an important strategy for making the extension system demand driven. an appropriate communitybased structure women’s groups i.e., self-help groups (shgs), emerged in the late eighties and early nineties around rotating mutual savings and credit, as a stable and viable alternative. it was a development innovation in its own right. many non-governmental organizations, shgs, and financial institutions are working for increasing the socio-economic status of the rural people. in chhattisgarh, women’s groups approach is reshaping initiatives that enhance livelihoods and ensure sustainability by enabling poor families to access effective economic and 6301 social development leading to empowerment. at present in chhattisgarh state more than 1.5 lacs self help groups are existing (www.nrlm. gov.in). a group is a collection of two or more people who communicate with each other on a reasonably continuous basis, recognize themselves as belonging to a special unit and share certain common operations and values. women’s group can be defined as a small and economically homogeneous group of rural poor people who are willingly created to save and mutually contribute to a common fund to lend to its members.self-help groups are seen as means for a range of objectives, including empowering women, creating management skills, and providing micro-finance services to disadvantaged communities that were otherwise hard to achieve directly through banks or other institutions. methodology the study was conducted in raipur district of chhattisgarh state. from raipur district, two blocks were selected on the basis of having highest number of women’s groups and having lowest number of women’s groups. the two blocks selected were, arang and dharsiwa. from each block three villages were chosen at random each, making a total of six villages (2 blocks x 3 villages). these were baktara, godhi, and gujra (from arang block); and tekari, mandhar, dande-kurd (from dharsiwa block). five groups from each village were selected randomly, thus making a total table 1 distribution of women respondents according to their age, education and family size sl. no. categories frequency (n=120) percent rank a. age 1. young age (<30 years) 32 26.67 ii 2. middle age (31-50 years) 81 67.50 i 3. old age (>50 years) 7 5.83 iii b. educational categories 1. functionally literate 6 5.00 iv 2. primary school 31 26.00 iii 3. middle school 48 40.00 i 4. high/higher secondary school 34 28.00 ii 5. graduate 1 1.00 v c. family size categories 1. small family (up to 4 members) 39 32.00 ii 2. medium family (5-7 members) 62 52.00 i 3. large family ( >7 members) 19 16.00 iii socio-economic profiling of members of women’s groups in raipur district of chhattisgarh 6302 of 30 groups from all six villages. from each selected women’s groups four respondents were selected, making the total number of respondents from both the blocks as 120. findings and discussion the profile features of the respondents give a clear image of the background, living conditions, environments and property of the women, which, in turn, will assist to bring about suitable policy consequences based on the findings that have been drawn. according to the results, table 1 shows that more than half of the women (67.5%) belonged to middle age group followed by 26.67 per cent who were young and remaining 5.83 percent of women belonging to old age group. the findings showed that middle-age category was having a major role to increase the income by taking an active part in self help groups (shgs). many young women in the shgs could be a good sign as activities of this group of women decide the future of entrepreneurial development in any table 2 distribution of women respondents according to their landholding, marital status and annual family income sl. no. categories frequency (n=120) percent rank a. landholding 1. landless farm women 8 6.67 iv 2. marginal landholding(<2.5 acres) 75 62.50 i 3. small landholding(2.6-5 acres) 27 22.50 ii 4. medium landholding (5.1-10 acres) 9 7.50 iii 5. big landholding(>5 acres) 1 0.83 v b. marital status 1. unmarried 4 3.33 ii 2. married 116 96.67 i c. annual income (mean= 74566.5; sd= 13644.5) 1. low (< rs 60922) 40 33.30 ii 2. medium(rs 60922-88211) 71 59.20 i 3. high (> rs. 88211) 9 7.50 iii journal of extension education 6303 of landholding and only 0.83 percent had big landholding. the landholding category, however, matches the country’s overall trends. since the scope for expanding landholding size is very restricted, it is required that the highest utilization of available land is attained through practicing hi-tech agriculture, various crop cultivation, and intensive agriculture. majority of the women (96.67%) were married and were leading a normal family life and only 3.33 percent were unmarried. majority of women (59.2%) belonged to medium annual family income (rs 60922-88211) group, followed by low annual family income (rs<60922). most (67.5%) of the respondents had not received any training. the possible reason could be that rural women had more responsibility to manage home and farm activities which results in their inability to attend any training program. the result of locality. majority (40%) of rural women had middle schooling, followed by high/higher secondary schooling (28 per cent) and primary education (26 per cent). the middle and high/ higher secondary schooling education status of the respondents may be due to the presence of more member of schools in their area.the probable reason for very less graduate-level education might be, distance to the nearest college. majority of women (52%) belonged to medium-size families. the probable reason for this family size of being medium to small might be due to their literacy level (intermediate and school) and awareness on small family norms. this may be due to the individual’s forward outlook on family planning thereby maintaining medium family size. furthermore, the cost of living is expanding day by day, besides more unemployment and underemployment. the results on the land size of the respondent (table 2) shows that majority (62.50%) of the women had the marginal size table 3 distribution of the women respondents according to their training, extension participation and mass media participation sl. no. category frequency (n=120) percentage rank a. training 1. training not received 81 67.50 i 2. training received 39 32.50 ii b. extension participation(mean= 3.16; sd= 0.624) 1. low extension participation 48 40.00 ii 2. medium extension participation 54 45.00 i 3. high extension participation 18 15.00 iii c. mass media participation (mean= 2.47; sd= 0.67) 1. low mass media participation 25 20.70 ii 2. medium mass media participation 76 63.30 i 3. high mass media participation 19 16.00 iii socio-economic profiling of members of women’s groups in raipur district of chhattisgarh 6304 extension participation shows that majority (45%) of rural women had medium extension participation. the likely reason for most of the respondents belonging to the medium category might be due to their to their desire to solve their problems with extension work as well as interest in extension activities to gather up-to-date information and also to interact easily with female extension workers. majority (63.3%) of the respondents belonged to medium mass media participation category. mass media exposure enhances rural women’s capacity to obtain more knowledge about technology or innovation and in turn, broaden the rural women’s mental horizon to recognize and embrace the methods. journal of extension education 6508 employability skills a perception of agricultural students, graduates and employers shibi sebastian* abstract agricultural universities are at the helm in giving sound technical knowledge to the students of agriculture, but many a time the students fail in expressing the real aptitude for the requirement of the agriculture industry. the study was conducted to bring an insight into the skill requirement of the industry and how the students have perceived their own capabilities in various aspects. it was found that there is variation between what the students perceived as important skills and what the industry requires. the students felt that they were competent in listening, self motivation and interpersonal relations while the employers expressed that problem solving and analytics, visioning and creativity are the core employability skills needed for the industry. keywords: employability; agricultural graduates; skills; tamil nadu agricultural university research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 2, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.2.32.6508-6514 *centre for students' welfare, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641 003 received : 02-08-2020; accepted : 23-11-2020 introduction agricultural universities have included a variety of courses in the syllabi in order to inculcate the latest trends in technical agriculture courses. however, according to agnihotri et al (2014), growing unemployment, shifting employment opportunities from public to private sector are some of the issues that need to be tackled to make agriculture education more vibrant and attractive. a mismatch or gap between the skills of the unemployed and the skills needed in today’s economy could be one of the reasons presumed for the high unemployment rate amongst the agricultural graduates in an ever changing agricultural industry (alibaygi et al, 2013). the assessment of technical competency is done rigorously by universities. however in the job market, the students/graduates are evaluated on a number of other aspects like problem solving and analytic, decisionmaking, organization and time management, risk taking, oral communication, written communication, listening, interpersonal relations, managing conflict, leadership and influence, coordinating, creativity, innovation, and change, visioning, ability to conceptualize, lifelong learning and motivation-personal strengths (robinson, 6509 2006) and the like. according to armoogum (2016) employers specify that graduates are not updated or equipped with modern technologies in the agricultural sector around the world. there is a need for institutions to design the curricula according to the growing needs of the agricultural industry. (rao et al . 2011). the understanding of employability skill requirement helps us to assess the agricultural education system and it also helps us to know if the current agricultural curriculum is on par to meet the demands of the industry . this would help us to make necessary modifications in the curriculum. this study was conducted to bring an insight into the skill requirement of the industry and how the students have perceived or understood their own capabilities in the various skill requirements of the private agriculture industry. methodology the student perception of importance of employability skill was studied by taking a sample of 660 final year students of tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau), coimbatore which is one of the premier institutes for agriculture in india. the sample was selected from various degree programmes from the colleges of tnau. the skill requirement as perceived by graduate employees was assessed from 50 alumni/graduate employees. the skill requirement as perceived by employers was assessed from 24 employers. a 67-item questionnaire adapted from robinson (2006) with responses ranging from 0 = no importance (or competence) to 3 = major importance (or competence) was administered to students, alumni and employers. the 67 items were grouped into 16 skill categories for better understanding. mean and standard deviation were used to rank the important skills. findings and discussion students’ perception on importance and competence of employability skills data from the identified sample of 660 students were collected to describe students’ perceptions of the importance and competence of the employability skills needed for the workforce. the employability skills were ranked in order of importance based on their mean importance (table1). students ranked “listening” as the first and foremost important skill needed in the workforce followed by ‘lifelong learning’ and the third important skill needed was motivation – personal strengths. whereas, ‘decision making’ was ranked as the last skill needed by them. means and standard deviations are reported to describe students self-perceived level of competence at performing the employability skill constructs. accordingly, the students perceived that they were competent in listening, motivation – personnel strengths and inter personal relations in the order of their ranking. the students perceived that they were least competent in organization and time management, written communication and decision making, the findings are in line with that of alibaygi et al. (2013). employability skills a perception of agricultural students, graduates and employers 6510 table 1. students’ perceptions on the importance & competence of employability skills (n=660) sl. no. employability skill mean sd importance competence importance competence 1. problem solving and analytic 2.48 2.21 0.68 0.86 2. decision-making 2.20 2.00 0.82 0.93 3. organization and time management 2.32 2.10 0.78 0.92 4. risk taking 2.32 2.13 0.77 1.02 5. oral communication 2.25 2.08 0.82 0.91 6. written communication 2.31 2.07 0.77 0.87 7. listening 2.56 2.37 0.69 0.81 8. interpersonal relations 2.44 2.31 0.75 0.94 9. managing conflict 2.31 2.20 0.81 0.86 10. leadership and influence 2.29 2.12 1.0 1.02 11. coordinating 2.43 2.13 0.74 0.84 12. creativity, innovation, and change 2.46 2.29 0.73 0.96 13. visioning 2.47 2.12 0.73 0.83 14. ability to conceptualize 2.25 2.18 0.78 0.82 15. lifelong learning 2.53 2.25 0.72 0.83 16. motivation-personal strengths 2.49 2.32 0.81 0.83 it was found that the students were having a varying level of confidence on their competencies. this finding is in line with that of alibaygi et al (2013). students’ competencies may vary depending on their education background like medium of instruction, the board of education in which they have studied. certain schools give more emphasis on self development, creativity and application aspects in education. these will alter the students' perception of their own competencies. perception of alumni on the importance of employability skills the perception of tnau alumni on importance of employability skills was studied by taking a sample of 50 passed out students of tnau. the employability skills were ranked journal of extension education 6511 in order of importance based on their mean importance (table 2). alumni ranked listening as the first and foremost important skill needed in the workforce followed by visioning and the third important skill needed as motivation – personal strengths and lifelong learning. whereas, risk taking was ranked as the last skilled needed by them. in most private organisations the entry level and middle level employees are required only to receive instructions, understand them and follow them meticulously. this is the reason that listening and visioning is given priority. another aspect which favours private organisations employers is self driving forces to achieve targets. however, the risks involved are bore by the organisations and it supports its employees in the process of target achievement. table 2. alumni perception of the importance of employability skills (n=50) sl.no. employability skill mean sd 1. problem solving and analytic 2.28 0.82 2. decision-making 2.09 0.86 3. organization and time management 2.19 0.81 4. risk taking 2.06 0.87 5. oral communication 2.31 0.85 6. written communication 2.32 0.83 7. listening 2.52 0.84 8. interpersonal relations 2.4 0.87 9. managing conflict 2.25 0.91 10. leadership and influence 2.2 0.89 11. coordinating 2.37 0.80 12. creativity, innovation and change 2.43 0.86 13. visioning 2.5 0.81 14. ability to conceptualize 2.32 0.82 15. lifelong learning 2.44 0.75 16. motivation-personal strengths 2.44 0.83 employability skills a perception of agricultural students, graduates and employers 6512 table 3. employer perception of the importance of employability skills (n=24) sl.no. employability skill mean sd 1. problem solving and analytic 2.49 0.48 2. decision-making 2.39 0.77 3. organization and time management 2.38 0.72 4. risk taking 2.38 0.61 5. oral communication 2.38 0.73 6. written communication 2.38 0.79 7. listening 2.38 0.75 8. interpersonal relations 2.38 0.59 9. managing conflict 2.38 0.72 10. leadership and influence 2.38 0.80 11. coordinating 2.38 0.65 12. creativity, innovation, and change 2.40 0.62 13. visioning 2.41 0.59 14. ability to conceptualize 2.40 0.71 15. lifelong learning 2.40 0.59 16. motivation-personal strengths 2.40 0.64 perception of employers on the importance of employability skills the employers’ perception of importance of employability skills was studied by taking a sample of 24 prospective employers from various firms such as hdfc, sathyam bio ltd., bannari amman sugars ltd., yara fertilizers ltd., and coromandel india pvt ltd., it was ensured by the employers that all the employability skills listed are highly required by students for sustenance and effective performance in the workforce for the individual and beneficiaries. the employability skills were ranked in order of importance based on their mean importance (table 3). employers ranked problem solving and analytic as the first and foremost important skill needed in the workforce followed by visioning and the third important skill needed is creativity, innovation and change. whereas the least important skill needed ranges from organization and time management, journal of extension education 6513 risk taking, oral communication, written communication, listening, interpersonal relations, managing conflict, leadership influence and coordination. the perception of alumni and employers on risk taking ability is the same and the employers feel that in the middle level and lower level management the staff needs to just carry out routine sales promotion jobs in private organisations. ranking of employability skills ranking of employability skills was done to study the similarities of skills among the students, alumni and employers. according to students and alumni the employability skill table 4. ranking of employability skills sl.no. employability skill ranking students alumni employers 1. problem solving and analytic 4 11 1 2. decision-making 16 15 7 3. organization and time management 9 14 8 4. risk taking 10 16 9 5. oral communication 14 10 10 6. written communication 11 8 11 7. listening 1 1 12 8. interpersonal relations 7 6 13 9. managing conflict 12 12 14 10. leadership and influence 13 13 15 11. coordinating 8 7 16 12. creativity, innovation, and change 6 5 3 13. visioning 5 2 2 14. ability to conceptualize 15 9 4 15. lifelong learning 2 3 5 16. motivation-personal strengths 3 4 6 employability skills a perception of agricultural students, graduates and employers 6514 item in greatest need of attention is 'listening;' whereas employers had prioritized problem solving and analytic as top rated skill (table 4). the study has found that there are differences in the perception of students and employers which is in line with the study by venetia (2010). active listening is the key to the success of any job. however, in the private organisations, the employers usually prefer to have candidates who are able to solve field level problems for the farmers. conclusion skill acquired in academics and required in job are significantly different. it is found from the study that the requirement by employers are problem solving and analytics, visioning and creativity, innovation and change. the perception on employability skills varied among students, alumni and employers. emphasis should be given to improve these skills in the curricula and provide them hands on training so that the graduates can meet the demands of the industries and improve their employability skills. references agnihotri, r. l. bonney, a.l. dixon & erffmeyer, r. (2014). developing a state holder approach for recruiting top level sales students. journal of market education, 36(1). pp 75-86 alibaygi, a. h , s. barani , e. karamidehkordi & pouya, m (2013). employability determinants of senior agricultural students in iran. journal of agricultural science and technology 15: 673-683 armoogum, n, ramasawmy, b, & driver, b (2016). the need to enhance the employability competences (knowledge, skills, autonomy, and attitudes) of undergraduates in agriculture. evidence from students’ perceptions and employers’ expectations. tuning journal for higher education, 4(1), 169-219. rao d.r, rashmi agrawal, nanda sk, awasthi ic, joshi gp, sanchita bhattacharya & indra kumar d. (2011). assessment of future human capital requirements in agriculture and allied sectors. naip project report, national academy of agricultural research management, hyderabad, india. pp 410 robinson, j. (2006). assessing the employability skills of university of kentucky college of agriculture graduates: a comparison of hard and soft science disciplines. nacta journal, 53(4), 56-62. venetia, s & katherine, z (2010) evaluating employability skills: employer and student perceptions. bioscience education 15. journal of extension education 6234 1. assistant professor and 2. p.g. scholar, agricultural college & research institute, (tnau) killikulam – 628 252 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 trends and technological skills assessment of flower cultivation in the southern districts of tamil nadu s. nazreen hassan1 and s. aravindh kumar2 abstract flowers are used by people of all walks of life starting from birth to death and have become an integral part of human living in our society. the demand for flowers has been increasing ever year. commercial cultivation of flowers has assured importance in recent times. a study was conducted to find out the trend in flower cultivation in the southern districts of kanyakumari and tirunelveli in tamil nadu. an increase in area under flower cultivation was observed in both the districts. a majority of the farmers had a farming experience of two to four years, had followed either nipping or pruning and less than one fourth of the farmers followed regular rejuvenation. keywords: jasmine; rose; nerium; technological skill assessment;tirunelveli; kanyakumari; tamil nadu the area under cultivation of flowers in india had increased from 191 thousand hectares in 2010-11 to 309 thousand hectares in 2016-17. commercial floriculture is becoming an important industry in india. floriculture is now commercially followed in several states with andhra pradesh (24%), tamil nadu (20%) karnataka (13%), having gone ahead of other producing states the area and production of flowers for the last five years has increased from 28.71 thousand hectares in 2012-13 to 32.29 thousand hectares in 201617. an attempt has been made to find out the trend in flower cultivation with the specific objective of finding out the technological skill in cultivation of flowers in the southern districts of kanyakumari and tirunelveli in tamil nadu. methodology the study was undertaken in tirunelveli and kanyakumari districts of tamil nadu. these districts were purposively selected for their high area under cultivation of traditional flowers. four blocks were selected from the two districts based on maximum area under cultivation. accordingly, tenkasi & sankarankovil blocks, of tirunelveli district, and thovalai agastheeswaram blocks of kanyakumari district were selected for the study. eighty four farmers were randomly selected and they formed the sample of the study. research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6234-6239 received : 10-01-2019; accepted : 28-01-2019 6235 findings and discussion trend in flower cultivation in tamil nadu, flowers are produced in an area of about 32,400 hectares with the production of 416.63 thousand mt (jasmine, chrysanthemum, marigold, rose, crossandra and nerium). in this, cut rose is grown in 600 ha area with a production of 795 lakh stems (nhb, 2013). jasmine, which covers an area of 15,584 ha with a production of 1,42,397 tones contributes a major share to the floriculture trade. analysis of area & production under major flowers shows an increasing trend compared to the previous years. the major varieties grown in the area are ramnad local in jasmine, prajwal and local varieties in tuberose, edward rose, andhra rose, button rose and mysore rose in rose cultivation and local red and white varieties in nerium. there is a shift from the area under jasmine cultivation which was 221 ha in 2010 to 129.5 ha. there was 18.5 per cent decrease in area under jasmine in kanyakumari district which is replaced by tuberose, nerium and chrysanthemum. the area under cultivation of different crops in the study area is provided in table1. in kanyakumari district, the area under nerium had increased by 15.5 percent in 2016-17. the reasons projected by the farmers were lesser cost of cultivation, lesser perishability and flowering throughout the year. an increase in area was also observed in tirunelveli district. the farmers prefer to grow annual crops rather than perennial crops. the preference is due to the high price it fetches during festival season in the nearby state of kerala. the tuberose variety grown in the area is prajwal. the seed material for jasmine is received from ramnad. the area under rose cultivation is shifted to marigold and tuberose. nerium occupies an area upto 40 ha. the production of flowers in tirunelveli was 22560 tonnes and in kanyakumari district it was 2800 tonnes. bagyajanani (2016) had reported that tirunelveli district ranked first in area under jasmine cultivation during 201112. the socio –economic profile of flower growers in southern districts of tamil nadu is given in table 2. table 1. area under major flowers in the study area (n=84) sl. no districts area under major flowers (ha) jasmine rose mullai tuberose nerium 201516 201617 201516 201617 201516 201617 201516 201617 201516 201617 1 kanyakumari 159 129.5 3 3 1 1 33 40 21 36.54 2 tirunelveli 1048 1696 13.07 52 73 73 50 72 38 69 trends and technological skills assessment of flower cultivation in the southern districts of tamil nadu 6236 table 2. socio –economic profile of flower growers in southern districts of tamil nadu (n=84) sl. no category number percentage 1 age years ≤45 years 26 30.95 46-50 years 36 42.86 51-60 years 14 16.67 61-69 years 6 7.14 ≥70 years 2 2.38 2 education illiterate 2 2.38 primary 40 47.62 high school 16 19.05 collegiate 26 30.95 3 occupation farming alone 82 97.62 farming +others 2 2.38 4 area under crops upto 1 ac 34 40.48 1.1-2 ac 16 19.05 2.5-3 ac 20 23.81 3.1-5 ac 14 16.67 5 percentage share of area under flowers to total area in farmers holdings 100.00% 42 50.00 83.00% 8 9.52 66.66% 2 2.38 50.00% 8 9.52 40.00% 6 7.14 33.33% 4 4.76 25.00% 4 4.76 24.00% 2 2.38 20.00% 4 4.76 17.00% 2 2.38 10.00% 2 2.38 sl. no category number percentage 6 annual income <1 lakhs 14 16.67 1 to 2 lakhs 30 35.71 2 to 5 lakhs 36 42.86 >5 lakhs 4 4.76 7 experience in flower cultivation less than one year 8 9.52 1-2 years 22 26.19 24 years 38 45.24 5 years and above 16 19.05 8 trainings attended trainings attended 48 57.14 trainings related to flower cultivation 8 16.66 skill gap assessment in flower cultivation. a skill gap assessment in flower cultivation was performed and the results are presented in table 3. majority of flower farmers contacted (33.33%) had followed either pruning or nipping which was an important operation in increasing the yields of flowers. mostly pruning is done in crops like jasmine and rose and nipping in annual crops like chrysanthemum and crossandra. bio stimulants were used by 5.95 per cent of the flower growers. top dressing is done by 19.05 per cent of the flower growers. pest and disease incidence is taken care of by 34.52 per cent especially in jasmine. major skill gap was observed in journal of extension education 6237 table 3. skill gap assessment in flower cultivation (n=84) sl. no skills followed number percentage 1 seed/seed material treatment 2 2.38 2 pruning/ nipping that promotes flowering 28 33.33 3 biostimulants / micro nutrient application 5 5.95 4 top dressing 16 19.05 5 management of pest and disease 29 34.52 6 regular rejuvenation for rose and jasmine 18 21.43 7 fertilizer management 22 26.19 8 bio fertilizer application 7 8.33 9 others 2 2.38 seed material treatment and application of bio stimulant or micronutrient. bio fertilizer application is followed only by 8.33 percent. less than one fourth of the farmers (21.43%) followed regular rejuvenation which is much required in increasing the production of flower crops like rose and jasmine. constraints faced by the flower growers constraints faced by the flower growers were ascertained and are presented in table 4. table 4. constraints faced by the flower growers (n=84) sl. no constraints total percentage 1 price fixation by intermediaries 58 69.05 2 lesser availability and high cost of seed material 53 63.10 3 lesser remuneration 39 46.43 4 incidence of pests and diseases 32 38.10 5 lack of awareness about newer techniques 28 33.33 6 high labour requirement 24 28.57 7 perishability 42 50.00 trends and technological skills assessment of flower cultivation in the southern districts of tamil nadu 6238 it was observed that in kanyakumari district price fixation by intermediaries and lesser share to the producers were the major constraints faced by the farmers in the district. the farmers did not sell the produce to consumers directly instead, they were forced to depend on the commission agents cum wholesalers for marketing the flowers. even though some farmers got advance money from the commission agents, they were forced to sell with high percentage of commission. lesser availability and high cost of seed materials was another major constraint expressed by the farmers of tirunelveli district. the seed material for jasmine has to be received from ramnad which was at a distance place for the farmers. the farmers had to apply pesticides indiscriminately due to the incidence of pest and diseases in jasmine every week. the pesticide was recommended by the local dealers which increases the cost of cultivation. the other important constraint given by the farmers in both the districts was that they received lesser remuneration even after involvement of family labour. incidence of pest and disease, lack of awareness about newer techniques are also faced by the farmers. harvesting of the flowers requires labour almost every day and requires labour services only two to three hours per day in the early morning. this makes the non-availability of full day employment and labour should find employment from the other sources after harvesting of flowers. however, a study conducted by sivashankar and shashidhar (2011) in bellary district of karnataka found that maximum number of farmers indicated the main constraints in production, marketing and credit in cultivation for jasmine flowers. constraints faced by traders were, the perishable nature of the commodity that needs quick selling and fetching less price due to price fluctuation. other major constraints reported were high charges of transportation, spoilage, lack of grading and storage facilities. there was a remarkable increase in flower cultivation in the districts of kanyakumari and tirunelveli in tamil nadu. in kanyakumari district, the area under nerium had increased by 15.5 per cent due to lesser cost of cultivation, lesser perishability and flowering throughout the year. more than half of the flowers farmers were in practice of pruning which was very important in increasing the yield of flowers. mostly this was done in crops like jasmine and rose. in kanyakumari district it was observed that price fixation by intermediaries and lesser share to the producers were the major constraints faced by the farmers in the district. in tirunelveli district the farmers had got the seed material from ramnad which was at a distance place for the farmers. they also applied pesticides indiscriminately on jasmine every week. the knowledge level of flower growers could be improved by providing trainings on newer techniques in flower production and minimizing production and marketing constraints for developing efficient and effective value chain in flower production system for the southern districts of tamil nadu. journal of extension education 6239 references bagyajanani, p, premavathi, r & prathap,d.p.(2016). technology adoption behavior of jasmine glovers – a critical analysis journal of extension education 28(1). sivashankar, n., & shahidhar, k. k. (2011). adoption behavior of jasmine cultivation in bellary district. indian research journal of extension education 11 (1) : 23-26. trends and technological skills assessment of flower cultivation in the southern districts of tamil nadu 6280 1. ph.d research scholar and 2. professor, school of agriculture & animal sciences, gandhigram rural institute (deemed to be university), gandhigram, tamil nadu received : 07-12-2018; accepted : 26-02-2019 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6280-6287 impact of mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (mgnregs) on paddy cultivation in palakkad district of kerala s. lakshmi1 and m.sundaramari2 abstract the study was undertaken to assess the impact of mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (mgnregs) on paddy cultivation and the constraints faced by the farmers due to the implementation of this scheme in palakkad district of kerala. a sample of 120 paddy farmers from kuzhalmannom block was randomly selected for the study. the study revealed that the most important impact of the scheme as perceived by the paddy farmers was increase in water availability for irrigation. as for the constraints faced by the paddy farmers due to mgnregs, increased wage rate of labourers was ranked first followed by non-availability of labourers during peak season and decreased productivity of labour. keywords: mgnregs; impact; paddy cultivation; constraints; kerala introduction mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (mgnregs) is the first country-wide employment scheme that guaranteed employment legally to the rural population of india through an act. the overall aim of the scheme includes extreme poverty eradication and making villages selfsustaining through the creation of productive assets. this is intended to rejuvenate the natural resources in rural areas as well as to provide sustainable livelihood to poor people. in kerala, the mgnregs was implemented in three phases. in its first phase, the programme was started in the rural districts of palakkad and wayanad in 2006. it was extended to idukki and kasaragod districts as the second phase in 2007 and later expanded to all the districts from april, 2008 onwards in the third phase. the activities under mgnregs have a direct effect on agriculture production and natural resources. the activities which are directly related to agriculture production includes water conservation and water harvesting, , flood control, land development, micro irrigation works, renovation of traditional water bodies and works on individual’s land. agriculture sector in kerala is facing many challenges with respect to growth, even though it has much potential. the directorate 6281 of economics and statistics, government of kerala, the agriculture and allied sectors contributed rs.69,91,199 lakhs, which was 12.75 percent of the total gross state value added (gsva) in the year 2016-17 at current prices. paddy is the major food crop of kerala. the lush green paddy fields are the most characteristic feature of kerala landscape. the cultivation of paddy is the main agricultural activity in the coastal and midland wet fields of kerala and is also connected with the culture and festivals of the state. however, the area under paddy cultivation in the state shows a continuous decline during the last four decades. the area under paddy was 8.82 lakh hectares during 1974-75, which was at its peak, had come down to 1.71 lakh hectares in 2016-17. the area under paddy to gross cropped area had also declined from 33 percent in 1974-75 to 6.63 percent in 2016-17. the area and production of paddy in palakkad district from 2005-06 to 2016-17 is provided in figure 1. the production of rice declined in the state and now it produces only 19 percent of its requirement (rajasekharan and anila, 2016). the results showed a wide gap in the consumption and production of food grains especially rice, the staple diet of people in kerala. moreover, the decline in area under paddy and the quantity of rice produced in the state has important implications on the state’s fig.1. area and production of paddy in palakkad district impact of mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (mgnregs) on paddy cultivation in palakkad district of kerala 6282 economic, ecological and social development. the assessment of impact of mgnregs in palakkad district of kerala was conducted with the following objectives: • to assess the impact of mgnregs on paddy cultivation • to identify the constraints faced by the farmers due to mgnregs methodology the study employed both analytical and descriptive methods. the primary data for the study were collected from randomly selected 120 paddy farmers in kuzhalmannom block of palakkad district. palakkad district and kuzhalmannom block were purposively selected for the study. palakkad district was selected as it is one of the districts in which mgnrega was implemented during the first phase in the state. moreover, palakkad district has been considered as one of the ‘rice bowls” of kerala. kuzhalmannom block was selected as it is having maximum area under paddy cultivation during 2015-16. the secondary data for the study were collected from various reports, journals, research studies, etc. based on the review of literature and discussions with farmers and agricultural experts, twenty one statements were found useful for eliciting the perception of farmers about the impact of the scheme on agriculture. these statements were sent to the judges for relevancy rating on a five point continuum i.e. most relevant, relevant, undecided, less relevant and least relevant with the weighages of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. the relevancy weight of 21 statements was calculated by dividing the actual score received for a statement with maximum score possible for a statement. the mean of the relevancy weights of all the 21 statements was worked out and it was 0.82. the statements with relevancy weight lesser than the mean relevancy weight were ignored and thus 10 statements were selected for studying the perceived impact of mgnregs on paddy cultivation. the paddy farmers were asked to rate the statements based on their perception about the impact of the scheme on paddy cultivation in a five point continuum viz. strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree with scores 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. the total weighted score for each of the 10 statements were calculated and based on these scores the statements were ranked from 1 to 10. for constraint analysis, the selected constraints were produced in the interview schedule and the respondents were asked whether they had faced such a constraint. a score of ‘2’ was provided for statements which were perceived as a constraint by the farmers and a score of ‘1’ was provided to the statements which were not considered as a constraint by them. the scores obtained for each constraint based on the perception of farmers were summed up and divided by the total number of respondents to get the severity score of each constraint. based on the severity scores obtained, the constraints journal of extension education 6283 were ranked. appropriate statistical analysis was used to have a meaningful interpretation. findings and discussion impact of mgnregs on agriculture the perception of farmers about the impact of mgnregs on paddy cultivation was collected and is furnished in table 1. the responses of the farmers were collected for all ten identified statements in order to assess their perception about the impact of mgnregs. the most important impact of the scheme as perceived by the farmers was increase in water availability for irrigation followed by reduction in fallow land. as reported by the farmers the availability of labour for agriculture related activities decreased. a discussion on each of the impact as perceived by the farmers is given below. table 1 impact of mgnregs on agriculture sl. no. impact of mgnregs on agriculture scoring pattern total score rank 5 4 3 2 1 1 cropping pattern has changed 40 38 22 16 4 454 4 2 area under cultivation has increased 8 30 42 32 8 358 8 3 water availability for irrigation has increased 58 34 18 8 2 498 1 4 duration of water availability in a year has increased 24 40 36 14 6 422 5 5 access/proximity to irrigation sources has increased 14 40 56 8 2 416 6 6 number of irrigation sources has increased 30 60 16 8 6 460 3 7 reduction in fallow land 50 42 20 4 4 490 2 increased water availability for irrigation based on the the perception of farmers, the most important impact of mgnregs was increased water availability for irrigation. as a result of the global phenomenon of climate change, kerala had experienced decline in annual and monsoon rainfall and increase in temperature for the past few years, till 2018. the ground water table is also found to be depleting at a faster rate than its recharging capacity due to various factors like decline in rainfall, overuse of water for irrigation, deforestation, decline in wet land and disappearance of lakes and ponds. in this context the water conservation and water harvesting works taken up under mgnregs viz., cleaning and renovation of traditional water bodies, irrigation works and watershed management works, etc., had definitely impact of mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (mgnregs) on paddy cultivation in palakkad district of kerala 6284 helped to increase the water availability for irrigation to a certain extent. reduction in fallow land the second most important impact of mgnregs was decline in the extent of fallow land. reason for this could be attributed to various land development activities carried out under the scheme. moreover, mgnregs workers were also associated with various schemes for carrying out cultivation of paddy in fallow lands. increased number of irrigation sources increased number of irrigation sources was the third major impact of the scheme as perceived by the farmers. this might be due to the importance provided to different works carried out under water harvesting and conservation activities and renovation of existing water bodies as well as creation of new ponds, canals, etc. change in cropping pattern change in cropping pattern was reported as the fourth major impact of mgnregs according to the perception of the sample farmers. it is quite natural that increase sl. no. impact of mgnregs on agriculture scoring pattern total score rank5 4 3 2 1 8 nonavailability of labour for agriculture related activities has increased 2 10 16 32 60 222 10 9 labour expenses for cultivation of crops has increased 6 8 18 28 60 232 9 10 income from agriculture has increased 18 30 40 24 8 386 7 in irrigation sources would lead to increased water availability for irrigation. this increased water availability might have encouraged the farmers to have a positive change in cropping pattern in the study area. duration of water availability and increased proximity of irrigation sources the duration of annual water availability in the area had increased and this was perceived as the fifth impact of the scheme by the farmers. the increased duration of water availability was mainly due to the renovation of existing canals and creation of new water sources and water harvesting structures carried out under the scheme. this had also increased the proximity of irrigation sources, the sixth impact of the scheme according to farmers. impact of income on agriculture, area under cultivation, labour expenses for cultivation of crops and labour availability the last four impacts of the scheme were about income from agriculture, area under cultivation, labour expenses for cultivation of crops and availability of labour for agriculture related activities. almost all the beneficiaries strongly disagreed with the statement that the journal of extension education 6285 labour expenses for cultivation of crops had decreased and the availability of labour for agriculture related activities had increased. the labour unavailability during the cultivation season also pointed out that the mgnregs works were being taken up without considering the agriculture season of the region. constraints experienced by the farmers in paddy cultivation due to mgnregs the constraints perceived by the paddy farmers in the order of severity are presented in table 2. the maximum score possible for a constraint was 2 and the minimum score possible was 0. the farmers identified six constraints that they had experienced as a result of mgnregs implementation in the region. the most important constraint experienced by them is revealed to be the increase in wage rates of labourers followed by non-availability of labourers during peak season. the last constraint perceived by the farmers as a result of scheme implementation was increase in use of pesticide. a brief discussion on the various constraints faced by the farmers due to mgnregs is provided below. increased wage rate of labourers the most important constraint faced by the farmers due to mgnregs was the increased wage rate of labourers. almost all the farmers reported that the wage rate of labourers for various activities of paddy cultivation has increased as a result of the scheme. when it was first introduced in all parts of the state, the mgnregs wages was ₹125/per day in kerala as against the national average wage rate of ₹96.26/-. at the same period, the wage rate of an unskilled female farm labour for doing activities like weeding was less than the mgnregs wage rate. besides making the female labour force to gravitate towards mgnregs works, the scheme also increased the bargaining power of the female labour force engaged in agricultural activities. this ultimately ended up in getting their average wage rate in the farms and paddy fields hiked up to a slot even higher than the mgnregs rate. non-availability of labourers non-availability of labourers during peak season was the second major constraint faced by the paddy farmers. the shifting of table 2 constraints experienced by the farmers sl. no. constraints overall score rank 1 increased wage rate of labourers 1.98 i 2 non-availability of labourers during peak season 1.89 ii 3 decreased productivity of labour 1.84 iii 4 increased cost of cultivation 1.78 iv 5 increased use of weedicide 1.47 v 6 increase in the use of pesticides 1.33 vi impact of mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (mgnregs) on paddy cultivation in palakkad district of kerala 6286 agricultural labourers from agriculture to other occupations also led to the shortage of labourers. the number of persons engaged in agriculture in the state reduced drastically even as the total number of workers increased between 1993-94 and 2012-13. decreased productivity of labourers the third important constraint as perceived by the farmers was the decreased productivity of labourers. the farmers opined that the work done by a labourer before implementing mgnregs is now done by three labourers. almost all the sample farmers contacted were of the opinion that besides making the availability of farm labour scarce, mgnregs had also contributed negatively to the general work culture of the labourers. increased cost of cultivation increased cost of cultivation was the other major constraint faced by the paddy farmers. the labour cost constitutes more than 50 percent of the total paid out cost, leading to increased cost of cultivation. the cost of all the inputs used had increased many folds as well. this has led to decreased profit from paddy cultivation. many of the farmers reported that the minimum support price (msp) for paddy provided by the government had encouraged them to continue paddy cultivation to some extent. increased use of weedicides and pesticides the other constraints faced by the farmers were increased use of weedicides and pesticides. in paddy farming, weeding is a labour intensive work. traditionally, women workers are performing the weeding activities. the advent of mgnregs has resulted in a shortage of labour for these kinds of works. it is also reported from the field that the climate change being experienced at present has contributed to increase in weed population. these two reasons plus the increased labour cost have resulted in an increase in the use of weedicides like roundup in the paddy fields. conclusion the major positive impacts of the scheme as reported by paddy farmers in palakkad district include increased water availability for irrigation, increased number of water resources and reduction in fallow land. this may be due to the implementation of various activities which were directly related to agriculture production under mgnregs. moreover, the district had utilized 17,522.62 lakhs under the scheme for various works supporting agriculture production during 2016-17. the major constraints faced by the paddy farmers due to mgnregs were increased wage rate of labourers, nonavailability of labourers during peak season and decreased productivity of labourers. these constraints faced by the farmers had resulted in increased cost of cultivation. the study revealed that the constraints faced by the paddy farmers were not solely due to the implementation of mgnregs. the educational level of the younger generation in kerala is on the higher side when compared to other states and most of them are reluctant to do tedious physical works in the agricultural journal of extension education 6287 fields. the uncertainty about the income from agriculture and availability of other jobs with high income has also made people to go away from agriculture. proper planning of mgnregs works and effective utilization of mgnregs workers for agriculture can make it profitable one to a certain extent. references rajasekharan, p. & anila, t. (2016). rice in kerala –towards an evolutionary perspective, chapter 6. in rice in kerala: traditions, technologies and identities: a life perspective, kerala state planning board. impact of mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (mgnregs) on paddy cultivation in palakkad district of kerala 6146 constraints faced by the tribal youth in vocational preference s. dhanush1 and p.p. murugan2 abstract tribes are considered as primitive people and they are cut-off from the social and political structures of development. the present study identified the constraints faced by the tribal youth in the nilgiris district, tamil nadu. data were collected from the tribal youth through a structured interview schedule developed for the study. a majority of the tribal youth reported that insufficient credit facilities was the major constraint faced by them. other major constraints faced by the tribal youth were lack of periodical training, land alienation and job insecurity. keywords: tribal youth; the nilgiris district; constraint; tamil nadu research note journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6146-6149 received : 28-11-2018; accepted : 24-12-2018 1-pg scholar and 2-professor and head, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, ac&ri, madurai the tribal people live in specific areas having a unique culture and habitat. tribes have territorial identity and each tribe occupies a common well-defined territory, which serves as their home land. the tribal people depend on forests with hunting and forest produce collection as main occupation and unaware of external world. many of them are exploited by the outsiders and who live in a different way of life. in many cases women are not allowed to come out their cultural and traditional norms. india is a vast multicultural country with a large tribal population in the world. the total population of tribes in india is 104.3 million in which 93.8 million are in rural areas and 10.5 million are in urban areas as per the census of india, 2011(www.tribal.nic.in). tamil nadu, one of the major states of india, consists of important tribal groups. according to the 2011 census, the tribe population in tamil nadu was 7,94,697 (4,01,068 males and 3,93,629 females) constituting 1.1 per cent of the total general population. the literacy rate of the tribes was 59 per cent. as per the 2011 census, 83.08 per cent of the tribals live in hilly / rural areas and 16.91 per cent of them live in urban areas. the tribal youth of nilgiris face many problems in their life which reflect on the development of the individuals and also their society. the present study was an analysis of constraints faced among the tribal youth in nilgiris district, tamil nadu. methodology the nilgiris district was purposively selected because this is the only district wherein all the major tribal groups such as todas, kotas, kurumbas, irulas, paniyas and kattunayakans are present. research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6147 the nilgiris district comprises four blocks. tribals are scattered among these blocks viz., udhagamandalam, coonoor, kotagiri and gudalur. hence, saturated sampling procedure was followed to select all the four blocks for the study. from each block, 30 respondents were selected based on simple random sampling irrespective of different tribal groups. thus, 120 respondents were selected for the study. the constraints faced by tribal youth in vocational preference were collected and percentage analysis was used to describe the results. the suggestions to overcome the constraints expressed by the tribal youth were also collected and percentage analysis was used to describe the results. findings and discussion the tribal youth struggle a lot to lead their life due to various factors. hence, it becomes necessary to study the problems faced by tribal youth. the problems faced by tribal youth were collected, analyzed and presented in table.1 table l. constraints faced by tribal youth in vocational preference (n=120*) sl.no. problems number percentage 1 insufficient credit facilities 102 85.00 2 lack of periodical training 91 75.83 3 land alienation 84 70.00 4 job insecurity 78 65.00 5 non maintenance of values and tradition 71 59.16 6 low price for their produce 63 52.50 7 lack of employment opportunities 56 46.66 8 lack of opportunities for income generation 48 40.00 9 lack of awareness on health 27 22.50 (*multiple responses obtained) it could be seen from table 1, that majority of the tribal youth (85.00 per cent) expressed insufficient credit facilities as their primary problem as the tribal youth felt that the credit institutions were less in number and the credit provided was insufficient for sustaining in any sector. they also felt that there were problems in choosing the vocations they prefer due to poor credit facility. the other important problem expressed by them was lack of periodical training (75.83 per cent) because the tribal youth knew the importance of trainings and they needed trainings of different activities at regular intervals for choosing different vocations. majority of the tribal youth (70.00 per cent) expressed land alienation as one of the major constraint. tribal youth are forced to migrate to different places as the land was occupied by either government or private organizations. constraints faced by the tribal youth in vocational preference 6148 job insecurity was also one of the major constraint expressed by majority of the tribal youth (65.00 per cent) as they did not possess any high profile jobs and they also had the fear of losing their jobs. more than half of the tribal youth (59.16 per cent) expressed non maintenance of value and traditions because most of the tribal youth followed their ancestors’ profession and felt that they would lose their values and traditions if they prefer any other vocation. another constraint reported was low price for their produce (52.50 per cent). this has forced them to change different professions due to lack of market for their produce. nearly half of the tribal youth (46.66 per cent) felt lack of employment opportunities as a constraint because the tribal youth were not aware of the job opportunities and nearly one-fourth of the tribal youth (22.50 per cent) expressed lack of opportunities for income generation as a constraint in choosing any vocation, since they were not exposed to a wide variety of income generating activities. the suggestions offered by the tribal youth to overcome the problems faced are presented in table 2. table 2. suggestions offered by tribal youth to overcome their problems (n=120*) sl.no suggestions number percentage 1 government should allot adequate amount of funds for various tribal development projects 78 65.00 2 ngo or government institutions for tribal youth to provide training in different aspects at regular intervals 82 68.33 3 documentation of land in the owner name should be carried by the government to avoid land alienation 90 75.00 4 permanent jobs in any sector to reduce job insecurity 78 65.00 5 creation of skill based centers and reduce skilled training 83 69.17 6 forest department may procure their produces directly at reasonable rates 92 76.67 7 creating awareness, motivating tribal youth to participate in various development schemes that provides employment 98 81.66 8 livelihood programmes should be designed for streamlining field activities to create opportunities for income generation 84 70.00 (*multiple responses obtained) journal of extension education 6149 it is evident from the table that majority of the tribal youth (81.66 per cent) suggested creating awareness among tribal youth to participate in various development schemes providing employment. nearly twofourths of the tribal youth (76.67 per cent) suggested that forest department may procure their produce directly at a reasonable rate. majority of tribal youth (75.00 per cent) suggested documentation of land in the owner’s name should be carried by the government to avoid land alienation. around 70.00 per cent of the tribal youth suggested that livelihood programmes should be designed for streamlining field activities to create opportunities for income generation. the study has shown that tribal youth were innovative and require sufficient funds for starting new ventures. tribal youth were also aware of the importance of trainings which provide income to them. therefore, the government should take necessary steps to provide sufficient credit facilities for starting any venture and should provide training at regular intervals. references magimairaj, d & balamurugan, s. (2017). socio economic status and issues of toda tribes in nilgiris district: a study, international journal of advanced research and development, 2(5). natrajan, s & palaniswamy, s. (2015). pattern of decision making of irula tribal farm woman in nilgiris district, journal of extension education, 27(4) selva kumar, d.s & siva kumar, s. (2014). a study of current socio-economic conditions of the tribal communities in nilgiris district, tamilnadu, asian journal of business and management, 2(6). constraints faced by the tribal youth in vocational preference 6100 impact of self-help group formation on social indicators of sustainability surinder singh1 and b.s hansra2 abstract vegetable production has emerged as an important source of farm income from small farms in hilly states like himachal pradesh in india. various researchers have studied agricultural sustainability taking into consideration three dimensions i.e. economic, environmental and social. keeping in view the importance of the social sustainability which measures extent of social capability of farming system, present study was conducted in himachal pradesh to find out the ways to strengthen farm sustainability. farm sustainability of self-help group member farmers and non-member farmers was studied and compared. study revealed that the social sustainability of vegetable growers who were members of self-help groups was significantly higher when compared to non-member farmers keywords: social sustainability; social indicators; vegetable farms; self-help group; himachal pradesh received : 12-09-2018; accepted : 31-10-2018 1. phd scholar, school of agriculture, ignou, new delhi and 2. professor emeritus, amity international university noida, uttar pradesh introduction agriculture sustainability is meeting the present needs of agriculture without compromising the resources of future generation. various researchers have studied sustainability under three dimensions viz., environmental, economic and social. out of these three pillars of sustainability, social dimension has got minimum attraction of the researchers as with the concept of sustainability, people mostly think about the environment or economic sustainability. more attention is now being given to the idea of social sustainability, which until recently had been sorely neglected. social sustainability often is broadly defined to include community impacts, general human rights, social justice, and labor rights and treatment. agricultural systems are embedded in wider social, ecological, institutional, and market networks that influence their continuity, change and impacts. social sustainability is about identifying and managing agricultural impacts, both positive and negative, on people. social sustainability which measures extent of social capability of farming system, matters more at the level of the farm community as farmers can play the key role in sustainability. in recent years, vegetable production has emerged as an important economic activity research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6100-6104 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6101 in small farms of himachal pradesh. many hill farmers have diversified their farms seeking more profit from small farms paving way to new problems associated with hill agriculture. since discussions of agricultural sustainability often overlook the social dimension which measures extent of social capability of farming system, the present study was conducted with the following objectives. 1. to study impact of self-help groups on various indicators of social sustainablitlity. 2. to compare social sustainability index of shg (self-help group) members’ and nonmembers’ vegetable farms. methodology the study was conducted during 2014-2017 in the state of himachal pradesh in india covering six districts viz., kangra, chamba, mandi, kullu, solan and shimla which were randomly selected from three divisions of the state. in each district, five vegetable farming based selfhelp groups (shgs) were selected covering a total of 30 shgs in six districts. from each selected self-help group five members were selected randomly. thus, a total 150 group members were selected and interviewed. to make a comparison on social sustainability, 150 non-member vegetable growers were selected randomly from the adjoining village. thus data were collected from 300 farmers in the state. data on various sustainability indicators finalised after consulting 40 judges in the field of vegetable production, economics, agricultural extension were collected through direct interview and was analysed using various statistical tools. social sustainability index was prepared considering relative weightage of selected indicators. findings and discussion after detailed deliberations with the experts, relevant social sustainability indicators like community relationship of the farmers, knowledge on vegetable farming, adoption of improved farming practices, access to resources and support services were considered underlying factors to measure social sustainability of vegetable farms. community relations a stronger community relationship enhances one’s special mobility and similarly has effect on others in the society. the support received from the community can significantly impact farming activities of farmers. it is one of the important indicators of social sustainability and it is imperative to examine a farmer’s relationship to his or her community through community involvement and subsequently involvement of community on farms. the data collected on this variable are presented in table 1. it reveals that majority of members were having medium level of community relationship (2), among non-members, majority of nonmembers were found having (42.00 per cent) low community relations. the mean community relationship score for members (1.56) was significantly higher than non-members (1.02) and probable reason for higher community relationship for members might be attributed to the fact that shg influenced members’ involvement in informal/ formal organisation and vice-versa. these results are in line with bariya et al (2017). impact of self-help group formation on social indicators of sustainability 6102 table 1. comparison of social sustainability indicators for shg members and non-member farmers in himachal pradesh sl. no. indicator of social sustainability shg member (n=150) mean value nonmember (n=150) mean value z value a community relationship 1 no 22 (14.67) 1.56 45 (30.00) 1.02 4.97** 2 low 41 (27.33) 63 (48.00) 3 medium 62 (41.33) 36 (24.00) 4 high 25 (16.67) 6 (04.00) b knowledge on vegetable farming 1 low 42 (28.00) 23.33 124 (82.66) 28.19 10.43** 2 medium 72 (48.00) 20 (12.37) 3 high 36 (24.00) 6 (4.00) c access to resources and support services 1 less 49 32.67) 3.30 96 (64.00) 2.41 5.32** 2 medium 72 (48.00) 46 (30.67) 3 high 29 (19.33) 8 (5.33) d adoption of improved vegetable farming practices 1 low 37 (24.67) 52.82 96 (64.00) 38.05 6.95** 2 medium 71 (47.33) 36 (24.00) 3 high 42 (28.00) 18 (12.00) ** significant at 1% level of significance (figures in the parentheses indicate percentage) knowledge of vegetable farming knowledge is the fact or condition of being aware of something, acquaintance with or understanding of a sequence, art or technique, familiarity gained through experience or association. it is the range of one’s information or understanding. table 1 reveals that majority of the members (48.00 per cent) had medium level of knowledge; followed by 28.00 percent and 24.00 percent of them having low and high level of knowledge respectively. from the same table it is found that majority of nonmembers (82.66 percent) possesses low level of knowledge. significantly higher extension contacts, trainings and high community involvements might be the reasons for higher knowledge on vegetable farming by the members. journal of extension education 6103 access to resources and support services. sustainability of any farming system requires that all members of a society must have access to resources and support services which give them the opportunity to derive a level of well-being above a certain minimum level established by the society. table 1 reveals that majority of the members (48.00 per cent belonged to medium category followed by less category (32.67 per cent). in case of non-members majority of the respondents (64.00 per cent) were found to have less access to resources and support services category followed by medium category (30.67 per cent). the mean access to resources and support services was found significantly higher for members when compared to non-members at one per cent level of significance. adoption of improved vegetable farming practices adoption of technologies for sustainable farming system is a challenging and dynamic issue for farmers, extension services and policy makers. farmers adopting sustainable practices can influence other farmers around them to consider adoption as well. the level of adoption of improved vegetable farming practices is presented in table 1. for adoption level categories, it was observed that most of the shg members were found to have level of adoption (47.33 per cent) followed by high level adopters (28.00 per cent) whereas in case of nonmembers most of the respondents were found in low adoption category (64.00 per cent). the explanation to this phenomenon might be high extension contacts, shg finance and significantly higher number of trainings attended by shg members. social sustainability index social sustainability index (ssi) measures extent of social capability of farming system. the indicators discussed above were used to work out the ssi of vegetable farms of members and non-members. the findings are presented in table 2. the ssi of vegetable farms of the members ranged from 0.10 to 0.90 while for nonmembers it varied between 0.05 to 0.91. table 2. social sustainability index (ssi) of vegetable farms respondents level of sustainability mean value z-valueleast sustainable (0-0.25) moderately sustainable (0.26-0.50) sustainable (0.510.75) highly sustainable (0.76– 1.00) members (n=150) 7 (4.67) 67 (44.00) 66 (44. 67) 10 (6.66) 0.50 6.63** non members (n=150) 45 (30.00) 67 (44.67) 34 (22.67) 4 (2.66) 0.37 ** significant at 1% level of significance (figures in parentheses indicate percentage) impact of self-help group formation on social indicators of sustainability 6104 as evident from table 2, the mean ssi of members (0.50) had a significant difference at 0.01 percent of probability with that of the non -members (0.37). majority of members’ farms (44.66 percent) were found to be sustainable followed by moderately sustainable (44.00) and highly sustainable (6.66). in case of nonmembers, majority of vegetable farms (44.67) were moderately sustainable followed by least sustainable (30.00 per cent) the vegetable farms of members were exhibiting higher social sustainability due to higher knowledge, higher adoption level of technologies at farms, involvement in community activities and more extensive contacts with change agents. conclusion social sustainability is an important pillar of overall sustainability of vegetable farms. in the present study it was proved that self-help group approach can address these needs in a better way as significantly higher community relationship behaviour, better adoption, access to resources, and increased extension contacts were observed for shg member farmers which ultimately strengthen the social sustainability dimension of vegetable farmers. thus, self-help groups engaged in vegetable farming have the potential to empower their members through the provision of better community relations, knowledge, skill, adoption and effective extension contacts that underpin sustainable vegetable farming in the states like himachal pradesh with small land holdings. references bariya, m.k., chhodvadia, h c., patel,h., parmar,s., & vyas, j. (2017). study on profile characteristics of women self help group members. journal of krishi vigyan, 5(2), 154-159 journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6396 role of advertisements on the promotion of use of bio-fertilizers in coimbatore district of tamil nadu, india k. sathiyabamavathy1 and c. sekhar2 abstract in recent days, bio-fertilizers are gaining importance as organic input in sustainable agriculture and its applications. since the excessive application of chemical fertilizers at field affects the physical properties of soil such as infiltration, soil aeration, soil structure and bulk density, its applications are slowly replaced or it is reduced to certain extent and the farmers had the habit of applications of biofertilizers. to gain its applications, promotional measures become imperative. in order to promote biofertilizers among the farmers, the leading producers have been using many sales promotional activities. one such promotional activity is "advertising". this paper investigates the role of advertisements in creating awareness about the use of bio-fertilizers. keywords: advertisement, bio-fertilizers; awareness creation; tamil nadu 1department of tourism management, avinashilingam institute of home science and higher education for women, coimbatore-641043 and 2 department of agricultural economics, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641003 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6396-6400 received : 14-10-2019; accepted : 15-11-2019 introduction experience has shown that highyielding crop varieties require more chemical fertilizers and other inputs for improving production (ghosh et al., 2003). consequently, the farmers are forced to spend a significant portion of their resources on fertilizers. due to their inherent financial strain, they are unable to procure these inputs in time and apply them to their crops. more importantly, the continuous application of chemical fertilizer also causes soil and water pollution. above all, there also a gap between the demand and supply of chemical fertilizers more particularly, nitrogenous fertilizers. in order to address all these issues, bio-fertilizers are considered a suitable sustainable alternative, which also supports organic agriculture (mercykutty and karippai, 2000). tamil nadu is a forerunner in biofertilizer production and use. advertisements create contact and ensure co-operation between sales associates and buyers, which gives a message to the customer at the right time at a reasonable cost, which helps to develop market communication. 6397 sales promotional activities also influence bio-fertilizers purchases. significantly, the number of bio-fertilizers manufacturers in india spends more on advertising campaigns. advertisements plays a vital role in the promotion of bio-fertilizers and hence a study was taken up towards how they help to promote bio-fertilizers. the findings of this study would help determine the effectiveness of the advertisement of bio-fertilizers in terms of area coverage. these results also would help the production units in making right decisions related to its advertising strategies. methodology selected places of western part of coimbatore district in tamil nadu in the taluks of avinashi, pollachi, udumalpet and mettupalayam were chosen at random to assess the awareness about bio-fertilizers, to find out the respondents' choice of the medium of advertising for the products of bio-fertilizers, to examine the effectiveness of advertisement on consumption of biofertilizers and to suggest the choice of best advertising medium. 150 was the sample size. a multiple linear regression equation was fitted to estimate the extent of influence of the advertising method. findings and discussion to create awareness among the consumers, effective promotional strategies are required. age is supposed to have a positive influence on the level of an advertisement on bio-fertilizers, which may influence the decision-making behaviour regarding the purchase and usage of bio-fertilizers. in the present study, the influence of advertisement on the purchase of bio-fertilizers revealed that the age, education, total monthly income of a household and occupational status would influence the decision-making behaviour regarding the purchase and usage of biofertilizers (table 1). bio-fertilizers influenced 64.11 per cent of the consumers in avinashi table 1. influence of advertisements on purchase of bio-fertilizers sl. no. age group in years number of consumers influenced by advertisements avinashi taluk pollachi taluk udumalpet taluk mettupalayam taluk total 1. young age (< 40 years) 08 (20.51) 07 (18.42) 07 (19.44) 07(18.92) 29 (19.33) 2. middle age ( 40-50 years) 25 (64.11) 24 (63.16) 23 (63.89) 24 (64.86) 96 (64.00) 3. old age (> 50 years) 06 (15.38) 07 (18.42) 06 (16.67) 06 (16.22) 25 (16.67) total 39 (100) 38 (100) 36 (100) 37 (100) 150 (100) (figures in parentheses indicate percentage to total) role of advertisements on the promotion of use of bio-fertilizers in coimbatore district of tamil nadu, india 6398 taluk who were in the middle age group, followed by a young age group (20.51 per cent) and old age group (15.38 per cent). in pollachi taluk, 63.16 per cent of the middle age groups were influenced by the advertisement, followed by the young age group (18.42 per cent). in udumalpet taluk and mettupalayam taluk middle age groups were influenced by advertisements at 63.89 per cent and 64.86 per cent, respectively. here, the effect of advertisement on purchasing the bio-fertilizers by the old age group was low, which might be due to less exposure to mass media by the old age group and also their loyalty to the bio-fertilizers, which are unbranded and considered to be available locally. it is also important to assess how the promotional strategy that impacts on the salaried and self employed and the housewives who are actively involved in farming activities. it is found out that overall, 66.67 per cent of the housewives who have been influenced by advertisements belonged to the unemployed category followed by those of salaried category with only 32 per cent and selfemployed category with only 1.33 per cent. it could be interpreted that the percentage of the self-employed people who were influenced by the advertisement was very less. in the case of unemployed homemakers, the influence of advertisement was intense, since this group of consumers can devote much time to view and listen to the advertisement exhibited in the mass media like television. however, it is important to assess the sources of awareness about the bio-fertilizers to the consumers are also important. for that different methods are being practiced. the advertisements of bio-fertilizers are typically carried out through field demonstrations, group meetings, radio, calendar and through cloth banners. the data table 2. estimation of linear regression model sl.no. particulars co-efficient standard error t value remarks 1. constraint 28.581 55.67 0.4415 ns 2. quality (x1) 107.00 17.99 5.947 ** 3. availability (x2) 19.075 16.79 1.136 ns 4. package (x3) 8.4545 19.09 0.443 ns 5. price (x4) 13.70 8.544 1.542 ns 6. advertising index (x5) 135.49 26.22 5.168 ** 7. family size (x6) 95.041 11.70 8.126 ** n = 150; r2 = 0.9064; ** = significant at 1 per cent level; ns = non significant journal of extension education 6399 related to the source of awareness of biofertilizers were collected and analysed. among the 200 respondents, only 180 respondents used bio-fertilizers. hence the reasons for not using the bio-fertilizers were collected from 20 respondents who were using some other fertilizers. it was indicated that field demonstrations played a vital role in creating awareness about bio-fertilizers, followed by group meetings (39.44 per cent). however, the awareness through radio, calendar, and cloth banners was inferior. the field demonstrations on creating awareness were mainly due to secure access to messages even to the illiterates. the co-efficient of multiple linear determination (r2) was found to be 0.9064, i.e., the variables included in the function explained 90.64 per cent of the variation in the use of bio-fertilizers by the consumers date in. linear regression model was applied to find out the use of bio-fertilizers by the sample consumers. data in table 2 state that among the variables, quality of biofertilizers, advertising index, and family size shows a positive and exceedingly significant effect on the purchase of bio-fertilizers by the consumers. the results revealed that an increase in one point in quality would increase the purchase of bio-fertilizers by rs.107 in a year. the regression coefficient for the advertising index was 135.49, indicating that an increase in one score of advertising index increases the use of bio-fertilizers by rs.135.49, and the family size also significantly influenced the purchase of bio-fertilizers. the price of bio-fertilizers, packages, and the availability of bio-fertilizers were not influencing the purchase of biofertilizers. table 3. estimates of linear probability model for awareness about bio-fertilizers sl. no. particulars co-efficient standard error t value remarks 1. intercept 0.02661 0.07967 0.3340 ns 2. educational level (x1) 0.02585 0.004106 6.296 ** 3. income (x2) 0.02539 0.008370 3.034 ** 4. age (x3) -0.0058 0.001985 -2.941 ** 5. field demonstrations (x4) 0.4025 0.03270 12.311 ** 6. group meetings (x5) 0.3794 0.3245 11.695 ** 7. radio (x6) 0.0021 0.01271 0.171 ns n = 180; r2 = 0.9263; **= significant at 1 per cent level; log likelihood = 0.21783; ns = non significant role of advertisements on the promotion of use of bio-fertilizers in coimbatore district of tamil nadu, india 6400 followed by the usage of biofertilizers by the sample consumers, the linear probability model was applied to find out the awareness about bio-fertilizers among the respondents, and the results were analysed and the details are presented in table 3. the variables included in the function explained that the coefficient of multiple determinations (r2) arrived at was 0.9263 indicated that 93 percent of the variation in creating the awareness of bio-fertilizers among the respondents by the independent variables included in the study. it is concluded that among the independent variables, educational level, income, field demonstrations, and group meetings had a positive influence on creating awareness among the respondents, and these variables were found to be significant at one per cent level. educational status and monthly income of the households were also positive and significant, holding other variables at constant in creating awareness. conclusion the present study has revealed that field demonstration was the most effective medium of advertisement as perceived and experienced by the consumers in terms of effectiveness and a significant source of awareness. it is also observed that an increase in the sale of bio-fertilizers may not be attributed to advertisements alone, and there are several other sales promotional activities. it is concluded that among various promotional strategies, field demonstration was found to have a more significant influence in creating awareness about biofertilizers. hence suitable strategies should be developed to popularize bio-fertilizers among the residents through media for sustainable development. references ghosh p.k, dayal. d, mandal, kg, wanjari, rh, & hati, km. (2003).optimization of fertilizer schedules in fallow and groundnutbased cropping systems and an assessment of system sustainability. field crops research. 80(2):83-98. doi: 10.1016/ s0378-4290(02)00170-3 mercykutty, m.j. & karippai, r.k. (2000), adoption of bio-fertilizers technology. journal of extension education, 11: 28092811. journal of extension education 6223 effectiveness of trainings imparted by a krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) in tamil nadu p.tamil selvi 1 and p.balasubramaniam 2 abstract in an agricultural country like india, training of farmers is a laborious task and requires a heavy investment in training infrastructure to reach most of the farmers on a regular basis. trainings are conducted in krishi vigyan kendras(kvks) at various levels for which the programmes are designed based on the farmers problems their needs and interests. altogether, 300 respondents were selected for the study through random sampling method to assess the effectiveness of trainings imparted by a krishi vigyan kendra (kvk). majority of the trainees were having medium level of adoption of recommended technologies followed by low level and high levels of adoption of recommended crop cultivation practices in major crops. keywords: kvk; training; effectiveness; crop production; cultivation practices; impact; adoption; tamil nadu. 1 phd scholar, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore and 2 professor (agrl. extension), tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. introduction the indian council of agricultural research (icar) had launched a major programme of krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) or farm science centre, which is a science/ technology led, farmer centric institution, established with the purpose of providing knowledge and skill training to the farmers, rural youth and field-level extension workers. it should be recognized that agriculture varies from one area to another, even from one field to another. training programmes therefore, should be fitted to the local conditions. the specific objective of this study is to study the adoption level of farmers trained on crop cultivation practices in major crops at icar-kvk in karur district of tamil nadu. methodology the study area, viz., karur district of tamil nadu consists of five taluks and eight blocks viz., kulithalai, thogaimalai, krishnarayapuram, tharagampatti, arava kurichi, k.paramathy, thanthoni and karur. out of eight blocks of karur district, two blocks were purposively selected for this study, as maximum numbers of trainings have been conducted by icar-kvk, karur in these blocks. in thogaimalai block, 88 training programmes and in kulithalai block research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6223-6229 received : 16-11-2018; accepted : 27-11-2018 6224 66 training programmes were conducted. for the selection of respondents, a list of trainees from kulithalai and thogaimalai blocks were prepared with the help of kvk. altogether, 300 respondents were selected for the study through random sampling method. in the present study, adoption has been operationalized as the extent to which the farmers have adopted the recommended cultivation techniques in the study area, which would indicate the effectiveness of the trainings. by having discussionswith the extension officials , major techniques in major crops were selected on which the adoption level of the respondents was studied. the respondents were narrated about these practices one by one, each time enquiring whether they have adopted the practice in the previous year. the response “adopted” was given two score and “not adopted” was given one score. the scores for all these items were added up for each respondent and adoption score was arrived at. based on the score obtained by the respondents, they were classified as low, medium and high categories on overall adoption levels using cumulative frequency method. findings and discussion rogers and shoemaker (1983) had defined adoption as a decision to make full use of an innovation as the best course of action available. the adoption level of farmers are presented here. adoption level of recommended practices through trainings imparted by kvk table 1 shows the overall adoption of recommended crop production technologies by the kvk trained farmers in the two blocks. it is revealed from table 1, that medium level of adoption was observed in both the blocks. in thogaimalai block, the major crops cultivated are paddy, sorghum, black gram and ground nut. the farmers are cultivating less number of crops, due to frequent monsoon failure and inadequate availability of water. this might be the reason for medium (40.67 %), followed by low (32 %) and high (27.33 %) levels of adoption in recommended crop cultivation techniques in thogaimalai block. this finding is similar to that of govind (1992). in kulithalai block, the major crops are banana, paddy, sugarcane and black gram. timely availability of water is the main reason for cultivating annual crops like banana and table 1. overall adoption level of kvk trained farmers in relation to recommended crop production technologies sl.no category kulithalai block (n=150) thogaimalai block (n=150) total (n=300) number per cent number per cent number per cent 1 low 49 32.67 48 32.00 97 32.33 2 medium 58 38.66 61 40.67 119 39.67 3 high 43 28.67 41 27.33 84 28.00 journal of extension education 6225 sugarcane in major areas and other crops like pulses, oilseeds and vegetables are cultivated in small areas only. this might be the reason for medium (38.66 %), followed by low (32.67 %) and high (28.67 %) level of adoption in recommended crop cultivation practices. this finding derives support from the finding of patel (2004). from table 1, the overall adoption level showed that, the majority of the respondents were having medium level (39.67 %) of adoption followed by low level (32.33 %) and high levels (28 %) of adoption of recommended crop cultivation practices. practice-wise adoption level of recommended crop cultivation techniques the findings on practice-wise adoption of recommended crop cultivation techniques in crop production, horticulture, plant protection and animal science are given in table 2. it could be inferred that all the training programmes would have created positive impact on the respondents and therefore they continue to adopt the practices given in kvk trainings. further, to have a better understanding practices adopted by the farmers, the practice-wise adoption of the selected four types of trainings are presented in this section. majority of the respondents (87.33%) adopted sri method of paddy cultivation, followed by seed treatment technique in paddy (82.33 %), gypsum application in groundnut (80.33%), cono weeder operation in sri paddy cultivation (73.67 %), pseudomonas fluorescens treatment in paddy seeds (64 %), bio fertilizer application in black gram (48.33 %), pulse wonder application in pulses (37 %), seed treatment in groundnut (32 %), groundnut rich application for groundnut (27.67 %), usage of leaf colour chart (13.67 %) and fixing bee hives (6.67 %) in sun flower field. table 2. practice wise adoption level of recommended crop cultivation techniques (n=300*) sl. no practices kulithalai block (n=150) thogaimalai block (n=150) total (n=300) number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage i. recommended cultivation practices in major agricultural crops 1 seed treatment in paddy 131 87.33 116 77.33 247 82.33 2 pseudomonas fluorescens treatment in paddy seeds 110 73.33 82 54.67 192 64.00 3 sri paddy cultivation 139 92.67 123 82 262 87.33 effectiveness of trainings imparted by a krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) in tamil nadu 6226 sl. no practices kulithalai block (n=150) thogaimalai block (n=150) total (n=300) number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage 4 usage of leaf colour chart (lcc) 18 12.00 23 15.33 41 13.67 5 cono weeder operation in sri paddy cultivation 127 84.67 94 62.67 221 73.67 6 bio fertilizer application in black gram 89 59.33 56 37.33 145 48.33 7 pulse wonder application in pulses 61 40.67 50 33.33 111 37.00 8 seed treatment in groundnut 39 26.00 57 38 96 32.00 9 gypsum application in groundnut 101 67.33 140 93.33 241 80.33 10 ground nut rich application for groundnut 24 16.00 59 39.33 83 27.67 fixing bee hives in sun flower field 4 2.67 16 10.67 20 6.67 ii. recommended cultivation practices in horticultural crops 1 quality sucker selection in banana 132 88.00 55 36.67 187 62.33 2 micro nutrient application in banana 96 64.00 78 52 174 58.00 journal of extension education 6227 sl. no practices kulithalai block (n=150) thogaimalai block (n=150) total (n=300) number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage 3 vegetable seedlings raised by protray method 91 60.67 130 86.67 221 73.67 4 vegetable special application for vegetable crops 49 32.67 42 28 91 30.33 5 coconut tonic application in coconut 21 14.00 37 24.67 58 19.33 iii. recommended plant protection practices in major crops 1 control measures for rice leaf folder 67 44.67 37 24.67 104 34.67 2 control measures for bacterial leaf blight disease in paddy 17 11.33 22 14.67 39 13.00 3 control measures for red hairy caterpillar 49 32.67 112 74.67 161 53.67 4 control measures for shoot and fruit borer in bhendi 17 11.33 38 25.33 55 18.33 5 fixing light traps against sucking pests 43 28.67 69 46 112 37.33 iv. recommended animal husbandry practices 1 assessing the good breed character in dairy cows 47 31.33 85 56.67 132 44.00 effectiveness of trainings imparted by a krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) in tamil nadu 6228 the reasons for adoption of this method of cultivation (sri paddy cultivation) may be due to time saving, less labour requirement for weeding, cost of inputs reduced and the main contributing factor was the increased production which made it possible to adopt this practice. in horticulture related trainings, nearly three fourths of the respondents (73.67 %) adopted vegetable seedlings raised by protray method, followed by quality sucker selection in banana (62.33 %), micro nutrient application in banana (58 %), vegetable special application for vegetable crops (30.33 %) and coconut tonic application in coconut (19.33 %). the reason for adoption of protray method of nursery raising practice could be reduction in cost of cultivation through saving in labour, inputs and to get healthy and vigorous vegetable seedlings. in plant protection related practices, more than half of the respondents (53.67 %) farmers adopted control measures for red hairy caterpillar followed by fixing light traps against sucking pests (37.33 %), control measures for rice leaf folder (34.67 %) and control measures for bacterial leaf blight disease in paddy (13 %). in animal husband related trainings, majority of respondents (79 %) adopted cultivation of multicut fodder grass practice, followed by correct milking method (65.33 %), assessing the good breed character in dairy cows (44 %), preventive measures for occurrence of bloat in dairy cows (24.67 %) and azolla for dairy cows (15.67 %). overall, in the two blocks, majority of the respondents possessed dairy component. fodder scarcity is the main problem in summer season. keeping this in view, kvk had provided more number sl. no practices kulithalai block (n=150) thogaimalai block (n=150) total (n=300) number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage number of respondents adopted per centage 2 preventive measures for occurrence of bloat in dairy cows 26 17.33 48 32 74 24.67 3 correct milking method 78 52.00 118 78.67 196 65.33 4 cultivation of multi cut fodder grass variety 107 71.33 130 86.67 237 79.00 5 azolla for dairy cows 19 12.67 28 18.67 47 15.67 (*multiple responses obtained) journal of extension education 6229 of training on fodder management techniques. this might be the reason for more adoption of multicut fodder cultivation technique in both the blocks. conclusion in both the blocks, the farmers were aware about recommended crop cultivation practices in paddy, blackgram, groundnut, banana and vegetable crops through kvk trainings. but they could not adopt them due to non-availability of critical inputs like quality seeds, bio fertilizers, crop boosters etc. hence, the kvk should arrange the availability of critical inputs in timely, it would help to increase the adoption level of farmers. in thogaimalai block, the farmers are cultivating less number of crops, due to frequent monsoon failure and inadequate availability of water. in order to be effective, kvk must advise the farmers to make changes in the cropping pattern and to prepare for contingent plans according to water availability, and should offer training programmes on water management techniques. this will help the farmer to cultivate more number of crops by using less quantity of water. references govind, s. (1992). integrated pest management in rice: achievements and opportunities. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, tnau, coimbatore. rogers, e.m. & shoemaker, f.f. (1971). “communication of innovations – a cross cultural approach”, the free press, new york. effectiveness of trainings imparted by a krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) in tamil nadu <p>&nbsp;</p> <h1 style="text-align: center;">from the editor&rsquo;s desk</h1> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2 style="text-align: left;"><em>my dear readers of journal of extension education,</em></h2> <p>&nbsp;<em>wish you all a very happy new year!</em></p> <p>&nbsp;the year 2019 has born and we have a task on our hands in helping the indian farmers to double their income by 2022. rs. 6426 was the average income of an indian agricultural household, as reported by the national sample survey organization in 2013. of this rs.6426, only rs 3844 had come from crop cultivation &amp; livestock rearing while the rest had come from wages and non-farm activities. with this in mind, the doubling the farmers&rsquo; income (dfi) committee of government of india (2017) has identified the following major sources of growth:</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li style="text-align: left;">improvement in crop productivity&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;</p> <ul style="text-align: left;"> <li>improvement in livestock productivity&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;</p> <ul style="text-align: left;"> <li>resource use efficiency or saving in cost of production&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;</p> <ul style="text-align: left;"> <li>increase in cropping intensity&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;</p> <ul style="text-align: left;"> <li>diversification into high value crops&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;</p> <ul style="text-align: left;"> <li>improvement in real prices received by farmers&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li style="text-align: left;">shift from farm to non-farm occupations.</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: left;">the committee has also remarked that the agricultural extension system at present has been primarily concerned with the first two sources and has offered the following definition for agricultural extension:</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2 style="text-align: justify;"><em>&ldquo;agricultural extension is an empowering system of sharing information, knowledge, technology, skills, risk &amp; farm management practices, across agricultural sub-sectors and along all aspects of the agricultural supply chain, so as to enable the farmers to realize higher net income from their enterprise on a sustainable basis&rdquo;</em></h2> <p>&nbsp;the role of agricultural extension therefore, needs to align with the current realities faced by the farmers and face the challenges in achieving the goal of doubling the farmers&rsquo; income by the year 2022. the dfi report also mentions that production oriented extension, incomplete extension (not fulfilling the complete package of production system and the post-production chain of activities) and service delivery skewed in favour of dominant power structure are some of the challenges the advisory system will be facing while inching towards the target.</p> <p>&nbsp;i am pleased to announce that jee has been selected for indexing by <strong>cabi </strong>for listing in their <strong>cab abstracts database</strong>. this issue of jee contains articles on diverse topics including sample sizes of postgraduate theses , training needs of farmers &amp; extensionists and job stress experienced by agricultural officers.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;do send your feedback on these papers to <a href="mailto:editorextension@gmail.com">editorextension@gmail.com.</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h2 style="text-align: right;">d puthira prathap</h2> <h2 style="text-align: right;">chief editor</h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> 6463 erosion of traditional seed supply system in murshidabad district of west bengal ali ahammad taher hasan1 and sabuj kumar chaudhuri 2 abstract this study aims to explore the erosion of traditional seed supply system (tsss) in murshidabad district of west bengal with reference to the erosion of rice diversity in the district. agriculture is the main occupation of murshidabad because of its favourable climate and quality of soil. the investigators had interviewed 400 cultivators from all the 26 community development blocks in the district and found that 164 varieties of rice were once available in the farmers’ fields and at present only 12 are being cultivated marginally. in the case of high yielding varieties (hyv), farmers generally prefer to buy seeds from the market for consistent yield. a very little percentage of farmers keep hyv seeds for the next year’s planting material. keywords: traditional seed supply system; biodiversity; traditional knowledge; traditional rice; west bengal 1 department of library, kabi nazul college, birbhum, west bengal-731219 2 department of library and information science, university of calcutta, kolkata 73 received : 06-03-2020; accepted : 05-06-2020 research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6463-6467 changing climate, increasing infestation of pests in crops and continuous increase of stresses on water and land use have made life difficult for farmers (rgsibg, 2015). it is a big challenge for the mother earth to increase production to meet the increasing ‘demands for food, feed and bio-energy’ and at the same time ‘conserving biodiversity and reducing the pressure on natural resources and ecosystems’ (fao, 2018). conservation and strengthening of tsss (traditional seed supply system) or farmer’s seed network may play an instrumental role in conserving agrobiodiversity and maintain food security for the increasing population. hence, this study was taken up to explore the erosion of tsss in west bengal, an important rice growing state in the country. methodology this study was conducted in all the 26 community development blocks of murshidabad district of west bengal state. 400 cultivators and agricultural labourers of different age groups were selected through snowball or chain sampling method and interviewed for data collection. they were interviewed based on the indicators set in the questionnaire prepared for data collection. some of the important indicators are name of 6464 the traditional varieties of rice once cultivated by them or by their forefathers, varieties available now, methods of seed selection and conservation in practice, whether they are still interested in such traditional methods etc. findings and discussion from the survey as well as secondary literature, it has been found that 168 varieties of traditional rice were historically available in the district. but after the introduction of high yielding varieties these landraces were rejected by the farmers. at present, only 12 varieties are being cultivated by the farmers due to their special characteristics like aroma, taste and quality of stress tolerance. traditional seed system in murshidabad district traditional seed supply system comprises variety selection and adaptation, seed selection, seed exchange among the members in the farming community, post harvest processing and storage for crop improvement and maintaining agrobiodiversity. seed selection: selection of healthy seed is of paramount importance. though the farmers nowadays prefer to buy seeds from the market they follow some traditional techniques of seed selection in case traditional rice which are not readily available in the market. farmers are to conserve them at their home for the subsequent years. table 1 presents the traditional method of seed selection followed by the farmers in the study area. seed conservation: in the study area some post harvest traditional practices of storage of seeds have been found. they are extremely important to keep the seeds viable (table 2). seed supply or seed exchange: exchange of seeds among the members of the farming table 1. traditional knowledge of seed selection in murshidabad sl. no traditional knowledge of seed selection 1 healthy and matured plants are selected and left in the field to dry in the field. often the plants are tied together with a support like bamboo stick so that they stay erect. when the plants are dried well the farmers cut the disease free panicles and separate grains. again the seeds are dried in the sun for three to four days and stored. 2 after the harvest women at home take some bundles and shake them. the grains that get separated easily at shaking are considered to be healthiest and matured and fit for seed. in such way the required quantity of seeds are collected. 3 after the threshing is over winnowing is done. farmers often collect seed from the centre of the winnowing area. it is believed that the healthiest seeds are gathered at the centre. 4 before the seeds are sown, farmers often place the seeds in a large pot filled with water to separate unfilled grains. unfilled grains float. journal of extension education 6465 communities is a very important part in tsss. in case of traditional rice farmers receive seeds through selling, borrowing, gifts from fellow farmers and exchange among themselves. in theses ways seeds move from one place to another and from one community to another table 2. traditional knowledge of seed conservation in murshidabad sl. no traditional knowledge of seed conservation 1 often seeds are stored in earthen pots. earthen pots protect seeds from moisture and attack of non insect pest like rats. 2 nishinda leaves or neem leaves are placed with the stored seeds. nishinda has toxic effect. neem is well known to have insect repellant property. some time red chili and turmeric are also put at the bottom of the container. some people treat the container by plastering the inside part of the container with cow dung and cow urine. 3 often people store rice mixed with husk. probably dust keeps rice weevil free. 4 people used to store seed in ‘puri’ made of straw rope. to keep storage pest away from seed people often used a mixture of cow dung, cow urine and some soil to plaster the outside of the ‘puri’. 5 a powder prepared from clove, neem leaves and garlic is wrapped in a cloth and put into the container containing seed. this is an effective way to keep the storage pests away. 6 farmers generally put the seeds under the sun and dried well before storing in air tight containers. the seeds are again dried under the sun at three to four months interval to keep the seeds viable and storage pests away. table 3. perception of farmers towards tsss according to their age (n =400) sl. no. particulars rational irrational not sure age group 1. 18-28 years 24 (14.72%) 126 (77.30%) 13 (7.98%) 2. 29-40 years 27 (31.40) 39 (45.54) 20 (23.25) 3. 41 years and above 99 (65.56) 35 (23.18) 17 (11.25) erosion of traditional seed supply system in murshidabad district of west bengal 6466 resulting in increase in agro-biodiversity which in turn secure food security. perception of the farmers towards tsss the perception of the farmers with respect to the rationality of tsss was assessed and presented in table 3. table 4 shows that 77.3% respondent who are young and hold the baton of agriculture, donot favour tsss and even 45.54% respondent in the age group of 29-40 years also donot favour tsss. 65.56% of farmers in the age group 41 years and above think tsss to be rational while 35% in this group think it rational. table 4 shows that illiterate and up to viii class educated farmers still have respect for tsss. they have attachment towards traditional rice mainly due to their taste, aroma and their use in worship at local festivals. large percentage of respondents qualifying secondary and higher secondary grades consider tsss as irrational. on the other hand, graduates are almost equally divided in their attitudes towards tsss. about 88% of the respondents having masters think it to be rational. it is interpreted that education has made them aware of the importance of rice biodiversity and traditional rice in conservation of agro-biodiversity. threats to traditional seed supply system erosion of traditional seed supply system is the erosion of traditional agricultural table 4. perception of respondents towards tsss according to their level of education (n = 400) sl. no. particulars of education rational irrational not sure 1. illiterate 59 (52.21) 36 (31.85) 18 (15.92) 2. primary and upper primary (i-viii) 61 (49.19) 57 (45.96) 6 (4.83) 3. secondary (ix-x) 7 (8.04) 63 (72.41) 17 (19.54) 4. higher secondary (xi-xii) 6 (12.24) 35 (71.42) 8 (16.32) 5. graduation 9 (50.00) 8 (44.44) 1 (5.55) 6. masters degree 8 (88.88) 1 (11.11) 0 journal of extension education 6467 knowledge, culture and landraces which are sources of valuable and rare genes. young generation of farmers are more interested in high yielding varieties (hyv) of seeds now and they have become dependent on modern technologies. they are more inclined to hyvs, chemical fertilizers and hazardous pesticides and in turn they are fast losing the plant genetic resources which their forefathers discovered and improved. they prefer to buy seeds released by the multinational companies and certified by the governments from the expensive market instead of saving them from their own fields. thus the traditional knowledge system of the farmers and agrobiodiversity are on the brink of dilution. farmers of different indigenous communities over generations have been playing the pivotal role in creating and conserving agro-diversity through their traditional knowledge practices. but this tradition is on the verge of dilution, as per the findings of the study. this is a matter of great concern. it is time to document these traditional practices for their use in crop improvement and breeding programmes in future. local administration should give utmost importance to biodiversity management committees (bmcs) take people’s biodiversity register (pbr). biodiversity conservation programmes through traditional knowledge in secondary and higher secondary schools should be a must so that the students from the very beginning will be aware of the importance of traditional knowledge and biodiversity. diversity fairs may regularly be organized in the community. the farmers conserving biodiversity should be given recognition through awards and incentives so that others also get interested in biodiversity conservation. agricultural universities should also come forward to join the local farmers to help them maintain agricultural diversity in a sustainable manner. these formal science institutes may arrange for webinars in collaboration with the local libraries. references fao. (2018). sofi 2018 the state of food security and nutrition in the world. retrieved from http://www.fao.org/state-of-foodsecurity-nutrition/en/ rgsibg. (2015). food security. retrieved from https://21stcenturychallenges.org/foodsecurity/ erosion of traditional seed supply system in murshidabad district of west bengal 6105 techno-socio-economic dimensions of specialized home gardens c. sreelakshmi1 and allan thomas2 abstract the paper on home gardens delineates the techno-socio-economic dimensions of specializations in home gardens involving a total of 90 respondents from thiruvanthapuram district in kerala that comprised 60 specialized home garden farmers and 30 agricultural officers. commercial interest has transformed this subsistence production system, to a means of additional income generation system with the inclusion of various specializations such as aquaculture, floriculture, sericulture and animal husbandry thus making it unique, ever-evolving and dynamic system. different techno-socioeconomic dimensions would have contributed to specializations in home gardens and hence the study was imperative. the results revealed that 11 out of 27 dimensions were perceived to be important. the results also revealed that the relevancy pattern differed for both specialized home garden farmers and agricultural officers wherein a few dimensions perceived to be important by farmers were actually not a concern for agricultural officers and vice versa. keywords : specialized home gardens; technology; dimensions; techno-socioeconomic; commercial, profit; kerala received : 02-08-2018; accepted : 08-01-2019 1. pg scholar, and 2. assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala-695522. introduction specialized home gardens are a special type of agricultural production system around home, with or without extended garden with home garden primary structure inclusive of specializations like apiculture, sericulture, aquaculture etc. specializations are included with commercial interest. thus it becomes visibly different from general traditional types of home garden system (krishnan, 2013) overriding the concept of subsistence use. the idea of sustainability from a systemdynamics angle includes two main dimensions, i.e. ecological sustainability and social sustainability in the sense of maintaining ecological constancy and adjusting to social dynamics (wiersum, 2004). hence technology (mcgraw, 1982) components are deliberately incorporated making home gardens more complex biophysically and an ever evolving dynamic system. because of the complexities of technologies in specialized home gardens different institutional arrangements generate and disseminate technologies and hence understanding the techno-socio-economic dimensions as perceived by home garden farmers and extension personnel is imperative. research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 3, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.3.30.6105-6112 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6106 methodology ‘ex-post-facto’ research design was used for conducting this study. the study was conducted in the thiruvanathapuram district comprising five agro ecological units (aeu) where the specialized home garden systems are in vogue. it includes aeu-1, aeu-8, aeu9, aeu-12 and aeu-14. a list of panchayats in each aeu’s of study was prepared and panchayats with potentially active and operational home garden units were identified. from each aeu, one panchayat each was selected randomly in consultation with agricultural officers. from each panchayat 12 specialized home gardens were selected randomly, thus making a total of 60 specialized home gardens. thirty agricultural officers were randomly selected as the respondents for the study by including all agricultural officers in the study area. based on the review of literature and detailed discussion with experts, a list of dimensions that appeared to characterize the specializations in home gardens were prepared and administered to the specialized home garden farmers and agricultural officers. the judges were requested to rate the relevancy of each dimension on a 3-point continuum ranging from most relevant to least relevant with the weightages of “1”’ to “3” respectively. the dimensions falling above mean total were perceived to be important for the category of respondents and vice-versa. ranking method was adopted to determine relevance of each dimension separately for respondents and agricultural officers. dimensions perceived to be important based on the mean value were analyzed estimating over class rank and venn diagram were plotted for each dimension indicating the dimensions perceived to be important by both agricultural officers and respondents. similarly, relevance of each dimension was analyzed aeu wise based on mean total scores for each dimension and ranking method was adopted to determine the relevancy of major contributing dimension. findings and discussion different dimensions related to specialized components in home garden situations the distribution of dimensions perceived to be important by specialized home garden farmers and agricultural officers of specialized home gardens is presented in table-1. the results revealed the perceptions of farmers and agricultural officers as to which dimension is more important. under the economic dimensions for specialized homegardens as perceived by the specialized home garden farmers, regularity of returns (2.77) was perceived to be the most important dimension followed by the income generation potential (2.65), initial cost (2.63) and commercialization (2.62). for agricultural officers, the dimensions perceived to be important was regularity of returns (2.87), initial cost (2.70) and income generation potential (2.67). commercialization was an important factor as perceived by the respondents since majority of the home garden farmers incorporate specializations for economic returns. respondents perceived journal of extension education 6107 table 1 dimensions perceived to be important by specialized home garden farmers and agricultural officers n=90 dimensions specialized home garden farmers, n=60 agricultural officers, n=30 total mean total rank over class rank over total total mean total rank over class rank over total economic dimensions 1.initial cost 158.00 2.63 3 3 81 2.70 2 2 2.income generation potential 159.00 2.65 2 2 80 2.67 3 3 3.employment generation potential 149.00 2.48 5 8 73 2.43 5 7 4.commercialisation 157.00 2.62 4 4 72 2.40 6 8 5.regularity of returns 166.00 2.77 1 1 86 2.87 1 1 6. rapidity of returns 146.00 2.43 6 11 76 2.53 4 4 total 155.83 2.59 78 2.6 technical dimensions 7.physical compatability 148.00 2.47 5 9 68 2.27 7 12 8.efficiency 143.00 2.38 7 12 71 2.37 3 9 9.trialability 150.00 2.50 3 8 68 2.27 6 13 10.complexity 139.00 2.32 8 14 69 2.30 5 12 11.predictability 146.00 2.43 6 11 73 2.43 2 7 12. flexibility 154.00 2.57 2 6 75 2.50 1 5 13.viability 149.00 2.48 4 8 68 2.27 6 12 14.desirability 155.00 2.58 1 5 70 2.33 4 11 total 148.77 2.47 70.11 2.33 environmental dimensions 15.energy saving potential 112.00 1.87 3 15 70 2.33 2 11 16.local resource utilisation 155.00 2.58 1 5 69 2.30 3 12 17. sustainability 154.00 2.57 2 6 72 2.40 1 8 total 140.33 2.34 70.33 2.34 techno-socio-economic dimensions of specialized home gardens 6108 income generation potential more than initial cost due to the fact that without continuous income generation the specialization will be vague and of no use. farmers will be in a position to manage the specialized home garden to overcome initial cost. in case of the technical dimensions, desirability (2.58) and availability of supplies (2.58) followed by flexibility (2.57) were important to the respondents. flexibility (2.50), predictability (2.43) and efficiency (2.37) were considered important by the agricultural officers. desirability and availability of supplies were considered important because unless there is resource availability one cannot continue farm activities. flexibility in all aspects helps to mitigate risks and overcome crisis situation in a better manner especially in specialized home gardens. complexity was perceived to be least technical dimension by both farmers as well as agricultural officers. it implies irrespective of complex nature of technology farmers tend to adopt it due to profit motive of the farmers. dimensions specialized home garden farmers, n=60 agricultural officers, n=30 total mean total rank over class rank over total total mean total rank over class rank over total socio-cultural dimensions 18.social acceptability 153.00 2.55 1 7 71 2.37 1 9 19.social approval 108.00 1.80 2 16 67 2.23 2 14 total 130.5 2.17 69 2.3 psychological dimensions 20. attitude 150.00 2.50 1 8 72 2.40 2 8 21. perceptions of technology 139.00 2.32 3 14 74 2.47 1 6 22.perceived social status 142.00 2.37 2 13 63 2.10 3 15 total 143.66 2.39 69.67 2.32 human resource dimensions 23. family labour 143.00 2.38 4 12 62 2.07 3 16 24 .hired labour 148.00 2.47 1 9 61 2.03 4 17 25.physical labour requirement 147.00 2.45 2 10 68 2.27 2 13 26 .skilled labour requirement 146.00 2.43 3 11 70 2.33 1 10 total 146.00 2.43 65.25 2.17 journal of extension education 6109 under environmental dimensions, when local resource utilization (2.58) was perceived to be important by the specialized homegarden farmers, sustainability was the dimension perceived to be important by the agricultural officers. however, sustainability was a mutual concern for both agricultural officers and specialized home garden farmers. optimum usage of available resources was considered important to the farmers for the sustenance of specializations in home gardens. energy saving potential (2.33) was perceived to be important by agricultural officers since it can also reduce the hazards on the environment as well as helps to reduce the financial costs to the farmers. under socio-cultural dimension, social acceptability was unequivocally considered important by both agricultural officers and specialized home garden farmers. acceptability from the society in turn can help the farmers to generate additional economic benefits when the specialization becomes commercialized. attitude (2.50) was important to both the category of respondents while a perception of technology (2.47) was important to the agricultural officers under psychological dimensions. technology plays a very pivotal role starting from the germination of specialization till marketing of its products and hence without positive attitude a farmer will not venture for specializations. under human resource dimension, hired labour (2.47) and family labour requirement (2.38) was a concern expressed by both categories of respondents. scarcity of labour was a major problem expressed by majority of both the category of respondents. the results clearly indicate that skilled labour was a pivotal factor in home gardens inclusion of specializations requiring complex technology. hence skilled labour (2.33) was considered pertinent by the agricultural officers and specialized home garden farmers as well. six major dimensions namely economical dimension, technical dimension, environmental dimension, socio-cultural dimension, psychological dimension and human resource dimensions in total were given for rating to both specialized home garden farmers and agricultural officers so as to identify the most important dimension as perceived by both categories of respondents. the results of the same, based on the mean values as check for both farmers and agricultural officers were delineated and presented in fig 1. fig 1 represents venn diagram for each dimension. the venn diagrams were plotted for emphasizing the common dimensions perceived to be most important by both categories of respondents. it is interesting to note that from fig 11, the total of 11 dimensions were felt to be important by both category of respondents where in the dimensions were e5, e2 and e1 under economic dimension: t12, t14 and t15 under technical dimensions: ev18 under environmental dimensions: sc 19 under socio-cultural dimensions: p1 under psychological dimensions and h r 26, h r 27 under human resource dimension. techno-socio-economic dimensions of specialized home gardens 6110 fig 1. techno socio -economic dimensions as perceived to be important by both the categories of respondents journal of extension education 6111 the common dimensions as perceived by both categories of respondents were identified considering the mean value of dimensions as check. under economic dimension, the dimensions that were felt important by specialized home garden farmers and agricultural officers were regularity of returns (e5), income generation potential (e2) and initial cost (e1). economic dimension are very important for any farmer because that determines the profitability of the specialized home garden. moreover farmers venture into specialized components expecting profit. rabin (2013) and shepherd (2004) reported that profit is always a motivating factor for farmers to continue with farming. however the results also point to the fact under economic dimension, commercialization (e 4) that was felt important by farmers was not felt important by agricultural officers. farmers might have perceived commercialization as an important dimension because they chose specialization for economic interest and to be not just a farmer but an agripreneur. flexibility (t12), desirability (t14) and availability of supplies (t15) under technical dimension were the dimensions that were felt important by both categories of respondents. however, physical compatability (t7), viability (t9) and trailability (t13) were the dimensions that were felt important by the specialized homegarden farmers but not by the agricultural officers. the farmers might have perceived that for a proper growth and sustenance of home garden, the inclusion of specializations should be compatible with the physical environment as well as to the existing non-specialized components. viability and trailability could be referred to as twin pillars of any successful venture. when it comes to the specializations, requiring high risks and complex technology trailabilty of the same becomes more accentuated. however according to the agricultural officers, efficiency (t 8) and predictability (t 11) were pertinent. unlike traditional home gardens the specialized home garden require high risks, thus having the ability to foresee the outcomes and track the growth of the venture might help to mitigate unexpected losses. under environmental dimensions, sustainability (ev18) was perceived to be important to both agricultural officers and the specialized homegarden farmers. sustainability which has become watchword of the policy makers is not a new concept in agriculture too. so it was unequivocally preferred by both categories of respondents. however the results also reflect that local resource utilization (ev17) was felt important by the specializedhome garden farmers but not the agricultural officers. tapping the available local resources may help in the easy mobility and effective resource utilisation particularly when value additions are taking place and helps in the sustainability of home gardens. social acceptability (sc19) was perceived to be important by both specialized home garden farmers as well as the agricultural officers. ultimately any specialization that is incorporated symbolically should match with the culture and coexist in the framework of the society. psychological dimensions that were important to both the categories of techno-socio-economic dimensions of specialized home gardens 6112 respondents include attitude (p1). perceptions of technology (p2) were considered important by agricultural officers but not by the farmers. agricultural officers believed that farmers should have full faith in the agricultural extension system that includes the extension workers for positive adoption to take place. this will enable a productive perception on the technologies among the farming community which will ensure more trust between the farmer and extension system. human resource dimensions that were commonly perceived by both category of respondents include physical labour reqirement (hr26) and skilled labour (hr27). specialized home gardens require additional skilled labour to carry out the operations in homegardens with complex technology. family labour (hr 24) and hired labour (hr 25) were perceived important by the specialized home garden farmers. labour shortage was a serious constraint expressed by the specialized home garden farmers. the government should initiate more schemes for developing the skill set of labourers through training so that skill set of labourers can be strengthened. this will enable both labourers as well as specialized home garden farmers to derive more profit. conclusion the results revealed the perceptions of farmers and agricultural officers as to which dimension is more important. the result showed that relevancy pattern differed for both specialized home garden farmers and agricultural officers. some dimensions perceived to be important by respondents were actually not a concern for agricultural officers and vice versa and that needs to be a focal point of discussion to the benefit of the specialized home garden farmers. effective technology dissemination is the strength of the extension system in the state. hence considering dimensions of the technology as perceived by the specialized home garden farmers and the agricultural officers, due thrust should be given to the above said dimensions with effective action from policy makers to enhance the welfare of the farmers and also the economic development of the state. all these can turn specialized home garden systems into a sustainable agricultural production system. references krishnan, r. (2013).techno socio economic characterization of specialized home gardens: a dominance diversity approach. unpublished m.sc (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university. thrissur. 64 p. mcgraw, h. (1982). mcgraw encyclopedia of science and technology mcgraw hill book company, new york, 502 p. thomas, a & kumar, n.k. (2015). technology needs assessment in the home garden systems, journal of extension education, 27(4) wiersum, k.f. (2004). forest gardens as an intermediate land-use system in the nature-culture continuum: characteristics and future potential. agroforestry systems. 61: 123–134. journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6401 attitude towards the vocational training programmes of krishi vigyan kendra, kollam, kerala a. m. geethu1 and bindu podikunju2 abstract krishi vigyan kendras (kvk) are one of the most vital establishment pledged for the dissemination of farm technology in the grass root level. the present study was conducted at krishi vigyan kendra, kollam, kerala with 75 respondents, 15 each from five major vocational trainings organized at the kvk during the last five years. the trainees were personally interviewed with a well-structured and pre tested interview schedule. the present study on attitude of respondents revealed that more than half of the total beneficiaries have higher positive attitude towards the kvk. keywords: attitude; krishi vigyan kendra; vocational training; kerala research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6401-6404 1 pg. scholar, college of agriculture, vellayani-695523 and 2 assistant professor, krishi vigyan kendra kollam, kollam-691531 received : 13-08-2019; accepted : 14-02-2020 introduction krishi vigyan kendra (kvk), an innovative science based institution encompasses the all-round development of people in its effective dimensions of economic, social and agricultural scenario and was established to impart vocational skill training to the farmers and field level extension workers. according to ajrawat and kumar (2012), kvk is capable of making significant changes in the socioeconomic status as well as the level of knowledge among the different classes of trainees. the training and guidance provided to the trainees play a key role in effective technological change and management orientation. the krishi vigyan kendra at sadanandapuram, kottarakkara under kerala agricultural university functions as the bonding organization amidst the university and stakeholders in agriculture, chiefly the farmers in kollam district. in extension research, attitude of a person or group regarding any programme is of cardinal concern. preferred attitude of farmers is an essential component for the better fulfilment and success of kvk training programmes. keeping this in view, an effort was made to determine the level of attitude of the trainees towards kvk training programmes. 6402 methodology the present study was carried out for the vocational trainees of kvk kollam, kerala. 15 trainees each from 5 major vocational trainings were selected. the information of each respondent was collected with the help of pre tested, structured interview schedule by personal interview.the scale consisted of fifteen statements (items), each statement has four alternative answers. the respondent has to tick one of the alternatives to each statement. the scores assigned for positive statements were 4 for strongly agree, 3 for agree, 2 for dis agree and 1 for strongly disagree. the scoring is reverse for other selected negative statements. the summed up value gave the total score of the individual farmer for attitude towards various activities of kvk. thus, the scores ranged from 15 to 60. to assess the level of achievement, the respondent were categorized as low, medium and high based on mean (x) and standard deviation (sd).the collected data were analysed and interpreted in the light of the objectives with appropriate statistical tools like percentage, rank, mean and standard deviation. findings and discussion the data (table 1) revealed that majority of the beneficiary farmers, (68%) had higher positive attitude towards the kvk activities, 38 per cent of the respondents had medium level of attitude while there were no one having less favourable attitude toward kvk activities.this was perhaps due table 1. distribution of respondents based on attitude frequency percentage low(15-30) 0 0 medium(31-45) 24 32 high(46-60) 57 68 table 2. attitude of beneficiary farmers towards various activities of kvk sl. no. statements mws evaluation rank 1. the trainers deal with something not required by farmers 3.44 sda 4 2. the course content in kvk programmes is well designed + 3.57 sa 1 3. kvk training programmes help to increase agriculture production+ 3.41 sa 5 journal of extension education 6403 to positive impact of kvk activities. similar results were reported by jain (2013). the attitude of trainees of krishi vigyan kendra was also measured using mws (mean weighted score). there were 15 statements taken to assess the attitude of respondents depicted in table 2. ‘the course content in kvk programme is well designed’ was on the top according to relative importance in the scale for the beneficiary farmers. other sl. no. statements mws evaluation rank 4. there is no adverse effect if the kvk is closed 3.52 sda 2 5. kvk provides unique opportunity for all + 2.16 a 9 6. the training programmes are in accordance with season and time + 3.09 sa 8 7. the training methods followed at kvk are not in accordance with the course content 3.4 sda 6 8. training facilities are accessible to selected farmers 1.89 a 10 9. kvk maintained poor coordination with the other organizations engaged in the farmers training 1.75 a 12 10. kvk conducts well-attended training programmes both on-campus as well as off-campus + 3.50 sa 3 11. the farmers get all sorts of technological help from the kvk 3.52 sa 2 12. the training approach is not innovative but simply a traditional 1.90 a 11 13. kvk has very much added to the farmers knowledge about few improved methods of farming + 3.50 sa 3 14. the trainee farmers find answers for their immediate problems through the training + 3.26 sa 7 15. there is no adequate follow – up of the training programmes at kvk 1.70 a 13 sastrongly agree, sdastronly disagree, mws mean weighted score attitude towards the vocational training programmes of krishi vigyan kendra, kollam, kerala 6404 important statements for beneficiary farmers were the ‘farmer will be adversely affected if the kvk is closed’, and ‘farmers get all sorts of technological help from the kvk’ the statements on which the respondents showed less favourable attitude include ‘there is no adequate follow – up of the training programmes at kvk’ and ‘kvk maintains poor coordination with the other organizations engaged in the farmers training’. table 3 shows the correlation of attitude with selected independent variables. from the table it is clear that the independent variables like training rigour, scientific orientation and satisfaction on training showed high positive correlation with attitude. whereas other independent variables like age, annual income, number of trainings attended were not correlated. training rigour is the amount of effort taken by the training organizers to ensure that all manipulate-able factors of the learning situation are fine tuned to maximize training effectiveness. with the increase in training rigour, training effectiveness and satisfaction will be increased. conclusion the present study revealed that majority of the trainees of kvk kollam, kerala. were having positive or favourable attitude towards the working of kvk. it is recommended that kvk scientists should make adequate follow ups for their training programmes and also ensure that all farmers are aware of the activities of the krishi vigyan kendra. references ajrawat, b. & kumar, a. (2012) impact of kvk training programme on socioeconomic status and knowledge of trainees in kathua district. journal of krishi vigyan 3134. jain, p. (2013). a study on the impact of vocational training conducted by krishi vigyan kendra on income generation among women in jabalpur district unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis, jawaharlal nehru krishi vishwavidyalaya, jabalpur, 113p. table 3. relationship of attitude with independent variables sl.no. variables correlation coefficient 1. age 0.142 2. annual income 0.160 3. number of trainings attended 0.202 4. training rigour 0.361** 5. scientific orientation 0.247* 6. satisfaction 0.301** journal of extension education 6014 risk assessment in specialised home gardens of kerala c. sreelakshmi1 abstract home gardens have emerged as the best agricultural production system in kerala due to limiting land availability and the shrinking operational land unit. time and act of commercialization have transformed the homegardens to more diversified and specialized home gardens. a critical study of risks in the specialized homegarden production systems is the need of the hour to enhance its productivity. this paper analyses the various risk factors in home gardens. keywords : risk assessment; specialized home garden; productivity; kerala 1 phd scholar, agricultural extension, swami keshwanand rajasthan agricultural university, rajasthan 334006 received : 12-10-2018; accepted : 24-10-2018 introduction specialised home gardens can be operationalised as the agricultural production system practiced around home or in extended area comprising multiple plant species inclusive of specialised components like sericulture, animal husbandry, apiculture, aquaculture etc. which can contribute to additional income generation to meet needs of home and as well cultivated in commercial scale in case of surplus production. the analysis of risks and identification of constraints would definitely prove to make the production system more remunerative. hardarkar et al. (2004) stated that market risks stems out from unpredictable currency exchange rates. risk is prevalent in agriculture and despite widespread use of risk management strategies there is need for continued outreach and research to further mitigate its effects. meuwissen et al. (2001) studied farmers perceptions of risk and risk management and showed that price and production factors were perceived as important sources of risks. according to holton, (2004) risk or the “exposure to a proposition in which one is uncertain” is customary in agriculture due to continual political, economic, and social change, as well as exposure to weather and market variation. therefore specialized home garden is a system that can overcome current limitations of time, space and capital that should be triangulated with effective extension interventions at ground level for the overall remunerativeness and sustainability of home gardens. the present study was taken up with the following objectives. • to assess the various risks encountered in specialized home gardens. • to estimate the overall risks associated with specialisations under study. research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.6014-6018 research article journal of extension education vol. 30 no. 1, 2018 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.1.30.5996-5999 6015 methodology the study was conducted in the thiruvanathapuram district in kerala where the specialized home garden systems are in vogue. a total of 60 potentially active specialized home garden farmers were identified using simple random sampling. risk assessment of home garden farmers engaging with specialized components was assessed using the risk attitude scale developed by new england small farm institute, cornell university, belchertown, massachusetts with slight modifications. the scale consists of 33 statements under 5 dimensions categorized as high (3), moderate (2) and low (1). quartile analysis was used to estimate the different type of risks. also, the entire risks were estimated for different specialisations. the maximum and minimum score was 15 and 7 respectively. a chi-square analysis was done to estimate any significant difference among the risks associated with specialisations. similarly constraints were worked out using mean cumulative index and perceived solutions were documented. the period of the study was two years from 201617 to 2017-18. findings and discussion production risks an overall analysis of production risks among the specialised home garden farmers reveals that 40 percent face low risk, 51.6 face moderate risk and 8.3 per cent face high risk. crop and livestock performance also depend on biological processes that are affected by the weather and pests & diseases. hail or heavy rains could damage or even wipe out crops. outbreaks of pests or diseases could also cause major yield losses in crops and livestock. risk factors especially in homesteads are quite high. specializations helps to curb risks to certain effect and horizontal and vertical integrations manage the risk effectively. table 1. distribution of respondents based on production risks category frequency percentage low (< 7) 24 40.0 moderate (7-9) 31 51.6 high (>9) 5 8.3 marketing risks marketing risk includes risks related to pricing, product development, distribution especially in case of value addition. here 11.7 per cent face low risk, 63.4 per cent have moderate risk and 25 per cent have high risk. comparatively high risks (25 per cent ) can be due to the fact that avenues for product diversification and value addition are lacking in specialised home gardens unlike traditional home gardens. table 2. distribution of respondents based on marketing risks category frequency percentage low (< 9.50) 7 11.7 moderate (9.5014) 38 63.4 high (>14) 15 25 financial risks financial risk results when the farm business risk assessment in specialised home gardens of kerala 6016 borrows money and creates an obligation to repay debt. rising interest rates, the prospect of loans being called by lenders and restricted credit availability are also aspects of financial risk. results reveal that 19 per cent are under low risk, 31 per cent under moderate risk, 10 per cent under high risk. table 3. distribution of respondents based on financial risks category frequency per centage low (<10.00) 19 31.7 moderate (0.0014.00) 31 51.7 high (14.00+) 10 16.7 legal and environmental risks legal risks relate to fulfilling business agreements and contracts. failure to meet these agreements often carry a high cost. another major source of legal risk is liability causing injury to another person or property due to negligence. table 4. distribution of respondents based on legal and environmental risks category frequency per centage low (<10) 19 31.7 medium (10-12) 34 56.7 high (>12) 7 11.7 lastly, legal risk is closely related to environmental liability and concerns about water quality, erosion and pesticide use. the results revealed that 31.7 per cent are under low risks, 56.7 per cent face moderate risks and 11.7 per cent face high risks. from this, we can infer that farmers are following good agricultural practices which prevent harnessing the environment and legal ethics human resource risk human resource risks pertain to risks associated with individuals and their relationships to each other. these relationships include those with family members, as well as farm employees and customers. key sources of human resource risk arise from one of the “three d’s” — divorce, death, or disability. the impact of any of these events can be devastating to a farm. human resource risks also include the negative impacts arising from a lack of people management skills and poor communications. the implication of the result is that nearly 31.7 per cent are under low risk, 51.7 per cent face moderate risk and 16.7 per cent face high risks. it is evident that high per cent (31.7 per cent ) of the home garden respondents face lower risks when compared to other type of risks. table 5. distribution of respondents based on human resource risks category frequency per centage low (< 10.00 ) 19 31.7 moderate (10.00-14.00) 31 51.7 high (14.00+). 10 16.7 risk assessment in specialisations specialisations when done with commercial interest can lead to different types of risk. hence an attempt was made to draw risk journal of extension education 6017 assessment in specialisations and the results are presented in table 6. the overall risk assessment in specialisations are depicted in table 6. table 6. risks assessment in specialisations specialised component pdn risk ptn risk va risk mk risk fi risk le risk hu risk total risks vegetables (8) 9.88 14.13 10.00 10.00 10.25 8.36 8.25 70.86 poultry (4) 12.41 13.54 9 13.24 13.41 13.23 9 83.83 livestock –cow(3 12.21 14.52 9.11 12.85 12.83 8.63 8.13 78.28 animal husbandry-(6) 12.54 12.2 9.34 13.65 13.14 10.42 8.25 79.54 goat-(1) 9.37 9.27 12.54 12.41 13.52 9.41 11.47 77.99 aquaculture/farm tourism-(7) 12.21 14.23 10.21 11.23 14.32 13.14 9.25 84.59 banana-(6) 10.21 11.23 8.23 10.21 11.87 8.62 8.47 68.84 coconut –(4) 10.21 11.35 8.62 12.35 9.11 8.11 12.14 71.89 tubers-(2) 10.41 10.11 9.13 13.52 9.68 8.41 8.96 70.22 fruit trees –(2) 9.32 10.26 10.41 12.87 9.32 8.32 9.28 69.78 rubber –(3) 9.68 8.63 9.23 11.63 9.11 12.85 10.17 71.30 mushroom-(1) 14.21 13.21 10.62 14.22 11.68 9.65 8.11 81.70 terrace garden-(3) 12.24 9.36 10.23 13.21 10.87 8.25 7.52 71.68 orchids-(1) 12.11 11.23 13.21 13.58 13.98 10.11 12.19 86.41 ornamentals –(4) 12.35 10.35 12.11 14.32 13.57 8.12 12.87 83.69 apiary-(1) 11.2 12.11 8.93 12.58 12.52 13.52 10.21 81.07 total risks 195.6 199.2 172.0 213.72 203.4 169.2 162.2 1315.6 pdn –production risk ptn -protection risk vavalue addition risk mk-marketing risk fi financial risk lelegal & environmental risk huhuman resource risk chi-square (observed value) 21.86 chi-square (criticalvalue) 119.81 df 96 p-value 1.000 alpha 0.05 risk assessment in specialised home gardens of kerala 6018 from table 6, we can infer that on analysis of risks it was found that maximum risks was for homegarden with floriculture (orchids) as specialisation (86.41) followed by aquaculture (84.59), poultry (83.33) and the least was observed for banana (68.84) as perceived by the farmers with specialisations. however an analysis of the different type of risks in relation to the different specialisations, revealed that for crop based specialisations, protection risks (14.12) was the highest followed by value addition (10). in case of animal husbandry components, marketing risks (13.65) was highest followed by financial risks (13.14) and for fisheries, financial risks (14.32) was highest followed by protection risks (14.23). for other components, marketing risk (14.32) was highest followed by financial risks (13.57). further the results of the risk assessment for different specialisations with respect to production, marketing, financial, legal and environmental risks and human resource risks revealed that marketing risks was the highest with a score of 213.72 and legal and environmental risks was perceived to be least with a score of 162.27. this is because marketing risks tends to be highest in home gardens inclusive of specialisations. since the computed p value is greater than the significance level alpha = 0.05, there exists no significant difference among specialisations and total risks. this is due to the fact that risks are independent of the specialisations. different specialisations may encounter different risks at various time right from its production stage till marketing. conclusion this study had identified the various risks encountered in specialized home gardens and the overall risks associated with the specialization in the home gardens. these results need to be taken in to account by the extension agencies for improving remunerativeness & sustainability of home gardens. references hardaker, j. b., huirne, r.b.m., anderson, j. r., & lien, g. (2004).coping with risk in agriculture.second edition. cambridge, massachusetts, cabi publishing 50p holton, g. a. (2004). defining risk.financial analysts journal 60 (6): 19–25. meuwissen, m. p. m, huirne, r.b.m & hardarkar,j.b (2001). risk and management .an empirical analysis of dutch livestock farmers. livestock production science . 69(1): 43-53. journal of extension education 404 not found jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 a scale to measure the attitude of farmers towards kisan call centre shely mery koshy1 and n. kishore kumar2 abstract kisan call centre is one of the active services provided by the government of india exploiting the area of ict to support the farmers in their day to day farming activities. since the service is free of cost and can be accessed from any part of the country from 6 am to 10 pm, it is assumed to be utilized by majority of the farmers in india. hence the present study was undertaken to develop a scale that would help to measure the attitude of farmers towards kisan call centre. thirty statements expressing the attitude of farmers towards kcc to be included in the scale reflecting both favourable and unfavourable attitude towards kcc was collected through review of literature and discussion with experts in the field of extension and was carefully edited using the criteria suggested by edwards (1957). s-value and qvalue for the statements were found and that statement whose svalue were spread throughout the continuum and had small qvalue was selected. finally twenty three statements were selected to form thurston and chave's (1928) equal appearing scale to measure the attitude of farmers on kcc. the reliability and validity of the scale was also found in order to ensure the scale's usability. 1ph.d. student, department of agricultural extension, kerala agricultural univeristy and professor, department of agricultural extension, kerala agricultural university, kerala. the population in india is increasing day by day. this has created a wide gap between farmer and the extension agents which restricts the extension system from reaching the farmers to provide service. the telecommunication sector since the 1990s has paved the way for the new revolution, information and communication technology (ict). as on 30 th november 2015 total telephone subscribers 1035.18 million (25.72 million fixed land line telephones, 1009.46 million wireless) and 131.49 million broadband subscribers were estimated by the telecom regulatory authority of india (trai, 2015). the tele-density has reached 81.82% (number of telephone subscribers per 100 individuals). this boom in the telecommunication sector and the increased advantages of ict stimulated the government of india to provide the services of kissan call centre (kcc) to the farming community. kisan call centre was launched on the twenty first of january 2004 by the department of agriculture & cooperation (dac), ministry of agriculture, govt. of india (goi) to provide free extension services from 6 am to 10 pm to the farming community through the toll free number 1800-180-1551. received : 27 feb, 2016; accepted : 01 apr, 2016 journal of extension education5574 today kisan call centre is one among the most utilized information communication services provided by the goi. however there is a need to understand the farmers attitude towards the service provided. therefore the present study was undertaken to construct and standardize a scale that would be helpful to measure the attitude of famers using the kisan call centre service. attitude is defined as the degree of positive or negative affect associated with some psychological object (thurstone, 1946). therefore the psychological object in the present study is the service provided by the kisan call centre. the following methodology was used to develop a thurstones equal appearing interval scale to measure the attitude. methodology the scale was developed for the study to measure the favourableness or unfavourableness of farmers towards kisan call centre. item pool thirty five statements expressing the attitude of farmers towards kcc were first collected through exhaustive review of literature and discussion with experts in the field of extension and were carefully edited using the criteria suggested by edwards (1957). therefore thirty statements out of the thirty five statements which formed the universe of content were retained so as to include statements reflecting both favourable and unfavourable attitude towards kcc. finally scale value (s-value) and qvalue for the thirty statements were computed. scoring and computation of scale values and q values the thirty statements selected were resorted to a panel of 50 judges from various universities and research station for judges rating and was requested mark their opinion on a five point continuum equal appearing interval continuum from ‘most favourable to ‘least favourable’. thirty judges responded by sending their judgments. based on judgment, the scale value of the distribution and the q value for the statement were calculated. finally those statements distributed uniformly along the psychological continuum and those items with smaller q values were selected. care was taken to ensure that the both positive and negative statements were included and that the statements formed the universe of content which covered different aspects of kisan call centre services. finally twenty three statements were selected to form an equal appearing interval scale. the attitude scale constructed is given in table 1. reliability of the scale a scale is said to be reliable when it produces the results with high degree of consistency when administer to the same respondents at different times. in this study the reliability of the scale was determined by split -half method. the scale was administered to 20 respondents in trivandrum region and 5575a scale to measure the attitude of farmers towards kisan call centre table 1. final statements selected for scale construction * negative statement sl.no. statements s-value q-value 1. farmers’ feedback is fast through kcc than traditional methods 3.9 1.1 2. work assignments are not fully explained in kcc by the officials* 4.1 1.5 3. at times, kcc is not good at all in terms of dairying* 3.5 1.6 4. the centre provides solutions for only regular farm related problems* 3.1 1.6 5. kcc provides new methods for solving field problems 2.7 1.6 6. kcc provides fair amount of information for the query farmers ask 4.6 1.3 7. for instant information kcc is always used 4.0 1.4 8. the farmers following kcc recommendations get positive results 4.6 1.3 9. kcc extension services avoid the personal extension contact* 4.7 1.1 10. the benefits received from kcc are as good as most other organizations offer to other farmers 3.7 1.6 11. kcc services’ is a distant dream for resource poor farmers* 3.3 1.4 12. illiteracy will not deter farmers in availing kcc services 4.0 1.6 13. kcc saves farmers time 4.2 1.2 14. recommendations provided through telephone is clear and easy to understand 4.5 1.1 15. all kinds of information exchange are possible through kcc 4.0 1.6 16. kcc agents often fail to comprehend the queries* 4.0 1.6 17. phone-in-line with scientists gives first-hand information about queries 2.2 1.6 18. solutions provided through kcc is very helpful 4.1 1.0 19. kcc extension services provide new opportunity to build a skilled and knowledge community 2.0 2.5 20. kcc based extension services are alternative to the present extension system 4.2 1.2 21. kcc is one of the potential tools of ict to reach needy farmers 3.7 1.2 22. kcc can never replace traditional method of extension service* 3.2 1.6 23. the chemicals recommended by the agents are never available in the input shops* 4.0 1.8 journal of extension education5576 were asked to mark their response on a five point continuum strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree. the scale was divided into two halves based on oddeven numbers of the statement. the scores on the odd numbered items as well as the scores of the even numbered items of same respondents were correlated using the pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient. the coefficient of internal consistency was worked out using the formula: where n= number of respondents x= value of odd numbered items score to ensure the obtained test measured the variable it was supposed to measure the validity of the scale was to be assured. there are different types of validity and among them the most common one used is the content validity. in this study content validity was ensured. the statements that were gathered to form the scale were selected based on review of literature as well as after discussion with experts in the field of extension. later the statements selected was also subjected to judges rating in order to be included the scale developed. the final statements selected to form the scale can be used to measure the attitude of farmers. the farmers to whom the scale is administered can be asked to mark their agreement or disagreement on a five point continuum ranging strongly agree (sa), agree (a), undecided (ud), disagree (da) and strongly disagree (sda). the score ranges from 5 to 1 for positive statements with 5 for strongly agree and 1 for strongly disagree. the scoring pattern is reversed for the negative statements. the individual’s score is worked out by multiplying scale value for a particular statement and respective score assigned by the individual. thus score obtained for each statement will be summed up to arrive at the attitude score of the individual respondents. conclusion the scale formed with the twenty three statements after ascertaining the reliability and validity can be used to measure the y= value of even numbered items score the roe value obtained was again correlated using spearman brown formula and thus obtained the reliability “rtt” of the original test. the formula used was 2 roe rtt= ————————— 1 + roe the obtained “rtt” value was 0.9679, which indicated a high reliability of the scale. validity of the scale according to kerlinger (1973) content validity is the representativeness or sampling adequacy of the contents, the substance, the matter and topics of a measuring instrument. 5577a scale to measure the attitude of farmers towards kisan call centre attitude of the farmers towards kcc. this will be helpful in understanding the strengths as well the drawbacks of the call centres working in various states and there by bringing changes in the working of call centre in order to provide better services to the farming community. references edward, a.l. 1957. techniques of scale construction. appeton century crafts inc., new york. kerlinger, fn. 1973. foundation of behvarioural research new york: holt, rinehart and winston. thrustone, l.l. and chave, e.j. 1928. the measurement of opinion of abnormal. j. ab. soc. psy., 22 : 415-30 in e.l. edwards technique of attitude scale construction thurstone, l. l. 1946. comment. american j. of sociology, 52 : 39-50 telecom regulatory authority of india. the indian telecom services performance indicators april june, 2012 new delhi, india. www.trai.gov.in /writereaddata/pirreport/documents/ indicator%20reports%20-%20jun-12.pdf, accessed april. 20.2016 wrapper.cdr 6320 constraints faced in the usage of contemporary ict tools m. r. naveen kumar1 and h. philip2 abstract the study was conducted in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu during 2018-19 with the objective of understanding constraints faced by rural youth on information and communication technology (ict) tools usage. experimental research design was used. exactly 160 rural youth respondents who are involved in farming were selected using purposive sampling method in a random manner. the ict tools experimented with the rural youth were video, multimedia slides, whatsapp, web page and mobile application. these ict tools and platforms were selected based on the data collected through pilot survey. the constraints were ranked based on its percentage. the major constraints included, difficulty in understanding the functions of ict tools followed by lack of location-specific information and insufficient ict infrastructure facilities. keywords: ict tools, youth; constraints; tamil nadu research article journal of extension education (conference special) vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6320-6326 1 ph.d.scholar and 2 former director of extension education, tnau, coimbatore. received : 16-11-2019; accepted : 28-01-2020 introduction the present era is the era of information and communication technology (ict). the process of information dissemination through ict tools is very cost effective and time saving. the advent of modern ict tools has cut short the geographical distances between the people. the digitalization of the whole communication process from source to the receiver using ict tools narrows down the physical barrier among the people throughout the world. ict helps farmers in several ways such as, farmers’ advisory services through online phone based advisory services, internet supporting information-kiosks, web based online agro-advisory services, video conferencing, online agricultural video channels etc. the ict has three major roles to play informative, instructive and influence. the instructive role of ict is mainly used in administration areas whereas informative and influential roles of ict were mainly exploited in development programmes. even though the ict platform has several advantages, its reach among the rural population in agricultural and rural development context is yet to gain momentum. hence, the study was conducted with the objective of understanding the constraints faced by rural youth on ict tools usage. methodology the study was conducted in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu during 2018-19. the district was selected purposively 6321 where, the respondents were selected through random sampling procedure. kanyakumari district is the only district in tamil nadu where central government’s arya (attracting and retaining youth in agriculture) scheme is in operation and the major livelihood of kanyakumari is agriculture. the 160 rural youth performing farming have been selected as sample for the study. these rural youth were enlisted under krishi vigyan kendra’s arya scheme. the general constraints faced by the rural youths in using ict tools were obtained from all the respondents. as only educated rural youths have been involved in the study, the data collection tool used was well structured questionnaire. percentage analysis tool was used to analyze and tabulate the collected data. for this study, the most popular ict tools viz., video, multimedia service, mobile application, web page and whatsapp were selected. findings and discussion table 1 presents the constraints in the usage of ict tools by the rural youth respondents. 'difficulty to understand the functions of ict tools' was the major constraint expressed by rural youth respondents (95.00 %) followed by lack of location-specific information (91.25 %) and insufficient ict infrastructure facilities (86.87 %) the understanding of several functions of ict tools such as texting, attachment, table 1. constraints in the utilization of ict tools by rural youth respondents (n = 160) sl. no. constraints frequency percentage* rank 1. difficult to understand the functions of ict tools 152 95.00 i 2. lack of location specific information 146 91.25 ii 3. insufficient ict infrastructure 139 86.87 iii 4. lack of network connectivity 137 85.62 iv 5. lack of credibility of the information obtained through ict tools 131 81.87 v 6. high price of ict tools 131 81.87 7. language barrier 129 80.62 vi 8. insufficient training on use of ict tools 118 73.75 vii 9. compatiblility issues 113 70.62 viii 10. deviation from core purpose 98 61.25 ix 11. wrong perception that only rich people could buy and use ict tools 87 54.37 x *multiple responses obtained constraints faced in the usage of contemporary ict tools 6322 upload, share, download and saving the files, etc. was found difficult by the rural youth respondents. even though all the rural youth respondents used the ict tools in their day-to-day life only very few of them had understood its functionality. as social media being the open access platform in which a huge amount of information got circulated every second, the tracing of location specific information is little bit difficult. in the present scenario, the ict infrastructure facilities in the rural india have not been developed well as that of urban area and this might also be the reason for the constraints as reported. further the ict services such as browsing centres and common service centres are not available in most of the under developed villages. the above mentioned findings are in agreement with the findings of mwakaje (2010) who reported that the lack of knowledge of respondents on how to use the ict tools and lack of location specific information and insufficient ict infrastructure facilities as major constraints in ict tools usage. constraints in the utilization of multimedia slides the constraints in the utilization of multimedia slides are summarized in table 2. a close observation of the table reveals that majority (85.00 %) of the rural youth respondents expressed that they experienced difficulty to operate the microsoft powerpoint tool. about 77.50 per cent of them experienced the compatible issues i.e. the fonts, animations and graphics files used in the multimedia slides did not support well in their own computer. this finding is supported by the findings of devaraja (2011) who said that, complex nature of the few ict tools affects its utility among the farmers. the above said constraint inferred the lack of knowledge of the rural youth respondents on the operation of microsoft powerpoint. formal classroom setup was cited as a constraint by 55.00 per cent of the rural youth respondents followed by 45.00 per cent of the rural youth respondents felt that it was difficult to follow the hyperlinks. it is observed that the use of table 2. constraints in the utilization of multimedia slides (n = 160) sl. no. constraints number percentage* rank 1. difficult to operate microsoft powerpoint 136 85.00 i 2. lack of possession of desktop or laptop 44 27.50 vi 3. compatibility issues 124 77.50 ii 4. difficult to read the contents 52 32.50 v 5. formal classroom setup 88 55.00 iii 6. difficult to follow the hyperlinks 18 45.00 iv *multiple responses obtained journal of extension education (conference special) 6323 multimedia slides may increase the knowledge of the rural youth respondents. however, in order to harness the potential of multimedia slides, rigorous training is needed for the rural youth respondents. constraints in the utilization of whatsapp the constraints in the utilization of whatsapp are summarized in table 3. it could be seen from table 3 that majority (90.00 %) of the rural youth respondents expressed that lot of distractions occurs during the whatsapp reading due to the notification pop-ups of several mobile applications installed in the smartphones which distract them to a greater extent in reading the lengthy texts. kumar and sharma (2017) reported in their study that, 29.00 per cent of whatsapp users perceive distraction while using it. a little more than two-thirds (70.00 %) of the rural youth respondents reported difficulty in reading the contents through the smaller mobile screens and the reason might be that the eye irritation caused due to focused reading. half of the rural youth respondents (50.00 %) felt that connecting to the internet was tedious followed by operational difficulty (17.50 %) of whatsapp. the reasons might be due to poor internet infrastructural facilities available in the rural areas and need of skill in accessing the whatsapp. constraints in the utilization of mobile apps the constraints in the utilization of mobile apps other than whatsapp are summarized in table 4. the majority (82.50 %) of the rural youth respondents experienced difficulty in installation of the mobile app. inukollu et al. (2014) reported that 44.00 per cent of the consumers would delete the mobile app immediately if it face problems in installation and did not perform as expected. during the installation process, several technical information like agreeing to the terms and conditions of the mobile app were displayed, which is hard to understand by the rural youth respondents might have caused the constraint. lack of feedback and query clarifications and tedious to connect to the internet was reported as constraints by an almost equal number of rural youth respondents i.e. 75.00 table 3. constraints in the utilization of whatsapp (n = 160) sl. no. constraints number percentage* rank 1. difficult to read the contents through the screen 112 70.00 ii 2. poor internet connectivity 80 50.00 iii 3. lot of distraction 144 90.00 i 4. operational difficulties 28 17.50 iv *multiple responses obtained constraints faced in the usage of contemporary ict tools 6324 per cent and 72.50 per cent respectively. this finding is in line with the findings of senthil (2013) who reported that due to lack of knowledge on the disseminated agricultural technologies, the presence of subject matter specialist (sms) was felt by the respondents. the reasons might be due to the fact that, the mobile app created for the study was a static mobile app i.e. offline mobile app, which does not have any provision for feedback and query clarification. constraints in the utilization of web page the constraints in the utilization of web page are summarized in table 5. the majority of the rural youth respondents (77.50 %) felt that connecting to the internet was tedious, followed by 67.50 per cent who table 4. constraints in the utilization of mobile apps (n = 160) sl. no. constraints number percentage* rank 1. difficulty in installation of mobile apps 132 82.50 i 2. compatibility issues 88 55.00 iv 3. lack of exploration of the contents 84 52.50 v 4. difficult to read the contents 60 37.50 vi 5. tedious to connect to the internet 116 72.50 iii 6. lack of feedback and query clarifications 120 75.00 ii *multiple responses obtained table 5. constraints in the utilization of web page (n = 160) sl. no. constraints number percentage* rank 1. tedious to connect to the internet 124 77.50 i 2. difficult to type the url to access the web page 108 67.50 ii 3. difficult to follow the hyperlinks and browse the contents 56 35.00 vi 4. difficult to read the contents on screen 64 40.00 v 5. slow downloading of photographs 76 47.50 iv 6. lack of compatible view of the web page 92 57.50 iii *multiple responses obtained journal of extension education (conference special) 6325 were of the opinion that typing the web address (url) was difficult. this finding is in agreement with the findings of senthil (2013), who found that connecting to the internet in rural areas were difficult and more-than three-fourths of the respondents felt difficulty in remembering and typing the url address, respectively. less number of mobile network towers present in the rural region and difficulty in remembering complex urls might be the reason for the constraints. constraints in the utilization of video the constraints in the utilization of video are summarized in table 6. three-fourths (74.37 %) of the rural youth respondents expressed the lack of feedback and query clarification options as major constraint while using video. non-availability of resource persons to clarify the doubts in the video to the respondents while viewing during leisure time. almost equal percentage of the rural youth respondents reported the compatibility issues (45.62 %) and difficulty in following the contents (42.50 %) as constraints in the usage of video. this may be due to that the video files created for the study were in the mp4 format and that might have not supported by the smartphones of the said users. further, difficulty in following the contents purely depends on the individual rural youth respondents’ concentration capacity that requires skill. conclusion the major constraints in ict tool usage were, difficult to understand the functions of ict tools, lack of location-specific information and insufficient ict infrastructure facilities. those reasons identified for the constraints reported, need to be looked into by the extension practitioners for effective ict usage. references devaraja, s. c. (2011). a study on knowledge and attitude of farmers using ict tools for farm communication. unpublished msc (ag) thesis, uas, bengaluru. inukollu, v. n., keshamoni, d. d., kang, t., & inukollu, m. (2014). factors influencing quality of mobile apps: role of mobile app development life cycle. preprint arxiv:1410.4537. table 6. constraints in the utilization of video (n = 160) sl. no. constraints number percentage* rank 1. compatibility issues 73 45.62 ii 2. difficulty in understanding the standard language 61 38.12 iv 3. difficulty in following the contents 68 42.50 iii 4. lack of feedback and query clarifications 119 74.37 i *multiple responses obtained constraints faced in the usage of contemporary ict tools 6326 kumar & sharma, s. (2017). survey analysis on the usage and impact of whatsapp messenger. global journal of enterprise information system, 8(3), 52-57. mwakaje, a. g. (2010). information and communication technology for rural farmers market access in tanzania. journal of information technology impact, 10(2), 111-128. journal of extension education (conference special) wrapper.cdr 6421 obituary prof. k a ponnusamy, phd., it is with great sadness we inform you of the sudden death of prof k a ponnusamy on 17 september 2019. having served as the founding chief editor of the journal of extension education (tamil nadu journal of extension education, then) from 1.1.1990 to 31.12.1990, dr. ponnusamy was a key-figure in the extension education society’s activities throughout. he was actively involved in the editing of tnau newsletter, agricultural education newsletter and masu journal (maj) as well. dr kap, as he was fondly called, was awarded the gold medal for significant ph.d thesis at iari and had received a silver certificate on “advanced management” from the coverdale organisation, u.k. under his guidance, the current chief editor of jee had received the jawaharlal nehru award for outstanding pg research of icar in 2005. he had served in various capacities such as director of extension education at tnau, national consultant (extension reforms) and manage facilitator. he had significantly contributed to the restructuring of master’s and doctoral degree courses curricula and syllabi in agricultural extension at national level as a member of the subject matter area committee for social sciences constituted by icar. dr ponnusamy had developed new extension methodologies including the ‘satellite model farm approach’, which was incorporated in the ‘broad based extension system’ under tnadp and had facilitated for the development of sreps (strategic research and extension plans) and sewp (state extension work plan) for tamil nadu state, under atma (agricultural technology management agency). the president and members of ees executive council offer condolences to his family and friends. wrapper.cdr 6327 participation of atma (agricultural technology management agency) members in group activities and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices in karaikal district, puducherry s. parthasarathi1, a. shaik alauddin2, r. illakia3 and r. hema4 abstract a study was conducted in among five selected atma (agricultural technology management agency) groups. a total of 100 farmers from five groups were selected by employing random sampling. participation was studied in three dimensions viz., group sustainability, sustainable agricultural practices and participation in post harvest technologies. the study reveals that majority of the members belong to medium level of participation in sustainable agricultural practices and participate more in group activities viz., group planning, maintaining transparency, decision making, shouldering responsibilities planning, decision making and auditing. further, the study reveals that information source utilisation and information sharing behaviour of the group members showed a positive and significant relation with the participation of atma group members in sustainable agricultural practices. addition of new members and lack in guidance were the problems expressed by the respondents. group promoting initiatives and training on sustainable function of groups were the suggestions offered by the members of the group. keywords: atma; farmers’ group approach; participation; post harvest technologies; puducherry research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6327-6334 1 associate professor, 2 professor, 3 & 4 p.g. scholars, pandit jawaharlal nehru college & research institute, karaikkal, puducherry. received : 22-11-2019; accepted : 30-01-2020 introduction farmers’ group approaches are the need of the hour to cater to the needs of current challenges in agriculture. the major advantages of group approaches are commercialization, bottom up planning, social equality, effective usage of ict tools for transfer of technologies and participatory. the major challenging task of group approach is the sustainability. the groups promoted for a particular purpose has to sustain forever, so as to comply the requirement of atma (agricultural technology management agency). the best sustainable agricultural practices of a farming community which are adopted by them over a period of time also play a major role in the effective functioning of the group. with this background a study was conducted in karaikal district of puducherry u.t among the members of atma group to study the participation of group members in group activities and in sustainable agricultural practices. 6328 methodology respondents from five atma groups were selected based on their effective functioning. these groups were promoted by the karaikal atma. a total of 100 farmers from five groups were selected by employing random sampling to study the participation. participation was studied in three dimensions viz., group sustainability, sustainable agricultural practices and participation in post harvest technologies. to study the participation in group for its sustainability 10 items were selected. to study the sustainable agricultural practices 16 items were studied. participation in post harvest issues for sustainable agriculture consisted of nine items. each individual was asked about three level of participation against each item. a score of three was given for more level of participation, two for moderate level of participation and two for less/no level of participation. the scores for all the items were added up for each respondent and his total participation score was achieved. simple percentage analysis and correlation were adopted in this study. findings and discussion the results of the profile of respondents, overall participation in sustainable agricultural practices, group sustainability, and post harvest activities are presented in this section. profile of the respondents the results of the profile of the respondents are presented in table 1. from table 1 it is observed that, majority of the farmers of the five group belong to medium level of age group (64.00 percent), educational status (62.00per cent), farm size (92.00 percent), annual income table 1. distribution of respondents according to their profile (n = 100) sl. no. profile category low medium high number % number % number % 1. age 12 12.00 64 64.00 24 24.00 2. educational status 20 20.00 62 62.00 18 18.00 3. farm size 92 92.00 08 08.00 4. farming experience 21 21.00 68 68.00 11 11.00 5. annual income 87 87.00 13 13.00 6. information source utilisation 23 23.00 60 60.00 17 17.00 7. information sharing behaviour 18 18.00 64 64.00 18 18.00 journal of extension education (conference special) 6329 (87.00 percent), information source utilisation (60.00 percent) and information sharing behaviour (64.00 percent). results showed that more than half of the farmers belonged to medium level of participation. the possible reasons might have been due to the medium level of information source utilisation and information sharing behaviour of the farmers which plays a major role in the atma for group functioning. this shows that there is a need for enhancing the information access and handling by the group of farmers through extension interventions. participation pattern of group members in group activities for sustainability the results of the participation of group members in sustainable group activities are presented in table 2. from table 2, it is understood that nearly one-third of the respondents participate more in group activities for sustaining the group functioning viz., group planning (36.00%), maintaining transparency (34.00%), decision making (33.00%), shouldering responsibilities and planning (36.00%) decision making and auditing (33.00%). more than half of the respondents were categorised under medium level of participation for the activities viz., group formation, engagement in group functioning attending group meetings. a little more than one-third of respondents were not participating activities like interacting with other agencies, maintaining transparency and auditing of accounts. the findings reveals that majority of the respondents were shown a moderate level of participation table 2. distribution of respondents according to their participation in group activities (n=100) sl. no. practices level of participation more moderate no participation no. % no. % no. % 1. involvement in group formation 27 27.00 50 50.00 23 23.00 2. role in group planning 36 36.00 49 49.00 15 15.00 3. extent of decision making 33 33.00 54 54.00 13 13.00 4. involvement in group functioning 20 20.00 52 52.00 28 28.00 5. attending group meetings and deliberations 24 24.00 51 51.00 25 25.00 6. shouldering responsibilities 36 36.00 46 46.00 18 18.00 7. interacting with other agencies 21 21.00 43 43.00 36 36.00 8. solving group problems 18 18.00 42 42.00 40 40.00 9. maintaining transparency among members 34 34.00 31 31.00 35 35.00 10. auditing of accounts 33 33.00 32 32.00 35 35.00 participation of atma (agricultural technology management agency) members in group activities and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices in karaikal district, puducherry 6330 table 3. distribution of respondents according to their participation in sustainable agricultural practices (n=100) sl. no. technologies level of participation more moderate no participation no. % no. % no. % 1. summer ploughing 37 37.00 35 35.00 28 28.00 2. establishing community nursery 41 41.00 28 28.00 31 31.00 3. selection of variety 48 48.00 31 31.00 21 21.00 4. synchronised planting 15 15.00 42 42.00 43 43.00 5. growing of azolla, bga 26 26.00 44 44.00 30 30.00 6. indenting and sharing of implements 26 26.00 45 45.00 29 29.00 7. mass production of composting / rural waste composting 20 20.00 39 39.00 41 41.00 8. sharing of water among members 27 27.00 47 47.00 26 26.00 9. bulk purchase and sharing of quality inputs 47 47.00 25 25.00 28 28.00 10. labour management 16 16.00 38 38.00 46 46.00 11. adopting ipm practices for pest control 55 55.00 33 33.00 12 12.00 a cultural methods of pest control 27 27.00 21 21.00 52 52.00 b chemical methods of pest control 54 54.00 28 28.00 17 17.00 c biological method of pest control 44 44.00 37 37.00 19 19.00 d physical method of pest control 43 43.00 32 32.00 25 25.00 12. adopting inm practices for nutrients management 15 15.00 63 63.00 22 22.00 a soil testing 10 10.00 29 29.00 61 61.00 b blanket recommendation 10 10.00 31 31.00 59 59.00 c soil test based recommendation 5 5.00 24 24.00 71 71.00 13. preparation of organic inputs pancha kavya, leaf extracts etc., 33 33.00 34 34.00 43 43.00 14. adopting recommended technologies 8 8.00 51 51.00 41 41.00 15. adopting new technologies 13 13.00 41 41.00 46 46.00 16. phased harvesting 8 8.00 32 32.00 60 60.00 journal of extension education (conference special) 6331 in group functioning, which shows sharing of responsibilities and other sustainable measures have to be inculcated among the members of the group. being in an initial stage of functioning difficulty to cope up to a new venture might be a possible reason for such a moderate level of participation in group functioning. participation in sustainable agricultural practices by the group members table 3 explains the distribution of respondents according to their level of participation in various sustainable agricultural practices. it is inferred that the practices like summer ploughing (37.00 percent), establishing community nursery (41.00 percent), selection of variety (48.00 percent), bulk purchase and sharing of quality inputs (47.00 percent), adopting ipm practices for pest control (55.00 percent), chemical, biological and physical method of pest control were found with more level of participation. the possible reasons for the more participation might be due to the interest of the farmers and their concern about environmental pollution due to training offered by the extension agencies. the practices like synchronised planting (43.00 percent), mass production of composting / rural waste composting (41.00 percent), labour management (46.00 percent), soil testing (61.00 percent), following blanket recommendation (59.00 percent), soil test based recommendation (71.00 percent), adopting new technologies (46.00 percent) and phased harvesting (60.00 percent) were found to have nil participation. the reason for no participation may be due to lack of understanding of new technologies, poor interest shown by the farmers in learning technologies, environmental conditions, urgency due to various socio-economic conditions of the farmers. hence, these factors may be considered by the extension agencies and leaders of various groups to encourage the farmers and motivate them towards group activities pertaining to sustainable agriculture. participation in post harvest activities of sustainable agriculture the outcome of atma group members’ participation in post harvest activities is presented in table 4. table 4 reveals that, among various post harvest issues, sharing of market information (64.00 percent) followed by identification of potential markets (44.00 per cent) were found to be the most participatory activity among the farmers of the atma study groups. the results further state that, even though the groups were in progressing stage, their functioning was in dynamic way since the participation of the issues related to post harvest was at moderate level. this gives ample scope for extension functionaries to guide the groups in a right direction. correlation between profile and participation of group members in sustainable agricultural practices from table 5, it is concluded that among the profile characteristics of the participation of atma (agricultural technology management agency) members in group activities and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices in karaikal district, puducherry 6332 table 4. distribution of respondents according to their participation in post harvest activities of sustainable agriculture (n=100) sl. no practices level of participation more moderate no participation no. % no. % no. % 1. establishing common storage for products 21 21.00 45 45.00 34 34.00 2. sharing of market information 74 74.00 13 23.00 13 13.00 3. purchase and sharing of storage devices 20 20.00 37 37.00 43 43.00 4. involvement in processing of produces 32 32.00 32 32.00 36 36.00 5. using common transport of produce to storage/market 20 20.00 26 26.00 54 54.00 6. identifying potential markets 44 44.00 36 36.00 20 20.00 7. assessing market demands 12 12.00 46 46.00 42 42.00 8. protection from animals and theft 18 18.00 55 55.00 27 27.00 9. preventing post harvest losses 25 25.00 42 32.00 33 33.00 table 5. correlation between profile and participation of group members (n=100) sl. no. variables participation (‘r’ value) 1. age -0.0991 2. educational status -0.0435 3. farm size 0.0599 4. experience -0.0783 5. annual income 0.2911 6. information source utilisation 0.3879* 7. information sharing behaviour 0.2275* journal of extension education (conference special) 6333 respondents, information source utilisation and information sharing behaviour of the group members showed a positive and significant relation with the participation of atma group members in the sustainable agricultural practices in the study area. these results showed that information was the key for promoting any group related activities. the sustainable agricultural practices by the group members include technology, group functioning and post harvest issues especially marketing interventions. hence, it is evident that the information is essential to make the component a sustainable one and the results also reveal the same. constraints encountered by the respondents in practicing sustainable agriculture table 6 depicts the constraints experienced by the atma group members in practicing sustainable agriculture. table 6. distribution of respondents according to constraints for promoting group functioning (n=100) sl. no. statement number percentage 1. lack of guidance in group functioning 75 75.00 2. addition of new members in groups 75 75.00 3. mismatching of interest among groups 60 60.00 4. periodicity of conducting group meetings 30 30.00 5. lack of scope for organising groups 25 25.00 the major constraints expressed by the responders were lack in guidance and addition of new members in the group creating problem and affecting the co-ordination among them. further, mismatching of interest among group members (60.00 percent), periodicity of conducting group meetings (30.00 percent) and the limited scope for organising groups were other constraints expressed by the group members. suggestions given by the respondents for promoting participation of atma group members in sustainable agricultural practices. the results of the suggestions given by the respondents to promote the level of participation in the sustainable agricultural practices by the members of selected atma group indicated that most of the respondents (77.00 percent) expressed the need of more extension support to develop the effectiveness of the group and establishing infrastructure facilities for storage of produce. participation of atma (agricultural technology management agency) members in group activities and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices in karaikal district, puducherry 6334 conclusion the results of the above study inferred that wide scope exists to promote the participation level of group members in atma. since the study groups are in developing stage they have to adequately be counselled and trained towards group functioning. the involvement of research institutions, financial institutions, shandies, ngos and private concerns have to be encouraged for the sustainable functioning of atma groups. the interlinking of groups at village, block, district and state level has to be explored for the effective function of atma groups. journal of extension education (conference special) 1-1550 final.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 2, 2015 determinants of female-headed households’ livelihood diversification strategies choice in ambo district, ethiopia mulu debela ofolsha1 and j. paul mansingh2 abstract the study has concluded that diverse livelihood options are available and thus, fhhs pursue diverse range of activities that draw on their labor and time. however, the participation levels vary within female headed households(fihs). the variation is mainly in terms of the activity they diversify into and conditions under which diversification are made. generally, fhh participate in low-return and high risk and last resort activities. the study concludes that livelihood diversification strategies choice of fhh is determined by a number of factors. hence, it is recommended that the livelihood of fhhs needs to be recognized and policy intervention should concentrate on improving access to assets within the aim of expanding livelihood options rather than assuming households are spatial homogenous and individual engage in one type of activity only. ethiopia, as compared to the rest of the world, is a region most grounded in poverty due to periodic drought and extreme variable environment making agriculture a risky economic activity. like other sub-saharan african countries, the country is characterized by a complex, diverse and risk-prone production environment (chant, 2010 and degefa, 2005). as a consequence, agricultural production has been deteriorating over time, and forces rural people in the region to look for alternative employment option other than agriculture. ethiopian rural female-headed households (fhh) are not exceptional to this scenario. various empirical studies show that different livelihood diversification strategies exist in ethiopia, even though the forms and people’s participation level may vary which is not an exception for fhhs. it is also noticed that female headship has been linked to unfavorable circumstances, such as family dissolutions, single parenthood, or facing socio-cultural constraints (metasebia, 2009). as a consequence, fhhs have been largely considered a vulnerable and at risk of poverty group, both among the academic and policy making spheres. the existing literature has pointed out that fhhs in developing countries tend to be poorer than the male, and are in situations where general insecurity and vulnerability prevail, and a similar conclusion was made in the case of ethiopia (tizita, 2013 and metasebia, 2009). it has also generally been observed that female-headed households are more food-insecure than male-headed households. this may be due to “triple burden”. a research has highlighted particular constraints affecting fhh in pursuing remunerative livelihoods, especially in the 1-director (gender, diversity & inclusive education), ambo university, ambo, ethiopia and 2professor, department of rural development & agricultural extension, ambo university, ambo, ethiopia. journal of extension education5424 rural areas. on the other hand ‘feminisation of poverty’ has been much in discussion, in both the academic and development policy circles of the phenomena. however, there is little clarity about what the feminisation of poverty means, or about whether such a trend can be empirically verified. nevertheless, as several scholars have pointed out, we need to go beyond the simple equation fhh pursue last resort livelihood options. in addition, a substantial body of literature now exists to show that men and women in ethiopia experience diversification of livelihood differently (tizita, 2013). but what is less clear is a disparity within fhhs using different parameters. it is well-documented that women almost everywhere are disadvantaged in relation to men in their access to the different livelihood assets (chant, 2010 and metasebia, 2009). however, research work on fhh livelihood diversification strategies and nature of activities under condition of resource scarcity in study area is limited. the study, therefore, aims at identifying the existing livelihood diversification strategies and assesses factors that determine the fhh choice of livelihood diversification strategies in the given district. methodology the study region is located in west shewa zone, oromia regional state, ethiopia. ambo district is located in central part of ethiopia and lies within altitude of 1380m to 3300 masl. agro-climatically, the district is divided in to, highland, mid-highland and low land which account 35 per cent, 50 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. the mean annual rainfall of the area ranges from 1300mm to 1700mm. the mean annual range of temperature ranges from 23-28oc having an average temperature of 22o c. the major economic activities are agriculture. crop production is mostly dependent on rain-fed and major crops produced in the area are wheat, maize, teff, barely, sorghum and enset. livestock is also kept in most of the district. multi-stage sampling techniques were used to select some respondents. first, the area is stratified into relatively higher-potential and relatively low-potential using agro-ecology and nearness to market as criteria to capture the different farming systems. major source of livelihood in the district are applied and then three kebeles from relatively high potential and two kebeles from low potential were selected using simple random sampling technique. then stratified into maleand female-headed households and finally 104 fhh were selected by using random sampling method. standard tools of structured household survey interview schedule and checklist were designed. descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage, frequency and along with multinomial logit model were used and results were transcribed, interpreted and analyzed accordingly. findings and discussion age of household head affects labor availability, fertility behaviors and dependency ratio of household members which in turn 5425determinants of female-headed households’ livelihood diversification strategies choice in ambo district, ethiopia affect the nature and degree of households’ participation in different livelihood activities. it is statistically significant at 5 per cent level of probability among different groups of diversification options. the total family size (tfs) of the study shows that the average family size is 3 and it is slightly lower than the national average family size of 5 people per household and is consistent with previous research on ethiopia. in a similarly manner, labor availability which is mainly explained by tfs is one of the potential factors that affect fhhs participation in different income generation activities. generally, fhhs on an average have fewer economically-active household members and were in a disadvantaged position in deploying family labour for own farm production. hence, they face labour constraints which subject them to hire labour. in the same token, lacking an adult male ‘breadwinner’ lone mother units not only have to do without men’s earnings, but also be disadvantaged by higher dependency ratio than households which comprise two working parents (chant, 2010 and metasebia, 2009). the study reveals that land has been and is still transferred from generation to generation through male and the daughter would start a life with her husband after marriage while the son follows the footsteps of his father and can manage the whole family in case. inheritance rules of patrilineal society in principle exclude women from having access to land right. however, the result indicates that if the marriage is legitimate a widowed wife may remain in the late husband’s village with her children and continuous cultivating the husband’s land. mohammed (2014) confirmed that rural women of ethiopia mainly access to land through marriage. as to farm size the result of the study indicates that the mean land holding size is 2.28 ha and it is higher than the national land holding size (1.24 ha) per household and lower than the study found by mohammed (2014), i.e. 3.6 ha. the current study focuses on de facto and de jure fhh not on women gendered aspects. land markets in ethiopia are fairly inflexible as compared to other parts of the world. the usufruct right continues as long as at least one member of the family is farming the land. the study confirms that mostly poor farmers in general and fhhs in particular which rent out land while the better-off rent in land. studies conducted by start et. al. (2005); mossa (2013) and degefa (2005) state that the most popular who rent-in land are the maleheaded in the category of relatively rich and / or of better off-farmers. the result indicates that despite low holding size of fhh shareout and rent-out their land the fact that they face labor shortage, gender division of labor and lack of oxen. livestock production is the central role to the households’ economy and is important in farming system. they are considered as the main source of cash income and food as well as the foundation of prestige and power. the mean number of livestock in tlu is found to be 2.99 and is 3.569 for farm based livelihood diversification which also varies across different livelihood options. oxen are key journal of extension education5426 assets in the study areas in which farming system is characterized by drought power. the mean number of oxen owned is 1.35 and it varies across different livelihood options. this indicates that fhh face oxen shortage and hence they depend on pairing oxen with others, borrowing oxen from relatives, hiring oxen and share-cropping are among options being used by the respondents. in addition, exchanges of labour force with oxen are usual practices and are similar with the findings of mossa (2013) and degefa (2005). the study has shown that only 15 per cent of the response has access to irrigation. diversion of river is a common source of water for irrigation purpose in which access to and distribution is controlled through traditional water user committee. but access to such water source is determined through how far the land from water sources is. fhh tends to avoid labour intensive productions such as vegetable through irrigation scheme because they face difficulty because of double burden in circumstance where fewer economicallyactive household members are available. sara (2007) and mossa (2013) contested that women bear the burden of household chores that result in time and mobility constraints compared to male-heads. the study showed that 65 per cent of the respondents are accessed to credit services. of these 25 per cent those whose livelihood is farm+ non-farm, and the rest is lower than this. the study indicates most households did not have access to credit services from formal sources than informal sources. sara (2007) and mossa (2013) argue that fhhs are disadvantaged with regard to credit services because of problems like lack of information about credit programmes, low and irregular income, and lack of collaterals. hence, they are subjected to receive credit from informal sources which charge high interest rates. the study also shows that fhh access to use of chemical fertilizer and different chemicals. table 1. descriptive statistics for continuous explanatory variables *** and ** 1 and 5% level significant respectively. f-valuevariables livelihood diversification strategy of fhhs farm farm +nonfarm farm +off-farm farm + nonfarm +off-farm total mean mean mean mean mean age 42.5000 40.8000 37.2222 41.7778 41.1635 4.188** dr 1.1264 1.5840 2.3278 1.2889 1.4644 3.187*** tfs 3.3889 4.0800 4.7778 3.5556 3.8558 2.564 ls 2.7896 1.9763 1.9333 2.2878 2.2811 7.504** tlu 3.5693 2.9846 1.3778 2.4244 2.9995 .014** nox 1.6111 1.2800 1.6667 .4444 1.3558 .101*** 5427determinants of female-headed households’ livelihood diversification strategies choice in ambo district, ethiopia household livelihood diversification strategies livelihood strategies are those activities undertaken by smallholder households to provide a means of living, and its aim are to ensure households’ economic and social security. the study reveals that the major livelihood diversification strategy practiced by fhh of ambo distrcit of different location are farming which include crop-based and livestock based diversification strategies; nonfarm based diversification strategies include petty trading, hand crafts and selling of unskilled labour force. in semi-urban areas of the district they engage in preparation of local food and drinkstella, areke, labour wage and prostitution, which are few of the livelihood option being practiced by them. the finding of this research supports the view of other scholars such as selamawit (1994) and metasebia (2009) which have stated that the table 2. descriptive statistics result for discrete variables x2value variables livelihood diversification strategy of fhhs farm only farm +nonfarm farm +off-farm farm + nonfarm +off-farm total irrigation use yes 20 9 1 2 32 49.846*** no 27 46 8 7 88 fertilizer use yes 30 35 7 6 68 48.231*** no 6 15 2 3 26 no 19 34 5 7 64 use chemicals yes 25 35 6 6 72 48.231*** no 11 15 3 3 32 no 21 30 4 7 62 access to credit yes 23 27 8 7 65 48.231*** no 13 23 1 2 39 study area highland 25 26 4 7 62 mid-highland 8 14 0 0 22 48.231*** low land 3 10 5 2 20 de jure 23 33 5 6 67 response *** and ** significant at 1 % and 5% respectively. major urban informal activities in the country tend to be petty trading, domestic services, daily labour and prostitution. in the case of off-farm activities the study has found out that daily labour, selling of fuel wood are among major ones. dependency ratio: this variable is significant at 1 per cent level of probability for fhh to participate in farm + off-farm activities keeping other things constant. the odds ratio of 2.6135 for farm shows, keeping the influence of other things constant, a unit journal of extension education5428 increase in dependency ratio, there will increase in the likelihood of fhh to participate in farm + off-farm by about 2.6135 to engage in as livelihood diversification strategies. studies conducted by chant (2010) and metasebia (2009) obtained similar a conclusion. number of oxen owned (tox): this variable is significant (p<0.5) to influence fhh decision to participate in farm, and farm + non-farm and farm + off-farm. it shows fhh which doesn’t have the required amount of oxen, is forced to participate in other option as the chance to engage only in agricultural activity is curtailed due to lack of oxen as an asset. total land holding size (tlh): this variable has negatively and significantly influenced the probability of livelihood diversified into farm + off-farm than agriculture leaving other things constant. large farm size helps fhh to cultivate and produce more, which in turn increases farm income and improves livelihood of a household. the declining land sizes encourage fhh to diversify their sources of income. similarly, studies by mohammed(2014) and degefa(2005) reveal that insufficient arable land sizes are positively and significantly associated with participation of rural households in off-farm and non-farm activities. total livestock ownership (tlu): this variable is significant 1% to influence fhh decision to participate in farm + off-farm. the odds ratio of 0.348 in farm + off-farm shows a unit decrease in livestock, will increase the choice decision of fhh by a factor of 0.348 to livelihood diversification strategy of female-headed households variables farm farm+ non-farm farm + off-farm coef. p-value marginal effect coef. p-value marginal effect coef. p-value marginal effect tox 4.917 .008 136.604 3.734 .037 41.853 -4.485 .014 88.668 tlh .388 .365 1.474 -.444 .167 .641 -.892 .050 .410 tlu .112 .632 1.118 -.238 .215 .788 -1.055 .080 .348 cbo 20.620 .000 9.022 18.865 .000 1.559 -1.983 .145 .138 irg 3.036 .057 20.823 1.075 .399 2.930 -20.174 .000 1.7329 cred -17.464 .997 2.604 .592 .491 1.808 -3.173 .037 23.884 fertilizer .636 .720 1.888 -.026 .976 .976 -2.414 .134 .089 seed -.611 .753 .543 1.952 .055 7.046 2.127 .257 8.932 chemical .293 .878 1.34 -.768 .396 .464 -.803 .560 .448 study site 2.768 .060 15.927 -.438 .529 .645 -1.193 .274 .303 dr -14.150 .239 7.154 -.174 .697 .840 12.474 .060 2.6135 no. of obs. 120 log likelihood 337.123 lr chi2(57) 276 prob > chi2 .000 pseudo r2 .812 table 3. multinomial logit model results of households’ choice of livelihood strategies 5429determinants of female-headed households’ livelihood diversification strategies choice in ambo district, ethiopia engage more in farm + off-farm than other livelihood diversification strategies. metasebia (2009) concludes in similar manner. irrigation water: this variable is significant at % probability to influence fhh decision to participate in farm as diversification option. the odds ratio of 20.823 for farm indicates that keeping the influence of other things constant, the likelihood of fhh to participate in agriculture as livelihood strategies gets increase by 20.823 for unit increase access to irrigation. it is consistence with the finding obtained by tizita (2013). area of the study (agro-ecology): in this variable statistical result reveals that it is significant at 1% probability level for agricultural activities as livelihood strategies. the odd ratio of 15.927 for farm indicates that as a unit increase in fhh in number of potential areas there will be the likelihood of fhh to take the decision for the participation in farm increases by a factor of 15.927. this implies that fhh which are found in relatively drier and fragile environment will have the likelihood of participating in last resort activity. thus, agro-ecology not only limits the options available but also pushes to diversify into low-return and high risk activities. conclusion agriculture is the dominant economic activity and the primary source of livelihoods for rural female-headed households in the study area. a significant number of fhh engage in diverse livelihood strategies away from purely crop and livestock production towards non-farm and off-farm activities that are undertaken to broaden and generate additional income for survival and livelihood improvement. the result of this study indicates that low resources endowments were the main features that characterize fhh of the poor and this meager resource could not enable them to generate sufficient livelihood outcome. to overcome the situation, majority of them depend on livelihood diversification. whether as a result of demand-pull or distress-push factors livelihood of fhh needs to be recognized and policy intervention should concentrate on improving access to asset within the aim of expanding livelihood options rather than assuming fhh are spatially homogenous and individually engage in one type of activity only. livelihood behavior of fhh is diverse due to diversity in livelihood assets and heterogeneous constraints. thus, future interventions need to support that female-headed households must take into account diversity in endowment of livelihood resources and difference in livelihood strategies. references chant, 2010. the international handbook of gender and poverty: concepts, research, policy. edward elgar publishing limited, cheltenham. degefa tolossa, 2005. rural livelihoods, poverty and food insecurity in ethiopia: a case study at erenssa and garbi communities in oromai zone, ahmara national regional state. doctorial thesis: norwegian university of science and technology. trondheim: ntnutrykk. journal of extension education5430 metasebia solomon, 2009. determinants of livelihood strategies in urban women: the case of female-headed households walenchiti town ethiopia. kimmage dsc. mohamed idris, 2014.womens workload and their role in agricultural production in ambo district ethiopia. journal of development and agricultural economics 6 (8). mossa endris ahmed, 2013. poverty and livelihood strategies of female-headed households in rural ethiopia: the case of libo kemkem woreda, south gondar; andhra university, visakhapatnam-530003, india. sara w. 2007. livelihood strategies of rural women with emphasis on income diversification and demographic adjustment: the case of wolonkomi, oromia region. working papers on population and land use change in central ethiopia, no. 9, acta geographica-trond aheim, october 2007, nufu and addis ababa university. selamawit, a. 1994. women in urban informal sector of ethiopia’s economy: the case of the market in addis ababa, unpub. ma theses, school of graduate studies, addis ababa university. start, d., tesfaye lemma, kjell, p., and mulu tesfaye, 2005. choices and constraints: a study of livelihood in the eastern ethiopian highlands. oxfam great britain. tizita mulugeta.2013: female headed households and their livelihood in bati wäräda, south wollo: practices and resistance degree of doctor of philosophy ,university of tromso, tromso. 1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 3, 2015 1-ph.d., research scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore, 2-director of extension education, directorate of extension education, tnau, coimbatore, 3-director, cards, tnau, coimbatore and 4dean, vanavarayar institute of agriculture, pollachi, coimbatore district. constraints in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices l. murali krishnan1, h. philip2, m. chinnadurai3 and v. ravichandren4 abstract adoption of eco friendly conservation practices requires strong attitude and good knowledge level. further, the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices has put fourth many constraints. this study was conducted in the nilgiris district to assess the constraints and suggestions to overcome the constraints in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. thus, to analyse the constraints garett ranking method was used (garett, h.e. et al 1973). the study revealed that the constraints of labour scarcity, lack of skill about the eco friendly conservation practices, lack of credit facilities, high risk, insect pest and diseases management, lack of awareness of agro environmental problems and farmer’s attitude towards the eco friendly conservation practices are the major constraints in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices.the study suggests educational, extension & training strategies for fostering the adopted of eco friendly conservation practices. the term “sustainability” becomes both ambitious and ambiguous. if the policies on food security and income generation fail to address the environmental conservation in the biosphere region, majority of the poor farmers through the application of eco friendly conservation practices remain incomplete. (fao, 2005). according to sunitha varghese (1998) among the constraints, technological constraints, socio-economic, personal, physical and communication constraints in the adoption of eco-friendly protection technologies. increased labour and time involvement followed by high risk involved were the major technological constraints. high cost of labour followed by high cost of inputs was the predominant socio-economic constraints. major personal constraints were lack of knowledge to identify bio agents and pests and diseases. labour scarcity, lack of training and weak extension programs were the most seriously felt communication constraints. methodology the nilgiris district of tamil nadu was purposively selected due to the prevalence of wide biodiversity. all four blocks was taken for this study. the samples of 80 farmers were selected from each block. totally, 320 respondents were selected from the district. the respondents have been selected based on the simple random sampling technique with the support of the state department of agriculture. post stratification work was done 5495constraints in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices to categorize the farmers in to adopters of eco friendly conservation practices and non adopters of eco friendly conservation practices. the data were collected using a pretested interview schedule. and, garett ranking method was used to analyse the constraints. physical constraints table 1 reported that with respect to physical constraints, the labour scarcity has emerged as the major constraint with the garrett score of 71.15 as it was ranked first. this is followed by non-availability of inputs had a garrett score of 60.50 ranked second, poor quality of the inputs with a garrett score of 46.73 and ranked third, application of inputs has a garrett score of 39.73 and ranked fourth and purchase of inputs to the eco friendly conservation practices with a garrett score of 30.17 and ranked fifth. labour scarcity in agriculture was due to the non-availability farm labourers in that area. personal constrsaints the table 1 infers that among the personal constraints, lack of skill about eco friendly conservation practices as the major constraint with the garrett score of 52.03 and as it was ranked first. this is followed by inability to attend the training programmes had a garrett score of 51.79 and ranked second and lack of knowledge about eco friendly conservation practices with a garrett score of 45.30 and ranked third. most of the farm labours are not practicing skill oriented eco friendly conservation practices. promotion of skill oriented training programmes helps to improve the farmers confidence in the eco friendly conservation practices. socio-economic constraints the table 1 indicates that among the socioe-conomic constraints, high cost of labour to the eco friendly conservation practices as the major constraint with the garrett score of 58.35 as it was ranked first. this is followed by lack of credit facilities had a garrett score of 53.95 and ranked second, high cost of inputs with a garrett score of 46.10 and ranked third and lack of price policy has a garrett score of 42.07 and ranked number fourth. high cost of labour was the main constraint. thus, the issues could be addressed by possible social capital building and policy formulation. it will enable the farmer’s community to tackle the issues of adoption of eco friendly conservation practices in a sustainable manner. lack of credit facilities was the second important constraint. separate financial support from the government exclusively for eco friendly conservation practices are very much essential. technical constraints the table also revealed the technical constraints. among thus, the identified high risk involved in eco friendly conservation journal of extension education5496 sl. no. constraints garrett score rank i physical constraints 1. labour scarcity 71.15 i 2. non availability of inputs 60.50 ii 3. poor quality of inputs 46.73 iii 4. application of inputs 39.73 iv 5. purchase of inputs 30.17 v ii personal constraints 1. lack of knowledge about eco friendly conservation practices 45.30 iii 2. lack of skill about eco friendly conservation practices 52.03 i 3. inability to attend the training programmes 51.79 ii iii socio-economic constraints 1. lack of credit facilities 53.95 ii 2. high cost of labour 58.35 i 3. high cost inputs 46.10 iii 4. lack of price policy for eco friendly agricultural products 42.07 iv iv technical constraints 1. lack of technical guidance 53.51 ii 2. high risk involved 55.53 i 3. complexity of tools and techniques 46.96 iii 4. lack of easy monitoring method 43.24 iv v environmental constraints 1. rainfall and other meteorological constraints 45.78 iii 2. attack of insect pest and diseases 59.65 i 3. management of pest and diseases 55.44 ii 4. soil erosion and drainage 39.55 iv vi extension constraints 1. lack of awareness of agro environmental problems 58.83 i 2. lack of local technical expertise 56.82 ii 3. lack of success stories of eco friendly conservation practices adoption 48.62 iii 4. lack of demonstrated impacts on eco friendly conservation practices 35.38 iv vii psychological constraints 1. culture 42.52 iii 2. attitude 65.10 i 3. perceptions 50.51 ii 4. lack of motivation from officials 41.15 iv table 1. major constraints faced by the farmers in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices in the nilgiris district of western ghats 5497constraints in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices practices as the major constraint with the garrett score of 55.53 as it was ranked first. this is followed by lack of technical guidance had a garrett score of 53.51 and ranked second, complexity of tools and techniques with a garrett score of 46.96 and ranked third and lack of easy monitoring method observed a garrett score of 43.24 and ranked number fourth. adoption of eco friendly conservation practices would naturally lower the risk status. environmental constraints attack of insect pest and diseases in eco friendly conservation practices has emerged as the major constraint with the garrett score of 59.65 as it was ranked first. this is followed by management of pest and diseases had a garrett score of 55.44 and ranked second, rainfall and other meteorological constraints had a garrett score of 45.78 and ranked third and lack of easy monitoring method observed a garrett score of 39.55 and ranked fourth. to address these constraints, planting of native species as well as traditional varieties, long duration pest and disease resistance varieties and application of organic herbal pesticides improves the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. extension constraints among the extension constraints, lack of awareness of agro environmental problems in eco friendly conservation practices was identified the major constraint with the garrett score of 58.83 as it was ranked first. this is followed by lack of local technical expertise had a garrett score of 56.83 and ranked second, lack of success stories in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices with a garrett score of 48.62 and ranked third and lack of demonstrated impacts observed garrett score of 35.38 and ranked fourth. lack of awareness might be due to the poor recognition of the extension services and lack of sufficient publicity through different media. thus, the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices could be achieved through farmer field schools and farming system research and extension strategies. psychological constraints among the psychological constraints, farmer’s attitude towards the eco friendly conservation practices as the major constraint with the garrett score of 65.10 as it was ranked first. this is followed by perception of the farmer had a garrett score of 50.51 and ranked second, farmers culture in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices with a garrett score of 42.52 and ranked third and lack of motivation from the officials observed garrett score of 41.15 and ranked fourth. farmer’s attitude, perception and cultural constraints reduces the motivation level from extension officials. thus, psychological mind set of farmers facilitate adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. the efforts from extension, research, supply of inputs, marketing agencies journal of extension education5498 were needed to facilitate the successful adoption of eco friendly conservation practices by the farmers. conclusion in the nilgiris district, restriction of the practices like introduction of high yielding varieties, exotic crop varieties, increased use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides and identified tillage practices which reduce the considerable damage to the soil, water and the environment. farmers cooperation, cluster approach, participatory farmer first approach, farming systems based extension strategy are much required for successful implementation of the eco friendly conservation practices. references fao, 2005. impact of climate change, pests and diseases on food security and poverty reduction. special event background document for the 31st session of the committee on world food security. rome. 2326 may. garrettt, h.e. and r.s. woodworth. 1973. statistics in psychology and education. vakils, feffer and simons private limited, bombay. sunitha varghese. 1998. knowledge and adoption of eco-friendly farm technologies in paddy. unpub. m.sc.(ag.) thesis, tnau, madurai. 6429 1 department of ag. extension, college of agriculture, vellayani-695 522 2 kvk-wayanad, kerala agricultural university, kerala 673593 research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6429-6440 crowdsourcing knowledge: an extension approach for remunerative and sustainable home garden farming systems in kerala allan thomas1 and m. nithish babu2 abstract kerala has pioneered development models through farmer participatory approaches. involving the grassroots in scientific studies can help improve crop variety adoption and refined technology recommendations. participatory tools like participatory rural appraisal (pra), participatory technology development (ptd), on farm testing (oft), front line demonstrations (fld) and participatory breeding programmes (pbp) are all time-tested examples of its successful use in researches. crowdsourced citizen science approach called tricot – ‘triadic comparisons of technologies’ is popular today, where farmers are made to adopt three crop varieties or technologies randomly assigned to them from a broader set of varieties/technologies for final choice aimed at continuous adoption. the results of this study conducted during 2019-2020 revealed that more than 80% of the farmers fully adopted the technology prescribed in the checklist as a result of crowdsourcing knowledge. the results on attitude of farmers towards crowdsourcing revealed that majority of the farmers posessed favourable attitude towards crowdsourcing approach. keywords : crowdsourcing; extension approach; home garden; kerala introduction kerala is a state with miniscule sized holdings, diversified cropping patterns, predominance of perennial crops and homesteads based farming systems. generally scientists develop high input technologies in research centres and extension experts transfer the technologies to farmers. physical and socio-economic constraints were a major drawback for their functioning in few regions (garforth and harford, 1995). as quoted by werner (1993) the main reasons for low adoption of technologies are not farmers’ ignorance, but inappropriateness of many technologies, economic considerations and policy issues related to pricing and marketing. he further suggested that the development of innovations is iterative, dynamic and special process involving four stages viz., exploration of problems, identification of alternatives, their testing and assessment. john (2014) reported that the future strategies to improve homestead farming should aim at watershedbased development with focus on a wholefarm or systems approach; restructuring and refining existing home gardens, and received : 05-05-2020; accepted : 07-06-2020 6430 developing sustainable models through a farmer-participatory approach for each agroecological zone and forming homestead clusters. the term “crowdsourcing” was progressively consigned to many scientific and operational initiatives aimed at collecting contributions from a large group of people. in scientific research, outstanding initiatives based on crowdsourcing accomplished to yield significant scientific outputs (franzoni and sauermann, 2014). although not always denominated as crowdsourcing, there is a long tradition of participatory approaches in research and development projects in agriculture, enabling the farmers-researchers interactions or to simply collect and aggregate agricultural information from farmers (van etten et al., 2016). recently, beza et al. (2017) identified crowdsourcing of farmers’ data as an alternative way of getting field observations to conduct yield gap analysis, alongside with remote sensing and sensor networks. crowdsourcing in agriculture provides inputs that meet the agricultural researchers’ needs and helps closing the knowledge dissemination loop between researchers and practitioners that foster farmer-to-farmer interactions. therefore, there are huge opportunities for scientists and practitioners in developing crowdsourcing methodologies in agriculture. in a state like kerala, which is known for participatory approaches and grass root planning, crowdsourcing knowledge becomes important for spatial and temporal planning of homegardens. in this context, the present study was focused to know the effect of crowdsourcing knowledge on farmers and to assess the attitude of farmers towards crowd sourcing knowledge. according to fao (2015), philippine statistics authority (psa) with the support of fao took up a project in pampanga region of philippines to assess the strength of crowdsourcing technologies to strengthen agricultural market information system. nearly 300 rice farmers from pampanga used simple sms to actively sharing real-time information regarding standing crop, production area and volume and other growing conditions such as irrigation. it was found that farmers were enthusiastically participating and benefitted out of crowdsourcing. with the penetration of internet, mobile phone applications like whatsapp are facilitating communication amongst large groups of farmers and scientists in several parts of developing countries like india and acting as efficient technology for crowdsourcing. van de gavel et al. (2015) reported crowdsourcing as a reliable tool for research studies. a group of scientists from sub-saharan africa used a crowdsourcing approach to test sorghum and cowpea varieties for climate adaptability. they asked a large group of farmers to test and evaluate different varieties and later combined farmers and morphological data of 20 varieties of cowpea and sorghum under different climatic conditions. it becomes very much evident that involving farmers in the process of decision making and enabling them to be a part of research operations, will help to synergise the research-extension system, favouring the overall output of farmers in terms of productivity and sustainable adoption. journal of extension education 6431 methodology this study was conducted in high range homegardens of idukki district in kerala. based on the area and production, the study was undertaken in adimaly panchayat of idukki district. the crowdsourcing of knowledge was done in four stages for banana dominant homegarden systems as explained below. a total of fifteen farmers for participating in the action research were contracted for studying the effect of crowdsourcing knowledge. these 15 farmers were selected based by consulting the agricultural officer of that panchayat and the willingness of the practicing farmers. to study the attitude of farmers towards crowdsourcing apart from the fifteen contracted farmers, 33 satellite farmers who received information from the fifteen contracted farmers were also selected for the study. a list of 23 attitude statements were prepared through review of literature and discussion with subject matter specialists,the twenty three statements selected were resorted to a panel of twenty five judges who were the scientists and experts in home garden farming.they were requested to mark their opinion on a five point continuum(arbitrary scale).twenty two judges responded by sending their judgement . these responses from the 22 judges was scored and its weighted mean was determined for each table 1. final statements selected for arbitrary scale construction (n=22) sl. no. attitude statements weighted mean 1. crowdsourcing is the best method that convince the farmers on production potentialities per unit area 17.6 2. crowdsourcing is the mere waste of money, time and effort 18.2 3. scientist can solve the specific problem of the farming community 19 4. each farmers are better educated regarding the needed technology 15.6 5. training programmes organized provides the practical knowledge about new agricultural technologies 19.2 6. the improved technology is feasible for the farmers 20.6 7. crowdsourcing provides a better teaching experience to the farmer 21.2 8. all recommendations given in the training are profitable 15.6 9. crowdsourcing helps to train field level extension functionaries and farmers through its extension education activities and assisting them with scientific management of crops. 21 10. crowdsourcing keeps you abreast of new technology 18.8 mean of weighted mean =15.57 standard deviation=3.2 maximum weighted mean = 21.2 minimum weighted mean =11.2 crowdsourcing knowledge: an extension approach for remunerative and sustainable home garden farming systems in kerala 6432 statements. the statement selected for the study with the weighted mean is presented in table 1. a total of 10 statements from the 23 statements that attained a higher mean score of the weighted mean (mean of weighted mean =15.57 and std dev=3.2) was selected to be administered to the actual respondents of the study. the maximum and the minimum weighted mean score for the 23 statements was 21.2 and 11.2 respectively. focus group discussion-first step to crowdsourcing of knowledge as part of an initial investigation, focus group discussion (fgd) was carried out in machiplavu village of idukki district in collaboration with the state agriculture department and local self-government bodies. a total of fifteen banana based home garden farmers as suggested by vfpck (vegetable and fruit promotion council of kerala) officials were purposively selected for the study. the focus group discussion was conducted for thirty minutes where the investigation team acted as facilitators and the homegarden farmers were asked to point out the major challenges in banana cultivation. they were then asked to rank the major problem confronted during the production of these crops. the investigation team listened to the presentation of problems made by the banana farmers. possible solutions to overcome the issues of production and marketing was elicited from the farmers selected for the study and their opinions were triangulated with that of agricultural officer, vfpck officials and subject experts. an appraisal of the current situation pointed out that, the major challenges faced by the banana farmers were poor yield, frequent incursion of pest and diseases and issues of marketing (table 2). an ultimate solution to the existing problems was adoption of sustainable table 2. problems faced by banana growers in adimaly panchayat of idukki district priority ranking problem priority ranking problem priority ranking problem i severity of pest and disease v water logging ix no facilities for testing soil nutrient status timely ii unaware of new technologies and practices vi inappropriate fertilizer management x high commission of intermediaries iii non-availability of proper market vii high incidence of weeds xi price-fluctuation iv heavy damage by wind viii high cost of inputs xii lack of storage facilities journal of extension education 6433 scientific farming practices by individual farmers that leads to the potential yield in banana and centralised collective marketing of the produce in the production catchments itself, thereby ensuring remunerative price for the produce. so in order to demonstrate the importance of scientific technologies, an action research was undertaken, as per the technology recommendations put forward by the kerala agricultural university package of practices. contracting the farmers for crowdsourcing and action a total of fifteen banana farmers participated in the focus group discussion. three banana farmers who were ready to fully cooperate with the investigation team were contracted through consensus to adopt the kau package of practices recommendations. the investigation team gave all the inputs starting from land preparation to harvesting for the contracted farmers. the remaining twelve farmers were asked to follow the packages adopted by the contracted farmers. one lead farmer was selected among the fifteen farmers through sociometric techniques and the role of the lead farmers was to monitor the activities of all other participating farmers. farmer-expert participatory preparation of the checklist as a part of crowdsourcing a checklist was prepared for carrying out the cultivation practices in timely and proper manner with the help of experts in each field considering the opinion of the participating farmers. the checklists were given to all the fifteen farmers and they were educated to record the activities that have been done in their respective home gardens which were monitored by the lead farmer in the group. training for participatory action and learning of high range home garden farmers a training programme was conducted for the fifteen farmers on different production technologies of banana. further they were asked to disseminate the technology to the neighbouring farmers who were interested in banana cultivation. during the training period, discussions were conducted by the research team with the farmers on different varieties suited for the ecological unit. they were briefed upon the merits and de merits, after which farmers were given a freehand to select the variety of their choice from a basketful of opportunities. followed by it, selected lead farmer’s were trained on scientific management of banana from temporal and spatial choice to harvesting and marketing of produce. a check list was created through farmer consultative approach and they were sensitised to document their day to day activities, which was the most important aspect of crowdsourcing knowledge . the record keeping was monitored by the lead farmers with regular advisory support from the research team through extension support using social networks. findings and discussion the activity cum checklist adopted by the participating farmers under the concurrent evaluation of lead farmers is presented in table 3. crowdsourcing knowledge: an extension approach for remunerative and sustainable home garden farming systems in kerala 6434 it is evident from table 3 that more than eighty per cent of the farmers fully adopted the technology prescribed in the checklist, and the partial adoption was due to the climate aberration that has occurred, but they have followed the practices either one week after or prior to the suggested dates. in this study partial adoption was operationalised as the number of farmers who have not adopted the package of practice technologies on the recommended dates suggested by the investigation team. the noticeable fact was that during an outbreak of pest and disease, the farmers immediately reported to the lead farmer and the lead farmer mobilized a meeting in his field and renedered suggestions to participating farmers. these meetings were informed to the investigation team as well who acted as virtual advisors. proper management practices were suggested and almost 80 per cent of the farmers followed the practices that were suggested by the team. eventhough the table 3. checklist monitored by the lead farmer through crowd sourcing and percentage adoption of activities by participating farmers (n=15) sl. no. date cultivation practices/ activities no. of farmers fully adopted no. of farmers partially adopted no. of farmers not adopted no % no % no % 1. 15-09-2018 paring and pralinage (rhizomes are smeared with cowdung solution and dried under sunlight for about 4 days followed by shade drying up to 15 days) 12 80 2 13.33 1 6.67 2. 30-09-2018 land preparation and taking pits of size 50*50*50 13 86.66 1 6.67 1 6.67 3. 30-09-2018 planting of suckers at a spacing of 2m*2m 15 100 0 0 0 0 4. 30-09-2018 application of organic manure @ 10 kg/plant 11 73.34 2 13.33 2 13.33 5. 30-09-2018 sowing of cowpea/daincha/sun hemp @ a seed rate of 50 kg ha-1 14 93.33 0 0 1 6.67 6. 1-11-2018 application of first split dose of fertilizers, n: p2o5: k2o, 40:65:60 g/plant/year 13 86.66 0 0 2 13.33 journal of extension education 6435 sl. no. date cultivation practices/ activities no. of farmers fully adopted no. of farmers partially adopted no. of farmers not adopted no % no % no % 7. 8-11-2018 incorporation of cowpea/ daincha /sun hemp in to the soil 14 93.33 0 0 1 6.67 8. 2-11-2018 application of second split dose of fertilizers n: p2o5: k2o, 30:50:60 g/plant/year 12 80 1 6.67 2 13.33 9. 8-12-2018 desuckering 14 93.33 1 6.67 0 0 10. 1-1-2019 application of third split dose of fertilizers n: p2o5: k2o, 30:00:60 g/plant/year 15 100 0 0 0 0 11. 5-1-2019 record of biometric observations viz., plant height, girth of pseudostem, number of leaves, leaf area index etc. 12 80 3 20 0 0 12. 1-2-2019 application of fourth split dose of fertilizers n: p2o5: k2o, 30:00:60 g/plant/year 11 73.34 2 13.33 2 13.33 13. contingent monitoring and reporting during the emergence of pest & disease monitoring of pest and disease incidence and timely application of management practices 12 80 3 20 0 0 14. 1-3-2019 application of fifth split dose of fertilizers n: p2o5: k2o, 30:00:60 g/plant/year 13 86.66 1 6.67 1 6.67 15. 1-4-2019 application of final split dose of fertilizers just after the complete emergence of bunch. (n: p2o5: k2o, 30:00:00 g/plant/year) 11 73.34 2 13.33 2 13.33 crowdsourcing knowledge: an extension approach for remunerative and sustainable home garden farming systems in kerala 6436 mean adoption percentage was 86.3 for full adoption of practices it was interesting to note that three out of 18 activities, viz., planting of suckers at a spacing of 2m*2m, application of third split dose of fertilizers n: p2o5: k2o, 30:00:60 g/plant/year and observations on yield and yield attributes were adopted by 100 per cent farmers. it indicates the mind set of farmers on the importance they attach to important phase of crop growth for deriving maximum yield and profit. this again can be reiterated from the fact that when all the farmers (100%) adopted the third split application of npk fertilizers (during flower bud differentiation stage), the percentage adoption for the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth final split was 86.66%, 80%, 73.34%, 86.66% and 73.34% respectively. through crowdsourcing knowledge, farmers understood the importance of applying pre harvest bunch spray of 3 per cent k2so4 at second and fourth weeks after bunch emergence, wherein, 86.66 percent of farmers adopted the same. the high adoption of almost all practices or activities can be attributed resultant to the outcome of crowdsourcing knowledge through farmer participatory approaches transforming them from citizen farmer to farmer scientist with enhanced knowledge, responsibility and pride. the perception of banana farmers on the benefits of crowdsourcing knowledge was worked out in terms of perception index based on the responses of participating farmers and the results are presented in table 4. perception scale consisted of ten statements measured in a five-point continuum viz., strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. table 3 depicts that majority of the farmers strongly agreed with the perception statements such as crowd sourcing have enabled them to-mobilize communities for meeting (100%), adopt new technologies sl. no. date cultivation practices/ activities no. of farmers fully adopted no. of farmers partially adopted no. of farmers not adopted no % no % no % 16. 14-4-2019 pre harvest bunch spray of 3 per cent k2so4 at two weeks after bunch emergence 13 86.66 1 6.67 1 6.67 17. 28-4-2019 pre harvest bunch spray of 3 per cent k2so4 at four weeks after bunch emergence 13 86.66 1 6.67 1 6.67 18. as on 3 july 2019 observations on yield and yield attributes 15 100.0 0 0 0 0 mean adoption (%) 86.3 7.4 6.3 journal of extension education 6437 and methods (100%), identify problems and call for assistance (93.33%) and gain confidence to communicate with the fellow farmers (93.33%). the high response percentage (93.33%) for the statement ‘greater economic prosperity can be achieved through crowdsourcing’ could be because the experiment resulted on remunerative yield to the farmers (b:c = 2.77 as against the previous average 1.63). homegarden banana farmers’ perception that crowd sourcing of knowledge is better than conventional method of participation (100%) reflects the attitude of farmers towards new initiatives that can auger meaningful involvement for better decision making, which in turn will keep farmers motivated for continuous improvement through improved adoption of scientific practices. this also reflected on the attitude of farmers towards crowdsourcing knowledge which was worked out for which the results are presented in tables 5 and 6. table 5 shows the attitude of the farmers towards crowdsourcing knowledge on technology for banana cultivation. majority of the farmers (60.42%) agreed that the ‘crowdsourcing is the best method that convince the farmers on production potentialities per unit area’. in the meantime 50.00 per cent of the farmers strongly disagreed to the statement that the crowdsourcing is a mere waste of money, time and effort, even though (16.67%) of the farmers agreed with the statement. more than half (52.08% each) of the farmers strongly agreed for the statements ‘each farmers are better educated regarding the needed technology’; ‘training programmes organized provides the practical knowledge about new agricultural technologies’ and ‘the improved technology is feasible for the farmers’, majority of the farmers (68.75%) strongly agreed that crowdsourcing provides a better teaching-learning experience to the table 4. perception index of farmers on crowdsourcing in disseminating the knowledge (n=15) sl. no statements farmer response 1. i have gained confidence in communicating with fellow farmers 93.33 2. i am able to provide technical advice to the farmers 80.00 3. crowd sourcing of knowledge is better than conventional method 100.0 4. it has improved my social status 80.00 5. i am able to monitor or supervise activities that are given by the scientists 73.33 6. identify problems and call for assistance 93.33 7. it helps in mobilizing communities for meetings 100.0 8. greater economic prosperity can be achieved through crowdsourcing 93.33 9. crowdsourcing helps farmers to adopt new technologies and methods 100.0 10. my social networks have increased 86.66 crowdsourcing knowledge: an extension approach for remunerative and sustainable home garden farming systems in kerala 6438 farmer. most of the farmers (58.33 %) were of the opinion that all the recommendation given in the training are profitable. more than half of the farmers (54.17%) agreed that the crowdsourcing keeps farmers abreast of new technology. table 5. attitude of farmers towards crowdsourcing knowledge (n=48) sl. no. attitude statements sa % a % ud % da % sda % 1. crowdsourcing is the best method that convince the farmers on production potentialities per unit area 60.42 33.33 4.17 2.08 0 2. crowdsourcing is the mere waste of money, time and effort 4.17 16.67 18.75 10.42 50.0 3. scientist can solve the specific problem of the farming community 41.67 41.67 12.50 4.17 0 4. each farmers are better educated regarding the needed technology 52.08 25.00 18.75 4.17 0 5. training programmes organized provides the practical knowledge about new agricultural technologies 52.08 25.00 8.33 14.58 0 6. the improved technology is feasible for the farmers 52.08 29.17 16.67 2.08 0 7. crowdsourcing provides a better teaching-learning experience to the farmer 68.75 14.58 10.42 6.25 0 8. all recommendations given in the training are profitable 58.33 25.00 6.25 10.42 0 9 crowdsourcing helps to train field level extension functionaries and farmers through its extension education activities and assisting them with scientific management of crops. 52.08 22.92 18.75 6.25 0 10. crowdsourcing keeps you abreast of new technology 54.17 22.92 8.33 12.50 2.08 (sa: strongly agree; a: agree; ud: undecided; da: disagree; sda: strongly disagree) table 5 revealed the attitude of farmers towards crowdsourcing. in order to measure the attitude of farmers towards crowdsourcing, a total of forty seven farmer respondents were taken which included fifteen trained farmers and thirty two farmers journal of extension education 6439 table 6. distribution of farmers based on their attitude towards crowdsourcing (n=48) sl. no. degree of attitude criterion frequency percentage 1 most favourable mean + sd 13 27.08 2 favourable mean ± sd 26 54.16 3 least favourable mean sd 09 18.75 total mean sd 48 42.5 7.40 for whom the technology was disseminated by the trained farmers. the result revealed that more than fifty per cent (54.16 %) and nearly thirty percent (27.08 %) of the farmers have favourable and most favourable attitude respectively towards crowdsourcing approach. the maximum and minimum scores obtained for the individual farmer were 50 and 22 respectively. this unequivocally establishes the fact that crowdsourcing of knowledge with more responsibilities and accountability attached to farmers can favourably influence the attitude of farmers. it will help in accelerating the process of technology transfer and augmenting continuous better adoption facilitating a positive effect in the socio-biophysical and economic realm of the practicing farmers. conclusion crowdsourcing is a budding approach that has a capacity to overcome the problem faced by farmers at grass root level. it augment farmers for transforming themselves to farmer scientists with improved scientific knowledge, accountability, responsibility and pride.crowdsourcing knowledge of farmers can be a potential extension tool as the homegarden farming system in kerala facilitates horizontal integration of different crops that is more dependent on family labour than hired agricultural labour. crowdsourcing helps to disseminate the knowledge across a wider areas as farmers receive consistent information on different production practices, hence overcoming information lag that exist in the way of production processes, this approach also allows the farmers to make systematic evaluation and compare the effectiveness of the technology with the results of other farmers. references beza, e. silva, j.v. kooistra, l. & reidsma, p. (2017), review of yield gap explaining factors and opportunities for alternative data collection approaches, european journal of agronomy 82b, 206-222. fao [food and agricultural organisation]. (2015). agriculture sector to take advantage of crowdsourcing technologies. [online]. crowdsourcing knowledge: an extension approach for remunerative and sustainable home garden farming systems in kerala 6440 retrieved from http://fao.org/phill/news/ detail/en/c/887552/. franzoni, c. & sauermann, h. (2014), crowd science: the organization of scientific research in open collaborative projects, research policy 43(1), 1-20. garforth, c. & harford, n. (1995). issues in agricultural extension experiences of agriculture and natural resource management programmes through the 1980s and 1990s, aerdd working paper 95/6,the university of reading,uk. john, j. (2014). homestead farming in kerala: a multi-faceted land use system. review of agrarian studies, 4 (1): 8094 van etten, j, beza, e, calderer, l, van duijvendijk, k, fadda, c, fantahun, b, kidane, y. g, van de gevel, j, gupta, a, mengistu, d. k, kiambi, d, mathur, p. n, mercado, l, mittra, s, mollel, m. j, rosas, j. c, steinke, j, suchini, j. g, & zimmerer, k.s. (2016). first experiences with a novel farmer citizen science approach: crowdsourcing participatory variety selection through onfarm triadic comparisons of technologies, experimental agriculture, 1-22. van de gevel, j.m.j., kiambi, d., & fadda, c. (2015). using a crowdsourcing approach to test sorghum and cowpea varieties for climate adaptability. procedia environ. sci 29(1) 243 – 244 werner, j. (1993). participatory development of innovations: procedures and methods of on farm research. gtz swiss development cooperation, federal republic of germany, 225p. journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6361 research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6361-6368 1 ph.d scholar and 2 professor and head, dept. of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641 003. received : 29-02-2020; accepted : 04-03-2020 a scale to measure attitude of farmers towards agricultural schemes for sustainable livelihood e. sathyapriya1 and m. asokhan2 abstract agriculture schemes are formulated to induce the agricultural growth of the nation and also improve the sustainable livelihood of the farming community. the study aims to develop a scale to measure the attitude of farmers towards agricultural schemes for sustainable livelihood of agrarians. thurstone and chave’s (1929) equal appearing intervals scale method was adopted to develop the scale. the final scale comprised ten statements which are having universe of content, uniform distribution of scale values along the psychological continuum and high “scale values” and lower “q” values and more or less equal number of favourable and unfavourable attitude items. keywords: agriculture schemes; sustainable livelihood; equal appearing intervals scale; scale values; “q” values agriculture and farmers are the backbone of india. however, agriculture’s share in india’s economy has progressively declined to less than 15.00 per cent. the major challenges in india are, nearly threequarters of india’s families depend on rural incomes, and india’s food security depends on producing cereal crops, as well as increasing its production of fruits, vegetables and milk to meet the demands of a growing population with rising incomes. to do so, a productive, competitive, diversified and sustainable agricultural sector will need to emerge at an accelerated pace, with this aim many of the agricultural schemes are formulated. hence, this research paper aims to develop the scale to measure the attitude of farmers towards the agricultural schemes for sustainable livelihood. methodology the scale was constructed by following “equal appearing interval” scaling technique developed by thurstone and chave (1929). for the purpose, attitude was operationalized as the degree of positive or negative affect of the farmers about agricultural schemes. possible statements concerning the pshychological object “agricultural schemes” were collected based on the review of literature 6362 and discussion with scientists and from extension personnel. in total, 100 statements were prepared which were organized and structured in the form of attitude items. the items were screened by following the informal criteria suggested by edwards (1969). based on the screening, 82 items were selected which formed the universe of the content. the selected items includes both positive and negative statements. the 82 statements were then subjected to judges opinion on a five-point continuum ranging from most unfavourableto most favourable. the items were screened by following the informal criteria suggested by edwards (1969) for editing the statements to be used in the construction of the attitude scale. the list of statements was sent to 75 judges who comprised of scientists of state agricultural universities, icar and krishivigyan kendra. among the 75 judges, 42 judges responded by sending their judgments. based on the judgments the “s” and “q”values for each statement were calculated by applying the equal appearing scale interval formula as suggested by thurstone and chave (1929). the s value obtained from the following formula s – the median or scale value of the statement l – the lower limit of the interval in which the median falls ∑pb the sum of the proportions 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 thurston and chave(1929) used the interquartile range or q as a measure of the variation of the distribution of judgments for a given statements. to determine the q value, need to find two other point measures, the 75th centile and the 25th centile. the 25th centile (c25) obtained from the following formula the 75th centile (c75) obtained from the following formula inter quartile range (q) value = c75-c25 scale reliability pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient: where, n = sample size x = odd test y = even test journal of extension education (conference special) 6363 ∑xy-(∑x) (∑y)/n = sum of product of x and y ∑x2-(∑x)2/n = sum of square of x ∑y2-(∑y)2 / n = sum of square of y spearman-brown formula where, rttreliability of a test estimated from reliability of one of its halves (reliability coefficient of the whole test) rhh self correlation of a half test (reliability coefficient of the half test) findings and discussion based on the calculation, individual statements with “s” and “q” values are presented in table 1. item selection the final attitude items were selected based on the universe of content, uniform distribution of scale values along the psychological continuum and high “scale values” and smaller “q” values and more or less equal number of favourable and unfavourable attitude items. the scale values were arranged in descending order of magnitude and the difference between the successive scale values and the cumulative total of the computed differences were worked out. since the selected scale values should have equal appearing interval and distributed uniformly along the psychological continuum it was necessary to form ten compartments so as to select ten statements with one statement from each of the compartment. the basis for forming the compartments was that, each compartment should be equally spaced in the continuum. for this purpose, the cumulative value (2.57) was divided by ten, which worked out to 0.257and this formed the width of the first class interval. the second interval was worked out by adding the value with the width of the first class interval. subsequently all the ten intervals were worked out. ten compartments compartment i : 0.257 compartment ii : 0.257+ 0.257 =0.51 compartment iii : 0.514+0.257= 0.771 compartment iv : 0.771+0.257= 1.028 compartment v : 1.028+0.257 = 1.285 compartment vi : 1.285 + 0.257 = 1.542 compartment vii : 1.542 +0.257 = 1.799 compartment viii : 1.799+0.257=2.056 compartment ix : 2.056 + 0.257= 2.313 compartment x : 2.313 + 0.257=2.57 to select the attitude items from the ten compartments the “scale values” and the corresponding “q” values were considered. based on the criteria already mentioned items having high “scale values” and low “q” values were selected with one item from each compartment. care was taken to ensure that the selected items represented the universe of content and covered the different aspects of agricultural schemes. thereby ten items were selected with equal appearing interval and with a uniform distribution along the psychological continuum. the attitude scale thus constructed is given in table 2. a scale to measure attitude of farmers towards agricultural schemes for sustainable livelihood 6364 table 1. computation of equal appearing interval scale statement number q value s value difference cumulative frequency equal appearing class intervel compartments 71 3.33 0.14 0.26 i 2 1.48 0.29 0.14 7 2.07 0.29 0.00 0.14 15 2.39 0.29 0.00 0.14 18 1.75 0.29 0.00 0.14 24 2.42 0.29 0.00 0.14 32 1.07 0.29 0.00 0.14 39 1.74 0.29 0.00 0.14 42 2.40 0.29 0.00 0.14 52 2.29 0.29 0.00 0.14 61 1.57 0.29 0.00 0.14 62 3.06 0.29 0.00 0.14 65 -0.11 0.29 0.00 0.14 76 2.57 0.29 0.00 0.14 16 2.50 0.50 0.21 0.36 0.51 ii 54 2.00 0.75 0.25 0.61 0.77 iii 47 2.13 0.83 0.08 0.69 6 2.10 1.00 0.17 0.86 1.03 iv 12 0.57 1.00 0.00 0.86 23 2.70 1.00 0.00 0.86 34 2.25 1.00 0.00 0.86 35 3.65 1.00 0.00 0.86 44 2.93 1.00 0.00 0.86 45 2.51 1.00 0.00 0.86 46 3.33 1.00 0.00 0.86 57 2.08 1.00 0.00 0.86 60 0.60 1.00 0.00 0.86 63 2.33 1.00 0.00 0.86 77 2.64 1.00 0.00 0.86 79 1.75 1.00 0.00 0.86 59 2.57 1.13 0.13 0.98 38 3.89 1.14 0.02 1.00 50 2.22 1.14 0.00 1.00 journal of extension education (conference special) 6365 statement number q value s value difference cumulative frequency equal appearing class intervel compartments 19 2.11 1.25 0.11 1.11 1.29 v 8 4.25 1.29 0.04 1.14 82 1.75 1.33 0.05 1.19 36 1.89 1.38 0.04 1.23 37 2.13 1.38 0.00 1.23 10 1.64 1.50 0.13 1.36 1.54 vi 11 0.76 1.50 0.00 1.36 53 0.86 1.50 0.00 1.36 55 2.29 1.50 0.00 1.36 56 4.64 1.50 0.00 1.36 66 0.09 1.50 0.00 1.36 73 1.17 1.50 0.00 1.36 27 2.60 1.56 0.06 1.41 22 3.23 1.60 0.04 1.46 28 1.29 1.60 0.00 1.46 49 1.00 1.60 0.00 1.46 14 2.40 1.63 0.02 1.48 51 0.67 1.63 0.00 1.48 3 1.56 1.67 0.04 1.52 33 1.67 1.67 0.00 1.52 67 -0.33 1.67 0.00 1.52 20 1.55 1.71 0.05 1.57 1.80 vii 70 1.42 1.71 0.00 1.57 74 1.95 1.71 0.00 1.57 40 8.36 1.78 0.06 1.63 25 0.89 1.80 0.02 1.66 29 4.83 1.80 0.00 1.66 41 0.17 1.80 0.00 1.66 43 -1.45 1.82 0.02 1.68 75 5.56 1.83 0.02 1.69 a scale to measure attitude of farmers towards agricultural schemes for sustainable livelihood 6366 statement number q value s value difference cumulative frequency equal appearing class intervel compartments 4 1.74 2.00 0.17 1.86 2.06 viii 9 -0.85 2.00 0.00 1.86 13 4.52 2.00 0.00 1.86 21 0.86 2.00 0.00 1.86 26 1.15 2.00 0.00 1.86 30 1.50 2.00 0.00 1.86 31 1.39 2.00 0.00 1.86 48 1.56 2.00 0.00 1.86 58 1.82 2.00 0.00 1.86 64 -0.63 2.00 0.00 1.86 68 5.00 2.00 0.00 1.86 78 6.60 2.00 0.00 1.86 69 3.89 2.17 0.17 2.02 17 1.39 2.25 0.08 2.11 2.31 ix 80 -1.33 2.40 0.15 2.26 5 -0.91 2.57 0.17 2.43 81 0.83 2.60 0.03 2.46 1 1.51 2.67 0.07 2.52 72 -1.71 2.71 0.05 2.57 2.57 x scale reliability the reliability of the scale was determined by ‘split – half ’ method. the ten selected attitude items were divided into two equal halves by odd even method. the two halves were administered separately to 30 farmers in a non-sample area. the scores were subjected to product moment correlation test in order to find out the reliability of the halftest by using spss software. the half-test reliability coefficient (r) was 0.585 which was significant at one per cent level of probability. furtherthe reliability coefficient of the whole test was computed using the spearman-brown prophecy formula. the whole test reliability (rtt) was 0.734. when the purpose of the test is to compare the mean scores of two groups of narrowrange a reliability coefficient of 0.50 or 0.60 would suffice. hence, the constructed scale is reliable as the reliable coefficient (rtt) was >0.60. content validity of the scale content validation was carried out by subjecting the selected ten items to judge’s opinion.the judges were requested to indicate their presumed relevance to which the journal of extension education (conference special) 6367 attitude items covered the different aspects of agricultural schemes. the responses were obtained on a four-point continuum of ‘most adequately covered’, ‘more adequately covered’, ‘less adequately covered’ and ‘least adequately covered’. scores of 4, 3, 2 and 1 were given for the points on the continuum respectively. table 2. selected attitude statements statement no. statements q value s value nature of the statement 72 effective promotional strategies strengthen the farmers – extension relationship. -1.71 2.71 favourable 80 value addition schemes improve the economy of farmers. -1.33 2.40 favourable 9 agricultural minimum support price is encouraging the farmers to diversify to higher value crops. -0.85 2.00 favourable 43 agricultural schemes are designed to strengthen the complete value chain of the agriculture. -1.45 1.82 favourable 67 agricultural schemes strengthen the technical knowhow among farming community. -0.33 1.67 favourable 12 adoption rate of new technologies increased by agricultural schemes. 0.57 1.00 favourable 65 crop rotation practices are ensured by the agricultural schemes. -0.11 0.29 favourable 82 farmers depend on agricultural schemes only for incentives/subsidies. 1.75 1.33 unfavourable 54 agricultural schemes focus on gender development instead of overall agricultural development. 2.00 0.75 unfavourable 16 agricultural schemes support the development of large scale enterprises alone. 2.50 0.50 unfavourable totally 30 judges responded by sending their judgments. the mean score 2.5 was fixed as the basis for deciding the content validity of the scale. if the overall mean score of the attitude items as rated by the judges was above 2.5 the scale will be declared as valid and if not otherwise. in the present case the overall mean score was worked out as a scale to measure attitude of farmers towards agricultural schemes for sustainable livelihood 6368 3.51 and therefore the constructed attitude scale is said to be valid. administration of the scale value the ten attitude items selected were arranged randomly in order to avoid biased responses. the scale was administered on a five point continuum as strongly agree, agree, undecided, strongly disagree and disagree. the score obtained for each statement was summed up to arrive at the attitude score for the respondents. the score ranged from 50 (maximum) to 10 (minimum). maximum score revealed a favourable attitude, while a minimum score indicated unfavourable attitude towards agricultural schemes for livelihood diversification. the responses were grouped as unfavourable, moderately favourable and highly the scoring procedure is as follows, nature of the statement continuum strongly agree agree undecided disagree strongly disagree positive statements 5 4 3 2 1 negative statements 1 2 3 4 5 favourable based on the cumulative frequency method. the various methods available for constructing of an attitude scale, equal appearing interval method scaling technique was used in this study to measure the attitude of farmers towards agricultural schemes. the scale would be highly useful to study the attitude on agricultural scheme by the farmers and other agriculture stakeholders. references edwards l. allen, (1969). techniques of attitude scale construction. vakils, feffer and simons private limited, bombay, india, pp 83-117. thurstone & chave. (1929). the measurement of attitudes. chicago university press, chicago, 97p. journal of extension education (conference special) 6471 1 department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, pune, maharashtra. received : 12-02-2020; accepted : 05-06-2020 vegetable consumption pattern and health consciousness of urban terrace garden farmers c.p. poornima¹ and pallavi d. surywanshi 1 abstract a study was conducted to analyse the vegetable consumption pattern and health consciousness of urban households practicing terrace gardening at their homes. the survey was conducted among randomly selected 90 households in pune city i.e., pune municipal corporation and pimpri chinchwad municipal corporation. the study revealed that among the urban wellers doing terrace gardening, everyone showed either moderate or high level of health consciousness and no one showed low level. the amount of vegetables consumed per household per day was taken in to consideration while collecting details regarding general consumption pattern of vegetables. as per the study, it was found that, 70 per cent were consuming moderate amount of vegetables on daily basis. keywords: terrace gardening; health consciousness; consumption pattern; urban people; pune terrace gardening is a boon to urban population. it provides a greener and healthy covering around the cement blocks in the cities. nowadays as the world is getting urbanized, the idea of urban agriculture and the allied facilities have received substantial attention and acceptance in the foregone decade, and are growing to encounter the requirements of the ever-rising urban life. urban people are likely to be more health conscious and have diversified vegetable consumption pattern if they are engaged in home gardening (alaimo et al. 2008). in present era, particularly in the developing nations, the increasing gap between human population and food supply is a serious challenge. as the people are well aware of the harmful effect of agrochemicals on human health, the urban society is presently moving towards safer food habits. they started to cultivate as much vegetables as possible on their premises. in india, since available land for cultivation is shrinking, mainly in urban areas, there is a need of some alternative measures like home gardening or roof top gardening (udayan and sreedaya, 2018). it is need of the hour to promote a healthy lifestyle among the urbanizing society. therefore, the study aims to have a clear understanding about the vegetable consumption pattern and health consciousness of urban terrace garden farmers. research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6471-6474 6472 methodology the study was conducted at pune city, maharashtra which consists of pune municipal corporation and pimpri / chinchwad municipal corporation. as housewives are actively involved in the practice of terrace gardening, the respondents selected for the study were women. the list of house wives practising terrace gardening was obtained from the horticulture department of pune municipal corporation and agharkar research institute which is situated at pune. through random sampling 90 respondents were selected; out of which 62 were from pune municipal corporation and 28 were from pimpri-chinchwad municipal corporation. the collected data were analysed using appropriate statistical tests such as mean, frequency, percentage, standard deviation and pearson’s correlation analysis. findings and discussion health consciousness it is operationally defined as awareness of the healthiness of diet and lifestyle among urban dwellers who cultivate vegetables on their terraces. the variable was measured with the help of a schedule developed for the study consisting of 11 statements, out of which 8 statements were positive and 3 statements were negative. a three-point continuum was used with agree, undecided and disagree options to record the responses. positive statements were assigned with the scores of 2, 1 and 0 and negative statements were assigned with the scores 0, 1, 2 for agree, undecided and disagree respectively. the total score of each respondent was worked out by summing up scores for all statements. according to total score of the respondents, categories were made on the basis of mean ± sd (mean = 21.5, s.d. = 0.5). then the total respondents table 1. health consciousness of respondents (n=90) sl.no. items to analyse health consciousness frequency percentage 1. importance of balanced diet 90 100.00 2. harmful effects of pesticide use 90 100.00 3. use of chemical fertilizers 90 100.00 4. terrace gardening and fresh air availability 90 100.00 5. nutritional quality of fresh fruits and vegetables 90 100.00 6. influence of terrace gardening on health 90 100.00 7. mental health and gardening 83 92.22 8. organic food and health 77 85.56 9. waste management at home 90 100.00 10. difference in quality of ‘cultivated at home’ vegetables and ‘market’ vegetables 65 72.22 journal of extension education 6473 were classified in to three categories such as low health consciousness (scores up to 20.9), moderate health consciousness (scores from 21 to 21.9) and highly health conscious (scores from 22 and above). all the respondents were aware of the fact that balanced diet is needed to maintain healthy lifestyle. from table. 1, it is also seen that all the respondents knew about the bad effect of pesticide residues in food items and the health issues associated with them. all the housewives agreed to the fact that terrace gardening is a healthy practice and provides fresh air around the house. every respondent housewife knew about the health benefits of planting flora around their house premises and majority (92.22 per cent) agrees that terrace gardening leads to mental satisfaction. all the respondents knew about the nutritional benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables. from the responses given by the housewives, it is found that, most of the households are including vegetables and fruits in their daily diet in order to maintain health. all the respondents were belonging to either moderately health conscious category or highly health conscious category. from their responses it is noticed that all were aware of healthy lifestyle and practices through various mass media and different programmes conducted by various organizations in pune city. vegetable consumption pattern vegetable consumption pattern is operationally defined as the process by which respondents identify and consume vegetables according to their use. the amount of vegetables consumed per household per day was taken in to consideration while collecting details regarding general consumption pattern of vegetables. three categories of consumption pattern were made. the categorization was done on the basis of mean ± sd (mean = 592.78, s.d = 276.16), such as low (up to 317 g), medium (318 g to 869 g), high (870 g and above). nearly three fourths (70.00 per cent) of the respondents were having vegetable consumption between 318 g to 869 g. only very few (12.00 per cent) of the respondents were consuming more amount of vegetables (more than 870 g.). the probable reason for this pattern of consumption of vegetables, might be the hike in prices of vegetables in the market. it has been from the study that, majority of the households was trying to cut down their household expenses by reducing the consumption of vegetables. in urban scenario, people tend to take food from restaurants more often than in rural areas. the number of people consuming non-vegetarian foods is also more in urban areas. it is concluded that most of the households settled in urban areas were much aware of their food styles and were involved in healthy consumption practices. they were conscious about the ill outcome of using inorganically grown vegetables and fruits which are commonly available in city markets. hence, most of the house vegetable consumption pattern and health consciousness of urban terrace garden farmers 6474 wives avoid buying of vegetables from the market and cultivate vegetables on their premises, especially on their terraces. none of the urban dwellers were included in low health conscious category as they were well informed about bad health practices. the consumption pattern of vegetables is also positive with very few respondents in low vegetable consuming category. references alaimo, k, packnett, e, miles, r. a & kruger, d. j. (2008). fruit and vegetable intake among urban community gardeners. journal of nutrition education behaviour 40(2):94-101 udayan, g & sreedaya, g.s.(2018). extent of adoption of house terrace cultivation of urban dwellers of thiruvananthapuram corporation, kerala. journal of extension education, 30(1) journal of extension education 6515 entrepreneurial potential of apipreneurs in south kerala devapriya s kaimal1, allan thomas2 and v. s. amritha3 abstract the paper assessed the apipreneurs of kerala based on their entrepreneurial potential. ex post facto research design was followed for the study conducted during 2019-2020. the location of the study was south kerala focusing on three districts viz., pathanamthitta, idukki and kottayam. seventyfive apipreneurs were randomly selected for the study. based on the study it was found that about 69 per cent of the apipreneurs had medium level of entrepreneurial potential. the results obtained from principal component analysis on the dimensions of entrepreneurial potential, based on eigen vectors revealed that the three dimensions viz., entrepreneurial motivation, management competencies and social competencies had influenced the entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneur. keywords: agripreneurship; entrepreneur; beekeeping; self-employment; psychological; management; kerala research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 2, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.2.32.6515-6519 1department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala, 2krishi vigyan kendra, ambalavayal, wayanad, kerala and 3aicrp on honey bees and pollinators, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. received : 04-08-2020; accepted : 28-01-2021 introduction apiculture is an enterprise changing from being subsistent in nature to becoming an enterprise with great commercial interest. thus, apiculture makes it an entrepreneurship, facilitating both direct and indirect employment especially for rural youth and women. kerala, especially southern kerala, due to extensive rubber plantations is a hub for apiculture and commercial honey production (devanesan et al. 2011). hence it becomes vital to explore the entrepreneurial potential of an apiculturist in this area. entrepreneurial potential is defined as the willingness and likelihood of an individual to engage in an entrepreneurship. the main dimensions concerning the domain of entrepreneurial potential are entrepreneurial motivations, management competencies, psychological competencies and social competencies. the present study on entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs in south kerala would enable us to understand how the innate capacity of an individual plays influence on his decision to establish a successful enterprise and thus to transform oneself into an apipreneur. methodology marginal and small apipreneurs from three districts of south kerala viz., 6516 pathanamthitta, idukki and kottayam were selected as these districts possessed maximum beekeepers and also have maximum area under rubber growing tracts in south kerala (gok, 2016). marginal and small scale apipreneurs were selected randomly from pathanamthitta idukki and kottayam districts in 30, 30 and 15 number respectively, thus constituting 75 respondents for the study. a pretested well-structured interview schedule was prepared and administered to the selected apipreneurs. ex-post facto research design was used for the study. the scale developed by santos et al. (2011) was used to measure the entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs. the scale comprised four main dimensions viz., entrepreneurial motivation, management competencies, psychological competencies and social competencies. a total of 25 statements under the four main dimensions were administered to the apipreneurs, with each statement assigned with a score ranging from 1 to 5. the scores obtained from 25 statements by each apipreneur was summed up to obtain the final score which was then used to categorize the apipreneurs into low medium and high category based on the mean value of score and its standard deviation. apart from categorization of the apipreneurs based on the entrepreneurial potential, the four main dimensions that influence the entrepreneurial potential were also subjected to principal component analysis to delineate the dimensions that predominantly influenced the entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs. findings and discussion it is apparent from table 1 that the mean score of the entrepreneurial potential obtained by the apipreneurs was 97.82 with a standard deviation of 8.88. categorization done based on the mean and standard deviation attributed that majority of the apipreneurs i.e. 69.33 per cent belonged to the category of medium level of entrepreneurial potential followed by low level (16%) and high level (14.67%). district-wise analysis revealed that substantial proportion of the apipreneurs (76.67 per cent) in pathanamthitta district belonged to medium category. similar trend was observed in idukki and kottayam districts with 66.67 per cent and 60.00 per cent respectively. but with regard to kottayam district, it was observed that around 40 per table.1 distribution of the apipreneurs based on their entrepreneurial potential sl. no. category class limits pathanamthitta (n=30) idukki (n=30) kottayam (n=30) total (n=75) f % f % f % f % 1. low < 89 4 13.33 8 26.67 0 0 12 16.00 2. medium 89-107 23 76.67 20 66.67 9 60.00 52 69.33 3. high > 107 3 10.00 2 6.66 6 40.00 11 14.67 total 30 100 30 100 15 100 75 100 journal of extension education 6517 cent of the apipreneurs belonged to high category of entrepreneurial potential. on comparison of the overall mean score of the apipreneurs to that of the district wise mean values, it was observed that entrepreneurial potential score of apipreneurs from kottayam district attained a mean value higher than the overall mean. the high mean value of entrepreneurial potential of apipreneurs in kottayam district was a clear indication that apiculture was an enterprise that was considered as a profitable venture. predominant reasons resulting in higher mean value in kottayam district could be the availability of ample source of food (rubber), conducive environmental conditions, and easy availability of input resources with minimal initial cost of investment and assured remunerations from the products. successful apipreneurs owning commercialized beekeeping enterprise acted as a source of motivation for fellow peer apipreneurs which could be a factor that resulted in medium level of entrepreneurial potential. table 2 represents the variability obtained from principal component analysis with principal component 1 showing maximum variability of 55.4 per cent followed by principal component 2 which was responsible for 21.90 per cent variability. hence it can be concluded that 77.3 per cent of variance was exhibited by principal components 1 and 2 viz., entrepreneurial motivation and management competencies that had an overt significant influence on the entrepreneurial potential of apipreneurs. table 2 exhibits the results obtained from principal component analysis where the cumulative variance indicates that the first two components contributed nearly 80 per cent of variance. however, it was also necessary to delineate the dimensions that predominantly influenced the entrepreneurial potential of the individual. the results obtained are presented in table 3. table 2. principal component analysis (pca) of entrepreneurial potential sl. no component initial eigen values total percentage of variance cumulative percentage 1. principal component 1 entrepreneurial motivation 2.217 55.4 55.4 2. principal component 2 management competencies 0.877 21.9 77.3 3. principal component 3 psychological competencies 0.593 14.8 92.1 4. principal component 4 social competencies 0.313 7.9 100 entrepreneurial potential of apipreneurs in south kerala 6518 table 3 depicts that the first component (pc1) entrepreneurial motivation exhibited the highest eigen value of 0.594 followed by management competencies with eigen value of 0.553. hence from the result it is evident that three out of the four components influenced the entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs. entrepreneurial motivation was measured using sub components like need for achievement, need for power, need for wealth and need for independence. the urge to attain achievement and the need to improve one’s own socio-economic conditions played a significant role in influencing the individual to take up an enterprise. apipreneurs also exhibited an aversion to being an employee and rather preferred becoming the employer indicating the high need of independence among the entrepreneurs. the results obtained in the study confirms the findings of chaurasiya et al. (2016) and deepthi (2016). managerial competencies of an individual are said to duly influence the success of an enterprise. the result obtained was in conformity with esakkimuthu (2015). leadership ability and the resource mobilization ability is said to impact positively the management competency of an entrepreneur, which had predominant influence on the entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs. the study confirms the influence of social competencies on entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs. social competencies are said to be driven by reputation and networking ability of the entrepreneur which are considered as intangible assets are said to significantly influence the rate of market access as reported by adler and kwon (2000). an entrepreneur’s social networking capabilities influence their ability to identify and acquire external resources. it also enhances ability of the apipreneurs’ to promote additional product development, production and promotion. entrepreneurs’ connection with stakeholders involved in their supply chains enables the easy access to resources and also ensure sale of the produce on a wider mass (urban & shree, 2012). table 3. loadings (eigen vectors) of correlation matrix sl. no. components principal com-ponent 1 principal component 2 1. entrepreneurial motivation 0.594 -0.092 2. management competencies 0.553 0.030 3. psychological competencies 0.452 -0.578 4. social competencies 0.370 0.810 journal of extension education 6519 conclusion the study assessed the level of entrepreneurial potential among the apipreneurs in south kerala. it also identified the dimensions that influenced the entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs. this understanding of categorization of apipreneurs on the basis of entrepreneurial potential and the influence of dimensions like entrepreneurial motivation, management competencies and social competencies on the entrepreneurial potential of the apipreneurs will enable extension personnels for development of suitable policies and strategies that can motivate the beekeepers on being confident about apiculture becoming an agripreneurship venture which has the capability to provide healthy remuneration. references adler, p.s., & kwon, s.w. (2000). social capital: the good and the bad and the ugly. in: l.l. eric (ed.), knowledge and social capital, butterworth-heinemann, boston, ma, pp 126-154. chaurasiya, k.k., badodiya, s.k., somvanshi, s.p.s & gaur, c.l. (2016). entrepreneurial behavior of dairy farmers in gwalior district of madhya pradesh. indian journal of dairy science. 69(1), 112-115. deepthi, v. (2016). a critical study on entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in andhra pradesh. unpublished ph.d thesis. acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university, 121p. devanesan, s., premila, k.s., & shailaja, k.k. (2011). influence of climate change on rubber honey production. natural rubber research. 24(1),170-173. esakkimuthu, m. (2015). study on entrepreneurial potential of beekeepers in tamil nadu. unpublished ph.d thesis.g. b. pant university of agriculture and technology, pantnagar, uttarakhand, 84p. government of kerala. (2016). agricultural statistical report 2015-16.gok.pp.69. santos, c. s., caetano, a., & curral, l. (2011). entrepreneurial potential: connecting some dots. in: 8th esu conference on entrepreneurship, 12 -17 september, 2011, sevialla, universidad de sevilla.pp 1-20. urban, b., & shree, s. (2012). internationalization processes and links with capital factors: the case of south africa. business: theory and practice. 13(4),292-303. entrepreneurial potential of apipreneurs in south kerala jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 1 -ph.d scholar, department of agricultural extension and rural sociology and 2 professor and head, training division, directorate of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 3. farmwomen are the backbone of indian agriculture. growing food has been an interminable saga of their life (suganthi, 2013). like other rural women, tribal farm women also play an important role in agriculture. farmwomen play vital role within home as housewives in managing the domestic affairs and they work as co-partners in the farming profession. no field operation is beyond the reach of women (indumathy, 2013). they have been playing significant role in home, farm and allied activities (das et al., 2011). the day of the tribal farm women is starting from early morning and ending in late evening. they remain engaged with home, crop and livestock management throughout the day (chauhan, 2009). this study was therefore designed to explain the decision making pattern of tribal farm women related to home, farm and animal husbandry practices. results of the study reveal that tribal farm women play dominant role in making decisions related to animal husbandry pattern of decision making of irula tribal farm women in nilgiris district t.n. sujeetha1 and s. palaniswamy2 abstract a study was undertaken to find out the pattern of decision making of the irula tribal farm women of nilgiris district in farm and home. the study revealed that irula tribal farm women took self decision in the case of irrigating fields (85.00) followed by using plant protection measures (83.33) in case of farm management and in cases like selection and preparation of food (100.00), and decorating the house (70.00). they had least participation in decisions like construction of new house (63.33) followed by borrowing and giving loans (38.33). enterprise. whereas, they had least participation in decisions regarding farm operations. it is surprising to note that except home decoration, in most of the areas of home management the decision was dominated by male/husband. it indicates that the development of any family in indian context ignoring the farm women is out of the imagination. it’s an uphill task for government, policy makers and for all to empower the farm women. methodology nilgiris district was selected for the study by simple random sampling based on the highest tribal population percentage recorded in the district. out of four blocks in nilgiris district, kotagiri and udhagamandalam blocks were purposively selected because of the prevalence of more number of tribal farm communities. among the six tribal communities, irula community was selected received : 22 sep, 2015; accepted : 09 jan, 2016 journal of extension education5570 for the study because this community is actively engaging themselves in farming. a sample of 60 tribal farm women from the irula tribal community were considered as the respondents of the study. the response of respondents regarding the decision making was collected in “by self without consulting”, “consulting the spouse or elder”, “consulting all the family members”, “help others in decision making” and “no participation in decision making”. findings and discussion the data collected from the irula tribal farm women regarding their decision making pattern in farm management are presented in table 1. the data on decision making pattern of the irula farmwomen with respect to farm management from the above table clearly depict that the irula tribal farm women took self-decision in the case of irrigating fields (85.00), using plant protection measures (83.33) followed by maintenance of cattle (81.67) and quantity and type of fertilizers to be used on the farm (61.67). the tribal women consulted with their spouse or elders in decisions related to buying farm equipment/ machinery (100.00), selection of seeds (85.00) followed by selling of milk and milk products (81.67) and borrowing money for farm operations (78.33). but the irula tribal women had least table 1. decision making pattern of irula farm women in farm management (n=60) no % no % no % no % no % 1. introducing a new crop variety 26 43.33 34 56.67 2. borrowing money for farm operations 13 21.67 47 78.33 3. buying farm equipment/machinery 60 100.00 4. quantity and type of fertilizers to be used on the farm 37 61.67 23 38.33 5. subscribing farm publications 60 100.00 6. hiring farm labourers 14 23.33 46 76.67 7. adopting new farm practices 35 58.33 25 41.67 8. deciding about area under each crop 20 33.33 40 66.67 9. selection of seeds 9 15.00 51 85.00 10. irrigating fields 51 85.00 9 15.00 11. using plant protection measures 50 83.33 10 16.67 12. selling surplus farm produce 14 23.33 46 76.67 13. buying/selling land 17 28.33 43 71.67 14. maintenance of cattle 49 81.67 11 18.33 15. selling of milk and milk products 11 18.33 49 81.67 16. buying and selling cattle 36 60.00 24 40.00 17. size of the poultry 23 38.33 37 61.67 18. selling eggs and poultry birds 23 38.33 37 61.67 sl. no. decision making areas by self without consulting consulting the spouse/ elder consulting all the family members no participation in decision making help others in decision making 5571pattern of decision making of irula tribal farm women in nilgiris district participation in case of decisions like subscribing to farm publications (100.00) followed by buying/selling land (71.67). this finding is supported by chauhan (2009). the decision making pattern of irula tribal women in home management is given in table 2. it indicates that the self decisions were made by the irula farm women in case of no % no % no % no % no % 1. construction of new house 22 36.67 38 63.33 2. household repairs 17 28.33 43 71.67 3. decorating the house 42 70.00 18 30.00 4. deciding education of children 18 30.00 42 70.00 5. deciding occupation of children 43 71.67 17 28.33 6. settling marriage of children 27 45.00 33 55.00 7. purchasing household articles 37 61.67 23 38.33 8. selection and preparation of food 60 100.00 9. borrowing and giving loans 37 61.67 23 38.33 10. deciding manner of saving 21 35.00 39 65.00 11. attending religious ceremonies/functions 13 21.67 47 78.33 12. attending social gatherings in the village 18 30.00 42 70.00 sl. no. decision making areas by self without consulting consulting the spouse/ elder consulting all the family members no participation in decision making help others in decision making table 2. decision making pattern of irula farm women in home management (n=60) selection and preparation of food (100.00), decorating the house (70.00) followed by purchasing household articles (61.67). the husband dominated decisions were found in cases like household repairs (71.67) followed by deciding occupation of children (71.67). the irula women consulted all the family members only in the case of attending religious ceremonies/functions (78.33), attending social gatherings in the village (70.00) followed by settling marriage of children (55.00). most of the irula women did not participate in decisions like construction of new house (63.33) followed by borrowing and giving loans (38.33). the main reason behind their lack of participation in these decisions is that most of the irula community do not construct their own houses, as they depend on the government fully for their construction of house. the findings of the present study were similar to findings earlier reported by praveena et al., (2005). conclusion the inference can be drawn from the findings that adivasi farm women were taking self-decision in case of decorating the house and selection and preparation of food. rural farm women do not play dominant role in making important decisions related to farm journal of extension education5572 management whereas the decisions regarding animal husbandry enterprise were dominated by them. references chauhan,n.m.2009 role of tribal farm women in crop and animal husbandry. paper presented in national seminar at jau, junagadh on 31st august-2009. das, m., n.n. puzari and dr. b.k. ray. 2011. impact of training on skill and knowledge development of rural women. agricultural extension review, april-june, 22(2):26-29. indumathy, k., p. muthiah manoharan, s. sangeetha and m.v. karuna jebamary. 2012 relationship between socio-psychological characteristics and attitude of jawadhu tirbes towards tribal development programmes. journal of extension education 25(4): 5154 -5159. praveena, p.l., m. achuta ramarao and p.venkata rao, 2005. decision making pattern of rural women in farm related activities. agricultural extension review.17 (6):3-5. suganthi, n., j. venkatapirabu and p. muthiah manoharan. 2013. cultural characteristics of the tribal communities. journal of extension education. 25(1) : 50545008. 6500 socio-economic analysis of brackishwater cage culture in kerala k. v unnikrishnan¹ and k dinesh² abstract cage culture has been one of the most dependable fish production systems in the world. for wide adoption in countries like india, it needs to be technically feasible and socially acceptable. in the current study, the socio economic factors are taken into account for investigating the influence of these factors on the performance and productivity of the cage culture operations in central kerala. an extensive survey was carried out among the cage farmers of the coastal districts of central kerala to study the influence of socio-economic indicators in the overall production and performance. the study revealed that major socioeconomic features like age, occupation, level of education, experience in cage culture, technical skill, financial status and gender participation had significant effects on the cage culture productivity and economic returns. keywords: cage culture; socio-demographic; farmers; productivity; kerala. research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 2, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.2.32.6500-6508 1 kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies, panangad, kochi-682506 and 2 dept. of aquaculture, kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies, panangad, kochi-682506. received : 03-10-2020; accepted : 23-11-2020 introduction in recent years, brackishwater cage farming is being promoted more keenly by the department of fisheries, government of kerala and other agencies to improve fish production. the participation of registered farmers as beneficiaries to undertake cage culture is increasing. the coastal water area of kerala state covers nine districts which have a high literacy rate. various studies were carried out on the effect of social and economic aspects of cage culture by researchers like narayanakumar (2009) (in andhra pradesh), aswathy and joseph (2018) and kappen et al., (2019) (in kerala). cage farming in kerala exhibits vivid diversity in different locations with respect to the area covered, number of farmers, their feasibility and viability to produce. the profitability of cage farming largely depends on the culture area, technical knowhow of the stakeholders and the existing protocols in addition to the socio-demographic factors. the promising species used in cage culture of central kerala, the study area, include the asian seabass, lates calcarifer (vernacular name: kalanji), pearl spot, etroplus suratensis (vn: karimeen). surveys were undertaken to study the farmers’ participation in cage 6501 farming, their social status and knowledge in augmenting the cage culture production. the study will throw light on the promising culture species and its performance as well as on the common socio-demographic indicators influencing the productivity. it could be useful to enlighten the farming community on the shortfalls and for maximizing the profitability. methodology the area under investigation; i.e. central kerala is divided into three coastal districts; ernakulam (9.98°n and 76.29°e), alleppey (9.49°n and 76.49°e) and trichur (10.52°n and 76.21°e) with a total coastline of 46, 82 and 54 km respectively and occupies 30.86% area of the total coastline of the state. in kerala, more than 50% of coastal brackish water cage farming is undertaken in these districts. surveys were conducted in the selected coastal villages of the study area to study the socio-demographic characters and other independent variables in the overall production and income generation in cage farming. the research sample size was 62 percent of the population (i.e., 62 percent × 74 registered farmers = 46 farmers). altogether 74 farmers were registered for brackish water cage culture practice from central kerala during the year 2018-19 as beneficiaries of state sponsored scheme. out of the total registered farmers in the study area, farmers were chosen randomly from widely distributed areas in these locations. sample size percentage from ernakulam district was 62%, from trichur it was 69% and from alleppey it was 57% which were 29, 9 and 8 sample farmers respectively. forty-six farmers culturing in 669 operational cages at different locations were brought under the study to understand the output performance. the required data were collected from the respondents using a comprehensive questionnaire. the collected data were analyzed for the difference within the groups and between locations and compared with the production quantities. other than the details of the species cultured and protocols followed, the study included the basic indicators of socio-demographic factors influencing production and profitability of operation. seven common socio-demographic variables mainly associated to the brackish water cage culture operations in central kerala viz., farmer’s age, occupation, level of education, experience in cage culture, technical skill, gender participation and financial status were considered in the evaluation which were directly influencing productivity. the income generation of farmers of different locations practicing cage culture was also assessed. the observations were recorded and tabulated. the economic analysis pattern was concerned mainly to the evaluation of varied income generation of farmers from different location and the possible influence of sociodemographic indicators in productivity. the evaluation of economic performance was done taking into account the infrastructural cost, operational cost, market price, culture period, harvest period and species cultured in cages and assessed the production and income generated from each location of the socio-economic analysis of brackishwater cage culture in kerala 6502 study area. the study also evaluated the achievement of high productivity per unit area and the remunerative price for the cultured species which benefited the farmers in raising their income. the economic performance indicates a larger scope in cage farming and in decision making for investment at the micro level. findings and discussion the survey revealed that there exist varied practices and knowledge among the farmers with respect to the protocols in brackish water cage culture in central kerala. the study also revealed extensive diversity in farmers’ productivity between locations in practicing cage culture. it was also observed that the variance in income generation was largely related to the consequence of certain socio-demographic factors of the farmer’s and species selected. the basic dependent variable in a cage culture system is the species selection by farmers. as far as the species diversity in the brackish water cage culture is concerned, two families (latidae and cichlidae) contributed 95% of the total production, even though fishes belonging to other families were also cultured in 669 cages in the study area. based on the market demand and availability of seed, species were chosen. other variables like feed, harvest periods, water quality and environment conditions are also considered for species selection (kailasam et al., 2014). the most abundantly cultured species were lates calcarifer (asian seabass) and etroplus suratensis (pearl spot) which were stocked in 122 and 511 cages, constituting 18% and 76% respectively. the remaining 36 cages were stocked with other species like the red snapper, trevally and tilapia constituting 6% altogether. the socio-demographic indicators like the age, occupation, level of education, technical knowhow, gender wise participation of the farmers are exogenous variables correlated to location specific enhanced productivity. the age of the farmers plays an important role for being active and is associated to their experience and long-term association in fish farming. around 51% farmers were between 51-60 years of age with experience, knowledge of cage farming and with improved awareness on related aquaculture activities (62%). (table 1). the educational level and experience of farmers provide the basic knowledge for understanding the technical aspects and in improving the economic standards of the cage farmers. majority of farmers have completed their high school level (57%). most of the farmers of ernakulam (64%) and trichur (67%) districts were having the educational background of 10-12 standard. interestingly, about 18% of the total respondents are graduates or post graduates in ernakulam district. it was also observed that the educational background of farmers from alleppey district were secondary school level (60%) which is lower than other districts on educational standard. the annual income earned by the farmers in ernakulam was highest (62%) compared to other farmers. the variations in income was largely due to adoption of bi-culture method of farming by farmers from ernakulam district. among the three districts under investigation, ernakulam journal of extension education 6503 table 1. socio-economic characteristics of respondents adopting brackish water cage culture sl. no process indicators ernakulam (%) trichur (%) alleppey (%) mean value 1. age 20-30 13.79 22.22 12.50 16.17 31-50 27.59 33.33 37.50 32.81 51-60 58.62 44.44 50.00 51.02 2. occupation only cage farming 17.39 11.11 25.00 17.83 other aquaculture activities 56.52 66.67 62.50 61.90 employed in other firms 15.22 11.11 0.00 8.78 other business 10.87 22.22 12.50 15.20 3. education primary school (class 1-5) 9.00 0.00 0.00 3.00 secondary school (6-9) 9.00 33.00 60.00 34.00 high school (class 10-12) 64.00 67.00 40.00 57.00 graduate and above 18.00 0.00 0.00 6.00 4. technical skills obtained own experience 9.00 0.00 0.00 3.00 govt. workshops 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 own experience & workshops 91.00 100.00 20.00 70.33 shared information from others 0.00 0.00 80.00 26.67 5. gender participation only male 27.00 67.00 80.00 58.00 only female 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 both 73.00 33.00 20.00 42.00 6. registered farmers male 69.00 70.00 71.00 70.00 female 31.00 30.00 29.00 30.00 7. annual income from fish sale rs 100000-rs 500000 10.34 100.00 25.00 41.41 rs 500001-rs 1000000 rs 100001-rs 2000000 rs 200001-rs 5000000 > rs 5000000 6.90 10.34 62.07 10.34 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 37.50 37.50 0.00 0.00 18.50 15.95 20.69 3.45 socio-economic analysis of brackishwater cage culture in kerala 6504 was the most progressive in terms of per capita income, literacy and social status. most of the farmers from the study area gained technical skills from their own experience and by attending the related workshops/training organized by reputed organizations (70%). the farmers acquired knowledge on the culture protocols and management practices by such workshops and trainings. farmers also improved awareness and long term exposure to cage culture system due to interventions of kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies and central marine research institute and acquired technical skills. interestingly, the maximum productivity could be observed in ernakulam district with experienced farmers and improved technical skills. the high literacy rate which might also be contributing to the augmented technical skills. maximum productivity was observed by the involvement of both gender in cage culture system. the average percentage of male participants (58%) was higher than the female participants (42%). in ernakulam district, the female participation along with their male partners was found to be the highest compared to other districts which constitute to the tune of 73% even though the registration had been done in their spouse’s/ brother’s/father’s name. a significant gender inequality was noticed among the cage farmers registered in central kerala. even though there were women-oriented schemes coming up, as high as 70% of registered farmers were males and 30% were female. in ernakulam, though the registrations were done by the male member, significant participation of the female partner was observed. recently, more women are getting registered to various government sponsored schemes as groups. evaluation of economic performance of cage culture farmers was done collecting the details on the cost of production (both recurring including cost of feed, seed etc. and non-recurring including the cost of cage setting and erection), production figures, selling price of fish species, individual size/ weight, seasonality of production etc. the initial investment cost was the same though subsidies were provided to the registered farmers in accordance to the scheme. additional investments were made by the farmers for poly culture of species for enhancing production. it was noted that the market price of a particular species varies from season to season; higher prices could be realized in festival seasons. the intent of farmers was to generate maximum income in minimum culture period. the market prices of the various species during the survey were rs. 500-600, rs. 400-500 and rs 300-400 for asian seabass, pearl spot and for other species like the red snapper and trevally respectively. the species-wise analysis of total production clearly indicated that the performance of asian seabass was significantly higher (61%) than pearl spot (29%) and other species (11%) amounting to 67, 32 and 11 tonnes respectively. though the pearl spot was cultured in maximum number of cages, their production quantity was much lower than asian seabass due to the less average journal of extension education 6505 table 2. economic analysis of brackishwater cage farming sl. no. items indicators ernakulam alleppey trichur 1 no. of farmers 46 29 8 9 2 no. of cages 669 500 92 77 3 no. of cages adopting biculture 100 83 0 17 4 infrastructural cost (rs/lakh) 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 5 operational cost (rs/lakh) 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 6 culture period months 10-aug 10-aug 10-aug 7 total production quantity (tonnes) asian seabass (67) 51.01 0.7 15.54 pearl spot (32) 23.48 4.44 4.03 others (11) 11.16 0 0 total 85.65 5.14 19.57 8 production per cage (lakh) asian seabass 418.11 350 457.05 pearl spot 55.77 50.44 62.96 others 310 0 0 9 total income (lakh) asian seabass 306.06 4.2 93.24 pearl spot 117.4 22.7 20.15 others 33.48 0 0 10 income /cage (lakh) asian seabass 2.51 2.1 2.74 pearl spot 0.28 0.25 0.31 others 0.93 0 0 11 market price (rs.) asian seabass 500-600 500-600 500-600 pearl spot 400-500 400-500 400-500 others 300-400 300-400 300-400 socio-economic analysis of brackishwater cage culture in kerala 6506 body weight. the maximum production was achieved in ernakulam district with 86 tonnes (78%) of the total production, followed by trichur and alleppey with 20 lakh tonnes (17%) and 5 tonnes (5%) respectively. also, the maximum income generated was from ernakulam district by culturing asian seabass accounting to rs 306 lakh (51%) of the total revenue generated followed by trichur generating rs 93 lakh (16%). but on computing the mean revenue per cage, it was observed that trichur generated higher income per cage by culturing asian seabass and generating an average of rs 2.74 lakh per cage followed by ernakulam with rs 2.51 lakh and alleppey rs 2.10 lakh per cage. (table 2). the average income generated from ernakulam per cage was higher than other locations covered in the study demonstrates that the economic performance of farmers in ernakulam was enhanced due to the right decision making and following best management practices. the species suitable for maximizing production and profitability in central kerala was found to be asian seabass cultured along with pearl spot as secondary species in biculture method avoiding the cross predation by proper sizing the stocked individuals. the observation on the promising species suitable for brackish water cage culture in central kerala correlates with the findings of earlier authors (aswathy and joseph, 2018) as a promising species. moreover, the average production per cage of asian seabass is observed to be higher than other species cultured, thus fetching the farmers, higher revenue. also, all the major indicators like site selection, grading, harvest period, culture duration, nutrition, feed conversion ratio (fcr), water quality parameters etc. are very important variables in cage culture like any other aquaculture operation. cage culture system can contribute socially towards protein security, income generation, employment creation etc. directly in a holistic perspective. further analysis of data also proved that farmers culturing with lower stocking density by mono culture method with pearl spot resulted only in less income per cage, on the other hand lower optimum stocking density cultured in bi-culture method along with asian seabass resulted in higher income per cage, thus signifying a scope in biculture method for improving productivity. however, aswathy and joseph (2019) in their study on economic feasibility had stated that an increase of 1% in stocking density and feed quantity will increase production. the selection and importance of optimum stocking density was also proven by ghosh et al. (2016) in their brackishwater cage culture experiment undertaken at godavari estuary in andhra pradesh where they concluded that the optimum stocking density of asian seabass with maximum survival rate was 30 numbers per cubic metre for maximizing production. hence, the adoption of optimum stocking density will be helpful for the conservation of fish seeds for other projects and will improve the sustainability. the availability of fish seed to farmers especially the species asian seabass and pearl spot continues to be a journal of extension education 6507 major constraint in the cage culture scenario of the state. the former species is mainly brought from other states of the country after long term transportation which creates higher stress and mortality rates of the fish seeds. the unhealthy seeds after the severe stress results in lower productivity in any culture system. the higher demand of seeds during certain seasons leads to severe exploitation by the seed traders and sellers belonging to other states. for meeting the demand, farmers collect natural seeds from the wild which is a major threat to the sustainability and species conservation. the shortage of fish seed of a particular species is a major problem during the onset of cage culture operations in the state. a study by kappen et al. (2019) had revealed that constraints like non-availability of quality fish seed, high cost of feed affect the development of sustainable cage farming. conclusion cage farming is developing rapidly because of its socio-economic viability when compared to other aquaculture systems. a host of dependent and independent variables influence the cage culture farming. sociodemographic variables such as age and experience are correlated when it comes to maximizing the production. in the study area, maximum production and profitability were observed from the locations where farmers with improved technical skills and experience were present. the occupation, educational level and literacy also enhances the productivity. farmers’ knowledge on the cage culture protocols and experience is directly linked to the literacy which incidentally also benefits in higher income generation and improve the financial status of the farmer. women participation will benefit the cage farmers to manage the operational and maintenance costs, the study has revealed. references aswathy n, & joseph, i. (2018). economic viability of cage farming of asian seabass in the coastal waters of kerala. international journal of fisheries and aquatic studies, 6(5), 368-371. aswathy, n, & joseph, i. (2019). economic feasibility and resource use efficiency of coastal cage fish farming in kerala. economic affairs, 64(1), 151-155. ghosh, s, megarajan, s, ranjan, r, dash, b, pattnaik, p, edward, l, & xavier, b. (2016). growth performance of asian seabass lates calcarifer stocked at varying densities in floating cages in godavari estuary, andhra pradesh, india. indian journal of fisheries, 61(3), 146-149. kailasam, m, ravisankar, t, & ponniah, a. g. (2014). recent advances in brackish water finfish aquaculture: prospects and constraints. ciba. kappen, d. c, dinesh, k, & divya, n. d. (2019). constraints in the adoption of cage aquaculture practices in ernakulam district, kerala. journal of extension education, 30(4); 6165-6172 narayanakumar, r. (2009). economic analysis of cage culture of seabass, cmfri & nfdb kochi, pp 120-122 socio-economic analysis of brackishwater cage culture in kerala 6200 survey on sample sizes of postgraduate theses in agricultural education and extension in universities of nigeria michael ejime ikehi1, francis m. onu1, florence o. ifeanyieze1, patrick s. paradang2, mmachukwu g. nwakpadolu3, lilian u. ekenta1 and clara u. nwankwo1 abstract the study focused on the representativeness of the sample sizes generated for populations under study in survey studies in agricultural education and agricultural extension. the study was carried out in nigeria. a total of 4561 completed survey theses submitted to the departments of agricultural education and agricultural extension in federal universities in nigeria for the award of various postgraduate degrees between 2008 and 2018 were studied. the objectives of the study were to report the effect of sample size on the confidence level and margin of error of the generated data and to determine the frequently cited formula for generating sample sizes and their implications. the most frequently cited method for generating sample sizes was reported. findings further revealed the problems associated with using nonstatistical methods to generate sample sizes. the study recommended the use of mathematically proven formula in determining sample sizes in survey studies to generate statistically dependable, reliable and generalizable data. keywords: post graduate thesis; confidence level; margin of error; population; sampling error, survey; nigeria 1. department of agricultural education, university of nigeria, nsukka, nigeria, 2. federal college of education, pankshin, plateau state, nigeria, 3. michael okpara university of agriculture umudike, imo state, nigeria. research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 1, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.1.31.6200-6208 introduction in most institutions of higher learning, research writing forms the bulk of the requirements for the award of degrees, mainly at the postgraduate levels. in most studies involving farmer education or awareness, survey research design is often adopted. in nigeria, from observation, over 60% of postgraduate student theses majoring in farmer education and extension had adopted descriptive survey research design. descriptive survey research design studies a group of people or item by collecting and analyzing data from few individuals or items considered to be a representative of the entire group when the entire group cannot be studied for several reasons. in majority of cases, survey research design uses the sample of a population to describe, explain and document findings by collecting data based on the opinions and views of the samples studied, using questionnaire, interview, and received : 24-04-2019; accepted : 21-06-2019 6201 focus group discussion among others (ali, 2006; anaekwe, 2007; uzoagulu, 2011). it is a method of descriptive research used for collecting primary data based on visual, verbal or written communications using a representative sample. the focus of survey research is on the ability of the sample to effectively predict the prevalent traits in the people or items studied when the entire population cannot be reached or fully studied. therefore, the accuracy of the sample size is as important as the generated data. calculating the right sample size is crucial to generate accurate information for generalization since different sample sizes have different statistical power. the calculation is necessary because the number of responses received based on the sample size determines the survey’s confidence level and margin of error. confidence level describes how accurate results are, whereas the margin of error shows the range the survey results would fall between if confidence level holds true based on the sample size. from observation, several students have often expressed some level of difficulty in picking justifiable sample size in survey studies. difficulties in clearly explaining the population and justifying the sample and sample size for some studies expectedly leads to questioning of the quality of the generated data. in most local and international standard journals, manuscripts adopting survey research design especially those originating from local institutions and authors face high possibility of rejection. the reasons adduced by some reviewers were the unreliability of the data presented due to sample size and sampling error, among numerous others. reviewers indicated the need to collect reliable data through adequate sample size in survey studies. some of the articles submitted for publication in reputable journals are products of postgraduate thesis modified into manuscripts. in the rural settings of africa, particularly in nigeria where most population and subsequently the sample sizes for extension studies are drawn, farmers are always available and receptive. the farmers are widely available to attend to research instruments and provide quantifiable response for data presentation. however, there are different categories of farmers based on characteristics such as age, location, type and size of farm, education level among others. therefore, a study must specify the character of the desired farmers and select adequate representatives when the entire population cannot be studied. if these and other vital conditions are not met, data collected might not be reliable. this study assessed agricultural education and agricultural extension theses that adopted survey research design to report (1) the effect of sample size on the confidence level and margin of error of data generated; and (2) determine the frequently cited method for generating the sample sizes in the completed theses studied. methodology the study was carried out in federal universities in nigeria. these universities were ahmadu bello university (abu), university of abuja (uniabuja), university of benin (uniben), university of lagos (unilag), university of agriculture, umudike (uniagric) survey on sample sizes of postgraduate theses in agricultural education and extension in universities of nigeria 6202 and university of nigeria, nsukka (unn). in addition to being federal universities, these universities offer agricultural education and extension and are respectively located in the northern, central, southern, western and eastern nigeria. in to have a (near) national view, these strategically located universities were chosen for this study. the study being a survey of completed studies had a population of 4,561 submitted postgraduate (m.sc./ m.sc (ed. ) and ph.d.) theses for the departments of agricultural education and table 1. universities and theses distribution university region in nigeria thesis population contribution % contribution sample drawn degree distribution msc/msc (ed) ph.d. ahmadu bello university (abu) north 735 16.1 59 42 17 university of abuja (uniabuja) central 378 8.3 30 22 8 university of benin (uniben) south 687 15.1 55 39 16 university of lagos (unilag) west 531 11.6 43 31 12 university of agriculture, umudike (uniagric) east 943 20.7 76 63 13 university of nigeria, nsukka (unn) east 1,287 28.2 104 87 17 total 4,561 100 367 284 83 department of agricultural extension, in the aforementioned universities. the sample size for the study was 367 completed theses, achieved through yamane formula. purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting the reviewed studies. for a completed thesis to be included for review, it must; be an empirical research; adopted survey as the research design; have a population greater or equal to 1,000; be carried out between 2008-2018; have a sample derived from the population; a sample size formula. selected theses were grouped. to ensure homogeneity in combining the theses, the studies were grouped based on their population size. population ranges of 1,000 – 4,999; 5,000 – 9,999; 10,000 – 14,999 and ≥ 15,000 were set thus any included journal of extension education 6203 study must fall within the indicated ranges. with the set population ranges, an average population for each range was used to test the sample sizes and the data that were expected findings and discussion effects of sample size on generated data table 2. sample size influencing confidence level and margin of error sl. no. population sample size confidence level (%) margin of error (%) relative score average score sample status 1 1000 278 95 5 19 in 20 8.6 8.1-9.1 expected 2 1000 158 90 6 18 in 20 8.6 8.0-9.2 low source: adapted from fst, 2014. be between 8.1 – 9.1 (±5%). however, a different result was obtained when the sample size moved further away from the population. a lowered number of respondents leads to a drop in the confidence level (fst, 2014). from the data presented in table 1, the confidence level dropped to 90%, with a margin of error of 6%. the responses of same farmers with mean value of 8.6 dropped to 18 in 20 chances (as against 19 in 20) and the results falls between average score of 8.0 – 9.2 if the total 1,000 farmers were to be surveyed. therefore, the closer the sample size is to the population the better and more reliable the data generated becomes. theoretically speaking, a sample size cannot be too high. unfortunately, it is sometimes much more expensive to incentivize or convince all target population members to take part. this could be expensive, in surveys, a high confidence level and low margin of error are easy to achieve based on the availability and size of respondents. an example of the effects of confidence level and margin of error is shown in table 2. data in table 2, revealed that when a population of 1,000 with a sample size of 278 at 95% confidence level is replicated 19 out of 20 times in a survey study, the results would be within a margin of error of 5%. the 5% margin of error permissible revealed that if the entire population was surveyed, the results can only differ with a score of ±5%. the data on table 2 is an actual result of a study where farmers were asked to rate the effectiveness of the extension service in their locality on a scale of 0-10 and which gave a final average score of 8.6. with the 5% margin of error at 95% confidence level it was expected that if the entire population of the 1,000 farmers were surveyed the obtainable average score would survey on sample sizes of postgraduate theses in agricultural education and extension in universities of nigeria to be generated using cited sample size formula. frequency count and assumed value were used to address the research objectives. 6204 and from a statistical perspective, ultimately frivolous (fst, 2014). for these reasons, there exists the standard confidence level of 95% with a margin of error of either 5% or 2.5%. in the end, attempting to go beyond this level of accuracy could be unrealistic and ultimately a less beneficial priority than making sure that the respondent farmers are valid for the survey and are giving reliable responses (fst, 2014). while fst (2014) holds the view that confidence level and margin of error are better at 95% and 5% respectively, in social sciences the margin of error could be between 1-10% depending on the nature of the study and how accurate the study should be for generalization. it has been repeatedly argued that the more the best; the closer the sample is to the population the higher the power to generalise findings (creswell, 1994; bogdan & biklen, 1982). thus, going below recommended confidence level and margin of error results to sampling error which leads to lack of confidence in the generated data. frequently cited formula for generating sample size data in table 3 revealed the most frequently cited sample size formula. out of the 367 theses studied, 329 cited percentages as “suggested” by gall, gall and borg (uzoagulu, 2011) for generating sample sizes while the remaining 38 cited taro yamane. the problem associated with using percentage suggestion is that it is a non-statistical approach. uzoagulu (2011) argued that the use of percentage is not backed up with any statistics in terms of whether such percentage is a true representation of the population and whether the sampling error is reduced or not. furthermore, the changes in the number of sample size is not systematically progressive in percentage suggestion according to population size; the higher the population size, the low the percentage value suggested to obtain as the sample size. the sample size computed statistically is more reliable than determining the size by mere approximation, except in a casual study where accuracy of data and appropriate procedure are not important. a postgraduate thesis or even a study for publication in either local or international journals is not a casual study and should not generate “casual” data for generalization. unarguably, increased sample size lowers sampling error, margin of error and ensures higher confidence level. however, if the procedure is not systematic, results become less reliable. table 3, showed that citing percentage formula for a population of 3,000 (average) generated 600 (average) respondents as the sample size. the sample size is closer to the population than 353 statistically obtainable from the same population range using formula method. however, comparing populations 7,500, 12,500 and 15,000 in the percentage formula against the statistical taro yamane formula revealed the danger inherent in using the percentage formula. using the percentage suggestions of 20%; 10%; 5% and 3%, a population of 3,000 generated a sample size of 600; 7,500 generated 750; 12,500 generated 625; and 15,000 generated 450, respectively. it is expected that the sample size of the 15,000 or 12,500 should journal of extension education 6205 be larger than that of 7,500 and farther from that of the 3,000 but the opposite was the case; the sample sizes decreased with increasing population which makes the progression unmathematical. following percentage suggestions for sampling, the size began to drop as the population increased thus widening the margin of error and increasing sampling error as well as lowering the confidence level of the data generated for generalization for large populations. the formula method (taro yamane), respected the increase in population and increased the sample sizes steadily according to the increasing population. the statistical taro yamane proves to be mathematically reliable as progression where according to population size, as shown in figure 1. the study revealed that the number of respondents generated from a population table 3. thesis and sample size formula n=367 sl. no. number of thesis thesis population (range) thesis population (average) cited formula value suggested sample size generated (average) status 1 116 1,000 – 4,999 3,000 percentage 20% 600 nonstatistical 2 93 5,000 – 9,999 7,500 percentage 10% 750 nonstatistical 3 89 10,000 – 15,000 12,500 percentage 5% 625 nonstatistical 4 31 ≥ 15,000 15,000 percentage (<5%) 3% 450 nonstatistical 5 7 1,000 – 4,999 3,000 taro yamane n___ 1+ n(e)2 353 statistical 6 14 5,000 – 9,999 7,500 taro yamane n___ 1+ n(e)2 380 statistical 7 10 10,000 – 15,000 12,500 taro yamane n___ 1+ n(e)2 388 statistical 8 7 ≥15,000 15,000 taro yamane n___ 1+ n(e)2 390 statistical total 367 survey on sample sizes of postgraduate theses in agricultural education and extension in universities of nigeria 6206 as sample, depends on the formula utilized, and the sample size generated as the representative of the population could affect the quality and generalization of the findings. the sample size is mathematically not a true representative of the population if the sample is not statistically picked from the population. thus, the margin of error and confidence level of a sample for a study is directly influenced by the method (statistical/non-statistical) utilized in determining the sample size. the percentage suggestions appear to be the most popularly cited method among the student researcher. this is likely due to the ease in using the method for calculation. the percentage suggestions often generate a larger sample size for are small population and generate a small sample size for a large population. for a large sample size obtained through non-statistical approach for a small population, “over representation” of the population is a less beneficial priority as stated by fst (2014). when the population is over represented, chances are that the findings might skew to a direction presenting a view of the available rather than an average view generalizable on the entire population (bogdan & biklen, 1982; cohen et al., 2009; eboh, 2009). percentage approach which is non-statistical does increase the sample size bringing it closer to the population especially for small populations but shows the opposite for larger populations. also, in the percentage formula, the percentage chosen according to population size does not accurately address a particular population size rather based the choice of percentage on population range. the formula requires keying-in of the “exact” population size and computing a fig. 1. sample sizes for statistical and non-statistical formula journal of extension education 6207 statistically dependable sample size with even increase or decrease according to population size. authors such as guest et al., (2006), francis et al., (2010), uzoagulu (2011), emmel (2013) and fugard and potts (2015) emphasized the need for a statistically generated sample size. in addition to taro yamane sample size generating formula, there are many available sample generating formulas for finite and infinite populations (kothari, 2004). also, it is possible to use software such as microsoft office excel and some webpages to generate statistical sample from a given population. comparing the percentage suggestions and the taro yamane formula, obviously reveals that the percentage suggestion generates higher sample size than the later. as observed by the researchers, this large size has become a major threat to the quality and dependability of the data generated in most studies carried out by postgraduate students of agricultural education or agricultural extension in tertiary institutions. when the size is large it becomes more capital intensive and difficulty to reach all target respondents as indicated by the generated sample size. there are instances where some researchers resort to “arm-chair” data collection; a situation where the researcher fills out the instrument by him/herself or contact individuals who are not members of the population to respond to the instrument. according to kume (1991), onwuegbuzie and leech (2007), fst (2014) and mustafee (2014) no sample size is theoretically large or small as long as it is a true representative of the population of the studied. thus, the main concern of a survey research with sampling in agriculture is to ensure that the respondent farmers are valid for the survey and are giving truthful responses. hence a concise and statistically generated sample size presents a mathematical “true” representativeness of the entire population under study and makes it possible to generalize thedata generated statistically. conclusion all research studies are carried out to find a solution to an existing problem and some require obtaining data and utilizing the data to infer or generalize solutions. therefore, no matter the number of respondents (farmers), if the approach for generating the sample is not mathematical, the sample size is statistically not a true representative of the studied population which makes the generated data unreliable for generalization. this study thus recommends the use of statistical formulas for generating sample sizes to ensure reliability of data available on postgraduate theses and subsequently journal articles. the statistical methods for generating sample size should be more reliable than non-statistical suggestion. this study is limited in that it did not compare the sample sizes that can be generated by the various sample size generating formulas. further study is thus suggested to compare the output sample sizes of the various documented sample size generating formulas. references ali, a. (2006). conducting research in education and the social sciences. enugu, ng: tian ventures. survey on sample sizes of postgraduate theses in agricultural education and extension in universities of nigeria 6208 anaekwe, c. m. (2007). basic research methods and statistics in education and social sciences. onitsha, ng: sofie publicity and printry ltd. bogdan, r.c. & biklen, s.k. (1982). methods of social research. boston; allyn and bacon inc cohen, l., manion, l. & morrison, k. (2009). research methods in education (6th ed.). abingdon, oxon; routledge. creswell, j. (1994). research design, qualitative and quantitative approach; london; sage publications eboh, c.c. (2009). social and economic research. enugu, nigeria; african institute of applied economics emmel, n. (2013). sampling and choosing cases in qualitative research: a realist approach. london: sage. field surveys team. (2014). calculating the right survey sample size. retrieved 23rd may, 2016, from http://fluidsurveys.com/ university/calculating-right-survey-samplesize/ francis, j. j., johnston, m., robertson, c., glidewell, l., entwistle, v., eccles, m. p. & grimshaw, j. m. (2010). what is an adequate sample size? operationalising data saturation for theory-based interview studies. psychology and health, 25, 1229– 1245. doi:10.1080/08870440903194015 fugard, a. j. & potts, h. w. (2015). supporting thinking on sample sizes for thematic analyses: a quantitative tool. international journal of social research methodology. doi:10.1080/13645579.2015.1005453. guest, g., bunce, a. & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough?: an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, 18, 59–82. doi:10.1177/1525822x05279903 kothari, c.r. (2004) research methodology methods and techniques. 2nd edition, new age international publishers, new delhi kume, h. (1991). statistical methods for quality improvement. tokyo; 3a corporation. mustafee, s. (2014). statistical methods for agricultural science. new delhi; scientific international pvt ltd. nwana, o. c. (1981). introductory to educational research. ibadan: heinemann educational books ltd. onwuegbuzie, a. j. & leech, n. l. (2007). a call for qualitative power analyses. quality & quantity, 41, 105–121. doi:10.1007/ s11135-005-1098-1 uzoagulu, a. e. (2011). practical guide to writing research project report in tertiary institutions. enugu, ng: cheston publishers. journal of extension education 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 impact of mgnrega on socio-economic empowerment of women in palakkad district of kerala s. lakshmi1 and m. sundaramari2 1 ph.d research scholar and 2professor, department of agricultural extension, gandhigram rural institute, dindigul in india poverty is highly concentrated in rural areas. eventhough indian economy has enjoyed substantial growth rates inequality has been increased. the main challenges to poverty reduction in india are not just only economic but are also influenced by social inequalities based on caste, ethnicity, gender, age and religion. specific gendered risks and vulnerabilities are also faced by the women in our country. they receive up to 30 percent lower wages than men in casual labour and 20 percent lower for the same task (world bank, 2009). women constitute two-third of the agricultural workforce but own only less than one-tenth of the agricultural lands and they spend a disproportionate amount of time compared with men on domestic activities (women work 457 minutes per day compared with men who works for 391 minutes) (nawo, 2008). the flagship programme of government of india, the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mgnrega) has been designed in such a way that it incorporates a number of features that explicitly tackle some of the challenges women face in the rural economy and to a certain extent women’s differential experiences of poverty and vulnerability. the main aim of the rural wage employment programme, mgnrega is to provide a steady source of income and livelihood security for the poor, vulnerable and the marginalized. the empowerment of women is very much needed for the development of a country. thus various provisions are made under the act and its guidelines which ensure that women have equitable and easy access to work, decent working conditions, equal payment of wages and representation on decision making process. however, the women of kerala are socio-economically empowered when compared to women in other states due to their involvement in self help groups. in this context, the paper analyse the contribution of mgnrega in empowering women socially and economically and the constraints faced by them. objectives of the study to assess the contribution of mgnrega in improving the socioeconomic empowerment of women to identify the constraints faced by women participating in mgnrega methodology the study is both analytical and descriptive. the primary data for the study is collected from randomly selected 150 women mgnrega beneficiaries in chittur block from palakkad district. palakkad district and chittur block were purposively selected for 5339impact of mgnrega on socio-economic empowerment of women in palakkad district of kerala the study. palakkad district is selected as it is one of the districts in which mgnrega is implemented during the first phase in the state. chittur block is selected based on the participation of women in mgnrega during 2013-14. a pretested questionnaire is used to elicit necessary information from the beneficiaries of mgnrega. the secondary data for the study is collected from magazines, journals, publications by various academic organizations, research studies, management experts and the data published in the official website of mgnrega. the socio-economic empowerment of women under mgnrega is assessed using various parameters in social and economic group. weightages were provided to the responses for each parameter under the group. a weightage of two is given for the response ‘increased’, one for ‘increased to some extent’ and zero for ‘no change’. the parameters under social and economic group were also categorized into high potential, moderate potential and low potential based on the average score obtained by each of the parameters. the indicators selected under economic group are income, savings, purchasing power and decreased dependency on money lenders. decision making capacity, self confidence, mobility and social participation are the indicators selected under social group. findings and discussion participation of women in mgnrega various research studies have indicated that mgnrega is an important work opportunity for women who would have otherwise remained unemployed or underemployed. women are participating in the scheme much more actively than they participated in all forms of recorded work (ghosh, 2009). the rate of participation of women in mgnrega in kerala was 66 per cent during 2006-07. this has been increased to 93 per cent for the years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14, the highest among the states in india during these years. the participation rate of women in mgnrega at national and state level is given in table 1. the main reason cited by the beneficiaries table 1 rate of participation of women in mgnrega sl.no. year kerala(% of women) india(% of women) 1 2006-07 66 40 2 2007-08 71 43 3 2008-09 85 48 4 2009-10 88 48 5 2010-11 90 48 6 2011-12 93 47 7 2012-13 93 51 8 2013-14 93 53 source: www.mgnrega.nic.in journal of extension education5340 for their higher participation in mgnrega was higher wage rates as compared to the existing wage rates for unskilled labour for women in the district. in a study conducted by sudarshan (2010), she had reported that the worksites were found managed by women themselves and more over most of the women coming for work had already been mobilized into self help groups. this experience of working together might have also encouraged women to participate in mgnrega. according to vijayanand (2009) the kudumbashree, started by government of kerala is being used for creating awareness among women about rights and entitlements, generating demand and also increasing their participation in planning of works and social audits. bonner, et.al., (2012) has also identified some of the possible factors which are responsible for a high rate of women participation in the southern states and they were cultural acceptance of female participation in the labour force, influence of self help groups, effective institutions at the state and local government level that are committed to promoting female participation in mgnrega and wage differentials between private sector and mgnrega. socio-economic empowerment of women under mgnrega inorder to assess the socio-economic empowerment potential of mgnrega among women, four indicators each under economic and social parameters were considered. the score obtained by each of the indicators is given in table 2. i economic parameters 1 income 135 13 2 283 1.89 2 savings 118 24 8 260 1.73 3 purchasing power 120 18 12 258 1.29 4 decreased dependency on money lender 110 25 15 245 1.63 total 1046 1.74 ii social parameters 1 decision making capacity 128 9 13 265 1.77 2 self confidence 112 29 9 253 1.69 3 mobility 103 37 10 243 1.62 4 social participation 105 30 15 240 1.60 total 1001 1.67 total score for the socio-economic parameters 2047 1.71 no change sl. no. indicators responses total score weighted average score increased increased to some extent table 2. impact of mgnrega on socio-economic empowerment of women 5341impact of mgnrega on socio-economic empowerment of women in palakkad district of kerala from the table 2, it is seen that mgnrega has the potential for socio-economic empowerment of women. this is evident from the overall score of 1.71 considering all the eight indicators together. the average score obtained for the economic empowerment indicators is 1.74, which is higher than the average score obtained for social empowerment indicators (1.67). this indicates that the degree of economic empowerment of women beneficiaries is found to be more when compared to that of social empowerment as a result of mgnrega. in economic factors, increase in income scored maximum with 1.89 followed by savings (1.73) and decreased dependency on money lenders (1.63). under social parameters decision making capacity of mgnrega beneficiaries stood first by scoring 1.77 followed by self confidence (1.69) and mobility (1.62). based on the average score obtained by each of the indicators in social and economic category, they are categorized into three groups namely high empowerment, moderate empowerment and low empowerment. the methodology followed for this categorization is given in table 3. according to this categorization the relative empowerment potential of all the eight indicators under study is provided in table 4. it is seen that mgnrega has got high potential for socio-economic empowering of rural women in three parameters. for the remaining five parameters, mgnrega has got moderate potential for socio-economic empowering of rural women. among the three high potential indicators, two are economic sl.no. average score category 1 above 1.70 high empowerment 2 between 0.85 and 1.70 moderate empowerment 3 below 0.85 low empowerment table 3. grouping of parameters table 4. categorisation of indicators high potential moderate potential income purchasing power savings dependence on money lender decision making capacity self confidence mobility social participation journal of extension education5342 empowerment parameters. however, none of the indicators comes under the low potential category. constraints faced by the beneficiaries an attempt was also made to study the constraints faced by the beneficiaries of mgnrega in chittur block in palakkad district. more than half of the beneficiaries (56.67%) have opined that delay in wage payment is the main constraint faced by them. the delay in wage payment may be due to delay in closing the muster rolls and lack of adequate staff for mgnrega. the other main table 5. constraints faced by the beneficiaries sl.no. constraints percentage of beneficiaries 1 delay in wage payment 56.67 2 lack of regular work 48.67 3 distant worksite 41.33 4 providing employment during agricultural seasons 34.67 5 lack of worksite facilities 32.00 6 getting less than 100 days of employment 22.00 constraints faced by the beneficiaries are lack of regular work (48.670%) and distant worksite (41.33%). more details are furnished in table 5. conclusion the participation of women in mgnrega in kerala is far ahead the average participation of women under mgnrega in india. the concept of women’s empowerment got wider popularity and acceptance in kerala with the launching of decentralized planning in the state.the main reason for the high participation of women in mgnrega is mainly due to the higher wage rate when compared to the existing wage rates for unskilled labour for women in the state. it is also seen that mgnrega has the potential to empower the beneficiaries economically and socially. the study findings reveal that the economic empowerment of the beneficiaries of mgnrega is more when compared to the social empowerment. women also perceived that mgnrega is giving them a sense of independence and security. wages earned under mgnrega has helped women in several ways. it helped them to pay the debt and retrieve the pawned gold; helped them in taking care of children’s education; enabled them to meet the day-to-day household expenses and facilitated them to save money (sudha narayan 2008). even though the participation of women in mgnrega is more in kerala, they also face certain problems in participating in the 5343impact of mgnrega on socio-economic empowerment of women in palakkad district of kerala mgnrega work. a majority of the beneficiaries cited delay in getting wage as the main problem which restricts them from participating in mgnrega work. the potential of mgnrega for women empowerment can further increased by proper implementation and monitoring of the scheme. references bonner k., et al. 2012. mgnrega implementation: a cross state comparison,woodrow wilson school, princeton university. ghosh j., 2009. equity and inclusion through public expenditure: the potential of the nregs, paper for international conference on nrega. nawo, 2008. engendering the eleventh five-year plan 2007-2012: removing obstacles, creating opportunities’, new delhi, india. sudarshan r.m., 2011. india’s national rural employment guarantee act: women’s participation and impacts in himachal pradesh, kerala and rajasthan, institute of development studies. sudha narayan, 2008. woman work’s and child care, www.yojana.gov.in. vol no.52. vijayanand s.m., 2009. nrega and panchayati raj: learning from kerala, state government of kerala. world bank, fao and ifad, 2009. gender in agriculture sourcebook, the world bank, washington d.c. 6441 factors contributing to the success of aquaculture field schools g s. saha1, h k. de1, a s. mahapatra1 and n. panda1 abstract icarcentral institute of freshwater aquaculture (cifa) had piloted four aquaculture field schools (afs), a model of farmer to farmer extension, in odisha and chhattisgarh states in india. the afs’ are attracting farmers and stakeholders as they provide a platform to share experience and enable cross learning. in this research, an attempt has been made to identify the factors that contribute to the successful performance of afs. data were collected from 166 user farmers, selected randomly from the list available with operators. five variables viz., age of fish farmer, frequency of visit to afs, duration of visit, interaction with the fellow farmers and advocation of advanced technologies of icar-cifa to other farmers were observed to be significantly contributing to yield of fish. the multiple correlation coefficient, r=0.48, indicated that there is a significant and positive correlation between the observed and predicted value of fish yield. keywords: aquaculture field schools; factors; farmer; extension; odisha; chhattisgarh 1 icarcentral institute of freshwater aquaculture, kausalyaganga, bhubaneswar, odisha 752 104 received : 06-03-2020; accepted : 05-06-2020 research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6441-6447 introduction aquaculture extension services have been focussing primarily on transferring aquaculture technologies, improving fish farming skills and promoting good practices in technical areas, such as site selection, farming systems and technology, seed production, feed management, fish disease and biosecurity, water management, harvesting, post-harvest handling, marketing and record keeping (fao, 2017). effective extension service has contributed to increased aquaculture production and has the potential to contribute to economic development of rural fish farmers (tu and giang, 2002). extension has undergone profound changes over time with an increasing scope in terms of both contents and recipients (fao, 2017). while agricultural (including aquaculture) extension often is narrowly defined as “technology transfer”, it should be broadened to encompass human resource development that focuses on learning and building farmers’ self-confidence and their capacities in networking, problem solving and decision making. aquaculture extension services should be provided to not only fish producers but also to ancillary and supporting businesses, such as seed producers, feed formulators, net makers, 6442 harvesting teams, fish traders and other key players in the value chain (fao, 2017). aquaculture field school (afs) is a school without walls for improving decision making capacity of farming community in aquaculture. it is a participatory extension approach whereby fish farmers are given opportunity to make choice in the methods of aquaculture production through discovery based approach (de et al. 2012 & 2013). afs is composed of a group of farmers who regularly meet and share information among themselves. typical group strength is 2025. the basic tenets of afs are: fish farmers are experts; the fish farm is a learning place; fishery extension worker as facilitator not teacher; scientists/sms (subject matter specialist) work with rather than lecture them; learning materials are learner centered. the principles of farmer field school can be easily incorporated in the aquaculture venture where the entrepreneurs/farmers after being trained by research institute, can train other small farmers in that area about the scientific practices of the fish farming. the major objectives of the aquaculture field school (afs) are to build farmers’ capacity to analyze their production systems, identify problems, test possible solutions and eventually adopt the practices most suitable to their farming system. the principle of afs is similar to that of farmers field school (ffs) implemented in agriculture. a farmer field school (ffs) is a forum where farmers and trainers carry out collective and collaborative inquiry, debate observations, apply their previous experiences and present new information from outside the community with the purpose of initiating community action in solving community problems (minjauw, 2002). the icar-central institute of freshwater aquaculture, bhubaneswar has established four aquaculture field schools (afs), three in odisha and one in the state of chhattisgarh, to promote farmer to farmer extension. the afss organizes training programmes for farmers with sponsorship from agriculture technology management agency (atma), odisha skill development authority and other development agencies. field school aims to increase the capacity of groups of farmers to test new technologies in their own fields and to assess the relevance of results to their particular circumstances (braun et al. 2000). there is a need to integrate the curriculum of different steps in scientific method of aquaculture like where to rear, when to rear, how to rear, how to harvest, how to market the product etc. these field schools cover a wide area where the progressive farmers are there and through them the technology of fish culture like culture and seed production of carp, catfish, and air breathing fish, ornamental fish etc. are disseminated. key strengths of the ffs approach can be broadly categorized as: the enhancement of human and social capital and a key entry point for new practices and technologies (watson, 2008). within a short span of their establishment all the afss have proved to be the ground for new, meaningful and participatory learning about the scientific practices in aquaculture. farmers’ practical problems are regularly being analyzed, their journal of extension education 6443 capacity enhanced and quality decision marking ability strengthened through these field schools. since the afss are piloted by the institute, it is imperative to know whether the afss are promoting parallel extension or not. it is also important to identify the factors that determine success of afs as a model of farmer to farmer extension. the study was conducted with these two specific objectives. an insight into the functioning of afs and the factors that influences its success would be of immense significance for upscaling and replication of this model. methodology successful performance of afs would result in improved information access to participating farmers. information exchange and skill upgradation that takes place in afs also contribute to enhancing yield as well as income of farmers. in this study success has been measured in terms of yield levels of farmers, which is a measurable and quantifiable variable. direct indicators and physicochemical parameters e.g., seed, feed, fertilizer, health management etc. do influence yield. however, the purpose of this study was to understand afs as a novel approach of extension and how this novel approach of extension is contributing to enhancing yield. from the perspectives of extension advisory to farmers who visit afs to learn technology and share information about aquaculture, the variables were studied viz. age and qualification of fish farmer, primary occupation, frequency of visit to afs, occupation, family size, duration of visit, interaction with the fellow farmers, advocation of advanced technologies of icarcifa to other farmers which are independent variables. data were collected from a total of 166 farmers from four afss viz. afs sarakana (80), afs bhatpadagarh (35), afs durg (24) and afs baisinga (27) using semi-structured interview schedule. respondents were selected randomly from the list of farmers being maintained at the afs by its operator. the schedule was prepared after consulting experts in the field of aquaculture extension. data were collected by personally interviewing the farmers, who visit afs on a regular basis. the survey was conducted during 2016-18. data include age, qualification, primary occupation, family size of the farmers, duration of visit to afs, frequency of visit, water area and fish yield of visiting farmers, type of fish farming, scope for interaction with experienced farmers, recommendation for new technology/ practice by the fish farmers. analysis by using spss, multiple regression analysis was performed with yield as dependent variable and eight independent variables i.e. age of farmer, qualification of farmer, primary occupation, and frequency of visit to afs, duration of visit, interaction with the fellow farmers, confidence of the facilitator of the afs, recommendation of new technology/practice to other farmers. coefficient of determination (r2) has also been worked out to quantify to what extent yield is explained by the selected independent variables. factors contributing to the success of aquaculture field schools 6444 findings and discussion primary information about the respondents majority (63%) of the respondents are visiting afs since last 4-6 years. in case of baisinga farmers reported to have visited it even before the same was rechristened as afs. it was learnt during interview that farmers used to visit it for buying fish seeds, other inputs and also for consultation with the facilitator. the majority of the respondents (35%) visit afs on quarterly basis followed by once a year (25%) and once in six months (20%). farmers who visit annually do so for buying seeds as they practice 'grow out' culture. it was informed by the farmers that they visit afss for sharing information with their fellow farmers. majority of the respondents were small farmers possessing water bodies of less than one acre. around 19% of them were having pond area of more than 3 acres. afs is run by the operator who is trained and mentored by the institute. as the operator himself practices recommended package, it is expected that he would disseminate the same to other farmers. the data indicate that as many as 86% of the respondents agreed to have discussed at afs the pros and cons of new practice/recommendation of the institute. others visiting afs benefit from the operator farmer’s experience and receive his or her guidance. eighty five percent of the respondents have indicated that they were able to gain knowledge from the interaction with the fellow farmers at afs. yield levels reported by 86% of respondents were in the range of 1000-1500 kg/acre. fish yield is governed by several factors that includes biological, physical, table 1. regression analysis model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. correlations b std. error beta zeroorder partial part 1 (constant) 632.433 146.397 4.320 .000 age 5.328 2.304 .172 2.313 .022 .282 .182 .162 qualf -14.402 19.992 -.051 -.720 .472 -.029 -.057 -.050 poccp 73.826 46.239 .113 1.597 .112 .121 .126 .112 frqvis 9.148 4.206 .159 2.175 .031 .258 .171 .152 duration 26.761 11.477 .172 2.332 .021 .238 .183 .163 interact 125.923 62.927 .156 2.001 .047 .299 .158 .140 confidnce 14.110 83.437 .012 .169 .866 .109 .013 .012 reccom 136.470 64.688 .163 2.110 .036 .244 .166 .147 journal of extension education 6445 infrastructural, technological and farmer’s socio-economic conditions. extension service too influences farmers yield substantially. in this research a parallel extension i.e., farmer to farmer extension approach was piloted. hence extension and advisory service related variables were identified and their relation with yield was worked out. in order to identify the variables contributing to the success of afs, multiple regression analysis was carried out with eight independent variables i.e. age (age), qualification (qualf), primary occupation (poccp), frequency of visit (frqvis), duration of visit (duration), interaction with the fellow farmers (interact), confidence of the facilitator of the afs (confidence), recommendation of new technology/practice to other farmers (reccom). since fish yield of the farmers is operationalized as an indicator of success of the afs, the multiple regression analysis was performed by taking fish yield as the dependent variable. dependent variable: yield from multiple linear regression analysis (table 1), it is revealed that out of 8 independent variables, only 5 variables viz., age of fish farmers (age), frequency of visit by the farmer to the afs (frqvis), duration of visit to the afs since establishment (duration), interaction with the fellow farmers (interact), advocation of advanced technologies of icarcifa to other farmers (reccom) are significantly contributing to the yield of fish (kg/acre), yield. the model summary (table 2) shows that the coefficient of determination, r2= 0.233 which implies that 23% of total variability in yield (kg/acre), the dependent variable is explained by 5 independent and significant variables namely age, frequency of visit, duration, interaction and recommendation. the multiple correlation coefficient, r=0.48 indicates that there is a significant and positive correlation between the observed and predicted value of fish yield (kg/acre). the linear regression equation is best fitted as : ŷ = 632.433 + 0.022age + 0.031frqvis + 0.021duration + 0.04interact+ 0.036reccom where ŷ is the predicted value of fish yield. the ffs approach represents a paradigm shift in agricultural extension and can table 2. model summary model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate change statistics r square change f change df1 df2 sig. f change 1 .483(a) .233 .194 260.581 .233 5.976 8 157 .000 predictors: (constant), reccom, age, qualf, poccp, confidnce, frqvis, duration, interac factors contributing to the success of aquaculture field schools 6446 be viewed as a capacity-building investment in the sector of education, information, and training. farmers provide extension services to fellow farmers by sharing technical knowhow and experiences or helping them solve problems. the effectiveness of farmer-tofarmer extension is vital to the validity of the trickle-down modality observes fao (2017). farmer-to-farmer extension is a vital aspect of participatory extension methods such as aquaculture field school. the participating fish farmers in an ffs develop their skills during the ffs activities at the communal experimental field/pond, and then adopt these practices and techniques on their individual fields/ponds and disseminate the corresponding knowledge to friends, relatives and neighbors. conclusion afs is becoming a one stop solution for fish farmers. frequency of visit, quality of interaction, length of association with afs lends credence to the fact. the opportunity for discussion on recommended practices before adoption facilitate informed decision making by the farmers. the study concludes that improved extension and advisory service made available through afs has contributed as much as 23% of the yield. this once again underscores the role of aquaculture extension in bridging the yield gap. afs approach relied heavily on non-monetary inputs with technical advice and interaction as primary intervention. sharing of experiences with the lead farmer at the afs has brought in confidence among them in scientific fish farming. this approach of ‘farmer to farmer’ extension with no physical input would certainly be sustainable in the long run. references braun, a.r, thiele g & fernández, m. (2000). farmer field schools and local agricultural research committees: complementary platforms for integrated decision-making in sustainable agriculture, agren network paper no. 105, london, uk: agren/odi, pp. 16 de, h. k, saha, g. s & radheyshyam (2012). training and sensitizing the farmers in fish farming through aquaculture field school. indian farming, 62(2): 31-33. de, h. k, saha, g. s & radheyshyam (2013). aquaculture field schools to promote farmer to farmer extension. journal of global communication 6(2): 77-85. fao. (2017). sub-committee on aquaculture extension for aquaculture development. ninth session rome 24-27 oct. 2017. cofi:aq/ix/2017/7. minjauw, b., muriuki, h.g., & romney, d. (2002). development of the farmer field school methodology for smallholder dairy farmers in kenya. paper presented at international learning workshop on farmer field schools (ffs): emerging issues and challenges, 21-25 october 2002, yogyakarta, indonesia. tu, n.v & giang, t.t. (2002). improving the efficiency of aquaculture extension activity in the southeastern provinces of southern vietnam. in: edwards, p., demaine, h. and little, d.c. (eds), rural aquaculture. journal of extension education 6447 wallingford, uk: cabi publication, pp. 285-300. watson, d.j. (2008). community farmer field school animal health facilitators: hybridizing private animal healthcare and capacity building in remote pastoralist areas, research report 14, ilri, nairobi. factors contributing to the success of aquaculture field schools 1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 3, 2015 factors influencing farmers decission in rainfed areas p.l. manohari1 and g.r. desai2 abstract the study was undertaken to understand the different production factors affecting decision making process of the farmers in rainfed areas of ten states in india. from each state 40 farmers were selected from the lowest rainfall raining areas as respondents. data were collected using specially designed structured pretested schedule. the results show that in rainfed areas majority of the farmers considered factors related to inputs along with other factors viz., risk bearing ability, agro-climatic conditions and market situation for taking divisions in agricultural production. 1-assistant director, national institute of agrl.extension management, rajendra nagar, hyderabad and 2former director (odpc) manage, hyderabad. rainfed crops are prone to breaks in the monsoon during the crop growth due to water stress. this water stress may be due to variability of rainfall, delay in sowing, diversity in crop management practice and variability of the soil type. the prolonged breaks can result in partial or complete failure of the crops. in the resource constrained and dry areas, the farming is a survival mechanism rather than a growth oriented activity. still farmers use to take many decisions like selection of inputs (seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides), marketing, processing etc. for bringing agricultural production. successful farm management depends on farmer’s ability to take correct decisions. there are so many alternatives available to the farmers. before making decisions all alternatives should be evaluated from which the advantages and disadvantages are known. it helps to make the best decisions. situation specific decisionmaking has becoming more complicated for the farmers with the locally available information. certain factors are influencing in selecting the best among the different alternatives. an attempt was made in the study to understand the factors that influenced farmers decision making in relation to the choice of crops, cropping pattern, enterprises, investments to be made etc. keeping the situation in view the present study was taken up with the following objectives. 1) to understand the different production factors affecting decision making process of the farmers in rain fed areas. 2) to observe the risk bearing ability of the farmers. 3) to know the extent of utilization of farm machinery in rainfed areas. methodology ex-post -facto research design was followed. the study was carried out in 10 journal of extension education5478 states since many developmental activities have been undertaken in all the areas over a period of time. one district representing the lower levels of irrigated area in the state was selected randomly from among the districts with lower rainfall in each state. from each district one block with lowest rainfall was selected. two villages from each block was selected comprising of 20 villages for the study. from each one of the villages, four categories of the farmers were selected representing marginal, small, medium and large holding categories. five farmers from each of the categories were selected on a random sampling basis. in all 20 farmers from each village comprising 400 farmers were included in the study. the data were collected by using a specially designed structured pre tested schedule. interview method was adopted to collect the primary data from the farming community. for collecting the data, various institutions were involved in collaboration viz., state agricultural universities, icar institutes, state department of agriculture and ngos in different states. the data collected have been analyzed by using means and percentages. findings and discussion the results and discussions pertaining to the factors influencing farmer’s decisions in rain fed areas were presented below. 1. andhra pradesh the factors influencing farmer’s decisions in agriculture in andhra pradesh state are presented below. a perusal of the table 1 indicates that the major factors influencing decision making were found to be the availability of labour (78 %) followed by irrigation potential (63 %), home needs (56 %) , market situation (55 %) and availability of credit (27.8 %). a similar pattern of factors was found among most of the indicators. however, in the case of marginal farmers, the home needs were found to be a crucial factor among only 33 % of the community. this was possibly seen since these farmers being marginal had also the access to other supplies through the public distribution system at a cheaper cost, hence, could meet their home requirements. any further intervention for improving the farmer’s situation should take into account that the factors considered by the farmers are crucial to take up decisions. the situation demands promotion of labour saving devices so that availability of labour may not act as a major factor to influence adoption decisions. similar is the case with credit, markets etc. which can help to improve the risk bearing ability of the farmers and influence faster decision making in favour of improved technologies. 2. gujarat availability of irrigation, seeds and labour were found to be crucial to decide the type of technology being followed by the farming community. apart from this, the soil type and 5479factors influencing farmers decission in rainfed areas fertility was also considered by the farmers. since, the first three factors are management related it would be necessary to create an appropriate infrastructure for regular supply of these inputs so that they do not affect the decision making among the farming communities. table 1. factors influencing farmers' decisions in andhra pradesh sl.no. factors category of farmers (%) average marginal small medium large 1 availability of labour 78 64 80 90 78.0 2 availability of irrigation 67 55 70 60 63.0 3 availability of credit 33 18 30 30 27.8 4 availability of animal labour 10 10 5.0 5 availability of machinery 10 2.5 6 crop varieties and their duration 11 2.8 7 home needs 33 73 70 50 56.5 8 market situation 56 45 80 40 55.3 9 agro climatic conditions 20 5.0 10 availability of seeds 18 20 9.5 11 availability of fertilizers 10 20 7.5 12 risk bearing ability 44 64 50 70 57.0 n = 40 table 2. factors influencing farmers’ decisions in himachal pradesh sl.no. factors category of farmers (%) average marginal small medium large 1 availability of labour 100 87 89 100 94.0 2 availability of irrigation 42 67 56 100 66.3 3 availability of credit 17 7 22 25 17.8 4 availability of animal labour 67 80 78 100 81.3 5 availability of machinery 25 20 11 14.0 6 crop varieties and their duration 42 93 78 75 72.0 7 home needs 92 93 89 100 93.5 8 market situation 33 67 100 75 68.8 9 agro climatic conditions 33 13 56 25 31.8 10 soil type and fertility 83 87 89 50 77.3 11 availability of seeds 75 80 89 100 86.0 12 availability of fertilizers 17 53 56 100 56.5 13 risk bearing ability 17 60 44 100 55.3 n = 40 journal of extension education5480 3. himachal pradesh many factors influence the decision making of the farmers. some important factors are mentioned in table 2. it could be observed from the below table that the crucial factors influencing farmer’s decision making irrespective of the category of farmer was the home needs. farming table 3. factors influencing farmers’ decisions in madhya pradesh sl.no. factors category of farmers (%) average marginal small medium large 1 availability of labour 86 100 100 100 96.5 2 availability of irrigation 43 82 67 85 69.25 3 availability of credit 57 45 67 69 59.5 5 availability of machinery 71 91 78 100 85 6 crop varieties and their duration 86 91 89 100 91.5 7 home needs 86 100 78 92 89 8 market situation 86 100 78 92 89 9 agro climatic conditions 86 100 78 100 91 10 soil type and fertility 86 100 89 100 93.75 11 availability of seeds 86 91 100 92 92.25 12 availability of fertilizers 86 100 89 92 91.75 13 risk bearing ability 29 64 33 62 47 14 others 8 26 n = 40 activity is being undertaken by the farmer to meet the personal needs of the farm family. this was followed by availability of major resources like labour, seeds, fertilizers etc. the third set of factors relate to natural conditions such as soil type with fertility and agro climatic situations. the fourth one relates to risk bearing ability of the farmers. however, the crucial factors seem to be family needs, availability of inputs. 4. karnataka major factors influencing the farm decisions by the farmers were availability of labour, irrigation, credit, machinery, animal labour, seeds apart from the home needs. the farmers in the rainfed areas seem to be operating not only on the uncertainties of the rainfall but also the uncertainties of the input supplies during the needed times. hence, there seems to be an uncertain start for the farming activity, this reveals lack of management of supplies and planning by the concerned. hence it is necessary to develop a system of formulating a development strategy document incorporating needs of all the farmers for the district that could be supported by each actor. 5481factors influencing farmers decission in rainfed areas table 4. factors influencing farmers’ decisions in orissa sl.no. factors category of farmers (%) average marginal small medium large 1 availability of labour 62 57 100 73.0 2 availability of irrigation 100 100 100 100.0 3 availability of credit 75 71 100 82.0 4 crop varieties and their duration 31 7 12.7 5 home needs 56 64 20 46.7 6 market situation 25 100 100 75.0 7 agro climatic conditions 38 43 60 47.0 8 soil type and fertility 38 12.7 9 availability of seeds 56 64 20 46.7 10 availability of fertilizers 25 8.3 n = 40 5. madhya pradesh various factors influence the decision making at farm level. an attempt was made in the study to understand the factors that farmers use to make their decisions. the information in table 3 reveals that availability of various inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, labour, irrigation, credit have been one of the key sources for the farmers to undertake decisions for crop production apart table 5. factors influencing farmers’ decisions in rajasthan sl.no. factors category of farmers (%) average marginal small medium large 1 availability of labour 64 11 55 32.5 2 availability of irrigation 33 36 89 55 53.3 3 availability of credit 11 11 9 7.8 4 availability of machinery 67 91 89 73 80.0 5 crop varieties and their duration 67 27 56 36 46.5 6 home needs 100 73 89 82 86.0 7 market situation 67 55 78 45 61.3 8 agro climatic conditions 44 18 22 9 23.3 9 soil type and fertility 22 55 44 36 39.3 10 availability of seeds 22 64 33 64 45.8 11 availability of fertilizers 22 73 33 36 41.0 12 risk bearing ability 11 22 9 10.5 n = 40 journal of extension education5482 from the requirements from the home front to meet the home needs. the second type of factors were to agro climatic conditions, crops and their duration, market situation and soils and soil fertility. the third type of factor was risk bearing ability of the farming community. since most of the factors indicated by the farmers are manageable within the capacities of the delivery systems, it is necessary that the support systems for agricultural development are streamlined so that farmers do not feel a constraint in taking farm decisions at their level. 6. orissa many factors influence the production decisions being taken by the farmers. an attempt was made in the study to identify the factors being considered by the farmers. table 6. factors influencing farmers' decisions in tamil nadu sl.no. factors category of farmers (%) average marginal small medium large 1 availability of labour 40 58 73 57 57.0 2 availability of irrigation 100 83 100 100 95.8 3 availability of credit 70 83 73 100 81.5 4 availability of machinery 8 18 29 13.8 5 crop varieties and their duration 40 25 18 14 24.3 6 home needs 40 42 55 29 41.5 7 market situation 40 67 55 57 54.8 8 agro climatic conditions 80 75 45 57 64.3 9 soil type and fertility 60 17 36 29 35.5 10 availability of seeds 40 58 64 57 54.8 11 availability of fertilizers 20 42 27 29 29.5 12 risk bearing ability 20 9 7.3 n = 40 the results table 4 indicate that farm decisions were mainly influenced by the availability of the inputs such as irrigation, credit, market situations, labour, seeds and fertilizers. nearly half of the farmers were influenced by the home needs. 7. rajasthan farm decision making is influenced by various factors for the rain fed farmers. the data presented in table 5 highlights that meeting home needs was found to be a crucial factor among all the farmers. this was followed by the availability of animal labour and machinery being crucial to undertake any agricultural activity. the other important factors influencing farm decision making were the market situation and the availability of irrigation. apart from this, availability of inputs and the risk bearing ability of the 5483factors influencing farmers decission in rainfed areas farmers were found to influence quick decision making among the farmers. 8. tamil nadu many factors influence the farm decision making by the farmers in rain fed areas. the results in table 6 highlight the availability of irrigation and credit as the crucial factors influencing in more than 80 % of the cases followed by agro climatic conditions, availability of labour, seeds and market situation. the third set of factors influencing farm decisions were soil type and fertility, crop duration and availability of fertilizer. however, home needs were found to be crucial among 40 – 55 % among different categories of farmers. 9. uttar pradesh the table 7 indicates that the various factors considered by the farmers in taking decisions relating to farming activity. it could be observed from the table that the availability of irrigation has been a major factor in deciding the technology to be used by the farmers and the cropping pattern. this is followed by availability of seeds, soil fertility, availability of labour, risk, home needs, market, credit etc. the crucial factors in making decisions relating to farm activity were found to be home needs, availability of inputs including irrigation and labour, market situation and the risk involved in undertaking the activity. any strategy to improve the farming systems has to consider the criteria set by farmers to evaluate their own situations. 10. west bengal farm decision making is influenced by various factors among different categories of farmers. table 7. factors influencing farmers’ decisions in uttar pradesh n = 40 sl.no. factors category of farmers (%) average marginal small medium large 1 availability of labour 44 67 57 62 57.5 2 availability of irrigation 78 100 86 75 84.8 3 availability of credit 56 44 50 38 47.0 4 availability of machinery 56 33 36 12 34.3 5 crop varieties and their duration 33 44 36 38 37.8 6 home needs 56 44 50 62 53.0 7 market situation 33 67 57 62 54.8 8 agro climatic conditions 56 67 43 50 54.0 9 soil type and fertility 22 33 100 50 51.3 10 availability of seeds 78 67 79 62 71.5 11 availability of fertilizers 44 33 57 38 43.0 12 risk bearing ability 67 56 57 25 51.3 journal of extension education5484 the major factors influencing were found to be availability of seeds, labour, machinery, fertilizers etc. 56 % of the farmers indicated home needs as a factor influencing farm decision. apart from the above factors, agro climatic situations, market situations, credit availability, risk bearing ability etc. also influence the farmers decisions. it could be observed from the result indicate that the major factors influencing decisions were the input availability, home needs apart from agro climatic situations. since agro climatic situations cannot be modified, the possibility of organizing appropriate input supply and meeting the home requirements of the farming community by effective planning process is a crucial requirement in improving the condition of the rainfed farmers. conclusion in rain fed areas farmers considered not only factors related to inputs but also other factors like risk bearing ability, agro climatic conditions & market situations for taking decisions in agricultural production. keeping this scenario in the view the agriculture and allied departments including marketing has to retune their delivery mechanisms for increasing productivity in rainfed areas. wrapper.cdr 6417 1 ph.d scholar and 2professor, department of agricultural extension, annamalai university, annamalainagar 608002, tamil nadu, india. received : 03-03-2020; accepted : 05-06-2020 strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change perspectives of the farmers of north-east india sesenlo kath ¹ and k. kanagasabapathi ² abstract climate change is one of the biggest environmental threats facing the world, potentially impacting food production and security. there is increasing evidence that climate change will strongly affect the north eastern region of india, especially the state of nagaland and will be one of the challenging issues for future development. an attempt has been made to collect data from three hundred farmer respondents for providing suggestions to overcome the ill effects of climate change. the farmers suggested measures such as ‘provision of adequate funds to the grassroots level workers and functionaries’, ‘creating intensive awareness among farmers about climate change and adaptation’ and ‘developing low cost adaptation technology’. keywords: climate change; vulnerability; mitigate; intensive awareness; climate change; adaptation; nagaland. climate change is one the biggest challenges facing the world, potentially impacting food production and security, sustained water supply, biodiversity of forests and other natural ecosystems, human health and settlements. climate change modeling studies for india show that the indian subcontinent in likely to experience a warming of over 3-5°c and significant changes (increases and decreases) in flood and drought frequency and intensity. nagaland, one of the agrarian states of north -east india is also characterized by diverse climate regimes which are highly dependent on the southwest monsoon (june-october). over 70.00% of the crop area is under rainfed agriculture, and it is highly vulnerable to climate variability and climate change. the natural resources are also subjected to degradation and loss due to deforestation, unsustainable shifting cultivation practices, increased extraction of fuel wood, shortening of jhum cycle (shifting cultivation) and forest fire leading to deforestation. further, the poorest people are the most vulnerable to adverse impacts of climate change because they often reside in high exposure areas and also have low adaptive capacity to cope with climate risks. the objective of this study is to solicit suggestions from the grassroots farmers so that the policies by development research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 4, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.4.31.6417-6420 6418 table 1. distribution of respondents based on suggestions to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in agriculture (n= 300) sl. no. suggestions of farmers frequency percentage rank 1. provision of adequate funds to the grassroot level workers and farmers for adoption of adaptation measures. 285 95.00 i 2. creating intensive awareness among farmers about climate change and adaptation strategies towards climate change. 280 93.33 ii 3. developing low cost adaptation technology to be adopted by all irrespective of their socioeconomic conditions. 264 88.00 iii 4. establishing a research centre for adaptation to climate change, so that farmers can access information and technology. 250 83.33 iv 5. providing farm machineries and equipment suited for hilly terrain areas 240 80.00 v 6. establishing more number of value additions and processing units for agricultural produce. 235 78.33 vi 7. arranging for proper road infrastructure and connectivity to all the farms. 225 75.00 vii 8. providing timely information and early warning about changes in weather. 210 70.00 viii 9. constructing infrastructural facilities for cold storage 204 68.00 ix 10. developing more number of drought and heat tolerant varieties of crops. 180 60.00 x 11. developing crop varieties which can withstand frost and water logging. 174 58.00 xi 12. offering compensation to the farmers in case of natural calamities. 135 45.00 xii 13. extending crop insurance to all the crops. 120 40.00 xiii journal of extension education 6419 agencies can be designed to improve the most vulnerable sectors. methodology the present investigation was carried out in tseminyu sub-division of kohima district in nagaland, a constituent state in india. the respondents were identified and selected from eleven villages under chunlikha rural development blocks (r.d. block). proportionate random sampling technique was followed to select a sample size of 300 respondents .the data were collected using a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule. the respondents were requested to offer their suggestions to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change which they feel more important from the listed items. suitable statistical analysis like percentage analysis and rank correlation were done to interpret the results. findings and discussion the various suggestions given by the farmer respondents to overcome the constraints in the adoption of improved agricultural practices to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in north-east india are given in table 1. thirteen suggestions were identified from the farmers and they are reported in percentages and ranked accordingly. the data from table 1 reveal that majority of the respondents (95.00%) suggested ‘provision of adequate funds to the grassroots level workers and farmers for adoption of adaptation measures’ and this was ranked as the first major suggestion. ‘creating intensive awareness among farmers about climate change and adaptation strategies towards climate change’ (93.33%) was ranked as the second major suggestion given by the respondents. ‘developing low cost adaptation technologies so that it can be adopted by all irrespective of their socio-economic conditions’ (88.00 %) was ranked as the third major suggestion given by the respondents. ‘establishing a research centre or institute for adaptation to climate change; so that the farmers can easily access the information and technology’ (83.33 %) was ranked as the fourth major suggestion given by the respondents. ‘providing farm machineries and equipments suited for hilly terrain areas’ (80.00 %) was ranked as the fifth major suggestion given by the respondents. ‘establishing more number of value addition and processing units for agricultural produce’ (78.33 %) was ranked as the sixth major suggestion given by the respondents. ‘arranging for proper road development and connectivity to all the farms’ (75.00 %) was ranked as the seventh major suggestion given by the respondents. ‘providing timely information and early warning about changes in weather’ (70.00 %) was ranked as the eighth major suggestion given by the respondents. similar observation was also made by vinaykumar (2015). thus the farmers of nagaland offered suggestions to administrators, researchers and policy makers to design policies and programmes to face the threats of climate change to agriculture and food security. the suggestions of the farmers need to be looked and analyzed further by the researchers, planners, policy makers and strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change perspectives of the farmers of north-east india 6420 developmental agencies. programmes need to be designed in such a way that they satisfy, fulfill and address their grievances towards climate change. also it is necessary to reorient the policies and programmes so that the threats of climate change can be addressed effectively. reference vinaykumar, c.t. & umesh k.b. (2015). perception and adaptation of the farmers to climate change. karnataka journal of agricultural science, (special issue) 28(5): 822-824. journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6343 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6343-6348 1 senior scientist & head, icar-krishi vigyan kendra, 2 6 subject matter specialist, icar-central island agriculture research institute, andaman and nicobar islands 744 201. received : 08-12-2019; accepted : 03-03-2020 cultivation and marketing knowledge level of areca nut farmers in andaman & nicobar islands b. l. kasinath1, b.l. meena2, shailesh kumar3, s.v.lal4, p. kapoor5 and b. gangaiah6 abstract areca nut (areca catechu l) also known as betel nut or supari is the second most important plantation crop of andaman and nicobar islands (ani) after coconut it has been observed that wide differences in productivity of areca nut exist among the farmers with in a village due to socio-economic status. a survey based study was conducted to understand the knowledge level of areca nut growers and link to productivity vis-a-vis socio-economic status. for this purpose, 120 areca nut farmers from four villages of harinagar panchayat were randomly selected. data collected were analysed following standard statistical procedures. the results showed that 52.5% of areca nut growers had poor knowledge of cultivation and marketing. the study also revealed that about 45% growers had poor knowledge about selection of suitable site, soil and spacing requirement for plants. the analysis of socio-economic factors with knowledge level of farmers revealed that knowledge of respondents increased with the increase in their education and land holdings whereas it was negatively correlated with age and annual income. further, the study also suggests that, educating the farmers through mass media, capacity building and demonstration will help them in learning/ adopting new technologies, which in turn help them to increase their productivity level and farming income on sustainable basis. keywords: knowledge; areca nut; productivity; socio-economics; andaman & nicobar islands introduction areca nut (areca catechu l.) is an important commercial plantation crop grown in india. the research and extension institutions recommend of improved production technologies to farmers for achieving higher returns, yet the growers are not following all the recommended technologies and their cultivation pattern vary from farmer to farmer according to their personal, psychological, socio-economical characteristics, availability of inputs for cultivation and avenues for marketing of areca nut. a study in uttaranchal had showed that 73.60 per cent knowledge gap existed with respect to adoption of improved agricultural practices (chandra and pandey, 2006). hence, it was felt to analyse knowledge and adoption levels of 6344 recommended cultivation practices of areca nut growers; their economic performance in relation to their personal, psychological, socioeconomical characteristics and the problems faced by them. keeping this in view the present study has been undertaken to study and ascertain knowledge level of farmers in the middle andaman regarding areca nut cultivation and marketing and its relationship with farmers’ socio economic characteristics. methodology the study was conducted in the year 2017-18 in middle andaman area of north and middle andaman district. four villages under harinagar panchayat viz., harinagar,kamalapur,pinakininagar and jaipur representing major areca nut growing belt was selected for the study in consultation with local line departments. a total of 120 farmers were selected randomly for the study and data was collected using pre-tested structural schedule through personal interview method. the data were analyzed and tabulated using frequency and percentage. the knowledge level of farmers was measured using three point scale on areca nut grower’s knowledge about selection of suitable site/soil, selection of suitable varieties, spacing and proper method of land preparation, application of manure (fym) and fertilisers, knowledge about pests and diseases, pesticides, fungicides and weedicides, waiting period & pesticide residue. knowledge was evaluated in terms poor knowledge, medium knowledge and good knowledge. knowledge of individual farmer was calculated by adding the scores of 14 dimensions. in addition to this information on age and education was also collected and analysed during the study. findings and discussion the knowledge adoption is a social process (rogers, 2003) and the behaviour is influenced by many factors like social networks, personal circumstances, education and economic situations (singh et al., 2011). in this study, the majority of respondents were in the age group of less than 60 years (38%). it was observed that only 28 per cent of young (age <35 years) are engaged in areca nut cultivation. the education level of respondents showed that 46.66 per cent farmers are illiterate/ studied up to 8th standard and only 33.33 per cent farmers studied up to secondary level. only 20 per cent of them had completed the graduation. table-1 shows that in the present study it was found that 44.16 per cent respondents owned less than 1.0 ha while majority of farmers owned less than 1.0 ha area under areca nut cultivation. areca nut crop contributes major proportion of income (57.5%) of farmers out of their total annual income (more than 1.5 lakhs). the annual income (more than 2.0 lakhs) of the majority of farmers (46.66 %) are categorised in higher income group and areca nut cultivation contributes around 50 per cent of annual income of the farmers. as shown in table-2, knowledge levels of respondents were analysed considering 14 parameters. majority of farmers were found to possess poor knowledge about site selection and suitable soil requirement for the journal of extension education (conference special) 6345 crop (43 %). this may be due to the fact that the farmers owning mostly hilly land and are forced to take up the cultivation irrespective of soil types. for growing a successful crop, improved varieties play a vital role and the study shows that 46.66 per cent farmers do not have knowledge about availability of high yielding disease resistance varieties/ hybrids, which is very much essential to minimize the crop loss as well as reduces the cost of production through minimising the table.1 socio economic profile of areca nut growers (n=120) sl. no. profile characters classification respondents frequency percentage 1 age less than 35 years (young) 34 28.33333 35 to 60 years (middle) 46 38.33333 above 60 years(old) 40 33.33333 2 education level illiterate/less than viii std 56 46.66667 up to xii std. 40 33.33333 graduate & above 24 20.00 3 total owned area less than 1 ha 53 44.16667 1.0 ha to 2.0 ha 35 29.16667 more than 2.0 ha 32 26.66667 4 area under areca nut less than 1 ha 83 69.16667 1.0 ha to 2.0 ha 21 17.5 more than 2.0 ha 16 13.33333 5 total annual income less than rs 1.5 lakh (low) 20 16.66667 rs.1.5 to rs 2.0 lakh (medium) 44 36.66667 more than rs 2.0 lakh (high) 56 46.66667 6 income from arecanut cultivation less than rs1.0 lakh (low) 12 10.00 rs. 1.0 lakh to rs 1.5 lakh (medium) 39 32.5 more than rs 1.5 lakh (high) 69 57.5 cultivation and marketing knowledge level of areca nut farmers in andaman & nicobar islands 6346 requirement of plant protection chemicals, and for achieving desirable yields and income. in the present study, it was observed that majority of farmers were not aware about application of manure and fertilizers application (56.66 %), possessed poor knowledge about pest and diseases (53.33%), and poor knowledge (56.66 %) on use of table 2. knowledge level of respondents about basic agricultural practices sl. no. cultivation practices level of knowledge poor knowledge medium knowledge good knowledge frequ ency percen tage frequ ency percen tage frequ ency percen tage 1 selection of suitable site/soil 52 43.33 44 36.66 24 20 2 selection of suitable varieties 56 46.66 44 36.66 20 16.66 3 spacing and proper method land preparation 52 43.33 48 40 20 16.66 4 application of manure (fym) application & fertilisers 68 56.66 32 26.66 20 16.66 5 knowledge about pests and diseases 64 53.33 32 26.66 24 20.00 6 knowledge about pesticides, fungicides and weedicides 68 56.66 32 26.66 20 16.66 7 about waiting period knowledge for pesticide residue 76 63.33 24 20 20 16.66 8 knowledge about biological control methods 88 73.33 28 23.33 4 3.33 9 knowledge about use of organic pesticides/ bio control methods 71 59.16 28 23.33 21 17.5 10 knowledge about harvesting index 48 40 51 42.5 21 17.5 11 knowledge of post harvest handling/packing 56 46.66 32 26.66 32 26.66 12 knowledge about grading 52 43.33 44 36.66 24 20.00 13 knowledge about marketing 64 53.33 40 33.33 16 13.33 14 knowledge about marketing costs 72 60 32 26.66 16 13.33 mean 63.35 36.5 20.14 journal of extension education (conference special) 6347 pesticides/fungicides. this may be due to less pest and disease problems in areca nut crop in the island, non-availability of plant protection chemicals and lack of awareness about pest and diseases as they are still dependent on agricultural department for supply of plant protection chemicals. the data presented in table-3 shows the overall knowledge level of respondents towards basic areca nut cultivation practices. it was observed that 52.5 per cent of respondents possessed poor knowledge, about latest technologies/skills in areca nut cultivation. this may be mainly due to lower socio-economic status of the farmers. the adoption behaviour is influenced by many factors like their social networks, personal circumstances, education and economic situations (singh et al., 2011). thus there is need to increase the level of knowledge through awareness training/ demonstrations in order to achieve the desirable yield levels in areca nut cultivation on sustainable basis. the knowledge level of respondents in different dimensions of areca nut cultivation were subjected to correlation analysis with their socio-economic parameters like land holdings, age, education and annual income as given in table-4. the knowledge level about cultivation, marketing aspects of areca nut showed land holdings and education level showed positive correlation and on the table 3. overall classification of knowledge level of respondents towards basic agricultural practices sl. no. knowledge level of respondents classification frequency percentage 1 poor knowledge 63 52.5 2 medium knowledge 37 30.83333 3 good knowledge 20 16.66667 total 120 100.00 cultivation and marketing knowledge level of areca nut farmers in andaman & nicobar islands table 4. correlation of socio economic status with knowledge level of respondents sl. no. socio economic parameter knowledge correlation coefficient “r” 1 total owned area 0.9635341 2 area under areca nut 0.9439795 3 total annual income -0.99756 4 income from areca nut -0.988676 5 age -0.988676 6 educational level 0.9927778 6348 other hand income and age were negatively correlated. it can be consumed that educated farmers are more motivated towards learning new innovations in farming. conclusion the farmers in middle andaman possessed poor to medium level of knowledge in areca nut cultivation practices. it was observed that farmers had poor knowledge in use of improved varieties for better productivity and returns and possessed medium knowledge level in nutrient, and have poor knowledge in plant protection and postharvest management aspects. this may be the reason for the lower productivity levels and lower annual income in island farmers. further it was found that due to lack of storage and subsidised transport facilities, they have been forced to sell their produce at local markets that too to middlemen. effort should be made by developmental departments for establishment of fpos and subsidized transport and storage facilities should be provided. in order to increase the productivity, effort should be made by the extension institutions in motivating and educating the farmers through mass media, capacity building programmes and demonstrations. references chandra, n. & pandey, d. (2006) transfer of technology in hill agriculture. in gupta, h.s., srivastav, a.k. and bhatt, j.c. (eds) sustainable production from agricultural watersheds in north west himalaya. vivekanand parvitiya krishi anusandan sansthan,almora,pp526-534. rogers, e. m. (2003). diffusion of innovations. free press. new york. singh, d. k., gautam, u. s., singh. s. r. k., & patle, n. k., (2011). awareness of farmers related crop production technology in sagar, madhya pradesh. indian journal of extension education. 47 (1&2):113-116. journal of extension education (conference special) 6256 analysis of faro 44 rice technologies adoption among farmers in nigeria ibrahim mohammed1 abstract the study examines the adoption of faro 44 rice among fadama project particpants. a multistage sampling technique was used to select 336 fadama project farmers from three agricultural zones. data collected were analysed using adoption scale and factor analysis as well as frequency and percentages. majority of males were within the active age of 19-36years; married with farming experience of 16-20 years having 0.5-1ha of rice plot. technologies such as improved seed recommended spacing; seed per hole; use of granular fertilizer were adopted by male respondents. processing technologies adopted by male were only threshing and bagging. for storage technologies male respondents had adopted jute bags; rhumbus and silos while female respondents used only jute bags because it is cheaper and easy to handle. factors constraining adoption were communication gap between farmers and facilitators; untimely delivery of inputs; transplanting too tedious and high cost of false bottom. it was concluded that majority of the technologies were at evaluation and trial stage for both male and female respondents. keywords : fadama project; rhumbus ; faro; rice; factor analysis; adoption; nigeria 1 sr. lecturer, department of agricultural extension and rural development, federal university of technology, minna, niger state, nigeria introduction “fadama” is a hausa name for irrigable land-usually low-lying plain underlay by shallow aquifers found along nigeria’s major river system. the fadama iii additional financing a collaborative project of the world bank, federal and state government which has been of immense benefit to farmers in niger state in nigeria. the project has greatly enhanced the capacity of farmers, increased their income, boosted their economy and made life more worthy of living (ibrahim, 2016a). this project has helped to develop the farmers-managed irrigation scheme. rice has long become a stable food in the nigeria food chain. nigeria no doubt, has natural endowment to be self-sufficient in rice production in less than 5years but has been impeded all a long by conflicting policies and import waivers which permitted large foreign owned rice processing mills to import brown rice from south east asia thereby exporting badly needed jobs to those countries of import and increasing unemployment locally. farming is not just an option in niger state but received : 01-06-2019; accepted : 22-07-2019 research article journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 2, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.2.31.6256-6263 6257 a necessity, considering the vast fertile land and other resources, the state can feed the entire west africa (ibrahim, 2016b). the most important determinants of the effectiveness of research results is the level of adoption of innovation that it generates, and on their profitability (caswell, 2001). a common problem for many individuals and organization is how to speed up the rate of diffusion of a research program’s innovations the main objective of the study is to examine the factor analysis of adoption of faro 44 rice among fadama users group (fugs), describe the socio-economic characteristics of the fadama user groups and identify constraining factors hindering adoption of faro 44 rice variety. methodology the study was conducted in niger state of nigeria. out of twenty-five local governments that made up the state, three local governments namely katcha (zone i), shiroro zone (ii) wushishi (iii) were purposively selected for the study. their selection were based on the preponderance of fadama user groups (fugs). multi-stage sampling techniques were adopted for the study. in the first stage two production clusters were selected from each of the zones. in the second stage seven production groups were randomly selected from each of the production cluster and finally four females and four males were interviewed from each of the production groups. this gave a total of 336 respondents. data were collected from the respondents using structure interview scheduled. data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics like mean and percentage. adoption scale analysis was used to analyse the level of adoption of faro-44 technologies. seven point likert scale was adopted to ascertain level of adoption. the scale scores are as follows : unaware (0), aware (1), interest (2), evaluation (3), trial (4), accept (5), reject (6). each item will therefore be computed by multiplying the frequency of each response pattern with its appropriate nominal value and dividing the sum with the number of respondents to the item. this is summarized with equation below. xs=∑ where xs= mean score ∑= summation f=frequency n= likert nominal value nr= number of respondents any respondent who had mean score of three (3) or greater than mean score is said to adopted faro 44 technology for that item while any score below three (3) is said to have rejected the technology in question. factor analysis procedure was employed with varimax rotation. the constraints were grouped using principal component analysis with iteration and varimax rotation method. the cut-off point constraint loading was within the range of 0.3-0.5. variables that load in more than one constraint will be discarded following akinnagbe (2013) and ibrahim (2016). fn nr analysis of faro 44 rice technologies adoption among farmers in nigeria 6258 the model is presented in equation…… (1) y1= a11x1 + a12x2 + **********+a1nxn y2= a21x1 + a22x2 + **********+a2nxn y3= a31x1 + a32x2 + **********+a3nxn * * * yn= an1x1 + an2x2 + **********+anmxn where; y1, y2 ………… y2 =observed variable/ constraints to linkage / practice a1 an =constraints to correlation coefficients; x1, x2, ……… xn = unobserved underlying factors constraining linkage practice findings and discussion table 1 shows that (64.3%) of males were in the age bracket of 19-36 years which is the active stage of life making it possible to withstand the rigor associated with the farming activities while only 41.7% of their female counterparts were in that age range. about 62.5% of the male respondents had secondary education while only 30.4% of the female counterparts had the same. this means that most of the female respondents were not allowed to continue with their secondary education because of marriage or other reasons. about 83.4% of male respondents had farming experience of 11-20 years while only 32.8% of their female counterparts had the same. this implies that with more experience in farming activities, farmers become less averse to the risk. all (100%) respondents were members of one cooperative or the other. this was possible because the sample was drawn from production clusters. almost all 98% of the two categories of the respondents cultivated one hectare of land. which may probably be as a results of the fadama iii af package. majority 68.5% of male respondents had the house hold size of 6-10 persons while only (35.7%) of their female counterparts had same, probably because of table 1 distribution of respondents according to socio-economic characteristics n=336 sl. no. socio-economic characteristics male female pooled f % f % f % i age (years) 1 1-18 3 1.8 3 0.9 2 19-36 108 64.3 70 41.7 178 53.0 3 37-54 50 29.8 90 53.6 140 41.7 4 >54 10 6.0 5 3.0 15 4.5 ii marital status 1 single 3 1.8 5 3.0 8 2.4 journal of extension education 6259 the polygamy being practiced in most of the rural farm families in the rural communities. effiong (2005) reported that a relatively large house hold size enhances the availability of sl. no. socio-economic characteristics male female pooled 2 married 165 98.2 155 92.3 320 95.2 3 separated 4 2.3 4 1.2 4 divorced 4 2.3 4 1.2 iii educational level 1 no schooling 3 1.8 25 14.9 28 6.0 2 primary 55 32.7 90 53.6 145 43.1 3 secondary 105 62.5 51 30.4 156 46.4 4 tertiary 5 3.0 2 1.2 7 2.1 iv membership of cooperative 1 member 168 100 168 100 336 100 2 non-member v farming experience 1 <5 7 4.2 7 2.1 2 5-10 20 11.9 89 53.0 109 32.4 3 11-15 50 29.8 35 20.8 85 25.3 4 16-20 90 53.6 20 12.0 110 32.7 5 21-25 6 3.6 15 9.0 21 6.3 6 26-30 2 1.2 2 1.2 4 1.2 vi farm size (ha) 1 0.5-1.0 165 98.2 166 98.8 331 98.5 2 1.1-1.5 3 1.8 2 1.2 5 1.4 vii household size 1 0-5 50 29.8 105 62.5 155 46.1 2 6-10 115 68.5 60 35.7 175 52.0 3 11-15 3 1.8 3 1.8 6 1.8 4 >15 viii occupation 1 full time farmer 165 98.2 128 98.2 293 87.2 2 part time farmer 3 1.8 40 23.8 43 12.8 analysis of faro 44 rice technologies adoption among farmers in nigeria 6260 labour. this implies that adoption cost, risk perception labour requirement and human capital requirements are definitely reduced. level of faro 44 variety adoption technologies the results show that recommended improved rice seed had the highest frequency of adoption with a score of 93 for the male famers followed by 66 for recommended table 2 frequency distribution of male and female respondents by stages of adoption of faro 44 rice production, processing and storage technologies sl. no. tec una -ware aware interest evalu ation trial ado -ption reje -cted adoption mean score i production technologies m f m f m f m f m f m f m f m f 1 is 0 0 12 19 20 38 13 25 30 32 93 54 0.0 0.0 4.0 3.4 2 tp 12 0 25 29 26 26 25 43 50 41 30 29 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.1 3 dp 31 0 35 25 37 39 30 53 35 30 0.0 21 0.0 0.0 2.0 2.9 4 td 0 0 30 15 25 25 20 22 44 25 49 44 0.0 0.0 3.3 2.7 5 s 45 36 38 45 27 29 33 44 20 14 5 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.8 1.9 6 rs 0 0 7 6 20 15 35 45 40 35 66 67 0.0 0.0 3.8 3.8 7 sph 0 0 45 58 25 35 27 25 28 20 43 10 0.0 20 3.0 2.7 8 pb 45 50 54 60 25 30 24 28 20 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.4 1.2 9 fag 0 0 12 30 17 25 25 45 35 33 79 35 0.0 0.0 3.9 3.1 10 fas 0 0 35 45 47 44 42 37 25 27 19 15 0.0 0.0 2.7 2.5 11 wcm 0 45 35 40 27 33 47 22 33 28 26 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.9 1.7 12 mbs 45 40 35 25 25 37 20 27 15 19 28 20 0.0 0.0 2.1 1.5 13 wm 0 0 15 17 25 47 30 38 40 34 58 32 0.0 0.0 3.6 3.1 14 fal 0 38 45 40 40 39 30 27 23 24 10 0.0 20 0.0 2.6 1.8 15 fas 0 44 55 36 45 45 25 21 10 22 13 0.0 20 0.0 2.3 1.6 16 h 0 45 35 38 28 40 45 32 33 13 7 0.0 20 0.0 3.1 1.7 17 r 0 32 35 41 45 34 37 27 31 34 20 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.7 1.9 ii processing technologies 1 t 0 0 25 29 15 35 25 82 20 12 83 10 0.0 0.0 3.7 2.4 2 fb 45 0 25 20 35 15 15 75 25 35 10 23 13 0.0 2.2 3.2 3 ds 42 0 35 35 25 25 27 70 19 20 20 18 0.0 0.0 2.0 2.3 spacing of 20 cm by 20 cm. this means that male respondents want to optimize the space and maximize outputs. recommended quantity of granular fertilizer application had a score of 79. this implies that respondents attach value to granular fertilizer than any other production inputs in the study area apart from improved rice seed. this may probably be attributed to the role fertilizer plays in increasing the output of the farmers. journal of extension education 6261 source: field survey, 2017 where; tec= technologies ranging from 1-26 production technologies i.s (improve seed)25kg of faro 44/ ha; t.p (time of planting) (june) d. p(depth of planting) 3-4cm t.d(touch down) (preemergence herbicide) s(solito) (post emergence herbicides);r.s (recommended spacing)20cm by 20cm sph(seed per hole)4-5 seed p. b (puddling and bonding fag (fertilizer application “granular”) first dose (npk 15: 15: 15: 4 bags); fa (fertilizer application) second dose (urea 46:0:0 2bags); w.c (weed control measure) mbs(methods of bird scaring) wm(water management)fa (fertilizer application) “liquid” first dose (npk 2liters, boron 2liters; fa(fertilizer application second dose (urea liquid 2liters); h. (harvesting) r.(recoup) 25% processing technologies t (threshers) ufb (use of false bottom) for per boiling; ds. (drying slabs) d. (de-stoner) mg. (measurement gauge)b. bagging. storage technologies 23. jb (jute bag) r.(rhumbus) wh(ware house) s : sale 85% to off takers. factors constraining adoption of faro 44 among respondents table 4 shows factor matrix on adoption constraints. factors base on variable loading were used; four factors were identified and named. factor one (1) were economic related factors, (2). policy related factor; cultural related factors (3) and attitude related factors (4). items that loaded high in factor 1, (economics related constraints), included poor relationship between farmer/facilitator and desk officers (eigen value=.373); poor monitoring and evaluation (eigen value =.327); difficulty in raising counterpart fund (eigen value=.354); in ability to recoup 25% of the total harvest (eigen value=.301); farmers cum herdsmen sl. no. tec una -ware aware interest evalu ation trial ado -ption reje -cted adoption mean score 4 d 30 0 45 15 25 18 30 25 20 30 18 80 0.0 0.0 2.1 3.8 5 mg 0 0 45 47 35 40 25 33 20 19 15 17 28 12 2.9 2.6 6 b 0 0 12 55 18 25 25 35 45 28 68 15 0.0 10 3.8 2.4 iii storage technologies 1 jb 0 0 27 30 29 38 15 37 37 30 60 33 0.0 0.0 3.4 3.0 2 r 0 0 20 38 35 20 32 30 43 45 38 35 0.0 0.0 3.2 2.6 3 wh 30 30 35 25 30 28 20 20 25 18 18 20 10 27 2.4 2.8 4 s 30 38 25 20 20 26 15 22 30 29 20 19 28 14 3.0 2.5 analysis of faro 44 rice technologies adoption among farmers in nigeria 6262 clash (eigen value = .302), high cost of false bottom (eigen value=.486);items that loaded high in factor 2, (policy related constraints), is untimely delivery of inputs(eigen value= .783). while for cultural related factors were; transplanting is too tedious (eigen value= .413); poor saving culture (eigen value.335); while for attitude related factors are wide commutation gap between the famers and facilitators (eigen value.796) and liquid fertilizer not effective (eigen value. 460). table 4 factors constraining adoption of faro 44 technologies sl. no. variables factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 remarks 1 business plan not in line with farmers demand -.032 .025 d 2 poor relationship between farmer/ facilitator and desk officers .373* .134 .242 .040 s 3 poor monitoring and evaluation .327* .109 .282 .204 s 4 wide communication gap between the famers and facilitators .149 .035 .065 .796* s 5 untimely delivery of inputs .161 .783* .039 .077 s 6 germination percentage is low -.431* .041 .192 .042 s 7 difficulty in raising counterpart fund -.354* .020 .204 .045 s 8 liquid fertilizer not effective -.079 .050 .045 .460* s 9 transplanting is too tedious .164 .066 .413* .158 s 10 insufficient rain fall -.066 -.126 d 11 problem of qualee bird .014 .163 d 12 incidence of gall midge .175 .168 d 13 problem of iron toxicity .290 .0665 .107 -.145 ns 14 inability to recoup 25% of the total harvest .301* .261 .061 -.032 s 15 low pricing by the off takers .080 .049 .159 .007 ns 16 language barrier .025 .103 .060 .298 ns 17 poor saving culture .103 .055 .335* -.137 s 18 farmer cum herdsmen clash .302* .079 .078 .058 s 19 high cost of milling machine .276 .007 d journal of extension education 6263 key: d= discarded, s=significant ns= not significant method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalization. *significant conclusion it is concluded that male farmers attached more value to adoption of production technologies than processing technologies while female respondents had adopted most of the processing technologies than production technologies. moreso, recommended spacing of 20 cm by 20 cm had the highest percentage (74%) of adoption from the male respondents while solito (post emergence herbicide) had the highest percentage (28%) of rejection from female respondents. majority of the technologies were at evaluation and trial stages for both male and female respondents. the study recommends strengthening of the communication process among all the stakeholders. references akinnagbe, o.m. (2010). constraints and strategies towards improving cassava production and processing in enugu north agricultural zone of enugu state, nigeria. 20 high cost of threshers .032 .717 d 21 incidence of rodents in the store .032 .297 .043 .014 ns 22 wrong view of famers incapable of taking rational decision .080 -.303 .065 .239 ns 23 high cost of false bottom .486* .0400 .163 .107 s bangladesh journal of agricultural research, 35 (3): 387-397. casswell,k., ingram.c, jans. s & kasca, c. (2001). adoption of agricultural production practice: lesson learnt from the u.s, department of agriculture area studies project. washinton dc. us department of agriculture. resource economics division, economics research service. agricultural economics report no. 792, january,2001 effiong. e.o. (2005). effiency of production in livestock enterprise in akwa. imo state. nigeria. unpublished ph.d dissertation. department of agricultural economics. micheal okpara university of agriculture, umudike. p167. ibrahim. m. (2016a). good agronomic practice for rice production cluster. niger state fadama coordination unit. technical report of louma rice production cluster. p 36. ibrahim. m. (2016b). linkage practice among agricultural research institute and universities for agricultural innovation transfer in north central nigeria. unpublished ph.d thesis. department of agricultural extension and rural development. university of ilorin kwara, state. nigeria. pp145 analysis of faro 44 rice technologies adoption among farmers in nigeria 6626 constraints in production and marketing of arecanut in salem district of tamil nadu, india v. mohanraj1 and r. velusamy2 abstract arecanut is an important cash crop in our country. the study was carried out to ascertain the constraints faced by arecanut farmers in salem district of tamil nadu with a sample size of 120, by employing proportionate random sampling technique. majority of the respondents expressed lack of specific grading of nuts in marketing as a constraint. more than three-fourths of the respondents suggested that there should be a mechanism to regulate import of nuts from other countries and to create market potential for nuts in the local markets. keywords: arecanut; constraints; price risk; production; marketing; suggestions; tamil nadu arecanut (areca catechu) is an important cash crop in our country and it is extensively used in nuptical ceremonies, religious rites, chewing and mastication purposes. globally, india ranks first in terms of both area and production of arecanut with 54.07 per cent of world production (fao, 2017). the major arecanut growing states in india are karnataka, kerala, meghalaya, tamil nadu, west bengal and assam. about 6,884 ha is the total area under arecanut in tamil nadu. salem district accounts for 35.00 per cent of total area under arecanut cultivation in tamil nadu. the farmers and traders in that area expressed that quantity of nuts harvested from the trees dropped by 50 per cent due to drought in that area. badhe & tambat (2009) reported that more than three-fourths of respondents faced a major constraint in cultivating intercrops causing decrease in the yield of nuts and transmission of disease from intercrop. arecanut is grown mostly by marginal and small farmers with less than 2.0 hectares of land (kasinath et al., 2019) and needs less maintenance. thus, the identification of constraints in arecanut cultivation helps to address the constraints faced by farmers in both production and marketing, and to increase the area of arecanut. the main aim of the study is to assess the constraints and get suggestions in production and marketing of arecanut. the identification of constraints could help the policy makers and various stakeholders in approaching 1. department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore641 003. 2. department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, ac&ri, tnau, madurai-625 104. received : 19-04-2021; accepted : 11-06-2021 research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 4, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6626-6629 https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6626-6629 6627 and planning suitable remedial strategies for farmers in improving their livelihood. methodology the study was conducted in salem district of tamil nadu. it occupies first position in both the area (2,421 hectares) and production (3,445 tonnes) of arecanut in tamil nadu. among the 20 blocks in the district, peddanaickenpalyam, valapady, gengavalli and attur blocks were selected based on the area under arecanut crop. these blocks constitute 87.28 per cent of area under arecanut in this district. 120 arecanut farmers were selected for the study by employing proportionate random sampling technique. in peddanaickenpalayam block, 52 respondents were selected for the study due to more number of arecanut growers with more than 1,000 hectares of area. in valapady block, 36 respondents were selected with more than 700 hectares of area under arecanut cultivation, from gengavalli block, 21 respondents were selected and from attur block, 11 respondents were selected for the study. findings and discussion constraints faced by the arecanut growers in the production and marketing of arecanut the constraints encountered by the arecanut growers in production and marketing of arecanut are presented in table 1. constraints in production and marketing of arecanut in salem district of tamil nadu, india table 1. constraints encountered by arecanut farmers in production and marketing of arecanut in salem district (n=120)* sl.no. constraints number percentage i production constraints 1. drought 120 100.00 2. implements at high cost 50 41.67 3. lack of trainings on arecanut cultivation 120 100.00 4. premium for crop insurance is high 19 15.84 5. labour scarcity at seasonal time 70 58.34 6. organic compost rate is high 2 1.67 7. high cost of drone spraying of chemicals 2 1.67 ii marketing constraints 1. no exclusive market for arecanut 88 73.34 2. price fluctuations 97 80.84 3. middlemen involvement 97 80.84 4. no specific graders in marketing 101 84.17 5. importing of nuts affects the price 93 77.50 (*) multiple responses obtained 6628 the results show that 100 % of respondents had expressed that drought and lack of trainings in arecanut cultivation as the major constraints faced by farmers in arecanut cultivation. the drought experienced during the last five years had drastically reduced the area under arecanut cultivation. about 500 hectares of area under the areca palms had withered due to the effect of drought. for this, farmers are in need of trainings on improved practices to mitigate the drought. 58.34 per cent of respondents in the study area expressed labour scarcity at peak season as one of the major constraints. only a meagre percentage of respondents (1.67 per cent) expressed that high cost of organic compost and high cost of drone for spraying of chemicals as constraints. majority of the respondents (84.17 per cent) had expressed lack of specific grading of nuts in marketing as a constraint. the lack of specific grade of the nuts affects the price of nuts in the market, creating a negative impact on the farmers who have good quality nuts. suggestions it is inferred from table 2 that 100 % of respondents suggested that training on arecanut cultivation is needed to overcome the production and marketing problems. the training on improved technologies on arecanut cultivation is to maximize the production. majority of the respondents (83.33 per cent) suggested that timely & location specific market information would help the table 2. suggestions given by the arecanut growers to overcome the constraints (n=120)* sl.no. suggestions number percentage suggested measures on production 1. subsidy for purchase of implements 50 41.67 2. subsidy to purchase of organic composts 21 17.50 3. subsidy for drone spray 2 1.67 4. training on arecanut cultivation 120 100.00 5. farm mechanization 70 58.33 suggested measures on marketing 1. special market during season 92 76.67 2. creating export opportunities 93 77.50 3. import trade control 93 77.50 4. farmers groups as sellers 81 67.50 5. government procurement at field level 85 70.83 6. timely market information 100 83.33 7. specific grading for marketing of nuts 98 81.67 (*) multiple responses obtained journal of extension education 6629 farmers to avoid risks in marketing. timely market information helps the farmers to fetch better price for their produce, and it reduces the additional costs in marketing the produce. �specific grading in nuts should be followed in market� was suggested by 81.67 per cent respondents. the specific grades for arecanut help in exporting of nuts and fetch better price. this article reveals the constraints of the farmers in production and marketing of arecanut with measures suggested by farmers in mitigating the constraints. the major constraint was drought and farmers would need trainings on improved farm management practices to mitigate the effects of drought. references badhe, m. m & tambat, r. g. (2009). problems experienced by the arecanut growers in arecanut cultivation. asian sciences, 4(1 & 2), 45-46. fao. (2017). fao statistical yearbook 2017. food and agriculture organization of the united nations. kasinath, b. l. meena, b.l. shailesh kumar, lal, s.v. kapoor, p. & gangaiah, b. (2019). cultivation and marketing knowledge level of areca nut farmers in andaman & nicobar islands, journal of extension education, 31 (3). https://doi.org/10.26725/ jee.2019.3.31.6343-6348. constraints in production and marketing of arecanut in salem district of tamil nadu, india https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6343-6348. https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6343-6348. 6520 constraints faced in the adoption of technologies by chawki rearing centre entrepreneurs basavaiah1 and chandrashekar s. kallimani2 abstract chawki rearing centres (crcs) act as backbone of silkworm rearing activity. the study was conducted in 100 crcs of six traditional sericultural districts of karnataka with the objective of understanding the constraints faced by crc entrepreneurs in adoption of recommended technologies. through pilot survey, 30 constraints were identified and they were ranked based on garrett score. while shortage of farm laborers, scarcity of irrigation water, lack of technical guidance in pest and disease management, difficulty in harvesting leaf and shootlet alternatively and high labor wages were the major constraints in adoption of mulberry leaf production technologies, inadequate rearing space, scarcity of skilled workers, lack of space for supporting activities, lack of technical guidance to diagnose diseases and high wages of skilled workers were the major constraints in adoption of silkworm rearing technologies. measures to be taken to overcome these constraints are suggested. keywords: chawki rearing centre; constraints; karnataka; mulberry sericulture; entrepreneur 1department of studies in sericulture science, university of mysore, manasagangothri, mysuru, india and 2 krishi vigyan kendra, university of agricultural sciences, bengaluru, chamarajanagara, india. received : 13-12-2020; accepted : 02-02-2021 introduction mulberry sericulture involves many interlinked activities such as cultivation of mulberry for leaf, silkworm rearing by feeding mulberry leaf for cocoon and reeling of cocoons for raw silk productions. the success of silkworm rearing largely depends on the quality of young age silkworms. the young silkworms are popularly called ‘chawki’ and the specialized centers with exclusive facilities for rearing silkworms up to 2nd moult are termed as ‘chawki rearing centers’ (crcs). the concept of rearing chawki worms in crcs and rearing only adult worms at farmers’ level is being popularized by both central silk board (csb) and department of sericulture of different states through various schemes from the past four decades (anonymous, 2019). further, appropriate and economically viable technologies/practices on chawki rearing have been recommended by central sericulture research and training institute, mysore (sivaprasad et al., 2015) karnataka state sericulture research and development institute, bangalore (radhakrishna et al. research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 2, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.2.32.6520-6530 6521 2004). as a result, crc activity has become a successful entrepreneurship especially in karnataka. chawki rearing concept has contributed remarkably, by increasing the national average of cocoon productivity from 55kg to 65 kg in the past decade (shashindran nair and mishra, 2018). but, the studies related to the adoption of technologies by the crcs and constraints faced by crc entrepreneurs are limited, except for a few detailed studies (vijayakumari & rajan, 2005). the present study was conducted with the objective of understanding the constraints faced by entrepreneurs of the said crcs, in adopting the technologies related to mulberry leaf production exclusively for chawki and rearing as well as marketing of chawki worms. methodology the present study was conducted in crcs of six traditional sericultural districts of karnataka namely, bengaluru rural, chikkaballapura, kolar, mandya, mysore and ramanagara. these districts contribute nearly 81 % of raw silk production of the state and include nearly 72 % of crcs functioning in karnataka. altogether, 100 respondents (crc entrepreneurs) were selected from all the districts, using simple random sampling technique based on the data provided by state department of sericulture and institutions of central silk board. the crc entrepreneurs were categorized into four categories based on their brushing capacity (bc) of disease free layings (dfls) per annum as follows: crcs with 0.8 to 2.40 lakh dfls/yr as bc i; 2.41 to 4.00 lakh dfls/yr as bc ii; 4.10 to 5.60 lakh dfls/yr as bc iii and 5.61 to 13.60 lakh dfls/yr as bc iv. in all, fourteen constraints in the adoption of technologies related to mulberry leaf production were identified. further, these were classified in to input, technical and economic constraints. similarly, sixteen constraints identified in the adoption of technologies related silkworm rearing and marketing of chawki. these constraints were also classified in to infrastructure, extension, socio-economic and marketing constraints. the respondents were asked to rank the identified 14 constraints related to the adoption of mulberry leaf production technologies and 16 identified constraints related to rearing and marketing of chawki silkworm technologies. garrett ranking method (garrett, 1981) was used to analyze the constraints. the ranks given by the respondents were converted into percent position by using the following formula: 100 x (rij – 0.5) per cent position = nj where, rij = ranks given to the ith constraint by the jth crc entrepreneur nj = number of constraints ranked by the jth crc entrepreneur. by referring to the garrett’s table, the per cent positions estimated were converted into scores. thus, for each constraint the scores of the various crc entrepreneurs were added and the mean values were calculated. the mean values were arranged in descending order. the constraint with the highest mean value was considered as the most important constraints faced in the adoption of technologies by chawki rearing centre entrepreneurs 6522 one and the others followed in that order. the garrett score and rank were recorded brushing capacity wise. the average score of four categories of crcs was considered for overall ranking. findings and discussion two main activities of crcs are production of mulberry leaf for feeding to the young silkworms and rearing of silkworms up to 2nd moult. after 2nd moult the young worms will be sold to the sericulturists who rear the late age worms and produce cocoons. so, the constraints related to the adoption of mulberry leaf production technologies/practices and silkworm rearing technologies/practices are dealt separately. constraints related to mulberry leaf production the garrett score and rank of 14 constraints in the adoption of recommended technologies/practices related to mulberry leaf production faced by the entrepreneurs of four categories of crcs along with their average garett score and rank are presented in table 1. input constraints the input constraint ‘shortage of farm laborers at times’ with the highest garrett score (71.8) and first rank was found as a major constraint among the 14 constraints in all the four categories of crcs. further,it was the topmost constraint among the input constraints. dearth of farm laborers is a very serious problem in farming sector now-adays. as chawki mulberry leaf production is a more intensive farm activity requiring large number of manual laborers for application of manures, inter-cultivation, harvesting of leaf etc. at regular short intervals, it had become a very serious constraint. crc entrepreneurs have to resolve this constraint by proper planning of activities and mechanization of farming activities. second most important constraint was ‘scarcity of irrigation water’. most of the crcs of study area belong to drought prone areas /dry zone and face the problem of irrigation water scarcity especially during summer. drip irrigation system is recommended for mulberry and government is also encouraging to adopt this system by providing subsidy. though majority of the crcs have adopted drip irrigation system, their bore wells dry up during summer particularly in kolar, chikkaballapura, bengaluru rural and part of ramanagara districts. further, due to the same problem demand for chawki also decreases. to some extent, crcs overcome this problem by reducing their brushing capacity and also by marketing their chawki in other districts. other two input constraints viz. insufficient fym at disposal and nonavailability of ipm and idm materials with average garrett scores 53.9 and 51.6 and corresponding fourth and seventh ranks respectively, were serious constraints in some crcs. comparatively, the fym constraint was found more serious in crcs of bc ii category. as per the recommendation, 40 mt/ha of fym should be applied. though, crc entrepreneurs have high knowledge level (94%) and also adoption level (84%) of organic journal of extension education 6523 table 1. garrett score (gs) and rank (r) of constraints faced by the crc entrepreneurs in the adoption of mulberry leaf production technologies sl. no. constraints brushing capacity (bc) wise gs and r of crcs average of gs & r of crcsbc i (n=44) bc ii (n=32) bc iii (n=15) bc iv (n=9) gs r gs r gs r gs r gs r input constraints 1 shortage of farm labors at times 71.7 i 70.3 i 69.7 i 75.4 i 71.8 i 2 scarcity of irrigation water 68.6 ii 67.8 ii 66.0 ii 62.0 iii 66.1 ii 3 insufficient fym at disposal 56.8 vi 55.1 vii 55.9 vi 56.6 v 56.1 vi 4 non availability of ipm/idm materials 56.4 vii 50.0 xi 54.5 vii 54.9 vi 53.9 vii 5 shortage of leaf during demand for chawki 51.3 x 51.6 ix 52.9 viii 50.6 ix 51.6 ix technical constraints 6 lack of frequent technical guidance in pest and disease management 63.8 iv 64.3 iii 57.6 iv 60.6 iv 61.6 iii 7 difficulty in harvesting leaf and shoot-let alternatively 61.4 v 61.0 iv 58.6 iii 63.6 ii 61.1 iv 8 less technical support for soil health management 53.1 viii 53.7 viii 50.9 ix 52.8 vii 52.7 viii 9 lack of motivation for biofertilizers usage 47.2 xiii 45.0 xiii 49.1 xii 46.8 xi 47.0 xii 10 high incidence of leaf roller at times 42.0 xiv 46.4 xii 50.3 xi 48.8 x 46.9 xiii economic constraints 11 high labor wages for garden maintenance 64.8 iii 55.8 v 57.5 v 54.9 vi 58.2 v 12 add-on cost of land taken on lease 49.0 xi 55.5 vi 45.9 xiv 48.8 x 49.8 x 13 high cost of straight fertilizers 52.4 ix 50.6 x 48.2 x 46.5 xii 49.4 xi 14 less income from bio-wastes 47.9 xii 39.2 xiv 46.9 xiii 52.3 viii 46.6 xiv bc wise overall score 58.1 56.2 55.4 56.6 56.6 constraints faced in the adoption of technologies by chawki rearing centre entrepreneurs 6524 manure application to mulberry garden, many of them expressed that sometimes fym will not available even for purchase and they are compensating the shortage of fym by intercropping of green manures. (kallimani and basavaiah, 2020). integrated pest management (ipm) for major pests and integrated disease management (idm) for major diseases of mulberry are recommended. some of the crc entrepreneurs complained that, ipm and idm materials are not regularly available in the market. proper initiatives are required from the government to overcome this constraint. the last input constraint ‘shortage of leaf during demand for chawki’ is comparatively more severe in the crcs of bc iv category. when the leaf yield decreased due to adverse season and also when crcs brush the dfls more than their capacity to exploit the situation of sudden surge in the demand for chawki, crcs faced the problem of shortage of leaf. in such situations inevitably, they purchase the leaf from other sericulturists. sometimes, the poor quality leaf purchased from outside affect the quality of chawki. technical constraints among the 14 constraints and also among the five technical constrains, ‘lack of frequent technical guidance in pest and disease management’ was a very serious constraint with almost all the category of crcs. the prevalence of pest and diseases are more in chawki mulberry gardens and also the crc entrepreneurs are not well educated in understanding the management of all the pests and diseases. hence, they felt that regular technical guidance from the department officials for the management of pest and diseases of mulberry and also to provide information on the availability of ipm and idm materials as very much essential. next most important constraint with fourth rank was 'difficulty in harvesting leaf and shoot-let alternatively'. in harvesting and training schedule of chawki mulberry garden, leaf and young shoots harvesting in alternate crops is recommended. but, almost all the crcs are harvesting only young shoots at regular intervals of 40-45 days, as they found that it saves labour and the recommended technique has not much advantages. hence, it is suggested that scientists should demonstrate the technical advantage of their recommended practice in the field or else suitably modify their recommendation. crcs are attending the soil testing regularly once in two years as per the recommendation. even then, they face problems related to leaf quality maintenance which is directly related to soil health management. hence, they felt that there should be proper technical guidance from the extension officials. most of the crcs are not using biofertilizers to their garden and have considered that they are not important. many entrepreneurs also felt that there is lack of proper motivation for bio fertilizers usage. chawki mulberry garden is maintained only for leaf of young shoots which are eaten away by leaf roller. in the study area, the problem of leaf roller was sever almost throughout the year. hence, a large number of crc entrepreneurs require special technical support to overcome the menace of leaf roller. journal of extension education 6525 economic constraints top most important economic constraint was ‘high labor wages for garden maintenance’. it also ranked fifth in overall ranking of 14 constraints and hence, a very serious constraint in chawki mulberry leaf production. crc entrepreneurs expressed that, the labour wages are consistently increasing causing financial burden. increasing labour wages combined with dearth of farm table 2. garrett score (gs) and rank (r) of constraints faced by the crc entrepreneurs in the adoption of chawki rearing technologies sl. no. constraints brushing capacity (bc) wise gs and r of crcs average of gs & r of crcsbc i (n=44) bc ii (n=32) bc iii (n=15) bc iv (n=9) gs r gs r gs r gs r gs r a infrastructure constraints 1 inadequate rearing space 71.4 i 68.8 i 66.1 ii 75.4 i 70.4 i 2 scarcity of skilled workers 66.8 ii 64.1 iv 72.3 i 73.2 ii 69.1 ii 3 lack of space for supporting activities 67.1 iii 68.6 ii 56.0 vi 58.9 vii 62.3 iii 4 insufficient appliances & machines 64.7 iv 53.0 xi 56.0 vi 62.7 iv 59.1 vi 5 lack of assured quality dfls 56.2 ix 55.4 ix 51.4 x 57.6 vii 55.2 x b extension support constraints 6 lack of guidance to diagnose diseases 63.8 vi 64.3 iv 57.6 iv 60.6 v 61.6 iv 7 less demand for bivoltine chawki 57.3 vi 58.7 vii 58.9 vii 53.9 viii 57.2 viii 8 lack of scientific incubation facilities for bivoltine dfls 56.8 viii 56.1 viii 55.9 vii 56.6 viii 56.3 ix 9 lack of regularity in chawki certification 54.8 xi 50.2 xiv 49.5 xi 57.6 vii 53.0 xi c socio-economic constraints 10 high wages of skilled workers 56.1 x 57.3 vi 64.9 iii 67.0 iii 61.4 v 11 high initial establishment cost 64.4 v 56.3 vii 56.4 v 53.1 ix 57.6 vii constraints faced in the adoption of technologies by chawki rearing centre entrepreneurs 6526 laborers have aggravated the problems in farming sector. crc entrepreneurs have to resolve this constraint by proper planning of activities and their management skill. add-on cost of land taken on lease was another important constraint felt by the crc entrepreneurs. many of the crcs are not having sufficient land area on their own to raise chawki mulberry garden and have taken some land on lease basis. the increased lease amount will be a burden for such crcs. ‘high cost of straight fertilizers’ was also a serious constraint and was uniform in all the categories of crcs. application of straight fertilizers is recommended but they are nearly 20 per cent costlier over the complex fertilizers. hence, many crc entrepreneurs who were not able to understand the efficacy of recommendation/ bear the extra cost of straight fertilizers felt that it is an additional burden. alternatively, they are using more of complex fertilizers and thereby causing damage to soil health. the least important constraint among the economic constraints is ‘less income from bio-wastes generated’. during chawki rearing, bio-wastes like rearing bed waste, left over leaves, shoot-let bits etc. are generated continuously. some of the crcs are utilizing these wastes for composting, as feed for livestock etc. but, a few crc entrepreneurs who were not able to utilize these resources properly incurred loss and felt it as a constraint. the constraints such as insufficient fym at disposal, non availability of ipm/idm sl. no. constraints brushing capacity (bc) wise gs and r of crcs average of gs & r of crcsbc i (n=44) bc ii (n=32) bc iii (n=15) bc iv (n=9) gs r gs r gs r gs r gs r 12 unhealthy approach in rearing of quantity & batches per month 51.3 xv 52.8 xii 52.9 ix 50.6 xi 51.9 xiii d marketing constraints 13 chawki as perishable commodity resulting in losses 53.9 xii 53.8 x 43.6 xiv 57.6 vii 52.2 xii 14 crop replacement in cases of failures 51.7 xiv 64.8 iii 37.9 xv 52.1 x 51.6 xiv 15 erratic demand for chawki 52.6 xiii 51.8 xiii 46.2 xiii 47.9 xii 49.6 xv 16 demand for chawki on credit basis 36.2 xvi 42.8 xv 49.1 xii 46.8 xiii 43.7 xvi bc wise overall score 57.9 57.3 54.4 58.5 57.0 journal of extension education 6527 materials, high cost of straight fertilizers, less income from bio fertilizers may be solved by successful implementation of the eco-friendly cultivation practices (murali krishnan et al., 2015). while studying the constraints of crcs, vijayakumari and rajan (2006) have remarked that that lack of knowledge about the chawki garden is one of the major constraints in crc owners of karnataka. comparatively, the average garrett score is very high in bc i which, indicated that the seriousness of the constraints was very high in bc i. constraints in chawki silkworm rearing brushing capacity-wise garrett score and rank of various constraints faced by the crc entrepreneurs in the adoption of recommended technologies/practices related to chawki silkworm rearing are presented in table 2. infrastructure support constraints as the rearing is a main activity of crcs and it is specifically recommended to have 32’ x 40’ rearing hall for the rearing of 5000 dfls/batch. a large number of crcs were not having that much space and inevitably rear the silkworms in the limited space with crowded population of silkworms which led to poor quality of chawki. so, this was the major constraint with highest average garrett score 70.4 and first rank among the 16 constraints identified and also among the infrastructure constraints. it appeared that, these crcs were not invested more amount on rearing house. the next major constraint among the 16 as well as five infrastructure constraints was ‘scarcity of skilled workers’. skilled workers are very essential to attend the skilled works like, brushing of hatched worms, moulting care, maintenance of micro climate etc. this constraint was more serious in crcs of category bc iii (iv rank) and less serious in bc ii (ii rank) compared to other categories. the constraint was not so serious in crcs of bc ii because of the involvement of more number of family members in the rearing activity. to overcome this constraint, it is suggested to employ the sericulture graduates for the management of rearing activities. lack of space for supporting activities, the constraint with third rank was also more serious in crcs with low brushing capacity (bc i and bc ii) than in crcs with high brushing capacity (bc iii and bc iv). this indicated that, the crcs with low brushing capacity are not having proper accommodation for leaf preservation, black boxing, incubation, storing of appliances, testing and certification which are very much important for smooth functioning of crcs. the next important infrastructure constraint was ‘insufficient appliances & machines’. comparatively, it was less serious in crcs of bc ii which may be due to their medium level rearing activity. though, there are specific recommendations for the quantity of appliances like, rearing trays, stands etc. and machines like humidifier, sprayer, heaters etc. required for brushing of specific quantity of dfls. many of the crcs were found managing with insufficient appliances and machines compromising with the quality of chawki. to ensure quality chawki, quality of dfls is very much essential. the studies revealed that, 80% of the dfls are produced in the state is by private registered seed producers constraints faced in the adoption of technologies by chawki rearing centre entrepreneurs 6528 (anonymous, 2018) and there are frequent complaints of poor quality of dfls supply. hence, many crc entrepreneurs expressed that there were lacunae in the supply of quality dfls. extension support constraints among the four extension constraints, lack of guidance to diagnose the diseases of silkworms’ was found most serious with fourth rank. the young silkworms are prone to diseases which needs constant supervision by the technical persons. all the entrepreneurs are not having proper expertise and depend on skilled workers. to overcome this constraint, crc entrepreneur should employ the technically qualified supervisors and the government should also increase the extension support to the crcs. the constraint ‘less demand for bivoltine chawki’ with eighth rank was found to be more serious. in these traditional sericultural districts, farmers are interested more in rearing of cross breed than bivoltine hybrids. hence, crcs were not able to promote bivoltine. bivoltine eggs are supplied in loose eggs and need special facility for proper incubation. majority of the crcs lack this facility and dependent on grainages for incubation. since, this is very crucial technology, it is suggested for establishment of mass incubation centers by government in different regions to promote bivoltine. as per the amendment of seed act 2006 (angadi and nair, 2013), crcs need to certify the chawki for its quality, quantity as well as health status of chawki before distribution to farmers through either from csb or dos officials. but, this was not being regularly followed by the officials. hence, many genuine crc entrepreneurs who supply better quality chawki and facing unhealthy competition from crcs who supply poor quality chawki complained that, the certification system should be strengthened. hence, this problem needs to be addressed by the government. socio-economic constraints ‘high wages of skilled workers’ was found to be a very serious (v rank) socioeconomic constraint. comparatively, it was not so serious in crcs of bc i (x rank) and bc ii (vi rank) categories. in crcs, heavy investment on the establishment of rearing house with appliances and machines is inevitable. so, high initial establishment cost was found as serious constraint (vii rank). in view of maintaining the quality of chawki it is recommended to rear the optimum quantity of dfls in only three batches per month. contrary to this, majority of crcs rear overlapping batches with high quantity of dflsin order to have a continuous market for chawki. it was also observed that, crcs could lure the sericulurists by supplying 20-40 per cent of extra worms. marketing constraints chawki is a ‘perishable commodity’ and need to be sold to the farmers at 8th day. many times, due to climatic variations, farmers could not procure or postpone the procurement of chawki. on such situations, crcs discard the worms and tend to incur losses. the constraint ‘crop replacement in cases of failures’ was found very serious in crcs of bc journal of extension education 6529 ii (iii rank) unlike other category of crcs. to compete in the market, majority of the crc entrepreneurs replace the chawki, in case the chawki supplied earlier by them lost due to diseases. sometimes, this practice will become a burden to the crcs who consistently supply the quality chawki. during the period of study, demand for chawki fluctuated with seasons and price of cocoon and also became erratic occasionally. so, crc entrepreneurs felt that such fluctuations will be problematic. as a regular practice, the sericultrists demand to privide chawki on credit basis. to survive in the business, inevitably many crcs are extending this facility to their dependent sericulturists. occasionally, these crcs incurred losses due to non recovery of chawki amount. it is observed that, the marketing constraints are the result of unhealthy competition among the crcs, which is in agreement with the observations of shashindran nair and mishra (2018). conclusion among the various constraints faced by the crc entrepreneurs, input constraints in the case of mulberry leaf production technologies and infrastructure constraints in the case of chawki rearing technologies are the major constraints. the input constraints may be solved by crcs through proper planning and their management skill and also coordinating with the extension machinery. to overcome the infrastructure and economic constraints, the government should support crcs by extending loan and subsidy facilities. the technical constraints identified are more of extension oriented problems. to overcome these constraints, extension machinery of both state department and csb should enhance their extension support to the crcs. the chawki marketing constraints may be resolved by framing proper guidelines and strengthening the supervision by the government. comparatively, among the four categories of crcs studied, the crcs of bc iii had minimum constraints indicating that they are the better models to promote the crc concept. it is suggested to establish mass incubation centers, strictly implement the chawki certification system, restrict the activity area of each crc/group of crcs of a region and fix the uniform price for chawki to promote the crc activities in the study area. references angadi, b.s. & nair, s.k (2013) central silk board (amendment) act, 2006 –rules and regulations governing registration of chawki silkworm rearers. workshop on ‘role of chawki rearing centers (crc) in bivoltine silk production, csr&ti, mysore. p: 36-40 anonymous, (2018). citizens charter –201718, annual report, department of sericulture government of karnataka. : 19 anonymous, (2019). seri-states of india – a profile. compendium published by central silk board, bengaluru. : 6 kallimani c.s & basavaiah (2020). knowledge and adoption of mulberry leaf production technologies and their co-relationship with socio-economic factors of chawki rearing centre entrepreneurs in traditional sericultural districts of karnataka. research constraints faced in the adoption of technologies by chawki rearing centre entrepreneurs 6530 journal of agricultural sciences 11(5) :11491156 garrett, h. e. (1981). statistical psychology and education. vakils, feffer and simons private limited, bombay. murali krishnan, l, philip, h, chinnadurai, m. & ravichandran, v. (2015). constraints in the adoption of eco friendly conservation practices. journal of extension education 27(3): 5494-5498 radhakrishna, p. g, sekharappa, b. m, shivakumar, c. & bongale, u. d.(2004). chawki silkworm rearing – integrated capsule technology package. karnataka state sericulture research and development institute, thalaghattapura, bangalore. : 1-11. shashindran nair k. & mishra r. k. (2018). commercial silkworm chawki rearing centres in india – an overview. indian silk 9(57 ) no.7-8: 4-9 sivaprasad v, himantharaj m t, verma, s. & mogili t. (2015). commercial chawki rearing, csrti, csb, srirampura, mysore. vijayakumari, k. m. & rajan, r. k. (2005). an economic analysis of factors influencing income from commercial chawki rearing in karnataka. indian journal of sericulture 44(2):208-211. journal of extension education 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 green army a labour bank experiment in kerala s. darsana1 and v. ravichandran2 abstract the inadequate labour supply and high wages are the major constraints influencing food production which make farmers to migrate from farming sector. the society must recognize these workers as the service men for agricultural lands. green army project in wadakkanchery block of kerala state is a successful labour bank model. the present study on impact of labour bank was conducted on 30 agricultural labourers of selected block. results indicate that majority respondents were of middle aged category with secondary school education, with minimum of two trainings attended under the green army. the results further revealed that empowerment in leadership, social recognition, stabilised income and decision making were observed more. 1pg scholar and 2-professor (agrl.extension), department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore. india with second largest manpower in the world is affected by labour scarcity in agricultural sector. as labourers constitute a vital input of agricultural production, their migration for earning a better livelihood, enhances the existing imbalance between demand and supply of labourers (deshingkar, 2003). the 2001 census of india defined agricultural labour as any person who worked on another person’s land only as labourer, without exercising any supervision in cultivation, for wage in cash or share such as share of produce (goi, 2001). even though many labour saving implements and technologies are released, the availability of skilled labourers who have operational knowledge on maintenance of machineries is in great question. rural to urban migration, public work schemes like mgnregs and increased women wages are also the other causes for labour scarcity (alha and bijoyata, 2011). in such a situation, there is an ample scope for any institutions or project which would solve the issue of labour scarcity in agriculture with capacity building of labourers to improve their livelihood. labour bank is an attempt to mobilize rural man power potential in a useful manner to benefit the society as a whole (lijo and siddayya, 2011). agricultural development policy for kerala state has included a policy for labour bank (policy no.45) during the year 2011. according to the policy, labour bank is considered as the source support for agricultural labourers at panchayath level. labourers are expected to work for 100 days in a year in the field with life insurance and pension. green army is one of the successful labour bank models in kerala state functioning at wadakkanchery block of thrissur district since 2008. it has 259 trained agricultural labourers. it is registered under indian charitable societies act. the study was conducted with the following objectives 5345green army a labour bank experiment in kerala 1. to study the perception of agricultural labourers on activities of green army 2. to analyse the impact of green army on agricultural labourers’ livelihood 3. to elucidate the constraints and suggestions of agricultural labourers to improve green army as an agricultural work force methodology the study was conducted in wadakkanchery block of thrissur district of kerala state as this block is the initiator in green army project. a sample size of 30 agricultural labourers with equal proportion of male and female respondents were randomly selected. data were collected through pretested interview schedule. cumulative frequency method and percentage analysis were used for data. findings and discussion the study on impact of labour bank on agricultural labourers found that majority (53.33%) of green army workers belonged to middle aged category. even though education was not a criterion for selection, 36.67 per cent had secondary school education followed by middle (30.00%) and primary education (20.00%). trainings were conducted by green army on agricultural activities, functioning, assembling and maintenance of agricultural machineries. nearly half of the respondents (49.25%) attended minimum of two trainings. perception of agricultural labourers on activities of green army perception of agricultural labourers on activities of green army was measured through fifteen empowerment items under psychological, sociological, economic and political dimensions. perception under psychological dimension revealed that leadership development (2.70) among the members was the most prominent item of empowerment. activities of green army were scheduled in groups. labour teams of five members were organized under ward with team leader, deputy leader and helpers. teams unite to form labour groups at panchayath level and labour bank at block level. leaders at each level were selected among the labourers. this would motivate the leadership ability of members. members had strong we feeling (2.46) in the group. training sessions and workshop made them to be more cooperative and cohesive in the group. this also made the members to be self confident in various activities. mechanised farming was adopted by the group. intensive training has been motivated the members to operate the machines, find out the fault and to repair it. higher social recognition (2.76) and status (2.60) in society were found to be the improved items in sociological dimension. group action made the workers to be recognized by the society. monthly salary through bank, peculiar uniform in the field, pattern of work and scheduled time table had raised the status of agricultural labourers. as the members of journal of extension education5346 green army labourers could easily avail loan from bank and cooperative society. stabilized income (2.86) and ability to support family financially (2.46) emerged under economic dimensions. green army had succeeded in ensuring regular job and fixed wage for agricultural labourers. members were earning monthly salary of about rs.8000 to rs.12000 per month according to their work attendance. monthly salary system would help the members to plan their family budget. various activities like vegetable production and fallow land cultivation were also undertaken by the members during off season. members were also found to be developing their saving habits. green army could encourage the members to take individual decisions at home and work. impact of green army a significant difference in the average income per month was observed before and table 1. perceived attributes in various dimensions (n=30) sl.no. category total score mean score rank i psychological dimension 1. improvement in self-confidence 69 2.30 iii 2. increase in leadership skill 81 2.70 i 3. development of self respect 62 2.06 iv 4. “we” feeling among members 74 2.46 ii ii sociological dimension 5. social recognition 83 2.76 i 6. improvement in social status 78 2.60 ii 7. gender equity 68 2.26 iv 8. better planning in family maintenance 72 2.40 iii iii economic dimension 9. stabilized income 86 2.86 i 10. increased ability to support family financially 74 2.46 ii 11. development of saving habit 70 2.33 iii 12. debt clearance 66 2.20 iv 13. improvement in standard of living 59 1.96 vi 14. access to credit 62 2.06 v iv political dimension 15. strong decision making power 63 2.10 i 5347green army a labour bank experiment in kerala after joining in the green army (rs.4116 and rs.9666 respectively). increased employment generation of labourers results in increased man days. the man days before and after joining green army was 96 and 147 days per year respectively. constraints and suggestions major constraints faced by labourers include the wrong attitude of farmers towards working force (40.00%), poor managerial experience of workers (36.67%), accidents while using machine (13.33%) and malfunctioning of machines (10.00%). farmers consider the green army men as mere labourers and had an unfavourable attitude towards their work. farmers never consider them as service men for their field. labourers lack experience in managerial aspects. they faced difficulty to solve the problems in the field and in the group. improper maintenance causes the poor performance of machines and accidents for labourers. even though accident claims were provided to members the amount was found to be very low. members made suggestions to improve the work force. as green army concentrate their work on paddy production, members could not get year round work. the problem could be solved through diversification of activities (45.00%). new schemes like vegetable production and coconut climbing could be included under diversification. well structured performance appraisal system (27.00%) would help to find working capability of labourers and could be effectively utilized in identification of leaders. convergence of local body (28.00%) with the farmers and labourers would motivate the labour force and could find out more financial sources for activities. conclusion the study emphasis the importance and impact of green army among the agricultural labourers. as labourers perceive the economic and sociological empowerment through green army, the impact was found to be observable. constraints and suggestions given by members should be accounted by authorities for future programmes. thus, green army could be collectively called as a participatory approach which emphasis in initiation of new technology and professional competence of labourers. more than that project, it would decrease the rate of migration from agriculture. thus, tremendous change in table 2. constraints faced by agricultural labourers (n=30) sl.no. constraints number percentage (%) 1. farmers attitude towards workers 12 40.00 2. lack of managerial experience for farmers 11 36.67 3. accidents while using machine 4 13.33 4. inadequacy in operation of machines 3 10.00 journal of extension education5348 production sector can be expected with new trends in sustainable agriculture and food security through labour bank experiments. references alha akhil and bijoyata yonzon, 2011. recent developments in farm labour availability in india and reasons behind its short supply. agricultural economics research review. 24:381390. deshingkar, p. and start, d. 2003. seasonal migration for livelihoods, coping, accumulation and exclusion. working paper no. 220. overseas development institute, london. goi. 2001. census of india 2001. district census hand book. directorate of stationery and printing, chennai. lijo thomas and siddayya. 2011. labour bank experiment in keralaswot analysis. agricultural economics research review. 24:511-516. 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 impact of value addition trainings on farm women of nayagarh district of odisha smt. jyotirmayee udgata1 and smt. shelly dash2 abstract value addition in agriculture predominantly offers a means to increase, rejuvenate and stabilize farm income. value addition specifically to fruits and vegetables not only enhance the shelf life of the produce but also make it available in the off-season and reduces seasonal peak production loss. as the farm women are mostly involved in post harvest operation they need to be trained in this sector. krishi vigyan kendra nayagarh in its training programme always tried to aware and educate the farm women in this value addition sector.the study reported here explored, to what extent the training programmes of value addition specifically in fruits and vegetable had been changing the farm women’s perceived knowledge ,acquisition of skills and level of adoption of value addition practices. the results exemplified the impact of value addition trainings in instilling positive orientation in terms of the magnitude of perceived knowledge, acquisition of skills and adoption levels. moreover, the findings of the study revealed significant positive correlation between the demographic characteristics with the perceived knowledge, skill acquisition and adoption level of value addition practices of the rural women of the sampled area. 1-sms home science and 2programme coordinator, krishivigyan kendra, nayagarh, orissa university of agriculture and technology. value-added agriculture has attracted considerable opportunities for increasing employment and revitalize attention in recent years as a means to increase and diversify the economic base to stabilize farm incomes and to rejuvenate primary agricultural communities. nayagarh is a coastal district situated at the eastern part of odisha. it has a total geographical area of 3, 94,110 ha having 1,36,841 ha cultivated land. agriculture is considered to be one of the primary occupations for this district. sugarcane, paddy, brinjal, tomato, arrowroot, colocasia, mushroom etc., are the main crops of farmers. the perishable crops especially fruits and vegetables like brinjal, tomato, jackfruit, lemon, tamarind etc. are wasted due to poor post harvest management .generally the rural women are involved maximum in post harvest operations. therefore to reduce post harvest loss as well as to create employment opportunity the farmwomen were trained in both primary and secondary value addition. methodology the study was undertaken with an attempt to assess the impact of the training courses conducted by krishi vigyan kendra, nayagarh on the knowledge and adoption level of farm women. the sample group for the present study comprised only the women trained journal of extension education5322 through various training programmes conducted by krishi vigyan kendra, nayagarh. a sample of 120 women beneficiaries covered under different categories of trainings such as farmwomen, rural youth and vocational trainings in the area of fruits and vegetable preservation imparted by krishi vigyan kendra, nayagarh since last five years were selected by random sampling method. a structured interview schedule was framed through which primary data was collected. purpose and objective the purpose of the study was to determine the impact of value addition of fruits and vegetable trainings conducted by krishi vigyan kendra, nayagarh. specifically this study focused on the impact of trainings provided to farm women on their perceived knowledge, acquisition of skills and adoption level of value addition practices. the following objectives were formulated for the present study. to describe the demographic profile of the respondents to assess the impact of value addition trainings conducted by krishivigyan kendra nayagarh to determine the relationships if any between the demographic profile of the trainees and their perceived knowledge, acquisition of skill and adoption level to enlist the constraints faced by the farm women to take up value addition of fruits and vegetable in commercial scale. findings and discussion demographic profile of the respondents the study revealed that minimum and maximum age of the respondents was 15 years and 40 years. majority of the trainees (76.66%) belonged to the age group of 1525 years, 19.16per cent of the respondents belonged to the age group of 25-35 years and a small number of respondents (4.16 %) were above 35 years. the data also revealed that comparatively larger proportion of the respondents (44.16%) were having education up to high school, 24.16 per cent of the respondents were having education up to intermediate whereas, minimum (1.6%) of the respondents were up to primary level of education . the data revealed that 44.16 per cent of the respondents belonged to medium income category having annual family income of rs.70,000-90,000. thirty per cent of the respondents belonged to high income category with annual income of rs.90,000 and above. comparatively less proportion of respondents (25.83%) belonged to low income category having annual family income of rs.50,00070,000. from the data it is depicted that majority (70%) of the respondents were having moderate knowledge and a meager proportion (5.3%) were having high knowledge in post harvest management. a greater proportion (73.3%) of the respondents was having regular extension contact and 62.5% of the 5323impact of value addition trainings on farm women of nayagarh district of odisha sl.no. demographic profile frequency percentage (%) i age(years) 1. 15-25 (low) 92 76.66 2. 26-35 (medium) 23 19.16 3. 36 -40(high) 5 4.16 ii education 1. upto primary 2 1.66 2. middle school 25 20.83 3. high school 74 44.16 4. intermidiate 10 24.16 5. graduate 9 9.16 iii family annual income(rs.) 1. 50,000-70,000 31 25.83 2. 70,001-90,000 53 44.16 3. 90,001 and above 36 30 iv post harvest knowledge(score min.1 maxi. 8) 1. score low knowledge(1-3) 29 24.16 2. moderate knowledge(4-6) 84 70 3. high knowledge(7-8) 7 5.83 v extension contact 1. no extension contact 32 26.66 2. extension contact 1-2 times/month 81 67.5 3. extension contact >2 times/month 7 5.83 vi length of membership in shgs 1. < 3 years 34 28.33 2. 3-5 years 75 62.5 3. > 5 years 11 9.16 table 1. distribution of respondents by their demographic profile n=120 respondents were members of the shg groups for 3 to 5 years. respondent’s perceived knowledge on value addition it is evident from data (table 2) that almost all the respondents were knowledgeable in different aspects of value addition. only a meager proportion (6.6%) of the respondents was partially knowledgeable regarding the procedure of getting fpo license. this may be due to lack of facilities for getting preserved journal of extension education5324 product license in the district as well as state level. respondents’ skill acquisition on value addition it is convinced from the data (table 3) that a greater proportion of respondents were skilled in value addition in tomato, lemon, papaya and ginger. a few respondents were n % n % n % 1. importance of fruits and vegetable preservation 120 100 2. causes of spoilage of fruits and vegetables 10 8.33 110 91.66 3. basic principles and methods of fruits and vegetable preservation 15 12.5 105 87.5 4. preservation of fruit juices by addition of chemicals 12 10 101 84.16 7 5.83 5. role of pectin in the preservation of jam and jelly 110 91.66 10 8.33 6. importance of sanitation and hygiene while preparing value added products 67 55.83 53 44.16 7. causes of spoilage in preserved products 106 88.33 14 11.66 8. role of self help groups in creating awareness 105 87.5 15 12.5 9. cost benefit evaluation in preparation of value added products 5 4.1 92 76.66 23 19.16 10. procedure of getting fpo license 8 6.6 112 93.33 11. value added product promotion and market linkage 4 40 56 46.66 16 13.33 12. machineries and equipments used in small scale value addition enterprise 96 0 24 20 not at all skilled when in preparation of dried mushroom (37.5%), chips making from jackfruit (19.16%), squash making from cashew apple(55.83%), wax sealing of product bottles(10.83%) and packaging and labeling of finished products(4.16%). this may be due to lack of interest in value addition of specific fruits & vegetables or may be due to the low demand of the product in the market. not knowledgeable table 2. distribution of respondents based on their perceived knowledge on value addition statements n=120 fully knowledgeable partially knowledgeable respondents’ adoption level of value addition practices it is evident from the data (table 4) that all the respondents were using stainless steel containers & accessories for value added product making. a higher portion of respondents (74.16%) are using chemical preservatives. very small proportion (2.5%) of respondents have procured food license and adopted commercial scale value added products making. this may be due to constraints prevailing in the present market scenario in the district likenon availability of sustainable market for preserved food items & difficulties in getting fpo license. sl. no. 5325impact of value addition trainings on farm women of nayagarh district of odisha relationships between dependent variables and demographic profile of the respondents significant relationships were observed between education, family income, postharvest knowledge, extension contact, membership of shgs and knowledge on value addition. similarly, significant relationship existed between education, post harvest knowledge and skill level of respondents. this suggests that, for every unit of improvement on the above characteristics of the participants, there will be a corresponding significant improvement in perceived knowledge, acquisition of skill and adoption level on value addition. substantial relationships were found between selected variables and adoption level of value addition practices. education, family income, extension agent contact, post-harvest knowledge and membership of shgs were highly related to adoption level of value addition practices (table-5). the probable reasons we can attribute for this might be that, education imparts knowledge, creates awareness and makes inquisitiveness to explore and learn, which helps them to become skilled and to make desirable changes in adoption. moreover, education favours the acquisition of knowledge and widens the horizon of knowledge by proper understanding of the statements fullyskilled partially skilled not skilled n % n % n % 1. sorting and grading of tomatoes 102 85 18 15 2. preparation of value added products from tomato 13 10.83 107 89.16 3. preparation of value added products from lemon 33 27.5 87 72.5 4. preparation of mango squash 40 33.33 80 66.66 5. preparation of papaya jam 45 37.5 75 62.5 6. preparation of lime ginger rts 64 53.33 56 46.66 7. preparation of ginger candy 12 10 108 90 8. preparation of ginger pickle 21 17.5 99 82.5 9. preparation of brinjal pickle 43 35.83 77 64.16 10. preparation of mushroom pickle 43 35.83 77 64.16 11. preparation of dried mushroom 9 7.5 66 55 45 37.5 12. preparation of chips from colocasia 18 15 102 85 13. preparation of chips from jackfruit 10 8.33 110 91.66 23 19.16 14. preparation of cashew apple squash 53 44.16 67 55.83 15. preparation of dried arrowroot 12 10 108 90 16. preparation of value added products from mahuaflowers 13 10.83 107 89.16 17. packaging and labeling of finished products 19 15.83 96 80 5 4.16 18. wax sealing of product bottles 26 21.66 81 67.5 13 10.83 table 3. distribution of respondents based on their skill acquisition on value addition sl. no. journal of extension education5326 importance of value addition practices by getting exposed to extension agencies and contacting other informal sources. extension table 5. correlation of demographic profile of the respondents with their perceived knowledge, skill acquisition and adoption level table 4. distribution of respondents based on their adoption level of value addition practices statements fully adopted partially adopted haven’t tried n % n % n % 1. sorting and grading of fruits and vegetables 45 37.5 75 62.5 2. washing vegetables before cutting 78 65 42 35 3. blanching vegetables to retard enzymatic action 43 35.83 77 64.16 4. using solar dryer for drying vegetable slices 10 8.33 5. using stainless steel containers and accessories for value added products making 120 100 6. using chemical preservatives for long term preservation 89 74.16 31 25.83 7. sealing and packaging of value added products 45 37.5 75 62.5 8. procured food license 3 2.5 9. procured fpo license for preserved food items 10. adopted commercial scale of value added products making and marketing 3 2.5 49 40.83 68 56.66 agent provides scientific knowledge, necessary information on agricultural innovations and technologies, which develop farmers’ knowledge and help to change their attitude toward adoption. recently, many developing countries have reaffirmed the essential role that agricultural extension can play in agricultural development. conclusion the study deals with one of the major issues associated with the diffusion of value added agriculture, as an important strategy for survival of small and marginal farmers in the developing state like odisha .the study revealed the vital issues like procurement of fpo license, quality control, market linkage , enhancement of value addition knowledge and skill of rural women who play a vital role in post harvest management of fruits and vegetable s are to be taken care of at policy level. this will increase the adoption rate of commercial value addition of fruits and vegetables in an entrepreneurial mode. sl. no. demographic profile knowledge skill adoption education 0.327++ 0.312++ 0.550++ family annual income 0.217+ 0.153 0.480++ post harvest knowledge 0.375++ 0.317++ 0.366++ extension agent contact 0.304++ 0.127 0.313++ membership of self help groups 0.362++ 0.211+ 0.440++ *= significant at 5% level; **= significant at 1% level 6572 constraints encountered in participation of women in ‘kudumbashree’ activities r. deepthy*, k. kanagasabapathi* and v. sakthivel* abstract in kerala state of india, ‘kudumbashree’ programme was introduced with the intention of uplifting and empowering women engaged in agriculture and allied activities. a study was conducted to analyse the constraints experienced by women in ‘kudumbashree’ activities in alappuzha district of kerala. expost facto research design was followed with a sample size of 120 women. the results revealed that ‘overloading of work’, ‘delayed services of local government’, ‘lack of economic empowerment’, ‘health problems’ and ‘unsustainable micro enterprises,’ were the major constraints. keywords: constraints, women participation, ‘kudumbashree programme’; kerala *department of agricultural extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalai nagar 608 002. india received : 06-09-2020; accepted : 25-03-2021 kerala, a highly literate state remains a forerunner in women empowerment, according to the census report of india in 2011. programmes like ‘kudumbashree’, ‘janashree’ were introduced in this state to enhance the status of women engaged in agriculture and allied activities. the main advantage of women empowerment is that there will be an overall development of the society (islam and sarmah, 2014). the world economy suffers a lot because of the unequal opportunity for women (bhat, et.al 2014) ‘kudumbashree’, meaning ‘prosperity of the family’, is a poverty eradication mission initiated by the government of kerala for eradicating poverty. ‘kudumbashree’ envisages prosperity of the poor families in the state with multiple programmes that will provide them opportunity for better social security and empower them physically, socially, economically and politically. 'kudumbashree' has been found to be effectively empowering the women in kerala (anwar et.al 2017). despite the participation of women in the planning and implementation process of various anti poverty programmes, they also face various constraints. these constraints remain as obstacles in their empowerment process. hence an attempt was made to analyse the constraints faced by the rural women in the participation in ‘kudumbashree’ research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6572-6575 6573 activities. methodology expost facto research design was followed for this study. haripad block of alappuzha district of kerala state was selected an collective farming under the kudumbashree programme has been successful in this area. six villages were identified based on the number of kudumbashree participants. a sample size of 120 was considered, based on the recommendation of the statisticians. thus 120 women respondents who have more than 10 years of experience in kudumbashree activities were identified from six villages based on proportionate random sampling method. the data were collected from the respondents with the help of a wellstructured and pre-tested interview schedule in an informal atmosphere in their homes. the collected data were subjected to statistical analysis like mean, percentage analysis and garett ranking method. findings and discussion constraint is the state of being checked, restricted, or compelled to avoid or perform some action. the constraints commonly faced by the respondents in the participation in kudumbashree activities are presented in table1. it could be noticed from table1. that “overloading of work” was ranked as the constraints encountered in participation of women in ‘kudumbashree’ activities table 1. constraints experienced by the women respondents in participation in kudumbashree. sl.no. constraints mean score rank 1. overloading of work 51.67 i 2. delayed services of local government 41.67 ii 3. lack of economic empowerment 33.33 iii 4. health problems 31.67 iv 5. unsustainable micro enterprises 25.00 v 6. struggle for power 24.17 vi 7. high interest rate in housing programmes 22.50 vii 8. lack of coordination in group ventures 20.83 viii 9. marketing problems 18.33 ix 10. politicization 17.50 x 11. biased preparation of bpl list and selection of beneficiaries 16.67 xi 12. cross borrowing and indebtedness 16.00 xii 13. lack of guidance in micro credit 12.50 xiii 14. problems in maintaining micro enterprises 8.33 xiv mean percentage 24.29 6574 first constraint reported by the majority of respondents (51.67 per cent). other major constraints reported were “delayed services from local government” (41.67 per cent), “lack of economic empowerment” (33.33 per cent), “health problems” (31.67 per cent), “unsustainable micro enterprises” (25.00 per cent), “struggle for power” (24.17 per cent), “high interest rate in housing programme’’ (22.50 per cent), “lack of coordination in group ventures” (20.83 per cent), “marketing problems” (18.33 percent) and “politicization (17.50 per cent). more workload is assigned to the functionaries of the kudumbashree members. according to the respondents, if the kudumbashree units are not overloaded with work they would perform more efficiently. this result is in line with the findings of shihabudheen (2013). “delayed services from local government” was ranked as the second major constraint as reported by about two-fifths (41.67 per cent) of the respondents. delaying the release of funds to kudumbashree by the local governments and even diversion or non-release of funds meant for the programme are reported as bottlenecks. “lack of economic empowerment” was ranked as the third important constraint as reported by one third (33.33 per cent) of the respondents. the women had to depend on their family for their economic assistance. economic empowerment is considered as an important measure of poverty eradication and empowerment. this is in accordance with the reported findings of oommen (1999). “health problems” was ranked as the fourth major constraint (31.67 per cent). in general, women face a lot of health problems during late thirties and early forties. the increased domestic and social activities in this age put them to more health problems. “unsustainable micro enterprises” was ranked as the fifth constraint as reported by exactly one-fourth (25.00 per cent) of the respondents. many of the microenterprises are promising the earlier stages. but they are unviable in the later stages because of the marketing problems. this result in line with the findings of oommen (1999). “struggle for power” was ranked as the sixth constraint as reported by about one-fourth (24.17 per cent) of the respondents. this might due to the reason that the kudumbashree units have become powerful in mobilizing people and in accessing funds. “high interest rate in housing programme” was ranked as the seventh constraint according to about one-fifth (22.50 per cent) of the respondents. the recent increase in the interest rate has dampened the spirit of many poor families in availing of the benefits of the scheme. “lack of coordination in group ventures” was ranked as the eighth constraint according to onefifth (20.83 per cent) of the respondents. it was found out that various problems were encountered by the women respondents in operating kudumbashree units. still the women enthusiastically participated in various activities of kudumbashree units and related entrepreneurial activities. the suggestions put forth based on the study are reducing the official workload of the participants, accelerating the speed of the services of the local government, providing additional avenues journal of extension education 6575 for increasing economic returns, establishing special health support insurance schemes for women, promoting sustainable profit oriented micro enterprises and providing crystal clear guidelines for micro -credit may be considered favourably by the policy makers, planners and officials associated with kudumbashree activities. references anwar a, rambabu p, & gopikrishna t. (2017). information management behaviour of rice farmers under collective farming in kerala. journal of extension education, 29(3), 5885 – 5891. bhat, m.a, wani, i.a, ahrar, a, & ahmad, m. (2014). empowerment of women through self-help groups in madhya pradesh. journal of humanities and social sciences, 19(1), 80-94. islam, m. & sarmah, j.k. (2014). impact of self-help groups in empowering women: a study of rural assam. social change and development, 11(2), 90-97. oommen, m.a. (1999). the community development society of kerala. institute of social sciences, new delhi. shihabudheen, n. (2013). what is right and wrong with kudumbashree: the field experiences. international journal of humanities and social science invention, 2(5), 09-21. constraints encountered in participation of women in ‘kudumbashree’ activities 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 adoption level of farmers on maize cultivation practices d. yavana priya1, k.a. ponnusamy2 and j. venkatapirabu3 abstract the study to measure the extent of adoption level of maize production technologies have been conducted among the maize farmers in the udumalpet block. the results of the study would help to know the adoption level of farmers which would had in designing suitable programmes to cater to the needs of the farmers. the results revealed that majority (64 per cent) of respondents belonged to the category of medium adoption level whereas, 23.30 per cent of the respondents belonged to the category of low adoption level and above one tenth (14 per cent) of respondents belonged to high adoption level category. 1ph.d. scholar, 2director of extension education and 3-professor, tnau, coimbatore-3 maize is cultivated widely in udumalpet block, with the result that the produce is of varying quality with varying productivity. with a large area under cultivation and low productivity, maize has a strong potential for production growth in coming years. due to different cropping patterns, quality and growing seasons, the trade dynamics of maize are unique to the production centers and seasons. the current level of maize yield in the country (2.1 mt/ha) is far behind the global average of 4.92 mt/ha, and there is a huge scope for improvement in yield by improving the adoption of hybrids, particularly in traditional maize growing regions. with the growing demand from feed and starch sector, the overall demand for maize is likely to grow at a brisk pace. considering the importance of maize in the local market for food and industrial uses, it could be suggested that an increase in the supply of this commodity would suffice the demand. to attain this level of production, it is imperative to step up productivity from the existing national average and also an increase in the area under the crop. hence, this study has been designed to study the adoption level of the maize farmers. methodology tiruppur district has 13 blocks. out of thirteen blocks, udumalpet block in tamil nadu was purposively selected for this study because it has more area under maize cultivation. maize growing farmers were the respondents for the present study. a list of farmers growing maize crop was obtained from the assistant director of agriculture for all the selected villages. from the list, a total of 150 maize growers were selected for the study by using proportionate random sampling technique. findings and discussion adoption level of maize farming technologies according to rogers (1983), ‘adoption is the journal of extension education5328 decision to make full use of an innovation at the best course of action available’. future research on innovations solely depends on the decision of adoption or rejection of the existing technology and also paves way for implementation of various special schemes. hence, it was felt necessary to assess the adoption level of farmers on maize cultivation. the pertinent data with regard to overall adoption and technology-wise adoption were collected and is furnished in table 1 and table 2. with respect to adoption level of the respondents, it was observed from the table 1 that 64.00 per cent of the farmers belonged to medium adoption level while 23.30 per cent of them had low level of adoption followed by above one tenth (12.70 %) in high adoption level. the adoption level might be due to varied reasons viz., lack of social participation in social organisations, low level of scientific orientation, low level of awareness on critical technologies that particularly influences greater yield. lack of adequate finance, the availability of labour and hesitation to invest more because the return is not assured due to natural calamities and price fluctuation could also be the reasons expressed for medium adoption by the respondents. adoption level of individual practices when the individual practices are judged for their adoption level the exact problems, mistakes and their solutions can be sought out. the adoption level of individual practices in maize cultivation are analysed and presents in the table 2. an examination of table 2 projects the practice-wise extent of adoption of maize cultivation practices. the data show that the land preparation methods like ploughing the main field, correct size of ridges and furrows and size of beds were partially adopted by the majority of the respondents (i.e., 90.70 %, 92.00 % and 92.70 %) respectively. the results clearly indicate that maize growers are conscious about the importance of better land preparation techniques. the main reasons behind good land preparation were that it helps to control weeds, to soften sl.no. category number per cent 1 low 35 23.30 2 medium 96 64.00 3 high 19 12.70 total 150 100 table 1. distribution of respondents according to their overall adoption level of maize cultivation technologies (n=150) 5329adoption level of farmers on maize cultivation practices si.no. recommended technologies fa pa na no. % no. % no. % i land preparation 1 ploughing the main field 14 9.33 136 90.70 0 0 2 size of ridges and furrows 12 8.00 138 92.00 0 0 3 size of beds 11 7.33 139 92.70 0 0 ii nutrient management 4 fym (t/ha) 13 8.67 98 65.30 39 26.00 5 azospirillum (packets/ha) 11 7.33 18 12.00 121 80.70 6 micronutrient mixture 6 4.00 15 10.00 129 86.00 7 npk (kg/ha) 12 8.00 138 92.00 0 0 8 basal dose of nitrogen 43 28.70 107 71.30 0 0 9 time and quantity of secondand third top dressing of n 54 36.00 96 64.00 0 0 iii sowing practices 10 seed rate/ha 112 74.70 38 25.30 0 0 11 seed treatment 8 5.33 28 18.70 114 76.00 12 spacing for maize crop 47 31.30 67 44.70 36 24.00 13 depth of sowing 112 74.70 38 25.30 0 0 iv weed management 14 atrazine (kg/ha) 8 5.33 56 37.30 86 57.30 15 hoeing, hand weeding and earthing up 134 89.30 16 10.70 0 0 v water management 16 total number of irrigation 35 23.30 115 76.70 0 0 17 most critical phase 28 18.70 122 81.30 0 0 vi pest management 18 shoot fly 12 8.00 118 78.70 20 13.30 19 release of egg parasitoid-trichogramma chilonis 8 5.33 16 10.70 126 84.00 20 stem borer 24 16.00 97 64.70 29 19.30 21 cob borer 11 7.33 42 28.00 97 64.70 22 thrips 8 5.33 0 0 142 94.70 vii disease management 23 downy mildew 10 6.67 140 93.30 0 0 24 leaf blight 15 10.00 135 90.00 0 0 viii harvesting 25 harvesting stage 132 88.00 18 12.00 0 0 26 burning the mouldy cobs 18 12.00 23 15.30 109 72.70 ix post harvest 27 drying the maize cobs on polythene sheet 22 14.70 12 8.00 116 77.30 28 sorting the maize cobs 65 43.30 32 21.30 53 35.30 x storage 29 moisture content 12 8.00 8 5.33 130 86.70 30 using celphos 8 5.33 8 5.33 134 89.30 table 2. distribution of respondents according to their adoption level of individual practices note: no. number. % per cent. fafull adoption, papartial adoption, nanon-adoption. (n=150) journal of extension education5330 the surface soil and prepare a good seedbed to allow easier seeding of crops, to expose the soil organic matter to oxygen and help release soil nutrients for crop growth, to reduce compaction of the soil and to improve the infiltration of water. under nutrient management techniques, 65.30 per cent of the respondents have partially adopted the recommended dosage of fym. the possible reason for fym application was that it would improve the produce quality to large extent and also reduce the expenditure on chemical fertilizer. it would also increase the fertility of soil and its productivity. but it was more partially applied due to its less availability and high cost involved in transport and labour. application of azospirillum, micronutrient mixture, npk, basal dose of nitrogen and time and quantity of second and third top dressing of nitrogen was partially adopted by 12.00 %, 10.00 %, 92.00 %, 71.30 % and 64.00 % of the respondents. in case of bio-fertilizer, majority of the maize farmers have not adopted the application of bio-fertilizer. the reason for non-adoption of recommended dosage of bio-fertilizer was the farmers predisposition that it plays no role in increasing the yield and the application of bio fertilizer is labour intensive since it has to be applied separately. further, the common tendency prevailing among the maize farmer was that more fertilizer would increase the yield and also most of the cultivators did not have the correct knowledge about the recommended fertilizer dosage. the sowing practices like correct seed rate and depth of sowing was fully adopted by majority (74.70 %) of respondents. about 76.00 per cent and 24.00 per cent has completely not adopted the sowing practices such as seed treatment and spacing during sowing. sowing practices were correctly adopted by majority of maize farmers as it is essential for vigorous and healthy seedlings. this leads to a good crop stand. also, spacing is an important practice which decides the number of plants per acre in turn the yield level, hence majority of maize farmers have adopted the recommended spacing. but seed treatment practice was not followed by majority (76.00 %) of the farmers as the results of treating the seeds are not much visible. correct spacing was not followed by less than a quarter (24.00 %) of the farmers as maize is used for both grain and fodder purpose by them. spacing influences the purpose for which the maize cobs and maize plants are used and hence the adoption level. in the case of weed management practices, 37.30 per cent of respondents have partially adopted the application of weedicide (atrazine). hoeing, hand weeding and earthing up operation was fully adopted by 89.30 per cent of farmers. the possible reason might be that in maize cultivation the inter cultivation practices like hoeing, hand weeding and earthing up go hand in hand to kill the weeds in the seedbed that would crowd out the crop or compete with it for water and nutrients. since weed management influences the ability of the crop to emerge and is an important operation for higher yield, majority of maize 5331adoption level of farmers on maize cultivation practices farmers have adopted the recommended practice. use of chemical atrazine was not profoundly found among the farmers as they neglect to use it due its residual effect. despite labour shortage famers fixed themselves to hand weeding only. water management practices like providing total number of irrigation and irrigating during the most critical phase of irrigation was partially adopted by 76.70 per cent and 81.30 per cent of the respondents.in udumalpet block water should be used when it is let for irrigation in the pap canal and other sources of irrigation like rain and power facilities for using bore wells are other hindering factors leading to partial adoption. water is becoming a scarce resource and maize farmers have to strive to increase productivity with the available water resources. under pest management, about 78.70 per cent, 64.70 per cent and 28.00 per cent of farmers have partially adopted the adopted the control measures for shoot fly, stem borer and cob borer. release of egg parasitoid trichogramma chilonis was not adopted by majority (84.00 per cent) of the respondents. for thrips management 94.70 per cent of respondents have not adopted the practice. the disease management techniques in maize cultivation for downy mildew and leaf blight control most of the (93.30 % and 90.00 %) of the farmers have only partially adopted it. majority of the maize farmers have partially adopted chemical spraying technique. the common tendency prevailing among maize farmer is that more chemical spraying would control the incidence of pest and disease very effectively and immediately which induced them to go for more and irregular number of sprays. more over most of the maize farmers did not have the correct knowledge about the chemical dosage and application. they want immediate control which is not possible in in case of releasing egg parasitoid trichogramma chilonis and therefore the resultant adoption. in the case of harvesting, majority of the farmers (88.00 %) have followed the correct harvesting stage. burning the mouldy cobs in maize was completely adopted by only 12.00 per cent of farmers. the reasons that could be attributed for harvesting maize at seed hard stage are to harvest the seeds with the correct nutrient content, less damage of seeds and attractive colour of the seeds which helps for easy marketing. burning the cobs in the field was not followed by majority of the farmers as they were not aware of the benefits of the practice. mouldy cobs deteriorate the quality of healthy cobs also. creating awareness plays a major role here to enable a farmer to adopt the practice. under post harvest management, 77.30 per cent of respondents have not adopted the technology of drying the maize cobs on polythene sheet. sorting the maize cobs have been fully adopted by 43.30 per cent of farmers, 21.30 percent of respondents have partially adopted the technique and 35.30 per cent of farmers have not adopted cob sorting. maize can only be stored well if it has been properly dried. drying on bare floor results in contamination of impurities. hence it is journal of extension education5332 imperative to create awareness about drying techniques among the farmers and improve their adoption level. the adoption of sorting the maize cobs can be justified stating that most of the respondents were convinced as to the profitability and practicability of this practice. in the storage techniques for correct moisture content and using of celphos around 86.70 and 89.30 per cent of the farmer have not adopted the techniques respectively.if maize kernels are to be stored for 1 month the moisture content should be <16%, for 3 months the moisture content should be <14%, and for 3 years the moisture content should be <12%. hence proper storage operations should be adopted. without appropriate storage protection measures, farmers are often left with no alternative but to sell their produce soon after harvest, even though it may not be possible to secure attractive prices on the market. integrated storage pest protection enables farmers to extend the storage period without having to take the risk of increased losses. as a result, farmers with surpluses have greater choice in selecting the appropriate date of sale, which means they can wait for periods where maize prices have reached a high level. thus it is evident from the results that majority of the farmers did not know that maize grains should not be dried on the bare floor, inadequately dried grains should not be stored, grains should not be stored under damp condition. proper protection measures should be followed ensuring grain moisture content at the time of harvest and at the time of purchase. so the maize farmer should be convinced of the utility and relative advantage of storage and protection measures and enhance their adoption level. conclusion it could be understood that the simple technologies are relatively adapted to a greater extent as compared to complex technologies. the adoption of any technology in general and maize cultivation practices in particular depends upon various factors such as awareness about practices, extent of change agency’s efforts, complexity of practices, timely availability of inputs, characteristics of maize farmers etc. however it is true that all recommended practices will not be adopted at same degree by all the members in a given social system at a particular time reference. reference rogers. e.m. 1983. diffusion of innovation, new york, the free press, pp.453. 5620 a study on marketing behaviour of rural youth entrepreneurs among seven different ventures s. janani1, v. ravichandran2 and t.n. sujeetha3 marketing behaviour indicates the mode of selling the products in the market. the agricultural sector contributes to more than one-third of the national income and provides livelihood to about 70.00 per cent of population. it also provides a substantial portion of the country’s export. an efficient agricultural marketing system can be an important means for raising the income levels of the farmers and increasing the consumer satisfaction. marketing efficiency can be improved in two ways ie., by increasing operational efficiency and through pricing efficiency. the former refers to input-output relationship and focuses attention on reducing costs in marketing factors like transportation, storage, etc. the latter refers to the situation where the seller gets the value of their produce and the consumers receive the value of their money. marketing of agricultural produce is more complicated as majority of the respondents are unorganized and scattered. most of them do not have knowledge and skill for marketing of 1 department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore-3, 2 dean, adhiyaman college of agriculture and research, krishnagiri and 3 research associate, e-extension centre, tnau, coimbatore-3 received : 1-6-2016; accepted : 28-6-2016 their produce. further, lack of storage facilities forced them to sell their produce immediately after the harvest at low prices in the village itself to the local traders. in addition, there are inadequate arrangements for grading, standardization, market information, credit availability, storage and transport. moreover, the agricultural marketing is saddled with a long chain of middlemen between the farmers and ultimate consumers and they take away the lion’s share of the consumer’s price. so, the price of the farm produce is decided by the middlemen. in order to help the entrepreneurs to increase the income and profitability and avoid private merchants and intermediaries, there is a need to study the marketing behaviour of rural youth entrepreneurs. methodology the study necessitated the selection of district where the scope for agri-entrepreneurship was more. hence, krishnagiri district of tamil nadu was selected for the study. based on the discussion with scientists of regional research station, paiyur, dr. perumal research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5621 krishi vigyan kendra, elumichangiri, myrada training centre, achattipalli, officials of department of sericulture, assistant director of horticulture, assistant director of agriculture, krishnagiri, the predominant rural enterprises in which the rural youth have mostly involved were identified. accordingly seven entrepreneurial ventures were identified. thirty respondents were selected from each of the venture. altogether 210 rural youth were considered for the study. further, these seven ventures were comparatively studied . findings and discussion based on the details collected, the respondents were categorized into low, medium and high. the overall analysis showed that more than half (66.19%) section of the rural youth entrepreneurs were seen in medium level category followed by low (18.57%) and high (15.24%) level categories of overall marketing behaviour. the category-wise analysis revealed that medium level of marketing behaviour was observed among the seven ventures. the probable reason for this result might be their good knowledge about the marketing trend so as to get good price for their produce. the previous studies revealed that respondents believe being independent will make them more adoptive to the market. the low marketing behaviour might be due to their ineffective advertisement and sales promotion in the marketing. the findings thus revealed that the overall marketing behaviour was medium. there existed differences between the seven enterprises with respect to marketing behaviour of rural youth. these findings are in line with the findings of karpagam (2012) and thangaraja (2012) who found that majority of the entrepreneurs had medium level of marketing behaviour. references karpagam, g. (2012) technology adoption and marketing behaviour of turmeric growers an analytical study. unpublished m.sc. (ag.) thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. thangaraja, k. (2012). a diagnostic study on promoting entrepreneurial behaviour among coffee growers and strategies adopted by entrepreneurs. unpublished ph.d. thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. thangaraja, k & sasikala, r.(2015). marketing strategies evolved by enterpreneurs in marketing coffee products. journal of extension education. 27(1) a study on marketing behaviour of rural youth entrepreneurs among seven different ventures jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 economic impact of e-velanmai model of extension service d. prabha1, ravi kumar theodore2 and c. karthikeyan3 abstract a study was carried out to assess the impact of e-velanmai project, which is an ict (information and communication technology) enabled extension service implemented by tamil nadu agricultural university, in three districts viz., coimbatore, tirupur and villupuram of tamil nadu state, with 180 farmer respondents (90 e-velanmai beneficiaries and 90 non-beneficiaries). partial budgeting analysis revealed that with respect to yield, it is noticed that the yield value of beneficiaries was higher than that of the non-beneficiaries. as a result the net-gain for the beneficiaries was rs. 28,481 per acre. with respect to the constraints faced by beneficiaries, an overwhelming percentage (94.40 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed that they faced no constraints, while a small percentage (5.50 %) indicated that there is no direct contact with tnau scientists’, and no follow-up visit by field coordinators after giving advice (1.10 %) 1ph.d scholar, department of agricultural extension and 2-professor, department of agricultural extension education, trri, aduthurai and 3professor, department of agricultural extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. e-velanmai means ‘electronic agriculture’. it is a world bank sponsored project which was operated by the tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) from july 2007 to march 2013. e-velanmai is a combination of personal and ict based, demand driven and participatory technology transfer model in agriculture to provide timely agro advisory services by a multidisciplinary team of agricultural scientists to farmers using ict tools (digital camera, computer, internet, mobile phone, etc.) through a field coordinator (fc) on need basis (karthikeyan, 2012). it is a sustainable approach of technology transfer for enabling scientific farming and thereby enhancing farm productivity. e-velanmai was planned to be a sustainable approach of technology transfer for enabling scientific farming. therefore, e-velanmai was implemented as a paid model of extension service. being a new ict venture, it was expected that it would evoke different kinds of responses from among the beneficiaries. totally, 10,507 farmers, of which 1,076 were farm women, were enrolled as members in the project by paying a nominal fee of rupees (rs.) 50/per farmer with upto five acres of land, rs. 100/for those with 5.1 to 10 acres, and rs. 150/for those with land holding of above 10 acres. during the project period based on demand advices were given to the members to solve their farm problems and to take informed decisions. in the light of the above it was decided to assess the process impact of e-velanmai project among the beneficiaries. received : 03 feb, 2016; accepted : 04 jun, 2016 journal of extension education5552 the objectives of the study were as follows: · to assess the impact of e-velanmai model of extension among the beneficiaries. · to find out the constraints experienced by e-velanmai beneficiaries. methodology the e-velanmai project was implemented in three districts of tamil nadu viz., coimbatore (aliyar sub-basin), tirupur (palar sub-basin) and villupuram (varahanadhi subbasin), and therefore the study was carried out in all these three districts. the respondents of the study were registered members (beneficiaries) of e-velanmai project and those farmers who did not register in the e-velanmai project (non-beneficiaries). based on probability proportionate sampling method, 30 beneficiary respondents were selected from two water user associations (wuas) in aliyar sub-basin; 30 respondents from three wuas in palar sub-basin; and 30 respondents from three wuas in varahanadhi sun-basin and thus the total sample size of the beneficiaries was 90. non-beneficiary respondents were selected from the same wuas of the three subbasins viz., palar, aliyar and varahanadhi, as it was considered in line with sound sampling procedure. the criterion that was followed to select a non-beneficiary respondent from each village of a wua was ‘closest physical proximity’ to the selected e-velanmai beneficiary respondent’s farm. this was uniformly followed for selecting all the 90 nonbeneficiary respondents that were included in the study. the impact of e-velanmai project was assessed by employing partial budgeting technique. partial budgeting is a statement of anticipated changes in costs, returns and profitability for minor modification (reddy et al., 2010). when a farmer contemplates few modifications or minor changes in the existing organization of his farm business, partial budgeting technique is employed. it is similar to that of marginal analysis, wherein changes in costs and returns resulting from proposed modifications are alone considered. it consists of four important elements viz., added costs, added returns, reduced returns and reduced costs. partial budgeting technique is generally used to evaluate the profitability of input substitution, enterprise substation and scale of operation. 1. added costs: additional costs are incurred, if the proposed modification is the introduction of a new enterprise or increase in the size of the existing enterprise. 2. added returns: additional returns could be received when the proposed modification is the addition of a new enterprise, or increase in the size of the existing enterprise or adoption of technology that results in higher productivity. 3. reduced returns: decrease in the returns is observed when the proposed 5553economic impact of e-velanmai model of extension service modification involves the elimination of an existing enterprise or reduction in the size of the existing enterprise. 4. reduced costs: decrease in the costs is found when the proposed modification involves the elimination of existing enterprise or reduction in the size of the enterprise or adoption of a technology that using fewer amounts of resources. based on the above four parameters a schedule was developed and data was collected. from the collected data, the added costs, added returns, reduced costs and reduced returns were calculated. the results of the partial budgeting may either be net loss or net gain. the formula used is as follows: partial budget = (added returns + reduced costs) – (reduced returns + added costs) findings and discussion the results and discussion are presented as follows: partial budgeting the results of partial budgeting analysis are presented in tables 1 and 2. sl.no. parameters / practices non-beneficiaries e-velanmai beneficiaries (rs. / ac) (rs. / ac) 1. information cost 25.00 3.00 2. fertilization 7,290.00 6,802.00 3. irrigation 1,375.00 1,120.00 4. weeding 13,100.00 11,250.00 5. pest management 860.00 645.00 6. disease management 975.00 940.00 7. inter-cultural activities 4,800.00 4,500.00 8. farm income 3,30,107.00 3,55,423.00 table 1. expenditure on major practices / activities for beneficiary and non-beneficiary respondents it is inferred from table 1 that there was reduced cost (information costs, fertilization, irrigation, weeding, pest management, disease management, inter-cultural activities) to the tune of rs. 3,165 / per acre. an added returns of rs. 25,316 / per acre was obtained from farm income and there was no reduced returns at all. the net gain was found to be rs. 28,481 / per acre. it is therefore concluded that e-velanmai had led to an increase in the farm income for the beneficiaries. journal of extension education5554 it is seen from table 2 that the expenditure incurred by the non-beneficiary respondents with respect to the parameters / practices viz., information cost, fertilization, irrigation, weeding, pest management, disease management, and inter-cultural activities, was higher than that of the e-velanmai beneficiaries. in addition, with respect to yield it is noticed that the yield value of beneficiaries was higher than that of the non-beneficiaries. as a result the net-gain for the beneficiaries was rs. 28,481 per acre. sl.no. constraints beneficiaries no. (n=90) per cent* 1. no constraints 85 94.40 2. no direct contact with tnau scientists 5 5.50 3. no follow-up visit by field coordinators after giving advice 1 1.10 table 3. distribution of beneficiary respondents according to constraints faced while availing extension services under e-velanmai * multiple reponses. table 2. results of partial budgeting analysis sl.no. debit (a) value (rs. / ac) credit (b) value (rs. / ac) 1. added costs reduced costs nil. information cost 22.00 fertilization 448.00 irrigation 255.00 weeding 1,850.00 pest management 215.00 disease management 35.00 inter-cultural activities 300.00 total 3,165.00 2. reduced returns added returns nil. yield 25,316.00 total total 28,481.00 net gain = (b – a) 28,481.00 5555economic impact of e-velanmai model of extension service constraints faced by the beneficiaries while availing extension services under e–velanmai the distribution of beneficiary respondents according to the constraints faced while availing extension services under e-velanmai is presented in table 3. it is seen from table 3 that an overwhelming percentage (94.40 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed that they faced no constraints while availing services under e-velanmai project. a meager percentage (5.50 %) indicated that there is no direct contact with tnau scientists and no follow-up visit by field coordinators after giving advice (1.10 %). conclusion it in understood from the input assessment study that the economic impact of the beneficiaries due to their participation in evelanmai project was found to be rs. 28,481 / per acre as compared to other farmers who did not avail e-velanmai advisory services. most of the technologies recommended by tnau to the farmers are scale-neutral and therefore less expensive. however, farmers who are not aware of the recommendations are likely to incur higher expenditure due to indiscriminate usage. this would have resulted in higher expenditure on the different practices / parameters whereas, in the case of beneficiaries, they would have adopted the exact recommendations of the tnau scientists, which would have resulted in less expenditure. this may be one of the reasons for higher net gain for the beneficiaries. moreover, the yield value was also higher for the beneficiaries, which again may be due to their participation in e-velanmai and the meticulous adoption of the recommendations. references karthikeyan, c. 2012. e-velanmaian ict enabled agricultural extension model. international journal of extension education, vol. 8: 24 – 30, issn: 2319 – 7183. reddy subha, s., p.raghu ram, t. v. neelakanta sastry and i. bhavani devi. 2010. agricultural economics. oxford and ibh publishing co.pvt. ltd, new delhi. 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 adoption behaviour of cashew growers in cuddalore district m. balarubini1, rexlin selvin2 and s. janani3 abstract india has a creditable record of attaining good amount of foreign exchange by way of export of cashew kernels. among the agri-horticultural commodities getting exported from india cashew ranks the 2nd position. the main objective of the study was to analyse the relationship of socio-personal and socio-psychological characteristics with their level of adoption.the study was conducted in four village of virudhachalam block of cuddalore district. the sample size consisted of 120 cashew growers under nhm. proportionate random sampling procedure was employed in selecting the respondents. the extent of adoption of different cultural practices taught in nhm training programmes was studied through a teacher made test and that majority (65 %) of the respondents exhibited high level of adoption of technologies taught in nhm training programme. 1&3, ph.d scholars, department of agricultural extension & rural sociology, agricultural college and research institute, coimbatore, 2professor and head, department of agricultural extension & rural sociology, agricultural college and research institute, killikulam, vallanadu , thoothukudi dt. cashew (anacardiumoccidentale l.) a native of eastern brazil, was introduced to india just as other commercial crops like rubber, coffee, tea etc. by the portuguese nearly five centuries back. cashew became one of the important plantation crops with its significant contribution to the country's foreign exchange through export of processed cashew kernels and cashew nut shell liquid (cnsl). india is the largest area holder of this crop. among the agri-horticultural commodities getting exported from india, cashew ranks the 2nd position. tamil nadu ranks fifth in area and production of nuts in india and the cashew crop has been raised in about one lakh hectares (venkattakumar .r. 2008). the national horticulture mission (nhm) has been launched as a centrally sponsored scheme to promote holistic growth of the horticulture sector through an area based regionally differentiated strategies. the scheme is implemented through district mission committees headed by the district collectors and deputy director of horticulture of the district is the member secretary of the committee. for instance, a massive funds estimating rs.8518 lakh (2007-08) has been allocated for the training component of nhm to tamil nadu alone. massive funds were spent on training adopting diversified training methods like exposure visits, farmers field schools, on-farm demonstrations, practical class room sessions etc., there is an ever existing scope to study the extent of both symbolic and practical adoption of the technologies by the trainees, have to be known by the researchers. methodology in tamil nadu, there are 32 districts, out of which cuddalore district (cashew cluster under nhm) was purposively selected as the study area. the area expansion under nhm journal of extension education5366 (800 ha) is comparatively more when compared to other districts of tamil nadu and the district has marketing infrastructure within its cluster. cuddalore district has 13 blocks .it was decided to select one block purposively based on the criteria of more number of beneficiaries. the beneficiaries list for the year 2007-08 under national horticultural mission obtained from the office of krishi vigyan kendra, virudhachalam as the cashew farmers were trained by the subject matter specialist of kvk. the block virudhachalam has the maximum number of beneficiaries under national horticultural mission (nhm). hence it was purposively selected for the study. among the selected block virudhachalam, four villages which had maximum number of beneficiaries were deliberately selected for the study. the selected villages were puthukurapetai, kuppanatham, aladi and manakollai. as the study aims to analyze the knowledge gain through national horticultural mission training and adoption of cashew technologies farmers and the relationship between the profile of the respondents with their adoption towards national horticultural mission. employing proportionate random sampling method, 120 beneficiaries of the nhm were selected from block virudhachalam. findings and discussion extent of adoption of different cultural practices taught in nhm training programmes. the extent of adoption is the degree to which a farmer accepts and adopts a new technology. though various technologies were introduced and taught to the farmers, it is important that those technologies were fully accepted and adopted by the farmers in their field characterized by continuous adoption of those technologies (mamtatiwari and priyavashishttia, 2005). the extent of adoption of different cultural practices taught in nhm training programmes was studied through a teacher made test and the results are tabulated in table 1. majority (65 %) of the respondents exhibited high level of adoption of technologies taught in nhm training programme. it is followed by 20.00 percent of the respondents with low adoption level and 15 percent with medium level of adoption of technologies taught in nhm training programme. the high level adoption of technologies imparted through nhm training programme is mainly due to the positive and significant attitude of respondents towards training, innovativeness, scientific orientation and risk orientation. practice wise adoption from table 1, it is inferred that almost majority of the technologies namely selection of varieties (94.2 %), planting material to be used (98.3 %), seedling treatment with biofertilizer (87.5 %), spacing (93.3 %), pit forming and bunding (91.7 %), pesticide application (90.8 %), fungicide application (92.5 %), mulching (90 %), pruning (90.8 %), cover cropping (66.7 %), inter cropping (90.0 %), 5367adoption behaviour of cashew growers in cuddalore district table 1. distribution of respondents based on their practice wise adoption (n=120) s.no. technologies adoption non-adoption number percentage number percentage 1 varieties 113 94.20 7 5.80 2 planting material 118 98.30 2 1.70 3 treatment of seedling with bio-fertilizer 105 87.50 15 12.50 4 appropriate spacing 112 93.30 8 6.70 5 drip irrigation 1 0.80 119 99.20 6 fertigation 8 6.70 112 93.30 7 pit forming 110 91.70 10 8.30 8 pesticide application 109 90.80 11 9.20 9 fungicide application 111 92.50 9 7.50 10 hormones application 14 11.70 106 88.30 11 weedicide application 17 14.20 103 85.80 12 mulching 108 90.00 12 10.00 13 pruning 109 90.80 11 9.20 14 cover cropping 80 66.70 40 33.30 15 inter cropping 108 90.00 12 10.00 16 time and stage of harvest 113 94.20 7 5.80 17 top working 17 14.20 103 85.80 (*multiple response obtained) time and stage of harvest (94.2 %) were adopted by majority of the respondents. the adoption of these major production technologies of cashew is due to the farmers experience with the regional research station (cashew) and krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) which is located in the study area. frequent exposure of the respondents to various training programmes of nhm is another important factor for influencing the adoption of above mentioned technologies which stood as the basic production technologies in cashew production. some other bottom lying reasons for adoption of the described technologies were, cost effectiveness, compatibility with local conditions and previous technologies, less skill requirement and increased income per unit area, etc., technologies in relation to the practices like drip irrigation (0.8 %), fertigation (6.7 %), journal of extension education5368 hormones application (11.7 %), weedicide application (14.2 %) and top working (14.2 %) were not adopted by majority of the respondents. the reasons for non-adoption the above mentioned technologies by a majority of the respondents was high cost factor, more skill requirement and extended time duration and poor availability of resources. conclusion majority (65 %) of the respondents exhibited high level of adoption of technologies taught in nhm training programme. it is followed by 20.00 per cent of the respondents with low adoption level and 15 per cent with medium level of adoption of technologies taught in nhm training programme.the reasons for non-adoption the above mentioned technologies by a majority of the respondents was due to high cost factor, more skill requirement and extended time duration and poor availability of resources. references mamtatiwari and priyavashishttia 2005. adoption of advanced technologies among farm women of kota district, rural india, 68(3):49-53. venkattakumar, r. 2008. cashew cultivation in cuddalore, kissan call centre, 35: 46-48. 1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 3, 2015 perception of under graduate students (b.sc.agriculture) on instructional methods o.r. sulaja* abstract the study was undertaken to identify the effectiveness of different instructional tools as perceived by under graduate students of college of horticulture, vellanikkara. field visit/ study tour was rated as the most effective instructional tool by 68 per cent of respondents, followed by practical classes in the field. the frequency of use of different instructional methods during the current semester was found out. practical classes in the laboratory were the most frequently used aid followed by lecture using power point. more field visits should be included within the time limit together with field practicals and work experiences to ensure maximum learning experience to students. *ph.d (agrl. extension), farm officer (sr. grade), aicrp on bccp & w, college of horticulture, vellanikkara, kerala. in the new era of technology, every aspect of human life is changing from traditional to innovative methods. this has been reflected in the case of instructional technology also. formal education has long been dominated by the traditional lecture, where the learned few impart wisdom to the passive masses through well-conceived but oftentimes long and dry oratories (davies et al., 2013). it was noted that faculty have tended to rely on lectures and readings from texts that culminate with a final exam to measure achievement (lowerison et al. (2006). as a result, the student may essentially be a passive recipient of information, raising concerns that the focus is more on mere learning whereby students only memorize facts in preparation for tests, not in actual field situations. many new tools and methods are used now to increase the effectiveness of teaching and to improve the comprehension of students, in addition to the traditional lecture method. this study examines the perceptions of under graduate students on different instructional tools in their learning and knowledge gain. various tools are used to suit the requirements of specific learning situation and the expertise expected out of it. the confidence level of teachers are improved using different instructional technologies as they can explain difficult concepts and complex functions using effective instructional tools. in this context, the present study was formulated with the following objectives: (1) to study the effectiveness of different instructional tools as perceived by under graduate students, and (2) to observe the frequency of use of different instructional methods in undergraduate teaching journal of extension education5512 methodology the study was taken up during the year 2013-14. the students who were undergoing b.sc.agriculture course at college of horticulture, vellanikkara under kerala agricultural university, formed the subjects of the study. respondents were selected from among the list of students in the first year and final year b.sc. agriculture students. thirty two students each were selected from these two batches of under graduate students in college of horticulture. the data collected were tabulated and statistical tools like frequency and percentage were used for logical conclusion. findings and discussion 1. gender the profile of students revealed that about 19 per cent of first year students taken for study were male and 81 per cent were female. thirteen per cent of final year students sampled in this study were male and 87 per cent female. the combined sample consists of 16 per cent male and 84 per cent female students. 2. marks secured marks secured by students during their last semester of study were documented. about 44 per cent of the students secured marks below 80 per cent, whereas 20 per cent of them secured 81 to 85 per cent marks. an equal percentage (20%) of them scored marks between 86 and 90 per cent. sixteen per cent of them scored marks above 91 per cent. 3. opinion about effectiveness of each instructional method twenty one different instructional methods were listed out and the perception of students on the effectiveness of each item was sought. the students were requested to mark their responses on a five point continuumleast effective, less effective, neutral, effective and most effective which were assigned scores of 1,2,3,4 and 5 respectively. a perusal of the table 3 showed that field visit/ study tour was rated as the most effective instructional tool by the respondents (68 per cent). this was followed by practical table 1. distribution of students based on gender items male percentage female percentage i year 6 19 26 81 iv year 4 13 28 87 total 10 16 54 84 (n = 64) 5513perception of under graduate students (b.sc.agriculture) on instructional methods classes in the field (61 per cent), work experiences (54 per cent), demonstrations (51 per cent), practical classes in the lab (31 per cent), brainstorming (28 per cent) and workshop (28 per cent). question answer session was perceived as the most effective table 2. distribution of students based on marks secured (in percentage) (n = 64) items below 80 81 to 85 86 to 90 91 and above i year 25 9 34 31 iv year 63 31 6 total 44 20 20 16 1 lecture without any aid 0 0 0 2 lecture using chalk board and or white board 19 9 14 3 lecture using power point 13 25 19 4 lecture using ohps 0 6 3 5 question answer sessions 25 25 25 6 presentation by students 3 16 10 7 use of multimedia 3 25 14 8 assignments 0 6 3 9 seminars 0 6 5 10 conferences 0 9 5 11 team projects 16 19 17 12 demonstrations 44 59 51 13 brainstorming 28 28 28 14 using internet for literature search 16 25 20 15 practical classes in the lab 16 47 31 16 practical classes in the field 38 84 61 17 work experiences 44 66 54 18 field visit/ study tour 63 75 68 19 workshop 9 47 28 20 case study 22 28 25 21 role play 16 22 19 table 3. effectiveness of different instructional methods (in percentage) (n = 64) sl. no. instructional methods/ tools/ aids responses in the highly effective category total (%) i year (%) iv year (%) journal of extension education5514 tool by 25 per cent, an equal per cent of students preferred case study. this was followed by using internet for literature search (20 per cent), role play (19 per cent), lecture using power point (19 per cent) and team projects (17 per cent). none of the students preferred lecture without any aid. a thorough look into the table reveals that first year students and final year students vary in their perception on effectiveness of different instructional tools. about 63 per cent of the first year students perceived field visit/ study tour as the most effective instructional tool followed by demonstrations (44 per cent) and work experiences (44 per cent). practical classes in the field were preferred by 38 per cent of first year students followed by brain storming (28 per cent) and case study (22 per cent). about eighty four per cent of the final year students perceived practical classes in the field as the most effective instructional tool. seventy five per cent of them preferred field visit/ study tour as the most effective instruction aid followed by work experiences (66 per cent), demonstrations (59 per cent), practical classes in the lab (47 per cent) and workshop (47 per cent). none of them preferred lecture without any aid. 4. frequency of use of different instructional methods the students were asked to indicate how frequently per semester the technologies were used to support teaching and learning during current semester. scale : never used during semester seldom used (less than 10% of class sessions) occasionally used (less than 50% of class sessions) frequently used (more than 50% of class sessions) never, seldom, occasionally and frequently were given scores of 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. the table 4 depicts the frequency with which students perceive the use of specific technology by their teachers. concerning the lecture without any aid, 25 per cent of first year students perceive this technology is used more than 50 per cent of class sessions while none of the final years reported the same. similarly, 44 per cent of first year students perceived lecture using chalk board/ black board is used more than 50 per cent of class sessions while final years perceived it to be 28 per cent. in the case of lecture using power point the figures were 38 per cent and 75 per cent respectively. about 22 per cent of first year students and 34 per cent of final year students perceived “use of multimedia” as more than 50 per cent of class sessions. the percentage of doing assignments was higher for both groups: 50 per cent and 53 per cent for first year students and final year students respectively. sixteen per cent of first year students perceived ‘seminars’ to be used more than 50 per cent in contrast to final year students (22 per cent). there was commendable difference in the perception of team projects by first year students (3 per cent) and final year students (19 per cent). 5515perception of under graduate students (b.sc.agriculture) on instructional methods 1 lecture without any aid 25 0 13 2 lecture using chalk board and or white board 44 28 36 3 lecture using power point 38 75 56 4 lecture using ohps 6 13 9 5 question answer sessions 16 6 11 6 presentation by students 9 50 30 7 use of multimedia 22 34 28 8 assignments 50 53 52 9 seminars 16 22 19 10 conferences 3 6 5 11 team projects 3 19 11 12 demonstrations 13 6 9 13 brainstorming 9 9 9 14 using internet for literature search 9 28 19 15 practical classes in the lab 81 75 78 16 practical classes in the field 53 47 50 17 work experiences 9 38 23 18 field visit/ study tour 13 38 25 19 workshop 6 3 5 20 case study 3 0 2 21 role play 3 6 5 table 4. frequency of use of instructional methods (in percentage) (n = 64) sl. no. instructional methods/ tools/ aids more than 50 % of class sessions (in percentage) total (n = 64)i year (n=32) iv year (n=32) similarly ‘using internet for literature search was perceived differently by first year students (9 per cent) and final year students (28 per cent). the highest percentage was observed in the case of practical classes in lab: 81 per cent by first year and 75 per cent by final year students. fifty three per cent of first year students perceived ‘practical classes in the field’ in more than 50 per cent of class sessions while 47 per cent of final year students perceived the same. there was difference among first year students (9 per cent) and final years (38 per cent) in the case of work experiences also. thirteen per cent of first years and 38 per cent of final years perceived field visits/ study tours in more than 50 per cent of class sessions. the combined percentage of first year students and final year students (78 per cent) journal of extension education5516 indicated that practical classes in the lab was perceived to be used more than 50 per cent of class sessions. it was followed by lecture using power point (56 per cent), assignments (52 per cent), practical classes in the field (50 per cent), lecture using chalk board/ white board (36 per cent), presentation by students (30 per cent), use of multimedia (28 per cent), field visit/ study tour (25 per cent), work experiences (23 per cent), seminars (19 per cent) and using internet for literature search (19 per cent). conclusion the study attempted to list out all possible instructional methods/ tools which are presently used in under graduate teaching at college of horticulture, vellanikkara. students’ perception on effectiveness of different teaching aids was found out by ranking different instructional aids. field visit/ study tour was rated as the most effective instructional tool as the students get familiarized with crops and cropping patterns which they have not seen before. this was followed by practical classes in the field and work experiences where the students get first hand experience of crops and problems in actual field. the frequency of use of different instructional aids was also found. the students reported that practical classes in the laboratory were most frequently used followed by lecture using power point and giving assignments. teachers can remodulate their teaching in a way that there is a perfect balance between field visits, practical classes and class lectures so that the students get maximum benefit out of their learning experiences. references davies, t.l., lavin, a.m. and korte, l. 2009. student perceptions of how technology impacts the quality of instruction and learning. journal of instructional pedagogies. the university of south dakota beacom school of business (sept 2009):2-16. available: search. proquest.com/openview/ee 0340b9 8092133 e8edd3bd6caa2c60c.pdf lowerison, g., sclater, j., schmid, r. f., & abrami, p. c. 2006. student perceived effectiveness of computer technology us in post-secondary classrooms. computer and education, 47, 465-489. jee chief editor from the editor’s desk in 2016, it is estimated that there will be around 2.13 billion social network users around the globe, up from 1.4 billion in 2012. social network penetration worldwide is ever-increasing. there is a healthy growth of internet users in india too and by the end of 2015, ten percent of the indian population will be having an account with any social network extension personnel in the country use social media tools extensively and the indian farmers too are not lagging behind in their usage, as several reports say. in this scenario, i thought i should share the proceedings of a workshop organized by the university of nebraska in usa, recently. the workshop had offered the following tips for communicating farm technologies through social media (cannon, 2015). · don’t be afraid of social media: it should be seen as an to opportunity share your perspective about the work your research institution/university is doing. · start small and simple. extension personnel and farmers need not focus on getting bogged down with details. they need to begin slowly by choosing one channel or social media platform and work using it, rather than trying three or four at once. · use creativity: be creative in your messages sustaining the interest of the farmers · evaluate available tools. explore different types of social media and tools within each medium. · keep your messages visually vibrant with photos, videos and infographics · maintain professionalism : keep language and tone in a professional manner. this is more important while using a social networking tool. · use engaging language: use words and language that is not coercive, but invites openness and conversation many extension researchers and development personnel in india, like their counterparts worldwide, are already using social media venues for both professional and personal purposes. i hope the aforementioned tips would help them in using social media effectively and in creating a respectable and positive brand for extension in the virtual world. this issue of jee contains nine papers on diverse topics such as ict, climate change impact and tribal issues. i invite the readers to provide their feedback on these papers while thanking the associate editors and the reviewers for continued support. 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 management characteristics and adoption index of indigenous agricultural practices by rice farmers n. jayakumar1 and m.sundaramari2 abstract the study was conducted in vellore district of tamil nadu, to assess the relationship between management characteristics of farmers and their adoption of indigenous agricultural practices (iaps) in rice cultivation. one hundred and twenty rice growing farmers were purposively selected from five blocks of vellore district for the study. thirty eight iaps for rice cultivation as listed in tamil nadu agricultural university agritech portal were selected for the study and the adoption index regarding these technologies revealed that majority (65%) of the respondents had ‘medium’ adoption index. with regard to the management characteristics studied, majority of the respondents had medium level of management orientation (75.00%), coordination ability (70.80%), risk orientation (75.80%), self-confidence (69.20%) and self-reliability (56.70%). the study also revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship with regard to self-confidence and self-reliance of the farmers with the extent of adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. risk orientation had a negative but significant relationship with extent of adoption. training the farmers to improve their management skills could lead to better adoption of the indigenous practices. 1assistant professor (agricultural extension), adhiparasakthi agricultural college, kalavai, vellore and 2professor of agricultural extension & c.d.& coordinator, centre for indigenous knowledge in agriculture, f.ag.& a.h., gandhigram rural institute (deemed university), gandhigram, dindigul. in recent years, sustainability issues have infused sanity in utilising interventions without much damage to the environment. the need for organic agriculture and use of eco-friendly technologies to increase productivity in order to feed the increasing population is the results of such thoughts. recently, accepting the wisdom of the practitioners of agriculture in overcoming the location specific problems is gaining momentum and researches have aimed at documenting, rationalising, and blending the indigenous knowledge with the so called scientific or western knowledge so as to take care of the sustainability issues. indigenous knowledge (ik) is the sum total of knowledge and practices that are based on people’s accumulated experience in dealing with situations and problems in various aspects of life and such knowledge and practices are special for a particular culture. many of the indigenous technologies are not so popular and many times are confined to the knowledge of few, presently called innovative organic farmers or age old traditional farmers. hence, this indigenous wisdom of the farmers should be documented, pooled and rationalized so that they could be popularized. however after such popularization, adoption of a practice is dependent on many characteristics including journal of extension education5358 attributes of the innovation or practice and the socio-personal / economic characters of the adopter. moreover it is also dependent on the management characteristics, like planning, production and marketing capacity of the farmers. the characteristics like confidence on the part of the farmers in farming, their ability to coordinate different functions related to farming and confidence in their own abilities also plays a vital role in adopting various practices. keeping this in mind, the study was conducted with the following specific objectives: 1. to study the management characteristics of rice farmers. 2. to study the adoption of indigenous agricultural practices among the rice farmers. 3. to study the relationship between the selected management characteristics and adoption of indigenous agricultural practices among the rice farmers. methodology the present study was carried out in vellore district of tamil nadu state. rice growing farmers of arakkonam, kaveripakkam, nemili, sholingur and thimiri blocks were selected for the study. these blocks were purposively selected because of their large area under rice cultivation. out of the 233 villages in these five blocks, thirty villages were selected based on their large area under rice cultivation, at a rate of six villages per block. from these villages, hundred and twenty aged and experienced farmers were interviewed, at a rate of four farmers per village. snowballing method was used to select these farmers. generally, early selection of crops and assessing the seed and fertilizer requirements well in advance, use of soil testing for assessing fertilizer requirements, getting the advice of an expert in problems related to crop cultivation, realizing the importance of grading and usage of warehouses for getting better profit are considered as better management practices. the risk taking ability of a farmer also decides his adoption of newer practices to get better returns. the confidence a farmer has in oneself and the practices that he adopts and his ability to adjust to difficult situations have an impact on his adoption of a particular practice and also indirectly decides on his attitude to borrowing money for farming activities. all these qualities of a farmer put together is called his management characteristics. management characteristics of the respondents were studied based on the following five qualities possessed by the respondents: 1. management orientation management orientation refers to the degree to which a farmer is oriented towards scientific farm management comprising of planning, production and marketing functions of his farm. higher score reveals a favourable management outlook of the respondent. 2. coordination ability the ability to coordinate farm activities is the degree to 5359management characteristics and adoption index of indigenous agricultural practices by rice farmers which an individual co-ordinates actions in a time dimension. 3. risk orientation risk orientation refers to the degree to which a farmer is oriented towards risk and uncertainty and has courage to face the problems in farming. 4. self-confidence self-confidence indicates the extent of feeling of one’s own ability and resourcefulness in carrying out any activity which an individual desired to undertake. 5. self-reliance-self-reliance is conceptually related to credit orientation and planning orientation. borrowing capital for introducing changes in farming and to do it in a planned way, pre-supposes confidence in oneself along with the realization that all environmental factors are not inscrutable supernatural forces beyond our control. the indigenous agricultural practices for rice that were documented in the tamil nadu agricultural university website (http:// agritech.tnau.ac.in/) were enlisted and were used for making the interview schedule. adoption is defined as the decision to make full use of a new idea as the best course of action available. in this study adoption was operationalized as whether the respondent had ever practiced each of the selected indigenous agricultural practices. the selected indigenous agricultural practices were explained to the respondents one by one enquiring whether they had adopted the practice. positive responses were assigned a score of 1 and negative responses were assigned a score of 0. the scores obtained for all the practices were summed up for each respondent and the adoption score was arrived at. the adoption index for each respondent was worked out by using the following formula as used by sundaramari (2001) and sakeer husain (2010). findings and discussion adoption index number of indigenous practices adopted x 100= number of indigenous practices applicable management characteristics of the rice farmers majority (75%) of the respondents was in the medium category with regard to management orientation. the management orientation includes planning, production and marketing function of the respondents. majority of the respondents would not have planned afresh about the crops to be cultivated in each type of land every year. similarly, majority of them would have selected the crops based on the availability of the rain and did not think that increased yield could be obtained through preplanning. with regard to production functions, generally nutrient management based on soil test and determination of seed rate and other production related decisions through consultation with a crop specialist was not journal of extension education5360 sl.no. indigenous agricultural practices 1 good harvest can be obtained from the crop transplanted during aavani i.e. aug. sep. 2 sowing on eighteenth day (aadiperukku) of tamil month aadi (july-aug.) ensures good harvest. 3 daincha seeds are sown on paddy main fields when paddy nursery is raised and as they grow up daincha is ploughed in-situ during field preparation. 4 use large mud pots called kudhir as high as six feet for storing paddy grains for longer periods. 5 the crop transplanted during october-november will give reduced yield. 6 neem oil is mixed with water @ 30 ml/lit. and sprayed to control stem borer in rice. 7 neem (azadirachtaindica) oil cake extract is sprayed to control thrips in rice. 8 120 grains found in a rice ear head indicates the full yield. 9 mixing the paddy grains with the leaves of pungam (p.pinnata) or notchi (vitex negundo) or neem before storage to avoid storage pest attack. 10 apply the neem seeds @ 40kg/ ac as basal to get more yield as compared to the equal quantity of neem cake. 11 plough the main field for four to six times for better yield. 12 ‘t’ shaped bamboo stands are placed in many places in the paddy fields so that birds can sit on them and feed on the larvae and adults of rice pests. 13 irrigate the field, allow the weed seeds to germinate and then plough the fields to incorporate the weeds into the soil before sowing or transplanting of rice crop to control weed growth. 14 planting the samba (aug.), crop thickly and navarai (feb.) thinly. 15 the rice crop will establish better if it is transplanted along the wind direction. 16 when one earhead contains about 100 grains, the yield will be 20-22 quintals /ac. 17 putting the leaves of nochi (vitex negundo) and pungam (pongamia pinnata) inside the kulumai to ward off storage pests. 18 cultivation of sunhemp or daincha helps to control the nut grass. 19 practice sheep penning during summer to get more yield 20 applying neem cake before last plough to control root rot and nematode problem. 21 palmyra (borassus flabellifer) fronds are tied on to poles and kept on the corner of rice fields so that the noise produced by them scare away the birds like ducks, sparrows etc, and save the grains being damaged. table 1. inventory of indigenous agricultural practices in rice cultivation 5361management characteristics and adoption index of indigenous agricultural practices by rice farmers sl.no. indigenous agricultural practices 22 practice sheep penning for the first season and green leaf manure for the second season for better yield. 23 application of calotropis as green leaf manure will prevent thrips attack in the nursery. 24 soaking the paddy seeds in diluted cow’s urine before sowing considerably reduces the incidences of leaf spot and rice blast. 25 treatment of paddy seeds in diluted bio gas slurry for 12 hrs increases resistance of seedlings to pest and diseases. 26 dusting chulah ash in the early morning to control stem borer and ear head bugs. 27 spraying the leaf extract of adaathoda vasica to control rice tungro. 28 a mixture of 5kg of common salt and 15kg of sand is applied for 1 acre to control brown spot disease. 29 about 30 kg of tamarind seeds are applied for an acre of paddy field one day after transplanting to boost up the crop growth and yield. 30 apply 100 kg of pig manure for one acre of rice at 10 days after planting to get higher yield. 31 growing or planting calotropis at 12 feet interval on all sides of paddy fields to control the leaf roller. 32 for control of red leaf spot disease in paddy, the seeds are soaked in pudhina leaf extract for 24 hrs. 33 hundred ml of leaf extract of karuvel (acacia nilotica) and 10kg of cow dung are dissolved in 10lit. of water and sprayed on the rice crop to control ear head bugs. 34 during panicle formation in paddy, the flowers of cycas circinalis are placed on sticks in paddy fields @ 4/ac. its unpleasant odour repels ear head bugs. 35 presoaking of paddy seeds in milk increases its resistance against “tungro” virus and ‘stunt’ virus. 36 to control ear head bugs, 10 kg of cow dung ash is mixed with 2kg of powdered tobacco waste and dusted on the rice crop during morning hours. 37 dragging the branches of country ber or aloe sp. on the affected field to control the leaf roller. 38 soaking the paddy seeds in the 20% mint leaves solution before sowing will control the leaf spot on the agenda of a majority of the respondents. similarly in the case of marketing function, respondents were not much aware about the grading and the use of warehouses to get better prices for their produce. many of the respondents had not table 1. contd. . . journal of extension education5362 grown their crops based on market demand. hence, the mean score for management orientation was found to be 38.43 out of a maximum of 54. the distribution of respondents based on their coordination ability indicated that majority (70.8%) of the respondents had ‘medium’ coordination ability. the mean score for coordination ability was found to be 6.42 out of a maximum score of 10 since many of the respondents usually did not make arrangements for the farming expenses well in advance and also for purchasing fertilisers and seeds well in advance. majority (75.8%) of the respondents were under the ‘medium’ category in risk orientation. as many of the respondents were contented with the smaller profits instead of making a larger profit by taking risk they were scared to take up new methods of farming as it involved greater risk. the mean score for risk orientation was found to be 13.3 out of a total score of 18, which indicates that majority of the respondents had above average risk orientation ability. in the case of self-confidence, 69.20 per cent of the respondents were under ‘medium’ category. respondents were tested about their confidence level by understanding their faith in themselves, ability to adjust to new situations and the ability to face difficult situations without worry. the mean score for self confidence was found to be 5.83 out of a maximum of 9. this shows that majority of the respondents had a score above average level. this may be due to the reason that the study was conducted in a traditionally rice growing area and majority of the respondents had been cultivating rice for a long period of time and had confidence over their abilities with regard to rice farming. the self-reliance of the respondents revealed that 56.7 per cent of them had medium level of self-reliance. the average selfreliance score of the respondents was 2.81 and it was indicative of their ‘medium’ selfreliance which might be due to the fact that the farmers are still adopting a considerable number of indigenous practices with much reliance on the local inputs though a large number of modern technologies have been introduced in rice farming. adoption of indigenous agricultural practices on rice the studies on the adoption of the 38 indigenous agricultural practices revealed that majority (65%) of the respondents had ‘medium’ level of adoption index, followed by 18.33 per cent of the respondents who had ‘high’ level of adoption index. the sixteen iaps numbering 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 29 and 30 were related to crop production technologies. the nineteen iapss numbering 6, 7, 12, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 were crop protection technologies. the possible reason for the medium level of adoption by majority of the respondents might be due to the fact that agriculture today is market oriented. the dependence on market 5363management characteristics and adoption index of indigenous agricultural practices by rice farmers either for the purchase of inputs or for marketing of produces combined with the neighbourhood’s influence on adoption of practices would have invariably pushed the farmers to go in for readymade inputs which are easily available and less laborious as compared to the indigenous practices. the introduction and popularization of modern chemical methods of pest and disease control by various extension agencies doubled with the readymade availability, less bulkiness and less laborious nature of these chemical methods possibly made these methods more popular among the farmers as compared to the indigenous practices. this was found to be in accordance with the findings of venkatesan and sundaramari (2012). three iaps namely 4, 9 and 17 were related to storage. the medium level of adoption of these practices might possibly be due to the reason that presently the farms are mostly fragmented and even those farmers who have a considerable area under rice cultivation do not store their grains either for consumption or for seed. fresh paddy seeds are bought every season for cultivation and changes in dietary preference had made farmers sell their produce and purchase super fine rice varieties for consumption. relationship between the selected management characteristics of the farmers and their extent of adoption of indigenous practices the relationship between the selected management characteristics like management orientation (x1), co-ordination ability (x2), risk orientation (x3), self-confidence (x4) and selfreliance (x5) and the extent of adoption of the indigenous agricultural practices were correlated using the pearson coefficient of correlation. the management characteristics like management orientation, coordination ability, self-confidence and self-reliance had a positive relationship with the adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. of these, table 2. relationship between the selected management characteristics of the farmers and their extent of adoption of indigenous practices sl. no. management characteristics correlation coefficient (r) p value 1. management orientation (x1) 0.122 0.184 2. co-ordination ability (x2) 0.012 0.897 3. risk orientation (x3) 0.223* 0.014* 4. self-confidence (x4) 0.216* 0.018* 5. self-reliance (x5) 0.282** 0.002** * significant at the 0.05 level ** significant at the 0.01 level journal of extension education5364 self-confidence and self-reliance had a significant relationship with the extent of adoption with 21 per cent and 28 per cent positive relationship. this significant relationship might be due to the fact that majority of the respondents had the confidence in themselves and a good number of indigenous practices they followed due to their long association with rice farming. the positive relationship between these management characteristics and adoption index of indigenous agricultural practices could be utilized to increase the adoption percentage of indigenous practices. the management characteristic, risk orientation had 22 per cent negative and significant relationship with the adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. usually, indigenous agricultural practices pose less risk as compared to the modern practices. hence, the farmers who wish to face less risk would like to adopt more number of indigenous practices and vice-versa. conclusion rice is presently being cultivated through a blend of modern chemical practices and indigenous practices. this is revealed by the study that majority (65%) of the respondents (rice cultivating farmers) had medium adoption index with regard to adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. the management characteristics like management orientation and co-ordination ability had a positive relationship while self-confidence and self-reliance had a positive and significant relationship with the adoption index of indigenous agricultural practices. as the risk orientation had a negative and significant relationship with extent of adoption of indigenous practices, farmers need to be educated about the sustainable nature of the indigenous practices which would be beneficial in a long run. the indigenous practices are perceived to be culturally compatible, safe, simple, cost effective and sustainable. hence, efforts need to be taken to popularize these practices. the farmers need to be trained to improve their management skills so that the positive relationship could be exploited for better adoption of the indigenous practices. references sakeer husain, a. 2010. knowledge, adoption and perceived effectiveness of indigenous horticultural practices in kerala, ph.d.diss., gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, india. sundaramari,m. 2001.adoption and perceived effectiveness of indigenous agricultural practices in different farming systems. unpub. ph.d.thesis., gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, india. venkatesan, p. and sundaramari, m. 2012. constraints experienced in adoption of indigenous tribal agricultural practices, journal of extension education, 24(2): 4823 4826. http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/ 6531     from the editor's desk my dear readers of journal of extension education, the covid-19 pandemic, considered as the biggest challenge to humankind since world war-ii has affected the extension services globally, to a great extent. advisory services to those living in rural areas have been hampered and linking the farmers to markets & farm inputs had been extremely difficult during the lockdowns. the international fund for agricultural development (ifad), a specialized agency of the united nations, has developed the following mechanisms to continue providing extension services, even while adhering to the government regulations during this crisis (ifad, 2020). 1.  identifying and tracking farmers' needs via social media in the absence of physical coordination mechanisms, the ifad india country team has embraced whatsapp and email groups as ways to stay connected with partners and to ensure that the farmers' concerns are raised on a regular basis. the eg5 (empowered group) set up by the ministry of home affairs, government of india to look in to supply chain logistics for all essential commodities, including food and agriculture-related items shares information about agri-logistics issues faced by the farmers on the ground and on good practices that could be quickly replicated across the country. 2.  ict tools provide e-advisory services to farmers development projects are making extensive use of icts, solutions built on the integration of mobile phones and other digital media, to expand farmers' access to the information and knowledge they need during the pandemic. in meghalaya, the directorate of agriculture had set up an integrated cloud platform that serves as an agri-response centre (arc) connecting farmers with subject matter specialists and suppliers, providing a toll-free number that farmer can call with their queries, while supporting farmers in transporting their produce. 3.  remote capacity-building of lead farmers and grassroots organizations as not all farmers can directly use ict, and many prefer to learn from a trusted contact, it is crucial to also use decentralized outreach systems and peer networks to bridge the digital divide. in india, when the movement of project staff and government extension agents was restricted, ifad-funded projects enhanced the remote backstopping of lead farmers by preparing prerecorded videos and picture-based materials to provide quality training to those who may not have access to ict-based services. cases of using local agro input dealers to distribute extension materials and critical messages to their farmer customers have also been found successful. by utilizing these mechanisms depending on local conditions, extension agencies could continue providing extension support to the smallholder farmers whenever/wherever it is difficult to reach them in person. this issue of jee contains papers on topics such as communication strategies, occupational aspirations and women empowerment schemes. i hope, readers would find them interesting and useful. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com.   d puthira prathap chief editor jee 32(3)       6621 awareness about muga culture among the college students in jorhat district of assam, india k. ghosh1 and m. saikia2 abstract a study was undertaken to compare the awareness about muga culture among the college students in jorhat district of assam. significant differences were found between the male and female students, and between rural and urban students. on the other hand, significant differences were found in the case of awareness on muga culture between arts and science stream students, and arts & commerce stream students. keywords: muga culture; awareness; college students; arts stream; commerce stream; science stream. 1. department of education, nakachari college, nakachari – 785635, jorhat – assam, india. 2. department of sericulture, faculty of agriculture, assam agricultural university – 785013, jorhat, assam, india. received : 15-05-2021; accepted : 12-07-2021 introduction assam is the third leading state among all the silk producing states of india after karnataka and andhra pradesh. assam produced 5315.6 mt of raw silk during 2019-20, which accounted for 14.84% of the country’s total raw silk production of 35818.6 mt (anonymous, 2020). silk production of assam is gradually increasing but still there is a gap between what has been achieved and what could have been achieved. the muga silkworm culture and muga silk cloth is closely associated with the socio-economic and cultural life of assamese people. muga silkworm is endemic to northeastern region of india and muga silk is the first gi product of assam (saikia et al., 2016). production of muga raw silk (240.5 mt during 2019-20) is very less in comparison to other vanya silks of india (anonymous, 2020) as because muga silkworm cultivation is mainly done by the traditional method and due to outdoor nature of rearing it has to face the problem of pest and diseases and abnormal environmental conditions. non availability of good seeds, shortage of food plants, lack of awareness about new technologies, lack of knowledge about marketing and gradual declining of youth participation in this culture are also constraints which play role in low production of muga silk. muga silkworm culture is confined to a limited number of traditional research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 4, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6621-6625 6622 farmers of the region. youths are not coming up to adopt muga culture as their livelihood; it is regarded as glamourless vocation of illiterate people. rani and rampal (2016) mentioned that youths are losing interest and confidence in agriculture and allied activities; hence they are not willingly involved in agricultural operations about 70% of india’s population is below the age of 35 years, making it the youngest nation in the world and this predominance is expected to last until 2050 which can be utilized for taking indian agriculture to new heights by channelising their creative energies through development of appropriate skills, knowledge and attitude (gangwar and kameswari, 2016). to conserve the muga silkworm, antheraea assamensis helfer and thereby providing employment to the youth, youth must have knowledge and information about muga culture whether they are educated or not. studies on participation of rural youth in sericulture (viswanatha et al., 2014), adoption of scientific technology by sericulture farmers (kushwaha and singhvi, 2013; sreenivasa, 2014), role of women in sericulture (upadhyay and barman, 2013; goswami and bhattacharya, 2013; mech and ahmed, 2012), comparative study on awareness about sericulture among secondary school students (ghosh and saikia, 2017) etc. have been carried out by several researchers but there is no detailed study on awareness on muga culture among college students. therefore, it is essential to study the awareness on muga culture among the college students of jorhat district in assam. methodology study area jorhat district in assam has a rich tradition of muga culture with a production of 5 mt muga raw silk during the year 201819. change of natural environment and global warming, adoption of new technology, application of marketing strategy demand active participation of educated youth to revive the industry. jorhat is the most literate district of assam with 15 general colleges out of which eight are in rural areas and seven are in the urban areas. present study is confined to the students of these colleges. sampling and experimental procedure descriptive survey method was used for the present study and 458 students were selected from 15 colleges in jorhat district of assam by adopting stratified random sampling technique. muga culture awareness scale (mcas) was developed by the investigators to measure the level of awareness about muga culture among the college students. this scale consists of 30 multiple choice items, focusing on six different areas of muga culture such as basic idea about muga silkworm, rearing technique, host plants, disease and pest, mounting and reeling. the schedule consisting of 50 items was given to subject experts who edited the contents of the draft and it was further given to language experts to examine the language of each statement of the items. the verified draft was tried on 50 students to find out the level of item difficulty. the computed item variance showed that 30 items out of 50 ranged from 0.40 to 0.60 of variance. journal of extension education 6623 therefore, 30 items were retained in the final draft of the scale. finally, the test-retest method was applied to find out the reliability of the scale and computed value reached at 0.83; it indicated that the scale has reliability at satisfactory level. the investigator ensured the content validity of the scale by seeking the opinions of the experts. for analysis and computation of results, the investigators used ‘z’ test and arithmetic mean as the statistical technique. findings and discussion the mean score of awareness on muga culture among arts, commerce and science stream students were 13.92, 10.21 and 17.37 respectively. table 1 reveals that science stream students have more awareness than arts, commerce stream students. on the other hand, female (17.77) and urban students (16.55) of science stream students had higher awareness than male, female and rural students of arts, commerce stream students. the present study revealed that there is significant difference in awareness on muga culture between male and female college students (the ‘z’ ratio is 0.35748; significant at p < .05). it means both the sexes do not have equal awareness on muga culture. on the other hand, significant difference was found in awareness level between rural and urban college students (the ‘z’ ratio is 2.17383; significant at p < .05). it revealed that settlement plays a vital role on awareness on muga culture. significant difference was found in awareness about muga culture between arts and science stream students; and arts and commerce stream students respectively (the ‘z’ ratio is 6.83636; significant at 0.01 level and the ‘z’ ratio is 4.79296; significant at 0.01 level). it revealed that �stream� of the students play a vital role in awareness on muga culture. but, significant difference was not found in the case of awareness about muga culture between male and female students of arts stream students and students belonging to rural and urban settlement of arts stream. significant difference was not found between male and female students of science stream students and students belonging to rural and urban settlements of commerce stream respectively. hence it is concluded that male and female students of arts and science stream have equal awareness on muga culture. awareness about muga culture among the college students in jorhat district of assam, india table 1. awareness on muga culture among the college students sl. no. differences between z score level of significance 1 male (all) 0.35748 significant at p < .05 female (all) 2 rural (all) 2.17383 significant at p < .05 urban (all) 3 arts (all) 6.83636 significant at p < .01 science (all) 4 arts (all) 4.79296 significant at p < .01 commerce (all) 6624 journal of extension education 5 science (all) 10.75993 significant at p < .01 commerce (all) 6 male (arts) 1.25812 ns female (arts) 7 arts (urban) 1.33758 ns arts (rural) 8 male (commerce) 3.45646 significant at p < .01 female (commerce) 9 commerce (urban) 0.48164 ns commerce (rural) 10 male (science) 1.45612 ns female (science) 11 science (urban) 2.6289 significant at p < .01 science (rural) 12 male (arts) 2.89487 significant at p < .01 male (science) 13 male (arts) 2.54338 significant at p < .05 male (commerce) 14 female (arts) 6.26964 significant at p < .01 female (science) 15 female (arts) 4.9047 significant at p < .01 female (commerce) 16 male (arts) 4.38636 significant at p < .01 female (science) 17 male (arts) 4.96047 significant at p < .01 female (commerce) 18 male (science) 4.91314 significant at p < .01 female (arts) 19 male (science) 8.0438 significant at p < .01 female (commerce) 20 male (commerce) 1.59456 ns female (arts) 21 male (commerce) 7.23858 significant at p < .01 female (science) (ns = non significant sl. no. difference between z score level of significance 6625 conclusion from the study, it can be concluded that the awareness level on muga culture among arts, commerce and science stream general college students is not high and significance difference was found among male and female students, rural and urban students, arts and science stream students, arts and commerce stream students and science and commerce stream students. muga culture is not only a tradition of the people of northeastern region of india but also part of the culture of the region. based on the findings of the study, youth must be made aware of the benefits of muga culture. references anonymous (2020). annual report, 2019-20. central silk board, india, p.95. gangwar, r. & kameswari, v. l. v. (2016). determinants of attitude of rural youth towards agriculture as means of livelihood. international journal of development research. 6(09); 9298-9300. ghosh, k. & saikia, m. (2017). a comparative study on awareness about sericulture among assamese and english medium secondary school students in jorhat district of assam, india. journal of entomology and zoology studies, 5(4): 520-523. goswami, c. & bhattacharya, m. (2013). contribution of sericulture to women’s income in assam -a case study in goalpara district of assam, india. international journal of scientific and research publications, 3(3):1-6. kushwaha, r.v. & singhvi, n.r. (2013). extent of adoption of improved sericultural practices by the sericulturists of buldhana district of maharashtra. agriculture update, 8(3):469-471. mech, d. & ahmed, s. a. (2012). participatory profiles of women in eri culture in assam state of india. european journal of applied sciences, 4(4):177-181. rani, a., & rampal, v. k. (2016). involvement of rural youth in agricultural activities in ludhiana district of punjab, india. indian journal of agricultural research. 50 (6):528– 534. saikia, m., ghosh, k. & peigler, r.s. (2016). factors affecting on quality muga silkworm (antheraea assamensis helfer) seed crop production: a review. journal of entomology and zoology studies. 4(6):806-810. sreenivasa, b.t. h. (2014). a study on the factors influencing adoption of new technologies in nontraditional sericultural area of chitradurga district, karnataka. global journal of biology, agriculture & health sciences, 3(1):239-243. upadhyay, a.p. & barman, u. (2013). identification of problems and formulation of extension strategies for upliftment of women agripreneurship in sericulture: an exploratory study in garo hills of meghalaya. journal of academia and industrial research, 2(6):369-373. viswanatha, h., manjunatha, b.n., lakshminarayan m.t. & anand, t.n. (2014). participation of rural youth in sericulture. mysore journal of agricultural sciences, 48(2):251-256. awareness about muga culture among the college students in jorhat district of assam, india 6784 journal of extension education vol. 34 no.1, 2022.1.34 doi: https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2022.1.31.6784-6787 motivational factors for entering into agri-preneurship : a study among successful agri-preneurs of kerala saran murali and k.v. thomas abstract agri-preneurship is a solution to many economic problems faced by india in general and agriculturists in particular. it can significantly contribute to rural development. this study seeks to understand the factors which motivate people to start and lead to the success of agripreneurship. primary data were collected from 60 respondents using a structured interview schedule. it was found that the highest motivational factor for entering into the agripreneurship field was ‘knowledge about the business’ followed by ‘self-satisfaction’. there was no significant difference among motivational factors with regard to age group. keywords: agri-preneurship; motivational factors; entrepreneurship; value added agriculture; kerala entrepreneurship plays an important role in the economic development of our country, and it is one of the major sources of income generation. still the majority of the people are depending agriculture are their livelihood, it is necessary to set an entrepreneurial culture in agriculture and the farmers need to be motivated to shift from subsistence cultivation to commercial cultivation. various agri-preneurs in the country have proved that agriculture can be economically viable if various agricultural enterprises are followed up with post-harvest processing, value addition and marketing (hajong & padaria, 2016). agripreneurship is the profitable combination of agriculture and entrepreneurship as it turns the agriculture into an agribusiness. agripreneurship is a concept specific to agriculture and drawn from wider entrepreneurship(nwibo, mbam, and biam, 2016). agripreneurship is necessary for the socio-economic upliftment of the greater population through the creation of new agribusinesses, agricultural commodities value chains and overall economic growth (uneze, 2013). behind the transformation from agriculturists to agripreneurs, there are certain motivators. motivational factors are the needs, wants desires or aspirations that forces a person to do something. education and training positively influence entrepreneurial behavior in the agricultural sector, although training requirements differ across different agricultural subsectors like age and gender (dias, rodrigues, and ferreira, 2019). therefore, this study was taken up in kerala : a) to identify the prominent agripreneurial motivational factors. b) to analyse whether motivational factors make any difference with regard to age. research note department of commerce, marian college (autonomous), kuttikkanam, kerala 685531 received : 15.09.21 ; accepted : 31.08.22 motivational factors for entering into agri-preneurship : a study among successful agri-preneurs of kerala 6785 methodology the study is based on both primary and secondary data. primary data were collected from sample respondents using a structured interview schedule. secondary data were collected from various sources like magazines, journals, government reports, periodicals and the internet, etc. respondents were selected among successful agripreneurs in central kerala in three districts viz., kottayam, eranakulam, and thrissur of kerala. success of agripreneurs and agripreneurship is based on the experience and return from the venture. for this study success is defined as generation of continuous profit by an agripreneur from the venture for the past three years from the venture. the initial set of respondents were identified from agricultural magazines such as karshakasree, kerala karshakan, krishi jagran etc. and rest of them were identified through snowball sampling. the sample size was 60. the collected data were analyzed using mean and one-way anova using spss (statistical package for social sciences) software. findings and discussion agripreneurial motivation technically the term ‘motivation’ is derived from the latin word ‘movere’ which means ‘move’. it means that motivation is something that urges a person to move or behave. thus, motivation is the inner state of mind that causes an individual to behave in such a way that can ensure the achievement of some goals. motivation can be defined as the process that motivates a person into action and indicates him to continue the courses of action until the achievement of goals. literature review and discussion with a few users helped the researcher to isolate 7 possible motivations that motivate the agripreneurs to enter into this business. table1 shows the most important motivation of the respondents. table 1. motivation for entering into the business sl. no. particulars frequency 1 profit making 4.49 2 selfsatisfaction 4.62 3 do not want to work for others 3.92 4 traditional business of the family 3.75 5 job security 3.85 6 means of survival 4.60 7 knowledge about the business 4.73 table 1 shows that the highest motivational factor for entering into this field is knowledge about the business followed by self-satisfaction and means of survival followed profit making. the medium factors are job security, do not want to work for others. the least motivational factor is traditional business of the family. motivational factors and age group the motivational factors may differ according to the age group. here is an attempt to see whether motivational factors make any difference with regard to age group. in order to test this, the following hypothesis was formulated and tested using one-way anova. the results are furnished in table 2. h0: there is no significant difference among motivational factors with regard to age group. h1: there is a significant difference among motivational factors with regard to age group. journal of extension education 6786 table 2. motivational factors and age group descriptives anova mean s.d. d/f f p profit making up to 30 years 4.50 .577 between groups within groups 8 52 0.425 0.759 30 to 40 4.00 0.000 40 to 50 4.50 .756 50 to 60 4.13 1.088 total 4.27 .907 total 60 selfsatisfaction up to 30 years 4.50 .577 between groups within groups 8 52 0.368 0.797 30 to 40 4.00 0.000 40 to 50 4.25 1.035 50 to 60 4.50 .730 total 4.40 .770 total 60 do not want to work for others up to 30 years 5.00 0.000 between groups within groups 8 52 4.677 0.051 30 to 40 5.00 0.000 40 to 50 3.63 1.188 50 to 60 3.25 1.000 total 3.70 1.149 total 60 traditional business of the family up to 30 years 3.00 1.155 between groups within groups 8 52 2.853 0.057 30 to 40 4.00 0.000 40 to 50 2.50 .926 50 to 60 4.13 1.586 total 3.53 1.479 total 60 job security up to 30 years 4.50 .577 between groups within groups 8 52 1.319 0.298 30 to 40 4.00 0.000 40 to 50 3.38 .916 50 to 60 3.50 1.155 total 3.63 1.033 total 60 motivational factors for entering into agri-preneurship : a study among successful agri-preneurs of kerala 6787 descriptives anova means of survival up to 30 years 5.00 0.000 between groups within groups 8 52 1.523 0.223 30 to 40 5.00 0.000 40 to 50 4.63 .744 50 to 60 4.06 1.181 total 4.40 1.003 total 60 knowledge about the business up to 30 years 5.00 between groups within groups 8 52 1.266 0.327 30 to 40 5.00 40 to 50 4.50 .756 50 to 60 4.38 .719 total 4.53 .681 total 60 since the p > 0.05 the null hypothesis was retained. therefore, there is no significant difference among motivational factors with regard to age group. hence the motivational factors are independent of age. this study will be a motivation to agripreneurship aspirants to understand reasons behind others' involvement in agripreneurship. it will help the government to understand different motivational factors influencing the agripreneurs to engage in agripreneurship. references dias, c. s. l., rodrigues, r. g., & ferreira, j. j. (2019). what’s new in the research on agricultural entrepreneurship? journal of rural studies, 65(2019), 99–115. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.11.003 hajong, d., & padaria, r. n. (2016). agripreneurial attitude among the farmers of national capital region of delhi. economic affairs, 61(4), 683–689. https://doi. org/10.5958/0976-4666.2016.00085.1 nwibo, s. u., mbam, b. n., & biam, c. k. (2016). determinants of agripreneurship among the rural households of ishielu local government area of ebonyi state. journal of biology, agriculture and healthcare, 6(13), 3–10. uneze, c. (2013). adopting agripreneurship education for nigeria’s quest for food security in vision 20 : 2020. greener journal of educational research, 3(9), 411–415. 1 -1574 30 march 2016.pmd journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 3, 2015 women journalists working conditions and their suitability in the media r. sasikala* abstract going through the historical accounts of the press in india, though the women entered the journalistic profession in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they did not played an important role in designing and reshaping it. today there are several women editors, columnists and television anchors. in the last decade, more women have entered the profession, and many have equal access to all beats, blurring the ‘traditional male area’ line considerably. in this context, a study was conducted to know the working conditions and their suitability in the media. the study was conducted in chennai. a sample of 60 respondents was selected randomly by using purposive random sampling technique. the sample frame for the study includes both male and female journalists of print and electronic media. the respondents comprised of editors, subeditors, reporters, programme executives and free lancers in both print and electronic media. the data was obtained using the questionnaire and it was analyzed using percentage analysis method. the findings reveals that women journalists are encouraged and given freedom to organize their work and do not face major discrimination in their working spot on the basis of gender and they are also given decision – making position in the media and their positions in the media is satisfactory. regarding, importance given for women issues in the media, both men and women journalist consider women issues as one of the important issue and women issues are portrayed adequately in the media. *assistant professor (journalism), directorate of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore641 003. during the years since world war ii, the percentage of women in the work force has increased steadily. by 2000, the international labour organization (ilo) estimated that half of global workers would consist of women. as of 2008, the percentage of women in the workforce was 40.5 percent.(www.lycos.com.) going through the historical accounts of the press in india, though the women entered the journalistic profession in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they did not played an important role in designing and reshaping it. today there are several women editors, columnists and television anchors. in the last decade, more women have entered the profession, and many have equal access to all beats, blurring the ‘traditional male area’ line considerably. the number of women in the electronic media is dramatically higher than in the print 5525women journalists working conditions and their suitability in the media media, averaging 30-40 per centa figure that no editorial room of a newspaper can boast of (akhileshwari,1990). journalism is no longer an alien field for women. like all other professions, women have also gained a foothold in the art of communication through writing. still they are discriminated in terms of their representation in creative and decision making position. women are not given duty after 7 pm, as a result of which even experienced journalists are denied responsible decision-making positions and challenging assignments, and also forced to forego promotions (rajashri dasgupta) there are number of constraints on them. it is due to the male domination in the organization. in order to encourage more women to join the profession, it is necessary to undertake a study on the working conditions and position of women journalists in the media. methodology the study was conducted in chennai. a sample of 60 respondents was selected randomly by using purposive random sampling technique. the sample frame for the study includes both male and female journalists of print and electronic media. the respondents comprised of editors, subeditors, reporters, programme executives and free lancers in both print and electronic media. the data was obtained using the questionnaire and it was analyzed using percentage analysis method. findings and discussion from table 1 it was inferred that majority of the respondents i.e 80 per cent of the male and 73.3 per cent of the female agree that women journalists are encouraged as much as their male colleagues. twenty per cent of the male and 26.6 per cent of the female respondent reported that the women journalists are not encouraged as much as their male colleagues. ninety per cent of the male respondents and 83.3 per cent of the female respondents felt that women journalists have freedom to organize their work assigned as they think whereas 10 per cent of the male respondents and 16.6 per cent female respondent reported that the women journalists does not have freedom to organize their work assigned as they think. seventy per cent of the male respondents and 56.6 per cent of the female respondents reported that the women journalists do not encounter any interference from male colleague whereas 30 per cent male respondents and 43.3 per cent female respondents reported that women journalists often encounter interference from male colleague while they work. seventy per cent of male respondents and 83.3 per cent of the female respondents reported that, in order to survive, women journalists are forced to develop good rapport with their male colleagues whereas 30 per cent of the male respondents and 16.6 per cent of the female respondents said that women journal of extension education5526 journalists are not forced to develop good rapport with their male colleagues. seventy per cent of the male respondents and 63.3 per cent of the female respondents’ disagreed with the fact that, women journalists have to achieve more to get on par with men whereas (30%) male respondents and 36.6 per cent of the female respondents agreed that women journalists have to achieve more in order to get on par with men. it was observed from the findings that women journalists are encouraged both in the print and electronic media to show their skill and they are given freedom to organize their work without much interference from the male colleagues. majority of both the male and female respondents reported that women journalists are forced to develop good rapport with their male colleagues in order to survive in the media. from table 2 it was inferred that 80 per cent of the male respondents and 66.6 per cent of the female respondents reported that women journalists are given decision making positions whereas only 20 per cent of the male respondents and 33.3 per cent of the female respondents reported that still women table 1. working conditions of women journalists sl.no. items male female agree disagree agree disagree no. % no. % no. % no. % 1. women journalists are encouraged as much as their colleagues 24 80 6 20 22 73.3 8 26.6 2. women journalists have freedom to organize the work assigned 27 90 3 10 25 83.3 5 16.6 3. women journalists often encounter interference from male colleagues 9 30 21 70 13 43.3 17 56.6 4. women journalists in order to survive are forced to develop good rapport with their male colleagues 21 70 9 30 25 83.3 5 16.6 5. women have to achieve more to get on par with men 9 30 21 70 11 36.6 19 63.3 journalists are not given decision making positions in their working spot. this shows that women journalists’ decision making power is recognized. majority of the respondents 73.3 per cent of male journalists and 80 per cent of female journalists do not agree that organizational policy disregards women employees whereas 26.6 per cent of the male journalists and 20 per cent of the female journalists agreed that organizational policy disregards women employees. sixty per cent of female respondents and 40 per cent of the male journalists agreed that (n=60) 5527women journalists working conditions and their suitability in the media table 2. position of women journalists and their suitability in the media sl.no. items male female agree disagree agree disagree no. % no. % no. % no. % 1. women are given decision making positions in media. 24 80 6 20 20 66.6 10 33.3 2. organizational policy always disregards women employees. 8 26.6 22 73.3 6 20 24 80 3. management feel men are better suited for the top job than women. 12 40 18 60 18 60 12 40 4. women journalists are consulted in the decision – making process 24 80 6 20 16 53.3 14 46.6 5. women journalist’s suggestions are accepted in the organizations matter. 22 73.3 8 26.6 21 70 9 30 6. women journalists are not informative as men. 4 13.3 26 86.6 3 10 27 90 7. being straight forward, women illmatched the organizations needs. 15 50 15 50 13 43.3 17 56.6 8. women journalists are discriminated in promotions and incentives. 5 16.6 25 83.3 11 36.6 19 63.3 management feels that men are better suited for the top positions than women whereas 60 per cent of male respondents and 40 per cent of the female respondents do not agree with this statement. this shows that women journalists’ talents and capability in caring out the work is respected by the management. eighty per cent of the male respondents and 53.3 per cent of the female respondents reported that women journalists are consulted in the decision making process in the organization. 20 per cent of the male respondents and nearly half of the women journalists (46.6%) reported that women are not involved in the decision making process in the organization. it indicates that though now a days, women journalist are given decision making powers, still there is discrimination in involving women journalists in decision making process. seventy three per cent of male respondents and 70 per cent of female respondents agree that women journalist’s suggestions are accepted in the organizational matter. it reveals that the women journalists’ suggestions towards organizational matter are accepted as that of men. thirty per cent of the female respondents and 27 per cent of the male respondents reported that women’s suggestions are not always accepted in the organizational matter. eighty seven per cent male and 90 per cent of the female respondents do not agree with the statement that women journalists are not informative as men. only 13.3 per cent male (n=60) journal of extension education5528 respondents and 10 per cent of the female respondents reported that women journalists are not informative as men. fifty per cent of male respondents and 43.3 per cent of the female respondents agreed that being straight forward, women ill – match the organizations needs whereas 50 per cent of male and 56.6 per cent of the female respondents disagree with the statement. that is being a journalist; straight forwardness is an essential quality which a journalist should possess. majority of the respondents’ i.e 83.3 per cent of male respondents and 63.3 per cent of female respondents disagree with the statement that woman journalists are discriminated in promotions and incentives whereas 16.6 per cent of the men and 36.6 per cent of women journalists agree that women journalists are discriminated in promotions and incentives. this statement is in line with a microscopic segment feels that they lack promotions and incentives. rising up the ladder has been rather slow for women journalists. promotions have not been as frequent as for male journalists (surekha sule). it is inferred from table 3 that 36 percent of male respondents and 50 percent of female respondents agree that there is an inadequate portrayal of women in the media due to male domination whereas 63.3 percent male and 50 percent female respondents feel that the situation has partly changed. now the women issues are portrayed adequately in the media. majority of the respondents’ i.e 63.3 percent of male and 60 per cent of female disagrees with the statement and reported that women issues are not considered trivial by men and women issues are assigned equally for both men and women journalists whereas 36.6 per cent and 43.3 per cent of male and female journalists respectively reported by that considering women issues trivial and it is often assigned to women for coverage. quite a few women believe there are no discrimination and no glass ceiling in major english language papers. however, there is a tendency to push women into feature writing table 3. importance given to women issues in the media sl.no items male female agree disagree agree disagree no. % no. % no. % no. % 1. prevailing male domination results inadequate portrayal of women in the media 11 36.6 19 63.3 15 50 15 50 2. writing on women issues in considered trivial for men and hence women are assigned the same always 11 36.6 19 63.3 13 43.3 18 60 3. women alone can understand better and write about problems of women 15 50 15 50 19 63.3 11 36.6 (n=60) 5529women journalists working conditions and their suitability in the media and even non – serious writing such as reporting parties and social events (akhileshwari). fifty percent of the male and 63.3 percent of the female respondents reported that, women can understand better about the problems of women and give exclusive coverage than men. but 50 per cent of male and 36.6 per cent of the women journalists reported that even men can write better about women problem. the above result reveals that both men and women consider women issues as one of the important issue and women issues are portrayed adequately in the media. conclusion the findings reveals that women journalists are encouraged and given freedom to organize their work and do not face major discrimination in their working spot on the basis of gender. it is also found that male colleagues are friendly and co-operative towards women in the organization. it is also observed that women journalists are given decision – making position in the media and their positions in the media are satisfactory. regarding, importance given for women issues in the media, both men and women consider women issues as one of the important issue and women issues are portrayed adequately in the media. references akhileshwari.1990. should women opt for journalism? :vidura, press institute of india. akhileshwari. press in the south : status of women journalists in india, press institute of india:24 rajashri dasgupta. butterflies no more: status of women journalists in indiapress institute of india:29 surekha sule. work conditions as bad as for men: status of women journalists in india, press institute of india:98 https://www.lycos.com pages 2021-2.cdr one of the most useful technologies recently implemented in indian agriculture is drip (micro) irriga�on technology. drip irriga�on system is a popular method of irriga�on among the sugarcane farmers. sugarcane is the second most important industrial crop in tamil nadu and sole raw material for the sugar industry. it is mainly grown as irrigated crop. during 2019-2020 , sugarcane was cul�vated in 2.14 lakh ha in tamil nadu with a produc�on of 211 lakh metric tonnes. the average produc�vity of the state is 99 metric tonnes per ha. (source: tn policy note 2019-2020). drip irriga�on system plays a crucial role in fulfilling the water needs of the crop a n d t h i s t e c h n o l o g y n e e d s t o b e d i s s e m i n a t e d a m o n g t h e f a r m i n g community for effec�ve adop�on. without analyzing the constraints, it is impossible to diffuse the technologies among the farming community. hence, an a�empt was made to assess the constraints experienced by the sugarcane farmers in adop�on of drip irriga�on technology. methodology the present study was conducted in pa p p i re d d i p a� t a l u k of dh a r m a p u r i district, a drought-prone district in tamil nadu. dharmapuri district has been administra�vely divided into 7 taluks, 10 blocks and 251 villages. out of these taluks, blocks and villages, higher produc�on of 6683 research note journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.2, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.2.33.6683-6686 constraints experienced by sugarcane farmers in adop�ng drip irriga�on technology v. balamurugan ¹, r. arunkumar ² and t. sujaivelu³ abstract the present study was conducted in pappireddipa� taluk of dharmapuri district in tamil nadu to ascertain the constraints faced by the sugarcane growers in adop�ng drip (micro) irriga�on technology. altogether, 120 sugarcane growers using drip irriga�on system cons�tuted the sample of the study. the major constraints in adop�on of drip irriga�on technology were frequent clogging in laterals and drippers followed by system damage due to rats and other animals and lack of technical knowledge about maintenance of the drip system. keywords: drip irriga�on; constraints; sugarcane; water; tamil nadu 1 department of agricultural and rural management, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. 2 department of agricultural extension and rural sociology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. 3 department of agricultural extension, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, chidambaram. received : 22-12-2021 accepted: 30-07-2022 s u g a r c a n e c r o p w a s n o � c e d i n pappireddipa� taluk. hence, this was selected for the study. out of the 20 revenue villages in the taluk, six villages were selected based on the maximum area under sugarcane cul�va�on with drip irriga�on. a list of sugarcane farmers from each of the selected villages was obtained from the respec�ve agricultural offices. altogether, 120 sugarcane growers using drip irriga�on technology cons�tuted the sample of the study. the respondents w e r e i d e n � fi e d a n d s e l e c t e d b y propor�onate random sampling method. a well-structured interview schedule was , used for collec�on of data. an ex-postfacto research design was adopted for the study. the collected data were arranged, classified and tabulated for suitable sta�s�cal analysis. findings and discussion constraints in the adop�on of drip irriga�on technology an innova�on to become popular among farmers, has to face a lot of difficul�es ini�ally in terms of the farmer's understanding the concepts, developing a favorable a�tude, ge�ng the required inputs and ensuring a good extension service. unless the constraints are iden�fied and appropriate ac�ons taken, the adop�on level will be less. the results of constraint analysis are given in table-1. 6684 table-1. constraints experienced by the sugarcane farmers in adop�on of drip irriga�on technology sl.no. constraints frequency (n=120) percentage rank 1. frequent clogging of drippers and micro tubes 110 91.66 i 2. damage to system due to rats and other animals 105 87.50 ii 3. lack of technical know -how about maintenance and repairing of drip irriga�on technology 97 80.83 iii 4. difficulty to maintain proper pressure in the pipes/emi�ers for ge�ng the required discharge 86 71.67 iv 5. proper follow up service is not available from installing agencies a�er installa�on 81 67.50 v journal of extension educa�on sl.no. constraints frequency (n=120) percentage rank ‘lateral’ damage during harvest 74 61.67 vi high ini�al cost for installing drip technology 66 55.00 vii problems of water leakages in the drip system 61 50.83 viii spare parts of drip irriga�on technology are costly 57 47.50 xi 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. problems in uninterrupted power supply 52 43.33 x “frequent clogging of drippers and micro tubes” was considered to be the first m a j o r c o n s t r a i n t r e p o r t e d b y t h e respondents. majority of the respondents (91.66 per cent) expressed that frequent clogging in laterals and drippers was the important constraint. though maximum number of farmers were using good quality irriga�on water, clogging s�ll occurs. presence of some non-soluble salts causes complete or par�al blockage of drip irriga�on system. lack of knowledge about the maintenance and repairing is the reason. the findings are in accordance with the findings of prajpa� et al. (2016). “damage to system due to rats and other animals”was the second major constraint reported by the respondents. nearly one-third of the respondents(87.5 per cent) felt rat damage as a serious problem in drip irriga�on system. sugarcane land is an important habitat for breeding r a t s , a s i t p r o v i d e s a c o m f o r t a b l e environment. rats migrate from the paddy field a�er harvest and take shelter in the sugarcane field. it cuts the laterals that arrest the flow of irriga�on water, causing cane drying. “lack of technical knowledge about maintenance and repairing of drip irriga�on system” (80.83 per cent) was the third major technical constraint. most of the dealers had provided advice only at the �me of installa�on of drip irriga�on system. these findings were supported by the findings of parmar and thorat (2016). “spare parts of drip irriga�on system are costly” and “problems in ensuring uninterrupted power supply for irriga�on fields” were the minor constraints reported by the respondents. based on the findings of this study carried out in pappireddipa� taluk of dharmapuri district in tamil nadu, the extension agencies need to organize campaigns on the ways and means to avoid 6685constraints experienced by sugarcane farmers in adop�ng drip irriga�on technology frequent clogging in laterals and drippers and to prevent rat damage to the drip system. references parmar, s.d. & thorat, g.n. (2016). constraints faced by farmers in drip irriga�on system. agriculture update, 11(3), 229-23. prajpa�, v.v., kaid s.v., prajapa�, r.c & t h a k k a r, k . a . ( 2 0 1 6 ) . a d o p � o n behaviour of drip irriga�on technology among the pomegranate growers of north gujarat, interna�onal journal of agriculture sciences, 8(22):1443-1447. 6686 journal of extension educa�on page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 6583 jee 32(4) from the editor’s desk chief editor my dear readers of journal of extension education, field days are a useful means to share innovative ideas with farmers and to ensure effective farmer-to-farmer communication. this extension approach has long been used as a technique wherein interested farmers are invited to a particular farmers' field or plot and a short, specific topic is demonstrated and discussed. the interaction between the farmers & the extension officers allows the latter to learn what areas need further support, while the interaction between the farmers themselves allows an exchange of ideas, experiences, and further information (campbell, 1995). as discussed in the previous jee issue, the covid-19 pandemic, has affected the extension services globally and conducting group events such as field days had been extremely difficult during the lockdowns. while it is a known fact that field days are meant to be organized in-person as it promotes interaction, it is equally important to continue to support the farmers by conducting such events, taking into account their specific needs during the pandemic. organizing a ‘virtual’ field day would be the next best thing to do in such situations. comito et al (2017, 2021) had outlined the objectives of conducting virtual field days and possible challenges we are likely to encounter while organizing them. the objectives include (a) maintaining in-field content, (b) enabling simple access for every skill level of technology user and via most internet access configurations, and (c) offering interactive programmes facilitating conversations and question-and-answer engagement similar to those that occur during traditional field days. challenges that are likely to crop up include (a) scripting compelling and interesting programmes within a reduced programme time frame, (b) recording and editing video segments for integration with live elements during each session, (c) selecting an effective delivery platform, and (d) conducting regular evaluation and revisions for ongoing improvement. taking these issues in to account, extension practitioners can conduct “crop/commodity-specific” virtual field days to reach a much wider audience, as studies have shown that participant-satisfaction has been similar for both virtual and traditional field days. this issue of jee contains papers on topics such as agricultural financing awareness, efficiency of university technologies and impact of trainings. i hope, you would find them useful. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com. wrapper.cdr 6353 research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6353-6356 1 research scholar and 2 assistant professor, agricultural college & research institute (tnau), killikulam received : 09-05-2020; accepted : 11-05-2020 pattern of crop diversification in tirunelveli district of tamil nadu l. mohammed ghouse 1 and s. nazreen hassan 2 abstract crop diversification is considered a significant component for achieving higher output growth, higher farm income, employment generation, sustainability of natural resources and poverty alleviation. understanding the pattern of crop diversification is important for improving agricultural production and for the well being of farmers. this paper analyses the pattern of crop diversification in tirunelveli district of tamil nadu. a non – experimental research design was used for this study. a sample size of 120 respondents was fixed for the study using proportionate random sampling technique. it was found that the cropping pattern of crop diversification in the district has slightly been changed and had increased in two decades. it was also found that there was only slight variation in the categories of crop diversification index among the respondents from the years of 2007-2008 to 2017-2018. significant steps have to be taken to improve the crop diversification among the farmers. keywords: crop diversification; cropping pattern; tirunelveli; simpson’s index of diversification tirunelveli district is predominantly an agricultural district with a total geographical area of 675850 ha. the total cropped area in the district as 206858 ha (30.61 per cent) and the net area sown was 175087 ha (25.91 per cent). the demand for food and agricultural production has been raised due to high population and income growth, as the natural resources too deployed, crop diversification is the main course of future growth of agriculture. it ensures employment opportunities for the small farmers as well as for agricultural labourers throughout the year. it provides the farmers with viable options to grow different crops on their land around the year. diversification of crops helps the farmer to avoid risk and uncertainty due to climatic and biological vagaries. to increase the sustainability in agriculture and to improve the agricultural production, crop diversification serves as a viable solution. in this paper an attempt was made to study the pattern of crop diversification in tirunelveli district of tamil nadu. methodology the study was conducted in tirunelveli district of tamil nadu which was purposively selected. the sample size for the study was 120 farmers identified from the selected six villages from three blocks of the district. proportionate random sampling method was 6354 used to select the respondents. simpson’s index of diversification (sid) was used to find out the pattern of crop diversification. sid = 1 ∑x2 ∕ (∑x)2 (where x is the percentage of total cropped area under an individual crop) the value of indices has been classified into four groups ranging from high, medium, low and very low diversified crops. the range was given by beejata (2012). findings and discussion crop diversification refers to the competition among the growing crops in a region. the keener the competition, the higher the magnitude of crop diversification, and the lesser the competition, the greater will be the trend towards crop specialization or monoculture farming. the pattern of crop diversification was studied using simpson’s index of diversification (sid) throughout tirunelveli district of tamil nadu over the years and is listed in table 1. it could be seen from the table that crop diversification tends to move in an increasing trend throughout tirunelveli district of tamil nadu. the results indicates that the farmers are moving from crop specialization to crop diversification over the years of 1997-1998 to 2008-2009 but it has only slight variation over the years of 2003-2004 to 2015-2016. this implies that the cropping pattern of crop diversification overall in the district has slightly been changed. crop diversification index (cdi) over the years among the respondents in tirunelveli district of tamil nadu was studied for different range of crop diversification index. table 2 explains the category-wise changing pattern of crop diversification from 2007-2008 to 2017-2018 among the respondents. it could be seen from the table that the low category of crop diversification index covers a larger number of respondents (45.0 per cent) from among the total respondents during 2007-2008. during 20172018 50.8 per cent of the total respondents had low category of crop diversification index (cdi). this table shows a 5.8 per cent increase in the low category of cdi. 38.4 per cent of the respondents had high level of cdi during the years of 2007-2008 but during the years of 2017-2018 it fell to 33.4 per cent showing a decrease in 5.0 per cent of cdi. very low cdi was observed in 0.8 per cent decrease of the respondents during the years of 2007-2008 was observed and it had no table 1. pattern of crop diversification index throughout the district over years sl. no. years crop diversification index 1. first six years (1997-1998 to 2002-2003) 0.67 2. second six years (2003-2004 to 2008-2009) 0.73 3. third six years (2009-2010 to 2015-2016) 0.73 journal of extension education (conference special) 6355 change even during the years of 2017-2018. the table clearly indicates that there was only slight variation in the categories of crop diversification index among the respondents from the years during 2007-2008 to 20172018. significant steps need to be taken to improve the crop diversification among the farmers in order to mitigate the price risks and loss due to vagaries in weather conditions. crop diversification, in spite of being the solution to mitigate risks involved in farmers, faces certain field level constraints also. the major constraints reported by farmers at field levels were listed and ranked for further interpretations of the study (table 3) it is evident from the table that most of the farmers felt that middlemen intervention is the major constraint faced in the study area table 2. pattern of crop diversification among the respondents sl. no. range categories distribution of respondents based on cdi variation 2007-2008 2017-2018 1. above 0.65 high 38.4% 33.4% -5.0% 2. 0.55 0.65 medium 15.8% 15.0% -0.8% 3. 0.45 0.55 low 45.0% 50.8% +5.8% 4. below 0.45 very low 0.8% 0.8% 0.0% table 3. constraints associated with crop diversification sl. no. constraints percentage rank 1 middlemen intervention 81.69 i 2 damage by wild animals 75.00 ii 3 inadequate institutional support in the form of credit or subsidy 74.10 iii 4 inadequate transport facilities for farm produce 73.30 iv 5 lack of proper channels for marketing 53.30 v 6 lack of appropriate price for farm produce 51.60 vi 7 poor economic status of farmers inhibiting accessibility to various resources 45.80 vii 8 incidence of pests and diseases 44.10 viii 9 low yield due to inconsistencies in climate and rainfall 35.00 ix 10 lack of awareness about government schemes 26.60 x pattern of crop diversification in tirunelveli district of tamil nadu 6356 followed by damage by wild animals since the fields were in the foothills of western ghats. inadequate institutional support in the form of credit or subsidy and inadequate transport facilities were identified by more than 70 per cent of the farmers. around half of the farmers consider lack of proper channels for marketing and lack of appropriate price for farm produce. the reason could be that the produce through crop diversification was in small quantities and the economic condition of the farmers could not afford to access the facilities. lack of awareness about government schemes was also one of the reasons for the above mentioned constraints faced by the farmers. the overall assessment showed that the crop diversification index (cdi) of the district was in the increasing trend during the period of 1997-1998 to 20082009 with only slight variation from 20032004 to 2015-2016. on the other hand cdi among the respondents had only slight variations from the years of 2007-2008 to 2017-2018 which is not healthier for crop diversification. it is evident that government should take measures to promote crop diversification. providing credit / subsidy facilities to the farmers can facilitate crop diversification among small and marginal farmers. removal of the middle men intervention and strengthening of marketing channels through group effort would popularize crop diversification among small and marginal farmers. journal of extension education (conference special) jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 impact of training on adoption and knowledge gain of facilitators of people’s rural education movement (prem) m. remya1 and alexander george2 abstract present study intended to assess adoption and knowledge gain of trainees after attending training from kerala agricultural university (kau). for that, 90 respondents were selected through simple random sampling. an expost facto research design was adopted for the study. data were analysed using wilcoxon signed rank test, correlation test, and frequency and percentage analyses. factors affecting adoption and knowledge gain was found out using correlation test. findings reveal that respondents fully adopted organic and eco friendly farming practices (89%); integrated pest and disease management (76%) and improved animal husbandry practices (74%). all the respondents gained knowledge through the training. 1-p.g. student, department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, vellanikkara, kerala and 2professor and head, central training institute, kerala agricultural university, mannuthy, thrissur. training is an important paradigm of agricultural extension for the transfer of technology, skill, knowledge and attitude to farmers to develop their competency. agricultural technologies and practices are constantly changing hence training plays a crucial role in keeping the farmers abreast with these advancements in the agriculture sector (pandey et al, 2011). farmers’ training is ‘an intensive learning activity for a group of selected farmers, assisted by competent trainers to understand and practice the skills required in the adoption of technology.(okwu and ejembi, 2005).the very purpose of the agricultural training is to enable the trainee to perform a particular practice or technology with certain standards. training must have positive impact on knowledge and skill of the trainees that subsequently results in adoption. impact assessment of training will help us to analyze the extent to which trainees were benefitted from that training. present study attempted to assess impact of training in terms of adoption and knowledge gain of trainees after attending training from kerala agricultural university. central training institute(cti), mannuthy of kau has conducted a series of training programme for facilitators of people’s rural education movement (prem), odisha on agricultural and allied aspects from may 2011 to july 2014. prem is an ngo working for the welfare of the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of odisha for the past 30 years. a total of nine batches were trained. the study has two specific objectives (1) to find out post training adoption of different practices covered in the training (2) to assess knowledge gain of trainees after attending the training. methodology out of 170 trainees, 90 respondents were selected through simple random sampling. an received : 29 mar, 2016; accepted : 04 may, 2016 5537impact of training on adoption and knowledge gain of facilitators of people’s rural education movement (prem) ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. data were collected through mailed questionnaire. impact of training programmes was assessed in terms of adoption and knowledge gain of respondents. adoption was conceptualized as extent to which the respondents implemented the different practices learned at the training in their village after the training. in this study adoption was measured on a three point continuum viz, fully adopted, partially adopted and not at all adopted with a score of 3, 2 and 1 respectively. knowledge gain was conceptualized as the degree to which respondents acquired knowledge on various aspects covered in the training. knowledge gain was specifically measured by expressed gain in overall knowledge through the knowledge ladder that was administered to the respondents immediately after the training. wilcoxon signed rank test was used to determine knowledge gain of respondents by comparing before and after training knowledge scores. different factors contributing to adoption and knowledge gain were found out using spearman’s rank order correlation. findings and discussion findings reveal that most of the respondents had fully adopted organic and ecofriendly farming practices (89%); integrated pest and disease management (76%) and improved animal husbandry practices (74%). table 1. post training adoption of different practices after the training frequency percentage frequency percentage frequency percentage 1. organic and eco friendlyfarming practices 80 88.89 10 11.10 0 0.00 2. processing and value addition techniques 35 38.89 53 58.89 2 2.22 3. improved animal husbandry practices 67 74.44 22 24.44 1 1.10 4. any one or more of the following: vermi composting/ medicinal plants and fruit crops/bee keeping /mushroom production /nursery management 13 14.44 72 80.00 5 5.56 5. integrated pest and disease management 68 75.56 17 18.89 5 5.56 6. farm mechanization 7 7.78 39 43.33 44 48.89 partially adopted practices fully adopted not at all adopted high percentages of respondents partially adopted vermi-composting, medicinal plants, fruit crops, bee keeping, mushroom production and nursery management (80%); processing and value addition techniques (59%). the perceived attributes of adoption such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial ability and observability may not be high for these practices, resulting in partial adoption. farm mechanization was not adopted by 49 per cent of the respondents. however 43.33 per cent were able to adopt farm mechanization practices partially and only 8 per cent were able to adopt farm mechanization practices fully. this may be because obtaining the required farm sl. no. journal of extension education5538 machinery and having facilities for their repair and maintenance in remote corners of odisha were lacking. it was heartening to note that all the respondents gained knowledge through the training on agriculture and related aspects. this result underscores the finding of bhati et al, 2011that there was a significant gain in knowledge about different agricultural aspects included in the training for krishak mithras. land owned, land cultivated and extension agency contacts are the factors which affect the adoption. the finding had congruence with the observation of sarma et al that operational land holding and extension agency contact had a positive and significant relationship with adoption. orientation towards scientific and modern agricultural practices had a negative and significant relationship with knowledge gain at 5 per cent level of probability. this finding implies that respondents with lesser orientation towards scientific and modern agricultural practices gained more knowledge. conclusion in a nut shell, the training had a positive sl. no. factors correlation coefficient 1 land owned 0.362** 2 land cultivated 0.340** 3 extension agency contact 0.258* table 2. relationship between adoption and independent variables **significant at 1% level, * significant at 5% level impact on respondents from odisha. training will be successful only when what is gained at the training is replicated into the back home circumstances of the trainee. the extent of adoption by the respondents post training was appreciable. all the respondents had gained knowledge through the training. references bhati, d.s., verma, j.r, jasuja, s, srivastava, a.k. and sidhu, b.s 2011. impact of on-campus trainings conducted by the kvk srinagar on the knowledge level of farmers friends (krishak mithras). agriculture update: 33-36. okwu, j.o. and ejembi, a.s. 2005. essentials of a successful farmer training programme in agricultural extension in nigeria. proceedings, 10th annual national conference, aeson, 14th-17th june, 2005:1-5. pandey, r., singh, j.b, singh, s, and singh, n.k 2011.impact evaluation of training on adoption of technology. agriculture update: 114-116. sarma, k, talukdar and mishra 2011. impact of training on adoption of integrated rice-fish farming practices. indian research j. extension education:87-90. 6492 an economic appraisal of composite carp culture in west bengal himansu kumar de, simantini shasani, manoj kumar das and gour sundar saha* abstract aquaculture sector is gaining momentum through its contribution towards indian as well as world economy in terms of nutritional and livelihood security. carp farming is one of the most widely adopted technologies in aquaculture sector. the study was carried out in randomly selected south 24 parganas district of west bengal. the study aims at assessing economic viability of composite carp culture through analyzing the cost and returns of the technology. data were collected from 142 fish farmers through personal interview. the average pond area of the farmers was found to be 1.9 acre and mean fish yield was 3.6 t/ha/yr. rate of return on total investment (roi) and benefit-cost ratio (b: c ratio) for adopters and non-adopters were worked out as 85.84%; 1.86 and 63.03%; 1.63 respectively. supplementary feed constituted the maximum share in cost of production of fish followed by lease value of pond and pond preparation cost. the study implies composite carp culture technology as economically feasible with impressive benefit-cost ratio. keywords: composite carp culture; economics; benefit-cost ratio; constraints; west bengal research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 2, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.2.32.6492-6499 * icar-central institute of freshwater aquaculture, bhubaneswar, odisha received : 11-09-2020; accepted : 23-01-2021 introduction fisheries and aquaculture are an important source of food, nutrition, income and employment in india. the sector provides livelihood to more than 25 million fishers and fish farmers at the primary level and twice the number along the value chain. at present, india is the second largest fish producing and second largest aquaculture nation in the world after china (dadf, 2019). the gross value added (gva) of fisheries sector in the national economy during 2018-19 was rs 2,12,915 crore (current basic prices) which constituted 1.24% of the total national gva and 7.28% share of agricultural gva (anonymous, 2020). the sector has an immense potential in ushering economic prosperity of the country through doubling the income of the fishers and fish farmers. foreseeing high potential, “blue revolution” has been initiated in the fisheries sector in order to focus mainly on increasing fisheries production and productivity from aquaculture and fisheries resources, both inland and marine with the objectives of ensuring food and nutritional security, generating employment and export 6493 earnings, ensuring inclusive development and empowering fishers and aquaculture farmers (dadf, 2019). the union government has also recently launched pradhan mantri matsya sampada yojana with an investment of rs 20050 cr to turn india in to a hot spot for fisheries and aquaculture product through appropriate policy, marketing and infrastructure support. through implementation of this scheme the fish production is targeted at 22 mmt by 2024-25, while the current (2018-19) production is 13.75 mmt. to achieve this target freshwater aquaculture sector has to play a vital role through an additional fish production of 50 lakh tons. the national average productivity is also set at 5 t/ ha. from the current productivity of 3 t/ha. inland fisheries and aquaculture contribute 71% of total fish being produced in the country. the freshwater aquaculture has also emerged as a major contributor towards inland fish production with a share of 80% (dadf, 2019). with a continuing increase in the world population and economic growth, it is anticipated that the demand for fish will increase to 30 50 mt by 2030 from the current level (miao, 2013; lekshmi et al. 2019). west bengal is a state in the eastern region of india along the bay of bengal. the state has a total inland water bodies of 5.7 lakh ha in which tanks and ponds has the maximum share of 2.6 lakh ha followed by brackish water (2.1 lakh ha), beels (42082 ha), small, medium & large reservoir (28050 ha) and derelict water resources of 26925 ha (anonymous, 2018). the inland fish production has gone up to 15.57 lakh tonnes in 2017-18 from 12.9 lakh tonnes in 2011-12. the state occupies second position after andhra pradesh in inland fish production among various states of india. the district south 24 parganas has a freshwater resources area of 49237 ha constituting 8.63 percent towards the state inland resources and a production of 156111 tonnes i.e, 10 percent share of the state (anonymous, 2018). composite carp culture is the stocking of different carp species viz., catla, rohu and mrigal (indian major carps) together with three other exotic carps viz., silver carp, grass carp and common carp having different feeding habits. it has the potential to attract rural youth and stop migration for, it creates selfemployment besides generating employment opportunities for others. martin et al., (2013) suggested that fishing is a supplementary activity that will strengthen the livelihood of small-scale fish farmers and plays a significant role in poverty eradication through an increase in income, employment, and food security among the households having limited and poor quality of farmland. right from seed production to harvest, freshwater fish farming offers number of enterprises for farmers in west bengal in general and south 24 parganas in particular. hence this study was conducted with the following objectives i. to estimate cost structure and returns of freshwater fish culture in south 24 parganas district and ii. to identify the constraints perceived by the fish farmers. methodology the study was conducted in randomly selected south 24 parganas district of west bengal. the total geographical area of the an economic appraisal of composite carp culture in west bengal 6494 district is 9,960 sq. km with a total population of 81, 61,961 as per 2011 census. multistage simple random sampling was adopted for the study. from the district, 4 blocks were selected randomly viz., mathurapur, sonarpur, kultali and jayanagar. subsequently, 3 villages were selected from each selected block making the total no of villages to 12. from each village twelve fish farmers were chosen to make the total sample size 142. both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. primary data were collected from 142 fish farmers through personal interview using the pre tested structured schedule. secondary data were collected through reviewing various literature, from directorate of fishery, west bengal and district fishery office, south 24 parganas. the tabulated data were analyzed using suitable statistical tools viz., frequency and percentage. measurement and scoring pattern a total number of 13 practices that constitute composite carp culture technology were selected. the farmers were asked to respond whether they adopt or do not adopt the practices. score of 1 and 0 were assigned to adoption and non-adoption of the technology respectively. therefore, maximum possible score was 13 for each respondent. the respondents who scored 6 and above (i.e., farmers who adopted at least 50% of scientific practices), are considered as adopters and those who scored below 6 are marked as non-adopters of the technology. among 142 respondents, 81 fish farmers were adopters and the rest 61 were non-adopters. economic model this study has employed gross margin analysis (gma) tool to measure the profitability from the practice of composite carp culture. gma is a vital tool in measuring the level of farm profitability. a gross margin (gm) is the difference between gross income (total revenue) earned by the fish farm and the total variable costs required to produce the output (firth, 2002). the total revenue is the total output multiplied by price per unit of fish. fixed cost includes the lease value of ponds and interest on fixed capital. the variable costs are those costs that vary in direct proportion to the level of production. the total variable cost includes costs on inputs such as: fertilizers, transportation, labour cost, feeding cost and cost of other inputs like fingerlings etc. the above discussion can be represented in the following equation as follows: gross margin = total revenue − total variable cost let us suppose, gm = gross margin; tr = total revenue; table 1. frequency distribution of respondents according to adoption of recommended technology (n=142) sl. no. no. of practice adopted category frequency 1 ≥6 adopter 81 2 <6 non-adopter 61 journal of extension education 6495 tvc = total variable cost; tfc = total fixed cost; s = selling price per unit; q = quantity produced & sold; v = variable cost/unit the rate of return on total investment can also be calculated to know the profitability of the proposed scheme as follows: roi = (net margin/ total cost) * 100 where net margin = gross margin – nonoperating expenses in the above formula net margin is determined after paying non-operating expenses like interest on loan etc. identification of constraints to composite carp culture responses from the farmers were recorded on the basis of their agreement or disagreement towards a particular constraint with a score of 1 or 0 respectively. frequency and percentage for each constraint were worked out, on the basis of which, the constraints were given rank order. findings and discussion comparison between the economics of composite carp culture of adopter and non adopters (1 ha of pond area) economics appraisal of composite carp culture technology becomes essential in order to assess the profitability. this would enable the development functionaries to encourage and attract more fish farmers and rural youth towards the technology. a comparative study of input use and net profit was carried out between adopters and non-adopters. the costs, returns and profit in composite carp culture were computed on per hectare basis and presented in table 2. the comparative economics of adopters and non-adopters is presented in table 2. the average area of the non-adopter category was 1.84 ha and for adopter category it was 0.79 ha. a difference of rs.223.72 only was found between lease values of both the categories. the average pond preparation cost for adopter category was rs. 31734.73 whereas, it was rs 28265.11 for non-adopter category making a difference of rs. 3469.62. a difference of rs.2378.62 and rs. 3698.53 was observed in application of inorganic fertilizer and organic fertilizer respectively between the adopters and non-adopters. maximum difference i.e., rs 17,608.30 was observed in feed cost between the two categories of farmers. in the case of adopters the cost of production per hectare was rs 301173.18 whereas in the case of non-adopters it was rs 275095.97 indicating a difference of rs 26,077.21. the adopters are getting an average production of 3.9 t/ha/yr. against 3.2 t/ha/yr. that of non-adopters. the net margin of the adopters from 1 ha. of pond was around 1.5 times higher than that of non-adopters. the roi for adopters and non-adopters were found 85.84% and 63.03% respectively. the b: c ratio was worked out and found 1.86 and 1.63 for adopters and non-adopters respectively. hussain et al., (2013) in their study observed an increment of fish harvest up to 114% by adopting composite fish culture. gross profit to the tune of rs. 2, 62,233 and rs. 1, 25,500 per hectare were recorded from cfc and local practice with a net profit of rs. 1, 44,067 an economic appraisal of composite carp culture in west bengal 6496 and rs. 61,700 per hectare and benefitcost ratio of 2.21 and 1.96 respectively. the result reflects that production of fishes and profitability is more than double in cfc over the local practice which is because of adoption of good management practices. percentage share of inputs in cost of production (n=142) the percentage share of various inputs in the cost of production was estimated. it is observed that supplementary feed (51%) constituted the maximum share towards the table 2. comparison between the economics of composite carp culture of adopters and non adopter (1 ha of pond area) sl. no. particulars non-adopters (n=61) adopters (n=81) 1. no. of respondents 61 81 2. total area (ha) 112.01 64.18 3. average area (ha) 1.84 0.79 4. leave value (rs) 34464.33 34688.05 5. pond prep. (rs) 28265.11 31734.73 6. seed cost (rs) 19484.42 19906.51 7. lime (rs) 7098.47 7650.09 8. inorganic fertilizers (rs) 8945.41 6566.79 9. organic fertilizer (cow dung) (rs) 10269.62 13968.15 10. feed pelleted feed (rs) 118114.45 132790.45 rice bran + oil cake (rs) 3426.03 5994.45 others (rs) 446.39 810.27 11. disease 354.88 942.72 cost of harvesting (rs) 10044.64 10028.05 cost of labour, maintenance & misc (rs) 34182.22 36092.93 total variable cost (rs) 240695.00 266485.14 cost of production (rs) 275095.97 301173.18 total production (kg/ha) 3203.96 3998.05 total revenue (rs) 448554.40 559727.00 gross margin (rs) 207859.40 293241.86 net margin (rs) 173395.07 258553.81 12. rate of return on total investment (roi) 63.03% 85.84% 13. b:c ratio 1.63 1.86 journal of extension education 6497 cost of production of fish. other inputs in decreasing order of % share were lease value of pond (13%), pond preparation cost and cost of seed have a share of 11% and 7% respectively towards the cost of production. cost of organic manure, cost of harvesting and cost of labour, maintenance & miscellaneous contributed 4 % each towards the cost of production. whereas, cost of inorganic fertilizer and cost of lime contributed 3 % each towards the cost of production. figure 1. percentage share of inputs in cost of production constraints perceived by the fish farmers identification of constraints is an important aspect of any study in order to rework on those weak areas. an attempt was made to identify the constraints perceived by the respondent farmers that act as impediments affecting the growth of carp farming in the study area. constraints were identified and presented in table 3. from table 3 it is depicted that “high cost of supplementary feed” was the major problem perceived by 77.46 % of the respondent fish farmers. the reason is also obvious because around 50 percent of their cost of production is incurred towards the cost of feed, hence, high cost of feed is a challenge for them. the second most severe constraint perceived by the fellow farmers (72.53%) was “disease outbreak”. “lack of access to credit facilities” and “high lease value of pond” were indicated by 69.01% and 64.78% of the respondent farmers respectively. high cost of feed, lack of financial support, high lease value of ponds and high cost of net hiring charges were among the constraints in freshwater aquaculture reported by sahoo et al., (2016), bhuyan et al., (2017), pandey and dewan (2006), nisar et al., (2017) and chidambaram et al., (2016). sixty-eight per cent of the respondents perceived “lack of need based training” as a barrier towards adoption of improved practices of carp farming. inadequate training to scale up adoption of innovations and technologies was among the potential barriers faced by the fish farmers as reported by solomon et al., (2009), ifejika and ayanda (2012) in their study observed that institutional training in aquaculture has boosted participants’ knowledge to develop positive attitude to invest in fish farming. “lack of exposure to mass media” and “poaching” were among other constraints as perceived by 52.81% and 46.47% of the fish farmers respectively. poaching of fish was one of the constraints in composite carp culture technology reported by ananth et al., (2014) and bhuyan et al., (2017). “nonavailability of bigger size fingerling” was the least perceived constraint by the respondent farmers (30.28%). seed is not a major problem for them because of its easy availability in the area. an economic appraisal of composite carp culture in west bengal 6498 conclusion adoption of any technology depends on the economics and rate of returns on investment from it. the b: c ratio of the adopter fish farmers was found to be much higher than control farmers. carp culture has been proven to be profitable by this empirical study with net margin of adopters found to be 1.5 times than that of non-adopters. it signifies that the improved fish farming technology can be a driver in enhancing socio-economic status of the farmers. kolkata city being in close proximity, the rural youth are increasingly getting engaged in fish farming as well as other nodes in fish value chain. the government is also emphasizing on formulating district level fishery plan and a coordinated development of this sector involving all stakeholders in order to bring out the best from the available water resources. the constraints like “high cost of supplementary feed” and “disease outbreak” act as barriers for the fish farmers of south 24 parganas which needs to be addressed by concerned stakeholders. acknowledgement the authors acknowledge the financial support from icar for the project “new extension methodologies and approaches” (nema) operated at icar-cifa and the director, icar-cifa, bhubaneswar, india for provision of facilities for the study. references ananth, p. n., sahoo, p. r., dash, a. k., pati, b. k., jayasankar, p. & singh, s. r. k. (2014). a study on community based aquaculture promoted by kvk-khordha, odisha, india. current world environment, 9(3):947-951 anonymous. (2018). annual activity report, 2017-18, fisheries and animal resources development department, government of west bengal. 51pp anonymous. (2020). pradhan mantri matsya sampada yojana, department of fisheries, ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying, government of india. 26 pp. table 3. constraints perceived by the fish farmers (n=142) sl. no. constraints frequency percentage rank order 1 high cost of supplementary feed 110 77.46 i 2 disease outbreak 103 72.53 ii 3 lack of access to credit facilities 98 69.01 iii 4 lack of need based training 89 67.64 iv 5 high lease value of pond 92 64.78 v 6 lack of exposure to mass media 75 52.81 vi 7 poaching 66 46.47 vii 8 non-availability of bigger size fingerlings 43 30.28 viii journal of extension education 6499 bhuyan, p. c., goswami, c. & kakati, b. k. (2017). percieved constraints of fish farmers in adoption of composite carp culture in assam, india. international journal of advanced biological research, 7 (4): 679-686 chidambaram, p, umamaheswari, t., sherief, s. h. & rajakumar, m. (2016). technoeconomic analysis of carp farming practices in krishnagiri district, tamil nadu, india. asian journal of agricultural extension, economics & sociology, 12(1): 1-8 dadf. (2019). annual report 2018-19. department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries. ministry of agriculture, government of india, 162 pp. firth, c. (2002). the use of gross and net margins in the economic analysis of organic farms. in: proceedings of the uk organic research 2002 conference. organic centre wales, institute of rural studies, university of wales aberystwyth, pp. 285–288. hussain, s. m, sen, d., pathak, m. & singh, m p. (2013). comparative study of composite fish culture (cfc) and local practices of fish culture in east siang district, arunachal pradesh. indian journal of hill farming, 26(2):32-34 ifejika, p. i. & ayanda, j. o (2012). influence of niffr training on attitude of civil servants toward fish farming enterprise in niger state, nigeria. journal of applied agricultural research, 4(1): 33 – 39 lekshmi, n.m., praveen, k.v., sreekanth, g.b., singh, n.p., vennila, a., kumar, r.r & pandey, p.k. (2019). economic evaluation of different aquaculture systems in coastal waters of goa, southwest coast of india. fishery technology, 56, 231-241 martin, s. m., lorenzen, k. & bunnefeld, n. (2013). fishing farmers: fishing, livelihood diversification and poverty in rural laos. human ecology, 41:737-747 doi 10.1007/ s10745-013-9567-y miao, w. (2013). proceedings of the international symposium on small-scale freshwater aquaculture extension. bangkok, thailand: royal thai department of fisheries. 5 p nisar, u., kumar, n. r., yadav, y. r., sivaramane, n., prakash, s. & qureshi, n w. (2017). economics and resource-use efficiency in exotic carp production in jammu & kashmir. agricultural economics research review, 30 (2) pp 305-311 pandey, s. k. & dewan, r. (2006). constraints in fish farming practices in uttar pradesh, india-an analysis. journal of indian fisheries association, 33: 183-189 sahoo, p. r, ananth. p. n, dash, a. k, pati, b. k, barik, n. k. & jayasankar, p. (2016). institution based intervention on promoting composite fish culture in rural west bengal: a case of kvk-khordha. international journal of fisheries & aquatic sciences, 4(4): 190-195 solomon, o, oloruntoba, a. & ajayi, m.t. (2009). small scale oil palm farmers’ preference for training in south west, nigeria. journal of humanities. social sciences and creative arts, 4(2):53-63. an economic appraisal of composite carp culture in west bengal pages 2021-1 final.cdr introduction lynton and pareek (2011) defined training as being concerned with on job inorganisa�on and as aiming not primarily at knowing more but for behaving definitely for las�ng improvement on the job. agricultural officers (aos) are the key technical personnel and their efficiency in working depends on their ability and c o m p e t e n c y b a c ke d w i t h t e c h n i c a l knowledge, understanding, and skills in agriculture and extension discipline. due to technical break-throughs in agriculture and to keep pace with the recent developments, p e r i o d i c a l t ra i n i n g i s m a n d ato r y fo r agricultural officers which is the supreme factor that influences the job effec�veness of the agriculture officers. hence, it is important to understand the a�tude of agricultural officers towards training. an a�tude is a predisposi�on or a tendency to respond posi�vely or nega�vely towards a certain idea, object, person or situa�on. the a�tude of the agricultural officers towards t ra i n i n g h a s d i re c t b e a r i n g o n t h e i r efficiency in job performance. 6544 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.1, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/ 1 1 3 544 548jee.202 . .3 .6 -6 a�tude of agricultural officers towards training and their perceived constraints sandipamu raahalya* and g.s.sreedaya* abstract the present study was undertaken in two zones of kerala, india. a sample of 90 agricultural officers (aos) was randomly selected and informa�on was gathered and analyzed. a well structured interview schedule was used for data collec�on. a�tude of the aos towards training was measured and garret score ranking method was used to rank the constraints faced by the aos. the results revealed that majority of the agricultural officers had neutral a�tude towards training and major constraints faced by aos were lack of �me for extension ac�vi�es, lack of transport facili�es and lack of incen�ves reward system for be�er performance. keywords: agricultural officers; kerala; a�tude; training; mass media contact; scien�fic orienta�on * d e p a r t m e n t o f a g r i c u l t u r a l e x t e n s i o n , c o l l e g e o f a g r i c u l t u re , k a u , ve l l a y a n i , ke r a l a received : 01-08-2021; accepted: 10-02-2022 6545a�tude of agricultural officers towards training and their perceived constraints the agricultural officers working in t h e d e p a r t m e n t o f a g r i c u l t u r e development and farmers welfare face many constraints which ul�mately affect their interac�on with farmers and various decision making processes. victor (2019) has pointed out the major constraints faced by the agricultural officers working in the kerala viz., state of excessive workload, lack of promo�onal opportuni�es, lack of proper training schedule of the officer, lack of suitability of different schemes and its implementa�on in different locali�es and poli�cal interference in day to day ac�vity. hence, the present study was undertaken with the objec�ve to measure the a�tude of aos towards training and the constraints recognised by them. methodology the agricultural officers working in kerala state department of agriculture in kannur and thiruvananthapuram were randomly selected. totally, 90 agricultural officers, of which 45 from kannur and 45 from thiruvananthapuram districts were randomly selected using simple random sampling procedure. ex-postfacto research design was used for the study. a well structured interview schedule was prepared a�er consulta�on with the experts in extension and other related fields. the scale developed by kulhari (1980) was used to quan�fy the a�tude score. the scale had 13 statements and the score range was between 13 and 65. it was measured using five point con�nuum namely, strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with weightage of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respec�vely for posi�ve statements and reversed for nega�ve statements. age, job experience, mass media contact, organisa�onal commitment and scien�fic orienta�on were the independent variables selected based on judges ra�ng and relevancy index whereas a�tude of agricultural officers towards training was the dependent variable of the study. correla�on analysis was carried out to study the rela�onship between independent and dependent variables. with the help of detailed review of literature and discussion with experts, 16 constraints faced by agricultural officers were enlisted. the respondents were asked to rank the iden�fied constraints by indica�ng their response for each constraint on a four point con�nuum namely, most important, important, least important and not important with weightage of 4, 3, 2, 1 respec�vely. finally the constraints were ranked using garret score ranking method. findings and discussion it could be observed from table 1 that in thiruvananthapuram district, 60 per cent of respondents had neutral a�tude towards training whereas, 28.89 per cent and 11.11 per cent of respondents had unfavourable and favourable a�tude 6546 table 1 distribu�on of aos based on their a�tude towards training category thiruvananthapuram (n=45) kannur (n=45) total (n=90) f % f % f % favourable 5 11.11 10 22.22 15 16.67 neutral 27 60.00 35 77.78 62 68.89 unfavourable 13 28.89 0 0 13 14.44 total 45 100 45 100 90 100 f= frequency journal of extension educa�on towards training respec�vely. in kannur district, most (77.78 per cent) of the respondents had neutral a�tude followed by 22.22 per cent of the respondents had favourable a�tude and no respondents were having unfavourable a�tude towards training. overall data show that, majority (68.89 per cent) of the respondents were having neutral a�tude towards training, while 16.67 per cent had favourable a � t u d e a n d 1 4 . 4 4 p e r c e n t h a d unfavourable a�tude towards training. this might be due to the importance of training for respondents and their direct experience of in-service training programmes which they have a�ended last two years. the present findings are in line with the findings of vijaibabu (2005). the results of correla�on analysis show that (table 2), mass media contact was significantly and posi�vely correlated with the a�tude of aos towards training at 5% level of significance. this significant influence of mass media exposure on a�tude towards training might be due the fact that the officers who regularly update the informa�on from various channels were very well aware of the advantage of mass media exposure and they develop a favourable a�tude towards training. scien�fic orienta�on of aos was posi�vely and significantly correlated with the a�tude of aos towards training. scien�fic orienta�on is the degree to which an individual communicator is oriented to the use of scien�fic methods in decision making in extension communica�on. it is obvious that officers who were interested in scien�fic methods must have a desire to update their knowledge through training. 6547 table 3 shows the major constraints faced by agricultural officers in kannur and thiruvananthapuram districts. out of several constraints studied, the major constraints iden�fied in the case of agricultural officers were, lack of �me for extension ac�vi�es (rank 1), lack of transport facili�es (rank 2), lack of incen�ves and reward system for be�er performance (rank 3), lack of training in extension communica�on (rank 4) and lack of promo�onal opportuni�es (rank 5). table 3. distribu�on of respondents based on major constraints conclusion based on the results it can be concluded that even though majority of the agricultural officers had a neutral a�tude towards training, they expressed their requirement of training in the areas 'iden�fica�on of pests and their control in important crops', 'integrated pest control' and 'iden�fica�on of diseases and their control in important crops'. hence adequate training need to be given to the agricultural table 2. rela�onship of selected characteris�cs of agriculture officers and a�tude of agricultural officers towards training '*' significant at 5% level, 'ns' non-significant a�tude of agricultural officers towards training and their perceived constraints officers in order to improve their job performance. lack of �me for extension ac�vi�es, lack of transport facili�es, lack of incen�ves and reward system for be�er performance, lack of training in extension communica�on and lack of promo�onal opportuni�es were the major constraints faced by the agricultural officers. hence the policy makers have to design appropriate hence the policy makers have to design appropriate strategies in order to improve sl.no. items coefficient of correla�on ‘r’ value 1. age 2. job experience 3. mass media contact 4. organiza�onal commitment 5. scien�fic orienta�on 0.127 ns 0.050 ns 0.215* 0.215* 0.222* gare� sl.no constraints score rank 1. lack of �me for extension ac�vi�es 1 2. lack of transport facili�es 2 3. lack of incen�ves and reward system for 3 be�er performance 4. lack of training in extension communica�on 4 5. lack of promo�onal opportuni�es 59.99 44.11 42.83 40.50 40.00 5 6548 the job performance of agricultural officers keeping in view of the results of the study. references kulhari, v. s. (1980). a study of reorganized agricultural training and visit system in chambal command area development project in rajasthan. unpublished ph.d. thesis, indian agricultural research ins�tute, new delhi, pp 235. lynton, r. p & pareek, u. (2011). training for development. sage publishing india. victor, r. a. (2019). constraints faced by the agricultural officers of kerala state department of agriculture. journal of humani�es and social science, 24 (1), 1517. vijaibabu, d. (2005). job competence of a g r i c u l t u r a l o ffi c e r s i n t h e s t a t e department of agriculture in tamil nadu. unpublished m.sc.(ag) thesis, acharya n. g. ranga agricultural university, rajendranagar, hyderabad, pp 125. page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 6630 impact of training and demonstration on integrated crop management in transplanted paddy in chamarajanagar district of karnataka, india c.m sunil*, chandrakala hanagi* and g.s. yogesh* abstract altogether, 11 practices were selected as criteria to evaluate the farmers on the extent of knowledge gained and adoption of rice production technologies as a result of training programmes conducted by krishi vigyan kendra in chamarajanagar district of karnataka. the study revealed that the knowledge gained by farmers about the production technologies for rice ranged from 0% (mechanical harvesting) to 100% (hybrid variety and weed management). the adoption of hybrid rice variety krh-4 was 100 % the results indicate that there are greater possibilities of increasing productivity and profitability of the rice crop with adoption of improved techniques in chamarajanagar district of karnataka, india. keywords : training; demonstration; paddy; karnataka in india, rice is the most important and extensively grown food crop. india is still amongst the countries with the lowest rice yields. seventy percent of all rice growing districts report yields lower than the national average. yield gap analysis reveals that 3040 per cent of the potential yield is yet to be tapped with available high yielding varieties (hyv) with improved practices. the area, production and productivity of karnataka was 1.01 m. ha., 2.54 m. t. and 25.22 q/ha, respectively (anonymous, 2018). the geographical area of chamarajanagar district is about 5,101 km2. it is situated in the southern dry zone (zone 6) of the state. most of the district lies in the leeward region of the nilgiris and consists of mainly semiarid rain-dependent flatlands along with forested hills. the district has five taluks viz., chamarajanagara, gundlupet, kollegal, yellandur and hanuru. chamarajanagar district is known for its varied agro-climatic conditions with diversified cropping situation. around 50 per cent of the cropped area is under cereals and 22 per cent under pulses. thus food crops cover almost three fourths (73 per cent) of the cropped area. paddy is an important cereal crop having an area of 18806 ha under kabini command area with a productivity *icarkrishi vigyan kendra, chamarajanagar district, karnataka-571127. india received : 03-05-2021; accepted : 28-05-2021 research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 4, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6630-6634 6631 of 47.80 q/ha and the yield gap is 37.20 q/ ha (anonymous, 2018). this yield gap is possibly due to use of local varieties, higher seed rate plant population, non-adoption of seed treatment with bioagents and biofertilizers, lack of knowledge on chemical weed management, unavailability of labour for timely weeding, low input use efficiency, low water use efficiency, lack of knowledge on integrated pest and disease management practices and no knowledge about post harvest management technologies. with this background the present study was designed. methodology the study was carried out through conducting training programmes, method demonstrations and front line demonstrations (8 ha for 20 farmers) during kharif 2018 and 2019 in two villages viz., y.k. mole and irasavadi of chamarajanagar district of karnataka state for dissemination and popularization of technologies. before demonstration, group meetings were conducted in each village where the problem prevailed with respect to production technologies. a list of interested farmers was prepared from the meeting. further, training programmes were organized involving the selected farmers and pre and post evaluation was done to work out the change in knowledge and adoption level of beneficiaries and expressed in percentage. the package of improved technologies like line planting, integrated nutrient management including micro nutrient application (zinc sulphate), integrated weed management, water management, seed treatment with systemic insecticides, azospirillum and psb (phosphate solubilising bacteria) and the whole package was demonstrated. along with that, the field days and other extension activities were organized inviting the farmers from nearby villages. further, statistical analysis (student t test for two mean) was done for grain yield to check the level of significance (das and giri, 1988). the technology gap, extension gap and the technology index were calculated by adopting suitable formulae (naik et al., 2015). extension gap = demonstration yield farmers’ practice yield, technology gap = potential yield demonstration yield, technology index = potential yield demonstration yield/ potential yield x 100. finally, economics assessment was done as per prevailing market prices. cost of cultivation, gross returns, net returns and b:c ratio were calculated as per the procedure outlined by saravanakumar (2021). findings and disicussion impact of training programme on gain in knowledge level of beneficiaries skill training programmes play a crucial role in gaining the knowledge about the technology by farmers. the results pertaining to the change in knowledge level are presented in table -1. the change in knowledge level of farmers on rice production technologies after attending the training programme ranges from 0.00% (mechanical harvesting) to 100% (hybrid variety and weed management). highest knowledge gain was on krh-4 hybrid variety (100%) and weed management practices (100%) followed by seed treatment impact of training and demonstration on integrated crop management in transplanted paddy in chamarajanagar district of karnataka, india 6632 (90.0%), establishment method (90%), water management (85.0%), green manuring (60%), seed rate (60%), nutrient management (40.0%), plant protection (25.0), land preparation (15.0%) and mechanical harvesting(0%). singh et al. (2014) had mentioned that this might be due to better understanding of subject in a simple way by beneficiaries as a result of better organizing of training programmes and method demonstration. impact of training programme on adoption level of beneficiaries the results pertaining to adoption level of beneficiaries are presented in table-2. the data revealed that most of the farmers were growing local varieties (100%), did not adopt seed treatment (100%), traditional establishment methods i.e., 20-30 days old seedlings transplanted @ 3-5 seedlings (90.0%), poor water management (90.0%), higher seed rate (85.0%), less rate of green manure application (80%), poor nutrient management (75%), injudicious usage of plant protection chemicals (75%), poor land preparation (35%) and less usage of machinery in harvesting (30%) before acquiring the training. whereas, after attending the training programme, 100 percent of the beneficiaries adopted high yielding krh-4 hybrid rice variety, proper weed management practices (85.0%), growing green manuring crops (55 %), establishment method i.e., transplanting of 20-25 days age old seedling @ 1-2 seedlings per hill (55 %), recommended seed rate (50%), adopting seed treatment (50%), proper water management technologies (35.0%), recommended and need based plant protection chemicals usage table 1. impact of training programme on gain in knowledge level of beneficiaries sl. no. improved technology knowledge level of trainees gain in knowledge level rankbefore training rank after training rank 1 land preparation 15 (75.0) i 18 (90.0) iii 03 (15.0) vii 2 green manuring 04 (20.0) vi 16 (80.0) v 12 (60.0) iv 3 krh-4 hybrid 00 (0.00) viii 20 (100.0) i 20 (100.0) i 4 seed rate 05 (25.0) v 17 (85.0) iv 12 (60.0) iv 5 seed treatment 00 (0.00) viii 12.0 (60.0) ix 18 (90.0) ii 6 establishment method 02 (10.0) vii 17 (85.0) iv 18 (90.0) ii 7 nutrient management 07 (30.5) iv 15 (75.0) vi 08 (40.0) v 8 water management 02 (10.0) vii 19 (95.0) ii 17 (85.0) iii 9 weed management 0 (0.00) viii 20 (100.0) i 20 (100.0) i 10 plant protection 08 (40.0) iii 13 (65.0) viii 05 (25.0) vi 11 mechanical harvesting 14 (70.0) ii 14 (70.0) vii 00 (0.00) viii note: figures in parentheses indicate percentage journal of extension education 6633 (30.0%), proper land preparation (15.0%) and less usage of mechanical harvesting (0.00). adoption level of beneficiaries increased more than 50% with all the improved practices. these findings are in agreement with singh et al. (2014). extension gap, technology gap and technology index data presented in table-3 shows the variation in extension gap and it varied from 24.7 to 33.2 q/ha. variations in technology gap (12.0-12.5 q/ha) reflected the impact of recommended technologies used in front line demonstrations in subsequent years. fluctuations in technology gap as observed may be due to several biotic and abiotic factors. technology index showed the feasibility of the evolved technology at the farmers’ fields. variations in technology index during the flds were found to be 14.11 – 14.70%. (table-3) this might be due to variations in soil fertility, environmental variation and infestation of pests. suggestions from fld farmers for improving adoption of technologies • farmers have requested to make available krh-4 hybrid rice under seed chain with subsidy as it is expensive to purchase directly from market. • farmers have requested to ensure easy availability of bio-fertilizers. • new broad spectrum herbicide molecules recommended in package of practice impact of training and demonstration on integrated crop management in transplanted paddy in chamarajanagar district of karnataka, india table 2. impact of training programme on adoption level of beneficiaries sl. no. improved technology adoption level of trainees gain in adoption level rankbefore training rank after training rank 1 land preparation 13 (65.0) ii 16 (80.0) iii 03 (15.0) viii 2 green manuring 04 (20.0) iv 15 (75.0) iv 11 (55.0) iii 3 krh-4 hybrid 00 (0.00) vii 20 (100.0) i 20 (100.0) i 4 seed rate 03 (15.0) v 13 (65.0) vi 10 (50.0) iv 5 seed treatment 00 (0.00) vii 10 (50.0) ix 10 (50.0) iv 6 establishment method 02 (10.0) vi 13 (65.0) vi 11 (55.0) iii 7 nutrient management 05 (25.0) iii 12 (60.0) vii 07 (35.0) vi 8 water management 02 (10.0) vi 11 (55.0) viii 09 (45.0) v 9 weed management 00 (0.00) vii 17 (85.0) ii 17 (85.0) ii 10 plant protection 05 (25.0) iii 11 (55.0) viii 06 (30.0) vii 11 mechanical harvesting 14 (70.0) i 14 (70.0) v 00 (0.00) ix note: figures in parentheses indicate percentage 6634 should be made available in nearby pesticide shops during the season. • development and easy availability of multi pest and disease tolerant varieties. • easy availability of seeds of green manuring crops like daincha and sunhemp. • easy availability of quality organic manures references anonymous (2018). chamarajangara district at a glance, department of statistics, government of karnataka. das, m.n & giri, n.c. (1988). design and analysis of experiments. new international private limited publishers (2nd edition), new delhi. naik, a, patil, d.h, siddappa & teggelli, r.g. (2015). evaluation of frontline demonstration of greengram (vigna radiata l.) in kalaburagi region of northern karnataka. trends in biosciences 8(11): 2818-2820. saravanakumar, s. (2021). evaluation of frontline demonstration on wheat crop in western zone of tamil nadu. indian research journal of extension education 21(1):20-23. singh, a.p, vaid, a & mahajan, v. (2014). impact of kvk training programmes and front line demonstrations on adoption of pusa basmati 1121 in kathua district of jammu and kashmir. journal of krishi vigyan 2(2), 44-48. table 3. technological gap analysis of frontline demonstrations on hybrid paddy in farmers’ fields sl. no. year area (ha) grain yield (q/ha) technology gap (q/ha) extension gap (q/ha) technology index (%) potential demonstra-tion control 1 2018-19 4.0 85.0 72.5 47.8 12.5 24.7 14.70 2 2019-20 4.0 85.0 73.0 39.8 12.0 33.2 14.11 mean 85.0 72.75 43.8 12.25 28.95 14.41 journal of extension education wrapper.cdr 6369 jee 31(4) my dear readers of journal of extension education, by the turn of this century, the ministry of agriculture, govt. of india developed a policy framework for agricultural extension, which aimed for a major reform and reorientation of india’s entire agricultural extension system while highlighting the limitations of the predominant public-sector extension in the country. the state governments with whom the responsibility of agricultural extension rest, should take this policy framework and the emerging issues in the field in the development of extension policies. absence of a current day adjusted extension policy has been flagged as a serious challenge in india’s public extension system according the committee on doubling farmers’ income, ministry of agriculture & farmers’ welfare, during 2017. in a gfras (global forum for rural advisory services ) publication (mueller,2016), the following emerging issues have been considered extremely valuable while formulating such extension policies. participatory, farmer-led decision-making: when best practices are made available to regions that are struggling to address poverty and food security through extension services, decisions on how to implement such services should be participatory, involving field-based extension staff, leaders of rural communities, and local farmer organizations. privately-led extension and public–private partnerships : once the production and postharvest capabilities are improved, inclusion of private sector partners often leads to the development of value chain markets and public–private partnerships (ppps) may enhance the participation of smallholders in such markets gender equality and nutrition awareness: promoting agricultural innovations – especially among women farmers – and increasing their awareness of nutrition implications for their children and families may also lead to increased food security and support the development of gender equality as an extension policy. ict and mass extension: ict and mass extension hold out exciting possibilities for innovating the transfer of best practices and capacity development to smallholders and extensionists. the potential to teach and learn, record experiences, and develop e-learning tools is growing exponentially as new technologies emerge and countries invest in their it infrastructures. value chain marketing: a key element of the emerging issues and opportunities for smallholders is their access and capacity to participate in the growing number of value chain markets that focus on smallholders and small and medium enterprises (smes). building partnerships: one of the keys to the success of the next stage of international development is a greater emphasis on partnerships and coordination among the stakeholders. this issue of jee contains articles on emerging topics including participatory evaluation of technologies, performance of vocational education agricultural teachers and emotional intelligence of agricultural officers. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com. from the editor’s desk chief editor 5598 performance analysis of self help groups on farm entrepreneurship in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala suma rose sundaran1 and g.s. sreedaya2 abstract the present study aims to analyse the performance of the (self help groups) involved in farm entrepreneurship in terms of managerial efficiency, sustainability and entrepreneurial behaviour of shgs. ninety respondents were selected randomly from three men and women shgs involved in fruit and vegetable cultivation from six different blocks of keral athrough purposive and simple random sampling. a well-structured interview schedule was used for data collection. managerial efficiency and entrepreneurial behaviour was measured using the procedure developed by sreedaya (2000) and kumar (2007) respectively and sustainability was measured using the procedure developed by the researcher for the study.the results were analysed with the help of different statistical tools like mean, frequency, percentage and anova.the result revealed that majority of the men and women respondents had medium level of managerial efficiency, sustainability and entrepreneurial behaviour. it was also revealed that there was no significant difference between men and women shgs in terms of managerial efficiency and sustainability but they differ only in terms of entrepreneurial behavior. keywords : farm entrepreneurship, managerial efficiency, sustainability, entrepreneurial behaviour, shgs introduction agriculture and allied sectors are considered to be the mainstay of the indian economy. entrepreneurship forms a key factor for the survival of small scale farming in this changing global economy. entrepreneur is one who always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity (drucker,1985). 1-pg scholar and 2 assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani-695522, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. received : 1-9-2016; accepted : 16-9-2016 entrepreneurship is described as the process through which entrepreneurs create and grow enterprises (dabson and malkin, 2003). farmer entrepreneurs are the ones who see their farms as a means of earning profits (kahan, 2012). pandey in 2013 reported that agriculture have several areas of entrepreneurship journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5599 opportunities like dairy, sericulture, goat rearing, rabbit rearing, floriculture, fisheries, shrimp farming, sheep rearing, vegetable cultivation, nursery farming and farm forestry. nabard (1995) defined shg as a homogenous group of rural poor voluntarily formed to save whatever amount they can conveniently save out of their earnings and mutually agree to contribute to a common fund from which lend to members for productive and emergent credit needs. managerial efficiency is the ability of the farmers in effective planning, production and marketing of produce. sustainability is defined as the extent to which the group is viable after the withdrawal of the promoters.entrepreneurial behaviour is defined as the human behaviour involved in identifying and exploiting opportunities through creating and developing new ventures. with this background, the present study was conducted to analyse the performance of the shgs involved in farm entrepreneurship in terms of managerial efficiency, sustainability and entrepreneurial behaviour and twelve profile characteristics namely age, annual income, market perception, self confidence, social participation, goal setting, dealing with failure behaviour, personal initiative and responsibility, use of resources, problem solving ability, assertiveness and work commitment were selected as independent variables after judges rating. methodology the study was conducted in six panchayaths from the selected six blocks namely kazhakootam. poovachal and kalliyoor for men shg sand manikal, ottoor and pallichal for women shgs. from each selected shgs,fifteen members were randomly selected for the study. thus a total of ninety espondents were included in the present study. a wellstructured interview schedule was used for data collection from the respondents. the results were analysed with the help of different statistical tools like mean, frequency, percentage and anova fingings and discussion managerial efficiency table 1 reveals that 66.67 per cent of men respondents and 60 percent of women respondents exhibited medium level of managerial efficiency. the managerial efficiency was measured in terms of planning, production and marketing aspects of shgs which in turn depend on the profile characteristics such as market perception, self confidence, goal setting, social participation, use of resources and problem solving ability. in all these seven profile characteristics selected, men respondents were in a better position than the women respondents which may be the reason for better managerial efficiency of men shg members. moreover the land holdings of women shgs were less compared to men which may be another reason for reduced managerial efficiency of the women respondents. performance analysis of self help groups on farm entrepreneurship in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala 5600 table 1. distribution of the respondents based on managerial efficiency (n=45) sl.no. category men (n=45) category women f % f % 1 low 7 15.56 low 9 20 2 medium 30 66.67 medium 27 60 3 high 8 17.77 high 9 20 mean = 49.8 sd = 78.89 mean = 47.95 sd = 71.17 f-frequency, %percentage sustainability men shgs (62.23%) seem to be more sustainable than women shgs (51.12%) which is evident from table 2.sustainability depends on wise use of resources and problem solving ability. the shgs can sustain only if they use the resources wisely and face the problems encountered by them. the study revealed that the men respondents were better in judicious use of resources and problem solving ability. table 2. distribution of the respondents based on their opinion regarding the sustainability of group. sl.no. category men (n=45) category women (n=45) f % f % 1 low (<q1) 12 26.66 low (<q1) 9 20.00 2 medium (q1 – q3) 28 62.23 medium (q1 – q3) 23 51.12 3 high (>q3) 5 11.11 high (>q3) 13 28.88 q1= 61 q3=71 q1=62, q3=71 f-frequency, %percentage entrepreneurial behaviour it is clear from table 3 that 60 percent of men respondents and 53.34 percent of women respondents exhibited medium level of entrepreneurial behaviour. the researcher could find out during the field visit that men shg members were willing to adopt innovative farming practices like cultivation of grafted chilly, cabbage etc. on the other hand. women farmers were hesitant to adopt innovative activities of cultivation. this may be because of the fact that men shg members were cultivating on commercial scale whereas women were only confined to subsistence farming. journal of extension education 5601 performance analysis of self help groups on farm entrepreneurship in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala table 3. distribution of the respondents based on their entrepreneurial behaviour sl.no category men (n=45) category women (n=45) f % f % 1 low 7 15.55 low 16 35.55 2 medium 27 60.00 medium 24 53.34 3 high 11 24.45 high 5 11.11 mean=5.51 sd = 0.96 mean = 4.53 sd = 0.94 f-frequency, %percentage fig 2. distribution of respondents based on their opinion regarding sustainability of shgs comparison of performance of men and women groups with dependent variables the result of anova which is presented in table 4 indicates that the men and women shg members showed significant difference in their entrepreneurial behaviour. this may be because the men respondents who belonged to age group >55 of years had low competitive entrepreneurial skill. the women respondents who belonged to age group years 35-55 exhibited medium entrepreneurial behaviour. 5602 table 4. result of the anova between men and women shgs with respect to dependent variables. sl.no. dependent variable mean score(men) mean score (women ) f value inference 1 managerial efficiency 64.32 59.56 2.95 ns 2 sustainability 65.4 66.5 0.72 ns 3 entrepreneurial be aviour 5.51 4.53 4.2 s* * significant at 5% level kahan, d. (2012). entrepreneurship in farming. farm management extension guide. kumar, t.r. (2007). a multi dimensional analysis of apiculturists in kollam and thiruvananthapuram district. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 109p. nabard.(1995), linking shgs with banks an indian experience. nabard, bombay, pp. 1-25 pandey, g. (2013). agripreneurship education anddevelopment: need of the day. asian resonance. 2(4): 153156. sreedaya, g.s. (2000). performance analysis of self help groups involved in vegetable production in thiruvananthapuram district. unpublished m.sc (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur.136p. conclusion the present study revealed that majority of the men and women respondents had medium level of managerial efficiency, sustainability and entrepreneurial behaviour. but the men shg members exhibited slightly more managerial efficiency and entrepreneurial behavior than women shgs. regarding the sustainability of shgs also, men shgs were more sustainable. anova revealed that significant difference was observed between men shgs and women shgs with respect to entrepreneurial behaviour only. references dabson, b. & malikin, j. (2003), mapping rural entrepreneurship. w.k.kellong foundation and corporation for enterprise development, new york, 225p. drucker, p. f.(1985). innovation and entrepreneurship. harper business, new york, 229p. journal of extension education 6476 utilization of selected information technology enabled systems by agricultural extensionists of kerala p.j. boniface1, a.m. jose2 and a. sakeer husain3 abstract several information technology enabled systems (ites) are available for providing valuable information to agricultural extensionists which in turn would help them to assist famers, and increase crop production. the present study was aimed at assessment of knowledge and extent of use of selected ites among agricultural extensionists of kerala. data were collected from randomly selected 60 computer literate agricultural officers and 60 computer literate agricultural assistants of kerala state. the study revealed that knowledge of agricultural extensionists on web browsing and agricultural portals was comparatively higher. the knowledge of agricultural expert system and digitized databases was found to be very low. on the other hand the extent of use of all the selected ites was found low among the agricultural extensionists. this points towards the need of sensitizing agricultural extensionists on the importance and value of ites. keywords: it in agriculture; web browsing; agricultural portals; agricultural expert systems; digitized databases; online trading. research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 2, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.2.32.6476-6484 1 college of co-operation banking and management, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 2 amity school of economics, ,amity university, panchgaon, haryana and 3 professor and director, centre for e-learning, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala, india received : 29-07-2020; accepted : 25-09-2020 introduction information technology (it) plays an important role in agricultural production and marketing (thiruniraiselvi, 2009). recently, india has made rapid strides in the field of it and there is immense scope for its application in agriculture. it has the potential to address the concerns of farmers effectively, stationed even at remote locations. agricultural extensionists require timely information to assist farmers which is provided through various information technology enabled systems (ites). several ites are available nationwide but how far they have reached the agricultural extensionists is to be measured. among the various ites, decision support systems (dss) / expert systems which function based on artificial intelligence is a novel ites which help the agricultural extensionists to provide timely and vital information to farmers. some of the d.s.s. in kerala are the kau fertulator (fertilizer calculator for around 140 crops developed by kerala agricultural university(kau), 6477 kau e-crop doctor (medicine prescriber for various crops developed by kau), cassava expert system (developed by central tuber crops research institute (ctcri), thiruvananthapuram), oushadham (online diagnostic system for pest and disease management in cassava developed by ctcri) and so on. (husain et al., 2016). agricultural portals are another category of ites becoming popular. there are some portals in agriculture suited to farmers of kerala, includes the portals maintained by the department of agriculture, government of kerala and the one by kerala agricultural university. similarly several other it enabled services are available for the agricultural extensonists to facilitate their efforts in total like websites, databases, m-apps etc. the present study was undertaken with the objective of examining the knowledge and extent of use of selected information technology enabled systems (ites) among agricultural extensionists of kerala. methodology for the purpose of the study, the state of kerala was geographically divided into three zones viz., north, central and south. the study was confined to three districts selected purposively to represent each of the zones. as such malappuram, thrissur and idukki districts representing north, central and south zones respectively were selected. malappuram district became the first e-literate district in india through the akshaya project launched on 2002, and thrissur district houses the headquarters of the state agricultural university of kerala which had developed various it tools and services for farmers apart from imparting trainings to farmers. similarly, the farmers of idukki district were engaged in online trading especially of pepper and cardamom. these factors were also considered for the selection of these three districts, which were expected to have more focus on different it enabled services. the present study focussed on the grass root level agricultural extensionists of the department of agriculture, kerala state, and includes both agricultural officers and agricultural assistants of krishi bhavans (grass root level agricultural extension unit) of kerala. for the selection of agricultural extensionists, the list of computer literate agricultural officers and agricultural assistants in the krishi bhavans of the three selected districts were obtained. from this list 60 agricultural officers and 60 agricultural assistants were selected at random, constituting a sample of 120. five platforms of ites viz., web browsing, agricultural portals, agricultural expert systems, digitized databases, and online trading were assessed for their knowledge and use by the agricultural extensionists of kerala. the personal profile of agricultural extensionists, their social profile, it profile, knowledge and extent of use of ites were the major items of analysis. findings and discussion a set of characteristics of agricultural extensionists such as gender, language proficiency, age, educational status, and service utilization of selected information technology enabled systems by agricultural extensionists of kerala 6478 experience were taken into consideration for understanding their personal profile. majority of the respondents (53%) were males and the rest (47%) were females. a slight majority was noticed in the number of male agricultural extensionists over females. age wise segmentation of agricultural extensionists revealed that majority (62.5%) of agricultural extensionists were middle aged with an age range of 36-55. the younger generation whose age group was less than 36 registered only 37.5 per cent. this is quite logical that an individual can attain the job of an agricultural extensionist only after the age of 17, when he acquires the minimum educational qualification, and generally majority get placed after the age of 25. this is the reason for less number of young extensionists as compared to middle aged. none of the extensionists fell in the old age category, because of the fact that 56 is the retirement age in kerala government service. while examining the language proficiency of agricultural extensionists, 81.67 per cent of them were able to read, write and speak english, while 100 per cent were able to read and write english. in the case of malayalam language, 100 per cent agricultural extensionists were able to read, write and speak. the respondent agricultural extensionists were officials of the kerala state government, and were either degree holders or vhse (vocational higher secondary education) certificate holders, and this is the reason behind the high proficiency in both the languages. educational qualification of the agricultural extensionists surveyed showed that 30 per cent of the agricultural extensionists were degree holders (degree alone) and 27 per cent postgraduates. this indicates that majority (57%) of agricultural extensionists were having degree. the rest 43 per cent extensionists were vhse certificate holders. majority of the degree holders were agricultural officers, who were in charge of krishibhavans (the local agricultural development units at gramapanchayath level), while the vhse certificate holders were agricultural assistants, who come under the control of the agricultural officer. majority of the agricultural extensionists (45 %) had more than 15 years of service experience, as agricultural extension worker, followed by 35 per cent with 5-15 years of experience, and 20 per cent with less than 5 years of experience. this is in accordance with their age. social variables relevant to agricultural extensionists such as innovativeness, research organisation contact, social participation and mass media exposure were considered for the study. the results in this regard are presented in table 1. table 1 reveals that 79 per cent agricultural extensionists were in the medium range of innovativeness, while the rest 21 per cent were highly innovative. none of the extensionists were found with low innovativeness, showing a better innovativeness level of computer literate agricultural extensionists. table 1 further shows that 55 per cent agricultural extensionists had contact with research journal of extension education 6479 organization which was in the medium range, followed by 27 per cent extensionists with high research organisation contact. only 18 per cent of them was found with low research organisation contact. thus, the better position of agricultural extensionists with respect to innovativeness and research organisation contact could be effectively used for ites use in agriculture. majority (58%) of the agricultural extensionists belonged to medium category of social participation, followed by 33 per cent with low social participation. only 9 per cent of extensionists were having high social participation. this low level social participation of agricultural extensionists may be the result of the high work load, perceived by them, which includes clerical and file works table 1. social characteristics of agricultural extensionists sl.no. variables category number percentage 1 innovativeness low 0 0 medium 95 79 high 25 21 2 research organization contact low 22 18 medium 66 55 high 32 27 3 social participation low 40 33 medium 69 58 high 11 9 4 mass media exposure low 15 12.50 medium 91 75.83 high 14 11.67 table 2. it profile of agricultural extensionists sl. no. variable category no. percentage 1 computer use self 112 93 with help 6 5 no use 2 2 2 mobile phone use smartphone 119 99 ordinary mobile phone 1 1 3 training in it attended 64 53 not attended 56 47 utilization of selected information technology enabled systems by agricultural extensionists of kerala 6480 in office and field work. regarding mass media exposure too, majority of the agricultural extensionists (75.83%) belonged to the medium category, followed by an almost equal share of the respondents in low and high category (12.5% and 11.67% respectively). thus majority of agricultural extensionists fell in the medium category with respect to all the social variables under study. the it profile of the respondent extensionists were analysed in terms of their use of computer, mobile phone use and trainings attended in it, and the results are furnished in table 2. it is observed from table 2, that 93 per cent of the agricultural extensionists used computer by their own and 5 per cent used it with the help of others. non users of the computer constituted just 2 per cent. thus it is clear that an overwhelming majority of them were users of the computer. this result was obtained consequent to the purposive inclusion of computer literate extensionists in the sampling frame. majority of them used computer in offices mainly for operating spark, a software used for uploading their salary bills. some of them utilised the help of their colleagues for doing this. with respect to the use of mobile phones, it is seen that almost all (99%) agricultural extensionists, except one per cent of them were using smart phones. thus with the use of smart phones, various purposes surpassed the use of computer, and it is the trend of this era. as regards to trainings attended in it, it can be seen that 53 per cent of the agricultural extensionists had attended various it training programmes. thus the it profile of the agricultural extensionists is found to support the use of various ites. extent of knowledge of agricultural extensionists on various ites the analysis of the knowledge on ites was done based on the responses of those agricultural extensionists who were aware of each of these ites in agriculture. thus the total respondents in this case varied for different ites as follows: web searching/browsing-114; agricultural portals96; agricultural expert systems-24; digitized databases-26; online table 3. distribution of agricultural extensionists based on knowledge on various ites sl. no. knowledge category web browsing agricultural portals agricultural expert system digitized databases online trading no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % 1. low 32 28 27 28 19 79 21 81 29 43 2. medium 27 24 24 25 3 13 3 11 17 25 3. high 55 48 45 47 2 8 2 8 22 32 total 114 100 96 100 24 100 26 100 68 100 journal of extension education 6481 trading.-68. the frequency distribution of agricultural extensionists with regard to knowledge on selected ites is furnished in table 3. table 3 reveals that majority (48 %) of the agricultural extensionists belonged to the high category, with regard to knowledge on web browsing. twenty eight per cent belonged to low category, while 24 per cent were in the medium category. this shows a good knowledge position of agricultural extensionists on web browsing. almost similar is the distribution of agricultural extensionists in the case of knowledge on agricultural portals too. in this, 47 per cent fell in the high category, while 28 per cent fell in the low category and 25 per cent in the medium category. majority fell in the low category with regard to knowledge on agricultural expert system(79%) and digitized databases (81%). around 20 per cent of the agricultural extensionists only belonged to either medium or high category. thus, among agricultural extensionists, the knowledge of agricultural expert system and digitized databases was found very low. mishra et.al (2014) highlighted the role of expert system in transferring expert driven knowledge instantly at the level of farmer’s field. in the case of online trading, majority fell in the low category (43%), followed by 25 per cent in the medium and 32 per cent in the high categories. thus, as regards to the knowledge of agricultural extensionists on selected ites, good knowledge was observed in the case of web searching/browsing, and agricultural portals; average knowledge was observed in the case of online trading, while poor knowledge was observed in the case of agricultural expert system and digitized databases. web browsing is very common now a days, and browsing for agriculture is no exception. for getting technological information on agriculture, the extensionists resort to various agricultural portals, and this might have improved their knowledge on this. at the same time, agricultural expert system table 4. distribution of agricultural extensionists based on extent of use of ites sl. no. use category web browsing agricultural portals agricultural expert system digitized databases online trading no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % 1. low 74 65 74 77 22 92 24 92 66 97 2. medium 25 22 19 20 1 4 1 4 1 1.5 3. high 15 13 3 3 1 4 1 4 1 1.5 total 114 100 96 100 24 100 26 100 68 100 utilization of selected information technology enabled systems by agricultural extensionists of kerala 6482 and digitized databases were not that popular even amongst agricultural extensionists. however, since many of the farmers were involved in online trading, the agricultural extensionists were also forced to be equipped with knowledge on it. use of various ites by agricultural extensionists the frequency distribution of agricultural extensionists with regard to extent of use of selected ites is furnished in table 4. table 4 shows that 65 per cent agricultural extensionists were in the low category with respect to web browsing, while 22 percent in the medium and 13 per cent in the high categories. thus the use of web browsing was found to be low. even though the selected agricultural extensionists were computer literate, and majority of them had knowledge about web browsing, its use was restricted by high work load in their office, and lack of computer in many of their homes. similarly, 77 percent agricultural extensionists belonged to low category with respect to use of agricultural portals, while 20 per cent in the middle and three per cent in the high categories. here also it can be inferred that the use of agricultural portals by agricultural extensionists was low. the same reason mentioned in the case of web browsing is applicable here also. among the selected ites, the training need of agricultural extensionists was found high on agricultural portals (boniface et.al, 2019a). with respect to use of the ites viz., agricultural expert system, and digitized databases, 92 per cent agricultural extensionists were in low use category. only a very few belonged to medium and high category (4 each in both the case of agricultural expert system and digitized data bases). thus the use of agricultural expert system and digitized data bases was found to be very low. majority of the agricultural extensionists possessed low knowledge regarding these two ites, and this might be the major reason behind its very low use. rafea (2002) revealed that net production in agriculture increased by 25% using expert system which shows the importance of agricultural expert system. the use of online trading by the agricultural extensionists was found to be the lowest among all the ites. the very poor use of online trading was due to the lack of necessity of its use by the extension functionaries, as it was mainly related to and used by farmers, sellers and buyers. still, there were a very few agricultural extensionists, who used this ites, they may be involved in online trading as farmers or traders. overall, it can be easily inferred that the use of ites was low among the agricultural extensionists. of the ites, the use of web browsing and agricultural portals was found to be low, while the use of agricultural expert systems and digitized databases was very low, and that of online trading was extremely low. thus, even though they had knowledge on web browsing and agricultural portals, the extent of use did not match with their knowledge. besides, it was also observed that 77 per cent belonged to low use category with respect to agricultural portals whereas, 65 per cent journal of extension education 6483 belonged to the low use category in respect of web browsing. this points to the need of imparting training to agricultural extensionists on web browsing and agricultural portals. further, the low use of agricultural expert systems and digitized databases, as mentioned earlier was mainly due to their low knowledge. the non-availability of suitable ites and the lack of knowledge on the value of the available ites in these two categories also might have contributed to this condition. conclusion the study revealed that knowledge on web browsing was comparatively higher for agricultural extensionists than other ites such as agricultural portals, agricultural expert system, digitised databases and online trading. similarly, the use of different ites was found to be low among the respondents. this was very low in respect of agricultural expert systems and digitised data bases. even, the agricultural portals were seen used at very low level. ites, especially the agricultural portals and agricultural expert systems/decision support systems are tools that can provide authentic information, technical support, and expert guidance to the stakeholders. now, we have very good agricultural portals suited to the state of kerala like kau agri info tech portal (celkau.in), portal of the kerala state department of agriculture(krishi.info), tnau agri tech portal, irri’s cereal knowledge bank etc., and the first two are available in both english and local language, malayalam. still, in depth knowledge on and use of these portals by the agricultural extensionists were low. similarly agricultural expert systems were also not seen explored. this is an indication towards the need for sensitizing and to give hands on training to agricultural extensionists on various agricultural portals, so as to satisfy their information needs, especially in the context of the immense practical utility and potential of a quality agricultural information technology portal. similar efforts are to be made to explore the scope and potential of the use of agricultural expert systems. the agricultural extensionists are technical experts in their concerned fields and they may perceive that the ites, at present does not provide much more than what they know and what they can refer to by other means. hence a detailed orientation on various available ites and its content and coverage should be provided to agricultural extensionists for effective utilisation of these ites. references boniface, p.j, jose, a.m & husain, a.s. (2019.) training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists on selected information technology enabled systems for agriculture. journal of extension education 31(1): 62096215. husain a.s, ahamed p. & nithin, k.m. (2016). stakeholder participatory design and development of an agri info-tech portal. journal of agricultural extension management 17(2): 25-33 mishra,s, & akankasha deep, v. (2014). “expert systems in agriculture” an overview. international journal of science technology and engineering, 1(5) :45-49 utilization of selected information technology enabled systems by agricultural extensionists of kerala 6484 rafea, a. (2002). use of computer expert system in agriculture. extended summaries of international agronomy congress on balancing food and environmental security-a continuing challenge. nov 26-30, 2002. thiruniraiselvi, d. (2009). it sector and indian agriculture, kisan world, 36(6): 2932. journal of extension education pages 2021-1 final.cdr introduction demand for agriculture is increasing rapidly with popula�on growth and per capita income. a farmer who produced more was considered successful in earlier �mes. but now, a farmer who obtains higher produc�vity from his fields, who uses resources effec�vely and sustainably, markets his produce efficiently and can maintain quality in line with na�onal and interna�onal standards, is considered as a successful farmer (vimalraj, 2010). farmers are the most economically challenged group in the produc�on sector, facing challenges. amidst such situa�ons, farmers who have been successful needs to be applauded for their work and felicita�ng them with an award for the hard work put in pulls in a�en�on of more farmers into adding efforts in agriculture. a recogni�on given by central and state government establishments, agricultural departments, non-governmental and other organiza�ons to farmers through awards generates i n t e r e s t i n t h e m t o p r a c � c e n e w technologies and improve the quality of the produce. these awardee farmers vary from other farmers in certain ways such as the u � l i z a � o n o f r e s o u r c e s , m a r k e � n g s t r a t e g i e s , a d o p � o n o f a d v a n c e d technologies, etc. (kale et al., 2018). 6566 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.1, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.1.33.6566-6570 agripreneurial behaviour of awardee farmers of kerala r.s. reshma* and g.s.sreedaya* abstract the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram and pathanamthi�a districts of kerala to study the agripreneurial behaviour of awardee farmers. altogether, 70 awardee farmers, 35 each from the two districts cons�tuted the sample. the results showed that majority of the awardee farmers belonged to medium to high category of agripreneurial behaviour. profile characteris�cs like decision making ability, dealing with failure, crea�vity and trainings acquired had a significant rela�onship with agripreneurial behaviour. keywords: awardee farmers; agripreneurial behaviour; decision making ability; training; kerala *department of agricultural extension, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara, kerala received : 11-07-2021; accepted: 10-02-2022 government of kerala has introduced t h e a w a r d s v i z . k v i s w a n a t h a n (mithranikethan) memorial nelkathir award, karshakothama award, karshakathilakam award, kerakesari award etc. to inspire the progressive farmers from the state. in addi�on, the "awardee farmers" are the progressive farmers who not only adopt the recommended prac�ces in their farm, but also introduce their own innova�ve ideas. hence the present study was taken up to study the agripreneurial behaviour of awardee farmers of southern kerala. methodology t h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m a n d pathanamthi�a districts of kerala were selected as the loca�on for the study of awardee farmers. the study mainly focused on the awardee farmers cul�va�ng major crops like coconut, rice, banana and vegetables in an integrated manner. as the number of these farmers were rela�vely m o r e i n t h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m a n d pathanamthi�a districts, these two districts were selected. thirty five awardee farmers n o m i n a t e d f o r s t a t e a w a r d s f r o m thiruvananthapuram and pathanamthi�a, during the period 2014-18 were selected in consulta�on with principal agricultural officers and other officials of department of agriculture development and farmers' welfare, making the total sample size of respondents 70. ex-postfacto research design was used for the study because there was no scope for manipula�on of any variables under study. a well structured interview schedule was prepared a�er consulta�on with the experts in extension and other related fields. a pilot study was conducted in the non-sampling area and the final interview schedule was prepared with suitable modifica�ons. to s t u d y t h e a g r i p r e n e u r i a l b e h a v i o u r o f a w a r d e e f a r m e r s , 'agripreneurial a�ributes self assessment' scale developed by wankhade et al. (2013) w a s u s e d . t h e s c a l e c o m p r i s e s t e n agripreneurial a�ributes, namely risk taking, hope of success, persuasibility, m a n a g e a b i l i t y , s e l f c o n fi d e n c e , knowledgeability, persistence, feedback usage, innova�veness, and achievement mo�va�on. the agripreneurial a�ributes self assessment scale has a total of 50 statements. it was measured on a five-point con�nuum such as 'strongly agree', 'agree', ' u n d e c i d e d ', 'd i s a g re e' a n d 's t ro n g l y disagree' with weightage of 5,4,3,2 and 1. agripreneurial behaviour index was u s e d t o m e a s u re t h e a g r i p re n e u r i a l behaviour of awardee farmers. agripreneurial behaviour index (abi): 6567 (abi) = sum of obtained score on ten agripreneurial a�ribute-minimum maximum obtainable score on ten agripreneurial a�ribute-minimum x 100 agripreneurial behaviour of awardee farmers of kerala on the basis of agricultural behaviour index values obtained, awardee farmers were classified into three categories ranging from low to high by considering the mean and standard devia�on values. the profile characteris�cs of the awardee farmers such as age, farming experience, decision making ability, dealing with failure, crea�vity and trainings acquired were categorized and expressed in terms of frequency and percentage. findings and discussion table 1 reveals that majority of the awardee farmers (67.14%) were having medium level of agripreneurial behaviour followed by high (17.14%) and low (15.71%) a g r i pre n e ur i a l b e h av i o ur l eve l s . th e awardee farmers follow many innova�ve technologies in addi�on to the tradi�onal prac�ces, which help them in establishing new farm enterprises. 6568 table 1. distribu�on of awardee farmers based on agripreneurial behaviour index sl. no. category frequency (n=70) percentage 1. low (50-57) 12 15.71 2. medium (57 -73) 47 67.14 3. high (73 -81) 11 17.14 total 70 100 mean64.6 sd7.5 range50-81 the results of the study revealed that majority of the awardee farmers (54.28%) belonged to the middle age category and this may be due to the enthusiasm and perseverance of middle aged persons for their work when compared to older persons. about 60 per cent of the awardee farmers had medium level of farming experience. farming experience might have played an influen�al role in the acquirement of knowledge and skills of farmers. majority of the awardee farmers were in the medium category of decision making ability (67.14%) and dealing with failure (75.71%). failure in agriculture might not pull them back as they have high risk taking ability and they might be well aware of how to tackle the problems. most of the awardee farmers (71.43%) had medium level of crea�vity. medium and high levels of c re a � v i t y s h o w s t h e i r a b i l i t y t o d o innova�ve things in a different way to achieve success in their farming and might have helped them to secure awards of state government of kerala. about 65.71 per cent of awardee farmers belonged to medium category of trainings acquired. trainings might have helped to mo�vate the farmers and increase their compe��ve ability in receiving awards. journal of extension educa�on furthermore, the correla�on analysis (table 2) showed that there was a posi�ve and significant rela�onship between decision making ability and agripreneurial behaviour. a farmer with good decision making ability might have high chances of success through effec�ve u�liza�on of available resources and increase their income. dealing with failure was posi�vely a n d s i g n i fi c a n t l y c o r r e l a t e d w i t h agripreneurial behaviour. a successful person always learns lessons from the f a i l u r e a n d i t i s o b v i o u s t h a t t h e respondents, being the awardee farmers might have learned lessons from failures due to crop loss and managed to overcome it. it was found that crea�vity was posi�vely a n d s i g n i fi c a n t l y c o r r e l a t e d w i t h agripreneurial behaviour at one per cent level. higher crea�vity might have helped t h e a w a r d e e f a r m e r s t o a d o p t t h e innova�ve methods in all areas of farming like crop produc�on, crop protec�on, postharvest handling, value addi�on and marke�ng which finally enhanced their agripreneurial abili�es. pearson correla�on coefficient value showed that training acquired was posi�vely and significantly correlated with agripreneurial behaviour. tr a i n i n g s m i g h t h a ve i n c re a s e d t h e knowledge and skills of awardee farmers to perform in an efficient way. 6569 table 2. correla�on between agripreneurial behaviour and profile characteris�cs of awardee farmers sl. no. items coefficient of correla�on ‘r’ values 1. age 0.042 ns 2. farming experience 0.058 ns 3. decision making ability 0.907** 4. dealing with failure 0.873** 5. crea�vity 0.908** 6. trainings acquired 0.730** '**' significant at 1% level, 'ns' non-significant agripreneurial behaviour of awardee farmers of kerala conclusion from the study, it can be concluded that the awardee farmers had medium to high agripreneurial behaviour which increased their annual income and thereby, standard of living. these farmers prac�ced not only the tradi�onal and recommended prac�ces, but also innova�ve technologies in produc�on, protec�on, value addi�on, storage and in marke�ng. it can be concluded that, if other farmers can also replicate the methods adopted by these a w a r d e e f a r m e r s , s u s t a i n a b l e entrepreneurial development on agriculture could be ensured. references kale, n d, kshatriya, a m., kausadikar, h h., & desai, a n.(2018). rela�onship between personal, socio-economic characteris�cs and cropping pa�ern of the awardee farmers. interna�onal journal of current microbiology and applied sciences 6: 1538-1544. vimalraj g.(2010). an analy�cal study of best prac�ces and competencies of award winning agripreneurs of tamil nadu. unpublished m. sc. (ag.) thesis, indian agricultural research ins�tute, new delhi.pp 133. wankhade, r p., sagane, m a., & mankar, d m . ( 2 0 1 3 ) . e n t r e p r e n e u r i a l behaviour of vegetable growers. agricultural science digest. 33 (2): 85 – 91. 6570 journal of extension educa�on page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 wrapper.cdr 6421 jee 32(1) my dear readers of journal of extension education, wish you all a very happy new year! in the recently concluded esard-2019 conference (international conference on extension for strengthening agricultural research and development), it was surprising to note that papers were solicited on a relatively new topic, ‘ethics’ under the conference theme, ‘extension education and research’. ethics, a much ignored part in social science research, are 'moral principles that control or influence a person’s behaviour’ as per the oxford advanced learner’s dictionary. the european commission (2018) has formulated certain ethical guidelines when conducting studies with human subjects as participants in social science research. these guidelines are to be followed besides avoiding serious ethical breaching such as plagiarizing and fabrication of data. i am listing a few below. • whenever we are collecting personal data directly from research participants, we must seek their informed consent • give participants a clear explanation of the aims, overall purpose, methods and implications of the research. • explain that participation is voluntary. • explain who is funding the research and for what purpose. • disclose who will benefit from the research. • make a clear commitment to treating personal and sensitive information confidentially • offer to provide respondents with further information about research if they ask for it • give the name and contact details of the contact person who can answer any queries participants may have. as professionals of extension education, we may have to follow these guidelines primarily while conducting face-to-face interviews, wherein we directly ask questions and obtain responses or while conducting focus groups, wherein a small group of homogenous respondents are interviewed together. as of now, ethical clearance for conducting such interviews and focus groups is not insisted upon in most of the developing countries. many social scientists argue that since there is no apparent harm inflicted while conducting research (unlike health-related research, similar to the tuskegee syphilis experiment), ethical clearance for such research is unnecessary. however, this situation might change in future, as ethical issues are becoming crucial in social research. following the aforementioned easy-to-follow ethical guidelines could be a right step in this direction. this issue of jee contains articles on diverse topics including willingness of farmers to participate in innovation platforms, crowdsourcing knowledge and erosion of traditional seed supply systems. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com. from the editor’s desk chief editor jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 1principal scientist and head, 2principal scientist and 3-scientist, icar indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalaru, the north east hill (neh) region of india comprises arunachal pradesh, assam, manipur, meghalaya, mizoram, nagaland, tripura and sikkim, which have vast physiographical variations, representing six agro-climatic zones. neh region is one of the richest reservoir of genetic variability and diversity of horticulture crops such as fruits, vegetables, spices, ornamental plants and also medicinal & aromatic plants. to enhance the productivity and profitability of horticulture in neh region, it is imperative to introduce advanced horticulture production technologies through training programmes targeting both extension personnel such that of krishi vigyan kendras training needs of kvk personnel and farmers of neh region in horticulture r. venkattakumar1, g. senthil kumaran3 and g.a. atheequlla2 abstract north east hill (neh) region has adequate potential for developing horticulture. to enhance productivity and profitability in horticulture in this region, it is imperative to train the farmers. krishi vigyan kendras (kvks), the main outreach arm of icar train the farmers on need-based themes. there are 78 kvks functioning in neh region. to enhance the expertise of the kvk personnel in horticulture, it is necessary to train them regularly. to train the farmers and kvk personnel in neh region in horticulture, there is a need to assess their training needs. with this view, a questionnaire survey was conducted with kvk personnel (42) to assess their training needs and the training needs of farmers as perceived by kvk personnel in neh region. the results of the survey were analyzed to arrive at meaningful conclusions. the results are presented in this paper for sensitizing the training organizations in order to design effective training modules for stakeholders of neh region in horticulture. (kvks) and farmers. nongtdu et al (2012) suggested that necessary steps should be taken to identify the unfelt needs of the extension personnel of assam to strengthen their knowledge, skills and attitudes required for performing their job efficiently. sajeev and singha (2012); sajeev, singha and venkatasubramanian (2012) emphasized that kvks have to re-orient their training programmes based on needs of farmers to reduce the existing technological and adoption gap in arunachal pradesh and manipur. kvks act as main outreach arm of the indian council of agricultural research (icar) and its constituent institutes. they act as the training centres for transfer of the technology received : 30 nov, 2015; accepted : 11 mar, 2016 5547training needs of kvk personnel and farmers of neh region in horticulture with an aim to reduce the time lag between technology generation and their transfer (www.icar.org.in). kvks regularly organize training programmes for extension personnel and farmers to orient them in the frontier areas technology development. this fact also necessitates that the kvk personnel have to be trained regularly on need-based themes, so that their expertise can be enhanced. hence, it is imperative to assess the training needs of the kvk personnel, in order to design and implement effective training modules. the division of extension and training, icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr) has been involved in training and extension activities of the institute apart from research on popularizing horticulture technologies through innovative extension methodologies. it is the endeavour of the division to keep in tune with the technological requirements in horticulture and the latest developments in the field of information technology and accordingly various training programmes are being regularly conducted in the division (www.iihr.res.in). to design and implement effective training modules to suit the needs of the stakeholders, the division assess regularly, the training needs of stakeholders such as farmers, extension personnel including that of kvks and ngos, entrepreneurs, industry representatives, students, farm women, rural youth etc. methodology to assess the training needs of kvk personnel in neh region and their perception towards training needs of farmers of neh region, a questionnaire was constructed. the questionnaire was constructed in consultation with the scientists, who have working experience in neh region previously, so that they can give relevant ideas including the themes/ areas of training based on the prevailing conditions of neh region such as horticulture crops grown, the issues faced by the farmers and the kind of training programmes needed by the extension personnel serving in neh region. this questionnaire was administered among the kvk personnel of 25 kvks of neh region, who participated in a review meeting of neh programme of icar-iihr during march 2015. these kvk personnel were contacted in person and the questionnaire were distributed to them. fifty kvk personnel representing 25 kvks (two from each kvk) were contacted. out of the 50, 42 kvk personnel representing 21 kvks) responded and returned the questionnaire. the responses of kvk personnel from same kvk were considered as single response. thus, there were responses from 21 kvks (questionnaires). the responses from these questionnaires were tabulated and analyzed using percentage analysis and average to arrive at meaningful conclusions. findings and discussion training needs of kvk personnel of neh region protected cultivation, value addition of horticultural produce, mushroom production journal of extension education5548 technology, integrated pest management, integrated disease management, farm mechanization and vegetable seed production were the major training needs of the kvk personnel of neh region as these needs had percentage more than the overall average value (45.5%) (table 1). protected cultivation, value addition of horticultural produce, mushroom production technology, farm mechanization and vegetable seed production are the emerging themes in horticulture owing to the increasing demand for both fresh and processed horticultural products. hence these themes had better response as training needs by the kvk personnel. the themes in horticulture such as organic table 1. training needs of kvk personnel of neh region in horticulture (n=21) sl.no topics percentage 1. protected cultivation 66.7 2. value addition of horticultural produce 61.9 3. mushroom production technology 61.9 4. integrated pest management 57.1 5. integrated disease management 57.1 6. farm mechanization 52.4 7. vegetable seed production 47.6 8. organic cultivation 42.9 9. vegetable production technology 38.1 10. production of medicinal and aromatic plants 38.1 11. integrated nutrient management 38.1 12. ornamental crop production technology 33.3 13. nursery management techniques 33.3 14. integrated water management 33.3 15. fruit crops production technology 33.3 16. canopy management techniques 33.3 average 45.5 cultivation, vegetable production technology, production of medicinal and aromatic plants, integrated nutrient management, ornamental crop production technology, nursery management techniques, integrated water management, fruit crops production technology and canopy management techniques etc. are routine to the kvk personnel and they might have already undergone training in these themes. also, they are already organizing training programmes for the farmers on these themes. hence, the training needs of these themes were less than the overall average value. 5549training needs of kvk personnel and farmers of neh region in horticulture training needs of farmers of neh region as perceived by kvk personnel it could be understood from table 2 that integrated pest management, vegetable production technology, integrated nutrient management,integrated disease management, nursery management techniques, fruit crops production technology and vegetable seed production are the themes that were perceived by kvk personnel as the training needs of farmers of neh region, as these themes have percentage more than the overall average (51.5%) (table 2). table 2. training needs of farmers of neh region in horticulture as perceived by kvk personnel agriculture, in general, in neh region is by and large being practiced as natural farming. the advanced production technologies of various crops are adopted by the farmers of this region very recently. icar institutes, agricultural colleges, development departments and kvks apply efforts to disseminate improved production technology of agriculture among the farmers, so that the productivity and profitability of agriculture may be enhanced and thus, the livelihood option of the farmers. this scenario is applicable to horticulture arena too. hence, the kvk personnel responded that the abovementioned basic themes in cultivation of horticultural crops as important training needs of farmers of neh region. sl.no. topics percentage 1. integrated pest management 71.4 2. vegetable production technology 66.7 3. integrated nutrient management 66.7 4. integrated disease management 66.7 5. nursery management techniques 61.9 6. fruit crops production technology 57.1 7. vegetable seed production 57.1 8. farm mechanization 47.6 9. value addition 47.6 10. mushroom production technology 47.6 11. integrated water management 42.9 12. canopy management techniques 42.9 13. organic cultivation 42.9 14. protected cultivation 42.9 15. ornamental crop production technology 38.1 16. production of medicinal and aromatic plants 23.8 average 51.5 journal of extension education5550 the themes such as farm mechanization, value addition, mushroom production technology, integrated water management, integrated water management, canopy management techniques, organic cultivation, protected cultivation, ornamental crop production technology, production of medicinal and aromatic plants are emerging or advanced themes in horticulture arena. the kvk personnel perceived that the farmers of neh region must be trained in basic aspects of horticulture first and then, they may be trained in advanced/ emerging themes. hence, their response towards the abovementioned themes has less percentage than the overall average. conclusion neh region has adequate potential for horticulture development. the productivity and profitability of horticulture crops in this region can be enhanced by disseminating improved production technology among farming community. kvk personnel and farmers of neh region can be trained in horticultural production technology, so that advanced production technology will be adopted at real farm situations. from the findings of this study, it can be concluded that protected cultivation, value addition of horticultural produce, mushroom production technology, integrated pest management, integrated disease management, farm mechanization and vegetable seed production were the major training needs of the kvk personnel. similarly, integrated pest management, vegetable production technology, integrated nutrient management, integrated disease management, nursery management techniques, fruit crops production technology and vegetable seed production are the themes that were perceived by kvk personnel as the training needs of farmers of neh region. hence, while conducting training programmes in horticultural arena targeting kvk personnel and farmers of neh region, the abovementioned themes may be considered, so that the training programmes will be effective producing results under real farm situations. references http://www.icar.org.in/en/node/92/. accessed on 31.10.2015 http://www.iihr.res.in/division-of-extension-andtraining/. accessed on 31.10.2015 http://www.kiran.nic.in/pdf/publications/ diversity_of_horticulture/. accessed on 31.10.2015 nongtdu, g., bordoloi, r., saravanan, r., singh, r. and singh, n u. 2012. training needs of agricultural extension personnel in meghalaya. indian journal of hill farming 25(1):1-8. sajeev, m v. and singha, a k. 2012. capacity building through kvks: training needs analysis of farmers of arunachal pradesh. indian research journal of extension education. 10 (1):83-90. sajeev, mv., singha ak. and venkata subramanian, v. 2012. training needs of farmers and rural youth: an analysis of manipur state. india journal of agricultural sciences. 3(2): 103-112. wrapper.cdr 6349 research note journal of extension education vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6349-6352 1 & 3 scientist, 2 head, 4 principal scientist, section of tot and 5 principal scientist, sda, icar-crida, hyderabad. received : 08-05-2020; accepted : 23-05-2020 agricultural information needs of rainfed farmers: a study from telangana c.n. anshida beevi1, g.nirmala2, jagriti rohit3, k.nagasree4 and b.m.k raju5 abstract a paradigm shift in rainfed agriculture can be obtained mainly through technological interventions. in this context, the role of extension and advisory services that are saddled with this responsibility should focus on novel approaches. application of relevant information in agriculture sector brings positive impacts on farm productivity. timely access to information on weather aspects, best farming practices, market information etc. help farmers to make correct decisions about what crops to plant, when to plant and where to sell their products. the best way to satisfy the rainfed farmers is to understand and consider their specific needs, constraints and capabilities properly, which helps to serve them in an efficient manner. a study has been undertaken to understand the different agricultural information needs of rainfed farmers in the mahabubnagar district of telangana state india. it is observed that farmers need various types of information related to agricultural activities and the major agricultural information needs of the farmers were found to be related to farm implements and machinery, water management, seed varieties, seed treatment, alternate crops and pest and disease management. in order to address these information needs, farmers were accessing a number of sources. it is important to enhance the information search capacity of the rainfed farmers to improve the farm productivity and income leading to enhanced livelihoods. keywords: information needs; rainfed farmers; telangana rainfed agriculture contributes significantly to india’s food production covering an area of 71.75mha which comes around 51 per cent of country’s net sown area. similarly, in telangana, almost 2.65mha i.e., 61 per cent of net sown area is rainfed. rainfed agriculture is the major source of food where water constitutes a key limiting factor to crop growth. therefore, the developmental needs of the rainfed regions would be of foremost importance to ensure the growth of agriculture sector. a paradigm shift in rainfed agriculture can be obtained mainly through technological interventions. in this context, the role of extension and advisory services that are saddled with this responsibility should focus on novel approaches. information has consistently been a significant 6350 element in the development of human society and has shaped over a long period of time the way in which we think and act (meyer 2005). similarly, agriculture is also becoming information intensive over time. information is the key input for the development of agriculture. information is crucial for accelerating agricultural development through increased production and improved marketing and distribution strategies (oladele 2006). the information needs of farmers change from time to time due to changing agricultural technologies, environmental changes, agricultural policies, and the emergence of agricultural innovations. bachhav (2012) stated that, the use of information in agriculture sector is enhancing farming productivity in a number of ways. hence, the present study has made an attempt to understand the different agricultural information needs of rainfed farmers of telangana state. methodology the study was conducted in the gandeed mandal of mahabubnagar district of telangana state, india. mahabubnagar district falls in rainfed region. following a multi stage random sampling procedure, 120 farmers were selected for the study. a pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data on information needs of rainfed farmers. a five-point likert-type scale (‘not important’ to ‘very important’) was used to collect information needs of farmers on various aspects related to farming. the data were collected in the form of primary data through survey method using questionnaire and focused group discussion. in addition to the descriptive statistics computed from the data, factor analysis is used. factor analysis was applied to the different information needs of the rainfed farmers. factor analysis was performed using principal component factor’s method in spss 21 to reduce the information variables to broad categories. findings and discussion initially, a list of 18 information needs was identified through literature review and discussion with other experts. rainfed farmers’ importance of information needs for farming was assessed using a five point likert scale. it is observed that farmers need various types of information related to agricultural activities. information related to farm implements and machinery (83.33%) and water management (80.83%) were the important one where more than 80 percent of the farmers perceived them as somewhat important to very important followed by alternate crops (75.83%). similarly, information on pest and disease management, planting method, planting time, seed varieties, seed treatment, market linkage and price, crop insurance and credit and loans were also considered somewhat important to very important by more than 50 percent of the farmers (figure-1). the information given the lowest importance was related to weather (14.17%), nutrient management (18.33%), weeding (4.17%), harvesting (3.33%) and post harvest management (10.83%). factor analysis, using principal components method was used to reduce the information needs to four comprehensive groups. factor analysis, reduced the journal of extension education (conference special) 6351 information needs into four factors. eigen values for each factor was greater than one. variables with a minimum loading of 0.5 were selected for inclusion in each factor. four factors emerged from the analysis and were named ‘crop production’, ‘seed related’, table 1: factors derived from information needs of rainfed farmers sl. no. factors information needs factor loadings 1 ‘crop production’ planting method planting time alternate crops water management farm implements & machinery 0.889 0.824 0.550 0.833 0.786 2 ‘seed related’ seed varieties seed treatments 0.533 0.707 3 ‘economic related’ crop insurance credit & loans market linkage & prices 0.517 0.636 0.517 4 ‘crop protection’ pest management disease management 0.824 0.547 figure 1. important information needs of rainfed farmers agricultural information needs of rainfed farmers: a study from telangana 6352 ‘economic related’ and ‘crop protection’ (table 1). the first factor is explained by 5 variables namely planting method, planting time, alternate crops, water management and farm implements and machinery as indicated by communality and high loading of these variables on factor-i. two variables related to seed explained the second factor namely seed varieties and seed treatment. the third factor was explained by economic variables like crop insurance, credit and market. fourth factor was explained by pest management and disease management with factor loadings 0.824 and 0.707 respectively. the findings of the present study is in line with the results of study conducted by sajesh et al., (2017) where crop protection and seed related factors were emerged as the important factors. the most important information needs for rainfed farmers are farm implements and machinery followed by water management and alternate crops. information on pest and disease management, planting method, planting time, seed varieties, seed treatment, market linkage and price, crop insurance and credit and loans were also considered important. the information given the lowest importance was related to cultivation and post cultivation practices like such as nutrient management, weeding, harvesting, post harvest management. in order to address these information needs, farmers were accessing a number of sources. it is important to enhance the information search capacity of the rainfed farmers to improve the farm productivity and income leading to enhanced livelihoods. references bachhv, n.b. (2012). information needs of the rural farmers: a study from maharashtra, india; a survey, library philosophy and practice, retrieved from http:// digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=2043&context=libphilprac sajesh v. k. & padaria, r.n. (2017). information dynamics of cotton farmers in akola district of maharashtra. indian journal of extension education, 53(3):16-20. journal of extension education (conference special) pages 2021-1 final.cdr introduction the agricultural sector employs th about 4/5 of the female workforce in the co u n t r y, w i t h 4 8 % of in d i a's s e l femployed farmers being women (ghosh and ghosh, 2014). according to the 2011 census, 42.6% of the total agricultural workforce (which is es�mated at 144.3 million) is women and within a decade, (2001 to 2011), the par�cipa�on of f e m a l e a g r i c u l t u r a l l a b o u r e r s h a s increased from 21% to 23% (press informa�on bureau, government of india, ministry of agriculture & farmers welfare, 2016). over the years, agriculture remains the bas�on of female workforce in india, w i t h e v e n t h e m a l e w o r k f o r c e dependency (about 75 per cent) on agriculture being no�ceably lesser than for females (about 85 per cent). despite the burgeoning women labor force in agriculture, rural development schemes are not seen to address their requirements and problems (ghosh and ghosh, 2014). in post-colonial india, rural development programmes have gained prominence as a tool to balance the upheaval brought a b o u t by t h e i n t ro d u c � o n of n e w technologies; unfortunately, women have been inconsequen�al elements in the 6558 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.1, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.1.33.6558-6565 women farmers' awareness of government agricultural schemes in the north eastern region of india anushree baruah* and g. madan mohan* abstract th the indian agricultural sector employs 4/5 of the female workforce in the country, with 48% of self-employed farmers being women. exis�ng literature portrays a wide informa�on gap separa�ng the woman farmer from basic knowledge with regards to increasing produc�on, efficiency, and income of their farm ac�vi�es. this paper makes an a�empt to study the awareness of women farmers in north eastern region (ner) of india about ac�ve agricultural schemes in the country. the findings reveal lack of awareness of governmental agricultural schemes as a lacuna in the agricultural progress of women farmers in the ner. keywords: agriculture; women farmers; north-eastern india; agricultural schemes; awareness; government schemes *department of management studies, school of management, pondicherry university, puducherry 605 014. received : 02-06-2021 accepted: 31-10-2021 implementa�on of such programmes (duvvury, 1989). in the new age, the process of agriculture has evolved to be more complex in nature and hence the, farmers' access to reliable, �mely, and relevant informa�on has become increasingly important. exis�ng literature state that there is a wide informa�on gap separa�ng the women farmer from basic knowledge with regards to increase in produc�on, efficiency, and income of their farm ac�vi�es. in such a situa�on, certain regions of india such as the north-eastern region (ner) comprising the eight states of assam, arunachal pradesh, manipur, meghalaya, mizoram, nagaland, sikkim, and tripura, which are no�ceably lagging behind in agricultural produc�on despite a majority of it's rural popula�on (82%) d i r e c t l y o r i n d i r e c t l y i n v o l v e d i n agriculture and allied ac�vi�es should be closely scru�nized for their informa�on needs (roy et al, 2014). a majority of the small-scale agricultural workforce in developing countries is cons�tuted by rural women (das, 1995). 'if women had the same access to produc�ve resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 percent. this could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5–4 percent, which could in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12–17 percent' (fao, 2011). produc�vity is o�en low for women farmers as they do not have complete access to extension services and farm inputs (quisumbing and pandolfelli, 2010). also, as majority of the women farmers are not the land owners, they lose out of being a beneficiary of v a r i o u s g o v e r n m e n t p ro g r a m m e s / schemes (bedi, 2018). there has always been a gap in the flow of knowledge between icar ins�tu�ons, saus and developmental agencies of the north e a s t e r n s t a t e s . t h e re fo re , s p e c i a l a�en�on needs to be given to train the women farmers engaged in development ac�vi�es. the fact that majority of the economically produc�ve women in the ner depend on agriculture as a means of their livelihood calls for special emphasis t o b e l a i d o n ro l l i n g o u t effe c � ve development strategies. looking back a few decades, rural development projects for women seem to focus on providing training in conven�onal skills such as sewing, cooking, and cra�s; the absence of interven�ons that could provide k n o w l e d g e a n d a i d of a g r i c u l t u r a l technologies, credit, and extension to w o m e n f a r m e r s , a m o n g o t h e r s , i s n o � c e a b l e ( b u v i n i c e t a l . 1 9 9 0 ) . interven�ons in such areas have the poten�al to radically enhance women's roles in agriculture. literature is replete with arguments that the social rate of 6559women farmers' awareness of government agricultural schemes in the north eastern region of india return on agricultural development investment can prove to be higher when such investments are specifically targeted at women. in fact, schemes aimed at improving the well-being of the women would not only be beneficial to them but also create posi�ve impacts on upcoming genera�ons in terms of improved child health, nutri�on, and educa�on (doss, 2018). recent policy interven�ons assure that the state governments have been a s k e d t o e a r m a r k 3 0 % o f c a s h flow/agricultural scheme expenditures for the benefit of women farmers (press informa�on bureau, government of india, ministry of agriculture & farmers welfare, 2 0 1 6 ) m i s s i o n f o r i n t e g r a t e d development of hor�culture, na�onal food security mission, na�onal mission on sustainable agriculture, sub-mission for seed & plan�ng material, sub-mission on agricultural mechaniza�on, to name a fe w. t h e re a re s c h e m e s l a u n c h e d especially for the benefit of the women f a r m e r s , n a m e l y m a h i l a k i s a n sashak�karan pariyojana (mksp). more recently, a number of mobile apps offering agricultural services have also been launched. as far as literature is concerned, there are a wide variety of agricultural schemes from which women farmers can greatly benefit, but the accessibility issues and informa�on gaps are s�ll a reality and stand as an obstacle to the progress of this segment of the popula�on. considering these aspects, there is a pressing need to assess the informa�on needs of women farmers in the country as well as assess their awareness of the government schemes which have special provisions for women. this paper makes an a�empt to study the awareness of women farmers in the ner india with respect to the ac�ve agricultural schemes in the country with the following objec�ves a) to a s c e r t a i n t h e p e r s o n a l characteris�cs of the women farmers; b) to a s s e s s t h e a w a r e n e s s o f governmental schemes among women farmers; c) to study the opinion of the woman f a r m e r s t o w a r d s t r a i n i n g programmes. methodology the study was carried out among women farmers across 8 states of ner of india, namely, arunachal pradesh, assam, manipur, meghalaya, mizoram, nagaland, sikkim, and tripura. the sample size was 121. the respondents were iden�fied through the extension workers of the respec�ve states and chosen using the random sampling method. data were collected through informal interviews at training programmes and by administering a p re t e s t e d s t r u c t u re d i n t e r v i e w 6560 journal of extension educa�on schedule to the women farmers. a 3-point likert scale with the op�ons yes (1); no (2); maybe (3) was used to study the awareness of governmental schemes a m o n g w o m e n f a r m e r s . t h e d a t a collected were analyzed using sta�s�cal tests such as frequency and percentage on sta�s�cal package for the social sciences (spss). findings and discussion a ) pe r s o n a l c h a ra c te r i s � c s o f t h e respondents /women farmers the majority of respondents were in the age category of 31-50. 67 of the women farmers belonged to the tribal community while 54 hailed from nontribal communi�es. a majority of the f a r m e r s ( 5 5 ) h a d p r i m a r y s c h o o l educa�on, the second largest frac�on (45) had secondary school educa�on, and 18 and 3 of the popula�on had higher educa�on and were illiterate respec�vely. th i s i m p l i e s t h a t ove r h a l f of t h e popula�on of among the women farmers had formal educa�on and stand to benefit from extension contact and training programmes, notwithstanding the fact that even the uneducated farmers can benefit from awareness programmes on government schemes. a bulk of the respondents had farming experience ranging in between 11-20 years, which means that the popula�on is aware of the agricultural scenario before and a�er the advent of agricultural schemes and thus, can weigh the benefits of adop�on of the same. majority of the interviewed were small farmers (64), followed by medium (39), large (14) and marginal (5) farmers' c a t e g o r y re s p e c � v e l y a s p e r l a n d ownership pa�ern. the annual family income was 51000-100000 for 60% of the surveyed popula�on, and of the remaining 14% fell in the 0-50000 income category and 26% fell in the 100000 and above income category. 80% of the s u r v e y e d p o p u l a � o n h a d n e v e r par�cipated in any training programme and only 20% of the popula�on had p a r � c i p at e d i n 1 o r m o re t ra i n i n g programmes. as far as the extension exposure was concerned, majority of the respondents (80%) reported that they had low contact with extension (up to 17 days), 13% reported medium contact (1834 days), and only 07% reported high contact (above 34 days). this clearly r e fl e c t s t h e a c c e s s i b i l i t y a n d communica�on gap between extension and women farmers. b) awareness of governmental schemes among women farmers table 1 highlights the awareness of governmental schemes among the surveyed farmer popula�on. the schemes considered for the survey are mission for integrated development of hor�culture, na�onal food security mission, na�onal 6561women farmers' awareness of government agricultural schemes in the north eastern region of india mission on sustainable agriculture, submission for seed & plan�ng material, submission on agricultural mechaniza�on, and mahila kisan sashak�karan pariyojana (mksp). the respondents have been asked to respond with regards to 3 aspects n a m e l y , a w a r e n e s s ( o f s c h e m e ) , familiarity (for availing scheme), and interest (towards availing scheme). a small s e g m e n t o f t h e p o p u l a � o n s h o w s awareness and an even smaller segment shows familiarity of the currently available government agricultural schemes and mobile agri apps. in case of the mission for integrated development of hor�culture, 13 showed awareness of the scheme, 4 showed familiarity and 53 showed an interest in the scheme. in case of the na�onal food security mission, 14 showed awareness of the scheme, 5 showed familiarity and 53 showed an interest in the scheme. in case of the n a � o n a l m i s s i o n o n s u s t a i n a b l e agriculture, 17 showed awareness of the scheme, 2 showed familiarity and 51 showed an interest in the scheme. in case of the sub-mission for seed and plan�ng material, 13 showed awareness of the scheme, 3 showed familiarity and 46 showed an interest in the scheme. in case of the sub-mission on agricultural mechaniza�on, 16 showed awareness of the scheme, 3 showed familiarity and 42 showed an interest in the scheme. in case o f t h e m a h i l a k i s a n s a s h a k � k a r a n pariyojana (mksp), 14 showed awareness of the scheme, 4 showed familiarity and 52 showed an interest in the scheme. in case of the mobile agri apps, 10 showed awareness of the scheme, 5 showed familiarity and 55 showed an interest in the scheme. the exis�ng scenario suggests a lack of awareness of exis�ng government schemes among the women farmers and thereby highlights an urgent need to c r e a t e a w a r e n e s s o f a g r i c u l t u r a l informa�on programmes available/ accessible through training programmes/ extension contact. as for the interest to avail such schemes, a majority of the women farmers show eagerness to avail such schemes and thus, stand to benefit from any training programmes/extension contact in this regard. 6562 journal of extension educa�on 6563 table 1: awareness of governmental schemes among women farmers c) opinion of the women farmers towards training programmes table 2 highlights the opinion of w o m e n f a r m e r s t o w a r d s t r a i n i n g programmes. they have been surveyed on three aspects – current availability, need for training programmes/extension contact, and interest in training programs/extension c o n t a c t . t h e r e s u l t s s h o w t h a t a n i n s u ffi c i e n t n u m b e r o f t r a i n i n g programmes/workshops remains a lacuna in the flow of communica�on between the organiza�ons and women farmers. a majority of the women farmers feel that regular training programmes/workshops are to be conducted for the dissemina�on of knowledge regarding agricultural ac�vi�es and schemes. addi�onally, a majority of respondents also demonstrate interest in a�ending such training programmes/ workshops, if made accessible to them. women farmers' awareness of government agricultural schemes in the north eastern region of india 6564 table 2: opinion of the women farmers towards training programmes yes (% of sample popula�on) no (% of sample popula�on) maybe (% of sample popula�on) workshops/orienta�on programmes are regularly arranged by agricultural service organiza�ons/ agricultural universi�es and research ins�tu�ons/ pris/ngos /banks to provide relevant current informa�on 12 58 30 there is a need for arrangement of workshops/ orienta�on programmes for creating awareness among women farmers 78 09 13 i am interested in a�ending such workshops/orienta�on programmes to gain knowledge of agricultural ac�vi�es and schemes 66 27 07 conclusion there is an increased need for extension contact with women farmers in the current day agricultural scenario in developing countries such as india. this study found that women farmers in the ner have limited/restricted access to training programmes/extension contact, implied from their lack of knowledge about and familiarity with na�onwide agricultural schemes. keeping in mind the growing popularity and penetra�on of mobile phones and the short supply of manpower in government agricultural organiza�ons, the study suggests that ict awareness and training programmes if built into the extension delivery packages could help effec�vely in addressing the e x i s � n g l i m i t a � o n s o f k n o w l e d g e dissemina�on among women farmers. references bedi, bani. (2018, june 30) the centre is b a re l y s e r i o u s a b o u t re c o g n i z i n g women as farmers. the wire. retrieved f ro m h � p s : // t h e w i re . i n / w o m e n / women-farmers-agriculture-rights journal of extension educa�on buvinic, m, mehra, r, coon, k, ogden, j, odolon, j, obudi-owor, a, & oyunga, m. a. (1990). women in agriculture: what development can do. interna�onal center for research on women das, m. (1995). improving the relevance a n d e ff e c � v e n e s s o f a g r i c u l t u r a l extension ac�vi�es for women farmers. an andre mayer research study. d o s s , c . r . ( 2 0 1 8 ) . wo m e n a n d agricultural produc�vity: reframing the issues. development policy review, 36(1), 35-50. duvvury, n. (1989). women in agriculture: a review of the indian literature. economic and poli�cal weekly, ws96ws112. ghosh, m & ghosh, a. (2014). analysis of w o m e n p a r � c i p a � o n i n i n d i a n agriculture. iosr journal of humani�es and social science 19 (5), 1-6. press informa�on bureau, government of india, ministry of agriculture & farmers welfare. (2016). measures taken by the government for upli�ment of women in agriculture sector. retrieved from h�p://pib.nic.in/newsite/printrelease. aspx?relid=148196 quisumbing, a. r, & pandolfelli, l. (2010). promising approaches to address the n e e d s o f p o o r f e m a l e f a r m e r s : r e s o u r c e s , c o n s t r a i n t s , a n d interven�ons. world development, 38(4), 581-592. roy, a., dkhar, d. s., tripathi, a. k., singh, n. u., kumar, d., das, s. k., & debnath, a. (2014). growth performance of agriculture and allied sectors in the north east india. economic affairs, 59, 783. 6565women farmers' awareness of government agricultural schemes in the north eastern region of india page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 6552 perceived entrepreneurial training needs of trainees of krishi vigyan kendras in kerala b.r. gayathri* and binoo p. bonny* abstract the present study was conducted in the state of kerala to analyse the training needs of 100 trainees of five krishi vigyan kendras (kvk). the findings indicated that the packaging & marketing of mushroom and post harvest handling value addition were the most preferred training areas by the kvk trainees in mushroom production. in apiculture, honey extraction essential operations was perceived as the most needed area of training. in the area of value addition of fruits and vegetables, technology upgradation and packaging marketing techniques were the most preferred areas by the trainees. relational analysis revealed that socio-economic variables like educational status and annual income, communication variables like extension contact and mass media exposure and entrepreneurial variables like entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial need, entrepreneurial capacity, innovativeness, achievement motivation, decision making ability, risk orientation, self confidence, cosmopoliteness and economic motivation were found positively and significantly correlated with training needs. the kvks should take concrete efforts to organize need based entrepreneurship development training programmes to improve effectiveness. keywords: krishi vigyan kendra; entrepreneurship development programme; training need; trainees * department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara-680 656, thrissur, kerala received : 21-08-2020; accepted : 22-01-2021 introduction recent years have seen the emergence of entrepreneurship development programmes (edp) as a major extension intervention for income and employment generation in agriculture and allied sectors. entrepreneurship development programmes are mainly concerned with enabling a person in developing his/her entrepreneurial skills, motives and capabilities which are essential for playing his entrepreneurial role effectively. it is an effective technique for the development of human resources. it results in proper utilization of local resources, employment generation and promotion of small scale units and overall development of individuals. efforts have been undertaken by both government and non governmentd organizations to promote entrepreneurial development in the country through research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6552-6559 6553 entrepreneurship development programmes (edp). in this regard, many agencies and institutions are working towards organizing edp. and one such institution is the krishi vigyan kendra (kvk), the first line transfer of technology (tot) centre of the indian council of agricultural research (icar). as nodal agricultural resource centres at the district level, they have significant role in improving the farmers’ income by facilitating entrepreneurship development. therefore an analysis of perceived entrepreneurial training needs of edp trainees of krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) can be of importance. the inputs from the results of the study can be used to improve the kvk trainings in entrepreneurship development and thereby improve the farmers’ income and agricultural development. methodology in the present research, ex-post facto research design was used. the state of kerala formed the study area. out of the 14 kvks working under different host organizations in kerala viz. kerala agricultural university (kau), indian council of agricultural research (icar) and non-governmental organizations (ngos) a total of 5 kvks (2 kau kvks, 2 icar kvks and 1 ngo kvk) to represent southern, central and northern regions of the state were selected for the study. random sampling was followed in each region to select kvk, kasaragod (icar) and kvk malappuram (kau) from northern region, kvk, alappuzha (icar) and kvk, kottayam (kau) from central and kvk trivandrum (ngo) from the southern region. using random sampling technique, selected 20 edp trainees from each of the selected kvks to make a sample of 100. the perceived entrepreneurial needs of kvk trainees were quantified using training need index (tni). list of edp trainings was used to select three major thrust areas focussed by all the five selected kvks during the past five years. accordingly, mushroom cultivation, apiculture and value addition were the training areas selected. the data on training needs were collected by assigning a three point scale as per the likert technique i.e. most needed, needed and not needed with respective scores of 3, 2 and 1. training need index (tni) was used in the measurement with the following formula. (haneef, 2015) total score obtained tni= -----------------------------------x 100 maximum score obtainable findings and discussion training need in mushroom production the training need index of respondents in the area of mushroom production is depicted in table 1. the results in the table reveal that packaging and marketing of mushroom with tni score 91.10 and post harvest handling & value addition with tni score of 90 were the areas that were ranked first and second among the needed training areas. marketing of mushroom is one of the biggest constraint in mushroom cultivation. this was in-line with the findings of singh (2004) who suggested that specialized training about this aspect should be provided to the mushroom growers. the other areas in the order of ranking were information on nutritive value of mushroom perceived entrepreneurial training needs of trainees of krishi vigyan kendras in kerala 6554 (86.67), cultivation technology (82), spawn production (78), substrate preparation (76), pest and disease management (71), infrastructure requirement (60), economics of mushroom (58) and management of spent compost (56). training need in apiculture preferred areas of training in apiculture based on training need index (tni) are presented as table 2. a perusal of results reveals that among the different aspects of beekeeping, honey extraction essential operations with tni score of 90 was perceived as the most needed area of training in apiculture. honey extraction requires skilled labour and therefore training should be imparted to beekeepers to handle skill fully honey extraction and essential operations of beekeeping. this was followed by marketing and business of honey bees and value addition of honey with tni scores of 86.60 and 85.00. a large number of trainees had training needs regarding marketing and business of honey bees, value addition of honey and bee-hive products. this is due to the fact that many beekeepers wanted to adopt beekeeping as a commercialized venture in the near future due to it & high medicinal value. the other areas in the order of perceived importance based on tni scores of the trainees were apiary management during different seasons (81.00), bee keeping aspects which includes site selection and equipment (70.00), bee biology which includes life cycle of bees, their rearing pollination etc. (69) and bee enemy & disease management (68.80). therefore the training institutions must concentrate on these aspects to make the beekeepers, experts in this field. export of honey (53.30) and purity testing (52.22) were least needed training areas. training need in value addition the data from table 3 reveal the training need of respondents in the area table 1. preferred areas of training in mushroom production based on training need index (n= 30) sl. no. training areas tni rank 1. packaging and marketing 91.10 i 2. post harvest handling and value addition 90.00 ii 3. nutritive value of mushroom 86.67 iii 4. cultivation technology of mushroom 82.00 iv 5. spawn production 78.00 v 6. substrate preparation 76.00 vi 7. pest and disease management 71.00 vii 8. infrastructure requirement 60.00 viii 9. economics of mushroom 58 ix 10. management of spent compost 56 x journal of extension education 6555 of value addition of fruits and vegetables in the following order of ranking: technology upgradation (92.5)-first rank, packaging and marketing techniques (88.33)second rank, advertising of products and brand promotion (85)third rank, financial management and credit support (84)fourth rank, production technology (83)fifth rank, manufacturing and preservation techniques of different products (75)-sixth rank, procurement of raw materials (74)seventh rank, quality control and management (72.5)eighth rank, export promotion techniques (69)ninth rank and hygiene, pollution control and environmental management (60)tenth rank. technology upgradation was perceived as the most important training need by the respondents. this may be due to the fact that sophisticated technology helps the entrepreneurs in manufacturing quality products of different designs at low cost. therefore it is necessary to update the entrepreneurs with the latest technical know-how to get higher price of the products and to survive in a competitive market as reported by singh (2004). therefore, entrepreneurship development programmes including different areas like technology upgradation, packaging and marketing, advertising and brand promotion should be organised for entrepreneurs so that they can gain knowledge and skills on these aspects. correlation between personal traits and training needs to examine the relationship between personal traits and training needs, correlation coefficient (r) value was computed, the results of which are presented in table 5. the data show that among the twenty one characteristics studied, socio-economic variables like educational status and annual income, communication variables like extension contact and mass media exposure and entrepreneurial variables like table 2. preferred areas of training in apiculture based on training need index (tni) (n=30) sl. no. training areas tni rank 1. honey extraction and essential operations 90.00 i 2. marketing and business of honey bees 86.60 ii 3. value addition of honey 85.00 iii 4. apiary management during different seasons 81.00 iv 5. bee keeping aspects 70.00 v 6. bee biology 69.00 vi 7. bee enemy and disease management 68.80 vii 8. bee keeping equipments 54.40 viii 9. export of honey 53.30 ix 10. purity testing 52.22 x perceived entrepreneurial training needs of trainees of krishi vigyan kendras in kerala 6556 entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial need, entrepreneurial capacity, innovativeness, achievement motivation, decision making ability, risk orientation, self confidence, cosmopoliteness and economic motivation had a positive and significant correlation with the training need. whereas age, family size, family type and land holding were positively and non-significantly correlated to the training need. further it was noticed that gender and marital status had negative and non significant correlation with the training need of the trainees and occupational status was negatively and significantly correlated to the training need. the positive trend of correlation revealed that as the educational level of edp trainees increased, their need for training also increased. similar results were reported by wankhar (2019) who revealed that education imparted greater knowledge, skill and desire to learn and acquire new information which is reflected in the positive and significant correlation between education and training need. the relationship between annual income and training needs of respondents was found to be positive and significant with r value of 0.63. more annual income prompted individuals to indulge in diverse activities with the purpose of earning more profit out of their enterprise. but new activities also brought with them newer challenges that necessitated them to gain more knowledge and skill through trainings. these findings are in line with that of raghuvanshi (2017). the results revealed that with increase in extension contact and mass media exposure the respondents’ need for training also increased. an individual having good contact with extension agencies will table 3. preferred areas of training in value addition based on training need (tni) (n=40) sl. no. training areas tni rank 1. technology upgradation 92.50 i 2. packaging and marketing techniques 88.33 ii 3. advertising of products and brand promotion 85.00 iii 4. financial management and credit support 84.00 iv 5. production technology 83.00 v 6. manufacturing and preservation techniques of different products 75.00 vi 7. procurement of raw materials 74.00 vii 8. quality control and management 72.50 viii 9. export promotion techniques 69.00 ix 10. hygiene, pollution control and environmental management 60.00 x journal of extension education 6557 perceive more training needs as they had the latest information from extension personnel and considered training as an important input in their enterprise. the awareness which the respondents gain through different mass media sources creates the inquisitiveness to know more about it. the respondents with higher degree of entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial need, entrepreneurial capacity, innovativeness, achievement motivation, decision making ability, risk orientation, self-confidence and economic motivation showed increased need for training. the people with higher entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial need and entrepreneurial capacity will have the desire to expand their enterprise after obtaining trainings in the respective fields. those respondents with higher degree of innovativeness showed increased need for training to perceive new ideas and practices while respondents with higher achievement motivation needed more training for better accomplishments and income. the respondents with higher degree of decision making ability also had more need of training. this was in concurrence with the decision theories that suggest that decisions involving new activities needed clear understanding so that uncertainty and risks involved were reduced. this could be achieved through trainings and as such reduce the cognitive dissonance enabling balanced decisions. the respondents with higher risk orientation try to gain more knowledge with respect to latest technologies and innovations. as their knowledge level increased, their need for training also increased so that they could acquire the practical knowledge for implementation. a positive and highly significant relationship between respondents’ cosmopoliteness and training need indicated that respondents who are not 'localite' had strong tendency for obtaining need-based edp trainings from sources outside their immediate contacts. this is in line with the findings of borbon (2007). the respondents with higher degree of economic motivation world want to improve their income from their enterprise. this created the need for better awareness on the latest developments in the respective fields and depended on trainings to gain this. thus there was a positive and significant correlation between economic motivation and training needs of the respondents with r value 0.76. occupational status was another personal attribute that showed negative but significant correlation with the training needs of the respondents. this implied that higher the occupational status of the respondents lower the training needs. this can be mostly attributed to the indulgence in diverse tasks as part of the job which widen the knowledge and occupational skills of an individual in different areas reducing the need and time available for trainings. table 4. relationship of selected personal characteristics with training needs of trainees (n=100) sl. no. personal attributes of trainees correlation coefficient (r) 1. age 0.19 2. gender -0.24 3. marital status -0.08 perceived entrepreneurial training needs of trainees of krishi vigyan kendras in kerala 6558 sl. no. personal attributes of trainees correlation coefficient (r) 4. family type 0.003 5. family size 0.13 6. educational status 0.30** 7. occupational status -0.32** 8. land holding 0.19 9. annual income 0.63** 10. extension contact 0.70** 11. mass media exposure 0.60** 12. entrepreneurial intention 0.72** 13. entrepreneurial need 0.71** 14. entrepreneurial capacity 0.68** 15. innovativeness 0.77** 16. achievement motivation 0.80** 17. decision making ability 0.62** 18. risk orientation 0.77** 19. self confidence 0.75** 20. cosmopoliteness 0.71** 21. economic motivation 0.76** ** correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed) conclusion it can be concluded from the study that the packaging & marketing of mushroom and post harvest handling & value addition were the areas that were ranked first and second among the needed training areas in mushroom production. marketing of mushroom is the biggest constraint in mushroom cultivation in kerala. and value added mushroom products have high demand compared to raw mushroom. therefore specialized trainings about these aspects should be provided to mushroom growers. in apiculture, honey extraction & essential operations was perceived as the most needed area of training. honey extraction requires skilled labour and therefore training should be imparted to beekeepers to handle honey extraction skilfully and other essential operations of beekeeping. in the area of value addition of fruits and vegetables, technology upgradation and packaging & marketing techniques were the most preferred areas by the trainees. this could be attributed to the perception that sophisticated technology help the entrepreneurs in manufacturing quality products at low cost. therefore entrepreneurship development programmes including different areas of technology upgradation, packaging marketing techniques should be organised for entrepreneurs so that they could gain the knowledge and skills in these areas. to improve the effectiveness of training, the kvks must stress more on these topics. hence, reorientation of the syllabus according to the needs expressed by the trainees would improve the effectiveness. references borbon, s. (2007). a study on training needs as perceived by the farmers of krishi vigyan kendra betul district of madhya pradesh. journal of extension education 6559 unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis, jawaharlal nehru krishi vishwa vidyalaya, jabalpur, 151p. haneef, s. r. (2015). training needs of agricultural assistants working in the state department of agriculture. unpublished m. sc. (ag) thesis, mahatma phule krishi vidhyapeeth, rahuri, 122p. raghuvanshi, m. (2017). training needs assessment of dairy farmers in kolaras block of shivpuri district, madhya pradesh. unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis, rajmata vijayaraje scindia krishi vishwa vidyalaya, gwalior, 79p. singh, j. (2004). training needs of entrepreneurs for modernization of small-scale oil-processing industries in rajasthan. unpublished phd. thesis, maharana pratap university of agriculture, udaipur, 124p. wankhar, j.b. (2019). identification of training needs of ninag megha farmers in east khasi heels district of meghalaya. unpublished m.v.sc thesis, west bengal. university of animal and fishery sciences, west bengal, 98p. perceived entrepreneurial training needs of trainees of krishi vigyan kendras in kerala wrapper.cdr 6306 1 professor, department of community sustainability, college of agriculture and natural resources, michigan state university, usa. invited paper journal of extension education (conference special) vol. 31 no. 3, 2019 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6306-6319 global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training murari suvedi1 abstract this article surveys the trends in agricultural extension programmes and services found across the world, including privatization, decentralization, and pluralism. the general movement from top-down extension services to demand-driven programmes is explored along with its impact on the skills needed by extension professionals. process skills and competencies required of modern extension professionals— programme planning and development, programme implementation, written and spoken communication, educational and informational technology, facilitative leadership, diversity and multiculturalism, public relations, and applied research and evaluation—are explained and linked to relevant skill sets. in-service training of current extension agents and improvements to the facilities, faculty, and curricula used in the education of future agents are proposed as solutions to the challenges facing agricultural extension programmes and services. in-service training would raise knowledge, skills and attitudes of extension agents to meet changing contexts and needs. the changing nature of professional extension work requires that university training programmes respond with new courses and experiences for students. practical education through fieldwork, internships, or practicums and techniques for adult learning, technology and communication skills, and leadership development are all possible solutions for closing the gap between the agricultural and extension education training programmes and the competencies required of professional extension agents. keywords: agricultural extension ; human resources ; competency introduction global food demand is expected to double by 2050, driven largely by population growth, energy needs and higher incomes in developing countries. food insecurity has been a concern for many countries. the number of food insecure people in 2011 is estimated at 852 million (ers, 2011). to meet this food need, the world will require approximately a 70-100% increase in agricultural production (feed the future, 2011). this increase is possible if agricultural producers adopt new technology and practices. developing countries particularly need to adopt new technologies, policies and practices to increase production, processing and distribution of food. agricultural extension has a key role in technology adoption. extension can spread 6307 global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training research-based information and technology to farmers and agribusinesses and transmit information about farmers’ and food industry's needs to researchers. agricultural extension exists worldwide, with most countries having a national system for agricultural extension. agricultural extension is organized in many ways. countries have developed different types of agricultural extension systems based on purpose, context and external support. in the united states it is part of the cooperative extension service. in european countries, agricultural extension is called advisory services. in most developing countries, agricultural extension programmes and services are organized under the country’s ministry of agriculture. extension serves both rural and urban populations with a wide range of programmes aimed at helping to improve beneficiaries’ quality of life. key elements embraced by contemporary agricultural extension services include privatization, pluralism, decentralization, client participation, and focus on women and youth. the traditional agricultural extension approach -top-down, supplyand technology-driven -no longer appears to be an appropriate model. today the intended beneficiaries participate in the identification and prioritization of learning needs (suvedi and kaplowitz, 2016). in demand-driven extension services, extension professionals need to be able to respond to farmers’ requests rather than deliver predetermined packaged solutions. most agricultural extension services work in collaboration with agribusinesses, such as seed, fertilizer, pesticide, and production credit businesses, to facilitate technology transfer. frequently, extension services emphasize advisory work such as responding to requests from farmers and agribusiness operators. often, extension services support human resource development and facilitate empowerment (swanson and rajalahti, 2010). in many instances, extension services offer all four of the above kinds of services to their clientele and/or stakeholders. challenges facing agricultural extension agricultural extension, based on educational strategy and number of professional staff engaged under publicly funded systems, has reached a critical point. in the united states, for example, with fewer people engaged in production agriculture, the agricultural industry’s demand for public extension professionals has fallen. in response, extension services are redirecting efforts beyond the needs of farmers to include urban consumers and are using technology creatively. the traditional focus on yield increases has shifted to market-driven agricultural production. new programmes in food, nutrition and health are taking the place of traditional production-oriented agricultural extension activities. canada has experienced a gradual reduction in governmental funding for agricultural extension (milburn, mulley, and cline, 2010). countries in western europe, such as the united kingdom and the netherlands, have moved toward privatization. public-private partnership has been the buzz concept in india. 6308 journal of extension education (conference special) extension services in the developing world also have changed. the conventional top-down, supplyand technology-driven extension system no longer appears to be an appropriate model. some countries have been promoting decentralized and/or bottom-up extension systems, and others are considering market-driven or fee-for-service systems. advancements in agricultural research, education and communication have a direct impact on agricultural extension. originally, most technologies, such as new crop varieties or breeds of livestock, were developed by public research institutions and were disseminated by public extension services. this is changing very quickly. today, many technologies, such as hybrid seeds, pesticides, and information and communication technologies (icts), are being developed by international and national private sector firms. private sector entrepreneurs have succeeded in providing communication services through the internet, radio, and television. nongovernmental organizations are extending education and training services for farmers and agribusinesses. in most countries, the central government provides an overall policy framework for extension, but a variety of actors (public organizations, civil societies, or private firms) provide a range of services to farmers and agribusiness operators. as a result, pluralistic extension systems are common in many countries. key elements embraced by contemporary agricultural extension services in various countries include: • privatization—in the united kingdom, the public extension service has evolved over time into a private consulting business. in the netherlands, farmers provide the majority of the funding for extension. other forms of privatization include costrecovery, outsourcing, and contracting of extension services. • pluralism—pluralistic systems are those that recognize the heterogeneity of the farming community and the need for diversity of extension service delivery systems. multiple organizations, both public and non-public, deliver extension services. examples include extension services delivered by governmental extension service and local ngos in mali, nepal and bangladesh. • d e c e n t r a l i z a t i o n — d e c e n t r a l i z a t i o n involves the transfer of decision-making functions to local levels, encourages public participation, and expands local involvement in organizing and delivering extension services (swanson and rajalahti, 2010). decentralized extension services are planned and implemented by district or sub-district level governments, as in the philippines, tanzania, india, and indonesia. demand-driven (not supply-driven) agricultural extension is the buzz concept today, which means that extension responds to what farmers or clients ask for to satisfy their educational and informational needs. the hope is that clients will value the educational advice received so much that they will be willing to invest their own resources to receive 6309 the service. according to chipeta (2006), service providers under this approach would be accountable to the users and the users would have free choice of service providers. swanson (2008) argues that, to make these institutional changes, public extension systems must become more decentralized, farmer-led and market-driven. the emergence of a global economic system, the expansion of scientific knowledge and discoveries, and the rapid spread of information and communication technologies (icts) have a profound impact on agricultural extension. to prevail, the agricultural extension system must change its role from a supplydriven to a demand-driven system. it should change from a top-down technology transfer system to a bottom-up participatory process. it must serve the needs of female farmers who have been neglected by traditional extension services in most developing countries (axinn, 1988; chambers, 1995; swanson, 2008). it must learn to work in partnership with many public, not-for-profit and private sector organizations that offer similar services to farmers and agribusiness operators. extension also needs to be flexible to meet the educational and informational needs of new clientele groups. these changes in the role of the extension system demand different competencies from extension professionals (cooper and graham, 2001). to carry out the new roles, extension professionals need a different type of knowledge and attitude along with more diverse skills and working patterns. ultimately, this has a tremendous impact on undergraduate and graduate curricula in agricultural and extension education (scheer, ferrari, earnest and connors, 2006). it also has implications for professional development of extension professionals—specifically, the content of in-service training programmes. to put it simply, the changes taking place within the agricultural extension system have significant implications for human capacity development in general and the training of extension educators in particular. this paper describes the desired core competencies for agricultural extension professionals and suggests areas for curricular change to better serve the needs of bottomup and demand-driven extension systems. it concludes by offering strategies for human capacity building for agricultural knowledge management. desired process skills and competencies for agricultural extension professionals employees are the most valuable assets of the extension system. the quality of educational programmes heavily depends upon the professional role played by extension educators. to perform their roles effectively, all extension educators should possess sound technical knowledge and skills in the subject matter with which they work. for example, identifying the causal organism of rice or maize disease, testing the soil ph and interpreting the results, and skills in performing artificial insemination on dairy cattle are examples of technical competencies (suvedi and kaplowitz, 2016). technical skills and competencies are necessary but are not sufficient for extension educators to serve global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training 6310 effectively. to perform their extension roles effectively, they also need basic educators’ process skills and competencies, which are known as core competencies. according to mclean et al. (1999), core competencies are collective organizational skills that are present or achievable and upon which the organization bases its primary operations and services. these are the fundamental capabilities needed for reliable job performance (cooper and graham, 2001; ghere et al. 2006). core competencies should include knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors that contribute to excellence in extension programmes. areas of skills and competencies for human capacity development have been a topic of debate and discussion. a recent publication about the road to global competitiveness and leadership in food, agriculture, natural resources and related sciences by the aplu states that: [f]ood and agribusiness employers rank interpersonal skills and critical thinking twice as highly as production agriculture experience as components necessary for career success. in addition, graduates need to be knowledgeable about issues of globalization, the value of a diverse workplace, information literacy, and how their products/processes affect environmental sustainability.” (aplu, 2009, p. 4). according to the national research council (2009), agricultural graduates should develop competency in “teamwork and working in diverse communities, working across disciplines, communication, critical thinking and analysis, ethical decision making, and leadership and management” (p. 40). professional associations and accreditation boards also have contributed to establishment of knowledge and competency requirements for graduation in various technical and vocational fields. professional extension educators are expected to hold some common knowledge and competencies that have relevance to extension work. the types of competencies, however, may vary from country to country. for example, extension staff in industrialized countries may require a higher level of computer skills than those in a developing country. similarly, staff having multiple roles, such as educator, grant writer, and administrator, need different competencies than staff having a singular function or role. for example, county extension directors in the united states, who have diverse roles, need a different set of competencies than an extension educator in nepal whose primary role is technology transfer. core competencies, when combined with sound technical skills, form the foundation for becoming a successful educator. michigan state university extension (msue), for example, launched its core competency development initiative in 1993. a group of campus and off-campus staff members identified essential skill sets for extension educators. msue supports core competency development throughout the organization. it is designed to encourage each journal of extension education (conference special) 6311 staff member to take responsibility for and be actively engaged in his/her own professional development. scholars and practitioners have proposed many areas of core competencies for agricultural extension educators (levine et al. 2002; maddy et al. 2002; cooper and granham, 2001; scheer et al., 2006). eight areas of professional core competencies to address the needs of a demand-driven, decentralized, pluralistic, participatory extension system are described below. programme planning and development: developing educational programmes and services with community input, establishing clear and relevant objectives, and making efficient use of resources to serve the needs of targeted audiences results in a strong impact. planning is the most basic role of extension educators under the decentralized, pluralistic, demand-driven extension system. as a front-line educator, s/he should possess skills and competencies in: • conducting needs assessments. • prioritizing needs and programmes. • identifying stakeholders and engaging them in extension programmes. • acquiring and allocating resources (resource mobilization). • conducting the nominal group technique. • conducting community forums. • conducting brainstorming exercises. • identifying market opportunities. • designing services based on gender analysis. • developing a work plan. • developing a grant proposal. programme implementation: the extension educator is responsible for effective programme execution. to be effective, s/he should have skills to: • use appropriate educational design to respond to local learning needs. • organize demonstrations, farmers’ field day, farmer field schools and communication campaigns. • plan and conduct nominal groups, focus group discussions and rapid rural appraisals. • establish an instructional environment that is conducive to learning. • share instructional responsibilities with partner agencies. • promote learning in groups. • work in a team. • identify and use appropriate instructional materials. • involve volunteers in the delivery of instructional programmes. • establish and utilize advisory committees. • provide timely feedback to participants/ learners. • understand barriers to participation and/ or learning; and assist learners in applying learning to real life situation. global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training 6312 written and spoken communication: as planners, educators, and managers of local educational programmes, extension workers must possess strong communication. these include: • knowledge of different types and styles of communication. • understanding of the information transfer model ‘diffusion of innovation,’ and the role of interpersonal communication in the innovation decision process. • effective public speaking skills. • effective listening in a variety of settings. • skill in writing grant proposals. educational and informational technology: agricultural extension systems were conceived of and developed in response to the information asymmetries of poor farmers, particularly those without access to many sources of communication (aker, 2010). advancements in information and communication technologies (icts) have had a profound effect on extension. effective exploitation of advances in icts will be necessary to disseminate research results more widely and rapidly (aplu, 2009). using icts has become a part of extension educators’ daily work. therefore, it is important that all extension educators possess the abilities to: • use computers for word processing and information access. • effectively use voice-based information delivery services such as telephone hotlines and extension call-in centers. • use radio dial-up and broadcasts to provide timely information about market prices, crop production alerts, or other information. • use social media and sms-based services to collect and disseminate information. • develop e-learning materials that allow clientele to access internet-based resources. • use mass media technologies (radio, television, newspaper, mobile phones, and internet) for extension. • retrieve/share information via the internet, youtube, iphones, and mobile phones. • effectively use audio/visual materials for teaching adults. facilitative leadership: facilitative leadership is the process of building a group’s capacity to achieve its common goals. successful extension work requires group facilitators and educators to: • understand group dynamics and effective team member roles. • understand basic approaches to conflict resolution. • respectfully deal with conflict and skillfully keep communication going. • ynderstand facilitation and the role of a facilitator. • effectively record group work using a variety of methods. journal of extension education (conference special) 6313 • use a variety of leadership approaches; and practice consensus decision making. diversity and multiculturalism: we live and work in communities with people having diverse racial racial backgrounds (e.g., race, caste, ethnicity, or tribe), cultures, and religions or faiths. to be effective, extension educators should be able to: • engage people from different sociocultural groups in extension programme development. • demonstrate sensitivity to the unique and diverse needs of different cultural groups in the community. • enhance participation of various cultural groups in extension programmes and services; and • effectively organize and offer programmes that are reflective of laws and policies that support diversity and pluralism. marketing and public relations: every extension educator should promote extension’s reputation, image, and awareness and support of programmes. s/he should engage communities, decision makers, and users of extension services and media in promoting extension. extension staff should be able to: • use appropriate strategies for marketing educational programmes. • know the availability of local technology for publicizing educational programmes. • identify formal and informal community leaders and establish working relationships. • identify major political forces that operate in the community. • create strategic/competitive positions for extension in the local community. applied research and evaluation: we live in an era of accountability. funding agencies continually ask for impacts of extension work. how good a job did we do? what impacts do we make? why should we continue to do what we do? how can we improve our services? knowledge and skills in applied research and evaluation help answer these questions. results add to the scholarly work of learning that helps us improve programme and document the net social value of extension programmes. sharing evaluation results with stakeholders strengthens stronger support for our programmes (fretchring et al. 2002). thus, every extension educator should be able to: • understand the various types and levels of program evaluation. • develop outcomes and indicators to evaluate a programme. • design evaluation instruments and understand the uses of participatory evaluation. • design and implement formative and summative evaluations. • apply quantitative and qualitative data analysis tools and techniques to analyze and interpret evaluation data. • communicate findings to appropriate audiences. • use results of evaluation to improve programming. global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training 6314 it should be noted that these competencies are core to the extension profession. they are needed irrespective of extension position assignment, whether field crop educator, livestock educator, or nutrition educator. additional managerial competencies are needed by those who have administrative responsibilities. one of the greatest challenges facing our profession is that extension staff often do not have the appropriate and updated skills to perform effectively. there is great variation in the knowledge and skill levels among extension workers. this is due primarily to variations in types and quality of preand in-service training programmes for extension professionals. in many countries, fiscal constraints have forced public extension systems to hire staff having few competencies or skills. many extension organizations do not have a well-defined system of in-service training for systematic staff development. the problem of professional incompetence among front-line extension educators has been a persistent issue within extension. related to this problem is the lack of motivation among extension employees to develop the core competencies needed for their jobs. how do we establish a vibrant staff development unit? how do we motivate someone to participate in professional development programmes? what mechanisms should we have to reward staff who excel in these professional competencies or disincentivize those who consistently lack these skills? improving the quality of human resources: challenges and opportunities human resources are the most important factor in a nation’s development. well-equipped and skilled people will contribute to the individual, organizational, and national development of a country through improved performance (osmangani and liang-tang, 1998). a nation’s development is not sustainable unless it is supported by a well-trained workforce of its own people. this is equally true for agricultural extension. extension workers should remain current with emerging technologies, be able to handle challenges, tap opportunities and demonstrate competency in their services. extension cannot sustain itself unless it has technically and professionally competent workers from the grass-roots to the national leadership level. we propose three strategies to address these capacity-building issues. improve in-service training and professional development most agricultural extension and rural advisory services have some form of staff training or professional development department. however, in recent years, most governments or donor agencies have given little attention to strengthening and improving in-service training of extension staff. agricultural training centers are poorly staffed and underutilized. these units should be charged to develop both technical and journal of extension education (conference special) 6315 core competencies for the national extension service. the staff in these units should conduct competency assessments on major areas identified above. they should determine areas of need for staff training based on these assessments. in-service trainings can be organized in-person or online. experts can be invited to develop or update training and resource materials. these educational materials can be made available online or disseminated through electronic media. to reinforce the importance of core competencies to extension employees and to the organization, a “campaign” mentality is needed. the necessary and important aspects of a core competency campaign are (a) a clear and visible organizational message from the national/state leadership, e.g., director and other key administrators; (b) a well-articulated plan for fully implementing the core competency system and integrating it with employment, evaluation, and professional development systems; and (c) a dynamic system that meets differing needs within the organization. improve pre-service education at agricultural colleges and universities agricultural education is an integral part of capacity building for agricultural knowledge management. agricultural colleges have played a significant role in meeting the food and fiber needs of our growing population. the system of higher education in agriculture evolved over a period of more than 150 years. today, we estimate that the number of agricultural colleges and universities exceeds 1000 worldwide, and each year more than 100,000 students graduate with four-year degrees in subjects related to food, agriculture, and environmental sciences. these graduates populate agricultural teaching, research, and extension organizations. agricultural colleges and universities, however, are facing a quality dilemma (suvedi, 2008). first, the student population has changed—very few come from rural agricultural backgrounds, many are not interested in hands-on agriculture, and thus, they tend not to farm after graduation. second, our colleges and universities are divesting themselves of courses that provide students with practical and vocational skills. as a result, the graduates have fewer manual skills useful in farming. third, the physical infrastructure is growing old. laboratory equipment is not repaired or replaced because funding is lacking. fourth, and most importantly, the faculty recognition and reward system does not support extension or outreach on par with research. to promote scholarship of extension, colleges and universities may adopt a separate track for extension faculty similar to the teaching track suggested by the national research council (2009). quality education is not possible until we require our faculty to maintain close working relationships with farmers and extension professionals. women are poorly represented as staff members of agricultural extension systems. this could be a reflection of the low enrollment of women in agricultural colleges and universities in developing countries. it is important that the world’s colleges and universities attract and retain more women in agricultural disciplines. it is also imperative that global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training 6316 agricultural extension systems recruit female professionals to help reach underserved audiences (hill, et al. 2010). developing technical and professional core competencies among agricultural extension professionals is fundamental to improving extension effectiveness. preservice training programmes, such as undergraduate and graduate programmes at colleges and universities, must incorporate courses to address these competencies. a requirement for hands-on learning, such as living and working with farmers, agribusiness operators, or nongovernmental organizations through fieldwork or internships, has become essential. employers look for graduates with relevant internship experience. curriculum development is a dynamic process. therefore, agricultural universities should be continually updating curricula as new knowledge becomes available or needs for specific skills or competencies emerge within the profession. accordingly, textbooks, lab equipment, chemicals and manuals, and computer hardware and software need to be updated. universities and colleges need to invest in faculty development programmes to keep faculty members current in their fields. the buildings are aging, labs are rusted, and faculty members lack vigor without funds to support their development or exchange programmes. so, improving the extension system requires simultaneous investment in several areas to improve academic programmes at colleges and universities. more specifically, it is time to examine undergraduate and graduate curricula. what types of work will graduates be doing upon graduation? does the undergraduate curriculum address the core competencies for a demand-driven, decentralized, pluralistic extension service? for example, are students required to take courses in programmes planning and evaluation, instructional strategies for adult learning, information and communication technology, leadership development, and working with local leaders? is enough hands-on and practical education offered through fieldwork, internships, and practicums? service-learning activities and cooperative education programming have been suggested as effective vehicles to accomplish this. as aplu (2009) states, “service learning combines traditional instruction with community service to provide a more complete educational experience for students. it has evolved rapidly in recent years as a relevant pedagogical approach… the extension system is ideally positioned to help identify these community-based opportunities” (p. 9). strengthen agricultural and extension education as a field of study most countries have established colleges of agriculture, and most of them offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in agricultural and extension education. in the united states, there are 83 agricultural education programmes (camp, broyles and skelton, 2002). agricultural teacher preparation and extension educator preparation are two tracks offered by these programmes. about two thirds of these programmes (65%) offer a graduate degree. journal of extension education (conference special) 6317 enrollment in both agricultural teacher education and extension education has dropped in recent years. as a result, many universities have merged the agricultural and extension education department with other related departments. in some cases, these departments have been closed. for example, both delaware state university and southern university and a&m college dropped their agricultural education degrees. in developing countries, on the other hand, enrollment numbers in extension education departments have been steady. however, there have been issues with quality of educational delivery. we have observed major weaknesses in the style of instructional delivery. most of the instruction has been hierarchical, test-based, instructor-driven, and passive-knowledge-transfer. in general, agricultural and extension education needs major improvements. the instructional delivery system needs to be transformed into a hands-on, internshipbased, team-based, experiential, and learnercentered approach. in addition, colleges and universities need to ensure that students gain proper understanding of multicultural issues and can communicate effectively with clients or customers, marketers, and policymakers. they must ensure that they promote ethics, interpersonal skills, entrepreneurial skills, teamwork skills, and leadership skills among students. to address these issues, universities may need to revise curricula and graduation requirements. students should be encouraged to be problem solvers through immersion in the world of work through internships. higher education systems in developing countries should consider pedagogical innovation in college teaching and learning (suvedi, 2008). conclusion agricultural extension and advisory services have worked closely with agricultural research and educational institutions to disseminate new technology to farmers and other end-users. many non-governmental organizations and private firms also are engaged in technology transfer work. to survive and thrive, agricultural extension must change its way of operation. it should offer services on a demand-driven basis. it should offer quality service by maintaining technically competent professional staff. higher education systems are the engines driving human resource development. the quality of human resources in a nation depends on the quality of higher education— its faculty, curricula, research, and outreach programmes. so, investment in agricultural extension must consider investment in human capacity building through in-service/on-thejob training and pre-service professional education. equally important is the need to strengthen the agricultural and extension education discipline. investments are needed to upgrade faculty capacity, make curricular revisions, implement hands-on and learnercentered pedagogy, recruit and retain females in the profession, and keep the system dynamic. academic programmes are the building blocks for human capacity building. investments in strengthening these infrastructures lead to sustainable knowledge management. global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training 6318 references association of public and land-grant universities (aplu). (2009) human capacity development: the road to global competitiveness and leadership in food, agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences. washington, dc: office of public affairs. axinn, g.h. united nations food & agriculture organization. (1988). guide on alternative extension approaches. rome, italy. camp, w., broyles, t., & skelton, n. (2002, july). national study of the supply and demand for teachers of agricultural education in 1999-2001. retrieved from http:// aaaeonline.org/files/supply_demand/ teachersupply2002.pdf chambers, r. (1983) rural development: putting the last first. new york: john wiley and sons. chipeta, s. (2006). demand-driven agricultural advisory services. lindau: neuchâtel group and swiss centre for agricultural extension and rural development. cooper, a.w., & graham, d. l. (2001). competencies needed to be successful county agents and county supervisors. journal of extension, 39(1), 1-7. economic research service (ers). (2011). international food security assessment, 2011-21/ gfa-22. washington, dc: usda. feed the future. (2011, august). feed the future newsletter, (1), 3. ghere, g., king, j., stevahn, l., & minnema, j. (2006). a professional development unit for reflecting on program evaluator competencies. american journal of evaluation, 2, 108-123. hill, c., corbett, c., & rose, a. (2010). why so few? women in science, technology, and mathematics. washington, dc: american association of university women. levine, j., artabasy, j., andrews, m., majewski, k., vandenberg, l., haas, b., & thelen, k. (2002, june, 14). core competencies and msu extension: task group recommendations. retrieved from http://www.msue. msu.edu/portal/default.cfm?pageset_ id=298464&page_id=300561&msue_ portal_id=25643. maddy, d.j., niemann, k., lindquist, j., & bateman, k. (2002). core competencies for the cooperative extension system. retrieved from http://extn.msu.montana.edu/jobs/ pdf/core_competencies.pdf mclean, d.d., bannon, j.j., & howard, g. (1999). leisure resources: its comprehensive planning. new jersey: prentice hall, inc. milburn, l.s., mulley, s.j., & cline, c. (2010). the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end: the decline of public agricultural extension in ontario. journal of extension [on-line], 48(6) article 6fea7. retrieved from: http://www.joe.org/ joe/2010 december/a7.php national research council of the national academies. (2009). transforming agricultural education for a changing world. washington, dc: the national academies press. journal of extension education (conference special) 6319 osman-gani, a.m., & liang-tang, w. (1998). human resource development: the key to sustainable growth and competitiveness of singapore. human resource development international, 1(4). scheer, s.d., ferrari, t.m., earnest, g.w., & connors, j.j. (2006). preparing extension professionals: the ohio state university’s model of extension education. journal of extension. 44(4). suvedi, m., & kaplowitz, m. (2016). what every extension worker should know: core competency handbook. urbana champaign, il: modernizing extension and advisory services project. http://csus.msu. edu/meas swanson, b. (2008). global review of good agricultural extension and advisory service practices. rome, italy: research and extension division, food and agriculture organization. swanson, b., & rajalahti, r. (2010). strengthening agricultural extension and advisory systems: procedures for assessing, transforming, and evaluating extension systems. washington d.c: the world bank, agriculture and rural development (paper 45). global need for revitalization of agricultural extension training 6468 scenario analysis of cardamom growers in cardamom hill reserves of kerala s. anju1 and n. kishore kumar1= abstract the study was conducted to analyse various characteristics of cardamom growers in idukki district of kerala. sixty farmers engaged in cardamom cultivation were selected based on landholding of not less than one acre. fifteen independent variables were selected based on judges’ relevancy rating. majority of the cardamom growers belonged to low to medium level of adoption of good agricultural practices. education status and credit orientation were found to be significantly and positively related to adoption of good agricultural practices. keywords: adoption; cardamom growers; kerala. 1 department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani-695 522 = deceased received : 28-07-2020; accepted : 19-08-2020 research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6468-6470 small cardamom (elettaria cardamomum) is traditionally grown in the indian cardamom hill reserves (ichr) area of kerala. cardamom was cultivated in an area of 40,867 ha in 1997 and it declined to 39,080 ha by the year 2017. productivity of cardamom in cardamom hills of kerala has been spectacular for the last 20 years (1997-2016) period with 4 fold increase from 130 kg to 400 kg ha-1 (spices board of india, 2017). for attaining sustainable yield, timely execution of the recommended package is essential. but majority of the farmers are not adopting the recommended package of practices for cardamom. with this background, the study was undertaken with the following objectives. 1. to study the adoption of good agricultural practices by the cardamom growers. 2. to study the relationship of profile characteristics of growers with adoption. methodology from the eight block panchayats of idukki district in kerala state, three blocks coming under the cardamom hill reserves (chr) area with maximum productivity were selected. the selected blocks were nedumkandam, kattappana and adimali. from nedumkandam, udumbanchola and pampadumpara; from kattappana, kanchiyar and vandanmedu; and from adimali, bisonvalley and konnathady were selected. these six panchayats coming under the chr area were purposively selected for the study. from each panchayat ten cardamom growers were selected based on land holding 6469 size of not less than one acre. thus a total of 60 respondents were selected. to study the rate of adoption of good agricultural practices in cardamom, package of practices recommendation of kau (2016) was considered. the extent of adoption was calculated by percentage analysis. findings and discussion nearly half (48.33 %) of the respondents had low level of adoption of good agricultural practices in cardamom cultivation followed by medium (38.33 %) and high (11.67 %) level of adoption. most of the farmers were having a farming experience of more than twenty years so they mostly prefer their own local practices than adopting good agricultural practices. relationship between profile characteristics and adoption the relationship between the profile characteristics of the cardamom gowers and adoption of good agricultural practices was done and presented in table 1. table 1. relationship between the profile characteristics of the respondents and adoption of good agricultural practices sl. no. independent variables correlation coefficient 1. age -0.355** 2. educational status 0.424** 3. family size -0.158 4. occupation -0.211 5. farming experience -0.413** 6. annual income -0.171 7. extension agency contact -0.066 8. mass media utilization/ ict -0.212 9. economic motivation -0.095 10. risk orientation -0.095 11. scientific orientation -0.219 12. innovation proneness -0.057 13. decision making ability -0.229 14. credit orientation 0.282* 15. market orientation 0.179 * significant at 5 per cent level ** significant at 1 per cent level scenario analysis of cardamom growers in cardamom hill reserves of kerala 6470 adoption of good agricultural practices was positively correlated with educational status at 1 per cent level. through level of education, knowledge of the farmer respondents were enhanced, which resulted in the adoption of good agricultural practices. so we can say that direct and indirect effect of education might have contributed to the positive and significant relation with adoption. farming experience was found to be negatively and significantly correlated with adoption of good agricultural practices. majority of the farmers belonged to middle age category and the growers were having more than 20 years of experience in cardamom cultivation. it is assumed that experienced farmers have a higher probability of using their own local practices than compared to those with little experience in farming was found to be medium. adoption of good agricultural practices could be improved by providing the farmers proper training which would help them in improving the productivity. references kau (2016). package of practices recommendations, (15th ed.), kerala agricultural university. spices board of india. (2017). major spice/ state wise area and production of spices. retrieved from: http://indianspices.com/ sites/default/files/major-spice-state-wisearea-production-web-2017.pdf. journal of extension education 6475 jee 32(2) from the editor’s desk chief editor my dear readers of journal of extension education, a recent paper by grains research & development corporation, australia had compared agricultural extension with science communication and concluded that good science communication, like effective agricultural extension, comes down to developing relationships of trust (metcalfe, 2018). developing relationships of trust, particularly during face-to-face interactions with farmers, requires to: • actively listen to those we want to communicate with. • understand their perceptions, concerns and needs regarding the science we want to communicate. • recognize they have valuable knowledge to share. • invest the time in communication that is personal. • tell stories about people and their passions. • speak directly, distilling the science in a way that people can understand without compromising its integrity. similarly, loizzo (2019) argues that the efforts, approaches, and terminology of science communication and extension education often overlap (see below). in science communication, we say... in extension, we say... target audiences target learners key messages learning objectives analytics/tracking assessment/evaluation behaviour intention and change behaviour intention and change besides possessing scientific knowledge and effective communication skills, the extension agents should also be capable of winning the trust. trust in the advisory service providers is therefore essential to implementing change at the farm level, especially when dealing with complex issues such as facilitating climate change mitigation/adaptation. this issue of jee contains papers on diverse topics in extension education, which i hope, will be interesting and useful. do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com. pages 2021-4.cdr 6731 ict use behaviour of agricultural line department officials of odisha bhavana sajeev abstract informa�on and communica�on technology (ict) tools will play a prime role in agriculture and allied sectors in future. this study was conducted in 2021 to examine the a�tude of agricultural line department officials towards the use of ict tools. purposively khordha district of odisha was taken for the study. for the present study, 105 respondents (22 district level agricultural officials, 59 block level agricultural officials and 24 village level agricultural officials) were selected by following stra�fied random sampling method. the results revealed that the district level and block level agricultural officials have most favourable a�tude towards almost all the ict tools. in comparison, village level officials favoured only mobile phone and television. the study has recommended proper awareness, training and knowledge of ict tools, and uninterrupted power supply in the offices to rec�fy the constraints in handling of ict tools. keywords: informa�on and communica�on technology;ict use behaviour; a�tude; department officials; odisha research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.4, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.4.33.6731-6737 department of extension educa�on, college of agriculture, odisha university of agriculture and technology, bhubaneswar, odisha 751 003 received: 14-02-2022; accepted: 31-08-2022 introduction the applica�on-level usage of ict in various sectors of the global economy has been considered to have the upper hand in boos�ng produc�vity and work efficiency. the prac�cality of icts possesses the poten�al to iden�fy and find a relevant solu�on to some of the major problems faced in the agriculture field, which include pest and disease outbreaks, prolonged droughts, seasonality and spa�al dispersion of farming; informa�on asymmetry, and high transac�on costs (anh et al., 2019). the use of ict along the agricultural value chain (from farm to fork) could provide a stream of opportuni�es for actors within the chain to a� a i n � m e l y, a cc u rat e a n d re l eva nt informa�on; which will not only contribute to profitability, but also enhance food security, remunera�ve and sustainable agriculture (purnomo and lee, 2010). the ict also has the prospect to ramify the challenges by farmers, governments and other land users in registra�on, valua�on and land taxa�on. for instance, the d i g i t a l i z a � o n of l a n d a d m i n i s t r a � ve a c � v i � e s i n i n d i a r e l i e v e d f a r m e r s approximately 1.32 million working days of man-hours and about 806 million rupees in bribe due to the improved system, thus reducing levels of corrup�on (daum, 2020). odisha has gone ahead as it could be the first state in the country which has adopted ict as a state development tool for providing healthcare services at the door step of the ci�zen. there are several ict tools and programmes in use throughout the world that have been designed to increase communica�on among extension workers and other stakeholders in the agriculture value chain. extension workers are mandated to deliver agricultural informa�on to farmers related to pest, disease, climate, marke�ng availability of products etc. icts have the ability to close the communica�on gap between extension, research, and farmers. extension workers have the skills and the ability but require a be�er pathway to acquire and propagate informa�on to the allied subjects. hence, the objec�ve of this study was to determine how agricultural line department officials felt about the benefits of icts, how they used icts in their jobs, and how they disseminated and transferred innova�ons and technology for agricultural growth. methodology the study had included all the agricultural line department officials such as district agriculture officer (dao), assistant agricultural officer (aao), assistant h o r � c u l t u r e o ffi c e r ( a h o ) , v i l l a g e agricultural worker (vaw), women village agricultural worker (wvaw) and subject ma�er specialists (sms) from khordha district of odisha state (india). a total of 105 respondents comprising 22 district level a g r i c u l t u r a l offi c i a l s , 5 9 b l o c k l eve l agricultural officials and 24 village level agricultural officials were selected using a stra�fied random sampling method. an interview schedule was constructed for assembling the data from the agricultural line department officials. the secondary source of data was combined from journals, t h e s e s , i nte r n et a n d offi c i a l re co rd s retrieved from agricultural department. the data collected from the sample respondents were coded, analysed and tabulated for compara�ve study. the conclusions derived from the data analysis w e re a p t l y c o n s t r u e d a n d e s s e n � a l deduc�ons and implica�ons were brought in. descrip�ve sta�s�cs and ranking were used for the data processing and analysis. findings and discussion it could be observed from tables 1, 2 and 3 that the district level and block level agricultural officials had ‘most favourable’ a�tude towards almost all the computer related and internet related ict tools whereas the village level agricultural officials were having most favouarble a�tude towards audio related and audiovisual related ict tools. the probable reason may be due to the lack of skill in 6732ict use behaviour of agricultural line department officials of odisha d audio-visual related 1 television 17 77.27 5 22.73 0 0.00 2.77 v 2 video conferencing 19 86.36 3 13.64 0 0.00 2.86 iii 3 tablet device 16 72.73 4 18.18 2 9.09 2.64 vi 4 smart tv 13 59.09 8 36.36 1 4.55 2.55 vii 5 dvd player 9 40.91 8 36.36 5 22.73 2.18 x table 1. distribu�on of district level officials according to their a�tude towards ict tools sl.no. category district level officials (n=22) most favourable favourable unfavourable mean rank f % f % f % a computer related 1 microso� package 22 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 2 laptop 22 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 3 usb 17 77.27 5 22.73 0 0.00 2.77 v 4 memory card 13 59.09 7 31.82 2 9.09 2.50 viii 5 fax 4 18.18 4 18.18 14 63.64 1.55 xiv 6 digital camera 8 36.36 12 54.55 2 9.09 2.27 ix b internet related 1 internet services 22 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 2 social media 22 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 3 e-mail 22 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 4 web based search engines 22 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 5 modem 18 81.82 4 18.18 0 0.00 2.82 iv 6 e-journals 9 40.91 6 27.27 7 31.82 2.09 xi c audio related 1 mobile phone 22 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 2 microphone 6 27.27 8 36.36 8 36.36 1.91 xii 3 landline phone 5 22.73 7 31.82 10 45.45 1.77 xiii 4 bluetooth 17 77.27 5 22.73 0 0.00 2.77 v 5 headphone 21 95.45 1 4.55 0 0.00 2.95 ii 6 radio 5 22.73 7 31.82 10 45.45 1.77 xiii journal of extension educa�on6733 u�liza�on of computer related and internet related tools by the village level agricultural officials and the easiness in u�liza�on of mobile phone and television. this finding is in line with the findings of kabir and roy (2015). the main constraint that limits the village level agricultural officials in the use of computer related and internet related ict tools was the lack of exposure and training. similar observa�on was also made by naveenkumar and philip (2020). d audio-visual related 1 television 34 57.63 17 28.81 8 13.56 2.44 xi 2 video conferencing 49 83.05 10 16.95 0 0.00 2.83 vi 3 tablet device 41 69.49 12 20.34 6 10.17 2.59 ix 4 smart tv 49 83.05 8 13.56 2 3.39 2.80 vii 5 dvd player 34 57.63 20 33.90 5 8.47 2.49 x 6734 table 2. distribu�on of block level officials according to their a�tude towards ict tools sl.no. category block level officials (n=59) most favourable favourable unfavourable mean rank f % f % f % a computer related 1 microso� package 53 89.83 6 10.17 0 0.00 2.90 iv 2 laptop 54 91.53 5 8.47 0 0.00 2.92 iii 3 usb 34 57.63 17 28.81 8 13.56 2.44 xi 4 memory card 27 45.76 26 44.07 6 10.17 2.36 xiii 5 fax 9 15.25 17 28.81 33 55.93 1.59 xvii 6 digital camera 12 20.34 41 69.49 6 10.17 2.10 xiv b internet related 1 internet services 51 86.44 8 13.56 0 0.00 2.86 v 2 social media 59 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 3 e-mail 57 96.61 2 3.39 0 0.00 2.97 ii 4 web based search engines 59 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 5 modem 23 38.98 36 61.02 0 0.00 2.39 xii 6 e-journals 13 22.03 38 64.41 8 13.56 2.08 xv c audio related 1 mobile phone 59 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 2 microphone 15 25.42 35 59.32 9 15.25 2.10 xiv 3 landline phone 13 22.03 14 23.73 32 54.24 1.68 xvi 4 bluetooth 45 76.27 14 23.73 0 0.00 2.76 viii 5 headphone 51 86.44 8 13.56 0 0.00 2.86 v 6 radio 9 15.25 8 13.56 42 71.19 1.44 xviii ict use behaviour of agricultural line department officials of odisha d audio-visual related 1 television 24 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 2 video conferencing 23 95.83 1 4.17 0 0.00 2.96 ii 3 tablet device 13 54.17 10 41.67 1 4.17 2.50 x 4 smart tv 11 45.83 9 37.50 4 16.67 2.29 xii 5 dvd player 14 58.33 7 29.17 3 12.50 2.46 xi table 3. distribu�on of village level officials according to their a�tude towards ict tools sl.no. category village level officials (n=24) most favourable favourable unfavourable mean rank f % f % f % a computer related 1 microso� package 11 45.83 7 29.17 6 25.00 2.21 xiii 2 laptop 22 91.67 2 8.33 0 0.00 2.92 iii 3 usb 7 29.17 8 33.33 9 37.50 1.92 xv 4 memory card 5 20.83 10 41.67 9 37.50 1.83 xvi 5 fax 0 0.00 8 33.33 16 66.67 1.33 xix 6 digital camera 3 12.50 14 58.33 7 29.17 1.83 xvi b internet related 1 internet services 19 79.17 5 20.83 0 0.00 2.79 vi 2 social media 21 87.50 3 12.50 0 0.00 2.88 iv 3 e-mail 13 54.17 9 37.50 2 8.33 2.46 xi 4 web based search engines 17 70.83 7 29.17 0 0.00 2.71 vii 5 modem 9 37.50 8 33.33 7 29.17 2.08 xiv 6 e-journals 6 25.00 6 25.00 12 50.00 1.75 xvii c audio related 1 mobile phone 24 100.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 3.00 i 2 microphone 3 12.50 4 16.67 17 70.83 1.42 xviii 3 landline phone 20 83.33 4 16.67 0 0.00 2.83 v 4 bluetooth 15 62.50 7 29.17 2 8.33 2.54 ix 5 headphone 20 83.33 4 16.67 0 0.00 2.83 v 6 radio 16 66.67 8 33.33 0 0.00 2.67 viii 6735 journal of extension educa�on conclusion e a g r i c u l t u r e e n c o m p a s s e s a c a s c a d e o f i n p u t p r o c e s s s u c h a s conceptualiza�on, design, development, evalua�on and applica�on of innova�ve way to use ict in the rural realm, with key a�en�on on agriculture. icts are hence highly per�nent for agricultural line d e p a r t m e n t o ffi c i a l s , r e s e a r c h e r s , func�onaries and organiza�ons. the study has revealed that the district level and block level agricultural officials had the skills inbuilt in the use of the ict tools when compared with the village level agricultural officials. therefore, the district level and block level agricultural officials exhibited a most favourable a�tude towards the computer related and internet related ict tools where as village agricultural officials had a most favourable a�tude towards audio related and audio-visual related ict tools. the main reason behind this result was the lack of training given to the village agricultural officials in the use of ict tools. hence, proper knowledge and awareness must be disseminated to all the levels of agricultural officials for effec�ve u�liza�on of ict tools. staff working at the village level need to be made more skilled for use of ict tools through frequent trainings. further, village level staff could be provided with smart phones to work efficiently. references anh, n. h., bokelmann, w., thuan, n.t., nga, d.t., & minh, n.v., (2019). smallholders' preferences for different contract farming models: empirical evidence f ro m s u s t a i n a b l e ce r � fi e d coffe e p r o d u c � o n i n v i e t n a m . j o u r n a l sustainability, 11 (14), 1-26. da u m , t. ( 2 0 2 0 ) . i c t a p p l i c a � o n s i n agriculture. hans-ruthenberg-ins�tute of agricultural science in the tropics. university of hohenheim, stu�gart, germany. goo [government of odisha]. (2018). orissa trust of technical educa�on & training (ottet) report. available: h�ps://ehealth.eletsonline.com/2013/ 0 4 / o d i s h a a d o p t e d i c t a s development-tool/. [ 26 august 2022]. kabir, k., & roy, d. (2015). preferences of ict tools by the upazila agriculture officers (uaos) for the informa�on exchange in bangladesh. agriculture, forestry and fisheries, 4, 59–65. naveenkumar, m., & philip, h. (2020). constraints faced in the usage of contemporary ict tools. journal of e x t e n s i o n e d u c a � o n , 3 1 ( 3 ) . h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3. 31.6320-6326. oladele, o.i. (2015). effect of informa�on communica�on technology (ict) on agricultural informa�on access among extension officers in north west province south africa. south african journal of agricultural extension, 43 (2), 30 – 41. ict use behaviour of agricultural line department officials of odisha 6736 https://ehealth.eletsonline.com/2013/04/odisha-adopted-ict-as-development-tool/ https://ehealth.eletsonline.com/2013/04/odisha-adopted-ict-as-development-tool/ https://ehealth.eletsonline.com/2013/04/odisha-adopted-ict-as-development-tool/ https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6320-6326 https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2019.3.31.6320-6326 6737 purnomo, s.h. & lee, y.h. (2010). an assessment of readiness and barriers t o w a r d s i c t p r o g r a m m e i m p l e m e n t a � o n : p e r c e p � o n s o f agricultural extension officers in indonesia. interna�onal journal of ed u c a � o n a n d d e v e l o p m e n t u s i n g i n f o r m a � o n a n d c o m m u n i c a � o n technology (ijedict), 6 (3), 19-36. journal of extension educa�on page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 page 58 page 59 page 60 page 61 page 62 6532 edu-communication strategies of cashew production in a rural ghanaian community bismark kwaku anyarayor*, mohammed faisal amadu* and amin alhassan* abstract this study examined the edu-communication strategies that agriculture extension service agencies use in the dissemination and promotion of innovation adoption among cashew farmers in the kpandai district agricultural zones in northern ghana. a total of 140 cashew farmers were sampled using simple random sampling technique. three district agricultural officers (dao) and twenty-one satellite agriculture extension officers (aeo) were also drawn into the sample. the results of the study show that, face to face interaction, field demonstration, entertainment-education through community radio broadcasting and farmer group discussions (fgds) were extensively and efficiently used by the aeos to promote adoption of improved production technologies among cashew farmers. the study discovered that educom strategies contribute to higher rates of adoption and partly accounts for increased cashew yields in the study area. the indigenisation of agriculture extension services approaches using local language in the design and dissemination of adoption process is, highly recommended as a core tenet of technology dissemination if higher adoption rates are expected. keywords: agricultural extension, 'educom' strategy; cashew production; communication; ghana. *department of communication, innovation and technology, faculty of communication and cultural studies, university for development studies, tamale, ghana. received : 01-04-2021; accepted : 11-07-2021 introduction the literature on education and communication establishes a symbiotic relationship between the two concepts. this means that education and communication are uniquely interrelated. a common argument that runs through the literature is that, one of the concepts cannot occur without the other. one central argument we establish from the literature is that the two concepts are intertwined and remain very essential components for extension service delivery in rural agricultural communities of developing countries. communication is an indispensable conduit in all efforts aimed at achieving the goals of development. effective communication is a pre-requisite to every aspect of human society. communication, therefore, when used in this study connotes the joint transmission and exchange of ideas, opinions and information through networks and symbols commonly understood by the research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6532-6541 6533 individuals involved in the communication process. communication facilitates the attainment of goals set out in an educational settings and structure. it is claimed that education is a process which develops a person or group of persons morally, mentally, socially and technologically. for farmers, to adopt and use improved farm techniques in cashew farming efficiently they must comprehend the complex scientific knowledge of cashew farming. this requires an effective platform for dialogue, the exchange of knowledge and ideas in ways that can easily be understood and the sharing of new technologies in friendly environments between agriculture extension officers (aeos) and farmers/ farmer groups. from these perspectives, therefore, aeos consider education and communication as the twine most significant service delivery tools for rural farmers. literature generally delineates entertainment-education as one of the core strategies of edu-communication (educom). for the purpose of clarity, we define educom as being a theoretical field interested in the dialogic relationship between media “mass” or “traditional,” “new” or “social,” or “information and communication technology”) and its impact on the farming environment or on its main actors: farmers, extension agents and even agro-input dealers. entertainmenteducation on the other hand involves the use of entertainment as a communicative practice strategically designed to communicate development issues in ways that can range from the more narrowly defined social marketing on individual behaviour to the liberating and citizen-driven articulation of social change agendas. the core purpose of entertainment education is to drive behavioural and social change in societies. an examination of the literature on entertainment-education emphasises the concept as an amalgamation of designs and techniques where education is interwoven into the narrative of entertainment to propel change among target audiences. for the purpose of this study, the definition of entertainment education is derived from wang and singhal (2009) who view it as “a theorybased communication process for purposefully embedding educational and social issues in the creation, production, processing and dissemination process of an entertainment program, in order to achieve desired individual, community, institutional, and societal changes among the intended media user population”. effective use of entertainmenteducation in the adoption process of an innovation has managed to transcend traditional dichotomies and found to be a strategic tool in the adoption and diffusion of innovations processes especially among farmers from poorer communities. despite this acknowledgement of the effectiveness of entertainment-education, a core element of contestation of entertainment-education hinges on the nature of its impact. the epistemological aims, theoretical foundations and working methodologies in the actual practice of entertainment-education have all been questioned. cashew has become one of the important exported cash crops in ghana was first introduced to ghana and other sub saharan african countries by the portuguese edu-communication strategies of cashew production in a rural ghanaian community 6534 long before the country’s independence. the production of cashew in ghana is concentrated mainly in the bono, bono east, ahafo, savannah and northern regions. the crop is resistant to drought and performs well even under high temperatures and favourable lightly to medium-textured soils. ghana have over 65000 sq.km of suitable agricultural land both in the northern and some part of the middle belt closer to the north for cashew cultivation, however, ghana experience a significant supply deficit of cashew to the international market. this calls for the expansion of cashew production to meet the global demand though in recent years, the sector has received much attention including policy, in terms of production due to the demand for export market. cashew farms in ghana are clustered around the well-accessible towns of bole in the savannah region, kintampo in the bono east, wenchi in the bono and kpandai in the northern regions. the introduction of cashew farming in the kpandai district to farmers needs special adaptive and communication strategies. the unpredictability of farmers attitude towards the adoption of new farming innovations across ghana, raises a critical demand for creating effective, equitable and socially acceptable communication strategies that will help solve the adoption and behavior change of farmers from their traditional known crop production towards cashew farming. this study, therefore, investigates the use of educom strategies including entertainment education in the dissemination of educational, innovation and pro-social messages on cashew production to cashew farmers. specifically, the study sought to provide responses to the following research objectives: • to identify the educom tools aeos use in the adoption process in cashew farming; • to establish the role educom play in the adoption of good innovation in cashew production; • to determine the structural barriers that impedes the use of educom strategies in promoting innovation in cashew farming. methodology the study was carried out in the kpandai district of northern region of ghana. the researchers used mixed methods research design that allowed the use of survey, interviews and focus group discussions in gathering data for the study. structured interview schedule with four-point likert scale type of questions was used in collecting data from 140 cashew farmers sampled for this purpose. the four-point likert scale was weighted from 4 meaning strongly agree, 3 meaning agree, 2 meaning disagree and 1 meaning strongly disagree. the interpretation is that any weighted mean average score below 2.00 read as not an important communicative strategy and above 2.00 as important communication strategy. focus group discussions were held with 21 aeos who were put into 3 groups consisting of 7 officers each. key informant interviews were conducted with 3 district agriculture officers (daos) in the study district. percentages, frequency counts and mean scores were used for the data analysis. journal of extension education 6535 the target population for the study were daos, aeos and cashew farmers. there are 1,057 registered cashew farmers under the district agriculture department in the kpandai district. first the district was zoned based on the area councils. the district is made up of seven area councils with each area council having 151 registered cashew farmers; kpandai, katiejeli, nkanchina, jambuai, lonto, kabonwule and ekumdi. purposive sampling was then applied to each zone to select the communities where innovation in cashew production is deployed. finally, a simple random sampling was used to sample twenty (20) cashew farmers from 151 farmers in each area council giving us a total sample respondent of one hundred and forty 140 cashew farmers. moreover, three (3) locally trained aeos from each area council comprising of 21 respondents were purposively sampled for fgds because they were directly involved in deploying innovations to cashew farmers in their respective agriculture zones. three daos were also purposively sampled for the study as key informants because of their special knowledge in designing training manuals, innovative materials and providing skills training for the aeos who are involved in the deployment of innovations to cashew farmers. findings and discussion educom strategies deployed by aeos in kpandai agriculture zones educom strategies deployed by aeos in the dissemination of innovation in cashew production in the study area are presented in table 1. the data indicate that audio-visual aids comes top with 35.7% and face-toface interaction between aeos and cashew farmers follow with 21.4% as the most frequently used educom tools in innovation dissemination to cashew farmers. farmer field demonstration and group discussions with farmers ranked 3rd and 4th with 17.9% and 14.2% respectively. the rest which include local radio, leaflets and formal lectures scored 5.7%, 3.8% and 1.3% respectively. audio-visual aid strategy, which is one of the forms of educom was the most preferred communication strategy by aeos because respondents were entertained and at the same time educated without any hitches. these findings are affirmed by those of brown (2015) and arroyave (2018). brown and arroyave both emphasized on the effects of edutainment on public discourse on the adoption of new technology and indicated that enter-education messages produced measurable knowledge, attitudinal and behavioural changes in audiences. aeos who have received regular trainings from the daos on the different mechanisms of engaging farmers with enter-educate messages share the knowledge acquired with the cashew farmers which help to enhance their technical skills on innovation adoption (ali et al. 2012). the data on local radio as an educom strategy used by aeo correspond with the finding of okunade (2007) where he examined the effectiveness of extension teaching methods in acquiring knowledge, skills and attitude by women in osun state, nigeria. he found that though local radio is an edu-communication strategies of cashew production in a rural ghanaian community 6536 important tool for extension education, it is rarely deployed by aeos often owing to cost. in the same study, okunade (2007) found the use of leaflets to be very low in extension services because of high illiteracy rate among farmers. this is the situation found in the data presented here. in all, four methods of educom strategies including audio-visuals, face to face interaction, field demonstrations and group discussions are highly deployed by the aeos in the kpandai agriculture zones during extension service delivery. three strategies which include local radio, leaflets and formal lectures ranked low indicating that they are rarely used by the aeos in the kpandai agriculture zone for their extension service delivery. increasingly, audio-visual aids are becoming critical tools for the delivery of extension services in developing communities in ghana. table 1: educom strategies deployed by aeos in the adoption process (n=140). sl. no. strategy / tool used frequency percentage 1. audio-visual aids 50 35.7% 2. face to face 30 21.4% 3. leaflets 5 3.8% 4. group discussion 20 14.2% 5. demonstration 25 17.9% 6. local radio 8 5.7% 7. formal lectures 2 1.3% role of educom in the adoption of cashew production practices the second objective of the study sought to analyze the role of educom in the adoption process of cashew production practices. respondents to the study were required to indicate their level of agreement or otherwise from a likert scale calibrated from strongly agree to strongly disagree. the study in this objective put forward seven (7) variables that altogether project the role of educom in adoption processes. each of the 140 cashew farmers responded to these 7 variables against a 4-point based likert scale. below is a summary of the data obtained using weighted sums and averages, from cashew farmers in this study. the data shown in table-2 indicates that educom strategies resonates with cashew farmers in deprive communities. from the 7 variables that interrogate the role of educom in adoption presented to the respondents, only one was poorly scored. the variable with the low score reads “cashew farmers are expose to sources of capital to expand their farm hectares through interactive process with aeos”. it is, however, not surprising that the issues of farm credit are not well captured in the curriculum of extension services even though it plays a significant role in smallholder agriculture development. lack of access to farm credits and its gap in extension literature is well established in copious literature on agriculture financing (dzadze et al, 2012). the remaining 6 variables interrogated however scored higher. of interest is the role of educom in exposing cashew farmers to journal of extension education 6537 table 2. role of educom in the adoption of cashew production practices (n=140) sl. no. variables sa*4 a*3 d*2 sd*1 ws wm rmks rnk 1. educom strategies use by aeos help cashew farmers to adopt improve cashew seeds 100 30 8 2 508 3.63 strongly agree 3 2. innovative educom strategy has expose cashew farmers to the types of insecticides and fungicides to use in treating insects and diseases affecting cashew trees 120 20 0 0 540 3.86 strongly agree 1 3. cashew farmers are expose to sources of capital to expand their farm hectares through interactive process with aeos 8 25 105 2 319 2.28 disagree 7 4. effective educom influences cashew farmers to adopt improved cashew farming technologies 40 90 10 0 450 3.21 agree 5 5. the quantity of seed/seedlings used by cashew farmers to cultivate a hectare of farm land was made known by the educom interaction with aeos 110 15 10 5 510 3.64 strongly agree 2 6. educom strategies have led to the regular use of television, flyers, radio programming, traditional durbars as the most popular mass media tools to adopt innovative cashew farming technologies 23 67 10 40 353 2.52 agree 6 7. the educom strategies used by aeos in this zone is participatory and satisfactory 80 40 15 5 475 3.40 agree 4 sa=strongly agree; a=agree; d=disagree; sd=strongly disagree; ws=weighted sum; wm=weighted mean; rmks= remarks; rnk= ranks edu-communication strategies of cashew production in a rural ghanaian community 6538 the use of right insecticides and fungicides in cashew treatment. aeos tend to focus more on the sharing of knowledge on the application and use of insecticides. this came to light from the data gathered when the variable on “innovative educom strategy has expose cashew farmers to the types of insecticides and fungicides to use in treating insects and diseases affecting cashew trees” had a cumulative weighted mean score of 3.86 ranking number 1 out of the 7 variables. this finding is consistent with the assertions of belden et’ al (2010) that aeos in ghana focus more on the sharing of information on chemical use than all other extension educational needs of farmers. the exposure of farmers to the right use of insecticides and fungicides has increased the proper use of chemicals by farmers to control weeds and pests on cashew crops among the cashew farmers in the study area. the type of chemical, the right quantity and area to apply as well as the associated cost of various chemicals used by farmers under actual practices are emphasised. this finding is also corroborated by ministry of food and agriculture (2014) which disclosed that the knowledge about the appropriate application of chemicals in weed and pests of tree crops and its best practice has helped increase crop yields over the years. the implication of these high scores across all the 6 variables is that educom strategy is useful in the promotion of skills development and innovation sharing. educom further has unintended positive effects due to uncontrolled variables. the literature on educom is unanimous that educom messages produces measurable knowledge. tufte (2001), brown (2015) and arroyave (2018) argue that effective educom strategies have led to attitudinal and behavioural changes in audiences. structural barriers to educom strategies in the adoption of cashew farming the final objective of this study was to determine structural barriers that impedes the use of educom strategies in the adoption of good cashew farming practices in northern ghana. in behavioral change literature, it is argued that in multicultural societies where ethnic, religious, education, gender and political tensions are high, it is difficult to determine what values, beliefs and practices are considered pro-social (knight et al, 2016 and de guzman et al, 2012). this dilemma is a structural problem because the social structure of each social system and those in control of information will determine what social values or beliefs should be promoted by aeos in the case of this study. in table 3 below, we capture a summary of five variables measured with a likert scale and explain how each serve as a barrier to the use of educom strategy in the promotion and adoption of innovation in cashew production. economic factors, ethnic considerations, religious factors, educational status and gender dimensions were the five core variables we examined to determine how each impedes the successful implementation of educom approaches in extension service delivery. from the analyses, education, economic and religious factors are significant considerations in the choice of an educom journal of extension education 6539 approach to extension service delivery. for educational status, most farmers indicated that their low educational backgrounds or status significantly impedes their understanding and subsequent adoption decision. the “level of education as a factor that impedes the use of some educom strategies in innovation adoption processes by aeos” scored a cumulated weighted average of 3.36 indicating agreement that a farmers’ educational status impacts his/her choice of educom strategy in adoption promotion. this means that for aeos and daos, educational levels of farmers should be considered when designing educom strategies for extension work if the goal is for higher rates of adoption. education enhances the ability to derive, decode and evaluate useful information for agricultural production. the rate at which one can access, assimilate and idealize new knowledge potentially depend on the educational level of the individual. the study found a high level of illiteracy with a significant number of respondents who have no formal education. these results do not correspond with what ibrahim (2015) found in a study on the role of farmer groups network in the adoption and diffusion of selected technologies in the upper mgeta morogoro. educational status is closely followed by economic factors (economic factors impede table 3. structural barriers to educom strategies (n=140) sl. no. variables sa*4 a*3 d*2 sd*1 ws wm rmks rnk 1. economic factors impede the use of educom strategies 60 55 15 10 445 3.18 agree 2 2. ethnic factors impede the use of educom strategies by aeos 20 10 40 70 260 1.90 disagree 4 3. religious factors impede the use of educom strategies by aeos 15 77 18 30 357 2.55 disagree 3 4. level of education is a factor that impede the use of some educom strategies in innovation adoption processes by aeos. 80 40 10 10 470 3.36 agree 1 5. gender issues impede the use of certain educom strategies in innovation dissemination and adoption 5 15 30 90 215 1.54 strongly disagree 5 sa=strongly agree; a=agree; d=disagree; sd=strongly disagree; ws=weighted sum; wm=weighted mean; rmks= remarks; rnk= ranks edu-communication strategies of cashew production in a rural ghanaian community 6540 the use of educom strategies) and religious considerations (religious factors impede the use of educom strategies by aeos) which scored cumulated weighted averages of 3.18 and 2.55 respectively. the daos also disclosed that much consideration is given to affordability when deciding on a strategy to use for extension education. it is always the double edge question of whether or not, the extension unit of the district department of agriculture can afford to use a particular strategy and if farmers can equally afford to pay for such services. two of the core variables examined in this objective, ethnic considerations and gender dimensions were not significant as the respondents dismissed them. ranking 4th and 5th with cumulated weighted averages of 1.90 and 1.54, the questions of whether “ethnic factors impede the use of educom strategies by aeos” and if “gender issues impede the use of certain educom strategies in innovation dissemination and adoption”, cashew farmers considered the two as insignificant in decisions relating to their choice of educom strategies in innovation adoption process in cashew production. this means that while the ethnicity and gender of farmers are considered when designing educom strategies that promotes adoption of good cashew production practices, the two factors neither impedes nor influence farmers choice. a cashew farmer’s ethnicity or a cashew farmer’s gender do not play any significant role in the farmer’s choice of educom strategy. conclusion this study examined various educom strategies which are often deployed by daos and aeos in the kpandai agriculture zone in adoption of good cashew production practices. the findings have demonstrated the influential nature of educom approaches to innovation adoption in northern ghana. the study recommends that educom as an approach of extension service should be strengthened since it has inherent potentials of influencing behavioural change and increasing adoption decisions among farmers. other approaches including audiovisuals aids, face to face interaction, local radio broadcasting, farmers group discussions and farmer field demonstrations must be intensified by aeos since these tools enhances adoption of good cashew farming practices. finally, the study recommends the integration of indigenous language in the design of educom approaches owing to the high illiteracy rate among cashew farmers in the study area in the promotion of adoption. this will not only foster better understanding of innovations or technologies being promoted, but will reduce the cost of designing, producing and promoting innovations by the daos and the aeos on the one hand, and in procuring extension services by the farmers in rural ghanaian communities who are already living in poverty and cannot afford the high cost of agriculture extension services delivery. references ali, a, mohammad a, & ebraheem a. (2012). effectiveness of agricultural extension activities. american journal of agricultural and biological sciences, 7 (2): 194-200. journal of extension education 6541 arroyave, j.c. (2018). testing the effectiveness of an entertainment-education healthfocused soap opera: exposure and postdiscussion in colombian young adults. investig desarrollo.16(2):232– 261. belden, c, birner, r, asante, f. & horowitz, l. (2010). agricultural extension in ghana: results of a survey of agricultural extension agents in six districts. retrieved from: https:// g s s p . f i l e s .w o rd p re s s . c o m / 2 0 1 0 / 0 5 / agricultural_extension_draft.pdf brown, w.j. (2015). examining four processes of audience involvement with media personae: transportation, parasocial interaction, identification, and worship. communication theory. 25(3) 259-283. dzadze, p, osei mensah, j, aidoo, r, nurah, g.k. (2012). factors determining access to formal credit in ghana: a case study of smallholder farmers in the aburaasebu kwamankese district of central region of ghana. journal of development and agricultural economics. 4 (14), 416–423. knight, g. p, carlo, g, mahrer, n. e, & davis, a. n. (2016). the socialization of culturally related values and prosocial tendencies among mexican-american adolescents. child development, 87(6), 1758–1771 https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12634 okunade, e.o. (2007). effectiveness of extension teaching methods in acquiring knowledge, skills and attitude by women farmers in osun state-nigeria. journal of applied sciences research. 3 (4), 282-286. singhal, a. (2004). entertainment-education through participatory theatre: freirean strategies for empowering the oppressed. in singhal, a, cody, m, rogers, e. m, & sabido, m. (eds.), entertainment-education and social change: history, research, and practice. (pp. 377-398). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. tufte, t. (2001). entertainment–education and participation: assessing the communication strategy of soul city. journal of international communication, 7(2), 25-50. wang, h. & singhal, a. (2009). entertainmenteducation through digital games. in ut, r., cody, m. & verderer, p. (eds). serious games: mechanisms and effects. pp. zt1-292. ny: routledge. edu-communication strategies of cashew production in a rural ghanaian community https://gssp.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/agricultural_extension_draft.pdf https://gssp.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/agricultural_extension_draft.pdf https://gssp.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/agricultural_extension_draft.pdf 6448 entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in agro food parks rin rose antony1 and allan thomas2 abstract the study was conducted in agro food parks (afps) of kerala, to analyse the entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in afps. a sample of 80 respondents was randomly selected from the four functional afps. ex-post facto research design was employed for the study. it was observed that about 66 per cent of the respondents had medium entrepreneurial behaviour. the results of correlation analysis revealed that the entrepreneurial behaviour was positively and significantly related with education, cosmopoliteness, market perception, management orientation, extension orientation, group cohesion, environmental orientation, problem solving ability, credit orientation and economic motivation. keywords: entrepreneurship, behaviour; agripreneurs; agro food parks; credit, socio-economic behaviour; kerala 1 department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala-695522 2 krishi vigyan kendra, ambalavayal, wayanad, kerala673593 received : 03-08-2020; accepted : 20-09-2020 research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 1, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.1.32.6448-6454 introduction india is an agrarian economy with 61.50 per cent of its population depending on agriculture to earn their livelihood (agricultural census of india, 2011). agriculture accounted for 23% of gdp in the country and employed 59% of the country’s total workforce in 2016 according to the report of fao (2017). in order to bring prosperity to the sector and its stakeholders, agriculture has to practically transform to agribusiness. to boost entrepreneurship in agriculture, the indian government has initiated the food park scheme, which promotes the development of food processing industrieson cluster based approach. agro food parks (afps) are comprehensive industrial estates for food processing units where the industries would have provision for common facilities (mofpi, 2014). afps develop a synergy between two pillars of the economy-agriculture and industry. considering the potential of food processing sector in india and the need for entrepreneurial development in this sector the present study was undertaken with the objective to assess the status of entrepreneurial behaviour of the agripreneurs in afps of kerala and also to identify the relationship between sociopsychological variables and entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs. methodology four functional afps in the state of kerala were purposively selected based on the 6449 variability of services they offer. they include spices parkidukki, seafood parkalappuzha, kinfra food parkernakulam and kinfra food parkmalappuram. a total of 80 agripreneurs with 20 agriprenurs from each fpo were randomly selected for the study. a pretested, structured questionnaire was prepared and administered to the respondents and survey method was employed for data collection. ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. independent variables viz., age, education, experience, cosmopoliteness, market perception, management orientation, extension orientation, group cohesion, environmental orientation, problem solving ability, organisational climate, credit orientation and economic motivation were selected based on judges rating. the dependent variable of the study was entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in afps. the scale in a five point continuum developed by wankhade et al. (2013) was used for assessing the entrepreneurial behaviour. it consists of 10 components viz., risk taking, hope of success, persuasibility, feedback usage, self-confidence, knowledgeability, persistence, manageability, innovativeness and achievement motivation. each component consists of 5 statements, hence making a total of 50 statements. all statements were ranked on a five point continuum. scores varied from 50 to 250. all the scores were cumulated to find the total score of entrepreneurial behaviour. the respondents were categorised into low, medium and high category of entrepreneurial behaviour with mean and standard deviation as check. also, the correlation coefficient between entrepreneurial behaviour and the socio-psychological characteristics of agripreneurs in afps were estimated using jmp (sas institute) software. findings and discussion entrepreneurial behaviour was the dependent variable of the study. it is evident from table 1 that 62.5 per cent of the agripreneurs belonged to medium level of entrepreneurial behaviour followed by 21.25 per cent of agripreneurs in low category and only 12.50 per cent of the respondents had high level of entrepreneurial behaviour. table 1. distribution of agripreneurs based on their entrepreneurial behaviour (n=80) sl. no. category range of scores frequency percentage 1. low < 161.44 17 21.25 2. medium 161.44-184.76 53 66.25 3. high >184.76 10 12.50 mean= 173.10; standard deviation = 11.66; standard error= 1.30 entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in agro food parks 6450 the socio-psychological characteristics of agripreneurs in afps were estimated and the data in table 2 indicate that majority of the agripreneurs belonged to medium category of age, experience, cosmopoliteness, market perception, management orientation, extension orientation, group cohesion, problem solving ability, organisational climate, credit orientation and economic motivation. it also reveals that majority (58.75%) of the agripreneurs were middle aged i.e., between 35 and 55 years. it is noted that none of the respondents were illiterate and about 66.25 per cent were graduates and above. the high educational qualification of the respondents might be attributed to the high literacy rate and well established educational system in the state of kerala. over 72.50 per cent of respondents had anexperience of 2-9 years in agripreneurial activities. majority of the respondents had medium level of cosmopoliteness (70%) and medium to high level of market perception (77.5%). agripreneurs in afps are associated with exporting of commodities and market led activities, hence exposing them more to the international market and the external environment. majority of the respondents were in the medium category of problem table 2. personal, social and psychological characteristics of agripreneurs in the afps (n=80) sl. no. independent variables category statistical measures 1. age young ( < 35 years) middle aged ( 35-55 years) old aged ( >55 years) mean=46.61 sd = 11.21 range: 26-7113 (16.25) 47 (58.75) 20 (25.00) 2. education middle high school collegiate mean=12.49 sd = 1.81 range: 6-14 3 (11.25) 24 (72.50) 53 (66.25) 3. experience low medium high mean = 5.51 sd = 3.60 range: 1-16 9 (11.25) 58 (72.50) 13 (16.25) 4. cosmopoliteness low medium high mean=9.20 sd = 2.24 range: 2-13 11 (13.75) 56 (70.00) 13 (16.25) 5. market perception low medium high mean = 6.59 sd = 1.35 range: 4-9 18 (22.50) 40 (50.00) 22 (27.50) journal of extension education 6451 solving ability (63.75%), credit orientation (62.5%), economic motivation (63.75%), management orientation (63.75%), group cohesion (71.25%), extension orientation (70%) and organisational climate (93.75). more than three-fourths (78.75%) of the respondents had high level of environmental orientation. this might be attributed to the environmental friendly attitude of the agripreneurs who ventured their enterprises in sl. no. independent variables category statistical measures 6. problem solving ability low medium high mean = 30.73 sd = 2.62 range: 24-36 16 (20.00) 51 ( 63.75) 13 ( 16.25) 7. management orientation low medium high mean = 14.46 sd = 2.20 range: 8-18 16 (20.00) 51 (63.75) 13 (16.25) 8. extension orientation low medium high mean = 12.58 sd = 3.78 range: 5-20 13 (16.25) 56 (70.00) 11 (13.75) 9. credit orientation low medium high mean = 13.4 sd = 1.55 range: 9-16 10 (12.50) 50 (62.50) 20 (25.00) 10. economic motivation low medium high mean =3.93 sd = 0.95 range: 2-6 5 (6.25) 51 (63.75) 24 (30.00) 11. group cohesion low medium high mean = 5.21 sd = 1.42 range: 2-8 9 (11.25) 57 (71.25) 14 (17.50) 12. organisational climate low medium high mean = 23.16 sd = 2.58 range: 16-32 1 (1.25) 75 ( 93.75) 4 (5.00) 13. environmental orientation low high mean = 3.76 sd = 0.45 range: 2-4 17 (21.25) 63 (78.75) entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in agro food parks 6452 food parks because of its sustainable nature. also proper waste disposal mechanisms and effluent treatment plants are functional in all the four afps which clearly indicated the high environmental concern of food parks and its members. zero order correlation coefficient between entrepreneurial behaviour and the socio-psychological characteristics of agripreneurs in afps were estimated and the data in table 3 reveal that out of thirteen independent variables, ten variables were significantly correlated to entrepreneurial behaviour, of which six variables namely, cosmopoliteness, market perception, problem solving ability,credit orientation, extension orientation and management orientation were positively correlated at 1% level of significance. whereas, four variables viz., education, environmental orientation, group cohesion and economic motivation were positively and significantly correlated at 5% level of significance. other variables like age, experience and organizational climate showed non-significant relationship with entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs. cosmopoliteness caters to the agripreneur’s information needs and resources from the very locality in which the enterprise exists. the results were in consonance with the findings of choudhari (2007). market perception enables the agripreneurs to identify the current market trends, marketing channels and other market information. problem solving ability helps the agripreneurs to identify problems, analyse it and take appropriate decisions that helps to nurture their business environment and similar results were reported by raj (2018). lack of awareness on savings, credit and subsidies can adversely affect the agripreneurs in terms of deriving sustainable profit and sustaining the agri business in the long run and this could be the reason for significant relationship between credit orientation and entrepreneurial behaviour. credit orientation may play an important role in the adoption of agricultural innovations. agripreneurs largely depend on the financial institutions for loans and other services to improve their business. hence credit orientation is indispensable to enhance entrepreneurial behaviour. extension orientation provides the agripreneurs information such as development initiatives which are relevant to their enterprise. also contact with the extension personnel will help them to legitimize the decision regarding their enterprise and hence this variable becomes important. the result obtained was in conformity with the findings of sofeghar (2017). management orientation was significantly correlated as it enables the agripreneur to optimize the production with available resources through proper planning, production and marketing strategies. education, environmental orientation, group cohesion and economic motivation were positively and significantly correlated at 5% level of significance. education being the solution for acquiring knowledge, it widens the mental horizon of agripreneurs making them more innovative, change prone and scientifically oriented and the results journal of extension education 6453 fall in line with the findings of muleva et al. (2019). environmental orientation was significant as perceived by the agripreneurs that enabled them to develop a sustainable business environment with support of the regional people. the agro food park can raise their status of esteem through following environmental friendly measures addressing issues of externalities and thereby earn the confidence of the local people situated in and around the venue of food park. group cohesion was felt significant by agripreneurs in this study too like that of abubakar and abubakar (2016) who reported that when agripreneurs are organised in groups, their overall entrepreneurial characteristics enhance. it is obvious that economic motivation could be significant because, if an agripreneur develops higher levels of economic motivation, he strives hard to achieve it and also internalizes different aspects about managing enterprise to sustain the enterprise for a long run besides the motive for profit maximization. hence, it is quite natural to expect a positive relationship between entrepreneurial behaviour and economic motivation. conclusion the paper examined the underlying construct ‘entrepreneurial behaviour’ of agripreneurs in afps of kerala. the study has clearly shown that majority of the agripreneurs had medium level of entrepreneurial behaviour. the correlation analysis indicated that variables such as cosmopoliteness, market perception, problem solving ability, credit orientation, extension orientation and table 3. correlation between entrepreneurial behaviour and profile characteristics sl. no. profile characteristics correlation coefficient 1. age -0.052ns 2. education 0.225 * 3. experience 0.150ns 4. cosmopoliteness 0.360 ** 5. market perception 0.421 ** 6. problem solving ability 0.551 ** 7. credit orientation 0.488 ** 8. environmental orientation 0.257 * 9. economic motivation 0.276 * 10. group cohesion 0.263 * 11. organizational climate 0.107ns 12. management orientation 0.477 ** 13. extension orientation 0.402 ** (** 1% significant level, * 5% significant level) entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in agro food parks 6454 management orientation showed significant relationship with entrepreneurial behaviour at 1 per cent level of probability. whereas, education, environmental orientation, group cohesion and economic motivationshowed significant relationship with entrepreneurial behaviour at 5 per cent level of probability. focus should be to contemplate over the right personal, social and psychological variables that can influence the entrepreneurial behaviour of the agripreneurs of afps. therefore, efforts have to be taken to increase the level of entrepreneurial behaviour through intensive training and awareness programmes, demonstrations, venture visits and such extension interventions that would augment the motivation of agripreneurs for their socioeconomic upliftment through scaling up of ventures through agro food parks. references abubakar, h.l. & abubakar, h.s. (2016). impact of group cohesion on entrepreneurial success of women entreprenurs in kaduna metropolis. retrieved from: https://www. academia.edu/35115896/impact_of_ group_cohesion_on_entrepreneurial_ success_of_women_entrepreneurs_in_ kaduna_metropolis. agricultural census of india. (2011). all india report on agriculture census 201011. ministryof agriculture &farmers welfare,government of india. 441p. chaudhari. r.r, hirevenkanagoudar, l.v, hanchinal, s.n, mokashi, a.n., kathki, p.a, & banakar, b. (2007). a scale for measurement of entrepreneurial behaviour of dairy farmers. karnataka journal of agricultural science. 20 (4), 792-796. fao. (2017). fao (food and agriculture organisation). retrieved from: http://www. fao.org/india/fao-in-india/india-at-aglance/en/ mofpi. (2014). annual report 2013-14 [on line]. retrieved from: http://www. mofpi.nic.in/h_dwld.aspx?kyewmol +hgpoo8dlnekvv 3fe4aw5 +awtgdn zc9kp6bhp7nszwxlmtq. muleva, a, wankhede. a, choudhary, s & jain, s.k. (2019). entrepreneurial behaviour of tomato producers under national horticulture mission (nhm) in dhar district of madhya pradesh. iosr-journal of agriculture and veterinary sciences,12(10), 47-49. raj, n. (2018). entrepreneurial behaviour of lease land vegetable growers in thiruvananthapuram district. unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 131p. sofeghar, m.h. (2017). a study on entrepreneurial behaviour of grape growers in bagalkote district of karnataka. unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis, acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university, hyderabad, 184p. wankhade, r.p, sagane, m.a & mankar, d.m (2013). entrepreneurial behaviour of vegetable growers. agriculture science digest 33(2), 85-91 journal of extension education 5603 social capital formation through farm women groups in vegetable production in kollam district of kerala revathy chandran1 and g.s. sreedaya2 abstract social capital refers to the trust, mutual understanding and shared values which facilitate the collective action and social co-ordination. it can create a service which can enhance the output obtainable from other inputs. trust, co-operation, networks and norms are the important aspects of social capital. farmer producer organization is the most appropriate institutional form around which to mobilize farmers and build their capacity to collectively leverage their production and marketing strength. women groups have emerged as a major source of inspiration for women and collective action of women through their groups strengthened women in all spheres of life. this study was conducted among 120 women respondents in six selected panchayats of kollam district in kerala with the he main objective of assessing the social capital formation through farm women groups. social capital was measured using social capital assessment tool (socat) developed by world bank. the results showed that there 82% of the respondents had medium level of social capital formation and the continuous efforts of various governmental and non-governmental agencies had tremendously helped in shifting this neutral attitude of people. keywords : social capital, social networks, trust, women groups. introduction social capital refers to the trust, mutual understanding and shared values which facilitate the collective action and social co-ordination. social capital ponders to the characteristics of a society that stimulates co-operation among the individuals. it can create a service which can enhance the output obtainable from other inputs. ‘networks’, ‘norms’ and ‘trust’ can be considered as the three important attributes of social capital. 1-senior pg scholar and 2assistant professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani-695522, thiruvananthapuram,kerala. received : 3-6-2016; accepted : 28-6-2016 unlike human and physical capital, social capital lies as a latent (embedded) resource waiting to be mobilised and utilised, growing and developing with use. (morris et al.,2006) . women groups is the new strategy which enables women to achieve their needs through the overall output of the group. this expected collective or economic benefits derived from the preferential treatment and cooperation between individuals and groups is known journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5604 as the social capital. social capital is enhanced through people employing both functioning and capabilities in self help groups within a framework of trust and inclusion, resulting in closer bonding and reciprocal arrangements that bring benefits to all members (ibrahim ,2006). kerala is a consumer state as far as vegetables are concerned. major share of the fresh vegetable supply for the state comes from neighbouring states. women groups have emerged as a major source of inspiration for women. groups provide a platform for women through which they can speak for their needs and work for their needs. with this background, the present study aims at measuring the scale of social capital formation through farm women groups and to study the involvement of farm women in panning production and marketing aspects of vegetables. methodology the scale of social capital was measured using social capital assessment tool (socat) developed by (world bank, 2010). the socat is a multifaceted instrument designed to collect social capital data at the house hold, community and organisational levels. it includes both qualitative and quantitative measurement techniques. qualitative techniques include focus group discussion (fgd), community mapping and participatory rural appraisal (pra). the quantitative techniques involved the use of pre-tested and structured interview schedules. socat seeks to operationalize emerging theories regarding the dimensions of social capital, creating validated indicators that can measure the levels of social capital and its relationship with other development indicators in the area of poverty alleviation. six panchayats were identified from kollam district based on the number of maximum women groups and one group was selected by random sampling. fifteen members were randomly selected from each group along with 30 extension facilitators of kollam district which constitute a total of 120 respondents. fingings and discussion social capital measured using socat • due to exposure to the group meetings respondents was well aware of their resources, institutions and marketing channels both within and outside the panchayat. • all the respondents were aware of the support services received from vfpck, kudumbashree, krishi bhavan and they frequently visit these organizations. • membership in the group enhanced individual soft skills like communication skill, leadership, team building, conflict management etc of the respondents. • group meetings enhanced connection, co-ordination and cojournal of extension education 5605 social capital formation through farm women groups in vegetable production in kollam district operation among individuals. • also, exposure to the trainings and acquaintance with staff of various organizations helped the respondents to improve their evaluation ability. • members also exhibited improved risk taking ability because of the feeling of ‘togetherness’. • enhanced trust, bonding and reciprocal arrangements among group members created more socialization even between the family members of the respondents. distribution of respondents based on the scale of social capital formation. it was found that majority of respondents belongs to the medium category in their social capital formation. i.e. 82 per cent of the respondents belong to the medium category whereas only 10 per cent belongs to the high category. eight per cent of the respondents fall under the low social capital formation groups. majority of the people in the society have a neutral attitude towards co-operation, helping others and volunteership. it is obvious that continuous efforts of state department of agriculture, vfpck, kudumbasree mission and other ngos, have created a wave in farming community especially vegetable scenario. a lot of groups were promoted by these organization many of them are women group and this might be the reason as majority of the respondents fall under medium category and for a considerable reduction of respondents who fall in the low category. (fig.1) scale of social capital formation the maximum social capital was observed in the karavaloor panchayat with 71%, followed by pavithreshwaram and the minimum social capital was obtained in pooyapally panchayat securing 48%. from the participating rural appraisal conducted and discussions with the women groups ,it was evident that there was good social capital formation among the members of the group under study. karavaloor panchayat where the maximum social capital formation was achieved have very active women members who are looking forward for more opportunities. the activities of kudumbasree over the last few years might have increased the level of trust and solidarity among the group members ( n=90) fig 1. distribution of respondents based on the scale of social capital formation. 5606 in karavaloor panchayath. this might be the reason for high social capital in karavaloor panchayatkudumbashree, atma and vfpck have enabled women to organize into groups and thereby increase their social capital formation through interaction, entrepreneurship and creative activities as well. conclusion this study is significant as it addresses the soccial capital formation through farm women groups. the present study revealed that majority of the farm women had medium level of social capital formation (82%). it was found that the maximum social capital formation was observed in karavaloor panchayat with 71% social capital formation followed by pavithreshwaram with 68% social capital formation. the study revealed that more support from the government and extension facilitators is needed for developing a high level of social capital formation. references ibrahim, s. (2006), from individual to collective capabilities: the capability approach as a conceptual frame work for self help. journal of human development. 7(3), 397-416. morris, s., woodworth, w. & hiatt, s. (2006). the value of networks in enterprise development: case studies in eastern europe and southeast asia. journal of developmental entrepreneurship. 11(4), 345-356. sanyal, p. (2009). from credit to collective action: the role of microfinance in promoting women’s social capital and normative influence. american sociological review. 74: 529-550. world bank. (2009). world development report 2007/2008. world bank, washington. fig 2. distribution of respondents based on the scale of social capital formation. journal of extension education jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 technology needs assessment in the homegarden systems allan thomas1 and n. kishore kumar abstract the study was conducted in four districts of kerala covering a sample size of 208 homegardens using multi-stage stratified random sampling technique representing the three major agro climatic zones viz. lowland (problem zone), highland and midland. the primary objective of the study was to identify the technology needs of the homegarden farmers. maximum technology need was reported for unexploited and under exploited horticultural tree crops which was on par with fruit tree crops (mango and jack) and followed by beverage crops. processing, value addition and storage requirements were immediate technology needs of the homegarden farmers. drainage and soil amendment technologies were reported to be important for alappuzha homegarden farmers. 1assistant professor and 2professor of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayanai, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. technology can be defined as any information which has got some practical utility for the users and which has been tested as feasible, crude, economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally harmless under user’s conditions. the ultimate objective of research in agriculture is to develop technologies that are suitable for users. in kerala, homegardens forms the basic and important form of agricultural production system covering more than 70 per cent of its land area facilitating the interaction of treecropanimal husbandry-specialized components mix combination in an intensive manner. evolving new technology is an endeavour in the direction of increasing production efficiency (swaminathan. 1979). the rapid technology progress and the increased rate of obsolescence of technologies necessitate technology forecasting for any planning process especially to understand the technology needs of homegardens as only a very little research has been undertaken in this direction. technology needs can be defined as a probabilistic prediction of technological changes in terms of future characteristics of useful machines, systems or procedures and needs of the clients (rao, 1998). keeping in mind the aforesaid facts a research study was undertaken in southern kerala for identifying the technology needs of the homegardens. methodology this study was undertaken in southern kerala comprising thiruvananthapuram, kollam, alappuzha and pathanamthitta districts covering a sample size of 208 homegardens using multi-stage stratified random sampling technique. after the feedback from the farmers during pilot survey and discussion with experts, the researcher came out with some concrete specification received : 28 mar, 2016; accepted : 02 may, 2016 5557technology needs assessment in the homegarden systems regarding various technology/ scientific operations and the technology needs of farmers were worked out. the needs assessment was worked out by using score/rank as stated below. drainage technologies, storage technologies, processing technologies and value addition technologies were collected in the above said scale for all the categories of crops raised by the homegarden farmer. thus technology needs scores of all the 52 farmers of each of the four districts were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis. the scores assigned being in ordinal scale, the non-parametric test of analysis of variance (kruskal wallis test) was administered. in order to assess the need disparities between the different districts, chi-square test was again employed for obtaining the results findings and discussion the results for technology needs assessment was made for knowing the category of crops that needed technology for homegarden farmers in their district (table 1) and technology need for each category of crops with respect to their practices in each district (tables 2 to 5). a. technology needs of crops in different districts from table 1, it is evident that the highest needs for technology (or the low technology availability) was recorded for under and unexploited horticultural tree crops, which was on par with that of fruit trees (mango and jack) and beverages in alappuzha district. the lowest need of technology was for rubber and was on par with that of spices. the need for technology of remaining crops in the score/rank criteria 1 technology not available (most needed) 2 technology available but not applicable 3 technology available but not sustainable 4 technology available, applicable and sustainable the technology needs of farmers vary according to the crops they cultivate, the managerial levels in which they operate, the deficits in the demand and supply of the crops they raise with reference to the specificities of the land they engages for cultivation and the agronomic norms the plant demands. it was with these perspectives, grouping of technology needs of the farmers were done and classified into the aforesaid broad categories. the categories are so framed and named so as to accommodate all the crops. the technology needs with reference to all these 14 parameters viz., variety, planting material, selection of intercrops, spacing, irrigation management technologies, soil amendment technologies, nutrient management technologies, pest management technologies, disease management technologies, homegarden machinery, journal of extension education5558 table 1. technology needs of crops in different districts decreasing order of need was for cashew, fruits (banana and pineapple), tuber, vegetable and coconut. for homegarden farmers in kollam district higher need for technology was again recorded for under and unexploited horticultural tree crops and was on par with that of fruit trees, beverages and cashew. high availability of technology (low need for technology) was recorded for rubber and was on par with that of spices. the technology needs of other crops in the decreasing order of needs were for fruits (banana and pineapple), vegetables, tubers and coconut. the technology needs for homegarden farmers of pathanamthitta was also highest in case of under and unexploited horticultural tree crops, which was on par with that of cashew and fruit trees. the lowest technology need was for rubber that was on par with that of spices. the technology need for other crops as expressed by the homegarden farmers of pathanamthitta in the decreasing order of needs was for crops like fruits (pineapple/ banana), vegetables, beverages, coconut and tubers. the highest technology need of homegarden farmers of thiruvananthapuram district was recorded for under and unexploited horticultural tree crops that were on par with that of fruit trees (mango and jack) and cashew. the lowest need of technology was sl. no. district crop tvm klm alp pta 1 vegetables 81.500 115.813 135.833 88.318 2 tubers 129.121 116.087 133.047 144.217 3 coconut 141.673 130.847 159.510 140.192 4 spices 183.848 178.125 189.890 182.262 5 beverages 90.167 38.765 32.790 95.600 6 fruits 85.355 89.068 88.580 83.453 7 fruit trees 33.788 37.481 50.670 34.920 8 under and unexploited horticultural tree crops 14.375 15.375 22.770 13.880 9 rubber 183.813 183.971 203.160 214.680 10 cashew 37.250 48.250 69.000 33.143 chi 157.711 172.0416 187.3327 191.3079 c.v. 41.26915 48.886 41.60251 47.76447 5559technology needs assessment in the homegarden systems recorded for spices crops, which was on par with rubber. the need for other crops in the decreasing order of need was for vegetables, fruits (banana/pineapple), beverages, tubers and coconut. b. technology needs specific for crop categories with respect to scientific practices in thiruvananthapuram, kollam, alappuzha and pathanamthitta districts table 2. technology needs for crops with respect to different practices in thiruvananthapuram district vegetables 102 105.292 68.625 105.292 109.33 109.33 109.33 109.33 89.125 58 109.33 36 36 36 80.329 (38.921) tuber 290.5 290.5 194.83 256.88 184.03 290.5 290.5 144.81 139.21 99.21 284.90 235.5 111.14 36.5 254.3261 (60.401) coconut 509.5 509.5 413.702 344.72 395.85 509.5 509.5 332.52 263.52 163.17 509.5 509.5 66.27 66.27 550.2676 (80.84) spices 424.5 424.5 424.5 424.5 393.93 424.5 409.22 363.37 348.09 355.35 393.93 424.5 378.65 164.7 503.6872 (53.808) beverages 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 394.5 352.83 394.5 352.83 93.9118 (33.74) fruit 457 457 332.66 372.48 370.92 478.31 457 428.31 457 202.16 457 62 62 62 2382.225 (62.644) fruit trees 498 498 342.02 145.79 443.96 422.35 476.38 374.44 465.58 208.02 498 122.73 52.46 52.4 3127.661 (57.2) uuhtc 68 164.25 145.875 127.06 127.06 145 131.66 131.66 131.66 76.97 103.88 68 76.97 76.97 70.4187 (44.91) rubber 75 75 19.37 75 32.46 75 75 26.5 32.56 75 75 75 75 5 100.4412 (31.826) cashew 87 80.83 46.75 33.75 39.92 87 62.33 40.25 46.75 11.5 87 11.5 36.67 11.5 252.518 (27.603) crop/ cultural practices variety planting material selection of intercrop spacing irrigation management soil amendment nutrient management pest management disease management home garden machinery drainage technology storage technology processing value addition chi2 (c.v) uuhtc-un and under exploited horticultural tree crops a detailed perusal of tables 2 to 5 indicates that there is significant difference in need for technology among different crops in different districts. the highest technology needs reported by the homegarden farmers of thiruvananthapuram district was for value addition irrespective of all crops and the districts of study. the lowest technology needs or the highest technology availability was reported for irrigation management, soil amendment, nutrient management, pest management and drainage technology, which was on par with planting material, spacing, variety and disease management mainly for vegetables, tubers, coconut, spices, fruits (banana and pineapple) irrespective of the districts of study. however differences were noted in alappuzha district where, in addition to high technology needs for storage, processing and value addition, technology needs for drainage was felt very important by majority of the homegarden farmers employed with vegetable cultivation. journal of extension education5560 for tuber crops a similar pattern of technology needs was observed for the homegarden farmers of kollam and pathanamthitta districts except for suitable processing technology and homegarden machinery which was felt to be a highly needed technology requirement for the homegarden farmers of kollam and pathanamthitta. the technology needs of homegarden farmers of all the four districts of study for coconut were following a similar pattern for highest and lowest technology needs except in case of drainage technology which was a felt need by the homegarden farmers of alappuzha district. the need for technology in other areas for coconut growers were for homegarden suited machineries, pest and disease management technology, spacing, irrigation management technology and selection of intercrops. in case of spice growing homegarden farmers of pathanamthitta district, highest needs for technology was reported for homegarden machinery whereas the highest needs for technologies in alappuzha district was reported for drainage technology and was on par with that of homegarden machinery, value addition and pest management. unlike other crops for beverages the highest technology needs for homegarden farmers in thiruvananthapuram districts was for value addition which was on par with all other technology needs like varieties, planting material selection, selection of intercrops, soil amendment, nutrient management, homegarden machinery, disease management, storage, processing and pest management table 3. the technology needs for crops with respect to different practices in kollam district vegetables 73 73 58.75 73 73 73 73 73 62.785 37.375 73 16 16 16 90.7246 (31.826) tuber 232 232 152.174 198.478 153.783 232 232 120.261 114.674 74.543 226.413 185.523 78.152 29 205.1919 (53.808) coconut 479.5 479.5 389.561 326.316 371.704 479.5 479.5 319.867 245.276 153.663 479.5 479.5 62.806 62.806 517.4835 (78.473) spices 412.5 412.5 224.79 365.57 365.57 412.5 412.5 365.57 365.57 298.64 389.04 365.57 365.57 177.86 1572.619 (59.353) beverages 411.5 411.5 411.5 394.62 377.44 411.5 411.5 360.85 251.56 223.56 411.5 265.32 348.85 140.03 491.7938 (46.285) fruit 403 403 362.43 360.32 375.95 403 403 389.48 375.95 354.11 403 386.70 174.86 44.5 780.5557 (52.629) fruit trees 477 477 285.33 319.85 430.81 367 390.71 407 348.42 395.56 477 53.5 53.5 53.5 5404.33 (57.199) uuhtc 68 164.25 145.88 127.06 127.06 145 131.66 131.66 131.66 76.97 103.88 68 76.97 76.97 70.4518 (44.909) rubber 154.5 154.5 47.56 154.5 66.79 154.5 154.5 48.0 110.65 154.5 154.5 154.5 154.5 9.5 202.90 (46.285) cashew 47.5 39 30.5 24.5 18.50 47.50 39 24.5 30.50 7.5 47.5 7.5 27.5 7.5 44.980 (22.604) crop/ cultural practices variety planting material selection of intercrop spacing irrigation management soil amendment nutrient management pest management disease management home garden machinery drainage technology storage technology processing value addition chi2 (c.v) uuhtc-un and under exploited horticultural tree crops 5561technology needs assessment in the homegarden systems technologies which signifies the necessity of focusing on almost all technology needs. the district wise analysis for fruit trees (mango and jack) and under and unexploited horticultural tree crops showed a more or less similar pattern in technology needs. highest technology needs for the under and unexploited horticultural tree crops in thiruvananthapuram was for storage technologies and variety, which was on par with that of homegarden machinery, processing, value addition and drainage technologies. lowest technology need was for planting material, which was on par with that of selection of intercrops, soil amendments, nutrient management, pest management, disease management, spacing and irrigation management. in case of kollam homegarden table 4. the technology need for crops with respect to different practices in alappuzha district rice 58.5 58.5 6.58 23 58.5 58.5 58.5 52.58 58.5 21.17 23 52.58 58.5 6.58 77.9066 (27.60) vegetables 137 137 129.97 137 137 137 137 137 132.07 129.97 31.5 31.5 31.5 31.5 197.8943 (43.49) tuber 215 215 156 204.48 157.12 215 215 125.55 115.02 105 34.5 189.21 83.62 34.5 199.608 (51.42) coconut 512.5 512.5 421.56 347.6 404.41 512.5 512.5 340.07 266.11 168.54 364.66 512.5 64.75 64.75 513.4261 (80.07) spices 82.5 82.5 70.83 70.83 82.5 82.5 82.5 41.67 82.5 13.11 11.0 76.67 76.67 33.22 96.32 (33.74) beverages 88.12 196 77.21 192.79 189.59 196 157.47 125.41 125.41 65 65 65 65 65 185.7103 (46.28) fruit 463 463 388.95 409.45 314.91 463 463 463 463 232.7 83 83 83 83 5693.702 (64.42) fruit trees 504.5 504.5 255.67 161.60 289.05 449.88 504.5 477.19 419.53 504.5 504.5 59.5 59.5 595 20155.07 (60.40) rubber 492.5 492.5 455.95 236.95 173.41 221 356.14 433.32 492.5 474.5 402.5 402.5 492.5 492.5 2573.357 (52.62) uuhtc 154 154 51.41 154 66.06 154 154 53.5 110.03 154 53.5 154 154 8.5 195.1737 (44.91) cashew 47.5 39 30.50 24.5 18.5 47.5 39 24.5 30.5 7.5 47.5 7.5 27.5 7.5 44.98 (22.60) crop/ cultural practices variety planting material selection of intercrop spacing irrigation management soil amendment nutrient management pest management disease management home garden machinery drainage technology storage technology processing value addition chi2 (c.v) uuhtc-un and under exploited horticultural tree crops farmers there was a noted difference where the farmers felt high need for suitable intercropping technologies. except in case of alappuzha district the results were the same like that of other crops in case of all other districts of study when it comes to homegarden rubber growers. however, in alappuzha district the highest needs of technology was reported for irrigation management which was on par with the needs for soil amendment technologies. in case of cashew based homegardens, the highest technology needs reported by the homegarden farmers of thiruvananthapuram district was for value addition, storage and homegarden machinery, which were on par with spacing and processing. lowest need for technology was for variety, soil amendment journal of extension education5562 table 5. technology needs for crops with respect to different practices in pathanamthitta district vegetables 95.27 98.23 61.41 98.23 102.64 102.64 102.64 102.64 80.59 51.09 102.64 29 29 29 90.3685 (37.27) tuber 293 293 214 258.5 183.75 293 293 149.25 143.50 64 293 281.5 154.5 33 284.1808 (61.431) coconut 509.5 509.5 413.70 344.70 395.85 509.5 509.5 332.52 263.52 163.17 509.5 509.5 66.27 66.27 550.2676 (80.837) spices 422.5 422.5 422.5 422.50 422.5 422.5 388.98 305.17 321.93 209.55 422.5 355.45 422.5 369.36 641.7358 (51.423) beverages 397 397 397 397 397 397 397 397 397 397 397 359.4 321.6 287.45 114.3375 (35.551) fruit 451.28 460.5 322.22 338.53 349.88 451.28 460.5 432.84 460.50 88.31 460.5 63.5 63.5 63.5 2845.583 (63.441) fruit trees 494 494 367.84 140.92 393.7 425.84 448.56 436 430.92 263.90 494 317 51.5 51.5 2587.379 (56.092) uuhtc 72.5 176.15 157.97 136.76 132.59 159.68 137.24 137.24 137.24 83.82 115.29 72.5 81.53 72.5 80.069 (46.29) rubber 410.5 410.5 410.5 399.59 370.21 410.5 410.5 248.49 360.13 410.50 400.43 400.43 410.5 41.09 1463.419 (65.389) cashew 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 293.15 344.64 401 347.07 21.07 55.2508 (29.789) crop/ cultural practices variety planting material selection of intercrop spacing irrigation management soil amendment nutrient management pest management disease management home garden machinery drainage technology storage technology processing value addition chi2 (c.v) uuhtc-un and under exploited horticultural tree crops and drainage technologies, which was on par with that of planting material and nutrient management. the technology needs of other practices in the decreasing order of need were for irrigation management, pest management, disease management and selection of intercrops. homegardens with rice cultivation was found in alappuzha district and hence the technology needs assessment was done only for alappuzha district. the highest needs for technology were for value addition and selection of intercrop and were on par with that of disease management, spacing and drainage technologies. the lowest need for technologies were for variety, planting material, irrigation management, soil amendments, nutrient management, disease management and processing and was on par with that of storage and pest management technologies. generalizing the results, it was interesting to note that the technology needs of farmers for different crop categories were recorded maximum for value addition, processing and storage unlike the perceived traditional requirements. hence it could be concluded that farmers had definite technology needs with respect to different crop categories, different practices and it also varied in terms of districts. conclusion the overall study evidently proved that the maximum technology needs was reported for unexploited and under exploited horticultural tree crop components which was on par with 5563technology needs assessment in the homegarden systems that of fruit tree crops (mango and jack) followed by beverages and cashew irrespective of respondents from all the districts. also for various categories of crops, it was seen that farmers required more technologies for processing, value addition and storage irrespective of all crop categories and the different areas of study except in case of alappuzha district where respondents clearly indicated the need for drainage and soil amendment technologies. gok (2013) emphasis on creation of a food chain starting from the homegarden gate to retail outlets is inevitable for farmers to earn a greater share of the product sale revenue after adding value to their own produce homegardens suited technologies/machineries and irrigation technologies were also to be developed as it was reflected in the results of the study. technology requirement worked out based actual homegarden situation thus provides a holistic approach to enhance the functional diversity of homegardens enabling farmers to derive better returns from the different components in the homegardens fulfilling the objectives set forth in the technology assessment of homegarden systems. references barkema, a and drabenstott, m. 1995. the many paths of vertical coordination: structural implications for the us food systems. agri business, 11(5):483-492 gok (government of kerala) 2013. draft agricultural development policy of kerala state. 381p. rao, k.r. 1998. export oriented floriculturethe future. indian hort. 34:5-9 swaminathan, m.s. 1979. improved agronomic practices for dryland crops in india. all india co-ordinated research project for dryland agriculture, hyderabad, 175p. pages 2021-2.cdr introduction raising awareness is the process which informally educates people regarding the topics or issue with a purpose to influence their a�tudes, beliefs and behaviour towards achieving a defined purpose or goal. it can mobilize the power or opinions of masses in support of issues and challenges for the purpose of influencing the will of decision makers. there are v a r i o u s s t r a t e g i e s a d o p t e d b y t h e government of india for raising awareness of general masses with the help of different tools and methods which are helpful to 6671 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.2, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.2.33.6671-6678 an assessment of awareness campaigns in covid-19 management lalita va�a*, sneha singh* and ragini ranawat* abstract a public awareness campaign is a tool of social marke�ng technique. the quality of awareness campaign is determined based on its effec�veness which is evaluated by its impact on the audience. to know the awareness related to major media campaigns, during the covid-19 pandemic related to covid-appropriate behaviour, a survey tool was designed and administered in online mode among 200 young respondents from varanasi district of u�ar pradesh, india. data were collected through google forms shared via various social pla�orms and snowball sampling technique with age and area related restric�ons. the media campaign which made a great impact on the mind and heart of the respondents were “do gaj doori mask hai jaroori (mask and maintaining distance of two yards is necessary) ” and “jab tak dawai nahi tab tak dhilai nahi (no carelessness �ll a medicine is recommended)” the sources which made people aware were "caller tune" followed by "family and friends" . almost all components of covid-19 appropriate behaviour were known to the respondents except, seeking covid-19 related informa�on from reliable sources and refraining from sharing unverified social media posts. this research throws light on the interven�ons that can be more impac�ul and will thus help in be�er designing and dissemina�on of awareness campaigns in future. keywords: awareness campaigns; covid-19 management; sources of awareness; media campaign on covid-19; u�ar pradesh *department of home science, mahila maha vidyalaya, banaras hindu university, varanasi (u�ar pradesh) received : 22-01-2022; accepted: 13-07-2022 convey or spread awareness together with support and to influence public opinion towards preven�ve measures of covid-19. the awareness campaign includes press releases, dissemina�ng reports given by who and icmr, briefings, publica�ons and conclusion of studies, submissions given by commi�ee working for management of c o v i d 1 9 , w o r k i n g w i t h m e d i a , conferences/webinars related to covid-19 and crea�ng educa�onal material. range of different means and tools, such as radio, television, films, internet, social media, newspaper, mobile phones, leaflets and posters were used to disseminate the informa�on and awareness related to covid-19 before and during the outbreak of pandemic. the frequency of launch of different media campaigns increased with the increasing corona cases. awareness is defined as a set of various ac�vi�es planned for a set �me, for a specific target group with the aim to increase their knowledge which leads to bringing changes in their behaviour towards t h e s p e c i fi c s o c i a l i s s u e . i m p a c t o f awareness campaign is evaluated on five d i ff e r e n t l e v e l s v i z . , a w a r e n e s s , engagement, change in behaviour, social norms, and wellbeing. government of india has launched many awareness campaigns to sensi�ze the masses about preventa�ve measures, care during covid-19, accessing vaccina�on, post covid-19 health �ps, covid-19 tes�ng labs etc. in very simple language and through approachable media like mobile phone. many celebri�es, poli�cians and other responsible ci�zens are trying to change the nega�ve a�tude of the public and mo�va�ng them to avail medical facili�es by coopera�ng with medical personnel, which ul�mately leads to reducing corona virus infec�on in society (anderson et al. 2020; wang et al. 2020). a study by tiwari et al. (2021) on the effects of community awareness and global i n f o r m a � o n c a m p a i g n s , f o u n d t h a t dissemina�on rate of awareness among suscep�ble individuals at community level and individual level plays pivotal role in curtailing the covid-19 disease. in emergency �mes like the pandemic which affects billions of people across the globe, media can play a vital role. world health organisa�on (2020) reported that media c a n b e i d e n� fi e d a s n o co s t p a r � a l treatment at the early stage of epidemic o u t b re a k s w h e n m e d i c a l h e a l t h c a re facili�es and biomedical interven�ons (vaccina�on) are not sufficient to curtail the burden of disease. media play the role of p r i m e s o u rce of i nfo r m a � o n h av i n g no�ceable impact on the governmental healthcare involvement to bring the epidemic outbreak under control, as it affects individuals' behaviour toward the disease outbreak. in the last few decades, numerous studies have endeavored to assess the i m p a c t o f m e d i a i n v a r i o u s d i s e a s e 6672 journal of extension educa�on 6673 outbreaks. most of these studies have concluded that media has a posi�ve impact over reducing the transmission of disease. funk et al. (2009) observed that awareness campaigns can impede disease growth. misra et al. (2011) reported the impact of awareness programs by introducing an aware class that is isolated, and protected f ro m t h e i n fe c � o n s , fo r m e d by t h e campaigns. samanta et al. (2013) observed that an aware class caught infec�ons at a lower rate than the unaware class. it was reported that an increased rate of media campaigns results in decreased infec�on. rai et al. (2021) examined the social media adver�sements' impact on the transmission dynamics of covid-19 pandemic in india and concluded that non-pharmaceu�cal i n t e r v e n � o n s s t r a t e g i e s s h o u l d b e implemented effec�vely to reduce disease burden in india. thus, it can be stated that various media campaigns, if designed carefully, can be effec�ve in curbing pandemic like situa�ons in future. assessing the effec�veness of awareness campaigns can provide an insight into what appeals to the current genera�on and what kind of interven�ons can result i n t o m a x i m u m i m p a c t i n t e r m s o f behavioural change. agriculture is a field which requires constant awareness drives for the farming community about new technologies, weather warnings, possible pest a�acks or even newer policies and schemes. hence, assessing the awareness campaigns of such a wide scale which has endeavoured to touch millions of lives, can prove to be beneficial for policy makers and e x t e n s i o n p e r s o n n e l i n t h e fi e l d o f agriculture. the present research was conducted during the peak of covid-19 second wave i.e. during the month of april, 2021 to assess the awareness and knowledge about major media campaigns and their key messages. methodology study design and sampling the present research was conducted with 200 youth (100 males and 100 females of age between 19 and 24 years) residing in varanasi, u�ar pradesh, india as a part of a post-gradua�on disserta�on paper. this cross-sec�onal study u�lised a selfadministered, online ques�onnaire which was distributed through social media viz. facebook, whatsapp and emails across varanasi throughout april 2021. the ques�onnaire was created, designed, and disseminated using the google forms pla�orm. par�cipants were encouraged to fill out the form and assist in sharing the ques�onnaire with their family members, friends and rela�ves. thus, par�cipants were recruited by a snowball sampling technique. moreover, par�cipants were limited to one response to avoid duplicated or exaggerated data. included par�cipants were those who are currently living in varanasi (u�ar pradesh), had given an an assessment of awareness campaigns in covid-19 management i n f o r m e d c o n s e n t a n d s u c c e s s f u l l y completed the ques�onnaire. par�cipants residing outside the aforemen�oned area and outside the men�oned age range were e x c l u d e d . i n t h e l i g h t o f t h e recommenda�ons of self-isola�on and home quaran�ne, online surveys were considered the most appropriate method for data collec�on. the tool included q u e s � o n s r e l a t e d t o b a c k g r o u n d informa�on (their name, age, residence etc), awareness about major media campaigns (slogans), source of awareness about these campaigns and key components of covid19 appropriate behaviour. the sta�s�cal methods applied for data analysis were percentage analysis and chi square. data collec�on the data were collected in the month of april, 2021 when the second wave of covid-19 was in its peak in india. youth were selected as respondents because they are spending their �me more on internet as well as they could be helpful in spreading these messages fast and can play a key role in the ba�le of covid-19 vs human beings. findings and discussion this sec�on deals with presenta�on of data collected through ques�onnaire and its discussion. to facilitate the data presenta�on, the sec�on is divided into two sec�ons sec�onibackground informa�on of respondents sec�on-ii-awareness about major media campaigns on covid-19 and their sources sec�onibackground informa�on of respondents d a t a r e g a r d i n g b a c k g r o u n d informa�on revealed that 68 percent male and 32 percent female par�cipated in the survey, out of which maximum number of males (41%) belonged to 22-24 age c at e go r y a n d m a x i m u m fe m a l e s ( 4 0 percent) belonged to 19-21 years of age. their distribu�on according to their educa�on depicts that majority among both t h e g e n d e r s w e r e p u r s u i n g o r h a d completed their post-gradua�on degree (42% male and 45% female) and their residence (71 % male and 70 % female) is in varanasi, u�ar pradesh, india. sec�on-ii-awareness about major media campaigns on covid-19 and their sources g o v e r n m e n t h a d t a k e n v a r i o u s ini�a�ves to protect people of india from pandemic, including crea�ng awareness, imposing lock downs and establishment of temporary hospitals for the treatment of pa�ents. high density of popula�on had been a ma�er of serious concern for the government in be�er management of covid-19. government of india had made efforts to make people aware about covid1 9 t h ro u g h d i g i t a l m e d i a . t h e fi r s t successful effort was to set a caller tune in 6674 journal of extension educa�on female voice who was telling (to the person who ini�ated the call) about covid-19. this caller tune con�nued for approximately six months, a�erwards replaced by a new message and a new voice. 6675 table 1. awareness about key messages of media awareness campaigns n=200 analysis of table -1 shows that the most popular media campaign was “do gaj doori mask hai jaroori” which was on �ps followed by “jab tak dawai nahi, tab tak dhilai nahi”. both the messages were promoted by the most reputed names of india viz., the prime minister of india and a popular film actor, which shows the human psychology of people to focus on the things which are promoted by famous people. least no�ced messages were “koi road par na nikle (no one on the road)”, “#unite to fight corona” and “badalkar apna vyahvar karenge korona par vaar (through change in behaviour, we will a�ack corona”. the chi square test sta�s�c 2 in case of “do gaj doori mask hai jaroori” (χ = 13.50, p=0.0001), “jab tak dawai nahi, tab 2 tak dhilai nahi” (χ = 14.32, p=0.0001), “stay 2 home stay safe” (χ = 12.56, p=0.0021), 2 “corona harega desh jitega” (χ = 13.23, 2 p=0.009) and “be clean and be safe” (χ = 9 . 3 4 , p = 0 . 0 0 0 3 ) w a s f o u n d t o b e sta�s�cally significant based on ɑ level of significance (0.05). there was no significant difference between the awareness levels of male and female respondents. the above data could imply that for a message to cause significant impact, it is be�er to associate with a celebrity. in a study by krishnan et.al. (2021), it was an assessment of awareness campaigns in covid-19 management key messages awareness male (%) n=100 female (%) n=100 stay home stay safe 82 81 #unite to fight corona 14 8 be clean be healthy (saaf rahe swasth rahe) 61 73 jab tak dawai nahi tab tak dhilai nahi (no carelessness �ll a medicine is found) 92 90 do gaj doori mask hai jaroori (mask and maintaining distance of two yards is necessary) 95 97 koi road par na nikle (no one should go on road) 22 10 badal kar apna vyahvar karenge karona par war (through change in behaviour, we will a�ack corona) 9 2 corona harega, desh jitega (corona will lose and country will win) 68 74 sl.no. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 6676 journal of extension educa�on table 2. sources of informa�on about covid-19 concluded that games can also be highly effec�ve media for spreading awareness about covid-19 appropriate behaviour if due considera�on is given to its looks, design, ease of playing etc. sources of covid-19 awareness with the restric�ons of social d i s t a n c i n g ( n o w o rd o f m o u t h) a n d hesita�on for print media (because of risk of ge�ng infected through newspapers), there were less op�ons in terms of choice of media . at the ini�al stage, government of india instructed all telecom companies to make covid-19 messages as caller tune, with a simple message that has a sound of cough followed by covid-19 informa�on. this was perceived as annoying by many, so this tune was then changed to a female voice who informed people about corona. a re v i e w o f ta b l e 2 s h o w s t h a t t h i s experiment was successful as 93 % male and 92% female respondents received the informa�on about covid-19 from caller tune. in addi�on, family and friends were the major source of informa�on for both males and females (81% and 74%). the respondents were youth so higher use of internet as source of informa�on for covid was expected, but it is interes�ng to see that internet use as source of informa�on was at higher side in males (72%) as 2 compared to females (57%) (χ = 8.72, p=0.031). it could possibly indicate the gender difference in technology access. time spent on tv was found to be more in female respondents and reason could be their lesser access to internet and tv was the next best thing. during covid lock down-i, people read only e-newspapers. besides this, “youth is always less i n t e r e s t e d i n r e a d i n g n e w s p a p e r ” (bharucha, 2017). the study by semwal and ranawat (2020) reported an increase in media usage during lockdown and found it to be effec�ve in dissemina�ng informa�on about safety measures. the chi square test 2 sta�s�c in case of internet use (χ = 12.49, p=0.0002), caller tune based informa�on 2 (χ = 11.09, p=0.0003) and via friends and source male (%) n=100 female (%) n=100 internet 72 57 caller tune 93 92 tv 12 24 newspaper 16 11 family and friends 81 74 sl.no. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6677 2 family (χ = 10.71, p=0.0002) was found to be sta�s�cally significant based on ɑ level of significance (0.05). awareness about key components of covid-19 appropriate behaviour covid-19 pandemic has led to extraordinary and unforeseen challenges which need collec�ve ac�on and support from all. to overcome this situa�on and win over it, everyone should know about their roles and goals. for this, government of india issued a guideline of covid-19 a p p r o p r i a t e b e h a v i o u r w h i c h w a s popularised through various media. the key components of covid-19 appropriate behaviour were, maintain physical distance even while gree�ngs, cover mouth and face, wash hands carefully, regularly clean and disinfect the frequently touched surface, seek covid-19 informa�on from credible sources, do not circulate social media post without confirma�on etc. conclusion covid-19 has been a big shock to the world. the only way to prevent this disease is to save, from being infected with right kind of knowledge, awareness, and prac�ces (kap). the study concludes that in covid – 19 awareness campaigns, the most successful interven�ons were those which had an associa�on of celebri�es and those which put the onus on the public to behave responsibly and protect their family. women could be mo�vated by crea�ng m e s s a g e s fo c u s s i n g o n t h e f a m i l y 's wellbeing. the results of the study will help in be�er designing of the campaigns and messages in future. references a n d e r s o n , r . m . , h e e s t e r b e e k , h . , klinkenberg, d., & hollingsworth, t. d. ( 2 0 2 0 ) . h o w w i l l c o u n t r y b a s e d mi�ga�on measures influence the course of the covid-19 epidemic? lancet, 395, 931–934. b h a r u c h a , j . ( 2 0 1 7 ) . a n a n a l y s i s of newspaper reading pa�erns among the youth, interna�onal journal of english and educa�on, 6(1):138-145. funk, s., gilad, e., watkins, c. & jansen, v.a.a. (2009). the spread of awareness and its impact on epidemic outbreaks. proceedings of na onal academy of sciences usa. 106(16):6872–6877. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0810762106. [pmc free ar cle] [pubmed] [crossref] [google scholar] [ref list]. krishnan, a., balan, s. & khanna, a. (2021). developing communica�on tools for crea�ng awareness on covid-19 pandemic among school going children (6 to 12 years). journal of scien�fic research. 65(4), pp18-22. misra, a.k., sharma, a. & shukla, j.b. (2011). modeling and analysis of effects of awareness programs by media on the s p r e a d o f i n f e c � o u s d i s e a s e s . mathema�cal and computer modelling. an assessment of awareness campaigns in covid-19 management 6678 journal of extension educa�on 53:1221–1228. doi: 10.1016/j.mcm. 2010.12.005. rai, r.k., khajanchi, s., tiwari, p.k., venturino, e. & misra, a.k. 2021. impact of social media adver�sements on the transmission dynamics of covid-19 pandemic in india. journal of applied ma t hem a � cs a n d co m pu� n g doi: 10.1007/s12190-021-01507-y. samanta, s., rana, s., sharma, a., misra, a.k. & cha�opadhyay, j. (2013). effect of awareness programs by media on the epidemic outbreaks: a mathema�cal m o d e l . a p p l i e d m a t h e m a � c s a n d computa�on 219(12):6965–6977. semwal, s. & ranawat, r. (2020). role and i m p a c t o f m e d i a o n yo u n g e r genera�on: a sociological approach with respect to covid-19 lockdown. i n t e r n a � o n a l j o u r n a l o f c u r r e n t microbiology and applied sciences 9(4): tiwari p.k, rai r.k, khajanchi, s, gupta r.k & misra a.k. (2021). dynamics of coronavirus pandemic: effects of community awareness and global informa�on campaigns. the european physical journal plus;136(10):994. doi: 10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01997-6. wang, x., li, q., guan, x., wu, p., zhou, l., tong, y., … & feng, z. (2020). early transmission dynamics in wuhan, china, of novel corona virus–infected pneumonia. the new england journal of medicine, 382, 1199–1207. w h o , wo r l d h e a l t h o r g a n i z a � o n , c o ro n a v i r u s d i s e a s e (c ov i d 1 9 ) p a n d e m i c . ( 2 0 2 0 ) h � p s : // w w w . who.int/ emergencies/diseases/novelcoronavirus-2019 page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 pages 2021-2.cdr india is the world's largest banana producer with an annual output of 24.8 million tonnes. banana contributes 37% to total fruit produc�on in india. over 90% of bananas produced in india are consumed domes�cally as fresh fruit. and it is es�mated that processing in banana is only to an extent of 2.5% of which about 1.80% is used to process banana chips. the rest is processed into banana puree, banana pulp, banana beer, banana powder and so on. if farmers adopt new technologies or value addi�on techniques like drying and processing their products it will not only improve the quality but also minimize postharvest losses whilst increasing their income. developing value added products from banana pseudostem is restricted mainly to fibre extrac�on and handicra� making at na�onal level. a�er harves�ng of fruits and leaves, pseudostem is cut near to the ground level and its yield ranges from 60 t o 8 0 t / h a . f i b r e e x t r a c � o n f r o m pseudostem is being done mostly by hand extrac�on in villages of tamil nadu, kerala, k a r n a t a k a , a n d h r a p r a d e s h a n d maharashtra with extremely poor fibre output (0.5 kg/day/man) (muigai et al, 2021). 6679 research note journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.2, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.2.33.6679-6682 perceived usefulness of banana pseudostem processing and value addi�on among farmers in coimbatore district of tamil nadu r. senthil kumar* and s. achudhan* abstract this study has been carried out to assess the perceived usefulness of banana post produc�on mechanisa�on among farmers in the western region of tamil nadu. coimbatore district was selected because banana cul�va�ng farmers are more in this region and two taluks namely coimbatore and me�upalayam were selected at random. from each taluk, 2-3 villages were selected on cluster basis. in each cluster, 15 respondents were selected for research interven�on. thus, in total, 60 respondents were selected for this study. a�ributes of mechaniza�on had been employed through package of banana pseudostem processing equipment and banana rope making equipment among respondents, where the highest mean score was reported in economic viability. keywords: perceived usefulness; banana post produc�on mechanisa�on;rural farmers; tamil nadu * icar – central ins�tute of agricultural engineering regional centre, coimbatore-7 received : 01-04-2021 accepted: 13-05-2022 there should be efforts by scien�sts and technologists to prepare banana bioproducts which will contribute in improving the livelihood of rural farm men/women. with this background, the present study was conducted to determine the perceived usefulness on banana processing & value addi�on and to study the opera�onal skill assessment in adop�on of the technology among the respondents. methodology p u r p o s i v e s a m p l i n g d e s i g n w a s e m p l o y e d f o r s e l e c � n g t h e d i s t r i c t (coimbatore) as banana cul�va�ng farmers are more in this region. subsequently, two t a l u k s n a m e l y c o i m b a t o r e a n d me�upalayam were selected randomly and from each taluk, 2-3 villages (pannimadai, s . p u n g a m p a l aya m , k a r a m a d a i ) w e re selected on cluster basis. from the selected cluster villages, 15 respondents were selected for research interven�on. thus, in total, 60 respondents were selected for this study. the primary data were collected from the respondents by personal interview with the help of interview schedule. the collected data were scored, compiled, tabulated and analyzed using appropriate sta�s�cal tools to draw ra�onal and meaningful conclusions. findings and discussion socio economic characteris�cs of the respondents majority of the respondents (40.0 per cent) belonged to 'young' group followed by middle aged group (36.70 per cent) and 23.30 per cent of the respondents were in 'old age' category. educa�onal status of the respondents shows that, 26.67 percent had collegiate educa�on followed by primary and middle school educa�on. in the study area majority of the respondents (36.70 per cent) were engaged in agriculture a l o n g w i t h s e r v i c e s e c t o r a s t h e i r occupa�on. majority of the respondents (93.3 percent) belonged to medium income category and only 6.70 percent were in high income group. majority of the respondents were marginal farmers (30.00 percent) and landless farmers (30.0 per cent). majority of the respondents had high level (more years) of farming experience (40.0 percent). among the sample respondents, 60.00 percent had medium level of extension agency contact. about 90.00 per cent of the respondents had low level of social par�cipa�on. 6680 journal of extension educa�on 6681perceived usefulness of banana pseudostem processing and value addi�on among farmers in coimbatore district of tamil nadu the respondents were assessed for their opera�onal skill assessment of banana processing equipment and the results are provided in table 1. from the table, the highest mean score of 84.52% was found in 'ability to read blueprints, schema�cs and manuals' and lowest score (64.33%) was in 'work independently'. the respondents could get experience in rope making machine which is a feasible op�on in ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (msme) to generate gainful employment and asset crea�on. usefulness of processing and value addi�on majority of the famers are accep�ng that banana post produc�on is an efficient technology for improving the banana product value. table 1. opera�onal skill assessment of banana processing equipment sl.no. opera�onal a�ributes mean score rank 1 experience in machine opera�on 70.86 vii 2 knowledge of processing procedures 81.66 ii 3 ability to read blueprints, schema�cs and manuals 84.52 i 4 analy�cal/learning skills 79.08 iv 5 a�en�on in trouble shoo�ng 77.57 v 6 teamw ork 79.36 iii 7 physical stamina and strength 72.94 vi 8 work independently 64.33 viii (n=60) table 2. perceived usefulness of banana processing and value addi�on (n= 60) sl.no. a�ributes percentage 1. efficiency 74.24 2. technology feasibility 78.43 3. economic viability 82.67 4. immediacy of return 74.82 5. rela�ve advantage 73.90 6. mul�purpose usage 64.48 7. physical compa�bility 67.54 8. observability 72.86 6682 the products manufactured from banana fibre or other parts of banana could survive in market with value addi�on. therefore, scien�sts and technologists s h o u l d c re a t e b a n a n a b i o p ro d u c t s awareness which in turn will contribute in improving the livelihood of rural farm men/women. references muigai, j.k, geofrey k.g & miriam, (2021). socio-economic factors affec�ng uptake of banana value addi�on among smallholders in chuka subcounty, tharaka nithi county, kenya. asian journal of agricultural extension, economics & sociology :22-34. it could be seen from table 2 that, the highest mean score (82.67%) was found in 'economic viability' and lowest score, (64.48%) was found in mul�purpose usage. an entrepreneur is always keen in obtaining sustainable income from microenterprises. other a�ributes like 'efficiency of the equipment' compared to manual method, immediacy of return also show higher mean score which implies the banana processing technologies may operate in an enterprise mode in banana growing areas. the respondents showed keen interest in rope making machine for self help group (shg) members as viable op�on in enterprise mode provided developmental agencies support for their self-employment. perceived usefulness of banana pseudostem processing and value addi�on among farmers in coimbatore district of tamil nadu page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 6566 mksp scheme: an effective approach for uplifting 'kudumbashree' farm women in kerala v.k. rashida* and m.j. mercykutty* abstract a study was conducted to assess the perceived effectiveness of mahila kisan sashaktikaran pariyojana (mksp), a women empowerment scheme, in thrissur district of kerala. the beneficiary farm women of the scheme were cultivating vegetables and banana mostly on leased land under the supervision of kerala state poverty eradication mission (kudumbasree mission). dimensions of effectiveness were categorized in terms of socio economic development, agricultural input supply, institutional support, knowledge and capacity building and empowerment perspective. the respondents included farm women, mission coordinators and facilitators. majority of banana farmers mission coordinators and facilitators perceived the effectiveness as good while majority of vegetable farmers, rated it as excellent. empowerment perspective and socio economic development were the most effective outcomes of the scheme. keywords: farm women ; poverty eradication ; women empowerment ; kerala *department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara, kerala 680 656 received : 10-09-2020; accepted : 25-03-2021 agricultural sector engages about 52 per cent of overall manpower of india. based on the 2011 census, 37 per cent of the total number of agricultural workers in the country is women and by 2020, this figure is expected to be about 45 per cent. it is a known fact that women contribute significantly to agriculture. the migration of male workers to urban areas in search of remunerative jobs is one of the factors contributing to the feminization of farm activities. the government of india launched the mahila kisan sashaktikaran pariyojana (mksp) in 2011 under the national rural livelihood mission (nrlm) with the major objectives including empowerment of women in agriculture by enhancing productive participation of women in agriculture, creating sustainable agricultural livelihood opportunities, improving skills and capabilities of women to support farm and nonfarm based activities and ensure food and nutrition security at household and community level. moreover, the scheme aims to provide better access to inputs and services of government and other agencies, improve capabilities to be able to access research note journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6566-6571 6567 resources of other institutions and schemes and also enhance managerial capabilities for better management of bio-diversity. ministry of rural development (mord) govt. of india provides funding support of up to 75 per cent of the project cost submitted by the programme implementing agency (pia) or state govt. the balance is funded by the state government or other agencies. agarwal (2010) has highlighted that, where small and marginal farmers predominate, there could be gains in productivity as well as bargaining power in acting jointly rather than individually. kudumbashree became the programme implementing agency (pia) for mksp in kerala. studies have found that effective planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables among these groups had resulted in an increased income (chandran and sreedaya, 2018). this study was conducted with an objective to analyze the effectiveness of mksp scheme as perceived by the beneficiary farm women, mission coordinators and facilitators. methodology the study was conducted in thrissur district where mksp was first launched in kerala. the units of analysis of the study were exclusive farm women who were beneficiaries of mksp and a group of mission coordinators and facilitators. thirty farm women representing vegetable and banana farmers each and thirty mission coordinators and facilitators constituted the sample. personal interview with structured interview schedule was used for collection of primary data. effectiveness of mksp scheme was assessed through perception index. in this study, perception on effectiveness on mksp scheme is operationally defined as the meaningful interpretation of the effectiveness of the programme as sensed by the beneficiary farmers, mission coordinators and facilitators. scale developed by seby (2018) was used for the study, with slight modification. perception of the respondents on effectiveness of mksp scheme was studied under five dimensions namely socio-economic development, input supply, institutional support, knowledge and capacity building and empowerment, as discussed below. socio-economic development: it was operationalised as a process of economic and social transformation based on cultural and environmental factors. input supply: input supply refers to various inputs and input related services provided through the scheme. institutional support: institutional support is defined as the support services provided for beneficiaries under the scheme including market and financial support. knowledge and capacity building: knowledge and capacity building refers to the extent to which beneficiary farm women have knowledge and skill for problem solving and to undertake various farm activities. empowerment: empowerment was operationalised as the process of equipping with the required capacity, skill or power mksp scheme: an effective approach for uplifting 'kudumbashree' farm women in kerala 6568 to perform various activities and decision making. each dimension was represented by a set of statements and every statement was evaluated by using a five-point continuum scale strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. each agreement was then assigned scores as 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. perception index was calculated for each dimension using the following equation: perception index = total score obtained on each parameter x 100 total possible score overall perception index and dimension-wise perception indices were found out for beneficiaries, mission coordinators and facilitators. perception indices of beneficiary farm women, mission coordinators and facilitators together were categorized as very low, low, average, good and excellent according to the score range less than 20, 20 to 39, 40 to 59, 60 to 79 and '80 and above' respectively. findings and discussion effectiveness of mksp scheme was studied using the perception index developed and percentage analysis was done to understand the overall effectiveness of scheme as perceived by the beneficiary farm women and mission coordinators and facilitators together. five dimensions were considered and mean scores of all the dimensions are presented in the table 1. perception index mean score was calculated and ranked accordingly. the results revealed that vegetable farmers had more overall mean perception score compared to mission coordinators and facilitators followed by banana farmers. table 1 mean scores obtained by the respondents on the dimensions of perception index (n= 30) sl. no. dimension mean perception score vegetable farmer banana farmer mission coordinators and facilitators 1 socio-economic development 84.13 84.26 81.6 2 agricultural input supply 66.8 63.2 73.8 3 institutional support 79.8 78.9 75.9 4 knowledge and capacity building 81.1 78.3 75.14 5 empowerment perspective 88.4 82.4 85.8 overall perception 80.12 76.64 78.19 journal of extension education 6569 while comparing the dimensions among vegetable farmers, it found that empowerment perspective scored more followed by socio economic development, knowledge & capacity building, institutional support and agricultural input supply. among banana farmers, socio economic development was ranked first followed by empowerment perspective, institutional support, knowledge & capacity building and agricultural input supply. banana farmers also had high perception mean score on each dimension which indicated their satisfactory opinion about mksp scheme. dimension wise mean scores were also compared for mission coordinators and facilitators and it was found that empowerment perspective was perceived as most effective among the dimensions followed by socio economic development, institutional support, knowledge & capacity building and agricultural input supply. it is also evident that all other dimensions had index score more than 75 except agricultural input supply. the beneficiaries showed increased interest towards self employment and group farming activities due to various operational supports to jlgs (joint liability groups). there was also increased access of women for inputs & services and asset generation. through this scheme they were able to generate various assets for common usage by members of jlg like knapsack sprayers, tillers, conoweeder and brush cutters. all these factors might have contributed to high empowerment score. the mean score of socio economic dimension was also high. the beneficiaries had perceived that, there was a considerable increase in production and productivity as a result of the schemes, which might have resulted in increase in the income of farm women. incentives have helped the beneficiaries to meet the immediate needs while skills obtained through trainings helped in reducing the cost of cultivation. through various training programmes conducted, beneficiaries have perceived considerable increase in the knowledge of farming specifically on organic farming and they also experienced improvement in attitude towards natural resource management especially in converting fallow land and waste land. this contributed in obtaining high mean score for knowledge & capacity building. credit support through loan issuance and monitoring was perceived as most effective among the institutional support. through jlg bank linkage, farmers were able to avail loan easily which was a laborious task before. women master farmer as community resource person was introduced for knowledge transfer under mksp scheme. and these master farmers under mksp scheme made it even easier through helping the farmers by timely assistance in renewal process. support to organic farming and value addition also had high impact on beneficiaries. they responded that even though some delays were there in receiving payments, incentives and bank subsidy had a huge impact on their cultivation. market interventions were perceived as less effective among the institutional support. during seasons due to huge quantity of produce from many farmers, all the farmers were not able to sell their produce through fairs mksp scheme: an effective approach for uplifting 'kudumbashree' farm women in kerala 6570 and exhibitions organized by kudumbashree. majority of the beneficiaries were depending on local markets for selling their produce. sajesh (2013) observed that coordination with other agencies and institutions like cooperative banks, line departments as well as convergence with various programmes of central and state governments played an important role in realizing the potential of group mobilization. compared to other dimensions, agriculture input supply had low mean perception score. mksp scheme had not many components for input supply other than providing machines through farmer facilitation centre. seed bank which was meant for input supply as a part of mksp was also not successful. bio pharmacy was helpful for farmers in providing non chemical inputs. they agreed that machines available were useful and had helped in cultivation. unlike vegetable farmers, socio economic development scored more than empowerment perspective among banana beneficiaries. it might be due to the reduced score of banana farmers on empowerment perspective. banana farmers had less access to inputs and services compared to vegetable farmers. similarly, they also perceived institutional support more effective than knowledge & capacity building even though there was not much difference in the mean scores of these two dimensions. majority farmers of ollukkara block were vegetable farmers. hence, more inputs, trainings and other services might have been available for vegetable farmers. that might be the probable reason for difference in the mean index score of different dimensions between vegetable and banana farmers. a percentage analysis was also employed and results revealed that majority of the vegetable farmers (53.33%) had perceived the effectiveness of mksp scheme as excellent followed by 46.67 per cent as good. but majority of banana farmers (53.33%) perceived it as good followed by 46.67 per cent rated as excellent category. there was only slight difference between good and excellent categories of both the respondent groups. similarly, majority of the mission coordinators and facilitators (77.00 %) had perceived the effectiveness of mksp scheme as good and 23 percent had rated the effectiveness as excellent. it is evident that no respondent had rated the scheme as average, low and very low categories. this result shows that activities under mksp scheme were highly effective and had a positive response among the respondent categories in thrissur district. to conclude, the performance of mahila kisan sashaktikaran pariyojana scheme had been effective in thrissur district and it had enhanced the capacities of women in collective farming. however, need for further development still exists especially in components like input supply and market interventions in kerala. references agarwal, b. (2010). rethinking agricultural production collectivities. economic and political weekly, xlv (9), journal of extension education 6571 chandran, r & sreedaya, g. (2019). involvement of farm women groups in the planning, production and marketing aspects of vegetables in kerala journal of extension education, 30(4) http://dx.doi. org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6173-6176 sajesh v. k. (2013). factors discriminating the effectiveness of women’s joint liability groups in agriculture: evidences from kerala. indian research journal of extension education, 13 (3): 98-102. seby, s. (2018). analysis of development programmes for paddy promotion under decentralized planning in thrissur district. unpublished m.sc. (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, 225p. mksp scheme: an effective approach for uplifting 'kudumbashree' farm women in kerala http://dx.doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6173-6176 http://dx.doi.org/10.26725/jee.2018.4.30.6173-6176 pages 2021-1 final.cdr the recent outbreak of covid-19 virus has resulted in the sudden suspension of schools, colleges, universi�es and other government ins�tu�ons. amidst these hard �mes, teachers have been u�lizing elearning pla�orms to impart educa�on to the students. the dras�c change from tradi�onal real-�me teaching to virtual learning has created a greater impact among students. the current digital learning methodologies are uncommon to most students. the study aims to assess the university students' stress levels, during the covid-19 pandemic with the following objec�ves. · to analyze the most common stress causing variables. · to conduct gender wise stress analysis. methodology the study solely depended upon the primary data. undergraduates (including professional students) of various streams in kerala agricultural university who are studying within thrissur district, kerala during the covid-19 pandemic were taken into considera�on. data were collected through a combina�on of structured and a self-designed ques�onnaire, administered through google forms. convenience sampling technique was used to collect the informa�on from 200 undergraduate students. the data collected from these students were analyzed with the help of appropriate sta�s�cal tools. 6576 research note journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.1, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.1.33.6576-6580 a study on university students' stress levels during the covid-19 pandemic i. p. deepak* and k. n. ushadevi* abstract the current study assessed the stress levels of students of kerala agricultural university during the covid-19 pandemic. the sample size was 200. twenty-four variables were taken for the study which revealed that majority of the students was in a distressed condi�on, during the pandemic period. keywords: covid-19 pandemic; stress; university; students; kerala *college of co-opera�on, banking & management, kerala agricultural university, thrissur680656, kerala, india received : 15-10-2021; accepted: 15-04-2022 research instrument university stress scale (uss): in this study, for assessing the stress level of ug students, university stress scale (uss) was employed. this stress scale was proposed by stallman (2008). there is a pre-structured ques�onnaire in which there are 21 variables to measure the stress level of university students over the past month (stallman and hurst 2016). the responses for each variable were represented in a fourpoint scale; not at all, some�mes, frequently & constantly and the scores were assigned as 0, 1, 2 and 3 respec�vely. depending on the values to each response, individual scores were calculated and scores were classified based on a range of scores. the range of score was 0-63. so, the minimum and maximum score that an individual can pursue is 0 and 63 respec�vely. a score greater than or equal to 13 is predic�ve of significant psychological distress. 6577 score range defining various levels of stress in under graduate students score interpreta�on less than 13 no significant psychological distress greater than or equal to 13 significant psychological distress findings and discussion analysis of stress level of students the stress level of university students was assessed and are presented in tables 1& 2 table 1. score range of various levels of stress among students score frequency percentage (%) interpreta�on less than 13 94 46 no significant psychological distress greater than or equal to 13 106 54 significant psychological distress the result shows that the majority of students (54%) were in a psychologically distressing condi�on during the pandemic. the pandemic situa�on fastens the stress level of each and every individual. so obviously the students are under stress as the prolonged closure of colleges made the academic demands �ghter than as it was. such a dras�c change from tradi�onal learning to online learning can also create h u g e a cce p t a b i l i t y p ro b l e m s a m o n g students as they do not have any complete journal of extension educa�on sl.no. stressors frequently % (n) constantly % (n) total % (n) 1. academic/coursework demands 17.5(35) 10.5(21) 28(56) 2. procras�na�on 18.5(37) 8.5(17) 27(54) 3. university/college environment 12.5(25) 18(36) 30.5(61) 4. finances and money problems 11.5(23) 10.5(21) 22(44) 5. housing/accommoda�on 5(10) 2(4) 7(14) 6. transport 10.5(21) 3(6) 13.5(27) 7. mental health problems 16.5(33) 6.5(13) 23(46) 8. physical health problems 15(30) 6.5(13) 21.5(43) 9. paren�ng issues 7(14) 3(6) 10(20) 10. childcare 4(8) 2(4) 6(12) 11. family rela�onships 9.5(19) 2.5(5) 12(24) 12. friendships 13.5(27) 6.5(13) 20(40) 13. roman�c rela�onships 5(10) 3.5(7) 8.5(17) 14. rela�onship breakdown 5(10) 2(4) 7(14) 15. work 11(22) 5(10) 16(32) 16. parental expecta�ons 11(22) 4(8) 15(30) 17. study/life balance 16.5(33) 11(22) 27.5(55) 18. discrimina�on 5.5(11) 3(6) 8.5(17) exposure towards e-learning, as physical l e a r n i n g co u l d n ot h a p p e n . l a c k of s o c i a l i z a � o n a n d r e s t r i c � o n s i n entertainment due to the pandemic also d i s r u p t e d t h e m e n t a l w e l l b e i n g o f individuals, especially youngsters. dwivedi (2020) proved that there is an existence of s t r e s s i n s t u d e n t s a s w e l l a s a communica�on gap between teachers and students during online learning in this covid-19 pandemic situa�on. there are several reasons for being in a stressed condi�on. some of the most common stress causing variables (stressors) were iden�fied for the study. the most common stressors were iden�fied by adding the responses under the heads of 'frequently' and 'constantly' and the respec�ve percentage composi�on was calculated. the higher the total percentage composi�on, the higher would be the stress associated with that par�cular variable. 6578 table 2. analysis of most common stressors a study on university students' stress levels during the covid-19 pandemic 19. sexual orienta�on issues 4.5(9) 1(2) 5.5(11) 20. language/cultural issues 7.5(15) 1.5(3) 9(18) 21. other demands 17.5(35) 10(20) 27.5(55) male female total frequency percentage (%) frequency percentage (%) frequency percentage (%) stressed 35 64.8 71 48.6 106 54 not stressed 19 35.2 75 51.4 94 46 total 54 100 146 100 200 100 from the table, it is clear that the most common stressors were lack of p hys i c a l a cce s s i b i l i t y to t h e co l l e ge environment followed by course work demands, study balance & other demands (futuris�c thoughts, need for a job etc.) and procras�na�on (delaying or postponing the things that have to be done). most of the students had been stressed due to academic related demands. hence, the respondents had suggested providing relaxa�on for submi�ng assignments, projects and all other demands in a lenient manner. for ge�ng the students accustomed with this new setup, online webinars on mo�va�on, job orienta�on, higher studies, valid cer�ficate courses etc could be organized. sexual orienta�on issue was the least common stressor followed by child care, a c c o m m o d a � o n a n d r e l a � o n s h i p breakdown. gender-wise stress analysis a gender-wise stress analysis was performed and the results are presented in table. 3. 6579 table 3. gender wise stress analysis from the table, it is clear that male students were more stressed than the female students. in kerala, in general, the society is much concerned about the job status of graduates. separate a�en�on need to be given to both male and female students, since the male students were more stressed. it is evident from the results of the study that the majority of the students were under stressed condi�ons due to the effect of several stressors associated with the students. the university should take note of the major stressors and formulate strategies to overcome them as a long-term measure. references dwivedi, d kaur, n, shukla, s, gandhi,a & tripathi, s. (2020). percep�on of stress among medical undergraduate during coronavirus disease-19 pandemic on exposure to online teaching. na�onal journal of physiology, pharmacy and pharmacology. 10 (08). stallman, h. m. (2008). university stress scale. brisbane: queensland university of technology. journal of extension educa�on stallman, h. m., & hurst, c. p. (2016). the university stress scale: measuring domains and extent of stress in u n i v e r s i t y s t u d e n t s . a u s t r a l i a n p s y c h o l o g i s t , 5 1 ( 2 ) , 1 2 8 1 3 4 . doi:10.1111/ap.12127 6580a study on university students' stress levels during the covid-19 pandemic page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 pages 2021-1 final.cdr introduction rice is the staple food crop of kerala. the heritage of rice cul�va�on in kerala is way ahead from 3000 b.c (manilal, 1991; kumar and kunhamu, 2021). it is a widely cul�vated yet “scarce” subsistence crop. t h e d r a s � c s h r i n k a g e o f a r e a a n d produc�on of rice due to the shi� from paddy cul�va�on towards less water requiring crops such as oilseeds, pulses, coarse cereals, nutri cereals, co�on, etc. shows the steady decline in cul�va�on of rice (economic survey, 2022). yearly consump�on of rice in kerala accounts to about 40 lakh tonnes out of which jaya and surekha rice from andhra pradesh makes up to 22 lakh tonnes of consump�on (varma, 2 0 1 7 ) . t h e d e fi c i t i n p ro d u c � o n t o 6549 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.1, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.1.33.6549-6557 factors affec�ng yield gap of rice in north kerala 1 2 3 1 n. sneha , allan thomas , m. a. nishan and b. seema abstract yield gap is an important indicator for any crop. rice being the staple food, in order to meet the increased demand of rice juxtaposed with an increasing popula�on growth, it becomes important to study the factors affec�ng yield gap that will emerge as the most significant solu�on, which in turn serves to bridge the yield gap. this study was conducted in 7 districts of kerala during the year 2020-2021 to find out the factors affec�ng the yield gap of rice. altogether, 105 rice farmers from the districts of kasaragod, kannur, wayanad, kozhikode, malappuram, thrissur formed the sample. ex-post facto research design was used for the study. the yield gap index derived from the study ranged from 10 to 30 per cent. the results of the principal component analysis revealed that five components namely clima�c factors, biological factors, socio-economic factors, ins�tu�onal/policy related factors and factors related to technology transfer were cri�cally influencing the yield gap of rice. keywords: yield gap; rice; farmers; adop�on; kerala; biological factor 1 department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, trivandrum695522 2 communica�on centre, kerala agricultural university, mannuthy, thrissur680651 3 department of agronomy, college of agriculture, vellayani, trivandrum – 695 522 received : 07-11-2021 accepted: 26-04-2022 c o n s u m p � o n o f r i c e i s e x a c t l y t h e significance of this study and where the yield gap a�ribute pronounces its existence. yield gap in rice i.e. the difference between the poten�al yield and the yield obtained by the farmer in his field stands as a valuable performance indicator for the rice produc�on in the country. yield gap in crops is a real challenge which needs to be addressed in the interest of enhanced, sustainable produc�on of crops. yield gap analysis thus, will offer opportunity to improve produc�on, improve infrastructure and policy requirements that will create jobs, increase produc�ve capacity of the people and the agricultural industry. it will show their shor�alls and help to take correc�ve measures necessary to improve produc�on, profitability and renewed interest in rice cul�va�on. in order to ensure that real poten�al of any crop variety is harvested at the cul�vator's field, yield gap is always a prime concern for researcher as well as developmental stakeholders. a gap always sustains between poten�al yield, demonstra�on yield and what is harvested from a farmer's field. environmental factors, socio-economic factors and non-adop�on of recommended package of prac�ces by farmers can be the reasons for the yield gap of rice (subba and subramanyam, 1987). finding the factors affec�ng yield gap has prime importance in bridging the exis�ng yield gap. methodology the rice growing tracts of northern districts of the state of kerala, viz., kasaragod, kannur, kozhikode, wayanad, palakkad, thrissur and malappuram were selected for the study. ex-post facto r e s e a r c h d e s i g n w a s e m p l o y e d . i n consulta�on with the principal agricultural office (pao) of the district, the panchayat having maximum rice area under cul�va�on was selected. from the selected panchayat, 15 farmers each having a minimum of 50 cents (0.2 ha) were chosen. thus, simple random sampling technique was employed for selec�ng the 105 farmers from the seven districts with 15 farmers each from the respec�ve panchayat selected for the study. responses were collected from the rice farmers by employing survey method using a well-structured pre tested interview schedule. yield gap was the dependent variable of the study. yield gap of the varie�es c u l � v a t e d b y t h e r i c e f a r m e r s w a s c a l c u l at e d by fi n d i n g t h e d i ffe re n ce between maximum poten�al yield (mpy) and the actual yield (ay) obtained by the farmers. the yield gap index (ygi) was calculated using the formulae: ygi = [yg/yp] × 100%, yg= yp-ya where, yg=yield gap, yp= yield poten�al, ya= yield a�ained. 6550 journal of extension educa�on age, sex, educa�on, farming experience, area under rice cul�va�on, income from agriculture, income from paddy cul�va�on, trainings received, economic mo�va�on, innova�veness, scien�fic orienta�on, market orienta�on, extension orienta�on, level of awareness and knowledge were the independent variables selected for the study. the major factors affec�ng yield gap along with sub components under each factor were enumerated a�er careful review of literature and discussion with experts. they were biological factors, socioe c o n o m i c f a c t o r s , c l i m a � c f a c t o r s , ins�tu�onal/government policy related factors and factors promo�ng technology transfer (rap, 2000). the factors were administered to the rice farmers and ranked from 1 to 5 based on their importance in affec�ng yield gap. principal component analysis was done in order to find the most important factors that affects yield gap of rice. findings and discussion major rice varie�es cul�vated by the farmers of north kerala the state of kerala has around 2000 tradi�onal rice varie�es (kumari, 2012) which are adapted to a wide range of agroecological situa�ons. this includes specialty rice varie�es that denote to the diverse collec�on of tradi�onal rice varie�es that are conserved and cul�vated. however, farmers cul�vate released high yielding varie�es for be�er produc�vity. hence, an a�empt was made to understand the major rice varie�es grown by rice farmers at large. it is evident from table 1 that majority of the farmers i.e., 96.19 per cent was cul�va�ng uma rice variety. jyothi rice variety was cul�vated by 17.14 per cent of the farmers whereas jaya rice variety was cul�vated by 2.86 per cent farmers. some of the farmers were cul�va�ng more than one rice variety. th e p re fe re n ce fo r h i g h y i e l d i n g varie�es by farmers are a result of economic mo�ves and hence, uma variety might have been preferred by the farmers. the yield gap data in table 2 is an indicator where from the popularly grown two varie�es viz., uma and jyothi, the yield gap index of uma rice variety was less than that of those farmers cul�va�ng jyothi rice variety. subsistence farmers may adopt growing tradi�onal varie�es of rice only enough to meet the requirements of their household. it is observed that many of these farmers use tradi�onal rice varie�es. the researcher also noted that at least few farmers in districts like wayanad are gradually returning to t r a d i � o n a l r i c e fo r i t s c o n s e r va � o n importance, be�er taste, requiring less care and non-requirement of toxic chemicals. ma ny a m o n g t h e m g ro w t r a d i � o n a l varie�es for their personal consump�on or for the taste preferences of special markets. the reasons for the con�nued cul�va�on of tradi�onal varie�es on some rainfed areas are disadvantages during drought and flood (umezuruike and francois, 2001). 6551factors affec�ng yield gap of rice in north kerala 6552 table 1. varie�es of rice cul�vated by the farmers of north kerala sl.no variety no. of farmers adop�ng percentage 1 uma 101 96.19 2 jyothi 18 17.14 3 navara 1 0.95 4 kanchana 1 0.95 5 asd 16 1 0.95 6 manuratna 1 0.95 7 jaya 3 2.86 8 rakthasali 1 0.95 9 gandhakasala 1 0.95 10 jeerakasala 1 0.95 11 mithila 1 0.95 12 ezhome-1 2 1.90 13 ezhome-2 2 1.90 n=105 y i e l d g a p o f t h e r i c e va r i e � e s cul�vated by farmers and factors affec�ng yield gap the knowledge about crop yield gap at district, state, na�onal or interna�onal level will help in iden�fying management strategies for sustainable agricultural produc�on to meet future food demand. yield gap analysis can provide a founda�on fo r d e t e c � n g t h e b e s t m a n a ge m e nt approaches to improve the rainfed rice yield by reducing the gap from the poten�al yield. boling et al., (2011); alam et al., (2013); and stuart et al., (2016) emphasized the possibili�es of increasing rice yields by reducing the yield gap in rice-based farming systems. the yield gap of the rice varie�es measured in terms of yield gap journal of extension educa�on table 2. yield gap and yield gap index of the rice varie�es cul�vated by farmers sl.no 1 2 3 4 5 variety jyothi kanchana navara asd16 rakthasali yield gap (t/ha) 2.39 2.00 0.13 1.50 1.00 yield gap index (%) 29.86 28.57 25.00 25.00 25.00 6553factors affec�ng yield gap of rice in north kerala sl.no variety yield gap (t/ha) yield gap index (%) 1.50 1.64 0.45 0.75 0.39 0.30 0.38 0.50 25.00 20.47 16.67 12.50 12.11 10.71 10.71 8.33 11 12 13 -2 gandhakasala ezhome-1 manuratna 6 7 8 9 10 mithila uma jeerakasala jaya ezhome etc. clima�c factors can also influence the crop yield to a great extent as grain sha�ering caused by mild to moderate winds or rains leads to grain loss. an a�empt was made to delineate the factors affec�ng yield gap of paddy varie�es. the results are presented in fig. 1 and tables 3 & 4. from figure 1 it is clear that 36.2 per cent of the variance is contributed by the component 1 followed by 23.5 per cent by component 2, 17 per cent by component 3, 12.4 per cent by co m p o n e nt 4 a n d 1 0 . 8 p e r ce nt by component 5. table 2 reveals that the yield gap index of jyothi was the highest among the varie�es cul�vated which is 29.86 per cent. kanchana variety has a yield gap index of 28.57 per cent. navara, asd 16 and rakthasali varie�es exhibit a yield gap index of 25 per cent. the least yield gap index is shown by manuratna variety which is 8.33 per cent. the yield gap of varie�es namely jyothi and kanchana which is closely around 30 % can be a�ributed to the difference in spacing followed by the farmers in their fields, soil characteris�cs, management prac�ces followed, disease and pest a�acks figure 1: variance of the components as scree plot 6554 table 3. total variance of the components of factors affec�ng yield gap it is evident from the figure 1 and table 3 that first 3 components viz., clima�c factors, biological factors and socio-economic factors contribute more than 75 per cent of the variance. principal component eigen value percentage of variance cumula�ve percentage of variance pc1 cf 1.812 36.247 36.247 pc2 bf 1.174 23.488 59.736 pc3 sef 0.850 16.998 76.734 pc4 ipf 0.622 12.444 89.178 pc5 t� 0.541 10.822 100.000 table 4. correla�on between variables and pcs sl.no. variables pc1 pc2 pc3 pc4 pc5 1. clima�c factors (cf) 0.45 0.448 0.750 0.183 0.033 2. biological factors (bf) 0.701 0.164 0.442 0.472 0.253 3. socio-economic factors (sef) 0.240 0.830 0.296 0.344 0.220 4. ins�tu�onal or policy factors (ipf) 0.735 0.294 0.061 0.496 0.352 5. technology transfer related factors (t�) 0.722 0.415 0.001 0.048 0.551 journal of extension educa�on table 4 reveals that a�er the pca analysis, all the five components viz., clima�c factors, biological factors, socioeconomic factors, ins�tu�onal/policy related factors and factors related to technology transfer were the influencing yield gap. from the first component ins�tu�onal/policy related factors show high correla�on value of 0.735 followed by factors related to technology transfer (0.722) and biological factors (0.701). socioeconomic factors show highest correla�on from the second component with a value of 0.83. from the third component clima�c factors has high correla�on value of 0.75. ins�tu�onal/policy related factors from the f o u r t h c o m p o n e n t s h o w s h i g h e s t correla�on having value 0.496. factors related to technology transfer shows highest correla�on value of 0.551 from the 6555factors affec�ng yield gap of rice in north kerala technology forecas�ng for any planning process (thomas and kumar, 2015). usage of high yielding varie�es along with latest produc�on technologies will subsequently alter the alarming hike in yield gap. this finding is in accordance with the study of joshi et al., (2014), kumar et al., (2014) and kulkarni et al., (2018). conclusion yield gap is an issue to be dealt with seriously taking the subsistence needs of mankind into considera�on. from this study it was evident that 13 rice varie�es are commercially cul�vated by the farmers, in general of which uma variety is the most popular rice variety cul�vated by farmers. however, jyothi variety has the highest yield gap, followed by kanchana rice variety. reduced yield gap can certainly feed more stomachs. a good understanding about the factors affec�ng yield gap can make a great difference in ensuring food security. it is also evident that clima�c factors, biological f a c t o r s a n d s o c i o e c o n o m i c f a c t o r s contribute more than 75 per cent of the variance. regular check of pests and diseases and field management should be given importance which also has much influence. a farmerfriendly policy should be ensured for the rice farmers to realize maximum produc�vity by way of tackling issues related to yield gap which will help farmers to remain mo�vated to con�nue rice produc�on. extension services should fi�h component. from the above values it is clear that all the components affect the yield gap of rice. clima�c factors affect the yield gap p re d o m i n a n t l y w h i c h c a n b e e i t h e r predicted or unpredicted. flash floods have affected the paddy cul�va�on to a great extent in recent years. regular monitoring and accurate predic�ons of weather and climate parameters can help the farmers a lot to harvest their year-round investments and hard work in be�er returns. we could find that climate and variety became the m o s t i m p o r t a n t f a c t o r s l i m i � n g improvement of rice yield, through specific analysis, making the breeding researches cau�ous to cul�vate much more novel varie�es with stronger adaptability to the complex environment (ran et. al., 2018). much of the apparent gap between yields on research sta�ons and farmer's yields can be a�ributed to bio-physical factors, including floods, soil-based issues, insect damages, diseases etc (lobell et. al., 2009). integrated crop management (icm) can effec�vely address yield gaps induced b y b i o l o g i c a l , s o c i o e c o n o m i c , a n d ins�tu�onal constraints (mondal, 2011). government should find solu�ons to socioeconomic and poli�cal ques�ons for narrowing the yield gap between farmers' fields and the research sta�ons (hanson et al., 1982). rapid progress and augmented rate of obsolescence of technologies entail be re-oriented to boost the socio-economic status of the rice farmers with more incen�ves, especially during �mes of distress due to climate related anomalies like un�mely rain or drought. references alam, m. m., karim, m. r., & ladha, j. k. (2013). integra�ng best management prac�ces for rice with farmers' crop management techniques: a poten�al op�on for minimizing rice yield gap. field crops research, 144, 62–68. boling, a. a., bouman, b. a. m., tuong, t. p., konboon, y., & harnpichitvitaya, d. (2011) yield gap analysis and the effect of nitrogen and water on photoperiodsensi�ve jasmine rice in north-east thailand. njas wageningen journal of life sciences, 58 (1), 11–19. economic survey. (2022). government of india, pp.243-245 hanson, h., borlaug, e., & anderson, r.g. (1982). narrowing the yield gap. wheat in the third world. west view press, colorado. pp. 127-133. joshi, n. s., bariya, m. k., & kunjadia, b. b. (2014). yield gap analysis through front line demonstra�on in wheat crop. interna�onal journal of scien�fic and research publica�on, 4 (9), 1-3. kulkarni, s., renuka, b., arvind, r., & prakash, s. (2018). impact of frontline d e m o n s t r a � o n o n a d o p � o n o f i m p rove d p r a c � ce s of s u n fl o w e r (helinathus annuuss l.). interna�onal journal of current microbiology and applied sciences, 7 (9), 2511-2515. kumar, b.m., & kunhamu, t.k. (2021). ecological and historical perspec�ves of rice cul�va�on in kerala: a synthesis. oryza. 58 (2), 241-261 kumar, j., singh, y. p., & rana, d. k. (2014). yield and gap analysis of wheat (tri�cum aes�vum) produc�vity in ncr delhi. indian journal of extension educa�on, 50 (1 & 2), 56-58. kumari, l. s., (2012). status paper on rice in kerala[on-line]. h�ps://riceportal.in/ sites/default/files/ris/ricestatewisesta tuspaperonriceinkerala2012.pdf lobell, b. d., cassman, g.k., & field, b.c. ( 2 0 0 9 ) . c r o p y i e l d g a p s : t h e i r importance, magnitudes, and causes. the annual review of environment and resources, 33, 1-26 manilal, k. s. (1991). ethnobotany of the rices of malabar in contribu�on to e t h n o b o t a n y o f i n d i a . s c i e n � fi c publishers, jodhpur. pp. 243–253. mondal, m.h. (2011). causes of yield gaps and strategies for minimizing the gaps in different crops of bangladesh. journal of agricultural research, 36 (3), 469-476 ran, y., chen, h., ruan, d., liu, h., wang, s., 6556 journal of extension educa�on ta n g , x . a n d w u , w . ( 2 0 1 8 ) . iden�fica�on of factors affec�ng rice yield gap in southwest china: an experimental study. plos one, 13(11), 115 rap (regional office for asia and the pacific). (2000). bridging rice yield gap in the asiapacific region. fao. pp. 84-111 stuart, a. m., pame, a. r. p., silva, j. v., d i k i t a n a n , r . c . , r u t s a e r t , p. , malabayabas, a. j. b., lampayana, r. m., radanielsona, a. m., & singletona g. r. (2016). yield gaps in rice-based farming systems: insights from local studies and prospects for future analysis. field crops research, 194, 43–56. subba, r.d.p &subramanyam, m. (1987). non-parametric approach to anova. journal of indian society of agricultural sta�s�cs. 39 (2): 148-153 thomas, a. & kumar, k. (2015). technology needs assessment in the homegarden systems. journal of extension educa�on. 27 (4): 5556-5563 umezuruike, o., & françois, m. (2001). food traceability from field to plate. outlook on agriculture, 30 (4), 239-247. varma, m.s. (2017). soaring rice price forces kerala to eye rs 100 cr worth buy from w e s t b e n g a l [ o n l i n e ] . h�ps://www.financialexpress.com/mar ket/commodi�es/kerala-governmentto-buy-rice-worth-100-crore-fromwest-bengal/570436/ 6557factors affec�ng yield gap of rice in north kerala page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 process impact of e-velanmai model of extension among beneficiaries in tamil nadu d. prabha1, ravi kumar theodore2, c. karthikeyan3 and p. balasubramaniam4 abstract a study was undertaken to study the process impact of e-velanmai model of extension, implemented by tamil nadu agricultural university, in three districts viz., coimbatore, tirupur and villupuram of tamil nadu, with 90 beneficiary respondents. it was found that more than half (51.10 %) of the beneficiary respondents had reported high level of turnaround time; an overwhelming percentage (92.20 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of effectiveness of advice; nearly half (48.90 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed 75 per cent level of effectiveness of scientists involvement; almost all (98.90 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of effectiveness of ict tools used; all (100.00 %) the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of effectiveness of field coordinator; and service quality analysis revealed that the beneficiary respondents were satisfied with the functioning of e-velanmai model of extension, since it had fulfilled their expectations. 1-ph.d. scholar, 2-professor & head, 4professor (agrl. extension), department of agricultural extension & rural sociology and 3professor (agrl. extension), directorate of extension education, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 641 003. the tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) implemented the e-velanmai (electronic agriculture) project from july 2007 to march 2013, under the tn-iamwarm (tamil nadu irrigated agriculture modernization and water-bodies restoration and management) project, funded by the world bank. according to karthikeyan (2011), the principal investigator of the project, evelanmai was a combination of interpersonal and ict (information and communication technology) based, demand-driven and participatory extension model aimed at providing timely agro advisory services to the registered farmers. the tnau scientists served as experts and provided advise for the decision-based queries and problem-based queries raised by farmers by means of modern ict tools viz., laptop computer, digital camera, internet and mobile phone, which was coordinated by the field coordinator. as e-velanmai was a paid model of extension service and a new venture, it was expected that it would evoke different kinds of responses among the beneficiaries. totally, 10,507 farmers, of which 1,076 were farm women, were enrolled as members in the project by paying a nominal fee of rs. 50/per farmer with upto five acres of land, rs. 100/for those with 5.1 to 10 acres, and rs. 150/for those with land holding of above 10 acres. during the project period, based on demand advices were given to the members to solve their farm problems and to take journal of extension education5350 informed decisions. in the light of the above it was decided to assess the process impact of e-velanmai project among the beneficiaries. the objectives of the study were as follows: to assess the process impact of evelanmai model of extension among the beneficiaries. to elicit suggestions from the beneficiaries for further improving the e-velanmai model of extension. methodology the e-velanmai project was implemented in three districts of tamil nadu viz., coimbatore (aliyar sub-basin), tirupur (palar sub-basin) and villupuram (varahanadhi subbasin), and therefore the study was carried out in all these three districts. the respondents of the study were registered farmers (beneficiaries) of e-velanmai. based on probability proportionate sampling method, 30 beneficiary respondents were selected from two water user associations (wuas) in aliyar sub-basin; 30 respondents from three wuas in palar sub-basin; and 30 respondents from three wuas in varahanadhi sun-basin, and thus the total sample size of the beneficiaries was 90. the impact of e-velanmai project was assessed in terms of 'process impact', which referred to the consequences that occurred among the e-velanmai beneficiaries due to the unique methodology that was followed by the e-velanmai model of extension such as use of ict tools, facilitated by field coordinator, and involvement of tnau scientists. the impact of process was assessed by means of six parameters viz., turnaround time, effectiveness of advice, effectiveness of scientists involvement, effectiveness of ict tools, effectiveness of field coordinator, and service quality. 'turnaround time' referred to the time taken from the reporting of a problem (decision-based queries or problem-based queries) by a beneficiary until the advice was offered by the tnau scientist, facilitated by the field coordinator. the turnaround time was measured in hours and minutes, which were entered in the membership card. 'effectiveness of advice' referred to the perceived effectiveness of the messages that were delivered, whether they were related to decision-based queries or problem-based queries, to the beneficiaries of e-velanmai model of extension. effectiveness of advice was assessed by means of three indicators viz., precision, completeness and simplicity. 'effectiveness of scientists involvement' was operationalized as the measure of assistance extended by tnau scientists to the beneficiaries of e-velanmai model of extension, in terms of advisories rendered for decisionbased queries or problem-based queries as well as technical guidance offered during the seminars organized periodically. the perceived effectiveness of scientists involvement was assessed in terms of percentage. 'effectiveness of ict tools' was operationalized as the degree of usefulness of ict tools that were employed by the e-velanmai model of extension, as perceived 5351process impact of e-velanmai model of extension among beneficiaries in tamil nadu by the beneficiaries. this was assessed by means of three indicators viz., simplicity, efficiency and quickness. 'effectiveness of field coordinator' was operationalized as the extent to which the field coordinators were perceived to be useful to the beneficiaries in terms of providing various services under evelanmai model of extension. 'effectiveness of field coordinator' was assessed by means of four indicators viz., easiness, promptness, efficiency and credibility. 'service quality' referred to the perceived excellence of the facilities / assistance / benefits that were provided to the beneficiaries of e-velanmai model of extension. service quality was measured by means of the rater model of gap analysis developed by zeithaml et al., (1990). the gap analysis aimed to study the difference between: standards and the delivery of those standards, or beneficiary perception and expectation. the rater model is explained as: reliability refers to the ability to perform the service accurately and dependably. assurance relates to knowledge and accuracy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence to the customers. tangibles refer to the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials. empathy refers to dealing with customers in a caring and individualized manner. responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. based on the above five attributes a schedule was developed with 15 statements, at the rate of three statements per indicator. each statement was assessed in terms of its 'service satisfaction' and 'service expectation' by assigning scores of 1 to 5 for each. the interpretation of the scores is given as under. the mean score obtained by the respondents on each of the attribute was calculated. the gap was identified between satisfaction and expectation levels. paired 't' test was carried out to test the significance of difference between the satisfaction and expectation mean values. scores service satisfaction service expectation 1. highly dissatisfied highly unexpected 2. dissatisfaction somewhat unexpected 3. neutral neutral 4. satisfied somewhat expected 5. highly satisfied as expected journal of extension education5352 findings and discussion the results and discussion are presented as follows: 1. turnaround time the distribution of beneficiary respondents according to turnaround time is given in table 1. the study reveal that more than half (51.10 %) of the beneficiary respondents had reported high level of turnaround time, followed by medium level (36.70 %), and the rest 12.20 per cent of the respondents reported low level of turnaround time. it is observed that the internal variation (50.50 %) was higher for beneficiary respondents with respect of turnaround time. table 1. distribution of respondents according to turnaround time, effectiveness of advice, scientist involvement & ict tools sl.no. parameters low no. % medium no. % high no. % 1. turnaround time 11 12.20 33 36.70 46 51.10 2. effectiveness of advice 0 7 7.80 83 92.20 3. effectiveness of ict tools 0 1 1.10 89 98.90 the turnaround time referred to the time taken from the reporting of a problem by a beneficiary respondent until the advice was offered by tnau scientists, facilitated by the field coordinator. majority of the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of turnaround time, which means that the respondents received the advice within a short period of time, without any delay. this implies that the scientists and field coordinators were quite prompt in attending to the farmers queries. 2. effectiveness of advice it is also observed that an overwhelming percentage (92.20 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of effectiveness of advice, and the rest (7.80 %) medium level of effectiveness of advice. it is observed that the internal variation (12.00 %) was lower for the beneficiary respondents with respect to effectiveness of advice. effectiveness of advice depended upon three indicators viz., precision, completeness and simplicity of the advice. more than ninety per cent of the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of effectiveness of advice. this implies that the scientists had exercised adequate caution while formulating the messages, as well as during giving replies to queries raised by the farmers, to ensure that they are precise, complete and simple. 3. effectiveness of scientists involvement the study reveal that nearly half (48.90 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed 75 per cent level of effectiveness of scientists involvement, followed by more than one-third (36.70 %) who had reported 50 per cent 5353process impact of e-velanmai model of extension among beneficiaries in tamil nadu effectiveness, 10.00 per cent had expressed 100 per cent effectiveness, and the rest (4.40 %) had expressed 25 per cent effectiveness of scientists involvement. the internal variation (27.69 %) was found to be low among the beneficiaries, indicating greater consistency among the beneficiary respondents with respect to effectiveness of scientists involvement. since, the scientists have attended to the queries of the beneficiary respondents promptly, as evident with the results of turnaround time, more than half of the respondents had reported 75 per cent and above level of effectiveness of scientists involvement. however, it is seen that around 40 per cent of the respondents had indicated less than 50 per cent of effectiveness of scientists involvement. the reason being, the respondents felt that interpersonal communication with scientists is always better than any other means of communication, which was available to a limited degree only during the technical seminars and field diagnostic visits. 4. effectiveness of ict tools almost all (98.90 %) of the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of effectiveness of ict tools used during evelanmai project period, and the rest (1.10 %) medium level of effectiveness of ict tools. the coefficient of variation was found to be 11.00 per cent, inferring that the internal variation was less among the beneficiary respondents with respect to effectiveness of ict tools. effectiveness of ict tools depended upon three indicators viz., simplicity, efficiency and quickness. majority of the respondents had reported high level of effectiveness, which means that the ict tools were found to be simple, efficient and quick to use. this implies that the ict tools had played an effective role in serving as a channel between the farmers and the scientists to convey the information. 5. effectiveness of field coordinator all (100.00 %) the beneficiary respondents had expressed high level of effectiveness of field coordinator. the coefficient of variation was found to be 9.48 per cent, inferring that the internal variation was less among the beneficiary respondents with respect to effectiveness of field coordinator. all the beneficiary respondents had expressed higher level of effectiveness of field coordinator. this means that the field coordinators were found to be satisfactory to the respondents in terms of their easiness, promptness, efficiency and credibility. this implies that the field coordinators were sincere in their duties, and committed to the project work, whereby this result would have occurred. 6. service quality the distribution of beneficiary respondents according to service quality is given in table 2. from table 2 it is observed that the 't' value was non-significant indicating that there exists no significant gap between the journal of extension education5354 table 2. distribution of beneficiary respondents according to service quality ns: non-significant sl.no. statements satisfaction expectation gap i reliability 1. the field coordinator was dependable in providing extension advices. 3.33 2.45 0.88 2. services were provided at the right time. 4.15 3.34 0.81 3. advices provided were appropriate to my problem / situation. 3.96 3.17 0.79 ii assurance 4. field coordinator was knowledgeable enough to solve my field problems. 3.48 2.70 0.78 5. advices offered were quite precise to the situation. 4.18 3.44 0.74 6. field coordinators were trustworthy in delivery of extension services. 3.93 2.94 0.99 iii tangibles 7. the field coordinator made personal visits to the farm to offer services. 3.75 3.02 0.73 8. advices offered by field coordinator were clear, understandable and complete. 4.05 3.17 0.88 9. the solutions offered by the field coordinator were cost effective. 4.15 3.25 0.90 iv empathy 10. custom tailored advices were offered. 3.44 2.82 0.62 11. field coordinator was quite concerned to solve my problems. 3.95 3.31 0.64 12. convincing approach was adopted by the field coordinator. 3.90 2.96 0.94 v responsiveness 13. the field coordinator was prompt in attending to my calls. 3.21 2.54 0.67 14. there was hardly any delay while offering solutions. 4.11 3.43 0.68 15. field coordinator was quite willing to extend his services any time. 4.07 3.12 0.95 't' value 25.96ns 5355process impact of e-velanmai model of extension among beneficiaries in tamil nadu satisfaction scores and expectation scores of the beneficiary respondents with respect to service quality. the results imply that the beneficiary respondents were satisfied with the quality of the services offered under e-velanmai model of extension. this means that the field coordinators and tnau scientists were able to match the requirements of the beneficiary respondents, which was supported by effective use of the ict tools. suggestions for improving the services under e-velanmai the suggestions offered by the beneficiary respondents for improving the e-velanmai model of extension is given in table 3. table 3. suggestions for improving the services under e-velanmai * multiple responses sl.no. suggestions beneficiaries number (n-90) per cent* 1. number of field coordinators may be increased 78 86.60 2. day-to-day market information may be provided 65 72.20 3. post harvest technology/ value addition information for coconut and other crops may be provided 45 50.00 4. a separate office for e-velanmai project may be opened in every sub-basin 43 47.70 5. schemes with subsidy details may be provided 19 21.10 6. farm machinery details for various crops may be provided 18 20.00 7. tnau scientists need to visit farmers fields once a month, as part of the e-velanmai project 7 7.70 it is observed from table 3 that the foremost suggestion offered by the beneficiary respondents for improvement of the evelanmai model of extension was "number of field coordinators may be increased" (86.60 %), followed by "day-to-day market information may be provided" (72.20 %), "post harvest technology / value addition information for coconut and other crops may be provided" (50.00 %), "a separate office for e-velanmai project may be opened in every sub-basin" (47.70 %), "schemes with subsidy details may be provided" (21.10 %), "farm machinery details for various crops may be provided" (20.00 %) and "tnau scientists need to visit farmers fields once a month as part of the e-velanmai project (7.70%)". the first and foremost suggestion offered by the beneficiary respondents was "number of field coordinators may be increased". when the e-velanmai project was operated by tnau, one field coordinator was made in-charge for an entire sub-basin. the field coordinator was in the cadre of srf (senior research journal of extension education5356 fellow) drawing rs. 16,000 /per month, with a six-day work schedule. the daily schedule would start by 9.00 am and end by 5.00 pm. vehicles for mobility were not provided to the field coordinators. each sub-basin covered a vast area; for instance palar sub-basin covered an area of 1,53,965 hectares. therefore, if additionally one more field coordinator is posted to look after a subbasin, the work turnover will be more and any delay in meeting the registered members can be avoided. conclusion e-velanmai being a novel approach, which was attempted for the first time in tamil nadu, required an equally appropriate methodology for implementing it successfully. the study has revealed that the e-velanmai process has achieved its purpose as the beneficiary respondents have rated all the six impact parameters favourably. it is therefore suggested that this process may be followed wherever ict projects similar to e-velanmai model are implemented. references karthikeyan, c. 2011. e-velanmai: an information and communication technology (ict) enabled agro-technology transfer model. paper presented during the international conference on innovative approaches for agricultural knowledge management-global experiences, held during 9-12, nov. 2011 at nasc complex, new delhi. zeithaml, parasuraman and berry. 1990. delivering quality service; balancing customer perceptions and expectations, the free press, new york, usa. 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 extent of empowerment of women entrepreneurs on entrepreneurial and technological empowerment m. swetha1, m. jagan mohan reddy2 and v. sudharani3 abstract empowerment of women entrepreneurs in the context of technology entails building up the abilities and skills of women to gain insight into the issues affecting them and also building up their capacity to voice their concerns. technological empowerment of women entrepreneurs will open up avenues to further enrichment. by the use of technology women can broaden the scope of their activities. hence the present paper focused on analyzing the entrepreneurial and technological empowerment of women entrepreneurs. majority of the women entrepreneurs had medium level of entrepreneurial and low level of technological empowerment. 1-ph.d scholar, 2 and 3 professor, department of agricultural extension college of agriculture, angrau, rajendranagar, hyderabad-30, andhra pradesh. entrepreneurship itself has been recently recognized as full-fledged profession and women entrepreneurship is an even newer phenomenon. the assertion and analysis of the concept of women entrepreneurship is essential to understand how they can be empowered much to take up entrepreneurial activities more on scientific manner. many dimensions shall contribute for the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in general whereas the entrepreneurial and technological empowerment would influence significantly in empowering the women to take up entrepreneurial activities. garba (2000) felt that empowering women is a means to an end, the end being to improve their lives rights to participate in decisions that affect them. a few research studies focused their attention to understand the role and influence of these factors on empowering the women entrepreneurs. keeping this in view the present paper focused on analyzing extent of entrepreneurial and technological empowerment of women entrepreneurs. ganeshan (2001) stated that entrepreneurship is the capacity for innovation and calibre to introduce innovative techniques in the business operations. methodology expost facto research design was followed for carrying out the study. the state of andhra pradesh and telangana region were selected purposively for the study as the investigator hails from the state. out of 10 districts of the region, medak district was selected purposively for the study. out of 46 mandals of the district, six mandals were selected randomly. the selected mandals were siddipet, thoguta, chinnakodur, nanganoor, dubbak, sangareddy. from each mandal two villages were selected at randomly. the selected villages werehensanpally and bandarupally from siddipet mandal; journal of extension education5334 thukkapur and ghanpur from thoguta; ramancha and lingareddypally from chnnakodur; nanganoor, and akkannapally from nanganoor; dubbak and cheekode from dubbak, where as pothireddy pally and malkapur from sangreddy mandal. ten respondents were selected randomly from each village thus making a total of 120 respondents. extent of empowerment was selected as variable for the study and entrepreneurial and technological empowerments were the dimensions selected in it. an interview schedule was developed to collect the data from the respondents. findings and discussion entrepreneurial empowerment it could be indicated from the table 1. that majority of the respondents (58.34%) had medium entrepreneurial empowerment, followed by high and low (20.83%) entrepreneurial empowerment. the table 1. depicts the rank ordering of the statements of entrepreneurial empowerment of the women entrepreneurs. the ranks assigned to the statements are entrepreneurship gives both personal and professional satisfaction (rank i) followed by need of perseverance to phase any eventuality (rank ii), leading a descent and dignified life by running an enterprise (rank iii), running an enterprise is a sacred, and divine activity and values, ethics, and morals need to be maintained to run the enterprise (rank iv), establishing enterprise with strong vision and mission (rank v), need for comprehensive knowledge on the dynamics of running an enterprise (rank vi), need of proficiency in technical, business and marketing plans to run an enterprise (rank vii), an entrepreneur can unleash the innate business potentials through enterprise (rank viii), holding key positions in society being the owner of an enterprise (ix), facilitates to build relationships with high profile people (rank x), taking up welfare measures through the enterprise (rank xi) and entrepreneurship is one of the premier services to help the poor in the society (rank xii). the table 2, illustrates that majority of the respondents had medium entrepreneurial empowerment. getting the power or control over running an enterprise is not an easy task. this kind of entrepreneurial empowerment can be gained by developing the competencies on technical, business and marketing plan formulation. the medium level of awareness creation, critical conciousness, social and table 1. distribution of respondents according to their entrepreneurial empowerment n=120 sl.no. category class interval frequency percentage (%) 1. low 21-27 25 20.83 2. medium 27-33 75 58.34 3. high 33-39 25 20.83 5335extent of empowerment of women entrepreneurs on entrepreneurial and technological empowerment economic empowerment might have resulted in medium entrepreneurial empowerment. the ranking order in table 2 further indicates that getting the control or equipping needed skills to run the enterprise will derive both personal and professional satisfaction. the other top ranked statements under entrepreneurial empowerment were perseverance to face eventualities, leading a decent and dignified life by running an enterprise, maintaining values, ethics and morals in running an enterprise and establishing the enterprise with strong vision and mission. the strong opinion among these statements reflects the character of the entrepreneur, their risk taking ability and foreseeing the future of the enterprise. table 2. rank ordering of the statements of entrepreneurial empowerment of women entrepreneurs n=120 f % f % f % 1. an entrepreneur should have values, ethics, and morals to run an enterprise 55 45.83 26 21.67 39 32.50 256 2.13 v 2. any enterprise should be established with strong vision and mission 60 50.00 19 15.83 41 34.17 259 2.15 v 3. an entrepreneur should have perseverance to phase any eventuality 31 25.83 99 82.50 68 56.67 359 2.99 ii 4. an entrepreneur should have a comprehensive knowledge on the dynamics of running an enterprise 52 43.33 29 24.17 39 32.50 253 2.10 vi 5. an entrepreneur can unleash the innate business potentials through enterprise 56 46.67 15 12.50 49 40.83 247 2.05 viii 6. entrepreneurship gives both personal and professional satisfaction 35 29.17 99 82.50 64 53.33 367 3.05 i 7. one can lead a decent and dignified life by running an enterprise 63 52.50 22 18.33 35 29.17 268 2.23 iii 8. entrepreneurship is one of the premier services to help the poor in the society 30 25.00 26 21.67 64 53.33 180 1.50 xii 9. one should be proficient in technical, business and marketing plans to run an enterprise 56 46.67 19 15.83 45 37.50 251 2.09 vii 10. i hold key positions in society being the owner of an enterprise 49 40.833 25 20.83 46 38.33 243 2.05 ix 11. enterprise facilitates me to build relationships with high profile people 50 41.67 22 18.33 48 40.00 242 2.01 x 12. i can take up many welfare measures through the enterprise 32 26.67 26 21.67 62 51.66 210 1.75 xi 13. i consider running an enterprise is sacred, and divine activity 56 46.67 24 20.00 40 33.33 256 2.13 v si. no. statements agree undecided disagree t.s rankm.s journal of extension education5336 table 4. rank ordering of the statements of technological empowerment of women entrepreneurs n=120 table 3. distribution of respondents according to their technological empowerment n=120 sl.no. category class interval frequency percentage (%) 1. low 15-19 45 37.50 2. medium 19-23 44 36.67 3. high 23-27 31 25.83 technological empowerment it could be indicated from the table 3. that majority of the respondents (37.50%) had low technological empowerment, followed by medium (36.67%) and high (25.83%) technological empowerment. the table 4. focused on rank ordering of statements of technological empowerment of the women entrepreneurs. the ranks assigned f % f % f % 1. i rely upon traditional methods to run the enterprise 61 50.84 31 25.83 28 23.33 273 2.27 i 2. it is better to test prior to implementation of modern technology to run the enterprise 48 40.00 33 27.50 39 32.50 249 2.07 v 3. i had strong belief that the recent advancement in science and technology give good dividends in my enterprise 52 43.33 27 22.50 41 34.17 251 2.09 iv 4. a sound technological plan is the foundation for success of an enterprise 50 41.67 24 20.00 46 38.33 244 2.03 vii 5. the constant feasibility of any new technology should be tested its inclusion in the enterprise 49 40.83 33 27.50 38 31.67 251 2.09 iv 6. it is better not to test the new technologies in an enterprise without skilled workers 36 30.00 32 26.67 52 43.33 224 1.86 ix 7. technology up gradation is a continuous cycle to support the performance of an enterprise 49 40.83 29 24.16 42 35.00 247 2.05 vi 8. modern tools and techniques definitely reduce the drudgery of the entrepreneurs 53 44.17 27 22.50 40 33.33 253 2.10 iii 9. the employees at all levels should be trained to understand and utilise the modern technologies 45 37.50 28 23.33 47 39.17 238 1.98 viii 10. i strongly believe that machines cannot replace the manpower in an enterprise 52 43.33 30 25.00 38 31.67 254 2.11 ii si. no. statement agree undecided disagree t.s rankm.s to the statements wererely upon traditional methods to run the enterprise (rank i) followed by strong belief that machinery cannot replace 5337extent of empowerment of women entrepreneurs on entrepreneurial and technological empowerment the man power in an enterprise (rank ii), modern tools and techniques definitely reduce the drudgery of the entrepreneurs (rank iii), recent advances in science and technology give good dividends and constant feasibility of any new technology should be tested its inclusion in the enterprise (rank iv), it is better to test prior to implementation of modern technology to run the enterprise (rank v), technology up gradation is a continuous cycle to support the performance of an enterprise (rank vi), a sound technological plan is the foundation for success of an enterprise (rank vii), the workers at all levels should be trained to understand and utilise the modern technologies (rank viii) and it is better not to test the new technologies in an enterprise without skilled workers (rank ix). the table 3, illustrates that majority of the respondents had low level of technological empowerment. the running of an enterprise on technical grounds in line with the rules and regulations of enterprise by laws requires thorough preparedness and understanding of formal activities of enterprise management. devi et al. (2007) observed that the technological training programmes attended by the members of women shgs resulted in the incremental increase in their employment pattern and asset position. acquiring and acquainting the knowledge on techniques involved in crafting, modelling and running various parameters of enterprise is an arduous task. it is only the specialised persons could understand the network of technicalities involved in controlling the systems of the enterprise. this might be the reason for low level of technological empowerment. preethi and shashi (2008) observed that 63 per cent of the women entrepreneurs had low technological empowerment and 30 per cent of the women entrepreneurs had medium technological empowerment. conclusion getting the power or control over running an enterprise is not an easy task. this kind of entrepreneurial empowerment can be gained by developing the competencies on technical, business and marketing plan formulation. the medium level of awareness creation, critical conciousness, social and economic empowerment might have resulted in medium entrepreneurial empowerment. the running of an enterprise on technical grounds in line with the rules and regulations of enterprise by laws requires thorough preparedness and understanding of formal activities of enterprise management. hence the low level of technological empowerment was observed among the respondents of the study. references devi, k.s., poonnarasi, t. and saravannana, m.p. 2007. an impact analysis of technological training on women self help groups. international journal of agricultural sciences. 3 (2): 16-65. ganeshan, g. 2001. entrepreneurship development. kisan world. 28 (6): 50-51. garba. 2000. empowerment and status of rural women. a central himalaya perspective. m.d. publications pvt. ltd., new delhi. preethi sharma and shashi kanta varma. 2008. women empowerment through entrepreneurial activities of self help groups. indian research journal of extension education. 8 (1): 46-51. 6750 journal of extension education vol. 34 no.1, 2022 doi: https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2022.1.34.6750-6758 socio-economic prospects and major constraints of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala a.t anna and k dinesh abstract shrimp farming plays a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of the coastal population of india by way of contributing to foreign exchange earnings and livelihood options. in the current study, the culture technique and stocking density are taken into account for investigating the influence of these factors on the production performance and economic feasibility of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala. along with the major constraints faced by the kerala vannamei farmers also undergoing investigation. in recent years, vannamei shrimp farming has been getting excellent responses from shrimp farmers around kerala due to the attractive and profitable rewards of shrimp farming. kodungalloor from thrissur district is a key area in vannamei shrimp farming in kerala, more than 60 shrimp farmers are doing vannamei shrimp farming very enthusiastically and efficiently. but kerala state still depends on other states to cater to the processing industry which is a highly labour-intensive sector providing the major avocation to thousands of families. continuous unfavourable weather conditions and delay in the farm registration process led to non-adoption of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala. though the state government support the vannamei shrimp farmers by notifying shrimp farming as an essential activity, our study showed that additional efforts and supports are required to implement solid plans at the ground level. keywords: vannamei shrimp farming; prospects; shrimp farmers; constraints; kerala. introduction aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production sector in the world, providing almost half of the global fish and shrimp which peaked at about 172.6 million tonnes in 2019, among that aquaculture contributed at 47% of the total and 53% came from capture fisheries (fao, 2020). shrimp farming is the face of indian brackish water aquaculture which plays a crucial role in the socio-economic and nutritional security of the coastal communities and forms a major share in the seafood export earnings of the country. being a lucrative profession, shrimp culture attracts many progressive farmers to venture into the commercial-scale culture. penaeus vannamei was the most widely cultured shrimp in the western hemisphere since long where the species contributes to about 90% of the total shrimp culture (wurmann et al., 2004) which slowly got popularized to other parts of the world. the species was introduced in india for the first time during 2008 (caa, 2010) and then research article kerala university of fisheries and ocean studies (kufos), panangad, p.o. , kochi-682506, kerala, india received : 25.11.21 ; accepted : 10.08.23 socio-economic prospects and major constraints of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala 6751 onwards the production of this species surpassed the production of p. monodon owing to its faster growth, compatibility to higher stocking rate, less disease risk, euryhaline as well as eurythermic nature, lower dietary protein requirement and lower feed conversion ratio (fcr). heterotrophic auto-recycling aquaculture technology (haat) developed in the farmers’ field is an environment-friendly shrimp culture technique consisting of selectively reared spf zooplankton (brachionus spp.) and probiotic bacteria that have a huge potential to enhance yields of p. vannamei. maintaining the transparency level at 25 cm for the better growth of zooplankton is a specialty of the haat system. the natural haat system was developed by the application of fermented wheat bran juice. the haat system has been proved to be a very efficient and cost-effective natural system. it is reported to have significantly improved the total production of shrimp in many trials. this system got emerged as a popular one among the farmers of kerala since a few years. the present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala encompassing the socio-economic characteristics, production and economic performance and the major problems faced by the farmers towards providing valuable suggestions for further improvement. methodology for the purpose of the study, the state of kerala, india was geographically divided into three zones viz., north, central and south. the study was confined to four districts selected purposively to represent each of the zones. the present investigation has carried out in brackish water shrimp farms at ernakulam, thrissur, kollam and kannur districts. more than 70 shrimp farmers were found to be actively doing vannamei culture in kerala. they undertake shrimp farming two crops per year continuously because of its profitability and economic sustainability. figure 1. location map of research area a detailed survey schedule was designed based on the objective of the research and used for the collection of data from vannamei shrimp farmers those were actively participated in shrimp farming more than five years. among them, a total of 72 vannamei shrimp farmers selected purposively. the vannamei shrimp farmers were contacted directly and the objectives of the study were explained to them before commencing the research study to ensure their cooperation. the present investigation was carried out in brackish water shrimp farms at ernakulum, thrissur, kollam, and kannur districts of kerala state (fig. 1). the investigation had been carried out during the period from october 2018 to february 2021 and all the crops were taken in varying-sized ponds (0.40-1.011 ha) with a water depth of 1.2 1.5 m. there are four types of farming techniques adopted by the vannamei farmers in kerala. they are autotrophic system, natural haat system, haat system, autotrophic and heterotrophic intermittent culture system with a stocking density of 15, 25, 30, 40, 50 and 60 m-2. farmers in trissur district prepare the autotrophic system using ‘naulgi’a patented product for journal of extension education 6752 diatom enhancement. the culture ponds were stocked with pacific white shrimp (vannamei) post larvae (pl) that had been transported from a caa-approved hatchery and acclimated directly into the pond environment very slowly. the application of the first dose of probiotic was made 3-4 days before stocking. after stocking, shrimps were fed with a good quality commercial pellet feed four to six times a day until the harvest. farm management included pond preparation (drying), having an effective filtration system, adequate pond water preparation, prebiotic media preparation, ensuring the best biosecurity, providing adequate aeration, optimizing stocking density, water quality management, adequate water topping up, health management and recording the crop details. garrett’s ranking technique was employed to find out the critical constraints faced by the vannamei shrimp farmers in the study area. it was calculated as a percentage score and the scale value was obtained by applying the scale conversion table given by garret and woodworth (1969). the percentage score is calculated using the following formula: percentage score = 100(r ij -0.5) ------------------ n j where, rij = rank given for ith item by jth individual. nj = number of items ranked by jth individual. for each constraint, the scores of individual respondents were added and divided by the total number of respondents. these mean scores for all the constraints were ranked in order to identify the critical constraints. findings and discussion the vannamei farmers in kerala are found to be adopting the emerging technologies and innovative practices in the aquaculture value chain coupled with digital extension activities which can enhance productivity and accelerate production area thereby, ensuring their economic stability. the culture performance of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala are given in table 1. in the present culture trial, the vannamei farmers in kerala maintained the better fcr values which are ranged from 0.79 to 1.60 due to the promotion of natural productivity by proper fertilization regime, quality probiotic application and efficient feed management. a farmer from kodungaloor reported that adopting innovative culture techniques like the ‘haat’ system helped him to reduce feed utilization by 75%. valderrama and engle (2002) found fcr values ranging from 1.42 to 4.07 in the semi-intensive rearing of p. vannamei. garza de yta, rouse and avis (2004) registered fcr from 1.97 to 2.12 for p.vannamei cultured at densities of 10, 20 and 30 shrimp/ m2. as it is well known, the feed cost constitutes the major share of the production cost of shrimp. normally, the feed cost ranges from rs. 80 to 100/ kg shrimp in all types of shrimp farming practiced in kerala. feed management cost is the cost of the feed to produce 1 kg shrimp. feed management cost is comparatively very less in trichur districts might be due to adoption haat system, which promotes natural productivity through the effective utilization of zooplankton like selectively reared rotifer species. socio-economic prospects and major constraints of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala 6753 table 1. the culture performance of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala sl. no parameters ernakulam thrissur kannur kollam 1. area (ha) .49-1.01 .40-1.01 .61-1.01 .81-1.01 2. stocking density 15-30 30-50 40-60 30-40 3. initial stocking 100000150000 250000400000 400000500000 250000400000 4. doc 90-120 120-130 110-130 110-135 5. probiotics detrodigest detrodigest pro-b-aqua optibact 6. fcr 1.20-1.30 .79-1.34 1.35-1.60 1.30-1.44 7. survival (%) 80-85 80-85 75-80 80-85 8. feed management cost (rs.) 90-100 65-100 110-120 110-120 9. total production (kg) 4000-5000 6000-10000 6000-10000 6000-8000 10. total variable cost (lakh) 4-7 9-12 10-15 10-12 11. total fixed cost (lakh) 5-7 10-12 10-15 10-12 12. total cost (lakh) 10-15 20-30 20-35 20-30 13. gross returns (lakh) 20-25 35-50 40-60 35-50 14. net profit (lakh) 10-15 15-30 15-35 15-30 shrimp feed constitutes 55 to 60% of the production cost in shrimp farming and it is one of the critical factors which determine the profitability of a crop. the vannamei farmers in kerala used very practical and pond specific feeding protocols and the feeding regime was arrived as per stocking density and survival of the shrimp in that particular pond. the majority of the shrimp farmers were using cp and avanti commercial pellet feeds followed by blanca, grower and vannamei plus shrimp feeds. the farmers used feed attractants and vitamin c, adding these to the feed with the help of a binder. they were also used zeolite mixed with commercially available probiotics @ 15 kg/ha applied once in 10-15 days depending upon the requirement. the frequency of feeding varied four to six times depending on the environmental conditions. as it is well known, the feed cost was the major share in the production cost per kg with an average of rs 80/kg in all the categories of shrimp farmers in kerala. the profitability of any aquaculture farm is directly related to feed management costs. feed management cost is the cost required to produce 1 kg shrimp. the vannamei farmers could efficiently reduce the feed management cost to the tune of rs. 67 to 121 by the promotion of natural products through continuous and effective use of fertilization regime, good quality water and addition of soil and gut probiotics. some farmers reported that the incorporation of garlic paste along with feed would help to increase the digestibility of shrimp. kumar et al. (2016) reported that the feed cost was high in the total variable cost representing 38.20%. balakrishnan et al. (2011) also reported journal of extension education 6754 that feed cost was the major share in the production cost representing 50.39% and the net profit was 78.56/kg of shrimp. between the vannamei farmers in kerala, the haat system is an effective culture technique that promotes natural productivity through the effective utilization of zooplankton like selectively reared rotifer species has been proved to be a very efficient and cost-effective natural system, which would help the farmers to reduce the feed management cost-efficiently. several farms here have upgraded their facilities adding shrimp toilets, better aeration and blowers. farmers in kerala have maintaining low density after 60 days of culture and adopt controlled feeding to avoid white faeces problem. water quality management has been considered as the most significant component that determines the profitability of pond aquaculture, but in recent years, the management of pond bottom has received less attention. there is increasing evidence that the condition of pond bottom and the exchange of substances between soil and water strongly influence water quality. the vannamei farmers in kerala keep all the water and soil quality parameters within the favourable range required for the growth of whitelegged shrimp farming due to the continuous and effective use of good quality water and soil probiotics and minerals. the findings of this study reveal that p.vannamei culture is successful in the brackish water environment in kerala due to the effective farm management and technical efficiency of the farmer acquired by experience attained through various training programmes by kufos and other organizations. effective extension tools always help to have sustainable aquaculture operations. the vannamei farmers in kerala used the best quality probiotics at regular intervals and optimum dosage depending on the potency of the product. the majority of the vannamei farmers in kerala used probiotics named ‘detrodigest’ a patented product developed by cusat followed by ‘optibact’, a unique blend of optimal aquaculture strain probiotics and ‘pro-b-aqua’, a tata product of multistrain probiotics for soil and water. the regular and optimum use of these quality probiotics would help them to maintain optimum water and soil quality parameters improve beneficial phytoplankton quantity and also help to maintain a good nitrogen cycle in shrimp ponds. socio-economic indicators like occupation, education, and technical skill are shown very crucial roles in enhancing production and productivity. the socio-economic characteristics are shown in table 2. the age of the farmers plays a critical role in being enthusiastic and their technical expertise enhances the production performance of kerala vannamei shrimp farming. around 61% of farmers were between 30-50 years of age with wellexperienced and improved technical knowledge in shrimp farming activities. (51%). most of the farmers from ernakulam (50%) trichur. kannur and kollam with a percentage of 66.67 have an educational background of high school. one farmer from kodungallor, thrissur districts is a well expert and knowledgeable person who made a registered society for vannamei farmers in his district and also gave advice to vannamei shrimp farmers in all districts. most of the farmers from the study area gained technical knowledge from their own experience through participation in various seminars, workshops, and training conducted by various fisheries institutions (51.25%). through participating in such training and workshops, the farmers acquired knowledge of farming protocols and effective feed management. socio-economic prospects and major constraints of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala 6755 table 2. socio-economic characteristics of vannamei shrimp farmers in kerala sl. no process indicators ernakulam (%) trichur (%) kannur (%) kollam (%) mean value 1. age 20-30 33.33 8.33 0.00 33.33 18.75 31-50 33.33 80.00 66.67 66.67 61.68 50-60 33.33 11.67 33.33 0.00 19.58 2. occupation only shrimp farming 33.33 50 33.33 66.67 45.83 other aquaculture activities 33.33 33.33 66.67 33.33 41.67 employed in other firms 16.67 11.67 0.00 0.00 7.09 other business 16.67 5 0.00 0.00 5.42 3. education primary school (class 1-5) 0.00 5 0.00 0.00 1.25 secondary school (6-9) 16.67 18.33 0.00 0.00 8.75 high school (class 1012) 50 66.67 66.67 66.67 62.50 graduate 33.33 10 33.33 33.33 27.50 4. technical skill obtained own experience 0.00 3.33 0.00 0.00 0.83 govt. workshops 16.67 8.33 33.33 33.33 22.92 own experience & workshops 66.67 38.33 66.67 33.33 51.25 shared information from others 16.67 50 0.00 33.33 25.00 6. annual income from the shrimp sale rs. 100000500000 16.67 3.33 0.00 0.00 5.00 rs.5000011000000 33.33 43.33 33.33 66.67 44.17 rs.10000012000000 33.33 33.33 33.33 33.33 33.33 rs.20000015000000 16.67 16.67 33.33 0.00 16.67 ˃ rs. 5000000 0.00 3.33 0.00 0.00 .83 major problems faced by vannamei farmers though there are a large number of enthusiastic and technical efficient shrimp farmers who have been doing vannamei culture very progressively in the state, the farmers were facing a number of constraints during their culture period. the various constraints experienced by the selected vannamei shrimp farmer respondents are detailed in table 3. journal of extension education 6756 table 3. major constraints faced by the kerala vannamei shrimp farmers si. no constraints garret score garret mean score rank 1 high production cost 81 74.1 i 2 despite unfavourable weather conditions 70 69.19 ii 3 delay in farm registration license processing. 63 67.9 iii 4 market issues & slumping prices 58 56.13 iv 5 lack of adequate support from the govt.sector 52 54.37 v 6 inadequate awareness of new production technologies 48 46.64 vi 7 lack of credit facilities & insurance 42 42.31 vii 8 emerging diseases 37 37.99 viii 9 poor coordination among the farmers 29 25.36 ix 10 inadequate consultation & meeting with govt. officials 18 22.51 x the most important and severe constraint reported by the vannamei shrimp farmers in kerala was the highest production cost with a garret mean score of 74.7. it is a big challenge faced by them because all kinds of inputs for shrimp farming are comparatively more expensive in kerala. this might be due to the fact that the state is still depending on the supply of seed, feed and other healthcare products to other states. also, due to climate change there are frequent cyclones leading to irregularities in rainfall and resulting in bad weather conditions like floods and raised or overflowed water levels. these cause huge damages and panic harvesting which leads to the huge losses to the shrimp farmers and this is the next major constraint reported by the farmers. the delay in getting the licence for the vannamei shrimp farming was another critical constraint with garret mean scores of 67.9. fast completion of the caa licensing formalities may help the farmers significantly to start the operation quicker. this would encourage and support them to do start shrimp farming and engage more efficiently and dedicatedly to the business which will help to attract more younger and technically efficient farmers to vannamei culture and thereby, increasing the productivity and area under cultivation. similarly, the market issues, slumping prices (56.13) and lack of adequate support from the govt. sector (54.37) were observed as the other major constraints. inadequate awareness of new production technologies and lack of credit facilities and insurance were reported as the other constraints with a garret mean score of 46.64 and 42.31 respectively. some of the farmers from thrissur and ernakulam districts have adopted the new technology like the haat system which was proved to be a very effective. hence, the fisheries universities and other aquaculture related institutions conduct research experiments on the efficacies of these new technologies. the emerging disease outbreak socio-economic prospects and major constraints of vannamei shrimp farming in kerala 6757 was considered as the 8th major constraint by kerala farmers while srinivas and venkatrayalu (2016) reported that the disease outbreak is the main constraint in the vannamei shrimp farmers from godavari district of andhra pradesh. in the present study, the vannamei farmers in kerala adopted strict biosecurity protocols given by caa and also each biosecurity step and tools were redesigned, implemented, audited on a regular basis and maintained after each crop to keep the disease at bay. poor coordination among the farmers (25.36) and inadequate consultation and meeting with govt. officials (22.51) were the least constraints reported by the vannamei shrimp farmers from kerala. conclusion in recent years, vannamei farmers in kerala managed to register a substantial increase in farm production of shrimp. the production efficiency and productivity in most farms increased substantially during this period. even though the vannamei shrimp farmers faced lot of constraints in shrimp farming. the most important and severe constraint reported by the vannamei shrimp farmers in kerala was the highest production cost. this might be due to the fact that the state is still depending on the supply of seed, feed and other healthcare products to other states. the continuous bad weather conditions caused huge damages and panic harvesting led to lose in vannamei shrimp farming. the delay in getting the farm registration licence is also another critical constraint. fast completion of the caa licensing formalities would help the farmers to doing the shrimp farming more efficiently. the socio economic variables such as age and technical skills obtained from various govt. workshops and the shared information from the experienced farmers and the other technical experts helped more young enthusiastic farmers entered into the kerala vannamei shrimp farming. in the investigation study, the maximum production, productivity and better feed management cost were observed from trichur districts where the farmers adopting a newly developed haat system may have the potential to address all of these concerns and should be investigated more thoroughly by conducting research culture trials in this line. as supplementary feed plays a major role in the operational cost of vannamei shrimp farming, efforts have to be made by the state govt. to establish the feed production plants and provide the feed at a subsidized rate to the shrimp farmers. production credit should be made available to the farmers by the financial institutions as well as by the state government with subsidies which would encourage them to do vannamei culture more efficiently. references balakrishnan, g. p, soundarapandian, k, ramachandran, a, theivasigamani, k.a, savji, m.chokkaiah, & nataraj, p. (2011). growth of cultured white leg shrimp litopenaeus vannamei (boone 1931) in different stocking density. advances in applied science research, 2(3): 107-113. caa, (2010). compendium on introduction and farming of spf litopenaeus vannamei in india. paul raj, r, chandrapal, g. d, manimaran, b, sinha, m. k, vincent, d., priya, g, & ramesh kumar, s. (eds.), coastal aquaculture authority of india, chennai, india, 35 pp. fao, (2020). the state of world fisheries and aquaculture 2020. sustainability in action. rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9229en. garret, h.e & woodworth, r.s. (1969). statistics in psychology and education. vakils, feffer and simons pvt. ltd, bombay, pp. 329. garza de yta, a, rouse, d. b & davis, a.d. (2004). influence of nursery period on the growth and survival of litopenaeus vannamei under pond production conditions. journal of the world aquaculture society 35: 357–365. journal of extension education 6758 kumar, b, sharma, r, lakra, sharma, a, prakesh, s, & sharma, m.m. (2016). economic assessment of shrimp farming (litopenaeus vannamei) in gujarata profitable venture. international journal of innovative research science. 5(8), 15334-15342. srinivas, d, & venkatrayalu, ch. (2016). studies on present problems and prospects on shrimp farming in west godavari districts of andra pradesh, india. advances in applied science reseasrch, 7(2), 49-54. valderrama, d, & engle, c.r. (2002). economics of shrimp farming in honduras. journal of the world aquaculture society, 33: 398-409. doi:1111/j.1749-7345.2002.tb00019.x. wurmann, c. g, madrid, r. m & brugger, a. m. (2004). shrimp farming in latin america: current status, opportunities, challenges and strategies for sustainable development. aquaculture economics management, 8:117141. 6542 occupational aspirations of the participants of agricultural skill training in kerala m.j. chandre gowda* abstract �skilled india� is the ambitious mission of government of india. krishi vigyan kendras, with the support of qualification packs and model curriculum developed by agricultural skill council of india, are organizing skill trainings besides providing the post-training technical handholding. training, similar to formal education, mould the aspirations of trainees to pursue occupational choices. the paper presents the occupational aspirations of 277 participants of 16 training programmes on 11 job roles related to agriculture in nine districts of kerala. most prominent aspiration was to ‘start a new enterprise’, which is in line with the objective of creating entrepreneurs in rural areas. post-training aspirations indicated enhanced aspiration to get a job in government/recognized institutions, an indicator of increased selfconfidence and employability of trained manpower. occupational aspirations varied with job roles and thus provide crucial feedback to policy makers and development agencies for working on future roadmap. keywords: occupational aspiration; kerala; skill training; vocational education; aspirational strength * icar agricultural technology application research institute, bengaluru 560 024 india introduction skills and knowledge drive the economic growth and social development of a country. india presently faces a major challenge of paucity of highly trained workforce. nonemployability of conventionally educated youth is also another challenge. estimates reveal that less than five percent of the total workforce in india has formal skill training (goi, 2015). it is for this reason that much of attention is being given to skill development by government of india. india is currently enjoying the advantage of demographic dividend which is likely to last till the year 2040. if the nation has to get the benfit of the demographic dividend, its working age group (15-59 years) must be skilled (mehrotra et al., 2013) on profitable and employable skill areas. educating youth on farming practices is a global challenge. more so in a state like kerala, whose literacy rate is very high. higher level of literacy coupled with higher level of unemployment has resulted in educated research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6542-6551 received : 22-01-2021; accepted : 10-04-2021 6543 unemployment. educated unemployment is on the upswing in kerala with 25.07 % of the graduates and 57.73 % of the youth in the age group of 20-24 remained unemployed during the last quarter of 2020 (cmie, 2020). besides the national level skill development initiatives, the government of kerala has also initiated the additional skill acquisition programme under the state skill development project to augment the skilling process alongwith the genral education. this programme has improved the employability of educated youth in the state (davis, 2018). krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) funcitoning in all the districts of kerala with the financial assistance of indian council of agricultural research (icar) have been involved in the skilling of rural farm and non-farm work force on areas related to agriculture. training programmes offered by kvks have been found to be effective in achieving the purposes for which those were organized (selvi and balasubramaniam, 2019; safia and girija, 2020). skill training, vocational education and education in general contribute to the process of aspiration formation. aspirations are forward-looking goals (locke and latham, 2002). aspirations evolve over time in response to life experience and circumstances (bernard et al., 2014). occupational aspirations reflect on the desired career goals/options for an individual within the prevailing situations or socio-economic context. the studies on occupational aspirations in the past have been normally restricted to students undergoing or who are about to complete formal education. lee (2010) measured career aspirations by asking the participants to indicate the job they expected to have at age 30 from a listing of occupational categories. all these were focusing on ‘distant’ opportunity space for assessing the aspirations of students who are still pursuing their education, and who have enough time to attain them. aspirations of cocoa farmers in ghana were studied by nana et al. (2012) with three aspirations viz., farming on own farm as primary occupation; farming as a means of capital accumulation towards non-farm primary occupation; and formal work as primary occupation with no direct engagement with farming. very limited work has been done on the occupational aspirations of participants of vocational education, particularly the agriculture and related vocational education. information is also not available on the differences, if any, in the aspirations of the trainees seeking skills in different job areas within agriculture. the possible effect of skill training on changes in aspirations comparted to their pretraining expectation is also not well known. considering the attention and support being given to skill training, including long duration skill training in the areas related to agriculture and allied activities, this study was undertaken with the following objectives: 1. to assess the occupational aspirations of the participants of skill development programme at the start and at the end 2. to assess the job-role wise differences in the occupational aspirations 3. to study the personal and social profile of the participants and its influence on the occupational aspirations occupational aspirations of the participants of agricultural skill training in kerala 6544 methodology data related to the study were collected from the participants of skill development programmes organized during 2018-19 in nine districts of kerala by the kvks. all the 16 programmes organized by the kvks were considered for the study and hence sampling was not involved. similarly, all the participants of these skill development programmes were administered the questionnaire and all complete responses were considered for analysis. thus, data elicited from 277 participants of skill development on 11 job roles were used for analysis and interpretation. the details are provided in table 1. each job role has been desiged for definite sets of skills through well developed course curriculum, qualification pack, stipulated training hours and conducted by table 1. location and job-role wise distribution of respondents sl. no. job role training programmes (no.) districts respondents (no.) 1 aquaculture worker 1 ernakulum 19 2 assistant gardener 1 wyanad 14 3 bee keeper 1 idukki 17 4 coconut grower 1 kasaragod 17 5 friends of coconut tree 2 kasaragod, kozhikode 37 6 micro irrigation technician 2 malappuram, trivandrum 38 7 mushroom grower 2 idukki, wyanad 25 8 nursery worker 2 ernakulum, kollam 35 9 quality seed grower 1 kozhikode 17 10 small poultry farmer 1 pathanamthitta 18 11 vermicompost producer 2 kollam, pathanamthitta 40 a master trainer certified by agricultural skill council of india. partcipants are subjected to assessment by a third party at the completion of the training and get a certificate upon passing. since the study aimed at assessing the aspirations of those who were undergoing vocational education, the occupational choices needed to be specific to the job role on which skill training was conducted. considering the occupation status of the participants at the time of their participation in the skill training, the given choices were – start a new enterprise, expand the present profession/enterprise, earn more salary in the present job, find a new job in the local area, and get job in government / recognized institutions. data were collected on threepoint continuum ‘strongly desired’, ‘desired’ and ‘not desired’, with a score of 2, 1 and 0 respectively. since the respondents had an journal of extension education 6545 opportunity to express multiple choices, the scores were converted into strength of the aspirations, by using the following formula: ∑aj asj= ----------------------------------x 100 ap x nj where, asj = strength of aspiration of job role j ∑aj = sum total of aspiration score for all the respondents for the job role j ap = possible aspiration score (2) nj = no. of respondents for respective job role information on the personal and socio economic profile of the participants was collected by the respective training institutions using the questionnaire developed for the purpose and provided to them. it included questions on personal and socioeconomic variables such as age, education, gender, occupation of self and spouse, marital status, family type and size, family income, land holding and vehicle possession. the age was measured in terms of completed years. majority of the participants were male (44.77 percent female) and were married (62.09 %). education was measured in terms of number of completed years of schooling/education. it included the standard passed for those who attended up to the school level. post-school education, expressed in terms of examination passed/qualification acquired, was quantified with completed years of education as 12 for higher secondary/puc/polytechnic, 15 for graduates, 16 for professional degree, 17 for pg in general degree, and 18 for pg in professional courses. occupation status of the participants was categorised into unemployed, daily wage workers, farming/homemakers, skill workers, business, and employed, with a score of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. family size was measured in terms of number of family members living together at the time of data elicitation. family type was measured based on the number of married couple living together. nuclear family consisting of one couple living with or without unmarried children was given a score of 1. more than one married couple living together with or without parents and children is categorized as joint family, and was given a score of 2. family income is measured in terms of annual income from all sources put together. land holding was measured in terms of acres, with or without irrigation. the data were analysed using frequency, ranking, paired t test, correlation and regression using spss version 20. findings and discussion the number of aspirants and the strength of aspirations for each of the occupational choices are presented in table 2. in terms of number of aspirants, most prominent aspirations of the skill trainees was to ‘start a new enterprise’ as indicated by 88.81 % of the trainees. aspiration to get a ‘job in government/recognised institutions’ was the second most desired occupational choice as per responses from 78.70 percent of trainees. however the strength of aspirations was highest for getting ‘job in government/ occupational aspirations of the participants of agricultural skill training in kerala 6546 recognised institutions’ (96.50) followed by an aspiration to get a ‘job in local area’ (96.00). the choice to start a new enterprise was in third position with an aspirational strength of 94.00. the national skill development mission desires that every individual has to be equipped in such a manner that they can earn their livelihood and thereby contribute towards the economy. the results depicted above appears to be in line with the ambitious target of the mission, which is reflected in the aspiration to start an enterprise and become self-employed to earn a livelihood. as india moves progressively towards becoming a global knowledge economy, the skill development programmes try to meet the rising aspirations (goi, 2015). however, the aspirational strength indicated that the desire to ‘get employed’ is stronger than becoming self-employed, which is in line with the results of previous studies (paul, 2013; hari et al., 2013; sarkar and sarkar, 2018; das et al., 2019). the job role wise differences in the post-training occupational aspirations are presented in table 3. for most of the job roles (8 out of 11), the aspiration to ‘start an enterprise’ was the first occupational choice. it was the highest for micro irrigation technician (94.74%), followed by coconut growers and quality seed grower trainees (94.12% each), assistant gardener trainees (92.86%) and friends of coconut tree trainees (91.89%). nursery workers (88.57%) and vermicompost producer (87.50%) trainees preferred a job in government or recognised institutions. among the least preferred occupational choices, more salary in the present job was predominant. it was the least preferred aspiration for the trainees of coconut grower, quality seed grower, assistant gardener, small poultry farmer and bee keeper trainees. expanding table 2. occupational aspirations of the participants sl.no. occupational aspirations ranking based on number of aspirants ranking based on strength of aspiration number % rank strength of aspiration rank 1. start a new enterprise 246 88.81 i 94.00 iii 2. get job in government / recognized institutions 218 78.70 ii 96.50 i 3. find a job in the local area 214 77.26 iii 96.00 ii 4. expand the present profession / enterprise 200 72.20 iv 93.00 iv 5. more salary in present job 198 71.48 v 91.50 v journal of extension education 6547 present enterprise was the least preferred choice for nursey worker, vermicompost producer and mushroom grower trainees. for micro irrigation technician trainees, the least preferred choice was to find a job in the local area. the results provide crucial feedback for the development departments and government agencies to plan for post-training support to skilled rural youth. the skill policy links skill development to improved employability and productivity for inclusive growth in the country. the results point progress towards achievement of the expected strategy to promote entrepreneurship and to create ample opportunities for the skilled workforce. changes in occupational aspirations due to training are presented in table 4. the skill training enhanced the occupational aspirations of the participants as evident from the number of respondents expressing a particular aspiration at the start and at the end of the training. the aspiration ‘to start an enterprise’ remained the most important occupational choice, with 17 more trainees (from 229 to 246) expressing desire to pursue the aspiration, after the training. in terms of the difference between pre and post training, table 3. job-role wise post-training occupational aspirations sl. no. job role occupational aspirants (%) within each job role start a new enterprise get job in government / recognized institutions find a job in the local area expand present enterprise more salary in present job 1. micro irrigation technician (n=38) 94.74 78.95 65.79 78.95 73.68 2. coconut grower (n=17) 94.12 76.47 76.47 76.47 64.71 3. quality seed grower (n=17) 94.12 82.35 88.24 64.71 52.94 4. assistant gardener (n=14) 92.86 64.29 64.29 57.14 50.00 5. friends of coconut tree (n=37) 91.89 72.97 75.68 78.38 83.78 6. aquaculture worker (n=19) 89.47 63.16 73.68 73.68 73.68 7. small poultry farmer (n=18) 88.89 77.78 77.78 61.11 61.11 8. nursery worker (n=35) 85.71 88.57 82.86 71.43 77.14 9. vermicompost producer (n=40) 85.00 87.50 87.50 80.00 85.00 10. mushroom grower (n=25) 84.00 84.00 84.00 60.00 68.00 11. bee keeper (n=17) 76.47 70.59 64.71 70.59 52.94 occupational aspirations of the participants of agricultural skill training in kerala 6548 the shift was maximum for the aspiration to ‘get job in government or recognized institute’, with an increase from 180 trainees at the start of the training to 218 trainees on the last day. the magnitude of change was statistically significant at 0.05 level. the change was also reflected in terms of rank, which shifted from last rank at the pre-training stage to second rank at the post-training stage. training effectiveness related studies of radha and renjini (2019), and safia and girija (2020) support the findings. statistical analysis of the relationship and influence of the personal and socioeconomic profile of the trainees on their occupational aspirations is provided in table 5. family type of the skill trainees, the trainees who hailed from joint families, displayed very strong (0.01 level) and positive relationship with the occupational aspirations. among the trainees, majority lived in joint families (60.28%). in a rural set up, the joint family structure serves as the social capital that can encourage the family members to aspire for higher goals. on the contrary, more number of children curtailed the aspirations as evident from highly significant (0.01 level) but negative relationship. the number of male children as well as the number of female children in the family also had negatively significant relationship (at 0.05 level) with the occupational aspirations. married status of the trainees, which is also a related profile characteristic, exhibited negatively significant relationship with occupational aspirations. majority of the skill aspirants (62.09%) were married, and the added family commitments limited the occupational aspirations as evident from the negatively significant relationship. married status might have defused the urge to find better job opportunities, may be out of compulsions to find some job options in the nearby vicinity. another related profile was the age of the participants which also exhibited negatively significant relationship with the occupational aspirations. the occupation of spouse also had negatively significant table 4. change in occupational aspirations of participants sl. no. occupational aspirations respondents (no.) difference between pre and post t value pre rank post rank 1. starting new enterprise 229 i 246 i 17 1.237 2. find a job in the local area 205 ii 214 iii 9 0.977 3. expanding present profession/ enterprise 186 iii 200 iv 14 0.285 4. more salary in present job 185 iv 198 v 13 1.627 5. get job in government / recognized institutions 180 v 218 ii 38 2.300* *significant at 0.05 level journal of extension education 6549 relationship with the occupational aspirations. occupation of the spouses of the respondents indicated that half of them (49.81%) were unemployed. better occupational position of one of the spouses might put lesser pressure on the other spouse which has been expressed in terms of limited aspirations. similar and contradictory results have been reported by das et al. (2019) in their study in odisha & antony and thomas (2020) in kerala. however the linear regression analysis of the 14 personal and socio-economic profile characteristics on the occupational aspirations did not reveal any significant influence. this may be an indicator of the fact that the occupational aspirations might be actually influenced by other situational factors, policy support, institutional support, marketing support etc. conclusion most prominent aspiration of the skill trainees was to ‘start a new enterprise’, which is in line with the ambitious target of the national skill development mission of india. the results must encourage the policy makers to intensify the skill development efforts. the skill training enhanced the table 5. relationship and influence of personal and socio-economic profile of the trainees on their occupational aspirations n=277 sl. no. personal and socio-economic profile pearson correlation regression r value sig. beta t value sig. 1. age -0.127* 0.028 0.022 0.216 0.829 2. education 0.020 0.384 0.013 0.182 0.855 3. gender -0.029 0.334 -0.038 -0.484 0.629 4. current occupation -0.088 0.094 -0.094 -1.236 0.218 5. married status -0.144* 0.015 0.12 0.883 0.378 6. no. of children -0.178** 0.004 0 0 0 7. no. of male children -0.141* 0.017 -0.056 -0.557 0.578 8. no. of female children -0.125* 0.03 -0.083 -0.958 0.339 9. spouse occupation -0.146* 0.014 -0.102 -1.088 0.278 10. family type 0.168** 0.006 0.171 1.700 0.091 11. family size -0.094 0.079 -0.121 -1.625 0.106 12. family income -0.043 0.260 -0.037 -0.539 0.590 13. land holding -0.051 0.221 -0.044 -0.635 0.526 14. vehicle possession -0.083 0.107 -0.06 -0.845 0.399 *significant at 0.05 level, ** significant at 0.01 level occupational aspirations of the participants of agricultural skill training in kerala 6550 occupational aspirations of the participants which is an indicator of the effectiveness of skill development programmes. the highest level of aspirational strength for getting ‘job in government/recognised institutions’ is a pointer to the increased employability of the skill-trained rural youth. at the same time, it also indicates enhanced expectations from such long-duration vocational skill training programmes. it puts onus on the governments, administration and development departments to create job opportunities and also to bring in the potential employers to rural areas. the job-role wise preferences in occupational choices serve as valuable feedback to the development agencies for nurturing such dreams with appropriate employment or selfemployment opportunties along with specific back-end and front-end support for each of the job roles. participants from joint families postively correlated with higher aspirational values, whereas age, marital status, spouse occupation and number of children were found to be negatively associated. these factors may be useful for the skill development institutions while identifying and selecting serious candidates as participants. references antony, r.r. & thomas, a. (2020). entrepreneurial behaviour of agripreneurs in agro food parks. journal of extension education, 32(1), 6448-6454. bajema, d. h, miller, w, w. & williams, d. l. (2002). aspirations of rural youth. journal of agricultural education, 43(3), 61-71. bernard, t, dercon, s, orkin, k. & taffesse a. s. (2014). the future in mind: aspirations and forward-looking behaviour in rural ethiopia. https://www.worldbank.org/ content/dam/worldbank/feature%20 story/africa/afr-tanguy-bernard.pdf cmie (2020). unemployment in india: a statistical profile. september-december 2020. centre for monitoring indian economy pvt ltd. das, p.k, panigrahi, j.k, naik, i.c. & das, b. (2019). examination of socio-economic and socio-cultural factors influencing aspiration levels of youth with respect to their education levels: an experimental examination. international journal of recent technology and engineering, 8, 488-495. davis, b. (2018). balancing skill education and general education : a study on additional skill acquisition programme of kerala. journal of social work education and practice, 3(4), 11-17. goi. (2015). national policy for skill development 2015. ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, new delhi. hari r, chander, m, & sharma, n.k. (2013). comparison of educational and occupational aspirations of rural youth from farming families of kerala and rajasthan. indian journal of extension education, 49(1&2), 57-59. lee, i. h. (2010). development of career aspirations in adolescents. unpublished ph.d. dissertation, the university of georgia, athens. locke, e. & latham, g. (2002). building a practically useful theory of goal setting journal of extension education https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/feature%20story/africa/afr-tanguy-bernard.pdf https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/feature%20story/africa/afr-tanguy-bernard.pdf https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/worldbank/feature%20story/africa/afr-tanguy-bernard.pdf 6551 and task motivation: a 35-year odyssey. american psychologist, 57 (9), 705–717. mehrotra, s, gandhi, a. & sahoo, b.k. (2013). establishing the skill gap on a realistic basis for 2022. iamr occasional paper no.1/2013. institute of applied manpower research, government of india. nana, a. a, jennifer, l. & kwadwo, a. (2012). perceptions and aspirations: a case study of young people in ghana’s cocoa sector. ids bulletin, 43(6). paul, d. (2013). occupational aspiration of youth in colleges: a sociological analysis of present and future position of youth in siliguri city. international journal of social science & interdisciplinary research, 2(1), 36-43. radha, t. & renjini, m.u. (2019). a study on the involvement of farmers in agripreneurship in kerala. journal of extension education, 31(1), 6240-6244. safia, n.e. & girija, v. (2020). effectiveness of home science vocational training programmes imparted by kvks (krishi vigyan kendras). journal of extension education, 32(1), 6455-6462. sarkar, r. & sarkar, s. (2018). a study on the variations in aspirations of unemployed rural youth of dakshin khagrabari and harinmara villages of northern west bengal, india. international journal of humanities and social science invention, 7(6), 26-30. selvi, p.t. & balasubrmaniam, p. (2019). effectiveness of trainings imparted by krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) in tamil nadu. journal of extension education, 31(1), 62236229. occupational aspirations of the participants of agricultural skill training in kerala pages 2021-2.cdr introduction mobile communica�on technology has become an omnipresent feature in all sectors of our lives. this tool has been used f o r q u i t e s o m e � m e t o e n h a n c e communica�on between people and, in recent �mes, for monitoring remote events as well as human health and performance. while the emphasis of research has been on communica�on between people, trials on the use of this technology to enhance interac�on between veterinarians and animal owners have of late gained importance. with an increase from 14.5 6653 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.2, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/ 1 2 3 653jee.202 . .3 .6 -6661 demographic and percep�on studies of a mobile applica�on among dog breeders and owners demian c johnson ¹ p. reeja george ² and mahesh chander ¹ abstract informa�on and communica�on technology is, today, an integral part of our daily world. however, despite the wide use of this technology elsewhere, it has only recently been adopted for engagement in veterinary services, especially in india. it was in this context that an applica�on for dog breeders and owners was developed, and their percep�ons about various aspects of the applica�on were assessed, as well as the possible use and impact that veterinary applica�ons could have in improving veterinarian client management. the present inves�ga�on was exploratory in nature and conducted with dog breeders and owners from four districts of kerala. a�er due consulta�on with prominent veterinarians and scien�sts, priori�sa�on of the contents was followed. the contents were ve�ed, compiled, and the data was fed to a na�ve mobile applica�on. a sample (n = 40) of dog breeders/owners was chosen from the four districts. along with telephonic follow-ups, apk (android package) and google form ques�onnaires were mailed to the dog owners/ breeders. the breeders/owners were mostly young, educated males who had access to and were comfortable using a smartphone. the 'vetcan' mobile applica�on was mainly reported to have an average engagement, was highly func�onal, possessed pleasant aesthe�cs, and contained highly informa�onal content. keywords: dog breeder; mobile phone; android package file; percep�on study; kerala 1. icar-ivri, izatnagar, bareilly-243122, 2. department of veterinary and animal husbandry extension, college of veterinary and animal sciences, kerala veterinary and animal sciences university, mannuthy, kerala received : 19-03-2022; accepted: 13-05-2022 6654 million pets in 2014 to 22.1 million in 2018, india's pet count has grown at a cagr (compound annual growth rate) of 11.0 per cent. the pet popula�on is projected to increase at a 9.6 per cent cagr for the period 2019 to 2023. pet dogs represented 88.0 per cent of the pet popula�on in 2018, with a cagr of 11.4 per cent between 2014 and 2018 and this is expected to grow at a cagr of 10.0 per cent, a�aining 31.4 million by 2023 (government of canada, 2019). the pet industry in kerala has also witnessed significant expansion over the last few decades, as evidenced by the report of the twen�eth livestock census that reported that there were 8,36,270 pet dogs in kerala (the hindu, 2021). however, there are compara�vely few full-�me professional dog breeders in the state, and most of the dog owners/breeders are not fully into the business of dog breeding. there has also been a concurrent growth in various pet accessories and many mobile applica�ons have also been combined with wearables, e.g. wagtag. all these developments have improved the overall management and handling of our canine companions (weiss et al., 2013). there is a demand from dog breeders to have access to correct and �mely informa�on. however, use of smartphone applica�ons can help in assis�ng breeders and dog owners with s c h e d u l i n g a p p o i n t m e n t s w i t h veterinarians, making the owners aware of first aid to be adhered to in an emergency, as well as general guidelines for the upkeep of the animal. it is in this context that the development of mobile applica�ons for canine management and health care a s s u m e s s i g n i fi c a n c e . s u c h m o b i l e applica�ons are important in that they can serve as a repository of informa�on for breeders, thus saving �me, money, and effort. in light of the concerns men�oned, the present study was undertaken to design a m o b i l e a p p l i c a � o n ,' ve t c a n '. t h e applica�on was also tested among dog breeders, and this paper discusses their percep�ons of the applica�on as well. methodology ‘vetcan' was prepared along the lines of the mobile applica�on "best prac�ces model" (flora et al. 2014) with slight modifica�ons. content development was ini�ated by iden�fying the poten�al b ro a d d o m a i n s fo r i n c l u s i o n i n t h e applica�on. the broad areas to be included in the applica�on were arrived at through d i s c u s s i o n s w i t h v e t e r i n a r i a n s , d o g breeders and scien�sts. the three broad areas iden�fied were diseases, management and other important features of the applica�on that the respondents would like to be included in the applica�on. a list of commonly occurring canine diseases, areas of management of canines, and broad features that should be included in the journal of extension educa�on 6655 applica�on were prepared and sent for ve�ng to five veterinarians and scien�sts. these domains were carefully ve�ed by five scien�sts and five veterinarians who rated the contents on a three point con�nuum viz., marginally important, moderately important, and extremely important with scores of 1, 2, and 3 respec�vely based on which the domains were priori�sed based on their importance and relevance in dayto-day prac�ses (wentling, 1993). the mean of means for each category was calculated, and from among the categories, those items which had a higher score than the average were selected to be included in the mobile applica�on. content for the mobile applica�on was developed a�er a thorough review of relevant literature and discussion with experts in the areas, a�er which the developed content was sent to five scien�sts and five veterinarians for assessment in order to ensure that the mobile applica�on was valid (bernard, 2017; seidler, 1974). a�er redressing the issues, the applica�on was developed with the help of so�ware experts, incorpora�ng t h e t e c h n i c a l i n f o r m a � o n . t h e a p p encompassed a user interface that was rela�vely user friendly. the quality of the applica�on, also referred to as 'app quality", was assessed across four domains, viz., engagement, func�onality, aesthe�cs, and informa�on u s i n g t h e m o b i l e a p p r a � n g s c a l e (stoyanov et al. 2015). once the mobile applica�on was rolled out as an android package (apk) file, it was sent to a nonsample group comprising ten veterinarians f o r p r e t e s � n g t h e s c a l e . t h e fi n a l ques�onnaire that included demographic details of the respondents and the scale to assess the quality of the applica�on, was then sent to an accidental sample of ten dog breeders each from four districts of kerala viz., thrissur, kollam, ernakulam, and thiruvananthapuram, that had the highest canine popula�on (source: department of animal husbandry, kerala). findings and discussion demographic profile of dog breeders and owners a notable male dominant presence in the dog breeding / dog owners scene was evident from the fact that eight out of ten breeders studied were male and just two out of ten were women. this finding was in stark contrast to the figure recorded in china, that 65 per cent of dog owners were women (huang and chueh, 2020). similarly, it was also reported that dog owners in the studied areas of italy were most likely to be women (carvelli et al. 2020). also, 40 per cent of the dog owners surveyed were males, in new zealand (flint et al. 2010). it was realised that 65 per cent of the breeders fell into the category designated as young, while just over one-fi�h (22.5 per cent) were middle-aged, and older breeders comprised 5 per cent of the studied sample. these findings were consistent with those demographic and percep�on studies of a mobile applica�on among dog breeders and owners 6656 found among brazilian dog owners, where the age category of 20 years or more was significantly associated with the number of dogs owned (mar�ns et al., 2013).the conclusions of the present study were further endorsed by reports that pet owners in new zealand were most likely to be younger (fraser et al., 2020) and studies from china reported that over 57 per cent of pet owners were in the age groups of 11 to 20, 21 to 30, and 31 to 40 years of age (huang and chueh, 2020). it was also clear from the results of this study that 50 per cent of the breeders were married and 50 per cent were unmarried. findings comparable to those observed in this study were seen in new zealand where dog owners were most likely to be parents (fraser et al., 2020) and also in the findings from italy, where dog breeders were most likely to be married or in long term commi�ed rela�onships (carvelli et al., 2020). similar findings of dogs being more likely to be associated with family se�ngs were endorsed by the report from the united states, where it was observed that family households remained more likely to own dogs than non-families and this tendency was higher in larger families as well (a.v.m.a, 2018). regarding the educa�onal qualifica�ons of dog breeders in this study, it was observed that forty-five per cent of dog breeders had completed gradua�on while, 22.5 per cent had a qualifica�on of plus two or its equivalent and 22.5 per cent had an educa�onal status of j u s t c l e a r i n g t h e s c h o o l le av i n g cer�ficate examina�on. none of the respondents had educa�onal qualifica�ons lower than a pass at the school leaving cer�ficate level. these conclusions were fairly similar to dog owners in america, where it was observed that 38 per cent of pet owners had a college educa�on that comprised four-year programmes and 18 per cent were graduates (logan & vet2pet, 2018). the findings of the study were like those observed among chinese pet owners, among whom 44 per cent had college educa�on and 21.72 percent had senior high school educa�on, while 28.29 per cent were graduates (huang and chueh, 2020). the results of this study also implied that 70 per cent of the dog breeders studied had an experience of less than ten years in rearing dogs, while 25 per cent had an experience of between 11 to 20 years, and a mere five per cent had been engaged in this ac�vity for over 20 years. this data is similar to that reported among dog breeders in nigeria, where most dog breeders surveyed had less than 6 years of experience in dog breeding (abiola et al., 2018). regarding the variable training experience related to computers, the results of this study revealed that a significant n u m b e r ( 7 2 . 5 p e r c e n t ) o f d o g breeders/owners reported that they had a�ended no trainings related to computer whereas 27.5 per cent reported having journal of extension educa�on demographic and percep�on studies of a mobile applica�on among dog breeders and owners table 1. percep�on of dog breeders and owners towards the various dimensions of the quality of the applica�on scores frequency (f) percentage less engaging (1 2.33) 1 2.50 average engagement (2.33 3.66) 37 92.50 highly engaging (3.66 5) 2 5.00 total 40 100.00 quality of the mobile applica�on engagement func�onality nonfunc�onal / less func�onal (1 2.33) 0 0.00 6657 a�ended up to five trainings. none of the dog breeders had a�ended more than five trainings. all the dog owners had access to smart phones, 50 per cent of them reported they could use a smartphone confidently w h i l e 4 5 p e r c e n t c o u l d o p e r a t e a smartphone but they were not confident about using it. very few dog owners(5 per cent) needed assistance to operate a smartphone. in tamil nadu, mobile phones were being used by livestock owners to contact service providers (tamizhkumaran and natchimuthu, 2016). mobile phones were being used by pastoralists of tanzania to support livestock produc�on; the authors further reported that just 7.2 per cent of livestock owners owned smart phones (karimuribo et al., 2016). apart from u n d e rs t a n d i n g t h e co ntex t i n s m a r t phone,the availability of mobile phone service could also be a major impediment for farmers. nevertheless, in many lowresource na�ons, the recent surge in mobile phone usage, greater signal penetra�on, and development of cheap handsets has opened prospects for growth in the fl e d g l i n g m o b i l e h e a l t h c a r e s e c t o r (bhatnagar, 2015).the results of the present study on usage of the smartphone to access informa�on related to animal health and managment suggested that 22.5 per cent of the dog breeders/owners never used their smartphone for this purpose while another 22.5 per cent used their smart phones once a week, 27.5 per cent of breeders/owners reported a lesser frequency of usage of once in two weeks while 27.5 per cent reported a smartphone usage frequency of once a month to access applica�ons related to health and management. according to other research findings, 91 per cent of dairy farmers in germany own a smartphone, and 61 per cent have already downloaded a herd management app. furthermore, 38 per cent of early adopters use such an applica�on daily, which was converse from our observa�ons (michels et al., 2019). scores frequency (f) percentagequality of the mobile applica�on func�onality aesthe�cs inadequate aesthe�cs (1 2.33) 0 0.00 medium aesthe�cs (2.33 3.66) 12 30.00 pleasant aesthe�cs (3.66 5) 28 70.00 total 40 100.00 informa�on li�le/no informa�on (3.66 5) 0 0.00 adequate informa�on (2.33 3.66) 10 25.00 highly informa�onal (1 2.33) 30 75.00 total 40 100.00 substan�ally func�onal (2.33 3.66) 16 40.00 highly func�onal (3.66 5) 24 60.00 total 40 100.00 6658 journal of extension educa�on it is no�ceable from the data in the table that very few (2.5 per cent) of the breeders studied perceived the applica�on to be less engaging, while most of them (92.5 per cent) realised that the applica�on had an average level of engagement. it was also clear that 60 per cent of the breeders found the mobile applica�on to be highly func�onal, whereas 40 per cent reported the app to be substan�ally func�onal and none found it to be non/less func�onal. a significant majority of the breeders/dog owners reported that the mobile app has pleasant aesthe�cs, whereas for 30 per cent of the owners, the applica�on had a medium aesthe�c level. data on the informa�on content of the applica�on r e v e a l e d t h a t 7 5 p e r c e n t o f t h e breeders/dog owners felt that the mobile app was highly informa�onal, whereas 25 per cent felt that the informa�on content of the applica�on was sa�sfactory. the outcomes of the present study shed light on the fact that nearly all the respondents perceived the informa�on contained in the applica�on to be on a con�nuum, from adequate to highly informa�onal, which could be important in increasing their sa�sfac�on with using the applica�on, since it has also been reported that increased levels of perceived accuracy of informa�on could increase sa�sfac�on of the user, which would translate into a greater perceived behavioural inten�on to use the applica�on (huang and chueh, 2020). in the smart phone app market, a developer may help iden�fy his or her mobile app's quality and enhance it by crea�ng a good publicity campaign for the applica�on, considering user feedback, giving bug/crash repor�ng methods, and reviewing the app's usefulness (zahra et al. 2013). thus, we can imply that, despite differences in demographic parameters and in the ability to use a smartphone, the 'vetcan' app was well approved by the sample popula�on of dog breeders and owners. it also underlines the need to develop such ict tools and other expert systems to provide authen�c informa�on to enhance knowledge and ap�tude with regard to canine management and health care. conclusion we can conclude that the dog breeders/owners inves�gated in kerala were predominantly young married males w h o h a d a cq u i re d va r y i n g l eve l s of educa�onal qualifica�ons with no formal training in computers. the dog breeders had less than ten years of experience. despite this, a substan�al number of dog breeders possessed a smartphone, though many were not confident in using it. among the dog breeders and owners, the frequency of smartphone use varied.the 'vetcan' mobile applica�on was mostly reported to have an average engagement, was highly func�onal, p o s s e s s e d p l e a s a n t a e s t h e � c s , a n d contained highly informa�onal content. in the coming years, policy makers can also help enforce laws with regard to canine welfare by enlis�ng guidelines and rules, in such applica�on, to regulate dog breeding ethically. thus, new applica�ons that cater to dog breeders and dog owners w i l l s u p p o r t c a n i n e h e a l t h c a re a n d management by enhancing access and availability of crucial informa�on. references american veterinary medical associa�on. avma. (2018). u.s. pet ownership s t a � s � c s [ o n l i n e ] . h � p s : // w w w. a v m a . o r g /re s o u rc e s t o o l s / reports-sta�s�cs/us-pet-ownershipsta�s�cs retrieved june 4 2021. american veterinary medical associa�on. abiola, o. j., babatunde, o. d., & adebiyi, a. i . ( 2 0 1 8 ) . s o c i o d e m o g r a p h i c characteris�cs of dog breeders in some s e l e c t e d s t at e s i n s o u t h we s t e r n nigeria. nigerian veterinary journal, 39(3),194–198.h�ps://doi.org/10.431 4/nvj.v39i3.2 bernard, h. r. (2017). res. methods in a n t h r o p o l o g y : q u a l i t a � v e a n d quan�ta�ve approaches. rowman & li�lefield publishing group. bhatnagar, s. (2015). using ict to improve governance and service delivery to the poor. governance in developing asia. edward elgar publishing. carvelli, a., scaramozzino, p., iacoponi, f., condoleo, r., & della marta, u. j. p. o. (2020). size, demography, ownership profiles, and iden�fica�on rate of the owned dog popula�on in central italy. p l o s o n e , 1 5 ( 1 0 ) , e 0 2 4 0 5 5 1 . h�ps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone. 0240551 flint, e. l., minot, e. o., perry, p. e., & stafford, k. j. (2010). characteris�cs of adult dog owners in new zealand. new zea l a n d veter i n a r y jo ur n a l , 5 8(2), 69–73.h�ps://doi.org/10.1080/00480 169.2010.65261 flora, h., wang, x., & chande, s. (2014). an inves�ga�on into mobile applica�on development processes: challenges and best prac�ces. interna�onal journal of modern educa�on and computer s c i e n c e , 6 ( 6 ) , 1 – 9 . h� p s : //d o i . o rg / 10.5815/ijmecs.2014.06.01 fraser, g., huang, y., robinson, k., wilson, m. s., bulbulia, j., & sibley, c. g. j. a. demographic and percep�on studies of a mobile applica�on among dog breeders and owners 6659 https://doi.org/10.4314/nvj.v39i3.2 https://doi.org/10.4314/nvj.v39i3.2 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240551 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240551 https://doi.org/10.1080/00480169.2010.65261 https://doi.org/10.1080/00480169.2010.65261 https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2014.06.01 https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2014.06.01 https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2014.06.01 (2020). new zealand pet owners' d e m o g r a p h i c c h a r a c t e r i s � c s , personality, and health and wellbeing: more than just a fluff piece. anthrozoös, 3 3 ( 4 ) , 5 6 1 – 5 7 8 . h� p s : //d o i . o rg / 10.1080/08927936.2020.1771060 government of canada. (2022, may 5). sector analysis – pet food trends trend in i n d i a . r e t r i e v e d m a y 6 , 2 0 2 2 . h�p://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industrymarkets-and-trade/interna�onal-agrif o o d m a r k e t i n t e l l i g e n c e / reports/sector-trend-analysis-petf o o d t r e n d s i n i n d i a / ? i d = 1563808207157#a. agriculture and agri-food canada. huang, d.h., & chueh, h. e. (2021). chatbot usage inten�on analysis: veterinary consulta�on. journal of innova�on and k n o w l e d g e , 6 ( 3 ) , 135–144.h�ps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik. 2020.09.002 karimuribo, e. d., batamuzi, e. k., massawe, l. b., silayo, r. s., mgongo, f. o., kimbita, e., & wambura, r. m. (2016). poten�al use of mobile phones in i m p rov i n g a n i m a l h e a l t h s e r v i ce delivery in underserved rural areas: experience from kilosa and gairo districts in tanzania. bmc veterinary r e s e a r c h , 1 2 ( 1 ) , 2 1 9 . h � p s : // doi.org/10.1186/s12917-016-0860-z logan, k. & vet2pet. (2018). vet2pet and colorado state university release pet owner's percep�ons and use of vet. mobile applica�ons study [online]. h � p : / / v e t 2 p e t . c o m / w p content/uploads/2017/02/for-printpet-owner-percep�ons-mobile-appscopy-1.pdf. retrieved june 6 2021 mar�ns, c. m., mohamed, a., guimarães, a. m., de barros, cda c., pampuch, rdos s., svoboda, w., garcia, rde c., ferreira, f., & biondo, a. w. (2013). impact of demographic characteris�cs in pet ownership: modeling animal count according to owners income and age. p r e v e n � v e ve t e r i n a r y m e d i c i n e , 109(3–4), 213–218. h�ps://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2012.10.006 michels, m., bonke, v., & musshoff, o. (2019). understanding the adop�on of s m a r t p h o n e a p p s i n d a i r y h e r d management. journal of dairy science, 1 0 2 ( 1 0 ) , 9 4 2 2 – 9 4 3 4 . h � p s : // doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-16489 seidler, j. (1974). on using informants: a technique for collec�ng quan�ta�ve data and controlling measurement error in organiza�on analysis. american s o c i o l o g i c a l r e v i e w , 3 9 ( 6 ) . h�ps://doi.org/10.2307/2094155 stoyanov, s. r., hides, l., kavanagh, d. j., zelenko, o., tjondronegoro, d., & mani, m. (2015). mobile app ra�ng scale: a new tool for assessing the quality of health mobile apps. jmir mhealth and uhealth, 3(1), e27. h�ps://doi.org/ 10.2196/mhealth.3422 tamizhkumaran, j., & natchimuthu, k. (2016). effec�ve usage of cell phone for availing livestock services. indian journal of science and research, 34, 23–29. the hindu. (2021). % rise in state's livestock count [online]. h�ps://www.thehindu .com/news/na�onal/kerala/634-risei n s t a t e s l i v e s t o c k c o u n t /a r � c l e 33882112. ece.retrieved june 4 2021, 6(34) p. 6.34. weiss, g. m., nathan, a., kropp, j., & lockhart, j. w. (2013). wagtag: a dog journal of extension educa�on6660 https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2020.1771060 https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2020.1771060 https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2020.1771060 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2020.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2020.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-016-0860-z https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-016-0860-z https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-016-0860-z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2012.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2012.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2012.10.006 https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-16489 https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-16489 https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-16489 https://doi.org/10.2307/2094155 https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.3422 https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.3422 https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.3422 6661 collar accessory for monitoring canine ac�vity levels. proceedings of the 2013 acm conference on pervasive and u b i q u i t o u s c o m p u � n g a d j u n c t publica�on (pp. 405–414). wentling, t. l. (1993). planning for effec�ve t r a i n i n g : a g u i d e t o c u r r i c u l u m development. ro e: faom zahra, s., khalid, a., & javed, a. (2013). an efficient and effec�ve new genera�on objec�ve quality model for mobile applica�ons. interna�onal journal of m o d e r n e d u c a � o n a n d c o m p u t e r science, 5(4), 36–42. h�ps://doi.org/ 10.5815/ijmecs.2013.04.05 demographic and percep�on studies of a mobile applica�on among dog breeders and owners https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2013.04.05 https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2013.04.05 https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2013.04.05 page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd from the editor’s desk chief editor a recent paper on innovations in agricultural extension services in china (guo, 2014), brought forth the importance given by the country in arming its extension practitioners for effective agricultural technology transfer. with less than 9% of the arable land in the world, china has managed to feed 21% of the world’s population. the development of agriculture, rural economy and farmers’ prosperity (referred to ‘san nong’ in china), is one of the major factors, the country believes, will ensure sustainability of its growing economy. using icts as well as traditional media to deliver information services to rural communities, and to train farmers is an important part of the cause to facilitate the ‘san nong’ in china. in recent years, the chinese government has formulated and implemented a series of policies and programmes to facilitate ‘rural informatization’, a popular chinese approach. as a result, icts’ adoption has increased tremendously in rural areas. with over a million grass-root extension workers (county and town-level) , china has the largest extension system in the world. as part of their mission to equip their grass root level extension agents, an innovative agricultural extension platform has been created in the country with the following facilities: o construction of agro extension cloud platform: this platform provides for data storage with a storage capacity of over 100 tb. o development of browser and android – based agricultural extension applications: information services for extension agents with text, voice and video, focusing on information collection, management and exchange. o information resources collection: this is being done with the support of universities and companies. o selection of 3g capable smart services: cost-effective smart devices for the grassroot workers that are water-proof, dustproof, dropproof and shockproof. o information technology training for extension practitioners: on-site, online and video training are organized on storing and retrieving data for farm technology transfer. tasting success, the country is planning to scale up its efforts for creating a greater impact on agricultural extension and in turn on agricultural productivity. this issue of jee has papers on various important topics such as women empowerment, capacity building & entrepreneurship, attitude towards climate change, itks and on impact of development programmes. i hope the readers find them interesting. 6604 farmers’ perceptions on drought, technological preferences in drought mitigation and their implications in mulberry sericulture in south india a. mahimasanthi1 and s. rajaram2 abstract due to widespread monsoon irregularities, farmers are facing drought situations intermittently. farmers’ participatory rural appraisal was conducted in selected silkworm growing clusters of south india covering 300 farmers to determine how sericulture farmers perceive and cope with drought, to study the technological preferences and their implications in mulberry, morus alba leaf production & rearing of silkworm, bombyx mori. the study revealed that drought is a major constraint for silk cocoon production among 84 per cent of total farmers surveyed. the local drought perceptions described by farmers were acute water shortage, dry and desiccating wind, drying of leaves in the silk worm rearing shed disease outbreak in silkworms, spinning of small size cocoons, higher melting of cocoons and lesser silk ratio. while studying the technological preferences, it was observed that farmers gave more importance to technologies which have direct impact on silk cocoon yield. keywords: drought; farmer perception; technological preferences; mulberry cultivation; silkworm rearing; south india introduction received : 09-04-2021; accepted : 30-08-2021 india meteorological department has classified drought as an occasion when the rainfall for a week is half of the normal or less, when the normal weekly rainfall is above 5 mm or more. if such 4 consecutive weeks occur from middle of may to october, it is considered as agricultural drought. from agriculture perspective, drought is a condition, in which, the amount of water needed for transpiration and direct evaporation exceeds the amount available in the soil (imd, 2018). drought requires management actions, as less water becomes available to meet the needs of the same or even higher water demands. the mulberry cultivation and silk worm rearing in several sericultural clusters in south india are severely affected by drought. the crisis of drought besides reducing mulberry yield it also leads to silkworm partial or total crop losses. the quality of the silk cocoons produced in drought affected areas is also not good. the ill effects of drought, to a considerable extent, can be alleviated by adopting proper management strategies. 1. central sericultural research &training institute, central silk board, ministry of textiles, govt. of india, madurai625 402. india 2. central sericultural research & training institute, central silk board, ministry of textiles, govt. of india, mysore 570 008. india research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 4, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6604-6612 6605 integrated drought management technologies is propagated to farmers to mitigate drought but the extent of adoption of these technologies is very low. mahimasanthi et al (2018) had reported very high gap in adoption of technologies. adoption of integrated drought management technologies would differ across regions, in accordance with land type, land area, availability of farm and frequency of occurrence of drought. the preference of farmers to adopt integrated drought management measures in their sericultural activities is determined by many factors. the purpose of this research is to study the perceptions of farmers on drought, their technological preferences in mitigating the drought in mulberry cultivation & silkworm rearing and their implications on mulberry leaf production, silkworm rearing & silk cocoon production in three major silk producing states of south india. methodology the study was conducted in three major silk producing southern states viz. karnataka, andhra pradesh and tamil nadu. a total of six sericulture clusters – two from each state which were declared as drought affected areas by the concerned states were selected by purposive sampling design. accordingly. tumkur & ithandahally clusters from karnataka, penugonda & hindupur clusters from andhra pradesh and oddanchatram & adaikalapattinam clusters from tamil nadu were selected for the study. the average rainfall of these clusters ranged from 465 mm to 750 mm. as per the hydrometric division of imd, the rainfall received in these areas were not uniform and highly uneven. about 73 percent of annual rainfall is received in less than 100 days in south west or north east monsoon seasons leading to drought condition in other seasons (imd, 2018). hence the above clusters were purposively selected. a total of 50 farmers was selected randomly from each chosen cluster by simple random sampling design to avoid bias. out of 1280 farmers available in these clusters (seri5k, 2018) a total number of 300 farmers were selected for the study. the selection of the farmers was done in coordination with the project co-investigators and officials of departments of sericulture of particular cluster. an interview schedule was designed based on the objectives of the study for data collection. socioeconomic characteristics, farmer’s perceptions, technological preferences of drought management technologies, mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing details and their expectations were included in the schedule. the different perceptions of farmers on occurrence of drought were studied to find out their views and observation on the crisis. data from the identified sample of 300 sericulture farmers were collected to define the farmers’ perceptions on drought. the observations collected from the farmers were compiled on ten different major aspects. the drought management technologies released by various research institutions were compiled under the different titles such as mulberry plantation in drought prone areas, soil moisture management technologies, insitu rainwater harvesting and conservation methods for mulberry plantations and management of pruning schedule in silk farmers’ perceptions on drought, technological preferences in drought mitigation and their implications in mulberry sericulture in south india 6606 worm rearing, rearing of temperature tolerant silkworm hybrids, rearing practices, planning of silkworm rearing schedule, maintenance of rearing shed, silkworm egg transportation, young age silkworm rearing, late age rearing and shoot harvesting & preservation technologies were selected for studying the technology preferences. . the schedule was pre-tested and necessary modifications were made. data were collected through personal interviews of the sericulture farmers, compiled and analysed using statistical tools. preferences and expectations of farmers from research and extension personnel to overcome the crisis were collected by personal interviews, compiled and enlisted. findings and discussion socio-economic profile of sericulture farmers in order to know the background of the sericulture farmers in the area the socioeconomic characteristics of the sericulture farmers were surveyed. ten socio-economic variables were selected for the study and analysed which showed that the mean age of the farmers surveyed were 46, 56 and 45 years in tamil nadu , karnataka and andhra pradesh respectively and most of the farmers were middle aged (35-55 years). the highest proportion of the respondents, were educated up to high school in all the clusters. the mean experience of the sericulture farmers was 10 years in tamil nadu, 13.6 years in karnataka and 20 years in andhra pradesh. the mean land holding of the respondents were 2.47 ha, 1.71ha and 2.74 ha respectively in three state clusters and the mean mulberry land holding was 0.92 ha, 0.51 ha and 0.66 ha respectively. water availability is insufficient for 84 per cent of the respondents for their sericultural activities in tamil nadu, 62 per cent in karnataka and 74 per cent in andhra pradesh. the farmers in the study area practiced 5 to 12 silkworm rearings per annum. the average number of disease free silkworm layings (dfls) reared by a farmer is recorded as 1697 ± 320/hectare in tamil nadu, 1983± 772 in karnataka and 1797±785 in andhra pradesh. the rearing capacity of the farmers ranged between150 to 250 disease free layings(dfls) per batch. the average silk cocoon yield of the farmers is 78.23 kg per 100 dfls in tamil nadu, 74.86kg in karnataka and 76.64kg in andhra pradesh clusters which was above the national average (note on sericulture,2020). the average gross returns received by a farmer per hectare from silkworm rearing is rs.4,10,216/in tamil nadu, rs 4,45,473/in karnataka and rs 4,13,185/from andhra pradesh. farmers’ perceptions on drought the study was conducted at the sericulture clusters located in semi-arid zone of south india where the recurrence of drought is a common phenomenon. the average rainfall of the study area ranged from 550 mm to 750 mm. the mean maximum temperature and minimum temperature prevailed in these areas during drought period is 40◦c and 19◦c respectively. drought was a major constraint for leaf production in mulberry and in turn silk cocoon production among 84 per cent of total journal of extension education 6607 farmers surveyed. the drought perceptions described by farmers are given in figure.1. in the study 84 per cent of the farmers reported the existence of water shortage during drought period which affected their irrigations schedules and cocoon production. this is in conformity with the studies of benjamin et al., (1997). 72 per cent of the farmers reported about the dry and desiccating winds in their mulberry gardens which affected the quality and quantity of leaf production. 55 per cent of farmers suffered from drying of leaves in the shed which led to low silk cocoon yields and 58 per cent suffered from disease outbreak in silk worm rearing which caused partial or complete crop failures. 71 per cent of the rearing is affected by spinning of small sized silk cocoons, 41 per cent of farmers experienced higher melting of silk cocoons and 68 per cent of farmers informed that the cocoons formed with lower silk ratio which led to low price in the market. this is in conformity with reports of rajaram et al., (2006) where they reported decline in mulberry area, quantity of dfls brushed and cocoon production, respectively and reduction in annual sericulture returns per acre in drought hit areas. technological preferences while studying the technological preferences, farmers gave more importance to technologies which gave immediate results like harvesting and preservation of mulberry leaves in cooler hours of the day, providing required aeration for silkworms in the rearing, increased frequency of feeding and maintaining micro climate in the rearing sheds for better growth of silkworms. farmers also preferred micro-irrigation techniques to manage water shortage, managed pruning schedule to avoid peak summer and planted drought tolerant mulberry varieties to with stand dry environment. in the mulberry garden, drought management technologies such as impounding rainwater in the garden, summer ploughing, green manuring /green leaf manuring to increase the moisture holding capacity, trenching & mulching, sub-soiling to break hard pan, formation of run off collection pits/ farm ponds, opening trenches in the garden and bore well recharging were less preferred by the farmers. in silk worm rearing drought management technologies such as early brushing of silkworm layings in summer season, providing false ceiling in silkworm rearing shed, covering the roof of the shed to prevent direct sunlight, covering the rearing bed to prevent drying of leaves, providing drip line on the roof of shed to bring cool atmosphere in the shed, rearing new hybrid suitable for drought and painting roof of rearing shed with cool guard / lime solution to bring down temperature during summer were less preferred by the farmers. figure. 1 drought perception of the farmers farmers’ perceptions on drought, technological preferences in drought mitigation and their implications in mulberry sericulture in south india 6608 sl. no technologies preference (%) 1 harvesting shoots during cooler hours of the day 100 2 feeding chawki& moult resuming worms with shoots from irrigated garden 100 3 preserving shoots in upright position 100 4 sprinkling water & cover shoots with wet cloth 100 5 avoiding long transportation of shoots 100 6 providing required aeration in shed 98 7 drip irrigation/micro irrigation technique 92 8 increase frequency of feeding if required 92 9 hanging wet curtains to windows and doors of shed 86 10 sprinkle clean water on the floor and walls 76 11 management of pruning schedule 70 12 plantation of drought resistant host plant varieties 50 13 raising trees around rearing house 46 14 impounding rainwater in the garden 28 15 summer ploughing 26 16 early brushing in summer season 24 17 providing false ceiling in rearing shed 22 18 green manuring /green leaf manuring 20 19 covering the roof of the shed 18 20 trenching & mulching 16 21 hanging filled earthen pots inside shed 16 22 covering the rearing bed 14 23 sub-soiling 10 24 run off collection pits/ farm ponds 8 25 providing drip line on the roof of shed 6 26 awareness rearing new hybrid suitable for drought 6 27 opening trenches 4 28 bore well recharging 2 29 painting roof with cool guard / lime solution 2 30 planting across the slope 0 table 1 technological preferences by the farmers journal of extension education 6609 yadav et al. (2012) recommended that the full adoption of crop production technologies is very important in achieving the desired level of productivity in dry land crops. hence the farmers should be educated and trained well through various extension methodologies to adopt full package of recommended drought management technologies. preferences and expectations of farmers from research and extension personnel “give us water we will follow all technologies” was the voice of the farmers in all three states. preferences and expectations of farmers from research and extension personnel to overcome the crisis were collected by personal interviews, compiled and enlisted in table 2. in mulberry, the high yielding varieties require more irrigations and do not perform well during drought seasons hence 75 per cent of farmers expected to develop drought resistant high yielding mulberry varieties. moreover availability of cutting or saplings of newly released resource constraint mulberry varieties is meagre, hence farmers expected to increase the availability by mass multiplication programmes. due to non-availability of labourers 80 per cent of the farmers needed low cost implements to adopt soil moisture conservation techniques. majority of farmers expected financial assistance to adopt higher cost technologies such as digging borewell, to buy machineries etc., 52 percent of the respondents suggested that the extension personnel should encourage the voluntary organizations for the construction of farm ponds and water harvesting structures by involving farmers groups. few respondents also suggested that the scientists as well as extension personnel should conduct field visits to monitor the mulberry cultivation & silk worm rearing and give need based suggestions especially during the drought. sl.no preferences / expectations percentage(%) 1 develop high yielding mulberry varieties that could tolerate drought 75 2 increase the availability of saplings of newly released varieties 70 3 appropriate and accurate forecasting / forewarning techniques 25 4 techniques to increase the water use efficiency 71 5 develop low cost inter cultivation implements suitable for mulberry plantations, deep ploughing, trenching & mulching and green manure mulching 80 table 2 preferences and expectations of farmers from research and extension personnel farmers’ perceptions on drought, technological preferences in drought mitigation and their implications in mulberry sericulture in south india 6610 6 voluntary organizations to take initiatives to construct farm ponds and water harvesting structures 52 7 crcs should be motivated to brush drought tolerant hybrids 71 8 monitor crcs to distribute healthy worms during summer 72 9 timely visits of the scientists/extension workers for rendering timely advisory especially during summer 25 10 financial assistance to dig or deepen openwell or borewell 80 11 financial assistance for trenching and mulching 25 12 financial assistance for borewell recharging 10 13 financial assistance for cooling system for rearing sheds 55 14 formulation of contingency plans well in advance to cope with the crisis and creating awareness among farmers 10 15 awareness and guidance on relief programmes 36 16 timely financial support from the government bodies to face the crisis & the losses 10 17 utilizing mass media for dissemination of ameliorative measures to save the crop 38 sl.no preferences / expectations percentage(%) implications on mulberry cultivation & rearing of silkworm the knowledge of farmers’ perceptions on drought and coping strategies provided an access point for improving farmers’ productivity during drought period. farmers adopting drought mitigation technologies recorded 22 per cent improvement in mulberry leaf yield, 7.6 per cent lower occurrence of silkworm diseases, 5.05 per cent improvement in cocoon yield and 4.61per cent better quality silk cocoons(figure.2). this is in conformity with the reports of manjula and vijayakumari (2017). hence the farmers especially from sericulture clusters should follow drought management technologies to manage drought. figure. 2 implications on leaf production & rearing of silkworm journal of extension education 6611 conclusion prevalence of drought is unavoidable in sericultural clusters of south india. the study revealed that drought was a major constraint for leaf production in mulberry and in turn silk cocoon production. the drought perceptions described by farmers were acute water shortage, dry and desiccating wind, drying of leaves in the shed, disease outbreak, spinning of small size cocoons, higher melting of cocoons and lower silk ratio. this affected the production and productivity of mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing. hence the farmers to a certain extent especially from drought affected areas followed drought management technologies to cope up drought. while studying the technological preferences, majority of farmers gave more importance to only few technologies which gave immediate effect on production and gave less importance to others which was beneficial in long term. farmers who adopted drought mitigation technologies recorded improvement in mulberry leaf yield, lower occurrence of silkworm diseases, improvement in cocoon yield and produced better quality silk cocoons on comparing to others. the knowledge of farmers’ perceptions on drought and coping strategies provided an entry point for improving farmers’ productivity during drought period. the perception and adoption of integrated drought management technologies will help the farmers to mitigate the crisis of drought in their fields and help to produce good quality cocoons in drought period also. . even though farmers have good perceptions about drought, the preferences of integrated drought management technologies were selective. some important technologies were not preferred. from the expectations listed by the farmers it is understood that farmers require some technological and financial support to practise all the technologies to mitigate the drought. the findings of the study indicate that the farmers should be continuously motivated to improve the perception and technological preferences to increase the adoption of the integrated drought management technologies besides fulfilling the technological and financial expectations references benjamin, k. v, nizamuddin, s. sabitha, m. g. & ghosh, a. (1997) mulberry cultivation technique under water stress condition. indian silk., 36(3), 12-18 imd. (2018). drought monitoring. retrieved from http://www.imdagrimet.gov.in/fap mahimasanthi, a. rajaram, s. daniel, a. g. k. vidunmala, m. vedavyasa, k. morrison, m. n & sivaprasad, v. (2018) bridging of gaps in adoption of drought management technologies in mulberry cultivation in drought prone areas of south india. sericologia 58(1), 55-63 manjula, m & vijaya kumari, n. (2017) effect of drought on the growth and development of mulberry. international journal of applied agricultural research,12(3), 339-355 farmers’ perceptions on drought, technological preferences in drought mitigation and their implications in mulberry sericulture in south india http://www.imdagrimet.gov.in/fap 6612 note on sericulture (2020) retrieved from http://www.csb.gov.in/ rajaram s, benchamin k. v & qadri s. m. h (2006) impact of drought on sericulture. indian silk, 45 (8), 10-12 seri5k (2018) retrieved from www.seri5k. csb.gov.in yadav,v.p.s, yadav,s.k, singh, b.k & sharma k.(2012) an analysis of factors associated with productivity of dryland crops in haryana. indian journal of extension education 48 (3), 30-33 journal of extension education http://www.csb.gov.in/ pages 2021-2.cdr introduction farmer producer companies (fpcs) are emerging start-ups in india and this c o n c e p t b l e n d s w e l l w i t h t h e n e w opportuni�es and environment. par�ci pa�on, organisa�on and membership pa�ern, similar to co-opera�ves, along with a company's outlook helps fpcs to maintain professionalism and flexibility in their business ac�vi�es (mukherjee, 2018). these fpcs are formed by the equity contribu�on of the members who are either primary producers or producer ins�tu�ons ( d a c , 2 0 1 3 ) . t h u s , a n a p p r o p r i a t e framework for owning the company by producers themselves is provided by these organisa�ons since producers are the equity holders. like every other group, farmer producer organisa�ons will also go through the stages of forming, norming and performing with implica�on for situa�onal leadership styles as they pass through various stages. hence a constella�on of related socio-psychological organisa�onal and group behaviour theories are applicable 6662 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.2, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/ 1 2 3 662 6670jee.202 . .3 .6 farmer producer companies of kerala: group dynamics assessment of shareholders ajith, a* abstract the study focuses on the group dynamics of shareholders in the selected fpcs (farmer producer companies) of idukki district, kerala. a sample of 120 respondents among 13 fpcs was iden�fied using propor�onate random sampling. results of the study indicate that majority of the shareholders in the selected fpcs exhibited a low to medium group dynamics and shareholders of four fpcs exhibited a high level of group dynamics. but the varia�on of gdi (group dynamics index) among companies also point that some firms have be�er intra-group understanding and exhibit higher degree of group cohesiveness and team work along with a favourable a�tude towards the management which caters to a smooth decision making procedure. principal component analysis of the selected indicators revealed that decision making procedure and team work has a significant effect on variance of the gdi. keywords: fpc; group dynamics; perspec�ves; shareholder; kerala *department of agricultural extension, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala 680 656 received : 07-09-2021 accepted: 13-02-2022 for the fpcs. this includes the law of propinquity, homan's theory, balance theory and exchange theory (mukherjee, 2018) the propinquity theory of group forma�on fits very well because normally the fpc is formed by the individuals of a par�cular region, who are in spa�al and geographical proximity. the consensus building, nego�a�on, conflict resolu�on and media�on in fpcs can be explained on the basis of homan's theory. persons with similar a�tudes towards common objects a�ract each other. once a rela�onship is formed these persons try to maintain a symmetrical balance between a�rac�on and common a�tudes. thus balance theory explains the need of sustenance of fpc by maintaining balance in rela�onships, a�tude and performance. finally exchange theory explains the joining of new members to the fpc based on rewardcost outcomes of interac�ons with the exis�ng group members and par�cipa�on in the group ac�vi�es. in fpcs, it is necessary for members to a c t toget h e r b eyo n d p e rs o n a l o r individual inten�ons for the success of the fpc. fpc being an organisa�on func�oning primarily based on the contribu�ons of the member farmers, their par�cipa�on in ac�vi�es and decision making, essen�ally group dynamics is important for be�er performance of such organisa�ons (ajith, 2018). hence, understanding the group dynamics in fpcs and devising ways to improve the same can help formulate policy recommenda�ons and solu�ons to improve the performance of such organisa�ons that are facilita�ng the transforma�on of indian agriculture to agribusiness. methodology the district of idukki in the state of kerala, india, was purposively selected due to the higher number of fpcs and rela�vely lesser number of studies compared to the state scenario. an exhaus�ve selec�on of func�oning thirteen fpcs were made from the district. due to the varia�on in the number of members among these fpcs w h i c h r a n g e d f r o m 9 3 t o 5 0 0 a n d geographical limita�ons of the district a total of 120 respondents were selected using probability propor�onate to size s a m p l i n g a s g i v e n i n ta b l e 1 . t h e kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure was es�mated and the value of 0.7 was obtained which indicated sampling adequacy. 6663journal of extension educa�on table 1. selec�on of respondents (n=120) sl. no name of fpc no. of respondents 1 idukki spices farmer producer company ltd 19 2 neyssery agro farmer producer company 15 3 marayoor agricultural producer company ltd 13 the group dynamics of selected fpcs was es�mated using four indicators viz., group cohesiveness, team work, decision making procedure and a�tude t o w a r d s g r o u p m a n a g e m e n t . t h e reliability for the selected indicators was assessed as the internal consistency of the items by es�ma�ng the cronbach alpha value. principal component analysis was executed among the indicators to iden�fy the contribu�on of variance to the group dynamics and weightage of each indicator in terms of factor loadings. a group dynamics index (gdi) was also calculated for the selected fpcs using the formula (manojkumar, 2009) given below. w h e r e w i = we i g h t o f t h e indicator, ri = score obtained for the indicator and mi = max score available for the indicator. further analysis of the data we re c a r r i e d o u t u s i n g f re q u e n c y, percentage, quar�les and other measures of central tendencies like mean and standard devia�on. findings and discussion reliability of the indicators r e l i a b i l i t y o f t h e s e l e c t e d indicators were assessed in terms of internal consistency of the scale items by es�ma�ng the value for cronbach's alpha for each. as shown in table 2, all indicators obtained a cronbach alpha value more than 0.7 indica�ng high reliability. sl. no name of fpc 4 green idukki farmer producer company ltd 6 hill range tribal farmer producer company ltd 7 mangulam agri farmer producer company ltd 8 green vivo agro producer company ltd 9 sahya farmer producer company ltd 10 tillage agro producer co ltd 11 kumily agro spice producer company ltd 12 thodupuzha farmers agro producer company 13 mannen organic farmer producer company ltd total no. of respondents 13 5 high range organic producer company ltd 12 10 8 7 6 6 5 5 1 120 6664 fpcs of kerala group dynamics assessment of shareholders a�tude towards group management most of the members of farmer group o�en exhibit favourable a�tude towards collec�vism and management ( po o r n i m a , 2 0 0 5 ) . acq u i re d t h ro u g h experience, a�tude exerts a direc�ve influence on subsequent behaviour and help to interpret new informa�on and make decisions. thus the a�tude towards the m a n a g e m e n t h a s a n i m p a c t o n t h e c o n t r i b u � o n a n d p a r � c i p a � o n o f shareholders in the ac�vi�es of the fpc. the majority of the shareholders exhibited a posi�ve (68.33 %) a�tude towards the group management. rela�vely lesser number of the shareholders (17.50%) showcased highly posi�ve a�tude followed by shareholders which exhibited less p o s i � ve a� t u d e t owa rd s t h e g ro u p management. this indicates that majority of the shareholder believed that group management conducted mee�ngs and trainings at right �me, but the service delivery needs to be improved. group cohesiveness the value shared, informa�on flow and willingness to stay in the group is influenced by group cohesiveness. the groups with higher cohesion outperform other groups (banwo et al. 2015). as per table 3, more than half of the shareholders (62.50%) exhibited medium level of group cohesion. 19.17 per cent of shareholders exhibited low level of group cohesion while 18.33 per cent of shareholders exhibited high level of cohesion. this indicates that the general belief of the respondents is that shareholders run to support each other during hardships and rely on one another in the group for carrying out the group task. majority of the shareholders on some levels felt that they belonged in the group. but the s h a re h o l d e rs wh o s co re d l ow g ro up c o h e s i v e n e s s f e l t t h a t i t w a s n o t comfortable to work with some group members, and they could not rely on another. 6665journal of extension educa�on table 2. cronbach's alpha of each indicator (n=120) sl. no indicator cronbach alpha 1 a�tude towards group management 0.771 2 group cohesiveness 0.830 3 team work 0.870 4 decision making procedure 0.868 teamwork group members are expected to preserve unity and move towards their goals as a single unit and willing to give the major credit to combined team. most of the respondents exhibited a medium teamwork (73.33%), followed by low (15.83%) and high (10.83%), indica�ng the most of the shareholders believe that the group is working as a team in all ac�vi�es and feel that the combined effort of the group brought much success. but a certain extent of the shareholders prefers to work alone as there are individuals in the team who claim all recogni�on for the group achievement which explains the low category decision making procedure t h e d e g r e e t o w h i c h t h e involvement of other members in making a decision in the organisa�on is referred to as decision making process. par�cipa�on in decision making improves the organisa �onal learning and performance. similar to the other indicators more than half of the respondents (69.17%) fell in to the medium category followed by 22.50 per cent of shareholders who exhibited high category of decision making procedure. only 8.33 per cent of respondents exhibited a low category score for the indicator. the results indicated that most of the shareholders belonged to the medium to high category which means that usually any group decision is taken jointly by all members in a par�cipa�ve manner and decision of the majority is valid in the fpc. 6666 table 3. distribu�on of shareholders on the basis of selected indicators (n=120) . sl no indicator percentage distribu�on low (<m-sd) medium (m-/+sd) high (>m+sd) 1 a�tude towards group management m=15.94 sd=2.50 14.17 68.33 17.50 2 group cohesiveness m= 26.65 sd= 3.09 19.17 62.50 18.33 3 team work m=21.97 sd=3.38 15.83 73.33 10.83 4 decision making procedure m= 20.98 sd= 3.00 8.33 69.17 22.50 fpcs of kerala group dynamics assessment of shareholders principal component analysis principal component analysis was used to understand the contribu�on of the indicators to the variance in group dynamics of the fpcs, as understanding this can help decide on which avenue to focus and formulate strategies to improve the same. the kmo value of 0.7 confirmed the sampling adequacy to conduct pca. the results from the varimax rotated pca e l u c i d a t e d f o u r f a c t o r s t h a t w e r e independent of each other, and together could account for 100 per cent of the total variance (table 4). among these four factors the first two factors with eigenvalue 2.12 and 0.91 one accounted for the more than 75 per cent cumula�ve variance in group dynamics which validated the selec�on of variables in the es�ma�on of the group dynamics of fpcs. however the factor one which has an eigenvalue greater than one, impart only a contribu�on of 53 per cent which indicates that other organisa�onal variables like group leadership, atmosphere and par�cipa�on of the shareholders in group ac�vi�es have an effect on the group dynamics and this has to be further studied. from the factor loadings of each variable under the factor one as shown in table 5, the weightage of contribu�on of the selected variables to the group dynamics can be assessed. the results show that decision making procedure and team work has a higher weightage to group dynamics and improving these avenues can result in be�er group dynamics. in prac�cal terms, the group management in order to improve the group dynamics must ini�ate steps to improve the par�cipa�on of members in decision making and inculcate democra�c culture in the same as fpcs are essen�ally member owned ins�tu�ons. further the trainings and ac�vi�es for team building can help the members to improve their team spirit and ul�mately the performance of these organisa�ons. 6667journal of extension educa�on table 4. factor sta�s�cs related to the factors affec�ng group dynamics of fpcs group dynamics factor eigen values variance (%) cumula�ve variance (%) gd factor 1 2.125 53.129 53.129 gd factor 2 .913 22.815 75.944 gd factor 3 .505 12.622 88.566 gd factor 4 .457 11.434 100.000 sl. no indicators factor loadings 1 decision making procedure .836 2 teamwork .823 3 group cohesiveness .777 4 a�tude towards group management .107 factor loadings, obtained for the indicators on the basis of the factor one, which had an eigenvalue of more than one (2.1) was used as weights for calcula�ng the group dynamics index (gdi) and the fpcs were ranked on basis of the index (table 6). these fpcs were also categorised on to low medium and high categories using quar�les as shown in the table 7. from the results it can be noted that shareholders of five fpcs exhibit low group dynamics, while four each exhibit medium and high group dynamics. thus shareholders of majority of the fpcs are exhibi�ng low to medium group dynamics. the lack of effort from the group management as well as the shareholders for par�cipa�ve decision making and inability of the group to act as a team and pressure group unity may be the major reasons for the low group dynamics of certain fpcs. for example, hill tribal organic fpc situated in the tribal region of idukki, near to the forest areas, exhibit the lowest gdi in the study and does not conduct regular mee�ngs for deciding the progress and major ac�vi�es of the fpc, partly due to the loca�on and terrain. further the shareholders sell majority of the produces including coffee and spices to retailers rather than the fpc, expec�ng that they pay be�er price. these reasons substan�ate the low gdi score and performance of the fpc. similarly the fpcs like tillage agro pc and neyassery fpc, with higher gdi scores exhibited a be�er team spirit and coordinated their ac�vi�es through division of work decided through mee�ngs. further the shareholders were par�cipa�ng in the ac�vi�es of the fpcs i n c l u d i n g v a l u e a d d i � o n , p a c k i n g , marke�ng, and accoun�ng. they were also facilita�ng the ins�tu�onal linkages like marke�ng agreements between local shops, and credit that help fpcs gain advantage in t h e c o m p e � � o n . fu r t h e r t h e b e � e r emo�onal connect of the members and their belief that shareholders will help each during crisis made a significant posi�ve e ff e c t o n t h e g r o u p c o h e s i v e n e s s . shareholders of these fpcs received several services like input supply, credit and trainings along with marke�ng. they also believed that the management ac�ve in listening to shareholders and majority of the decisions made is post discussion thus improving the overall group dynamics. 6668 table 5. factor loadings of selected indicators fpcs of kerala group dynamics assessment of shareholders 6669journal of extension educa�on table 6. gdi ranking of selected fpcs sl. no fpc gdi rank 1 tillage agro producer company 2.14 i p c2 neyassery farmer roducer ompany 2.13 ii 3 mankulam farmer producer company 2.11 iii 4 kumily farmer producer company 2.07 iv 5 thodupuzha farmer producer company 2.07 v 6 green vivo farmer producer company 2.06 vi 7 sahya farmer producer company 1.99 vii 8 mannen farmer producer company 1.97 viii 9 high range farmer producer company 1.93 ix 10 marayoor f armer producer company 1.93 x 11 green idukki farmer producer company 1.91 xi 12 idukki spices farmer producer company 1.90 xii 13 hill range tribal f armer producer company 1.80 xiii table 6. distribu�on of fpcs on basis of gdi (n=13) sl. no quar�le number of fpc percentage 1 low (<1.93) 5 38.46 2 medium(<2.07) 4 30.77 3 high (>2.07) 4 30.77 (q1=1.93) (q3=2.07) range = 0.15 conclusion a s f p c s a r e m e m b e r o w n e d ins�tu�ons, collec�ve ac�on and group efforts will help improve the performance of these organisa�ons. existence of posi�ve group dynamics among members helps fpcs to achieve division of labour in their ac�vi�es and promote the envisaged decentralisa�on of power. on analysis of the gdi for the selected fpcs based on the iden�fies indicators it was iden�fied that most of them exhibited a low to medium group dynamics, warran�ng remedial efforts for team building and coordina�on ac�vi�es. the principle component analysis o f t h e d a t a i n d i c a t e d t h a t e ffi c i e n t m a n a g e m e n t s t r a t e g i e s t h a t f o l l o w democra�c leadership styles help impart a sense of teamwork among the fpcs and improve their dynamics. an emo�onal connec�on enables them to help each other during crises and support their ac�vi�es and a �mely incen�ve structure adds to the be�er outcome for fpcs of the state. hence, in order to achieve be�er group dynamics in fpcs, focus must be given for par�cipa�ve administra�on along with trainings and ac�vi�es that improve the u n i t y a n d d i v i s i o n o f l a b o u r i n t h e organisa�on. references a j i t h , a . ( 2 0 1 8 ) . f a r m e r p r o d u c e r organisa ons (fpos) of idukki district: a m u l d i m e n s i o n a l a n a l y s i s o n r o l e f u n c o n a n d p e r f o r m a n c e ( r f p ) . unpublished m.sc. thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur. banwo, a.o, du, j, & onokala, u. (2015). the impact of group cohesiveness on o rg a n i z a � o n a l p e r fo r m a n ce : th e nigerian case. interna�onal journal of business and management, 10(6) dac [department of agriculture and coopera�on]. (2013). policy & process g u i d e l i n e s f o r f a r m e r p r o d u c e r organisa�ons, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, government of india, 96p. manojkumar, b. r. (2009). group dynamics on tribal women self help groups of vansda taluk of gujarat. unpublished ph. d. thesis, anand agricultural university, gujarat. 188p. mukherjee, a. (2018). an analy�cal study on status, prospects and challenges of f a r m e r s p r o d u c e r c o m p a n i e s . unpublished ph. d. thesis. indian agricultural research ins�tute, new delhi.248p. poornima, k. s. (2005). women self help group dynamics in north coastal zone of andhra pradesh. unpublished ph. d. t h e s i s , a c h a r y a n . g . r a n g a agricultural university, hyderabad, 110p. 6670 fpcs of kerala group dynamics assessment of shareholders page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 untitled-1 5669 innovativeness, self confidence and trainings undergone by the organic vegetable farmers m.priyadharshini1, j.venkata pirabu 2, t.n. sujeetha3 and m. asokhan4 abstract a study was taken up among the organic farmers in the coimbatore and erode districts of tamilnadu to assess the innovativeness, self-confidence and trainings undergone by them. keywords : innovativeness, self confidence, trainings undergone, organic farming. 1-ph.d scholar and 4-professor & head, department of agricultural extension & rural sociology, tnau, coimbatore. 2-professor (agricultural extension), agricultural research station, bhavanisagar, erode and 3research associate, e-extension, tnau, coimbatore. received : 07-09-2016; accepted : 02-10-2016 almost a century of development, organic agriculture is now being embraced by the mainstream and shows promising results commercially, socially and environmentally. while there is continuum of thought from earlier days to the present, the modern organic movement is radically different from its original form. it now has environmental sustainability at its core in addition to the founders concerns for healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people. the indian state of tamil nadu also has taken to organic agriculture on a resonable scale. a study on the innovativeness and self-confidence of the organic famers would go a long very in formulating appropriate extension strategies. methodology the present study was conducted in coimbatore and erode districts of tamil nadu. the objective of the study necessitates the selection of districts where organic vegetable crops are predominantly being cultivated. based on the interaction with officials from tamil nadu organic certification department (tnocd), coimbatore and kvk, erode, erode district was selected where maximum number of organic farmers are found. a sample size of 180 organic vegetable farmers was fixed for the study. based on the interaction with officials and perusing documents from the directorate of tamil nadu organic certification department in coimbatore district and kvk, gobichettipalayam, erode, a sample of 90 organic vegetable farmers from each district comprising 180 organic farmers were selected using simple random sampling technique. journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 research note 5670 findings and discussion innovativeness among the organic vegetable farmers the distribution of the farmers according to their level of innovativeness indicates that that more than two-thirds (67.80%) of the respondents came under medium level of innovativeness, followed by low (22.20%) and high (10.00%) levels respectively. the possible reason for the above result might be due to that because of the moderate level of information seeking behaviour, the respondents were aware about the new organic practices and also had the motivation to adopt them. self-confidence among the organic vegetable farmers the distribution of the farmers according to their level of self confidence indicates that majority (81.10%) of the respondents possessed medium level followed by low (10.00%) and high (8.90%) levels of self confidence respectively. the possible reason for the above result might be due to the reason that majority of the respondents attended training programmes regularly. this led to their good exposure regarding organic farming. this encouraged the farmers to gain self confidence in organic farming even though they were getting very less yield initially. this finding is in accordance with the findings of selvarani (2006). trainings undergone by the organic vegetable farmers the distribution of the farmers based on their trainings undergone is given in table 1. table 1. distribution of respondents based on their trainings undergone (n=180) sl no. categories number percent-age 1. none 23 12.80 2. one 3 1.60 3. more than one 154 85.60 total 180 100.00 from table 1, it could be inferred that majority (85.60%) of the respondents had undergone more than one training. this finding is in accordance with the findings of tamilselvi (2002). from the data, it could be understood that most of the respondents had been exposed to training programmes. tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) also plays a vital role in this, as a separate department i.e. department of sustainable organic agriculture, is functioning in the university. ngos also give training to the organic farmers i n t h e r e g i o n . journal of extension education 5671 references remya, m. & george, a. (2015). impact of training on adoption and knowledge again in facilitators of people’s rural education movement (prem). journal of extension education, 27(4) selvarani, g. (2006). a study on functioning and role of self help groups towards socio economic empowerment. unpublished ph.d. thesis, ac & ri, tnau, coimbatore. tamilselvi, g. (2002). entrepreneurial behaviour of women leaders in agriculture. unpublished ph.d. thesis, annamalai university, annamalai nagar. innovativeness, self confidence and trainings undergone by the organic vegetable farmers 6584 assessing the overall efficiency of two technologies of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university, bangladesh m.s. islam afrad1, a. hossain galib1, m. enamul haque1, m. zakaria1 m.h. sakib1, m.m. rahman2 and a.a. shoily3 abstract a study was conducted to investigate the farmers’ response on the performance of two specific bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university (bsmrau) technologies viz. bu dhan1 and bu hybrid lau1. in this connection, two districts of northern bangladesh were considered with 80 farmer respondents selected by simple random sampling technique to examine their responses on technology performance, adoption, impacts, associated limitations with possible suggestions and knowledge gap. findings from this study reveal that the bu dhan1 had a high adoption level. in contrast, bu hybrid lau1 had a low level of adoption. bu dhan1 performed well with low complexities when it was cultivated in the field. the study further provides information that majority farmers showed low to moderate knowledge gap in cultivating both of these technologies. moreover, dried empty grains and less market value were listed as major constraints faced by bu dhan1 growers, while bu hybrid lau1 growers suffered from severe virus attack during cultivation. provisions of sufficient disease-free seed supply and proper training facilities were suggested by all the farmers interviewed. keywords: bsmrau, technology, performance, northern bangladesh 1. faculty of agriculture, bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university, gazipur 1706. bangladesh. 2. exim bank agricultural university, bangladesh. 3. bangladesh rice research institute, bangladesh. received : 20-04-2020; accepted : 13-07-2021 introduction bangladesh embraces regular agribusiness practices of agrarian societies for growing all kinds of agricultural crops to meet daily food demand in domestic markets (quddus and kropp, 2020). generally, the increasing population growth demands more agricultural land for food production and processing to meet dietary necessity (guo et al.,2019). in addition, land demand increases faster for the rapid industrialization as a part of urbanization (wanfu et al., 2019). only crop intensification gives sufficient production to compensate the adverse effect of farmland transformation into infrastructure for residence and industry. research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 4, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6584-6594 6585 unfortunately, every year, bangladesh suffers from different climatic catastrophes, especially flood, considered responsible for reducing major crops production (alamgir et al., 2019). frequent occurrence of floods is responsible for the adverse effects on the country’s natural resources, society and economy (leya et al., 2020). likewise, the northwest districts of bangladesh are also included in the list of highly drought prone region (alamgir et al., 2019). drought is alleged for affecting the boro rice production for changing climate in the future (zinat et al., 2020). those who were basically landless farmers have linked seasonal drought (which is an environmental driver) as persuading bad harvest in sharecropping. failure to repay the microcredit (intended originally to bear the cost of farming) installments ultimately exposed the landless farmers to alleged harassment by the money-lending institutions (kabir et al., 2018). in 2010, arable lands declined dramatically from 34% in 2005 to 8% in the study area although aquaculture land cover increased from 17 to 39% during the same time (adnan et al., 2020). high productive crop varieties can only increase production in declined cultivable lands to feed the huge growing population in this delta. bsmrau also introduced some high-quality crop varieties to the farms in different corner of the country. however, there are very few information about the bsmrau technologies and data were very limited to upgrade a crop. by considering the conditions, overall advantages and acceptability of bsmrau technologies such as bu dhan1 (oryza sativa l., a variety of rice) and bu lau1 (lagenaria siceraria, a hybrid variety of bottle gourd) were assessed. to draw clear ideas about the strength of these two technologies, their adoption, uses, impact, performance, knowledge gap, and problems were also calculated. methodology study area the study was conducted in the northern part of bangladesh. bogura and gaibandha districts are located in the northern territory of the country. shibganj, upazila of figure 1. map of the study area. (a) location of the study areas in bangladesh; (b) gaibandha district with one study area; (c) another study area of bogura district; (d) and (e) are the areas of our interest, gaibandha sadar upazila and shibganj upazila, respectively bogura, is a land of wide range of agricultural crops. gaibandha sadar upazila is in the middle of gaibandha district and it is also significant place for agriculture too. therefore, shibganj and gaibandha sadar were selected for this study (figure 1). sampling farmers cultivating bu dhan1 and bu hybrid lau1 in the selected areas were the targeted population for the study. a assessing the overall efficiency of two technologies of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university, bangladesh 6586 suitable sampling technique was opted from a study of rao (2016). thereafter, a list of bu dhan1 growers was collected from the rangpur dinajpur rural service (rdrs), a non-government organization (ngo) at gaibandha sadar. the number of enlisted farmers who grew bu dhan1 was 200. from the list of farmers, forty farmers (20% of the population) were sampled randomly. similarly, list of bu hybrid lau1 growers was collected from “3s” seed company at shibganj, bogura. the total number of bu hybrid lau1 growers was found to be 160. thereafter, 40 farmers (25% of the population) were randomly selected as sample. thus, a total of 80 farmers, 40 from each technology were selected as respondents of the study. collection of data an interview schedule was constructed for gathering relevant information to satisfy the objectives of the study. data were collected from respondents by face-toface interview and rapport was established with the help of sub-assistant agricultural officer (saao) for getting true and correct information. the instruments contained both open and closed form of questions. a research instrument is usually said to be valid when the objectives of the study are reflected in the instrument and so, content validity of the instrument is very important. all possible precautions were taken to prevent bias and to maintain fidelity of the responses. statements were recorded according to respondents’ feedback and avoided to include any kind of instant judgement from the side of the interviewer. nevertheless, the biasing effect of the interviewing or phrasing of questions was reduced to minimum as far as possible. questions were asked in several possible ways until it was ascertained that the respondents could understand the question properly. if a respondent’s response was not clear enough to reflect what she/he intended to mean, supplementary questions were asked for further clarification. based on the comments and suggestions of experts, the content of the instrument was modified. the questions and statements contained in the schedule were simple, direct and understandable by the respondents. after filling up the interview schedule by obtaining information from a respondent, it was cross-checked twice to avoid missing information. performance of technology the performance of bsmrau technologies in farmers’ field was measured in terms of perceived five benefits like relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial ability and observability (rogers, 2003). these five salient characteristics of technology were used with a view to determine their influence on adoption of these two technologies in this study. for example, to reveal the relative advantage of a technology, few qualities such as increased income, better marketability, ease of handling and better taste were considered. similarly, some features i.e., social acceptability, adaptation to environment, personal compatibility, less input requirement were considered for getting farmers’ response on compatibility. likewise, handling difficulty, complicacy in understanding and additional input requirement were given importance journal of extension education 6587 for estimating complexity of the technology. further, additional time requirement, input requirement and additional cost involvement were examined for judging trial ability. finally, vigor and better physical appearance were considered to ascertain observability. adoption, usage and impact of technology adoption of a technology can be measured in different ways. however, a multidimensional adoption scale was used to measure the rate of adoption of a technology. the scale covers both duration and area in terms of practicing a particular technology. the dimensions were:(a) time of the introduction of the technology under study; (b) time of user’s awareness about the technology; (c) time of adoption of the technology by the individual; and(d) proportion of the area covered by the technology during the period under survey has been employed in a modified form to assess the formula (nasim et al. 2019) for calculating adoption quotient of selected bsmrau technology: where, aq denotes adoption quotient; t1 indicates the year from which the bsmrau technology was introduced in the study area; t2 represents the year from whichthe user became aware of the bsmrau technology; t3 is the year from when the bsmrau technology was adopted by the user; a1 indicates the actual area under bsmrau technology during the surveyed year; a2 is the potential area for cultivation under bsmrau technology during the surveyed year; from the above formula the extent of adoption of those technologies were measured. adopted technology will be continued by a farmer if it contains sufficient desirable characteristics to make a profitable farming practice. usage of a technology was measured based on continuation of the technology with a total duration (year) of farming. number of years was counted to determine the usage of the technology. thus, the year of introduction of the technology and the year of ending the practice among the farmers were investigated. impact of a technology referred to the advantages of that innovation for the economy and production. increment in total production was computed and the increased revenue from the technology was also estimated. technology upgrades the lifestyle and socio-economic condition of a community. therefore, annual earning increment is one of the signs of a good technology as a positive impact. knowledge gap farmers’ agricultural knowledge referred to the understanding and acquaintance on different agriculture related activities. to assess the respondents’ knowledge gap in using bsmrau technology, a scale was constructed including fifteen related questions to itemize their responses. each question was written with similar weave length and was given two marks. respondents were given full marks in case of correct response but given one mark for a feedback close to the correct answer. in case of incorrect answers, a score of zero (0) was given. total marks obtained by a respondent performance of technology the performance of bsmrau technologies in farmers‟ field was measured in terms of perceived five benefits like relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial ability and observability (rogers, 2003). these five salient characteristics of technology were used with a view to determine their influence on adoption of these two technologies in this study. for example, to reveal the relative advantage of a technology, few qualities such as increased income, better marketability, ease of handling and better taste were considered. similarly, some features i.e., social acceptability, adaptation to environment, personal compatibility, less input requirement were considered for getting farmers‟ response on compatibility. likewise, handling difficulty, complicacy in understanding and additional input requirement were given importance for estimating complexity of the technology. further, additional time requirement, input requirement and additional cost involvement were examined for judging trial ability. finally, vigor and better physical appearance were considered to ascertain observability. adoption, usage and impact of technology adoption of a technology can be measured in different ways. however, a multidimensional adoption scale was used to measure the rate of adoption of a technology. the scale covers both duration and area in terms of practicing a particular technology. the dimensions were:(a) time of the introduction of the technology under study; (b) time of user‟s awareness about the technology; (c) time of adoption of the technology by the individual; and(d) proportion of the area covered by the technology during the period under survey. the formula was applied by nasim et al. (2019) to compute the adoption quotient (aq) for an individual which has been employed in a modified form to assess the adoption quotient of selected bsmrau technology. the formula for calculating aq is presented as: a t1 t3 t t3 a1 a 1 where, aq denotes adoption quotient; t1 indicates the year from which the bsmrau technology was introduced in the study area; t2 represents the year from whichthe user became aware of the bsmrau technology; t3 is the year from when the bsmrau technology was adopted by the user; a1 indicates the potential area under bsmrau assessing the overall efficiency of two technologies of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university, bangladesh 6588 were subtracted from thirty (30) to evaluate their knowledge gap. because, a respondent answering all the fifteen questions correctly would score full marks i.e., 30. knowledge gap was categorized into three groups following naznin et al. (2018). the lowest and highest score of farmers’ knowledge gap for both technologies were obtained as 3 and 24, respectively. considering the range of the obtained score, farmers’ knowledge gap was categorized as low (≤10), medium (11-17) and high (≥18). focus group discussion (fgd) focus group discussion is regularly used as a qualitative approach, to gain an indepth understanding of social issues (nyumba et al., 2018). through this approach the salient features of two bsmrau technologies were explored. in the study area, two fgds were arranged with 10 participants for every single technology to validate quantitative results. the relevant participants from user including different age groups viz. young, middle age, old age farmers; different educational levels viz. illiterate, primary and secondary education; various income groups like low medium and high-income group farmers in each location. analysis of data after collection of data, all the numeric values in the interview schedule were compiled. all the collected data were checked, coded and entered into the computer for analysis. descriptive statistics viz. frequency distribution, mean and percentiles were computed for transforming collected data into the information in summarizing the findings of the study. in addition, data were categorized on the basis of the objectives of the study by considering mean, range and standard deviation. two computer programmes such as microsoft excel 2016 and statistical package for social sciences (spss) ver. 25 were used for analyzing data. analyzed data were presented in tabular forms to describe these elaborately for extracting the information accurately. findings and discussion this section is structured into five subsections. section 1 explores overall performance of bu dhan1 and bu hybrid lau1 at farmer level. extent of adoption, usages and impact of these two technologies are shown in section 2. section 3 describes knowledge gap of the respondents on cultivation of these technologies. section 4 includes the problems and suggestions identified by the farmers for both bsmrau technologies. section 5 gives evidences the nature of technologies through qualitative analysis, focus group discussion (fgd). performance of technology the performance of both technologies, bu dhan1 and the bu hybrid lau1 was assessed by farmers’ opinion in terms of technology’s relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability, as shown in the table 1. bu dhan1 offered remarkable advantages in taste, marketing, handing and income to the growers. similarly, ‘better taste’, ‘easy handling’ and ‘better marketability’ were found as the characters of the bu hybrid lau1.the compatibility assessment showed that in every case, bu dhan1 showed greater journal of extension education 6589 performance. farmers faced comparatively less complexity and trial ability when they cultivated bu dhan1 in their field. most of the respondents believe that bu dhan1 is vigor, and have nice physical appearance. similarly, majority confirmed good physical appearance and growth of bu hybrid lau1. extent of adoption, usage and impact of technology results presented in table 2 reveal that the adoption of bu dhan1 was medium to high (77.5%). in contrast, 67.5% of respondents were belong to low adoption category of bu hybrid lau1. more than 70.0% farmers had used bu dhan1 technology for above 3 years. on the other hand, 60.0% of respondent farmers had used the bu hybrid lau1 for a single year. the data on impact on increasing the yield and increment of income represent the same results that majority of the farmer experienced slight increase in the yield and income by implementing both technologies. only around 10.0% respondents admitted high amount yield increase. knowledge gap an assessment on technical knowledge of the respondents related to the production of bu dhan1 and bu hybrid lau1 table 1. performance of bsmrau technologies perceived attributes indicators respondents bu dhan1 % bu hybrid lau1 % relative advantage 1. increased income 13.70 10.70 2. better marketability 78.00 76.80 3. ease of handling 80.50 76.60 4. better taste 85.30 86.20 compatibility 1. social acceptability 86.30 77.60 2. adaptation to environment 84.70 75.30 3. personal compatibility 82.10 77.60 4. less input requirement 01.70 00.80 complexity 1. handling difficulty 07.60 10.70 2. complicated to understand 07.10 16.60 3. additional input requirement 00.80 02.10 trialability 1. more time requirement 02.30 03.00 2. more input requirement 04.60 06.30 3. more cost involvement 03.50 07.10 observability 1. vigor 81.50 80.20 2. better physical appearance 84.60 89.50 assessing the overall efficiency of two technologies of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university, bangladesh 6590 table 2. extent of adoption, usage and impact of bsmrau technologies attributes technology categories respondents mean no. % extent of adoption bu dhan1 low (≤50) 09 22.5 73 medium (51-75) 14 35.0 high (>75) 17 42.5 bu hybrid lau1 low (≤50) 27 67.5 56 medium (51-75) 06 15.0 high (>75) 07 17.5 usage bu dhan1 low (≤2 years) 05 12.5 3.6 medium (3-4 years) 30 75.0 high (>4 years) 05 12.5 bu hybrid lau1 low (1 year) 24 60.0 high (2 years) 16 40.0 impact on increasing the yield bu dhan1 low (≤10) 19 47.5 13.2 medium (11-20) 17 42.5 high (>20) 04 10.0 bu hybrid lau1 low (≤10%) 23 57.5 9.9 medium (11-20%) 12 30.0 high (>20%) 05 12.5 impact on increment of income bu dhan1 low (≤5%) 26 65.0 6.0 medium (5-10%) 09 22.5 high (>10%) 05 12.5 bu hybrid lau1 low (≤5%) 34 85.0 3.7 medium (5-10%) 04 10.0 high (>10%) 02 05.0 table 3. respondents’ knowledge gap on bu dhan1 and bu hybrid lau1 cultivation knowledge respondents (bu dhan1) respondents (bu hybrid lau1) frequency percent mean frequency percent mean low (≤10) 7 17.5 13.5 5 12.5 14.4medium (11-17) 25 62.5 29 72.5 high (≥18) 8 20.0 6 15.0 journal of extension education 6591 is displayed in table 3. moderate knowledge gaps (mean score 13.5 and 14.4 for bu dhan1 and bu hybrid lau1, respectively) on different agricultural operations were revealed for both technology users. most of the bu dhan1 growers (80.0%) had medium to low level of knowledge gap on its cultivation. similarly, majority of the respondents (85.0%) had low to medium level of knowledge gap in cultivation of bu hybrid lau1. constraints and suggestions the major constraints and possible suggestions of the respondents’ during implementation of these technologies are enlisted in table 4. it shows that existence of dried empty grain was listed as the key problem by 75.0% of farmers cultivating bu dhan 1, followed by the less market value of the product (67.5%). the infestation of pest and disease were identified as the third problem for bu dhan1 growers (37.5%), where these problems were considered as the major problem for bu hybrid lau1 growers (78.0%). most of the respondents claimed severe virus attack. they also noticed that disease infestation caused fracture and rotten roots of plants. other constraints proffered include high maintenance cost (65.5%) and lack of training (42.0%) on bu hybrid lau1 technology. farmers provided valuable suggestions during their interviews. eighty two percent of bu dhan1 growers mentioned that they frequently need adequate supply of quality seed for better crop yield. they also included improvement of marketing facilities (74.5%), pest control (42.0%) and regular training and field visit (28.5%) in their suggestion. the bu hybrid lau1 growers suggested the need for development of virus resistant variety as their 1st priority (82.5%), followed by disease-free seed supply (74.0%) and effective training facilities (45.0%). salient features of technologies results obtained from focus group discussion are showed in figure 2. in the diagram, the salient features of bsmrau technologies (bu dhan1 and bu hybrid lau1) were identified. in terms of bu dhan1, the good features were:(1) short duration with medium yield;(2) soft straw and more preferable for cow;(3) suitable for muri (puff rice);(4) less irrigation, (5) low disease and insect infestation; (6) bright rice color; and (7) soft when cooked. besides, bu hybrid lau1 possess some suitable features figure 2. salient features of two bsmrau technologies (2 fgd, n= 10 participants per technology) such as (1) high vigor;(2) tolerant to frequent rainfall; (3) high yielding;(4) cylindrical shaped, (5) good cooking quality, (6) out of season bearing. bu lau1 has high market demand and market value. according to the fgds, all identified qualities of two bsmrau technologies were acceptable for farming. in low-income countries like assessing the overall efficiency of two technologies of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university, bangladesh 6592 table 4. identified problems and offered suggestions for both bsmrau technologies innovation respondent problems % rank suggestions % rank bu dhan1 presence of dried empty grain. 75.0 1st sufficient seed supply in time 82.0 1st low market price 67.5 2nd improve marketing facilities 74.5 2nd pest and disease infestation 37.5 3rd pest and disease control 42.0 3rd lower yield 25.0 4th provide training and field visit 28.5 4th bu hybrid lau1 high pest and disease infestation 78.0 1st development of virus resistant variety 82.5 1st high maintenance cost 65.5 2nd disease free seed supply in time 74.0 2nd lack of training on this technology 42.0 3rd provide training and field visit 45.0 3rd bangladesh, adoption of improved agricultural technologies and production practices are important drivers for getting good agricultural return. (kumar et al.,2020). bu dhan1 may play a crucial role in meeting required nutrition to the people as a main food of bangladesh. it has some good attributes such as ‘short duration’,‘soft straw’, ‘required less irrigation’, ‘low disease and insect infestation’ (figure 2). in contrast, this rice variety is less pricy in the market and it gives dry empty grains (table 4). information shown in table 1 reveal that the performance of the rice variety (bu dhan1) is very good. overall, farmers were compelled to adopt the bu dhan1 for high profit as because their knowledge gap was also found low in terms of crop cultivation for deciding the right innovation (table 2; table 3). generally, education and sound knowledge always assist farmers to decide adopting a new idea or technology quickly (sakib et al., 2019) in contrast, hybrid lau1 has good market demand, this might take place because of its high nutritious value, good cooking quality, and availability (figure 2). however, the adoption rate is quite low in the study area. information source namely mass media plays a vital role to make a good variety popular to the farmers (sakib et al., 2019). in fact, majority (60.0%) had been cultivating the hybrid lau1 for only one year (table 2). however, personal discussion between farmers about the technology will increase with the increase of hybrid lau1 farming period. in case of hybrid lau1, disease tolerant plants and pathogen journal of extension education 6593 free seeds were required for getting a wide acceptance of this technology (table 4). farmers training will improve the culture of the hybrid lau1 for a high profit in farms and modern extension strategies can play a vital role to disseminate the technologies. conclusion this investigation provides an idea that farmers had different level of adoption for these two specific bsmrau technologies in their field, i.e. high adoption for bu dhan1 but low for bu hybrid lau1. hence, extension agencies should be geared up and continue their efforts including organizing different farmers’ training programmes so that they can develop self-confidence in them to take up rice technologies with some minor crops for a profitable co-cultivation, not only for improving their farm production and income but also inspiring others to do the same. so, there is an urgent call for the extension agencies and other concerned departments to handle the crucial factors like increment on annual income, increasing yield, lessening complexities with farming practices and reducing knowledge gap in order to bring positive farmers’ perceptions to these technologies. it can also be suggested that these significant attributes should get more emphasis and attention through continuing efforts while formulating different development strategies and programmes for farmers. references adnan, m. s. g, abdullah, a. y. m, dewan, a, & hall, j. w. (2020). the effects of changing land use and flood hazard on poverty in coastal bangladesh. land use policy, 99, 104868. alamgir, m, mohsenipour, m, homsi, r, wang, x, shahid, s, shiru, m. s, alias, n. e, & yuzir, a. (2019). parametric assessment of seasonal drought risk to crop production in bangladesh. sustainability, 11(5), 1442. guo, s, jiang, l, & shen, g. q. (2019). embodied pasture land use change in china 2000-2015: from the perspective of globalization. land use policy, 82, 476-485. kabir, m. e, davey, p, serrao-neumann, s, & hossain, m. (2018). seasonal drought thresholds and internal migration for adaptation: lessons from northern bangladesh. in pathways to a sustainable economy, pp. 167-189, springer, cham. kumar, a, takeshima, h, thapa, g, adhikari, n, saroj, s, karkee, m., & joshi, p. k. (2020). adoption and diffusion of improved technologies and production practices in agriculture: insights from a donor-led intervention in nepal. land use policy, 95, 104621. leya, r. s, saha, d, bala, s. k, & huq, h. (2020). gender vulnerability assessment due to flood in northern part of bangladesh: a case study on 2017 flood. in water, flood management and water security under a changing climate, pp. 235-249, springer, cham. nasim, f. a, hoque, m. z, haque, m. e, islam, m. s, parveen, n., chakma, s, & afrad, m. s. i. (2019). how does adoption of crop assessing the overall efficiency of two technologies of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman agricultural university, bangladesh 6594 variety reduce the impact of drought in agriculture and mitigate food insecurity of smallholder farmers? a case study on budhan1 rice variety in bangladesh. asian journal of agricultural extension, economics & sociology, 30(3), 1-12. naznin, m, afrad, m. s. i., haque, m. e., zakaria, m., & barau, a. a. (2018). perception of rural farmers on pesticide use in vegetable production. agricultural science and technology, 10(2),115-120. nyumba, t, wilson, k., derrick, c. j., & mukherjee, n. (2018). the use of focus group discussion methodology: insights from two decades of application in conservation. methods in ecology and evolution, 9(1),20–32. quddus, a & kropp, j. d. (2020). constraints to agriculture production and marketing in the lagging regions of bangladesh. sustainability, 12(10), 3956. rao, m. b. (2016). motivation of teachers in higher education. journal of applied research in higher education. 8(4), 469-488. rogers, e.m. (2003). diffusion of innovations, (5th ed.). free press, new york, p221. sakib, m. h, reza, a, afrad, m. s. i, & lee, s. g. (2019). socio-economic factors responsible for adoption of alien fish species by fish farmers in bangladesh. the journal of social sciences research, 5(2), 577-582. wanfu, j, chunshan, z, tao, l, & guojun, z. (2019). exploring the factors affecting regional land development patterns at different developmental stages: evidence from 289 chinese cities. cities, 91, 193201. zinat, m. r. m, salam, r., badhan, m. a, & islam, a. r. m. t. (2020). appraising drought hazard during boro rice growing period in western bangladesh. international journal of biometeorology, pp. 1-11. journal of extension education 5607 technology adoption behaviour of jasmine growers – a critical analysis p. bagya janani1, r. premavathi2 and d.puthira prathap3 abstract jasmine (jasminum sambac) is one of the oldest fragrant flowers cultivated by man. the flower is used for various purposes viz. making garlands, bouquets, decorating hair of women, religious offerings etc. scientific cultivation of jasmine is one of the important prerequisites for increasing the production and productivity among the jasmine growers. the technology adoption of jasmine cultivation by the jasmine growers has not received the attention of both the extension functionaries of state department of horticulture and agriculture to the required level and hence, the present study was undertaken with the objective to study the adoption behavior of jasmine growers in tiurnelveli district. vallioor block of tirunelveli district in tamil nadu was selected purposively for the study based on more area under jasmine cultivation with a sample size of 120. the respondents were selected based on proportionate random sampling method. the data were collected from each respondent through pre-tested interview schedule. the results of the study revealed that majority of the jasmine growers had adopted local variety (ramanathapuram), pest management practices for blossom midge and bud worm, right time of harvest, application of inorganic fertilizers, water management, weed management and application of manure after pruning. one-third of the respondents had adopted the technologies like optimum spacing, application of fym and root rot disease management. based on the findings , the paper suggests concerted dissemination efforts by the change agents in the region, for improving jasmine productivity. keywords : adoption and jasmine cultivation technology. introduction the process of scientific improvement and technological changes in india are most often confined to achieve output expansion in food crops, oilseeds, sugars and fibres and to certain extent 1 -rural development officer, union bank of india, madurai, 2programme coordinator, icar-kvk, thirupathisaram, 3 principal scientist (agricultural extension), icar sugarcane breeding institute, coimbatore-7. received : 15-7-2016; accepted : 4-8-2016 in plantation crops. these endeavours proved successful in stimulating the indian economic growth. concurrent of these developments, commercialization of farming is evidenced in certain other journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5608 crops like jasmine whose contribution to local and nation’s economy is substantial. tamil nadu is the leading producer of jasmine in the country with an annual production of 92951 tonnes and productivity of 8.75 tonnes per hectare from the cultivated area of 10623 ha (2011-12 ). the flowers produced in the state are being exported to the neighbouring countries such as sri lanka, singapore, malaysia and middle east countries. the major jasmine producing districts of tamil nadu are dindigul, salem, madurai, tirunelveli, virudhunagar and trichy. since the crop requires huge manpower for harvesting and other operations, only small farmers are cultivating the crop. tirunelveli districts ranks first in area under jasmine cultivation with an area of 1267.25 ha (season and crop report, 2011-12). adoption studies are important to assess the actual impact of agricultural research, to set research properties and to provide direction to the extension efforts. in general, it is felt that the technology adoption of jasmine cultivation by the jasmine growers in tirunelveli had not received the attention of both the extension functionaries of state departments of horticulture and agriculture to it deserves. micro studies on technology adoption behavior of today’s jamine growers are rare. hence, the present study was undertaken with the objective to study the extent of technology adoption behavior of jasmine growers in tirunelveli district. methodology tirunelveli district of tamil nadu was purposively selected based on more area under jasmine cultivation. tirunelveli district consists of nineteen blocks, out of which vallioor block was selected, as this block had more area under jasmine cultivation. in vallioor block, jasmine was cultivated in an area of 390.46 ha during 2011-12. altogether 120 jasmine growers were selected from three revenue villages based on proportionate random sampling method. data were collected with the help of a well structured pre-tested interview schedule and analysed with suitable statistical techniques. table 1.distribution of jasmine growers according to their overall adoption of technologies (n = 120) s.no. extent of adoption number percentage 1 low 12 10.00 2 medium 102 85.00 3 high 6 5.00 total 120 100.00 journal of extension education 5609 technology adoption behaviour of jasmine growers – a critical analysis findings and discussion overall adoption of jasmine cultivation technologies the success and failure of a technology is ascertained only after assessing its impact over the farming community. the distribution of respondents according to their overall adoption of technologies is given in table 1. it could be inferred from the table that more than four-fifths of jasmine growers (85.00%) had medium level of adoption followed by low level (10.00 %) and high level (5.00 %) of adoption. it could be understood that most of the respondents possessed low to medium levels of adoption. this might be due to lack of awareness on critical technologies viz., spacing, fym application, pruning, weed management and pest management. this finding is in accordance with that of sivashankar and shashidhar (2011) the adoption behavior of identified jasmine cultivation technologies was studied and the results are presented in table.2. varieties cultivated the varieties of jasmine are single morga, double morga, iruvatchi and ramanathapuram local. among the jasmine varieties it was observed that 100 per cent of the reporters had adopted ramanathapuram local variety. from the findings it could be observed that ramanathapuram local grows well in and around vallioor block because of optimum climatic condition, red soil and saline water in vallioor block table 2. distribution of respondents according to their adoption of cultivation technologies (n = 120) sl.no. cultivation technologies adopted not adopted no. % no. % 1. varieties ramanathapuram local 120 100.00 2. main field practices spacing of 1.25 m x 1.25 m 48 40.00 72 60.00 3. water management irrigation at weekly interval 98 81.67 22 18.33 5610 4. integrated nutrient management a. fym 10 kg / plant 52 43.33 68 56.67 b. npk at 60:120:120 108 90.00 12 10.00 c. after pruning 120 100.00 d. during june – july 97 80.83 23 19.17 5 weeding and pruning a. weed management 110 91.66 10 8.33 b. pruning i) 50 cm height 43 35.83 77 64.17 ii) time : last week of november 105 87.50 15 12.50 6 plant protection measures i. pest management practices followed for : a. bud worm 120 100.00 b. blossom midge 120 100.00 c. red spider mite 86 71.67 34 28.33 d. nematode 17 14.67 103 85.33 ii disease management pratices followed for a. root rot 69 57.50 51 42.50 7. harvesting at fully developed unopened flower buds stage 120 100.00 journal of extension education 5611 compared to other varieties. apart from that, ramanathapuram local is the ruling variety of jasmine in tamil nadu known for its fragrance and thick petals. main field practices the main field practices were further classified into five sub areas namely spacing, water management, integrated nutrient management, weeding, pruning and plant protection measures. spacing it could be inferred from the table that two-fifths (40.00 %) of the jasmine growers adopted spacing of 1.25 m and the rest of the respondents (60.00%) did not adopt the recommended spacing. regarding spacing, most of the farmers had the opinion that the recommended spacing is not sufficient to carryout the certain field operations like irrigation, weeding and spraying of pesticides and might be the possible reason for non adoption. water management it could be seen from the table that majority of the jasmine growers (81.67 %), had adopted proper water management practices on a weekly interval basis for cultivation. only 18.33 % irrigated the field once in two weeks. the primary source of irrigation in the study area is through open well, bore well and ponds. underground water is saline in nature. further, the predominance of ramanathapuram local variety which grows well in saline water, might also be a possible reason for this. integrated nutrient management from the table, it could be further inferred that more than two-fifths (43.33 %) of the jasmine growers had applied 10 kg of fym per plant and 90.00 per cent of the respondents applied npk at 60:120:120 g per plant. 100 per cent of the respondents applied fym manure after pruning followed by 80.83 per cent of the respondents during june july. most of the respondents would have realized the importance of application of fertilizers and have applied right the dose at right time in two splits. the reason for 100 per cent application of manures after pruning is that the respondents are well aware of applying nutrients after pruning to get high production of jasmine weeding and pruning it could be observed from the table that most (91.66 %) of the jasmine growers were found to take up weeding in their field. general manual weeding was done by the farmers. no special implements were used for weeding in the main fields. majority (87.80%) of the respondents adopted proper pruning time during the last week of november. technology adoption behaviour of jasmine growers – a critical analysis 5612 the farmers felt that the weeding and removal of dead branches are essential to get good yield. this could be the possible reason for high adoption level. further, it could be understood that onethird (35.83 %) of the jasmine growers adopted pruning height of 50 cm and nearly two thirds (64.17%) of the respondents prune their plants according to their convenience. generally the growers allow the goats to browse their jasmine fields with the belief of getting more production. this might be the possible reason for low adoption of pruning height. plant protection measures integrated crop protection management for disease incidence was followed by majority of the jasmine growers in the study area. it was observed that 100 per cent of the respondents had adopted the recommended control measures for bud worms & blossom midges. farmers who were aware of the recommended pesticides for budworms, blossom midge and red spider mite have used pesticides to control the pests. in the case of nematode, most of the respondents (85.33 %) had not adopted proper control measures followed by root rot (42.50 %). lack of awareness on nematode and root rot management might be the possible reason for low adoption level. harvest it was observed that all respondents harvested jasmine at fully developed unopened flower bud stage in the morning. less damage of flowers and more fragrance and high marketing value could be the possible reasons for this adoption behaviour. conclusion the analysis of extent of adoption indicated that 100 percent of the jasmine growers had adopted ramanathapuram local variety, because of prevailing climatic condition, soil type (red soil) and saline water in vallioor block compared to other blocks. apart from that ramanathapuram local is one of the ruling variety of jasmine in tamil nadu known for its high fragrance and thick petals. majority of the farmers had adopted pest management practices for blossom midge and bud worm, time of harvest and application of manure and fertilizer after pruning. farmers who were aware of the recommended pesticides for budworms, blossom midge and red spider mite have used pesticides to control the pests. further, realizing the importance of application of fertilizers they have applied right dose at right time in two splits. the reason for 100 per cent application of manures after pruning is that the respondents are well aware of the fact that applying nutrients after pruning world result in high production of jasmine. journal of extension education 5613 the results of the study had indicated that low adoption was noticed in management of nematode infestation and root rot disease due to lack of awareness and poor knowledge on these technologies. the extension officials and scientists may provide adequate awareness and knowledge through capacity building. references jaisridhar, p. (2009) adoption and marketing behaviour of maize growers. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute, tnau, coimbatore. sangeetha,s. (2009) study on factors influencing the adoption of precision farming technologies in tomato cultivation. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute. tnau, coimbatore. sathyachitradevi, m. (2006). spread and acceptance of low cost technologies of major crops by resources poor farmers. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute. tnau, coimbatore. senthil,a. (2009). an analysis on crop insurance scheme among paddy farmers of cuddalore district.unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute. tnau. madurai. shanmugachitra,p. (2007). a comparative study of knowledge and adoption of progressive and less progressive sericulturalists in tamil nadu. unpublished m.sc.(ag.) thesis, agricultural college and research institute. tnau, coimbatore. shrivastava,k.k., m.s. trivedi & m.l. lakhera,m.l. (2002) knowledge and adoption behaviour of chilli growers. agricultural extension review, 14(4),22-25. sivashankar, n & shashidhar, k.k (2011) adoption behavior of jasmine cultivation in bellary district. indian research journal of extension education 11(1), 23-26 yavana priya, d. ponnusamy, k.a. & venkatapirabu, j. (2014) adoption level of farmers on maize cultivation practices. journal of extension education. 26(4) technology adoption behaviour of jasmine growers – a critical analysis 1 1543 version -4 mar_15.pmd journal of extension education vol. 26 no. 4, 2014 assessing attitude of tank irrigated farmers towards climate change k. mohanraj1 and c. karthikeyan2 abstract the present study was conducted in ten districts of five agro climatic zones of tamil nadu to assess the attitude of tank irrigated farmers towards climate change. in order to measure the attitude of tank user farmers, the scale was constructed by following ‘equal appearing interval’ scaling technique developed by thurstone and chave (1929). the study revealed that majority of the farmers had moderately favourable attitude towards climate change. 1ph.d scholar, department of agricultural extension & rural sociology and 2professor, directorate of extension education, tnau, coimbatore-3. tank irrigation is one of the oldest and significant sources of irrigation in india and is particularly in south india (palanisami and balasubramanian, 1998). nearly 39,000 tanks exist in tamil nadu state as natural surface water harvesting structures since the olden king regimes for the purpose of irrigation and other water usage (palanisami et al., 2006). the majority of small and marginal farmers in the region depend on tanks for their livelihood since small and marginal farmers are mostly poor, could not afford costintensive irrigation sources like groundwater. hence, tank irrigation continues to play a crucial role for them. although irrigation tanks can be found in major parts of india, they accounted for more than one-third of the area irrigated in the south indian states viz., tamil nadu, karnataka and andhra pradesh (karthikeyan, 2010). among the states, tamil nadu has experienced a gradual decline in tank-irrigated area over the years. the highest decline was observed in tamil nadu (34.00 per cent) and the lowest for maharashtra (6.00 per cent). most of the irrigation tanks (90 per cent) in the state are non-system tanks that depend on the rainfall in their own catchment area and are not connected to major streams, or reservoirs. so, they are more vulnerable to climate change due to the fact, tanks mostly depend upon local rainfall than other sources of irrigation. hence, the present study aimed to assess the attitude of farmers towards climate change. methodology tamil nadu is classified into seven agro climatic zones namely north east, north west, western, cauvery delta, southern, high rainfall and hilly and tribal zone. considering the objectives of the study and the zone-wise availability of tanks, it was decided to select five agroclimatic zones leaving high rainfall and hilly and tribal zone. keeping the intensity of tanks at district level with each of selected zones, two districts in each of these five zones were selected. accordingly, 10 districts were selected from the five agro-climatic zones for this study. in each of the selected 10 districts, two blocks were selected considering the total net area irrigated by the tanks. tank user research note journal of extension education5370 farmers were interviewed in correspondence with the objective set forth. in order to measure the attitude of tank user farmers towards climate change, a scale was constructed by following ‘equal appearing interval’ scaling technique developed by thurstone and chave (1929). findings and discussion computation of attitude scale possible statements concerning the psychological object i.e., ‘climate change’ was collected based on review of literature and discussion with social scientists and agro meteorologists. totally 75 statements were collected which were organised and structured in the form of attitude items. the items were screened by following the informal criteria. based on the screening, 60 items were selected which formed the universe of content. the 60 statements were then subjected to judges opinion on a five-point continuum, ranging from, most unfavourable to most favourable. the list of statements was sent to 60 judges who comprised of extenionists of tamil nadu agricultural universities, kerala agricultural university and annamalai university. of the 60 judges, 40 judges responded by sending their judgements. by applying the formula as suggested by thurstone and chave (1929), the scale values and q values were computed for the 60 statements. finally the nine statements having high scale values and low q values 1. 2 4.080 0.701 the climate change influences agriculture negatively. unfavourable 2. 41 4.031 0.658 climate changes aggravated out-migration in tank command areas. unfavourable 3. 18 2.005 1.245 climate change increased number of rainy days in tank command areas favourable 4. 11 3.635 0.657 climate change reduced water availability in irrigation tanks. unfavourable 5. 19 1.514 0.642 climate change increased the propensity of farmers to take up agriculture. favourable 6. 25 3.492 1.017 climate change led to yield decline of tank irrigated crops. unfavourable 7. 34 2.036 1.316 climate change often results in crop failure/crop crash. unfavourable 8. 54 1.755 0.082 climate change provided conducive environment for agriculture. favourable 9. 28 1.020 0.136 climate change increased the crop yield in tank command area favourable table 1. final set of attitude items selected with corresponding s and q values and the nature of statement nature of the statement sl. no. statement no. s value q value statement 5371assessing attitude of tank irrigated farmers towards climate change were selected. final set of attitude items selected with corresponding s and q values and the nature of statement is presented in table 1. attitude of farmers towards climate change it could be observed from the table 2 that majority (66.33 %) of the farmers were found to possess moderately favourable attitude towards climate change followed by 19.67 per cent had less favourable and 14.00 per cent had highly favourable attitude respectively. conclusion the present study revealed that tank user farmers possessed moderately favourable attitude towards climate change. thus, it could be inferred that climate change possesses a threat to tank irrigation. the policy makers should take care of attitude of farmers towards climate change when designing adaptation options to climate change as it is important to consider the attitude of local communities towards climate change. references karthikeyan, c. 2010. competition and conflicts among multiple users of tank irrigation systems. fourteenth international water technology conference, iwtc 14 2010, cairo, palanisami, k and r. balasubramanian. 1998. common property and private prosperity: tank vs. private wells in tamil nadu, indian journal of agricultural economics, 53: 600-613. palanisami, k., senthilvel, s., ranganathan, c. r and ramesh, t. 2006. water productivity at different scales under canal, tank and well irrigation systems. centre for agricultural and rural development studies (cards), tamil nadu agricultural university. thurstone, l.l. and e.j. chave. 1929. the measurement of attitude, chicago university, chicago press. sl. no. attitude towards climate change score total (n=300) range no % 1. less favourable <17 59 19.67 2. moderately favourable 18-23 199 66.33 3. highly favourable >23 42 14.00 total 300 100 mean 20.13 standard deviation 2.94 table.2. attitude of tank user farmers towards climate change pages 2021-3.cdr introduction the atma model, a decentralised, market driven extension model, was introduced under the na�onal agricultural technology project (natp) as a solu�on to the challenges faced by training and visit system which was plagued by unrelen�ng fund requirements and inadequate qualityemployees. (anderson and feder, 2004; reddy and swanson, 2006;swanson et al., 2008; babu et al., 2013). "support to state extension programs for extension reforms" widely known as agriculture technology management agency (atma) scheme was first implemented in 2005 and presently is func�oning in 691 districts of 28 states and 5 union territories throughout india. since i t s i n c e p � o n , t h e at m a h a s b e e n dissemina�ng extension services to the agriculture and allied sectors of the country i n t h e f o r m o f fa r m e r s tr a i n i n g , demonstra�ons, exposure visits, kisan mela, mobiliza�on of farmers groups and organizing farm schools at the district level. in the year 2021, 1370654 farmers benefi�ed from na�onwide provision of 6659 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.3, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/ 1 3 3 659 6670jee.202 . .3 .6 impact of extension services provided by atma (agricultural technology management agency) on small and marginal farmers in rural assam christopher tirkey and manesh choubey abstract agricultural extension services aim at dissemina�ng new knowledge and skill to farmers to aid them in adop�ng new agricultural technologies and use their resources efficiently. agricultural knowledge improves their skill and decision-making and enhances more efficient u�liza�on of agricultural technologies. with a sample of 160 famers collected from golaghat district of assam by using mul�-staged random sampling method, this study a�empts to understand the impact of extension services provided by atma (agricultural technology management agency) in rural assam. the propensity score matching (psm) technique is employed to control for poten�al sample selec�on biases. the analysis and findings reveal that the extension services provided by atma in the study area posi�vely impacts on the income and paddy produc�on of the small and marginal farmers. timely dissemina�on of extension services which meet the actual needs of the farmers can impact the farmers income and output produc�on to larger extent. keywords: atma; agricultural extension services; propensity score matching; small and marginal farmers; assam dept of economics, sikkim university, gangtok, sikkim 737 102 received : 10-02-2022 accepted: 05-09-2022 extension services by atma. of the total b e n e fi c i a r i e s a b o u t 4 5 p e rc e n t h a d par�cipated in training programs and 13 percent in demonstra�ons organized by atma. in assam, the number of par�cipants in trainings programmes has shown an increasing trend since a decade and in 2021, it shared about 91 percent of the total b e n e fi c i a r i e s o f e x t e n s i o n s e r v i c e s provided by atma in the state (ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare). interna�onal studies have generally e v a l u a t e d e x t e n s i o n s y s t e m a n d methodology and have found mixed results (dercon et al., 2009 ; davis et al., 2012; hunt et al., 2014; läpple and hennessy 2015; josephat and rose, 2015 cawley et al., 2018; teka and lee, 2019). previous researches have also been conducted to see the impact of extension services of atma in india and these studies too have found mixed results (iim, lucknow, 2004a; 2004b; swanson et al., 2009; singh, et al., 2014; babuet al. 2013;saikia et al., 2013; biam and barman, 2017; goswami and bezbaruah, 2017; walling et al. 2017; deka et al. 2017; bortamuly and das, 2018; shita et al., 2020). most of these studies have focused on the implementa�on and ins�tu�onal achievements atma, on the organiza�onal performance of the agency and on the nature and effec�veness of adop�on of technology, and therefore, there are limited systema�c farm-level studies which have looked into the impact of extension services provided by atma on total output produc�on and income of the farmers. this calls for assessing the impact of extension services on the total output produc�on and income of the farmers. a review of previous studies on the impact of extension interven�ons by anderson and feder (2004) warns that the mixed results obtained in the previous studies should be treated with cau�on b e c a u s e o f e x i s t e n t e c o n o m e t r i c c h a l l e n ge s . a s s e s s i n g t h e i m p a c t of extension services is, indeed, a challenge (ragasa et al. 2016) because of the vast range and diversity in the methods of extension and the outcome measures which might lead to possible inconsistent results (läpple and hennessy, 2015). however, viewing from the policy perspec�ves, the ul�mate criterion is to understand the impact of these extension interven�ons (birneret al., 2009). heinrich et al.,(2010) and duflo and kremer (2003) point towards p r o b l e m s n a m e l y, e s t a b l i s h i n g t h e counterfactual; an adequate group for c o m p a r i s o n ; s a m p l e s e l e c � o n b i a s . u n fo r t u n a t e l y, m o s t o f t h e s t u d i e s co n ce r n i n g t h e i m p a c t of ex te n s i o n interven�ons in the past have been assessed by looking at the pre-interven�on and post interven�on observa�ons with li�le considera�on to the counterfactual factors (josephat and likengaga, 2015). accordingly, the purpose of this study is to see the impact of the extension service provided by atma on farmers output produc�on and farm-level income a�er controlling for poten�al sample selec�on biases.our study a�empts to understand the impact of extension 6660 journal of extension educa�on services by using the propensity score matching (psm), which addresses the fundamental problems associated with impact evalua�on, and also controls for possible sample selec�on bias. methodology the present study was conducted in golaghat district of assam which comprises about 2.03 lakh farm families, who are engaged in paddy produc�on. primary data for the study were collected by conduc�ng a field survey in which the head of the farmer household was interviewed. it is to be men�oned here that, being the main crop produced in the district, paddy crop focused in the study. the universe of the study being vast and the researcher facing resource and �me constraints, four blocks in golaghat district were selected for field survey given their level of paddy produc�on. for the selec�on of farm households, in the present study, a mul�-staged random sampling method was used. ini�ally, four blocks in the district, namelykathalguri, kakodonga, gomariguri and morangi, were selected for the present study. from each block, four gram panchayat units (gpus) were selected randomly. from each gpu, one village was selected randomly and finally, from each v i l l a g e , t e n f a r m h o u s e h o l d s w e r e interviewed randomly. thus, the total sample included one hundred and sixty farmers, of which fi�y percent farmers were beneficiaries of atma, and had a�ended t r a i n i n g p r o g r a m m e s a n d m e t h o d demonstra�on in line plan�ng, nutrient management and its applica�on and spraying of insec�cides in 2019 and 2020. the remaining had never received extension service in any form from atma. primary data was collected by interviewing the head of the farmer household using an interview schedule which was prepared by consul�ng the exis�ng literature. data on various aspects of agriculture like land holding, the socio-economic profile of the farmer household, access to extension services provided by atma and the quality and usefulness of the technology disseminated a t t h e d i s t r i c t l eve l by a g r i c u l t u r a l technology management agency were recorded with the help the interview schedule during december, 2020 and january, 2021 through field survey. 6661impact of extension services provided by atma (agricultural technology management agency) on small and marginal farmers in rural assam to u n d e r s t a n d t h e i m p a c t o f extension services provided by atma in the study area the propensity score matching (psm) technique, introduced by rosenbaum and rubin (1983) was employed. propensity score matching refers to the pairing of treatment and controlled observa�ons having similar values on their propensity scores for an individual (i) as the condi�onal probability (p) of receiving a par�cular treatment given a vector of observed covariates (z) and is expressed as: where, d indicates the exposure to treatment. it takes the value 1 for receiving treatment or membership in the treated group and 0 for not receiving treatment or m e m b e r s h i p i n co n t ro l l e d g ro u p . z i r e p r e s e n t s t h e v e c t o r o f o b s e r v e d t h covariates for the i individual. the exposure to treatment within the cells defined by the values of the monodimensional variables p(z) is random if the exposure to treatment wihin the cells defined by zis random.p(z) is also known as the average effect of treatment on the treated (atet) is a prominent es�mator as it explicitly focuses on the effects on those for whom the scheme is intended, and is expressed as 6662 figure 1: map of the study area journal of extension educa�on where, the outer expecta�on is over the distribu�on of (p(z )}|d i=1) andy and y are i 1i 0i the possible outcomes of the treatment and non-treatment respec�vely. the expected outcome of the average treatment effect for the treated is the difference between the outcomes of the treated and of the treatment, had they not been treated. one of the major problems in es�ma�ng treatment effects is the selec�on biases that arise because of the differences between the treated and non-treated groups for reasons other than treatment status. the propensity score matching technique is usually used in evalua�on studies to correct for poten�al bias arising in the data due to differences between the treatment and controlled observa�ons (godtland et al.,2004; mendola, 2007; ali and rahut, 2013; teka and lee, 2019; shita et al., 2020). findings and discussion general characteris�cs of the sampled farmers t h e s a m p l e d f a r m e r s ' socioeconomic profile helps to understand t h e c h a r a c t e r i s � c s o f t h e f a r m e r s ' households in the study area. table1 provides informa�on on the general characteris�cs of the sampled farmers which helps to iden�fy the broad socioeconomic characteris�cs of both the groups of farmers in the study area. efforts have been made to understand the level of living of the farmers through the sampled farmers' age and experience in agriculture and allied ac�vi�es, years of schooling, opera�onal land holding, produc�on and annual income.it is evident from table 1 that, on average, most of the farmers are adults have considerable years of experience in paddy farming. the average years of schooling of the sampled farmers is about ten years which implies that farmers in the study area have received high school educa�on. the average size land-holding of the total sampled farmers as evident from the table indicates that most of the farmers are small and marginal land holders. the average family size of the sampled farmer household is about 5 members. it is also seen that on average the beneficiary farmers produce about 74 quintals of paddy and their average annual income is about inr 129000.the non-beneficiary farmers, on the other hand, produce on an average of about 48 quintals and their average annual income is about inr 83995.the perusal of table 1 reveals that there is significant mean difference in produc�on and income between the beneficiaries of atma and the nonbeneficiary farmers who have not received any benefits from atma. a sta�s�cally significant difference in the produc�on between the two categories of farmers, with a mean produc�on difference of about 25 kilograms, is seen in the table. the observa�on is similar between the two groups of farmers in terms of income. 6663impact of extension services provided by atma (agricultural technology management agency) on small and marginal farmers in rural assam 1 age 43.52 (7.78) 43.78 (10.83) -.5375 -0.3603 (1.491) 2 educa�on 10.16 (3.83) 9.52 (3.23) .6375 1.1370 (.560) 3 family size 4.85 (1.09) 4.68 (1.22) .1625 0.8844 (0.183) 4 land-holding 1.34 (0.77) 0.84 (0.38) .5003 1.4578 (0.146) 5 produc�on 73.62 (44.21) 48.33 (26.41) 25.29 (5.763) 6 income 129000 (70277.08) 83995 (42972.73) 45272.5 4.9157*** (9209.725) sl.no. variable mean beneficiaries non-beneficiaries mean difference t (se) a sta�s�cally significant difference in the income between the two categories of farmers, with a mean income difference of inr.45272, is no�ced from the table. howeve r, n o s t a � s � c a l l y s i g n i fi c a nt differences are no�ced in the other variables between the farmers who have received extension services from atma and the farmers who have not received any agricultural extension benefits. therefore, it can be said that there is significant evidence that to support the fact that extension services provided by atma impact the farmers' produc�on and income. treatment effect the probit model, with extension beneficiary as the dependent variable and other demographic and socioeconomic variables as explanatory variables, is used to es�mate the propensity scores. all the e s � m a � o n s w e r e d o n e u s i n g t h e 6664 table 1. general characteris�cs of the sampled farmers note: *** indicate that the results are sta�s�cally significant at 1 percent level of significance "pscore.ado" module in the stata so�ware. the result of the probit regression, based on which the propensity scores were es�mated, is presented in table 2. the dichotomous variable extension beneficiary was treated as the dependent variable that assumed a value of "1" if the farmer household was a beneficiary and "0" if not. the explanatory variable included the farmer's age, the farmer's experience in paddy farming, size of land-holding of the farmers, and the farmer's income. the 2 probability of the lr x sta�s�c is 0.000, indica�ng that the es�mated probit regression is significant at a 1 percent level. ta b l e 2 s h o w s t h a t t h e f a r m e r s ' par�cipa�on in the extension services is significantly influenced by age, experience, land-holding and income. the variable age has a nega�ve sign indica�ng that younger farmers have a greater probability of journal of extension educa�on receiving extension services and the probability of par�cipa�on in extension services decreases as the farmers get older. similar finding was recorded by suvediet al. (2017). this implies that the younger farmers are the main beneficiaries of the extension services provided by atma. it could be due to the risk bearing nature of the young farmers than the older farmers. 6665 table 2. results of probit es�ma�on of propensity scores explanatory variables coefficients p value age 0.105 (0.022) 0.000 educa�on 0.037 (0.034) 0.255 experience 0.111 (0.019) 0.000 family size 0.040 (0.105) 0.703 land holding 0.860 (0.336) 0.000 off farm income 0.000 (3.120) 0.010 constant 1.060 (0.854) 0.214 number of observa�on 160 lr x2 (6) 69.41 p > x2 0.000 pseudo r 2 0.312 the coefficient of experience is posi�ve and significant indica�ng that farmers with more years of experience in paddy farming had greater probability of receiving extension services delivered by atma. ainembabazi and mugisha (2014), h o w e v e r, s u g g e s t t h a t e x p e r i e n c e determines the farmers' a�tude and decision towards adop�on, reten�on and rejec�on of a technology. the coefficient of land is posi�ve and significant indica�ng that land-ownership as an important factor for receiving extension services. similarly, farmers with higher income had greater probability of receiving extension services. the farmers with higher income also have the ability to purchase new technology and bear its deprecia�on cost. to proceed with the es�ma�on of the average treatment effe c t o n t h e tre at e d ( at t ) , a l l t h e assump�ons of propensity score matching have been achieved and the region of the "common support" is 0.005 and 0.999. table 3 presents the descrip�on of the es�mated propensity scores in the region of common support. impact of extension services provided by atma (agricultural technology management agency) on small and marginal farmers in rural assam 6666 the mean value and the standard devia�on of the es�mated propensity score within this region of common support are 0 . 5 1 3 a n d 0 . 2 9 0 re s p e c � v e l y. t h e balancing property was sa�sfied and the e s � m a t e d p r o p e n s i t y s c o r e s a r e categorised into five blocks which ensured that the mean propensity score of the treated and control group in each block is not different and it facilitates matching to be done with minimum bias. the propensity score matching results for the average treatment effect on the treated (att) are p re s e nte d i n t h e ta b l e 4 . di ffe re nt m a t c h i n g a l g o r i t h m s l i k e n e a r e s t neighbour matching (nnm), radius matching (rm), kernal matching (km) and s t r a � fi c a � o n m a t c h i n g ( s m ) w e r e employed for the analysis. the outcome variable is the total paddy produc�on. table 3. es�mated propensity score in the region of common support percentage percen�les smallest 0.0054 0.0088 0.0088 0.0119 0.9829 0.9871 0.9952 1 % 5% 10% 25% 50% 75% 90% 95% 99% 0.0088 0.0303 0.0967 0.2647 0.5384 0.7745 0.9107 0.9574 0.9952 0.9989 number of observa�on 158 mean 0.5131 standard devia�on 0.2908 variance 0.0845 table 4. effect of extension services provided by atma on paddy output: matching es�mates matching algorithm outcome variable att standard error number of treated number of observed nnm paddy produc�on 2.075 5.401 80 26 km paddy produc�on 4.349 5.678 80 78 rm paddy produc�on 5.385 2.815 62 77 sm paddy produc�on 0.466 8.625 80 78 journal of extension educa�on from the above discussion, it is seen that the total produc�on of the beneficiary farmers is more than the non-beneficiaries. the att results from the different matching methods indicate that the difference of the total produc�on of the beneficiaries and the non-beneficiaries range between 0.47 quintals to 5.38 quintals. similar findings have been documented by hasan et al (2013) that access to extension services raised the value of crop produc�on per hectare by 14.4 %. several studies highlight that contact with extension services raises total output (birkhaeuser, et al, 1991). ali and rahut (2013) and teka and lee (2019) found that beneficiary farmers obtained higher crop yields. conclusion in this study, it is found that a�er sharing similar characteris�cs, farmers who were beneficiaries of atma had total produc�on higher than the farmers who had never received extension benefits in any form. differences in the average produc�on of the beneficiary farmers and the nonbeneficiary farmers have been found in the study, with the average produc�on of the beneficiary farmers being more than that of the non-beneficiary farmers. this difference in the total produc�on of paddy between the two groups of farmers can be credited to the u�liza�on of the agricultural knowledge which the beneficiary farmers had received in the form of trainings programmes and method demonstra�on, provided by atma. the treatment effect analysis employed in the study revealed that the extension services provided by atma in the golaghat district of assam posi�vely impact the income and produc�on of the farmers. since the majority of the farmers in the district comprise small and marginal farmers, t h e r e f o r e , t h e e x t e n s i o n a c � v i � e s undertaken by atma are projected mostly towards these farmers and towards paddy cul�va�on which is the main crop cul�vated in the district. timely dissemina�on of extension services, which meet the actual needs of the farmers, can affect the farmers income and output produc�on to larger extent. references ainembabazi, j. h., & mugisha, j. (2014). the role of farming experience on t h e a d o p � o n o f a g r i c u l t u r a l te c h n o l o g i e s : e v i d e n c e f r o m smallholder farmers in uganda. journal of development studies, 50 (5), 666-679. ali, a., &rahut, d. b. (2013). impact of agricultural extension services on technology adop�on and crops yield: empirical evidence from pakistan. asian journal of agriculture and rural development, 11 (3), 801812. an d e rs o n , r. j. , & fe d e r, g. ( 2 0 0 4 ) . a g r i c u l t u r a l e x t e n s i o n : g o o d intens�on and hard reali�es. the world bank research observer, 19 (1), 41-60. 6667impact of extension services provided by atma (agricultural technology management agency) on small and marginal farmers in rural assam babu, s.c., joshi, p.k., glendenning, c.j., a s e n s o o k y e r e , k w a d w o . , &sulaiman v., r. (2013). the state of agricultural extension reform in india: strategic priori�es and policy op�ons. a g r i c u l t u re eco n o m i c s research review, 26 (2), 159-172. b i a m , k . p. , & b a r m a n , u . ( 2 0 1 7 ) . e ff e c � v e n e s s o f r e s e a r c h e x t e n s i o n fa r m e r l i n k a g e s o f a g r i c u l t u r a l t e c h n o l o g y management agencies in assam, india. interna�onal journal of current microbiology and applied sciences, 6(12), 1873–1883. birner, r., davis, k., pender, j., nkonya, e., anandajayasekeram, p., ekboir, j., mbabu, a., spielman, d.j., horna, d., benin, s., & cohen, m. (2009). from best prac�ce to best fit: a framework f o r d e s i g n i n g a n d a n a l y z i n g pluralis�c agricultural advisory services worldwide. jo u r n a l of agricultural educa�on and extension, 15(4), 341-355. b o r t a m u l y , d . , & d a s , p. ( 2 0 1 8 ) . performance of different role items as perceived by the agricultural e x t e n s i o n p e r s o n n e l i n t h e revitalized extension system in assam. agriculture update, 13(2), 211–216. cawley, a., o'donoghue, c., heanue, k., hilliard, r., & sheehan, m. (2018). the impact of extension services on farm-level income: an instrumental v a r i a b l e a p p r o a c h t o c o m b a t endogeneity concerns. applied economic perspec�ves and policy, 40(4), 585-612. davis, k., nkonya, e., kato, e., mekonnen, d. a., odendo, m., miiro, r., &nkuba, j. (2012). impact of farmer field schools on agricultural produc�vity and poverty in east africa. world development, 40(2), 402-413. deka, c., mishra, p., & baruah, r. (2017). organiza�onal level performance of a g r i c u l t u r a l t e c h n o l o g y management agency (atma) under new extension reforms in the state of assam. asian journal of agricultural extension, economics & sociology, 19(2), 1–7. dercon, s., gilligan, d. o., hoddino�, j., &woldehanna, t. (2009). the impact of agricultural extension and roads on poverty and consump�on growth i n fi � e e n e t h i o p i a n v i l l a g e s . american journal of agricultural economics, 91(4), 1007-1021. duflo, e., & kremer, m. (2003, july). use of randomiza�on in the evalua�on of development effec�veness. in world b a n k o p e r a � o n s e v a l u a � o n department (oed) conference on e v a l u a � o n a n d d e v e l o p m e n t effec�veness (vol. 15). godtland, e. m., sadoulet, e., janvry, a. d., murgai, r., & or�z, o. (2004). the 6668 journal of extension educa�on impact of farmer field schools on knowledge and produc�vity: a study of potato farmers in the p e r u v i a n a n d e s . e c o n o m i c development and cultural change, 53, 63-92. goswami, b., &bezbaruah, r. j. (2017). co m p a r i n g p u b l i c a n d p r i va t e agricultural extension servicesinsights from the brahmaputra valley of assam. economic and poli�cal weekly, 52(52). hasan, m. f., imai, k. s., & sato, t. (2013). impact o agricultural extension on c r o p p r o d u c � v i t y, po v e r t y a n d vulnerability: evidence from uganda. heinrich, c., maffioli, a., & vazquez, g. ( 2 0 1 0 ) . a p r i m e r fo r a p p l y i n g propensity-score matching. interamerican development bank. hunt, w., birch, c., vanclay, f., & cou�s, j. (2014). recommenda�ons arising from an analysis of changes to the australian agricultural research, development and extension system. food policy, 44, 129-141. indian ins�tute of management, lucknow. (2004a). successful case studies, interven�ons and innova�ons in te c h n o l o g y d i s s e m i n a � o n , agriculture management centre. indian ins�tute of management, lucknow.( 2004b). impact assessment report, on the innova�ons in technology dissemina�on (itd) component of the na�onal agricultural technology project, agriculture management centre. josephat, p., &likangaga, r. (2015). analysis of effects of agriculture interven�on using propensity score matching. journal of agricultural studies, 3(2), 49. läpple, d., & hennessy, t. (2015). assessing the impact of financial incen�ves in extension programmes: evidence from ireland. journal of agricultural economics, 66(3), 781-795. m e n d o l a , m . ( 2 0 0 7 ) . a g r i c u l t u r a l technology adop�on and poverty reduc�on: a propensity-score m a t c h i n g a n a l y s i s f o r r u r a l bangladesh. food policy, 32 (3), 372–393. r a g a s a , c . , u l i m w e n g u , j . , randriamamonjy, j., &badibanga, t. ( 2 0 1 6 ) . f a c t o r s a ff e c � n g p e r f o r m a n c e o f a g r i c u l t u r a l e x t e n s i o n : e v i d e n c e f r o m democra�c republic of congo. the journal of agricultural educa�on and extension, 22(2), 113-143. reddy, m., & swanson, b.e. (2006). starategy for upscaling the atma model in india. proceedings of the 2 2 n d a n n u a l m e e � n g s o f t h e a s s o c i a � o n f o r i n t e r n a � o n a l agricultural and extension educa�on , clearwater beach, fl, 14–17 may, 6669impact of extension services provided by atma (agricultural technology management agency) on small and marginal farmers in rural assam 2006. rosenbaum, p., & rubin, d. (1983). a s s e s s i n g s e n s i � v i t y t o a n unobserved binary covariate in an observa�onal study with binary o u t c o m e . j o u r n a l o f t h e ro y a l sta�s�cal society, series b, 45, 212218. saikia, p., das, m. d., & deka, m. b. (2018). impact of agricultural extension services on empowerment of farm women of assam. asian journal of home science, 13(1), 37–46. shita, a., kumar, n., & singha, s. (2020). produc�vity and welfare effects of agricultural technologies: a study of maize producing households in ethiopia using psm approach. indian journal of engineering & materials sciences, 27, 921-926. singh, k. m., meena, m. s., swanson, b. e., reddy, m. n., &bahal, r. (2014). indepth study of the pluralis�c agricultural extension system in india. suvedi, m., ghimire, r., & michael, k. (2017). farmers' par�cipa�on in extension programs and technology adop�on in rural nepal: a logis�c regression analysis. the journal of agricultural educa�on and extension, 23 (4), 351-371. swanson, b., singh, k. m., & reddy, m. n. ( 2 0 0 8 ) . a d e c e n t r a l i z e d , p a r � c i p a t o r y , m a r k e t d r i v e n extension system: the atma model in india. par�cipatory, market-driven extension system: the atma model in india (october 10, 2008). teka, a. m., & lee, s.-k. (2019). the impact of agricultural package programs on farm produc�vity in tigray-ethiopia: pa n e l d at a e s � m a� o n . co g e n t economics & finance, 7:1631987. walling, i., amod, s., yadav, m. k., rajbhar, a. k., &kankaba�, k. (2017). impact o f a g r i c u l t u r a l t e c h n o l o g y m a n a g e m e n t a g e n c y o n r u r a l economy of nagaland, india. plant archives, 17(2), 1511-1516. 6670 journal of extension educa�on page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 5614 a standardised knowledge test to measure the extent of knowledge of agricultural extension personnel on m-tools n. kusuma kumari1 and a. sakeer husain2 1. pg scholar, department of agricultural extension, college of horticulture, and 2. associate professor (agrl. extension), and institutional co-ordinator, centre for e-learning, kerala agricultural university, thrissur. received : 27-8-2016; accepted : 5-9-2016 agricultural extensionists act as direct link between the researchers and the farmers. in order to perform their role effectively and efficiently, they must have steady access to updated agricultural information. the basic problems in attaining access to updated information are lack of awareness, knowledge and attitude of the extension personnel. thus, there is a need to assess the knowledge of extension personnel on advanced ict tools such as mobile telephony and its role in agriculture. moreover, no such studies were reported showing a research gap in this context. considering this, a study was undertaken with the objective of developing a standardised teacher made test for measuring the extent of knowledge of agricultural extension personnel on m-tools. methodology initial attempt was to prepare knowledge items that were found suitable for measuring the knowledge of agricultural extension personnel on m-tools. for assuring the content validity, thorough review of relevant literature and discussion with experts were carried out for the purpose. accordingly, 34 knowledge items were prepared. after making necessary modifications, a total of 30 items were screened out. for standardising the selected items, the procedure suggested by anastasi (1961) and followed by srinivas et al. (2014) and naveenkumar and sendilkumar (2015) was adopted.for this purpose, 30 agricultural extension personnel i.e.one agricultural officer and one agricultural assistant from 15 krishibhavans (the grass root level agricultural development offices in kerala) were selected randomly from thrissur district of kerala. the krishibhavans were also selected on a random basis. the 30 knowledge items were administered to the selected 30 agricultural extension personnel and their responses were taken into count for calculating the difficulty index and discrimination index of each item. research note journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5615 scoring pattern the respondents were asked to indicate their responses to each item in the knowledge test, and the correct answers were assigned a score of ‘1’ and incorrect answers a score of ‘0’. the total knowledge score for each item was calculated by summing up the scores given by all the respondents to the item. based on this, the difficulty index and discrimination index were calculated as detailed below. difficulty index (p) the difficulty index indicates the extent to which an item is difficult. an item should not be too easy, that all persons can answer it, nor should it be too difficult that none of them can answer it. the item difficulty index p,was worked out in this study as the percentage of respondents giving correct response to an item. it was calculated using the formula where, p = difficulty index, nc = number of respondents who answered correctly and n is total number of respondents. the range is from 0 to 100 per cent. higher the value easier is the item. p values above 80 are very easy items and these are not test worthy. p values below 20 indicate difficult items and should be reviewed for possible corrections and alterations. optimum difficulty level is 50 for maximum discrimination between high and low levels of knowledge. in the present study, the items having p values between 20 and 80 were considered and included in the final knowledge test. item discrimination item discrimination or the discriminating power of a test item refers to the degree to which success or failure of an item indicates possession of the ability being measured (singh, 2013). it determines the extent to which an item discriminates the respondents in terms of the ability that the item measures. for calculating the discrimination index, respondents with the highest and least scores were identified and for each item it was calculated based on the proportion of respondents that gave correct responses. this value ranges between -1.00 and +1.00. higher the value more is the discrimination power of the item. item discrimination is calculated using the formula where e= discrimination index, s1 and s3 are the frequencies of correct responses of the items in upper and lower groups of respondents respectively, n= number of total respondents items having negative discrimination are rejected. items having a standardised knowledge test to measure the extent of knowledge of agricultural extension personnel on m-tools 5616 discrimination index above 0.10 were selected for the final knowledge test as followed by barman and kumar (2010). findings and discussion by following the item analysis table 1. difficulty and discrimination indices of the knowledge items sl.no item difficulty index discrimination index 1. name one m-app that provides weather information________(any app providing weather information) 26.67* 0.1* 2. name one m-app that provides market price information of agricultural commodities ________(any app providing market price) 56.67* 0.7* 3. there are m-apps that provide agricultural technology information also. yes/no (yes) 93.40 0.2 4. updating the already installed app on mobile is a paid service.yes/no (no) 90.00 0.1 5. the toll free number for kisan call centre of government of india is ________(1800-180-1551) 34.61* 0.2* 6. m-apps can be given a rating on 5-star scale. yes/ no (yes) 100.00 0 7. what is the mode of information delivery through m-kisan? ________(sms,ivrs, mobile app) 60.00* 0.7* 8. as of now there are no m-apps in local (malayalam) language. yes/no (no) 56.62* 0.2* 9. the mobile app developed by kvk, malappuram________(fem@mobile) 84.00 0.4 10. the term “app” is the shortening of the term ________(application) 100 0 procedure as mentioned in the methodology item difficulty index and discrimination index were computed. the items constructed with the indices obtained are given in table 1 journal of extension education 5617 a standardised knowledge test to measure the extent of knowledge of agricultural extension personnel on m-tools 11. all m-apps available in agriculture are paid services. yes/no. (no) 86.67 0.4 12. there is a chance that some apps can be malwares. yes/no (yes) 83.34 0.1 13. queries can be sent to kisankerala through sms service. yes/no(yes) 70.00* 0.4* 14. all the available m-apps are location specific. yes/ no (no) 70.00* 0.8* 15. ivrs is one of the modes through which m-apps provide visuals and graphics. yes/no (no) 43.34* 0.7* 16. agriculture related banking services are not possible through m-apps yes/no(no) 61.54 -0.1 17. the m-app once installed can be uninstalled easily. yes/no (yes) 93.34 -0.1 18. google play store is the only app store for all types of mobiles. yes/no (no) 66.67* 0.3* 19. mobile apps are software programs that one can download and access directly using a phone. yes/ no (yes) 96.67 0.1 20. for installing an app from app store it is not compulsory to accept the terms and conditions provided. yes/no(no) 70.00* 0.4* 21. guest user facility is available for using m-apps. true/false (true) 66.67 -0.1 22. once an app is installed on mobile it automatically collects location data. yes/no (no) 36.67* 0.5* 23. name one m-app that provides technical information on agriculture ________( any app that provides technical agricultural information) 79.62* 0.3* 5618 24. which of the following provides daily market price of agricultural commodities? a) digital mandi b) my rml c) gram seva d) all the above. ans: (d) 36.67* 0.1* 25. there is a provision for providing reviews/comments about the usefulness/improvement of the app. yes/no (yes) 100.00 0 26. an m-app can provide information on one particular aspect only. yes/no (no) 70.00 -0.2 27. information about last update of each app is available. yes/no (yes) 70.00 -0.6 28. which of the following web portal provides mobile sms service in agriculture? a) m-kisangov.in b) kissankerala.net c) celkau.in d) both a&b ans: (d) 40.00* 0.1* 29. the information content in m-apps is available in english only. yes/no (no) 60.00 -0.1 30. as of now, there are no m-apps that promote organic agriculture. yes/no (no) 16.67 -0.1 *indicates the items that are retained for the final knowledge test as seen in table 1,there are only three items that were answered by all the respondents which showed zero discrimination power and a difficulty index of 100. in addition, there were nine items having difficulty index greater than 80. thus, a total of 11 items were found very easy by the respondents to answer, among all the items listed, which showed a poor discrimination index. only one item showed a difficulty index of 16.67 which indicates high difficulty of the item for respondents to answer. as mentioned in the methodology only the items having discrimination index greater than 0.1 were selected. thus, 14 such items were identified to be included for the final knowledge test. references anastasi, a. (1961). psychological testing. the macmillan company. new york. barman, u. & kumar, b. (2010). a test journal of extension education 5619 to measure knowledge of extension personnel on farmers’ group dynamics. indian research journal of extension education 10 (3),119-123. naveenkumar, g. & sendilkumar, r. (2015).item analysis methodology to measure the knowledge of farmers on eco friendly farm technologies in rice cultivation.journal of krishi vigyan.4(1), 56-59. saravanan, r. (2014). mobile phones for agricultural extension: worldwide m-agri innovations and promise for future. new india publishing agency, new delhi, 69p. singh, a.k. (2013).tests, measurements and research methods in behavioural sciences.5th edn. bharati bhawan. new delhi. srinivasa, a., sudharani, v. & archana, p. (2014). construction of knowledge test to measure the knowledge of agricultural officers on ipm, inm and iwm practices. global journal for research analysis.5(2), 98-102. stryjak, j., sharma, a., lucini, b.a. & kenchiche, s. (2015). agricultural machine-to-machine: a platform for expansion.retrieved from h t t p s : / / g s m a i n t e l l i g e n c e . c o m / r e s e a r c h / 2 0 1 5 / 0 3 / a g r i c u l t u r a l m2m-a-platform-for-expansion/479/ pdf. [17 may 2016]. a standardised knowledge test to measure the extent of knowledge of agricultural extension personnel on m-tools jee journal of extension education vol. 27 no. 4, 2015 tribal farmers’ perceived constraints in the usage of modern multimedia communication technology gadgets p. mooventhan1, k.s. kadian2 and c. karpagam3 abstract an experimental study was conducted to explore the constraints involved in learning process through developed interactive educational multimedia module (iemm) on good dairy farming practices (gdfps) of tribal dairy farmers of chhattisgarh state. in this study, iemm module was developed with 25 digital video documentaries about gdfps which include breeding, feeding and healthcare, management and advances in dairy. this iemm module was exposed to the respondents to create awareness about dairy technologies in turn to accelerate the adoption rate for gdfps. out of 27 districts in chhattisgarh, three districts namely surajpur, surguja and balrampur were selected for the study based on the predominance of dairy tribal respondents population. from each district, four villages were selected and from each village 25 dairy tribal respondents were selected. thus 300 respondents were selected for exploring the constraints involved in e-learning process through iemm. the study revealed that majority (87.00%) of the iemm learners expressed the lack of familiarity towards modern information technology gadgets as the major constraints and it ranks first in the cognitive constraints followed by lack of skills to use advanced ict gadgets. with respect to economical constraints, majority (87.00%) of the iemm learners reported lack of subsides or free scheme to purchase advanced communication tools and services such as computer and internet as the major constraints followed by high cost for establishment, and lack of free training to learn modern ict gadgets. 1scientist, icar national institute of biotic stress management, raipur, 2principal scientist, division of dairy extension, national dairy research institute, karnal and 3senior scientist, central institute for cotton research, regional centre, coimbatore. information and communication technology have always mattered in education. e-learning is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of rural development through improved information and communication processes. empowerment of poor people with information and communication modules and services will increase their standard of living as well as protect their food security and livelihoods. modern communication technologies when applied to conditions in rural areas can help improve communication, increase participation, disseminate information and share knowledge and skills. however, it is observed that the rural populations still have difficulty in accessing crucial information in order to make timely decisions. there is a concern that the gap between the information rich and information poor is getting wider. new information and received : 17 dec, 2015; accepted : 02 feb, 2016 journal of extension education5532 communication technologies are generating possibilities to solve problems of rural poverty, inequality and giving an opportunity to bridge the gap between information rich and information poor. the challenges are not only to improve the accessibility of communication technology to the rural population but also to improve socio-economic status and its relevance to local development (balit et al., 1997). ict gadgets are playing vital role in reaching the unreached. among the different ict gadgets, an iemm would give better results in learning process towards any subject matter. hence, this study focused on development of an iemm module with high definition 25 video documentaries for gdfps. further the study mainly focused on constraints encountered by the e-learners in the study area. multimedia is a woven combination of text, graphic, art, sound, animation and video elements. when you allow an end user the viewer of a multimedia project to control what elements are delivered and when, it is interactive multimedia (swanson et al., 1990). if you are stimulated with audio, you will gain about 20 per cent retention rate that of audio visual is up to 30 per cent and in an interactive multimedia presentation, where you are really involved, the retention is as high as 60 per cent (aeron, 1998). keeping this idea in mind the present study has been undertaken to analyse the different constraints involved in iemm based e-learning process among dairy tribal respondents in chhattisgarh state of india. methodology chhattisgarh state has been selected purposively based on the highest tribal population in the mainland of india. out of 27 districts of the state, three districts namely surajpur, surguja and balrampur were selected through random sampling method. subsequently, from each district, four villages had been selected and from each village, 25 tribal farmers were purposively selected based on minimum one milch animal and posses adequate educational qualification to undergo the e-learning of the prepared educational module to explore the constraints involved in e-learning process for iemm module in the study area. iemm is a product of digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s interactions by presenting the subject matter content (good dairy farming practices) through navigations, text, video clips, audio clips, images, animated elements, hyperlinks, charts, graphics elements, enriched media etc. it helps to educate the user about a technology or process through interactive mode and can be stored and operated from any type of storage medium and can be accessed over online as well as offline mode. the components of iemm have been broadly classified in to two major parts viz. technical component and subject matter component. technical component of the iemm describes the step by step procedure, techniques, tools and software used to develop the module. on the other hand, subject matter component covers the good dairy farming practices which needs to be disseminated to the target group. 5533tribal farmers’ perceived constraints in the usage of modern multimedia communication technology gadgets constraints have been studied in two dimensions viz., cognitive constraints and economic constraints. findings and discussion constraints involved in learning process will pave the way for further development in any educational process. further, constraint analysis helps the planners, administrators, development workers, scientists and others to frame policies and to implement developmental schemes. the perceived constraints of e-learners towards iemm and modern ict gadgets are presented in table 1. from table 1 it could be seen that majority (87.00%) of the iemm learners expressed the lack of familiarity towards modern information technology gadgets as the main constraints and it ranks first in the cognitive constraints list followed by lack of skills to use advanced ict gadgets, 79.00 percent corresponded to difficulty in handling computer mouse, 70.33 percent experienced cyber phobia, little less than three-fourths (64.33%) felt difficulty in reading onscreen text, 67.30 percent sensed lack of feedback system in iemm, 67.30 percent perceived the strangeness of the subject matter content, 37.66 percent felt lack of update system in iemm, 32.00 percent perceived the long time taken by the computer/dvd player read hd videos of iemm and 20.66 percent expressed language (hindi) as a main constraint among the cognitive constraints in using iemm. with respect to economical constraints, majority (87.00%) of the iemm learners hinted out that lack of subsides/free scheme to purchase advanced communication tools and services such as computer and internet as the main constraint and it ranks first in the economical constraints list followed by high cost for establishment, lack of free training to learn modern ict gadgets, unavailability of public sector infrastructure to access iemm (e.g. information kiosk) and low production system (extensive dairy farming) as major economic constraints. in view of the above depicted results, respondents opined that the highly constraint is lack of facility towards modern ranked information technological gadgets, which clearly shows the poor infrastructure facilities and backwardness of the study area. though being a newly formed state, which occupies the lowest rank in human development index (hdi) there is an urgent need to initiate propoor interventions to enhance their socioeconomic upliftment of the rural households. cyberphobia, strangeness of the subject matter and lack of skills to use advanced gadgets constraints showed their poor exposure and meagre familiarity with ict tools. it should be noted that, this experimental study also gave little acquaintance of dairy innovations through educational multimedia. state animal husbandry department authorities and other stakeholders should take prompt initiations of the said proven technologies to the field level. in chhattisgarh, land reforms act had paved the way for government to distribute journal of extension education5534 sl.no. constraints mc* swc* nc* rank i. cognitive constraints 1. cyber phobia 211 66 23 iv (70.33) (22.00) (7.66) 2. difficulty in handling of computer 237 29 34 iii mouse (79.00) (9.66) (11.33) 3. language exposure (hindi) 62 37 201 x (20.66) (12.33) (67.00) 4. lack of familiarity towards modern 261 8 31 i information technology gadgets (87.00) (2.66) (10.33) 5. lack of skills to use advanced ict 253 21 26 ii gadgets (84.33) (7.00) (8.66) 6. difficulty in reading on screen text 193 48 59 v (64.33) (16.00) (19.67) 7. lack of feedback system in iemm 124 65 111 vi (41.33) (21.66) (37.00) 8. long time taken by the computer/ 96 79 125 ix dvd player read hd videos of iemm (32.00) (26.33) (41.66) 9. lack of update system in iemm 113 41 126 viii (37.66) (13.66) (42.00) 10. strangeness of the subject matter 123 35 142 vii contents (41.00) (11.66) (47.33) ii. economical constraints 1. high cost for establishment 216 37 47 ii (72.00) (12.33) (15.66) 2. unavailability of public sector 176 48 56 iv infrastructure to access iemm (58.66) (16.00) (18.66) (e.g. information kiosk) 3. lack of free training to learn modern 203 47 50 iii ict gadgets (67.66) (15.66) (16.66) 4. low production system (extensive 186 62 52 v dairy farming) (62.00) (20.66) (17.33) 5. lack of subsides/free scheme to purchase 252 18 30 i advanced communication tools (84.00) (6.00) (10.00) table 1. perceived constraints towards modern ict gadgets and iemm (n=300) 5535tribal farmers’ perceived constraints in the usage of modern multimedia communication technology gadgets the forest lands to the tribal people. these land dwellers and forest communities were still dependant on natural resources for their livelihood. despite free land and forest resources, respondents are availing government subsidies and free schemes for their daily odds. the government should take necessary infrastructure facilities in backward areas and much emphasis to be given for “digital india” mission and skill development training to the needy which in turn enhance their potential ict access and usage. and overcoming constraints faced by the elearners, policy makers and concerned officials should be given priority for their capacity building through high public investment in this sector. to conclude, there is an imminent need to intensify dairy farming in order to achieve the higher milk production for food and nutritional security of the end users through various ict based gadgets. conclusion though government has provided free land to the respondents, it is the need of hour to develop required infrastructure, basic civic amenities and necessary information technology services to fulfil the modern demand driven information needs to minimise the knowledge gap to improve their livelihood. therefore, different stakeholders in development activities should initiate appropriate technological interventions thorough ict gadgets to reach the unreached. references aeron, r.k. 1998. what is multimedia, multimedia production concepts? summer school on computer multimedia application in agriculture and allied sciences. college of technology and agricultural engineering, rau, udaipur, india. balit, s., calvelo rios, m., and masias, l. 1997. communication for development for latin america: a regional experience. fao. rome, italy. swanson, b.e., farner, b.j. and bahal, r.1990. the current status of agricultural extension worldwide. in fao, report of the global consultation on agricultural extension, 4376. rome: fao. pages 2021-1 final.cdr 6571 introduction mobile phone possession among indian farmers is increasing. however, internet access in rural areas remains low (nsso 2018). indian council of agricultural research has released a wide range of mobile applica�ons for farmers u�liza�on (singh et.al. 2018). however, the prac�cal usability of mobile applica�ons remains unknown. this study was taken up with the objec�ve to study the effec�veness of crop doctor in tnau (tamil nadu agricultural university) paddy expert system mobile applica�on for its usability among the respondents and to find out the rela�onship between the profile characteris�cs of the respondents and the effec�veness of crop doctor in terms of usability. the study was carried out using a pre tested, wellstructured interview schedule and the data were analysed and presented. methodology the present study was conducted for assessing the diagnos�c usability of crop doctor in paddy expert system mobile a p p l i c a � o n o f t n a u, a m o n g p a d d y cul�va�ng farmers owning smartphones. research article journal of extension educa on vol. 33 no.1, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.1.33.6571-6575 effectiveness of a mobile paddy expert system in pest diagnosis r. janarthanan 1 and m.senthil kumar 2 abstract 'crop doctor' is a component in a mobile applica on developed by tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) for diagnosing pest and diseases in paddy and aids in availing management solu ons. the study was conducted among paddy growers in tamil nadu through an 'a�er only' experimental design to find out the diagnos c usability of 'crop doctor' in paddy expert system mobile applica on of tnau in diagnosis of pest and disease in paddy. diagnos c usability of crop doctor component among the respondents revealed that overall effec veness of the mobile applica on was found to be at 73.20 percent. keywords : ict ; android mobile application; usability study; paddy; tnau 1 department of agricultural extension, tnau, coimbatore 641 003 2 directorate of extension educa�on, tnau, coimbatore 641 003 received: 14-07-2021; accepted: 10-02-2022 respondents were selected in three paddy growing districts of tamil nadu i.e., villupuram (45), kancheepuram (26) and thiruvarur (82) with the help of krishi vigyan kendra (kvk) and department of agriculture, tamil nadu. a sample size of 1 5 3 re s p o n d e nt s w a s d e r i ve d u s i n g purposive random sampling method by following 'a�er only' experimental design. diagnos�c usability is an integrated measure to measure the usability of crop doctor and the procedure for the study was adopted with suitable modifica�ons, (lewis, 2014). this was studied using standardized t h r e e c o m p o n e n t s v i z . d i a g n o s � c effec�veness, diagnos�c efficiency and ove ra l l u s e r s a� s f a c � o n . di a g n o s � c effec�veness was recorded using the c o m p l e � o n of d i a g n o s i s a n d i t w a s calculated by: four tasks set for assessing were, opera�ve task for assessing the skill to operate crop doctor successfully for any symptom randomly and followed by diagnosis of two insect and two disease diagnosis viz., brown plant hopper, stem borer, brown spot and blast disease. diagnos�c efficiency was measured upon comple�on of task and was recorded based on the standard �me scale in two intervals fixed and the overall user sa�sfac�on was calculated using method adopted by simorangkir et.al., (2018). the scores were recorded using five-point con�nuum of likert scale. overall user sa�sfac�on was calculated by dividing actual score and the ideal score and the result is converted to per cent through m u l � p l i c a � o n w i t h h u n d r e d . t h e collected data were tabulated and analysed using percentage analysis, mul�ple linear regression and pearson correla�on coefficient. for this study, only 'crop doctor' of the paddy expert system mobile app developed by tnau, was chosen and studied. 'crop doctor' works on the principle of picture iden�calness by matching the field affected picture on comparison with the prestored picture in the applica�on. findings and discussion diagnos�c usability among the allo�ed five tasks, the results revealed that majority (87.58 %) of t h e re s p o n d e nt s we re s u cce s s f u l i n naviga�ng the crop doctor (table 1). farmers were able to operate the crop d o c t o r b y f o l l o w i n g t h e g u i d e l i n e s instructed in the applica�on and its displayed language i.e., tamil. among the 6572 diagnos�c effec�venes no.of.symptoms diagonsed successfully using crop doctor total no.of.symptoms given for diagonsis using crop doctor *100= 6573 table 1. distribu�on of respondents according to the diagnos�c effec�veness s. no. name of the task no. percentage (n=153) overall effec�veness (%) 1 crop doctor opera�on 134 87.58 73.20 2 stem borer diagnosis 117 76.47 3 blast diagnosis 81 52.95 4 brown spot diagnosis 115 75.16 5 brown plant hopper diagnosis 113 73.85 overall user sa�sfac�on of the respondents sa�sfac�on of the respondents was measured using the five-point con�nuum of likert scale. the data collected were analysed by using method followed by simorangkir et.al., (2018) based on the above method, a respondent is measured for three contexts viz., user interface, picture iden�cality and ease of use. based on this, the overall user sa�sfac�on was calculated and the categorized results are presented in table 2. effec�veness of a mobile paddy expert system in pest diagnosis subsequent tasks high level of diagnos�c effec�veness (76.47 %) was found in the iden�fica�on of stem borer. the least diagnos�c effec�veness was observed in the iden�fica�on of blast as only half of the respondents (52.95 %) diagnosed correctly. the hindrance for diagnosis in insect pests was due to the complexity in the stages of varia�on in damage which doesn't exactly match with the available symptoms in crop doctor. this could have led to an i n co m p l et e o r w ro n g d i a g n o s i s . in addi�on, from the above findings, it was observed that iden�fica�on of blast found to be very difficult by the respondents due to the complexity in the appearance. sl. no. category no. percentage (n=153) overall sa�sfac�on (%) 1 high sa�sfac�on 60 39.22 78.692 medium sa�sfac�on 57 37.25 3 low sa�sfac�on 36 23.52 total 153 100.00 table 2. distribu�on of respondents according to overall user sa�sfac�on si.no. variables ‘r’ value regression coefficient(b) standard error ‘t’ value 1 age (x1) 0.315** 0.098 0.050 1.965 2 educa�onal status( x2) 0.389** 0.004 0.037 0.096 3 area under paddy cul�va�on (x3) 0.069 ns 0.143 0.073 1.955 4 experience in paddy cul�va�on (x4) -0.205* -0.010 0.048 -0.208 5 informa�on seeking behaviour (x5) 0.418* 0.198 0.067 2.949** (n=153) 6574 the overall user sa�sfac�on of the respondents in u�lizing the crop doctor for paddy pest diagnosis was 78.69 per cent. further it could be inferred that 76.47%of the respondents were found to have high and medium level of sa�sfac�on and only 23.52 % of the respondents had expressed low level of sa�sfac�on. influence of independent variables on usability mul�ple regression analysis was applied to find out the influence of independent variables to the usability 2 among the respondents. the r value was 2 0.516. the r value has shown that all the variables contributed for 51.60 per cent varia�on in usability of the crop doctor among the respondents. therefore, the equa�on was worked out and given below. y = -0.32 + 0.098 (x ) + 0.004(x ) 1 1 2 +0.143(x ) -0.010(x ) + 0.067 (x ) +0.117 3 4 5 (x ) + 0.085 (x ) + 0.113 (x ) +0.233 (x ) + 6 7 8 9 0.244 (x ) + 0.085 (x ) + 0.079 (x ) +10 11 12 table 3. rela�onship between the independent variables and usability of the respondents 6 trainings undergone related to ict (x6) 0.39** -0.180 0.117 -1.536 7 mobile applica�on opera�onal ability (x7) 0.571** 0.317 0.085 3.726** 8 extent of use mobile phone (x 8) 0.265** 0.102 0.113 0.905 9 awareness on agricultural mobile applica�on (x9) 0.322** -0.129 0.233 -0.553 10 u�liza�on of agricultural mobile applica�on (x10) 0.39** 0.259 0.244 1.060 journal of extension educa�on 6575 r e s u l t s i n f e r r e d t h a t m o b i l e applica�on opera�onal ability, informa�on seeking behaviour and progressiveness had contributed at one per cent level of probability. the remaining variables did not c o n t r i b u t e t o u s a b i l i t y a m o n g t h e respondents. it is notable that one-unit increase ceteris paribus in the following i n d e p e n d e n t v a r i a b l e s v i z . , m o b i l e a p p l i c a � o n o p e r a � o n a l a b i l i t y ( x 7 ) , i n fo r m a � o n s e e k i n g b e h a v i o u r ( x 5 ) progressiveness (x 13), would increase the diagnos�c usability level by 3.276, 2.949 and 3.051 units respec�vely. conclusion 'crop doctor' can be more farmer friendly if farmers are trained for its u � l i z a � o n . c o n t e n t o f t h e m o b i l e applica�on has to be revalidated and steps can be taken to ensure �me to �me upda�ng of pictures. references lewis, j. r. (2014). usability: lessons learned and yet to be learned. interna�onal journal of human-computer interac�on, 30 (9), 663-684. na�onal sample survey organiza�on (nsso). (2018). household social consump�on. 75th round. ministry of s t a � s � c s a n d p r o g r a m m e implementa�on, p 1504 simorangkir, dhiar, g, sarwoko, e.a, sasongko, p.s & endah, s.n. (2018). usability tes�ng of corn disease and pest detec�on on a mobile applica�on. p a p e r p r e s e n t e d a t s e c o n d i n t e r n a � o n a l c o n f e r e n c e o n i n f o r m a � c s a n d c o m p u t a � o n a l sciences. singh, a.k., singh, r. adhiguru, p., hajare, r singh, s.k., bhar�, v.k. & bhasin, p. (2018). krishi gyan (1st ed., vol. 1) [e-book]. icar. effec�veness of a mobile paddy expert system in pest diagnosis f value = 11.413 2 r value = 51.60 ** significant at one percent level of probability *significant at five per cent level of probability ns – non significant 11 a�tude towards based extension services (x11) 0. 426ns 0.046 0.085 0.538 12 innova�veness (x 12) 0.53** -0.060 0.079 -.0762 13 progressiveness (x13) 0.510** 0.245 0.080 3.051** si.no. variables ‘r’ value regression coefficient(b) standard error ‘t’ value page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 6613 association of socio-demographic characteristics with knowledge, attitude and practice towards solid waste management r. geetha* and s. rajalakshmi* abstract the aim of this study was to explore the knowledge, attitudes and practices (kap) of women's solid waste management practices in rameshwaram, ramanthapuram district, tamilnadu, india, to provide a framework for experts and decision-makers to establish or enhance realistic solid waste management (swm) strategies. a cross-sectional analysis was conducted among 400 women respondents, data were collected using a standardized questionnaire on socio-economic characteristics and swm. results suggested that there was correlation between age, population, occupation and annual income of women with kap to minimize, reuse, recycle and recover swm. implementing training programmes and encouraging municipalities and decision-makers to boost women's environmental performance could significantly promote swm strategies. keywords: solid waste management; socio-economic characteristics; knowledge; attitude; practices; tamil nadu. *department of home science extension and education, avinashilingam institute for home science and higher education for women, coimbatore, tamil nadu, india. received : 06-05-2021; accepted : 20-07-2021 introduction india, with a growing population and living standards, is struggling to cope with the simultaneous acceleration of waste generation. appropriate management of household solid waste involves a variety of approaches such as recycling, urban landfilling and resource reduction (minghua et al., 2009; bhattacharjee, 2018). provision of public training provides a cost-effective and compelling solution to improving the contribution of residents to household waste reduction and recycling schemes (de feo and de gisi, 2010). the commitment of people to solid waste recycling has been increased through regular training sessions. it should be noted that swm plans, especially complicated programmes, might not be well understood by some residents without offering adequate educational programmes. such incomprehension may adversely affect public involvement in waste separation and recycling activities. demographic features of people in a given group can indeed affect their understanding of waste disposal (purcell and magette, 2010). in order to achieve an effective research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 4, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6613-6620 6614 solid waste management system, knowing public concerns, awareness and behaviour, is important. the assessment and enchantment of women at the level of kap will greatly promote their contribution to the reduction and separation of household waste, thereby promoting swm recycling programmes (laor et al., 2018). the present study was therefore intended to draw attention to the role of women in swm in rameshwaram, ramanthapuram district, tamil nadu, india. specifically, we calculated the awareness, attitude and level of practice of rameshwaram women in relation to swm strategies. the demographic characteristics of respondents, such as age, community, occupation and annual income, which allow rameshwaram women to be characterized by groups based on similar behavioral attitudes, were evaluated in this study. in addition, the effect of educational intervention programme on solid waste management on the success of women in swm has been assessed. methodology the study was carried out purposively in rameshwaram, ramanthapuram district, tamil nadu, india. the issues of plastic littering are quite common in rameswaram island throughout the year. though the usage of plastic is banned, it has not been effectively enforced. moreover, rameswaram is one of the important tourist / holy destinations in south india. this coastal tourism destination has been combined by a unique resource combination with land and three seas (bay of bengal, arabian sea and indian ocean) (mallick et al., 2020). hence, present study was an attempt to establish the suitable strategies for the development of swm in the study area. data collection this study used a semi-structured questionnaire to gather data on knowledge, attitude and practices regarding household solid waste management among women. the socioeconomic status was assessed and the responses were measured with numbers and analyzed with statistical procedures. information regarding socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, their perception about different methods of waste disposal and its harmful effects on health and environment etc. were documented. likewise, participant’s opinion regarding segregation of waste at the source and responsibility of keeping the community clean were recorded to assess their attitudes. the household’s method of waste collection and storage practices were observed with the help of a checklist. in all the respective domains the responses were scored. 1. assessment before the intervention programme a questionnaire was prepared to find out the knowledge level of solid waste management in the selected area. the questionnaire was divided into subgroups as follows: socio economic profile, waste generation and disposal of household waste, challenges faced by the households due to accumulation of house hold waste, prevailing environmental condition in selected area, garbage collection service and kap on solid waste management. journal of extension education 6615 2. educational intervention programme on solid waste management an education intervention programme on solid waste management was conducted to select women according to the plan of work at a convenient time for the attendants. the programme included lectures by experts with videos, demonstration in composting yard field visits, pamphlets and booklet distribution. 3. assessment after the intervention programme post assessment of educational intervention programme was done to know the effectiveness of the intervention programme organised on solid waste management. feedback forms were provided to the women households. feedback was gathered in the aspects of clarity in subjects delivered by the resource person, punctuality of conduct of programme and overall coordination of the programme. assessment of kap on solid waste management 1. knowledge gained on solid waste management after the educational intervention, knowledge gained was assessed using a knowledge check based on various aspects on waste recycling process, bio degradable waste, diseases due to pollution, impacts of human health, impact of using plastic bags,3r’s process, composting, vermicomposting. 2. attitude towards swm attitude towards waste management was developed based on likert rating scale. responses were obtained on a five point scale:strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree with scores of 5,4,3,2,1. 3. practices followed by the selected respondents practice was measured based upon the segregation of waste. segregation of waste is important criterion as the amount of waste generated causes immense problem to the environment. household waste should be separated daily into different dustbins for the different categories of waste such as wet and dry waste which should be disposed of separately. wet wastes, which consist of leftover foodstuff, vegetables, peels etc., should be put in an organic waste converter called green bin, and it is converted to composting. dry waste consisting of cans, aluminium foils, plastics, metal, glass and paper should be recycled. sampling method there are 21 wards in rameswaram. among them, 8 wards were selected for the study namely, kariyur, sambhai, maruthupandinagar, cherankottai, annanagar, ramartheertham, murugaivadi, and sallimalai. the study was done based on certain criteria such as solid waste generation, disposal behaviour of waste and enormity of other activities near waste collection points in the area. for the study, 400 household women, of which 50 women representing each ward were chosen as respondents. a survey was conducted on the socio economic profile of these household women, their problems related to disposal of solid waste and the association of socio-demographic characteristics with knowledge, attitude and practice towards solid waste management 6616 awareness level on solid waste management were obtained. the survey results were then analysed. data analysis data were analysed using spss version 20.0. further to identify the relationship between of socio-economic characteristics and kap scores anova test was used. findings and discussion relationship between socio-economic characteristics and kap towards swm in the present study, an analysis of knowledge scores was performed with respect to socio-economic characteristics. for the assessment of knowledge score-before the intervention programme, a questionnaire was prepared and administered to find out the knowledge level of solid waste management in the selected area. for the assessment of knowledge score-after the intervention programme, feedback forms were provided to the women households to find out the effectiveness of the intervention programme organised on solid waste management. after the educational intervention, knowledge gained was assessed. the anova test with regards to knowledge score-before and after intervention for age categories and community journal of extension education table 1. analysis of knowledge scores with respect to socio-economic characteristics socio-economic characteristics no. knowledge score-before f knowledge score-after f mean s.d mean s.d age 20-30 30 2.27 3.78 11.902** 27.57 5.87 24.762**31-40 54 .00 .00 31.00 .00 41-50 16 .31 .48 21.81 8.62 community sc 5 10.20 2.39 481.922** 15.20 2.86 35.634**mbc 30 .17 .38 26.10 7.76 bc 65 .26 .57 30.63 .99 occupation business 8 .50 .53 .941ns 14.38 4.93 39.006** private job 12 .08 .29 29.83 2.48 government job 10 .00 .00 31.00 .00 fishing 70 .97 2.70 29.53 4.17 income 2000030000 5 .20 .45 1.304ns 11.20 1.92 47.443**30001 – 40000 25 .16 .37 29.08 4.07 40001 – 50000 70 .97 2.70 29.53 4.17 **significant p<0.01 ns non-significant p>0.05 6617 status showed p<0.01, indicating a significant difference (table 1). the f-value with regard to knowledge score-before for occupation and income range showed p>0.05, indicating a non-significant difference in the knowledge score-before intervention for occupation and income range, while, the f-value with regard to knowledge score-after intervention for occupation and income range showed p<0.01, indicating a significant difference in the knowledge score-after intervention for occupation and income range. thus, from the results it is clear that intervention programmes showed significant improvement in the knowledge score with respect to socioeconomic characteristics towards swm. table 2. comparison of knowledge scores before and after the intervention mean s.d no. t knowledge score-before .73 2.29 100 50.184** mean s.d no. t knowledge score-after 29.23 4.73 100 * paired samples t-test ** significant at 1% level. the comparison of knowledge scores before and after the intervention showed that average knowledge score before intervention was 2.29 which had increased to 4.73 after intervention (table 2). further, the t value table 3. analysis for attitude scores with respect to socio-economic characteristics socio-economic characteristics no. attitude score-before f attitude score-after f mean s.d mean s.d age 20-30 30 40.47 1.41 90.357** 27.03 1.73 117.648**31-40 54 35.94 1.75 32.11 1.83 41-50 16 35.50 1.21 36.25 3.02 community sc 5 40.20 .45 40.277** 24.80 .45 88.894**mbc 30 34.60 1.35 35.50 2.35 bc 65 38.22 2.25 29.78 2.25 occupation business 8 35.63 1.51 27.472** 37.75 3.06 48.676** private job 12 34.92 1.00 34.75 1.82 government job 10 33.40 .52 34.60 .52 fishing 70 38.36 2.23 29.43 2.53 income 2000030000 5 34.80 1.30 36.241** 39.40 2.70 82.394**30001 – 40000 25 34.56 1.39 34.72 1.28 40001 – 50000 70 38.36 2.23 29.43 2.53 **significant p<0.01 association of socio-demographic characteristics with knowledge, attitude and practice towards solid waste management 6618 for knowledge score with respect to socioeconomic characteristics towards swm was found to be 50.184 which is significant at 1% level. hence it is inferred that intervention programme had strongly influenced the relationship between knowledge and socioeconomic characteristics towards swm. an anova test with regard to attitude score-before and after intervention for the socio-economic characteristics (age, community, occupation and income) showed p<0.01, indicating a significant difference in the attitude score-after intervention with respect to socio-economic characteristics (table 3). thus, from the results it is clear that intervention programme showed significant improvement in the attitude score with respect to socio-economic characteristics towards swm. table 4. comparison of attitude scores. before and after intervention mean s.d no. t attitude score-before 37.23 2.65 100 83.860** mean s.d no. t attitude score-after 68.48 1.85 100 * paired samples t-test ** significant at 1% level. the comparison of attitude scores. before and after the intervention showed that average attitude score before intervention which was 37.23 had increased to 68.48 after journal of extension education table 5. analysis of practice scores with respect to socio-economic characteristics socio-economic characteristics no. practice score-before f practice score-after f mean s.d mean s.d age 20-30 30 21.90 1.30 178.772** 29.10 1.30 175.042**31-40 54 23.89 2.43 27.11 2.43 41-50 16 33.38 1.59 13.94 5.01 community sc 5 20.20 1.30 155.916** 30.80 1.30 86.845**mbc 30 30.53 3.61 18.50 6.31 bc 65 22.52 .97 28.48 .97 occupation business 8 34.63 .52 400.956** 9.88 2.85 403.017** private job 12 31.42 1.44 19.00 2.70 government job 10 26.20 1.55 24.80 1.55 fishing 70 22.36 1.16 28.64 1.16 income 2000030000 5 34.60 .55 196.859** 8.60 2.88 202.737**30001 – 40000 25 29.72 3.40 20.48 4.71 40001 – 50000 70 22.36 1.16 28.64 1.16 **significant p<0.01 6619 intervention (table 4). moreover, the t value for attitude scores with respect to socio-economic characteristics towards swm was found to be 83.860 which is significant at 1% level. hence it is inferred that intervention programme had strongly influenced the relationship between attitude and socioeconomic characteristics towards swm. an anova test with regard to practice score-before and after intervention for the socio-economic characteristics (age, community, occupation and income) showed p<0.01, indicating a significant difference in the practice score-after intervention with respect to socio-economic characteristics (table 5). thus, from the results it is clear that intervention programme showed significant improvement in the practice score with respect to socio-economic characteristics towards swm. table 6. comparison of practice scores before and after intervention mean s.d no. t practice score-before 24.81 4.35 100 43.645** practice score-after 50.41 1.95 100 ** significant at 1% level. the comparison of practice scores before and after the intervention showed that average practice score before intervention was 24.81 which had increased to 50.41 after intervention (table 6). furthermore, the t value for practice score with respect to socio-economic characteristics towards swm was found to be 43.645 which is significant at 1% level. hence it is inferred that intervention programme strongly influenced the relationship between practice and socioeconomic characteristics towards swm. conclusion the outcome of the present study indicates that the composition of the waste produced reflected variations in the socioeconomic factors of the population. socioeconomic factors such as age, community, occupation and income had a greater effect on the choice of disposal methods. it is therefore been proposed that efficient management of solid waste can be accomplished by raising environmental consciousness and promoting environmental education efforts. references bhattacharjee, s. (2018). ‘where goes the waste?’ a knowledge, attitude, and practice (kap) study on disposal of household waste. international journal of science and engineering, 3, 26-9. de feo, g, & de gisi, s. (2010). public opinion and awareness towards msw and separate collection programmes: a sociological procedure for selecting areas and citizens with a low level of knowledge. waste management, 30(6), 958–976. laor, p, suma, y, keawdounglek, v, hongtong, a., apidechkul, t. & pasukphun, n. (2018). knowledge, attitude and practice of municipal solid waste management among highland residents in northern thailand. journal of health research,32, 123-131. association of socio-demographic characteristics with knowledge, attitude and practice towards solid waste management 6620 mallick, s, rudra, s & samanta, r. (2020). sustainable ecotourism development using swot and qspm approach: a study on rameswaram, tamil nadu. international journal of geoheritage and parks, 8. minghua, z, xiumin, f, rovetta, a, qichang, h, vicentini, f, & bingkai, l. (2009). municipal solid waste management in pudong new area, china. journal of waste management, 29, 1227–33. purcell, m, & magette, w. (2010). attitudes and behaviour towards waste management in the dublin, ireland region. waste management, 30(10), 1997–2006. journal of extension education 6560 participation of household women in undertaking plant health management practices in home gardens vandana kumari* abstract women in the agricultural sector in india, particularly in bihar face many socio-economic, educational and legal obstacles in realizing benefits of their efforts. this study assessed the role of women in untertaking plant health management practices in home gardens. one hundred households were interviewed and data were analyzed. the study indicated that decisions related to vegetable production and marketing within home gardens were mainly taken by women while the decisions on cereal and pulse crop production, management and utilization were made mainly by men. men were the main decision makers in the management and utilization of cash crops that grow in the home garden. from the surveyed households, women were main decision makers for the management, consumption and marketing of fruit plants. in livestock production and management men were responsible for making decisions in large animals like cows while women had very little contribution on deciding about large ruminants. it was found that labor-intensive activities like land preparation, planting activities and marketing of products were mainly done by men while seed preservation, manuring, weeding and storage of produce were mainly done by women. the average time women spend in the home garden was six to eight hour/week while men spend four to five hours a week. policies and strategies need to be developed to enhance the benefits of home gardens to both men and women. keywords: decision; family; home garden; income; plant health; men; women; bihar received : 01-08-2020; accepted : 29-03-2021 *post graduate department of home science, mddm college, muzaffarpur 842 002 (bra bihar university, muzaffarpur), bihar, india inroduction home gardening is a system of planting of fruit trees along with vegetables and ornamental plants in the premises of the house for multi-purposes. it includes a combination of methods of cultivation, landscaping and other techniques. these provide fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers throughout the year. however, home gardens are often overlooked by scientists and development agents because of their small size, apparent insignificance, and unclear perception by many people as individual household subsistence mechanisms. (bunderson et al. 1990). research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 3, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.3.32.6560-6565 6561 the participation of women in different activities of home garden maintenance is variable. according to ranjan and hedija (2004) the major portion of women’s labor force in the production system is invested in weeding, harvesting, household animal care, marketing, post-harvest handling, etc. harrowing and weeding, in particular, are considered as women’s activities. women are also active in livestock production. their traditional role of housekeeping has been extended to collect firewood, fodder, and working on farms. in addition to their active engagement in agriculture and livestock production including home garden, women are responsible for all household tasks (abebe and mulu, 2017). in most families, men and women differ in the activities they undertake, in access and control over resources, and in participation in decision making (khanal and khanal, 2016). the division of labor and decision making possibilities of women in home garden management such as digging hole, pruning, watering, weeding, fencing, species selection, seed selection, storage techniques, pest control techniques and their contribution on forest conservation are not well studied. therefore, this study aimed at uncovering the role of women in the management and control of home garden practices. the outcome of the study will be used in formulating future policies and strategies at the local level to empower women and make them beneficiaries of their labor. it will as well be used to have a better understanding of the kind of training which is required for women in the area. the general objective of this study is to analyze the different roles of women in home garden management and utilization in jamui district of bihar with emphasis on the kind of tasks performed by women in agricultural production, the time spent by women in these tasks in the villages and to examine the relationship of women's income their role in decision making. methodology the study area, jamui is a district among 38 districts of bihar state, india. agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. the main products are food grains, pulses, jackfruit, mahua, etc. jamui is one of the prominent manufacturers of bidi & cement, iron & steel, salt, sugar, cotton & woolen textiles, kerosene oil, etc. prominent crops are rice, wheat, maize, onion, jackfruit and mahua. sampling method in the present study, a multi stage sampling technique was employed. the first stage was classification of the villages based on intensity of home garden management. three home garden agroforestry systems practicing villages were selected out of nine randomly using lottery system. the three selected villages were kewal, khaira and sikandra. in the second stage before selecting households to be included in the sample, home garden agroforestry system practicing households of each selected village were collected from development agents. five key informants from each village were purposively selected based on their age, knowledge about home garden and social position. these key participation of household women in undertaking plant health management practices in home gardens 6562 informants defined wealth groups of residents into three categories as poor, medium, and rich following the criteria of farm size they own, amount of annual income obtained, number of livestock they hold and the labor involved in agriculture. based on the key informants' criteria, households were selected. data collection data were collected from primary and secondary sources. primary data were collected from sample households and key informants. data were collected by using questionnaires and farm inventory. secondary sources refer to information that was collected from the district offices of agriculture. these gave information on the general land use of the areas, the major crops, marketing and consumption patterns, etc., and the challenges faced in agriculture. data analysis the quantitative data that were obtained through survey were analyzed by means of spss (statistical package for social sciences) version 16. statistical analysis tools including frequency, percentage and mean comparison were used to analyze quantitative data. findings and discussion profile of respondents from the selected households, 56% male and 44% females were observed in the study. about 42.1% of respondents were of the age group of 28-45 years. the occupational analysis of respondents showed that most of the women (about 60 %) were engaged only in household activities. approximately 40% of the women were engaged in both household maintenance and income-generating activities (i.e., poultry rearing, vegetable cultivation, sewing, fruit species cultivation). according to the respondents, agriculture was the main source of income for most households, while day labor (both agricultural and nonagricultural wage work, e.g., in bidi making) was the next most important source of primary income. secondary sources of household income included agriculture, poultry rearing and trade. the study further revealed that only 25% of women earned some money through wages, while the rest of the women did not earn money independently of their husbands and families. among those women who did earn money, the majority of them earned it from vegetable cultivation (28%). home garden is a common agroforestry practice in jamui district. nearly 60% farmers are practicing home garden model very close to home. the average size of the home gardens was 420 sq m. approximately 54 species had been recorded in a home garden. the present study indicated that decisions related to vegetable production and marketing within home garden was mainly taken up by women. bajaracharya (1994) reported that in vegetable production, women take 90% of decisions, whereas in fruit production men make most decisions. the study indicated (table 1) that the decisions on cereal and pulse production, management journal of extension education 6563 and utilization were made mainly by men (82%). men were the main decision makers in the management and utilization of cash crops that grow in the home garden. women (73%) were the main decision makers for the management, consumption and marketing of fruit plants. the result indicated that men were deciders on trees planted in and around home garden. because of the differential access to and control of land, women may not have control over tree planting and management. in livestock production and management, men were responsible in making decisions in large animals like cows (70%) and women had very little contribution on deciding about large ruminants. on the other hand, women were responsible in making decisions in poultry production (41%) than other types of livestock. men participate in land preparation for all types of production in home garden (table 2). this might be because land preparation is an energy draining exercise that is better handled by men. the result is in agreement with fao (2000, 2003) who reported that in crop production it is usually the men who plough the crop fields while the women do the majority of the other work including fertilizer & pesticide application and harvesting. seed preservation was handled by both men and women. for vegetables it was 100% done by women and 32% by men, while for cereals it was 100% by men and 78% by women. planting was mainly the responsibility of men because of the cultural division of labour. however, the wives did the planting activity for vegetables and fruit tree seedlings because the area of land preparation of vegetable is small and intensity of land preparation was low. application of table 1. decision making of household members in different products of home garden (n=100) sl. no. type men (%) women (%) both (%) crops 1. vegetables 14 71 15 2. root crops 25 40 35 3. cereals & pulses 82 2 16 4. cash crops 59 20 21 5. fooder trees 80 12 8 6. fruits 20 73 7 7. tree production 95 0 5 livestock production 8. large ruminants 70 13 17 9. small ruminants 22 41 37 participation of household women in undertaking plant health management practices in home gardens 6564 manure for vegetables, fruits, cash crops and trees was mainly handled by women. soil fertility of home garden is maintained by manure of livestock and kitchen waste and it is the responsibility of women (galfato, 2011). weeding was mainly done by family members including the husband, wife and children. the harvesting of home garden product was mainly done by men. the participation of women for harvesting was very low except for vegetables. most of the products were stored by women. the reason for this is that the wives have experience in knowledge of the storage area and conditions suitable for different crops. home consumption is the principal purpose of home gardening. men participate more in selling of cash crop and root crops. while in the case of vegetables and fruits it is mainly done by women. majority of women (58%) were found to be involved in dead-branch collection and most men were involved in collection of fallen (53%) and standing (58%) trees. women were found to be involved in all aspects of homestead production, from the selection of land to decisions regarding which crops to grow and to harvest. women also cultivate horticultural crops for commercial purposes in their home gardens. seed selection was performed by women. families exchange seeds among themselves, usually at the time of fruit selection. pests, low productivity, and poor fertility of seeds were the common problems expressed by women. women believe that the remaining ash from different kinds of fuel like fuel wood and cow dung is sufficient for the growth of new crops. mulching is carried out by women and men, using banana and papaya leaves. women also have responsibility for pest control and use a simple indigenous remedy: application of ashes to plants infested by pests. table 2. gender division of labour for major crops (n=100) sl. no. activities vegetables root crops cereals & pulses cash crops fruits m f m f m f m f m f 1. land preparation 100 33 100 0 100 12 100 54 100 57 2. seed preservation 32 100 21 67 100 78 15 88 55 33 3. planting 50 50 100 55 78 22 50 50 84 92 4. manuring 0 100 93 21 98 80 98 53 0 100 5. weeding 69 100 100 22 100 27 100 44 55 100 6. harvesting 47 100 93 87 100 20 100 50 89 11 7. storage 58 100 67 97 73 100 88 100 33 100 8. transporting 58 100 67 98 73 100 89 100 100 22 9. marketing 0 96 78 93 84 95 100 68 22 100 m male; f female journal of extension education 6565 conclusion the results of this study show that women play an important role in home garden management activities. giving due respect to their indigenous knowledge and encouraging them in more home garden activities, and providing low interest credit facilities should be the priority of the government and ngos. women dominate in most of the subsistence crops and in small ruminant livestock production. strengthening the extension services along with the provision of inputs such as improved seeds of vegetables and provision of fruit tree seedlings based on the preference of households is required. all these will play a significant role in raising the benefits ensuring food security and income. references abebe, t. & mulu, d. (2017). the role of women in the management and utilization of home garden: the case of dale district, in southern ethiopia. asian journal of plant science and research, 7(4):41-54 bajracharya, b. (1994). gender issues in nepali agriculture: a review. c1994, (rep-7898. cimmyt.). bunderson, t. w., el-wakeel, a., saad, z. a., & hashim, i. (1990). agroforestry practices and potentials in western sudan. in: planning for agroforestry. selected contributions from an international symposium, washington state university, pullman, washington, (24-27 april 1989). (pp. 227-246). elsevier science publishers. fao. (2000). gender and food security. food and agriculture organization of the united nations. highlights. women and population division. national sectoral report on women in pakistan. fao, rome fao. (2003). gender and food security. education, extension and communication. the uplift and empowerment of rural women in pakistan. fao, rome galfato g. g. (2011). the role of women in home garden agroforestry system. unpublished m.sc. thesis. hawassa college of agriculture, hawassa, ethiopia, pp. 67. khanal s. & khanal s. p. (2016). assessment of women’s role in management of home garden in sorabhag v.d.c morang, nepal, global journal of biology, agriculture & health sciences, 5 (2):124-128. ranjan s.k & hedija, m. (2004). introspection in to rural women empowerment in ethiopia, paper published in national education seminar proceedings bahir dar university, ethiopia participation of household women in undertaking plant health management practices in home gardens 5735 work participation in cultural operations of rice farming by tribal and non-tribal labourers in wayanad district : a comparative analysis p.m. vishnu narayanan1 and a. anilkumar2 abstract rice is a traditional staple food crop of india, having high cultural and ecological significance in the present global scenario. tribal labourers in wayanad district of kerala had been the traditional labourers in rice farming. the consequent migration of non-tribals to wayanad district of kerala had been changed the demographic and cultural entity of the district. the present study was conducted in wayanad district to compare the work participation between tribal and nontribal labourers. twenty tribal and non-tribal labourers were selected from each selected panchayats and a total of one hundred and twenty respondents were included in the study. a well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting the data from the respondents. the data were tabulated and inferences were drawn after appropriate statistical analysis. the results show that majority of the tribal labourers had high work participation than non-tribals. while comparing based on gender, female labourers had high work participation than male labourers both in the case of tribal and non-tribal labourers. keywords : rice farming,work participation, tribal labourers, wayanad. 1-meladath house, valiparambu, puthoor, kottakkal, malappur district, kerala 676 503 and 2. dean, kerala agricultural university, vellayani 695 522 , thiruvananthapuram, kerala. received : 07-09-2016; accepted : 13-01-2017 introduction wayanad was traditionally one of the important rice growing districts of kerala. consequent to increase in population as a result of migration from north malabar and central travancore, cropping pattern in the district had changed in favour of cash crops and other plantations. wayanad is the district having highest concentration of tribespeople in kerala (goi, 2011). these tribespeople were traditional labourers in rice farming since time immemorial. most of the rice farmers prefer tribal labourers to work in their fields, as they are experts in indigenous agricultural practices and possess rich experience in various aspects of cultivation. as population increased in the district due to migration, non-tribal journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 4, 2016 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.4.28.5735-5739 5736 people also stared working as labourers. comparative analysis of tribal and nontribal labourers will help us to know the details of work participation in different operations of rice farming and other social dynamics. methodology the study was carried out in the wayanad district of kerala state in india. wayanad district was purposively selected for the study, since this district has the highest concentration of tribespeople. mananthavady, sulthan bathery and vythiri are the three taluks in wayanad district. from each taluk, one panchayat having highest population was purposively selected for the study. from each selected panchayat one padashekharam with highest area was selected. from each selected padashekharam twenty tribal labourers and twenty non-tribal labourers were selected, at random. thus, 120 respondents formed the sample of study. data were collected using a pre-tested interview schedule and the statistical analysis used included in this study were percentage analysis and krushkal – wallis test. work participation was studied on three dimensions viz., extent of participation in different operations of rice farming, work participation based on performance and work participation based on gender. table 1. extent of work participation in different operations of rice farming. (n=120) sl.no. operations tribal labourers (n=60) non-tribal labourers (n=60) no. % no. % 1. land preparation 56 93 54 90 2. nursery management 54 90 58 96 3. transplantation 42 70 24 40 4. intercultural operations 49 81 48 80 5. water management 37 61 35 58 6. harvesting 55 91 48 80 7. postharvest management 42 70 40 66 journal of extension education 5737 findings and discussion from table 1, it can be understood that the tribal labourers’ participation in various operations of rice farming was higher, especially in land preparation (93 per cent), nursery management (90 per cent), transplantation (70 per cent)), intercultural operations (81 per cent), table 2. work participation based on performance (n=120) sl. no. category score range tribal labourers (n=60) non -tribal labourers (n=60) no. % no. % 1. low 17 to 21 17 28 26 43 2. high 21-35 43 72 34 57 3. average score 21.66(88.31) 21 (74.9) harvesting (91 per cent), and postharvest management (70 per cent). on the other hand, the non-tribal labourers had a higher participation in operations such as land preparation (90 per cent), nursery management (96 per cent), intercultural operations (80 per cent), and harvesting (80 per cent). kruskal wallis = 14.956 (p= 0.0006 ) cd( .05) for 60,60 = 18.989 (cdcritical difference) work participation based on performance a perusal of the table reveals that majority (72 per cent) of the tribal labourers had high work participation and only 28 per cent of them had low work participation. the non-tribal labourers showed similar kind of work participation. kruskal – wallis test was done to analyse the significant difference between work participation based on performance by tribal and non-tribal labourers. by comparing the average scores of work participation it can be seen that there is no significant difference between the average score of work participation based on performance between tribal and non-tribal labourers. tribal labourers showed a higher level of work participation compared to non-tribal labourers. this result was in line with the findings of goswami et al. (2006).tribal labourers were the traditional workers in the rice tracts of wayanad. they were familiar with all the operations in rice farming. therefore, it can be inferred that work participation work participation in cultural operations of rice farming by tribal and non-tribal labourers in wayanad district : a comparative analysis 5738 was more among tribal population than the non-tribal population. high preference of tribal labourers than non-tribal labourers by farmers, might be because of their rich experience in rice farming possessed by them and they are possibly less assertive in demanding higher wages. table3. work participation based on gender sl. no. operations tribal labourers (n=60) non-tribal labourers (n=60) male (n=30) female (n=30) male (n=30) female no. % no. % no. % (n=30) % 1. land preparation 30 100 26 86 29 97 25 83 2. nursery management 26 89 27 90 28 93 30 100 3. transplantation 12 40 30 100 9 30 15 50 4. intercultural operations 22 73 27 90 22 73 26 87 5. water management 22 73 15 50 20 67 15 50 6. harvesting 27 90 28 93 20 67 28 93 7. postharvest management 18 60 24 80 15 50 25 83 work participation based on gender upon scrutinizing table 3, it can be understood that land preparation (100 per cent), harvesting (90 per cent) and nursery management (89 per cent) are the important operations done by the male tribal labourers. whereas transplantation (100 percent), harvesting (93 per cent), nursery management (90 per cent), intercultural operations (90 per cent), land preparation (86 per cent) and postharvest management (80 per cent) are the important operations carried out by the female tribal labourers. journal of extension education 5739 in case of non-tribal labourers, land preparation (97 per cent) and nursery management (93 per cent) are the important operations performed by male non-tribal labourers. whereas land preparation (83 percent), nursery management (100 percent), intercultural operations (87 per cent), harvesting (93 per cent) and post harvest management (83 per cent) are the important operations done by the female non-tribal labourers. from table 3, it could be inferred that tribal labourers had higher work participation compared to non-tribal labourers, in the case of both male and female. the female labourers had more work participation compared to the male labourers. this result is in line with the findings of kumar & nag (2004). tedious work like transplantation, intercultural operations etc., were carried out by the women labourers. whereas the ‘masculine’ operations such as land preparation was handled by male labourers. interestingly, in rice farming, women labourers are the least paid compared to male labourers. conclusion from the study, it can be concluded that tribal labourers had high work participation compared to the nontribal labourers. tribal and non-tribal labourers showed high participation in practices such as, land preparation and nursery management. women labourers were subjected to do work with more drudgery like, transplanting, intercultural operations, harvesting etc., and women labourers showed higher work participation compared to male labourers. the extension professionals and policy makers should take note of the results of the study while formalating strategies to sustain rice production in the state. references goi. (2011). general population table, kerala part. directorate of census operation, census of india, government of india, 2011 goswami, m., sharma, p.j., mipun, b.s., & sarma, p.c. (2006). women in agriculture: a case study of mishing tribe. in: deb, b.j. and ray, b.d. (eds.), changing agricultural sceanario in north-east india. concept publishing company, new delhi, pp. 301-312. kumar, p.n. & nag, a. (2004). drudgery, accidents and injuries in indian agriculture. retrieved from h t t p s : / / w w w . r e s e a r c h g a t e . n e t / publication/8577770_drudgery_ accidents_and_injuries_in_indian_ agriculture. work participation in cultural operations of rice farming by tribal and non-tribal labourers in wayanad district : a comparative analysis 6774 journal of extension education vol. 34 no.1, 2022 doi: https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2022.1.34.6774-6783 e-connectivity infrastructure and usage of software applications by gram panchayats jugamaya gogoi and s.rajalakshmi abstract the study was conducted to assess the e-connectivity infrastructure available in the gram panchayat (village council) and analyze the software applications adopted by the gram panchayats. the study area was three blocks of coimbatore district, tamil nadu viz., karamadai, periyanaickenpalayam and thondamuthur. a total of 36 gram panchayat presidents formed the sample. the study revealed that all the gram panchayats from three blocks were well equipped with e-connectivity, because of this the respondents were able to adopt the software applications for reducing paper work in the gram panchayat. keywords: gram panchayat ; village council; e-connectivity; software application; tamil nadu introduction panchayati raj institutions (pris) play a significant role as grass-root units of democratic decentralization and self-governance in rural india. they are instrumental in bringing governance and decision-making closer to the local communities, fostering socio-economic transformation in the rural areas. in recent times, the integration of e-connectivity and software applications has further amplified the effectiveness and impact of pris. e-governance involves the utilization of information and communication technologies by the public sector to enhance the dissemination of information and improve service delivery. it also aims to encourage citizen participation in decisionmaking processes and promote transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in government operations. the e-panchayat project holds great promise for the rural masses as it aims to transform the panchayati raj institutions (pris) into symbols of modernity, transparency and efficiency. this is a one of its kind nationwide it initiative introduced by ministry of panchayati raj that endeavors to ensure people’s participation in programme decision making, implementation and delivery. the project aims to automate the functioning of 2.45 lakh panchayats in the country. the project addresses all aspects of panchayats’ functioning including planning, monitoring, implementation, budgeting, accounting, social audit and delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licenses etc. (mahi pal, 2015) the government has launched various software and application to reduce the burden reduce energy as well as the time of presidents research article department of home science extension education, avinashilingam institute for home science and higher education for women, coimbatore 641038. tamil nadu. india received : 04.01.22 ; accepted : 02.06.23 e-connectivity infrastructure and usage of software applications by gram panchayats 6775 department of panchayat has implemented priasoft for financial and inventory management of the department upto the gram panchayat level. the initial level product framework has been prepared under the sponsorship of ministry of panchayati raj, government of india. the state auditor general (state ag) would define the mapping of state scheme and creation of object heads. it follows the cash-basis of accounting and single-entry system of book keeping. this software will be used for complete inventory / stock register management of the gram panchayats.gram manchitra for promote digitalisation and e-governance at the grass root level. actionsoft is one of the modules of panchayat enterprise suite(pes) being prepared as a part of epanchayat mission mode project. it aims at monitoring and keeping record of the progress of the works being undertaken as part of the finally approved plans (action plan) of various ulb, rlb and line departments as available in planplus . it facilitates proper recording of the financial and physical progress of the works. it will act as a tool to support the monitoring of the status and the expenditure incurred in works undertaken under various central and state schemes by various governments. tamil nadu has bagged the e-panchayat puraskar award for 2014 for developing a set of application for better administration of panchayat raj institution.the state has won the award,which carries a cash prize of rs 20 lakh,for developing application like pria soft,local government directory,national panchayat raj portal,national asset directory and plan plus. it had spent about rs 80 crore on hardware at panchayats towards implementation of the application. (tn bags e-panchayat award, 2015). despite the remarkable progress, challenges remain in achieving comprehensive e-connectivity in tamil nadu. some rural and remote areas still lack reliable internet access and face connectivity gaps. the government, in collaboration with private players, continues to focus on expanding digital infrastructure and addressing the digital divide to ensure equitable access to e-connectivity across the state. overall, the state’s efforts in promoting e-connectivity have contributed to creating an information society, wherein people can access and share information and knowledge, driving sustainable growth and an improved quality of life for individuals, communities, and society as a whole. rural connection is critical for rural development and poverty reduction in india. recent advancements in digital technology in the telecommunications sector have significantly improved people’s lives by enabling them to connect to any part of the globe much quicker and also by centralizing common services. telecommunications are at the heart of the information economy and provide the infrastructure for it. we are on the verge of establishing an information society in which everyone may produce, access, use, and share information and knowledge, allowing individuals, communities, and people to maximize their potential for sustainable growth and improved quality of life. (p.satishchandra et al,2013) however, there are limited research studies on gram panchayats’ performance. hence this study was conducted with the following objectives; y assess the e-connectivity available in the gram panchayat y analyze the software application system adopted by the gram panchayat journal of extension education 6776 methodology the study was conducted in coimbatore district, tamil nadu, india which was selected due to its favorable characteristics such as easy accessibility and well-developed transport facilities. coimbatore district comprises a total of 12 blocks, with kinathukadavu having the highest number of gram panchayats (34) and madukkarai and perinayakkanpalayam having the lowest number (9) of gram panchayats. the three selected blocks, namely karamadai, periyanayakkanpalayam, and thondamuthur, were chosen specifically because they host both a model gram panchayat and an award-winning gram panchayat. this study adopts a descriptive research design. the sampling method adopted for the study was multi-cluster sampling method as it involves selecting large sample unit such as states, districts, block, gram panchayats and village. from the total of 229 gram panchayats in coimbatore district, 36 gram panchayats were selected specifically for the study and total 36 ex-gram panchayats presidents were selected for the study based on their experience and insights into the functioning of gram panchayats during their tenure. to conduct the study, the researchers first established a friendly rapport with the ex-gram panchayat presidents. subsequently, they obtained authorization from three administrative blocks. following this, a questionnaire was designed to collect data from the ex-presidents. primary data were collected through the survey. the information gathered through the questionnaire was meticulously examined and analyzed using percentages and t-tests. percentage analysis was employed to assess the e-connectivity facilities and network availability in the gram panchayat, as well as to identify the challenges encountered while adopting software applications. on the other hand, the t-test was utilized to investigate the correlation between the software applications adopted by the gram panchayats and their e-connectivity. findings and discussion information about e-connectivity of the gram panchayat office panchayat e-connectivity is a significant initiative aimed at assessing and comprehending the availability of tele-connectivity/internet services in panchayat offices. it has been introduced to monitor and evaluate the overall state of panchayat connectivity. the panchayat office’s facilities, the gram panchayats network infrastructure and the software utilized by them are all characterized in terms of their e-connectivity. table 1 provides detailed information regarding the e-connectivity available in the panchayat office. table 1. details on e-connectivity available in gram panchayats (n=36*) sl no. e-connectivity karamadai(17) pn palayam(9) thondamuthur(10) yes no yes no yes no no % no % no % no % no % no % 1 place used for e-connectivity conference hall 17 100 9 100 10 100 e-connectivity infrastructure and usage of software applications by gram panchayats 6777 2 equipment for e-connectivity electricity 17 100 9 100 10 100 telephone 12 71 3 33 6 66 5 50 5 50 xerox 16 94 5 55 4 44 7 70 3 30 computer 17 100 8 88 1 11 6 60 4 40 3 number of computers available one 7 41 7 77 4 40 two 6 35 1 12 2 20 more than two 4 24 1 12 laptop 12 71 5 29 4 number of laptops available one 9 53 2 22 4 40 two 3 18 3 30 * multiple responses table 1 provides insight into the availability of e-connectivity in the gram panchayat offices. notably, all gram panchayat presidents from karamadai, p.n palayam, and thondamuthur blocks reported having a conference hall in their respective offices. seventy-one percent of the presidents from karamadai block, fifty percent of the presidents from thondamuthur block and thirty-three percent of the presidents from pn palayam block stated that telephone was available in gram panchayats office, it was observed that only a minority of gram panchayats had this facility. this could be attributed to the prevalence of mobile phones, which have become the preferred mode of communication in recent times. ninetyfour per cent of the gram panchayat presidents from karamadai block, fifty-five percent of the presidents from p.n palayam block and seventy percent from thondamuthur block presidents said that xerox machine was available in the gram panchayat office. 100 per cent of presidents from karamadai block, eighty-eight percent of the presidents from p.n palayam block and sixty percent of the presidents from thondamuthur block stated that computer was available in the gram panchayat office. seventy-seven percent of the presidents from pn palayam block,fortyone percent of the presidents from karamadai block and forty percent of the president from thondamuthur block stated that one computer was available in the gram panchayats. seventyone percent of the presidents from karamadai block, seventy percent of the presidents from thondamuthur block and 22 percent of the presidents from p.n palayam block stated that laptop is available with the gram panchayat. on the other hand, the availability of a photocopier (xerox) machine and computer in the gram panchayat offices was relatively high across all three blocks. however, there were variations journal of extension education 6778 in the percentages, with karamadai having the highest availability of computers, and p.n palayam having the highest availability of photocopier machines. fifty-three percent of the presidents from karamadai block, twenty-two percent of the presidents from p.n palayam and forty percent of the presidents from thondamuthur block stated that one laptop was available in the gram panchayat. eighteen percent of the presidents from karamadai block and thirty percent of the presidents from thondamuthur block stated that two laptop was available in the gram panchayat. furthermore, the presence of laptops in the gram panchayat offices was also notable, with a significant proportion of p.n palayam and thondamuthur block presidents reporting its availability. e-connectivity aims at equipping rural india with all the updates. rural connectivity assumes a significant position as far as rural development and poverty alleviation are concerned in india. the above table demonstrates that all gram panchayats offices are well equipped with e-connectivity. this may be one of the elements influencing the successful performance of the gram panchayats. network facility available in gram panchayats the availability of network facilities in gram panchayats is a crucial aspect of rural development and connectivity. having reliable network infrastructure enables seamless communication, access to digital services, and overall socio-economic growth in rural areas. table 2 presents the availability of network facilities in gram panchayats. it illustrates the extent to which communication infrastructure, such as mobile and internet connectivity, is accessible to the rural communities. table 2. network facility available in gram panchayats (n=36*) sl no. network availability karamadai(17) pn palayam(9) thondamuthur(10) yes no yes no yes no no % no % no % no % no % no % 1 wi-fi 4 23 1 11 2 20 2 basic internet 12 71 8 80 7 70 3 broadband 16 96 7 77 9 90 * multiple responses table 2 depicts the network facility available in the gram panchayats. seventy-one percent of the presidents from karamadai block, eighty percent of the presidents from pn palayam block and seventy percent of the presidents from thondamuthur block said that internet connection was available in the gram panchayats office. this availability of network facilities is crucial for improving governance, service delivery, and overall development in rural india. e-connectivity infrastructure and usage of software applications by gram panchayats 6779 twenty three per cent of the presidents from karamadai block, eleven percent of the presidents from pn palayam block and twenty percent of the presidents from thondamuthur block said that wifi was available in the gram panchayats offices. the availability of wifi in gram panchayat offices is an essential aspect of enhancing e-connectivity and enabling efficient communication and data access. wifi allows for wireless internet connectivity, which facilitates real-time information exchange and access to online resources. with wi-fi in place, gram panchayat offices can easily connect with government portals, access important data, and communicate with stakeholders effectively. having wifi available in the gram panchayat offices is especially crucial in rural areas where traditional wired internet infrastructure might be limited. it opens up opportunities for increased access to information, improved service delivery, and enhanced citizen engagement in decisionmaking processes. ninety-six per cent presidents from karamadai block and ninety per cent presidents from thondamuthur block stated that broadband was available in gram panchayats. furthermore, the availability of broadband connectivity in gram panchayats enhances communication and data exchange between government authorities and citizens. it facilitates e-governance initiatives, streamlines administrative processes, and improves transparency and accountability. this might be the reason that government of india has launched an ambitious programme of bharat net for rural india to adjust in modern era. initiatives like bharatnet and other digital infrastructure development efforts play a vital role in bringing rural areas into the modern era, empowering communities, and fostering inclusive development in the country . while progress has been made in increasing network facility availability in gram panchayats, challenges remain. ensuring consistent and reliable internet connectivity, addressing the digital literacy gap, and making services more affordable for rural communities are critical areas that require attention. software applications used by gram panchayats government has launched various software and application to reduce burden of gram panchayat functionaries. software and application reduce energy as well as the time of presidents. pria soft gathers revenue and expenditure details via voucher entries and generates cash books, registers, and other documents automatically. panchayats, urban local bodies, and line departments use plan plus to create strategic, annual and action plans. samm (social audit and meeting management) records information from statutory meetings held at the zp/bp/gp levels and creates social audit reports. the topographical, demographic, infrastructural, socioeconomic and natural resource profiles of a village/panchayat are captured in the area profile. the action soft application makes it easier to track the physical and financial outcomes/outputs of numerous programmes. local government directory records all information on local governments and assigns a unique code to each one. gram manchitra is a geospatial planning tool for gram panchayat users to better visualize the numerous developmental tasks to be undertaken across multiple sectors and to give a decision support system for the gram panchayat development plan. journal of extension education 6780 table 3. relationship of e-connectivity of the gram panchayats with use of software applications sl no. software unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. 1 plan plus 1.711 .125 .907 .367 2 panchayati raj institutions account (pria soft) -2.084 -.213 -2.458 .024** 3 local government directory -1.109 -.145 -1.326 .184 application 1 action soft 2.597 .278 3.998 .000* 2 social audit and meeting management (samm) 1.391 .146 1.684 .095 3 area profiler 3.017 .389 3.578 .001* 4 gram manchitra (gisapplication) 3.219 .412 5.189 .000* **. – significant at 0.01 level. ns –non-significant table 3 expresses the relationship between software application adopted by the gram panchayats with e-connectivity. gram manchitra (gis application), action soft, area profiler was found to be 0.01 percent level of statistically significant. pria soft was found to be statistically significant at the 0.05 percent level of significance. this might be the reason that gram panchayats were provided with all of the necessary e-connectivity capabilities, making it simpler for presidents to adopt the software and application necessary to carry out their responsibilities. panchayat e-connectivity is an ambitious effort taken to see and comprehend the availability of panchayat connectivity via tele-connectivity/ internet. panchayats e-connectivity has been implemented to monitor and understand the state of panchayat connectivity. the panchayat office’s facilities, the gram panchayats network infrastructure and the software used by the gram panchayat were all characterized by e-connectivity. software application reduce costs and energy to improve overall resource utilization. the combination of e-connectivity and software applications empowers gram panchayat presidents to make informed decisions, enhance transparency, and provide better services to citizens. by embracing digital solutions, gram panchayats are better equipped to meet the evolving needs of their communities and contribute to the overall development of rural areas. challenges faced by the presidents while utilizing software applications to reduce the workload of the gram panchayat president government has launched various software and application. when presidents and government officials adopt new software and applications, several challenges are being faced related to network issues, computer literacy, and software training. e-connectivity infrastructure and usage of software applications by gram panchayats 6781 table 4. challenges faced by the presidents while utilizing software applications (n=36) sl. no. challenges karamadai (17) p.n palayam(9) thondamuthur (10) f % f % f % 1 network issue 6 35 3 33 4 40 2 lack of computer-based knowledge and infrastructure 3 18 2 22 3 30 3 lack of knowledge of software and application 5 29 2 22 2 20 4 no training was conducted related to software and application 2 12 3 33 1 10 5 slow connection while using software and application 1 6 table 4 reveals the challenges faced by the presidents while adopting software and applications in different blocks of gram panchayats. according to the data, thirty-five percent of the presidents from the karamadai block, thirty-three percent from the p.n palayam block, and forty percent from the thondamuthur block reported facing challenges related to network issues. this observation is attributed to the fact that some of the gram panchayats are located in remote areas, which have limited or unreliable network infrastructure. in today’s world, access to a reliable network system has become a fundamental necessity for individuals, including those residing in rural areas. providing internet access to rural communities is considered a crucial milestone towards the broader objective of digital inclusion as envisioned by the government of india. furthermore, the data also indicated that 18 per cent of presidents from the karamadai block, twenty two percent from p.n palayam block and thirty percent from thondamuthur block faced challenges due to a lack of computerbased knowledge and infrastructure. this variation suggests that computer literacy and infrastructure readiness might be relatively lower in the thondamuthur block compared to the other blocks. whereas, twenty nine percent from karamadai block, twenty two percent from pn palayam block and twenty percent from thondamuthur block faced lack of knowledge regarding software and applications. this indicates that there might be a higher level of familiarity with software and applications in the thondamuthur block compared to the other blocks. this finding suggests that a significant portion of the presidents may be older individuals who might not be familiar with operating computers and software. consequently, they may rely on assistance from others to navigate these technologies effectively. interestingly, thirty three percent of the president from p.n palayam block, twelve percent from karamadai block and ten percent from the thondamuthur block stated that no training was conducted related to software and applications. this difference suggests that presidents in the journal of extension education 6782 p.n palayam block might have had less exposure to software and application training compared to the other blocks. this implies that a majority of the presidents in this block might have received some form of training, which could potentially contribute to their better understanding and adoption of software and applications. only six percent of the presidents from the karamadai block reported facing issues with slow internet connection while using software and applications, the slow connection may have hindered their ability to access online resources, update records, communicate with stakeholders, and utilize software functionalities seamlessly. this finding suggests that the karamadai block might have relatively better internet connectivity compared to the other blocks, where this challenge was less prevalent. thus, the finding suggests that a relatively small proportion of the presidents in this block encountered challenges related to the speed and reliability of their internet connection when utilizing various software and applications. thus, addressing these challenges would empower the presidents and enhance their capabilities in utilizing technology effectively for improved governance and better public service delivery. conclusion the gram panchayat plays a crucial role in rural development and the performance of gram panchayat presidents is vital for its success. the adoption of e-connectivity, including internet access and digital technologies, has become instrumental in empowering gram panchayat presidents to implement software applications effectively. e-connectivity enables them to access information, communicate, and utilize software tools efficiently, thereby improving governance and service delivery at the grassroots level. by adopting software and applications, the gram panchayat can provide easy access to information about its functioning and the panchayat raj system to the people. this accessibility enhances transparency and accountability in the system, allowing citizens to stay informed about the decisions and initiatives taken by the panchayat. in all three blocks, a majority of the gram panchayats have embraced software applications for various administrative and accounting purposes. this shift towards digital solutions not only streamlines processes but also strengthens transparency and accountability within the gram panchayat. by reducing paperwork and manual procedures, software applications improve efficiency and accuracy in record-keeping and decision-making. the study reveals that all thirtysix gram panchayats exhibited satisfactory e-connectivity, with the majority being in the karamadai block, which had the highest level of satisfaction. all the gram panchayat adopted government launched software and application to reduce their workload. while adopting the software and application they faced various challenges such as network issue, lack of computer knowledge, lack of training etc. this study will provide data on e-connectivity and software application adopted by 36 gram panchayats in coimbatore district without the need for conducting a survey. as there are no existing research studies on this subject, this study will be valuable for policymakers as a reference for future decisions. additionally, it will serve as a guide for researchers in the future, offering insights into the status and trends of e-connectivity and software application implementation in gram panchayats. e-connectivity infrastructure and usage of software applications by gram panchayats 6783 references chandra, p. s., murthy, s. d. s. r., & barpujari, s. d. (2013). e-connectivity of panchayats.  national institute of rural development (ministry of rural development, government of india)  hyderabad, 97, 978– 981-85542-91-1 coursey, d. (2007). strategically managing information technology. in j. rabin, w. b. hildreth & g. j. miller (eds.), handbook of public administration (3rd ed) (pp. 781–782). taylor & francis. e-panchayat mission mode project. (2012) – a status report-ministry of panchayati raj. http://e-panchayat.gov.in. government of india (pp. 24–29). mahi pal. (2015). panchayat raj in india: deepening grassroot democracy, kurukshetra novembermeenakshi. (2019). ict in panchayati raj institutions.  international journal of innovative technology and exploring engineering (ijitee), 8/912, 2278–3075. radhakrishnan, t. (2006). e-governance. retrieved from www.ezinearticles.com/ egovernance subramanya, a. (2020). ict in grama panchayat: a boon to rural development. sandesh. iosr journal of economics and finance (iosrjef), 11(3), 28–32. tn bags e-panchayat award (2015). retrieved from https://thehindu.com/news/cities/ c h e n n a i / t n b a g s e p a n c h a y a t a w a r d / article7139851.ece 6595 influence of agricultural financing awareness on financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs purnima newar* and anjan bhuyan* abstract agribusiness is characterized by uncertain returns and thus it confronts the agricultural entrepreneurs with various situations that impede their capital requirement. this paper attempts to understand the financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs and to make a relational analysis of their awareness of agricultural financing with their financial problems. the study was conducted in assam, situated in the northeastern part of india. multi-stage sampling was used to reach 96 agricultural entrepreneurs. it was found that the inadequate savings and cumbersome process in applying for a loan were the major causes of financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs and 64% of agricultural entrepreneurs have medium level of awareness on agricultural financing. analysing the influence of agricultural financing awareness of agricultural entrepreneurs on their financial problems it is concluded that with the increase in the agricultural financing awareness level of agricultural entrepreneurs their financial problems can be reduced to a great extent. keywords: agricultural entrepreneurs; agricultural financing awareness; financial problems; assam; india. *department of business administration, tezpur university, assam, india received : 23-06-2021; accepted : 18-08-2021 introduction the agricultural sector shares a dominant position in the upliftment of the rural economy of assam which is situated in the northeastern part of india. 99% of the total landmass of assam comes under rural area and nearly 50% of the overall land area is employed for farming (sharma, 2012). therefore, agriculture plays an imperative role in the socio-economic growth of the state by creating livelihood for a major portion of the population (yadav, 2013). these days, practising agriculture is not only limited to a means of survival but become a source of livelihood and taking the direction of entrepreneurial activity. such potency leads to the creation of agricultural entrepreneurs which is defined by chander (2016) as creative farmers who are innovating and applying suitable technologies and practices developed by them or integrating into their farms the technologies developed elsewhere. research article journal of extension education vol. 32 no. 4, 2020 doi:https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2020.4.32.6595-6603 6596 but the major aspect is that such activities demand a significant amount of capital that needs to be invested. besides their saving, they often have to rely on the outside source for acquiring funds. nath et al. (2016) found that lack of capital and unavailability of timely credit facilities act as major constraints for future improvement of agricultural activities. shanmugavadivel (2015) stated that credit facility enables the farmer to attain the required capital for increasing agricultural production and it can boost other factors of production by making the latent or underused capacities, functional. thus, agricultural financing performs a crucial role in the advancement of the agricultural sector (ajayi et al. 2017). daily agricultural life depends on the sustainability of the financial power, which is influenced by the information chain of the financial providers (ulusoy, 2019). several policy measures have been introduced by the government to boost up the accessibility of farmers towards the institutional sources of credit (subramaniam and shivananjappa, 2017). the umbrella coverage of agricultural financing services from banks allows the agricultural entrepreneurs to carry out their farming process in a smooth way. there are various schemes in india through which the agricultural loan is provided at a subsidized rate. besides that, with the introduction of the kisan credit card (kcc), agricultural loans are provided for consumption purposes, postharvesting expenses, marketing expenses, the loan with crop insurance and the agricultural entrepreneurs also get the option for social security schemes and loans on warehouse receipt. it also gives the provision for the loan without collateral security. availing such facilities require awareness among the agricultural entrepreneurs. however, inadequate awareness of formal agricultural financial services would drive the agricultural entrepreneurs to the doorstep of the unorganized sector (shanmugavadivel, 2015). widhiyanto et al. (2018) were concerned that better awareness creates more access to financial institution’s products and services. however, reviewing the prior research papers, we found a gap in correlating the awareness on agricultural financing with financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs. therefore, this study has attempted to fulfil the following objectives with the motive that understanding financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs give insight into the major reasons that impede their capital requirement and answer whether the awareness of agricultural financing affects the financial problems of the agricultural entrepreneurs: • to identify the financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs. • to determine the level of agricultural financing awareness of agricultural entrepreneurs. • to determine the effect of awareness on agricultural financing on the financial problem of agricultural entrepreneurs. methodology the research design of the paper is descriptive followed by a cross-sectional study. the study was conducted in assam from january 2021 to april 2021. in this study, only those agricultural entrepreneurs were journal of extension education 6597 taken into consideration who produced for commercial purpose, come within the purview of the agriculture and horticulture sector and engaged in the business for at least 2 years. since there was no record or list of the total population of agricultural entrepreneurs in the study area, the population was considered as infinite in this paper and from each district, the samples of agricultural entrepreneurs were selected with the help of agricultural extension officials assigned by the respective district agriculture office. accordingly, 96 samples were selected considering the minimum number of samples that needed to be present as per the number of variables in the study, use of survey scale and to run the statistical test such as t-test, anova (delice, 2010; louanglath, 2017; cohen et al., 2005). multi-stage sampling was used. assam has 6 agro-climatic zones that are divided into brahmaputra and barak valley. brahmaputra valley was selected for its wide geographical location and more agricultural production. the valley has four agro-climatic zones and from each zone, one district was selected based on the highest human development index report of 2014. in this way, nagaon, lakhimpur, jorhat and kamrup (metro) districts were selected. information from the respondents was collected with the help of a schedule. the questions in the schedule mainly comprised socio-economic factors, financial problems and their (respondents) awareness of agricultural financing. after conducting the pilot survey, only those items in the final schedule were included which were considered relevant by the 20 branch managers of different banks and 20 agricultural officers and extension assistants of the agriculture and horticulture department of the selected districts of assam. the data were analyzed with the help of spss and ms-excel. however different techniques were used based on the nature of the objective and its phenomenon. based on prior research papers and pilot survey, seven items were considered to measure the causes of financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs. the items include inadequate savings, less source of borrowing, high risk in borrowing, lack of awareness on applying for bank loan, cumbersome process in applying for bank loan, high rate of interest and lack of collateral security. to quantify the items of financial problems, a 7point interval rating scale was used where 1 denoted least agree and 7 referred to strongly agree to the causes of the financial problems. subsequently, the mean score was calculated based on ratings provided by the respondents on different financial problems. the individual mean score of the items was calculated to compare the items causing the financial problem and the overall mean score of the financial problem was ascertained to correlate it with the awareness of agricultural entrepreneurs on agricultural financing. the items that measured the awareness level of the agricultural entrepreneurs on agricultural financing were grouped into five factors that were; awareness of basic banking services, periodicity of loan, collateral security on loan, various agricultural financing schemes and facilities on kcc (kisan credit card). each influence of agricultural financing awareness on financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs 6598 factor was represented with several items and the questions were asked in the dichotomous form and scores were measured accordingly by segregating the responses into ‘1’ for ‘aware’ and ‘0’ for ‘not aware’. the overall scores on the items were then categorised into three different levels i.e. high, medium and low. if the score of the respondents fell below the (mean-standard deviation) the awareness level was taken low. the awareness level was considered medium when the score reclined between (mean ± standard deviation. if the score was above (mean + standard deviation) the awareness was considered high (shanmugavadivel, 2015). relationship between agricultural financing awareness and financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs was analyzed using one-way anova. the independent variable was the level of awareness on agricultural financing and financial problem of the smallscale commercial farmers was the dependent variable. using this variable, the null hypothesis was constructed as: there is no significant difference in the mean score of financial problems across the levels of awareness on agricultural financing. findings and discussion financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs the reasons leading to the financial problem of the agricultural entrepreneurs are depicted in figure 1. the x-axis represents the variables of financial problems and the mean score of the variables leading to the financial problem is presented in the y-axis. a high mean score indicates more financial problems for agricultural entrepreneurs. here, it can be seen that inadequate savings affected mostly to financial/capital requirement of agricultural entrepreneurs which was quite found in prior research papers on the financial-related problems faced by the entrepreneurs (swathy & benazir, 2014; jayadatta, 2017). however, it can be interpreted from figure. 1 that the cumbersome process in applying for a bank loan affected the financial requirement with an average rating of 5.7 out of 7. this result also supports the findings of the study conducted by gichuki et al., in 2014 where 75.7% of entrepreneurs rarely apply for loans from banking institutions due to strict terms. there was an almost equal rating on the high risk in borrowing, lack of awareness on applying for a bank loan and high rate of interest. awareness level of agricultural entrepreneurs on agricultural financing the awareness level of agricultural entrepreneurs was segregated based on the journal of extension education 6 5.7 4.6 4.6 4.5 3.3 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 inadequate saving cubersome process in applying for bank loan high risk in borrowing lack of awareness on applying for bank loan high rate of interest less source of borrowing lack of collateral security m ea n sc or e variables of financial problem figure 1: causes of financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs 6599 overall score of all the factors of agricultural financing awareness. however, to understand in which factors the agricultural entrepreneurs have more or less awareness, a comparative data based on the mean score of the factors of agricultural financing awareness is presented in figure. 2. the mean score on each factor of agricultural financing awareness was calculated by dividing the total score of the items of each factor by the number of items in each factor. comparing the mean scores on awareness of each factor of agricultural financing, it was found that awareness of basic banking services scored the highest (72.75). the items on basic banking services included their awareness on types of deposits, method of charging interest, awareness on atm card and internet banking service. on the other hand, the mean score on awareness on the security of loan was quite low (39.67). the security of the loan was represented with awareness on loan with mortgage, the loan without collateral security and the maximum amount of loan without collateral security. on analysing the reason behind such mean score on the security of the loan, it was found that out of 96 respondents, only 22 respondents recorded were aware of the loan without collateral security and only one respondent was aware of the maximum amount of loan without collateral security. among the factors, the mean score on kcc (kisan credit card) facilities was recorded as the lowest (19.75). the awareness of kcc facilities was measured using 8 items and detailed analysis of the items revealed that besides the awareness of the availability of crop loans with the help of kcc; out of 96 respondents, only 29 of them were aware of the availability of loans for agricultural equipment and 33 respondents were aware of the availability of loan for allied activities using kcc. surprisingly, it was found that none of the respondents was aware of the validity of kisan credit card (kcc), the availability of loans for consumption requirement, marketing of farm produce, post-harvesting expenses and loan on warehouse receipt using kisan credit card (kcc). similar findings were also highlighted by mangalam, 2019. the awareness level of the agricultural entrepreneurs on agricultural financing was determined. and it was found that majority had medium awareness level. effect of agricultural financing awareness on financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs in the process of examining the effect of the level of agricultural financing awareness on the financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs, a one-way anova was conducted. anova is based on the assumption of the normal distribution thus the test of normality was conducted using the 72.75 54.17 39.67 30 19.75 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 basic banking awareness awareness of agricultural financing schemes security on bank loan awareness on periodicity of bank loan awareness of kcc facilities m ea n sc or e factors of agricultural financing awareness figure. 2: dimensions of agricultural financing awareness influence of agricultural financing awareness on financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs 6600 shapiro wilk test. as mentioned by ghasemi and zahediasl (2012) on the excellence of the shapiro wilk test over kolmogorov-smirnov test and a better choice for testing the normality of data. “if the p-value of shapiro wilk test is greater than the alpha value (0.05), the data is normal” (lund research ltd., 2018, p. 1). after conducting the shapiro wilk test, the result showed the p-value 0.113 (greater than 0.05), consequently, the data were assumed to be normally distributed. the data also met the criteria for homogeneity of variance which was tested with the help of levene’s test. the result of levene’s test showed the p-value of 0.164 which was more than 0.05 and indicated the equality of variance among the groups. table 1 displays the summary of anova where it showed that p-value (sig.) is 0.000 (<0.05), therefore the null hypothesis ‘there is no significant difference in the mean score of financial problems across the levels of awareness on agricultural financing’ was rejected. this inferred that there was a statistically significant difference in the mean score on financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs having high, medium and low level of awareness on agricultural financing. table 2 highlights the difference in the average score on the financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs across the three levels of awareness on agricultural financing. the data from table 2 revealed that the mean score on the financial problem at the low level of awareness was 37.54, at medium level of awareness the mean score reduced to 32.03 and for the respondents with high level of awareness on agricultural financing, the respective mean score on finance problem was further reduced to 26.55. this indicated that the financial problem of agricultural entrepreneurs decreased with the increase in the level of awareness on agricultural financing. similar observation was also made by thakur and barman (2013). journal of extension education table 1. summary of anova n=9 particulars sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 1031.339 2 515.669 8.757 .000 within groups 5476.620 93 58.888 table 2. descriptive table of anova n=9 level of awareness on agricultural financing number of respondents mean score on financial problem low 13 37.54 medium 61 32.03 high 22 26.55 total 96 31.52 6601 therefore, it can be concluded that the financial problem of agricultural entrepreneurs is dependent on their level of awareness of agricultural financing and both the variables share a substantial negative relationship with each other. conclusion empirical analysis from this study has revealed that agricultural entrepreneurs has face several problems that impede the capital requirement in their agri-venture activities. an inadequate saving, cumbersome process on applying for a loan and high risk in borrowing were some of the important causes that add to their financial problems. it was found from the survey that most of the agricultural entrepreneurs had a medium level of awareness on agricultural financing but the level of awareness was mostly affected on account of their awareness of the availability of loans without collateral security, the maximum amount of loan without collateral security, periodicity of loan and the additional facilities that are available with kisan credit card. analysing the financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs showed a negative relationship with their awareness of agricultural financing. thus, the study concludes that more efforts should be made to increase the awareness of agricultural entrepreneurs on agricultural financing to combat their problems relating to capital requirements. though various steps are taken by the government to increase awareness on agricultural financing which also comes in the form of the financial literacy programme, no such effective impact has been seen at the grassroots level. therefore, it is suggested that along with the involvement of bank officials there should be active engagement of agricultural extension officials to increase awareness of agricultural financing at the grassroots level. references ajayi, m.a, nageri, k.i, & akolo, c.s. (2017). impact of agricultural financing policy and deposit money bank loan on agricultural sector productivity in nigeria. amity journal of agribusiness, 2(1), 1-11. chander, m. (2016). agripreneurs: the emerging role models. global forum on agricultural research and innovation (gfar). retrieved from https://blog. g f a r. n e t / 2 0 1 6 / 0 5 / 0 3 /a g r i p re n e u r s theemerging-role-models/ cohen, l, mansion, l, & morrison, k. (2005). research methods in education. taylor and francis e-library. retrieved from h t t p s : //g e 3 1 4 3 m y d . f i l e s . w o r d p r e s s . c o m / 2 0 1 1 / 0 2 /r e s e a r c h m e t h o d i n education-5th-cohen.pdf delice, a. (2010). the sampling issues in quantitative research. educational sciences: theory and practices, 10 (4), 2001-2018. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/ fulltext/ej919871.pdf ghasemi, a, & zahediasl, s. (2012). normality test for statistical analysis: guide for non-statisticians. international journal of endocrinology and metabolism, 10 (2), 486489. doi: 10.5812/ijem.3505 gichuki, j, njeru, a, & tirimba, o. (2014). challenges facing micro and small influence of agricultural financing awareness on financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs https://blog.gfar.net/2016/05/03/agripreneurs-theemerging-role-models/ https://blog.gfar.net/2016/05/03/agripreneurs-theemerging-role-models/ https://blog.gfar.net/2016/05/03/agripreneurs-theemerging-role-models/ https://ge3143myd.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/research-method-in-education-5th-cohen.pdf https://ge3143myd.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/research-method-in-education-5th-cohen.pdf https://ge3143myd.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/research-method-in-education-5th-cohen.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej919871.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej919871.pdf 6602 enterprises in accessing credit facilities in kangemi harambee market in nairobi city county, kenya. international journal of scientific and research publications, 4 (12), 1-25. retrieved from http://www.ijsrp.org/ research-paper-1214/ijsrp-p3614.pdf jayadatta, y. (2017). major challenges and problems of rural entrepreneurship in india. iosr journal of business and management, 19 (9), 35-44. retrieved from http://www. iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/vol19issue9/version-2/d1909023544.pdf louanglath, p.i. (2017). minimum sample size method based on survey scales. international journal of research and methodology in social science, 3 (3), 45. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1322593 lund research ltd. (2018). testing for normality using spss statistics. retrieved from https:// statistics.laerd.com/spss-tutorials/testingfor-normality-using-spss-statistics.php mangalam, r. (2019). farmers’ attitude towards kisan credit card scheme in tamil nadu – a study with reference to madurai district. unpublished phd dissertation, madurai kamaraj university, tamil nadu, india. retrieved from https://tcarts.in/research/ research/phd_synopsis_mang.pdf nath, d., jain, p.k., talukdar, r.k., & hansra, b.s. (2016). constraints encountered by the beneficiaries of krishi vigyan kendra in north eastern region of india. journal of extension education, 28 (2), 5665 -5668. https://doi.org/10.26725/ jee.2016.2.28.5665-5668 shanmugavadivel, d. (2015). a study on awareness of farmers in agricultural finance in public sector banks with special reference to coimbatore district. international journal of science and research, 6 (6), 2636-2638. sharma, d. (2012). problems and prospects of the agricultural sector in assama case study of sonitpur district. retrieved from h t t p : // w w w. n a g a l a n d u n i v. n d l . i i t k g p . ac.in/bitstream/handle/1/30/t00020. pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y subramaniam, r & shivananjappa, s. (2017). investigation on the problems faced by the farmers in obtaining and repayment of agricultural credit in karaikal district, india. international journal of current microbiology and applied sciences, 6 (6), 3966-3971. https://doi.org/10.20546/ ijcmas.2017.611.463 swathy, s & benazir, y. (2014). a study on the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. intercontinental journal of marketing research review, 2(4), 18-28. thakur, a & barman, u. (2013). reasons for poor performance of disbursement of kishan credit card and recovery of loan under the scheme in assam a qualitative study. journal of academia and industrial research, 2 (1), 16-20. ulusoy, t & celik, m.y. (2019). financial literacy in the agricultural products industry: the case of kastamonu. alinteri journal of agricultural sciences, 34 (1), 57-66. widhiyanto, i, nuryartono, n, harianto., & siregar, h. (2018). the analysis of journal of extension education http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-1214/ijsrp-p3614.pdf http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-1214/ijsrp-p3614.pdf http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/vol19-issue9/version-2/d1909023544.pdf http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/vol19-issue9/version-2/d1909023544.pdf http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/vol19-issue9/version-2/d1909023544.pdf https://statistics.laerd.com/spss-tutorials/testing-for-normality-using-spss-statistics.php https://statistics.laerd.com/spss-tutorials/testing-for-normality-using-spss-statistics.php https://statistics.laerd.com/spss-tutorials/testing-for-normality-using-spss-statistics.php https://tcarts.in/research/research/phd_synopsis_mang.pdf https://tcarts.in/research/research/phd_synopsis_mang.pdf https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.2.28.5665-5668 https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2016.2.28.5665-5668 http://www.nagalanduniv.ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/bitstream/handle/1/30/t00020.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://www.nagalanduniv.ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/bitstream/handle/1/30/t00020.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://www.nagalanduniv.ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/bitstream/handle/1/30/t00020.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.611.463 https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.611.463 6603 farmers’ financial literacy and its’ impact on microcredit accessibility with interest subsidy on the agricultural sector. international journal of economics and financial issues, 8 (3), 148-159. yadav, h. (2013). agricultural marketing system in assam. national institute of agricultural marketing. retrieved from https://www. c c s n i a m . g ov. i n / i m a g e s /p d f s /a s s a m _ research_report.pdf influence of agricultural financing awareness on financial problems of agricultural entrepreneurs https://www.ccsniam.gov.in/images/pdfs/assam_research_report.pdf https://www.ccsniam.gov.in/images/pdfs/assam_research_report.pdf https://www.ccsniam.gov.in/images/pdfs/assam_research_report.pdf 5579 entrepreneurship motivation of fisheries graduates : an exploratory study m. kumaran1 and pr. anand2 abstract farm graduates need to be entrepreneurial to excel in their chosen career. the present study conducted among the outgoing fisheries graduates showed that their entrepreneurship motivation levels (70-80%) are moderate with poor risk taking (72%), inadequate locus of control (74%) and low self-efficacy (79%) propensities. it is learnt that entrepreneurship and personality development content in fisheries curriculum is inadequate. therefore, it is suggested that the course curriculum should incorporate entrepreneurship and personality development as a course with adequate practical exposure to enhance their capacity and attitudinal predisposition. keywords : fisheries, entrepreneurship motivation, personality development. 1 principal scientist and 2 research scholar, icar-central institute of brackishwater aquaculture, chennai-600 028. received : 05-08-2016; accepted : 19-08-2016 introduction fisheries and aquaculture constitute about 1 % of the national gdp and 5.08 per cent of agriculture gdp. the total fish production during 2014-15 was 10.16 mt and export revenue of r.30000 crores was realized from fisheries (economic survey, goi, 2015-16). aquaculture of fishes contributed 60% of the production and the remaining 40% was from the capture fisheries. since the production from capture fisheries from the natural waters has been plateaued over the recent years, aquaculture is the only option for enhancing fish production to meet the increasing demand for food fish. the percapita fish consumption in india is about 10 kg/year as against the global average of 20 kg/year. the increasing trend in fish consumption is mainly due to the growing awareness of fish as health food among the public. presently we utilize 50% and 15% of fresh and brackish water potential respectively for farming and the productivity of our aquaculture systems are far below than the global average. aquaculture of fish and shrimps require both scientific capacity and business skills, hence need entrepreneurship. therefore, inflow of fisheries graduates in to aquaculture and allied ventures is important for the sustainable development and augmenting journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 1, 2016 5580 journal of extension education the fisheries production. entrepreneurship development in agrarian sector is regarded as one of the major requirement and developing entrepreneurial potential among the farm graduates has been attracting the interest of policy makers, educationalists and development agencies in recent years. indeed, entrepreneurial education is a tool for eradicating graduate unemployment and there is evidence that promoting entrepreneurship can solve the problem of unemployment. yet, unemployment thrives among young agriculture and allied graduates. entrepreneurship enhances the individual and collective capacity of rural youth to implement sustainable rural enterprises. the existing gap between the skills required by the employers and the profile of the graduates has been reported as a reason for unemployment. entrepreneurial education programmes are sources of entrepreneurial attitude and overall intentions to become future entrepreneur. lack of focused entrepreneurial education leads to low level of entrepreneurial intentions of students. the relevance of the curriculum to the job is an important factor that could also determine employability(laraya; 2009). the empirical results in entrepreneurship confirm the relationship between attitudes and self-employment. self-employment experience was directly related with entrepreneurial intentions of students (raijman, 2001). curriculum content is instrumental to the development of competencies and skills and acquiring the same by a graduate is influenced by the demand and supply relationship of the employee and the employers/ industries. yet, there is a dearth of research into youth entrepreneurship in the agrarian context. in this context, the present study was taken up to explore the entrepreneurship motivation levels of outgoing fisheries graduates. methodology several studies measured entrepreneurship motivation among the graduates in the form of human behaviour by assessing their personality traits. numerous studies assessed entrepreneurial behaviour by measuring the traits viz., achievement motivation internal locus of control, risk taking propensity intolerance to ambiguity, innovativeness information seeking behaviour and self-efficacy either individually or in different combinations. in the present study, similar approach was adopted. the traits selected and their relative weightage are, need for achievement (na-2.1); locus of control (lc1.2); risk taking ability (rt1.8); tolerance for ambiguity (ta-1.2); innovativeness (i-1.4); self-efficacy (se1.2) and information seeking behaviour (isb-1.1). thirty statements reflecting these traits were selected and a summated rating procedure was constructed as 5581 suggested by likert (1932) and edward (1957) to measure the entrepreneurship behaviour of the respondents. an entrepreneurship motivation index was calculated as the ratio of individual’s obtained score (∑na *2.1+lc*1.2+rt* 1.8+ta*1.2+i*1.4+se*1.2+isb*1.1) to the maximum possible score (181). further, socio-personal variables viz., gender, first graduate in family, percentage of marks, nativity, type of family, family size, earning members, fathers occupation, parents educational status, family annual income, community, preferred employment, participation in training, interaction with entrepreneurs and mass media contact were also studied adopting suitable scoring procedures to understand the socio-personal profile of respondents and interpret the results meaningfully. a sample size of 60 outgoing fisheries graduates from two fisheries colleges was selected for the study and the primary data from the respondents were collected through a questionnaire. descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis aided in summarizing the results and delineating the influence of personal profile variables on the entrepreneurship motivation behaviour of the respondents. findings and discussion socio personal profile of respondents socio-personal characteristics of the respondents were studied to have an idea about the demographic background of the respondents. majority of the respondents (63%) were female and it shows that women are interested in fisheries subject and scope for employment in fisheries is relatively high. half of the respondents (52%) were the first graduates in their family which is indicating that the respondents were representing middle and lower strata of the society. around 60% of their parents were educated in the range of middle to high school level and having understood the value of education, hence the parents wanted their wards to become graduates. as majority of the respondents (63%) hailed from rural background and studied in mother tongue hardly one fourth (27%) of them had scored more than 80% in their overall percentage of marks. nearly three fourths (72%) of them were from nuclear families with small family size (68%) and single earning households (72%). family occupation of one third of respondents (33%) was agriculture, 20% belonged to a small-scale business family and about half the respondents’ (47%) parents were working as employee either in a government department or private companies. nearly half of the respondents (48%) expressed that their family annual income was less than rs.10,000 per month and 38% of their family with an annual income range of rs.1 to 3 lakhs. one third of the respondents (33%) were from sc/st community and half of the entrepreneurship motivation of fisheries graduates : an exploratory study 5582 respondents (52%) hailed from backward communities. majority of them (78%) preferred to go for employment rather than seeking self-employment. majority of them (62%) had better mass media table-1. socio-personal profile of the respondents (n=60) sl.no. profile characteristics % of respondents 1. gender male 36.67 female 63.33 2. first graduate in family yes 51.67 no 48.33 3. overall percentage of marks < 70% 35.00 71-80 38.33 81 and above 26.67 4. nativity rural 63.33 urban 46.67 5. type of family nuclear 71.67 joint/extended 28.33 6. family size up to 4 members 68.33 5 & above 31.67 7. earning members single earner 71.67 more than one earner 28.33 8. fathers’ occupation agriculture 33.33 business 20.00 employee (govt/pvt) 46.67 exposure in the form of browsing internet and reading newspapers regularly. half of the respondents (50%) had interacted with entrepreneurs in fisheries and aquaculture sector during their rural journal of extension education 5583 entrepreneurship motivation of respondents entrepreneurship motivation behaviour of respondents assessed through their personality traits is presented in the figures 1&2. about sl.no. profile characteristics % of respondents (n=60) 9. parents’ education status illiterate 10.00 primary education 13.33 middle school 36.67 sslc/hsc 21.67 graduate & above 18.33 10. family annual income < 1 lakh 48.33 1-3 lakh 38.33 > 3 lakh 13.33 11. community sc/st 33.33 mbc 11.67 bc 40.00 fc 15.00 12. preferred employment self employment 21.67 govt./private job 78.33 13. participation in training attended 40.00 not attended 60.00 14. interaction with entrepreneurs yes 50.00 no 50.00 15. mass media exposure yes 61.67 no 38.33 (n=60) on employment opportunities in fisheries sector. jyothi et al, (2009) reported similar work experience programmes and 40% of them attended a training or workshop socio-economic background in case of outgoing agricultural graduates. entrepreneurship motivation of fisheries graduates : an exploratory study 5584 half of the respondents (53%) exhibited moderate entrepreneurship motivation and 30% of them had shown higher level of entrepreneurship motivation behaviour. moderate level of entrepreneurship motivation is mainly due to their preference for job employment because of their poor economic background. the graduate students preferred to be managers rather than entrepreneurs. this fact is clearly evident in their low level of risk taking behaviour and their perception that success is not in their hands (fig-2). however, this behaviour needs to be corrected through entrepreneurship and personality development training programmes which should focus on changes in attitude towards self employment, develop entrepreneurial ability, and enhance self-confidence which in turn, will promote successful agribusiness ventures as reported by parimaladevi et al, (2006). pajares (2002) also emphasized that unless people believe that their actions can produce the outcomes they desire, they have little incentive to act or to persevere. mirzaei et al, (2007) reported similar findings stating that demographic determinants and position in society compels graduate students seek employment in governmental and private organizations. lack of entrepreneurial education leads to low level of entrepreneurial intentions of students contents of entrepreneurship education would have a positive impact on perception of students about entrepreneurial education. in this regard, a sound educational program is a necessary prerequisite for enhancing the capacity of students to start entrepreneurship activity (hosseini et al, 2011). therefore, the entrepreneurship education provided as part of the graduate curriculum needs reorientation with adequate exposure to business units, interaction with entrepreneurs and schemes available for entrepreneurship development in fisheries sector.the rural fig 1. entrepreneurship motivation of fisheries graduates fig 2. entrepreneurial traits of fisheries graduates journal of extension education 5585 work experience programme can be also fine-tuned to attach potential students with relevant enterprises may go a long way in developing entrepreneurship motivation and calculated risk taking predisposition. level of influence of socio-personal profile on entrepreneurship motivation studies found that socio-personal characteristics had an impact on entrepreneurial intention and endeavour, personal qualities and traits mirzaei et al., 2007). in the present study the linear regression analysis showed that 58% of changes in the entrepreneurial motivation behaviour of the respondents are explainable by the socio-personal variables (r2=0.584). table-2 shows that out of 15 socio-personal variables included for the analysis three variables viz., educational background of the parents, community and mass media contact were found to be significantly influencing the entrepreneurial behaviour of outgoing graduates. community was found to influence the behaviour of the individual at 1% level of probability. it may be understood that 52% of the respondents hailed from backward and most backward classes and one third from scheduled castes. studies indicated that family business background characteristics had an impact on table-2. influence of socio-personal characteristics on entrepreneurship behaviour sl.no. profile characteristics regression co-efficient 1. gender -1.061 2. first graduate .585 3. academic marks percent -.064 4. nativity -.804 5. family type -1.417 6. family size -.109 7. family earning status -.019 8. parent occupation -.229 9. parent education 1.958* 10. family annual income 1.190 11. community 2.881** 12. job preference -.447 13. training attended .347 14. interaction with entrepreneur .107 15. mass media contact 2.341* r2 = 0.584 ** significant at 1% level & * 5% level of probability entrepreneurship motivation of fisheries graduates : an exploratory study 5586 conclusion the study found that outgoing fisheries graduates had moderate level of entrepreneurship motivation, low level of risk taking, self-efficacy and locus of control. most of them preferred jobs rather than self-employment. nevertheless, they need to have confidence, positive attitude, proficiency in subject and entrepreneurial qualities to excel in their chosen career. therefore, it is important that a course on entrepreneurship and personality improvement need to be incorporated in to the fisheries course curriculum. adequate practical exposure to successful business units and enhanced interactions with career counsellors, entrepreneurs in the field of fisheries and aquaculture might help the students to decide their career. further, personality development workshops need to be incorporated in the fisheries practical to improve or hone the personal traits and attitude of outgoing students so that they could confidently face the real world. references adsul, r. k., kamble, v. & sangli, k. w. (2008). achievement motivation as a function of gender, economic background and caste differences in college students. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 34, 323-327. aldrich. h. e & cliff j.e. (2003). the pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective, journal of business venturing, 18 (5),573–596. carr. j. c & sequeira, j. m. (2007). prior family business exposure as intergenerational influence and entrepreneurial intent: a theory of planned behavior approach, journal of business research, 60, 1090–1098. hosseini, s. j. f, h. ahmadi & najafabadi, m.o. (2011). the perceptions of graduate students about factors influencing the extension of entrepreneurship education in college of agriculture and natural entrepreneurial intention (aldrich and cliff, 2003; carr and sequeira 2007). however, adsul et al. (2008) reported that caste, gender and economic background of family do not affect the achievement motivation of college students. but mirakzadeh and ghiasy (2011) reported that socioeconomic context determine the employability of agricultural graduates. mass media contact was significantly influencing the entrepreneurship motivation behaviour at 5% level of probability. mass media also play an important role in influencing the entrepreneurship phenomenon. earlier studies indicated that entrepreneurial behaviour was positively and significantly related to mass media exposure (rautand gopal sankhala, 2014; sreeram et al., 2015). journal of extension education 5587 resources in iran, journal of american science, 7(3), 255-259. jyothi,v., ananda rao, v., vijayabhinandana, b & sunil, n. k. (2009). profile characteristics of undergraduate and postgraduate students in acharya n. g. ranga agricultural university, karnataka journal of agricultural sciences, 22 (5),1146-1147 mirakzadeh. a.a & ghiasy.f.g. (2011). effective factors on the employment status of agricultural graduates in iran, african journal of agricultural research 6(2), 432-439.18 january, 2011 mirzaei, r., shamekhi, t., naeli, m.a, zahedi, g. & jazireei, m. (2007). the entrepreneurship motivation of fisheries graduates : an exploratory study relation between higher education and efficiency and occupation of graduates; view of university professors, administrators and graduates: a case study in forestry higher education. research reform national resources., 73, 11-26. pajares, f. (2002). overview of social cognitive theory and self-efficacy, [online] available: http://www.emory. edu/education/mfp/eff.html parimaladevi, s., sakeer husain. a. & bhaskaran, s. (2006). determinants of the effectiveness of agriclinics and agribusiness centres scheme’ in kerala, journal of tropical agriculture, 44 (1-2), 91-93, pages 2021-4.cdr introduction research forms an integral part in h i g h e r e d u c a � o n . i t i s a n e c e s s a r y requirement that a graduate scholar must complete his or her research topic as approved by the faculty of research commi�ee (frc) a�er several delibera�ons at department level, college level and university level in order to be awarded with the degree. recent increase in trend of ph.d. students' enrolment and provision of grants by government or other ins�tutes for research purpose that helps in human development and welfare proves the importance given to research and research scholars in indian universi�es. researcher's ability is not only to equip with necessary knowledge, skills and other proficiencies but also require an affec�ve component which is equally important in undertaking research (kakupa and xue, 2019). individual feelings like anxiety, fear, discomfort and nega�vity in conduc�ng research may prejudice the whole process that can lead to nega�ve a�tude towards research. a�tude is an individual's disposi�on to react to certain object, behaviour, person, 6683 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.4, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/ 1 4 3 683jee.202 . .3 .6 -6690 parameters influencing a�tude of doctoral students towards research 1 2 spanditha muppidi and allan thomas abstract researcher's a�tude towards research is important while undertaking research for posi�ve outcomes. so, this study was conducted to determine the level of a�tude of doctoral students by exploring its determinants and comparing them with a�tude. college of agriculture, vellayani, kerala was selected for the study where 50 doctoral students were selected randomly and administered with validated ques�onnaires. sta�s�cal tools like frequency, percentage, mean, standard devia�on and pearson correla�on coefficient were used. it was found that almost 90 per cent of students had favourable a�tude towards research. there was significant rela�onship between independent variables like informa�on seeking skill, methodology skill, problem solving skill, literature availability, research material availability, research work environment, non-advisory commi�ee members support and a�tude of students towards their research. keywords: level of a�tude; doctoral students; ques�onnaires; independent variables; kerala 1 department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram695522 2 communica�on centre, kerala agricultural university, mannuthy, thrissur-680651 received : 17.02.2022 ; accepted: 13.01.2023 6684 ins�tu�on, event or other discriminable aspect of the individual's world (ajzen, 1993). a�tude is of prime importance in any research. based on the research conducted by jalihal (1970) on the concept and role of agricultural universi�es in india, reported that students showed posi�ve a � t u d e a b o u t t h e n e w e d u c a � o n a l framework. according to papanastasiou (2005), it is cri�cal to determine students' a�tudes toward research in order to foster a favourable a�tude among them, and as a result, improve their learning. in their study, siamian et al. (2015) found that students had good opinions toward the usefulness of employment and career search, anxiety, rela�onship with everyday life, and research challenge. the data revealed that there was no substan�al varia�on in students' a�tudes about research based on their age, gender, or educa�onal level. students who were exposed to more scien�fic research had a more favourable opinion toward it (seher, 2018). with regard to it when comparing the a�tudes of master's and doctoral students toward research, it was found that doctoral students have a more posi�ve a�tude toward research than master's students (abun et al. 2019). finding the truth requires a me�culous and wellorganized search. any inves�ga�on's primary goal is to create conducive condi�ons for the genera�on of knowledge in order to address an issue (roul, 2016). findings of boppana (2019) concluded that 58.00 per cent of students have a posi�ve a�tude toward research, while the rest (42.00 %) have the most favourable a � t u d e . a� t u d e s t o w a r d r e s e a r c h cons�tute the posi�ve and nega�ve internalized beliefs or feelings about research (kakupa and xue, 2019). this acts as a driving force for conduc�ng research. hence, it was important to iden�fy the parameters that contribute posi�ve a�tude towards research that helps students in learning with the following objec�ves. 1. to study the level of a�tude of students towards research 2. to determine rela�onship between a�tude of doctoral students and t h e i r p e r s o n a l a n d s o c i a l characteris�cs methodology the current study was conducted at college of agriculture, vellayani under kerala agricultural university. altogether, 50 respondents were selected randomly who were ph.d. students from second and third year of their study as of 2020-21. research design followed was an ex post facto design. all the responses were collected using a pre-tested interview schedule and the data generated was transferred to master table. the personal and social characteris�cs of the students were selected based on judges' ra�ng. to study the level of a�tude a set of 'twenty' journal of extension educa�on 6685 statements were given to students for ra�ng them on a 5-point con�nuum using likert scale viz. strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with a score o f fi v e , f o u r , t h r e e , t w o a n d o n e respec�vely. the total score was computed by adding the scores for each respondent from all statements. the maximum and minimum score that could be obtained for a statement was 'two hundred and fi�y' and 'fi�y' for the respondents respec�vely. the computed overall range of scores were c a t e go r i s e d i n t o l ow, m e d i u m , h i g h indica�ng poor good and very good a�tude respec�vely based on mean score and standard devia�on as check and expressed in terms of frequency and percentage. karl pearson correla�on coefficient (p) was used for inferring the data that determines rela�onship between a�tude of students and selected parameters. hypothesis of the study there exists no difference between a�tudes of students towards research and there exists no rela�onship between a � t u d e o f s t u d e n t s a n d s e l e c t e d independent variables. findings and discussion a�tude of students towards research a�tude is the posi�ve or nega�ve e ff e c t o f a n i n d i v i d u a l t o w a r d s a psychological construct. from table 1, it can be reported that majority (74.00 %) of students possessed good a�tude towards research followed by 16.00 per cent with very good a�tude and only 10.00 per cent showed poor a�tude towards research as calculated based on mean score and standard devia�on as check. this indicated that almost 90.00 per cent of students had favourable a�tude towards research. t h e p o s s i b l e r e a s o n f o r t h i s favourable a�tude could be due to their familiarity with the research procedures and techniques as experienced during post graduate studies. according to williams & c o l e s ( 2 0 0 3 ) , r e s e a r c h e x p e r i e n c e influences views toward research, with individuals who have done research before forming a more posi�ve influence. other reasons may include student's interest in the research area or in improving career p r o s p e c t s f o r o r o u t s i d e o f a n a c a d e m i c /re s e a rc h c a re e r, s u ffi c i e nt resources availability, opportunity to improve their research skills etc. the findings were in line with parmar et al. (2016), muthuswamy et al. (2017), seher et al. (2018) and boppana (2019). parameters that influence a�tude of doctoral students towards research 6686 table 1. distribu�on of ph.d. students' a�tude towards research category class limit frequency (f) percentage (%) poor (m-sd) <67 9 10.00 good (m±sd) 67-83 29 74.00 very good (m+sd) >83 12 16.00 total 50 100 mean score=75.12, sd=8.75, min.-max. score = 20-100 mmean rela�onship between a�tude of the doctoral students towards research and their selected personal and social characteris�cs th e re l a � o n s h i p b e t w e e n t h e a�tude of doctoral students towards research and the selected independent variables viz. age, informa�on seeking skill, methodology skills, problem solving skills, sta�s�cal skills, communica�on skills, table 2. rela�onship between a�tude of the doctoral students towards research and selected independent variables sl.no. independent variable p value 1 age 0.178 2 informa�on seeking skill 0.451** 3 methodology skill 0.434** 4 problem solving skill 0.471*** 5 sta�s�cal/analy�cal skills 0.203 6 communica�on skills 0.428** 7 universal outcomes 0.097 8 literature availability 0.385** 9 research material availability 0.403** 10 raw material availability 0.158 11 funds and other privileges availability -0.132 12 research work environment 0.36* 13 advisory commi�ee members support -0.017 14 nonadvisory commi�ee members support -0.294* * correla�on is significant at 0.05 level (two tailed) ** correla�on is significant at 0.10 level (tow tailed) *** correla�on is significant at 0.01 level (two tailed) n=50 journal of extension educa�on universal outcomes, literature availability, research material availability, raw material availability, funds and other privileges availability, research work environment, acquaintance support, advisory commi�ee m e m b e r s s u p p o r t a n d n o n a d v i s o r y c o m m i � e e m e m b e r s s u p p o r t w e r e measured by compu�ng “karl pearson correla�on coefficient (p)” and the data are presented in table 2. 6687 it can be inferred from table 2 that out of 14 parameters selected as independent variables eight variables viz., informa�on seeking skill, methodology skill, problem solving skill, communica�on skill, literature availability and research material availability research work environment and nonadvisory commi�ee members support showed significant rela�onship with students' a�tude towards research. among t h e s e v a r i a b l e s o n l y ' n o n a d v i s o r y member's support' was observed to have nega�ve significant rela�onship at 5 per cent significance level. the rest of the independent variables viz. research work environment at 5 per cent significance level; problem solving skill at 1 per cent; informa�on seeking skill, methodology skill, communica�on skill, literature availability and research material availability at 10 per cent significance level were significantly and posi�vely correlated with a�tude of students towards research. informa�on seeking skill and a�tude it can be seen from table 2 that students' informa�on seeking skill has posi�ve and highly significant rela�onship (p=0.451**) with their a�tude towards research. this posi�ve rela�onship can be because of students having access to electronic media where they can browse for any relevant informa�on databases, search for alterna�ves op�ons to find solu�ons. availability of library resources with internet access makes it easier for scholars to seek informa�on necessary for research. methodology skill and a�tude it was evident from table 2 that methodology skill of students has posi�ve and significant rela�onship (p=0.434**) with their a�tude towards research. this significant rela�onship can be because students possessing sufficient knowledge and skill in terms of preparing manuscript, a b s t r a c t w i t h a b i l i t y t o w r i t e a comprehensive review of literature. they also possess required capabili�es in s e a rc h i n g , p l a n n i n g a n d d e ve l o p i n g research ques�on which further also includes collec�on of data via surveying. communica�on skill and a�tude table 2 clearly stated that there was a posi�ve and significant rela�onship ( p = 4 2 8 * * ) b e t w e e n s c h o l a r s ' communica�on skills and their a�tude. it c a n b e i n f e r r e d t h a t s c h o l a r s ' communica�on skills and knowledge level in gathering informa�on, tailoring the needs of audiences by ques�oning, answering and explaining the purpose, objec�ves and outcomes of research with confidence may have helped in forming a favourable a�tude towards research. availability of literature and a�tude it is apparent from table 2 that there exists a significant and posi�ve rela�onship (p=385**) in terms of availability of literature and a�tude towards research. it means that there is ample literature resource available in the college library in parameters that influence a�tude of doctoral students towards research 6688 the form of journals, magazines, theses, eresources like krishikosh, online public access catalogue (opac), consor�um of e-resources in agriculture (cera), science direct etc., services which help students in accessing necessary literature for research that leads to a posi�ve a�tude of students towards research. research material availability and a�tude a look into table 2 makes it evident that research material availability had p o s i � v e a n d s i g n i fi c a n t c o r r e l a � o n (p=403**) with a�tude. it means there is adequate availability of lab equipment, farm e q u i p m e n t a n d o t h e r i n s t r u m e n t s necessary to conduct experiments that gives a posi�ve influence on their a�tude towards research. availability of online resources, accessibility of online resources in plenty and provisions of internet-user group subject wise might have helped the students to develop a favourable a�tude towards research. problem solving skill and a�tude findings from table 2 show that that there exists a posi�ve and significant correla�on with problem solving skills of students and their a�tude (p=0.471***). it can be said that students' ability to draw conclusions, take feedback, weighing one solu�on with other along with proper reasoning skills can reflect desirable research outcomes which is also an indicator of their problem solving skills that h e l p s t o re d u c e s t h e i r a n x i e t y a n d discomfort while doing research and in turn helping students with a posi�ve a�tude towards research. research work environment and a�tude from table 2, it is observed that a p o s i � v e a n d s i g n i fi c a n t c o r r e l a � o n (p=0.360*) existed between research work environment and student's a�tude towards research. it is inferred that if research work environment was not workable, it not only affects the behaviour of an individual researcher but also how the officialdoms themselves interact (gilmer, 1966). it i nfl u e n ce s re s e a rc h e r 's p e r fo r m a n ce thereby affec�ng his a�tude towards research. non-advisory commi�ee members support and a�tude in case of non-advisory commi�ee support and students' a�tude towards research there exists a nega�ve and significant correla�on (p=294*) as shown in table 2. it indicates that students are seeking help from non-advisory members for their research work which may be because of the similari�es present with those members specialisa�on that may help the students in their research work. journal of extension educa�on 6689 conclusion overall conclusion from findings showed that majority of the students possessed a 'good' a�tude’ towards re s e a rc h . t h e re e x i s t s a s i g n i fi c a n t rela�onship between students' a�tude towards research and selected independent variables. research work environment showed posi�ve rela�onship whereas non a d v i s o r y s u p p o r t s h o w e d n e g a � v e rela�onship with a�tude of students towards research at 5 per cent significance level. other variables like problem solving skill showed posi�ve rela�onship with a�tude of students towards research at 1 per cent significance level while informa�on s e e k i n g s k i l l , m e t h o d o l o g y s k i l l , communica�on skill, literature availability, research material availability showed significance difference at 10 per cent significance level. the study rejects the null hypotheses which now can be deduced that there exists difference between a�tudes of students towards research and there exists rela�onship between a�tude of students and selected independent variables. it can be inferred that providing doctoral students with a workable research environment, adequate resources for conduc�ng research and opportuni�es to develop their research skills can form a posi�ve influence towards successful research outcomes. references abun, d., magallanes, t., encarnacion, m., & lalaine, s. (2019). the a�tude of graduate students toward research a n d t h e i r i nt e n� o n t o co n d u c t research in the future. interna�onal j o u r n a l o f m o d e r n r e s e a r c h , e n g i n e e r i n g a n d m a n a g e m e n t , 2(11),74-87. ajzen, i. (1993). new direc�ons in a�tude measurement. new york: walter de gruyter. b o p p a n a , j . ( 2 0 1 9 ) . a � t u d e o f p o s t g ra d u ate s t u d e nt s towa rd s research. gujarat journal of extension educa�on, 30(1), 1-3. gilmer, b. v. (1966). industrial psychology. new york: mcgraw hill. jalihal, k. a. (1970). a study of the concept and role of agricultural universi�es in india. journal of educa�on research and extension,12 (2),83-87. kakupa, p., & xue, h. (2019). students' a�tudes towards research: a study of graduate educa�on students at a c h i n e s e n o r m a l u n i v e r s i t y . educa�onal process: an interna�onal journal, 8, 97–110. m u t h u s w a m y , p . , v a n i t h a , r . , chandramohan, s., & ramesh, p. s. (2017). a study on a�tude towards r e s e a r c h a m o n g t h e d o c t o r a l students. interna�onal journal of civil parameters that influence a�tude of doctoral students towards research journal of extension educa�on 6690 engineering and technology. 8. 811823. pa p a n a s t a s i o u , e . c . ( 2 0 0 5 ) . fa c t o r structure of the “a�tudes toward re s e a rc h” s c a l e 6 , i n te r n a � o n a l a s s o c i a � o n st a � s � c s ed u c a � o n , 4(1),16 – 26. parmar, s. d., thorat, g. n., shakya, h. b., & patel, v. b. (2016). factor affec�ng the a�tude of the agricultural scien�sts towards publica�on. agriculture update, 11(3), 305–309. roul, r. (2019). a�tude of post-graduate s t u d e n t s t o w a r d s r e s e a r c h . i n t e r n a � o n a l jo u r n a l o f m o d e r n r e s e a r c h e n g i n e e r i n g a n d management, 12(11), 74-87. seher, u., remziye, s., kizilcik, o.z. & i̇lker, a . ( 2 0 1 8 ) . a� t u d e o f n u r s i n g students toward scien�fic research a cross-sec�onal study in turkey. journal nursing research, 26 (5), 356361. siamian, h., mahmoudi, r., fatemeh, h., la�fi, m. & zare-gavgani, v. (2016). students a�tudes towards research at mazandaran university of medical sciences in 2015. journal of academic medical sciences, 28(6), 468-472. williams, d., & coles, l. (2003). the use of research by teachers: informa�on literacy, access and a�tudes (a final report of research funded by esrc with award number: r000223842). d e p a r t m e n t o f i n f o r m a � o n management, aberdeen business school, scotland: the robert gordon university. page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56 page 57 page 58 page 59 page 60 page 61 page 62 6766 journal of extension education vol. 34 no.1, 2022 doi: https://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2022.1.34.6766-6773 work -life balance among women entrepreneurs of assam deekshita dutta and t. radha abstract work life balance is the state of equilibrium between an individual’s work and personal life. this study was taken up to examine the level of issues the women face in proper balancing of work life and finding out the problems faced by them in work life balance. the study was conducted with 50 women entrepreneurs involved in different nature of enterprises in assam, india. findings revealed that the more than half of the women entrepreneurs face high level of issues in proper work life balance. it was also found that the selected women entrepreneurs faced various issues like health, family, social and psychological problems which are affecting their lives to a great extent. keywords: women entrepreneur; work life balance; role overload; work life stress; work family balance; assam introduction the upliftment in the education system of women, changing mindset of the society and also the increased economical needs of the family have urged women to participate in the workforce and this has given birth to the work-life balance (wlb) concept. as more women started working, the art of juggling responsibilities between both the spheres came into picture. the physical and psychological stress imparted on the working women has a great impact in performing their multiple roles both at home and workplace (bhattacharya and banerjee, 2019). likewise, the women of assam appear to be engaging in a variety of traditional and non-traditional activities lately. the state of assam, consist of a major rural population and is marked with a new developmental growth as per the recent gdp records, considerable rise in the gender ratio, literacy rate of women and self employment of women. and to accomplish the foresaid objectives, the state government has played an indisputable role by adopting innumerable schemes and programmes for women (pareek and satapathy, 2021). thus, a positive hike is visible in the number of women entrepreneurs (both in urban and rural) due to the extensive state government support and rising interest of women. however, just as there is always a flip side to a coin, women employment had brought some negative consequences as well. families have shrunk and become nuclear.  wives and other female members of the household have become busy with various activities, which have led to the crisis. one of the major issues the women research article avinashilingam institute for home science and higher education for women, coimbatore, tamil nadu. india received : 09.11.21; accepted : 31.08.22 work -life balance among women entrepreneurs of assam 6767 face is their ability to balance work and family life. the work-family balance has become a great challenge for women as they take on the role of working professional in addition to their traditional role of homemaker. despite the fact that the problem of work-life balance concerns among female entrepreneurs is receiving a lot of attention these days, research on the topic of work-life balance among entrepreneurial women in india are exceedingly rare (mathew and panchanatham, 2009). hence, the current study is a step towards examining the work-life balance challenges that assamese women entrepreneurs face. the study deals with work-life balance of such women who have a life inside and outside their house. for a state like assam, where work-life balance still has not received limelight, due to various ignorant reasons, the most important aspect of this study is ‘awareness’, making the policymakers, government and family members familiar with this concept, so that women can expect higher cooperation and facilities from them. objectives 1. to study the demographic profile of the women entrepreneurs. 2. to analyze the level of issues they face in proper balancing of work life. 3. to enlist the problems faced by the women entrepreneurs while maintaining proper work life balance. methodology locale of the study: the study was conducted in the state of assam in the month of august, 2021 and the district lakhimpur was selected as the study area. north lakhimpur sub division was selected from lakhimpur district, followed by the boginadi block using purposive sampling method, since this study area consists significantly higher numbers of women entrepreneurs engaged in small enterprises as compared to the other localities. sample size for the study: the investigator has randomly selected two villages from the boginadi block viz., sariani gaon and maaz gaon and a sample of 25 entrepreneurs were selected from each village randomly. thus, the total sample size for the study comes out to be 50. method and tool for data collection: the investigator has used methods like face to face communication and observation and structured interview schedule as the tool for data collection. data analysis: analysis of data includes frequency, percentage analysis, mean and standard deviation. selection of variables and their measurement: keeping the specific objectives of the study in view, different independent variables were selected such as age, religion, caste, marital status, type of family, size of family, educational qualification, main occupation and monthly income of the family. age was assessed as per the chronological age of the respondents. the variables such as caste, marital status, type of the family and main occupation of the family were examined using trivedi and pareek scale (1963), and size of the family and educational qualification were examined using scales of nsso (2007-2008) with slight modifications. the variables such as religion and monthly income of the family were assessed with the help of the structured interview schedule. development of work life balance issues statements: to measure the level of issues in work life balance of the women entrepreneurs, a scale consisting of 15 statements was prepared. the scale consisted different categories of issues in work life balance. the responses were recorded on a 3-point continuum as ‘agree, journal of extension education 6768 ‘to some extent, and ‘disagree following likert scale and were scored as 3, 2 and 1 respectively. a weightage of 2, 1 and 0, respectively were assigned to the response categories in the statements. total score of the respondents was obtained by summing up the scores recorded. the respondents could obtain a minimum score of 0 and maximum score of 30 since there were a total of 15 statements. based on total score of the respondents, the respondents were classified into three categories viz. high, medium and low, where the mean score is 39.86 and standard deviation is 5.02. table 1. statistical analysis and scoring of level of issues of work life balance of respondents category score range score high mean + sd 3 medium meansd to mean + sd 2 low mean – sd 1 findings and discussion the findings of the investigation are presented herender. demographic profile of the women entrepreneurs regarding demographic profile of the respondents, the findings of the study reveal that majority of the respondents (40%) included in the study were of 21-30 years. considering the fact that women of rural areas generally get married at younger ages, therefore, it is obvious that they start their own families at younger ages. but keeping in mind that the level of maturity and capacity to manage everything efficiently comes with age and experience, the young respondents find it difficult to handle all the household and professional chores smoothly. again, it was found that majority of the respondents belonged to obc/mobc caste (54%) and here the findings show that the respondents of sample villages were from different castes of which obc caste dominated the entire group. majority was hindu (92%) and married (84%) because unlike urban areas, rural girls get married at young age, had nuclear families (72%) with small family sizes (60%). this finding is a clear indication of the touch of urbanization in the rural areas. nuclear family prevails generally in the urban areas, which is gradually penetrating in the rural areas too. majority of the respondents (46%) attained higher secondary level in regard to educational qualification. this is a good picture for the respondents as higher secondary education, although not a high level of education in general, is expected to be enough to help them understand and manage the work life balance in a proper way. a large majority of the respondents’ families (88%) had farming as their main occupation; since the study is in rural area, therefore it is an obvious picture that a large majority of people will have farming as an occupation. most of the respondents (56%) had monthly income of rs. 30001-40000, followed by 20% with income of rs. 20001-30000. here it is found that more than half of the whole respondents (51%) have very moderate income considering the hike in prices of almost all good and commodities. enterprises owned by respondents the enterprises owned by the women entrepreneurs were assessed and given in table 2. work -life balance among women entrepreneurs of assam 6769 table 2. type of enterprises owned by the respondents sl. no. enterprise frequency (n=50) percentage (%) 1 beauty salons 10 20 2 tailoring units 6 12 3 handloom & sericulture boutiques 23 46 4 bakery units 4 8 5 bamboo craft units 1 2 6 restaurants 4 8 7 pottery units 2 4 from the table, it can be observed that different types of enterprises were run by the respondents. the respondents were found to run beauty salons (20%), tailoring units (12%), handloom and sericulture boutique (46%), bakery units (8%), bamboo craft (2%), restaurants (8%) and pottery (4%). assam, being quite popular for handloom and sericulture, therefore, it is very predictable that this sector would come the highest in number in the study area. worklife balance issues of the respondents in work life balance of the respondents, the distribution of respondents according to the level of issues in work life balance of women entrepreneurs is shown in the figure 1. the level of issues in work life balance of the respondents was categorized as ‘high’, ‘medium’, and ‘low’ on the basis of mean scores and standard deviation. the values for mean score and standard deviation (sd) were found to be 39.86 and 5.02 respectively. figure 1. distribution of respondents according to their level of issues in work life balance (n=50) figure 1 indicates that 58 per cent of the respondents had high level of issues in proper balance of work life, followed by 35 per cent that had medium level of issues and 7 per cent of the respondents had low level of issues in proper balance of work life. it might be due to the fact that the majority of the respondents were found to be of 21-30 years and married. this implies that they have little or young children that need more care and attention. another finding shows that majority of them were belonged to nuclear family. this family journal of extension education 6770 type creates a very significant issue in managing all the works at home as well as work as they need to provide special care and attention to the needs of the children and the husband also all by themselves without any helping hand, being the families very patriarchal in those areas. as specified by the women, they had to get up early in the morning to finish their household chores, get the children ready for school, prepare breakfast and lunch for their husbands and school going children, clean the house before they are ready to go to their own duty. when they come back in the evening, they have to help their children with their studies, prepare evening meals and try and look pleasant in front of family members and guests. the western concept of the husband helping in household chores has not taken much roof in the households yet. so the major burden of running the family is on the shoulders of women. it was alright for women to handle all the chores as long as they were homemakers. now with their increasing need for getting some income for the family, they have to work all the more harder. a study conducted by jain and joon (2019) among women teachers reported that the worklife balance among the women teachers is higher especially among the married teachers in higher education. the important causes for their worklife imbalance are lack of social support and their work related factors. the work life imbalances are affecting the organizational commitment and the job performance of the employees. ranking of top ten statements based on their mean scores the perception of the women entrepreneurs towards the identified statements were assessed and the details are given in table 3. table 3. ranking of statements based on their mean scores sl no. statement mean score rank 1 i have to perform many roles in a given time. 3.02 i 2 as i am burdened with business and family roles, i find it difficult to attend social activities. 3.00 ii 3 due to the work/family issues and lack of time, i find it difficult to take care of my health. 2.99 iii 4 the role conflicts in the business and family life given me a lot of stress. 2.97 iv 5 my time resources are equally distributed between the business and home. 2.85 v 6 my spouse understands and accommodates my pre-occupation as an entrepreneur. 2.69 vi 7 my spouse demands greater attention from me. 2.56 vii 8 i can’t concentrate in my business due to dependent care problems. 2.55 viii 9 i feel free and enjoy my profession as i have no dependent care issues. 2.50 ix 10 being satisfied in the entrepreneurial and family domains, i feel relaxed. 2.48 x work -life balance among women entrepreneurs of assam 6771 table 3 shows that highest mean score was found in the statement “i have to perform many roles in a given time” whose mean score is found to be 3.02. the respondents scored second and third highest mean score in the statements “as i am burdened with business and family roles, i find it difficult to attend social activities” and “due to the work/family issues and lack of time, i find it difficult to take care of my health” respectively. it is well known that indian families are mostly patriarchal in nature. in a patriarchal family, all the household activities need to be done only by the wives or the daughter-in-laws. there is no relaxation even if the woman is working somewhere else outside the home in a formal job. similar is the situation for the selected respondents as well. since the respondents needed to do all the activities inclusive of being a mother, a wife, a daughter-in-law, it is evident that they would be living a hectic life with tight routines. hence, it might be quite difficult for them to take out time for other activities, be it taking care of own health or attending social events. kirchmeyer (2000) considers a balanced life as one in which the individual achieves satisfying experiences in all life domains. however, in this highly competitive and globalised society, it is very difficult for women entrepreneurs to carry out all roles simultaneously. as a result, they become mentally and physically exhausted because of the role demands arising from the work and family domains. this often leads to health impairment, dissatisfaction and decreased commitment to life and work roles. compared to those of an employee, the role demands of an entrepreneur are multiplied because the latter has to act simultaneously as an employee, business owner, manager and motivating leader. the present study suggests that women entrepreneurs experience a high degree of role overload and associated work life balance issues. problems faced by the selected women entrepreneurs in work-life balance the problems encountered by the respondents while balancing proper work life have been analyzed, consolidated and presented in the following table under four main categories. table 4. problems faced by the respondents* sl. no. problems encountered frequency (n=50) percentage (%) 1 health problems body pain due to posture abnormalities in blood sugar level because of stress abnormalities in blood pressure gastritis because of skipping meals due to lack of time supreme tiredness 36 27 25 42 50 72 54 50 84 100 2 family related problems unable to spend quality time with children and spouse conflict with spouse children feeling lonely and left out fear of detachment from the children under cared elderly parents 45 30 22 18 40 90 60 44 36 80 journal of extension education 6772 sl. no. problems encountered frequency (n=50) percentage (%) 3 psychological problems stress and hypertension anxiety frustration short temperedness insomnia 48 37 45 40 32 96 74 90 80 64 4 social problems no time or too tired for social functions conflict with neighbours victim of gossip by the neighbours fear of disconnection from social life fear of rejection by the society 35 20 15 40 28 70 40 30 80 56 *multiple responses the problems have been categorized into four main parts such as health, social, family related and psychological. regarding health problems, it was found that cent percent of the respondents were suffering from supreme tiredness, followed by gastritis that was suffered by 84% of the respondents. regarding family related problems, data shows that large majority of the respondents i.e. 90% were not able to spend quality time with their children and spouse, followed by 80% respondents who were not able to take care of their elderly parents and in laws. in terms of psychological problems, it was seen that a very large majority of the respondents (96%) were suffering from stress and hypertension, followed by 90% respondents suffering from frustration. when inquired about social problems, it was found that 80% of the respondents were facing the fear of disconnection from social life, followed by 70% who had no time or too tired for social functions. all these problems were mainly faced because of lack of time of the respondents or maybe they were not able to manage time well. vanitha and meenakumari (2020) in their study stated women have to play multifaceted roles at family, society and at work places with unprecedented pressures at different situations. the unbalanced co-ordination and support belatedly indulge both family and work conflicts and it also mutually influences each other. the impact of these influences impetus with work and family problems and sometimes leads to undesirable health hazards. conclusion this study was conducted among selected women entrepreneurs of assam to assess the work life balance issues of the women. it also studied the problems faced by the women in proper balancing of work life. from the study, it was found that the issues faced by majority of the respondents were found to be in high level based on the mean scores and standard deviation. they were bound with duties and responsibilities in the family as well as at their enterprises. as a result, the respondents have been facing various challenges like health, psychological, family and work -life balance among women entrepreneurs of assam 6773 social problems. balance is the key to happiness and imbalance can break many chords of harmony and serenity which in turn affects all the spheres of a women. this study may draw the attention of government and policy makers to make apt worklife balance policies for better empowered women workforce to bring the economy of india to next level. references bhattacharya s. & banerjee s. (2019). work life balance among the married women employees. ph.d thesis submitted to jis university, kolkata. retrieved from http://hdl.handle. net/10603/388821 jain s. & joon s. (2019). work life balance of women teachers in higher education in southern rajasthan. ph.d thesis submitted to mohan lal sukhadia university. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10603/303925 kirchmeyer, c. (2000). work-life initiatives: greed or benevolence regarding workers’ time? trends in organisational behavior, 7: 79–93. mathew, r. v., & panchanatham, n. (2009). influencers and the role in determining the work life balance of employees working in the information technology sector.  kgees journal of social science, 1: 17-31. national sample survey organization (nsso). (2008). nss 64th round. ministry of statistics and programme implementation (mospi), government of india (goi). pareek a. & satapathy s.k. (2021). work life balance of women entrepreneurs a study in twin city of odisha. ph.d thesis submitted to ravenshaw university. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10603/369298 trivedi g & pareek u. (1963). socio-economic status scale (rural) measurement in extension research, instruments developed at division of agricultural extension, iari, new delhi vanitha a. & meenakumari,s. (2020). family vs work conflict among working women in india with special reference to it, education and banking sector, international journal of research in commence, it and management, 1(6): 113-118 pages 2021-3.cdr introduction climate change poses a serious socio-ecological challenge for marginal wheat farmers in india in recent decades (singh, 2020a). the agricultural sector in general and marginal farmers in par�cular are believed to be adversely affected by changing in climate (singh and sanatan, 2014). rapid land degrada�on, frequent and extreme droughts are significant manifesta�ons of climate change leading to produc�vity losses in rainfed regions like bundelkhand in u�ar pradesh (singh 2020b). appropriate weather condi�ons are s�ll important to improve agricultural produc�vity, despite major technical developments (singh and sanatan, 2018; singh, 2019). the main influences deciding crop yields include temperature and rainfall. because of the changing climate condi�ons 6647 research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.3, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/ 1 3 3 647jee.202 . .3 .6 -6658 determinants in the adop�on of climate change adapta�on strategies: evidence from wheat farmers in bundelkhand region, india surandra singh jatav and sanatan nayak abstract by using systema�cally collected field survey data of 200 farmers and binary logis�c regression, results of this study reveals that wheat farmers of bundelkhand, u�ar pradesh, india are well-aware of changing climate and adjus�ng their farm prac�ces to enhance climate resilience capacity. farmers use their indigenous knowledge coupled with extension services provided by the government to diversify their occupa�on and cropping pa�ern as adapta�on strategies. the binary logis�c regression results show that informa�on on climate, access to ins�tu�onal credit and having crop insurance mo�vate farmers to improved irriga�on facili�es. further, farmers perceive that increase in temperature, decline in rainfall and water tables jointly change cropping pa�ern from the high water-intensive crop (wheat) to low water-intensive crop (chickpea) as a climate adapta�on strategy. the study suggests developing a common pla�orm for government services for the region. community par�cipa�on and regular training programmes in the sample villages are benefi�ng farmers to channelize their indigenous knowledge and op�mize local resources, which leads to sustainable farming. keywords: farmers percep�on; climate adapta�on; rainfed agriculture; bundelkhand region department of economics, babasaheb bhimrao ambedkar university, lucknow, india. received : 11-01-2022; accepted: 25-07-2022 6648 with different intensi�es in the world, wheat farming is under serious pressure (sanghi and mendelsohn, 2008). however, shi�ing climate pa�erns have a severe impact on crop farming in developed and low income countries, leading to a sharp drop in crop yields (singh and sanatan, 2021). climate c h a n g e a ffe c t s r u r a l s u b s i s t e n c e i n developed countries and increases the insecurity of agricultural popula�ons. while farmers have used the recommended amounts of input and crop management strategy, varia�on in seasonal temperatures and stress have adversely affected the crop yield and, in par�cular, the yield of wheat (singh and sanatan, 2021). efforts to tackle the nega�ve effects of climate change, especially on small farmers and agriculture in general, are therefore essen�al. most modelling and observa�onal studies have shown that climate change affects more likely to rainfed farmers (singh 2020a, b & c). farmers have always faced mul�ple risks, for example, in india, major concerns for farmers included variability in climate and lack of access to modern technology and correct & updated �mely weather informa�on (singh and sanatan, 2020). re g i o n a l s u r v e y s h a v e s h o w n t h a t bundelkhand is highly vulnerable to climate change (singh 2020a, b & c; goi 2008). bundelkhand region is highly suscep�ble to drought, is one of the least developed socioeconomic region of india. increasing demand for natural resources and harsh and deteriora�ng biophysical condi�ons such as low soil produc�vity and more regular extreme events such as temperature varia�on and intensify droughts have increased the degree of climate vulnerability i n t h e r e g i o n . fo r e x a m p l e , i n t h e bundelkhand region, crop produc�vity is 1.4 �mes lower than in other area of central india (singh, 2020a). consequently, adapta�on to climate change has been a core and well-known feature of regional climate and science policies over the last twenty years (ipcc 2014; panda 2016). most updated research has believed that adapta�on to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change is the most successful approach (singh, 2020 a & b; singh and sanatan, 2021; jatav et al., 2022). by adjus�ng environmental and socioeconomic condi�ons, farmers will maintain food, employment and livelihood stability. adapta�on is also used to reduce complica�ons posed by such risks or poten�al risks, such as climate change or adverse weather condi�ons (ipcc 2001). given the frequent geographical impacts of climate change, it is cri�cal that broadbased climate change adapta�on programs suppor�ng smallholder farmers take local needs into account and incorporate learning from recent autonomous and projected adapta�on efforts. in view of the above, this paper aims at iden�fying the determinants which influence and mo�vate farmers to adopt a ra�onal climate-smart adapta�on strategy. the paper has addressed the following key ques�ons: (i) what are the major climate adapta�on strategies adopted by the journal of extension educa�on 6649 farmers, (ii) how a farmer decides to choose a ra�onal adapta�on strategy, and (iii) what are the socioeconomic and biophysical determinants that influence and mo�vate farmers to adopt a ra�onal adapta�on strategy. methodology the present study was conducted in bundelkhand region of u�ar pradesh, india. region lies between the yamuna river and northern scarp of the vindhyan plains of u�ar pradesh state. wheat is the most important food crop in bundelkhand region. its economic ac�vi�es are related to produc�on, processing, distribu�on, and consump�on, which is widely considered a key for economic development, food security, and poverty reduc�on. an extensive field survey was conducted to extract informa�on on farmers' percep�on of climate change and the key determinants (i.e., land size, age, gender, educa�on, access to ins�tu�onal credit and crop insurance). field survey was conducted in aprilmay 2017 during harves�ng �me of rabi season. mul�stage sampling technique was opted for the sample selec�on. in first step, two districts, viz., jhansi and jalaun out of seven districts were randomly chosen. in second step, one development block from each district was chosen purposely. in third step, 2 villages from each development block were chosen purposely. in fourth step, probability propor�onal size (pps) approach was adopted for the selec�on of households. thus, 2 districts, 2 development blocks, 4 villages and 200 samples were selected for the study. binary logis�c regression (blr) model was adopted for iden�fying the key determinants of climate change adapta�on in the sample farmers (singh, 20202a; jatav et al., 2021). blr model was separately used for jhansi and jalaun districts to capture regional heterogeneity in the region. the logis�c distribu�on func�on for the decision on adop�ng adapta�on measures to climate change can be specified as: where; is a probability of deciding to adopt adapta�on strategies (dependent variable), are independent variables, is is the intercept and is the regression coefficient of respec�ve variables. we can write the model in terms of odds as; the dependent variable (adapta�on strategy) is binary, with values as 1 for farmers using at least one of the iden�fied climate adapta�on strategies (table 1) and 0 for farmers using none of the strategies determinants in the adop�on of climate change adapta�on strategies: evidence from wheat farmers in bundelkhand region, india 6650 men�oned. this was done to differen�ate farmers between who adapted and farmers who did not adapted. one of the farmer's adapta�on techniques, including crop p a � e r n c h a n g e , i m p rove d i r r i g a � o n facili�es, and the use of early matured seed varie�es, have iden�fied to climate change. the hypothesized independent variables affec�ng the development of adapta�on s t r a t e g i e s b y f a r m e r s i n c l u d e t h e cumula�ve impact of different factors such a s g e o g r a p h i c a l , s o c i o e c o n o m i c characteris�cs and extended resources for farmers. based on previous research on adapta�on strategies (singh, 2020a & b; ipcc, 2014; panda, 2016), the present study finds the following explanatory variables and analyzed their effect on f a r m e r s a d o p � n g c l i m a t e c h a n g e adjustment strategies (table 1). table 1. descrip�on of the dependent and explanatory variables dependent variables descrip�on cropping pa�ern change categorical (yes= 1, no= 0) improved irriga�on facili�es categorical (yes= 1, no= 0) use of early matured varie�es categorical (yes= 1, no= 0) explanatory variables educa�on categorical ( below secondary = 0, above =1) farmer perceived rainfall was declined categorical (yes = 1, no = 0) farmer perceived temperature was increased categorical (yes = 1, no = 0) land size con�nuous (in acre) farmer has access to ins�tu�onal credit categorical (yes = 1, no = 0) farmer has access to climate informa�on regularly categorical (yes = 1, no = 0) farmer has insured their crop through weather-based crop insurance categorical (yes = 1, no = 0) par�cipa�on in training programme categorical (yes = 1, no = 0) findings and discussion socio-economic characteris�cs of the surveyed households in comparison with those at na�onal level, the socioeconomic characteris�cs of the households represent the region's backwardness. the literacy rate in jalaun and jhansi is slightly less than the na�onal average, i.e., 50.24 percent & 49.76 percent (table 2). in addi�on, the household's average annual income is also modest and varies. the averages of land in both districts are also smaller than in the country (0.26 and 0.35 hectares) (1.18 ha). almost 15 percent of the people belong to the planned divisions of castes and planned tribes in india. in addi�on, 35 percent of jalaun's households and 20 percent of jhansi's h o u s e h o l d s d o n o t h a v e e l e c t r i c i t y connec�on. almost 50 percent & 40 percent of the popula�on of the samples have no sanitary and drinking facili�es within the household. almost 30 percent of the popula�on lives in extreme poverty. in totality, the findings demonstrate that most journal of extension educa�on 6651 farmers' percep�on on climate change figure 1 depicts that farmers are well aware of the changing clima�c condi�ons. about 70 percent in jalaun and 64 percent in jhansi, farmers perceived that rainfall distribu�on had declined over the last five years. likewise, <90 percent of farmers in both districts perceived that the summer season had become rela�vely ho�er in recent years compared with last decade. further, about 88 percent of farmers in jalaun and 98 percent of farmers in jhansi perceived that the frequency of heat-waves had been increased, which was a major factor for mortality in the summer season. < 90 percent of farmers perceived that the water table in the sample villages had been dras�cally declined due to less rainfall and higher water consump�on. therefore, farmers are digging more and deeper tube-wells to meet water demand for agriculture and domes�c purposes. in totality, increase in temperature and decline in rainfall pu�ng stress on the marginalized farming community. the present study's findings are in the same direc�on of hansen et al (2004) and bryan et al (2009). these studies have pointed out that farmers' percep�on of climate change depends on their recent and past experiences. our results are also in the line with indian meteorological department temperature record for the bundelkhand region, which suggests a significant increase 0 in annual temperature by about 0.01 c per year during 1951 to 2017. in the case of rainfall, the actual annual rainfall trend during 1951-2017 showed a decline of 1.41 millimetre per year. the summer and winter rainfall also show sharp decline annually of about -0.59 millimetre and about -0.06 millimetre respec�vely. table 2. socio-economic characteris�cs of surveyed farm households sl.no. household socioeconomic characteris�cs jalaun jhansi india 1 female (%) 44.74 44.18 48.00 2 literate popula�on (%) 50.24 49.76 74.01 3 mean income (us $) 334 374 2198 4 mean land size (acre) 0.26 0.35 1.18 5 mean age of the head of household (years) 31.36 30.04 29.00 6 share of scheduled caste popula�on (%) 13.82 7.81 16.60 7 share of scheduled tribe popula�on (%) 2.80 5.10 8.60 8 share of hindu religion (%) 84.21 84.37 79.80 9 marital status (%) 52.39 53.32 45.60 10 households having electricity connec�on (%) 65.00 80.00 89.70 11 households having sanita�on facility (%) 57.00 51.00 51.77 12 households using improved drinking water facility (%) 61.00 60.00 99.14 13 households below poverty line (%) 29.00 26.00 23.60 source: field survey data, 2017 & census, 2011. note: one us$= 69.49 indian rupees (inr). determinants in the adop�on of climate change adapta�on strategies: evidence from wheat farmers in bundelkhand region, india 6652 a d a p t a � o n st r a t e g i e s a d o p t e d by surveyed farmers figure 2 reflects that farmers have adopted differen�al adapta�on strategies on cropping pa�ern change from water intensive crop (wheat) to low water intensive crop (chickpea) in rabi season. in this connec�on, sta�s�cs reveals that about 82 percent of farmers in jhansi and about 72 percent of farmers in jalaun have changed their cropping pa�ern. further, by u�lising natural resource management techniques and expert advice provided by local agriculture officers, about 62 percent of farmers in jhansi and 52 percent of farmers in jalaun have improved their irriga�on facili�es to get regular and assured water whenever required for irriga�on. as bundelkhand is a dry region, farmers have used sprinklers for efficient use of water. moreover, about 72 percent of farmers in jhansi and 52 percent of farmers in jalaun have used early maturing seed varie�es (emsv) to cope with changing climate. emsv are very useful to have climate resilience prac�ces. they have required less water, �me and inputs compared with tradi�onal seed varie�es. surveyed farmers are growing emsv such as up 2382, which get ready in 109 days for harves�ng. per hectare produc�on (5545 kg/ha) is also rela�vely higher as they are specially designed for dry regions, like bundelkhand region. figure. 1. farmers percep�on on climate change figure. 2 adapta�on strategies of farmers journal of extension educa�on 6653 determinants of climate adapta�on strategies the binary logis�c regression (blr) model results help in iden�fying the d e t e r m i n a n t s o f c l i m a t e a d a p t a � o n strategies namely cropping pa�ern change, improved irriga�on and early maturing varie�es (table 3). the study has used blr model at district-level to capture regional dimensions of climate change adapta�on. results depict that decrease in rainfall mo�vated farmers to change their cropping pa�ern, while restricted to use early maturing varie�es and improve irriga�on in jhansi district and on the other hand, rainfall has posi�vely associated with iden�fy adapta�on strategies in jalaun district (table 3). whereas, temperature, educa�on, land size, par�cipa�on in agricultural training programmes, access of agricultural credit, informa�on of climate, and crop insurance are posi�vely associated with the iden�fying adapta�on strategies in both the districts. the calculated odds ra�o shows that there is 2.54 �mes higher probability to change their cropping pa�ern in favour of low water-intensive crops (i.e., chickpea) from high water-intensive crops (i.e., wheat), if farmers perceived that rainfall will decline in jhansi district. on the other hand, there is 3.24, 2.64 & 1.58 �mes higher probability to change cropping pa�ern, use of early maturing varie�es and will improve irriga�on respec�vely, if farmers perceive that rainfall will decline in jalaun district. further, there is 3 �mes higher probability t o a d o p t r e c o m m e n d e d a d a p t a � o n strategies (early maturing seed variety), if farmers perceive that temperature will be increased in the near future in jhansi district and on the other hand, there is less l i k e l i h o o d t o a d o p t r e c o m m e n d e d strategies in jalaun district compared with jhansi district. educa�on is a vital indicator in the climate change adapta�on strategy. it is expected that educated farmers are more likely to adopt recommended strategies. results from table 3 revealed that there is 2.51 & 3.64 �mes higher probability to change cropping pa�ern and use of early m a t u r i n g v a r i e t y, i f f a r m e r s h a v i n g educa�on-level above from secondary level in jhansi district and on the other hand, there is 1.62, 2.64 & 3.24 �mes higher probability to change cropping pa�ern, use of early maturing varie�es and improved irriga�on, if farmers having educa�on-level above from secondary-level in jalaun district. the odds ra�os of land size depicts that there is 3.24, 2.64 & 4.32 �mes higher p r o b a b i l i t y t o a d o p t r e c o m m e n d e d adapta�on strategies, if farmers having higher land size in jhansi district and on the other hand, odd ra�o shows that rela�vely less likelihoods to implement adapta�on strategies in jalaun district compare to jhansi district. the extension services depict that farmers who par�cipated in the agriculture development programme are rela�vely m o re l i ke l y t o a d o p t re c o m m e n d e d adapta�on strategies in jhansi compared to jalaun. there is 4.26, 2.34 & 3.24 �mes higher probability to adopt recommended strategies in jhansi, while the corresponding figures are only 2.45 & 3.54 for jalaun. determinants in the adop�on of climate change adapta�on strategies: evidence from wheat farmers in bundelkhand region, india sl.no. independent variables jhansi jalaun variables cropping pa�ern change early maturing varie�es improved irriga�on cropping pa�ern change early maturing varie�es 1 rainfall 0.482* (2.54) -0.265* (0.84) -0.632* (0.64) 0.621* (3.24) 0.325* (2.64) 0.531* (1.58) 2 temperature 0.125* (3.28) 0.632* (2.54) 0.745* (3.25) 0.138* (2.88) 0.262* (1.54) 0.145* (1.25) 3 educa�on 0.045* (2.51) 0.038** (3.64) 0.149** (0.91) 0.049** (1.62) 0.472** (2.64) 0.324** (3.24) improved irriga�on journal of extension educa�on6654 further, odd ra�o of access to ins�tu�onal credit reveals that farmers those are availing credit from ins�tu�onal sources are more likely (3.24 �mes higher) improved their i r r i g a � o n s y s t e m i n j h a n s i , w h i l e corresponding figures for jalaun is rela�vely higher than that of jhansi. likewise, odd ra�o of informa�on on climate depicts that farmers having informa�on of changing climate, there is 1.59 & 2.64 �mes higher probability to use early maturing varie�es and improved irriga�on in jhansi and on the other hand, there is 3.64, 3.59 & 1.64 �mes higher probability for adapta�on strategies in jalaun. lastly, the odd ra�o of crop insurance shows that there is 4.95, 3.59 & 2.44 �mes higher probability for iden�fying adapta�on strategies in jhansi, while there is 4.24, 3.29 & 3.82 �mes higher probability to adopt in jalaun. in totality, the likelihood analysis (odd ra�o) reveals that farmers belonging to the jalaun are having higher likelihood for iden�fying adapta�on strategies compared to jhansi. the results are in the same line of m a d d i s i o n ' s ( 2 0 0 6 ) . t h e s e s t u d i e s suggested that educated farmers have more knowledge and informa�on about climate change and agronomic prac�ces that they can use of. more specifically households with larger farm size and family head having higher educa�onal a�ainment are more likely to adopt iden�fied adapta�on strategies. w h i l e i n s � t u � o n a l c re d i t a n d weather-based crop insurance protect them from the adverse impacts of calami�es. microfinance can reduce vulnerability through ex-ante risk reduc�on via livelihood diversifica�on, ex-post risk mi�ga�on via savings and insurance, and finally risk coping via credit. in the absence of insurance, farmers have to rely on coping mechanisms such as withdrawing savings, accessing loans selling assets, or reducing expenditure (felton et al., 2015). riskaverse farmers that can't use these ex-post coping mechanisms have been found to sacrifice total income for income stability. further, pierro and desai (2008) found the weather-based insurance using physical triggers as proxy mechanisms have been more successful than tradi�onal crop insurance in reducing transac�on costs, pay-out �mes, disputes, and asymmetric informa�on problem. table 3. determinants of adapta�on strategies 4 land size 0.238* (3.24) 0.652* (2.64) 0.742* (4.32) 0.634* (2.83) 0.454** (1.89) 0.648* (3.92) 5 training programme 0.421* (4.26) 0.024* (2.34) 0.064* (3.24) 0.421* (2.45) 0.025* (3.54) 0.064* (0.64) 6 agricultural credit 0.246** (0.54) 0.045* (0.45) 0.215** (5.64) 0.846** (2.95) 0.248* (5.64) 0.616* (3.36) 7 informa�on of climate 0.002 *** (0.95) 0.064** (1.59) 0.841* (2.64) 0.692** (3.64) 0.068** (3.59) 0.241* (1.64) 8 crop insurance 0.652 *** (4.95) 0.682** (3.59) 0.021* (2.44) 0.462** (4.24) 0.026** (3.29) 0.266* (3.82) constant -1.616* (0.19) -0.087* (0.91) -0.294(0.74) -0.420* (0.65) -0.348 ** (0.70) 0.694(0.24) lr chi2 28.54 26.43 33.21 15.35 3.32 13.62 prob > chi2 0.0019 0.0031 0.0054 0.0029 0.0062 0.000 pseudo r2 0.8948 0.9521 0.9528 0.9226 0.9381 0.8582 log likelihood -85.842 -76.635 -102.049 -166.246 -168.326 -87.698 no. obs. 100 100 100 100 100 100 sl.no. independent variables jhansi jalaun variables cropping pa�ern change early maturing varie�es improved irriga�on cropping pa�ern change early maturing varie�es improved irriga�on 6655 conclusion c l i m a t e c h a n g e i s a d v e r s e l y affec�ng to farmers across the world. it also increases the degree of vulnerability as majority of the farmers are marginal and have limited resources capacity to cope. further, fragmenta�on of land size, overu�liza�on of natural resources in the declining stage of common property resources are adding an addi�onal layer of suscep�bility in the higher vulnerable system. in order to understand the farmers' percep�on and determina�on of climate change adapta�on, the present study was undertaken on most climate-sensi�ve agroclima�c region of u�ar pradesh, india i.e., bundelkhand region. the results of this study reveal that farmers are well-aware of changing clima�c condi�on. hence, farmers are adjus�ng their farm prac�ces and diversifying their occupa�on to neutralise the adverse effect of climate change. farmers have changed their cropping pa�ern, adopted to prac�ce improved irriga�on, and grow early maturing varie�es as climate adapta�on strategies. the binary determinants in the adop�on of climate change adapta�on strategies: evidence from wheat farmers in bundelkhand region, india source: es�mated from field survey data, 2017. note *, **, and *** indicate 1, 5, 10 percent level of significance respec�vely. values in parentheses are odd ra�os. because of our analysis was carried out at district level, hence, 100 observa�ons are men�oned in the last row of table 3 logis�c regression results confirm that educated farmers having informa�on on changing climate are wisely adjus�ng their farm prac�ces. further, the availability of extension services like access to crop insurance and ins�tu�onal credit also posi�vely influencing farmers' copping behaviour. as far as policy implica�ons from this study are concerned, the study suggests that the development of a common pla�orm for government services is a prerequisite in the region. asymmetric informa�on on climate change is also the main barrier w h i c h re s t r i c t s f a r m e r s f ro m b e � e r u�liza�on of indigenous knowledge. hence, community par�cipa�on and regular training programs in the sample villages are surely benefi�ng farmers to channelize their indigenous knowledge and op�mize local resources which leads to sustainable farming. the results of this study, however, needs to be interpreted with cau�on because of certain limita�ons. first, this study uses small sample size, i.e. 200 respondents from selected two districts of bundelkhand region, excluded 11 districts. therefore, it would be difficult to generalize the findings in the context of the droughtprone regions of india. adapta�ons are varying region-to-region and village-tovillage; therefore, it may be possible to miss o t h e r r e l e v a n t f a r m l e v e l e ff e c � v e a d a p t a � o n m e a s u r e s , w h i c h w o u l d otherwise have been adopted by farmers. second, this study has taken only 10 determinants of climate change adapta�on, excluding other determinants. therefore, results of this study are only valid, if these variables are included into es�ma�on, otherwise results would be biased. finally, indian farming society has complex and divided into castes, classes, religions systems which varies from region-to-region and even household-to-households. hence, it generates scope for future research on farmers 'percep�on of climate change, determinants of climate change adapta�on. references bryan, e., deressa, t.t., gbe�bouo, g.a. & ringler, c. (2009) adapta�on to climate change in ethiopia and south africa: op�on and constraints. environmental science & policy 12(4), 412-42 fenton, a., paavola, j. & tallon�re, a. (2015) microfinance and climate change adapta�on: an overview of the current literature. enterprise development and microfinance 26(3), 262-273. goi .(2008.) inter-ministerial report on d r o u g h t m i � g a � o n s t r a t e g i e s f o r bundelkhand region. government of india, new delhi, india. hansen, j., marx, s. & weber, e. (2004) the role of climate percep�ons, expecta�ons, and forecasts in farmer decision making: the argen�ne pampas and south florida, iri, technical report 04-01. 6656 journal of extension educa�on ipcc (2001) climate change 2001: impacts, adapta�on and vulnerability', contribu�on o f wo r k i n g g r o u p i i t o t h e t h i r d a s s e s s m e n t r e p o r t o f t h e intergovernmental panel on climate change, cambridge university press, cambridge, uk, and new york, u.s.a. ipcc (2014) climate change 2014: impact, adapta�on and vulnerability', contribu�on of the working group ii to the fi�h a s s e s s m e n t r e p o r t o f t h e intergovernmental panel on climate change, geneva, switzerland, 45-62. jatav, s.s., sanatan, n., surendra, m. & sonali, n. (2021) coping to covid-19 in u�ar pradesh, india: evidence from th nsso 76 round data. current urban studies 9(3), 206-217. jatav, s.s., sanatan, n., naveen p.s. & kalu, n. (2022) measuring and mapping food security status of rajasthan, india: a district-level analysis. fron�ers in sustainable food systems 6, 1-17. maddison, d. (2006) the percep�on of an adapta�on to climate change in africa. ceepa. discussion paper no. 10, centre for environmental economics and policy in africa, university of pretoria, pretoria. nhemachena, c. & hassan, r. (2007) microlevel analysis of farmers' adapta�on to climate change in southern africa. ifpri d i s c u s s i o n p a p e r n o . 0 0 7 1 4 . interna�onal food policy research ins�tute, washington, dc. panda, a. (2016) exploring climate change p e r c e p � o n s , r a i n f a l l t r e n d s a n d perceived barriers to adapta�on in a drought affected region in india. natural hazard 84(2), 777-796. pierro, r. & desai, b. (2008) climate insurance for the poor: challenges for targe�ng and par�cipa�on. ids bulle�n, 39, 123-129. sanghi, a. & mendelsohn, r. (2008) the impacts of global warming on farmers in brazil and india. global environmental change 18(4), 655-665. singh, s. & sanatan s. (2014) climate change and agriculture produc�on in india. european academic research 2(6), 12-30. singh, s.& sanatan s. (2018) land inequality and agricultural sustainability in u�ar pradesh, india: a regional analysis. asian journal of science and technology 9(11), 12-32. singh, s. (2019) soil health security in india: insights from soil health card data. research review interna�onal journal of mul�disciplinary 4(3): 56-70. singh, s. (2020a) bridging the gap between biophysical and social vulnerability in rural india: the community livelihood v u l n e r a b i l i t y a p p r o a c h . a r e a development and policy 5(4), 390-441. singh, s. (2020b) farmers' percep�on of c l i m a t e c h a n g e a n d a d a p t a � o n decisions: a micro-level analysis of farmers in bundelkhand region, india. ecological indicators 116, 1-13. 6657determinants in the adop�on of climate change adapta�on strategies: evidence from wheat farmers in bundelkhand region, india journal of extension educa�on6658 singh, s. (2020c) assessing livelihood vulnerability of farmers' in backward regions in india. in d i a n jo u r n a l of agricultural research 54(3), 222-226. singh, s. & sanatan, n. (2020) development of sustainable livelihood security index for different agro-clima�c zones of u�ar pradesh. journal of rural development 39(1), 110-129. singh, s. & sanatan, n. (2021) assessment of climate change impact on wheat yield in western dry region: a district-level analysis. climate change 6(21), 25-34. page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 untitled-1 5651 adoption of kerala agricultural university recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea k.k. anju1 and v.b. padmananabhan2 abstract the study was conducted in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala. ninety farmers engaged in commercial cultivation of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea were selected through three stage random sampling procedure. ten independent variables were selected based on judges’ relevancy rating. majority of the respondents belonged to medium category with respect to adoption. in the case of amaranthus growers, four variables, namely, contact with extension agency, scientific orientation, innovativeness and mass media exposure were found to be significantly and positively related to adoption. education, scientific orientation and innovativeness were found to be significantly and positively related to adoption in the case of vegetable cowpea growers. keywords : adoption, amaranthus, vegetable cowpea, kerala. introduction amaranthus and vegetable cowpea are two important crops commercially cultivated by vegetable growers in kerala. to increase the production of these crops, a package of practices has been developed by kerala agricultural university (kau). for attaining sustainable yield, timely execution of the recommended package is essential. but majority of the farmers are not adopting the recommended package of practices for amaranthus and vegetable cowpea. with this background, the study was undertaken with the following objectives. 1. to study the profile characteristics of commercial growers of journal of extension education vol. 28 no. 2, 2016 1pg scholar & 2 professor, department of agricultural extension, college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, vellayani 695522, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. received : 31-08-2016; accepted : 16-09-2016 amaranthus and vegetable cowpea in thiruvananthapuram district of kerala 2. to study the extent of adoption of kau varieties and selected recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea. 3. to study the relationship of profile characteristics of growers with adoption. methodology for the present study, thiruvananthapuram district of kerala was selected because of the presence of college of agriculture, vellayani thiruvananthapuram from where high 5652 journal of extension education yielding varieties of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea are being released and distributed. selection of respondents was through three stage random sampling procedure. in the first stage, from the list of blocks having larger area under amaranthus and vegetable cowpea cultivation, three blocks were randomly selected, namely, nemom, kazhakoottam and vamanapuram from the eleven blocks of thiruvananthapuram district. in the second stage, in each block, from the list of panchayats having larger area under amaranthus and vegetable cowpea cultivation, one panchayat was selected randomly, namely, kalliyoor, kazhakoottam and pullampara. in the third stage, from the lists of farmers engaged in commercial cultivation of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea, fifteen amaranthus growers and fifteen vegetable cowpea growers were selected randomly, thus making a total of ninety farmers. ten independent variables were selected based on judges’ relevancy rating which were measured using suitable devices. to study the rate of adoption, a list of practices was prepared based on the details given in kau (2011). the extent of adoption was calculated using adoption quotient for measuring adoption behaviour as developed by chattopadhyay (1963) and modified by singh and singh (1967). findings and discussion the distribution of amaranthus growers and vegetable cowpea growers based on their profile characteristics is provided in table 1. table 1. distribution of amaranthus growers and vegetable cowpea growers based on their profile characteristics sl. no. profile characteristics category amaranthus vegetable cowpea frequency percentage frequency percentage 1. age young age ( < 35 years) 0 0 0 0 middle age (35 -55 years) 32 71.11 30 66.67 old age ( >55 years) 13 28.89 15 33.33 5653 sl. no. profile characteristics category amaranthus vegetable cowpea frequency percentage frequency percentage 2. education illiterate 4 12 13 13 3 8.89 26.67 28.89 28.89 6.67 3 13 15 9 5 6.67 28.89 33.33 20.00 11.11 primary school 12 26.67 13 28.89 high school 13 28.89 15 33.33 higher secondary school 13 28.89 9 20.00 college education 3 6.67 5 11.11 3. experience in vegetable cultivation low 5 11.11 1 2.22 medium 15 33.33 18 40 high 25 55.56 26 57.78 4. area under vegetable cultivation low (up to 0.1 ha) 17 37.78 9 20.00 medium (0.1 – 0.4 ha) 27 60.00 28 62.22 high (> 0.4 ha) 1 2.22 8 17.78 5. contact with extension agency low 10 22.22 5 11.11 medium 27 60.00 31 68.89 high 8 17.78 9 20.00 6. scientific orientation low 9 20.00 10 22.22 medium 26 57.78 29 64.44 high 10 22.22 6 13.33 table 1 contd. adoption of kerala agricultural university recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea 5654 journal of extension education sl. no. profile characteristics category amaranthus vegetable cowpea frequency percentage frequency percentage 7. innovativeness low 8 17.78 7 15.56 medium 28 62.22 27 60.00 high 9 20.00 11 24.44 8. mass media exposure low 6 13.33 5 11.11 medium 25 55.56 32 71.11 high 14 31.33 8 17.78 9. economic motivation low 6 13.33 4 8.89 medium 24 53.33 35 77.78 high 15 33.33 6 13.33 10. risk orientation low 4 8.89 6 13.33 medium 32 71.11 31 68.89 high 9 20.00 8 17.78 table 2. distribution of farmers according to their adoption of the kau varieties and selected recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea sl. no category amaranthus vegetable cowpea score range frequency percentage score range frequency percentage 1. low <15.25 10 22.22 < 25.60 11 24.44 2. medium 15.25 – 57.78 27 60.00 25.60 – 74.71 26 57.78 3. high > 57.78 8 17.78 > 74.71 8 17.78 4. mean 36.51 50.19 5. sd 21.27 24.52 a perusal of table 2 reveals that majority of the amaranthus growers (60 per cent) and vegetable cowpea growers (57.78 per cent) were having medium level in adoption, followed by 22.22 per cent of amaranthus growers and 24.44 table 1 contd. 5655 per cent of vegetable cowpea growers who were low adopters of the kau varieties and selected recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea. only 17.78 per cent of the amaranthus growers and vegetable cowpea growers belonged to high adoption category. the adoption percentage of kau varieties and selected recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea are given in table 3. in the case of amaranthus, all the respondents had adopted the practice of direct sowing. the crop was harvested thirty days after sowing for marketing. thus transplanting was not done. but in kau (2011), package of practices recommendations for transplant amaranthus was given. so from the above table, it could be seen that practices such as spacing and application of urea (1%) after harvest were not adopted by any of the respondents. as much as 80 per cent of the farmers adopted the recommended varieties, arun and co – 1 which were well accepted in the study area. but the rest 20 per cent of the farmers cultivated other local and hybrid varieties because according to them, the red colour of arun variety was gradually reducing which affected the market value of the crop. they also opined that even though the local and hybrid varieties that they cultivated yield better than the recommended varieties, arun variety tasted well when compared to other varieties. adoption of kerala agricultural university recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea table 3. adoption of kau varieties and selected recommended practices of amaranthus among farmers sl. no. practice adopted (%) not adopted (%) 1 variety 80.00 20 2 spacing (30 x 20cm) 0 100 3 application of nitrogen (50 kg/ha) 22.31 77.69 4 application of phosphorous (50 kg/ha) 24.84 75.16 5 application of potash (50 kg/ha) 31.57 68.43 6 application of farmyard manure (50 t / ha as basal dose) 71.36 28.64 7 application of urea (1%) after harvest 0 100 8 application of malathion against leaf webber (spray malathion 0.1 % or dust malathion 10 % dp) 0 100 5656 journal of extension education only less than 35 per cent of the respondents applied the recommended dose of npk fertilizers. since the crop duration was only one month, the amount of fertilizers applied by the farmers was less than the recommended dose. about 71.36 per cent of the farmers applied the recommended dose of farm yard manure which constituted poultry manure and cow dung. malathion spray which was recommended under severe conditions of leaf webber attack was not practiced by any respondent. instead of that, table 4. adoption of kau varieties and selected recommended practices of vegetable cowpea among farmers sl. no practice adopted (%) not adopted (%) 1. variety 67.54 32.46 2. seed rate (4 – 5 kg/ha) 62.31 37.69 3. spacing (2 x 2 m) 36.73 63.27 4. application of farmyard manure (20 t/ha) 69.14 30.86 5. seed inoculation with rhizobium 33.97 66.03 6. application of nitrogen (20 kg/ha) 42.27 57.73 7. application of phosphorous (30 kg/ha) 38.68 61.32 8. application of potash (10 kg/ha) 36.52 63.48 10. pest control measures (as recommended by kau) 51.10 48.9 11. disease control measures (as recommended by kau) 44.36 55.64 12. use of pseudomonas 64.70 35.3 13. application of neem cake 58.52 41.48 other powerful chemicals such as radar (bifenthrin) were used by some farmers. from table 4, it could be seen that about 67.54 per cent of the commercial vegetable cowpea cultivators adopted the recommended varieties. among them, vellayani jyothika was adopted by 47.03 per cent, lola by 9.21 per cent, vyjayanthi by 4.3 per cent and githika by 7 per cent. about 33 per cent adopted other local, hybrid and selection varieties. lola and vyjayanthi were the only two varieties which could withstand the extreme summer prevalent during april – may months. 5657 only 62.31 per cent adopted the recommended seed rate and about 69.14 per cent adopted the recommended dose of farmyard manure. adoption percentage of recommended spacing was only 36.73 per cent because majority of them practiced closer spacing to get increased yield. seed inoculation with rhizobium was done by only 33.97 per cent. use of rhizobium was less mainly due to the non – availability of the same. also, most of the farmers were not exposed to the utility of rhizobium. the percentage of respondents who adopted n, p and k fertilizers were 42.27, 38.68 and 36.52 respectively adoption of kerala agricultural university recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea table 5. relationship between the profile characteristics of the respondents and adoption of kau varieties and selected recommended practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea sl. no. profile characteristics correlation coefficient (r) amaranthus vegetable cowpea 1 age -0.229 0.099 2 education 0.041 0.365* 3 experience -0.055 0.077 4 area under cultivation -0.203 -0.270 5 contact with extension agency 0.498** 0.152 6 scientific orientation 0.302* 0.442** 7 innovativeness 0.345* 0.326* 8 mass media exposure 0.428** 0.179 9 economic motivation 0.146 0.127 10 risk orientation -0.212 -0.126 *significant at 5 % level, ** significant at 1 % level which was less than 50 per cent. the rest adopted higher than the recommended dose. about 51 per cent and 44 per cent of the respondents had taken recommended control measures against pests and diseases respectively. adoption of pseudomonas was 64.70 per cent and that of neem cake was 58.52 per cent. relationship between profile characteristics and adoption in the case of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea farmers, scientific orientation and innovativeness were found to have a significant and positive relationship with adoption (table 5). farmers who were scientifically oriented 5658 had correct perception about the new technologies. the correct knowledge helped to create a favourable attitude towards the improved technologies which led to their adoption. also, innovative farmers had more knowledge about the recommended practices which led to better adoption of the same. in the case of amaranthus growers, contact with extension agency and mass media exposure had a significant and positive relationship with adoption other than scientific orientation and innovativeness. majority of the farmers had contact with extension agencies, attended various trainings conducted by krishi bhavans and participated in various extension programmes. these would have increased their level of awareness and knowledge and developed a favourable attitude leading to adoption. in the case of vegetable cowpea farmers, education exhibited a significant and positive relationship with adoption. through education, level of knowledge of the farmers might have enhanced which resulted in better adoption. also, educated farmers had an opportunity to adopt the kau practices because of their greater exposure and interaction within and outside the social system. so, it could be concluded that direct and indirect effects of education might have contributed to the positive and significant relationship with adoption. conclusion the adoption of kau practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea in thiruvananthapuram district was found to be medium. adoption level of the recommended kau practices of amaranthus and vegetable cowpea could be increased by providing the farmers proper awareness and training which would help them in improving the productivity. references chattopadhyay, s.n. (1963). a study of some psychological correlates of adoption of innovation in farming. unpublished ph.d. thesis, iari, new delhi. kau [kerala agricultural university]. (2011). package of practices recommendations: crops (14th ed.). kerala agricultural university, thrissur. singh, k.m.p. & singh, r.p. (1967). ginger cultivation in himachal pradesh. indian farming. 30(11), 25-36. journal of extension education pages 2021-3.cdr introduction agroforestry is an integrated land use s y s t e m t h a t c o m b i n e s e l e m e n t s o f agriculture (agro) and trees (forestry) in a sustainable produc�on system (briggs, 2010). with an emphasis on managing rather than reducing complexity it promotes func�onal bio-diverse systems that balance p r o d u c � v i t y w i t h e n v i r o n m e n t a l enhancement and protec�on. agroforestry systems are classified as agrosilviculture (trees and crops) or silvopastoral (trees and animals). systems can combine produc�on of a wide range of products including food, fuel, fodder and forage, fiber, �mber gums and resins, medicinal products, recrea�on and ecological services. tree species can be �mber, fruit, nut, coppice or a combina�on, and the alleys in between tree rows can produce cereals, vegetables, fruit, forage and animals. careful selec�on of crop components is required in rela�on to market outlets, local climate, soil, alley spacing, tree height, �ming of plan�ng and harves�ng, tree leaf produc�on and shading. 6632 determinants affec�ng the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on among smallholder farmers in zimbabwe c.t. gadzirayi, j. chimvuramahwe and a. nhundu abstract the main goals of silvopastoral produc�on are to increase the quality and produc�on of fodder and promote the conserva�on of soil and biodiversity. despite its achievements as an approach, it has not been fully prac�ced by small holder farmers. the study sought to determine the factors influencing the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on in chikwaka communal area in goromonzi district of zimbabwe. simple random sampling technique was used involving sixty-six respondents. factors that affect adop�on were es�mated by binary logis�c regression model. variables that significantly affected the adop�on of silvopastoral were land size, number of ca�le owned as well as household size. the results revealed that uptake level of silvopastoral is s�ll low . therefore, the con�nuous effort to improve livestock herd under smallholder farmers through silvopastoral, should be taken as a priority to encourage more farmers to adopt the system. keywords: silvopastoral; adop�on; uptake level ; farmer; zimbabwe research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.3, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.3.33.6632-6646 faculty of agriculture and environmental science, department of agricultural economics, educa�on and extension, bindura university of science educa�on, zimbabwe received: 24-09-2021; accepted: 13-08-2022 with both ecological and economic interac�ons between trees and crops and livestock, the total produc�vity within these s y s t e m s i s u s u a l l y h i g h e r t h a n i n m o n o c u l t u r e s y s t e m s d u e t o complementa�on in resource capture. this study focused mainly on silvopastoral (trees and livestock) in goromonzi district of zimbabwe. livestock are key components of a f r i c a n f a r m i n g s y s t e m s a n d a r e increasingly viewed as important pathways for rural households to escape poverty (mandleni, 2011). low quality and quan�ty of feeds are a major constraint limi�ng livestock produc�vity among smallholder farmers due to climate change. african farmers have fed tree foliage to their livestock for centuries, using wild browse or trees that grow naturally on their farms. new agroforestry systems for feeding livestock have emerged over the last three decades, involving the plan�ng of mostly exo�c species, grown most frequently in hedges along field boundaries or along the contours to limit soil erosion. trials and demonstra�on farms were established in some rural communi�es of zimbabwe such as muzarabani, mutoko, mt darwin, sadziwa in manicaland, and masvingo in a bid to test and promote agroforestry adop�on (mutambara et al, 2012). the problem is that despite the benefits of agroforestry to smallholder farmers, there has been low and uneven adop�on rate of agroforestry in zimbabwe's smallholder areas. several studies that have been carried out in the wards par�cularly on silvopastoral system involving fodder produc�on have shown the trend of farmers adop�ng agroforestry technologies, benefits of agroforestry as well as implica�on of silvopastoral system on livelihood of smallholder livestock farmers. however, li�le informa�on is known about the factors that influence the farmers' decision w h e t h e r t o ve nt u re i n s i l vo p a s t o ra l produc�on or not. this implies that the literature shows glaring gaps that demand u r g e n t a � e n � o n e s p e c i a l l y o n t h e determinants which affect the adop�on of silvopastoral prac�ces. it is therefore important to understand the reasons behind this so as to influence policy makers on the alloca�on of scarce resources to facilitate improvement in adop�on of agroforestry technologies among rural communi�es. g i v e n t h e p r o fi t a b i l i t y o f agroforestry technologies ( ajayi et al, 2008) a n d t h e i m p a c t t h a t t h e y h a v e o n households, livestock and the environment kwesiga et al., 2003), efforts are being made to scale up the adop�on of the silvopastoral systems and enhance its acceptability among many more poten�al farmers who could benefit from the system. results of studies conducted in the southern african region show that farmers do appreciate 6633determinants affec�ng the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on among smallholder farmers in zimbabwe 6634 agroforestry and its poten�al linkage to food security, livestock improvement and household welfare indicators, but they face some challenges to the widespread uptake of agroforestry including land constraints, property rights, availability of seeds, and knowledge-intensive nature of the systems. a synthesis of the studies on the adop�on of agroforestry in zambia (ajayi et al, 2008) revealed that the adop�on of agroforestry is not a direct rela�onship based on the technological advantages of an a g r o f o r e s t r y p r a c � c e a l o n e , b u t i s influenced by several factors. the broad category of the factors are technologyspecific (e.g. soil type, management regime), household-specific factors (e.g. farmer p e rc e p � o n s , re s o u rc e e n d o w m e n t , household size), policy and ins�tu�ons c o n t e x t w i t h i n w h i c h a g r o f o r e s t r y technologies is disseminated (input and output prices, land tenure and property rights), and geo-spa�al such as tree species p e r f o r m a n c e a c r o s s b i o p h y s i c a l condi�ons, loca�on of village (ajayi et al, 2008). this study, therefore sought to establish the varia�on of factors affec�ng a d o p � o n of s i l vo p a s t o r a l sys t e m i n goromonzi of mashonaland east province in zimbabwe. problem statement livestock rearing, ca�le, dairy and goats, is quite common and fodder trees for supplemen�ng livestock food during the dry season are very important. during the rainy season, these animals are tethered and their movements restricted. during the dry season, however the animals are le� to graze on free range. this is the �me when t h e g r a s s i s s c a r c e a n d t h e r e f o r e supplementary feeding becomes necessary. there is then great need to encourage the establishment of fodder plots to help meet fodder demands throughout the year and to maintain reserves during dry periods. these systems can also help to maintain the stability and fer�lity of grazing lands. bought – in commercial supplements to feed animals are so expensive to most rural farmers. in addi�on, some of the feed ingredients are no longer available on the market. development of the livestock feeding systems that integrate tree fodder is a promising alterna�ve to sustainable supplementa�on during lean period, but despite the well documented advantages, adop�on is s�ll low. objec�ves the main objec�ve of this study was to establish the determinants on the adop�on of silvopastoral system by communal farmers in chikwaka area of goromonzi district in zimbabwe. specific objec�ves the specific objec�ves of this study were to: l iden�fy socio-economic factors that influence smallholder farmers to a d o p t s i l vo p a s t o r a l p ro d u c � o n system. 6635 agroforestry and its poten�al linkage to food security, livestock improvement and household welfare indicators, but they face some challenges to the widespread uptake of agroforestry including land constraints, property rights, availability of seeds, and knowledge-intensive nature of the systems. a synthesis of the studies on the adop�on of agroforestry in zambia (ajayi et al, 2008) revealed that the adop�on of agroforestry is not a direct rela�onship based on the technological advantages of an a g r o f o r e s t r y p r a c � c e a l o n e , b u t i s influenced by several factors. the broad category of the factors are technologyspecific (e.g. soil type, management regime), household-specific factors (e.g. farmer p e rc e p � o n s , re s o u rc e e n d o w m e n t , household size), policy and ins�tu�ons c o n t e x t w i t h i n w h i c h a g r o f o r e s t r y technologies is disseminated (input and output prices, land tenure and property rights), and geo-spa�al such as tree species p e r f o r m a n c e a c r o s s b i o p h y s i c a l condi�ons, loca�on of village (ajayi et al, 2008). this study, therefore sought to establish the varia�on of factors affec�ng a d o p � o n of s i l vo p a s t o r a l sys t e m i n goromonzi of mashonaland east province in zimbabwe. problem statement livestock rearing, ca�le, dairy and goats, is quite common and fodder trees for supplemen�ng livestock food during the dry season are very important. during the rainy season, these animals are tethered and their movements restricted. during the dry season, however the animals are le� to graze on free range. this is the �me when t h e g r a s s i s s c a r c e a n d t h e r e f o r e supplementary feeding becomes necessary. there is then great need to encourage the establishment of fodder plots to help meet fodder demands throughout the year and to maintain reserves during dry periods. these systems can also help to maintain the stability and fer�lity of grazing lands. bought – in commercial supplements to feed animals are so expensive to most rural farmers. in addi�on, some of the feed ingredients are no longer available on the market. development of the livestock feeding systems that integrate tree fodder is a promising alterna�ve to sustainable supplementa�on during lean period, but despite the well documented advantages, adop�on is s�ll low. objec�ves the main objec�ve of this study was to establish the determinants on the adop�on of silvopastoral system by communal farmers in chikwaka area of goromonzi district in zimbabwe. specific objec�ves the specific objec�ves of this study were to l iden�fy socio-economic factors that influence smallholder farmers to a d o p t s i l vo p a s t o r a l p ro d u c � o n determinants affec�ng the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on among smallholder farmers in zimbabwe data collec�on a structured ques�onnaire was used to collect data; the ques�onnaire c o n t a i n e d i n f o r m a � o n o n g e n e r a l socioeconomic characteris�cs, agricultural prac�ces related to silvopastoral, factors affec�ng silvopastoral in the community and economic status of farmers. the local language “shona” was used to conduct i n t e r v i e w s a n d t h e re s p o n s e s w e re recorded and translated into english. the study considered various silvopastoral systems that include fodder trees (leucaena, cajanas cajan, and sesbania sesban and fruit trees), live fences and sca�ered trees in pastureland. a farmer was considered an adopter if he/she was prac�cing at least one of these systems and non-adopters, if not into any silvopastoral system. the primary data that was used in this study was collected through household interviews. the ques�onnaires were administered to a total of 66 households comprising of two categories of farmers namely silvopastoral adopters, and nonadopters for the purpose of collec�ng both quan�ta�ve and qualita�ve data. the main aim of undertaking the survey was to solicit smallholder communal farmer perspec�ves o n s i l vo p a s t o r a l p ro d u c � o n a n d i t s sustainability. in addi�on, the survey sought to iden�fy socio-economic factors that affect the adop�on of silvopastoral system in the smallholder farming sector. in addi�on to the primary data collec�on ac�vi�es described above, secondary data from previously published studies and tabular datasets as well data from forest commission (file records) was collected on the general socioeconomic characteris�cs of the district. analy�cal tools descrip�ve sta�s�cs all quan�ta�ve data was captured using spss 16 and summarized using descrip�ve sta�s�cs. the descrip�ve sta�s�cs were used to start the discussion on the research hypotheses. frequency t a b l e s w e r e u s e d t o a n a l y z e t h e demographic characteris�cs of farmers who adopted silvopastoral, and those farmers who never adopted the system. in addi�on, r e a s o n s f o r a d o p � n g o r r e j e c � n g silvopastoral, land size and household size status were analyzed using frequency tables. the logis�c binary regression model the logis�c regression model was used to determine the variables affec�ng the likelihood of a household to adopt the silvopastoral system. this model was also used to assess the factors affec�ng the likelihood of a household to con�nue silvopastoral or reject the silvopastoral system. the logis�c binary regression model was used to test the hypotheses that s o c i o e c o n o m i c f a c t o r s i n fl u e n c e 6636 journal of extension educa�on 6637 smallholder farmers to adopt silvopastoral a n d c o n � n u e o r d i s c o n � n u e t h e agroforestry system. the logit model was selected because there are no condi�ons to be met by data collected for analysis and the tool is easy interpret. logis�c binary model was first carried out to analyze the factors that are significant in determining who prac�ced silvopastoral system or not. the model used is represented by the equa�on: this specifica�on, the dependent variable carries 1 if the household is an adopter and 0 = non adopter (adopter = 1, otherwise = 0). * y = ln ﴾ p /1-p ﴿ =β + β cattle + i i 0 1 β educlvl + β marstatus+ β hhsize + 2 3 4 β landsize + β occupation + e5 6 where, β is the intercept term, β to β 0 1 9 are unknown parameters to be es�mated and y* is the adop�on.νi is the error term, βj is the coefficient for the jth explanatory variable xj, pi is the probability of household who adopted silvopastoral. a number of goodness of fit models can be applied to test significance of the logis�c regression model. in the model three measures of goodness of fit were adopted. these were hosmer lemshow test, cox and snell‟s r-square, nagelkerke‟s r-square. independent variables and their rela�onship to the dependent variables determinants affec�ng the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on among smallholder farmers in zimbabwe 6638 findings and discussion characteris�cs of silvopastoral system adopters and non-adopters the characteris�cs of silvopastoral system adopters and non-adopters are presented in table 1. journal of extension educa�on 6639 table 1: demographic structure of households determinants affec�ng the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on among smallholder farmers in zimbabwe silvopastoral produc�on reasons for adop�ng and rejec�ng the silvopastoral produc�on results in the table disclose that m o s t h o u s e h o l d s w h o c o n � n u e d silvopastoral system are doing so mainly because it is a good and sustainable farming method as revealed by a high propor�on of households (43.4%). nonetheless there are some (39.1%) doing so simply because they a r e e a r n i n g g o o d y i e l d s f r o m t h e silvopastoral system. the remaining figure of farmers iden�fied that the system mi�gates against climate change as trees p ro v i d e s h a d e , fi re w o o d a s w e l l a s stabilizing soil erosion. 6640 the most important reason is that silvopastoral produc�on is labor intensive (50%). this suggests that farmers should move from the cut and carry method to insitu method of providing fodder to animals in a bid to lessen labor demands associated with harves�ng of fodder. secondly, some farmers who withdrawn silvopastoral system, did so because they are no longer receiving inputs from both government and n g o s ( 3 0 % ) . w h i l e o t h e r f a r m e r s men�oned that there are no benefits one can derive from silvopastoral system, others highlighted that tree take �me to mature. however, tree species that takes very short period of �me to mature like calliandra, where fodder can be harvested within the period of 12 months, claims to sort out the problem. addi�onally, to the reason given a b o v e f o r c o n � n u i n g / r e j e c � n g silvopastoral, households were further asked. the table below shows farmers” opinion for con�nuing silvopastoral. table 3: farmers opinion for con�nuing silvopastoral system according to farmers' judgment, the central reason for con�nuing silvopastoral system is that of ge�ng high and stable yield as revealed by 50% of farmers that con�nued silvopastoral system. apart from that, economic viability, mi�ga�ng against climate change as well as soil, water and moisture conserva�on are some of the table 2: reasons for con�nuing and discon�nuing silvopastoral system journal of extension educa�on table 4: silvopastoral system adop�on logis�c regression 6641 details for con�nuing silvopastoral system as shown by small magnitudes of farmers. it is inspiring to note that most households t h at co n� n u e d s i l vo p a s t o ra l sys t e m appreciates that silvopastoral system allows farmers to realize high and stable yields (50%). a greater percentage, 83 % revealed that most farmers discon�nue because they p e rc e i v e d t h e s y s t e m a s l a b o r i o u s . according to these farmers the prac�ce requires the farmer to invest a lot of labor in cut and carry of fodder. the farmers suggested that for silvopastoral produc�on to succeed there is need for rigorous trainings of fodder banks, pastures and live fences, and con�nuous support from extension as well as awareness campaigns on how silvopastoral farming mi�gates against climate change. thus, without these, it will be difficult to sustain silvopastoral produc�on and consequently its cherished goals will not be realized. another group of farmers suggested that policy frameworks that support the silvopastoral system should not be ignored to up scale the uptake level of this agroforestry system. the policy should be in a posi�on to guide the adopters towards achieving certain targeted millennium development goals which benefit the society, for example achieving food security through relying on agroforestry systems that mi�gate against climate change, thus enhancing farmers to survive despite the s o c i o e c o n o m i c a n d e n v i r o n m e n t a l challenges posed by climate change. factors affec�ng adop�on of silvopastoral system outcomes for the logis�c regression on silvopastoral system are shown in table 4. determinants affec�ng the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on among smallholder farmers in zimbabwe 6642 from table 4, number of ca�le owned, household land size and household size significantly affect adop�on of silvopastoral system. on the other hand, gender, occupa�on, marital status and educa�on level do not significantly affect adop�on of silvopastoral system. number of ca�le owned the variable number of ca�le owned is significant at 5%. the coefficient of the variable which is posi�ve indicates that households with more ca�le have higher probability of adop�ng silvopastoral system than households with less ca�le. the value of exp (b) is 7.569. this means that a unit increase in the number of ca�le owned increases the odds of that household to adopt silvopastoral system. in other words, households with more ca�le are more likely to adopt silvopastoral system than those with less or no ca�le. household size the variable household size is significant at 5%. the coefficient of the variable is posi�ve. this means that households with larger household size are likely to adopt silvopastoral system than households with less labor. the value of exp (b) is 5.164 implies that a unit increase in the household size increases the odds of the household to adopt silvopastoral system. more household members who are ac�vely involved in agricultural ac�vi�es means more labor under silvopastoral system especially under the cash and carry method of collec�ng fodder which is labor intensive. land size the variable land size is significant at 5%. the coefficient of the variable is posi�ve. this means that households with larger land sizes are more likely to adopt and c o n � n u e s i l v o p a s t o r a l s y s t e m t h a n households with smaller land sizes. the value of exp (b) is 7.762 implies that a unit increase in the land size increases the odds of the household to adopt silvopastoral system. socioeconomic a�ributes the results exposed that number of ca�le owned, household land size and household size significantly affect adop�on of silvopastoral system. on the other hand, gender, occupa�on, marital status and educa�on level do not significantly affect adop�on of silvopastoral system. outcomes revealed that households with more ca�le are more likely to adopt silvopastoral system than those with less or no ca�le. apart from that, households with larger land sizes are more likely to adopt and c o n � n u e s i l v o p a s t o r a l s y s t e m t h a n households with smaller land sizes. land size had a posi�ve influence on adop�on of agroforestry prac�ces. as the land size increases, the model advocates that adop�on of agroforestry technologies also increases. this could be because farmers with extra land are likely to use it for experimen�ng new technologies. the findings of this study concur with the results of studies conducted in the southern 6643 african region by kwesiga et al., (2003) that revealed that farmers do appreciate agroforestry and its poten�al linkage to food security, livestock improvement and household welfare indicators, but they face some challenges to the widespread uptake of agroforestry including land constraints. the results showed that households with larger household size are likely to adopt silvopastoral system than households with less labor. throughout the household interviews and focus group discussions farmers expressed concern on various ac�vi�es connected with silvopastoral p r o d u c � o n c h i e fl y o n f o d d e r b a n k establishment, collec�on and tree fodder m a n a g e m e n t . t h i s i s b e c a u s e m o re household members who are ac�vely involved in agricultural ac�vi�es means more labor under silvopastoral system especially under the cut and carry method of collec�ng fodder which is labor intensive, hence empowering households who have larger household size to adopt the perceived laborious agroforestry system. similar findings also noted that families with larger household sizes are more likely to adopt agroforestry system (muchinapaya, 2012). it came out clear that gender, occupa�on, marital status as well as educa�on level insignificantly affects adop�on of silvopastoral system. this concurs with the findings of ajayi et al., (2008) who found out that farmer's level of educa�on was not a significant determinant of adop�on of technology. however, this differs to the findings of mutambara et al., (2012) who found out that the number of years in educa�on had a posi�ve influence in adop�on of agroforestry prac�ces, and this denotes that the more educated the head of household, the more the probability that the household will adopt. this suggests that adop�on of certain innova�ons depends with the type of innova�on under implementa�on, for example agroforestry entails use of indigenous knowledge systems where almost if not all zimbabwean ci�zens do appreciate the benefits of trees, to include source of fuel wood and shade as w e l l a s c o o l i n g t h e s u r r o u n d i n g environment. in zimbabwe, each and every year, there is a tree plan�ng day, this enhances awareness on how trees play a significant role in our lives. all these advocates use of indigenous knowledge systems which are different from other innova�ons like use of informa�on and c o m m u n i c a � o n te c h n o l o g y w h i c h demands scien�fic knowledge. this implies that each and every zimbabwean ci�zen do a p p re c i a t e t h e p o s i � ve i n t e ra c � o n s between trees and livestock despite gender differences, type of occupa�on, whether one is married or not, as well as the level of e d u c a � o n a � a i n e d , s o d e s p i t e t h e varia�ons in level of educa�on a�ained, the factors men�oned above insignificantly affect adop�on of silvopastoral systems due to indigenous knowledge systems used by farmers. 6644 differences in socioeconomic a�ributes as far as gender is concerned, the re s u l t s re v e a l e d t h a t 6 9 . 7 % o f t h e households are headed by males whilst 30.3% are headed by females. when the data was disaggregated by silvopastoral status, the same picture s�ll persists with most households being predominantly headed by males. this depic�on resonates so well with what is found in rural areas of zimbabwe whereby headship of the h o us e h o l d i s b e s towe d to ma l e s by t r a d i � o n a l l a w s o r re l i g i o u s b e l i e f s (muchinapaya, 2012). it arose out clear that, households who never adopted silvopastoral system is 52.4 years, and for those who con�nued with silvopastoral is 40.6 years whereas the households that discon�nued silvopastoral is 40.2 years. however, this tallies with the concept that silvopastoral system is rela�vely labor intensive in terms of cu�ng and carrying fodder for livestock and hence the prac�ce is employed by ac�ve and middle-aged farmers in the communal areas of zimbabwe. when equa�ng the average number of household members who never adopted silvopastoral system to those who adopted the farming system, households that never adopted silvopastoral have less members (5 people) than households that adopted silvopastoral (6 people). this portrait resonates well with the asser�on that silvopastoral farming prac�ces (fodder collec�on) is labor intensive and henceforth it's undertaken by households that have more people involved in agricultural ac�vi�es, which is in line with the findings done by thangata (2003) who found that farmers went on to modify a familiarized agroforestry technology in zomba, malawi in response to low labor availability. the results disclosed that the average land size of household members who never adopted the silvopastoral system against those who adopted the farming system, households that never adopted silvopastoral have smaller land size (2.9 hectares) than households that con�nued silvopastoral (4.6 hectares). this print resonates well with the asser�on that silvopastoral farming demands more land size for pastures and fodder bank to sustain livestock with abundant supplements and h e n c e f o r w a r d i t ' s u n d e r t a k e n b y households that have larger land sizes ( m u c h i n a p a y a , 2 0 1 2 ) . t h e r e s u l t s harmonize with related literature done by ajayi (2008) in zambia who found that land size has a construc�ve effect on adop�on because farmers with more cul�vatable land are more likely to set aside a piece of land for fodder trees without impac�ng much nega�vely on land available to grow food crops or disturbing household food security. from the preceding analysis it can be briefed that there are differences and similari�es in terms of gender, age, 6645 household size and land size between h o u s e h o l d s t h a t n e v e r a d o p t e d s i l v o p a s t o r a l s y s t e m , c o n � n u e d silvopastoral and those that discon�nued the agroforestry system. uptake level of silvopastoral it came out clear that adop�on level of silvopastoral system is s�ll low as revealed by 42% of households that adopted the agroforestry system. this agrees with the findings done by mwase et al., (2015), who found that adop�on of agroforestry prac�ces is s�ll low in southern a f r i c a . l o w a d o p � o n d u e t o l a n d constraints, household size and ca�le ownership implies that extension agents are of chief importance in changing the mindset of farmers towards adop�ng silvopastroral systems. conclusion t h e c o n c l u s i o n t o a d o p t silvopastoral system or not is mainly strongminded by the number of ca�le owned, household size and land size. it is concluded that silvopastoral produc�on among smallholder farmers can be sustained if there is an increase in number of ca�le owned by households. land constraints reduce the adop�on of silvopastoral produc�on by communal farmers. the study established that, the decision to c o n � n u e /d i s c o n � n u e s i l v o p a s t o r a l produc�on is mainly influenced by the educa�on level of the household head, the number of ca�le owned, occupa�on, household size, land size and marital status. the uptake level of silvopastoral system by farmers is s�ll low (42%). i t i s i m p o r t a n t t o c o n � n u e monitoring farmers who have adopted the technology since its incep�on, in order to e n s ure i nte n s i ve s uppo r t fro m b oth government and private stakeholders. in o r d e r t o p r o m o t e t h e a d o p � o n o f silvopastoral system by the elderly farmers, it is advisable to resort from cut and carry method of collec�ng fodder to the in-situ method so as to reduce the labor demands. fast growing tree species like leaucaena that only takes six months to mature should be used as compared to some species like calliandra that takes the whole year. apart from that, players who are promo�ng silvopastoral produc�on system like g o v e r n m e n t d e p a r t m e n t s ( f o r e s t c o m m i s s i o n a n d a g r i t e x ) , s h o u l d collaborate with private players and other stakeholders who are promo�ng livestock produc�on in a bid to improve livestock produc�on as the results revealed that an increase in one unit of ca�le results to an increase in adop�on of silvopastoral system. idle land in the community should be distributed to those households that are interested in silvopastoral produc�on as this leads to an increase in adop�on of the s y s t e m . t h e s i l v o p a s t o r a l p r a c � c e s recommended for farmers should be tailormade to conforming to the prevalent socioeconomic condi�ons of the par�cular community. 6646 references ajayi o. c, akinnifesi f k, sileshi g, chekeredza sebas�an & mgomba s (2008) payment for environmental s e r v i ce s ( p e s ) : a me c h a n i s m fo r promo�ng sustainable agro forestry land use prac�ces among smallholder f r a m e r s i n s o u t h e r n a f r i c a . conference on i n t e r n a � o n a l research on food security, natural resources management and rural development. icraf. 3p. briggs, d., (2010), 'researching dangerous popula�ons: some methodological reflec�ons', safer communi�es, 9 (3): 49–59. compendium of sta�s�cs, (2012). zimbabwe na�onal sta�s�cs agency; harare. kwesiga, f. akinnifesi, & mafongoya,p. (2003). agroforestry research and development in southern africa d u r i n g t h e 1 9 9 0 s : re v i e w a n d c h a l l e n g e s a h e a d a g r o f o r e s t r y systems 59 pp. 173-186. m a n d l e n i ( 2 0 1 1 ) c l i m a t e c h a n g e a w a r e n e s s a n d d e c i s i o n o n adapta�on measures by livestock farmers in south africa: september. journal of agricultural science 3(3). muchinapaya (2012). the sustainability of conserva�on farming in the smallholder farming s e c t o r. a c a s e o f g u r u v e c o m m u n a l a r e a i n z i m b a b w e : u n i v e r s i t y o f z i m b a b w e , z i m b a b w e . m u n y a w i r i w a r d , zimbabwe. a report through the community based adapta�on in africa project, funded by idrc and dfid. mutambara, j, dube i.v & mvumi b.m. (2012). agro forestry technologies i n v o l v i n g f o d d e r p ro d u c � o n a n d i m p l i c a � o n o n livelihood of smallholder livestock farmers in zimbabwe. a case s t u d y o f g o r o m o n z i d i s t r i c t . : l i v e s t o c k r e s e a r c h f o r r u r a l development, 24 (11). m w a s e , we s t o n , a b e l s e f a s i , joyc e njoloma, betserai, nyoka, daniel manduwa & jacinta nyaika. (2015). fa c t o r s a ff e c � n g a d o p � o n o f a g ro f o re s t r y a n d ev e r g re e n agriculture in s o u t h e r n a f r i c a : environment and natural resources research, 5(2) thangata (2003). agroforestry adop�on in southern malawi: the case of mixed intercropping of gliricidiasepium and maize october 2003, agricultural systems 78(1):57-71. page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 pages 2021-2.cdr introduction the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala have been described as wetlands coming under the purview of the ramsar conven�on being 'areas of marshes, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or 6638 milch buffalo keeping in the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats sruthy k. mohan* and p. reeja george* abstract this paper discusses the results of a study on strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats of the milch buffalo rearing system of the kole lands of thrissur district of kerala state with a view to address significant issues as well as to understand poten�al threats that have to be mi�gated in the long run. kole lands are the wetlands coming under the ramsar conven�on; focus group discussions and personal interviews with key informants such as buffalo farmers from nonsampling areas and veterinarians working in the kole lands paved the way for the genera�on of various strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and strengths of the milch buffalo rearing system. these items were then pretested in a non-sampling area before being administered to 50 milch buffalo farmers through personal interviews. the results of the study indicated that the higher adaptability and disease resistance of the animal coupled with its ability to convert low quality fibre into high quality protein, high fat percentage of buffalo milk and the medicinal property of buffalo ghee were perceived by respondents as being poten�al strengths of this system. lack of opportuni�es for training on scien�fic buffalo rearing prac�ces was perceived by the respondents as being the most important weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system along with the lack of a compulsory haemorrhagic sep�cemia (h.s) vaccina�on policy for buffaloes. perceived opportuni�es of the milch buffalo rearing system were centred on the factor associated with the market environment for current products. significant threats to this system included the lack of policy measures to contain the dispropor�onate increase in feed cost when compared to milk price as well as lack of government incen�ve based schemes to promote buffalo farming and significant pollu�on of the kole water bodies. keywords: milch buffalo rearing; wetland; swot analysis; kerala research article journal of extension educa�on vol. 33 no.2, 2021 doi: h�ps://doi.org/10.26725/jee.2021.2.33.6638-6652 *department of veterinary and ah extension, college of veterinary and animal sciences, mannuthy, thrissur, kerala 680 651. received: 25-01-2022; accepted: 30-07-2022 ar�ficial, permanent or temporary, with water that is flowing or sta�c, fresh, brackish or salty, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low �de does not exceed six metres". wetlands perform a variety of func�ons and services that are crucial to human life that includes the replenishment and purifica�on of ground water, produc�on of food through the sustenance of livestock and fish and climate change mi�ga�on. the domes�c water buffalo, technically referred to as bubalus bubalis (abd el-salam and el-shibiny, 2011) is an invaluable asset for millions of smallholder farmers all over the world especially those who reside in marshy areas similar to the wetlands of the thrissur kole lands. this animal performs a mul�tude of func�ons and provides valuable products in terms of buffalo meat and milk, both of which are highly priced. in terms of its nutri�onal and organolep�c proper�es, buffalo meat has been reported to be quite similar to beef though some authors even argue that it is superior to beef (kandeepan 2009). the importance of the water buffalo in this context is on account of its natural quali�es that makes it highly suitable for the kole farming system. the tradi�onal landscapes of the kole land provide space for expression of the innate behaviour of the buffalo and also play an important role in minimizing thermal stress by ensuring n a t u r a l w a l l o w i n g a r e a s w h i c h a r e important in ensuring thermoregula�on which is very important for the buffalo. de rosa et al (2009) observed that higher milk yields are obtained in systems that provide for free movement of buffaloes. keeping in mind the necessity to promote sustainable voca�ons that are conducive to or that fit into the natural se�ngs of the kole lands, it is of utmost importance that these systems be explored so that measures to op�mize them can be taken. the kole lands are ecologically fragile areas with a delicately balanced system. introduc�on of voca�ons that are detrimental to the balance of these systems must be viewed with cau�on. it is at this juncture that buffalo rearing assume significance in that it fits into the natural landscape of the kole lands and provides v a l u a b l e s o u r c e s o f i n c o m e a n d employment to the community so also, buffalo keepers may encounter many constraints which have to be iden�fied. further, in the changing contexts of climate change and urbanisa�on there m a y b e c e r t a i n f a c t o r s t h a t a r e detrimental or beneficial to the kole lands which need to be addressed. hence a study was undertaken with an objec�ve, to iden�fy the strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats in milch buffalo rearing. journal of extension educa�on 6639 6640 methodology selec�on of the locale and sampling procedure the kole lands of kerala are situated in thrissur and malappuram districts of the state. the present study was undertaken in january to november, 2016. the thrissur kole lands were purposively selected for the s t u d y. t h e t h r i s s u r ko l e l a n d s a r e geographically divided into two regions viz., the north and south kole by the karuvannur river. the north kole spans an area of 8,072 ha and is spread over peramangalam, kechery, chemeen, puzhakkal naduthodu, chiyaram, kokkalai, puthenthode, herbert canal and chirakkal basins while the south kole comprises the karalam fields, and both the chemmanda and muriyad kayals. the specific panchayats where the kole lands are located include kaiparambu, tholur, adat, mullassery, venkidangu, manalur, arimbur, anthikad, paralam, avinissery, cherpu, vallachira, chazhoor and thanniyam in the n o r t h k o l e a n d k a � u r , k a r a l a m , parapukkara, porathiserry, irijalakuda, m u r i y a d , p o o m a n g a l a m , p a d i y u r , velookkara and aloor in the south kole. the methodology of the swot analysis of the buffalo rearing system in the thrissur kole lands was under taken in three consecu�ve steps as follows: 1. the preliminary analysis of the milch buffalo rearing systems of thrissur kole lands 2. iden�fica�on of internal and external factors of the systems 3. the design of strategies for ensuring the sustainability of the systems. the various steps are elaborated below: preliminary analysis of the milch buffalo rearing system of the thrissur kole lands the milch buffalo rearing system of thrissur kole lands and the opera�onal components of this system were iden�fied and defined through triangula�on and the use of mul�ple tools of data collec�on beginning first with focus group discussions with farmers and veterinary surgeons in the area of study and experts of kerala veterinary and animal sciences university. a total of five veterinary surgeons of the d e p a r t m e n t o f a n i m a l h u s b a n d r y, government of kerala, who had been working in the kole lands as well as ten scien�sts with the kerala veterinary and animal sciences university with extensive research experience in buffalo husbandry were the respondents of the focus group discussions with experts. a total of three s u c h f o c u s g ro u p d i s c u s s i o n s w e re undertaken. farmer respondents for the focus group discussions were selected based on their experience in rearing milch buffaloes on the kole lands; they were iden�fied through the key informant technique of sampling based on the expert opinion of the local veterinary surgeon. two farmers each from kaiparambu, tholur, adat, venkidangu, and anthikkad, areas of the north kole and two each from ka�ur, karalam, parapukkara,, velookara and muriyad areas of the south kole were milch buffalo keeping on the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats 6641 selected, a�er consulta�on with local veterinary surgeons, for the focus group discussions. a total of four focus group discussions with batches of five farmers each were held in the local veterinary dispensary with the help of the veterinary surgeon. these samples of scien�sts, veterinarians and farmers were referred to for the collec�on of data on all preliminary informa�on required for this study. a thorough review of available literature on various studies of the buffalo species was also undertaken to provide the structural frame work for these discussions. the buffalo rearing system thus iden�fied was simplified in order to capture the important co m p o n e n t s of t h e sys t e m a n d t h e interac�on between various components on the system. various factors contribu�ng to the effec�ve func�oning of the system were broadly categorized as internal and external factors. iden�fica�on of internal and external factors a�ributes of the system that lend themselves to the control and manipula�ve efforts of farmers were conceptualized as the internal factor whereas those that did not were referred to as external factors. the internal factors were classified into six categories viz; features of animals, product related quali�es, quali�es of the produc�on system, the marke�ng system, marke�ng environment features and policies and legisla�on. the external factors were classified into four categories which included those related to policies and legisla�on, social factor features, marke�ng environment features and produc�on system features. strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats pertaining to the milch buffalo rearing system of thrissur kole lands were iden�fied through focus group discussions interviews with the buffalo keepers, veterinarians working in the department of animal husbandry and scien�sts of kerala veterinary and animal sciences university referred to above. the statements generated through the above process were pretested in a non-sample area before being included in the final interview schedule. the non-sample area taken was part of arimbur part of the kole lands from where a snowball sample of 10 buffalo farmers formed the respondents for the pre-test. a total of 23, 22, 6 and 13 statements pertaining to the strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats of the milch buffalo rearing system were thus arrived at. these statements were then used in the final interview schedule where in the responses to each statement were scored on a three point con�nuum viz; agree, disagree and undecided. as there are no official government lists of farmers rearing buffaloes on the kole lands of thrissur, a list of such farmers had to be prepared. this was done through the process of snowballing and iden�fica�on of farmers by the local veterinary surgeons. a total of 50 milch buffalo farmers were selected for the final study with 28 farmers from the north kole and 22 from the south kole of thrissur district. data were journal of extension educa�on 6642 collected by personal interviews on the premises of the farmers' homes by personal interviews using a structured interview schedule. from the data collected, the strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats listed in these schedules were then ranked based on the mean score of each statement such that the statement with highest mean score was ranked first. the mean of the mean scores of all statements in a factor category were then arrived at to analyse the perceived importance of each factor category under the strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats of each system. d e s i g n o f s t r a t e g i e s f o r e n s u r i n g sustainability of the system suitable strategies for ensuring the sustainability of the system were arrived at by preparing the swot matrix as per weihrich (1982). the matrix acts as an important tool in iden�fying interac�ons between internal and external factors. strategies were designed so as to ensure that opportuni�es and strengths were exemplified while threats and weaknesses were minimized. strategies that were arrived at were as follows: a. so strategies that use the advantages of strengths to exploit opportuni�es b. st strategies that manipulate strengths to diminish the chances and effects of threats c . w o s t r a t e g i e s t h a t o v e r c o m e weaknesses that prevent the pursuit of opportuni�es and to make use of the opportuni�es to overcome weaknesses. d. wt strategies that make aware of l i m i t a � o n s t h a t e m e r g e f r o m t h e combina�on of weaknesses and threats. milch buffalo keeping on the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats 6643 table 1. perceived strengths of the milch buffalo rearing system of the thrissur kole lands sl. no. statement category mean score rank 1 highly adapted to local climate animal features 3.00 i 2 high milk fat percentage product features 3.00 i 4 natural wallowing facili�es of kole lands produc�on system 3.00 i 5 grazing facili�es of the kole landscapes produc�on system 3.00 i 6 high demand for value added products marke�ng system 2.94 ii 7 disease resistance and innate immunity animal features 2.88 iii 8 docile nature, can be easily handled animal features 2.88 iii 9 good converters of low quality fibre animal features 2.88 iii 10 less care required when compared to ca�le animal features 2.88 iii 11 good quality milk for families engaged in this voca�on product features 2.88 iii 12 incidence of mas��s is very rare in buffaloes animal features 2.88 iii 13 curd from buffalo milk has good texture product features 2.88 iii 14 demand for buffalo milk by hotel/teashop marke�ng environment 2.88 iii 15 mixing buffalo milk to overcome fat deficiency in opera�ve socie�es product features 2.81 iv 16 buffalo milk flavor product features 2.38 v 17 high milk yield of buffaloes (6-7 liters) animal features 2.31 vi 18 sale of buffaloes in any age results a three to four fold increase in the money spent for the ini�al purchase marke�ng environment 2.31 vi 19 high total solid content of buffalo milk makes it very good for paneer making product features 2.13 vii 20 opular whitening agent for value addi�on product features 2.06 viii 21 sustaining integrated kole farming system produc�on system 2.06 viii 22 free grazing spaces in the kole landscapes makes heat detec�on easier produc�on system 1.56 ix 23 direct marke�ng of milk through socie�es marke�ng system 1.56 ix journal of extension educa�on findings and discussion perceived strengths of the milch buffalo rearing system the perceived strengths of the milch buffalo rearing system are presented in table 1. 3 3.00 i increased demand for buffalo ghee product features 6644 it is evident from table 1 that the higher adaptability and disease resistance of the animal coupled with its ability to convert low quality fibre into high quality protein, high fat percentage of buffalo milk and the medicinal property of buffalo ghee were perceived by respondents as being poten�al strengths of this system. the significant advantage of the kole lands in providing wallowing facili�es as well as grazing lands for animals were also perceived strengths of this system. table 2. factor category matrix of the strengths of the milch buffalo rearing system factor category animal features item no from table 1 1 7 8 9 10 12 17 factor category mean of means 2.81 factor category rank i mean score 3.00 2.88 2.88 2.88 2.88 2.88 2.31 within category i ii ii ii ii ii iii rank factor category product features item no from table 1 2 3 11 13 15 16 19 20 2.64 iimean score 3.00 3.00 2.88 2.88 2.81 2.38 2.13 2.06 within category i i ii ii iii iv v vi rank factor category marke�ng environment features item no from table 1 14 18 2.60 iii mean score 2.88 2.31 within category i ii rank factor category produc�on system item no from table 1 4 5 21 22 2.41 iv mean score 3.00 3.00 2.06 1.56 within category i i ii iii rank factor category marke�ng system item no from table 1 6 23 2.25 vmean score 2.94 1.56 within category i ii rank milch buffalo keeping on the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats table 3. perceived weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system 6645 table 2 reveals that among the various animal features, that on the adaptability of buffaloes to the local clima�c condi�ons was the most important item but all other items were closely ranked. product features were perceived as the second most important factor category and in this regard the high fat percentage of buffalo milk was significant in contribu�ng to this. equally important however, was the item on medical proper�es of ghee. factor categories on marke�ng environment features and produc�on system features were less but nearly equally ranked. animal features dominated the strengths of this system, more specifically the higher adaptability and disease resistance of the animal as well as its ability to convert low. perceived weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system the perceived weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system are given in table 3 quality fibre into high quality protein. similar observa�ons were made by collado et al (2010) who observed that the studied farmers in europe were well aware of the significant edge of the groningen white headed ca�le over other breeds in low input and organic farming. hiemstra et al (2010) also observed that the enhanced efficiency of the lansisuomenkarja lsk (white finn ca�le) of finland was an i m p o r t a n t s t r e n g t h o f t h i s b r e e d . sreelakshmi (2013) also made similar observa�ons among the keepers of the k a s a rgo d c a� l e i n ke ra l a . pro d u c t a � r i b u t e s w e re a l s o e q u a l l y r a n ke d alongside animal features especially the high fat percentage of buffalo milk and the perceived medicinal property of buffalo ghee. collado et al (2010) observed that this tradi�onal preference for local breed products could be a significant opportunity for developing appropriate strategies for promo�ng be�er pricing for breed products thus compensa�ng the farmers. sl.no statements category mean score rank 1 lack of opportuni�es for training policies 3.00 i 2 difficulty in maintaining bulls animal features 2.81 ii 3 lack of fixed market price for products marke�ng 2.63 iii 4 pungent smell of buffalo dung animal features 2.50 iv 5 no grazing facility during heavy rain produc�on system 2.44 v 6 no compulsory vaccina�on for h.s policies 2.44 v 7 aggressive behavior with strangers animal features 2.38 vi 8 buffalo milk is not preferred for children product features 2.31 vii 9 amphistomosis due to snails in kole lands produc�on system 2.19 viii 10 prolonged inter-calving interval animal features 2.13 ix journal of extension educa�on 11 incidence of hemorrhagic sep�cemia animal features 2.13 ix 12 lack of grazing lands in cul�va�on period produc�on system 2.13 ix 13 low growth rate of female buffalo calves animal features 2.06 x 14 high incidence of buffalo calf mortality animal features 2.00 xi 15 buffalo milk not suitable for khoa based products product features 2.00 xi 16 non availability of good germplasm policies 1.94 xii 17 higher incidence of uterine prolapse animal features 1.81 xiii 18 high rate of ar�ficial insemina�on failure animal features 1.69 xiv 19 difficulty in weaning buffalo calves animal features 1.69 xiv 20 difficulty in detec�ng heat in buffaloes animal features 1.50 xv 21 low quality of grass on kole fields produc�on system 1.44 xvi 22 lack of facility to transpor�ng animals marke�ng 1.38 xvii sl. no statements category mean score rank 6646 lack of opportuni�es for training on scien�fic buffalo rearing prac�ces were perceived by the respondents as being the most important weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system, while the difficulty in maintaining buffalo bull was ranked second. coming third and fourth were the lack of a fixed market price for buffalo by-products and the pungent smell of buffalo dung which posed significant problems for milch buffalo farmers. respondents also reported the difficul�es they encountered in grazing these animals in the kole lands during heavy rainfall due to raising the water levels in the fields. the lack of a compulsory haemorrhagic sep�cemia (h.s) vaccina�on policy as buffaloes are animals that are highly suscep�ble to haemorrhagic sep�cemia was perceived as a weakness of this system. table 4. factor category matrix of the weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system factor category policies and legisla�on item no from table 3 6 7 16 mean factor category of means 2.46 factor category rank i mean score 3.00 2.44 1.94 within category i ii iii rank factor category item no from table 3 8 15 2.16 ii mean score 2.31 2.00 within category i ii rank factor category item no from table 3 5 9 12 21 2.05 iii mean score 2.44 2.19 2.13 1.44 product features milch buffalo keeping on the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats 6647 that the higher adaptability and disease resistance of the animal coupled with its ability to convert low quality fibre into high quality protein, high fat percentage of buffalo milk and the medicinal property of b u ff a l o g h e e w e r e p e r c e i v e d b y respondents as being poten�al strengths of this system. the significant advantage of the kole lands in providing wallowing facili�es as well as grazing lands for animals were also perceived strengths of this system. lack of opportuni�es for training on scien�fic buffalo rearing prac�ces were perceived by the respondents as being the most important weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system, while the difficulty in maintaining buffalo bull was ranked second. coming third and fourth were the lack of a fixed market price for buffalo by-products and the pungent smell of buffalo dung which posed significant problems for milch buffalo farmers. respondents also reported the difficul�es they encountered in grazing these animals in the kole lands during heavy rainfall due to raising the water levels in the fields. t h e f a c t o r c a t e g o r y m a t r i x presented in table 4 indicated the dominant presence of policies and legisla�on in the perceived weaknesses of the milch buffalo rearing system. marke�ng environment features remained least conspicuous at the lowest rung of the list whereas product, animal and produc�on system features remained towards the middle of the list in the said order. significant weaknesses in the milch buffalo rearing system of the thrissur kole lands centred around the conspicuous absence of opportuni�es for training on s c i e n � fi c b u ff a l o r e a r i n g p r a c � c e s . perceived opportuni�es of the milch buffalo rearing system were centred on the factor associated with the market environment for produc�on system features within category i ii iii iv rank factor category animal features item no from table 3 2 4 7 10 11 13 14 17 18 19 20 2.02 iv 2.38 2.13 2.06 2.00 1.81 1.69 1.69 1.69 mean score 2.81 2.50 1.50 within category i ii iii iv v vi vii viii viii viii ix rank factor category marke�ng environment features item no from table 3 3 22 2.01 vmean score 2.63 1.38 within category i ii rank journal of extension educa�on 6648 current products. sreelakshmi (2013) also observed that market for current products was the second most important factor category in the perceived opportuni�es of the kasargod ca�le rearing system. more specifically, the high price offered for buffalo products emerged as a significant opportunity to be exploited in this system. the opportuni�es offered by the market environment coupled with the high price offe re d fo r b u ffa l o p ro d u c t s c a n b e capitalized upon to overcome system inherent weaknesses such as lack of policy in buffalo promo�on by the government. perceived opportuni�es of the milch buffalo rearing system perceived opportuni�es of the milch buffalo rearing system of the thrissur koles centred on the factor associated with the market environment for current products as well as policies and legisla�on. the high price offered for buffalo products emerged as a significant opportunity to be e x p l o i t e d i n t h i s s y s t e m w h e r e a s possibility of policies that promote breeding of buffaloes was a less perceived opportunity of this system. factor category analysis revealed the predominance of the factor policies and legisla�on in the possible opportuni�es of this system. market environment for the buffalo products were also well received while produc�on system features had rela�vely less to offer in terms of opportuni�es. table 5. perceived opportuni�es of the milch buffalo rearing system sl. no statements category mean score rank 1 high price for buffalo ghee, curd marke�ng environment 3.00 i 2 mobile feed analyzing unit policies and legisla�on 2.88 ii 3 milk processing unit in every block policies and legisla�on 2.75 iii 4 kole area provides space for expression of social behavior which will improve concep�on rate produc�on system features 1.56 iv 5 high demand for homogenized milk marke�ng environment 1.38 v 6 breeding policies policies and legisla�on 1.38 v table 6. factor category matrix of the opportuni�es of milch buffalo rearing system factor category policies and legisla�on item no from table 5 2 3 6 factor category mean of means 2.33 factor category rank i mean score 2.88 2.75 1.38 within category i ii iii rank milch buffalo keeping on the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats factor category marke�ng environment features item no from table 5 1 5 2.19 ii mean score 3.00 1.38 within category i ii rank factor category produc�on system features item no from table. 5 6 1.56 iii mean score 1.56 within category i rank 6649 table 7. perceived threats of the milch buffalo rearing system sl. no statements category mean score rank 1 dispropor�onate increase in feed cost and milk price. policies and legisla�on 3.00 i 2 lack of incen�ves for buffalo farming policies and legisla�on 3.00 i 3 dislike for buffalo rearing by younger people social factors features 2.88 ii 4 climate change and drought in kerala produc�on system 2.81 iii 5 waste disposal in kole pollu�ng water produc�on system 2.75 iv 6 increased number of stray dogs produc�on system 2.69 v 7 labor shortage social factors features 2.56 vi 8 growth of algae due to eutrophica�on produc�on system 2.31 vii 9 pollu�on due to hawkers on bunds social factors features 2.19 viii 10 less consump�on of milk due to fear of life style diseases marke�ng environment features 2.13 ix 11 lack of direct milk marke�ng facili�es marke�ng environment 2.06 x 12 chances of the� of buffalo calves social factors features 1.69 xi 13 higher incidence of infer�lity issues policies and legisla�on 1.44 xii perceived threats of the milch buffalo rearing system perceived threats of the milch buffalo rearing system centered on the lack of policy and legisla�on to regulate the dispropor�onate increase in feed prices when compared to milk price and the lack of incen�ve based schemes for buffalo rearing as well as the tendency for younger people tend to disengage from this voca�on due to difficul�es in ge�ng marriage proposals etc. factor category analysis of the threats on the milch buffalo rearing system revealed that produc�on system features were dominant threats and policies and legisla�on issues were also important but to a lesser extent. social factors and market environment features were also poten�al journal of extension educa�on 6650 areas of concern, though to a lesser extent. produc�on system issues such as increased drought due to climate change and pollu�on of water bodies were also poten�al threats to the system. significant threats to this system included the lack of policy measures to contain the dispropor�onate increase in feed cost when compared to milk price as well as lack of government incen�ve based schemes to promote buffalo farming and significant pollu�on of the kole water bodies. wollny (2003) and duclos and hiemstra (2010) also opined that technical assistance and incen�ves were important measures in ensuring the survival of the b re e d . po l i c i e s a n d l e g i s l a� o n wa s perceived as the most important threat of the kasargod ca�le keeping system by sreelakshmi (2013). table 8. factor category matrix of the threats of milch buffalo rearing system factor category produc�on system features item no from table. 7 4 5 6 8 factor category mean of means 2.64 factor category rank i mean score 2.81 2.75 2.69 2.31 within category i ii iii iv rank factor category policies and legisla�on item no from table 7 1 2 13 2.48 ii mean score 3.00 3.00 1.44 within category i i ii rank factor category social factor features item no from table 7 3 7 9 12 2.33 iii mean score 2.88 2.56 2.19 1.69 within category i ii iii iv rank factor category marke�ng environme nt features item no from table. 7 10 11 2.09 iv mean score 2.13 2.06 within category i ii rank milch buffalo keeping on the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats 6651 conclusion analysis of the matched factor categories of the swot matrix of the milch buffalo rearing system sheds light on the need to fully exploit the strength of the animal by making use of opportuni�es available in the effec�ve implementa�on of p o l i c y . s i g n i fi c a n t w e a k n e s s e s i n implementa�on of policy also represent a p o t e n � a l s o� p o i n t i n t h e p o s s i b l e opportuni�es offered by this sector. poten�al threats to the produc�on system have to be effec�vely thwarted in order to get the full benefits of the opportuni�es offered by the animal features and the products from buffalo rearing. the quan�fied swot matrix also illustrates the significant threats by way of inherent weaknesses in the policy implementa�on system which render it ineffec�ve and pose crucial ques�ons that may impede the development as well as the sustainability of this system. references abd el-salam, m.h. & el-shibiny, s. (2011). a c o m p r e h e n s i v e r e v i e w o n t h e composi�on and proper�es of buffalo milk. dairy science and technology. 91: 663–699. collado, d.m., gandini, g., de haas,y. & díaz, c. (2010). decision-making tools for the development of breed strategies. in. hiemstra, s.j., de haas, y., mäki-tanila, a. & gandini, g., (eds). local ca�le breeds in europedevelopment of policies and strategies for self-sustaining breeds. wageningen academic publishers. pp 120-139. de ro s a , g . , gra s s o , f. , pa ce l l i , c . , napolitano, f. & winckler, c. (2009). the welfare of dairy buffalo. italian journal of animal science 8(1): 103–116. duclos, d. & hiemstra, s.j. (2010). state of l o c a l c a � l e b r e e d s i n e u r o p e . i n . hiemstra,s.j. , de haas, y, mäki-tanila, a. & gandini, g., (eds). local ca�le breeds in europedevelopment of policies and strategies for self-sustaining breeds. wageningen academic publishers, pp 40-55. hiemstra,s.j. , de haas, y., mäki-tanila, a. & gandini,g. (2010). local ca�le breeds in eu ro p e d eve l o p m e nt of p o l i c i e s a n d strategies for self-sustaining breeds. wageningen academic publishers. kandeepan, g., biswas, s. & rajkumar, r.s. (2009). buffalo as a poten�al food animal: review. interna�onal journal of livestock produc�on. 1: 001-005. sreelakshmi, c.m. (2013). a�tude towards conserva�on and adop�on of prac�ces among the keepers of kasargod ca�le. unpublished m.v.sc thesis, kerala ve t e r i n a r y a n d a n i m a l s c i e n c e s university pookode, 216p. journal of extension educa�on 6652 weihrich, h. (1982). the tpws matrix a tool for situa�onal analysis. long range planning. 15: 54-66. wollny, c.b.a. (2003). the need to conserve farm animal gene�c resources in africa : should policy makers be concerned? ecological economics. 45: 341-351. milch buffalo keeping on the kole lands of thrissur district, kerala – an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportuni�es and threats page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19 page 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25 page 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33 page 34 page 35 page 36 page 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41 page 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46 page 47 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 51 page 52 page 53 page 54 page 55 page 56