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, Kerala- 695522

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-post-
facto 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 Kruskal-
Wallis 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 Kruskal-
Wallis 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, decision-
making 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 non-
significant 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 non-
significant 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 non-
significant 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 decision-
making 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): 1785-
1788.

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 
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Rebecca, A. A. (2012). Attitude of women 
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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 
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through mobile message service (MMS). 
Tropical Agricultural Research. 24(1): 31-
41.

Sobanbhai, P. V. (2014). Knowledge and 
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Vitthaldas, S. S. (2016). Role performance 
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