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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 post-
harvest 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
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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.
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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