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Subject: Agricultural Extension × Author: KAU × End date: 1998 × Start date: 1998 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Gaps In The Adoption Of Plant Protection Practices By Commercial Vegetables growers Of Thrissur District
    (Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture,Vellanikkara, 1998) Manoj, M; KAU; Joy Mathew
    It is commonly observed that there is a wide gap between the technology generated in research stations and its actual use by the clientale. It is with this view in mind that the present study was undertaken to identify the gaps in the adoption of plant protection practices by commercial vegetable growers in Thrissur District. The relationship between personal, situational and psychological characteristics of commercial vegetable farmers and their adoption was also studied. The constraints in the adoption process were also subjected to analysis. The study was conducted in Thrissur district. The sample consisted of 150 farmers from the three selected panchayats for the study. Data were collected using pretested and well structured interview schedule and suitable statistical techniques were employed in the analysis of the data. A prime aspect observed during the course of this study was the non- availability of simple and more compatible plant protection technology thus forcing the farmers to accept the failures of applying complex plant protection technology. Lack of adequate and effective linkage between various extension o agencies and research institutions in transfer of technology has led to the confinement of the improved plant protection technology within the research institutions. This has resulted in the non-availability of many an improved technology to the farmers thereby resulted in an unwaranted gap in the adoption of improved plant protection practices by commercial vegetable farmers. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that cosmopoliteness, information source utilisation and scientific orientation as the important variables tDJ explaining maximum variation in the extent of adoption and level of knowledge about improved plant protection practices by commercial vegetable farmers. The important constraints perceived by the farmers were increased cost of plant protection chemicals, difficulty in preparation/application of pp chemicals, difficulty in the selection of alternate chemicals, inadequacy of capital, non- availability of labour and lack of knowledge about technology. The results point vividly to the prime need for strengthening the extension education efforts of the field functionaries to reduce the gap with respect to the adoption of improved plant protection practices by commercial vegetable farmers.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Work environment in the krishi bhavans of Thrissur district
    (Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1998) Meera, Nambiar; KAU; Kaleel, F M H
    The study was undertaken with the objective of analysing the work environment in the Krishi Bhavans in all the three subdivisions of Thrissur district and to find out the major components influencing work environment and in turn work efficiency. The respondents for the study included 60 Agricultural Officers, 106 Agricultural Assistants and 12 Assistant Directors of Agriculure of the State Department of Agriculture. Thirteen components of work environment were included for the study and their relative influences on work effectiveness were analysed. Majority of Agricultural officers perceived their work environment as moderately congenial, but in case of Agricultural Assistant majority was in the more congenial one. In case of work effectiveness 70 per cent of Krishi Bhavans belonged to the more effective group. Among the selected components of work environment clarity of task, managing problems, interpersonal trust, organisational belongingness, and span of control were found to be more significant and exhibited relatively higher influence in predicting the variation in the work effectiveness. The highest direct and indirect effect on work effectiveness was due to clarity of task and interpersonal trust respectively. Different constraints experienced by the officials affecting their performance were identified. Lack of communication of research findings was found to be the most important constraint. The study drew attention to the emergent need of effective measure to overcome the prevailing constraints in the work environment so as to enhance the work effectiveness.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Entrepreneurial behaviour of agri-business operators in Kerala
    (Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1998) Senthil Vinayagam, S; KAU; Geethakutty, P S
    A study was conducted with the main objectives of developing index for measuring entrepreneurial behaviour and agri-business performance and identifying influence of behavioural and situational characteristics on entrepreneurial behaviour. The study was undertaken in Central NARP zone of Kerala, covering 240 agri-business operators. The agri-business operators were categorised into three groups viz., commercial farmers, on-farm and off-farm agri-business operators with 120, 60, 60 as sample size respectively. Entrepreneurial behaviour formed the dependent variable for the study. Agri-business performance was selected as criterion variable. Nineteen independent variables were selected in relation to the objectives based on review of literature and pilot study. Correlation analysis, principal component analysis and factor analysis were employed for data analysis and interpretation. Ten dimensions were identified and used to develop entrepreneurial behaviour index. Factor analysis revealed that innovation proneness, achievement motivation, risk orientation, economic motivation, management orientation and personal efficacy were the important dimensions to measure entrepreneurial behaviour which can be grouped into a single factor termed 'entrepreneurial behaviour efficiency' . Agri-business performance was measured usmg the indicators VIZ., capacity utilisation, hired labour, cost-benefit ratio, perceived profitability, labour relationship, extent of diversification and social contribution from enterprise. Majority of the respondents exhibited moderate to very high entrepreneurial behaviour, whereas they had high to very high agri-business performance. Comparison of the three categories of respondents revealed that there was no difference among them with respect to both entrepreneurial behaviour and agri-business performance. Age, age at entry, scientific orientation, vocational diversification, self confidence, self concept, orientation towards competition, rational orientation, self:' reliance and media utilisation emerged as most important variables in predicting the variation in entrepreneurial behaviour of agri-business operators. High rate of interest, seasonality of demand, high cost of raw material, scarcity of electric power, high labour cost, ineffective consultancy service provided by the government agencies were the major constraints perceived by agri-business operators in influencing the entrepreneurial behaviour. The study established the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviour and agri-business performance which brings out the need and importance for organising Entrepreneurship Development Programme for farmer entrepreneurs.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Promotional strategy for the utilization of plant based pesticides in vegetable cultivation in Thrissur district -An experimental study
    (Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1998) Rashmi Annie Jose; KAU; Kumari Sushama, N P
    The study was carried out in Puthur panchayat of Thrissur district to formulate a promotional strategy for the use of plant based pesticides in vegetable cultivation. The respondents consisted of 120 vegetable farmers. The dependent variables of the study were the knowledge about plant' o based pesticides, attitude towards plant based pesticides and symbolic adoption. The independent variables included the personal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics of the farmers. The study revealed that majority of the farmer respondents belonged to high category in their distribution with reference to the selected independent variables. Respondents were in the low category with respect to knowledge and attitude towards plant based pesticides and in the high category with respect to symbolic adotpion. Then these respondents were classified into four groups of 30 each. They were exposed to different experimental treatments of extension and audiovisual packages. Results showed that there was significant change in the knowledge, attitude and symbolic adoption after explosing the' respondents to experimental treatments. The most effective combination of the audio-visual aids and extension methods was lecture + group discussion + method demonstration. The most important constraint experienced by the farmers in the use of plant based pesticide was the absence of immediate results. Lack of knowledge about plant based pesticides was also felt as an important constraint. Based on the results of the study, a strategy to promote the utilisation of the plant based pesticide in vegetable cultivation has also been proposed.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Agricultural information communication through farm page of newspapers-an analysis
    (Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1998) Balachandranath, N G; KAU; Padmanabhan, V B
    This study ont agricultural information communication through farm page p of newspapers - an analysis was conducted in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state. It was carried out with a view to analyse the content of articles published in farm page of leading newspapers in Malayalam language. It was also aimed at identifying the preference of farmer readers towards the content, agricultural information need and reading behaviour and studying the personal characteristics. Three stage random sampling procedure was followed to select 120 farmer readers as respondents for this study. The respondents were selected from six Rrishibhavans of Nemo m block. Data were collected from the respondents using separate interview schedules. Suitable statistical techniques likes frequency, percentage analysis, simple correlation, chi-square and paired comparison techique were employed in the analysis of data. The study revealed that the maximum number of articles published were on crop production among the fields of agriculture. It was followed by animal husbandry and dairy, others.pisciculture. organic farming, poultry, agricultural engineering, apiculture, piggery, mushroom, forestry and sericulture. Among the different crops, the majority of the articles published were on vegetables followed by rubber, coconut, rice, fruits. spiccs,banana, medicinal plants, orchid and anthurium, coffee, other garden plants. tubers, betelvine, fodder, arecanut, tapioca, cashew, pulses, jasmine, oil seeds and sugarcane. The maximum number of articles published under aspects of crop production was on cultivation aspect. It was followed by seeds and sowing, plant protection, processing, manures and fertilizers, intercultural operation, rffarketing, storage, general aspect and harvesting. The preference shown by the respondents towards different fields of agriculture was in the following descending order, namely, crop production, animal husbandry, poultry, pisciculture and piggery. For preference towards important crops, maximum respondents preferred coconut followed by rice, banana, vegetable, tapioca and rubber. Among the different aspects of crop ~ production, maximum number of farmer readers preferred seeds and sowing. It was followed by plant protection, marketing, manures and fertilizers, processing and storage. The study revealed that the maxrmum number of respondents' need information was very much on crop production among the different fields of agriculture. The maximum number of farmer readers' need information was some what on poultry and information not needed was on piggery. The information very much needed for the maximum respondents on important crops was on coconut and that on aspect of crop production was on seeds and sowing. Nearly 81 % of the respondents read farm page on all weeks. The results revealed that the age of 34. 17% of the respondents belonged to 35-44 years category. About 55% of the respondents had undergone high school education. Majority of the farmer readers were having land holding between OQf.~lGlectare. Forty percent of the farmer readers were having 16- 25 years of farming experience. About 36°111 of the respondents were having annual income between 1001 - 2000 rupees. Most of the farmer readers visited the nearest city once in a week. As much as 99% of the respondents read newspapers on all days, followed by 58.33% hearing radio and 56.66% viewing television. Majority of the farmer readers showeihigh level attitude towards scientific agricultural practices. The study on correlation analysis revealed that education and size of holding were having significant positive relationship with reading behaviour. Information need on f~ld of agriculture showed significant positve relationship with scientific agricultural practices while with respect to aspect of crop production, age, education and size of land holding had significant positive relationship with information need. There was also a close association between education and reading behaviour of farmer readers.