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ThesisItem Embargo Status and Performance of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in Selected States of India(Punjab Agricultural University, 2024) Sandhu, Karanvir Singh; Pankaj KumarThe present study was undertaken with the objectives to study the status, performance, linkages and problems of Famer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra. Fifteen FPOs were selected for the study, five from Punjab, Haryana and ten from Maharashtra. Five management committee members from each FPO were selected, making a total of 75. 300 members farmers from the FPOs were selected using probability proportional to number of member farmers in each FPO. Data were collected by personal interview method. It was observed that majority of the FPOs originated post-2015 with primary engagement in cereals and vegetables crops. Majority had warehouses, collection centres and input shops. Farmer‟s reliance on experts from FPOs was highest amongst all the extension contacts in Maharashtra whereas, pesticide dealers were most contacted in Punjab and Haryana. Exposure to digital platforms than traditional media with YouTube emerged as the most dominant media with first rank in both the regions. Most of farmers across both regions had medium economic motivation and risk-bearing capacities. Consumption of quality food, balanced diet, access to educational information and adult education witnessed an increase in Maharashtra. Enhanced social empowerment was evident across both regions with Maharashtra depicted a higher increase. About half of farmers in Punjab and Haryana were satisfied, whereas about 40 per cent of farmers in Maharashtra were very satisfied with FPOs. Majority of farmers in Punjab and Haryana relied on Co-operative Banks/Societies and informal channels and about two-third farmers in Maharashtra were also dependent on Co-operative Banks/Societies for credit requirements. A stronger financial support was exhibited by FPOs in Maharashtra for the members. While private dealers remained central for all agri-input requirements, co-operative agencies held significant position particularly for seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. FPOs in Maharashtra took a lead in training initiatives with government agencies playing a noticeable role in both regions for capacity building. Extent of linkage of member farmers with FPOs was high for immediate necessities like credit for inputs, fertilizers and pesticides in Punjab and Haryana. The private sector was found to be dominant in fulfilling the input requirements of FPOs in Punjab and Haryana, while Maharashtra had a diverse supply system for agri-inputs. Linkages for technical support in Punjab and Haryana primarily depended on government departments. FPOs in Punjab and Haryana were mainly dependent on member farmers for procurement, whereas Maharashtra demonstrated a comprehensive strategy. Lack of transport facilities (47.00%), crop insurance facilities (42.00%), processing facilities (42.00%), adequate knowledge about cultivation practices (40.00%) and credit facilities (39.33%) were the major problems of member farmers. Some of the major challenges of FPOs were huge capital requirement for starting FPO (80.00%), non-cooperative attitude of members (66.67%), ineffective linkages (66.67%), political affiliation of members (50.67%), price fluctuation of agricultural produce (41.33%) and lack of technical experts (45.33%).ThesisItem Restricted Content Analysis of PAU Kisan App for Major Crops(Punjab Agricultural University, 2023) Urmila Krishna; Lakhwinder KaurThe present study entitled “Content Analysis of PAU Kisan App for Major crops” was undertaken with objectives to analyse the content of app under major crops, to study the reactions of readers towards it, to find out the problems faced by users and to get suggestions of users. Total five crops were selected and under each crop two districts having maximum area of production was selected for the study. From the list procured from Directorate of Extension education 150 farmers were selected. Similarly, 30 ADOs were selected from Integrated Human Resource Management System (iHRMS). The data was collected with the help of interview schedule. The study revealed that 54 per cent of the respondents belonged to age group of 17 to 34 years and 50.66 per cent were graduate. One third of the respondents had medium land holding. The reading ease category of content was standard and fairly difficult. Photographs were completely available but clarity was less for many of them. The sufficiency level of content found high as compared to package of practices. The headings given were completely suitable and percentage of technical term used varied between 7.50 per cent to 14.05 per cent. Majority felt the interface of app less attractive. The findings of the study further reported that more than half of the respondents opinioned that sentence used was moderate in length, language was easy to understand and information was completely available. They also felt high level of understandability (55.33%) and trustworthiness (50.66%), medium level of timeliness (47.33%) and relevancy (50.66%). The independent variables viz. total land holding, mass media exposure, innovativeness, and extent of participation in extension activities significantly related to perceived understandability, trustworthiness and relevancy of app. Major problems faced by respondents were lack of contact number of subject matter specialists, lack of in-depth information, faulty feedback facilities, lack of timely updates and poor network connectivity. The major suggestion put forward was to include options for posting queries and online purchase, elaborate information, include value addition and price information.ThesisItem Embargo Evaluative study on management practices in kinnow crop with special reference to Phytophthora disease in Punjab.(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Sharma, Ashutosh; Garg, LavleeshThe study entitled “Evaluative study on management practices in kinnow crop with special reference to Phytophthora disease in Punjab was undertaken. 200 kinnow growers were selected from the four Districts with probability proportional to size sampling method. 92, 74, 18, 16 kinnow growers were selected from Fazilka, Hoshiarpur, Shri Muktsar Sahib and Bathinda respectively. Interview schedule was prepared and data was collected personally by interviewing kinnow growers. The age of respondents varied from 27-56 years in which 44.5 per cent belonged to age group of 37-46 years. One third of respondents had medium operational land holding and more than half (55.5%) of the respondents had medium level of knowledge about kinnow management practices of insect pests, diseases and disorders. More than half (55%) of the respondents procured kinnow plants from recommended sources i.e.PAU nursery. In general respondents applied recommended insecticides for control of insect-pests, disease and disorders. Sodium Hypochlorite was the most cost-efficient Phytophthora management practice among all the other management practices with an average price of 500 Rs. per acre. Highest average yield was obtained with the application of Ridomil Gold among all the other management practices for Phytophthora disease. Average fixed cost for planting of 110 kinnow plants per acre in orchard was 12,300 Rs. In case of average operational cost hoeing, agro-chemicals, irrigation, fertilizers, manures, training & pruning and diesel costed 8,000/- 9,000/-, 1,500/-, 5,100/-, 10,000/-, 5,000/-, and 3,800 Rs. respectively making a combined average total cost of 54,700 Rs. per acre per annum. Around 79 per cent of the respondents faced problem regarding cost of inputs.ThesisItem Embargo Attitude of University students towards gender roles(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Nath, Meghali; Sharma, PreetiThe study entitled ―Attitude of University students towards gender roles‖ was conducted to determine the attitude of University students towards gender roles, analyze the factors affecting the attitude of University students towards gender roles and compare the attitudinal difference between female and male students. For this purpose, a survey was conducted by taking a sample of 200 Punjabi students (100 females and 100 males) aged between 20-28 years from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was prepared to collect the data. The results revealed that overall half of the respondents had egalitarian attitude towards gender role. Furthermore, majority of the female students had egalitarian attitude whereas more than half of the male students had transitional attitude towards gender roles. On analyzing the relationship of the independent variables with the attitude of the students, it was found that factors such as birth order, mother‘s education, social interaction and involvement in extra-curricular activities were found to have a positive and significant correlation with the gender role attitude of the respondents. On the other hand, factors such as age, gender socialization by parents and gender discriminatory experiences faced by the students were found to have a negative impact on their attitude. Moreover, parenting type of the parents and caste of the respondents also had a significant association with the gender role attitude of the respondents. Findings suggest that mother‘s education of the students may be considered as a critical step towards nurturing gender sensitized society. Additionally, students are to be encouraged for social interaction with family, friends and advisors and also active involvement in extra-curricular activities.ThesisItem Embargo Comparative assessment of different methods of paddy cultivation during Covid-19(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2023) Singla, Sahil; Kamalpreet KaurThe study entitled “Comparative assessment of various methods of paddy cultivation during Covid-19” was undertaken to study the opinion of farmers, comparative analysis among various methods of paddy cultivation during Covid-19, prospects and constraints faced by farmers during Covid-19 after adoption of different paddy cultivation technologies. From each agro-climatic zones of Punjab (total five districts were selected for the purpose of study). A list of respondents who were using DSR, mechanical transplanting and conventional transplanting technologies for paddy cultivation during Covid-19 was obtained from the CAO/KVKs of each district. From each district 10 respondents was selected from the selected method during Covid-19. Thus, a total sample of 150 respondents for the study. Interview schedule was used to collect the data. Majority of respondents were in between 38-52 years of age group and had nuclear families, had education level upto matric, medium operational land holding and annual income less than eight lakhs. Majority of respondents had medium mass media exposure and extension contacts whereas low participation in extension activities during Covid-19. Maximum number of the respondents had average opinion regarding DSR, mechanical transplanting and conventional transplanting method of sowing. Majority of respondents wants to increase their area under DSR. Less requirement of labour, number of irrigation, fuel consumption was observed in direct seeded rice as compare to other methods of paddy cultivation. Majority of respondents faced infestation of weed problem in DSR, affordability of machines in mechanical transplanting and high labour cost in conventional transplanting during Covid-19.ThesisItem Restricted Adoption of cultivation practices and marketing techniques by potato growers of Doaba region of Punjab(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2023) Koundal, Smeeksha; Kuldeep SinghThe study entitled “Adoption of cultivation practices and marketing techniques by potato growers of Doaba region of Punjab” was undertaken with the objectives to study the extent and level of adoption, various potato marketing channels, economics of potato cultivation and constraints faced by the potato growers in adoption of recommended potato cultivation practices. Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur district were selected for the study. From each district 100 potato growers were selected, total 200 potato growers. The data were collected through interview schedule. The findings revealed that majority of the potato growers from both the districts belonged to the age group of 42-59 years, had gained education up to senior secondary level, medium level of extension contacts, mass media exposure and low level of social participation. In Jalandhar potato was sown in October and in Hoshiarpur potato was sown in September by majority of the potato growers. Recommended seed rate, size and spacing of potato cultivation was adopted by majority of the potato growers from both the districts. In Jalandhar seed potato and in Hoshiarpur table potato was cultivated by majority of potato growers. From Jalandhar 62.81 per cent and from Hoshiarpur only 35.92 per cent of total seed production was sold to other states.Lack of government marketing facilities at right price, wide prices fluctuation, high fertilizer‟s cost and labour unavailability at right time was the major constraints faced by potato growers from both the districts.ThesisItem Embargo Exploratory study on entrepreneurial behaviour and adoption of production technology by the chilli growers of Punjab.(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Sunidhi; Dharminder SinghThe study entitled „An exploratory study on entrepreneurial behaviour and adoption of production technology by the chilli growers of Punjab‟ was undertaken with the objective to know the entrepreneurial behaviour of chilli growers, to assess the extent of adoption and to identify the constraints faced by the farmers. The study was conducted in the four districts of Punjab. From each selected district, 30 farmers were randomly selected, thus making a total of 120 respondents. Data was collected by personally visiting the study area and interviewing the farmers. Study revealed that the majority of the respondents were matriculated possessed medium operational land holding and medium level of extension contacts. The study revealed that the majority of the chilli growers possess a medium level of entrepreneurial behaviour with a mean score of 64.88 on eight selected attributes. It was found that nearly sixty of the respondents adopted CH-27, a variety recommended by PAU which had also covered the maximum area. Farmers have also grown several private varieties and purchased the chilli seed from private companies. Majority of chilli growers adopted recommended seed rate and sowing time practices while deviated from recommended crop spacing practices. Chilli growers were applying more than recommended doses of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassic fertilizers. More than half of the chilli growers had applied more than the recommended number of irrigations. Majority (52.50%) of the chilli growers had a medium overall adoption index regarding recommended chilli production technology whereas 30 per cent of the farmers had high adoption index. Scarcity of labour at the time of picking, fluctuation in marketing prices, costly hybrid seed, problems in identifying the pests or diseases and poor quality produce due to rains were the most severe constraints as perceived by the chilli growers. Education, experience in chilli cultivation, mass media exposure, extension contacts and social participation had positive and significant relationship with adoption index. Results of the regression analysis revealed a positive and significant relationship between the entrepreneurial behaviour index and adoption index.ThesisItem Open Access Aspirations of rural youth in plain and sub-mountainous area of Punjab: A comparative analysis(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Joshi, Divyata; Dhaliwal, R. K.The research was undertaken with the objectives to study awareness about agricultural development schemes, aspirations, attitude of rural youth towards agriculture and allied sectors as an occupation and to determine the perceived constraints in achieving aspirations and choosing agriculture as an occupation. The study was conducted in plain and sub-mountainous area of Punjab. From each zone four blocks were selected randomly. Further, two villages from each block and fifteen youth from each village were selected. A total of 240 respondents were selected. The data was collected through interview schedule. The results of the study revealed that among the socio-economic profile, youth from sub-mountainous area had higher educational level. However, the variables viz. occupation, occupation of head of the family, farming experience, size of land holding and annual income were found to be significantly higher among the rural youth of plain area. Communication characteristics were found to be higher among the youth of plain area. A significantly higher number of respondents from plain zone had willingness for migration. The finding revealed that more than half of the rural youth had medium level of awareness about the developmental schemes. For centrally sponsored scheme half of the respondents were found to have low level of awareness. Whereas for state sponsored schemes medium level of awareness was found among the 45 per cent of the respondents. The awareness among the rural youth of plain area was found significantly higher regarding these schemes. For youth development schemes, medium level of awareness was found among the respondents. The analysis of aspirations of rural youth revealed that more than half of the respondents had medium level of aspirations. Further, the occupational, entrepreneurial, economic and overall aspirations were significantly higher in rural youth of plain. It was found that rural youth had moderately unfavourable attitude towards agriculture as an occupation and a significantly higher number of respondents of plain area had positive attitude towards farming. The findings revealed that infrastructural and other constraints were the most perceived constraints among the rural youth and were significantly higher in sub-mountainous area. Psychological factors were found to be most perceived in the choosing agriculture as an occupation and significantly higher among the rural youth of sub-mountainous zone. Correlation analysis showed that family size, farming experience, land holding, annual income, extension agency contact and participation in extension activities had significant positive relationship with aspirations, attitude and awareness about agricultural development schemes.
