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Central Agricultural University, College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, Umiam

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2020 - 20223
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Subject: Agricultural Extension × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2020 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemEmbargo
    Role performance of village councils in implementation of rural development programmes in Meghalaya
    (College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, CAU-Imphal, Umiam, 2022-02) Marbaniang, Ereneus K.; Chauhan, J. K.
    Meghalaya state of Northeast India has a tribal population of 86.14 percent mainly dominated by the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo communities. These communities since time immemorial have been living their social life under the administration of the Village Council which is the council of village elders headed by the Village Headman. Village Headman held responsibility for maintaining law and order, peace harmony and overall, the social welfare in the village. All the government programmes and schemes meant for the village are routed through the Village Council. Owing to the importance of the Village Council in rural development, the present study was conducted with the following objectives: i) to study the knowledge level of the village councillors regarding execution of rural development programmes, ii) to examine the extent of participation of village councillors in rural development programmes, iii) to ascertain the role perception of village councillors and scheme beneficiaries towards implementation of rural development programmes, iv) to determine the role performance of the village councillors in implementation of rural development programmes. Data was collected from the 30 Village Councils of the three districts (East Khasi Hills, West Jaintia Hills and West Garo Hills) implementing MGNREGA, PDS and ICDS programmes, respectively. A total of 540 respondents consisting of 360 Village Councillors (VCs) and 180 Scheme Beneficiaries (SBs) were sampled for the study. The salient findings of the study were that the knowledge index of the village councillors was found to be higher in ICDS village councillors (75.29%) as compared to MGNREGA (56.41%) and PDS (52.08%) village councillors, respectively. About 46.67 percent had medium knowledge level about MGNREGA, majority of them (74.16%) had medium knowledge level about PDS and more than half (51.67%) had medium knowledge level about ICDS, respectively. Participation index of the village councillors was found to be 74.82%, 76.33% and 75.88% in case of MGNREGA, PDS and ICDS respectively. Majority of the MGNREGA village councillors (74.16%) belonged to the medium participation level, PDS councillors (85.00%) had medium level of participation and 55.84 percent of ICDS councillors had medium category level of participation. Role perception index of VCs and SBs for MGNREGA was 79.29% & 90.40%, whereas it was 87.84% & 84.78% for PDS, 75.23% & 80.58% for ICDS, respectively. Role performance index as perceived by the village councillors and scheme beneficiaries of MGNREGA was 80.79% & 65.01%, whereas it was 83.86% & 63.91% for PDS, 85.11% & 68.68% for ICDS, respectively with majority of them falls under medium level category of role performance for all the three programmes. It was suggested that knowledge level of the councillors involved in execution of MGNREGA could be increased through orientation programmes at the VEC level, trainings, workshops, Annual VEC Meet, VEC Mela, leadership programmes etc. Improvement in work culture of the job cards holders could be done through awareness and capacity building programmes at the village level. Knowledge level of the PDS councillors could be increased through organising of orientation programmes, trainings at the village/cluster level, participation in awareness programmes etc. Finalisation of family households for inclusion under PDS beneficiaries must be in consultation with the Village Council. For ICDS, increasing of honorarium for the AWWs/AWHs and demonstration on cooking of food items supplied need to be taught to the beneficiaries to reduce wastage of public money.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Social simulation on assimilation of climate smart agricultural practices in North Eastern Hill Region of India
    (College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, CAU-Imphal, Umiam, 2020-10) Devi, Mayanglambam Victoria; Singh, Rajkumar Josmee
    Agriculture is in peril owing to negative impacts and consequences of Climate Change (CC) in terms of physical, contextual and societal facets. Adaptation to CC in agricultural and associated sectors is a major current and future challenge for the North Eastern Hills States (NEHS) of our country. The hill state like Meghalaya faced low in crop production owed to severe drought (Singh et al., 2013) and significantly declined in annual rainfall (Feroze et al., 2018). Despite the benefits & advantage of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) Practices, assimilation rate is still very low by tribal farmers of NEHS of India (Aryal et al., 2018). A scientific inquiry to cognize the assimilation of CSA Practices by farmers in NEHS of India was ordained with the following three research objectives viz.,(1) To identify and assess Climate Smart Agricultural practices with respect to climate change vulnerable districts of the Tropical, Sub-Tropical and Temperate Agro-Climatic Zones (ACZs); (2) To simulate the assimilation of identified CSA Practices by farmers of climate change vulnerable districts; and (3) To develop suitable extension strategies for assimilating identified CSA Practices by farmers. The scientific inquiry was conducted in the three states namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya representing Tropical, Sub-Tropical and Temperate ACZs respectively and from these corresponding ACZs, the most CC vulnerable districts viz., the East Siang, the Bishnupur and the East Khasi Hills were selected for study. By following cluster sampling, seventeen villages were finalized for the study and consequently 257 respondents were identified through proportionate random sampling. The study uncovered that majority of the respondents belonged to low category w.r.t the following variables viz., ‘Land Holding’, ‘Annual Income’, ‘Farming Experience’, ‘Extension Contact’, ‘Access to Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Services’, ‘Training on CSA Practices’, ‘Climate Change Adaptation Intention’, ‘Climate Change Mitigation’, ‘Livelihood Sustainability’ and ‘Innovativeness of CSA’. However, highest percentage of respondents were lofted in medium categories apropos of variables viz., ‘Mass Media Exposure’, ‘Exposure to Long Term Stresses or Shocks’, ‘Awareness on Consequences of Climate change’, ‘Risk Perception’, ‘Knowledge on CSA’, ‘Climate Risk Management’, ‘Utilization of Credit’, ‘Scientific Orientation’ & ‘Resilience to Climate Change in Agriculture’. The research could unveil 9 Nutrient Smart, 6 Soil Smart, 7 Water Smart, 5 Energy Smart, 5 Carbon Smart, and 6 Knowledge Smart CSA Practices. In the discourse, while performing System Dynamics (SD) simulation at the best fit by considering ‘Potential Assimilators’ and ‘Assimilators’ as ‘Stocks’, ‘Assimilation Rate’ as ‘Flow’, ‘Extension Services of Extension Specialists’ as Balancing Loop Identifier and ‘Farmers to Farmers Extension’ as Reinforcing Loop Identifier with 9 parameter variables and 2 dynamic variables by keeping 5 years as span of simulation, it could be revealed that the Assimilation Gap of CSA Practices by farmers of East Siang, Bishnupur and East Khasi Hills district were 56.75%, 89.47% and 70.99%, respectively. On the administration of the SWOT-AHP hybrid analysis, it could be uncovered that ‘Crop and Livestock Diversification due to existence of different Agro-Climatic Zones’; ‘Overly long Return on Investment span of CSA technologies on adaptation and mitigation of CC consequences’; ‘Successful market-aligned supply chain infrastructure from farm to fork’; and ‘Food insecurity and unsustainable livelihood due to adverse impact of CC on agriculture and associated enterprises’ were the most principal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats with inconsistency ratio of 0.09, 0.02, 0.03 and 0.08 respectively. By performing AHP, it could be reported that 81.30% of the experts inclined upon the CSA systems to be effectively disseminated and consequently be assimilated by farmers against 18.70% of the experts. Keeping into consideration the rationalities on the output of SWOT-AHP, strategies for assimilating identified CSA Practices by farmers in seven domains have been developed. The research concludes that assimilation gap of CSA Practices by farmers of NEHS at present is alarmingly very high despite of the availability on basket of potential CSA Practices. Thence, the identified strategies are sincerely suggested for bridging the assimilation gap.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Modeling e-learning for climate-smart Horticulture on high value horticultural crops of Arunachal Pradesh: a quasi- experimental approach
    (College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, CAU-Imphal, Umiam, 2020-07) Koyu, Bai; Singh, Rajkumar Josmee
    Increasing crop productivity in a climate-smart way requires continuous investment in developing human capital in agriculture and allied enterprises, through formal and informal learning and education. Learning derived through newer Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) devices and formats enables both formal and informal learning and knowledge sharing at any time, place and at any pace. E-learning can provide fresh approaches that are learner-centric, engaging producers and their communities as partners and adult learners in designing and implementing the learning experience. Horticulture, which has been considered as the backbone and future of rural economy for the state of Arunachal Pradesh, is facing the threats of climate change leading to unsustainability of horticultural activities which needs immediate controlling measure. With this susceptible and disperse issues of global climate change, innovation to its adaptation in terms of farmers’ innovations towards Climate-Smart Horticulture (CSH) practices become inexorable for the sustenance of small as well as marginal farmers. CSH is an agrarian tactic that rationally intensifies productivity, adaptation and diminishes greenhouse gases. Keeping into consideration the above essentials, the present study was undergone with the following objectives viz., (1) Develop an e-learning module on Climate-Smart Horticulture on High Value Horticultural Crops; (2) To ascertain the extent of application of e-learning on CSH on High Value Horticultural Crops; and (3) To develop a structural equation modelling on application of e-learning on CSH on High Value Horticultural Crops. Two districts namely, Lower Subansiri and West Kameng were selected purposively; further from each district two Community and Rural Development blocks (CRDB) were selected based upon horticultural importance. Subsequently, two villages were selected from each identified CRDB, thereby, a total of 200 farmers have been finalized for the study. The study developed an asynchronous e-learning module by adapting the steps viz., Analyzing, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation using Adobe Captivate software. The research revealed that intervention of e-learning module could enhanced statiscally significant learning Climate-Smart Horticulture on High Value Horticultural Crops (Apple, Kiwi and Large Cardamom by respondents. The study unfolded that highest percentage of the respondents belonged to middle age group having high school level of education. Medium categories were observed in terms of Agricultural Land Holding, Annual Income, Mass Media Exposure, Cosmopoliteness, Knowledge Acquired on CSH and Behavioural Intention to Use (BIU) of the respondents. It could be further reported that it could be reported that there was a high extent of application of e-learning on CSH on High Value Horticultural Crops by respondents through application of e-learning module. On performing SEM, it could be concluded that the endogenous variable PEU had the R2 value of 0.16, indicating the 16% contribution by exogenous variable SE. Similarly, the endogenous variable BIU having R2 value of 0.62 indicated that the exogenous variables viz., PEU, ATT and FC had jointly explained and predicted 62% of accuracy on BIU in ELAM. Likewise, the endogenous variable PU having R2 value of 0.08 had indicated that the 8% of accuracy in estimating PU was contributed by the exogenous variables viz., PEU, SN and FC. Also, ATT with R2 value of 0.01 revealed that the exogenous variable PU had explained 1% of accuracy in estimating ATT. The SE was found to have positive influence on PEU @ p=0.001. The PEU was found to have positive significant influence on BIU @ p=0.01. The PEU was found to have significant negative influence on PU @ p=0.001. The FC was found to have positive significant influence on BIU at p=0.001. The study revealed that E-learning Acceptance Model is an efficient model to be used among farmers in an educational context. Asynchronous e-learning module imparts significant increase in knowledge level of farmers. E-learning Self-Efficacy, Perceived Ease of Use, Facilitating Condition, and are the most important attributes for the e- learning module to have significant influence on Behavioural Intention to Use. The study recommends that traditional extension and advisory services on CSH to farmers should be augmented with e-learning.