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Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar

After independence, development of the rural sector was considered the primary concern of the Government of India. In 1949, with the appointment of the Radhakrishnan University Education Commission, imparting of agricultural education through the setting up of rural universities became the focal point. Later, in 1954 an Indo-American team led by Dr. K.R. Damle, the Vice-President of ICAR, was constituted that arrived at the idea of establishing a Rural University on the land-grant pattern of USA. As a consequence a contract between the Government of India, the Technical Cooperation Mission and some land-grant universities of USA, was signed to promote agricultural education in the country. The US universities included the universities of Tennessee, the Ohio State University, the Kansas State University, The University of Illinois, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Missouri. The task of assisting Uttar Pradesh in establishing an agricultural university was assigned to the University of Illinois which signed a contract in 1959 to establish an agricultural University in the State. Dean, H.W. Hannah, of the University of Illinois prepared a blueprint for a Rural University to be set up at the Tarai State Farm in the district Nainital, UP. In the initial stage the University of Illinois also offered the services of its scientists and teachers. Thus, in 1960, the first agricultural university of India, UP Agricultural University, came into being by an Act of legislation, UP Act XI-V of 1958. The Act was later amended under UP Universities Re-enactment and Amendment Act 1972 and the University was rechristened as Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology keeping in view the contributions of Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant, the then Chief Minister of UP. The University was dedicated to the Nation by the first Prime Minister of India Pt Jawaharlal Nehru on 17 November 1960. The G.B. Pant University is a symbol of successful partnership between India and the United States. The establishment of this university brought about a revolution in agricultural education, research and extension. It paved the way for setting up of 31 other agricultural universities in the country.

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2018 - 201912020 - 20221
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Subject: Agricultural Extension Education × Author: Goswamy, Pragya × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A study on swarm intelligence in group decision making of farmers’ self help groups in Uttarakhand
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2022-03) Goswamy, Pragya; Kashyap, S.K.
    The concept and utility of SHGs is a proven fact and it has contributed significantly in group-led extension activities on a large scale. However, these SHGs play instrumental role in empowering its members and in many core aspects of farming, but these groups also face various challenges among which ineffective group decision making is prominent. Therefore, it is crucial and critical to strengthen the self help groups through resolving the issues of stability for strengthening the extension system in light of agriculture and rural development at national level. In this context, it is important to critically analyze the natural mapping of group decision making which is observed in various forms in the nature, especially in the swarms with distinction of swarm-intelligence. Looking into the parallel world of honey-bees, swarm-intelligence is a phenomenon through which the swarm of bees perform various group tasks and take crucial group decisions effectively and efficiently without any central control of the leader utilizing their collective intelligence. Therefore, the study was intended to map the group decision processes among honey bee swarms and its inbuilt influences to relate it with the decision making processes among SHGs to study its impact so that the speed and accuracy of group decision making in SHGs could be enhanced and the conflicts in decision making could be constructively utilized. The study was conducted on swarm intelligence in group decision making of farmers’ self-help groups of Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts of Uttarakhand. Total 12 SHGs and 120 respondents (10 from each SHG) were selected. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, co-efficient of correlation, significance of correlation coefficient, multiple linear regression analysis and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. Profile characteristics of the members of selected SHGs revealed that majority of the members were middle aged, married females, marginal farmers, educated up to intermediate level and were engaged in agriculture with other subsidiary occupation. Maximum of the respondents belonged to medium category in terms of annual income, achievement motivation, ease of use of android phones, duration (between 3 to 5years) of membership in SHGs, task function and maintenance function. They had favourable attitude towards collectivisation and group decision making. Regarding results obtained through group decision making index, it was inferred that majority of the members of SHGs’ scored at medium level on group decision making index (GDMI). With respect to the ten indicators of group decision making it was observed that the respondents scored at medium level for each indicator. It was also reported that there was significant variation in group decision making among the selected SHGs. It was inferred from the correlation analysis, that all the ten indicators of Group Decision Making were significantly and positively related to Group Decision Making Index. It was also concluded that 90.60 per cent of variation in the dependent variable i.e., Group-decision making was explained by the ten indicators of group decision making index. Thus, it was inferred that the ten indicators play a significant role in shaping Group decision making. In relation to the effectiveness of Swarm A.I. based group decision making, it was inferred that seven key factors i.e., Decision impulse, Conviction of the decision, Engagement in Decision, Decision duration, Decision Alignment, Extent of Participation and Real-time physical negotiation contributed to the effectiveness of Swarm A.I. software. Swarm AI was found aligned to the swarm intelligence mechanism in honey bee swarms wherein honey bees hold an open and free competition of ideas to reach to a particular decision. Optimal decision-making framework developed in the present study highlighted that groups must reach a decision not based on individual responses of the members, but based on the changing dynamics of the entire system to reach upto the most agreeable option. The framework was formulated by integrating the seven factors of Swarm A.I. based decision making with the ten indicators of Group decision making index. The study concluded that the elements and components of swarm-intelligence could be effectively mapped to generate an effective system or software to ignite the group decision making capability of SHGs and to extend it across the SHGs throughout country. It was also inferred that through the mapping the conflicts in decision making process could be effectively translated into universally accepted and effective group decisions to lead into sustained and impactful structures of SHGs.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Designing and testing of need-based community radio programme on integrated pest management in Nainital district of Uttarakhand
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-06) Goswamy, Pragya; Kashyap, S.K.
    Agricultural extension has an important role in agricultural development, but over the years, extension services have been criticized both for failing to reach the majority of farmers and to communicate successfully with those that fall within the range. Efforts to strengthen agricultural extension have focused on innovations in communication to improve the points of interaction between researchers, extension agents and farmers to promote a greater sharing of information. In this context, community radio offers both the reach and the relevance to its listeners when the programmes are designed in a community-based and participatory manner. The strength of community radio as an extension tool is widely regarded to lie in its ability to reach illiterate farmers and provide them with information relating to all aspects of agricultural technologies in a language they understand. Present study was conducted in Nainital district of Uttarakhand. Four villages Dina, Parma, Jairam and Shantinagar were selected through simple random sampling. Total 120 respondents were selected from four villages in proportion to their population using probability proportionate to size sampling. Interview schedule, questionnaire, focused group discussion and knowledge test were used for data collection. Statistical technique such as frequency, percentage, mean, weighted mean score, standard deviation, t-test and correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. The findings of the study revealed that majority of respondents (64.17 %) were of middle age group. None of the respondent was illiterate and maximum (36.67 %) were educated up to high school level. It was found that almost all the respondents (95%) were having marginal landholding yet majority of them (62.5 %) had medium annual income might be because most of them (62.15 %) were engaged in agriculture & other subsidiary occupation. Majority of respondents (62.5 % and 79.17 %) had medium achievement motivation and scientific orientation respectively. It was also found that majority of respondents (80 %) had medium mass-media exposure and 73.33 per cent had medium information seeking behaviour. Among various information sources, personal localite sources were mostly preferred by most of the respondents and more than half of the respondents had no membership in any social organization. Through need assessment of respondents various topics were selected based on their level of awareness regarding three broad issues viz., concept of IPM, Non-Chemical methods of pest management and Chemical method of pest-control. Community radio programmes were then designed according to the need of the respondents and by seeking their participation. It was found that at 0.01 level of significance post-test score of respondents was significantly higher than pre-test score following which it was concluded that community radio programme is significantly effective in terms of gain in knowledge. Education, achievement motivation, scientific orientation, information seeking behaviour and social participation were found to have positive and significant relationship with gain in knowledge. The study elaborates the role of community radio in agricultural development by disseminating need-based information and bringing significant change in the awareness and knowledge of farmers.