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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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ThesisItem Open Access Effectiveness of a ‘protected cultivation video’ on farmers of Bhimtal and Kotabagh blocks of district Nainital(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-07) Dhyani, Vijay Prakash; Sharma, GyanendraVideo is a powerful medium that can be produced at low cost and yet has the potential to reach mass audience. Video can touch viewers’ feelings, evoke emotions and provoke reactions beyond a simple intellectual understanding of a technical innovation. Video may help to overcome the challenges of disseminating information to farmers and reaching the poor, marginalized, women and young people. Some uses of video in agriculture include raising awareness, stimulating demand for support, farmer-to-farmer extension, training on agriculture innovations etc. The researcher conducted an experimental study to study the effectiveness of video. The off-season vegetable production involves scientific practices which are required to be followed for improved yields. In view of the severe damages which occur to the vegetable crops cultivated in the field, there is a need to identify alternative means of producing off-season vegetables. The reason that we have decided to work on this research problem is that, video as an educational medium and tool for motivating farmers to change their attitude. The present study was conducted in Nainital district of Uttarakhand based on the following objectives : to study the socio-economic, psychological and communication characteristics of the respondents and to test the effectiveness of video in terms of gain in knowledge as well as to find out relationship between socio-economic, psychological and communication characteristics with gain in knowledge. Four villages Bhaluty, Sariyatal, Sonjala Narsingh and Sonjala Naya Aabad were selected through simple random sampling method. In all, 80 respondents were selected from four villages in proportion to their population using probability proportionate to size. Interview schedule and knowledge test were used for data collection. Statistical technique such as mean, percentage, frequency, standard deviation, paired t-test and correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. After analyzing socio-economic, communication and psychological characteristics, it was found that 37.50% of the respondents belonged to middle age group, general caste (65.00%), joint families (67.55%) and were literate up to high school (30.00%). 43.75% respondents had low annual income. Majority of the respondents (90.00%) had small size of land holding, 68.75 per cent respondents did not participate in any social organization as member. Majority of the respondents (86.25%) had low level of mass media exposure. Around 53.75 per cent respondents had medium level of achievement motivation. Effectiveness was measured in terms of gain in knowledge using pre-test and post-test methodology. It was found that, at 5 per cent level of significance, post test scores of respondents were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. Thus, it can be concluded that video had significant effect on gain in knowledge. Respondents’ knowledge increased after video exposure. The findings revealed that age, caste, family type, social participation, annual income, land holding, achievement motivation had no relationship with the knowledge gain, whereas family size, education and mass media exposure had positive and significant relationship with knowledge gain, at 5 per cent level of significance.ThesisItem Open Access A study on farmers’ perception about extension services of KVKs in Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-06) Saklani, Tanya; Ansari, M.A.KVKs have emerged as a focal point of technology transfer through their diverse activities like OFT, FLD, capacity building, updating knowledge & skills of extension personnel and farmers. Studies have indicated limited success of KVKs in terms of impact on the intended beneficiaries. As the number of KVKs continues to grow, the quality of performance becomes the prime concern to understand factors which contribute to the success or failure of KVKs. In order to fulfil the objectives of all the activities performed by a KVK, it is very important to find out how the farmers actually perceive the services offered by KVK, their level of satisfaction with them and whether or not the services are useful for them. Moreover, it is also essential to find out which services and methodologies are perceived to be more effective by the farmers. Thus, keeping the above in view, the present study was taken up to find out the socio-economic and communication characteristics of the farmers along with their perception about the extension services of KVKs. Relationship between the socio-economic, communication and psychological characteristics of the farmers with their perception about the services offered by KVKs were studied along with constraints faced by them in availing those services. The study was conducted in Uttarakhand. With Two KVKs (KVK Bharsar and KVK Jeolikote), four villages were selected (two from each KVK) following Simple Random Sampling. A total of 120 respondents were selected through PPS method. Analytical research design was used for the study. A pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect data. Appropriate statistical techniques were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. Findings of the study revealed that the majority of the respondents were female (55%), middle aged (74.16%), had secondary level of education (38%), belonged to medium sized family (46.66%), had marginal land holdings (55.83%), belonged to medium income group (66.66%), had medium level of media exposure (60%), had low social participation (50%), possessed medium level of information seeking behaviour, had medium level of risk orientation (54.16%), had medium level of economic motivation (85%) and had medium level of innovativeness (76.66%). The overall perception of the farmers about extension services of KVKs was found to be favourable (77.50%) as most of the respondents had favourable perception about trainings, Front line demonstrations (FLDs), instructional facilities and advisory services. However, majority of the farmers had an unfavourable perception regarding On-farm trials (OFTs). Variables like mass media exposure and information seeking behaviour had a positive and significant relationship with farmers’ perception while land holding had a negative and significant relationship with the same at one percent level of significance. Other variables like age, education, family size, annual income, social participation, risk orientation and economic motivation had a positive but non-significant relationship while innovativeness had a negative and non-significant relationship with the perception of the farmers. The major constraints faced by the respondents in utilization of KVK services were small-sized land holdings, lack of transport, lack of finances, lack of follow-up activities by KVK staff, non assessment of needs, lack of sincerity among the farmers, inability of womenfolk to go for on-campus trainings, lack of proper publicity by KVK and improper working of SHGs and women’s clubs in the village. The findings of the study shall help the extension administrators, planners and extension personnel to design and develop effective strategies which are need based and are actually gainful for the farmers in true sense.ThesisItem Open Access Adoption of soil and water conservation technologies by the farming community in hills of Uttarakhand: A study in Dehradun district(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-06) Chauhan, Pramila; AmardeepTechnology is a boon of science on mankind. It plays an important role in economic development of a nation too. In agriculture too, many technologies and improved practices had been developed in the course of time. These technologies in many cases were found to be confined to the research stations only because of lack of appreciable adoption. Although the whole country is facing a lot of problems in terms of its land and soil due to intensive agricultural practices, the conditions in hills is more severe as soil is prone to erosion, landslides, runoff and land is mostly undulated which also prevents efficient use of water. Scarcity of water resources in these areas is also a big challenge for successful farming as most of the land is rain fed and even in irrigated lands sources of irrigation are limited. Thus the need was felt to study adoption of soil and water conservation technologies by the farming communities in hills of Uttarakhand to help them in proper utilization of water resources in farming alongside conserving the soil.The present study was designed to intervene into the socio economic, psychological and communication characteristics of the farmers along with the extent of awareness about selected soil and water conservation technologies and their extent of adoption. Constraints faced by the farmers and relationship among socio-economic, psychological and communication characteristics of the farmers with the extent of adoption of the technologies were also studied. The present study was conducted in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand. The villages Doha and Hayou from Kalsi block and Buraswa and Rawana from Chakrata block were selected purposively for this study. Analytical research design was used for the present study. A sample of total 120 respondents were selected through PPS method. The head of the households who were actively engaged in agriculture was chosen as respondents from the selected households of each village. Pre- tested interview schedule and open ended questions were used for data collection. Statistical techniques such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, coefficient of correlation and t-test were used to analyze the data for meaning interpretation. The findings of the present study revealed that majority of the respondents (73.33%) belonged to middle age group, had education upto primary level (40.83%), were small farmers (73.33 %), practiced mixed farming, had membership in one organisation (78.33%), medium annual income (83.33%), belonged to joint family, had medium risk orientation (74.16%), neutral attitude towards research station (67.50%), and medium cosmo-politeness (67.50%). Maximum number of the respondents had medium information seeking behaviour (48.33%), medium innovativeness (76.66%), and medium extent of overall awareness about the soil and water conservation technologies (64.16%). More than half of the respondents (55.00%) had low extent of adoption about soil and water conservation technologies. The major constraints faced by the respondents in adopting the technologies were lack of face to face contact with extension agency, lack of information about extension activities, lack of adequate information about the newly introduced technology, high cost of technology, lack of supply of technology, perceived superiority of the old technology to the newly introduced technology, lack of awareness about the technology, lack of compatibility with new technology and complexity of the technology. Variables like land holding, family income, information seeking behaviour, innovativeness were found to have positive and significant relationship with extent of adoption at (1%) level of significance and social participation had positive and significant relationship with the e tent of adoption at 5 per cent level of significance. Age had negative and non significant relationship with extent of adoption. Variables like, education, attitude towards research station, cosmopoliteness had positive but non significant relationship with extent of adoption at (5%) level of significance. On the other hand, risk orientation had negative but significant relationship with extent of adoption at (1%) level of significance. The findings of the study will be useful to extension workers, research workers and the administrators as it will provide them the sufficient knowledge about the existing adoption gap of selected soil and water conservation technologies used by the farmers and will enable them to improve their approach of working with the farmersThesisItem Open 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.ThesisItem Open Access Information seeking and processing behaviour of members of self help groups: a study in district Udham Singh Nagar(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-06) Gayatri; Bhardwaj, NeelamInformation seeking and processing behaviour of members of Self Help Groups provide learning opportunities to members by sharing scientific and technology based information. SHGs to succeed in developing world require information and knowledge support. The problem in Indian context is not lack of technology, R&D efforts but the inadequacy and inefficiencies in dissemination of relevant information. For this purpose there is a need of effective information flow which is a key to development. SHGs efficiency can be enhanced by understanding the information flow among members. Therefore, there is a need to look into how the members seek information, share and process it. Thus, it was felt necessary to assess the information seeking and processing behaviour of members of Self Help Groups. The present study was undertaken to find out socio-economic, psychological characteristics of members of Self Help Groups and their information seeking and processing behavior. The study also explored the relationship between socio-economic, psychological characteristics and information seeking and processing behaviour of members of Self Help Groups as well as the perceived constraints in accessing the information by members of Self Help Groups. The study was conducted in Udham Singh Nagar district. Lalpur, Dhyannagar, Basai Majhara and Kaasampur villages were selected from Jaspur block. Karghatiya, Balkheda, Malpura and Nakuliya villages were selected from Sitarganj block. The blocks and villages were selected by simple random sampling method. A sample of eighty respondents was selected through census method from the selected SHGs. Analytical research design was used for the present study. Interview schedule was used for data collection. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, coefficient correlation, weighted mean score and ‘t’ test were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents (71.50%) belonged to middle age group, were female (90%), belonged to joint family (51.25%) and belonged to OBC (52.50%). Most of the respondents (27.50%) had education up to primary level, majority of the respondents (80%) were engaged in agriculture along with subsidiary occupation. Around 41.25 per cent of the respondents were marginal farmers, majority of the respondents (76.25%) had medium income level. Results showed that majority of the respondents (58.75%) had medium level of scientific orientation, risk orientation (73.75%), economic motivation (68.75%) and cosmopoliteness (77.50%). Most of the respondents (46.25%) had low social participation. Regarding information seeking and processing behaviour of the respondents, majority of the respondents (67.5%) had medium level of information seeking behaviour, medium level of information processing behaviour (75%) and medium level of information sharing behaviour (77.5%). Majority of the respondents (92.5%) utilized television followed by group leaders (90%) as major information sources. The results showed that education, cosmopoliteness, land holding, income, scientific orientation and social participation had positive and significant relationship with information seeking behaviour. On the other hand risk orientation and economic motivation had positive but non-significant relationship. Age had negative and significant relationship with information seeking behaviour. Education, land holding, income, cosmopoliteness, social participation and scientific orientation had positive and significant relationship with information processing behaviour. Age had negative and significant relationship with information processing behaviour. Majority of the respondents (91.25%) stated lack of development related programmes were telecast on TV and poor communication facilities (86.25%) as major constraints faced by the members of Self Help Groups. The findings will be useful to the extension administrators, planners, extension personnels to facilitate a better communication of information to the members of Self Help Groups.ThesisItem Open Access A study on information needs of dairy farmers in Almora district of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-06) Adhikari, Babita; AmardeepDairy farming is one of the most important economic activities in the rural mountainous areas of Uttarakhand, and is closely intervened with farming systems. Milching cow and buffalo are reared at all altitudes and they have high potential to develop dairy farming. The vast forest (59.7%), grazing land (3.4%) and ample water promote dairy farming in the Uttarakhand Himalaya .The state has many schemes running for dairy development and also there are numerous institution involve in research on dairy and on dissemination of information on dairy but still there is wide information gap. Dairy farmers are unaware of improved dairy practices. A big reason behind is that the programmes and policies are not in tune with the actual needs of dairy farmers of hills. Thus study entitled “A study on information needs of dairy farmers in Almora district of Uttarakhand” was undertaken to study the characteristics of dairy farmers, to assess their information needs, to study relationship between their characteristics and to find the constraints faced by dairy farmers. The study was carried out in Almora district, selected purposively. Dwarahat and Tarikhet blocks were selected by simple random sampling. Two villages under each block namely Riyuni Malli, Dadgaliyan, Pilkholi and Chaukuni were selected through simple random sampling (Chit method). Respondents who were actively involved in dairy farming were selected Probability proportionate to size (PPS) sampling was used. Analytical research design was adopted for the study. Pre-tested interview schedule and focused group discussion were used as data collection tool. The data were coded, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted with appropriate statistical tools and techniques in the light of objectives of the study. The results revealed that majority of the respondents belonged to middle age group, nuclear family, had education upto middle class, had medium annual income, medium material passion, medium herd size, had medium attitude towards dairy farming, medium scientific orientation, had agriculture as primary occupation. All of them were marginal farmers and majority of them seek information from friends and relatives, neighbors, veterinary doctors, milk cooperative union and kisan mela. Respondents had moderate information need for breeds, feeding, fodder production, health care practices, management practices, input supplies and record keeping and overall of all the aspect. A significant and negative relationship was found between land holding, herd size, material possession, and achievement motivation a, scientific orientation and overall information needs of dairy farmers. Major constraints faced by the respondents were unavailability of green fodder round the year, unavailability of resource person especially veterinary doctor in nearby area, lack of information about government schemes, availability of drinking water for animal, availability of concentrate mixture, high cost of concentrate mixture and non-remunerative prices of milk, low productivity of animal, proper disposal of animal waste, occurrence of disease among animal and proper conception rate in Artificial Insemination .ThesisItem Open Access Perception of farmers towards use of social media for seeking agricultural information: a study in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-07) Pal, Ayushi; Kameswari, V.L.V.With revolution in ICT sector and increase in the possession of ICT tools and devices, social media has gained wide popularity. Its users are rising exponentially over years and social media is being utilized for many purposes viz. information, education and entertainment. Social media can be effectively used as an agricultural information source because it has a potential to make communication more collaborative through discussions and involvement. Social media is a collective of online communication channels that provide a platform for uploading user generated content and allows for asynchronous and synchronous interaction. Social media comprises all the social networking sites like Facebook, WhatsApp; video sharing site such as YouTube; micro blogging site like Twitter and other communication tools. In order to make effective use of social media into agricultural information services it is necessary to know the knowledge level and perception of farmers towards social media as a source of exchanging agricultural information so that social media can be made more effective for farmers. Thus , a study entitled “ Perception of farmers towards use of social media for seeking agricultural information : A study in Udham Singh nagar district of Uttarakhand” was undertaken to know how much knowledge farmers have about social media and what farmers perceive about social media while accessing information on social media related to agriculture . The study was conducted in two purposively selected villages; namely Malsagirdharpur and Saijani villages of kichha block. Every third respondent was selected by systematic random sampling at the time of data collection. Pre tested interview schedule was administered to collect data from 106 respondents and statistical methods such as mean , frequency , standard deviation , percentage , Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation and testing of significance of correlation coefficient were used to treat the data for meaningful interpretation. Findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents were in the age group 39-59 years. Mobile phone and television was possessed by all the farmers. Majority of the respondents used Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube for accessing agricultural information while no respondent used Twitter .Majority of respondents had farming experience of more than 15 years. Majority of respondents had medium level of innovativeness towards use of social media in agriculture .Majority of respondents had medium level of achievement motivation towards use of social media in agriculture. Majority of respondents had medium level of information seeking behaviour. Age, education, years of farming experience , innovativeness , social media exposure and achievement motivation had significant relationship with the knowledge level of respondents about social media as a source of agricultural information. Education, media ownership, innovativeness, social media exposure and information seeking behaviour had significant relationship with the perception of respondents towards social media as a source of agricultural information. This study may help the developers to improve services provided by social media and to combat the existing gaps.ThesisItem Open Access Participatory video based message designing on mushroom cultivation in Chhatarpur village of Udham Singh Nagar(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-06) Muyal, Ashima; Sharma, GyanendraThe attribute ‘participatory’ with video refers to the idea that people should not only be receivers but also the active producers of the messages. This has to be seen in contrast to mass media like television or newspapers where people are normally only receivers of messages. According to Shaw and Robertson (1997) participatory video can be a powerful aid in the cultivation and realization of people’s abilities and potential. It is a group based activity that revolves around the needs of the participants. Video is used to develop their confidence and selfesteem, to encourage them to express themselves creatively, to develop critical awareness and to provide a means for them to communicate with others. Through a pilot study, the researcher found that many trainees who adopted mushroom production as a venture after the completion of training program revealed lack of information’s on various aspect of mushroom cultivation practice. The reason that we have decided to work on this research problem is that, participatory video methodology has been utilized for empowering communities through several cases. Thus, keeping above in view, the present study was taken up with the following objectives: 1. To study the socio-economic, psychological and communication characteristics of mushroom growers. 2. To assess the information needs of mushroom growers. 3. To design and develop the participatory video. The study was conducted in Chhatarpur village of Udham Singh Nagar district. Descriptive research design was used for the study. 50 respondents were selected, fifteen of whom had been trained through participatory video and were purposively selected from an existing list of mushroom growers and the others were selected randomly. And their profile (Age, caste, education, family type, social participation, land holding, occupation, family income, achievement motivation, scientific orientation, mass media ownership, mass media exposure and information seeking behaviour) were studied. Their information needs were gathered and prioritized and based on their needs, participatory video was designed through participatory approach. The effectiveness of participatory was measured by taking opinion of respondents through interview schedule and personal interview. After analyzing the socio-economic communication and psychological characteristics, it was found that the majority of the respondents belonged to middle age group (56.00%), schedule caste (50.00%), educational qualification upto intermediate (34.00%) and were belonged to joint family (50.00%). The results revealed that majority of the respondents had low social participation (74.00%), small land holding (48.00%), other than mushroom cultivation as their major occupation (70%), medium family income (76%), medium level of achievement motivation (52.00%), medium level of scientific orientation (60.00%), high level of mass media exposure (68.00%) and medium level of information seeking behaviour (50.00%). Effectiveness of video was measured through participatory evaluation with respondents. Data was gathered through questionnaire and personal interview. Participatory video was screened to the mushroom growers at a common place in the village. A questionnaire was to seek the reaction of the mushroom growers on video dimension include content characteristics and technical quality. The major findings are: majority of the respondents regarding the quality of the video found title (70.00%), caption (50.00%), captions color (66.00%), graphics and visuals (60.00%) highly satisfactory and caption duration (76.00%), presentation of material (80.00%), video attraction (84%) satisfactory. Majority of the respondent regarding the quality of audio found audio clarity (52.00%), a mix of sound and scene (54.00%) satisfactory. Reactions of respondents regarding content component: majority of the f o n o i t a r u d d n a , ) % 0 0 . 2 7 ( y t i c i l p m i s , ) % 0 0 . 8 6 ( y t i r a l c , ) % 0 0 . 8 7 ( e c n a v e l e r , ) % 0 0 . 2 5 ( d e s a b d e e n t i d n u o f t n e d n o p s e rt he video (74.00%) highly satisfactory. Half of the respondent (50.00%) found the occasional significance of video satisfactory and utility of information highly satisfactory. Respondents unanimously perceived the utility of participatory video in the direction of development communication to increase people’s participation and as a platform for enhancing dialogue and also to highlight the problems of the village.ThesisItem Open Access A study on assessment of knowledge level on soil health management practices among the farmers of West Bengal(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-05) Mandal, Anwesha; Bhardwaj, NeelamIndian agriculture is facing a lot of challenges as a result of Green Revolution. Intensive agriculture besides increasing the production has caused huge damage to the fertile Indian soils, turning them infertile with the problems of nutrient imbalance, lowered water table, decreased fertility, lowered pH, increased salinity, significant deficiencies of secondary and micronutrients and much more. These problems has put the future production at stake. The Government has already planned for another Green Revolution in the eastern part of the country by launching Bringing Green revolution in Eastern India (BGREI), 2010-11. West Bengal, an important state of this programme is all set to explore its potentialities in terms of production and productivity. But to avoid similar consequences of the earlier Green revolution, it is necessary to look for sustainable practices to safeguard the soil of the state. Government through its various schemes has taken initiatives to promote sustainable agriculture from time to time. Proper knowledge on these practices is a pre-requisite for their implementation. Thus the need was felt to assess the knowledge level of farmers of the state on Soil Health Management practices. The present study was undertaken to find out the socio-economic and communication characteristics of the farmers along with their knowledge level and extent of utilization of Soil Health Management practices. Relationship between the socio-economic and communication characteristics of the farmers with their knowledge level on SHM practices as well as constraints faced by them in implementing the practices were also studied. The study was conducted in Hooghly district of West Bengal. Bahira and Pratappur villages were selected from Balagarh block and Damra and Bagdi villages were selected from Chinsurah-Mogra block. Both the blocks and villages from the blocks were selected through chit method following Simple Random Sampling without replacement method. Analytical research design was used for the present study. A total sample of 120 respondents was selected through PPS method. The head of the households who were actively engaged in agriculture was chosen as respondents from the selected households from each village. Pre-tested interview schedule and knowledge test were used for data collection. Statistical techniques such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, coefficient of correlation and t-test were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the respondents (64.17%) belonged to middle aged group, had education up to High school (27.5%), belonged to nuclear family (73.33%), with medium annual income (86.67%), and had farming as their sole occupation (73.33%). More than half of the respondents (55%) were marginal farmers, with medium farming experience (60%) and had medium cropping intensity (48.33%). Majority of the respondents (45%) practiced diversified farming. Results revealed that majority of the respondents (59.17%) had low social participation and medium mass media utilization (59.17%), innovativeness (68.34%), scientific orientation (65.83%) and information seeking behaviour (48.33%). Regarding the knowledge level on SHM practices, majority of the respondents (65%) were in the medium category regarding overall knowledge level on SHM practices followed by 20.83 per cent in low category and 14.17 per cent in high category. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents (67.5%) had medium extent of utilization of the SHM practices. Education, annual income, size of land holding, cropping intensity, social participation, mass media utilization, innovativeness, scientific orientation and information seeking behaviour were found to have positive and significant relationship with the knowledge level of the respondents. Age had a negative but significant relationship with knowledge level. On the other hand farming experience had non-significant relationship with the knowledge level. The major constraints faced by the respondents in implementing the practices were difficulty in understanding the soil test report, lack of knowledge on soil test, untimely availability of test reports, lack of knowledge on biofertilizers, monetary constraints, unawareness on acid soil problems, poor production of pulses and non-availability of Dhaincha seeds. The findings of the study will be useful to the extension administrators, planners and extension personnel and others who are directly or indirectly engaged in transfer of technology. This will enable them to form strategy in helping the farmers to learn the importance of SHM practices for better dissemination.