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Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat
Assam Agricultural University is the first institution of its kind in the whole of North-Eastern Region of India. The main goal of this institution is to produce globally competitive human resources in farm sectorand to carry out research in both conventional and frontier areas for production optimization as well as to disseminate the generated technologies as public good for benefitting the food growers/produces and traders involved in the sector while emphasizing on sustainability, equity and overall food security at household level.
Genesis of AAU -
The embryo of the agricultural research in the state of Assam was formed as early as 1897 with the establishment of the Upper Shillong Experimental Farm (now in Meghalaya) just after about a decade of creation of the agricultural department in 1882. However, the seeds of agricultural research in today’s Assam were sown in the dawn of the twentieth century with the establishment of two Rice Experimental Stations, one at Karimganj in Barak valley in 1913 and the other at Titabor in Brahmaputra valley in 1923. Subsequent to these research stations, a number of research stations were established to conduct research on important crops, more specifically, jute, pulses, oilseeds etc. The Assam Agricultural University was established on April 1, 1969 under The Assam Agricultural University Act, 1968’ with the mandate of imparting farm education, conduct research in agriculture and allied sciences and to effectively disseminate technologies so generated. Before establishment of the University, there were altogether 17 research schemes/projects in the state under the Department of Agriculture. By July 1973, all the research projects and 10 experimental farms were transferred by the Government of Assam to the AAU which already inherited the College of Agriculture and its farm at Barbheta, Jorhat and College of Veterinary Sciences at Khanapara, Guwahati.
Subsequently, College of Community Science at Jorhat (1969), College of Fisheries at Raha (1988), Biswanath College of Agriculture at Biswanath Chariali (1988) and Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science at Joyhing, North Lakhimpur (1988) were established. Presently, the University has three more colleges under its jurisdiction, viz., Sarat Chandra Singha College of Agriculture, Chapar, College of Horticulture, Nalbari & College of Sericulture, Titabar. Similarly, few more regional research stations at Shillongani, Diphu, Gossaigaon, Lakhimpur; and commodity research stations at Kahikuchi, Buralikson, Tinsukia, Kharua, Burnihat and Mandira were added to generate location and crop specific agricultural production packages.
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ThesisItem Open Access PERCEPTION OF PARENTS AND ADOLESCENTS ON PARENTING: A SOCIOCULTURAL STUDY(AAU, Jorhat, 2018-03) Begum, Toslima Sultana; Phukan, MinotiParenting is defined as purposeful activities aimed at ensuring the survival and development of children. A better understanding on parenting may be achieved when one can understand how adolescents perceived their parents’ involvement in their upbringing. Children’s perception of parenting are better predictor of their behaviour and psychological development (Buri, 1989 and Paulson, 1994). Again parents and young people can hold quite divergent perception of parenting (Smetena, 1995). Thus a study on “Perception of parents and adolescents on parenting: a sociocultural study” was undertaken in Barpeta district of Lower Assam. Sample comprised of 200 adolescents and their parents. To make the sample representative equal numbers of boys and girls from both rural and urban areas were selected. Adolescents under the age group of 16 to 17 years and who lived with their biological parents were selected for the study. The tools designed was a parenting style questionnaire comprising of 32 items in four parenting styles as subscale .A semi-structured interview schedule consisting of statements pertaining to the objectives of the study was also designed. To collect socioeconomic status and back ground information of the respondent a questionnaire by O.P. Aggrawal was used. Results revealed that Majority of the respondents were follower of Hinduism and belonged to OBC/General category. Majority of the respondents belonged to the nuclear type of family system. Most of the respondent family had their monthly income in the range of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 9,999 and were belonged to lower middle class families. Rural and urban respondents were not significantly different with respect to their overall socio-economic status. Regarding the perception on parenting style, parents perceived their parenting style as authoritative parenting style with highest mean scores of 33.68 and standard deviation 5.03 followed by authoritarian parenting style (mean= 29.2, SD =5.681). Same as their parents adolescents perceived their parents parenting style as authoritative parenting style with highest mean scores of 33.22 and standard deviation 4.79 followed by authoritarian parenting style (mean= 28.81, SD =5.4). No significant difference was found between urban and rural adolescents in relation to their perception of four types of parents’ parenting styles i.e. authoritative parenting style, authoritarian parenting style, permissive parenting style and uninvolved parenting style. No significant difference was also observed between rural and urban parents in relation to their perception on all four types of parenting styles i.e. authoritative parenting style, authoritarian parenting style, permissive parenting style and uninvolved parenting style. Family income and occupation had positive relationship with authoritative parenting style as perceived by parents and adolescents and negatively associated with parents’ education, number of siblings and overall socio economic status of the family. Perceived authoritarian parenting style by both parents and adolescents had positive relationship with income, occupation, education of parents and number of siblings and overall socio-economic status of the family. No significant gender difference was observed in adolescents’ perception on their parents’ parenting styles and in-between perception of boy’s parents’ parenting style and girl’s parents’ parenting style. Most of the rural and urban parent’s perceived problems in different aspects of parenting which creates stressed on them. Most of the adolescents also had perception on their parents’ problem in parenting them. Developing a parenting module and creation of awareness programmes on different aspects of parenting adolescents inconsideration with contemporary parenting style adopted by parents is needed for both rural and urban parents.ThesisItem Open Access IMPACT OF NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH MISSION (NRHM) ON MATERNAL HEALTH OF RURAL WOMEN OF ASSAM(AAU, Jorhat, 2018-07) Raout, Parboti Prasad; Saikia Baruah, MineravaMaternal mortality is a key indicator for poor maternal health to biological differences alone. To achieve a holistic development, attention should be given more towards the health of the rural women in a realistic manner. Government and different non-government organizations trying to improve the maternal health status of women in rural areas, so they sponsored various schemes and provide incentive to make a healthy nation. One of the major contributions in maternal health is National Rural Health Mission in 2005, which is a centrally sponsored programme for children and women. The utilisation of any scheme depends on the awareness among the beneficiaries. A systematic review of maternal deaths can facilitate identification of health systems failures/gaps and social cultural issues that contribute to death. The present investigation was undertaken to study the Impact of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) on Maternal Health of rural women of Assam, with the objectives : To assess the awareness of beneficiaries of NRHM on different public health care facilities available for improving maternal health of rural women To study the impact of benefits and services of NRHM on maternal health of rural women To identify the problems faced by rural women in availing benefits and services of NRHM To explore the problems faced by the health functionaries in delivering the maternal health services among rural women The study was conducted in four districts of Assam mainly Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Morigaon and Darrang. A multi stage purposive cum simple random sampling design was followed for the present study. The total 500 sample was interviewed for the study. Findings revealed that majority of the 44 per cent of the respondents belonged to the middle age group (26-30), 43.25 per cent respondents were primary passed followed by 23.25 per cent respondents were HSLC passed and 21.50 per cent respondents were illiterate. Majority of the 87.50 per cent of the respondents had done early registration of pregnancy. Majority of the respondents (80%) delivered babies in govt hospital, Almost 44.25 per cent of the respondent didn’t get cash assistance at the time of discharge, but most of the respondents were not able to access the amount because of shortage of fund in account. Majority of the respondents were aware about the services provided at the antenatal period of pregnancy. 39.18 per cent of the respondents were having adequate information regarding the services provided in by the Govt. of Assam in antenatal period, followed by 34.78 per cent of the respondents who aware about services provided at the prepotum or delivery time. There is an association between the attributes awareness and education, age, monthly income and organizational membership. The services and benefits gave a strong impact on improving the maternal health status of rural women. The study has clearly shown that free registration and check-up facility motivate the beneficiaries for regular check-up which minimize risk during pregnancy. The findings also revealed that the provision of cashless delivery promote institutional delivery and avoid the risk of home delivery. Respondents faced difficulty in pregnancy related fatigue which was ranked as first problem of beneficiaries of NRHM. The respondents also faced difficulty due to lack of economic support, followed by non availability of referral services for C-section delivery. The data were collected from rural areas so poor transportation facility was reported as one of the major problem.ThesisItem Open Access CAPACITY BUILDING OF RURAL WOMEN IN HOMESTEAD GARDEN FOR SUSTAINABLE HORTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT(AAU, Jorhat, 2017-07) Gogoi, Pritimoni; Dutta Das, ManjuThe present investigation on capacity building of rural women in homestead garden for sustainable horticultural development was carried out in two agro-climatic zones of Assam. A multi stage purposive cum simple random sampling design was followed for selection of sample. One district from each zone namely Sivasagar district of Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone and Kamrup (R) district of Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone were selected randomly. Total 300 rural women from 12 villages of the selected zones and who were mostly engaged in fruits and vegetable cultivation were selected as respondents for the present study. Data collection was done by using structured interview schedules. The study revealed that majority of the rural women (54.00 %) were of middle aged group, married (87.67%), educated upto middle school level(54.32%), had farming as their main occupation (67.25%), had less than 1 hectares of cultivable land (70.33 %), had more membership in group organizations (65.81 %), had poor contact with extension personnel (87.33%) , took agricultural advice from friends and neighbours (58.10%), had not attended any intervention programme (57.62%). Among the rural women who had attended intervention programme earlier, majority 85.03 percent attended on the aspect piggery. Majority of the rural women had independent participation in selected farm and non-farm activities such as transplanting and weeding (79.02%), weeding (66.00%), cooking (65.66%) and weaving (69.67%). Majority (74.67 %) of rural women took independent decision on amount of food to be kept for consumption, preservation of fruits and vegetables (41.00 %) and weaving (73.64%). Majority of rural women had low level of knowledge in aspects like nursery raising (76.30%), land preparation (67.00%), production practices (80.00%) and plant protection (52.70%). The problems faced by rural women in participating in different horticultural activities which got first ranks in their respective categories of problem were lack of irrigation facility, growth retardation of plants due to higher weed growth, high cost of labour, lack of proper training, household workload and natural calamities. The outcome of the intervention programmes indicated that there were changes in knowledge gain and retention in rural women and technology adoption behavior. The knowledge retention by rural women in three aspects of production technologies of fruit and vegetable crops namely plant protection, nutritional management and land preparation were given first, second and third ranks after analysis. In case technology adoption, aspects plant protection measures, nutrient management and nursery raising practices got the first, second and third ranks respectively.ThesisItem Open Access AN ANALYSIS OF WORK EDUCATION PROGRAMME UNDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM OF ASSAM(AAU, Jorhat, 2016-07) Saikia, Bisnupriya; Hazarika, DaisyWork Education is the pedagogic medium which integrates different need based productive cum economic activities and community service programmes in school curriculum from preschool to senior secondary stage. The goal of education is to bring all-round development of human being which is best possible by inclusion of work education programme in school curriculum. But work education is considered as extracurricular and being neglected in majority of the schools in Assam. Hence the present study was undertaken to explore systematically the existing status of implementation of work education curriculum and various factors affecting proper functioning of work education programme in elementary schools of Assam and also planned to develop a model for effective implementation of work education programme in elementary schools. The present study was carried out in three district of Assam namely: Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Marigaon. Three blocks from each district were selected randomly and from three educational block of each district, fifty (50) upper primary schools were selected. Two respondents (the head master and the teacher concerned) from each fifty selected schools from each district comprised of 100 respondents and finally the total of 300 respondents from the three districts of Assam constitute the sampled respondents of the study. Findings of the study revealed that majority of the schools (99.30%) were fulfilled the minimum norms of ‘Right to children for free and compulsory education Act’ 2009 (RTE, 2009) in terms of numbers of teachers (one teacher for each class i.e. 3) and teacher pupil ratio (1:35) for upper primary school (96.00%).The percentage of professionally trained teachers in the sampled schools were only 36.78 percent . The study highlighted that the highest percentage (44.15%) of students were from the family having daily wage earning as a means of livelihood and 54.97 per cent students in the sampled schools were girls. About 83.30 per cent schools have pucca building, and on the other hand, permanent boundary wall was found in 26.00 percent only. It is revealed from the study that the schools did not posses any equipment necessary for productive activities other than cleaning equipment (jharu, barhoni kor, Pasi) and cooking utensils for mid day meal. It is noted that a large majority of the teachers (73.30%) used to collect different products at the time of examination for work education which violets the principles of work education. A large majority of the schools (86.00%) had separate periods for work education in their class routine and the rest (14.00%) did not have the provision of work education period in their class routine. Another important aspects observed in the responses of the teachers that all the activities (Total=73) under different areas of work education covered by the study were found to be important for the student of upper primary classes with programme important score (PIS ≥1). But the percentage of implementation was found very low. Lack of fund, lack of proper guide book on work education, lack of necessary equipment, lack of boundary wall, lack of laboratory, lack of awareness among parents were the major problems as expressed by the teacher for which the work education was not being implemented in the schools. While considering the knowledge and attitude of teachers it was found that high level of knowledge was found only in 9.70 per cent and a large percentage (59.00%) of the teachers were found to have unfavourable attitude towards work education programme. The study revealed that the training of teacher and level of importance showed highly significant relationship (r=0.202), which indicate that the teachers with professional training found to have high level of importance in comparison to untrained teachers. Teaching experience and problems of teachers was found to have a negative and highly significant correlation with (r= ─0.142), which means that teachers with longer period of teaching experience have faced less problems in implementing work education programme in their school. Again, teachers’ knowledge and implementation of work education programme have shown positive and highly significant correlation (r=0.206). This relationship indicates that teachers’ knowledge has a pronounced influence on implementation of work education programme. The model of Work Education showed effective and proved that special training and exposure is essential for developing knowledge, skill and attitude of teachers which builds confidence to carry out any innovative programme in schools.ThesisItem Open Access ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION IN ASSAM- AN ANALYSIS FOR RURAL HEALTH UPLIFTMENT(AAU, Jorhat, 2017-07) Borgohain, Shyamalima; Sarmah, JulianaThe study entitled “Environmental Sanitation in Assam- An Analysis for rural health upliftment” was undertaken with the objectives: i) To explore the institutional arrangement of government on environmental sanitation, ii) To assess existing knowledge and practices of rural women regarding environmental sanitation, iii) To identify the problems faced by the rural women in adopting different governmental measures for environmental sanitation, iv) To explore the problems faced by the field functionaries in proper implementation of the governmental measures for environmental sanitation and v) To find out suggestions from the field functionaries for proper functioning and improvement of the environmental sanitation programme. The present study was conducted in Jorhat and Sivasagar district of Assam. Purposive cum simple random sampling method was adopted for selecting the sample of 360 rural women as respondents. Field functionaries of Public Health Engineering Dept. (PHED) and also contractual functionaries of Swachh Bharat Mission- Gramin (SBM-G) of both Jorhat and Sivasagar district were selected as another set of respondents for the present study to explore theproblems faced by the field functionaries in proper implementation of the governmental measures for environmental sanitation. Both primary and secondary data were collected for the present study. Secondary data was collected to explore the institutional arrangement of government on environmental sanitation. Primary data was collected through scale developed by the researcher, interview schedule and questionnaire. The study revealed that the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) is the nodal ministry for the overall policy, planning, funding and coordination of programs of environmental sanitation in the country. The key programs of the Ministry providing thrust to the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) sector are the National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) and the Swachh Bharat Mission- Gramin (SBM-G) which were implemented in Assam by the nodal department Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED). Both National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) and Swach Bharat Mission –G has a 5-tier structure at the National, State level, District level, Block level and Gram Panchayat (GP) level with definite roles and responsibilities at each level. The study also revealed that majority of the rural women (48.10%) belonged to the middle age group, 88.90 per cent were married and majority of the respondents (65.80%) had marginal land holding. Majority of the respondents had education up to high school level (34.16%). Only 2.5% rural women had pucca house and cent per cent of rural women had low cost latrine at their houses. Source of drinking water of majority of the respondents (41.11%) was piped water supply from a public source. Farming was the main occupation of head of the family for 47.50 per cent of rural women. Majority of the rural women (75.3%) were from nuclear family and 33.61 per cent rural women had no membership in any organization. The findings also highlighted that majority of the rural women belonged to medium socio-economic status (65.84%). Data also revealed that the majority of the rural women (70.00%) had medium level of knowledge and also majority of the rural women (64.44%) had moderate level of practice regarding environmental sanitation. Lack of systematic approach to the family was ranked as I problem by the rural women in adopting low cost latrine as a governmental measure for environmental sanitation. Field functionaries under environmental sanitation programme namely Assistant Engineer, Junior Engineer of PHED and District consultants, Block resource coordinators, cluster resource coordinators faced different problems while implementing the programme for the beneficiaries among which the problems related to finance were found as moderate and severe by both permanent and contractual functionaries respectively. ‘Less involvement of PRI members’ was expressed as moderate problem by both permanent and contractual functionaries under problems related to management. ‘Lack of proper vehicle’ under Infrastructure Problems was also expressed as moderate problem by both permanent and contractual functionaries. ‘Awareness generation and demand creation at community level for access to safe drinking water and sanitary toilet through use of mass media’ and ‘Behavioural change among community through motivational programme should get first priority than mere construction of toilet’ was suggested by all the functionaries for proper functioning and improvement of the environmental sanitation programme.ThesisItem Open Access Economic Empowerment of Rural Women of Assam through Agro-based Enterprises(AAU, 2016) Bharali, Rulima; Dr Manju Dutta DasThe present investigation on economic empowerment of rural women of Assam through agro-based enterprises was carried out in three agro climatic zones. A multi stage purposive cum simple random sampling design was followed for sample selection. Two districts from each zone, namely Jorhat and Dibrugarh of Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone, Udalguri and Darrang from North Bank Plain Zone and Kamrup (M) and Kamrup (R) of Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone were selected randomly. All total 240 rural women from 24 villages of selected zones and who were mostly engaged in both vegetable cultivation and livestock rearing were included as respondents for the present study. Data collection was done by using structured interview schedule. The study revealed that majority of the rural women (52.92%) were of middle aged group, married (70.83%) and belonged to middle socio economic status (54.17%) group. Most of the rural women were involved independently in post harvest activities like cleaning and grading of harvested crop (88.33%), collection of seed from harvested crop (83.33%), transplanting, planting and sowing of seeds (74.76%) and application of manure (64.16%). Further they participated independently in different livestock activities such as providing daily feed (82.08%), cleaning of shed (79.16%), care of sick animal (74.58%) and taking care in vaccination of livestock (70.83%). Majority of the rural women had low level of knowledge in vegetable cultivation (44.32%) whereas 40.45% and 15.23% had medium and high level of knowledge respectively. In rearing of livestock majority of the rural women (42.77%) had medium level of knowledge followed by 39.49% and 17.74% had low and high level of knowledge. The major inhibiting factors which hampered in carrying out the agrobased enterprises were lack of technical person for immediate help and solution(2.56), weak marketing linkage(2.55) and sudden outbreak of diseases(2.53). Study also revealed that the agricultural projects planned and working on PPP mode for benefit of rural women increased their economic standard gradually. The five strategic options were drawn by introducing SWOC matrix analysis, namely i) provide specific training on the demand of the entrepreneurs on selected enterprises. ii) continuous assistance from extension personnel about production process and production management iii) develop linkages with input suppliers and markets iv) access to current and reliable market information and v) ensuring easy availability of low cost high yielding breed/variety.
