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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 Improving the socio-economic status of marginal farmers in Jorhat district of Assam through organic farming(AAU, Jorhat, 2020-06) Goswami, Gitasree; Das, Manju DuttaAgriculture is the primary source of livelihood for most of the developing countries in the world. It is the largest economic sector in India and plays a significant role in the growth and development of the nation. About 70 percent of the population in our country is directly engaged in agriculture. Agriculture not only provide people with food and raw materials but also contributes to national income by bringing in valuable foreign exchange. After the green revolution was launched in India (1967-68), substantial increase in the production of food grains was achieved through the use of improved crop varieties, higher levels of inputs of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals. But it has now been realized that the increase in production was achieved at the cost of soil health and sustainable production at higher levels is possible only by the proper use of resources, to sustain the fertility of the soil. Therefore, organic farming has become one of the alternatives, which helps to overcome these problems by limiting the use chemical-synthetic inputs and through maintaining harmony with nature. Organic farming involves holistic production systems that avoid the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms, thereby minimizing their deleterious effect on environment. The present study entitled “Improving the socio-economic status of marginal farmers in Jorhat district of Assam through organic farming” with the objectives, i) To develop a concrete understanding of the marginal farmers with special reference to knowledge, attitude and practice in organic farming, ii) To improve the capacity of marginal farmers through intervention programme on organic farming and iii) To find out the impact of intervention programme on organic farming in terms of improving the socio-economic status of marginal farmers. The study was carried out in Jorhat district of Assam state which is one of the eight North Eastern states of India. All the six (6) blocks from both the Jorhat and Titabor sub divisions were purposively selected for the present study. All total twenty four (24) villages and 480 respondents were identified for the first objective of the present study. Further, total of sixty (60) marginal farmers from respective subdivisions of Jorhat district were selected for conducting second and third objectives of the study. Data were collected by using structured interview schedule. The findings revealed that 50.21 percent respondents of the study areas belonged to middle 5 aged group i.e. (36-50 yrs). Large majority (84.17%) of respondents were married and 58.13 percent had farm size between 2.0-4.0 bigha. 57.29 percent respondents had education up to high school level, 49.58 percent had kaccha type of houses and 26.67 percent respondents engaged themselves in cultivation as main occupation and occupied as daily wage earner for cash income. 37.92 percent respondents belonged to ST/SC category, 66.04 percent possessed poultry as farm power followed by cow (65.00%). 91.67 percent respondents had mobile phone followed by television (80.83%). 55.00 percent respondents belonged to nuclear family, 57.50 percent had small size of family, 39.21 percent respondents had membership in only one formal social organization. As a whole 69.17 percent respondents belonged to medium socio-economic status category. Family land was used as cultivable land by majority of the respondents (67.08%) while 76.25 percent engaged themselves in farming without involving hired labour. It is very interesting to note that 95.63 percent respondents used seeds from their own farm. 79.17 percent respondents obtained fertilizer from their respective houses and 75.83 percent marketed their crops by themselves in the nearest market. 79.58 percent respondents had their own savings. 68.12 percent respondents had obtained agriculture related information from television. Majority of the respondents (66.02%) did not attend any training related to organic farming. Nearly half of the respondents (50.00%) never had contact with Agricultural Development Office followed by 48.96 percent with ATMA, 66.66 percent with KVK and 61.04 percent with NGO. 57.29 percent respondents sometimes had contact with AAU. Majority of the respondents (51.87%) sold their produce in the weekly market and 74.38 percent were regularly accessing mobile phone followed by watching television (70.42%). Respondents faced problems in accessing knowledge about organic farming (ranked I) followed by lack of man power (ranked II), high cost of production resources (ranked III), lack of adequate training on crop production (ranked IV) and attack crops by animals (ranked V). Majority of the respondents had medium level of achievement motivation (81.04%), economic motivation (61.45%), innovation proneness (66.13%), self-confidence (62.29%), risk bearing ability (83.12%) and leadership ability (69.37%). Majority of the respondents (62.92%) of had medium level knowledge on organic farming. 75.00 percent respondents had favorable attitude and 71.04 percent had moderate level of practice towards organic farming. The outcome of the intervention programme indicated that there were tremendous changes in knowledge and practice of the trainees. The overall picture of the knowledge level of trainees revealed differential knowledge score 5 of trainees on soil fertility (ranked I) followed by pest control (ranked II) and application of manure (ranked III) achieved after the intervention programmes. Majority of the marginal farmers were found to be in the moderate and good practice category after the intervention programmes. The percentage of marginal farmers in moderate practice category ranged from 66.67-100.00 percent, while in good practice category percentage of marginal farmers ranged from 0-33.33 percent in the four villages. Majority of marginal farmers who were in poor and moderate practice category before the intervention programmes shifted to moderate and good practice category and those from moderate, graduated to the good practice category after the intervention programmes. The results revealed significant ‘t’ values for all the four villages. This is an indicator of the effectiveness of the intervention. To fulfill the third objective, impact study was carried out after six (6) moths of intervention programmes. The data reveals that 71.67 percent improvement was observed in business of the trainees along with cultivation after the six months of intervention programmes. This might be due to the reason that training programmes have aroused an interest among them for taking up of vermicompost as a business along with farming. They (13.33%) also spend money in buying electronic equipment especially mobile phone followed by capable of engaging additional paid labour for better production of vegetable crops (10.00%). They (10.00%) also engaged in other activities as daily wage earner for cash income along with cultivation as a main occupation. Nearly 8.34 percent respondent contributed cash money for improvement of their existing katcha house followed by 8.33 percent spend for possession of cow and 8.12 percent had encouraged to join social organization after intervention programme. Very less percentage of respondents were able to buy poultry (6.67%), household furniture (6.66%) and goatery (5.00%) to enhance their farm power. Only 5.00 percent respondents became self entrepreneur i.e. engaging themselves in grocery shop as start up business along with cultivation as a main occupation. It was also found that 48.33 percent trainees earned income in between Rs. 5000 - Rs. 6000 followed by 25.00 percent between Rs. 6000 - Rs. 7000, 16.67 percent up to Rs. 5000 and 10.00 percent above Rs. 7000 per month. Trainees were also motivated to save their earned money from selling organic product as well as vermicompost in different sources. Majority of the trainees (53.33%) saved in between Rs.1000- Rs.3000 followed by 25.00 percent saved below Rs.1000, 15 percent saved in between Rs.3000- Rs.5000 and 6.67 percent saved in between Rs.5000 and above per month. The psychological behavior of the respondents was improved after six months of intervention programmes. 5 Majority of the trainees (91.67%) had medium level of innovation proneness followed by risk bearing ability (90.00%), economic motivation (85.00%), achievement motivation (81.66%), self-confidence (78.33%) and leadership ability (73.33%). It was interesting to note that 20.00 percent trainees had high leadership ability followed by self-confidence (18.34%), achievement motivation (16.67%), economic motivation (10.00%), innovation proneness and risk bearing ability (8.33%) after availing the intervention programmes.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING TOOL FOR PROMOTION OF SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CHILDREN DURING CONCRETE OPERATIONAL PERIOD(AAU, Jorhat, 2020-06) Borah, Tulika; Boruah, JuriSpatial intelligence, one of the nine types of intelligence proposed by Howard Gardner (1983) has been highlighted in recent years and regarded as an integral component of human cognition. Research studies have provided evidences of relation of spatial intelligence to achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) streams. In the present study the investigator attempted to develop a learning tool for promotion of spatial intelligence in children during concrete operational period. An Embedded mixed method research design was adopted for the study. The sample of the study constituted of 120 children belonging to the age group of 8-11 years, who were selected randomly from three schools of Jorhat district, Assam. The young people‘s version of ‗Multiple intelligence test‘ developed by Chislett and Chapman (2005) was used as quantitative technique to assess the type of intelligence found among children under the study. In addition to it, observation and interview methods were also used. The data collected from both quantitative and qualitative methods were analysed and the results were obtained after triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data. Seven types of intelligences were identified and inter-correlations between the types of intelligences were analysed. Positive inter-correlations found among different types of intelligence indicated that, spatial intelligence of children can be developed by administering spatial tasks to children, irrespective of the type of dominant intelligence they possess. The topological framework of spatial skills proposed by Uttal et al. (2013) was followed for preparation of spatial tasks, which consists of four dimensions i.e. intrinsic-static, intrinsic-dynamic, extrinsic-static and extrinsic-dynamic. Spatial tasks in all the four dimensions were prepared and difficulty level of each task was assessed. It was found from the study that, the task difficulties of dynamic tasks were more than static tasks. Moreover it was found that, the tasks under the dimension of extrinsicdynamic were more difficult as compared to other three dimensions. A 2 way ANOVA was conducted to analyse the main effects and interactive effect of types of intelligence and dimensions of spatial tasks on performance of children in spatial tasks. The two way ANOVA test indicated that maximum differences in the performance of children in spatial tasks were accounted by different dimensions of spatial tasks (ηp 2= 0.516) than the types of intelligence (ηp 2= 0.219). Based on the analysis carried out, finally a learning tool, consisting of forty numbers of spatial tasks covering all four dimensions, was developed for promotion of spatial intelligence in children, during concrete operational period.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN REQUIREMENTS FOR EASE OF OPERATION OF CONSUMER ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS USED FOR COOKING(AAU, Jorhat, 2020-05) Baruah, Moonty; Bhattacharyya, NanditaIn the past few years there has been a tremendous change in the consumer electronic market with availability of wide ranges of products. Though the people possess these products and are dependent on it but still they are not satisfied since they face problems while using it, especially in case of products used for cooking activities. These problems are not related to the technical problems but with usability problems while using the user interface. User interface is the panel through which the users interact with the products. It may be due to incorporation of multiple functions in the products along with digitalization of user interface; in many cases the use of products is becoming complex. There is a gap between the intention of the manufacturers and the needs and understanding of the users while using these products. Solution lies in following a framework of guidelines on design requirements for ease of operation of the products, which can reduce these usability problems of user interface. These guidelines should be based on the opinion of users, their needs, etc. This will not only increase the usability of the product but will also try to capture the market in long run. Keeping these points in view the present study was undertaken with the following objectives (1) to study the Taxonomy of user Interfaces of Consumer Electronic Products used for cooking. (2) to identify the usability problems in use of selected products. (3) to generate design requirements for ease of operation of a selected product. The study was conducted in three phases. In the phase I, data on different consumer electronic products possessed by the respondents, dependency on the products, problems faced by the users, etc were collected through a survey. For the survey a total of 200 samples were selected randomly from Jorhat town by following purposive sampling procedure. In the Phase II, a user workshop was conducted to find out the design requirement of user interface. The information generated from the user workshop was used for developing mock up models/stimuli for further laboratory analyses. While developing the stimuli paired preference test was performed. Finally 32 stimuli were selected for the next phase of analyses in the laboratory. The user workshop was conducted with 40 numbers of respondents (20 percent of sampled respondents). In Phase III of the study, design requirements for user interface were generated for ease of operation of the selected product through usability study by using eye tracking experiment. The gathered data revealed that the respondents possess almost all types of electronic appliances and are dependent on it but still they are they have fear in using it. This fear is mostly because of the complicated user interfaces. In order to study the 8 usability problems, the different aspects of dimensions of taxonomy of the user interface was studied in details. It was seen from the analyses of data that user interfaces of many of the consumer electronic products are not user friendly. Especially, in case of microwave oven the interface is problematic due to the presence of many functions. From the paired preference test few guidelines came into foreface. These guidelines were people mostly preferred font size of 7.5 point with black font in white background, regarding the position of user interface the respondents mostly prefer vertical down position. Buttons were more preferred than knobs. From the eye tracking experiment three aspects were tested and it was found that the respondents prefer to have the start/stop button at the middle of the panel. The number of buttons in the interface should be adequate, it should neither be too less nor too more for ease of operation and as regards to colour contrast the mostly preferred combination found was white font in black background.ThesisItem Open Access ASSESSMENT OF ERGONOMIC RISK FACTORS AMONG FEMALE WORKERS IN VEGETABLE CULTIVATION(AAU, Jorhat, 2020-05) Devi, Manorama; Borah, RuplekhaErgonomic assessment of risk factors is one of the starting points to address the problem of work-related occupational stress. The rural women participate in a broad range of agricultural activities such as production, processing, preservation and utilization of food. In the case of vegetable cultivation, they play a key role in the entire vegetable cultivation process starting from land preparation to harvesting of vegetable crop. The present study was designed with four objectives: (1) To study the activity profile of female workers in vegetable cultivation, (2) To identify work-related health hazards experienced by the female workers, (3) To assess the prevalence of ergonomic risk factors in vegetable cultivation among female workers, and (4) To evolve suitable ergonomic measures to enhance comfort and productivity of the female workers. To conduct the study the North West Development Block of Jorhat district was selected purposively. Four villages namely Upper Deuri, Hokai Khangia, Bormer Chapori and Sonari No. 2 of North West Development Block in Jorhat district of Assam were selected. The study was conducted on 300 female workers who are actively engaged in all the activities of vegetable cultivation starting from land preparation to harvesting of vegetables. Both interview and experimental methods were followed to collect information. Modified Nordic questionnaire and body part discomfort scale were used as tools to collect information. To assess the risk factors 10 per cent from the total sample was selected, who were actively involved in all the activities of vegetable cultivation contributing 5-6 hours a day. RULA and OWAS techniques were for postural assessment; repetition was assessed by using Wiley et al. (1996) standard scale and exertion was measured by following Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. Personal and demographic characteristics of female workers revealed that 60.33 per cent of the respondents were from the age group of 30-40 years. Majority (65.67%) of the respondents body height falls in the category of 151-155 cm and 70 per cent of the respondents body weight was in between 41-50 kg. Most of the respondents (70.67%) were having ‗mesomorph‘ body type and normal BMI. In case of caste, majority (40.33%) of the respondents were other backward class. 62 per cent of the respondents family occupation was agriculture. It was observed that land preparation (30.66%) was performed ―partially‖ by the female workers; while other tasks of vegetable cultivation such as removing of stalks and stubbles (72%), sowing (82.67%), transplanting (100%), weeding (100%), spreading of manure (100%) and harvesting (86.67%) were performed 7 ―fully‖ and irrigation (100) was performed ―rarely‖ which indicates this activity is performed by male workers. Age and years of involvement of the respondents were found to be highly significant with their extent of participation while BMI was found to have insignificant with the extent of participation of female workers in vegetable cultivation. Majority of the respondents were found to be involved in vegetable cultivation from 5-15 years. Work-rest pattern indicated that the total working time for weeding and harvesting was 8.29 hours and 8.47 hours in a day respectively, and total rest was 2.19 hours and 2.21 hours for both weeding and harvesting. Squatting and bending postures were adopted mostly by the workers in performing majority of the activities. The level of discomfort in weeding and harvesting is severe. Assessment of body part discomfort revealed that weeding and harvesting had intolerant pain in hand. The MPI (Mazziotta Pareto Index) indicates that majority (54.67%) of the respondents experienced moderate work related health hazards and 45.33 per cent of the respondents experienced severe work related health hazards. RULA score in ‗weeding and harvesting‘ were found to be the level (3-4) and (5-6) respectively which means change may be needed in the postures and work methods of weeding and immediate change is required in harvesting. OWAS score indicated that work posture in harvesting was found to have an extremely harmful effect on musculoskeletal system and immediate solution should be found to solve the posture (action level IV). Harvesting and weeding operations were found to be ‗highly repetitive‘ in nature as the cycle time obtained was within 30 seconds. Rating of perceived exertion indicated for weeding (64.33%) and transplanting (58%) activities were moderately heavy and harvesting activity (59%) was heavy. Intervention with ergonomically designed ―Brinjal picker‖ increased output efficiency by 8.16 per cent, reduced the exposure level by 30.37 per cent as well as reduced grip fatigue and exertion. 76.67 per cent of the respondents found the newly designed ―Brinjal picker‖ very comfortable. Evaluation of the newly designed ―Brinjal picker‖ expresses that exposure level; exertion and comfort were found to be highly significant with 0.00 ―p‖ value which indicates that the intervention has an effect on the female vegetable cultivators.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.
