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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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Author: Bortamuly, Dharmindra × End date: 2022 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A STUDY ON THE ROLE PERFORMANCE OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION PERSONNEL IN THE REVITALIZED EXTENSION SYSTEM IN THE STATE OF ASSAM
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2015) Bortamuly, Dharmindra; Dr. P. K. Das
    Public sector extension in India has undergone several changes since the early 1950s. Beginning with the Community Development Program in 1952 through the National Extension Service in 1953, the focus of extension was on human and community development. Subsequently, a steady progression towards technology transfer was ushered in with launching of many other agricultural and rural development programmes. The most significant recent development was the introduction of the Training and Visit (T&V) extension management system in the mid 1970s which profoundly influenced extension activities and registered impressive gains in agricultural production in the country. In country like India where agro-climatic zones widely differ besides significant variation in socio-economic status of farmers, uniform extension service is not the panacea for all the regions. Of late it was realized that the present public sector extension system on its own is not capable enough to meet the ever increasing and multi faceted demands of the farming community due to several constraints or weaknesses in the system. So, it was felt that the present public sector extension system should be reformed to meet the farmer’s technological requirements. Thus, to address the specific constraints, weaknesses and gaps in the present extension system, the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, with financial assistance from World Bank in 1998 initially in 7 states covering 28 districts. The Innovation in Technology Dissemination (ITD) component of NATP aimed at addressing key constraints in technology generation, validation and dissemination by introducing certain institutional models and operational reform processes in selected states in the country. The institutional arrangements were made through creation of ATMA as registered society at district level. The operational reforms were made through decentralized decision making by increasing the farmer’s input into programme planning and resource allocation. In Assam, the revitalized extension system was started under the World Bank aided Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project (AACP) initially in 11 districts. The effective implementation of ATMA largely depends on how effectively the extension functionaries perceive their roles and perform those. However, the number of study related to role performance under revitalized extension system in India is very few. Keeping these facts in view, the proposed study entitled “A study on the role performance of the agricultural extension personnel in the revitalized extension system in the state of Assam” was undertaken with the following objectives. 1) To determine the level of role performance as perceived by the agricultural extension personnel in the revitalized extension system 2) To identify the variables which significantly contribute towards the level of role performance of the agricultural extension personnel in the revitalized extension system 3) To determine the direct and indirect effects of selected variables on level of role performance of the agricultural extension personnel in the revitalized extension system The present study was conducted in Assam, one of the states of North-Eastern region of India. A multistage purposive sampling method was followed to select the respondents for the study. The study was carried out in 11 (eleven) districts of Assam where Agricultural Technology and Management Agency (ATMA) was initially constituted under the World Bank aided Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project (AACP). A total of 115 agricultural development blocks from 11 ATMA districts were covered under the study. Agricultural Development Officers (ADOs) who have worked as conveners in the respective Block Resource Centres (BRCs) of the sampled districts were selected as respondents for the study. Thus 112 ADOs from 11 ATMA districts constituted the sample of respondents for the study. The primary data for the study were collected during the period from March to July, 2015. The level of role performance of the extension personnel was the dependent variable in the study. A standardized index consisting of 42 role items was developed to measure the dependent variable in the study. The 42 role items of the index were distributed under 7 different role dimensions, namely, planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. A total of 15 independent variables were selected for the study. For convenience of the study, the independent variables were categorized into three categories, namely personal, psychological and organizational variables. The primary data for the study were collected through personal interview method with the help of a pretested structured schedule. Various descriptive and inferential statistical measures were employed to analyze the data. In the context of the statistical analysis, a set of explicit hypotheses were formulated in the present study. In general, testing of hypotheses was done on the basis of null hypotheses under consideration. The findings of this study revealed that majority of the respondents belonged to the middle aged category (61.61%) and M.Sc (Agri.) passed (53.57%). Majority of them had 7 to 17 years of service experience (73.21%) and 17 to 42 days of training exposure (77.68%). Majority of the respondents had medium level of decision making ability (76.79%), medium level role awareness (68.75%) medium level of role perception (71.43%), medium level of job involvement (63.39%), medium level of role conflict (63.39%) and medium level of role ambiguity (58.93%) Majority of the respondents had favourable attitude towards ATMA (66.07%) with medium level of achievement motivation (66.96%). Majority of the respondents perceived the motivational climate as favourable (58.93%) with moderate level of job satisfaction (66.07%) and medium level of job anxiety (65.18%). Majority of the respondents (62.50%) had medium level of role performance followed by 19.64 per cent respondents who had low level of role performance. The rest 17.85 per cent had high level of role performance. As regards to performance of different role items by the respondents under planning role dimension, the highest rank was occupied by the role item ‘Identification and prioritization of needs and interest of the farmers’ with a weighted mean score of 3.642. The role item ‘Organizing farmer’s meeting in setting aims and objectives’ occupied the highest rank under organizing role dimension with a weighted mean score of 3.312. Under staffing role dimension, the highest rank was occupied by the role item ‘Helps in formation of Farm Information and Advisory Centre’ with a weighted mean score of 3.535. Under directing role dimension, the role item ‘Providing timely and relevant information to farmers’ occupied the highest rank with a weighted mean score of 3.571. Under coordinating role dimension, the highest rank was occupied by the role item ‘Coordinating assessment, refinement, validation and adoption of front line technologies with local research centres’ with a weighted mean score of 3.267. Under reporting role dimension, the highest rank was occupied by the role item ‘Supporting ATMA management committee in discharging its function’ with a weighted mean score of 3.169. Under budgeting dimension, the role item ‘Maintaining proper record and account for the activities carried out’ occupied the highest rank with a weighted mean score of 3.205. The coefficients of correlation were worked out to examine the relationship of 15 independent variables with the level of role performance of the respondents with regard to different role dimensions and also with regard to the level of overall role performance. In both the cases, 8 independent variables, viz., service experience, training exposure, role awareness, role perception, attitude towards ATMA, achievement motivation, motivational climate, and job satisfaction were positively and significantly correlated with the level of role performance at 0.01 level whereas the variables role conflict and job anxiety were negatively and significantly correlated with the level of role performance at 0.01 level. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the contributory effects of selected independent variables in explaining the variation in the level of role performance of the respondents with respect to different role dimensions and also with respect to their level of overall role performance. Results of the regression analysis revealed that variables service experience, training exposure, role awareness, role perception, attitude towards ATMA, achievement motivation, motivational climate, and job satisfaction, had positive and significant contribution towards explaining the variation in the level of role performance under different role dimensions. The variable job anxiety had negative and significant contribution towards the role performance under different role dimensions. As regards overall role performance, the variables service experience, training exposure, role awareness, role perception, attitude towards ATMA, achievement motivation, motivational climate and job satisfaction had positive and significant contribution towards the overall role performance of the extension personnel at 0.01 level. The value of coefficient of multiple determination (R2) being 0.825 indicated that the ten independent variables jointly could predict 82.50 per cent of the variation in the level of overall role performance of the extension personnel. The technique of path analysis was employed to determine the direct and indirect effects of the selected independent variables on the level of role performance of the extension personnel. The results of path analyses revealed that the variable role awareness exhibited the highest direct effect on the level of role performance with respect to different role dimensions followed by the variables role perception, job anxiety, service experience and role conflict. As regards to overall role performance, the maximum direct effect on the level of overall role performance was exhibited by the variables job anxiety (6.040) which was followed by the variables role awareness (3.824), service experience (2.947), role conflict (2.345) and attitude towards ATMA (1.731). The effect of the two exogenous variables namely ‘service experience’ and ‘motivational climate’ were channelized through different variables to ultimately affect the level of performance. ‘Attitude towards ATMA’ and ‘role conflict’ were the two most important variables through which most of the indirect effects were channelized. The variables role awareness exhibited the highest total effect on the level of performance which was followed by the variables role perception, job anxiety, service experience, and role conflict. Positive and significant correlation with the level of role performance was found in case of service experience, training exposure, role awareness, role perception, attitude towards ATMA, achievement motivation, motivational climate and job satisfaction. However, negative and significant correlation was found with respect to role conflict and job anxiety. The effect of the two exogenous variables namely ‘service experience’ and ‘motivational climate’ were channelized through different variables to ultimately affect the level of performance. ‘Attitude towards ATMA’ and ‘role conflict’ were the two most important variables through which most of the indirect effects were channelized. The highest total effect on the level of performance was exhibited by role awareness, followed by role perception, job anxiety, service experience, and role conflict. Higher level of role performance is likely to impact positively on employees’ and organization’s well-being. The findings revealed that most of the extension personnel working under the revitalized extension system in Assam were young and middle aged and had medium level of service experience and training exposure to cope up with the changing agricultural scenario. The adequate exposure to professional training through capacity building will help to reorient the extension personnel with the new set of roles, their perception and performance. Care should also be taken to improve the motivational climate to increase the job satisfaction and achievement motivation which is evident from the direct and indirect relationships among these variables. The findings revealed that the current level of performance was medium to low. The level of role performance of extension personnel was influenced by a number of factors. The most crucial factors found to influence performance were role awareness, role perception, service experience, training exposure, attitude towards ATMA, achievement motivation, motivational climate, job satisfaction, job anxiety and role conflict .Hence it is important that efforts are made to ensure that extension personnel are aware of their roles, perceive their actions and behaviour properly and free from anxiety and conflicts while performing their roles. These findings can be useful in assisting extension administrators and managers in their endeavours to correct the weaknesses in the extension system and focus on the most crucial issues for the improvement of organizational performance.