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Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur
The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) was established on 12th June 1964 at Hyderabad.
The University was formally inaugurated on 20th March 1965 by Late Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India. Another significant milestone was the inauguration of the building programme of the university by Late Smt. Indira Gandhi,the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India on 23rd June 1966.
The University was renamed as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University on 7th November 1996 in honour and memory of an outstanding parliamentarian Acharya Nayukulu Gogineni Ranga, who rendered remarkable selfless service for the cause of farmers and is regarded as an outstanding educationist, kisan leader and freedom fighter.
HISTORICAL MILESTONE
Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) was established under the name of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) on the 12th of June 1964 through the APAU Act 1963. Later, it was renamed as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University on the 7th of November, 1996 in honour and memory of the noted Parliamentarian and Kisan Leader, Acharya N. G. Ranga. At the verge of completion of Golden Jubilee Year of the ANGRAU, it has given birth to a new State Agricultural University namely Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University with the bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014. The ANGRAU at LAM, Guntur is serving the students and the farmers of 13 districts of new State of Andhra Pradesh with renewed interest and dedication.
Genesis of ANGRAU in service of the farmers
1926: The Royal Commission emphasized the need for a strong research base for agricultural development in the country...
1949: The Radhakrishnan Commission (1949) on University Education led to the establishment of Rural Universities for the overall development of agriculture and rural life in the country...
1955: First Joint Indo-American Team studied the status and future needs of agricultural education in the country...
1960: Second Joint Indo-American Team (1960) headed by Dr. M. S. Randhawa, the then Vice-President of Indian Council of Agricultural Research recommended specifically the establishment of Farm Universities and spelt out the basic objectives of these Universities as Institutional Autonomy, inclusion of Agriculture, Veterinary / Animal Husbandry and Home Science, Integration of Teaching, Research and Extension...
1963: The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) Act enacted...
June 12th 1964: Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) was established at Hyderabad with Shri. O. Pulla Reddi, I.C.S. (Retired) was the first founder Vice-Chancellor of the University...
June 1964: Re-affilitation of Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Hyderabad (estt. in 1961, affiliated to Osmania University), Agricultural College, Bapatla (estt. in 1945, affiliated to Andhra University), Sri Venkateswara Agricultural College, Tirupati and Andhra Veterinary College, Tirupati (estt. in 1961, affiliated to Sri Venkateswara University)...
20th March 1965: Formal inauguration of APAU by Late Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India...
1964-66: The report of the Second National Education Commission headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, Chairman of the University Grants Commission stressed the need for establishing at least one Agricultural University in each Indian State...
23, June 1966: Inauguration of the Administrative building of the university by Late Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India...
July, 1966: Transfer of 41 Agricultural Research Stations, functioning under the Department of Agriculture...
May, 1967: Transfer of Four Research Stations of the Animal Husbandry Department...
7th November 1996: Renaming of University as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University in honour and memory of an outstanding parliamentarian Acharya Nayukulu Gogineni Ranga...
15th July 2005: Establishment of Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) bifurcating ANGRAU by Act 18 of 2005...
26th June 2007: Establishment of Andhra Pradesh Horticultural University (APHU) bifurcating ANGRAU by the Act 30 of 2007...
2nd June 2014 As per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014, ANGRAU is now...
serving the students and the farmers of 13 districts of new State of Andhra Pradesh with renewed interest and dedication...
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ThesisItem Open Access A STUDY ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH SELF HELP GROUPS IN ANDHRA PRADESH(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) SIDDESWARI, G.K.; SATHYA GOPAL, P.V.‘Woman’ is the key for success of any human being because of their excellent qualities such as hard-working nature, patience, cordial affiliation, convincing capacity, communication etc., in handling multifaceted activities. On the other hand women in rural areas are comparatively less educated, economically poor, confined to limited geographical boundaries and live under rigid structural constraints. Entrepreneurship is one of the prospective options to uplift rural women by generating self employment opportunities. The concept of Self Help Group (SHG) acts as a driving force for the rural women with the ultimate objective of converting household women as enterprising women and encouraging them to enter into entrepreneurial activities. But the rate of success is an issue to be thoroughly analysed to assess the performance and to identify the scope for strengthening the role of SHGs towards upliftment of rural women. So, it is necessary to study the status of women entrepreneurship achieved through SHGs followed by the entrepreneurial behaviour and profile characteristics of women entrepreneurs. Further, it is also mandatory to have an inventory of various types and scales of enterprises being run by the women entrepreneurs, their constraints in operating the enterprises so as to develop a strategy to improve the entrepreneurial culture among the rural women of SHGs. Ex post facto research design was followed in the present investigation. The investigation was carried out in three districts selected each from three regions viz., Chittoor (from Rayalaseema region), East Godavari (from Coastal region) and Srikakulam (from North Coastal region) were purposively selected based on the highest number of SHGs. Four mandals from each district, two villages from each mandal and one hamlet from each village were purposively selected based on the highest number of SHGs thus making a total of 12 xix mandals, 24 villages and 24 hamlets respectively. From each hamlet ten women entrepreneurs were selected from all the existing SHGs in that hamlet, by using simple random sampling procedure thus making a total of 240 women entrepreneurs as the sample of the study. The data were collected by personal interview method through a structured interview schedule and analyzed by employing suitable statistical methods. Seventeen independent variables and entrepreneurial behaviour as the dependent variable were identified for the study. The status of SHGs in terms of women entrepreneurship was assessed, out of 1,103 SHGs nearly two-fifth (38.53%) of the SHGs were having 11 to 15 years of existence and only 2.63 per cent of SHGs had more than 20 years of existence. More than two-fifth (43.79%) of the SHGs had savings of ` 50,001 – ` 1,00,000 and only 3.9 per cent with more than ` 2,00,000 savings. More than one-fourth (27.83%) of the SHGs have taken a loan amount of ` 10,00,001 – ` 15,00,000 and only 4.08 per cent with more than ` 25,00,000. Nearly two-third (60.60%) of the SHG members converted as women entrepreneurs and the remaining 39.4 per cent of the members have used SHG amount for other purposes. The ‘savings’ of the SHGs and ‘loan amount received’ by the SHGs have positively significant association with the ‘number of years of existence’ of SHGs. The results of the study shown that majority of the women entrepreneurs were in middle age, illiterates and completed high school education, medium level of experience in SHG, annual income, social participation, mass media exposure, extension contact, not received the training, medium level of innovativeness, decision making ability, achievement motivation, value orientation, management orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, risk orientation and credit orientation. A scale was constructed to measure the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs. Two-third (65.83%) of the women entrepreneurs were with neutral to highly unfavourable entrepreneurial behaviour. Only one-third (34.17%) of the women entrepreneurs had moderate to high entrepreneurial behaviour. About 63 types of enterprises being run by 240 entrepreneurs depending upon availability of natural resources and demand in the local area coming to a total of 286 enterprises. Provision shop (16.08%) was the main choice of the respondents, followed by Tailoring (13.29%), Dairy (6.99%), equal (4.55%) percentage with Small hotel/Tiffin centre and Sarees and dress materials/ Cloth business and Fancy shop (4.20%). One-third (33.22%) of the SHG members running the enterprise with an income range of ` 50,001-1,00,000. Only 0.70 per cent of the SHG members running the enterprise with an income range of ` 5,00,001 and above. More than half (56.99%) of the enterprises being run by the SHG women entrepreneurs were the primary sources of income for their family. There was a significant association between the types of enterprises and scale of enterprise. xx Correlation analysis revealed that education, annual income, social participation, mass media exposure, extension contact, training received, innovativeness, decision making ability, achievement motivation, value orientation, management orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, risk orientation and credit orientation had a positively significant relationship with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs at 0.01 level of significance. The variable ‘experience in SHG’ was non significantly related with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs, whereas age was negatively non significant with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs. Multiple Linear Regression Analysis revealed that out of the 17 selected independent variables, mass media exposure, training received, decision making ability, management orientation and credit orientation had positively and significantly contributed to the most of the variation in entrepreneurial behaviour of SHG women entrepreneurs. Manifest changes through SHGs among women entrepreneurs will indicates the significant changes occurred among women entrepreneurs in the selected components viz., annual income, productive working days, monthly saving, monthly expenditure, debit status, employment generation, prevalence of bonded labour, dependency on local informal money lenders, social status, type of house, domestic assets, mode of transport, skills in paraprofessional work, awareness about institutional financial transactions, composition of diet, priority for children education, social recognition, communication network, access to credit and livestock assets after joining in SHG. The current entrepreneurial status viz., net income from the enterprise, employment generation, monthly saving, monthly expenditure, social recognition and skill in paraprofessional work were significantly associated with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs. Whereas, debit status was non significantly associated with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs. Three case studies of successful SHG women entrepreneurs were documented. The study highlights that, the prominent constraints expressed by women entrepreneurs, regarding personal and socio-psychological constraints, ‘Male dominance’; In case of financial constraints, ‘Inadequacy SHG loan amounts’; In case of technological constraints, ‘Lack of entrepreneurial training opportunities’; Regarding marketing constraints, ‘Stiff competition’, In case of infrastructure constraints, ‘Inadequate space & building’ were perceived as the major constraints by the majority of the women entrepreneurs. A suitable strategy was designed with seven steps, starting from ‘identification of potential women entrepreneurs from SHGs’ to ‘converting them as brand ambassadors for women entrepreneurship’. All the seven steps were integrated in such a way that each step will have a synergistic effect over the further steps. Critical events to be taken up in each step were clearly depicted starting from A to Z in such a way that the strategy would be more comprehensive covering all the dimensions of women entrepreneurship through SHGs.ThesisItem Open Access MARKETING BEHAVIOUR OF GROUNDNUT FARMERS IN ANANTAPURAMU DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) VINEETHA, A; SAILAJA, VGroundnut is a major oilseed crop that has achieved tremendous popularity in the country. It is one of the most important food and cash crop of the country. While being a valuable source of all the nutrients, it is one of the low priced commodity. India is the world’s leading producer of groundnut with 25.00 per cent share in the production. The all India production of groundnut was estimated at 6,733 thousand tons with an average of 991 kg ha-1. In Andhra Pradesh, groundnut crop alone covered an area of 82.39 per cent of the total area under oilseeds. Anantapuramu is one of the predominant groundnut cultivated district in the state with an extent of 6,24,000 hectares with the production of 1,64,000 tons. An efficient marketing system is precondition for ensuring remunerative prices to the producers for their products and to deliver maximum satisfaction to the consumers for the price they pay. Efficient marketing system helps the farmer to increase the production and productivity on one hand and getting remunerative price, generating additional income and employment on the other. The groundnut farmers are at a disadvantage particularly in the marketing of groundnut as they lose their bargaining strength and got exploited. Monthly data on minimum prices of groundnut in Anantapuramu xiv regulated market yard show a highly erratic behaviour. Such kind of fluctuations in the prices of groundnut reflects on the poor withholding capacity of the marginal and small farmers while marketing their final produce. Hence, there is every need to thoroughly understand the groundnut marketing by the farmers in Anantapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh state. Keeping in view the above factors, an attempt was made to study the “Marketing behaviour of groundnut farmers in Anantapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh”. Ex-post-facto research design was used in the present investigation. Anantapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh was purposively selected as groundnut was being extensively cultivated in the district. Out of 63 mandals of Anantapuramu district, three mandals were purposively selected based on the highest area under groundnut cultivation. Four villages from each mandal were selected based on highest area under groundnut cultivation, thus making a total of twelve villages for the study. From each of the twelve selected villages, 10 respondents were selected by following simple random sampling procedure, thus making a total of 120 respondents. The data were collected by personal interview method through a well structured interview schedule and analyzed by employing suitable statistical tools. The analysis of profile characteristics of the groundnut farmers indicated that majority of the farmers were middle aged with middle to high school level education, less than 2.5 acres of area under groundnut cultivation with medium farming experience, annual income, extension contact, trainings received, agricultural inputs acquisition pattern and social participation, Majority of the farmers had medium level of marketing behaviour. This trend was observed because majority of the groundnut farmers had medium levels of planning orientation, production orientation, marketing orientation, marketing information sources utilization, decision making ability, risk taking ability and innovativeness which resulted in medium level of marketing behaviour. The independent variables viz., education, annual income, material possession, extension contact, trainings received and social participation were found to be positively significant with the marketing behaviour of the groundnut farmers whereas age, area under groundnut cultivation, experience in groundnut cultivation and agricultural inputs acquisition pattern were xv found negatively significant with the marketing behaviour of the groundnut farmers. All the selected 10 independent variables put together explained about 76.00 per cent variation in the marketing behaviour of groundnut farmers. The partial regression co-efficient values implied that annual income, material possession and extension contact were the most important variables that contributed to most of the variation in the marketing behaviour of groundnut farmers. The major problems faced by the groundnut farmers were lack of timely market information lack of remunerative prices, improper weighment, fluctuation in market prices, involvement of middle men, high cost of labour during harvesting, lack of cooperative marketing systems, high commission charges, long distances to the markets, delayed cash payment, scarcity of labour for transportation and marketing, absence/insufficient storage facilities and high cost of transportation. The major suggestions given by the farmers were provision of information about current marketing situations , establishing cooperative and rapid expansion of regulated marketing systems , provision of minimum support price for groundnut, efforts to minimize the commission charges by the concerned authorities , adequate and appropriate transport facilities, provision of sufficient storage facilities, establishment of procurement centers in the villages and recruitment of mandal level marketing officials by the government. A suitable strategy has been developed keeping in view of the results obtained in the study for efficient marketing of groundnut by the farmers.ThesisItem Open Access ADOPTION OF PRODUCTION RECOMMENDATIONS OF MAIZE IN MAHMUD I RAQI DISTRICT OF KAPISA PROVINCE OF AFGHANISTAN(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) KOHISTANI, TAMANA; PRASAD, S.V.Maize crop occupies an important position in the world and Afghanistan both in the area and production as it is consumed in different ways in comparison with wheat and rice. However the productivity of maize in Afghanistan is very poor because of non-adoption of latest production recommendations for different reasons. Hence this study was undertaken. Ex-post-facto research design was followed in the present study. Mahmud-iraqi district of Kapisa province was purposively selected for the study as the researcher hails from the same district and also maize is growing extensively in this district. From the selected district four villages were selected and from each village 30 respondents were selected by following simple random sampling, making a total of 120 respondents. The data were collected by personal interview method through structured interview schedule. Appropriate statistical procedures were employed to analyze and interpret the data. The analysis of profile characteristics of the farmers indicated that majority of the farmers engaged in maize cultivation are, young , illiterate, small farmers with medium farming experience, mass media exposure, extension contact, social participation, scientific orientation, economic orientation, innovativeness, achievement motivation and deferred gratification. Majority of the farmers had medium extent of adoption of production recommendations of maize. Correlation analysis revealed that the selected independent variables viz., farming experience, mass media exposure, extension contact, social participation, scientific orientation, economic orientation, innovativeness, achievement motivation and deferred gratification had positively significant relationship, whereas age and education were having negative and significant relationship, and farm size had nonsignificant relationship with the extent of adoption of production recommendations of maize. xii Inadequate extension services, as the major constraint, followed by difficulty in getting loans, lack of improved seed or hybrids, shortage of extension personnel, High cost of inputs, lack of training programmes, illiteracy, non availability of fertilizers in correct time and quantities, lack of awareness about latest technologies, non availability of technologies for small farms, poor access to information sources, lack of credit facilities, lack of ICTs, lack of suitable farm implements and machinery, and lack of drudgery reduction technologies were the major problems encountered by the respondents in the adoption of production recommendations of maize. Provision of micro credit followed by provision of agricultural loans, provision of high yielding varieties and hybrids, availability of suitable farm implements, supply of fertilizers in correct time and quality, provision of extension services, provision of agricultural subsidies, provision of training to farmers in latest technologies, increase farm mechanization by custom hiring of farm machinery, improved access to agricultural information sources, increased efficiency of extension staff, formulation of new agricultural policy, formation of farmer cooperatives, development of technologies for small farm and availability of ICTs, were the suggestions perceived by the respondents to overcome the problems in the adoption of production recommendations of maize. A suitable strategy has been developed keeping in view the results obtained in the study and discussions held with the stakeholders in the study.ThesisItem Open Access ROLE ASSESSMENT OF AGRI-INPUT DEALERS IN TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY IN TELANGANA(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) KIRAN KUMAR REDDY, U; SATHYA GOPAL, PVThe present study was conducted to analyze the profile characteristics of agri-input dealers and to assess their knowledge and role in transfer of technology. The relationship between profile characteristics of agri-input dealers with their knowledge and role in transfer of technology was elicited. The problems and suggestions as perceived by the agri-input dealers were drawn and a strategy was designed for enhancing role of agri-input dealers in transfer of technology. Ex post facto research design was followed in the present investigation. The Telangana state was chosen as the locale of the study, since the researcher belongs to the state and was familiar with local language and culture. Southern Telangana zone from Telangana state was selected for the study, since the researcher belongs to the zone and was familiar with local agricultural situations. Two districts from Southern Telangana zone viz., Jogulamba Gadwal and Suryapet, were selected purposively based on highest number of agri-input dealers. Three mandals from Jogulamba Gadwal district viz., Gadwal, Alampur, Ieeja and three mandals from Suryapet district viz., Suryapet, Kodad, Huzurnagar were purposively selected based on the highest number of agri-input dealers thus makes total of six mandals. From each of the selected mandal, twenty respondents were selected randomly from the list of the agri-input dealers obtained from the officials of the State Department of Agriculture, making a total of 120 respondents. Fifteen independent variables, two dependent variables viz., knowledge and role in transfer of technology were selected for the study. The data were collected by personal interview method through a structured interview schedule and analyzed by employing suitable statistical methods. xiv The results of the study shown that majority of the agri-input dealers were in middle age, graduates/post graduates, small farmers, had medium experience as a agri-input dealer, medium farming experience, not received the training, medium level of mass media exposure, social participation, research/extension contact, scientific orientation, extension service orientation, innovativeness, risk orientation, achievement motivation and business orientation. More than three fifth of the agri-input dealers had medium level knowledge, followed by low knowledge level and high knowledge level. More than half of the agri-input dealers have perceived medium role, followed by high role and low role in transfer of technology. Further, Different criteria were identified to measure the manifest role of agri-input dealers in transfer of technology. The criteria include number of farmers as customers for the agri-input dealers, number of farmers visiting the shop/day, number of field visits by the agri-input dealers/month, proportion of technical assistance given to the farmers, proportion of technical assistance in terms of various inputs, proportion of various inputs sold in the shop (in monitory terms) and proportion of references for purchase of inputs. Correlation analysis revealed that age, number of years of experience as dealer, training received mass media usage, extension contact, scientific orientation and extension service orientation, innovativeness; risk orientation, achievement motivation and business orientation had a positive significant relationship with knowledge of agri-input dealers in transfer of technology. Whereas education, farming experience, land holding and social participation had a non-significant relationship with their knowledge in transfer of technology. The regression analysis revealed that, scientific orientation and business orientation were the major variables to explain the knowledge of agri-input dealers up to 57.80 per cent. Correlation analysis between independent variables and role revealed that education, training received, mass media usage, social participation, extension contact, scientific orientation, extension service orientation, innovativeness, risk orientation and achievement motivation had a positive significant relationship with role assessment of agri-input dealers in transfer of technology in Telangana. Whereas age, number of years of experience as dealer, farming experience, land holding mass media usage, social participation and business orientation had a significant relationship with their role of agri-input dealers in transfer of technology. In case of assessment of role regression analysis revealed that, training received, extension contact, extension service orientation and achievement motivation were the major variables to explain the assessment of role of agri-input dealers up to 66.50 per cent. xv Among the major problems as perceived by agri-input dealers, late repayment by the farmers, lack of knowledge in maintaining stock book and sales register of the products, high transportation charges, low margin for different agri-inputs, crop failure due to natural calamities, lack of Management skills in trade, lack of capital for establishment and maintenance, lack of technical knowledge about different brands of product, active ingredients and dose etc... ,crop failure problem due to spurious inputs, delay in delivery of inputs by the input dealers, non-availability of farm inputs in time, lack of accessibility to bank loans, price fluctuations in different crop seasons, high wage rates for the labour, pressures from Government officers, and Delay in renewal of license were perceived as critical problems by large majority of respondents. On the other side, sharing of transportation charges by different stake holders, increase the margin for different agri-inputs, provision of capital as loan for establishment, control of advance booking of agri-inputs, awareness on different new brands and their application, improvement of Management skills in trade, maintaining quality standards by the input agencies, conducting interaction programs with stake holders in agri-input business, conducting need based training programs and recommendation of agri-inputs by the AO and AEO’s were the suggestions given by the agri-inputs dealers for enhancing the role of agri-input dealers in transfer of technology. Based on the findings of the study, a comprehensive road map was designed to strengthen the role of Agri-input dealers in Transfer of Technology. The road map consists of eight important strategies integrated in such a way that each one will have synergistic effect over the other strategies. Involvement of different stake holders and their role was also depicted in the model.ThesisItem Open Access IMPACT OF MAJOR GOVERNMENT SCHEMES ON SOCIALLY BACKWARD FARMING COMMUNITY IN IDUKKI DISTRICT OF KERALA(IMPACT OF MAJOR GOVERNMENT SCHEMES ON SOCIALLY BACKWARD FARMING COMMUNITY IN IDUKKI DISTRICT OF KERALA, 2018) BLESSY T THOMAS; SATHYA GOPAL, PVThe present study was conducted with broad objective of identifying the impact of major Government schemes on socially backward farming community in Idukki district of Kerala. The study was framed in such manner to explore the profile characteristics of socially backward farmers, impact of Government schemes analyzed through individual respondent wise impact and individual scheme wise impact along with dependence of impact Government schemes and profile characteristics. The factors influencing the impact of various Government schemes on the socially backward farming community and suggestions for enhancing the impact of Government schemes as perceived by the socially backward farming community was also elicited. Ex-post-facto research design was used in the present investigation. Idukki district of Kerala was selected purposively. Three taluks viz., Devikulam, Peerumedu and Udumbenchola of Idukki district were selected through simple random sampling procedure. From each selected taluks four villages were selected randomly and from each selected village, ten socially backward farmers were selected, making a total of 120 respondents for the study. The analysis of the profile characteristics of the farmers indicates that majority of the socially backward farmers are middle aged, high school educated, with marginal land holding, medium annual income, social participation, mass media exposure, aspiration levels, extension contact, decision making ability, achievement motivation and management orientation. The respondents were classified into three categories according to their perceived level of impact and it was indicated that majority of respondents xiv perceived medium impact. And scheme wise analysis revealed that overall awareness, overall knowledge, overall utilization, overall impact on productivity and overall impact on standard of living were 43.91 per cent 29.04 per cent, 16.58 per cent, 13.10 per cent and 11.64 per cent, respectively. Correlation analysis revealed that social participation, mass media exposure, aspiration level, extension contact, decision making ability, achievement motivation and management orientation were positively and significantly related at 0.01 level of significance whereas land holding, social status and annual income were positively significant at 0.05 level of significance. Education was found to be positively non-significant whereas age showed negatively nonsignificant relationship with perceived impact of Government schemes. The regression analysis revealed that out of all the selected 12 independent variables put together explained about 57.8 per cent variation in the impact of chosen Government schemes on socially backward farming community. The partial regression coefficients implied that mass media exposure and management orientation were the most important variables that contributed to most of the variation in the perceived impact of Government schemes under study. The factors influencing the extend of impact of Government schemes in the order of magnitude perceived by the respondent farmers in the order were political interference, lack of remunerative prices, accessibility to extension agents, middleman interventions, lack of awareness on ongoing programmes, lack of follow-up activities, poor availability and utilization of mass media, inadequate quantity of inputs, small land holding, lack of specific schemes, availability of better options, lack of commitments in the part of department officials, natural calamities, poor access to financial and developmental departments, social status, low economic status, lack of capital for investing, unavailability of suitable agricultural inputs and implements, previous unsatisfactory experience, poor quality of inputs, remoteness from other communities, lack of interest in farm production and illiteracy. The major suggestions furnished by the respondents to manipulate the impact influencing factors included ‘specific schemes targeting socially backward farmers on various aspects of farm production’, ‘conduct awareness camps and follow-up camps’ ‘relaxation in eligibility criterion to socially backward farmers’, ‘implementation of more credit oriented schemes’, ‘constant monitoring and display of input and service inventory’, ‘transparent and clear procedures so as to eliminate the middleman interventions and political interference’, ‘availability of adequate quality inputs on right time’, ‘establishment and efficient functioning of local crop samities and farmer forums’, ‘adoption of package approach’, ‘increment in number of extension agents’ and ‘system ensuring the remunerative prices of farm products’. A suitable strategy has been developed keeping in view of the results obtained in the study and discussions held with the stakeholders of the study.ThesisItem Open Access A STUDY ON PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF RICE CULTIVATION IN KURNOOL DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) AFFIA PHENICA, B; LAKSHMI, TRice has shaped the cultures, diets and economies of thousands of millions of people in the world. It is the most important and extensively grown food crop in the world. Because of its importance most Asian governments regard rice as a strategic commodity (Hossain and Narciso, 2004). Rice is a primary food source for more than one-third of world’s population and grown in 11 per cent of the world’s cultivated area. India is one of the world's largest producers of rice, accounting for 20 per cent of world production. Rice contributes to Andhra Pradesh’s economy. It is the major staple food grain crop in the state. A large percentage of labour force earns a living from agriculture by cultivating rice. Andhra Pradesh is known as South India’s rice bowl. The state has significant strengths in rice production enjoying right conditions for growing rice. In Andhra Pradesh, area under rice mostly depends on the monsoon pattern and availability of water in reservoirs. The state has a share of 12 per cent in India’s total rice production. Though there is a rise and fall in area and production of rice based on water availability, there is a constant increase in productivity. In the context of food security such decline in area and production is not good to meet the future rice requirement. In the coastal districts the area under rice is declining because of aquaculture activities. xv Hence, the present study on production constraints faced by the farmers in rice cultivation was undertaken. Ex- post- facto research design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in three mandals of Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh which were purposively selected, where rice is intensively grown. A sample of 120 farmers were randomly selected from the twelve selected villages. The data were collected by personal interview method and analyzed by employing suitable statistical tools. Eleven independent variables were subjected to statistical analysis for the purpose of categorization of the respondents and for studying their relationship with the dependent variable i.e. production constraints faced by the rice farmers. Majority of the rice farmers engaged in rice farming were middle aged, medium farmers with high school education, medium annual income, farming experience, extension contact, mass media exposure, economic orientation, management orientation, deferred gratification and high risk orientation. Correlation analysis revealed that age, education, annual income, farm size, farming experience, extension contact, mass media exposure, management orientation and deferred gratification were negatively and significantly related with production constraints of rice farmers. While risk orientation had positive and significant relationship with the dependent variable. However, economic orientation had non significant relationship with the dependent variable i.e. production constraints faced by the rice farmers. Regression analysis revealed that all the eleven selected independent variables put together explained 82.40 per cent variation in the production constraints of rice farmers. Further, it also revealed that education, risk orientation, management orientation and deferred gratification were negatively significant and annual income was found positively significant have contributed to most of the variation in production constraints of rice farmers. Regarding production constraints expressed by rice farmers lack of custom hiring centers was ranked first followed by involvement of middle men, scarcity of labour during peak periods, high cost of labour, epidemics of pests and diseases, weed infestation, high cost of FYM / chemical fertilizers, indiscriminate use of irrigation water, lack of skill in operating machinery, lack of proper storage facilities, lack of awareness on various departmental subsidy schemes, diversion from rice cultivation to irrigated dry crops, distress sale, imbalanced application of fertilizers, lack of processing facilities at local level, low labour productivity and high rental charges of farm machinery during peak season. Among the suggestions proposed by the respondents to overcome the production constraints, fetching better market price/provision of minimum support price (MSP) by the government was ranked first followed by xvi prioritization of agricultural works related to rice farming should be routed through MGNREGA scheme (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) helping the farmers and as well as agricultural labourers, development of pest and disease resistant varieties, development of suitable implements and equipments for all operations, improvement in transportation and marketing facilities, establishment of custom hiring centres at local level, seven hours of continuous and uninterrupted power supply to irrigate crop for better crop production, ensure public warehousing facilities in the vicinity of farmers villages, low cost of inputs (seeds , fertilizers, weedicides, pesticides, diesel etc.), availability of combine harvesters at less rent, provision of loans by government agencies at lower interest rates, provision of processing, trading and export facilities, conduct regular farmer training programmes, increase subsidies for rice farming, encourage seed village programme, facilitate direct marketing in rice, ensure timely supply of High Yielding Variety seed at proper time, supply of good quality seed by Department of Agriculture, milling facility, adopt group farming approach in rice farming, implementation of green manure schemes, implementation of crop insurance schemes, recruitment of extension staff and increase the efficiency of the extension staff. To overcome the production constraints faced by the rice farmers and to fulfill their suggestions few strategies were suggested viz. analysis of soils, denying the license of culprit input dealers, distribution of seed storage bins, encouraging rural youth to involve in farming, strengthening knowledge management system on rice, prioritization of agricultural works through MGNREGA, facilitate direct marketing, formulation of rice growers association at local level, strengthening Water Users Association, creation of proper storage facilities at panchayat or mandal levels, developing suitable farm machinery for small holdings, rice varieties resistant to lodging, specific pests and diseases and conducting on farm testing at different sites in order to develop effective adaptive research and technology verification capability.ThesisItem Open Access A STUDY ON INDIGENOUS AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES OF MAJOR CROPS IN RAYALASEEMA REGION OF ANDHRA PRADESH(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) KRANTHI KUMARI, B; PRASAD, SVThe present study entitled “A study on indigenous agricultural practices of major crops in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh”. The study intended to analyze the indigenous practices in agricultural crops with the objectives of documentation of the available Indigenous Agricultural Practices (IAPs) in the study area, analyzing their rationality, extent of adoption and the relationship between the profile characteristics of farmers with the extent of adoption. Ex-post facto research design was adopted in the present investigation. Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh state was selected purposively for the study. From Rayalaseema region two districts i.e. Anantpur and Kurnool were selected purposively based on the highest cultivated area. Three mandals were selected purposively, from each selected district based on the highest cultivated area. Thus a total of 6 mandals were selected from the two districts. Two villages were selected from each of the 6 mandals by following simple random sampling thus making a total of 12 villages. From each village, 15 farmers were selected by following simple random sampling procedure, thus making a total of 180 respondents who were cultivating three crops i.e. paddy, groundnut and red gram had been selected for the study. This study was conducted in three phases in two districts of rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. In this first phase maximum possible numbers of indigenous agricultural practices in major crops (paddy, groundnut and red gram) were collected through informal interviews with 90 experienced farmers. In the second phase, 133 IAPs applicable to 3 selected crops were judged for their rationality by scientists. During the third phase, extent of adoption of these 133 IAPs was studied with 180 farmer respondents through a structured interview schedule. The results of the study indicate that majority of the respondents were middle aged, illiterates, had semi-medium farm size, medium level of farming experience, family size, family income, extension contact, mass media exposure, innovativeness, xvi fatalism, social participation, achievement motivation, scientific orientation, economic orientation, market orientation and attitude towards indigenous agricultural practices. There were 133 IAPs identified and documented under three different sub components viz., crop production, crop protection and post harvest practices in three major crops. In paddy crop, a total of 68 IAPs were identified and documented out of which, 34 IAPs were documented in crop production followed by 27 practices in crop protection aspects and 7 in post harvest practices. In groundnut a total of 37 were documented, out of which 17 IAPs were documented in each crop production and crop protection and 3 were identified in post harvest aspects. In red gram, 12 IAPs were documented in crop production followed by 10 IAPs in post harvest practices and 6 in crop protection. Among 133 documented, 44 IAPs belonged to pest and disease management, 20 were related to post harvest management, 16 were related to seeds, sowing and planting, 9 were related to nutrient management, 8 IAPs were documented in each preparatory cultivation and varieties, 7 belonged to cropping system and the 6 IAPs were documented in each other plant protection management (wild boar, monkey, rat elephant bird control) and harvest aspects, 5 IAPs documented on seasonal aspects, 3 were in inter-cultivation and weed management and 1 was documented in water management. In paddy crop, 50 per cent of the farmers were medium adopters followed by 28.89 per cent were low adopter and 21.11 per cent of the farmers were high adopter category in paddy. In groundnut crop, 55.56 per cent of the farmers were medium category followed by low (30.56%) and high (13.88%) categories respectively. In red gram crop, 52.78 per cent of the farmers were medium category followed by low (33.33%) and high (13.89%) categories respectively. Out of 68 IAPs on paddy, 61 IAPs were found rational and 7 IAPs were found irrational. Among the 37 IAPs in groundnut, 35 IAPs were found rational and 2 IAPs were found irrational. Among the 28 IAPs on red gram, 25 IAPs were found rational and remaining 3 IAPs were found irrational. Out of 68 IAPs on paddy, more than 50 per cent of the respondents adopted 16 IAPs completely and 13 IAPs partially and 39 IAPs were not adopted by more than 50 per cent of the respondents. Out of the 37 IAPs on groundnut, more than 50 per cent of the respondents adopted 9 IAPs completely and 7 IAPs partially and 21 IAPs were not adopted by more than 50 per cent of the respondents. Out of the 28 IAPs on red gram, more than 50 per cent of the respondents adopted 8 IAPs completely and 4 IAPs partially and 16 IAPs were not adopted by more than 50 per cent of the respondents. The correlation analysis indicated that the profile characteristics of the respondents like age, farming experience, fatalism and attitude towards indigenous xvii agricultural practices were found positive and significant with the extent of adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. Whereas education, extension contact, innovativeness, achievement motivation, scientific orientation and economic orientation had negative and significant relationship with the extent of adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. Farm size, family income, social participation and market orientation exhibited positive and non-significant relationship and mass media contact exhibited negative and non significant relationship with the extent of adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. The step wise multiple regression analysis indicated that, out of the 16 independent variables, four variables viz., age, fatalism, attitude towards indigenous agricultural practices and extension contact were found to be the important variables in influencing the extent of adoption of IAPs to the tune of 66.69 per cent. Of these four variables, age, fatalism and attitude towards indigenous agricultural practices were found to influence positively and the extension contact negatively influenced the extent of adoption of indigenous agricultural practices. Problems expressed by the farmers were the preference for sophistication with much reliance on readymade inputs/products followed by farmers are not willing to take risk, IAPs requires more time for their adoption and lower economic status of the farmers and hence cannot wait for long term benefits. Suggestions elicited by the farmers were to make available necessary inputs and clear cut methods of implementation of IAP practices followed by to make IAP practices compatible with modern technologies to arrive at optimal solutions and to highlight the values and advantages of IAP practices and give propaganda for the same especially at fairs and gatherings. Strategy was developed for promotion of indigenous agricultural practices by blending with modern technologies. Blending of indigenous knowledge with modern scientific technologies is the need of the day to support sustainable development of agriculture and allied sector in our country. A consortium of sustainable technology development is to bring policy makers, administrators, farmers, researchers, extensionists and NGO representatives together in order to classify the identified problems and IAPs and blend the IAPs with modern technologies to solve the local problems for development of agriculture. The various institutions in our country has mentioned in the strategy play a major role in identification, collection, documentation and preservation, validation, up scaling and out scaling of the IAPs and giving acknowledgement to the knowledge generated in local system.ThesisItem Open Access A STUDY ON PERCEPTION OF RURAL YOUTH TOWARDS AGRICULTURE AS AN OCCUPATION IN SRIKAKULAM DISTRICT(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) ANANTHA VIHARI, M; SRINIVASA RAO, MYouth are the most potent segment of the population of a country. The youth of today are the hopes of tomorrow. They are the back bone of the country. The socio-economic development and prosperity of rural areas depends to a considerable extent on the type of youth living in rural areas, because the rural youth have abilities to orient themselves to go along with the main stream of the development process. They reflect the national potentiality and represent the life blood of a nation. Development of youth thus determines the development of community and country as a whole. Youth are prone to desire and ready to carry out their desires into action. They have open minds and further they have advantage of education and better capacity of understanding new techniques and skills. The youth thus can serve as best medium of our community-life on the technological as well as human plane by carrying new ideas and messages to their families. Since youth are recognized as effective “change agents”, they can help in the process of dissemination and adoption of modern techniques of agriculture. Active involvement of youth in agriculture is necessary for sustainable agricultural systems but is currently a challenge in many areas. The wide spread illiteracy in rural areas, unemployment among the educated youth, lack of proper guidance, ‘brain drain’ of educated rural youth to urban areas are some of the major problems. It is disturbing to note that youth are losing interest and confidence in agriculture and allied activities; hence, they are not willingly involved in agricultural operations. Considering all above things, the objectives were framed. An ex-post facto research design was followed. The study was conducted in Srikakulam district during the year, 2017-18. Srikakulam district was selected purposively, out of 38 mandals, three mandals were selected purposively and four villages were selected from each of the mandal for the study. Rural youth were selected from each village by following proportionate random sampling method. Thus, 120 rural youth constituted as sample for the study. Data was collected with pretested schedule by personal interview method. For the purpose of statistical analysis of the coded data, various statistical tools were used viz., frequency and percentage analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and ranking. The detailed analysis of profile characteristics of rural youth indicated that majority of them were married (63.33%), with intermediate (28.33%) education, having small land holdings (37.50%), medium annual income (55.84%), large size families (77.5%), belonging to joint families (75.84%), engaged in Agriculture + Animal husbandry occupation, had medium extension contact (57.50%), low level of social participation (40.83%), medium level of mass media exposure (55.00%), medium level of economic motivation (51.66%), medium level of risk orientation (57.50%), medium level of scientific orientation (54.16%), medium level of innovativeness (59.26%) and medium level of achievement motivation (56.66%). The detailed analysis of dependent variable indicated that majority of rural youth had medium level (63.33%) of perception towards agriculture as an occupation followed by high (20.00%) and low (16.67%). Out of fifteen selected profile characteristics, ten of them viz., marital status, land holdings, family type, social participation, mass media exposure, extension contact, risk orientation, innovativeness, economic motivation, scientific orientation and achievement motivation showed significant relation with the level of perception, while annual income, occupation, size of family, and education had shown non significant relationship. The multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) indicated that all the selected profile characteristics put together explained 76.60% of variance in the level of perception, remaining 23.40% is due to the extraneous effect in unidentified profile characteristics. The most important constraints encountered by the rural youth were, high cost of cultivation, inadequate availability of labor, low returns, pests and diseases problem, inadequate power supply, inadequate and untimely supply of fertilizers, lack of remunerative prices, inadequate irrigation facilities, inadequate training programmes, under employment, inadequate and untimely supply of seed, lack of proper guidance, destruction of crops by wild boars, and inadequate technical know how of chemicals. Suggestions made by the rural youth to overcome the constraints were: adequate and timely supply of fertilizers, financial support timely, supply of pheromone traps, regular supply of power, supply of NSKE, timely information on latest technologies, adequate and timely supply of quality seed, adequate and timely release of water for irrigation, conduct of training programmes and awareness programmes on agriculture to youth and remunerative price for agri products.ThesisItem Open Access A STUDY ON ICT TOOLS USAGE BY THE FARMERS IN ANANTAPUR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2018) JASWANTH NAIK, BANNOTH; MUKUNDA RAO, BThe Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled extension systems are acting as a key agent for changing agrarian situation and farmers lives by improving access to information and sharing knowledge. The term Information and communication technology was coined by Stevenson in 1997. An ex-post facto research design was followed to study the ICT tools usage by the farmers in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. The study was conducted in Andhra Pradesh state during 2017-18. Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh was purposively selected. Out of five divisions, three divisions were selected, one mandal is selected from each division, four villages from each mandal were selected for the study. Respondents are selected by proportionate random sampling procedure. Thus total of 120 farmers were sampled for the study. Data was collected by pre-testing followed by personal interview method. For the purpose of statistical analysis of the coded data, various tools were used; Frequency (F), Percentage (%), Arithmetic Mean ( X ), Standard Deviation (σ), Correlation co -efficient (r), Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), etc. The detailed analysis of profile characteristics indicated that majority of the farmers were medium aged (67.50%), educated up to High school level (65.00%), small level of land holding (40.00%), 20-30 years of experience in Farming (31.66%), 14-21 years of experience in usage of ICT tools (47.50%), medium level of possession of ICT tools (58.34%), medium level of annual income (45.00%), 1-2 trainings (44.16%), medium level of social participation (57.50%), medium level of extension contact (70.83%), medium level of innovativeness (59.17%), medium level of economic orientation (67.50%), medium level of risk orientation (53.33%), medium level of scientific orientation (67.50%) and medium level of cosmopoliteness (65.00%). The detailed analysis of the dependent variables indicated that majority (73.34%) of farmers had medium level of attitude followed by high attitude (15.00%) and low (11.66%) level of attitude. Majority (64.16%) of the farmers had medium level of ICT utilization followed by low level of utilization (19.17%) and high (16.67%) level of ICT utilization. The variables viz., education, land holding, experience in farming, experience in usage of ICT tools, possession of ICT tools, annual income, training undergone, social participation, extension contact, innovativeness, economic orientation, risk orientation scientific orientation and cosmopoliteness were significant with the attitude and age is non-significant with the attitude. The Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) analysis indicated that all the independent variables put together explained 75.80 per cent of variance in the attitude towards ICT tools by the farmers, remaining 24.20 per cent due to the extraneous factors. The variables viz., age, farming experience, farming experience in ICT tools, training undergone, social participation, innovativeness, economic orientation and risk orientation were found to be significant. Remaining profile characteristics viz., education, land holding, possession of ICT tools, annual income, extension contact, scientific orientation and cosmopoliteness are non-significant. The Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) analysis indicated that all the independent variables put together explained 78.30 per cent of variance in the extent of ICT utilization by the farmers, remaining 21.70 per cent due to the extraneous factors. The problems faced by the farmers on utilization of ICT tools were, high cost of ICT gadgets, high cost of servicing charges of ICT gadgets, lack of sufficient skills in usage of ICT tools, lack of uninterrupted power supply, lack of servicing centers of ICTs in villages, difficulty in understanding the language of ICT gadgets, poor connectivity of internet in villages, lack of subsidies on ICT gadgets, low level of education, insufficient training and practical exposure towards ICTs, non-availability of ICT gadgets and spare parts in local markets, lack of awareness of benefits of ICTs,lack of internet facilities, inadequate infrastructural facilities and poor economic condition of rural people. The suggestions given by the farmers were reduce the costs of ICT tools, provide subsidies on ICT gadgets, reduce servicing charges, giving continuous power supply, providing of messages in local languages, establish service centers in villages, provide trainings on ICT tools usage, provide trainings on development of skills in usage of ICT tools, create awareness campaigns on benefits of ICT tools, strengthen the internet connectivity, providing of internet facilities, establishment of large markets, provide infrastructure facilities, provide educational facilities near village and provide remunerative prices to their produce.