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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Open Access
SUSTENANCE OF WOMEN LABOURERS IN AGRICULTURE- A CASE STUDY APPROACH
(Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, 2023-12-02) C. DEEPA; M. RAMA DEVY
In India, women have a multi-dimensional role. It is widely known to everybody that the agricultural workers are the most neglected class in the Indian masses. A unique feature of female participation throughout India is that they are workers, labourers, cultivators, producers, traders besides performing all house hold duties which are considered as ‘unproductive’. Women contribute about three-fourth of the labour required in the field. The contribution of female labour is towards agricultural production beside their usual domestic work, always more than the male labour. In cultivation except ploughing, levelling, irrigation all other works are generally shared by both men and women. Women usually get low wages for the work done under the worst conditions put in excessively burdens on hard work. The wages paid to the female agricultural labourers are much below the prescribed rates and wide spread of disparities in wages much disadvantages of them. Even though, most of the contributions made by women in the farm sector are unaccounted and they are not directly paid. Since agriculture also the prime engine of economic growth in developing countries particularly in India the role performed by both men and women must not be neglected. All obstacles to the full participation of women must be removed to ensure that they find themselves on equal terms with men in all facts of life culture social, economic and political. Growth in agriculture needs to be matched with feminization of agriculture for an overall development of rural economy. Appropriate strategy has to be made xiv to extend the benefits to transfer of technology process to the women, which will help in modernization of agriculture. Agricultural labourers were deciding factor of cost of production and adopting, practicing of technologies andplaying crucial role in yield improvement. Agriculture labourer’s livelihood plays crucial role in socio economic development of agriculture. The type of livelihood-practice influences the ecosystem. So analysis of the agricultural labourers livelihood is critical and important phenomena. Many such studies related to the agriculture labourers were conducted but there are limited studies related to livelihood analysis of women agriculture labourers. Hence, the present study on sustenance of women labourers in agriculture-a case study approach was undertaken. Case Study research design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in three districts of Andhra Pradesh. Three districts were purposively selected based on the highest number of women agricultural labourers viz., Srikakulam, Guntur and Kurnool. Three mandals from each district were selected. From each of the selected mandal two villages were selected by using simple random sampling procedure thus comes to a total of 18 villages. From each of the selected village, ten respondents were selected by using simple random sampling procedure thus coming to a total of 180 respondents. The data was processed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test and Garrett ranking technique. Twenty one independent variables were identified for the study. Majority of the respondents were middle aged, nuclear family type, medium family size, wage earning as major occupation status, medium experience, medium number of trainings underwent, medium level of social status, medium annual income, wage earning major employment status of family members, medium credit orientation, medium savings behavior, medium urban contact, medium perception of skill, medium level of perception of drudgery bearing ability, medium level of decision making ability, medium level of self confidence, medium level of aspiration, medium availability of work, good health status and medium work environment. Nearly two third (52.22%) of the women agricultural labourers were having moderate livelihood security followed by below moderate (27.23%) and above moderate (20.55%) livelihood security.Wheat and rice items of food and nutritional security ranked as first (285) in food and nutritional security followed by pulses (247) which might be due to judicious supply by the public distribution system playing an important role and ranked as first and second. Consumption of vegetables, milk, sugar& jaggery, oil & fat ranked third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.Television (311) and storage bin (229) items of asset security of women agricultural labourers were ranked as first and second by the women agricultural labourers. Electric xv cooker, mixer, motor cycle, sofa and refrigerator were ranked third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. The source of energy for cooking (352) and availability of electricity (338) items of habitat security were ranked first and second respectively by the women agricultural labourers as these are the basic needs to survive perceived by the women agricultural labours. Type of house, availability of kitchen, accessibility of water supply, latrines facility, number of rooms in a dwelling and water purification were ranked third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. Existence of health centres (354) and vaccination (346) items of health security ranked as first and second by the women agricultural labourers. Affordability of health services, appearance of diseases, pregnancy care, utilisation of PHC and appearance of infant diseases were ranked as third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. Indebtness (332) and savings (285) items of financial security were ranked first and second by the women agricultural labourers. Sending children to the school (358) and availing hostel facilities to children (286) items of educational security were ranked first and second by the women agricultural labourers. Auto (209) and public transport (197) items of transportation security were ranked first and second by the women agricultural labourers. Own vehicle, bullock cart and going by walk were ranked as third, fourth and fifth respectively. Climatic hazards (444) and capacity building (435) were ranked first and second by the women agricultural labourers as they might get such information from television and local leaders. Skill up gradation, agriculture, employment and empowerment were ranked third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively as this information might be available from neighbours. Transplanting/ sowing the nursery seedlings/seeds at correct depth in the main field were found to be the major skill possessed by the women agricultural labourers and ranked first followed by identifying the weeds from the main field, identifying the type of weeds i.e., shallow/ deep rooted, removing weeds in main crop along with roots and removing the stubbles from the main field, ranked second, third, fourth and fifth respectively. Stalking / erecting pendal system pertaining to crops found to be the major skill possessed by the women agricultural labourers and ranked first followed by technique of mixing and application of fertilizers i.e., broadcast/ band placement/ pocket placement in relation to crop, skill on irrigation i.e., amount, type and time of irrigation based on crop, preparation and application of biofertilizers and skill in operating sprayers ranked second, third, fourth and fifth respectively. Technique of grading the produce according to weight/ quality found to be the major skill possessed by the women agricultural labourers and ranked first followed by knowledge on planned harvesting considering xvi ripeness of crops, stacking of produce and efficient in post harvest techniques i.e., winnowing/ threshing were ranked as second, third and fourth fifth respectively. Majority of women agricultural labourers felt that wage majority of women agricultural labourers felt that Wage discrimination as one of the major constraints and it was ranked first among all the constraints. Dual responsibility ranked second followed by involves more drudgery ranked as third and Poor social relationship with other sections of society was ranked as fourth by the women labourers in agriculture. The other constraints include lack of basic facilities at work place, lack of training on skilled work performance, over exploitation of money lenders by charging higher rates of interest, non co-operation among different groups, delayed payment of wages from owners, lack of small scale labour intensive enterprises to save from unemployment during lean crop period and advances in mechanization leading to decreased demand for labour were ranked as fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively by the women agricultural labourers. Wage rates must be increased was the major suggestion given by the women agricultural labourers and ranked first. Followed by establishment of small scale labour intensive enterprises, assured supply of basic living amenities like water, implementation of more government schemes to increase the employment opportunities, coverage of insurance and health programmes for women agricultural labourers, provision of nutritive food through PDS, simple procedure for loans and timely cash payment by owners ranked as second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth respectively by the women agricultural labourers.
Open Access
IMPACT OF SOIL HEALTH CARDS ON RICE CULTIVATION IN ANDHRA PRADESH
(guntur, 2022-09-07) NAVEEN, B.; PRASAD, S.V.
ABSTRACT The present study entitled ‘Impact of Soil Health Cards on rice cultivation in Andhra Pradesh’ had been initiated focusing on attitude of farmers towards Soil Health Card and Impact of Soil Health Card on farmers with the following objectives; the profile of Soil Health Card farmers, develop attitude scale and measure the attitude of the farmers towards Soil Health Cards, the impact of Soil Health Card on farmers, the relationship between the attitude, impact and profile of the farmers and the problems faced by the farmers in the adoption of recommendations of Soil Health Cards and elicit suggestions to overcome them. Ex post facto research design was used for conducting the study. Andhra Pradesh state was selected purposively for the study as the researcher hails from the same state and is familiar with local language and culture. Three districts of Andhra Pradesh namely East Godavari, West Godavari and Krishna were selected purposively based on the highest area under rice cultivation. Two mandals from each of the selected districts were selected purposively based on the highest area under rice cultivation, for present study. 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, 20 farmers possessing Soil Health Cards were selected by following simple random sampling procedure, thus making a total of 240 respondents for the study. Thirteen independent variables and two dependent variables viz., attitude of the farmers towards Soil Health Card and impact of Soil Health Card on farmers were selected for the study. A pre tested interview schedule with measurement devices of all the variables was used for the collection of raw data. The data were collected by personal interview method through a structured interview schedule and analyzed by employing suitable statistical methods. The analysis of profile characteristics of the farmers indicated that majority of the respondents belonged to middle age, middle school education, semi medium land holding with medium farming experience, extension contact, mass media xvii exposure, social participation, achievement motivation, scientific orientation, management orientation, innovativeness, economic orientation and differed gratification. The detailed analysis of the dependent variables indicated that majority (74.58%) of SHC rice farmers had medium favourable attitude followed by high (15.84%) and less (9.58%) favourable attitude. The Soil Health Card has shown 24.50 per cent of impact on the rice farmers. The study also revealed that different indicators of dependent variable i.e., change in dosage of fertilizers, micro nutrients, manures and soil amendments, change in sources of fertilizers, change in time of application, change in problematic soil management, change in pest and disease management, change in cost of inputs, change in yield level, change in income has shown significant change. SHC had shown medium (53.33%) level of impact followed by low (30.42%) and high (16.25%) levels of impact on the farmers. The computed correlation coefficient (r) values of education, farm size, extension contact, mass media exposure, social participation, achievement motivation, scientific orientation, innovativeness, economic orientation and differed gratification were positively significant at 0.01per cent level of probability and management orientation was also positively significant at 0.05 per cent level of probability in their relationship with attitude of the farmers. However, age and farming experience exhibited negative and non-significant relationship with attitude of the farmers. The computed correlation coefficient (r) values of education, farm size, extension contact, mass media exposure, social participation, achievement motivation, scientific orientation, management orientation, innovativeness, economic orientation, and differed gratification were positively significant at 0.01per cent level of probability. However, farming experience exhibited negative and significant relationship and finally age exhibited negative and non-significant relationship with impact of SHC on farmers. The major problems perceived by the farmers about SHC were; calculation of fertilizer doses was difficult on the basis of nutrient status of the soil, difficult to understand SHC information without expert, the quantity of FYM recommended as per SHC was not available for farming and lack of trust on SHC information with regards to reliability and validity. The major suggestions elicited by farmers to surmount problems regarding Soil Health Card were: Calculation of fertilizer dose of application through SHC should be made easy, availability of micronutrient status of soil in SHC should be displayed, subsidies for fertilizers should be given as per soil heath card and innovative farmers should follow the SHC recommendation which should make other farmers to follow SHC.
Open Access
A STUDY ON IMPACT OF RASTRIYA KRISHI VIKAS YOJANA (RKVY) PROGRAMME OF ANGRAU
(guntur, 2022-08-04) USHA, MADUGULA; RAMBABU, P.
Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) was initiated in 2007 as an umbrella scheme for ensuring holistic development of agriculture and allied services. The programme incentivises states in order to increase public investment in agriculture and allied sectors. The main objective of the programme is to reduce the yield gaps in important crops of the state, maximize returns of the farmers in agriculture and allied sectors and to make quantifiable changes in the production of agriculture and allied sectors. The scheme has come a long way since its inception and has been implemented across two five year plan periods (11th and 12th). Although many of these continuing programmes like RKVY, National Horticulture Mission (NHM), and National Food Security Mission (NFSM) were initiated during 2000, an in-depth assessment of the public delivery of services is not readily available. The implementation of targeted interventions need to be analysed and lessons to be learnt to enhance public investment efficiency and up scaling. Further, perception of the farmers and officials of the concerned department constitutes a vital input to policy makers for designing government programmes in a better way. Hence, in this study an attempt was made to study the impact of RKVY of ANGRAU as it made significant contributions in agriculture with respect to rice crop. The study was conducted by following an ex-post-facto Research Design. Three districts viz., Srikakulam (from North Coastal Zone), West Godavari (from Godavari Zone) and Nellore (from Southern Zone), were purposively selected based on the existence of maximum number of rice farmers. From each of the selected district, one Agricultural Research Station (ARS) / RARS, one Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), one District Agricultural Advisory and Transfer of Technology Centre (DAATTC) of ANGRAU were selected purposively which were successfully implementing RKVY programme in rice crop. A total of 80 beneficiaries from each district associated with ARS/RARS, KVK and DAATTC were selected by using proportionate random sampling method and thus, making a total sample of 240 respondents. Appropriate statistical tools such as Mean, Standard Deviation, Frequency, Percentage, Garret Ranking, Chi-square and Multiple Liner Regression (MLR) were used. The detailed analysis of profile characteristics of rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY indicated that majority of the members were middle aged (65.00%), with primary school education (29.58%) and medium annual income (70.00%), marginal land holding (28.33%), farm experience of 11-15 years (36.67%), under gone 3-4 trainings (35.00%), medium socio politico participation (57.09%), medium decision making (66.67%), medium extension contact (67.50%), medium mass media exposure (65.00%), medium achievement motivation (63.33%), medium risk orientation (68.75%), medium market orientation (60.42%), medium scientific orientation (60.42%) and medium innovativeness (62.50%). In Chi Square analysis, education and farm experience were significant at 0.01 level of probability, whereas training received socio-politico participation, extension contact, decision making, achievement motivation, risk orientation, market orientation and scientific orientation were significant at 0.05 level of probability. The remaining profile characteristics like age, annual income, land holding, mass media exposure and innovativeness were not significant. The detailed analysis of dependent variables indicated that more than two-fifths (42.58%) of the rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY had high knowledge on recommended production practices and when found relationship between profile characteristics of rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY with knowledge, age, education, farming experience, training received, socio-politico participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, achievement motivation, risk orientation, market orientation, scientific orientation and innovativeness showed a positive and significant relationship with knowledge of the rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY and the multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) indicated that all the fifteen profile characteristics put together contributed for 77.43 per cent of variance in the knowledge of the beneficiaries about rice cultivation leaving the rest (22.57%) to the effect of extraneous unknown characteristics. With regard to extent of adoption, two-fifths (42.08%) of the rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY had high extent of adoption of recommended production technologies. The relationship between profile characteristics and extent of adoption revealed that age, education, farming experience, training received, socio-politico participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, decision making, achievement motivation, market orientation, scientific orientation and innovativeness showed a positive and significant relationship with extent of adoption and the multiple regression equation with profile characteristics put together contributed for 86.50 per cent of variance in the extent of adoption of recommended production technologies in rice leaving the rest (13.50%) for extraneous effect of unknown characteristics. Similarly in case of direct changes, nearly half (47.08%) of the rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY had high level of direct changes undergone. The relationship between profile characteristics and direct changes reveled that age, annual income, training received, socio-politico participation, decision making, extension contact, mass media exposure, achievement motivation, risk orientation, market orientation, scientific orientation and innovativeness showed a positive and significant relationship with direct changes of the beneficiaries and the multiple regression equation with fifteen profile characteristics put together contributed for 84.00 per cent of variance in the direct changes leaving the rest (16.00%) for extraneous effect of unknown characteristics. In case of indirect changes almost half (49.58%) of the rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY had medium level of indirect changes undergone. The relationship between profile characteristics and indirect changes revealed that age, annual income, farming experience, training received, socio-politico participation, decision making, extension contact, mass media exposure, achievement motivation, market orientation, scientific orientation and innovativeness showed a positive and significant relationship with indirect changes and the multiple regression equation with fifteen profile characteristics put together contributed for 82.40 per cent of variance in the indirect changes of the beneficiaries leaving the rest (17.60%) to extraneous effect of unknown characteristics. The major constraints faced by rice farmer beneficiaries of RKVY were ‘high cost of hire charges of MSRI machinery’, soil test based fertilizer application resulting in low yields’, ‘No knowledge on market information to sell the farm produce’ and less practicability of soil health card recommendations’. Similarly major constraints faced by scientists in implementation of RKVY were ‘Insufficient funds allocated for critical inputs’, ‘increased workload in implementing the RKVY programme’, ‘No technical competence in updating information of Kiosk’. A suitable strategy was designed with five core areas for effective implementation of RKVY. The areas are 1) Strengthening Bhoochetana programme 2) Popularizing cost reduction technologies 3) Strengthening infrastructural facilities 4) Popularizing IFS models 5) Promoting extension services.
Open Access
IMPACT OF TECHNICAL SERVICE CENTRES (TSCs) ON SERICULTURE FARMERS IN KARNATAKA STATE OF INDIA
(guntur, 2022-08-04) HARISHA, N; MUKUNDA RAO, B.
Sericulture is considered as main employment and income generating activity in Karnataka. The Technical Service Centres (TSCs) are playing an incredible role of extension for wellbeing of sericulture farmers through their extension activities. Technical Service Centers are the front line units and they motivate the farmers to take up mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing. The TSC is the distinctive extension system established at grass root level, which are easy accessible to farmers and helps to disseminate knowledge and make for them adopt the scientific technologies of mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing. All the findings of the study help to refinement and reformation of extension methodologies of TSCs. There is a scope for extension system for diffusion of sericulture technologies to the non-sericulture growing areas and to become agriculture as a profitable sector and none of the research studies was conducted on sericulture extension system (Technical Service Centres). The present study on Impact of Technical Service Centres on Sericulture Farmers in Karnataka State of India was carried out during 2017. The Karnataka state was contributing 35.00 per cent of silk production in India. The Ramanagara and Mandya districts were selected because these district having highest number of TSCs in Bangalore and Mysore division respectively. Ex-post-facto research design used for the study. Mandya, Malavalli and K.R Pet taluks from Mandya district on the other hand Ramanagara, Channapatna and Kanakapura taluks were purposively selected for the study. Above the taluks were selected based on top 3 taluks in TSCs in district. The four TSCs from each taluk leads to twelve from each district, Totally 24 TSCs were selected for the study. Ten sericulture farmers under each TSC, collectively 240, were selected by using random sampling method. The age, education, farming experience, annual income, size of land holding, family status, cropping pattern, mass media utilization, social participation, , information consultancy, credit acquisition and utilization, scientific orientation, management orientation , risk orientation and achievement motivation were xvii considered as independent variables and attitude, direct and indirect changes, knowledge and adoption were considered as dependent variables for the study. For the variables attitude and knowledge were studied by constructing scale and test respectively. A well structured interview schedule was used for data collection. The statistical tools like frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, correlation, multiple regression and Garret ranking were used for data analysis. The detailed analysis of the profile of sericulture beneficiary farmers of TSCs indicated that majority of them were middle aged with having education high school and middle school and 23-30 years of experience in sericulture. It also found that majority of them had medium annual income and most of the farmers belonged to small farmers and marginal farmers. Most of the sericulture farmers had medium family status (4-6 members), Mulberry+Coconut+Ragi cropping pattern, medium mass media utilization, high social participation, medium information consultancy, medium scientific orientation, medium management orientation, high risk orientation and high achievement motivation. The dependent variable attitude of sericulture beneficiary farmers towards activities of TSCs was measured by constructing Likert Scale with 21 statements comprises both positive and negative statements. The study found that more than half of the sericulture farmers had medium favourable attitude towards activities of TSCs followed by high favourable attitude and low favourable attitude. In case of knowledge, most of sericulture farmers had medium knowledge on recommended technologies of sericulture. Only just more than one fifth (11.25 %) of the sericulture farmers had low knowledge on recommended technologies of sericulture. With respect to adoption of recommended technologies, majority of the sericulture farmers belonged to medium adoption category followed by high adoption and low adoption category. Before interventions of TSC, majority of the sericulture farmers had low mulberry yield succeeded by medium mulberry yield, after interventions of TSC, of the sericulture farmers had high mulberry yield followed by medium mulberry yield and low mulberry yield. Correlation coefficient (r) values of independent variables such as education, Mass media utilization, information consultancy and Scientific orientation were positively significant at 0.01 level of significance. Whereas, experience in sericulture social participation and Achievement motivation were positively significant at 0.05 level of significance. Independent variables such as education, Experience in Sericulture, Mass media utilization, Information consultancy and Achievement motivation were positively significant at 0.01 level of significance. Whereas, cropping pattern, Social participation and scientific orientation were positively significant at 0.05 level of significance. The major constraints of TSCs as perceived by the sericulture farmers were Discrimination in identification of farmers for benefits followed by misuse of funds as second rank, Poor information dissemination about scientific technologies as third rank, Delay in subsidy transfer to the beneficiary account as fourth rank, xviii Selling of subsidised inputs to grainage centres as fifth rank, Lack of consultancy services about mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing, less demand driven technologies and finally lack of need based trainings for mulberry cultivation silkworm rearing. The major suggestions given by sericulture farmers for improvement of functioning of TSCs were Transparency in selection of farmers to benefit extension services followed by Online transfer of monetary benefits to beneficiary farmers, Providing insurance to sericulture as like Crop insurance, Appointment of technically sound and skilful extension officials, Effective consultancy services in sericulture by TSC officials, Generation demand driven technologies and Unbiasness in the selection of farmers for training .
Open Access
PROSPECTS OF SUGARCANE CULTIVATION FOR JAGGERY -A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
(guntur, 2022-08-04) ARCHANA, K; SATHYA GOPAL, P.V.
Sugarcane is one of the most important commercial crops grown in the world. In India, there are three kinds of principal products obtained from sugarcane viz., sugar, jaggery and khandasari. Sugarcane crop provides employment to lakhs of people in the country from the cultivation of cane to production of sugar, jaggery and khandasari. The jaggery industry is an unorganized sector in the country run by small and marginal farmers. In Andhra Pradesh, it is providing employment to three lakh people who live in rural areas and relying on quick returns from jaggery. However, over the years the jaggery consumption has drastically reduced through the substitution of sugar as most of the cane utilized for sugar production. The other reasons for this are increased number of sugar mills, statutory price of cane, increased consumption of sugar, jaggery being in unorganized sector, low remunerative prices for jaggery and low preference of jaggery by the consumes etc. Even though the consumers are not preferring jaggery due to several reasons, some of the farmers are preparing different forms of jaggery to grab their attention. On the other side, in this era of health consciousness, jaggery is definitely a better substitute for sugar in terms of its medicinal and nutritional values. There is an urgent need to popularise jaggery among the consumers and to produce quality jaggery in order to meet the growing demand. Hence, this study has been undertaken to assess the extent of knowledge on sugarcane cultivation and jaggery making as well as the attitude of the farmers towards sugarcane cultivation for jaggery. Backward and forward linkages in sugarcane cultivation for jaggery and the problems associated with production and marketing of jaggery along with designing a suitable strategy helps to amplify the prospects of sugarcane cultivation for jaggery. Ex-post facto research and descriptive research designs were followed in the present investigation. Three districts were purposively selected from three regions of Andhra Pradesh viz., Vishakapatnam (North Coastal Region), West Godavari (Coastal Region) and Chittoor (Rayalaseema Region) based on the highest area under sugarcane cultivation. Four mandals from each district, two villages from each mandal and ten sugarcane growers for jaggery from each village were selected by using simple random sampling method. Thus, making a total of 12 mandals, 24 villages and 240 respondents xix for the study respectively. The data was collected by personal interview method through a structured interview schedule and analyzed by employing suitable statistical methods. Knowledge and attitude were taken as the dependent variables along with eighteen independent variables for the study. The results of the study shown that majority of the respondents were old aged with primary school education having small to marginal land holdings. They had medium level of farming experience, annual income, material possession, extension contact, social contact, mass media utilization, innovativeness, economic orientation, scientific orientation, management orientation, risk orientation and achievement motivation. They had high decision-making ability and drudgery perception. Nearly 41.66 per cent of the respondents had medium level of knowledge on sugarcane cultivation and jaggery making. Regarding the sugarcane cultivation, about 96.67 per cent of the respondents had high knowledge on “recommended varieties” followed by “depth of planting” (93.75%). Similarly, in jaggery making 87.50 per cent of the respondents had good knowledge on “consistency of jaggery” followed by “complexing agents” used in jaggery (85.00%). About 33.33 per cent of the sugarcane growers had neutral attitude followed by moderately favourable (25.00%) and moderately unfavourable (19.17%) attitude towards sugarcane for jaggery. Whereas, 12.92 and 9.58 per cent of the respondents had highly favourable and highly unfavourable attitude towards sugarcane for jaggery respectively. Farmers had highly favourable attitude towards “challenging nature of their enterprise” and highly unfavourable attitude towards “labour management”. Correlation analysis revealed that education, farming experience, land holding, trainings undergone, extension contact, social contact, mass media utilization, decision making ability, innovativeness, scientific orientation and achievement motivation had a positively significant relationship with the knowledge of the respondents. The variables like age, annual income, material possession, drudgery perception, management orientation and risk orientation were found to be non-significant with the knowledge of the sugarcane growers for jaggery. MLR revealed that mass media utilization, social contact, innovativeness and scientific orientation were having positive and significant contribution to the variation in the knowledge. Correlation analysis revealed that education, farming experience, trainings undergone, extension contact, social contact, economic orientation, scientific orientation, management orientation, risk orientation, annual income, mass media utilization and achievement motivation were found to be positively significant with the attitude of the respondents. Drudgery perception was found to have negatively significant relationship with the attitude. MLR revealed that education, scientific orientation and management orientation were found to have positive and significant contribution to the most of the variation in the attitude. The backward and forward linkages in sugarcane cultivation for jaggery were grouped into different components i.e., sugarcane cultivation, jaggery making and marketing under backward linkages and packing, storage, transportation and jaggery marketing under forward linkages. Regarding the input procurement, farmers were going for their own planting material. For the fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and jaggery making chemicals they were primarily contacting village merchants. Irrigation machinery and equipment were mainly procuring from electric motor suppliers. The xx farm machinery for sugarcane cultivation and jaggery making were mainly getting from Department of Agriculture and local manufacturing companies respectively. Money lenders were major source of finance/credit. Regarding the sugarcane cultivation, majority of the sugarcane growers were having own electric motors/bore wells/oil engines. Farmers were getting labour from nearby village. Farmers had hired machinery from friends/neighbours and who had owned machinery were majorly approaching mechanics nearby town for repairs and replacements. For jaggery making the major source for labour were own family members. Majority of the farmers were hiring machinery and equipment from friends/neighbours. For technical support, farmers were mainly using his own experience and expertise. Pertaining to the forward linkages, majority of the farmers had approached local retailers for packing and the farmers do not have any storage facilities. The sources of transportation for jaggery marketing were rental vehicles. Registered jaggery merchants in market yards were found to be major linkages for jaggery marketing. The average per hectare cost of cultivation of sugarcane in Andhra Pradesh was Rs. 1,95,252 with a yield of 82.24 t/ha in sugarcane plant crop. Whereas, a yield of 73.89 t/ha was recorded in ratoon crop with a cost of cultivation of Rs. 1,41,887 per hectare. The overall BCR for jaggery making in Andhra Pradesh was 1.26. Highest BCR was noticed (1.38) in Rayalaseema Region followed by Coastal Region (1.37) and North Coastal Region (1.03). Regarding the sugarcane cultivation, “non-availability of labour” and “day by day increase in labour wages” were the major constraints. Similarly, “lack of support from government” and “lack of technical knowledge” were the problems pertaining to jaggery making. The major marketing constraints were “lack of remunerative price for jaggery” and “more middlemen involvement”. A suitable strategy was designed with four broad perspectives viz., Consumer’s perspective, Farmer’s perspective, Research and Development perspective and Administrative perspective. Consumer’s perspective was projected with strategies like “creating awareness on jaggery among the consumers”, “Public Distribution System” and “product range and branding”. Under Farmer’s perspective, the components like “capacity building”, “attracting youth” and “Farmers organizations/groups” were depicted. Similarly, Research and Development perspective was viewed with “mechanization”, “production of quality sugarcane” and “product range and quality of jaggery”. Administrative perspective includes “linkages”, “recognition under MSME” and “subsidies & incentives”.
Open Access
LIVELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS IN ANDHRA PRADESH
(guntur, 2022-08-04) VENKATA REDDY, I.; GOPI KRISHNA, T.
Agricultural labourers are the most unorganized and exploited class in the rural population of the country. Agriculture labourers are those who derive their main source of income by working on farms of others for a wage. The number of agricultural labourers rose almost three times over the period from 1951 to 1991from 27.3 million in 1951 to 74.6 million in 1991. As per the census of 2 011, 263 million people are engaged in the agriculture sector and over half of them are now agricultural labourers, a trend observed for the first time in the past 40 years. Livelihood is the means of people use to survive themselves, to endure, and to prosper. A study on livelihood analysis of agricultural labourers in Andhra Pradesh was carried out in three districts Srikakulam, Guntur and Kurnool from three regions of Andhra Pradesh during 2018-20. From each selected district two mandals have been selected for the study by using simple random sampling. From the selected mandals, four villages have been selected by simple random sampling method. From each selected village, ten agricultural labourers were selected at random, thus making a total of 240 agricultural labourers. Considering the importance, livelihood security and attitude of agricultural labourers towards their livelihood were selected as dependent variables, index and scale were developed respectively. Scale was developed for attitude by using summated rating technique. The attitude scale comprised of 22 statements. The study was conducted by following an Ex-Post-Facto research design. Data was collected by pre-testing followed by personal interview method. For the purpose of statistical analysis of the coded data various statistical tools were used viz., frequency, percentage, class interval, ranking, correlation analysis, multiple liner regression analysis and Chi-square test inclusive. xix The detailed analysis of profile characteristics of agricultural labourers indicated that majority of the members were middle aged (52.91%), illiterate (27.08%) with medium size family (70.00%), medium agricultural labourers experience (40.84%), low farm experience (35.83%), marginal land holding (54.58%), majority marginal tenant land holding (50.00%), wage work as occupation (32.50%), majority had annual income of Rs. 46,753-89,000/-., medium savings (65.00%), medium expenditure pattern (63.75%), medium urban contact (64.58%), medium deferred gratification (65.84%), medium credit orientation (57.50%), medium achievement motivation (60.84%), medium economic orientation (55.84%), medium self confidence (65.83%) and medium level of aspiration (64.16%). In Chi Square analysis urban contact significant at 0.01 level of significance and credit orientation, expenditure pattern, savings, annual income, tenant land holding, farm experience significance at 0.05 level of significant. Majority had wage earning+ crop production (31.66%) as livelihood pattern as option. The detailed analysis of dependent variables indicated that majority of the agricultural labourers had moderately favorable attitude towards their livelihood (49.58%) and medium livelihood security index (62.92%), the components wise livelihood securities were medium asset security (52.50%), medium food and nutritional security (41.25%), medium educational security (62.50%), medium habitat security (48.34%), medium social security (63.75%), medium clothing security (71.67%), medium health security (71.66%), medium transport security (60.00%) and medium information security (64.16%). The relationship between profile characteristics of agricultural labourers with attitude towards their livelihood, variables like age, family size, land holding, occupation status, annual income, savings, expenditure pattern, urban contact and achievement motivation, economic orientation found to have positive and significant relationship and the multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) indicated that all the eighteen independent variables put together explained about 63.00 per cent variation in the attitude of agricultural labourers, remaining 37.00 per cent was due to the effect of extraneous characteristics. Similarly, the relationship between profile and livelihood security revealed that land holding, annual income, occupation status, savings, expenditure pattern, urban contact, deferred gratification, achievement motivation, economic orientation and level of aspiration were found to have positive and significant relationship with livelihood security and that the multiple regression equation with eighteen selected profile characteristics put together contributed 58.60 per cent to the total variance in the livelihood security; remaining 41.40 per cent was due to the extraneous effects of the variables. In case of association between profile characteristics with attitude towards their livelihood, the profile characteristics like agricultural labourer experience, economic orientation, landholding positive and significant association at one per cent level. Similarly, the association between profile characteristics with livelihood security the variables such as age, education, farm experience, expenditure pattern and achievement motivation exhibited positive and significant association at one per cent level. The most important constraints faced by the agricultural labourers were: lack of fixed wages for fixed work (88.75%), agricultural labour work involves much drudgery (82.50%), no fixed for fixed work (80.83%), mechanization led to decreased demand for labourer (80.41%), lack of hygienic living conditions at home and worksite (80.00%), poor social relationship existing with other sections of society (77.08%), inadequate opportunities for health care (77.08%). Suggestions perceived by agricultural labourers to improve their livelihood security were wage rates must be increased (89.58%), establishment of small scale labour intensive enterprises (87.91), implementing more government schemes to increase the employment opportunities xx (87.08), establishment of village markets for purchase of agricultural produce (61.66%), providing timely and quality inputs to the farmers (59.16%). The strategy was designed with a five step progressive approach with five core areas to improve the livelihood security; the core areas were 1) Education and Training, 2) Group dynamics and Cultural heritage 3) Health and Habitat, 4) Support and Services, 5) Communication and Networking.
Open Access
FARMERS’ TELEVIEWING BEHAVIOUR AND EFFECTIVENESS OF FARM BROADCASTS IN ANDHRA PRADESH – A CRITICAL STUDY
(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2021-12-08) .KRISHNAJI, M.V; .GOPI KRISHNA, Dr. T
In India, two third of the population depend on agriculture and one fourth of countries GDP is contributed by agriculture. But, it is very upsetting to note the insufficient coverage of agriculture in media including print and electronic which is even less than two percent. This is probably because of the non-lucrative nature of farm information to the media organizers. In the present context of increasing importance of mass media for communication of farm information, what is expected is that an appropriate content, process, structure and system that are to be pragmatically developed. For that purpose, a detailed study on farm information communicated through Television with special reference to the nature and extent of farm information telecasted through mass media with their basis giving consideration for clients‟ needs for the farm information, extent of credibility of farm information from scientific and users‟ point of view, different factors there off and so on; are of immense importance. An ex-post facto and experimental research designs were followed to study the televiewing Behaviour of farmers, effectiveness of farm broadcasts and gain in knowledge after exposure to farm broadcast programmes. The study was conducted in four districts viz. West Godavari, Srikakulam, Guntur and Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh during the year 2014 – 2019. In addition to this, analyzed the content of two popular farm broadcast programmes namely Pasidi Pantalu and Annadata. Two mandals from each district was selected, comprising a total of eight mandals viz. Yelamanchili, Mogalthur (West Godavari), Amadalavalasa, Etcherla (Srikakulam), Maddikera, C.Belagal (Kurnool), Tsundur, Duggirala (Guntur). Two villages from each mandal was selected randomly for the study viz. Gumparru, Kaza (Yelamnchili), Mogalthur, K.P.Palem (Mogalthur), Nimmathorlavada, Ravikantipeta (Amadalavalasa), Kongaram, Nandigam (Etcherla), Edlapalle, Valiveru (Tsundur), Tummapudi, Duggirala (Duggirala), Maddikera, Edavali (Maddikera), Kothakota, Brahmanadoddi (C.Belagal). A total of 15 televiewing farmers were selected randomly thus comprises a total sample of 240. xv One village from each selected district was chosen randomly for control group viz. Mutyalapalle (West Godavari district), Kondapuram (Kurnool district), Munnangivaripalem (Guntur district) and Ajjaram (Srikakulam district). Fifteen farmers were selected from each control village thus making a sample of 60. The farmers response was collected by using a well structured and pre-tested interview schedule. The data analysis was conducted by using various statistical tools like frequency, percentage correlation coefficient, regression analysis, t – test, multiple linear regression and ranking. After analysis it was found that majority of televiewing farmers were middle aged (44.58%), having primary education (22.08%), with marginal farm size (26.70%), high farming experience (50.84%), medium level socioeconomic status (54.17%), medium innovativeness (40.42%), medium mass media exposure (52.92%), medium marketing orientation (39.17%), medium risk orientation (44.17%), medium economic orientation (55.42%), medium scientific orientation (55.83%), medium extension contact (60.84%), low annual income (39.17%), medium social participation (47.92%), medium cropping intensity (57.50%), medium training exposure (45.84%). The detailed analysis of dependent variables revealed that more than half of the televiewing farmers (53.75%) had medium televiewing behaviour followed by those with low (27.08%) and high (19.17%) level of televiewing behaviour. Majority of the televiewing farmers (46.25%) had medium level of effectiveness, followed by low (28.75%) and high (25.00%) levels of effectiveness. After exposure to farm broadcast programme on rice production technology in experimental group, the mean difference score was 7.12 and in control group it was 1.04 only. It clearly indicated that there is a significant improvement in gain knowledge after exposure to farm broadcast programme. The profile characteristics of televiewing farmers namely education, farming experience, socio-economic status, innovativeness, mass media exposure, marketing orientation, risk orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, extension contact, social participation and training exposure had significant relationship with televiewing behaviour. Whereas, the profile characteristics such as age, farm size, annual income and cropping intensity did not show any significant relationship with televiewing Behaviour of the farmers. The MLR analysis revealed that the selected sixteen profile characteristics put together, explained about 80.05 per cent variation in the televiewing Behaviour of the farmers. Remaining 19.95 per cent is due to the extraneous profile characteristics which were away from the present study. Out of sixteen profile characteristics, thirteen of them such as age, education, farming experience, socio-economic status, innovativeness, mass media exposure, marketing orientation, risk orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, extension contact, social participation and training exposure of televiewing farmers had significant relationship with effectiveness of farm broadcasts. The other profile characteristics such as farm size, annual income and cropping intensity did not show any relationship with effectiveness of farm broadcasts. The MLR analysis found that all the 16 profile characteristics put together, explained about 78.64 per cent variation in the effectiveness of farm broadcasts. Remaining 21.36 per cent is due to the extraneous characteristics which were not considered under study. Out of sixteen selected profile characteristics, thirteen profile characteristics of televiewing farmers such as education, farming experience, socio-economic status, innovativeness, mass media exposure, marketing orientation, risk orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, extension contact, social participation, xvi cropping intensity and training exposure had significant relationship with gain in knowledge. The other profile characteristics namely age, farm size and annual income did not show any relationship with gain in knowledge of the televiewing farmers. The MLR analysis found that all the sixteen profile characteristics put together, explained about 55.23 per cent variation in the gain in knowledge of farmers. Remaining 44.77 per cent is due to the extraneous effects of the profile characteristics which were away from the present study. The content analysis of selected farm broadcast programmes viz., Pasidi Pantalu and Annadata indicated that, in „Pasidi Pantalu‟ programme more emphasis was given to agriculture enterprise (33.21%), dairy and other animal husbandry practices (17.77%), research stations (42.48%), general package of practices (18.00%), highest time was allotted to agriculture enterprise (33.21%) and straight talk mode (71.41%). Whereas, in case of „Annadata‟ programme the main emphasis was given to horticulture enterprise (42.71%), fruit and orchard crops (18.41%), research stations (40.70%), plant protection aspects (29.65%), highest time was allotted to horticulture (42.71%) and straight talk mode (98.09%). Through constraint analysis it was found that, the most important constraints encountered by the televiewing farmers were: frequent interruption in electricity supply, too much repetition of the programmes, usage of old video footage, lack of attention to upload important programmes in social media for further reference, poor quality of visuals and sound, lack of information about experts for further consultation, low level of education creating problems in understanding advanced technical information, lack of reinforce effect of farm broadcasts on farmers, lack of cooperation from other family members to watch the farm broadcast programmes, lack of emphasis to the local dialect/ colloquial language, less emphasis given to Phone in programmes to get solutions to farmers problems directly from experts, orientation of speakers to script reading rather than talking, lack of visual effects for difficult concepts, introduction of the topic is not catchy to raise the farmers interest, lack of summarization of salient points in the end of the programme, less coverage to government policies and schemes, no coverage about source of input availability related information, less emphasis to market intelligence related information, less coverage to success stories of adoptable technologies, non inclusion of cost and benefit aspects. Suggestions made by the televiewing farmers to overcome the constraints were : Avoiding too much repetition of the programmes and usage of old video footage, providing information on source of input availability, more emphasis on programmes of government schemes and subsidies, training the technical experts to improve their script preparation and presentation related skills, broadcasting of programmes related to market intelligence, broadcasting the programmes on post harvest management and value addition related information, publishing the programme schedule in all the major news papers well in advance for wider publicity among farmers, increasing the number of programmes on organic farming and certification, giving priority to latest visuals, visual effects and sound effects in the programmes for increasing farmers interest, focusing on demonstration mode of presentation to improve the skills of farmers, incorporation of cost benefit related information for creating interest among farmers, use of more local experts or progressive farmers / farm women, strictly adhering to seasonality in the programmes broadcasts, incorporation of the visuals of pest and disease symptoms, announcing xvii address and phone numbers of the experts at the beginning as well as after completion of programme, giving emphasis on programmes related to rural and agrobased industries to attract youth in agriculture, uploading of information in social media for further future reference, repeat important programmes at weekends, avoiding too much usage of English words and technical terms, improving picture and audio quality, dramatized presentation of farmers‟ field experiences and success stories, broadcast phone – in live specific to different areas to solve local problems and giving priority to programmes on latest technologies like terrace gardening, kitchen gardening, hydroponics and aquaponics etc.
Open Access
AN ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABLE CULTIVATION PRACTICES FOLLOWED BY GROUNDNUT FARMERS IN ANDHRA PRADESH
(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2021-09-08) SRIVIDYA RANI, N; LAKSHMI, T.
Sustainable Agriculture encompasses a range of strategies, for addressing a large number of problems that are affecting worldwide. Such problems include loss of soil productivity from excessive erosion and associated plant nutrient losses, surface and ground water pollution from pesticides and fertilizers, awaiting shortages of non-renewable resources, low farm income from dejected commodity prices, high production costs- (Lockeretz et al., 1988) and also it is minimal dependence on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and more dependent on use of manures, crop rotation and minimum tillage- (Edwards, 1987). As per the importance of sustainable agriculture in the present system the study was taken up in groundnut crop to analyze the knowledge and extent of adoption levels. The sustainable practices recommended by the scientists in the groundnut crop were not practiced by most of the farmers. Indiscriminate usage of the chemicals and fertilizers can be reduced by using the recommended practices. Hence it is necessary to know the cultivation practices of the farmers which helps the scientists in transfer of technologies in a better way and also the lacunae in transfer. These practices were divided into cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical practices for analysis of the knowledge and adoption of the groundnut growers. Groundnut is one of the main oil seed consumable crops in Andhra Pradesh and it has much importance in many districts of Andhra Pradesh and the main districts which are growing are Ananthapuramu and Chittoor ranked first and second in area of cultivation. So, importance of this crop is very high in these areas. xviii Hence, the present study in analysis of sustainable cultivation practices in groundnut crop was taken up. Ex- post- facto research design was chosen for the study. The present study was conducted in Ananthapuramu and Chittoor districts of Andhra Pradesh which were purposively selected based on the highest area of the groundnut cultivation. Maximum number of farmers were involved in cultivating groundnut crop. Out of 66 mandals of Chittoor district and 63 mandals of Ananthapuramu district three mandals from each district were purposively selected based on the highest area of groundnut cultivation, of which a total of six mandals were selected from the two districts. From each mandal 2 villages were selected randomly and a total of 12 villages were selected for analysis. From each village, 15 farmers who were cultivating groundnut were selected by simple random procedure, thus making a total of 180 respondents. Data were collected, by personal interview method and analyzed by employing suitable statistical tools. Seventeen independent variables, were subjected to statistical analysis in order to categorize the respondents and for studying their relationship with the dependent variables i.e., knowledge level and extent of adoption on sustainable cultivation practices in groundnut. Most of the groundnut growers were middle aged with high school and middle school level of education, medium to high farming experience, extension contact, achievement motivation, decision making pattern, scientific orientation, innovativeness, deferred gratification, management orientation and economic orientation, semi-medium and medium landholding, medium to low level of annual income, mass media exposure, training undergone and social participation towards sustainable cultivation practices in groundnut. Majority of the groundnut growers had medium- high level of knowledge and medium to high extent of adoption levels regarding sustainable cultivation practices, in groundnut. Correlation analysis of the independent variables, with the dependent variable on the knowledge level signified that the variables such as education, farm size, annual income, mass media exposure, extension contact, achievement motivation, risk orientation, deferred gratification, management and economic orientation had a positive and significant relation with knowledge level of the groundnut farmers at 1 per cent level. Training undergone, scientific orientation and innovativeness showed a positive and significant relation at 5 per cent level. Social participation and decision-making pattern had shown non- significant relation with knowledge level. Age and farming experience had a negative and significant relation with the knowledge level of the groundnut growing farmers. Regression analysis revealed that the seventeen selected independent variables, put together explained 79.80 per cent variation in the knowledge level of the groundnut growers on sustainable cultivation practices. Among them education, training undergone, extension contact, decision making pattern, innovativeness, management orientation, deferred gratification and economic orientation were found positively significant which was evident from their significant ‘t’ values. xix The independent variables such as education, annual income, mass media exposure, extension contact, achievement motivation, decision-making pattern, scientific orientation, innovativeness, management orientation and economic orientation had a positive and significant relation with the adoption level of groundnut growers at one-per cent level of significance. Farm size and training undergone had showed a positive and significant relation at five per cent level. Social-participation, risk orientation and deferred gratification showed non-significant relation with the adoption level. Age and farming experience had a negative and significant-relation with adoption level of the groundnut farmers. Regression analysis proved that, selected 17 independent variables which were put together explained 55.80 per cent variation with the extent of adoption on sustainable cultivation practices. Among them education, decision making pattern and management orientation were found positively significant as apparent from their significant ‘t’ values. The major constraints as perceived by the groundnut farmers were high weed intensity, incidence of pests and diseases and problematic soils under the category of technical, high wage rates, high cost of seed material and high cost of fertilizers and pesticides under financial, lack of awareness on sustainable cultivation practices, unwillingness of the farmers to take risk and poor economic status of the farmer under personal, inadequate supply of high yielding quality seed material, inadequate availability of manures and biofertilizers and lack of insurance provision under support and services, untimely rains, drought at critical stages of crop growth and poor pod/grain setting under agro-climatic factors, lack of information about prices and markets, exploitation by market intermediaries and local dealers and high transportation costs under processing and marketing constraints. Organizing training programs on identification of pests and diseases and its control measures, providing quality inputs at subsidized rates, provision of remunerative market price to the farmers, provision of cropinsurance by the government and provision of machinery for the farm operations to reduce the labour costs were the major suggestions given by the groundnut growers. Further a suitable strategy has been framed for better adoption of sustainable cultivation practices in groundnut.
Open Access
INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY NEEDS OF TEACHERS OF ANGRAU TO MEET THE MODERN PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES
(Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2021-09-08) .SATHISH RAHUL, M; PRASAD, S.V
The present study entitled “instructional technology needs of teachers of ANGRAU to meet the modern pedagogical approaches” was conducted with broad objective of analyzing the instructional technology utilization of teachers and instructional technology needs. The study was designed in such a manner to explore the selected profile characteristics of the teachers, to study the instructional technology utilization and instructional technology needs as perceived by themselves and students, to know the direct and indirect influence of profile characteristics on instructional technology utilization and instructional technology needs. The problems in instructional technology utilization and suggestions to overcome the problems were also elicited. A strategy was also designed to strengthen the instructional technology utilization to meet the modern pedagogical approaches. Ex post facto research design was adopted in the present study. All the agricultural colleges of Acharya N.G.Ranga agricultural university in Andhra pradesh were selected for study.180 teachers and 240 students were selected as sample for the study. Fifteen independent variables and instructional technology utilization as dependent variables were selected for the study. Majority of teachers were middle age, male, Ph.D. Degree holders, had 6 to 10 years of professional experience, assistant professors, taught 2 to 4 courses, and prepared course manual / practical manual, had not published any books, had not published book chapters, had not guided any masters degree student, had not guided any doctoral degree student, had not handled any project, had no project in progress, had not attended any international seminars/conferences/symposia, had not attended any national seminars/conferences/ symposia, per cent had not published any full length article, research notes and review articles in international journals , had published 6 to 10 full length articles in national journals, had not published any research notes and review articles in national journals, above half of teachers had undergone1 to 3 national seminars had not undergone any of international trainings, had medium achievement motivation and medium empathetic ability. Majority of teachers opined they possessed very high knowledge on lecture, high knowledge on group discussion, medium knowledge on case study, very less knowledge on case study, less knowledge on workshop . Among instructional materials xvii majority of teachers had very high knowledge on chalk board, high knowledge on educational videos, medium knowledge on specimens, less and very less knowledge on instructional TV. Among instructional materials nearly half of teachers had very high knowledge on OHP/LCD/slide projector/film projector, high knowledge on still camera, medium knowledge on computer and laptop, less knowledge on ipad/tablets/e-slate and had very less knowledge on epidiascope. Majority of teachers had very high application proficiency in lecture, application proficiency in question answer discussion, medium application proficiency in term papers/credit seminars, less application proficiency in brainstorming & workshop method and very less application proficiency in workshop method. Among instructional materials majority of teachers had very high application proficiency in charts/posters, high application proficiency on text book, medium application proficiency on chalk board, less application proficiency on instructional TV and very less application proficiency on podcasts and digital text books. Among instructional devices majority of teachers had very high application proficiency on OHP/LCD projector, high application proficiency on still camera, and medium application proficiency on computer/laptop, less application proficiency on ipad/tablets/e-slate and had very less application proficiency on epidiascope. Majority of teachers regularly used lecture method, frequently used term papers/credit seminars, 8.33 per cent occasionally used case study, rarely used group discussion and never used project work. Among instructional materials majority of teachers used regularly text books, frequently used lecture notes, occasionally used slides/transparency, rarely used instructional TV and above one third never used instructional TV. Among instructional methods majority of teachers regularly used OHP/LCD projector, frequently used still camera, nearly half of teachers occasionally used smart podiums, one third of teachers rarely used digital voice recorders and majority never used interactive white board/smart boards/ink recording system. Majority of students had perceived that teachers possessed very high knowledge on lecture method; one third had high knowledge on group discussion, medium knowledge on term papers/credit seminars, less knowledge on case study and very less knowledge on brainstorming. Among instructional materials majority of students had opined that teachers had very high knowledge on chalk board, slight above one third had high knowledge on instructional TV, medium knowledge on podcasts, very less knowledge on podcasts. Among instructional devices above half of students perceived very high knowledge on smart phone, one third high knowledge on computer/ laptop, nearly half medium knowledge on smart podiums, slight less than one third had less knowledge on digital voice recorders and more than half had very less knowledge on epidiascope. Nearly half of students had perceived that teachers had very high application proficiency in lecture method; slight above one third had high application proficiency in question answer discussion, medium proficient in case study, less application proficiency in workshop and very less application proficiency in field visits. Among instructional materials majority of students perceived that teachers had very high application proficiency on chalk board, slight less than one third had high proficiency on chalk board, medium application proficiency on laboratory manuals, less proficient on podcasts and very less proficient in instructional TV. Among instructional devices above one third of students had perceived very high application proficiency of teachers in smart phone, high proficiency in still camera, medium application proficiency in computer/laptop less application proficiency on ipad/tablets/e-slate and very less application proficiency in epidiascope. Majority of students perceived regular utilization of chalk board by teachers, xviii frequently used slides/transparency, occasionally used specimens, rarely used podcasts and never used podcasts. Among instructional methods majority of students had perceived regular utilization of lecture method by teachers, frequently used term paper/credit seminar, occasionally used project work, rarely used workshop and never used brainstorming method. Among instructional devices majority of students had perceived regular usage of OHP/LCD/slide /film projector, frequently used Projection microscopes, occasionally used still camera, rarely used interactive white board/smart boards/ ink recording system and never used epidiascope. Majority of teachers had expressed need for training in ‘instructional system design’ followed by course design ,instructional assessment, curriculum development, communication, understanding learners behavior, class room management, instructional strategies , instructional evaluation ,educational administration, making teaching learner oriented instructional aids and instructional methods was ranked last. Majority of students reported training is most needed for teachers on instructional strategies was ranked first followed by curriculum development, instructional system design, instructional assessment, course level , making teaching learner oriented , communication , understanding learners behavior , educational administration , instructional evaluation , instructional aids , class room management and instructional methods was ranked last. In case of relationship between independent variables and instructional technology utilization of teachers, age, gender, education, text books/book chapters published, no of students guided, projects handled, papers published had shown non significant relationship with instructional technology utilization. Experience, courses taught, trainings undergone, achievement motivation, empathetic ability and course material/practical manual prepared had shown positive and significant relationship with instructional technology utilization. Cadre of teachers had shown negative and significant relationship with instructional technology utilization. In case of relationship between independent variables and instructional technology needs variables namely age, gender, text books/ book chapters published and papers published had shown non-significant relationship with instructional technology needs. Education, experience, no of students guided and courses taught had shown positive and significant relationship with instructional technology needs. Cadre, course material/practical manual prepared, projects handled, trainings undergone, achievement motivation and empathetic ability had shown positive and significant relationship with instructional technology needs. The step wise multiple regression analysis indicated that, out of 15 independent variables, four variables viz., experience, projects handled, achievement motivation and empathetic ability were found to be the important variables in influencing positively the instructional technology utilization. Six variables namely cadre, projects handled, conferences / symposia /seminars attended, trainings undergone, achievement motivation and empathetic ability were found to be important in influencing instructional technology needs. More than three fourth of teachers reported inadequate funding was the major constraint in instructional technology utilization followed by crowded class, lack of time of teachers to master the emerging technologies, lack of administration support for instructional technology acquisition, lack of facilities designed to accommodate new technologies, lack of teacher training in instructional technology, lack of technical support and maintenance, lack of awareness by administrators and policy makers, lack of internet connection, misconception about right concept of instructional technology, low staff morale, Shortage of specialists in Instructional technology, epileptic supply of electricity, lack of support from peers in securing instructional technology, cost of instructional technology overweighs benefits, resistance to change by educators, high xix cost of instructional technology software, high cost of instructional technology hardware, lack of students’ interest, and other perceived constraints include are lack of awareness about different software being used for instructional purpose, over burdened in UG, PG classes due to shortage of teachers, and traditional mindset within the administrator as well as faculty members. Majority of teachers opined involvement of teachers in teaching than non-academic work as major suggestion to overcome problem, Maintenance of proper teacher-student ratio in class, recruitment of teachers for reducing workload, providing advanced trainings for teachers, provision of sufficient funds in time, provision of technical staff to develop, handle and maintain Instructional materials and devices establishing smart classrooms, provision of uninterrupted internet and power supply ,motivating teachers to use educational technologies and organizing seminars, workshops related to Instructional technology. Strategy was developed for strengthening instructional technology utilization to meet the modern pedagogical approaches. To make the teachers well versed in application of instructional technology requires a strategic change. Strategic change includes “what is to be changed”, “how it is to be achieved” and “when it is to be changed”. Strategic change model consists of four major steps viz., strategic analysis, strategy making, strategic plan design and implementation of plan. Faculty should be trained in designing syllabus, course content, lecture outlines, lesson plans, lecture notes and handouts. Suitable evaluation methods for each step viz., analysis of existing situation, strategy making, strategy plan design and implementation of plans to be obtained periodically and based on the feedback necessary changes can be made. Government and university administration should take proper measures by taking into account the problems and suggestions as perceived by the teachers which ultimately lead to effective utilization of instructional technology by the teachers of the university.

Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur

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