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Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

The history of agricultural education in Kerala can be traced back to the year 1896 when a scheme was evolved in the erstwhile Travancore State to train a few young men in scientific agriculture at the Demonstration Farm, Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, presently, the Cropping Systems Research Centre under Kerala Agricultural University. Agriculture was introduced as an optional subject in the middle school classes in the State in 1922 when an Agricultural Middle School was started at Aluva, Ernakulam District. The popularity and usefulness of this school led to the starting of similar institutions at Kottarakkara and Konni in 1928 and 1931 respectively. Agriculture was later introduced as an optional subject for Intermediate Course in 1953. In 1955, the erstwhile Government of Travancore-Cochin started the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Mannuthy, Thrissur for imparting higher education in agricultural and veterinary sciences, respectively. These institutions were brought under the direct administrative control of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Animal Husbandry, respectively. With the formation of Kerala State in 1956, these two colleges were affiliated to the University of Kerala. The post-graduate programmes leading to M.Sc. (Ag), M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees were started in 1961, 1962 and 1965 respectively. On the recommendation of the Second National Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, the then Chairman of the University Grants Commission, one Agricultural University in each State was established. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) were established in India as an integral part of the National Agricultural Research System to give the much needed impetus to Agriculture Education and Research in the Country. As a result the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) was established on 24th February 1971 by virtue of the Act 33 of 1971 and started functioning on 1st February 1972. The Kerala Agricultural University is the 15th in the series of the SAUs. In accordance with the provisions of KAU Act of 1971, the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, were brought under the Kerala Agricultural University. In addition, twenty one agricultural and animal husbandry research stations were also transferred to the KAU for taking up research and extension programmes on various crops, animals, birds, etc. During 2011, Kerala Agricultural University was trifurcated into Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). Now the University has seven colleges (four Agriculture, one Agricultural Engineering, one Forestry, one Co-operation Banking & Management), six RARSs, seven KVKs, 15 Research Stations and 16 Research and Extension Units under the faculties of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Forestry. In addition, one Academy on Climate Change Adaptation and one Institute of Agricultural Technology offering M.Sc. (Integrated) Climate Change Adaptation and Diploma in Agricultural Sciences respectively are also functioning in Kerala Agricultural University.

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Subject: Agricultural Extension × End date: 2008 × Start date: 2008 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Perception of agricultural officers and selected progressive farmers on computer mediated communication: A socio-psychological analysis
    (Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2008) Grace Sarala, S; KAU; Sreevalsan, J Menon
    The study was undertaken with the objective of finding the attitude and perception of Agricultural Officers towards computer mediated communication. The study area was Malappuram and Trichur districts of Kerala. A sample of ninety five Agricultural Officers formed the sample size of the study. The independent variables of the study were age, educational status, trainings undergone, knowledge about modem technologies, communication ability, computer use efficiency, creativity, innovativeness, achievement motivation and information source utilisation. Almost three fourth of the respondents have favourable orientation towards computer mediated communication and four fifth of the respondents have favourable perception towards computer mediated communication. Age and Education shows significant relationship with attitude towards computer mediated communication. Communication ability had positive and significant relationship with perception towards computer mediated communication. There is no relationship between perception with respect to the variables such as age, education, trainings undergone, knowledge, creativity, innovativeness, achievement motivation and information source utilisation. There was significant difference between age, trainings undergone, knowledge about computer mediated communication, innovativeness, achievement motivation between respondents in Malappuram and Trichur districts. Factor analysis using principal axis method was used to extract the nine factors for expressing the characteristics of computer mediated communication. Factor analysis shows that the nine factors V1Z. credibility-accessibility factor, presentation-treatment factor, experiential factor, animation factor, intervention factor cataloguing factor, imaging factor, audio factor, geographic specificity factor together explains 80.11 % of variation. The first two factors Credibility-accessibility factor and Presentation- Treatment factor explained more than 50% of the variation.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Survival stress for livelihood security of farmers in Palakkad district: the case of Nalleppilly panchayat
    (Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2008) Kumaran, V; KAU; Anil kumar, A
    The crisis in the agrarian sector due to many socio-economic, climatic and technology related factors adversely affected the farmers and they have been impoverished, dispossessed and marginalized. As a result they fail to meet even their basic livelihood requirements and hence borrow money but fail to repay due to very low income from farming. Thus these deprived farmers become helpless and undergo high level survival stress forcing them to commit suicide. So it is necessary to design a strategy for resolving this most serious human rights issue. This study entitled “Survival stress for livelihood security of farmers” was an attempt to de-construct the concept of survival stress of farmers which enabled to delineate the various dimensions of, and factors contributing to their survival stress. The study was conducted in Nalleppily Panchayat of Palakkad District. A sample of 100 farmers was selected randomly from the three villages’ viz. Nalleppily, Chittur and Teckaedesam constituted to Nalleppily Panchayat. The study indicated that most of the farmers belonged to old age group and possessed education up to higher secondary level. Most of the farmers lived in joint families. Nearly 50 percent of the respondent farmers were marginal farmers earning less than Rs.30000 per annum and 32 percent were below the poverty line. The average annual expenditure of a farm family was Rs.59750.50 which is much higher than their annual income. Thus they are unable to meet their livelihood demands and they borrow money from all possible sources. It is found that most of the farmers depend on institutional sources rather than non-institutional sources. The study revealed that more than 60 percent of the credit availed is utilized for non-agricultural purposes and thus they get low returns from agriculture and could not repay the loans. The average outstanding debt for a family was Rs.49470 which is twice their annual income. Hence the farmers are not able to meet their domestic consumption and social obligations and responsibilities, and become more vulnerable to survival stress. The results of the study indicated that more than 50 percent of the farmers were under very high survival stress for their livelihood security due the reasons mentioned above. Among them the economic factors were found to be the major contributor for their survival stress followed by social factors, psychological factors and technological factors. To some extent environmental factors were also found generate survival stress for the farmers. The study on the survival stress of the farmers on four dimensions viz, Physical complaints, Negative affective reactions, Negative overt behaviour and Negative cognitive behaviour revealed that more than 80 percent of the farmers were having high survival stress for their livelihood. Among the dimensional factors influencing survival stress, economic dimensional factor was found to be the major contributor followed by personality, family and technological dimensional factors. To some extent environment dimensional factors also generate survival stress though it is not under the control of farmers.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Cause-consequence analysis of indebtedness among farmers in pulpally panchayat of wayanad district
    (College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2008) Bhavya, B; KAU; Mothilal, Nehru S
    The agrarian sector in Kerala is facing a crisis unparalleled in its history. Fall in prices, decreasing production and productivity of crops, diminishing soil fertility and irrigation water availability, climatic aberrations, pest and disease attack of crops etc. have resulted in a manifold decline in the financial viability of agriculture. This has in turn led to a steep increase in indebtedness of farmers and increasing number of farmer’s suicides. In this background, the present investigation has been designed to attempt a cause- consequence analysis of indebtedness of farmers. The study was conducted in Pulpally panchayat of Wayanad district where maximum number of farmer’s suicides due to indebtedness were reported. Sixty respondents were randomly selected for the study. A simple severity index was used to rank the causes and consequences of indebtedness and a usefulness index was used to measure the perception of farmers on governmental interventions in resolving the crisis. Majority of farmers belong to medium category as far as socio economic variables like exposure to mass media, extension participation, extension contact, economic motivation, risk orientation, credit orientation, progressiveness, perception of profitability and level of aspiration is concerned. Agriculture was the main source of income for more than 86 per cent of farmers. Nearly 84 per cent of respondents were indebted for less than two lakh rupees. The average amount of loan across the panchayat of Pulpally is Rs. 96,850. The average amount due per acre for entire sample area was Rs. 64,518. The total number of loans taken was 1.63 times higher than the number of respondents. More than 65 per cent of respondents took credit from institutional sources. For respondents the average number of years of being a creditor and defaulter is 6.91 years and 3.11 years respectively. More than 48 per cent respondents used agricultural loan for non agricultural purposes. The factors leading to indebtedness were delineated and arranged in descending order of severity. They are low market price of produce, disease/pest of support, decline in agricultural income, disease of crop, absence of other sources of income, decrease in produce demand, crop failure due to climatic variations, high rate of interest, absence of value addition, misutilization of loans, pest attack of crop, deficiency of irrigation water, decrease in soil fertility, inefficient marketing, low export price. A similar analysis was done on consequences of indebtedness. The descending order of consequences is changes in lifestyle, hunt for alternate jobs, deforestation in holdings, reduction in money on social purposes, selling land, reduction in money spent on recreation, depression, decrease in health consciousness, aggravation of drinking habit, sale of vehicles, adverse impact on education, social isolation, tensions in family, impact on marriages and house construction and maintenance affected. The usefulness of governmental interventions was measured on the basis of perception of farmers and was arranged in decreasing order of importance. They are compensation cash for pepper, interest waiver, Debt Relief Commission, saplings and fertilizers for pepper farmers and NREGS. It was also found that majority of farmers had high levels of stress.