A Study of first-line agricultural extension system of ICAR in Rajasthan

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Date
2020-10-27
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MPUT, UDAIPUR
Abstract
The present study was undertaken to study the structure, functioning and linkage mechanism of agricultural extension system of ICAR; the attitude of farmers and farm women towards extension system; knowledge and adoption of selected technologies among the farmers and farm women and constraints of extension personnel, farmers and farm women towards agricultural extension system of ICAR. The study was conducted in the state of Rajasthan. All the ten agro-climatic zones of Rajasthan were included in the study. One KVK was selected randomly from each agro-climatic zone. KVK wise list of adopted villages in the last five years (2011- 2016) was prepared and from the list, one adopted village from each KVK was selected on a random basis. A total of ten villages were taken from the ten agroclimatic zones. Three categories of the sample were selected i.e. extension personnel, farmers and farm women. In total 67 extension functionaries were included in the study. Out of which 10 were from DEE headquarters and 57 were from KVKs. Another category of the sample consisted of 150 farmers and 150 farm women from the adopted villages of KVKs. Personal interview and questionnaire techniques were used for getting information from the respondents. Frequency distribution, percentage, mean per cent score, mean weighted score, z test and F test were used for the analysis of data. The profile of the extension personnel revealed that more than half of the respondents (56.80%) belonged to the age group of 46-60 years, were educated upto doctorate level (73.10%) and had the rural background (56.70%) with job experience of 5-20 years (38.80%). Concerning farmers, 40 per cent belonged to the age group of 46 -60 years, were married (95.30%) and were educated up to middle level (20.70%). About farm women, half of the respondents belonged to the age group of 31-45 years, were married (94.00 %) and were illiterate (26.70%). Regarding family structure, 224 64.70 per cent had joint families, agriculture as their main occupation (100%), land holding less than 2.5 acres (36%) and had an annual income less than1 lakh (36.70%). About caste distribution, the majority of them were under reserve caste categories i.e. OBC (38.88%) and SC/ST (37.77%). Majority of the farmers (56.00%) and farm women (61.30%) belonged to low socio-economic status. With respect to structure and functioning, more than one third of post of SMS and TA was found vacant in extension system of ICAR in Rajasthan. FLD, OFT, trainings and mobile advisory were the major extension activities conducted by the extension system. In the case of linkages, most of the extension personnel (94%) had a good intradepartmental linkages followed by a medium extent of linkages (6%). About the interdepartmental linkages, more than half of the respondents had poor linkages followed by a medium extent of linkages (27%). About attitude, 45.30 per cent of the farmers and 50 per cent of the farm women had favourable attitude towards extension system of ICAR while 16.70 per cent of the farmers and 26 per cent of the farm women had unfavourable attitude. Concerning overall knowledge, farmers had average knowledge (MPS 61.34) while farm women had a poor level of knowledge (MPS 29.48). About overall adoption among the respondents, both farmers (MPS 68.77) and farm women (MPS 68.15) had high adoption of recommended POP of selected crops. About constraints faced by extension personnel, administrative constraints (55.97 MPS) like pressure to fulfil respective targets, lack of sufficient manpower for carrying out mandated activities and a heavy workload were the major constraints followed by financial constraints (52.79 MPS) viz. delay in the release of fund for activities. Economic constraint (MPS 47.94-50.64) was the main problem faced by farmers and farm women. The other constraints faced by them were operational constraints, general constraints and technical constraints
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A Study of first-line agricultural extension system of ICAR in Rajasthan
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Pandey S. And Solanki D.
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