Developing participatory newsletter for potato growers: a study in tarai region of Uttarakhand
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Date
2020-12
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Potato is a cash crop that provides significant income to farmers. Potato is considered one of the most important food crops in the world, and it ranks third in terms of human consumption after rice and wheat. About 86 per cent of the land area of Uttarakhand is hilly. The life of the farmers in this region is challenging. Mainly small farmers are found here who depend on agriculture to meet the needs of their families. Only 14 per cent of the state's land is flat, this area mainly consists of Tarai region where farmers have good land which is useful for agriculture, but farmers of this region have to face a variety of problems such as lack of knowledge of modern techniques, High cost of input for potato cultivation, Lack of availability of sufficient good quality planting material, Enough fertilizer not available on time, Lack of scientific knowledge about potato cultivation, Unavailability of cold storage etc. The ratio of extension worker to farmer is wide due to which information gap prevails. Therefore, there is need for alternatives that can bridge the information gap. Today is ICT era and there are different media like print, electronic, which can be used to fill the information gap. Out of all these print media was used for present study to analyze the effectiveness of participatory newsletter on potato farming was tested. The present study was conducted in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. The three villages (Jaitpurghosi, Rajpurarani, and Dhanauri) from Kashipur block were selected purposively for this study. Action research approaches using experimental research design was used for the present study. Sample of total 120 respondents was selected purposively who were actively engaged in potato farming. Pre-tested interview schedule and knowledge test were used for data collection. Statistical techniques such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and paired‘t’-test were used to analyze the data for meaning interpretation. The findings of the present study revealed that majority of the respondents (67.50%) belonged to middle age group, had education high school level (32.50%), had 1-5 acres of land holding (53.40%), were having low annual income (61.60%), potato farming was a primary source of income, had medium experience in potato farming (71.70%), had medium scientific orientation (55%), half of respondents (50.80%) had medium extent of utilization of information sources, 59.20 per cent of the respondents had medium level of extension contact. The respondents needed information regarding insect pest and disease management, application of manure and fertilizer, and selection of variety. Regarding the size, design, name, content, need based information, utility of content, accuracy and clarity of message and readability of content found satisfactory by majority of respondents. At 0.01 per cent level of significance, mean gain in knowledge score of respondents was significantly higher in post- test. It was concluded that the participatory newsletter for potato growers was found to be effective in terms of gain in knowledge. The findings of the study will be useful for extension workers, research workers,
and the administrators as it will provide them sufficient knowledge about the problems of potato growers and the use of mass media by potato growers and will enable them to improve their approach while working with the farmers.