PERCEPTION OF FIG FARMERS TOWARDS USEFULNESS OF ATMA PROJECT IN SAURASHTRA REGION 2832
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Date
2019-07
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JAU, JUNAGADH
Abstract
The Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) is an
autonomous organization registered under the society’s registration act of 1860 with
considerable operational flexibility. It is registered society of stakeholders involved in
agricultural activities for sustainable agricultural development in the district. It is
focal point for integrating research and extension activities and decentralized day to
day management of the Public Agricultural Technology System (ATS). As a society,
it receives and expands project funds, entering into contracts, agreements and
maintaining revolving accounts that can be used to collect fees and thereby recovering
operating cost. Hence, the present investigation entitled “Perception of FIG farmers
towards usefulness of ATMA project in Saurashtra region” was envisaged with
objectives viz., profile of respondents, perception level of FIG farmers towards
usefulness of ATMA project, relationship between attributes of respondents and their
level of perception, problems faced by FIG farmers in availing advantages of ATMA
and suggestions of FIG farmers to get maximum advantages of ATMA.
In order to realize the objectives of the study, 120 FIG farmers were selected
from 12 different villages of 6 talukas of Amreli, Junagadh and Jamnagar districts by
applying multistage simple purposive sampling technique.
In respect to personal characteristics, slightly more than three- fifth (62.50 per
cent) of respondents belonged to middle age group, 35.83 per cent of respondents
belonged to primary school level of education, 58.33 per cent of the respondents had
more training received, slightly less than two-fifth (39.17 per cent) had 3-4 family
members and 53.33 per cent of the respondents had occupation as farming with allied
occupation. As regards to socio-economic characteristics, majority (60.83 per cent) of
the respondents were under the category of medium level of annual income, followed
by 65.00 per cent of the respondents were with medium size of land holding and
64.17 per cent of respondents had medium level of social participation. In respect to
communicational characteristics, 55.83 per cent of the respondents belonged to
medium extension participation and 65.00 per cent of respondents had medium mass
media exposure. The respondents with relation to psychological aspects, 57.50 per
cent of the respondents were from medium level of risk orientation and 65.00 per cent
of the respondents had medium level of innovativeness.
More than half (53.33 per cent) of FIG farmers had medium level of
perception towards usefulness of ATMA Project followed by 27.50 per cent and 19.17
per cent of respondents had high and low level of perception towards usefulness of
ATMA Project, respectively. The characteristics of FIG farmers i.e. education, training and extension participation had positive and highly significant relationship
with their perception towards usefulness of ATMA project. The characteristics of the
respondents like occupation, annual income, social participation, mass media
exposure, risk orientation and innovativeness were positively and significantly related
with their perception towards usefulness of ATMA project. There was non-significant
relationship between perception towards usefulness of ATMA project and size of
family and size of land holding of FIG farmers. While age was positively and
significantly related with their perception about usefulness of ATMA project.
Out of 12 problems identified in availing advantages of ATMA, the most
important constraints faced by the FIG farmers were: Non-availability of production
inputs at the farmer’s doorstep, Lack of training on improved technologies, Exposure
visits to research stations of Gujarat are not organized for all members, The
knowledge and information gain during the exposure visit to other states are not
applicable in local situation, Political hindrance affecting the selection of beneficiaries
Out of 12 suggestions given by FIG farmers to get the maximum advantages
of ATMA, the most important suggestions expressed by respondents were: Make the
required inputs available at the farmers convenience, Offer training on improved
technologies, Need more number of exposure visits, Training on ICT tools should be
given for farmers, Focused on need based trainings should be arranged, The number
of training programs should be increased.