A STUDY ON COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOUR OF EXTENSION PERSONNEL OF ANDHRA PRADESH
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Date
2018
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Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
Communication plays very important role in effective implementation of rural
development programmes and adoption of new technologies. It is only through
communication, the external ideas and new technologies enter the communities. This
entails the extension personnel to have thorough understanding of the communication
process. Hence the communication behaviour of extension personnel of Andhra Pradesh
was studied. The Communication behaviour of the extension personnel was broken into
three main components namely information input behaviour, information processing
behaviour and information output behaviour.
The Department of Agriculture has a strong chain of human resources consisting
of more than 2000 extension staff of field and supervisory cadre. At the District level the
Department is headed by Joint Director of Agriculture and assisted by DDA's, ADA's
and AO's at District, Division and Mandal levels respectively. The Divisional ADA is
the head of the Agriculture division assisted by agricultural officers at the mandal level.
There are 148 divisions in the state. In all, there 664 Rural and Urban mandals of the
state at least one Agriculture Officer is working in each mandal. These AO's are assisted
by few Agricultural Extension Officers at village level.
The study was conducted in four districts of Andhra Pradesh during 2014. The
respondents were selected by proportionate random sampling comprising 240 extension
personnel. Considering communication behaviour and Attitude as dependent variables,
the Scale was developed for attitude by using summated rating technique. The attitude
scale comprised 22 statements. The study was conducted by following an Ex-Post-Facto
Research Design. Data were collected by pre-tested instrument followed by personal
interview method. Appropriate statistical procedures were employed to analyse and
interpret the data.
The detailed analysis of the profile characteristics of extension personnel
indicated that majority of them were middle aged (75.40 %), 42.90 per cent are having
only B.Sc. (Ag.) as qualification majority of them belonged to medium level of job
experience (63.60%) , annual income (70.40%), training exposure (50.80%), perceived
work load (67.10%), organisational climate (68.80%), job performance (42.40%),
scientific orientation (39.20%), innovativeness (40.40%), achievement motivation
(45.80%) and 52.90 per cent of the respondents were having high job satisfaction
The various communication behaviour components were information input
behaviour, information processing behaviour and information output behaviour . With
regard to various components they possess, medium level of information input behaviour
(65.83%), medium level of information processing behaviour (60.42%), medium level of
information output behaviour (55.00%) and medium overall communication behaviour
(41.30%) was observed.
The detailed analysis of dependent variable attitude towards ICT's indicated that
majority (61.60%) of the respondents had favourable attitude towards ICT's and
principle component analysis revealed that five factors i.e. real time accessibility of
ICT's , authencity of information of ICT's, data capture utility of ICT's, multiplier power
of ICT's and empowering power of ICT's had explained the maximum variation
(66.99%) in attitude towards ICT's.
The computed correlation coefficient ‘r’ values of Age, Educational status, job
experience, Annual income, Trainings exposure, Organizational climate and Job
performance were found to have positive and significant relationship with
communication behaviour at 0.05 level of probability. Perceived work load was
negatively correlated with the dependent variable. The multiple regression equation with
twelve selected independent variables put together contributed 86 per cent to the total
variance in the communication behaviour; remaining 14 per cent was due to the
extraneous effects of the variables.
The variables such as Age, Educational status, job experience, Annual income,
Trainings exposure, job satisfaction, Organizational climate and Job performance were
found to have positive and significant relationship with attitude, perceived work load
was negatively correlated with the dependent variable. Whereas, variables such as
Scientific orientation and Achievement motivation were found to be positive and nonsignificant
with the attitude of extension personnel towards ICT's.The multiple
regression equation with twelve selected independent variables put together contributed
76 per cent to the total variance in the communication behaviour and remaining 24 per
cent was due to the extraneous effects of the variables.
Regarding the training in presentation skills the respondents had given first rank
to effective preparation of presentation (I) followed by Combining different methods (II)
Captions / illustrations .Regarding training related to visual aids, first rank was given to
designing power point followed by designing flip/strip charts.
The Major problems faced by extension personnel in information input are 'Lack
of transports facilities to visit the farmer’s field' was given first rank and Regarding
problems related to information processing that 'less resources for developing visual
aids'. The major problems in information output behaviour are 'unfair Political
interference in all activities'. Most( 85.83%) of the respondents anticipated that skilled
staff should be employed in the agricultural department.
Description
D5622
Keywords
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