IMPACT OF FARMERS FARM SCHOOL ON DAIRY FARMING IN KARNAL DISTRICT
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Date
2022
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL
Abstract
Dairy farming forms the major part of livelihood of farmers in Haryana though knowledge
gaps regarding scientific dairy farming practices prevailed which led to low productive and
reproductive performance in dairy animals. As an initiative to address these issues faced by
the farmers, ICAR-NDRI established a one-year programme named as “Farmers Farm
School” under the efforts of Dairy Extension Division. Hence, the study was undertaken in
the four villages where Farmers Farm School has completed its five batches in Indri block
of Karnal district, Haryana to assess the contribution made by farmers farm school in
fostering transformative learning experience among the beneficiaries, to study the
knowledge and adoption of dairy farming practices and to document the feedback of farmers
and experts regarding Farmers Farm School. The total sample size was 120. A
Transformative Learning Experience Index was developed. Transformative learning
experience together as a combination of ten indicators attained a weighted mean of 85.23
per cent by the beneficiary farmers with major contribution from satisfaction-farmer
(89.79%) followed by “self-reflection environment”, “action- farmer” and “actionenvironment”
was observed with a weighted mean score of 87.99, 87.92 and 87.22 per cent,
respectively. More than half (53.33%) of the farmers succeeded in achieving high
transformative learning experience after completion of the course. Active participation and
involvement led to the same. Farmers in new batches were found to have comparatively low
transformative learning experience. Overall knowledge about scientific dairy farming
practices possessed by the beneficiary farmers was significantly (p < 0.01) higher than the
non-beneficiaries and thus in the case of adoption also. The extent of knowledge observed
from the beneficiaries was 84.02 per cent whereas in contrast to the non-beneficiaries with
a weighted mean of 49.25 per cent. The extent of adoption in beneficiaries was found to be
73.61 per cent whereas it was 40.06 per cent in non-beneficiaries. A mean score of 9.08 was
given to the role played by the facilitators in sharing knowledge on various strata of dairy
farming followed by a score of 9.02 for updating the knowledge in dairy and crop farming.
A mean score of 9.60 was given for importance of farmers farm school in the present context
and 9.50 for the uniqueness of farmers farm school compared to other extension approaches.
It can be inferred that feedback along with follow up measures should be practiced at regular
intervals to improve the effectiveness of beneficiaries to achieve the goal set by farmers
farm school.