Sethi, NishiRekha Kumari2016-10-222016-10-222015http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/81403For assessing the feasibility of value added products of maize as an enterprise for rural women, two villages of Thansar block of Kurukshtra district i.e. Jyotisar and Bhor Shaida were selected randomly. A sample of 100 respondents i.e. 50 from each village was drawn for creating awareness on maize importance, processing and its products and 20 women respondents from each selected village were selected randomly who were interested to undertake training on value added products of maize. Various socio- personal, economic, psychological and communication variables constituted the independent variables and awareness, knowledge, attitude, skill acquisition, symbolic adoption and economic feasibility which constituted the dependent variables. Data were collected with the help of pre- tested structured interview schedule. The inferences were drawn on the basis of frequency, percentage, paired ‘t’ test, weighted mean score and correlation. The study revealed that most of the respondents were of lower middle age group, educated up to middle class, belonged to lower caste, were married, had medium family education status, nuclear family with medium family size, were agricultural labourer, had negligible social participation and had pucca type of house and had medium annual income. Majority of the respondents were landless, having medium material possession and had high transportation means. Most of the respondents had medium change proneness, medium risk orientation, economic motivation, took decision jointly either intra family or entrepreneurial decisions followed by decision taken jointly. Most of the respondents were having medium mass media exposure, medium localite and low cosmopolite source of information utilization. The general awareness of the respondents regarding value added products of maize was low; however, awareness was high at post- exposure level. Majority of the respondents of pooled sample found value added products of maize simple, triabile, relative advantageous, physical compatible and cultural compatible. Sufficient gain in knowledge regarding value added products of maize was found for sub-component i.e. ingredients, methods of preparation, precaution during preparation etc. The respondents succeeded in changing their attitude at post-exposure in both the villages and acquired medium skill on all the aspects of value added products of maize. Impact was of moderate level with medium level of symbolic adoption and willing to adopt with somewhat difficulty as an enterprise and for home consumption. The overall acceptability of value added products of maize was of medium level. Economic and marketing constraints were perceived as the main constraints in adoption of maize products. Knowledge was significantly correlated with land holding, negatively but significantly correlated with caste and family size. There was no significant relationship between most of the independent variables and change in attitude or knowledge gain. Benefit cost ratio was obtained as 1.83 for maize laddoo and namkeen sev thus considered to be economically viable and profitable for enterprise.enLivestock, Amines, Animal husbandry, Amino acids, Concentrates, Biological phenomena, Crossbreds, Yields, Economic systems, AcidityThesis