Gangadharappa, N. RGANGAPPAGOUDA, S. BIRADAR2017-08-222017-08-222015-11-11Th-11271http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810029329The present study is conducted to measure the ‘Economic contribution of Agricultural Extension Services provided by Karnataka Watershed Development Project’ to the beneficiaries of Bijapur district’ during the year 2014-15. Ex-post facto research design, specifically before and after method was adopted to know the changes in the important indicators such as annual income, crop yields, employment generation and materials status among beneficiaries due to KAWAD project and also developed a scale on Economic contribution of AESs to capture the contribution of each services to the economic status of the beneficiaries. Hence, 90 beneficiary farmers and 90 nonbeneficiary farmers were selected, thus 180 respondents constitute the sample for the research study. Then, structured interview schedule was used to collect data. Important findings of the study reveals that majority (42.22 %) of the beneficiary farmers were belonged to ‘medium’ and ‘high’ (37.78 %) category with respect to overall access to the services of KAWAD project. Over a half (55.56 %) of the beneficiary farmers had ‘better’ accessed to the credit services followed by training services (54.45 %) and advisory services (51.11 %), about 67.78 and 46.67 per cent of them had ‘best’ accessed to input services and land based & crop management services respectively. About 40.00 per cent of them poorly accessed to the market services. Overall contribution of AESs towards economic status of beneficiary farmers was found to be 24.37 per cent, among major contribution from credit services (5.06%), land based and crop management services (4.45%) and least contribution was from advisory services (3.09 %). Cent per cent of them adopted the services like land leveling, land shaping & bunding followed by construction of check dams & nala bunds (86.66 %), new tanks and farm ponds (83.33 %), contour bunding (76.66 %) etc,. Study also reveals that the positive impact of KAWAD project on crop yield, annual income, employment generation, cropping intensity and on material status. Increase in annual income by more than fourfold, employment generation from 95 to 182 man-day’s per annum, cropping intensity (98.66 to 186.99 %). Whereas, among the suggestion the major was to supportive prices for standing crops (88.88 %) followed by training on IGAs (81.11 %). The KAWAD project has significantly contributed towards socio-political, economical and overall development of KAWAD beneficiaries.ennullThesis