Extension Education

The purpose of this study was to determine the aspirations of rural youth and to identify perceived support for and barriers to achieving their goals. The population included all seniors enrolled in public and private high schools in a five county area of northwest Iowa. The students were asked to indicate their educational and occupational aspirations. Likert-type scales were used to measure perceptions regarding support for and barriers to achieving their goals. Tenets of achievement motivation theory were observed in the rural students. Town and farm students alike had diverse educational and occupational aspirations. A high level of congruence was observed between the students' occupational aspirations and their educational goals, revealing that many students were following career paths. Students perceived that the environment provided by their schools was supportive of their aspirations. Barriers to achieving their goals were perceived as minimal.

A study on the technological gap in different cropping patterns of small farms under medium land condition in Nalbari district of Assam was conducted with 50 small farmers selected through a multi-stage, purposive cum proportionate-random sampling plan. Identification of cropping patterns, measuring technological gap of these patterns, studying the perceived attributes of agricultural technologies and the relationship of technological gap with the perceived attributes of technologies were the main areas of the study. Statistical measures such as frequency, percentage, Karl Pearson's coefficient of correlation and't' test were used to analyze the data. Twenty seven cropping patterns were identified under medium land condition with an average technological gap of 45.44%. Majority of the respondents perceived the agricultural technologies as not being so costly, profitable, not so complex to understand and use and cultural compatibility as medium. On the other hand, majority of the respondents had perceived physical compatibility of agricultural technologies to be high. The study revealed that two variables, viz., perceived cost and perceived physical compatibility showed significant and negative relationship with technological gap.

A study on the leadership styles of Programme Coordinators of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in north east India as perceived by the Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) was conducted with 76 Subject Matter Specialists drawn from 19 Krishi Vigyan Kendras of the eight north eastern states of India, through a descriptive research design, following a multi-stage, census cum criterion based purposive sampling plan. Assessing the overall leadership styles of the Programme Coordinators of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras and comparing the perceived leadership style strengths of the Programme Coordinators across the north eastern states were the main objectives of the investigation. The study revealed that autocratic task management and impoversihed management were the top two dominant leadership styles of the Programme Coordinators of the KVKs in north east India as perceived by the SMSs. The study suggests organising management training programmes for the Programme Coordinators in order to reduce the perceived strength of autocratic style of leadership. Provision for exceptional leadership incentives, creation of a competitive environment, organizing exposure visits, setting realistic targets, administrative support, developing team work environment etc. are some of the suggestions of the study for reducing the perceived strength of the impoverished management leadership style.

A study on the motivational climate as perceived by Subject matter Specialists (SMS) of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in North east India was conducted with 76 Subject Matter Specialists drawn from 19 Krishi Vigyan Kendras of the eight north eastern states of India, through a descriptive research design, following a multi-stage, census cum criterion based purposive sampling plan. Assessing the existing motivational climate in the Krishi Vigyan Kendras as perceived by the Subject matter Specialists across the eight north eastern states of India was the main objective of the study. The study revealed that an overall Dependency-Control motivational climate existed in the KVKs of north east India, as perceived by the SMS. Enhancing job satisfaction and job involvement levels, creating a team management leadership style and developing a team work environment in the KVKs are some of the suggestions of the study to reduce this dominant motivational climate strength.

A study on the resource mobilization pattern of rural NGOs in Nalbari district of Assam was conducted with 30 rural NGOs selected through a multi-stage proportionate-random sampling plan, following a descriptive research design. Identifying the activities performed by the rural NGOs and assessing their finance mobilization pattern, labour mobilization pattern and land mobilization pattern were the main objectives of the study. Appropriate statistical measures were used to analyze the collected data. Data emanating from the analysis identified 92 different activities performed by the sampled rural NGOs. The findings revealed that economic activities and measures accounted for the lion's share of the gross finance mobilized by the NGOs while the major share of the gross labour mobilized by the NGOs came from the social services activity category. In terms of land mobilization, the findings highlighted that almost the entire quantity of land mobilized was under economic activity and measures. Majority of the rural NGOs fell in the low category of finance and land mobilization while in case of labour mobilization; majority fell in the medium category.

A study on the leadership styles of Programme Coordinators of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in north east India as perceived by the Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) was conducted with 76 Subject Matter Specialists drawn from 19 Krishi Vigyan Kendras of the eight north eastern states of India, through a descriptive research design, following a multi-stage, census cum criterion based purposive sampling plan. Assessing the overall leadership styles of the Programme Coordinators of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras and comparing the perceived leadership style strengths of the Programme Coordinators across the north eastern states were the main objectives of the investigation. The study revealed that autocratic task management and impoversihed management were the top two dominant leadership styles of the Programme Coordinators of the KVKs in north east India as perceived by the SMSs. The study suggests organising management training programmes for the Programme Coordinators in order to reduce th...

The study was conducted in two districts of Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam to assess the socio-economic profile of rapeseed growing tribal farmers and their training need on rapeseed cultivation. A total of 120 farmers were selected from four villages of two districts namely Jorhat and Golaghat by proportionate cum random sampling techniques and analyzed statistically. Majority of the respondents were above 25 years of age with high school level education, small family size, agriculture and agriculture labour as main occupation, marginal land holding, participation in local social organization, medium to high level of exposure to mass media and experience in farming ( >5 years) were the characteristics for most of the tribal farmers growing rapeseed. But majority of respondents had low level of innovative proneness. Out of 12 aspects of rapeseed cultivation practices, majority of respondents had high level of training need in 6 aspects of cultivation. Fertilizer management (2.33), seed treatment (2.56), pest management (2.69), disease management (2.53), water management (2.6) and marketing (2.4) were the important training need area where majority farmers had high level of training need. Necessary awareness programme for attracting tribal youth is an important step for boosting oilseed production. Government and non-government organizations should put sincere efforts to meet the training needs of tribal farmers by organizing training on rapeseed cultivation in groups. Strategic efforts should be required to cover more areas particularly in riverside tract as well as to popularize this crop as second crop in traditionally Sali growing area.

The study was conducted in Kamrup district of Assam in order to document the utilization of Indigenous knowledge System by farmers in the production of rice. Indigenous Technical Knowledges (ITKs) are the knowledge of local people developed during close interactions with nature and natural resources for their livelihood to mitigate immediate crop environmental situation with the objective of maintaining productivity and sustainability. A multi-stage purposive-cum-random sampling design was followed in the study. A total of 120 Boro rice growing farmers were selected randomly as respondents from six selected VLEW circles of three agricultural sub divisions of the district. All in about 57 ITKs under nine selected cultivation practices of Boro rice were explored in the study. The maximum number (33) of ITKs were identified and documented under 'plant protection' and least number (only one) recorded in 'fertility management'. Majority of the identified ITKs (43.86%) were found to be moderately effective as per respondent's view. The rationale behind the use of ITKs identified in the investigation was purely based on the free opinion of the respondents as they have observed the results in their own situation. The average extent of use of ITKs for the entire district was found to be 6.68%. The majority of the respondents (57.5%) were included in 'low user' category and least number of respondents (2.5%) in 'high user' category. In the present day agriculture, it is now realized that in all sphere of society systematic documentation, refinement and technology development by blending modern knowledge with ITks helps to combat with impact of climate change and reduce environmental degradation. Involvement of farmer's organization, KVK, Zonal Research stations and SAUs in different strata are important for proper documentation, validation and development of environment friendly, location specific technology. The establishment of National level ITK validation and regulatory board will help to restrain the uniqueness of ITKs in one hand and provide data base for research and development in agriculture for future use.

SUMMARY : The study was conducted in two districts of Assam viz., Jorhat and Golaghat in order to assess the extent of adoption and constraints faced by the farmers in adoption of water management technologies. A purposive cum proportionate random sampling design was followed to select the respondents. All total 70 farmers trained under Scaling up of Water Productivity in Agriculture (SWPA) training programme were selected as respondents from the two districts. The study revealed that the majority of the farmers were under young age category (Below 35 years) with education up to High school level. The average land holding and annual income of the farmers were 1.50 ha and Rs. 44,000, respectively. The extent of social participation of majority of the respondents was low and more than 40 per cent farmers had regular extension contact. The extent of adoption of water management technologies were medium level for majority farmers. Size of operational holding, extent of social participation, extension contact, annual farm income were found to have a strong positive significant relationship with extent of adoption. Major problems faced by the respondents were lack of proper irrigation facilities, lack of follow-up measures, lack of proper practical demonstration, low income level, high cost of irrigation and difficulty in application of irrigation due to land fragmentation, high cost of inputs and unavailability of seeds and fertilizers in time. Proper intervention should be implemented to solve these problems in order to step up the exploitation of the full potential of these water management technologies.

The study, carried out in the Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone (UBVZ) of Assam, was designed to assess the extent of adoption of improved cultivation practices of Bhut jolokia, its relationship with farmers' socioeconomic characteristics and problems faced by farmers during adoption. The adoption level of improved practices by the farmers was 51.00% in high level category, followed by 49.00% in medium level. Proportion of adopters were found to be the highest in the district of Dibrugarh (60.00%) closely followed by Golaghat (55.00%) and Sivasagar (50.00%). More than 80% farmers adopted the improved cultural practices like planting at recommend time (98%), proper drainage facilities (88%), pesticide application (87%) as suggested. More than 60% farmers adopted the application methods of fertilizer and applied at proper time. Socioeconomic characteristics, viz., size of operational land holding (r = 0.21), annual family income (r = 0.30), training exposure (r = 0.52) and information source utilization (r = 0.34) had positive and significant association with the extent of adoption; while age having negative correlation with the extent of adoption. Intervention of middlemen in marketing of harvest, pest and disease problems and lack of market information are the major problems faced by the farmers of Bhut jolokia growers.

The present study was conducted in Jorhat district of Assam to study the status of farm mechanization in some selected major crops and its association with socio economic status of farmers. A total of 120 respondents were selected by using stratified random sampling technique. The ownership pattern revealed that only small hand tools like hand hoe, sickle etc and animal drawn implements are owned by farmers. Engine powered mechinaries like tractor and power tiller are mostly hired. Land preparation is the operation where most hiring takes place. Amongst the crops the highest mechanization index was observed in rice (20.63), followed by vegetables (19.36) and pulses (10.03). Amongst the field operation the highest mechanization index was observed in irrigation followed by land preparation. The finding also revealed that majority of the respondents had medium level of adoption (73.33%). Correlation table revealed a positive and significant relationship with land holding (0.29), family annual income (0.32), farm labour availability (0.35), source of farm machineries and implements (0.20). Negative but significant relationship was observed in case of profitability (-0.23). Extensive extension effort in form of training and demonstration especially on sowing and harvesting machineries, promotion of custom hiring and development of appropriate machineries considering the anthropogenic of the local farmers may be required.

" Technology Showcasing Programme " one of the flagship programme of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, which was implemented since 2010-11, covering almost all Agro-climatic zones of Assam. The main objective of the programme was to replace farmers' traditional practices with the recommended cultivation practices of rice and oilseed crop with the help of different stakeholders' viz., KVKs, ASSCA, and State Department of Agriculture. Keeping in mind the present study was designed to assess the effect of programme in terms extent adoption of demonstrated technologies and to study relationship of socio economic characteristics of farmers with their extent of adoption. All total 120 farmers (60 participants and 60 non participants) were selected randomly from two districts of Assam by following random sampling techniques. The findings reveal that majority of participating farmers (43.33%) had medium level of adoption while 80% non participating farmers grouped into low level of adoption. The two mean difference of adoption level is found statistically significant which indicates positive effect of Technology Showcasing Programme. The extension contact, profitability, productivity and cropping intensity were positively correlated and operational land holding was negatively correlated with extent of adoption of demonstrated technologies of rice and toria. Appropriate selection of farmers for the demonstration by considering land holding size, frequency and nature of extension contact, percentage of cropping intensity enhance adoption of technologies.

The study was conducted in two districts of Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam to assess the socioeconomic profile of rapeseed growing tribal farmers and their training need on rapeseed cultivation. A total of 120 farmers were selected from four villages of two districts namely Jorhat and Golaghat by proportionate cum random sampling techniques and analyzed statistically. Majority of the respondents were above 25 years of age with high school level education, small family size, agriculture and agriculture labour as main occupation, marginal land holding, participation in local social organization, medium to high level of exposure to mass media and experience in farming (>5 years) were the characteristics for most of the tribal farmers growing rapeseed. But majority of respondents had low level of innovative proneness. Out of 12 aspects of rapeseed cultivation practices, majority of respondents had high level of training need in 6 aspects of cultivation. Fertilizer management (2.33), seed treatment (2.56), pest management (2.69), disease management (2.53), water management (2.6) and marketing (2.4) were the important training need area where majority farmers had high level of training need. Necessary awareness programme for attracting tribal youth is an important step for boosting oilseed production. Government and non-government organizations should put sincere efforts to meet the training needs of tribal farmers by organizing training on rapeseed cultivation in groups. Strategic efforts should be required to cover more areas particularly in riverside tract as well as to popularize this crop as second crop in traditionally Sali growing area.

Women are the backbone of development of any nation. In India, the females comprise 48.04% of the total population and majority of Indian females are participated in agriculture and its allied sector (anon., 2020a). The economy of India is basically based on agriculture and allied sectors. Along with agriculture, sericulture pick up as occupation by most of the rural women for their livelihood. The unique feature of sericulture activity is its egalitarianism— sericulture growers rich or poor, earn the same income from it. Women play crucial role in the activities of sericulture and it International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 11 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

The study was conducted in two districts of Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam to assess the socioeconomic profile of rapeseed growing tribal farmers and their training need on rapeseed cultivation. A total of 120 farmers were selected from four villages of two districts namely Jorhat and Golaghat by proportionate cum random sampling techniques and analyzed statistically. Majority of the respondents were above 25 years of age with high school level education, small family size, agriculture and agriculture labour as main occupation, marginal land holding, participation in local social organization, medium to high level of exposure to mass media and experience in farming (>5 years) were the characteristics for most of the tribal farmers growing rapeseed. But majority of respondents had low level of innovative proneness. Out of 12 aspects of rapeseed cultivation practices, majority of respondents had high level of training need in 6 aspects of cultivation. Fertilizer management (2.33), seed treatment (2.56), pest management (2.69), disease management (2.53), water management (2.6) and marketing (2.4) were the important training need area where majority farmers had high level of training need. Necessary awareness programme for attracting tribal youth is an important step for boosting oilseed production. Government and non-government organizations should put sincere efforts to meet the training needs of tribal farmers by organizing training on rapeseed cultivation in groups. Strategic efforts should be required to cover more areas particularly in riverside tract as well as to popularize this crop as second crop in traditionally Sali growing area.

Rapeseed is the major oilseed crop grown during rabi season covering an area of 8,500 ha with the productivity 900 kg per ha. In order to enhance the productivity of oilseed crop in Majuli, Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Jorhat, we conducted field demonstrations on cultivation of rapeseed var. TS-38 under front line demonstration programme on oilseed during 2009-10 and 2010-11. The present study was conducted to assess the yield performance and economic impact of the demonstration. Highest yield about 1,250 kg per ha with recommended cultivation practices is recorded in 2009-10 which is 51.51% more than the check variety (M-27) with farmer's practices. While during 2010-11, more than 77.96% yield was recorded over the yield 667 kg per ha of farmer's check variety. Although the gross expenditure is increased marginally in demonstration programme over farmer's practice but gross return is more than 50% in both the year. Since Majuli is predominantly a rabi oilseed belt of Jorhat district, replacing this variety will enhance productivity and farm income. More initiative from the Department of Agriculture for variety replacement programme will help to boost the production of oilseed and farm income. Area expansion programme of this promising variety through public-private-partnership will enhance productivity of the crop.

The diffusion of agricultural technologies contributed to a rapid increase in agricultural production in the past. But a majority of farmers largely remained untouched by the benefits of agricultural innovations. The search for a sustainable agricultural system is becoming intense in order to increase production by conserving ecology, economy and social change. It is realized that there is an urgent need to understand the interconnection between technologies and the socio-economic, cultural and political environment with the purpose of technologies to be used. It is in the changing context of agricultural development that farmers’ training is assuming paramount importance for empowering the majority of human resources in rural areas. Farmers’ training in this sense does not mean handing down instructions in new technologies alone. It calls for a non-directive learning approach to enable farmers to plan roles in technology development and use. This review aims to describe the development of farmers’ training in the country and suggests a suitable approach for sustainable agricultural development.

After the extension reforms made through Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) the role of extension personnel changes from expert to facilitator. Under such situation extension personnel should be knowledgeable on group dynamics to facilitate the farmers' group. Non availability of test to measure the knowledge level of extension personnel on farmer's group dynamics demands a test. So an attempt was made to develop a test for the purpose. Item analysis was done to develop the test. The test consists of nine items and can be applied to extension personnel of agriculture and line departments.

Training is an important activity of human resource development. It is an adult education enterprise. Therefore, characteristics of trainees or adult learners need to be considered by the trainers while conducting training. Therefore, it is necessary for the trainers to possess good knowledge on andragogy. The trainer should act as a facilitator while conducting training. Knowledge on andragogy is an important component of facilitation skills. It helps trainers to conduct the training programme productively. Therefore, it is important to know the level of knowledge of trainers on andragogy. However, little effort is given in this aspect by the training organisation. On the other hand, there is no test readily available to measure the knowledge level of trainers on andragogy. It was thought necessary to construct a test to measure the knowledge level of trainers on andragogy. Therefore, an attempt has been made to develop a knowledge test in this regards. Initially, 60 items were collected and these were examined through 20 experts for its suitability to retain in the knowledge test. Finally, 42 items were taken for item analysis and that was done with the help of 60 trainers. Both indexes of difficulty and index of discrimination were calculated for the items. After calculating index of difficulty and index of discrimination, 17 items were retained for final knowledge test whose index of difficulty ranged between 0.3 to 0.8 and indexes of discrimination was 0.3 and more. The reliability of the test in terms of Kudar-Richarson formula (K-R 20) was found at 0.73. The test can be utilised by different training organisation for selection of good facilitators. It also helps to identify the training need of the trainers on andragogy, the result of which can be useful to design need based training modules for the trainers training programme. How to cite this article : Barman, U. (2015). Test to measure knowledge level of trainers on andragogy. Agric. Update, 10(2): 139-143. Test to measure knowledge level of trainers on andragogy U. BARMAN