Journal of Extension Education

Present study intended to assess adoption and knowledge gain of trainees after attending the training from Kerala Agricultural University (KAU).  For that 90 respondents were selected through simple random sampling. An ex- post facto research design was adopted for the study. Data was analysed using wilcoxon signed rank test, correlation test, and frequency and percentage analyses. Factors affecting adoption and knowledge gain was find out using correlation test. Finding reveal that respondents fully adopted organic and eco friendly farming practices (89%); integrated pest and disease management (76%) and improved animal husbandry practices (74%).  All the respondents gained knowledge through the training.  

Remya, M

George, Alexander

Journal of Extension Education
Vol. 27  No. 4,  2015
Impact of Training on Adoption and Knowledge Gain of Facilitators
of People’s Rural Education Movement (PREM)
M. Remya1 and Alexander George2
ABSTRACT
Present study intended to assess adoption and knowledge gain of trainees after
attending training from Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). For that, 90 respondents
were selected through simple random sampling. An ex- post facto research design was
adopted for the study. Data were analysed using wilcoxon signed rank test, correlation
test, and frequency and percentage analyses. Factors affecting adoption and knowledge
gain was found out using correlation test. Findings reveal that respondents fully adopted
organic and eco friendly farming practices (89%); integrated pest and disease management
(76%) and improved animal husbandry practices (74%).  All the respondents gained
knowledge through the training.
1-P.G. Student, Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, Kerala and 2- Professor
and Head, Central Training Institute, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy, Thrissur.
Training is an important paradigm of
agricultural extension for the transfer of
technology, skill, knowledge and attitude to
farmers to develop their competency.
Agricultural technologies and practices are
constantly changing hence training plays a
crucial role in keeping the farmers abreast
with these advancements in the agriculture
sector (Pandey et al, 2011). Farmers’ training
is ‘an intensive learning activity for a group
of selected farmers, assisted by competent
trainers to understand and practice the skills
required in the adoption of technology.(Okwu
and Ejembi, 2005).The very purpose of the
agricultural training is to enable the trainee
to perform a particular practice or technology
with certain standards. Training must have
positive impact on knowledge and skill of the
trainees that subsequently results in
adoption. Impact assessment of training will
help us to analyze the extent to which trainees
were benefitted from that training.
Present study attempted to assess impact
of training in terms of adoption and knowledge
gain of trainees after attending training from
Kerala Agricultural University. Central
Training Institute(CTI), Mannuthy of KAU has
conducted a series of training programme for
facilitators of People’s Rural Education
Movement (PREM), Odisha on agricultural and
allied aspects from May 2011 to July 2014.
PREM is an NGO working for the welfare of
the disadvantaged and marginalized sections
of Odisha for the past 30 years.  A total of
nine batches were trained. The study has two
specific objectives (1) to find out post training
adoption of different practices covered in the
training (2) to assess knowledge gain of
trainees after attending the training.
METHODOLOGY
Out of 170 trainees, 90 respondents were
selected through simple random sampling. An
Received : 29 Mar, 2016; Accepted : 04 May, 2016
5537Impact of Training on Adoption and Knowledge Gain of Facilitators of
People’s Rural Education Movement (PREM)
ex-post facto research design was adopted for
the study. Data were collected through mailed
questionnaire. Impact of training programmes
was assessed in terms of adoption and
knowledge gain of respondents. Adoption was
conceptualized as extent to which the
respondents implemented the different
practices learned at the training in their village
after the training.
In this study adoption was measured on a
three point continuum viz, fully adopted,
partially adopted and not at all adopted with
a score of 3, 2 and 1 respectively.  Knowledge
gain was conceptualized as the degree to which
respondents acquired knowledge on various
aspects covered in the training. Knowledge
gain was specifically measured by expressed
gain in overall knowledge through the
knowledge ladder that was administered to
the respondents immediately after the
training. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used
to determine knowledge gain of respondents
by comparing before and after training
knowledge scores. Different factors
contributing to adoption and knowledge gain
were found out using spearman’s rank order
correlation.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Findings reveal that most of the
respondents had fully adopted organic and
ecofriendly farming practices (89%); integrated
pest and disease management (76%) and
improved animal husbandry practices (74%).
Table 1.
Post training Adoption of Different Practices After the Training
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
1. Organic and eco friendlyfarming practices 80 88.89 10 11.10 0 0.00
2. Processing and value addition techniques 35 38.89 53 58.89 2 2.22
3. Improved animal husbandry practices 67 74.44 22 24.44 1 1.10
4. Any one or more of the following:
Vermi composting/ Medicinal plants and
fruit crops/Bee keeping /Mushroom
production /Nursery management 13 14.44 72 80.00 5 5.56
5. Integrated Pest and disease management 68 75.56 17 18.89 5 5.56
6. Farm mechanization 7 7.78 39 43.33 44 48.89
Partially Adopted
Practices
Fully Adopted Not at all Adopted
High percentages of respondents partially
adopted vermi-composting, medicinal plants,
fruit crops, bee keeping, mushroom
production and nursery management (80%);
processing and value addition techniques
(59%). The perceived attributes of adoption
such as relative advantage, compatibility,
complexity, trial ability and observability may
not be high for these practices, resulting in
partial adoption. Farm mechanization was not
adopted by 49 per cent of the respondents.
However 43.33 per cent were able to adopt
farm mechanization practices partially and
only 8 per cent were able to adopt farm
mechanization practices fully. This may be
because obtaining the required farm
Sl.
No.
Journal of Extension Education5538
machinery and having facilities for their repair
and maintenance in remote corners of Odisha
were lacking.
It was heartening to note that all the
respondents gained knowledge through the
training on agriculture and related aspects.
This result underscores the finding of Bhati
et al, 2011that there was a significant gain in
knowledge about different agricultural aspects
included in the training for Krishak Mithras.
Land owned, land cultivated and extension
agency contacts are the factors which affect
the adoption. The finding had congruence with
the observation of Sarma et al that operational
land holding and extension agency contact
had a positive and significant relationship with
adoption. Orientation towards scientific and
modern agricultural practices had a negative
and significant relationship with knowledge
gain at 5 per cent level of probability. This
finding implies that respondents with lesser
orientation towards scientific and modern
agricultural practices gained more knowledge.
CONCLUSION
In a nut shell, the training had a positive
Sl. No.       Factors Correlation Coefficient
1 Land Owned 0.362**
2 Land Cultivated 0.340**
3 Extension Agency Contact 0.258*
Table 2.
Relationship Between Adoption and Independent Variables
**Significant at 1% level, * Significant at 5% level
impact on respondents from Odisha. Training
will be successful only when what is gained
at the training is replicated into the back home
circumstances of the trainee. The extent of
adoption by the respondents post training was
appreciable. All the respondents had gained
knowledge through the training.
REFERENCES
Bhati, D.S., Verma, J.R, Jasuja, S, Srivastava, A.K.
and Sidhu, B.S 2011. Impact of On-Campus
Trainings Conducted by the KVK Srinagar on
the Knowledge Level of Farmers Friends
(Krishak Mithras). Agriculture Update: 33-36.
Okwu, J.O. and  Ejembi, A.S. 2005. Essentials of
a Successful Farmer Training Programme in
Agricultural Extension in Nigeria. Proceedings,
10th Annual National Conference, AESON,
14th-17th June, 2005:1-5.
Pandey, R., Singh, J.B, Singh, S, and Singh, N.K
2011.Impact Evaluation of Training on
Adoption of Technology. Agriculture Update:
114-116.
Sarma, K, Talukdar and Mishra 2011. Impact of
Training on Adoption of Integrated Rice-Fish
Farming Practices. Indian Research J.
Extension Education:87-90.


English

Impact of training on adoption and knowledge gain in facilitators of People’s Rural Education Movement (PREM)

The study was conducted among 210 rural youth entrepreneurs of seven different ventures in Krishnagiri district to assess their marketing behaviour. The entrepreneurial ventures selected for the study were Sericulture, Mushroom Production, Hi-tech nurseries (Polyhouse), Fruit and flower nursery, Fisheries, Poultry farming and Value addition (Tamarind processing and Millet based cookies).

Janani, S.

Ravichandran, V.

Sujeetha, T.N.

5620
A Study on Marketing Behaviour of Rural Youth Entrepreneurs  
Among Seven Different Ventures
S. Janani1,	V.	Ravichandran2 and T.N. Sujeetha3 
  Marketing behaviour indicates 
the mode of selling the products in 
the market. The agricultural sector 
contributes to more than one-third of the 
national income and provides livelihood 
to about 70.00 per cent of population. It 
also provides a substantial portion of the 
country’s export. An efficient agricultural 
marketing system can be an important 
means for raising the income levels of 
the farmers and increasing the consumer 
satisfaction. 
 Marketing efficiency can be 
improved in two ways ie., by increasing 
operational efficiency and through 
pricing efficiency. The former refers to 
input-output relationship and focuses 
attention on reducing costs in marketing 
factors like transportation, storage, etc. 
The latter refers to the situation where 
the seller gets the value of their produce 
and the consumers receive the value of 
their money.
 Marketing of agricultural produce 
is more complicated as majority of 
the respondents are unorganized and 
scattered. Most of them do not have 
knowledge and skill for marketing of 
1 - Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, TNAU, Coimbatore-3,  2 - Dean, Adhiyaman college 
of  Agriculture and Research, Krishnagiri  and 3 - Research Associate, e-Extension centre, TNAU, Coimbatore-3
Received : 1-6-2016; Accepted : 28-6-2016
their produce. Further, lack of storage 
facilities forced them to sell their 
produce immediately after the harvest 
at low prices in the village itself to the 
local traders. In addition, there are 
inadequate arrangements for grading, 
standardization, market information, 
credit availability, storage and transport. 
Moreover, the agricultural marketing is 
saddled with a long chain of middlemen 
between the farmers and ultimate 
consumers and they take away the lion’s 
share of the consumer’s price. So, the 
price of the farm produce is decided 
by the middlemen. In order to help the 
entrepreneurs to increase the income and 
profitability and avoid private merchants 
and intermediaries, there is a need to 
study the marketing behaviour of rural 
youth entrepreneurs.
METHODOLOGY
 The study necessitated  the 
selection of district where the scope for 
agri-entrepreneurship was  more. Hence, 
Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu was 
selected for the study. Based on the 
discussion with scientists of Regional 
Research Station, Paiyur, Dr. Perumal 
Research Note
Journal of Extension Education
Vol. 28  No. 1,  2016
5621
Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Elumichangiri, 
MYRADA Training Centre, Achattipalli, 
officials of Department of Sericulture, 
Assistant Director of Horticulture, 
Assistant Director of Agriculture, 
Krishnagiri, the predominant rural 
enterprises in which the rural youth 
have mostly involved were identified. 
Accordingly seven entrepreneurial 
ventures were identified. Thirty 
respondents were selected from each of 
the venture. Altogether 210 rural youth 
were considered for the study. Further, 
these seven ventures were comparatively 
studied .
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
 Based on the details collected, the 
respondents were categorized into low, 
medium and high. 
 The overall analysis showed that 
more than half (66.19%) section of the 
rural youth entrepreneurs were seen 
in medium level category followed by 
low (18.57%) and high (15.24%) level 
categories of overall marketing behaviour.
 The category-wise analysis 
revealed that medium level of marketing 
behaviour was observed among the seven 
ventures. The probable reason for this 
result might be their good knowledge 
about the marketing trend so as to get 
good price for their produce. The previous 
studies revealed that respondents believe 
being independent will make them 
more adoptive to the market. The low 
marketing behaviour might be due to 
their ineffective advertisement and sales 
promotion in the marketing.
 The findings thus revealed that 
the overall marketing behaviour was 
medium. There existed differences 
between the seven enterprises with 
respect to marketing behaviour of rural 
youth. 
 These findings are in line with 
the findings of Karpagam (2012) and 
Thangaraja (2012) who found that 
majority of the entrepreneurs had 
medium level of marketing behaviour. 
REFERENCES
Karpagam, G. (2012) Technology 
Adoption and Marketing Behaviour 
of Turmeric Growers - An Analytical 
Study. Unpublished M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, 
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, 
Coimbatore.
Thangaraja, K. (2012). A Diagnostic 
Study on Promoting Entrepreneurial 
Behaviour among Coffee Growers and 
Strategies adopted by Entrepreneurs. 
Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Tamil Nadu 
Agricultural University, Coimbatore.
Thangaraja, K & Sasikala, R.(2015). 
Marketing strategies evolved by 
enterpreneurs in marketing coffee 
products. Journal of Extension 
Education. 27(1)
 
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