Impact of all India radio Vyavasaya Patasala programme as perceived by the farmers in Andhra Pradesh

Introduction

Digitalisation in agriculture enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the farmers in short time. But the challenge lying at present days is a huge amount of information on agriculture has been pumping through social media day by day, it is difficult for a common farmer to choose an authenticated information source for updating his or her knowledge and putting into practice. Inefficiency in the technology impacts the farm productivity and lower the farm returns. As per the agriculture senses, 2015-16 about 86.08 per cent of farmers in India are having less than 1 to 2 hectares of the land (Ministry of Agriculture & farmers welfare government of India, 2019) [9] cannot experiment any technology unless it is widely acceptable among them. One of the key factors influencing uptake of agricultural technology is the exposure of farmers to the reliable information source. Farmers' interest in implementing new strategies to increase their production is piqued when they have access to reliable information. In the present context of mass media for communication of farm information, what is needed is that an appropriate content, process, structure and system that are to be pragmatically developed (Biswajit and Siddharthe 2012) [2] . A credible source of information stimulates farmers' interest in adopting innovative measures that aim at increasing their production (Kakade, 2013) [7] . All India Radio (AIR) is such one that having largest broadcasting organisations in the world. Since green revolution, AIR has been helping farmers to practice from unidirectional approach to multidirectional approach in integrated manner in the area of agriculture and allied sectors (Ravi, 2013) [15] . AIR is a vibrant tool for mass dissemination of information and transfer of technology to the farmers and other stakeholders spread across the entire country in regional languages and local dialects. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, AIR has started an innovative programme namely Vyavasaya Patasala (Farm school on AIR) in collaboration with state universities by involving subject wise experts from the agriculture and allied sciences to deliver location specific and need based talks for the benefit of the farming community. The programme has the advantage of reaching a wide range of audience including illiterates with weekly interval. In-order to assess the impact of the AIR Vyavasaya Patasala programme as perceived by the farmers, the present study was formulated.

Materials and Methods

The investigation was carried out in all 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh during the year 2021-22. Farmers who were the members of District Level Coordination Committee (DLCC) of District Agricultural Advisory Transfer of Technology Centres (DAATTCs) and members of Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) purposively selected for this study. Selected www.extensionjournal.com farmers having medium to high exposure to AIR vyavasaya patasala programme. In the state of Andhra Pradesh there are 13 DAATTCs, 13 KVKs under Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 3 KVKs under NGOs and 1 KVK under Sri Venkateswara Veternary University were taken into the study for select the sample. Thus, a total of 30 institutions, from each institution 5 farmers were selected purposively. accordingly, a total of 150 progressive farmers were selected for the study. Expost-facto research design was employed. Farmers were interviewed with semi structured interview schedule through virtual mode to assess the perception of All India Radio Vyavasaya Patasala programme in Andhra Pradesh. Data were analyzed by using statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Garett ranking were employed to analyse the results of the study. Five-point Likert scale was used to measure perceived effectiveness as 5 was "strongly agree", 4 was "Agree", 3 was "neither agree nor disagree", 2 was "disagree" and 1 was "strongly disagree". A higher mean score on variables indicates greater importance. To assess the level of knowledge and adoption of the farmers, a schedule was constructed with 15 major areas pertaining to agriculture and allied fields broadcasted through the AIR programme with scoring one for yes or zero for no. Responses of the respondents about each area were recorded. Therefore, possible maximum score for knowledge and adoption, one could obtain was 15 and minimum zero. All the respondents were grouped into three categories as under on the basis of mean and standard deviation. Level of knowledge and adoption were worked out using below formulas Based on the table 1, it was articulated that Majority (90.67%) of the farmers expressed that the information broadcasted in Vyavasaya Patasala programme was comprehended followed by trustworthy (86.67%), having higher practicability (85.33%), programe was timely broadcasting (74.67%), increases farmers scientist linkages (72.00%) and saves time and energy (68.00%). The results are in conformity with Kakade (2013) [7] , Longkumer and Akash (2020) [6] . They also said that majority (70.00%) of the farmers were satisfied with the content of the programme for rural listeners by All India Radio. Nazam (2000) [10] found that 68.8 per cent of the respondents became aware of advanced technology through radio/TV while extension worker, newspaper and agricultural magazines served as sources of information for 23.3, 13.3 and 3.3 per cent of respondents respectively. Njoku (2016) [12] stated while studying effectiveness of radio-agricultural farmer programme in technology transfer among rural farmers that majority indicates that radio-agricultural programme was accessible to them, message was useful, appropriate and source of good information on agricultural production. Whereas, it was also inferred from the table that the farmers are not satisfied much pertaining to the accessibility of the programme (53.33%) and publicity of the programme schedule (37.33%) compared to other aspects. It is possible that those farmers who are having small handset mobiles face difficult to check the schedule of the programme for choosing the selective topic whichever is relevant to their context unless the schedule is communicated through text or voice message every week as well. As AIR VPP broadcasts various number of programmes covering agricultural and allied areas, farmer cannot listen all the topics rather than most relevant to them. Agwu, et.al (2008) [1] who also stated that 15.70 per cent of the farmers were unsure, 7.07 per cent were dissatisfied and 3.03 per cent were very dissatisfied with the radio programme in Enugu State in Nigeria. www.extensionjournal.com [4] reported that farmers in Ghana wherein their gained knowledge resulted to their improved practices that they got from the Royal FM agricultural programme. In concurrence with above results, Goswamy & Kashyap (2020) [5] further reported that visible increase in knowledge was noticed among the beneficiaries after the intervention of community radio programme as their post-test score increased to 24.1 from pre-test score 9.29 with acquire in knowledge was about 14.81. According the table 3, Majority (54.00%) of the farmers aquired medium level of knowledge on various agricultural and allied fields followed by high (31.33%) and low (14.67%) level of knowledge respectively. The are results are in line with Raghuprasad (2013) [14] who has reported that almost 70 per cent of the respondents had medium and high level of knowledge through ICT tools, especially information needed at critical stages of production and marketing information A critical observation of the study revealed from the table 4 that more than one third (38.00%) of the farmers had experienced the change in knowledge at high level through discussion mode of presentation followed by questionanswer type (34.67%) and straight talks (19.33%) in order of highest to the lowest as an impact of Vyavasaya Patasala programme. The results of this study revealed that discussion presentation as the first and debate as the least impacted mode of presentations as experienced by the farmers. Similar results were noticed by Kakade (2013) [7] . He found that the farmers preferred discussion presentation in radio programmes as the first choice followed by questionanswer session, dialogue and straight talk as per their impact. Correspondence to the above results, Manoj kumar et.al (2019) [8] inferred interview with progressive farmer was the most preferred mode of presentation which was followed by discussion, interview with specialist, and success story, question answer and straight talk. Farmers preferred debate as the last option as it generally makes listeners confuse most of the time to which argument they can support. www.extensionjournal.com Results conferred from Table 5 that Farmers fell on the few fields that they were influenced to adopt after having listened the AIR VPP such as Cultivation of High yielding varieties (90.00%), integrated Nutrient management practices (72.00%), Practicing of Improved methods of cultivation (70.67%), management practices taken up during disease out brake in animals (69.33%), Practicing of IPDM practices (67.33%), Usage of Agriculture implements (65.33%). Equal number of farmers were maintaining Improved animal breeds and practicing IWM practices (63.33%) consistently in their farms. 11 Out of 15 field fields broadcasted through AIR VPP, more than half of farmers adopted the practices. The reason is farmers felt that the broadcasted information is authentic and trustworthy with higher practicability as it is delivered through reputed scientists of the universities. The findings are in accordance with findings of Chinda et al., (2019) [3] who reported that the coefficient of education was estimated at 0.438 and statistically significant at 0.05 level. This implies that as farmers' level of education increases the adoption of agricultural production technologies aired on radio increases. The respondents of the AIR VPP are progressive and cosmopolite in nature as they are also members of KVK & DAATT centres of the university. They had high level of education and extension contact which led them to high level of adoption The results affirmed from the table 3 that due to the impact of Vyavasaya Patasala programme, more than 80 per cent of farmers combinedly fall under medium to high level of adoption of agricultural and allied practices which indicates that farmers were practicing at filed level whatever the knowledge they received through AIR programme. Since, farmers are the members of the SAC of KVK and DLCC of DAATTC, they rechecked the information received through AIR programme with the scientists of KVK and DAATTC before being implemented at filed level. [13] . He reported that 59.16 per cent of the farmers expressed that they remain engaged in domestic and other routine work and do not get time to listen the programme followed by improper working of radio sets (37.40%) to receive signal.

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

It was concluded from the study that more than half (54.00%) of the respondents had medium and one third of them had high (33.33%) level of knowledge on management practices pertaining to agriculture and allied areas. As an impact of the of Vyavasaya Patasala programmes, the gained knowledge has been transformed into adoption with medium (58. 67%) to high level (24.00%) of agricultural and allied practices among the farmers. This implies that farmers who were exposed had believed that AIR Vyavasaya Patasala programme was one of the authenticated programmes resulted in adoption. In another side of the coin, 17 to 20 per cent of the farmers still under lower level of knowledge and adoption though they are progressive and cosmopolite in nature similar to the farmers who were under adopted category. As low level of knowledge gain was observed through straight talk (56.67%) mode of presentation, it is need to enhance the delivery of the lesions in Vyavasaya Patasala programme through interview and discussion mode to achieve grater level of adoption as well as to cut down indiscriminate costs at farm level.

References

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