Individual level performance analysis of farm advisory committee members of agricultural technology management agency

Abstract

The Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) is a registered society of key stakeholders involved in agricultural activities for sustainable agricultural development in the district. ATMA Governing Board (GB) is the apex body which provides overall policy direction. GB is assisted by the District ATMA Cell comprising Project Director, Deputy PDs and Staff for the discharging of its functions. ATMA Management Committee is the executive body looking after the implementation of the scheme. District Farmers’ Advisory Committee is a body to provide farmers’ feedback for district-level planning and implementation. Two bodies at the Block level namely Block Technology Team and Block Farmers Advisory Committee function jointly. As the ATMA programme is under operation since 2005-06, researchable questions may arise as to how and to what extent the District Farmers’ Advisory Committee and Block Farmers Advisory Committee from respective districts performed their role to accomplish the functions/activities of ATMA. Keeping in view, a research study was carried out with the objectives 1. To find out the personal characteristics of DFAC and BFAC members 2. To assess the role performance of members DFAC and BFAC of ATMA. The present study was conducted in two districts namely Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon of Assam during the year 2018-19. A multistage purposive cum random sampling method was followed for the selection of the respondents. From two selected districts 60 per cent of DFAC and BFAC members were selected randomly. Sixty per cent of DFAC and BFAC members accounts 144 nos. of farmers members from the two districts. The findings on overall level of role performance of the FAC (DFAC and BFAC) members revealed that more than 80.00 per cent of them had low to medium level of performance. Only a small proportion of them (13.19 per cent) were found with high level of role performance.