Usefulness of Krishi mela by the Farmers

Introduction

Krishi Mela is a Mega event of agricultural university conducted every year for the benefit of farming community and important mass contact method in extension teaching. It is an organized educational activity for involving and educating farmers by bringing all stakeholders together, where the farmers can seek first-hand knowledge about the latest technologies and developments in agriculture and allied aspects. It is an integrated extension approach consisting of individual, group as well as mass contact methods with appropriate audio-visual aids and it is powerful in changing the behaviour of farmers, farm women and youth in terms of knowledge, skill, attitude and symbolic adoption [Manjula and Sheikh. (2010)] [3]. The fast growth of agriculture sector can only be achieved by transferring the new information from lab to land [Jitendra Pratap, et al., (2019)] [2] . Krishi Mela was organised by Keladi Shivappa Nayaka University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga with the motto to bridge the gap between technology and farmers enabling technology diffusion among farming community upholding principle of "seeing is believing". The adoption of any technology by farmers depends on usefulness of that technology shown in these Krishi Melas. The findings on these aspects would help the Policy makers and Administrations for better implementation of the Programme, results of the research would act as guideline to identify the strength and weakness of the Krishi Mela and overcome weakness using opportunities with this background the present study was conducted with the following specific objective to elicit the usefulness of Krishi mela.

Methodology

The present study was conducted in the five districts namely Shivamogga, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Chikkamagaluru and Udupi which were coming under Keladi Shivappa Nayaka University of agricultural and Horticultural Science (KSNUAHS), Shivamogga, Karnataka in 2021-22. For the selection of sample, the list of farmers participated in Krishi Mela from 2016-2022 were listed, among these listed participants, farmers who had participated Krishi International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research 2026 ; SP-10(9 ): 881 -88 7 mela at least twice were listed as mentioned in Table 1. Proportionate sampling method was done to select the sample for the study from the list of farmers participated atleast twice in Krishi Mela with total sample size of 120 using the formula and were randomly selected for the study

Sample size =

Sample size Population size × Stratum size The usefulness is operationalized as the quality or fact of being useful to the respondents about the information shown/given on different aspects in Krishi Mela. For measuring the usefulness of the Krishi Mela schedule was developed by considering various components presented in Krishi Mela viz., stalls, recent technologies developed by the KSNUAHS, Shivamogga, display and demonstration plots in agriculture, horticulture, animal science, nutrition management, farm machinery etc, in Krishi Mela. The responses were collected on a five-point continuum viz., Most useful, Useful, Partial useful, Less useful and Not useful, with a score of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, respectively for various topics. The respondents were grouped into three categories as low, medium and high, based on the mean and half standard deviation as a measure of a check. Statistical tools used in the research were Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Chi square test. The data furnished in Table 2 indicated that, most of the farmer had opined information in Mudigere KVK stall (47.50 %), Arecanut Research Center stall (40.00 %), University of Veterinary Sciences, Shivamogga stall (37.50 %) and Agricultural Entomology and Plant Pathology stall (43.33 %) were useful. Because KVK's know the ground level knowledge about the farmer's needs and provide the necessary information regarding the regional problems and also helps in clearing the doubts of the farmer. Arecanut was the major plantation crop in these regions because it have good market price as compared to field crops. Veterinary, Shivamogga stall was useful because, in India the majority of the farming community were involved in farming as well as animal husbandry, where in which profits from farming was not economically feasible to lead a better life. Pest and disease management directly affects the yield of the crops. As crop protection plays a crucial role in controlling pests and diseases that lower the quality and quantity of food production. Any single method will not help in controlling the pests and diseases. That might be one of the reasons for adopting integrated pest and disease management practices. It was witnessed from the data presented in Table 3 that, most of the farmer had opined Sahyadri Kempumukthi variety (47.50 %) and Tree climbing machine (43.33 %) were useful. This result might be due to that Sahyadri Kempumukthi, a high yielding Paddy variety resistant to blast disease, tolerant to leaf folder, stem borer and corid bug which matures in 125-130 days and gives a yield of 70-75 q ha-1 for zone-7 and 40-45 q ha-1 for zone-9. Most of the farmers expressed that tree climbing machines were useful because in the research area, the majority of the farmers cultivated plantation crops, especially arecanut and coconut, this machine can also be affordable by the small and marginal farmers and KVK's also gave training on this machine. Tree climbing machines reduce drudgery and climb faster consuming less energy. Which can be used for gathering nuts or spraying pesticides [Ansari and Paswan, (2018)] [1] . The data presented in Table 4 reveals that, most of the farmers expressed that value addition (69.16 %), demonstration plots on arecanut (62.50 %), dairy farming (55.00 %), Bio-fertilizer and Bio-control agents (73.33 %), Plant protection equipment (67.50 %) and seed unit (48.33 %) were useful. This result might be that value addition is more important to improve the profitability of farmers and reduce the losses. The farmers said the arecanut demonstration plot was useful this trend might be because the precipitation of rainfall is fluctuating yearly. Hence, most of the farmers cultivating field crops decided to cultivate both horticulture crops and field crops. Farmers are not getting assured income from agriculture because climate change and price fluctuation. So, the government is encouraged to take up agro-based subsidiary enterprises like dairy, poultry, fishery and pig farming, etc., to compensate the income from agriculture through additional income. Nowadays, farmers are more attracted towards these aspects because it can be undertaken as a leisure time activity and also with the help of limited home resources to supplement the organic inputs. Sprayers and weeders are used to protect the plants from pests, diseases and weeds by using herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Selecting quality hybrid/varieties that are more resistant to pest and disease gives a better yield than local varieties and increases yield than traditional seeds[Ansari and Paswan, (2018)] [1] and [Narayanaswamy, et al., (2007) [4] . The data from Table 5 reveals that, 47.50 per cent of them had a medium level of usefulness. Whereas, 31.67 per cent and 20.83 per cent of them had high to low level of usefulness. Farmers said that they had faith in the usefulness of information provided in Krishi mela. Most of the farmers adopted technologies in their farm by participating in the precious Krishi mela and obtained considerable results which provides diverse information on all aspects and even plays a significant role in providing the most recent information to increase knowledge in all aspects of agriculture. Many organizations like developmental departments, universities, input agencies, NGO's etc., participated in Krishi mela so all these organizations exhibited the technologies in stalls, demonstration plots and the write-up was provided in the form of leaflets/folders which gave first-hand information to the farmers on the technologies. It encouraged the farmers to collect information about the relevant technologies from all the aforesaid sources [Manjula and Sheikh, (2010)] [3] and [Ansari and Paswan, (2018)] [1] . It could be inferred from the Table 6 that, out of twelve profile characteristics of the farmers, eight characteristics such as education, land holding, experience in farming, occupation, annual income, extension contact, mass media participation and innovativeness were found to have significant association at 5 per cent level of significance with the usefulness of Krishi Mela. In contrast, two characteristics, namely extension participation and time sent had highly significant relationship at 1 per cent level of significance. Remaining two characteristics, namely age and economic motivation showed non-significant relation with usefulness of Krishi Mela.

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

It could be concluded from the study that good majority of farmers perceived that, the information on value addition, arecanut, dairy farming, Bio-fertilizer and Bio-control agents, Plant protection equipment, unit, vermicompost, agriculture implements, organic farming and pesticides were more useful. The farmers had expressed medium and high level of usefulness towards Krishi mela. So, there is a need to take a step to disseminate the technology effectively through the demonstrations and university should come out with technologies to fulfil the requirement of the farmers in providing area/crop specific, easy to maintain, affordable equipment and seed should be made available. Whereas extension participation and time spent had high significant association with usefulness and age and economic motivation had non-significant association with perception level.

References

1. Ansari MN, Paswan AK. Perception of farmers about usefulness of university Kisan Mela. J Ext Educ. 2018;54(1):179-182.
2. Pratap J, Khan MA, Mandil R, Singh V, Singh VP. Level of satisfaction among farmers attending Kisan Mela. Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci. 2019;8(11):227234.
3. Manjula N, Sheikh MK. Impact of Krishi Mela on participating farmers. Agric Update. 2010;5(1-2):54-58.
4. Narayanaswamy B, Nataraju MS, Narayana Gowda K, Ramakrishna Naika. Effectiveness of Krishi Melas perceived by farmers. Karnataka J Agric Sci. 2007;20(3):667-668.
5. Singh AK, Singh R, Kumar P. Effectiveness of agricultural fairs in transfer of agricultural technology among farmers. Indian Res J Ext Educ. 2015;15(2):4549.