Rice farmers' perception of training needs in Tanahun District, Nepal
Date
1985
Authors
Krishna C. Sharma
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Abstract
The research sought to study some independent variables associated with respondents, and ascertain the relationship of these variables with dependent one. Also, it tried to identify the training needs on selected rice practices.
The research was conducted in Tanahan district, Nepal. Data were gathered through interview schedule with 150 rice-farmers obtained by randomly sampling 30 farmers from each of the five sample Panchayats of the district.
Data reveal that respondents had a mean age of 47.80 years, educational attainment of 4.92 class, farming experience of 30.56 years and farm size of 19.86 ropanis (nearly equal to 1 ha). Farmers' availment of most institutional services was between "little" and "moderate" degrees, and most communication media services that were availed of were between "very seldom" and "seldom" frequencies.
Plant protection practice in rice cultivation was perceived as highly needed followed by fertilizer management while marketing and harvesting received the lowest score for the need, in that order.
Non-significant relationship was found between independent variables, i.e., socio-demographic characteristics, availment of institutional services by respondents, and exposure to communication media, and the dependent variable, i.e., perception of training needs on selected rice practices, with the exception of civil status and farming experience having highly significiant relationships with plant protection and marketing practices, respectively. The exception also includes agricultural extension services which had highly significant and significant relationship with water management and post-harvest technology, respectively. Agricultural input, agricultural credit, and farmer-leaders/farmer-assistants' services were significantly related with nursery establishment practices. Similarly, agricultural credit and agricultural marketing services had highly significant relationship with water management practices. Another exception is farmers' group meetings having significant and highly significant relationships with record keeping and water management, respectively. Likewice, radio agricultural programs was related significantly with water management and marketing practices, while printed agricultural materials had highly significant relationship with water management.
The follow-up test on four independent variables, i.e., age, educational attainment, farming experience and farm size was performed using Spearman's rank order correlation. Results show that the perception of different groups was significantly related except for educational attainment. Perception of "low" educated groups differed significantly from "high" educated groups.