Browsing by Author "Jose Joseph"

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Adaptation behaviour of vegetable growers in crisis situations
(Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2002) Boban Paul; Jose Joseph
Kerala, the green stretch, in the south west cost of India, is delineated from other states by Western Ghats stretching around six hundred kilometers of its Eastern boundary. These hill ranges creates an exclusive climatic conditions in this land. The soil and whether factors have lead to diversity of plant population and also the crops cultivated here. Like other states of India, the crop loss and consequent economic crises occur in Kerala farming also. However the root causes of the crises are different here compared to other states. There it happens as a results of flood, droughts and storms where in Kerala the economic loss results mainly from pest and disease incidence, land slides etc. Kerala is well known for the production of spices and plantation crops. In last two or three decades the commercial cultivation of vegetables also was started in the state. Still a major portion of state's requirement of vegetables are met by products from neighbouring states. The government through its Department of Agriculture and the Vegetable and Fruits Promotion Council of Kerala are trying to increase vegetable production in the state. It was in this context, the present study was undertaken with the objectives such as identifying the different crisis situations encountered by commercial vegetable growers, identifying the methods of adaptation in these crisis situations, rationality behind those methods of adaptation and finally the perception of commercial vegetable growers about the external intervention of developmental agencies in crisis situation. The study was conducted in Ernakulam district which was a traditional vegetable growing area. More over the activities of Department of Agriculture and vegetable and fruits promotion council of Kerala was in progress for the promotion of vegetable production. A two stage sampling technique was used to select three panchayats for the selection of respondents. From the selected panchayat fifty vegetable growers each were randomly identified and they formed the respondents. Data were collected with the help of a pretested and well structured interview schedule. The crops selected were Bitter gourd (Momordica), Snake gourd (Trichosanthus anguina), Oriental pickling melon (Cucumis melo), Ash gourd (Benincasa hespida), Cowpea (Vigna anguiculata var. sesquipedalis). Data was collected classifying crop wise and season wise. The data regarding methods of adaptation were delineated as anticipatory measures, measures for mitigation and contingent measures. The rationality of the methods of adaptation was studied by the rating from three groups of respondents which included scientist, extension personnel and progressive farmers. An index was developed for measuring the level of adaptation. The salient findings are as follows: The commonly adopted anticipatory measures by farmers to insulate themselves from the impact of a possible economic loss were mixed cropping in vegetables, crop diversification with perennial crops, crop rotation with seasonal crops, crop diversification in annual crops, vocational diversification by other enterprises, vocational diversification by other jobs, adjusting planting time to get yield during high demand season and minimising hired labour by employing maximum family labour. The measures taken by the majority of farmers for mitigating the impact of an already occurred economic loss in a crisis were compensating for the loss with the profit from other crops, loan renewal, obtaining new loans on land and gold mortgage and government subsidies. The unexpected price fall was tackled by the contingent measure of pooling the produce from neighbouring farmers and transporting to distant markets. Majority of the respondents reported that VFPCK was intervening in the crisis situations. Only a minor section of respondents reported that Department of agriculture was making interventions. With regard to effectiveness of interventions majority were of the opinion that both the agencies mentioned above were effective in making interventions. With regard to the level of adaptation, majority of the respondent belonged to the category of medium level of adaptation.
Analysis of dimensions of entrepreneurial behaviour of members of coconut producer companies
(Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2019) Vivek, S; Jose Joseph
Producer companies are legal establishments formed by primary producers, viz. farmers, milk producers, fishermen, weavers, rural artisans, craftsmen. The concept of producer companies was introduced in India in 2002 by incorporating a new part IX A in to the companies’ act 1956 based on the recommendations of an expert committee led by Y. K Alag. Kerala accounts for major share in area and production of coconut in the country. Coconut Development Board (CDB) has a launched a scheme for mobilizing coconut farmers in to a three tier system of primary producer societies, federation of primary coconut producer societies and coconut producer companies. In this background a study on “Analysis of dimensions of entrepreneurial behaviour of members of coconut producer companies” was carried out to analyse the dimensions of entrepreneurial behaviour of members of coconut producer companies, factors influencing their entrepreneurial behaviour and the constraints faced by the members of coconut producer companies. The study was carried out in two companies which belong to Palakkad and Kannur districts. Palakkad Coconut Producer Company Ltd. (PCPCL) and Tejaswini Coconut Producer Company Ltd. (TCPCL) which are the first two coconut producer companies in Kerala and accredited as A plus category by CDB were selected for the study. A total of 120 respondents from the two companies were selected in equal proportion randomly. Analysis of the socio economic characteristics of members of the two selected coconut producer companies revealed that majority of the respondents belonged to middle age group category of 36-50 years. 40.00 per cent of the respondents in both the companies had high school level of education. 68.33 per cent of the respondents from PCPCL and 56.67 per cent of the respondents from TCPCL were engaged in farming. Around 55.00 per cent of the members of PCPCL had low level of annual income whereas, 60.00 per cent of the respondents from TCPCL had medium level of annual income. Members of both the companies had medium level of social participation, economic motivation, level of aspiration, extension orientation, attitude towards self-employment and mass media contact. 56.67 per cent of the members of PCPCL and 58.33 per cent of the members of TCPCL were more self-reliant. Members of both the companies had medium level of knowledge about value added products. Among the dimensions of entrepreneurial behaviour, members of both the coconut producer companies had medium level of innovativeness, achievement motivation, risk taking ability, profit orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and management orientation. Further it was also observed that leadership ability of members of both the companies were low. Among the listed 9 dimensions, composite index for market perception was ranked the highest (93.27). This indicated that the members gave much importance to the current market trend, marketing channel and market information. The overall entrepreneurial behavior of the respondents was found to be medium. Study on factors affecting entrepreneurial behavior of members of PCPCL and TCPCL showed that only economic motivation had a positive relationship with entrepreneurial behavior of the members. For PCPCL risk taking ability, decision making ability, market perception and management orientation were the important dimensions contributing to entrepreneurial behaviour. In the case of TCPCL achievement motivation, risk taking ability and management orientation were the important dimensions. Insufficient subsidy amount (financial constraint), low price for produce in the market (marketing constraint), high cost of inputs (production and labour constraint), lack of information about recommendations (information problem), multiple duties (personal constraint) were the major problems perceived by the members of PCPCL. In the case of TCPCL, the major constraints faced by the members were difficulty in securing working capital (financial constraint), low price for produce in the market (marketing constraint), high cost of inputs (production and labour constraint), lack of information about recommendations (information problem) and multiple duties (personal constraint). Strong branding of products, support from Government for financial investment and working capital, periodic management training for members of coconut producer companies and strengthening the three tier system of coconut producer co-operatives are some of the strategic options developed from the study.
Studies on the seed borne diseases of rice in Kuttanadu
(Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1986) Jose Joseph; Susamma Philip
Several fungi were isolated from the seeds of twelve varieties/cultivars of rice collected from different localities of Kuttanadu, the major rice growing tract of Kerala. Fungi were encountered extrenally as well as internally. Among the externally seed borne fungi, Aspergillus flavus was the most common with its occurrence on nine varieties followed by Bipolaris oryzae and Curvuleria lunata. Other fungi included Rhizopus stolonifer, Chaetomium gracile, Syncephalestrum racemosum, Fusarium moniliforms, Trichoderma virde, Sarocladium oryzae. Aspergillus niger, Alternaria padwickii, Fusarium gramineazum, Piricularia oryzae, A. fumigatus, A. quadrilineatus, Nigrospora oryzae and Penicillium spp. Among the varieties Jaya was found to harbour the maximum fungal population. The germination percentage was not found to be affected due to seed inoculationwith the predominant fungi viz. A. flavus, A. padwickii, B. oryzae, C. lunata and S. oryzae.
Study on farmer participation and effectiveness of e- extension through the website raitamitra.kar.nic.in
(Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2009) Madhusudhan, G K; Jose Joseph
A number of e-extension programmes have been initiated in India in the past few years for providing digital access to farmers in modern farming technologies through the medium of internet. Raitamitra.nic.in is a prominent web portal operating in the State of Karnataka for orchestrating knowledge extension services and provisioning basic and applied information on various farming activities to the farming community. A comprehensive study was undertaken with the objective of finding out the extent of farmer participation in e-extension through the raitamitra website and various personal, socio-psychological and system factors associated with farmer participation in e-extension programme. The preference of farmers towards various formats of content presentation, information needs of the farmers and problems faced by farmers in using the website were also studied. The study was conducted in Arsikere, Belur, Channarayapatna and Sakleshpura blocks of Hassan District in Karnataka State. A total of 120 farmers formed the sample size of the study. Extent of farmer participation in the website was the dependent variable for the study. The independent variables of the study were age, educational status, income, computer use efficiency, trainings undergone, cosmopoliteness, media exposure, awareness about ICT, attitude towards ICT and information source utilization. Results of the study on the extent of farmer participation in the e-extension programme of the website raitamitra.nic.in revealed that almost half of the respondents had only low level of participation in the programme .Only nine percent of the farmers had high level of participation in the e-extension programme. The results of correlation analysis revealed that nine personal and socio-psychological characteristics namely educational status, annual income .computer use efficiency, trainings undergone, cosmopoliteness ,media exposure ,awareness about ICT ,attitude towards ICT and information source utilization had positive and significant correlation with the extent of farmer participation in e-extension programme. The variable age exhibited a significant negative correlation with extent of farmer participation in e-extension programme. Farmer participants perceived three system factors namely usefulness of information, location specificity of information and simplicity of the language as the most important system factors associated with higher levels of participation in the e-extension programme .The assessment of information needs of farmers revealed that marketing ,package of practices recommendations, input price and weather based advisory services were the most important areas in which the farmer participants required information. Slide shows, video and text plus picture were the most preferred formats of content presentation for the farmers. Nearly two third of the farmers gained only low to medium level of knowledge from the website .Only 36.7 percent of the farmers gained high level of knowledge by participating in the e-extension programme of the web portal raitamitra. Analysis of the problems faced by the farmer users of the website raitamitra.nic.in revealed that lack of awareness about website, problems in language, and lack of local relevance of information were the major constraints faced by the farmers in using the raitamitra website.
Study on the factors related to the communication effectiveness of village level extension personnel
(Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1983) Jose Joseph; Menon, A G G
With a view to identifying the factors related to the communication effectiveness of Village Level Extension Personnel (Agricultural Demonstrators), a research study was conducted in Trivandrum District of Kerala State. It was also aimed at measuring the communication effectiveness of Village Level Extension Personnel and identifying the problems faced by them in making their communication effective. The study revealed that as much as 16.67 percent of the Village Level Extension Personnel (Agricultural Demonstrators) were low 66.66 percent were medium and 16.67 percent were high in their communication effectiveness.