MSc

With financial sponsorship from Axis Bank Foundation, Kerala Agricultural
University (KAU) conducted a series of training programmes for the facilitators of
People’s Rural Education Movement (PREM) from May 2011 to July 2014. PREM is
an NGO working for the upliftment of the tribal belt in Odisha. This study had three
specific objectives: (1) To evaluate the effectiveness of the training for facilitators of
the PREM (2) To make a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Constraints
(SWOC) analysis of KAU’s training capability and (3) To suggest ways and means of
improving training activity of the KAU. Ninety randomly selected trainees and 10
stakeholders representing officials of PREM, Axis Bank Foundation, resource
persons and members of the Expert Review Team constituted the sample. Ex-post
facto research design was adopted for the study. Data collection was carried out using
mailed questionnaires and personal interview method. Secondary data available in the
pre and post-training documents, the report of the Expert Review Team and specific
cases of actual back home utility were also extensively used.
Profile parameters of the respondents were documented and subsequent
findings of the study reveal that high percentages of respondents fully adopted the
practices learned at the training: organic and eco-friendly farming practices (89%),
integrated pest and disease management (76%) and improved animal husbandry
practices (74%). The percentages of respondents who partially adopted the practices
taught were as follows: vermi-composting/medicinal plants and fruit crops/bee
keeping/mushroom production/nursery management (80%); processing and value
addition techniques (59%). However, nearly 50 per cent of respondents did not adopt
farm mechanization.
The training was perceived as rigorous by most of the respondents (80%).
Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed that invariably all the respondents had gained
knowledge through the training. That 52 per cent of respondents perceived that the
knowledge gained in the training had applicability in their circumstances and 85 per
cent of respondents perceived the training was helpful to their day-to-day work stands
to validate the design element in conduct of the training. Majority (93%) of the
respondents had opportunity to share information gained through training to others
implying that the training impact went beyond the trainees. Invariably all the trainees
had their expectations met and rated training useful for them at medium level.
Correlation results show that land owned, land cultivated, extension agency
and farming experience had a positive and significant relationship with adoption.
Orientation towards scientific and modern agricultural practices and gender had a
negative and significant relationship with training rigour. Orientation towards
scientific and modern agricultural practices had a negative and significant
relationship with knowledge gained through training.
Kruskal Wallis one-way Anova results indicate that there was no significant
difference between the respondents who attended training in different years 2011-12,
2012-13 and 2013-14. Level of aspiration and perceived applicability of knowledge
gained was significantly higher for the respondents who attended the training thrice.
Kendall’s co-efficient of concordance showed that mushroom production technology
as the most useful topic covered in training followed by bee keeping, making of ecofriendly
products and tissue culture as the least useful topic. Topics perceived by the
respondents as most important for necessary inclusion in future training programmes
were medicinal plants, fish culture, tissue culture lab visit, mango cultivation, cashew
apple processing and rubber cultivation.
Seven strategic options arrived through SWOC analysis of KAU’s training
capability were (1) undertake batch specific training need analysis (2) ensure highly
effectual transfer of knowledge, attitude and skills (3) provide HRD training for
support staff and Quality Improvement Programs for resource persons of KAU (4)
enhance the number of resource persons and support staff (5) improve boarding and
transportation facilities (6) develop e-training facilities and (7) focus on crop
specific input.
Suggestions on ways and means to improve training activities of KAU were:
select training co-coordinator carefully, nominate resource persons based on previous
training feedback analysis, have more the field visits and emphasize on skill
component, adopt flexibility to modify the schedule based on the changing
expectations of the trainees, handouts for each topic to be distributed at least one day
before the session, reach out to prospective clients through modern marketing
strategies, adopt video conferencing to reduce strain on resource persons, introduction
of Massive Online Open Courses with facilities for on-line booking for training and
making available the training calendar on the university website in the beginning of
each financial year.