MSc

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Thrissur, established in 2004 under Kerala
Agricultural University, is conducting several On Farm Trials (OFT), Front Line
Demonstrations (FLD), and trainings from 2008 in popularizing the cultivation of
Cool Season Vegetables (CSV). This empirical study was carried out to evaluate the
effectiveness of training interventions of KVK, Thrissur, assess the extent of adoption
of CSV in the coastal areas of Thrissur district namely Mathilakom and Perinjanam
panchayats, and to elucidate the major constraints faced by the respondents in
adoption of CSVs.
Demographic indicators and socio-personal characteristics of the respondents
in the study area was collected and analysed. Out of 120 respondents, a greater
percentage of respondents (86.70 %) were married females. As younger generations
are attracted towards the lucrative jobs in foreign countries, 56.70 per cent of the
respondents were found to be in the age group of 51 and above. About 81 per cent of
the respondents were farmers by occupation with high school education and above.
There were no illiterate respondents. 56.66 per cent of the respondents had medium
experience level. In case of annual income, about 57 per cent of the respondents
belonged to high income group. Most of the respondents (85.80 %) had less than one
acre of land with terraced (62.50 %) and double storied houses (18.30 %) followed by
tiled houses (17.50 %).
High levels of contact with extension agents and economic motivation were
noticed among 41.60 and 62.50 per cent of the respondents respectively. Nearly three
fourth of the respondents (72.55 %) exhibited medium levels of risk orientation and
social participation (73.30 %); while around two third had medium level of
cosmopoliteness (62.50 %).About 54.1 per cent of the respondents opined that the inputs required for
cultivation of CSV was available in time in the locality. Majority of the respondents
were early adopters (62.50 %) followed by early majority.
The content of the training interventions was adequate, according to 62.50 per
cent of the respondents. While the contents included in the training interventions
were very useful for 21 per cent of the respondents, it was found to be useful for
72.30 per cent. About three-fourth of the respondents (73.3%) had partially adopted
the cultivation practices. An overwhelming majority of the respondents have got
enlightened from the training interventions and they were very effective for around
21 per cent of the respondents and effective for nearly 70 per cent of the respondents.
Adequacy of contents showed positive and significant correlation with age,
education status, occupation, social participation and cosmopoliteness. Utility of the
content had significant and positive relationship with input availability, social
participation, extension contact, risk orientation, house type, occupation and annual
income. Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR) showed that the independent
variables, income (66.3 2%), input availability (54.00 %) and risk orientation
(46.72%) were the three variables that explained more about the utility of the
contents. Economic motivation, social participation and innovative proneness
explained the adoption of CSV at 49.16 per cent, 42.66 per cent and 66.22 per cent
respectively. For majority of the respondents (69.20%), the training interventions
were effective; and for about 21 per cent, they were very effective. Age and economic
motivation are the prime variables to be considered for transforming the adopters
from medium to high level.
The items underlying the major factor ‘outreach behaviour’ were social
participation, extension agency contact and cosmopoliteness. The items under second
major factor ‘facilitating environment’ included input availability and production
facilities. The major three constraints identified were, high cost of production, poor
availability of seedlings in time and lack of availability of organic manure.The study revealed that the training interventions of KVK, Thrissur in
adoption of CSV in the coastal areas of Thrissur District was effective. The study
brought out the fact that with the cooperation of farmers in Mathilakom block; KVK,
Thrissur had successfully battled the odds to embrace the production of cabbage,
cauliflower and onion with increasing success. Regarding the adoption of cool season
vegetables, KVK can still improve by helping the trainees to overcome some of the
constraints that they perceived as barriers which block them in achieving their goal.
Training interventions in seedling production and persuading the farmers in
commercial production of CSV are some of the suggestions proposed to make cool
season vegetables an attractive and more lucrative venture and also attract the youth
towards this endeavour.