PG Thesis

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://localhost:4000/handle/123456789/2

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Extension

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Relative involvement of men and women in dairying
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 1992) Anil, S S; Pushkaran, P S
    The objectives of the study were, to assess the extent of physical involvement and involvement in decision-taking by men and women in dairy management practices, to probe into the influence of women in the adoption of practices, to study the extent of adoption of selected aspects in dairying, the reasons for non-adoption/partial adoption of the practices, if any, to study the influence of selected socio-economic factors on adoption and to reveal the knowledge level of men and women about dairy management practices. The study was conducted among the members of the milk producers' co-operative society, Vilanganoor. The data were collected through personal interview using pre-tested interview schedule. Variables were measured using appropriate scales and suitable statistical tools were used for analysing the data. The study revealed that majority of husbands and wives had medium knowledge level. Husbands had significantly higher knowledge than wives in general even though there was no significant difference in the aspects of feeding, milking and breeding. In the aspects of housing and feeding the physical involvement of wives was significantly higher. In all the other aspects husbands' scores were significantly higher except in the case of milking where there was not much difference. In decision-taking, the husbands had significantly higher involvement in all aspects except feeding and milking. It was also noted that the children had important role in these two aspects in few households. There was a high rate of adoption of practices related to the selected aspects in dairying among the respondents (mean adoption index - 86.037). The physical involvement of women in the adoption and their involvement in decision-taking though not significant in general indicate their fairly good influence in the adoption of dairy husbandry practices. The correlation coefficients worked out revealed that out of the 13 socio-economic factors included in the study, only the land holding, experience in dairying, availability of professional help at farmers' premises and occupation had significant association with adoption. Experience in dairying had significant positive correlation with adoption of scientific selection in the case of husbands. Similarly land holding was positively and significantly associated with adoption of scientific housing. Availability of professional help at farmers' premises was significantly and negatively correlated with adoption of scientific housing, while it had highly significant positive correlation with adoption of scientific treatment. Occupation of husbands and adoption of practices in the aspect of feeding were highly significantly and negatively correlated. Occupation had significant negative correlation with adoption of aspects in general in the case of husbands. Since the value of multiple regression analysis was low no further analysis was done. The major constraints faced by farmers in the adoption of scientific practices were lack of money, high cost of feed, repeat breeding and non-availability of medicines.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Analysis of animal husbandary information in the farm feature pages of leading malayalam dailies
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2000) Sathumadhavan, T P; Subhadhra, M R
    Study was a content analysis of animal husbandry information in farm . feature pages of four Malayalam dailies, namely Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhoorni,. Desabhimani and Deepika, for the period January to December 1999. Variables studied were space provided to different categories of animal husbandry news, modes of presentation, frequency of occurrence of news, seasonality, readability, relevancy and accuracy. Research findings revealed that the studied dailies provided less than one fourth space of farm feature pages for publishing animal husbandry information. Large animal category got more than 50 per cent coverage with three-fourth space occupied by articles on cows. Poultry articles occupied one-fourth space of animal husbandry information of farm feature pages. Where as small animals and pet animals occupied 17 per cent and seven per cent space respectively. News articles occupied maximum column length in all dailies studied. Frequency of occurrence of news articles, illustrations and question answers were found to be more when compared to other modes of presentation. Seasonality studies r.evealed that more than half the number of dairy articles and one eighth of poultry articles were seasonal. Average readability of dairy articles according to Fog index was 5.45 with more reading easiness. More than 50 per cent of dairy articles were found to be relevant. Just above two-third of scientific messages of dairy articles were accurate, whereas accuracy of general articles were found to be nearly 50 per cent.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Impact of calf feed subsidy scheme on farm women
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 1999) Reeja George Pulinilkunnathil; Subhadra, M R
    The impact of the calf feed subsidy scheme, a continuing dairy development scheme of the Animal Husbandry Department, Kerala, on farm women in terms of behavioural changes in the areas of attitude, knowledge and extent of adoption regarding scientific calf and dairy management practices was assessed. A static group comparison design of research was adopted. The study was carried out in Thrissur district of Kerala state, among 75 each of beneficiary and and non-beneficiary women. The non-beneficiary group served as the control. Comparison was made on 11 variables and since it was required to know differences in the attitude towards scientific calf rearing, knowledge of scientific calf rearing, extent of adoption of calf rearing as well as dairy farming technologies between beneficiary and non-beneficiary groups and since ready to use measuring scales were not available to measure these variables, suitable scales were developed. In general, beneficiary women differed significantly in their attitude, knowledge and extent of adoption of scientific calf rearing and dairy farming technologies indicating the positive impact of the scheme. However certain deficiency areas were identified which need immediate educational intervention. For instance, most beneficiary women did not have correct knowledge regarding early breeding as well as etiology of infertility; two-third' had not adopted these technologies as well. Many of beneficiary women did not have correct knowledge of the schedule of foot and mouth disease vaccination as well as deworming and a majority had either discontinued or not adopted these technologies. Fewer women had correct knowledge of the amounts of green fodder and ration to be fed to heifers, dry animals and those pregnant: adoption of these technologies was substantially low. Knowledge and adoption of the correct procedure of ligation of navel cord was one low. None of the beneficiaries had adopted post milking teat dipping while a few had adopted record keeping. Nearly half of the beneficiaries had not adopted the practice of quick reporting of out breaks and had either not adopted or discontinued technologies pertaining to flooring and drainage in cattle sheds. Two-third had not adopted the practice of culling bull calves at the right time. To make up these deficiencies, intensive extension educational measures are to be organised under the auspices of the scheme. In all such instances, women participatory programs need emphasis. Attitude building exercises, demonstrations etc wherever required should be organised and followed up.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Analysis of the human resource development climate prevailing in Kerala agricultural university
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 1999) Senthilkumar, R; Rajakamal, P J
    The HRD climate prevailing in the Kerala Agricultural University and as perceived by its scientists was studied. In all, 262 scientists from main, regional and remote stations constituted the sample. The HRD climate studied was in terms of 12 major constituent dimensions, viz., management philosophy, training, career planning and development, manpower planning and forecasting, performance appraisal communication, team work, transfer, promotion, rewards and organizational culture. It was seen that organizational culture had been identified as the relatively most dominant dimension of HRD climate followed in that order by teamwork, transfer, management philosophy, communication, career planning and development, placement, rewards, performance appraisal, promotion, training, and manpower planning and forecasting. Manpower planning and forecasting being the weakest dimension need immediate intervention. Besides looking into the strength of various dimensions and components the issue of HRD climate was examined from the angle of the number of scientists perceiving it as favourable, moderately favourable and unfavourable. Considering only the percentage of scientists who perceived the various dimensions to be favourable, the latter were ordered. Accordingly, it was seen that comparatively the highest percentage of scientists perceived the dimension transfer to be favourable followed in that order by teamwork, placement, communication, organizational culture, career planning and development, rewards, manpower planning and forecasting, management philosophy, training, promotion and performance appraisal. Since the percentage of scientists perceiving the HRD dimension, performance appraisal to be favourable was the least, immediate reformative measures are warranted. It was also seen that there was a differential perception of the HRD climate between certain groups. For instance, men and women scientists perceived the HRD climate differently. The scientists of regional and remote stations perceived the HRD climate differently from those of main stations. Similarly, the perception of HRD climate differed between professors and associate professors and between associate professors and assistant professors (S.G). A more comprehensive study on the nature and cause of such perceptual differences is very essential. This shall be an objective of future research.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Training needs of dairy farm instructors of the dairy development department of Kerala
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2003) Vimal Raj Kumar, N; Jiji, R S
    The objectives of the study were to identify the training needs of the Dairy Farm Instructors (DFls) of Dairy Development Department of Kerala and find out the determinants of their training needs. The data were collected through questionnaires to which 75 DFls responded. Information technology was the most preferred major subject matter domain for training followed by milk and milk products, dairy cattle production and management, dairy extension, professional management and I fodder production and management. Among the socio-personal characteristics, the training exposure and role perception of the respondents had significant relationship with the training need. Both the role perception and training need of most of the respondents were medium only. For all the domains, institutional type of training as well as trainers from outside the parent organization but within the state were preferred the most. Demonstration was the most preferred method of training for most of the domains. The most preferred periodicity for the trainings of one to seven days duration was six months, those of eight to fourteen days was one year and those of fifteen to thirty days and more than a month was more than a year. The duration preferred the most for short-term trainings was one to seven days and that for long-term trainings was fifteen days to one month. Further, an equal percentage of theory and practical training sessions was preferred for all the domains except milk and milk products and information technology for which more practical sessions were preferred. The training institutes within Kerala were the most preferred venue tor training in all the major domains except milk and milk products in which selected premier institutes outside Kerala were preferred the most. All the training programmes for DFIs organised by the parent organization from 1997 onwards were rated as either relevant or somewhat relevant by the respondents.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Impact of correspondence course in dairying on adoption of improved dairy practices
    (Department Of Extension, College Of Veterinary And Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 1987) Ramkumar, S; Pushkaran, P S
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Role of financial assistance and incentives in farmer motivation in dairying
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 1981) Raju, V; Nair, G R
    The objectives of the study were to understand the awareness of the various assistances and incentives provided for the dairy development and whether these assistances have influenced the farmers to adopt improved dairy husbandry practices, besides the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and its influence on the adoption of improved practices as well as the reasons for not availing the assistances by them. The members of Chalakudy Milk Co-operative Society who have availed the assistances given by the Small Farmers Development Agency were selected as beneficiaries (50 respondents randomly selected) and those who have not availed any assistance from any source were selected as the nonbeneficiaries (50 respondents). Forty improved practices recommended by the University were included for the study and the six socio-economic characteristics of the respondents included in the study were age, education, income, herd size, social participation and extension contact. The data were gathered from the selected respondents using a pretested interview schedule. The analytical procedure adopted were simple percentage analysis, chisquare test and regression analysis. All the beneficiaries were found to have adopted atleast 15 recommended practices whereas only 12 practices were adopted by all the non-beneficiaries. Practices like premilking udder cleaning had 98 per cent of adoption among both the groups of respondents, and the practice of feeding commercial feed had 96 per cent adoption among the beneficiaries and 68 per cent adoption among the non-beneficiaries. The practice like weaning had the least adoption of zero per cent among both the groups of respondents. The mean adoption index among the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were 53.75 and 53.55 respectively. Among the six socio-economic characteristics studied significant influence/as shown by education and herd size on adoption among the non-beneficiaries and income among the beneficiaries. Dairying appeared to be a supplementary enterprise aimed at additional income in both the groups. Other than the natural aversion to get involved in debts no other reason seems to be predominant among the non-beneficiaries for not availing the assistances. The assistances as such did not reveal any significant influence on the adoption behaviour, but can be said to have some prohibition on employment and income generation.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Perception of empowerment by the members of women self-help groups in goat farming in Thrissur district
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2005) Kavitha, V; Jiji, R S
    The objectives of the study were to analyse the members’ perception of empowerment through participation in women SHGs, to explore the members’ perception of effectiveness of functioning of their own groups and to analyse the opportunities and threats associated with empowerment through microfinance in goat farming as perceived by the members. Among the members of SHGs engaged in goat farming for atleast one year, operating under Kudumbashree in Thrissur district, 150 members were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. The data were collected through structured questionnaire and interviews. Three-fourth of the respondents had medium knowledge of goat farming and almost two-third had highly favourable attitude towards group activity. As for the members’ perception of empowerment, more than half of the respondents were in the medium category. The respondents had the strongest perception of being empowered in the psychological aspects. About the members’ perception of effectiveness of group functioning, more than three-fourth of the respondents fell in the medium category. The functioning of the group in terms of quality of official procedures was perceived as most effective by the members. Opportunity to earn income was perceived by more than half of the respondents, whereas, lack of cooperation from family members was perceived as the most serious threat. Intercorrelations of perception of empowerment, perception of effectiveness of group functioning, knowledge of goat farming and attitude towards group activity were worked out using Kendall’s tau-b rank order correlation. Significant positive correlation was observed between perception of effectiveness of group functioning and attitude towards group activity. The members’ perception of empowerment had significant negative correlation with their knowledge of goat farming. A significant negative relationship was found between the members’ perception of empowerment and the herd size of goats maintained by them. The perception of empowerment of the respondents having previous training exposure was higher than those with no training exposure. Also, the perception of empowerment of the illiterate members was higher than that of literate members.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Analysis of the training needs of veterinary surgeons of Kerala for continuing veterinary education
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2001) Sakthivel, K M; Rajkamal, P J
    The objective of the study was to identify the training needs of veterinary surgeons of Kerala for continuing veterinary education. The data were collected from 130 veterinary surgeons of the Animal Husbandry Department of Kerala. Questionnaires were used for data collection. The training need was not seen dependent on any of the socio-personal characteristics of the respondents, viz., age, sex, marital status, type of family, educational qualification, professional experience, number of children, age of the youngest child, location of residence, distance to work place, number of seminars, symposiums etc., attended, number of professional journals read, number of periodicals read and number of trainings attended. Zoo and wild life was the most preferred general subject matter domain for training among the nine studied. This was followed by information technology, medicine, surgery, extension, livestock products technology, obstetrics and gynaecology, professional management and animal production in the descending order of preference. The most preferred specific subject matter areas were management of domesticated elephants, using computer in office, modern diagnostic procedures, small animal surgery, modern extension teaching methods, quality assurance of meat and meat products, embryo transfer technology, service rules and regulations and breeding and management of pet animals. The training programmes being organised by the various organisations such as KAU, IMG, KLDB, IVRI and CVE programmes proposed by Veterinary Council of India were found to be either highly relevant or relevant and hence these programmes might form part of eVE programme. The findings of task analysis pertaining to veterinary practice indicated the importance of incorporating in the training curriculum both the theoretical and practical aspects of management of mastitis, administration of medicines, clinical examination of animals, udder and teat surgery, post operative care, treatment of fracture, artificial insemination in cattle, handling of frozen semen, pregnancy diagnosis in cattle, maintenance of laboratory equipments, . faecal examination and examination of milk samples. The study further indicated the strategies to be adopted In organising the CVE programmes. An institutional mode of training was preferred to either distance learning or a combination of both in the case of major domains viz., veterinary science, animal production, live stock products technology, zoo and wild life, and information technology whereas distance learning was the preference In the case of extension and professional management. Trainers from outside the parent organisation were preferred while organising training programmes. The venue of training preferred was institutes within the state in the case of short-term training and those outside the state in the case of long-term training. The preferred periodicity of a short-term training was a year or less than a year while that for a long-term training was more than a year. The preferred duration of a short term training leading to a certificate was 15 days and that leading to a diploma was 90 days.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Profile of elephant keepers and owners of Thrissur and Palakkad districts
    (Department of Extension, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2001) Rajeev, T S; Rajkamal, P J
    Summary, etc. The present study was on the profile of elephant keepers and owners of Thrissur and Palakkad districts of Kerala. In all 50 elephant owners and 50 each of first and second mahouts were studied. The socio-economic profile of the elephant owners as well as the mahouts indicated that these categories were representing distinct socio-economic strata of society. While the owners were socio-economically better of the mahouts were not so and were illiterates. Majority of elephant owners as well as the mahouts had only either medium or low knowledge of elephant management. When owners' had more knowledge of disease management in comparison to other management domains, the mahouts had more knowledge of ha mess practices. For both owners as well as mahouts the knowledge of general management which included scientific feeding practices, among other practices, was one low. Further majority of the first mahouts were either medium or low adopters of scientific management practices. Age and experience, in general, were found to be important in the acquisition of knowledge as well as adoption of scientific practices. Further, knowledge of scientific management and its adoption were correlated. Information on some of the least known practices to the owners and mahouts revealed the chances of meting out hardship to the elephants unknowingly. Among the owners, first and second mahouts, training need of second mahouts was relatively more than that of first mahouts and their training need was more than that of owners. Only through a proper knowledge of the scientific practices and practicing of the same that the welfare of the captive elephants can be assured. Therefore, intensive efforts are required to formally train the elephant owners and mahouts. Appropriate training programmes can motivate the owners and mahouts to look after their elephants better thereby assuring their welfare.