Impact assessment of LEADS in Kollam and Palakkad districts:A comparative analysis

Abstract

The present study entitled “Impact Assessment of LEADS in Kollam and Palakkad district: A Comparative Analysis” was conducted in five panchayats of Kollam and five panchayats of Palakkad district. The study aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the impact of LEADS in terms of its relevance, efficiency and scale of social capital formation in Kollam and Palakkad districts and to study the perception of extension officials, lead and satellite farmers regarding the effectiveness in implementation of LEADS. LEADS is the Lead Farmer Centered Extension Advisory and Delivery Services (LEADS) which is based on the concept of frontier extension system revolving around lead farmer – satellite farmer on an Agro Ecological Zone basis within a district. In each Panchayat, there are three lead farmers and each of the lead farmers are surrounded by 10 satellite farmers. Therefore, altogether 33 farmers constitute a LEADS group in a panchayat. In the present study, from each of the panchayat, three lead farmers, six satellite farmers and three implementing officials were selected, constituting 30 lead farmers, 60 satellite farmers and 30 implementing officials respectively. Thus a total of 120 respondents were included for the study. A well-structured interview schedule was employed for data collection from the respondents. Three dependent variables and ten independent variables were studied and analyzed with the help of different statistical tools like mean, quartile deviation, frequency, percentage, correlation, ANOVA, and spearman’s rank order correlation. Impact assessment of LEADS was done by assessing the impact in terms of its relevance and efficiency and scale of social capital formation. Impact created by LEADS in Kollam and Palakkad was assessed and compared by using an impact assessment tool – ‘MAPP technology’. Relevance and efficiency components of LEADS was found more in Kollam district than in Palakkad district as the developmental interventions were properly implemented in Kollam district. World bank SOCAT tool was used to measure the scale of social capital formation. On analyzing the data, the social capital formation was found higher in Kollam district than that of Palakkad district. Perception of lead, satellite farmers and officials regarding the effectiveness in implementing LEADS was found higher in Kollam district than in Palakkad district. The profile characteristics of the farmers such as age, education, information source utilization, extension agency contact, innovation proneness, social participation, decision making capacity, and market orientation showed a positive and significant correlation with the scale of social capital formation in Kollam district whereas in Palakkad district, farming experience, innovation proneness, decision making capacity and market orientation showed a positive and significant correlation with the social capital formation. The profile characteristics of the farmers such as age, occupation, information source utilization, innovation proneness and market orientation showed a positive and significant association with the perception of lead farmers in Kollam district whereas in Palakkad district, innovation proneness and market orientation showed a positive and significant association with the dependent variable. The profile characteristics of farmers such as education, extension agency contact, social participation and decision making capacity showed a positive and significant association with the perception of satellite farmers in Kollam district whereas in Palakkad district, occupation, innovation proneness and decision making capacity showed a positive and significant association with the dependent variable. The farmers of Kollam district felt that ‘lack of coordination among line departments in providing service to the farmers’ is the major constraint while the farmers of the Palakkad district opined that ‘lack of usefulness of farmer oriented activities such as field visit and demonstrations’ is the major constraint. ‘Cooperation from the farmer groups’ was the major suggestion given by the officials of both the districts. Scaling up of LEADS project to crops other than paddy, banana, coconut and vegetables was the most important suggestion made by the farmers of both Kollam and Palakkad districts. It can be concluded that LEADS had created an impact among the farmers in terms of its relevance, efficiency and social capital formation. Coordinated efforts of line departments especially in conducting farmer oriented activities can create a positive impact among lead farmers.