Extent of adoption of scientific practices in prawn farming

Abstract

This study was undertaken to probe into the present situation of prawn farming in Kerala. The study aimed at assessing the communication media used for the dissemination of scientific prawn farming practices, the communication media utilized by prawn farmers at awareness and adoption stages, extent of adoption of scientific practices, correlates of adoption behaviour and the reasons for non-adoption or partial adoption of scientific practices. The study was conducted in Ernakulam district among 100 prawn farmers randomly selected. The data were collected through personal interview using a structured and pre-tested interview schedule. Appropriate standard statistical tools were used for analysis and interpretation. The extent of adoption was measured using the adoption quotient formula. Twenty four characteristics of prawn farmers were tested to find their association with adoption behaviour. The socio-economic variables studied were age, education, experience , land possession training participation, institutional credit utilization and income from prawn farming. The situational characteristics included total farming area, area under selective stocking , salinity, distance from bar mouth, average depth at high tide, average depth at low tide and number of crops raised. Scientific orientation, economic motivation risk preference, marketing orientation, extent of awareness of scientific practices in prawn farming and rationality in decision making were the socio-psychological variables tested. The communication variables studied were utilization of personal localite sources, utilization of personal cosmopolite sources and utilization of mass media sources. The study revealed that the extension communication media were very extensively used for the dissemination of scientific prawn farming technology. The most important individual method employed was farm and home visits. Other methods frequently employed were lectures, film shows, group discussions, training programmes and demonstrations. The farmers utilized more of personal localite sources, followed by personal cosmopolite and mass media sources for awareness as well as adoption. The mean awareness index of prawn farmers was 64.00 with majority of the farmers falling under the category of medium awareness. The mean extent of adoption of scientific practices was worked out , and majority of the farmers came in the medium category based on extent of adoption. Of the 19 scientific practices selected for study, all the practices except ‘acclimation of seeds’, ‘maintenance of dissolved oxygen level in the pond’ ‘monitoring and control of PH, control of algal blooms and ‘need based control of disease and parasites’ were heard by over 50 percent of the respondents. Only three practices viz. strengthening of buds and deepening of channels, fixing or repairing of sluice gate, and stocking the pond with selected prawn seeds were heard by all the respondents. Only two practices namely ‘strengthening of bunds and deepening of channels’ and ‘fixing or repairing of sluice gate’ were found fully adopted by 50 or above 50 percent of respondents. Highest full adoption was observed for the practices ‘fixing or repairing of sluice gate’. There was no full adoptes for the practices ‘maintenance of dissolved oxygen level in the pond’ ‘need based water exchange’ and ‘need based control of disease and parasites’. Highest partial adoption was observed for the practice ‘need based water exchange’ followed by ‘removal of aquatic weeds’, supplementary feeding based on biomass’ and ‘strengthening of bunds’ and ‘deepening of channels’. The partial adopters of these practices were 99 percent , 92 percent, 57 percent and 49 percent respectively. Important reasons for non-adoption and partial adoption of the practices were lack of awareness, lack of knowledge and non-adoption of the practice ‘stocking the ponds with selected prawn seeds’. Among the 24 variables tested to find out association with extent of adoption, only nine showed significant influence on adoption behaviour. The characteristics of prawn farmers which were found significantly contributing to extent of adoption were training participation, land possession, institutional credit utilization, area under selective stocking, number of crops raised, extent of awareness of scientific practices in prawn farming, rationality in decision making, utilization of personal cosmopolite sources and utilization of mass media sources. Multiple regression model fitted with the above nine variables illustrated that these nine variables together explained 86.82 percent of variations in extent of adoption. Further, the step-wise regression analysis revealed that the best subset of variables in predicting the dependent variables were utilization of personal cosmopolite sources, utilization of mass media sources and area under selective stocking. These three variables together explained 86.48 percent of variations in adoptive behaviour. Of the nine variables subjected to path – analysis all the variables except awareness of scientific practices in prawn farming and rationality in decision making had positive path coefficients. The indirect influence of the variables on extent of adoption were mainly channeled through utilization of personal cosmopolite sources and area under selective stocking.