Market-Led extension initiatives of the department of agriculture development and farmers’ welfare, Kerala: an analysis

Abstract

Sustainability of agriculture can be ensured only by building up the capacity of agricultural systems to increase productivity and maximize profit. For this, farmers have to be profusely supported to link production with market and to deliver quality produce to consumers, this will remain an uphill task for the small and marginal farmers. Also, farmers should be oriented to new systems of market linked production and the protocols of value chain and supply chain management. It has been widely reported that lack of market-oriented production by resource poor farmers is mainly due to absence of appropriate and timely information on technology and market trends. This has necessitated introduction of a diversified, demand driven and technology intensive system of extension and advisory service by the government. Market led extension system is an adaptation of conventional extension system with functional components to assist farmers in marketing processes. Even though the concept of market led extension has gained prominence in the academic circle, it has not been mainstreamed in development initiatives. Department of Agriculture acts as the most important agency in field level extension. Kerala, has of late laid increasing emphasis on marketing of produce and value addition through various programmes. Hence, it is important to study the market led extension initiatives in the state. Thrissur district was purposively selected for the study owing to the presence of a number of marketing interventions implemented in the district and also due to the fact that, Karshakamitra was piloted in the same district. Along with Karshakamitra, two other programmes viz., Ecoshop and Weekly market, were also selected for the study. Ten panchayats were randomly selected from the four blocks in the district. The sample included 120 beneficiaries and 24 extension personnel. The mean perceived effectiveness score of beneficiaries and extension personnel on the three programmes revealed that except in the case of market intelligence, all other dimensions including service, advisory, facilitation and organization, extension personnel had the highest mean perceived effectiveness score compared to beneficiaries. Comparing the perceived effectiveness of beneficiaries for the three programmes using Kruskal Wallis test, it was observed that Ecoshop had the highest mean perception score (72.15) compared to Karshakamitra (62.31) and Weekly Market (47.04). Comparing the dimensions of perceived effectiveness, beneficiaries of the three programmes differed significantly in their perception on the effectiveness of advisory services, facilitation and organization. In the case of service and market intelligence, perception levels almost remained the same. The profile of respondents showed that majority of them belonged to old age (55.8%) category and 82.5% of the respondents were male farmers. Majority of the respondents (70.83%) were well experienced farmers, with 47.5% of them having a total land area greater than 1 acre. As far as vegetable production is concerned, 50.83% of the respondents had volume of production less than 20 Kg. Majority of the respondents belonged to medium category for extension contact, market orientation, knowledge on marketing strategies and attitude towards programmes. Effect of personal and psychological attributes of beneficiaries on perceived effectiveness showed that farming experience, volume of production and knowledge on marketing strategies were the significant attributes which helped the respondents to be categorized under more perceived effectiveness group. Five factors were extracted through Principal Component Analysis with a cumulative variance of 79%. These factors were named as farmer’s endowment factor, personal attributes, orientation factor, attitude and knowledge on the basis of variables having higher factor loading for each factor. Extracted factors were used as independent variables to fit a regression of perceived effectiveness on these factors. The variance explained by the model fitted was 57% with the third factor more significant to predict the dependent variable (market orientation and extension contact). Constraints faced by beneficiaries in marketing were categorized into five groups viz., general, production related, market infrastructure related, financial and information and communication related constraints. Constraints faced by extension personnel in the implementation of the programme was also noted. A significant value of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance showed that there existed strong agreement among the respondents to rank the constraints. It has been recommended that marketing initiatives should be implemented location specifically based on the production pattern and marketing strategies of the particular area. Awareness programmes need to be conducted on scientific farming and marketing aspects in collaboration with other institutes and government agencies. Further, marketing officials should be provided with proper training and capacity building programmes regarding marketing and related activities.