RELEVANCY OF FARM INFORMATION SOURCES AND KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF FARMERS ABOUT CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURAL (CSA) PRACTICES: STUDY IN FLOOD VULNERABLE AREAS IN ASSAM

S. BARMAN¹*, P.K. NEOG², C. HAZARIAKA³, P.K. PATHAK^4
1Department of Extension Education, Faculty of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, 785013, Assam, India
²Director Extension Education Institute (NER), Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat,785013, Assam, India
³Rev. Pough Central Library, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, 785013, Assam, India
⁴Directorate of Extension Education, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, 785013, Assam, India
* Corresponding Author : sbarman72@gmail.com

Received : 03-05-2020     Accepted : 26-05-2020     Published : 30-05-2020
Volume : 12     Issue : 10       Pages : 9883 - 9887
Int J Agr Sci 12.10 (2020):9883-9887

Keywords : Relevancy of farm information source, Knowledge, Climate Smart Agriculture
Academic Editor : Navin Kumar Rajpal, Medini Ibrahim
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors are thankful to Directorate of Post Graduate Studies, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat,785013, Assam, India
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

The study was carried out in four vulnerable districts to flood of Assam to assess the relevance of farm information sources and the level of knowledge about CSA practices introduced under the NICRA project. All total 400 participant farmers were selected by following proportionate random sampling methods. Appropriate statistical methods are used for analysis and interpretation of data. The findings revealed that most respondents (60 percent) had a medium level of relevance to farm information sources. At the same time, the “peer group” was ranked as first followed by “progressive farmers” as the second rank and “AEA” as the third rank in terms of relevancy among the ten different sources of farm information with mean score 4.76, 4.43 and 3.32 respectively. The findings of the knowledge level of respondents on selected CSA practices viz. vermicompost preparation and application (VC), integrated nutrient management (INM), minimum tillage (MT) integrated pest management (IPM), and stress tolerance varieties (STVs) were found the medium level for majority respondents ranging in between 64 percent to 76 percent. Local sources of information were found to be more critical, and hence, the two-step communication flow model might be more appropriate for advisory services in vulnerable areas to flooding. NICRA’s intervention might be to help farmers in enhancing knowledge about CSA practices, and there is a scope to further improve the knowledge of farmers by putting more such efforts.

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