KNOWLEDGE OF FARMER FIRST PROGRAMME BENEFICIARIES ABOUT DEMONSTRATED TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The Farmer FIRST (Farm, Innovations, Resources, Science and Technology) Programme was initiated by ICAR in October 2016. The investigation tried to explore the knowledge level of beneficiaries about the demonstrated technologies under various modules of FFP and its association with a personal profile. The study was conducted in 2021 in the Jalalpore and Gandevi talukas of the Navsari District of South Gujarat as the project was implemented in this area only. The beneficiaries selected by random proportionate method from Crop, Horticulture, IFS, NRM, Livestock and Entrepreneurship, modules were 26, 34, 10, 25, 19 and 6, respectively. The study was confined to 120 small and marginal farmers. An ex-post facto research design was used. Twelve independent and one dependent variable were chosen. Results of the investigation showed that most of the beneficiaries had a medium level of knowledge regarding the livestock-based module (68.42%), IFS-based module (60.00%), crop-based module (57.69 %), and NRM-based module (56.00%). Half (50.00%) and less than half (47.06%) of the beneficiaries had a medium level of knowledge about the entrepreneurship-based module and horticulture-based module, respectively. The majority (62.50%) of the beneficiaries had a medium level of overall knowledge regarding demonstrated technologies under various modules of FFP. It was found that education, social participation, extension contact, innovativeness, economic motivation, and scientific orientation were found positive and highly significant. Whereas, occupation, annual income, and risk orientation were found to be positive and significant.