Effectiveness of Different Methods (Training, Demonstration, Exhibition, e-Extension and e-MAT) on Adoption of Agricultural Innovations – An Exploratory Study

To ensure the desired impact of the extension programmes, it is imperative that suitable extension strategies are evolved to disseminate different technologies to different categories of the farmers. The study was conducted in five villages of Tarapur Block of Munger District of Bihar, India. The villages were denoted by V1, V2, V3, V4 and V5 of a given district and as many as 30 farmers, 10 each from marginal, small and large farmers categories called groups, were selected from each village randomly and were represented by G1, G2 and G3 of a given village, respectively. The 30 farmers forming the experiment group in the villages were trained to seek the information/message and were closely monitored while under exposure through e-extension. On the other hand, under e-based Management of Agricultural Technology (e-MAT) treatment, the group was exposed to the technology packages through e-extension well mixed with all the three extension methods. Lectures, visit, pamphlets, charts, banners, specimens, etc., which were commonly used with the first three methods were also used with all the five methods in this experiment for consecutive two years. As a result, it was seen that e-MAT is an effective extension method. There were significant differences in the mean knowledge scores, attitude scores and adoption quotient of trained and untrained farmers about the package of practices of high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. The trained farmers had significantly higher knowledge scores, attitude scores and adoption quotient about the package of practices of high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice than untrained farmers.