https://www.journals.esciencepress.net/index.php/IJAE/gateway/plugin/ThesisFeedGatewayPlugin/atomInternational Journal of Agricultural Extension: Thesis Abstracts2022-06-17T07:16:37+00:00Open Journal Systems<p>International Journal of Agricultural Extension is devoted to publishing authoritative empirical research and conceptual contribution building the theory of agriculture extension especially focusing on community development through practices of agriculture extension education. </p>https://www.journals.esciencepress.net/index.php/IJAE/thesis/view/159HEALTH STATUS OF ELDERLY WOMEN IN SOCIOECONOMIC AND CULTURAL CONTEXT IN PUNJAB PAKISTAN2022-06-17T07:16:37+00:00Naima NawazDepartment of Rural Sociology,, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad<br />September, 2013<br /><br />Aging’ previously regarded as an emerging problem of the industrialized countries is now recognized as a global phenomenon. Currently, more than half of the world’s women aged 60 years and over are living in developing regions, i.e. 198 million compared with 135 million in the developed regions. Aging being an important global phenomenon has attracted the attention of sociologists who are looking into the socioeconomic and cultural antecedents of the process of ageing. The present study was planned to be conducted in Punjab province of Pakistan. Multistage Random Sampling Technique was used. According to this technique, sampling is done in two or more stages. At the first stage, from 36 districts of the ‘Punjab’ province, two districts were selected randomly. These were ‘Faisalabad’ and Rawalpindi’. At the second stage, out of eight towns, (of each district) two towns were randomly selected from each of the two districts, constituting a sampling of four towns. At the third Stage, two union councils (one rural and one urban) were randomly selected from each of the four above mentioned towns to constitute a sample of eight union councils. The desired sample of 500 respondents was to be divided on two districts of the ‘Punjab’ province. Both quantitative and qualitative methods (focus group) were used to collect data. Information on selected demographic and socio-cultural variables i.e. age, education, income, housing/living arrangements, nutritional status, social support and social network of the elderly women was collected through well organized interview schedule. Influence of these independent variables was observed on the ‘health status’ of elderly women (social, mental/ psychological and physical health status).Both independent and dependent variables were measured by operational zing and constructing the indexation. Analysis of data was made on the basis of uni-variate, bi-variate and multivariate analysis. Findings of uni-variate analysis: Mean age of the women was 69.4, around 35.0 percent were ‘widows’, 94.8 percent were living with their married/unmarried children. Only 13.4 percent of the elderly women and 26.6 percent of their husbands were literate. Only 3.4 percent of respondents were involved in some type of economic activity. The mean no. of children was around 5 children. Findings of bi-variate analysis: Statistical test indicated that the age of the elderly women was inversely related with the health status. However education, income, housing / living arrangements, nutritional status, social support and social network of the elderly women was positively associated with their health status. Findings of multivariate analysis: Results of ordinal regression analysis also showed that family income, housing/living arrangements, nutritional status, social support and social network had highly significant influence on the health status of the elderly women. Study suggests that the policy makers as well as health providers need to focus on the health and well-being of the older population, particularly in the context of poverty, low levels of education, nutrition and poor health system.2022-06-17T07:16:37+00:00https://www.journals.esciencepress.net/index.php/IJAE/thesis/view/158Role of USAID-DRDF in women empowerment with special reference to Livestock in Tehsil Muzaffargarh2020-11-21T15:42:34+00:00Safder AbbasInstitute of agricultural Extension, Education and Rural Development, University of Agriculture Faisalabad<br />September, 2014<br /><br />Livestock has vital importance in the economic development of Pakistan. Pakistan is the third-largest livestock producing country in the world. About half the population of the country consists of females (49.19%) who enthusiastically take part in social and economic activities including all operations related to crop production and livestock works like handling of milk production, animal care, and fodder cutting, etc. in rural areas. Despite all these activities they are still powerless in decision making and other developmental initiatives. Various NGOs are doing their best in this regard namely the Aurat Foundation, Bunyad Foundation, Kashf Foundation, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Dairy and Rural Development Foundation (DRDF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID and DRDF are working together to train females from rural Punjab for promotion of livestock business entrepreneurship among Pakistani females through the “Dairy Project” by producing Women Livestock Extension Worker (WLEW). The study was planned to analyze the role of USAID- DRDF Dairy Project in enhancing the capacity building of rural females involved in livestock farming. The study was conducted in district Muzaffargarh where 1662 Women Livestock Extension Workers have been trained under this Project. A sample of 120 respondents was interviewed using a simple random sampling technique. The collected data was analyzed with the help of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for drawing conclusions and formulating the recommendations. It was found that all of the female trainees were aware of the basic livestock disease services being learned by the project. An overwhelming majority of the respondents (95%) were satisfied by the working of the dairy project. It was suggested that the time period of the project must be increased with focus on small scale industries and maximum involvement of females in such training programs should be increased so that they can earn for their family.2020-11-21T15:42:34+00:00https://www.journals.esciencepress.net/index.php/IJAE/thesis/view/156Training needs assessment of vegetable growers in peri-urban areas of Faisalabad2020-11-04T15:12:30+00:00Gulfam HassanInstitute of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad<br />October, 2017<br /><br />Vegetables are the important part of our food, essential for maintaining health. Vegetable consumption has shown increasing trend, however, per capita intake is still below the recommended level of World Health Organization (WHO). Due to their perishability, vegetable commodities have received greater attention and in developing world they are produced closer to their consumption area. Vegetable production has thus become concentrated in peri-urban zones in Asia. Vegetable production in Pakistan is very low because the research institutes and researchers have given it low priority and it has been inadequately addressed. About fifteen varieties of vegetables are imported from India to Pakistan to meet the requirement of large masses. This situation has resulted in an increase in vegetables price. Among provinces of Pakistan, Punjab holds the largest share of 63 and 74% in vegetables’ area and production, respectively. To provide access to vegetables and enhance vegetable production, in past, several initiatives have been undertaken, however, with substantial impact, Fruit and Vegetable Development Project (F&VDP) was one of those initiatives led by Govt. of the Punjab. The project documented training as the most effective element to enhance the morale of growers. Likewise, various researches in past also have documented training as the most effective element in production process. Vegetable production can be enhanced by imparting training to the vegetable growers in specific areas enabling them to increase their net income. Lack of sufficient training and low technical efficiency are some common barriers in low productivity of vegetables. The present study was conducted in peri-urban areas of Faisalabad to assess the training needs of vegetable growers. The Faisalabad Bypass which is almost 15-20 km away from the main city was considered as the end point of peri-urban area, therefore, the areas falling between Faisalabad city and Bypass were selected for the study. A well-structured interview schedule was designed to collect data from randomly selected 208 vegetable growers, growing the major vegetables i.e. cauliflower, turnip and radish. The collected data were analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to derive conclusions and formulate recommendations. The findings reveal that an overwhelming majority (87.0%) of the respondents was growing vegetables for both commercial and domestic purpose. Awareness was found less in all types of selected vegetables for fertilizer application followed by insect/pest/disease identification and management. All the respondents were aware about the AO and FA of their area and an overwhelming majority (93.8%) reported the fortnightly visit of AO and FA. Group discussion, field trips and use of audio-visual aids were the most effective training methods used by EFS and were ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd with mean values of 3.62, 3.50 and 3.47, respectively. Slightly less than half (47.1%) of respondents attended only one training during past year and the areas where trainings were useful were sowing time, nursery raising and sowing methods with mean values 4.08, 3.65 and 3.39, respectively. Cooperation and self confidence of trainers were ranked 1st and 2nd with mean values 4.10 and 3.68, respectively while clarity and compatibility of training contents was ranked 1st and 2nd with mean value of 4.22 and 3.98, respectively. Major weaknesses of trainings were unavailability of literature to all farmers and bad condition of training equipment and were ranked 1st and 2nd with mean values 3.39 and 3.35, respectively. The prominent information gap areas in cauliflower, turnip and radish production were fertilizer application, insect/pest/disease management and seed rate falling in high and medium category. Lack of interest on the part of trainers was the major constraining factor while busy schedule was the top constraining factor on the part of trainees. Respondents reported inappropriate demonstration facilities and unavailability of reference material a leading constraining factor in their capacity building. On the basis of research findings it was recommended that research departments should develop insect/pest/disease resistant varieties. There should be collaboration between public sector extension and In-service training institutes for better training of EFS.2020-11-04T15:12:30+00:00https://www.journals.esciencepress.net/index.php/IJAE/thesis/view/154FUTURE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING FARMER INCOME2018-08-24T12:26:40+00:00Perala NikithaAgricultural Extension, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, India<br />August, 2018<br /><br />GDP Contribution of Agriculture is sliding down however, still more than 60% of the population depends on agriculture & allied sectors. There are over 135 million farm families, average size of farm holdings being 1.33 ha. Around 60% cropped area would continue to be rainfed, which demands innovative development strategies. Agricultural Extension is one of the crucial inputs to address these issues with focus on improving performance of existing extension system in operation hence enhanced research backstopping to extension and feedback based extension strategies are essential. Extension Strategies must focus on producer aggregates at various levels & provide strong forward linkages. Field extension functionaries from agriculture and line departments would need to be adequately oriented in promotion of crucial technologies like Soil health management, IPM, INM, Microbial applications, Climate Change, especially adaptation strategies, farm mechanization, secondary agriculture, IUE & WUE, projectized extension , etc. This approach would benefit the farmers in judicious input use and enhancing farm incomes. Future extension strategies must address areas having high yield potentials but performing at lower levels, follow sequential extension process equilibrium such as: Technology Validation (TV), working out technology Options (TOs), Technology Dissemination, Participatory Processes & obtaining feedback for further improvement. There is need to organize large number of Farm Field Schools/ Farmer Organization (may be one per Block) in potential areas. Extension functionaries must identify potential areas for export opportunities (for progressive farmers) and involve processing and export industries in such assessments. Promotion of forward linkages through appropriate extension interventions and enhancing outreach to small and marginal farmers would be essential. Hence, focus on social dynamics would be required in future strategies. It must draw strengths from international extension systems and private sector experiences (learning from companies, corporate sectors, multi-nationals, Non - Government Agencies, Entrepreneurs, Farmer Professionals and Para professionals & Outreach Programmes of Research Organizations). This would enable extension contents and delivery move on improved & dynamic mode as per need of the situation. Improving the accessibility and availability of information and communication technologies via social media using enhanced ICT tools and promoting farmer knowledge groups helps in better addressal of farmers problems and improved decision support system related to agriculture and allied sectors, Market led extension strategies by encouraging farm entrepreneurs. There is need to orient the services in favour of women farmers where customized training & capacity building modules need to be operated as per the needs of the farm women at a micro level. Farm Sector offers better price realization opportunities provided the production and the market linkages are streamlined. Specific strategies like processing and value addition, sustained supplies to processing units, crop diversification, empowered farmer groups, re-oriented extension services, producer organizations, growers associations etc would certainly enable the producers to enhance their farm incomes. Hence, information augmentation, socio economic considerations and dissemination strategies are important for effective extension performance.2018-08-24T12:26:40+00:00https://www.journals.esciencepress.net/index.php/IJAE/thesis/view/152EFFECT OF AN INTEGRATED AGRICULTURE-NUTRITION EXTENSION PROGRAM ON NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AND DIETARY DIVERSITY OF FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN CENTRAL UGANDA2018-08-06T18:19:45+00:00Elizabeth AsiimweExtension and Innovation Studies, Makerere University<br />August, 2018<br /><br /><a href="http://makir.mak.ac.ug/handle/10570/6140">Full text (external site)</a><br /><br />Most studies which have measured the effect of nutrition education on change in nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity have not gone further to identify factors that influence the change. Using an integrated nutrition-agriculture extension program as a case, this study assessed the effect of the program on nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity; and determined factors that influence the change in nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity of targeted farmers and households respectively in Central Uganda. The effect was measured by comparing nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity in intervention and non-intervention areas. Data were collected from 206 rural farmers and analyzed using frequencies, independent sample t-tests and multiple linear regression. Respondents in the intervention area had higher nutrition knowledge scores than those in the non-intervention area (mean knowledge=6.16±1.70 versus 4.34±1.02 respectively, p < .01); and households in the intervention area consumed more diverse diets than their counterparts in the non-intervention area (mean HDDS=8.6±1.91 versus 7.2±1.42 respectively, p < .01). Nutrition knowledge was significantly influenced by age, sex of individual that received training and perception of training materials as attractive. On the other hand, dietary diversity was significantly influenced by nutrition knowledge, number of age groups in the household, access to multiple sources of nutrition information and sex of individual that received training. Although males who were trained acquired higher nutrition knowledge scores, dietary diversity in their households was low. Access to multiple sources of nutrition information did not influence nutrition knowledge but had a negative influence on household dietary diversity. If agricultural extension is to impact nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity, training materials and messages should be designed to suit the needs of men and women in various age groups, and pluralistic extension systems should establish mechanisms for harmonization of nutrition messages so as to enhance application by farmers.2018-08-06T18:19:45+00:00