Relationship between profile of extension functionaries and their perception towards crop pest surveillance and advisory project

Abstract

The present study was conducted in Palam, Pathri, Selu, Sonpeth, Manwat, Gangakhed, Parbhani, Purna, Jintur tahsils of Parbhani district from Marathwada region of Maharashtra state, with an objective to study the Perception of extension functionaries towards Crop Pest Surveillance and Advisory Project. Total nine tahsils were selected for research study. Fifteen respondents from each tahsil were selected randomly to comprise a sample of 135 respondents. One short case study method of ex-post-facto medium research design was adopted for this study.Findings revealed that a majority (68.15%) of the respondents belonged to the middle age group, and most exhibited medium levels of job satisfaction (70.37%) and job stress (65.93%). A large portion (82.96%) had attended 2-3 training programs. Notably, 36.30% of respondents displayed low innovativeness, and 94.07% were responsible for 1 to 9 villages. Nearly half of the respondents had a medium level of knowledge (49.63%) and held a Diploma or GTC qualification (46.67%). Over half (54.07%) had 3 to 15 years of experience, and 73.33% had a medium level of scientific orientation. Additionally, 59.26% of respondents had moderate sources of information, and over 60% had a moderate perception towards CROPSAP. Correlation analysis indicated that variables such as training received, innovativeness, scientific orientation, and sources of information had a positive and significant relationship with perception. Variables like job satisfaction, work area, knowledge, and professional qualification showed a positive and highly significant correlation. Conversely, age and years of experience had a positive but non-significant relationship with perception, while job stress exhibited a negative and significant correlation.