Relationship between socio-economic profile and knowledge of farmers regarding agro-met advisory services in Banaskantha District

Abstract

The study was carried out in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat during 2025 to assess the relationship between socio-economic profile and knowledge level of farmers regarding Agro-Met Advisory Services (AAS). Banaskantha district experiences significant climate and weather variability, profoundly impacting its agricultural practices. This region is characterised by semi-arid conditions, making it susceptible to both drought and sporadic heavy rainfall. The study was confined to an “Ex-post-facto” research design. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select representative respondents for the present investigation. Banaskantha district in two talukas was randomly selected, and in each selected taluka, five villages were selected randomly. From each of the selected villages, fifteen farmers were selected randomly to make the sample size of 150 farmers. Banaskantha district farmers had a medium to high level of knowledge with respect to age, education, landholding, social participation, source of information, extension participation, risk orientation, and scientific orientation. These findings that positive, with highly significant and farming experience, cropping pattern observed positively with significance. Other variables like annual income and occupation revealed positive but non-significant results. These relationships indicate the need to enhance efforts for increasing the practical use of advisory services in this research area.