An assessment of group dynamics effectiveness, constraints and strategies for effective functioning of women farmer interest groups under ATMA

Abstract

Humans are inherently social beings who form groups to meet their biological, social, and economic needs. Since most human activities occur within group settings, understanding group formation and functioning is essential to assess their influence on members’ behaviour, motivation, and productivity. Group dynamics refers to the physical, moral, social, and economic forces that shape group performance. Farmers interest groups often emerge naturally based on shared characteristics such as caste, community, place of origin, or common activities, even before formal institutional interventions, thereby facilitating collective action and improved productivity. The present study was conducted in Navsari district of Gujarat state. A total of 120 members of Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) were selected from eight FIGs across four talukas. Standardized scales developed by earlier researchers were used to measure group dynamics effectiveness in line with the objectives of the study. Data were collected through personal interviews and analysed using appropriate statistical tools. The results showed that most FIG members exhibited high levels of participation, teamwork, interpersonal trust, achievement of FIG, interpersonal communication, group democracy and favourable attitudes towards FIGs. Medium levels of group cohesiveness and very high levels of group atmosphere, leadership, decision-making procedures and task functions were observed. Overall, 65.00 per cent of members had high group dynamics effectiveness, followed by 26.67 per cent with very high and 8.33 per cent with medium effectiveness. Excessive expectations of government and external support (92.50 per cent) emerged as the major constraint affecting effective group functioning, followed by personal and local issues, inadequate managerial experience, weak extension–farmer interaction and irregular meeting attendance. To address these constraints, respondents suggested more income-generating skill training, adequate financial support and subsidies to women beneficiaries and regular participation in group meetings.