I= ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATION INTERVENTIONS OF EXTENSION FIELD STAFF IN APPLE GROWING AREAS OF BALOCHISTAN (PAKISTAN)
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Title of Thesis
ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATION INTERVENTIONS OF EXTENSION FIELD STAFF IN APPLE GROWING AREAS OF BALOCHISTAN (PAKISTAN)
Author(s)
Badar Naseem Siddiqui
Institute/University/Department Details
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad
Session
2006
Subject
Agricultural Extension
Number of Pages
276
Keywords (Extracted from title, table of contents and abstract of thesis)
apple growing areas, balochistan, extension field staff, communication interventions, apple, temperate fruit

Abstract
Apple is an important temperate fruit of the world. In Pakistan, the best climatic conditions for quality apple production prevail in the province of Balochistan. However, the per hectare yield of apple fruit in the province is quite low as compared to that obtained in many other countries of the world The low yield may be attributed to non-adoption of recommended horticultural practices by the apple growers. This in turn, may relate to the communication interventions of extension field staff (EFS) with the growers, because EFS are mainly responsible for the dissemination of recommended horticultural practices by using different communication methods. This lack of effective communication between the EFS and apple growers seems to be one of the main causes of low per hectare yield of apple fruit in the province. The present study had. There fore, been planned to analyze communication interventions of EFS with apple growers to explore the reasons for non-adoption of recommended horticultural practices by the growers. For this purpose, the data were collected from 355 farmer respondents selected at random from five randomly selected tehsils of five main apple growing districts of Balochistan. In addition, all the EFS of the selected tehsils were also taken as study respondents. A fair majority (56.60%) of the farmer respondents was illiterate, most of the respondents (43.38%) had small land holdings (up to 5 acres), and majority (63.94%) of the respondents had an apple orchard of small size (up to 5 acres). As information source, fellow farmers were found satisfactory and were ranked 1 among other sources of information, EFS came under the fair category und were ranked 2nd. FAs and AOs were found weak in almost all the attributes essentially required by them as information sources. Farm & home visits appeared to be the most effective and widely used method among others and EFS were found satisfactory in using these methods. Most of the basic essentials of communication methods were not properly observed by the EFS. They were not competent in using various communication channels and they needed further training in almost all the method,' they used Lack of interest on the part of farmers, unawareness about the venue of extension activities and non-cooperation of EFS were the main reasons for low participation by farmers in extension activities. Only 57.2 and 36.1% of the farmer respondents knew the FAs and AOs respectively. Farmer’s participation in different extension activities was found low except farm & home visits. Most of the recommendations like improved varieties, system of layout, and application of fertilizers. Pruning method, chemical control measures against insect/pests and disease, and Phyto-sanitary measures were known to and adopted by a lesser number of the respondents. Important reasons for non-adoption of recommended horticultural practice were: lack of awareness & finance, shortage of irrigation water, and small land holdings. A large majority of the farmer respondents (79.2%) was getting yield up to 15,000kgs/acre as against the yield potential of 53, 280kgs/acre. There existed highly significant positive relationship of age with awareness and information exposure, Education was found to have highly significant positive relationship with awareness, information exposure and farmers' participation in extension activities. There existed highly significant positive relationship of farmers' participation with awareness, adoption and information exposure. Size of land holding showed highly significant und positive relationship with farmers' participation in extension activities while size of apple orchard reflected significant negative relationship with adoption.
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13425.63 KB
S. No. Chapter Title of the Chapters Page Size (KB)
1 0 Contents
504.53 KB
2 1 Introduction 1
520.22 KB
  1.1 Horticultural production in Pakistan 1
  1.2 Agricultural extension in Pakistan 3
  1.3 Agricultural extension in Balochistan 7
  1.4 Need for the project 8
  1.5 Objectives 12
  1.6 Assumptions 12
  1.7 Limitations 13
3 2 Review of Literature 14
1964.69 KB
  2.1 Introduction 14
  2.2 Competency level of extension field staff 14
  2.3 Acquaintance of farmers with extension field staff 19
  2.4 Communication contents 20
  2.5 Communication channels 23
  2.6 Farmers participation on extension activities 34
  2.7 Awareness and adoption of recommended horticultural practices 36
  2.8 Synthesis of review of literature 41
4 3 Materials and Methods 44
1412.62 KB
  3.1 Introduction 44
  3.2 Study area at a glance 44
  3.3 Selection of study area 65
  3.4 Research population 65
  3.5 Selection of sample for the study 65
  3.6 Procedure adopted for the selection of respondents 66
  3.7 Data collection 66
  3.8 Difficulties faced during data collection 70
  3.9 Analysis and reporting the data 71
5 4 Results and Discussion 73
5401.61 KB
  4.1 Introduction 73
  4.2 Field work respondents 144
  4.3 Observational data 163
  4.4 Relationship between dependent and independent variables 169
6 5 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations 179
792.17 KB
  5.1 Summary 179
  5.2 Conclusion 180
  5.3 Recommendations 195
7 6 Literature Cited 198
688.51 KB
8 7 Appendices 224
2481.06 KB