Satisfaction of Low Country vegetable farmers about the agricultural extension service in Sri Lanka
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
In Sri Lanka public sector organizations are the major party of extension delivery. The agricultural extension service in Sri Lanka was a greater service offering to all type of the farmers equally, irrespective of scale of farming. This service was started with the establishment of Department of Agriculture (DOA). The service was given by the DOA, agricultural research institutions and other agricultural related institutions in the state sector as public commodity. But this has reached to the critical stage. Large sum of public funds need to maintain and conduct the service. Due to the shortage of funds, government has to continue this service under big pressure. In this situation, due to lack of efficiency, effectiveness and not devoting sufficiently to the agriculture development of country government extension services are criticized as wasting public money (Mahaliyanarachchi, 2002)
This study was completed to find the satisfaction of low- country vegetable farmers on agriculture extension service in Sri Lanka. Objectives of the study were to determine satisfaction of farmers about the extension services, investigate factors which affect the satisfaction of farmers and find out extension needs of low- country vegetable farmers.
Materials and methodology
This study was conducted in Anuradhapura and Monaragala districts where high productions of low- country vegetables are taken place throughout the year. Sample size was 200 farmers. Data were gathered using semi structured questionnaire. Semi- structured questionnaire was consisted to sought information on demographic characteristics of farmer (age, gender, education level, marital status etc.), information related farm (land extent, type of labour etc), information related to the extension service (frequency of the visit by the extension agent, methods of extension, teaching skills of the agent, communication skills of the agent and satisfaction of the farmers etc.)
Independent variables which were used to test hypotheses were subjected to judge by the respondents. The statement on a 5 point Likert scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Undecided (U), Disagree (D) Strongly Disagree (SA) and scores of 5, 4,3,2,1 were assigned to the corresponding responses for positive statement and the reversed scores for the negative statements. Using the minimum score of (1) and maximum score of (5): Dependent variable was Satisfaction of farmers: Satisfaction is the dependent variable which was inquired from the respondents directly. Farmers were asked to mention overall satisfaction about extension service.
(1) Satisfied (2) Not Satisfied.
Data collection was done by the researcher. Personal interview was used to collect data according to the semi structured questionnaire. Sampled farmers of two districts were interviewed through field survey. Collected data were arranged, coded and analyzed through the use of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) computer programme. Both descriptive
and inferential statistical tools were used to analyze the data.Descriptive statistical tools used were frequency counts, percentages and mean.Inferential statistical tool was used to test the hypotheses of the study.Chi-squire test was used to measure the significant relationship between independent variables in the model and dependent variable in the model.
Logistic Regression Analysis used to test amount of variability of the dependent variables that could be explained by the independent variables. The regression coefficients identified and estimated how variable input included in the model best explained the variability on output.
Description
Keywords
Agriculture, Export Agriculture, Crop Production, Vegetable Cultivation