ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL CONTACT METHODS IN DISSEMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES
Amir Khatam*, Sher Muhammad, and Ijaz Ashraf**
ABSTRACT
The present study was conducted in 2010. For this purpose, seven districts from the central region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Charsadda, Hangu, Kohat, Mardan, Nowshera, Peshawar and Swabi were selected. Data were collected on various aspects of individual contact methods in diffusion of agricultural technologies from 280 randomly selected farmer respondents. Researchers collected the data with the help of a pretested and validated interview schedule using survey technique. The results show that majority of the farmer respondents is aware of the farm visits (66.43%), demonstrations being conducted (62.50%) and home visits made by the extension staff (60.71%) as extension methods for dissemination of agricultural technologies among the farming community, whereas only 31.78% and 22.85% of the farmer respondents are aware of the office call and telephone calls, respectively, for diffusion of information regarding latest agricultural technologies. However, awareness regarding personal letters as an extension method among the farming community was proved as the lowest (18.93%) entity in the study area. The extent of the use of individual contact methods namely farm visits, demonstrations, home visits and office call bearing mean st nd rd values 2.85, 2.81, 2.79 and 2.68 , respectively were ranked as 1 , 2 , 3 and th 4 , respectively. Similarly, the mean values of the extent of the use of telephone calls and personal letters being used for diffusion of agricultural technologies among the farming community were 2.49 and 2.45 and th th ranked as 5 and 6 in order of precedence, respectively. It is therefore, suggested that farm visits, demonstrations and home visits may be used for diffusion of the latest agricultural technologies among the farming community to increase production of crops and thus improve living standard of the people.
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