physicochemical

SHIREESHA et.al.
conducting group discussions among respondents
by extension personnels. In order to make the
subject matter more realistic/lively it may be
necessary to introduce more appropriate illustrations
for communicating the latest innovative ideas better.
Group discussion should be conducted among the
respondents reading Vyavasaya Panchangam.
The respondents were classified in to three
categories based on the perception towards utility
of information provided in Vyavasaya Panchangam
presented in the Table 1. It could be indicated from
the Table 1 that majority of the respondents had
medium perception towards utility (55.8%), followed
by high (27.5 %) and low (16.7 %) of information as
also reported by Venkatesham (2002). The medium
level of perception on utility of the information can
be attributed due to the medium farming experience,
low knowledge and skills in adopting the new
agricultural practices and medium literacy level to
understand and use the information published in
Vyavasaya Panchangam. Majority of respondents
accepted that the information provided in Vyavasaya
Panchangam is timely, specific and need based
(Table 3).
The respondents were rated high utility on
the topics of vyavasaya panchangam like postal
addresses of research stations and extension
centres, description of damaged symptoms of pests
and diseases, particulars of seed rate, spacing and
seed treatment, content of traditional panchangam,
text on agricultural implements etc. And the least
rated topics are information on fisheries, post harvest
technology, compatibility charts for fertilizers and
pesticides, micro nutrient recommendations, Rabbitrearing
etc (Table 4).The high ranking on some of
the topics might be due to the usefulness of the
information to clear their doubts on the text provided
in the panchangam. The description on damage
symptoms of pests and diseases is useful to locate
the right pest to take appropriate remedy. There will
be direct applicability of the information provided on
seed rate, spacing and seed treatment. The farmers
could not able to understand the technicalities
behind the compatibility charts for fertilizers &
pesticides, post harvest technology and pisiculture.
As the area under pisiculture is restricted to only
some localities. The information on micronutrient
recommendation doesn’t have direct relevance to
the crops grown by the farmers hence they were
least rated.
Table1. Distribution of the respondents according to their Perception towards understandability
and 2 utility of Vyavasaya Panchangam
N=120
S.No Category Understandability Utility
Percentage Percentage
1. Low 21.70 16.70
2. Medium 55.00 55.80
3. High 23.30 27.50
TOTAL 100.00 100.00
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