Homegardens are traditional agroforestry system with a unique structure and function. It is the predominant farming system in Kerala. The study was undertaken in Thiruvananthapuram district covering a sample of 100 homegardens farmers from all the five agro-ecological units with an aim to assess the level of adoption of selected Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) production practices in homegardens. Results of the study identified that majority of the farmers (63%) belonged to medium level of adoption. Adoption quotient was worked out and compared with standard Rogers curve. Correlation analysis of the independent variables with the dependent variable viz., level of adoption indicated that age, farming experience, knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media contribution, livestock possession and extension contribution had direct significant effect on level of adoption of KAU production practices by homegarden farmers

Allan Thomas

N. Kishore Kumar

Reeba Jacob

Journal of Extension Education

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Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home Gardens

Jacob, Reeba

Thomas, Allan

Kishore Kumar, N.

Journal of Extension EducationVol. 27  No. 2,  20151-PG Scholar, 2- Asst. Professor and 3- Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture,Vellayani, KAU.Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home GardensReeba Jacob1, Allan Thomas2 and N. Kishore Kumar3Homegardens are traditional agroforestry system with a unique structure and function.It is the predominant farming system in Kerala. The study was undertaken inThiruvananthapuram district covering a sample of 100 homegardens farmers from all thefive agro-ecological units with an aim to assess the level of adoption of selected KeralaAgricultural University (KAU) production practices in homegardens. Results of the studyidentified that majority of the farmers (63%) belonged to medium level of adoption. Adoptionquotient was worked out and compared with standard Rogers curve.  Correlation analysisof the independent variables with the dependent variable viz., level of adoption indicatedthat  age, farming experience, knowledge, evaluative perception, mass media contribution,livestock possession and extension contribution had direct significant effect on level ofadoption of KAU production practices by homegarden farmers.Kerala state, which accounts for a mere1.18 per cent of the total land area ofIndia, accommodates 3.1 per cent of theIndian population. The state spreads over anarea of 38,863 Km2 has a population densityof 860 people per Km2. The per capita size ofthe farm holding works out to be less thanone hectare. Increased population pressure,emerging nucleotide family structure anddecreased area under agriculture has resultedin fragmentation of land area which makeshomegarden the ‘next generation farmingsystem’ unique. Intensive farming activitiesare undertaken by farmers on the limited areain order to obtain food, fuel, fodder, timberand cash from the sale of produce.Homegardens are traditional agroforestrysystems with complex structure and multiplefunctions where there is constant interactionand interrelation between variouscomponents.  This type of farming systemenables the farmers to cultivate annual andperennial crops in available limited space tosatisfy the basic home requirement andmarket preferences if surplus is produced.Ability of a country to attain the fullpotential of agricultural production dependsupon the innovativeness and adoption of newtechnology by the stakeholders of agriculture.The capacity of farmers is based on theavailability of various production technologies.A large number of need based agriculturalproduction technologies have been developedby KAU. Generation, transfer and adoption ofthese developed technologies is influenced bythe needs of farmers. The relevance ofgenerated and disseminated technologiesshould be probed for further research in orderto bridge the technology gaps. Hence thepresent study was undertaken with theobjective to measure the level of adoption ofKAU technologies for the production practicesin homegardens and to assess the relationshipJournal of Extension Education5464between adoption quotient and the selectedindependent variables.METHODOLOGYThe study was conducted inThiruvananthapuram district owing to the widevariability in the structure and croppingpattern of homegarden systems in the southernzone of Kerala which is predominantly theerstwhile Travancore state. 20 homegardenfarmers with holding size not less than 0.1 hawere selected through simple random samplingfrom each of the 5 Agro Ecological Units (AEU)thus making a sample size of 100.Data were collected using a well-structuredinterview cum data enumeration scheduleprepared for the purpose. A draft interviewschedule was prepared for conducting a pilotstudy in a non sample area and suitablemodifications were made in the final dataenumeration schedule which was finallyadministered to the homegarden farmers bythe researcher and the responses wererecorded at the time of interview.Level of adoption of various productionpractices were calculated using the generalform:quotient of various practices. The originalnumerical data was given as extend ofadoption (ei) for quantifiable data like seedrate, pit size, spacing, quantity of fertilizersapplied etc and the recommended practice wasconsidered as the potentiality of adoption ofthat practice(pi). A few practices weremeasured in terms of different stages ofadoption. Level of adoption of each farmer wasindicated on a 15 point adoption scale. Theresponse categories and weighted values werenon- adoption (0), awareness (1), interest (3),evaluation (5), trial (10) and adoption (15). Forexample, if the farmer was placed in theevaluation stage his extend of adoption (ei)will be 5 and the potentiality of the adoption(pi) will be the maximum possible score i.e.15.Practices which could not be quantifiedwere scored dichotomously as ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ withthe maximum possible score ‘1’ for ‘Yes’ and‘0’ for the response ‘No’. If the practice is notfollowed by the farmer, the response will be‘No’ and the extent of adoption (ei) will be ‘0’and potentiality of adoption will be ‘1’.After calculating the adoption quotient forthe various production practices the adopterswere categorised and compared with thestandard Rogers curve. The collected data werescored, tabulated and analysed using differentstatistical methods like mean, frequency,percentage analysis and correlation analysis.FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONStudy was aimed to categorise homegardenfarmers into different level of adoption viz.,high, medium and low category of adoption.n ei∑ pi X 100i=1NAQ=Where,AQ= Adoption quotientei = Extent of adoption of each practicepi = Potentiality of adoption of each practiceN  = Total number of practices selected.Different scoring procedures wereundertaken for measuring the adoption5465Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home GardensThe distribution of homegarden respondentsbased on extent of adoption is presented intable 1.Table 1 revealed that majority of farmers(63%) belong to medium category of adoptionfollowed by 20 per cent of farmers comingunder high category of adoption and 17 percent of farmers under low category of adoptionAn attempt was made to categorise thehomegarden respondents to different adopterTable 1.Distribution of Respondents  Based on the Extent of Adoption ofScientific Production Practices in Homegardens N=100Sl.No. Category Class limits No. %1. High (Mean + Standard deviation) >71.60 20 202. Medium (Between mean and Standard Deviation) 31.16– 71.60 63 633. Low (Mean – Standard Deviation) <31.16 17 17categories as put forward by Rogers, 1982.After identifying the level of adoption, adoptionquotient (AQ) was delineated using measuresof mean and standard deviation. The obtainedcurve was compared with standard Rogerscurve. The distribution on homegardenrespondents into different adopter categoriesare shown in Fig. 1.Adopter categorisation of homegardenrespondents shown in Fig. 1 revealed thatthere are no innovators in homegardens butthe percentage of early adopters (17%) ishigher than the standard Rogers curve whichwas only 13.5 per cent. Percentage of earlymajority is 34 per cent which is equivalent tothat of standard normal curve which pointstowards the fact that 51 per cent of thehomegarden respondents are fairly adoptingKAU production technology practices. Thoughthe respondents coming under early majorityare less that Rogers curve i.e 29 per cent, thepercentage of laggards is 20 per cent whichshould be 16 per cent according to Rogersinnovation curve. The findings indicate thatthere is a need for effective and meaning fullextension advisory and service supports sothat the percentage of laggards and latemajority can be further reduced which willinvariably improve the percentage ofrespondents either under early majority, earlyadopter or innovators. Thus the extent ofadoption of KAU production practices can beimproved. The reason for the absence ofinnovators in the overall adoption curve couldbe due the extreme values assigned to thedifferent and multiple selected productionpractices by the 100 respondents for sevendifferent crops.In order to analyse the influence ofindependent variables on extent of adoptionof farmers simple correlation analysis wasdone. Correlation results between extent ofadoption of scientific production   practicesby homegarden respondents and theJournal of Extension Education5466independent variables are shown in table 2.The results of correlation analysis whichis presented in table 2 reveals that out of 13independent variables seven variables showedpositive and significant correlation with extendof adoption of scientific production practices.Variables namely age, farming experience,knowledge, evaluative perception, mass mediacontribution and livestock possession weresignificantly related to extend of adoptionirrespective of crop or practices at one per centlevel of probability and extension contributionwas significant at five per cent level ofprobability. Hence it is inferred that all theseven variables mentioned above are directlyinfluencing the adoption of scientificproduction practices or technologies inhomegardens.Age, knowledge and farming experienceshowed a positive significance to the level ofadoption. It can be inferred that as ageincreases farming experience increases andhence it directly influences the knowledge levelof the farmer. The higher level of educationshows the developed educational system inthe state and the literacy rate of people in the** - Significant at 1 per cent level; *- Significant at 5 per cent levelVariable Independent variable rX1 Age 0.271**X2 Education -0.189X3 Occupation 0.099X4 Effective homegarden area -0.123X5 Family size -0.035X6 Farming experience 0.264**X7 Rational orientation -0.099X8 Irrigation potential 0.168X9 Knowledge 0.516**X10 Evaluative perception 0.426**X11 Mass media contribution 0.295**X12 Extension contribution 0.210*X13 Livestock possession 0.284**Table 2.Correlation Results between Extent of Adoption of Scientific Production Practices byHomegarden Respondents and the Independent Variables5467Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home Gardenssample. Majority of the homegarden farmershad high level of evaluative perception whichstates that farmers are following practices likemulching, resource recycling, judicious useof external inputs, soil and water conservationpractices, use of ITK practices, etc., in theirfarm which aids in maintaining sustainabilityof homegardens.Mass media or the information supportto the farmers can increase the level ofadoption of scientific production practices.CONCLUSIONThe study which was conducted to identifythe level of adoption of KAU productiontechnology in homegardens revealed that 63per cent of the farmers belong to mediumcategory of adoption. On categorizing andcomparing the farmers to different adoptercategories as explained by Rogers (1982) it wasfound that 17 per cent of respondents fell inthe category of early adopters which washigher than that of standard Rogers’s value(13.5%) and 29 per cent of respondents fellunder the category of late majority that waslower than that of standard Rogers’s value(34%). The findings indicates there is a needfor effective and meaningful extensionadvisory and service supports particularlyfocusing on adopter categories viz., laggardsand late majority which will enable improvedadoption. Also, it will indirectly help othercategories as well, for further adoption. Thusthe extent of overall adoption of KAUproduction practices can be still improved. Thestudy thus validate that rapid technologyprogress and the increased rate ofobsolescence of technologies, necessitate notonly technology generation, but also, itsdissemination and adoption. Thus for anyplanning process in agricultural extensionprogrammes, aimed for the socio-economicprosperity of the homegarden farmingcommunity, analyzing technology adoptionbecomes imperative.contribution has positive influence on level ofadoption and it means that for easydissemination of technology to farmersdifferent mass media and information sourcesshould be utilized to the maximum so as toincrease the level of adoption. The wide rangeof technology be it visual or multimedia mighthave an influence in their adoption and hencethe variable mass media or the otherinformation support services had a positiveand significant relationship with level ofadoption of homegarden farmers. Homegardenfarmers consider homegardening as a sourceof income in addition to their other vocations.The extension contribution showed a positivesignificance to the level of adoption and animprovement in the extension services offeredFig 1. Distribution of homegardenrespondents into adopter categories

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Analyzing Technology Adoption - The Case of Kerala Home Gardens

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