Attitude of Farm Women towards Indigenous Technology regarding agriculture

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1 Attitude of Farm Women towards Indigenous Technology regarding agriculture D.S.Bhati and Seema Jasuja K.V. K., Sriganganagar (S.K. Rajasthan Agricultural University) , Rajasthan Abstract: An effort was made to develop a scale to measure the attitude of farm women towards traditional agricultural practices. For measuring the attitude of farm women towards TAPs, a scale was developed by the investigator in light of the suggestions of the experts. Most of the respondents had favourable attitude towards traditional agricultural practices whereas 6.00 percent of farm women had unfavourable attitude and only 3.33 percent farm women had most favorable attitude towards traditional agricultural practices which indicate that farm women still had still faith in applicability of these generation-old farm practices as these are according to their sociocultural domain of living, raised by the means of indigenous research. They considered these practices as their part of life, which ultimately reinforces their favourable attitude towards these traditional agricultural practices. Key words: Attitude, Traditional Agricultural practices. Introduction: At the onset of the 21st century, the world faces a tremendous diversity of global challenges. On the developmental front one of these challenges is of institutionalization of sustainability. In the context of agricultural development, a new agenda has come up for achieving the objectives of generation and number of population residence as well as employment wise. Indian farmer has their deep roots in knowing what works in their farms, even local agricultural schools can not teach such knowledge because of its vast extent and its wide range of variations [5]. Since last two decades, an increasing number of scientists have moved towards dissemination of economically feasible, analyzing the consequences of modern and socially acceptable and environmentally sound scientific development efforts and from technologies that refers to the locality. Indian eighty s the appreciation for traditional agriculture scene is spread over the major area of the country and involves an overwhelming wisdom, which are prevalent in the society since time memorial, gained currency globally. 83

2 Developing countries like ours have a reservoir of indigenous knowledge which may certainly prove to be more valuable to all of us in reorganization of our development efforts towards nation s self sufficiency. Being an agriculture dependant country, in India, our developmental efforts are concentrated around transforming traditional agriculture technology to a way to modern technology but the potentiality of traditional agriculture is increasingly being recognized during last few years. Developing countries have a valuable but largely untapped reservoir of indigenous agricultural knowledge. [7]. Traditional agriculture is normally thought to be that collection of practices which were centuries old and used till modern agriculture being displacing it with its scientific basis but traditional agriculture is a universal package of practices, a product of way of thinking, way of living, a culture. Its aim was the satisfaction of the basic needs of the surrounding community, not the luxuriant wants of distant region. Such knowledge or experiences have been passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth, which are commonly known as Traditional Agricultural Practices. The terms Indigenous is often interchangeably used with Traditional or Local [1]. Thus, traditional agricultural knowledge is generated by the local people with their own experiences and experimentation to meet their needs and which is sustainable. This knowledge is tightly interwoven with their beliefs, norms and culture so that it could maintain its identity. Traditional agriculture knowledge has several characteristics like it has minimum risk factor; heavy reliance on genetic and physical diversity; exploits optimum utilization of local resources; environmentally healthy; readily available and easily understandable. Further it is labor intensive, fits into local farming system and adaptable to meet multipurpose community needs, based on cultural values of the community; is attested by evidence from trustworthy sources and had good culinary quality Although the traditional practices or knowledge are the outcomes of daily experiences of local people, they are still in vague and not have any scientifically supported framework. If these ages old practices are integrated with scientifically acceptable basis, then it will definitely result in making the practices convincing and credible to the rural people especially to the farming community. So there is an urgent need to safeguard and reaffirm traditional agricultural practices among farm women and encouraging 84

3 them to adopt scientifically valid and acceptable traditional practices which are need based, better problem solving, locally available, more intelligible and credible to the rural clientele. Therefore, much work has to be done to locate, document and disseminate traditional knowledge so that it can become part of body of sustainable development. As there is common proverb in the African society When a knowledgeable old person dies, a whole library disappears, [2], so unless we make urgent and quicker efforts to track this valuable knowledge, it will be lost soon, not to be regained at any cost. With these considerations in mind, the present investigation has been undertaken to develop a scale to measure the attitude of farm women towards traditional agricultural practices and to measure the attitude of farm women towards various traditional agricultural practices.materials and Methods: The present research was conducted in Bikaner district of Rajasthan. In the present study, efforts have been made to determine the attitude of farm women towards traditional agricultural practices. Attitudets defined by Thurstone (1928) is The degree of positive or negative effect associated with some psychological object. In the context of present research, the psychological object is the feeling about traditional agricultural practices followed by farm women, which differ with respect to positive or negative effect. For the measurement of attitude, Likert s method of summated ratings of attitude measurement was used in this study, because it requires less number of judges to start with and also less time consuming. A five point continuum of attitude measurement, ranging from Strongly agree, Agree Undecided, Disagree and Strongly disagree with a scoring of 5,4,3,2 and 1 was assigned respectively. If the item was a positive one, scores were 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for respective categories. If the item was a negative one, the scoring system was reversed. The score for an individual respondent on the scale was computed by summing the weights of the individual items. In this way the frequency distribution of scores based on the responses to all statements was obtained. The 25 percent (15) of the subjects with the highest total scores and also 25 percent (15) of the subjects with the lowest total scores were taken assuming that these two groups were provided criterion groups in terms of which to evaluate the individual statement [3]. For evaluating the responses of high and low groups to the individual statement, critical ratio value (t-value) was worked out [3]. These were arranged in descending order. 85

4 The t-value for 38 statements, out of 44 statements was found significant (more than 1.75) at 5 percent level of probability so the final scale consisted of 38 statements. There were almost equal numbers of positive and negative statements in the final scale. To test the reliability, repeat-test or test-retest technique was used. The value of the correlation co-efficient was found to be 0.962, which was highly significant showing the reliability of the scale (Table -1). Table- 1 The critical ratio values of the attitudinal statements for measuring the attitude of farm women towards traditional agricultural practices N = 60 S.No. Attitudinal Statements Critical Ratio Value (CRV) 1 Traditional agricultural practices help in developing confidence while 2.86 using it for agricultural operations. 2 The traditional agricultural practices are location specific The traditional agricultural practices are compatible with socio-cultural 2.79 conditions. 4 Traditional agricultural practices are not profitable as modern 2.51 agricultural practices. 5 Traditional agricultural practices are easy to handle in all conditions Identification of current problems is impossible by traditional -1.37* agricultural practices. 7 Traditional agricultural practices provide perfect solutions to the local 2.5 problems. 8 Traditional agricultural practices are useless in identifying latest 3.21 problems. 9 It is difficult to get technical guidance by traditional agricultural 4.27 knowledge. 10 For higher adoption, traditional agricultural practices need support 2.35 from research findings. 11 The traditional agricultural practices are relatively less effective in 4.91 betterment of community. 12 The traditional agricultural practices are less believable * 13 The traditional agricultural practices are more prevalent in rural areas 1.53* even these have not any scientific logic. 14 The traditional agricultural practices are more effective in promoting 8.88 community welfare. 15 The traditional agricultural practices are most trust-worthy The traditional agricultural practices are more labour intensive The results of traditional agricultural practices are less ensured as these 3.92 are evolved by trial and error method. 18 The traditional agricultural practices require more investment in terms of money

5 S.No. Attitudinal Statements Critical Ratio Value (CRV) 19 The application of traditional agricultural practices requires less labour The results of traditional agricultural practices are achieved very late The traditional agricultural system is more efficient than other 4.12 advanced programmes related to increased agricultural production. 22 Quicker outputs can be obtained by application of traditional 3.23 agricultural Practices. 23 The traditional agricultural practices produce ensured results as these 2.91 are experientially generated. 24 The adoption of traditional agricultural practices requires lesser efforts 3.28 in transfer of technology by extension agency. 25 The traditional agricultural practices are utilized with little persuasion 2.92 than new farm technologies. 26 The traditional agricultural practices are well defined and visible to the 1.24* farm people. 27 The traditional agricultural practices are more time consuming * 28 The traditional agricultural practices give less return in relation to cost 2.71 involved. 29 Local resources can be utilized in implementation of traditional 3.39 agricultural practices. 30 Traditional agricultural practices are less risk bearing than improved 2.24 practices. 31 The traditional agricultural system can upgrade the level of agricultural 2.76 production. 32 More external resources are required for application of traditional 3.22 agricultural practices. 33 The traditional agricultural practices involve more energy expenditure Farm women require less motivation regarding adoption of traditional 2.29 agricultural practices. 35 Traditional agricultural practices do not include the latest technological 4.82 changes. 36 The traditional agricultural practices can be applied only at small scale The traditional agricultural practices give lesser yields as compare to 2.08 modern practices. 38 The adoption rate of traditional agricultural practices is higher due to 2.88 its greater prevalence and awareness. 39 The outcomes of traditional agricultural practices are influenced by 2.72 natural conditions or hazards. 40 The traditional agricultural practices are eco-friendly The traditional agricultural practices have more applicability in the 3.29 locality than improved practices. 42 The traditional agricultural practices are directed towards qualitative 1.66* outputs than quantitative. 43 The traditional agricultural practices require less skill for its

6 S.No. Attitudinal Statements TECHNOFAME application. 44 Inputs required under traditional agricultural system are easily accessible. Statements having CRV less than 1.75 The content of the scale was developed from a large number of authentic sources and expert s opinion, books, journals etc. Hence it was assumed that the scores obtained by administering the attitude scale of this study will measure what was intended to measure. Further, the t-values were found significant for 38 statements which were finally selected, on the basis of which it was assumed that the scale was valid. The main aim to develop scale to measure the attitude was lies behind the fact the utilization of any practice or technology whether, it is modern or traditional by the end users, strictly depends upon their attitude towards that particular technology. A positive attitude towards traditional or indigenous farm technology can change the whole scenario and farm women can move towards the progressive agricultural practices. (Table-2) Critical Ratio Value (CRV) 2.11 path of sustainable agriculture. In nutshell, if we want to push up the adoption of scientifically acceptable traditional agricultural practices, we have to know the attitude of farm women towards these practices, so that we can channelize their favourable attitude not only to produce some beneficial results at their farms but to also enhance their utilization also. Results and Discussion: Out of 44 statements, t-values of 38 statements were found significant (more than 1.75) at 5 percent level of probability. Hence, the final attitude scale consists of 38 attitude statements. After going through the whole procedure of attitude scale construction, a final scale comprising of 38 attitude statements was ready for measurement of attitude of farm women towards traditional 88

7 Table -2 Final attitude scale for measuring the attitude of farm women towards traditional agricultural practices S.No. Attitudinal statements SA A UD DA SDA 1 Traditional agricultural practices help in developing confidence while using it for agricultural operations. 2 The traditional agricultural practices are location specific. 3 The traditional agricultural practices are compatible with socio-cultural conditions. 4 Traditional agricultural practices are not profitable as modern agricultural practices. 5 Traditional agricultural practices are easy to handle in all conditions Traditional agricultural practices provide perfect solutions to the local problems. 7 Traditional agricultural practices are useless in identifying latest problems. 8 It is difficult to get technical guidance by traditional agricultural knowledge. 9 For higher adoption, traditional agricultural practices need support from research findings. 10 The traditional agricultural practices are relatively less effective in betterment of community. 11 The traditional agricultural practices are more effective in promoting community welfare. 12 The traditional agricultural practices are most trustworthy The traditional agricultural practices are more labour intensive 14 The results of traditional agricultural practices are less ensured as these are evolved by trial and error method. 15 The traditional agricultural practices require more investment in terms of money. 16 The application of traditional agricultural practices requires less labour. 17 The results of traditional agricultural practices are achieved very late. 18 The traditional agricultural system is more efficient than other advance programmes related to increased agricultural production. 19 Quicker outputs can be obtained by application of traditional agricultural practices. 20 The traditional agricultural practices produce ensured results as these are experientially generated

8 S.No. Attitudinal statements SA A UD DA SDA 21 The adoption of traditional agricultural practices requires lesser efforts in transfer of technology by extension agency. 22 The traditional agricultural practices are utilized with little persuasion than new farm technology. 23 The traditional agricultural practices give less return in relation to cost involved. 24 Local resources can be utilized in implementation of traditional practices. 25 Traditional agricultural practices are less risk bearing than improved practices. 26 The traditional agricultural system can upgrade the level of agricultural production. 27 More external resources are required for application of traditional agricultural practices. 28 The traditional agricultural practices involve more energy expenditure. 29 Farm women require less motivation regarding adoption of traditional agricultural practices. 30 Traditional agricultural practices do not include the latest technological changes. 31 The traditional agricultural practices can be applied only at small scale. 32 The traditional agricultural practices give lesser yields as compare to modern practices. 33 The adoption rate of traditional agricultural practices is higher due to its greater prevalence and awareness The outcomes of traditional agricultural practices are influenced by natural conditions or hazards The traditional agricultural practices are eco-friendly The traditional agricultural practices have more applicability in the locality than improved practices The traditional agricultural practices require less skill for its application. 38 Inputs required under traditional agricultural system are easily accessible SA= Strongly agree A= Agree UD= Undecided DA=Disagree SDA=Strongly disagree 90

9 Measurement of attitude of farm women towards traditional agricultural practices: The main aim of construction of attitude scale was to measure the attitude of farm women regarding traditional agricultural practices. Scale was administered to the selected 150 farm women respondents. The total attitude score of each respondent on the attitude scale was obtained by adding the score of all individual items/statements of the attitude scale. The lowest and the highest score that a respondent could obtain on the scale were 38 and 190, respectively. The range of the total attitude score obtained by the respondents in the present study varied from 102 to 187.The mean attitude score for each respondent was calculated by adding the scores of all the 38 attitude statements and dividing the total score by the total number of statements. The overall mean score of the respondents was found to be Based on the attitude score obtained by the respondents, the standard deviation (S.D.) and mean score were calculated. On the basis of mean score and standard deviation, the attitude of respondents was classified into three levels, namely Most favourable, Favourable and Unfavourable as follows: (i) The respondents who obtained the attitude score more than were classified as having Most favourable attitude towards traditional agricultural practices. (ii) The respondents who obtained the attitude score from and were categorized into having Favourable attitude towards traditional agricultural practices. (iii)the respondents who obtained the attitude score below were classified as having Unfavourable attitude towards various traditional agricultural practices. 91

10 Table -3 TECHNOFAME Distribution of farm women respondents into different levels of attitude towards traditional agricultural practices N = 150 S.No. Type of Attitude Frequency Percentage 1 Most Favourable (scores above ) 2 Favourable (scores from to ) 3 Unfavourable (scores below ) Total X = σ = Fig.-1: Distribution of farm women respondents into different levels of attitude towards traditional agricultural practices 6.00% 3.33% 90.67% Most favourable Favourable Unfavourable It is evident from the Table-2 that most of the farm women had Favourable attitude towards indigenous farm practices as about percent farm women respondents had 92

11 favourable attitude, whereas only 3.33 percent had Most favourable and 6.00 percent respondents had Unfavourable attitude towards traditional agricultural practices. Thus, it can be deduced from the data that majority of the farm women had favourable attitude towards TAPs. The farm women had positive attitude regarding the age-old farm practices, might be due to the reason that these practices are deep rooted in their work culture and have become their way of life. The attitude is an important dimension, to chalk out the path of utilization or adoption of a particular indigenous farm technology. We should formulate the programmes which will reinforce the positive attitude of farm women towards these traditional agricultural practices agricultural heritage. Therefore, we should take into account the attitude of farm women, to popularize the scientifically acceptable traditional farm practices among farming community. The critical analysis of these attitude statements revealed that majority of the farm women respondents had positive attitude towards traditional agricultural practices which indicate that farm women still had still faith in applicability of these generation-old farm practices as these are according to their sociocultural domain of living, raised by the means of indigenous research. They considered these practices as their part of life, which ultimately reinforces their favourable attitude towards these traditional agricultural practices. for sustainability in agricultural production because the farm women had played and continue to play a key role in the conservation of basic agricultural practices with other basic life systems such as land, water, flora and fauna. They have protected the wealth of folk References: 1. Chithraichelvan R. (1994). Use of ITK in farming system research Proceedings of International workshop on Genetic resources, UPWARD, LOS Banos, Phillipines. 93

12 2. DCR Bulletin (1991). Why document indigenous knowledge: Edward, A.L. (1957). Techniques of Attitude scale construction. Appleton - Century - Crofts, New York. 4. Likert, R.A. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitude scales. Arch. Psychology, New York: Pereira, W. (1993). Tending the earth Earth care books, Bombay: Thurstone, L. L. (1928). The Measurement of values. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 7. Warren, D. M. (1993). Indigenous knowledge and development monitor. CIKARD, I(1): 7. 94