Construction of knowledge test and measurement of beekeepers knowledge about beekeeping practices under NHM

Transcription

1 Costructo of kowledge test ad measuremet of beekeepers kowledge about beekeepg practces uder NHM Jaya Mehra 1, K. L. Dag ad Vapal Kumar Boyal 3 Abstract Beekeepg s a mportat compoet of agrculture ad rural developmet programmes may coutres. The role of beekeepg provdg utrtoal, ecoomc ad ecologcal securty to the rural commutes at the household level s a addtoal come geeratg actvty. Ths, beg a o-lad-based actvty, does ot compete wth other resource demadg compoets of farmg systems (FAO, 1990).Natoal Hortculture Msso was lauched the coutry May 005 as a cetrally sposored scheme to promote holstc growth of the hortculture sector through a area based regoally dfferetated strateges. Beekeepg vocato s popular uder ths scheme Kota dstrct of Rajastha. The preset vestgato was udertake to determe the actual kowledge level of Beekeepers about scetfc beekeepg practces uder NHM. To fd out the kowledge level of beekeepers a kowledge test was costructed. The preset study was udertake Kota dstrct of Rajastha. Total 151 beekeepers from 41 vllages of three pachayat samtes were tervewed for data for the study. The study dcated that majorty of the beekeepers (98.01 per cet) had hgh kowledge level about recommeded scetfc beekeepg practces. It was cocluded that beekeepers wth MPS had hgh kowledge level about extracto of hoey. Key words: kowledge, beekeepg, NHM 1. Itroducto Beekeepg ca add to the lvelhoods of may dfferet sectors wth a socety cludg vllages 1 Departmet of Hortculture, Govt. of Rajastha, Kota, Rajastha, Ida Departmet of Exteso Educato, MPUAT, Udapur, Rajastha, Ida 3 Career Pot Uversty, Kota, Rajastha, Ida 9 ad urba traders, carpeters who make hves ad stads, talors who make vels, clothg ad gloves ad those who make ad sell tools ad cotaers (Bradbear, 003). Beekeepg has the potetal to help may people crease ther come ad ther crop yelds.beekeepg s emergg as a very successful agrcultural practce for rural area based people less developed coutres maly due to ts ecoomc beefts from the products of ths practce (Kugoza 009).A cetrally sposored scheme called NHM whch Govermet of Ida cotrbutes 85 per cet ad 15 per cet s met out by the State Govermets. Ma objectves of Msso are: a) Ehace hortculture producto, mprove utrtoal securty ad come support to farm households. b) Promote, develop ad dssemate techologes for hortcultural developmet through seamless bledg of tradtoal wsdom ad moder scetfc kowledge. c) Create employmet geerato opportutes for sklled ad usklled persos, especally uemployed youth. The success of ay rural developmet programme depeds o level of kowledge about the programme ad kowledge provded through programme because kowledge s oe of the mportat compoet of behavour of huma begs. Oce kowledge s acqured, t produces chages the thkg process of a dvdual whch would lead to further chages the metal apttude ad results to hgh adopto of recommeded beekeepg practces easly ad quckly.

2 Keepg vew the study Costructo of kowledge test ad measuremet of beekeepers kowledge about beekeepg practces uder NHM was udertake wth specfc objectves:. To develop a stadardzed test for measurg the kowledge of beekeepers of NHM about beekeepg practces.. To measure the level of kowledge of beekeepers about scetfc beekeepg practces uder NHM.. Methodology.1 Locale of the research ad selecto of respodets The preset study was based o ex-post-facto research desg ad covered Kota dstrct of Rajastha to gve comprehesve pcture of adopto of beekeepg practces. The state of Rajastha cossts of 33 dstrcts, of whch, Kota s the dstrct where beekeepg professo s beg vetured 4 pachayat samtes. Out of fve pachayat samtes, Ladpura, Sagod ad Sultapur were selected for vestgato as these possessed cosderable populatos of beekeepers. Total 41 vllages were cluded for the preset vestgato o the bass of populato of beekeepers. The beekeepers were lmted umber for the year (151). Therefore, the study was coducted tervewg the whole populato of the beekeepers who had udergoe beekeepg all of the vllages of selected pachayat samtes durg the year The sze of the sample comprsed total 151 beekeepers. A stadardzed kowledge test was costructed for collecto of data from the beekeepers. The face-toface tervew techque was employed to obta factual respose from the respodets.. Costructo of kowledge test Costructo of approprate research tool s mportat step ay research edeavor. I ay type of research there s a eed of tool wth the help of whch each objectve uder questo ca be acheved. Keepg vew the sample ad objectves of the study, the persoal tervew schedule for beekeepers were prepared for data collecto. The persoal tervew techque was preferred over the others because ths techque provdes a drect stuato where the tervewer has a opportuty to expla the purpose ad sgfcace of the study, clarfy pots, remove doubts, ucertates ad motvate respodets to aswer questos carefully ad truthfully. Further, there s also surety of gettg cet-percet respose of the tervewee. A tervew schedule was costructed to collect the requred formato from the respodets related to varous scetfc practces of beekeepg of NHM. A kowledge test was developed to assess the level of kowledge of respodets as a result of NHM. A effort has bee made to develop a stadardzed test whch could be useful measurg the level of beekeepers kowledge regardg beekeepg practces of NHM scetfc maer. Eglsh ad Eglsh (1961) defed kowledge as a body of uderstood formato possessed by a dvdual or by a culture. Kowledge s totalty of uderstood formato possessed by a dvdual. A kowledge test has bee defed by Bloom et. al. (1955) as a test whch refers to those behavor ad test stuato whch emphaszed the rememberg by the recall of deas, materal or pheomea. For the purpose of preset study kowledge was operatoalsed as the amout of formato possessed ad uderstadg of the respodets regardg beekeepg of NHM. The procedure followed for developmet of the sad test s descrbed below: (a) Collecto of tems: The cotet of kowledge test s composed of questos, called tems. Items for the test were collected from dfferet sources such as lterature, feld exteso persoel, relevat specalsts ad persoal experece. They had lberty to add/ delete or modfy ay of the tems. After cosderg the opo of the experts, 9 tems were selected coverg all the kowledge aspects of beekeepg veture. Items selected were accordg to the level of kowledge ad uderstadg of the respodets ad level of techology of the area. The tems were edted ad drafted such a way that each tem hghlghts oly oe dea ad does ot have ay ambguty. All the tems were havg logcal sequece. (b) Item aalyss Item aalyss was doe le wth the techque, whch yelded three kds of formato vz dex of tem dffculty, dex of tem dscrmato ad dex of tem valdty. The dex of tem dffculty dcated the extet to whch a tem was dffcult whle the dex of tem dscrmato was to fd out whether a tem really dscrmates well formed farmers from a poorly formed oce. The dex of tem valdty provded the formato o how well a tem measured or dscrmated agreemet wth rest of the test. The 9 tems were admstered to 30 detcal respodets. The respodets for admsterg the tems were radomly selected ad were ot cluded the sample for fal study. Each statemet had two respose categores ether correct or wrog. Each correct aswer was gve I score whle wrog aswer was awarded 0 mark. Thus total score 93

3 secured by all dvdual respodets o 9 tems for correct aswer was the kowledge score. The score obtaed by 30 detcal respodets were arraged descedg order ad dvded to sx groups.e. 5 respodets each group. The groups were amed as G 1, G, G 3, G 4, G 5 ad G 6. The rage of score obtaed by the respodets of sx groups has bee gve Table 1. For the purpose of tem aalyss, the mddle two groups G 3 ad G 4 were elmated keepg four extreme groups wth hgh ad low scores. The data pertag to the correct respose for all the tems respect of these four groups were tabulated for calculatg the dffculty ad dscrmato dces Table 1: Rage of scores obtaed by the 30 respodets Group Scores out of 9 Respodets G 1 81 to 77 5 G 76 to 69 5 G 3 68 to 61 5 G 4 60 to 58 5 G 5 57 to 50 5 G 6 49 to 43 5 A example of the calculato of dffculty ad dscrmato dces s preseted Table. Selecto of tems for fal format of the kowledge test was doe based o the followg crtera: () Item dffculty dex-p The dex of tem dffculty was worked out as the percetage of the respodets aswerg a tem correctly. The assumpto ths tem dex of dffculty was that the dffculty s learly related to the level of respodet s kowledge about beekeepg of NHM. Whe a respodet aswers a tem, t was assured that the tem was less dffcult the hs ablty to cope wth t. I ths study wth ths assumpto, the tems wth P values ragg from 30 to 80 were cosdered for fal selecto of the kowledge battery. It was calculated by followg formula: P N 100 P = Dffculty dex percetage of the th tem. = Number of respodets gvg correct aswer to th tem. N = Total umber of respodets to whom the th tem was admstered.e. the preset case. () Calculato of dscrmato dex: Item dscrmato dex dcates the ablty of the tem to dfferetate the well formed respodets from the poorly formed oes. The E 1/3 formula was used the preset study for calculatg the dscrmato dex. The formula used was as follows: E 1/ 3 ( S1 S ) ( S5 S6 ) N / 3 E 1/3 = Dscrmato dex of tem. S 1, S, S 5, S 6 = the frequecy of correct aswers groups G 1, G, G 5 ad G 6 respectvely. N= total umber of respodets the sample of tem aalyss; here t was 30. Table Calculato of dffculty ad dscrmato dces of kowledge tems Item o. the tal lst Frequeces of correct aswers. Total freq. of correct aswers Percetage of respodets S 1 S S 5 S 6 S 1 +S +S 3 +S 4 +S 5 +S 6 gvg correct aswers (P ) 94 E 1 /3 Dscrmato dex Hoeybee ad ther castes * * Selecto of apary ste * * Hoeybee feedg * * Equpmets ad applaces * * Beekeepg maagemet * *

4 However, a llustrato of the method of calculatg these dces appears above Table where the dffculty ad dscrmato dces for tems: 6 ad 10 of hoeybee ad ther castes, 1 ad 14 of selecto of apary stes, 1 ad 7 of hoeybee feedg, 9 ad 31 of equpmets ad applaces ad 49 ad 55 of beekeepg maagemet have bee calculated. *The colum dcates total frequecy of correct aswers, dcatg those of G 3 ad G 4 whch were elmated. For example, substtutg the value for tem o. 6 of hoeybee ad ther castes of the table of llustrato gve above, the value arrved at s: P N 4 = = 80 1/ 3 ( S1 S ) ( S5 S6 ) E N / 3 1/ 3 (5 5) (4 ) E 30/ 3 = 0.4 (c) Fal selecto of tems for test Two crtera vz., tem dffculty ad tem dscrmato dex were cosdered for selecto of tems the fal format of the kowledge test. Whe a respodet passed a tem, t was assumed, as Coombs (1950) descrbed, that the tem was less dffcult tha the dvdual s ablty to cope wth t. For the purpose of preset study, the tem wth dffculty dex ragg from 30 to 80 ad dscrmato dex ragg from 0. to 0.6 were retaed for fal selecto for cluso the kowledge test. After fal selecto of tems o the bass of dffculty ad dscrmato dex, total 38 tems out of 9 tems were corporated the fal format of the tervew schedule for admstrato to the sample of beekeepers. (d) Relablty of the test Relablty of the test s tested byrulo formula, ts provde relablty of the whole test ad estmate relablty coeffcet o the bass of proporto of error varace total varace of the test. Test s dvded to two equal halves. Each examee has oe obtaed score o odd umbered tems ad aother subtotal score o eve umbered tems. A smple dfferece betwee two subsets scores were the dea of error of measuremet ad error varace. Formula: r tt = 1-σ d/σ T Where: r tt = relablty coeffcet σ d = varace that s, stadard devato squared of the dfferece betwee two half scores for each examee. σ T = varace or square of the stadard devato of the total score. Total score for a examee s the sum of hs score o the two halves of the test. Where: σ d = (1/N N d -( d) ) σ T = (1/N N T -( T) ) σ d = σ T = So, r tt = /5.174 = r tt = (e) Valdty of the test Bseral correlato was used for the test tems valdato whe the crtera of valdty s regarded as teral cosstecy, that s the relatoshp of total score to a correct/ correct resposes to ay gve tems. Keepg ths vew, wth the help of formula used by Gulford (1965), the sgfcace of the bseral correlato for each of the tems was calculated ad tested by usg the formula gve by Gulford (1965). The tems foud sgfcat at 5 per cet level of sgfcace were retaed the fal format of the kowledge test. Followg formula was used: Mp Mq pq Bseral correlato (rbs) = t y Mp= Mea of x value for hgher group dchotomzed varable. Mq= Mea of x value for lower group dchotomzed varable. P= Proporto of cases hgher group. q= Proporto of cases lower group. y= Ordate of the ut ormal dstrbuto curve wth surface equal to 1.0 at the pot of dvso betwee segmets cotag p ad q proporto of the cases. σt = x ( x) σt = Stadard devato x = Sum of square of the resposes of respodets x = Sum of values of the resposes for all the tems = No. of respodets. Thus, lght of the above crtera descrbed above, 38 tems were fally selected, whch formed fal format of the kowledge test. The fal format s 95

5 gve as uder kowledge test about beekeepg practces. Questos (A) Hoeybee ad ther castes. Name at least two tasks of a worker.. How the bees commucate to the hve bees about ew food sources?. How may eggs a quee lays o a average a day? (B) Selecto of apary ste. What s the approprate tme to start beekeepg?. What s the favourable temperature for hoey bee? (C) Hoeybee feedg. What s the food of quee?. What s the food of bees at the tme of shortage of flowerg or dearth perod?. How much areas the bees cover for foragg? v. Name at least oe substace collected by foragers for the coloy. (D) Equpmets ad applaces. Name the moder hve used for beekeepg.. How may frames should be there a box/ hve?. Whch type of wre s used frame for fttg the wax sheet of comb? v. Name the equpmet used for hoey extracto. v. Name at least oe type of cotaer used for the storage of hoey to mata ts qualty. (E) Beekeepg maagemet. Whle spectg the coloes, what should be the colour of the uform?. What s the method of troducg ew quee to the queeless coloy?. How may days are requred to develop a quee? v. How to detfy the good health ad codto of workers? v. What s swarmg? v. Name oe reaso due to whch swarmg occurs. v. Name at least two methods of cotrollg atural swarmg. v. At what seaso robbg occur the most? x. How to cotrol the robbg? x. Name at least oe method of requrg. x. Name at least oe mproved method of makg the coloy strog. x. What s supersedure? x. Whe supersedure process occurs? xv. Name at least oe cause due to whch abscodg occurs. (F) Eemes ad dseases of Hoeybees. Name oe method to cotrol the wax moth by apary maagemet.. How to prevet the empty frames of wax moth attack?. Name at least oe dsease of adult bees. v. Name at least oe chemcal used for cotrollg the acare dsease adult bees. v. What s the sutable tme for chemcal cotrol measures? (G) Mgrato of hoeybees. What s the frst step durg mgrato of the bees for more tha 1 km dstace?. Name at least oe mportat precauto, to be take whle mgratg. 96

6 . How to prevet the hve parts from slppg / shftg whle travelg durg mgrato? (H) Extracto of hoey. How to detfy that hoey bee hves are ready to harvest hoey?. Elst at least two uses of the hoey. Method of scorg kowledge The fal kowledge test had 8 major Items ad each major tem cotaed sub -tems relatg to beekeepg veture. Test cotaed total 38 tems. Equal weghtage was gve to each tem. For correct aswer 1 score was assged ad 0 for wrog aswers. Thus kowledge test was ready for admsterg to the actual respodets. The kowledge dex was calculated o the bass of followg formula Kowledge X 1 X X 3 N X 100 dex= X 1, X, X 3 X are the correct aswers of th tems. N= maxmum score possble. Mps of all the respodets scores were computed for classfyg the kowledge level dfferet categores. Based o arbtrary method (Chauha 1994) three levels of kowledge of farmers were categorzed uder low, moderate ad hgh. The categorzato was doe accordg to followg cosderato: Table 3: Categorzato of respodets o the bass of ther kowledge level S.No. Category Crtera 1 3 Low Moderate Hgh Frequecy ad percetage of respodets each category were calculated. To determe the extet of kowledge, mea per cet score for each statemet was also worked out ad raked accordgly. 3. Results ad Dscusso Based o a stadardzed kowledge test developed by vestgator, level of kowledge of beekeepers about scetfc beekeepg practces uder NHM was measured. Perusals of data Table 4 revealed that majorty of the respodets (98.01 per cet) were from hgh level of kowledge category, whle 1.99 per cet could be placed uder moderate level. There was o oe who reported low level of kowledge about scetfc beekeepg the study area. Table 4: Kowledge levels of beekeepers( = 151) S.N. Category f (%) 1. Moderate (31 to 50) 3(1.99). Hgh ( 51) 148(98.01) Total 151(100) F=frequecy, Fgures the paretheses show the per cet. Thus, t could be cocluded from the Table 4 that majorty of beekeepers possessed hgh level of kowledge about scetfc beekeepg practces. The preset fdgs are le wth the fdgs of Tapre (003) who foud that per cet beekeepers had hgh level of kowledge, whle 14.9 per cet had medum level of kowledge about beekeepg. Smlar fdgs are also reported by Reddy (1991) about serculture techology. Aspects wse kowledge level of beekeepers Table 5 vvdly corroborates that from amog the major practces, the beekeepers had maxmum kowledge of extracto of hoey (MPS 88.08) whch was placed at frst posto the rak herarchy by them. It was followed by mgrato of hoeybee, beekeepg maagemet, hoeybee feedg ad eemes ad dseases of hoeybees whch were grated II, III, IV ad V raks wth MPS 83.88, 78.05, ad 76.68, respectvely. However, the beekeepers possessed good kowledge of equpmet ad applaces (MPS 73.64), hoeybee ad ther castes (MPS 70.0) ad selecto of apary ste (MPS 66.55) whch were placed at VI, VII ad VIII postos respectvely by them. Table 5: Aspects wse kowledge of beekeepers regardg scetfc beekeepg practces = 151 S.N. Sub aspects MPS Rak 1. Hoeybee ad ther castes Selecto of apary ste Hoeybee feedg Equpmets ad applaces Beekeepg maagemet Eemes ad dseases of Hoeybees 7 Mgrato of Hoeybees Extracto of hoey Whle poolg all the major practces together the extet of kowledge possessed by the selected beekeepers was foud to be per cet. The 97

7 preset fdgs are smlar to the fdgs of Bogale (009). 4. Cocluso NHM has bee proved to be effectve for beekeepers as 148 (98.01 per cet) possessed hgher kowledge regardg scetfc beekeepg practces. Extracto of hoey, mgrato of hoeybee, beekeepg maagemet, hoeybee feedg, eemes ad dseases of hoeybee ad equpmets ad applaces were scetfc beekeepg practces about whch beekeepers had hgh kowledge. Refereces: [1] Bloom, S.S., Egelhard, M., Furst, E., Hll, W. ad Krathwal, D.R Taxoomy of Educatoal Objectves: The cogtve Doma. Oret Logmas, New York. [] Bogale, S Idgeous kowledge ad ts relevace for sustaable beekeepg developmet: a case study the Hghlads of Southeast Ethopa.Lvestock Research for Rural Developmet1: 184. [3] Bradbear, N Beekeepg ad Sustaable lvelhoods. Agrcultural Support Systems Dvso, Food ad Agrculture Orgazato of the Uted Natos, Rome. [4] Chauha N.B A study o peasatry moderzato Dugapur dstrct of Rajastha. Ph.D. thess submtted to RajasthaAgrculturalUversty, Bkaer, Rajastha. [5] Coombs, C.H The cocept of relablty ad homogeety. Educatoal Psychologcal measuremet 10: [6] Eglsh, H.B. ad Eglsh, A.C A comprehesve dctoary of psychologcal ad psychoaalytcal terms. Logmas Gree ad Co., New York. [7] FAO Agrcultural Servces Bullet 68/6 Food ad AgrcultureOrgasato of the Uted Natos Rome, Beekeepg Afrca. [8] Gulford, J.P Fudametal statstcs psychology ad educato, New York. Mc.Grawhll book Co. c: [9] Kugoza, D.R Beekeepg: Theory ad Practce, Kampala: Fouta Publshers, 8 pp. [10] Reddy, S Awareess ad use of serculture techology by the farmers. Joural of Maharashtra Agrcultural Uversty,18: [11] Tapre, S.A Evaluato of Beekeepg Vocato. M.Sc. Thess submtted to Dr. Pajabrao Deshmukh Krsh Vdhyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra. 98