Division of Extension Education, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar - 243 122 (U.P.).
*Corresponding author: e.mail - hematripathi1@yahoo.co.in;
1Veterinary Dispensary, Karur (T.N.)
The present investigation was carried out in four villages of Tamil Nadu to assess the effectiveness of Special Livestock Protection Scheme to review and reorient the existing activities and services to make it more clientele oriented and responsive to local requirements and needs. The focus was on knowledge of the beneficiaries about the backyard poultry production practices, socio economic conditions of the beneficiaries and their level of satisfaction about the scheme separately in the plain and hilly areas. The study revealed that majority of poultry farmers in plain areas had medium knowledge level in brooding, diseases and its control, deworming and supplementary feeding whereas in hilly areas, knowledge was found at low level except for brooding practice. Mean scores in brooding, diseases and its control, deworming and supplementary feeding showed significant differences between the knowledge of both the farmers hailing from plain and hilly areas. Twenty per cent of poultry farmers found the services under the scheme as highly effective, whereas 55.00 and 25.00 per cent of considered it medium and less effective, respectively. They however perceived that services of the scheme helped in improving poultry health, production and socio economic conditions irrespective of their locale. Knowledge level, education, extension contact, information seeking behavior of poultry farmers had positive and significant relationship with overall effectiveness of scheme. Respondents were satisfied with health and production services, but were dissatisfied with the extension activities. Based on the findings it is recommended to continue the scheme with improvement of extension activities.
Knowledge level, poultry farmers, perception, satisfaction with poultry management and extension services
