Impact of Training Programme Organised under “Scaling up of Water Productivity in Agriculture” Implemented by Assam Agricultural University

The present study was attempted to assess the impact of the farmers training programmes under Scaling up of water productivity in Agriculture (SWPA) conducted by AAU in two districts of Assam viz., Jorhat and Golaghat. A purposive cum proportionate random sampling design was followed for selection of respondents. Altogether total 150 farmers consisting of 75 trainee farmers under SWPA training programme and 75 non trainee farmers were selected as respondents from the two districts. Give methodology in brief. The study revealed that the majority of the farmers were under young age category (below 35 years) with education up to High school level. The land holding and annual income of majority farmers of both groups were in between 1–2 ha and within Rs. 20,000 respectively. Majority of the respondents of both group (trainee: 44%, non trainee: 48%) were not member of any orgnization. Low degree of commercialization and low risk taking ability were important characteristics of respondents. Moreover, small family (<5 members) is important characteristics for majority farmers of both group. The frequency of extension contact was both occasional and regular for majority farmers. Mmajority of trainee (73.33%) had medium level of adoption of recommended practices of water management followed by high level of adoption with 14.67 per cent of respondents. This indicates that the trainings could motivate the farmers for adopting the modern techniques in order to get more production and farm income per drop of water. The multiple regression model with all variables produced R²=0.68, which indicates that the selected independent variables have 68 per cent influence on the extent of adoption of recommended practices and the ‘F’ value (15.46) was found to be significant. Training implementing agencies may organise specific training for small and marginal farmers for enhancing adoption of water management technologies. The State Department of Agriculture also needs to develop community irrigation facilities or provide subsidy for installation of irrigation infrastructure for small and marginal farmers.