Role perception of subject matter specialists of selected Krishi vigyan kendras of northern India

Study was undertaken in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh while selected 20 KVKs proportionally and included all subject matter specialists (total 97) as respondents. Scale was constructed to measure the role expectation of SMSs of KVKs comprising 11 role segments viz. organization of trainings, on farm trials, front line demonstrations, programme planning and execution, subject matter authority, communication and feedback, evaluation, management, services and supplies, office work and reporting, and supporting activities was used for studying the role performance. Findings revealed that most of the respondents were male (63.91%), in middle category of age (49.48%), from Home Science discipline (18.56%), having doctorate education (63.92%), rural background (57.73%), family occupation service (69.07%) and service experience of 1–11 years (55%). Assessment of the training needs of the farmers of the district, selection of location specific problems, proper selection of site for demonstration, implementing or helping in implementation of plan of work, fully conversant with the agricultural situation in the district w.r.t. area of specialization, serving as a channel of communication between university and farmers, self-evaluation, developing contact with progressive farmers, helping farmers in difficult situation e.g. pest attack, epidemics, draught, flood, etc., attending to visiting farmers and other visitors and dealing politely with them and publishing the research/extension publications were the most perceived roles respectively. Overall mean score of the role segment in on-farm trials was highest (4.66) followed by organization of trainings (4.63) and communication and feedback (4.58), whereas supporting activities (4.44) got lowest. Majority of the respondents (43.30%) were having high role perception, 37.11 per cent fallen under medium role perception category and only 19.59 per cent of the respondents were having low perception with regard to overall role perception of the SMSs.