Uplifting Farming in Rohtak District of Haryana State: Training Needs Assessment

Identifying and assessing training needs is the most important step for prioritizing extension capacity development programmes. The present study on training needs analysis of the farmers was conducted under the project “out scaling agricultural innovations for enhancing farm income and employment” at adopted Village Nidana, Rohtak district in Haryana in the year 2020-21. A list of 11 major components/ thematic areas was prepared under crop husbandry (crop production, plant protection, soil health and fertility management and agroforestry); horticulture sector (fruits vegetables and ornamental plants); animal husbandry, fisheries and on-farm production of inputs and women empowerment. Under each major component, specific and relevant training need items were collected and systematically incorporated into the interview schedule and administered. Respondents were asked to rate the priority levels of training topics and knowledge areas related to thematic areas and a weighted score was calculated to identify prioritization. It was found from the study that in crop production component training on weed management was the most sought after by farmers (47%) in Nidana, followed by integrated farming and water management (38% and 40%) of the field crops and training on seed production (39%). For plant protection, integrated pest management of the crops was the most needed area for training (64%), followed by biological control of pests and disease (31%). In the horticultural sector, cultivation of off-season vegetables and production of low-volume and high-value crops were the most important training needs as about 45.71 percent and 42.86 percent of farmers. Regarding animal husbandry, fisheries and off-farm production of inputs, all components were perceived as most important for skill development and crop management. The women empowerment component is also found very important for food and nutritional security through Nutri-gardening (48.57%), income generation activities for rural women for empowerment (52%) and value addition (41.43%).