Knowledge level of trainers under agricultural technology management agencies on facilitation skills

After the extension reforms made through Agricultural Technology Management Agencies (ATMA) the role of extension personnel are increasing tremendously. Therefore, due attention is given in capacity building of extension personnel. Under ATMA their capacity building primarily rests on experts of State Agricultural Universities/Indian Council of Agricultural Research institutes etc. Different training programmes are conducted for improving the capacity of extension personnel on various subject matters. But to make the training programme effective the trainers must know the process along with the subject matter knowledge. They should act as a facilitator rather than only act as an expert because the trainees are adult learners. Conducting training for adult is not an easy matter. Therefore, the trainers must possess knowledge on facilitation skills for conducting training. So, it is important to know the knowledge level of trainers on facilitation skills to conduct training effectively. Therefore, in the present study attempt has been made to measure the knowledge level of trainers under ATMA on facilitation skills who are responsible to conduct training for extension personnel after the extension reforms. For that purpose a knowledge test was developed by following the procedure of item analysis. Both index of difficulty and index of discrimination were analysed. The reliability of the test, K-R₂₀, was as 0.67. The study indicates that the majority (61.67%) of the trainers had a medium level of knowledge on facilitation skills. The study also revealed that the knowledge level of trainers on facilitation skills had positive and significant correlation with ‘training received during last five years’, ‘achievement motivation’, ‘job value cherished’, ‘job satisfaction’ and ‘knowledge on andragogy’. The findings will helps the training institutes to design and implement a facilitator development programme for capacity building of extension personnel under ATMA.