Study on Knowledge Level of the Livestock Farmers of Aspirational Districts of West Bengal, India

Assessment of knowledge level of farmers is the perquisite of implementation of any development programme. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess existing knowledge level of the farmers from purposively selected five aspirational districts of West Bengal as identified by the NITI Aayog, Govt. of India. Respondents were randomly selected from one block of each district with total sample size of 4285 number of farmers for the present study. The data was collected with the help of pre-tested structured interview schedule. It was found Knowledge Score among the farmers of Nadia district (37.37 ± 3.55) was highest and in South Dinajpur (30.16 ± 3.03) was lowest than the other three districts viz Birbhum (35.07 ± 2.85), Malda (34.18 ± 3.09) and Murshidabad (33.51 ± 3.15). Study also revealed that the farmers of Nadia district were having more knowledge about improved animal husbandry practices. This study was conducted in purposively selected five aspirational districts (Birbhum (1020), Nadia (845), Malda (788), South Dinajpur (840), and Murshidabad (792), as identified by the NITI Aayog, Govt. of India, considering its poverty, poor health, educational status and socio-economic characteristics etc. in the state of West Bengal. A sample of 4285 number of farmers was randomly selected as respondents from one block of each district. All the selected variables were measured either by established scale or test or by developing schedule. The data were collected with the help of pre-tested structured interview schedule and the same were compiled, tabulated and analyzed statistically through the tools as- Mean+ SE, chi-square, correlation coefficient analysis for better interpretation of the findings to conclude the study.