Effectiveness of Extension Intervention Provided by State Department of Agriculture in Tamil Nadu during COVID-19 Pandemic

Aim: The main aim of this research is to study the extension officials’ perception towards the effectiveness of online training programme conducted during COVID-19 pandemic.

Study Design: Cross section research design.

Place and Duration of Study: Coimbatore and Tiruvallur districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Two years (2021-2022).

Methodology: From the selected two districts 70 extension officials were randomly selected for conducting the study. Data were collected from the extension officials who conducted online training during COVID-19 pandemic. Paper-Pencil survey method was used to collect data from the farmers. The survey approach is useful for evaluating opinions and trends by gathering quantitative data. A separate scale was developed for assessing the extension officials’ perception towards the effectiveness of online training. Kirkpatrick’s model was used for developing scale to measure the extension officials’ perception towards the effectiveness of online training. The developed scale were validated by the experts. A scale was measured using 5-point Likert scale with 1 denoting "strongly disagree and 5 denoting “strongly disagree” were employed in this study.

Results: Majority of the extension officials admitted that training programme is adequate, objectives of the training programme successfully achieved, training programmed lead to better performance of farmers and training programme improved knowledge and skills of the farmers. The major findings of the study were that the majority of the extension officials admitted that they had medium to very high level of perception towards the effectiveness of online training.

Conclusion: online training programme would be best alternative for the normal mode of conducting training programme. In comparison with offline training time and cost will be saved in online training programme. It was recommended to policy makers and government that online training could also be included in transfer of technology process.