Impact of Capacity Building Programmes on Farmers of Hassan District of Karnataka, India

The study was conducted in 5 villages of Channarayapattanataluk of Hassan district in Karnataka. The College of Agriculture, Hassan, Karnataka has conducted Rural Agricultural Work Experience Programme for the final year B.Sc (Hons.) Agriculture, B.Tech (Bio Technology) and B.Tech (Food Technology) in those 5 villages during the year 2021-22 for 3 months. The regular capacity building programmes were organized for the farmers by the students in the presence of scientists of the college. During the capacity building programmes such as training, method demonstration, exposure visits etc., the pre and post evaluation was also done to understand the knowledge and skill of the farmers about the bio agents and its application in crop production. The data was collected from 100 farmers to assessimpact of capacity building programmes on bio agentssuch as Trichoderma, Pseudomonas, Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria etc. Thestudy reveals that, majority (78.00%) of the farmers were not aware about the availability of different bio agents in the market, 80.00 per cent of them were unaware about the importance of application of bio agents in crop production, around 89.00 per cent were not having knowledge about use of bio agents in different crops. Nearly 90.00 per cent of farmers were having poor knowledge and skill on how to use the bio agents in crop production practices. After the pre evaluation the different programmes like training programmes about the importance and application of bio agents, skill on demonstration about the bio agents treatment, exposure visits etc., were organized and conducted post evaluation also. The data from the study reveals that, there was increase in the knowledge level and skill in the application of bio agents to an extent of 25 to 30 per cent among the participants. During the year 2022, the study was conducted to assess the adoption level of farmers in the same villages about the importance and application of bio agents in their crop production practices. It was observed that, still farmers were using the bio agents in their farming practices and they were happy to share that, there was a good result in crop yield due to non incidence of pest and diseases and also due to reduced cost of pesticide application.