Empowerment of Farmers through GALASA Programme - Seea.org.in

Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu. 12 (3), September, 2012 95the mean scores on the components like freeness towork with group members, participation in groupactivities, involvement in decision making, leadershipquality and group consensus to solve problem,developing institutional contact and linkage withdeveloping departments, group marketing skill anddeveloping skill to solve conflict.Table 4. Economic empowerment of farmers in GALASAProgramme (N=60)Economic Mean Scores T testempowerment Before After valuecomponents Joining JoiningIncreased income due 2.3 3.3 1.8342to yield obtainingSaving money 1.5 2.4 4.3848**Investments 1.2 1.7 6.5988**Availing agriculture loans 1.2 2.3 2.0157*Financial management skill 2.4 3.0 1.1696Extent of dependency on 1.0 1.0 NAmoney lendersAvailing the facilities of KCCS 1.4 1.8 0.0030Availing personal insurance 1.5 1.8 0.0002Availing family insurance 1.0 1.0 NAAvailing crop insurance 1.1 2.7 3.7410**Purchase of inputs of farming 1.7 3.5 2.7519**Total Mean Score 16.3 24.5Overall mean score 1.48 2.2t value (1% significance) = 2.661Economic empowerment: The economic empowermentof the farmer members was studied based on theselected parameters like income, savings habit,investments, financial management skill, extent ofdependency on money lenders, purchasing of input offarming etc. and given in Table 4.It is seen from the Table 4 income of therespondents have been increased, which might due tothe increase in the yield obtained. Regarding thepurchase of inputs for farming, respondents have gainedincreased mean score (3.5) especially after joining tothe group, because of the reason that the required farminputs were provided by the Krishi bhavan throughpadasekhara samithies at a subsidized cost. With respectto availing of agricultural loans, farmers have beenempowered considerably (mean score 1.2 to 2.3), dueto reason that, PACS are providing interest free loansto the GALASA members. The savings of the membershave slightly increased (2.4) inspite of poor return fromfarming. Increased mean score (2.7) was seen in thecase of crop insurance, due to reason that farmers haveavailed this facility being the member of the GALASAprogramme.The T-test computed also support the mean scoreobtained and shown significant difference in saving ofmoney, investments, availing crop insurance andpurchasing inputs.Table 5. Political empowerment of farmers in GALASAProgramme (N=60)Political Mean Scores T testempowerment Before After valuecomponents Joining JoiningMembership in the social 1.7 1.8 0.0896organizationsPosition in the political parties 1.3 1.4 1.0000Freedom of expressing 1.4 1.5 0.0327ideas in politicsConflict management 1.7 2.1 9.3474**Total mean score 6.1 6.9Overall mean score 1.5 1.7t value (1% significance) = 2.6617Political Empowerment: The political empowermentstudied with variables like membership in socialorganization, position assumed in the political party,freedom of expressing ideas in politics and conflictmanagement and shown in Table 5.Table 5 reveals that the mean scores obtained bythe respondents in political empowerment components,before and after the GALASA programme seems tomore or less same. A few respondents were heldmembership in political parties. With respect to conflictmanagement, the average score obtained by therespondents was increased by 0.4. Rest of othervariables, such as membership in social organization,position in the political parties and freedom of expressingideas in politics, a slight improvement has been recorded.The T-test showed a significant difference in themean score obtained on Conflict management. TheGALASA programme has provides greater scope onconflict management and hence it showed a significancechange on this dimension.Creativity empowerment : The subcomponents suchas generation of new ideas, orientation towards crisismanagement were studied to analyze the creativityempowerment component and presented in Table 6.Table 6 reveals that the mean scores obtained bythe respondents have not been changed considerably

96 Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu. 12 (3), September, 2012even after joining the GALASA programme.Withrespect to orientation towards crisis management, theaverage score was increased from 2.1 to 2.8. Thechange in the mean score was mainly because of thenature of paddy cultivation, and subject to prone variouskinds of risk. The T-test did not shown significantdifference in the mean scores on any of theempowerment variables under this dimension.Table 6. Creativity empowerment of farmers in GALASAProgramme ( N=60)S. Mean Scores T testNo. Empowerment variables Before After valueJoining Joining1 Generation of novel ideas 1.6 1.7 0.01832 Orientation towards crisis 2.1 2.8 1.8151managementTotal mean score 3.7 4.5Overall mean score 1.9 2.3t value (1% significance) = 2.6617Empowerment Dynamics Index (EDI): EmpowermentDynamics Index were computed by inclusive of majorcomponents such as Knowledge Empowerment,Psychological Empowerment, Social Empowerment,Economic Empowerment, Political Empowerment andCreativity Empowerment and given in Table 7.It is evident from the Table 7 there was only 18per cent increase in the empowerment dynamics index.This might be due to cumulative effect of empowermentin all components of empowerment. The increase inEDI was reported for the psychological empowermentcomponent (30 per cent) followed by knowledgeempowerment component (18%), social empowermentcomponent (17%), and economic empowermentcomponent (15%), creativity empowerment component(8%) and political empowerment component (4%).Hence it is concluded that relatively considerableenhancement has noticed in all the dimensions ofempowerment studied.Table 7. Empowerment Dynamics Index of farmers in theGALASA Programme (N=60)IndexDimensions of empowerment Before AfterJoining JoiningKnowledge Empowerment Index (KEI) 0.45 0.63Psychological Empowerment 0.41 0.71Index (PsyEI)Social Empowerment Index (SEI) 0.49 0.66Economic Empowerment Index (EEI) 0.30 0.45Political Empowerment Index (PEI) 0.31 0.35Creativity Empowerment Index (CEI) 0.37 0.45Empowerment Dynamics Index (EDI) 0.24 0.42CONCLUSIONTherefore it may possible to conclude thatGALASA programme has provides immense scope forthe empowerment of farmers in all the dimensions andthereby assures sustainable rice production in the stateand ensuring food security. More of team building andleadership management programme could be designedto suit for the farmers interest group/commodity interestgroup/self help group to nurture the empowerment.Exclusive training module incorporating soft skills onthe light of empowerment dimensions of farmers couldbe developed to meet the challenges of farming.Paper received on : June 21, 2011Accepted on : September 11, 2011REFERENCESAshokhan, M. (2006). A study on Empowerment of SHG operated in selected district of TamilNadu –An empirical study, Ph.Dthesis (unpub.), Dept of AE&RS, TNAU, Coimbatore.Bradley, L.; Kirkman, Kevin; B. Lowe and Diane. P. Young (1999). High-performance work organizations, definition, practicesand an annotated bibiliography, Centre for creative Leadership, North Carolina.Karpagam, C. (2009). Social dynamics of farmers in drip irrigation system of selected crops-An empirical study. Ph.D thesis(unpub.), Dept of AE&RS, TNAU, Coimbatore.