Evaluation of vocational training programmes on mushroom cultivation

To address the livelihood security of the small and marginal farmers, adoption of subsidiary occupations have been constantly advocated by the extension scientists. Mushroom cultivation, having no requirement of arable land, can be an important subsidiary enterprise for small and marginal farmers. The present study was conducted to evaluate the training programmes on mushroom cultivation organized by KVK, Moga (Punjab). Study revealed that majority of the trainees were found to be satisfied with respect to various aspects of training programmes like subject matter content, training duration, practical exercises, provision of literature. More than 90 per cent trainees found their training programme effective in meeting their expectations. Study further reveals that most of the trainees scored medium to high knowledge scores after attending the training programme on mushroom cultivation. There was significant gain in knowledge of trainees after participating in mushroom cultivation training programmes. It was also observed that 37.24 percent of the trainees had adopted mushroom cultivation enterprise after training whereas 29.79 percent of the trainees discontinued the enterprise over time. Lack of proper infrastructure, discouragement by fellow farmers, lack of assured market, non-remunerative prices, and poor quality of spawn were found to be the main reasons for non-adoption and discontinuance of the mushroom cultivation enterprise.