KNOWLEDGE OF FARMERS TOWARDS PRIVATIZATION OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES IN GANJAM DISTRICT OF ODISHA

A vast country like India cannot afford to ignore ever increasing role of PAES carried out by many individuals and agencies like Agricultural consultants, group of progressive farmers, mass media like newspapers, TV, agricultural magazines, non-government organizations, private sector banks etc. Today the challenge is not the same. Finding better market for surplus produced decides Indian agriculture. Limited rescores in extension compel to look for the support of other extension system, thus opened thinking on private extension. The present extension system has ultimatum for reshaping and strengthening the structural design for the delivery of agricultural technology and services as needed by the farming community. The study was conducted in Ganjam District of Odisha purposively for investigating socio-economic status and the association of independent variables with farmers' knowledge towards Privatization of Agricultural Extension Services. Descriptive research design was used for the present study. A total of 120 respondents were selected purposively as a sample for the present investigation. The data was collected by using pre-tested schedule and analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. Karl Pearson's Co-efficient of Correlation test was applied to find out the association between farmers knowledge with independent variables. The major findings of the study were the socio-economic status of the respondents was found to be of medium level, the knowledge of the respondents towards PAES had significant association with the Age, Annual income, Education, Land holding Mass Media Exposure, Extension contact, Risk orientation, and scientific orientation. From the study, it is clear that PAES has become essential in our country to increase the competitiveness in the world and give justice to our farmers. At the same time, it requires great caution about problems and constraints emerged in PAES. Keeping this points stated above the present study was undertaken in Ganjam district of Odisha with the following objectives: « To determine the socio-economic status of the respondents. « To ascertain the association between independent variables and knowledge of farmers towards Privatization of Agricultural Extension Service (PAES).