Farmers perceptions regarding working strengths and weaknesses of social organizers involved in agricultural extension activities at Kamber Shahdadkot district of Sindh province

This study was planned to find out the perceptions of farmers regarding the working strengths and weaknesses of Social Organizers of various NGOs in providing extension services. Results of survey revealed that 49% and 35% respondents belonged to middle and old age categories respectively, only 16% of the respondents were found to be young. 29% and 27% of the farmers had the education up to primary level and up to middle level respectively. While only 19% and 25% farmers had education up to metric and above metric respectively. 39% and 45% of farmers had small (up to 5 acres) and average (up to 12½ acres) farm size respectively. Only 16% respondents had land holding above 12½ acres. 55% farmers had annual net income less than Rs.50,000. While 38% farmers had the annual net income up to Rs.2,00,000. Only 7% farmers had annual net income above Rs.2,00,000. A small number (14%) of farmers had very small (1-3) family size, while 45% had small (4 -6) family size. On the other hand, significant number (22% & 19%) of farmers had large (7-9) and very large (10-12) family size respectively. Amongst 14 (fourteen) positively stated statements, 11 (eleven) statements received the mean above 4.00 and there were only three statements which received the mean below 4.00. The statement amongst these, which received highest mean was SO's provide opportunities to raise potential and to give voice and understanding to farmers through which they can pressure on other concerned agencies. SO's promote environment in which developmental decisions are generally based on mutual group discussion (mean 3.74). The present study is concluded as the perceptions of farmers regarding the work strength of SO's shows that amongst 14 positively worded statements 11 statements received the mean above 4.00 and there were only three statements which received the mean below 4.00. Therefore, it is quite clear that most of the farmers strongly agreed to the positive statements, which show the working strengths of SO's in providing extension services. In participatory extension work, SO's win respect and appreciation by farmers. They provided greater chance to the farmers for sharing their problems and experiences. The perceptions of farmers regarding the working weakness of SO's of NGOs in providing extension services was subjected to statistical analysis, which shows that amongst 15 negatively stated statements, 5 statements received the mean above 2.00 and there were 10 statements, which received the mean below 2.00. The results show that farmers disagree to the negative worded statements i.e. importance is only given to the dissemination of messages rather than making farmers understand these messages and SO's emphasize on top-down mode of dissemination of innovation. Farmers strongly disagreed to the negative worded statements that SO's do not provide opportunity to farmers at grass root level for proper planning and ignore the small and needy farmers. Farmers also strongly disagreed to the statements that message delivery become boring for both the farmers and SO's due to repetition of same messages for long period of time.