Attitude of Students towards Rural Agriculture Work Experience Programme in Rajasthan State, India

Agricultural education is an important tool in ensuring increased agricultural productivity, sustainability, environmental and ecological security, profitability, job security and equity. Different committees (ICAR Review Committee 1979; Deans Committee 1981) recommended for strong linkage of agricultural education with actual farming situation through the programme. Considering the importance of agricultural knowledge on socio-economic behaviour of the farmers, Agricultural Graduates during internship have to work and study in rural areas as per university norms it is a course offered by SAUs normally in the final year (VII or VIII semester) of undergraduate degree programme. In 12th plan, Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) Programme has been reconstructed and proposed as 'Rural Entrepreneurship and Awareness Development Yojana' (READY). The programme aims at entrepreneurship development among the youth. The present study was conducted in the State Agriculture Universities of Rajasthan. There were 5 SAUs namely, SKRAU Bikaner and MPUAT Udaipur, SKNAU Jobner, AU Kota and AU Jodhpur. Out of the 5 universities 3 universities were having UG and PG degree programmes. So these universities have been selected for the study. There are 3 Agriculture colleges Viz. S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner (SKNAU, Jobner), Rajasthan college of Agriculture, Udaipur (MPUAT, Udaipur) and college of Agriculture, Bikaner (SKRAU, Bikaner) where the PG degree in agriculture is offered and RAWE programme is being conducted for last 10 years. Hence only these three colleges have been selected for the study. 30 students from each college selected randomly. Thus the sample was comprised of 90 students. There were 74 students given attitude about educational tour because, 16 students from total 90 were taken their UG degree from RCA, Udaipur and there was no education tour conducted. The results obtained might be due to facts that farmers allotted to the students in the particular area of KVK were very cooperative and told about the cultural background of that area to students, which might have helped in convincing students about village attachment, which has resulted in changing the attitude of students towards village attachment in RAWE programme. RAWE programme was seriously implemented by the state agricultural universities and gave more attention on communication, technical skill and managerial skills respectively. Teachers were also very skilled in a particular area of skill training, which has resulted in changing the attitude of students towards skill training in RAWE programme. Educational tour is very important activity in SAUs which is helpful in exposure of the students with new institutions and technologies. Students were so cooperative in educational tour and spots visited very well under the guidance of good staff. This has resulted in to increased favourable attitude towards educational tour of RAWE programme.