Farmer's empowerment by farm services centers: A pedagogic approach for sustainable development

Abstract

The present study was carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during 2014 in order to investigate about the performance of Farm Services Centers in the empowerment of farmers towards the sustainable development. Five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa such as Mansehra, Dir Lower, Swat, Dera Ismail Khan and Swabi were the sampled districts and 80 farmers registered with Farm Services were randomly selected from each district. Thus, sample size was making a total of 400 respondents. Primary data were collected with the help of pre-tested interview schedule through personal interview method. The results of this research study revealed that affinity toward Farm Services Centers were bulk of the educated, middle aged and small landholding farmers. Maximum of the respondents had above 20 years of farming experience. A rapid increase in the registration of farmers with Farm Services Centers was found in the last five years. Chi-square results indicated highly significant association (P≤0.05) between the duration of registration with Farm Services centers, fertilizers and farm machinery provided to the respondents. Farm Services Center's performed their commitment very well with respect to empowerment of farmers in different agrarian practices like decision making, farm management, varietal selection, management of weed, and selection of fertilizer. Private agricultural companies were also playing their role in technological breakthroughs. It is therefore, suggested that these agricultural companies must be allowed for demonstration to train farmers on their innovations under Farm Services Center's.