Title: ASSESSMENT TOOL TO EVALUATE FARMERS' KNOWLEDGE LEVEL ABOUT SOIL HEALTH MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Authors: Shivani Jha, Dharminder Singh and Manmeet Kaur

Publisher: The President, Society of Extension Education Gujarat

Keywords: soil health management practices, leaf colour chart, farmyard manure and incorporation of paddy straw.

Volume: 40

Issue: 1

Year: December 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56572/gjoee.2025.40.1.0001

Abstract: Soil health management practices play a major role in maintaining and improving soil fertility, structure, and biological activity to support sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation. The present study was conducted in the Punjab state, five districts were selected from each agro-climatic zones, two blocks were selected from each district and two villages were selected from each block. From each village 15 respondents were choosen randomly thus contributing to total number of 300 farmers. The present study assessed the knowledge level of the farmers regarding soil health management practices like direct seeded rice, poultry manure, farmyard manure, leaf colour chart, incorporation of paddy straw, laser levelling, fertilizer application on soil test basis etc., in the rice-wheat Cropping system. Following steps conducted while developing knowledge test viz. selection of items; item analysis and pre-testing; calculation of difficulty, discrimination index and point bi-serial correlation; final selection of items and testing of reliability and validity were followed to develop and standardize the test. A total 137 items were administered to group of experts. Based on experts responses, 97 items were selected, these 97 items were administered to 60 farmers from a non-sampled area. Item analysis was done using formula of item difficulty index and item discrimination index and the items with difficulty index ranged between 30 to 80, discriminatory value of more than 0.250 were selected for final test and point-biserial correlation coefficient (? 0. 268). Finally, 55 knowledge items were included in the final format of the knowledge test. It had high significant value of reliability co-efficient and construct validity. After implementation of this test it was found that majority i.e. 55.67 per cent of the respondents had medium level of knowledge followed by 29.00 per cent and 15.33 per cent of the respondents had low and high level of knowledge, respectively.