Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EXTENSION EDUCATION, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, PJTSAU. FACTORS AFFECTING KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF RURAL WOMEN OF BIHAR ABOUT HOMESTEAD TECHNOLOGIES OF RAJENDRA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY (RAU)

Veenita Kumari and R. Vasantha

Abstract

Rural women may be aware of the existence of a technology or a practice but having an in-depth understanding or knowledge of the technology or practice is influenced by many socio-personal, economic, communicational, psychological, situational variables etc. Hence an attempt was made in this study to find out the factors which affect knowledge level of rural women about homestead technologies of RAU. The study was conducted on 225 rural women who were exposed to the nine selected homestead technologies from three districts of Bihar viz. Samastipur, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali. The result showed that the independent variables education, information source utilization, innovativeness, input availability, rural customs, institutional support and market intelligence of the respondents were positively and significantly related to knowledge but age had negative association. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the independent variables education, information source utilization, input availability, market intelligence and rural customs were positively and significantly contributing to the knowledge level of the respondents about homestead technologies.