Home > An Analysis of Effectiveness of Extension Work Conducted under Farmers Field School Ffs Approach for Sustainable Agricultural Development in the Punjab, Pakistan
An Analysis of Effectiveness of Extension Work Conducted under Farmers Field School Ffs Approach for Sustainable Agricultural Development in the Punjab, Pakistan
Agriculture is vital for Pakistan''s economy. Whatever happens to agriculture is bound to affect not only the country’s growth performance but a large segment of the country’s population as well. The development of agriculture depends on many factors including agricultural extension as an institutional component. Since independence many extension approaches have been tried from time to time but met with partial success in increasing farm productivity. Recently, government of Punjab has introduced a new extension approach known as farmers field school (FFS) in 15 districts of province. But, how do farmers view its effectiveness in meeting their needs is the forehand question which needs to be answered. Keeping this in view, the present study was designed and conducted in the randomly selected three districts under FFS. A multi-stage sampling technique was used for the selection of sample from study districts. Three districts were selected randomly, and then one tehsil from each randomly selected district was taken randomly, the randomly selected tehsils were Sargodha, Sheikupura and mailsy, from fruit, vegetables and cotton areas respectively. A sample of 341 respondents from the population of 3000 registered FFS farmers were taken randomly. The sample size was determined by using table developed by Fitzgibbon et al (1987). Data were collected through an interview schedule, and data obtained were statistically analyzed by using computer software i.e. SPSS. According to the data, 36.4% respondents were of age 41 years and above. Only 14.67% respondents were illiterate, a simple majority (53.1%) of the respondents had less than 12.5 acres land holding and 88% respondents were owner. Majority (65.1%) of the respondents'' source of income was only farming and 37.5% respondents had annual income less than Rs.100000. All the respondents were acquainted with the FFS staff, and regarding acquaintance with qualities of FFS staff, dutifulness gained the weighted score 1168 and was ranked at top, similarly regarding acquaintance with the duties of FFS staff and responsibilities of FFS member farmers, the duty "to coordinate all FFS personnel" gained a weighted score 1174 and responsibility "To roll call in the end of FFS meeting" gained a weighted score 1131 and were ranked at top, respectively. Overwhelming a majority (82.40%) of respondents were of the view that FFS staff had weekly contact with them. Similarly 71.6, 79.8, 88.6, 61.6, and 64.8% respondents reported that the FFS was 1-square distance from their home, situated at a central place, established at Dera, selected with mutual consultation of farmers and conducted on a need based survey, respectively, whereas 79.18% respondent''s source of information was fellow farmers. Information provided about fertilizer requirement gained a weighted score 1086 and was ranked at the top, and regarding effectiveness, the information about hoeing was ranked at the top with a weighted score 1207 and majority(57.42%) of the respondents reported that "special topic/hot issue" was performed in the FFS to an average extent. Similarly, 63.58% and 58.6% respondents were of the view that the group discussion method was used and effective to an average extent and was ranked at the top with a weighted score 1107 and 1128, respectively. It was also concluded that during the use of different extension methods the pre-requisites of each extension method were used to below an average extent. Similarly FFS material was provided to below an average extent, whereas 41.31% of the respondents considered the lead pencil as effective to an average extent. An AESA/CESA activity like "farmers are properly briefed before field activity" was ranked at the top with weighted score 1081 and was performed to an average extent. There existed significant association of age with qualities of FFS staff, use of extension methods by FFS staff, responsibilities of FFS member farmers and effectiveness of information provided by FFS staff. Size of land holding had highly significant negative association with qualities of FFS staff and responsibilities of FFS member farmers. Annual income of respondents had also highly a significant positive association with qualities of FFS staff, whereas there existed highly significant positive association of education with qualities of FFS staff, use of extension methods by FFS staff, responsibilities of FFS member farmers and effectiveness of information provided by FFS staff.
اردو کے نامور محققین(پروفیسر حافظ محمود خان شیرانی) پروفیسر حافظ محمود شیرانی ادب کے مورخ اور محقق ہونے کے علاوہ عتیقیات کے بھی منفرد ماہر تھے۔ علم سکہ شناسی، کتبہ شناسی، مہر شناسی، تصویر شناسی، قدیم کاغذ، روشنائی، آرائش، نقش ونگار اور علم خط میں مہارت کی وجہ سے تصنیفات کے تاریخی مغالطوں کو کامیابی سے دور کرنے میں ید طولی رکھتے تھے۔پروفیسر شیرانی کی تین حیثیتیں نمایاں تھیں؛استاد،مورخ اور محقق حافظ محمود خان شیرانی کی پیدائش 5 اکتوبر 1880ء کو ہوئی جبکہ آپ کی وفات 14 فروری 1947ء کو ہوئی۔وہ معروف رومانوی شاعر اختر شیرانی کے والد تھے۔۔ انہوں نے اسلامیہ کالج لاہور اور اورینٹل کالج لاہور میں اردو کی تدریس کی۔ ان کے وفات کے بعد شائع ہونے والے مقالے مقالاتِ حافظ محمود شیرانی میں ان کے فرزند لکھتے ہیں کہ بعض اوقات علامہ اقبال بھی ان سے بعض اصلاحات کے متعلق دریافت کیا کرتے تھے۔ ان کی وفات ٹونک میں ہی ہوئی ان کے خاندان والے تقسیم ہند کے بعد پاکستان چلے آئے۔آپ زیادہ تر انگلستان میں رہے اور مشہور ناشر لیوزک کے ہاں نوادر و عتیقیات کے مبصر کے طور پر کام کرتے رہے۔اسی زمانے میں انہوں نے عتیقیات کی نباضی سیکھی اور وہ نظر حاصل کی جو کسی اعلی فن شناس کو عطا ہوتی ہے۔ ان کا علمی کام زیادہ تر تحقیق زبان اور تحقیق واقعات سے متعلق ہے۔ انہیں سب سے زیادہ شہرت دو موضوعات کی بنا پر حاصل ہوئی؛ اول تنقید شعرالعجم سے، دوم پنجاب میں اردو کی وجہ سے۔تنقید شعرالعجم میں درحقیقت ساری فارسی شاعری کی ایک بے قاعدہ تاریخ آگئی ہے۔ حافظ شیرانی نیگہرے مطالعے سے 'شاہ نامہ فردوسی' اور 'محمود غزنوی' کے بارے میں صدیوں سے پائی جانے والی غلط فہمیوں کو دور کیا۔حافظ شیرانی نے خارجی شواہد کے علاوہ داخلی شہادت کے طریقے سے دیوان حسن،...
Ansāb-ul-Ashrāf is one of the most prominent works of Aḥmad Bin Yaḥya Bin Jābir al- Balādhuri, a muslim historiographer of third Hijri Century. This book is, in fact, a genealogical form of writing history and a primary and authentic source of the Holy biography of the Holy Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ). This article comprises the life, works and especially the methodology of seerah writing of Balādhuri in his book: Ansāb-ul-Ashrāf. The distinctive characteristics of methodology of seerah writing have been described in this article. He has presented the traditions (Riwayat) about the Seerah of Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ) in different ways. Sometimes he mentions the whole chain of narrators and sometimes he skips the chain of narrators. The article sheds light on the methodology of seerah writing with special reference to the book Ansāb-ul-Ashrāf.
In this study, a number of compounds in the Ho2(ZryTi1-y)2O7 pyrochlore system, which undergoes an order-disorder structural transition from pyrochlore to a defect-fluorite type, were investigated. The materials were processed by mechanical milling, followed by a two-step sintering route. The structure was analyzed via Rietveld refinements using neutron powder diffraction (NPD) data, and further supported by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify the phases and determine the composition of the pyrochlore-fluorite transformation boundary at room temperature. The NPD refinement and XRD results show that compositions with 0.0 ≤ y ≤ 0.5 crystallized into a pyrochlore structure while the ones with 0.7 ≤ y ≤ 1.0 crystallized into the defect-fluorite structure. The composition with y=0.6 was found to be a two phase (pyrochlore and defect-fluorite) mixture. Neutron refinement results confirmed that the cation disorder was independent of the anion Frenkel disorder and also the degree of Frenkel disorder O(1)-O(3) was different from the O(2)-O(3) anion disorder. The relation between x-parameter and anion Frenkel disorder was found to be linear for the pyrochlore structure. Unit-cell parameters were obtained using Rietveld refinements for the whole series and were also calculated via the Nelson-Riley function. The ionic conductivity studies were undertaken via AC impedance analysis to determine the electronic behaviour and its relationship to the structural change in the available temperature range of 300–700°C. The trends in ionic conductivity and activation energy were explained on the basis of NPD and XRD data. The composition at the pyrochlore-fluorite boundary exhibited the lowest activation energy and highest ionic conductivity.