INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD ISSN: 2455-0620 Volume - 7, Issue - 5, May – 2021 Monthly, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed, Indexed Journal with IC Value: 86.87 Impact Factor: 6.719 Received Date: 15/05/2021 Acceptance Date: 30/05/2021 Publication Date: 31/05/2021 ASSESSMENT OF TRAINING NEEDS FOR BANANA GROWERS IN TULI BLOCK, MOKOKCHUNG, NAGALAND 1. Sentinungshi , 2. Dr. Mary N. Odyuo 1Research Scholar. Department of Rural Development and Planning. Nagaland University. School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development. Medziphema Campus. 797106. 2Assistant Professor, Department of Rural Development and Planning. Nagaland University. School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development. Medziphema Campus. 797106. Email - [email protected] [email protected] th Abstract: Nagaland is the 16 state of India and is popularly known as the Land of Festivals. The study deals with the Training need assessment of banana cultivators in Tuli block under Mokokchung district hailing from the state of Nagaland. Structured interview schedule was prepared to collect the primary data of the respondents. Nagaland is a state of agriculture and more than half of the population depends on agricultural activities for livelihood. In Nagaland, Banana is popularly grown due to its favourable climatic condition and soil suitability and also a good source of healthy nutrition and a stable means for high income generation. Majority of the respondents, (68.33 %) had ‘medium’ level training needs towards banana cultivation. Where as, based on an overall rank obtained, the ‘training need’ was found to be highest in respect of pest and diseases management (I) followed by irrigation schedule(II), land preparation(III), nutrient management (IV), spacing (V), post harvest management technique (VI), harvesting (VII), seed and sowing (VIII) and intercultural operation (IX). Keywords: Training needs, banana cultivation and knowledge level. 1. INTRODUCTION: The word "banana" is a general term implementing a number of species or hybrids in the genus Musa of the family Musaceae known simply as the banana family. 1“Bananas are now cultivated pan tropically in more countries than any other fruit crop in the world” (Morton 1987). Human resource development is largely associated with “training” as one of its main component in carrying out the mission of achieving its goal of “development”. Training is undeniably a dynamic and powerful tool to impart desired set of knowledge, skill or attitude into a person or a group of people at any level. But to make the training more effective and desirable it is important to know the specific need and requirement of the trainees/farmers beforehand. This process is known as Training Need Assessment. According to the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INEBAP) 2“India is the largest producer of banana accounting to about 23 % of global output, about three times share of the next country Brazil with an annual production of 16.91 million tonnes from 490.7 million hectares and accounts to 16.65 % of world production. In Nagaland, banana is cultivated in about 6,901ha with an annual production of 87,437 MT. 3“The area under banana cultivation is highest in Mokokchung district followed by Kohima and Wokha district; 1250ha, 1000ha and 847ha respectively but in terms of production, wokha district occupies the first place with a production of 11107.50MT followed by Mokokchung and Kohima district with a production of 7100MT and 1230MT respectively”. (Source: Horticulture Area Production Info. of India, Nagaland) In the selected area of study i.e., Tuli block under Mokokchung district, Nagaland most of the people were engaged in farming activities and their livelihood depends on it whereby, banana cultivation was a common practice in almost all of the household in the study area. The most common banana varieties cultivated in the area as said by the locals were chini champa, hati gol, jahaji and malbhog. Tuli is an area blessed with many natural resources obe of which is the river Milak. According to the locals who resided in and around the banks of the river Milak, cited that there was very less need for application of fertilizers as the river bought down enough manure and fertile soil. This made the land in the area suitable for cultivation of many vegetables and fruits helping the people in the area to sustain their livelihood through various farming activities. 2. OBJECTIVE: To identify the thematic areas for training needs of banana cultivators based on improved banana cultivation practices. 3. LITERATURE REVIEW: 4Bajpai et al. (2007) reveals that most of the farmers of the district Udham Singh Nagar wanted a package of practices on rice cultivation. 5Pierre-André et al (2010) revealed in their study that the totality of respondents had Available online on – WWW.IJIRMF.COM Page 246 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD ISSN: 2455-0620 Volume - 7, Issue - 5, May – 2021 Monthly, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed, Indexed Journal with IC Value: 86.87 Impact Factor: 6.719 Received Date: 15/05/2021 Acceptance Date: 30/05/2021 Publication Date: 31/05/2021 expressed their needs for training about production of planting materials (5.34) and tapping techniques (4.62). The majority of respondents had expressed their training needs about improved agricultural techniques (3.00), budding process (2.90), accurate preparation of stimulant and its application (2.34) and identification of diseases and chemical application for their control (1.26). 6Alarima et al (2011) opined from their study that the training needs of the sawah farmers in Nigeria in order of priority were- Water management (95.50%), power tiller operation and management (93.20%) and sawah layout and design (88.60%) were the most important areas where farmers need training. 7Rahman et al (2018) found in their study that integrated disease management attained the top most priority followed by integrated pest management under training on crop protection. Management of problematic soils and fertilizer application were most needed training under soil health and fertility management while training with respect to production of off-season vegetables was the most important one under vegetable production. Training on tuber crops cultivation was also in high demand for areas of production and management technology, processing and value addition of tuber crops. 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The study was conducted in the state of Nagaland. With a total population of 1,980,602 making it one of the smallest states of India. Almost 75 % of the state’s population recites in rural areas and agriculture is one of the most vital economic activity in the state. Nagaland was purposively selected for the study. There are 12 districts in Nagaland and 8“Mokokchung was purposively selected for the study, as it is the second highest producer of banana in Nagaland. (Source: Horticulture Area Production Info, govt. of India, Nagaland). Out of the 9 RD blocks in Mokokchung district”, namely, Longchem, Changtongya, Mangkolemba, Ongpangkong (North), Ongpangkong (South), Kobulong, Chuchuyimlang, Tuli and Tsurangkong, it was found that Tuli has considerably high number of banana cultivators amongst all the other blocks and therefore Tuli block was selected purposively for the study considering 30 respondents from 4 selected villages making a total sample size of 120 respondents. Finally, multi-stage sampling design was applied since the sample districts and respondents were to be selected as desired in fulfilling the objectives taken under consideration in the present study. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: 5.1 TRAINING NEED OF THE RESPONDENTS 5.1.1 General assessment of the respondents on their Training needs in improved banana cultivation. The training Need assessment of the respondents on improved banana cultivation was done generally involving all variables taken into consideration in this study. Table 5.1.1 revealed that, majority of the respondents, (68.33 %) had ‘medium’ level training needs towards banana cultivation, followed by 19.17 per cent and 12.50 per cent of the respondents requiring ‘low’ and ‘high’ training needs respectively. Table 5.1.1 Overall distribution of respondents based on their training needs in general. Sl. Degree of training needs Frequency Percentage No. 1 Low (not needed) 23 19.17 2 Medium (needed) 82 68.33 3 High (most needed) 15 12.50 Total 120 100 µ = 25.27, S.D = 1.97 From the Training Needs assessment study in Table 5.1.1, it was found that majority of the respondents had ‘medium’ training needs. During discussion, it was observed that the respondents had large experience in banana cultivation which over the years might have helped them to acquire the skills and basic knowledge of banana cultivation eventually leading to ‘medium’ training needs in general. Therefore, the need for training was found to be generally ‘medium’ in the study area. This finding were in line with the findings of J.M. Reshma (2017)9. 5.1.2 Training needs Assessment based on improved banana cultivation practices The training need assessment based on improved banana cultivation practices was carried out by measuring the knowledge level of respondents on the improved method of banana cultivation practices as presented and discussed in table 5.1.2. Thus, based on an overall rank obtained, the training need was found to be highest in respect of pest and diseases management (I) followed by irrigation schedule(II), land preparation(III), nutrient management (IV), spacing (V), post harvest management technique (VI), harvesting (VII), seed and sowing (VIII) and intercultural operation (IX). Available online on – WWW.IJIRMF.COM Page 247 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD ISSN: 2455-0620 Volume - 7, Issue - 5, May – 2021 Monthly, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed, Indexed Journal with IC Value: 86.87 Impact Factor: 6.719 Received Date: 15/05/2021 Acceptance Date: 30/05/2021 Publication Date: 31/05/2021 Table 5.1.2 Training need Assessment based on improved bananacultivation practices (total scores and rank of different items in terms of improved practices of banana cultivation).