Impact of training on Sheep and Goat production among the farm women of Sundarban of West Bengal

A study was conducted among the 777 nos. of women farmer of Sundarban participated in the 20 nos. of Farmers’ training on sheep and goat production from September 2018 to March 2020 organized under DBT mission mode programme on Establishment of Biotech-KISAN Hub at WBUAFS, Kolkata for assessment of effective capacity building of these farmers for their better livelihood on the basis of the survey though suitable questionnaires The impact of training programme has been found a tremendous effect among the farmers on adoption of scientific method of Sheep and Goat rearing practices. The majority of the these farm women were within the age group of 30- 45 and they were mostly the landless (23.17%), small (41.06%) and marginal farmers (29.99%) in this remote island.. The goat farmers were mixed in caste and most of them were Hindu by religion (70.01%) and caste is SC (44.02%), followed by General (40.03 %), OBC (9.52%) and ST (6.44%). Education status of the farm women are either primary (15.57%), secondary (11.58%) and higher secondary (29.99%). Impact of training in relation knowledge gain has been assessed found that overall knowledge gain about 76.19% and all factors have a significant gain in knowledge level among these farmers after exposure to the training. The gain in mean knowledge score pertaining to various aspects of sheep and goat rearing practices. Highest knowledge gain has been found in General care & management (87.14%) followed by Health care management (78.89%), feeding practices (78.56%) housing management (73.90%), Breeds & breeding practices (70.30%) and fodder production (68.36%) were observed in decreasing order among the farm women with significant effect. Among different parameters housing had highest level of adoption percentage (72.97%) Breed (64.48%), Vaccination (PPR, FMD) (62.42%), Deworming (59.46%) and least adoption percentage in azolla feeding practices (16.47%) was observed. It has also observed that, the farm women according to their knowledge level at pre and post training programme clearly indicated that more number of trainees shifted over to high level knowledge category from low knowledge level. As a whole, , the training program had a significant positive impact in terms of knowledge gain and adaption on scientific practices of sheep and goat rearing which will help in better livelihood.