1Department of Agricultural Extension, PJTSAU, Rajendranagar, India

2Department of Home Science, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Rudrur, India

3Department of Horticulture, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Rudrur, India

Corresponding Author Email: changal_padma@yahoo.co.in

DOI : https://doi.org/10.58321/AATCCReview.2023.11.03.108

Keywords

Design and development of low/minimum cost diet, Designing and development for high nutrient efficiency diet, Food adulteration and Women and child care, Gender mainstreaming through SHGs, Home science, Income generation activities, kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening, Knowledge gain, Location-specific drudgery reduction technologies, Minimization of nutrient loss in processing, Rural crafts, Storage loss minimization techniques, Training programme, Value addition, Women empowerment, Women trainee

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Abstract

Women play a catalytic role in sustainable development bringing required transformational, economic, environmental and social changes. The majority of rural women suffer not only from economic poverty but also from information poverty especially related to household technologies and abilities to perform better as home managers. With utmost attention addressing the challenges, thewomen arefacing in the present scenario like their disadvantaged and discriminated position with poor infrastructure, meageraccess to knowledge and information source, scanty livelihood promotion opportunities,inadequate mobility and communication facilities and sufficienthealth facilities the need of the hour.Technological innovations and their reach to rural women through training programmescan result in enhancing women’s welfare leading to empowerment.Training is one of the important functions of Krishi Vigyan Kendra.The main purpose of organizing training programmes is to impart knowledge and develop new skills required for the adoption of the latest technology and buildup attitude among farmers, farm women, rural youth, school dropouts and other grass root level workers. In this direction, the present study was undertaken to find out the Knowledge gained by farm women through aseries of training programmes in Home science conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nizamabadto find out livelihood changes brought at individual and field levels through future impact studies.On-campus training programmes were conducted at the KVK training hall and the off-campus training programmes were conducted at KVK adopted villages by SMS (Home Science) working at KVK Nizamabad from 2015-16 to 2018-19(4 years) under the guidance of the Programme Coordinator. A total of 56 training programmes fewer than eleven (11) thematic / training areas were conducted training 2589 women trainees during the study period. Pre-evaluation and post-evaluation tests were conducted in every training programme and scores were obtained respectively to calculate the gain in knowledge. An average knowledge gain of four years found was 68.75 percent. Women were trained mostly on the thematic areas viz. Women empowerment, Location-specific drudgery reduction technologies, Value addition, Women and child care and Design and development of low/minimum cost diet.

Introduction:

Women comprise more than 50 percent of the world’s population. They play a catalytic role in sustainable developmentbringing required transformational, economic, environmental and social changes. A total of 1.7 billion women and girls live in rural areas making 43 per cent of the agricultural force in developing countries[4]. Women significantlycontribute to agricultural production, food and nutritional security, land and natural resource management, and building climate resilience [3]. As per the Census of India (2011), women constitute 48 percent of Indian population out of which 78 percent are engaged in agriculture which is the mainstay of the rural Indian economy. Though women represent only 50 percent of the total population, they contribute 75 percent to the development of our society while men contribute only 25 percent [5].The majority of rural women suffer not only from economic poverty but also from information poverty especially related to household technologies and abilities to perform better as home managers. With utmost attention addressing the challenges, thewomen are facing in the present scenario like their disadvantaged and discriminated position with poor infrastructure, meager access to knowledge and information source, scanty livelihood promotion opportunities,inadequate mobility and communication facilities and in sufficient health facilities is the need of hour.Information reach on home technologies through well-designed training programmescan empower women on multiple levels. Technological innovations and their reach to rural women through training programmescan result in enhancing women’s welfare leading to empowerment. Low-cost, reliable homestead technologies related to nutrition, health and sanitation, drudgery reduction, post-harvest technologies etc. can provide a great leap forward for meeting rural women’s practical needs for reducing their drudgery, increasing their efficiency and improving family’s health condition[1].  Training women on Home science technologies help to sustain themselves throughself-employment making them self-reliant and economically protecting them from migration to the urban areas.

The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Nizamabad was established in 2004 to address specific agricultural problems. Apart from agriculture, the focusis also on food nutrition, processing, storage and utilization of crop and livestock production, to raise women’s income and living standards through business-oriented farming and processing strategies. Ever since the establishment of the KVK with the emphasis on participatory extension, various efforts have been made to elicit various types and levels of information on women’sstatus through various strategies so as to improve their living conditions and conduct training programmes on home technologiesassume greater importance.

Training is one of the important functions of Krishi Vigyan Kendra. The main purpose of organizing training programmes is to impart knowledge and develop the new skill required for the adoption of the latest technology and buildup attitude among farmers, farm women, rural youth, school dropouts and other grass root level workers. [7]In this direction, the present study was undertaken with the objective to find out the Knowledge gained by farm women through aseries of training programmes in Home science conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nizamabad so as to find out livelihood changes eventuated at individual and field level through future impact studies. This would enable the SMS (Home Science) to analyze on the applicabilityof training programmes at the individual level and the extent of improvements that transpired in their living conditions

Materials and methodology

The present paper describes knowledge gainby farm women through a series of training programmes,off-campus and on campusconducted by SMS (Home Science) at KVK Nizamabad from 2015-16 to 2018-19.  A total ofeleven (11)thematic / training areas selected for conducting trainingprogrammes include Household food security by kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening; Design and development of low/minimum cost diet;  Designing and development for high nutrient efficiency diet; Minimization of nutrient loss in processing; Gender mainstreaming through SHGs; Storage loss minimization techniques; Value addition; Income generation activities for empowerment of rural women; Location specific drudgery reduction technologies;Rural Crafts; Food Adulteration and Women and child care.These training programmes were finalized by expertsof College of Home science, Professor Telangana State Agricultural University and ATARI-ICAR, Zone-X,Hyderabad during various technical meetings and sought approval. The on-campus training programmes were conducted at KVK training hall and the off-campus training programmeswere conducted at KVK adopted villages. Theseadoptedvillages areas under.

Name of adopted villagesName of mandalDistrict
Jalalpur, Laxmapur, Sankora, Vakheel farmVarni  Nizamabad  
Suddulam, Rampur, Takli, Sunkini and HegdoliKotagiri
NeelaRenjal
Rythunagar,Kistapur, Thimmapur, Mirzapur, ChincholiBirkurKama Reddy

The identified training programmes were mainly confined to OFTs, and FLDs. Every training programmewas followed proper need assessment exercise.Apart,the interest ofwomen to attend training programmeswas also considered while identifying the trainees. The content was developed carefully with proper refinement by adding and deletingover previous years based on raisedneed. Need-based training methods were used viz., interactive lectures, lecture cum discussions, brainstorming, role play, method demonstration, group discussion, skill teaching extension talk etc.

 A total of 56 training programmes were conducted in four years viz, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 and trained 2589 women farmers in the identified thematic/training areas. Care was taken to eliminate the women who attended the same training programme earlier to reach benefits to more women.A simple questionnaire was developed to conduct Pre and Post evaluation (before start and after the completion of sessions) and thoroughly checked every question for its validity.The interactive training sessions were started after registration, ice-breaking exercise, need assessment, and experience sharing among trainees with recall and recap sessions at the beginning and end respectively. The duration of training programmes ranged from one day to four days. Majority of the training programmes were one day training programmes and conducted all the years.  Based on demand from women farmers few training programmes were repeated thesame year twice, trice and tetrad. 

Pre-evaluation and post-evaluation was conducted in every training programmeand scores were obtained respectively to calculate thegain in knowledge. Frequencies and percentages were used to calculate Knowledge gain using the below formula.

Post-evaluation score    -Pre-evaluation score

      Knowledge gain= —————————————————————— X 100                                         

                        Maximum possible score – Pre-evaluation score                 

Maximum possible score = Maximum set for evaluation X No. of. participants.

Knowledge gains 60 and above was considered as more knowledge gain.  The year-wise average knowledge gain and overall knowledge gain was also calculated.

Results and Discussion

The Table 1 shows that seventy-three (73%) of women gained knowledge in location-specific drudgery reduction technologies followed by value addition (70%), design and development of low-cost diet (69%), Income generation activities for empowerment of rural women (68%), equal percent(67%)in Rural crafts and Women and child care and  (66%)  in Household food security by kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening during  2015-16

 The Location specific technologiesimparted to women of adopted villages where they could gain knowledge to the extent of73 percent were Use of rolling brush for stem application in cotton and Use of protective clothing while spraying observed throughout the year2015-16. Knowledge of these technologies was imparted through training programmes which were conducted in connection to On Farm Tests and Front Line Demonstrations on drudgery reduction technologies. Seventy-three percent gains in knowledge could be attributed to the use of training methods like method demonstrations, group discussions and skill teachings by the SMS (Home science) under the guidance of the Programme Coordinator. Farm women gaining knowledge onvalue additionto the extent of 70 percentcould beattributed to practical demonstrations conductedon the preparation of value-added products like soybean, millet, fruits and vegetables.The training area Design and development of low/minimum cost diet dealt with the preparation of low-cost foods with locally available food materials.  The training programmewas on low-cost food preparation mostly given to women on the occasion of National Nutrition week which were conducted every year during the first week of September and breastfeeding week celebrations in the first week of August.

The training area, Income generation activities led to the empowerment of rural women with knowledge gain of  68 percent as the Home scientist focused on the preparation of the product Pushti weaning mix for combating malnutrition among infants after realizing attractive resultsin OFTs and FLDsfollowed by motivating the women with documented success stories. These efforts of a Home scientist would enable rural women to start entrepreneurship on making and selling pusti weaning mix and help them realize assured monthly income to support the family financially.  

Gaining post evaluation score high in the Women and child care training area could be attributed tothe Home Scientist  practical and effective delivery of sessions to the farm and rural women on  precautions to be taken during pregnancy period and the importance of iron rich foods , the importance of vaccination and use of  play materials for pre- school children topics  etc. which she learnt  by attending every programme of Anganwadi centers at adopted villages. These anganwadi worked wellfor the benefit of pregnant women, lactating mothers, new born infants and pre – school children topics etc.

The women gained knowledge73 percent on Rural crafts like   preparation of low-cost photo frames to rural youth as income generating activity as Home Scientists haveundergone training programme on Floral crafts at the College of Home Science, Saifabad, Hyderabad

In the adopted villages most of the women had an interest on Kitchen gardening in their own house premises organically but they encountered the problem of non-availability of quality seedswhere KVK assumed the role for different vegetable seeds like palak, methi, amaranthus, bhendi, ridge gourd, round guard and tomato for household purpose through this training imparted knowledge on vegetable crop production techniques practically. This resulted in 66 percent knowledge gain.

The results are in line with the results of[6] wherethey reported after intervention rural women had acquired knowledge on selected Home Science indicates when educational efforts by way of any intervention including training programmesare exerted, it upgrades the knowledge and same might be the contributing 69 percentAverage Knowledge gain of the women trainees during  the year 2015-16.

Table 2 showed that during the year 2016-17 the knowledge gain of farm women and rural women was more in the training areas viz., women empowerment (73%), Rural crafts (73%), Kitchen gardening (73%) and design and development of low-cost diet (73%) followed by an equal gain in knowledge (67%) on value addition and women and child care and (60%) in the area of design and development for high nutrient efficiency diet.

The results indicate an increasing trend in the Knowledge gain in the same thematic areas conducted the previous year. This is quite an encouraging result that could probably be attributed to   more practical-oriented training sessions conducted by home scientists based on feedback received from trainees of previous training batches and experience gained by them. The programme coordinator’s effort in the documentation of many successful technologies to motivate and lead women towards entrepreneurship through the sessions conducted in the training programme resulted in more knowledge i,e  73 percent.

The gainin knowledge (73%) by rural youth and women in the area of Rural craft was due to undergoing training in tailoring and embroidery for 4 days at Krishi Vigyan Kendra leading them to self-employment.The women also got trained on the preparation of low-cost play material with the available material in their homesfor their preschool children. They gained more knowledgein the preparation of low-cost play materials like shape boxes,colour boxes, beads, round wings etc. as indicated in table 2.

Women of the adopted villages gained knowledge 73 percent in Kitchen gardening as KVK Home scientist provided vegetable seeds to adopt kitchen gardening in their back yard anddisseminated knowledge on production techniques and documented some success stories. The women satisfied with the seeds provided by the KVK were palak, amaranthus, gogu, bhendi, round guard, ridge guard, bottle guard, bitter guard each seed in 5 gmsquantity in a packet in practical sessions. The central government also focused on nutria-sensitive programmes for the welfare of the farming community through KVK.

Training on the Design and development of low-cost dietshows that the SHG women in the adopted villages of KVK gained 73 per cent knowledge on the preparation of value-added products like millets, soybean, and pulses to improve the health status of children and women.  Preparation of Pushti weaning mix was demonstrated in a training programmeforthe prevention of malnutrition and raagi laddu (Finger millet) to improve hemoglobin level among adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers as a low-cost diet.  Sessions on the importance of consumption of drumstick leaf powder, curry leaf powder, kichidi, and leafy vegetable juices also attracted the attention of the women for their health benefits slow cost food. 

ConcerningValue addition farm women trained in the areas of pulses, fruits and vegetables, millets and rice. The women farmers in the adopted villages of Rythunagar, Akbarnagar, Takli, Boppapur, Raikur and Hungargawere activeas they were educated where they enthusiastically participated in practical sessions and gained knowledge in  preparation of value-added products  likeRaagi laddu, pushti weaning mix, drumstick leaf powder, raagi malt, pickles, sauces, jams and murukulu by gaining 67 per centknowledge

The adopted villages of Rythunagar, Akbarnagar, Takli, Boppapur, Raikur and Hungarga had excellent anganwadi workers working for the welfare of women and children under ICDS programme. KVK Home scientists are actively involved in all the programmes of ICDS like Breastfeeding week celebrations, Nutrition Week, Poshan Abhiyan, Vaccination, Adolescent programmes, preschool children activities and sector meetings which helped to train the women practically. Concerning High nutrient diet, the women had sixty percent knowledge as they have less time to prepare and procure foods for highly nutritious diet preparation. Women were trained on the topics of preparation of mixed fruits jam, mixed nuts laddu, mixed vegetable curries, rice value-added products, millet value added products and pulses value-added products. In the feedback, women expressed, the villages are far away from cities,Hence procurement of food and storage astheir problems.

Similar findings were reported by [6]which it showed a significant gain in knowledge on all the components of nutrition (balanced diet, weaning food, conservation of nutrients, preservation of nutrients, hygiene, deficiencies, source, food fads and fallacies) that are included in the training programme.  69percent was the average knowledge gain of the women trainees duringthe year 2016-17.

The results in Table 3 describe that the farm women gained knowledge in equal percentage (72%) in the training programmesProcessing and cooking and Life skills in day to day living followed by seventy per cent (70%)  knowledge gain equally in the areas of Women and child care and Protective clothing; Specific drudgery reduction technologies (68%), Value addition (66%), Women empowerment (65%), Design and development of low-cost diet (63%), andHousehold food security by kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening (60%).

 During the year 2017-18, KVK home scientists conducted a training programme on the direct need of the majority of the women in the area of Processing and cookingand delivered knowledge on primary food processing to make most foods edible, and secondary food processingto processthe ingredients into familiar foods such as bread. Tertiary food processing has been subjected to criticismwhich is promoting overnutrition and obesity, containing too much sugar and salt, too little fibreand otherwise being unhealthful in respect to the dietary needs of humans and farm animals. Cooking topics coveredinclude baking, roasting, frying, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, boiling, steaming and braising.

ConcerningLife skills in day-to-day living, it was given to rural youth and discussed meaning and importance of life skills in every movement that impact their physical and emotional health. Life skills covered include the ability to manage emotions, health, finances, relationships and their performances etc.  The post-evaluation score in this trainingwas high as they have shown more interest on the topic.

The training programme onProtective clothingresulted in new to women basing its importanceon health women got more knowledge (70%). Protective clothing that includes cap, old shirt, gloves, mask and sunglasses protects the individual from pesticide inhalation, and decrease the health hazards and morbidity pattern over some time. This training programme was conducted as a part of On-Farm Test on Protective clothing in the adopted villages of KVK and distributed materialfor protective clothing to the trained farm women who were frequently involved in the spraying. The content for training on protective clothing was suitability, comfortability, durability, adoption feasibility and morbidity pattern of protective clothing while spraying.

Seventy percent of knowledge gain by women in training area Women and child careas  Table 3delineates, women had a great involvement in women and child care programmes which were regularly organized by ICDS Anganwadi centers.  Seventy percent of knowledge gain could also be attributed to their quick understanding on the content as they have already exposedtobreastfeeding week celebrations, nutrition week, poshanmahan, NARI, swachathapakwada, harithaharamprogramme, vaccination, vitamin deficiency programmeetc,. Rural women and farm women had more interest on these programmes and actively involved in the sessions.

Location-specific drudgery reduction technologies with 68 percent Knowledge gain states women’s familiarity with performance assessment of work efficiency of easy transplanter in tomato, assessment of seed drill for sowing in maize by farm women, use of a rolling brush for stem application in cotton, the introduction of knitted gloves to combat occupational health hazards for bhendi pickers, use of protective cloths while sprayingfor drudgery reduction etc. onwhich KVK conducted OFTs and FLDs and as a  part of these, KVK conducting training programmes. Women who attended these training programmes gained knowledge on these technologies, tomatotransplanter (easy transplanter)  for saving time, and money, and reduce drudgery while transplanting and in seed drill learnton land preparation techniques, type of soils suitable, how to use seed drill for different types of seeds for sowing. Women gained knowledgeon the benefits of using rolling brush viz.,less time-consuming, requirement of chemical dosage (250ml), less no. of labour requirement (1 person), less investment (Rs.1050/-), no environment pollution, only harmful insects getting killed, physical stress minimization. Concerning knitted gloves women gained knowledge on its uses like no itching sensation, high work efficiency, ease to wear &removal, protection from other hazardsand less cost. The farm women got awareofthe benefits of using technology likereduction in nausea, and vomiting, no headache, reduction of skin allergy, reduction of breathlessness, easeofadoption etc.

Women empowerment training programmeshows sixty-five percent knowledge gain among trained women. Krisi Vigyan Kendra focused on women’sempowermentwhere home scientists motivated SHG women to attend training which enable them to initiate start ups on preparation and selling of pushti weaning mix, raagi laddu, drumstick leaf powder, rolling brush and protective clothing as micro-enterprises.The women were trained on these product preparation techniques and the steps to starting an enterprise on their own.

ConcerningDesign and development of low-cost diet the women of adopted villages Rythunagar, Annaram, Takli, Desaipet, Akbarnagar, Boppapur and Hungarga  gained knowledge by 63 per centon the low-cost diet with locally available food material to improve thehealth status of vulnerable groups. Women also learnt the importance of a balanced diet, thaali, iron-rich foods and different age group diet patterns.

Sixty percent of knowledge was gained by the SHG women in the area of value addition. In this training, women were trained on the importance of value addition for better health among infants, pre-school children, adolescents, and pregnant and lactating women. Women trained on the topics of preparation of value-added products of millets, pulses, oil seeds, fruits and vegetables etc.

With regard tohousehold food security by kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening, sixty percent was gained by the farm women which shows women’s interest in kitchen gardening to improve health and wealth during pandemic situations. They were also provided various seeds packed in a packet for household maintenanceby KVK during practical training. The seeds provided were tomato, chilli, greens, methi, palak, bottle gourd, ridge guard etc,.

The results are also inconformity with the results of [8]. The other possible reason might be the training environment that was created providing enough experiential learning throughdemonstrationswith the supply of printed material. Anganwadi workers, Supervisors, ASHA workers and  SHGs  women discussing these aspects with exposure to  mass media like radio and television for getting awareness might have contributed to 67 percentAverage Knowledge gain of the women trainees in the training programmes conducted during the year 2017-18.

Table 4 depicts that  women gained knowledge in the areas of Women empowerment (73%),  followed by Location specific drudgery reduction technologies (71%), Designing and development for high nutrient efficiency diet design (66%) and Development of low-cost diet (65%).  The per cent knowledge gain observed in other training programmes viz., Awareness on welfare schemes available for youth 75, Protective clothing for pesticide application 74, Awareness on insurance for crops and live stocks 73,Demonstration on protective clothing 73, Demonstration on instant idly preparation 71,Demonstration on protective clothing 70,Importance of Low Glycemic Index foods to SHG women 69,with equal percent of knowledge gain i,e 67  in Demonstration on fertilizer applicator and Demonstration on low glycemic foods preparation, Demonstration on dosa making with drumstick leaf powder resulted in 67 knowledge gain,Income generating activities on millets to unemployed youth(66%), and Demonstration on the nutritional garden (65%) during 2018-19.

 Training programme on Women empowerment with 73 percent knowledge gain by womendepicts  KVK’S  inquisitiveness  to focus on  entrepreneurship development where the SMS (Home science)  explained the home technologies practically with  her experience gained through her hard and determined efforts put in under the encouragement of Programme coordinator at KVK adopted villages aiming to improve their living standards. The training sessions covered the technologies viz., pushti weaning mix, ragi laddu, drumstick leaf powder and protective clothing and rolling brush. These women empowerment training programme effectively created interest among SHG women where few women expressed their interest to start micro-entrepreneurship on these technologies.

In the training programmeLocation specific drudgery reduction technologies 71percent knowledge gain was observed. The women and farmers shown interest in attending training programme on drudgery-reducing technologies like seed drill for sowing seeds, seed cum fertilizer bags, easy transplanter for transplanting tomato seedlings, knitted gloves for bhendi plucking, harvest bag for picking cotton, rolling brush stem applicator, fertilizer applicator in cotton and protective clothing as they were briefed by previous trainees on the usefulness and effective conduct of training programmesby KVK. As these technologies were very useful to farm women folk,women came forward to attend and learn these drudgery reduction technologies practically in their fields bringing some traininginput on their own.

Designing and developing of high nutrient efficiency diet designwith 66 percent knowledge gain enlightened the womenon benefits of high nutrient efficiency diet design organized under central government programmePoshanabhiyan with the coordination of women and child department officials at adopted villages and KVK  office as both on and off campus trainingprogrammes. The women gaining knowledge on high nutrient diet includes mixed vegetable jam, jelly, murabba, guava gel, green leafy vegetables juices, dry fruit laddu and millets mixed powder, fish pickle making and prawns pickle making etc.,

The training area Development of low cost diettrained women onscope oflocally available food materials for food preparationsto increase health of the vulnerable group’sviz., women, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mother, pre-school children and infants and enabled them to gain knowledge by 65 percent. Pushti weaning mixand preparations with  balamrutham like cake, dosa, roties, biscuits, halwa and burelu were demonstrated to improve physical and mental health of the children. Millet value added product preparations like raagi laddu, raagi java, jowar murukulu, soyabean value added products, rice value added products were also demonstrated which added to  their knowledge gain.

Under NARI (Nutri-Sensitive Agri-resources& Innovations) programmeKVK conducted many programmes in Suddulum village of Kotagir Mandal selected for NARI programme as per the instructions of ICAR-ATARI, Hyderabad. Under this programme tribal women were trained on the topics like a demonstration on protective clothing, demonstration on instant idly preparation,demonstration on protective clothing, importance of Low Glycemic Index foods to SHG women, demonstration on fertilizer applicator and a demonstration on low glycemic foods preparation, demonstration on dosa making with drumstick leaf powder, Income generating activities on millets to unemployed youth,demonstration on nutritional garden. In addition, conducted method demonstrations on preparation of instant idly, low glycemic index foods like brown rice, ragi dosa by mixing drumstick leaf powder and income generating activities with millets viz., biscuits, cakes, rolls etc.,

Some other training programmes were also conducted for farmers and farm women on protective clothing, fertilizer applicator, and nutritional garden as these were effective home science technologies and appealed the trainees to in turn spread the learning in the adopted villages of KVK and farming community to spread horizontally in the farming community.

The multi disciplinary approach of the KVK objective also implemented in these training programmes as the Home Scientist involved each and every scientist in home science training programme which was explained as follows for conducting of kitchengardening training programme involved Horticulture scientist, for protective clothing and rolling brush involved Entomology scientist and drudgery reduction technologies Agronomy scientist involved for seed rate and crop cultivation practices and also involved Agricultural Extension subject scientist for preparation of schedules for conducting agriculture related topics in Home science training programmesandprogramme coordinator involved from the stage of action plan of training programmes, implementation stage, schedule preparation stage, data collection stage and evaluation stage and final documentation stage like -wise multi-disciplinary approach of training programmes were conducted in KVK includingon and off campus programmes.

The results are parallel with the results of [2] also showed that after training programme there was increased awareness about human nutrition among the tribal women.

The results are similar with the results of [9] where majority of the respondents (54.16%) had medium level of knowledge, followed by high (38.33 %) level of knowledge and few respondents (7.50%) had low level of knowledge on the Importance of food and food pyramid. During the year 2018-19 well designed training programmes might have contributed to realize 70 percent average knowledge gain of the women trainees.

Conclusion:

Women’s empowerment is a right. Accomplishing  this right through various strategies addressing  the   challenges the   women are facing   is  utmost important .The  most pressing challenges of our time  like their disadvantaged and discriminated position with poor infrastructure, meagre access to knowledge and information source, scanty livelihood promotion opportunities, inadequate  mobility and communication facilities and  insufficient health care facilities  still holding too many women back, hindering nation’s prosperity. Training help women gain new knowledge and skill and change attitude to improve their competence, capacity, and performance.The most effective training also help women apply the gained knowledge  andinformationto improve their living conditions.In this direction, KVK, Nizamabad  conductedaseries a total of 56 training programmes under eleven (11) thematic / training areas  viz., Women empowerment, Location specific drudgery reduction technologies, Value addition, Women and child care and Design and development of low/minimum cost diettraining 2589 women trainees during the study period  and figured out68.75 percent average knowledge gain.This would enable the SMS (Home Science) to analyze on applicability of training programmes at individual level and the extent of improvements transpired in their living conditions through future impact studies.

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Future scope of the study:

The study would enable to researchextent of livelihood changes transpired and eventuated along analyzing applicability of training programmes at individual and field level through futuristic impact studies.

Conflict of interest:

Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in the study.

Acknowledgements:

We are thankful to Professor Jaya Shankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), ATARI- Zone X, Hyderabad, College of Home science, Saifabad and AICRP- Home Science, Rajendranagar for helping in planning, and implementation of training programmes.

Tables:

Table1.  List of training programmes conducted along with no of trainees, pre and post               evaluation score and knowledge gain during the year 2015-16.

S.NoThematic areaNo. of Training programmesTotal no. of          traineesPre evaluation scorePost evaluation scoreKnowledge gain (%)
1.House hold food security by kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening1387827666
2.Design and development of low/minimum cost diet110724781769
3.Value addition2148326113570
4.Income generation activities for empowerment of rural women18719365668
5.Location specific drudgery reduction technologies3181403142673
6.Rural Crafts16913750967
7.Women and child care4151334112567
                  Total13781Average knowledge gain=69

Table 2.  List of training programmes conducted along with no of trainees, pre and post               evaluation score and knowledge gain during the year 2016-17.

S. NoThematic areaNo. of Training programmesTotal no. of traineesPre evaluation scorePost evaluation scoreKnowledge gain (%)
1.Household food security by kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening15010639273
2.Design and development of low/minimum cost diet1346726673
3.Designing and development for high nutrient efficiency diet1367724860
4.Value addition38618063667
5.Women empowerment29319572873
6.Rural Crafts25410542373
7.Women and child care35311039267
                  Total13406Average knowledge gain=69

Table 3.  List of training programmes conducted along with no of trainees, pre and post               evaluation score and knowledge gain during the year 2017-18.

S. NoThematic areaNo. of Training programmesTotal no. of traineesPre evaluation scorePost evaluation scoreKnowledge gain (%)
1Household food security by kitchen gardening and nutrition gardening1378325460
2Design and development of low/minimum cost diet1346123763
3Processing and cooking1275320972
4Life skills in day to day living1409431372
5Value addition110421076066
6Women empowerment1357225465
7Location specific drudgery reduction technologies27115153068
8Women and child care110222678370
9Protective clothing2175379133370
            Total11625Average knowledge gain=67

Table 4. List of training programmes conducted along with no of trainees, pre and post               evaluation score and knowledge gain during  the year 2018-19.

S. NoThematic areaNo. of Training programmesTotal no. of traineesPre evaluation scorePost evaluation scoreKnowledge gain (%)
1.Design and development of low/minimum cost diet29020065665
2.Designing and development for high nutrient efficiency diet36614248466
3.Women empowerment16613752173
4.Location specific drudgery reduction technologies14910938171
5.Importance of Low Glycemic Index foods to SHG women18418263869
6.Awareness on insurance for crops and live stocks1194315073
7.Protective clothing for pesticide applicators1245119074
8.Awareness on welfare schemes available for youth1214917075
9.Demonstration on fertilizer applicator1368126867
10.Demonstration on protective clothing1215616973
11.Demonstration on low glycemic foods preparation1183913367
12.Demonstration on nutritional garden1205314865
13.Demonstration on instant idly preparation112026993271
14.Demonstration on dosa making with drumstick leaf powder1143410567
15.Income generating activities on millets to un employed youth1358826266
16.Demonstration on protective clothing19421072370
                            Total19777Average knowledge gain=70

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