UPHESC Assistant Professor Agricultural Extension PYQs

Concept: The research question defines the scope of a study – what will be studied; design, sampling and statistics are then chosen to answer it.

1. Research design decides how it will be studied.
2. Statistical design/methods decide how data will be analysed.

Short trick: Question = WHAT; Design = HOW.

Concept: Predictability is the degree of certainty with which the expected benefits/results of an innovation can be foreseen before adoption.

1. Trialability – can be tried on a small scale.
2. Observability – results are visible to others.
3. Compatibility – consistency with existing values, experience and needs.

Short trick: Predict = know beforehand → certainty of benefit.

Concept: Attitude is measured on a scale (e.g., Likert/Thurstone scores) and can take any value in a range, so it is treated as a continuous variable.

1. Family size – discrete (whole numbers).
2. Marital status and religion – categorical (nominal) variables.

Short trick: Scale score = continuous; head count = discrete; category = nominal.

Concept: A survey studies a large number of units at one time to describe a population – its strength is extensive (wide) coverage.

1. In-depth study is the aim of case study.
2. Testing theory/establishing cause-effect links is the aim of experimental research.

Short trick: Survey = wide; case study = deep; experiment = cause.

Concept: An experiment manipulates an independent variable to test a predicted effect, so a hypothesis must be stated beforehand.

1. Biographical, interpretative and case-study research are mostly exploratory/qualitative – hypotheses may emerge from them rather than precede them.

Short trick: No hypothesis, no experiment.

Concept: Karl Pearson's coefficient of correlation 'r' measures the degree of linear relationship between two quantitative (measurable) variables; −1 ≤ r ≤ +1.

1. Two qualitative attributes – coefficient of association/contingency (Yule's Q, χ²-based).
2. Ranks – Spearman's rank correlation.

Short trick: r = two measured variables (height–weight, fertiliser–yield).

Concept: AKIS = Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (Röling, FAO–World Bank 2000): the network of research, extension, education and farmers that generate, exchange and use knowledge.

1. It replaced the linear 'research → extension → farmer' (TOT) view.
2. Later broadened into the Agricultural Innovation System (AIS).

Short trick: AKIS – the 'S' is System.

Concept: A community is a group of people living in a definite place (locality) with community sentiment; its characteristics are locality, community sentiment, naturalness (it grows spontaneously), stability/permanence, likeness and wider ends.

1. Size is not an essential aspect – a community may be a small hamlet or a large city.
2. Place (locality), naturalness and stability are standard characteristics.

Short trick: Community = Place + Sentiment + Natural + Stable; size does not matter.

Concept: Prof. Anil K. Gupta (IIM Ahmedabad) started the Honey Bee Network in 1988–89 to document and spread grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge.

1. Related bodies: SRISTI (1993), GIAN (1997) and National Innovation Foundation (2000).
2. Anil Agarwal founded the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Short trick: Honey bee takes pollen without harming the flower and cross-pollinates – Anil Gupta.

Concept: The Village Knowledge Centres (Information Village Research Project) were started by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Puducherry in 1998.

1. ITC (Imperial Tobacco Company) – e-Choupal (2000).
2. EID Parry – Indiagriline; Nagarjuna Group – Kisan Kendras/iKisan.

Short trick: VKC – MSSRF – Puducherry; e-Choupal – ITC.