UPHESC Assistant Professor Agricultural Extension PYQs

Concept: Wilson & Gallup's six steps in extension teaching: Attention → Interest → Desire → Conviction → Action → Satisfaction.

1. The extension worker must first catch the farmer's attention, then build interest and desire.
2. Conviction leads to action (trial/adoption), and satisfaction with results keeps the practice going.

Short trick: AIDCAS – 'A-I-D-C-A-S'.

Concept: Douglas McGregor (1960): Theory X assumes people dislike work, avoid responsibility and must be directed, controlled and threatened to work.

1. Theory Y assumes work is natural, people are self-directed and seek responsibility (voluntary, motivated work).
2. So 'works when controlled' = Theory X.

Short trick: X = eXternal control; Y = 'Yes, I like work'.

Concept: A continuous variable can take any value within a range (fractions included); age can be 25.5 years, 25.53 years… so it is continuous.

1. Discrete – only whole counts (family size, number of cows).
2. Dichotomous – only two categories (male/female, adopter/non-adopter).
3. Intervening – an unobserved variable linking independent and dependent variables.

Short trick: Measured (age, height, income) = continuous; counted = discrete.

Concept: An interval scale has equal units but an arbitrary zero. 0 °C does not mean 'no heat', so 40 °C is not twice as hot as 20 °C.

1. Nominal – names/categories; Ordinal – rank order.
2. Ratio – true zero (weight, income, Kelvin temperature).

Short trick: Celsius/Fahrenheit = interval; Kelvin = ratio.

Concept: Summative (terminal) evaluation is done at the end of a programme to judge its overall results and impact.

1. Pre-evaluation (baseline) – before the start.
2. Formative/concurrent evaluation – during implementation, to improve the programme.

Short trick: Summative = Sum-up at the end; Formative = Forming during.

Concept: Empathy (Lerner; Berlo) is the ability to put oneself in another person's role/situation – essential for an extension communicator.

1. Credibility – how far the source is trusted.
2. Fidelity – faithfulness/accuracy of the message reaching the receiver.
3. Visibility – how easily results can be seen (observability).

Short trick: Empathy = 'walk in the farmer's shoes'.

Concept: Democratic (participative) leadership involves members in decisions, so supervision is accepted and co-ordination among people improves.

1. Autocratic – leader decides alone; compliance without co-operation.
2. Laissez-faire – leader leaves everything to the group; poor supervision and co-ordination.
3. Lewin, Lippitt & White's classic study found democratic groups most satisfied and co-ordinated.

Short trick: Lewin's three styles: Autocratic, Democratic, Laissez-faire – democratic is best for extension.

Concept: Teletext – pages of text broadcast with the TV signal – was first introduced by the BBC as 'Ceefax' in 1974 (UK).

1. ITV's version was 'Oracle'.
2. Teletext is one-way; Videotex/Viewdata (Prestel) was the two-way telephone-line version.

Short trick: BBC Ceefax = 'See facts', 1974.

Concept: CeRA = Consortium of e-Resources in Agriculture, set up by ICAR in 2007 under NAIP with IARI Library, New Delhi as the nodal agency.

1. It gives NARS scientists and students online access to thousands of agricultural journals.

Short trick: C-e-R-A: Consortium – e – Resources – Agriculture.

Concept: Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (1993, Ministry of WCD) is a micro-finance apex body: it lends 'wholesale' to NGOs/intermediaries who give micro-credit to poor women.

1. Its stated roles: wholesaling (credit through intermediaries), market development (promoting micro-finance and SHGs), promotional/capacity building and advocacy for women's credit.
2. Technology support is not one of its roles.

Short trick: RMK = money (credit), not machines (technology).

Concept: In India this saying on women's education is popularly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, a strong supporter of women's education; among the four options it is linked only with him.

1. The same idea ('educate a man and you educate an individual; educate a woman and you educate a family/nation') is usually traced to the Ghanaian educator J.E.K. Aggrey, who is not an option.
2. Vivekananda's well-known line on women is different: 'There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved.' JP and Vinoba are not associated with this saying.

Short trick: Educate a woman → educate a family/nation – popularly Gandhi.

Concept: Dr. Seaman A. Knapp (USA) organised the famous Porter farm demonstration at Terrell, Texas (1903–04) against the boll weevil – hence 'father of demonstration'.

1. James Stuart – father of university extension (Cambridge, 1867–73).
2. Robert Chambers – father of PRA.
3. J.P. Leagans – extension teaching-learning theory.

Short trick: Knapp: 'What a man hears he may doubt, what he sees he may possibly doubt, but what he does himself he cannot doubt.'

Concept: Flags, banners and similar display signals are seen by everyone passing by – they are mass-contact media used to draw attention of the whole community (e.g., to a campaign, demonstration site or pest warning).

1. Individual contact – farm & home visit, office call, personal letter.
2. Group contact – method demonstration, group meeting, field day, tour.
3. Mass contact – posters, flags/banners, exhibitions, radio, TV, campaigns.

Short trick: Anything that 'everyone sees at once' = mass approach.

Concept: Gyandoot (January 2000) was an intranet-based rural e-governance project in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh; village kiosks called 'Soochanalayas' gave mandi rates, land records etc.

1. It won the Stockholm Challenge IT Award (2000).
2. Other ICT projects: e-Choupal (ITC, MP 2000), Bhoomi (Karnataka), Village Knowledge Centres (MSSRF, Puducherry), AKSHAYA (Kerala).

Short trick: Gyandoot – Dhar (MP) – Soochanalaya.

Concept: Rogers: diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.

1. The four elements of diffusion: innovation, communication channels, time, social system.
2. Time appears in diffusion as the innovation-decision period, innovativeness (adopter categories) and rate of adoption.

Short trick: Diffusion = I-C-T-S (Innovation, Channels, Time, Social system).

Concept: ATMA is a registered society at district level. Its Governing Board is chaired by the District Collector/District Magistrate; the Project Director (ATMA) is the Member-Secretary.

1. The ATMA Management Committee is headed by the Project Director.
2. At block level there is the Block Technology Team and Farmers' Advisory Committee.

Short trick: District body → District head (DM) chairs it.

Concept: James Stuart of Trinity College, Cambridge, gave lectures outside the university (1867–68) and the University Extension movement began in 1873 – he is called the father of university extension.

1. The word 'extension' itself comes from this 'university extension' in England.
2. Rogers – diffusion of innovations; Leagans – extension teaching.

Short trick: Stuart → Cambridge → 'university extension'.

Concept: Steps: 1 Attention, 2 Interest, 3 Desire, 4 Conviction, 5 Action, 6 Satisfaction.

1. So the fourth step is conviction – the farmer becomes convinced the practice is useful for him.
2. Desire is the 3rd and action the 5th step.

Short trick: A-I-D-C-A-S: count to 4 → C (Conviction).

Concept: Agricultural journalism course material lists 'Krishi Sudhar' (1914, Hindi) as an early Hindi farm journal published from Agra.

1. Earlier English farm journal: Agricultural Journal of India (1906).
2. Later Hindi farm magazines: Kheti (ICAR, 1948), Krishak Jagat, Kheti ki Duniya.

Short trick: Krishi Sudhar – 1914 – Agra.

Concept: Descriptive (and diagnostic) studies aim at accurate description of a population, so they need representative probability samples (C.R. Kothari).

1. Formulative/exploratory designs are flexible and use non-probability samples (key informants, judgement).
2. Experimental designs rely mainly on random assignment to treatments rather than probability sampling of a population.

Short trick: Describe a population accurately → probability sample.