2023, Vol. 8, Special Issue 5

There is no doubt that the mechanization in agriculture is essential in present scenario as it has enhances productivity through increased input use efficiency, timeliness of agricultural operations, reduced drudgery as well as the cost of cultivation. On other hand, adequate training is essential for farmers and rural youths to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in operation of farm machineries. Keeping these in view, twenty days hands on training programme on “Skill development on operation and maintenance of farm machines” was organized for 30 rural youths of Durg district of Chhattisgarh. The present investigation was carried out among the participants of training programme during the year 2021. A well-designed schedule was prepared to evaluate the trainees and they were asked to fill up the schedule without prejudice preconceived notion. The schedule was filled twice, at the beginning and just after completion of training programme. More than 80.00 per cent of the participants said that training was useful for them, therefore, training utility rated as ‘Excellent’. Similarly, the training effectiveness worked out to be 71.67 per cent, which was found to be ‘Good”. The findings of the study indicates that majority of the trainees (60.00%) participated in training programme to develop skill in operation and maintenance of farm implements and machineries with Rank I. Majority of the rural youths had either no or partial knowledge, whereas, few of them had medium level of knowledge and very little number of rural youths belonged to complete knowledge category on various aspects considered for training course before training programme. About 16.67 to 56.67 and 23.33 to 46.67 per cent of the trainees attained complete to medium knowledge about various aspects of operation and maintenance of farm machineries and implements. In pre-training stage, majority of the trainees about 73.33, 66.67 and 56.67 per cent were having low level of knowledge regarding Implements used in agriculture, its working method and operation, Importance of tractor, implements and machineries in agriculture and initial repairing and maintenance of farm implements and machineries, respectively. However, the extent of knowledge among participants after receiving training was more satisfactory in all three aspects of training course. It reveals that majority of the trainees (63.33%) had low level of overall knowledge regarding operation and maintenance of farm machines before training programme, which was increased after training programme, as 46.67 per cent of the trainees were belonged to medium level of overall knowledge category in post-training face. The training facilitated to significant improvement on overall knowledge level, thus, it can be concluded that training programme was quite beneficial for skill development of rural youth on operation and maintenance of farm machineries.