Training Needs of Agricultural Extension Personnel with Respect to World Trade Organization Issues

The issues of World Trade Organization (WTO) are more confined to social sciences in general and economics in particular but in reality the changing situation demands involvement of every stakeholder for efficient deployment of resources. The fact is that the professionals who have direct link with farming community lack knowledge about WTO and its impact and implications on Indian agriculture. The present study was designed to study the extent of knowledge extension personnel have about WTO, relationship of various profile characteristics with knowledge level and their training needs with respect to WTO issues. The study was carried out in randomly selected three districts of Indian state of Maharashtra namely Nashik, Aurangabad and Yavatmal. A total of 60 extension personnel were selected using stratified random sampling from District level, Sub-division level, Taluka level and Mandal level. The study found that 80 per cent of extension personnel had low to very low level of knowledge on WTO issues. Only 63.33 per cent of the extension personnel knew that WTO is an institution administering trades between nations. The present investigation also revealed that none of the extension personnel had undergone any training on WTO, Plant Variety Protection and other related aspects. Extension personnel’s knowledge had positive and significant relationship only with education and mass media exposure. The study also found that dimension ‘Agreement on Agriculture issues’ was the most important training need with gap of 88.10 per cent followed by “Structure and functions of WTO” and “Tariffs and quantitative restrictions”. The study concluded that extension personnel must be given trainings on various basic aspects of WTO like basic structure and its agriculture related issues like Agreement on Agriculture.