A Study to Evaluate Growers Response in Vocational Training Programmes on Mushroom Cultivation Organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Moga

Background: Mushroom production can play a vital role to alleviate poverty by generating employment prospects for jobless educated youth along with additional income in rural and semi-urban areas. The present study was conducted to find out the growers’ response to vocational trainings on mushroom production at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Moga.
Methods: The respondents consisted of 212 trainees who had undergone vocational training on mushroom production techniques from KVK, Moga between the years 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Result: It was observed that pre-training knowledge score was not much satisfactory for all the aspects of training programme. However, the knowledge score gained by respondents after training was more satisfactory in all the aspects. The study revealed that exposure to training had increased the knowledge of participants regarding techniques of mushroom production by 80.75 per cent. The reason behind the satisfactory change in perception level might be due to well educational background, keen interest of participants and methods followed for technology transfer to the trainees. Some trainees even adopted mushroom cultivation as self-employment and set up their own units. The study revealed that the mushroom production training has created a favourable attitude among the trainees and also enhanced the economic level of beneficiaries who adopted it as a source of livelihood.