Abstract

The purpose of extension education is to change the behaviour of the people in terms of their knowledge, attitude and skill on any subject. At present Tamil Nadu State is facing huge deficit in cotton kapas. To meet the deficit, the State Government is spending large amount in importing kapas from other areas to meet our industries need. To overcome the above deficit. Govt. has to increase the cotton area, production and productivity in future. To achieve the above set goals, converting non-cotton growers into cotton growers is one of ways to increase the cotton area, productivity and production. Hence, the study was performed in Salem district of Tamil Nadu. By employing snow ball sampling technique 72 non-cotton growers were selected from the three taluks of the above district. Multiple group random design was used in this study. Three treatments viz Lecture + Field Visit + Discussion Forum (T). Lecture assisted with Slide show + Demonstration + Discussion Forum (T). Lecture + Video + Discussion Forum (T,) was developed and executed to assess the respondents knowledge gain, knowledge gain related to skill and symbolic adoption behaviour in the study for developing appropriate extension education module. And these treatments were replicated thrice in all the selected taluks. For assessing the treatment effects, before and after technique was used. It was found that T, and T, were effective among all the non-cotton growers in terms of knowledge gain, knowledge related to skill and symbolic adoption behaiour in cotton cultivation. Based on the above experimental result the best extension education module was proposed to the Government Agency, NGO's and Private for converting non-cotton growers into progressive cotton growers in the State

Keywords: Non-cotton growers, Extension education module, Knowledge gain, Knowledge related to skill, Symbolic adoption behaviour