An Assessment of Quality of Service Extended by Select Agriclinics and Agribusiness Centres in Union Territory of Puducherry

Abstract

The establishment of Agri clinics and Agribusiness Centers is a Government of India Scheme implemented through NABARD and MANAGE, Hyderabad for promotion of rural entrepreneurship through effective training and handholding of the graduate youth.  Agri-Clinics are intended to provide expert advice and services to farmers on various aspects to improve crop/animal yield and increase farmers’ revenue. This study was conducted to assess the quality of services provided by the Agri clinics and agribusiness centers in the union territory of Puducherry. 90 farmers were personally interviewed using the service quality instrument - SERVQUAL to explore their expectation and perception of service quality provided by the Agri -clinics and agribusiness centers. The results indicated that the level of quality of the services provided by the Agri clinics is not to the expected level of the sample farmers i.e., all perception ratings were lower than their expectation scores. In all five dimensions of service quality, a gap was observed between farmers’ perceptions and expectations: Tangible: -0.93, Reliability: -0.89, Responsiveness: -0.78, Assurance: - 0.58, Empathy: -0.61. The results indicated that much more service improvement activities are needed for improving the service quality. The Agri-clinics need to modernize facilities and equipment to reduce the gap between farmers' perceptions and expectations.