Development of a Knowledge Test to Assess Knowledge of Mushroom Growers about Mushroom and Its Cultivation

Abstract

Mushroom cultivation is an emerging agri-business venture that requires technical knowledge at various steps of its cultivation. At every stage of a capacity development intervention in mushroom production, assessing the knowledge of participating growers is essential. An attempt has been made to develop and standardize a knowledge test on mushroom cultivation for mushroom growers in Meghalaya. An initial pool of 91 knowledge items was collected, analysed and sent for expert opinion. Pre-testing, calculation of difficulty index, discrimination index and point biserial correlation were carried out by collecting data from 30 respondents outside the study area. 20 items were retained for the final knowledge test. The test was found to be significantly reliable and valid which was indicated by high significant value of reliability co-efficient (0.86) and content validity. The developed test was administered to 120 mushroom growers from three districts of Meghalaya. It was found that the mean knowledge score of the respondents was 9.46. The respondents were classified into low, medium and high knowledge groups based on the mean and standard deviation. The findings indicated that 66.67% of the respondents had a medium level of knowledge on mushroom cultivation. The identified knowledge gaps can further guide various stakeholders involved in capacity building to design effective strategies for bridging those gaps.