Personal Profile of Students Enrolled in the Rural Awareness Work Experience Program in Agriculture University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Abstract

In India, at least two-thirds of the working population earn their livelihood through agricultural work. Students studying agriculture must possess both theoretical and practical understanding of the field. The Randhawa Committee (1992), which recommended the Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) program to convey high-quality, hands-on and production-focused education for agriculture degree programs, endorsed that. The research was carried out at Agriculture University, Jodhpur to evaluate the students' views on the Rural Awareness Work Experience Program. Three institutions, specifically the College of Agriculture Jodhpur, Sumerpur and Nagaur, were chosen and all the respondents enrolled in the final year of the B.Sc. Ag. (Hons.) program for the academic years 2022-2023 were intentionally selected due to other constituent colleges were still in the planning stage of their establishment in the session of 2022-23. Data were gathered using a structured questionnaire. The profile of the students revealed that out of 165 students, most of the students were male, belonged from rural areas, academic performance ranged from 7.01-8.00 OGPA. Majority of the respondent’s parent had secondary & senior secondary education, were engaged in agriculture and had medium level of family income. The study also revealed that majority of respondents had moderate level of leadership quality, achievement motivation, extension contact and mass media use during the whole period of RAWE program.