Agri-input dealers play a vital role in guaranteeing that farming communities have access to some of the essential and critical agricultural input that contribute in boosting the agricultural productivity. Besides this, they also contribute towards strengthening the Agricultural Extension System by providing valuable agro-advisory services to the farmers. It is essential that they are equipped with latest scientific know how through refresher training courses. The present study was conducted during 2018-19 in Jhansi district of Bundelkhand region to ascertain training needs of agri-input dealers. Data was collected personally by using well-structured interview schedule of 57 agri-input dealers. Respondents were found to be young age group (50.88%), one-third had higher secondary education (35.09%), sought financial assistance from bank and other financial institution (36.84%) and identification of trade name, chemical name and properties of pesticides have emerged as the most needed training area. Around 84.21 per cent of the respondent’s priorities vegetable among crop specific training needs and 84.21 per cent of the respondents had expressed ‘most needed’ training needs on micro nutrient fertilizers. More than two-third of respondents had expressed their training needs on improved varieties or hybrids of crops for cultivation (89.47%) and training in computer and its application in business is another preferred area. Lack of technical knowledge of different brands of product, fluctuation of sale on season basis and lack of need based training were some of the major constraints faced by agri-input dealers while delivering services. In order to overcome these problems agricultural institution must arrange some training programme which caters the above mentioned training need of input dealers.

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The study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of an educational module on brucellosis among commercial dairy farmers. Experimental research design before and after was used to test the effectiveness of the Educational module. A total of 120 commercial dairy farmers were selected and interviewed using a well-structured interview schedule from six districts of Haryana and Punjab States during 2018. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents (55%) had not heard about brucellosis and didn’t know causative agent of brucellosis (55%). The majority of the respondents mentioned that they did not know the symptoms of brucellosis, mode of transmission, method of prevention and vaccine used for brucellosis in dairy animals. Before exposure to the educational module, the percentage of knowledge was 12.03 per cent and after exposure 46.54 per cent. Mean knowledge gain was 34.51 per cent. Knowledge gain through educational module on brucellosis in dairy animals was positively and significantly correlated with education, landholding, income, herd size and experience in commercial dairy farming.

Quick and timely dissemination of technological information from the agricultural research system to grassroots level and farmers' reaction in the form of feedback to the research system is one of the most critical inputs in technology transfer. Information and Communication Technology plays an important and crucial role where its potential can be exploited to strengthen the linkage amongst research and extension system. In this context, mobile application was developed on brucellosis prevention in dairy animals and it was tested for its effectiveness in terms of knowledge gain by the commercial dairy farmers (n=60) from six district of Haryana and Punjab states. The study revealed that, the overall mean knowledge gain on Brucellosis in dairy animals through mobile application was effective (p< 0.01) in terms of knowledge gain among the commercial dairy farmers (17.65). Pearson's correlation analysis of socio-demographic profile with knowledge gainrevealed that knowledge gain through Mobile application on brucellosis was positively and significantly correlated with education, landholding, income, herd size, milk production and experience in dairy farming at 5 % level of significance. It is evident from this study that Information Communication Technologies plays significant role in knowledge gain and empowerment of dairy farmers and hence still more institutional intervention, support and innovation is required in developing such technology transfer mechanisms in developing countries like India.

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