Abstract:
Agricultural Extension is an ongoing, non-formal educational process
that takes place over a period of time to transfer knowledge to rural
farmers. In Sri Lanka, the ratio of farmers to extension officers is 800:1,
and therefore, one extension officer has to extensively work with a larger
group of farmers with a limited resource capacity. Considering these
facts, the Sri Lankan government decided to provide motorcycle subsidy
under National Budget Circular 2/2014 to increase the job performance
and well-being of the Agricultural Inspectors. Even though the foresaid
objective of this subsidy scheme is to improve the performances, there
were no follow-up monitoring and evaluation system for this scheme.
Therefore, this research is aimed at evaluating the impact of the
government’s motorcycle subsidy on job performance and well-being of
Agricultural Inspectors in the southern province of Sri Lanka. The sample
of 48 Agricultural Inspectors was randomly selected from 70 Agricultural
Inspectors in the Galle district. Descriptive and inferential statistics tests were mainly used to analyze the data. Among the general constraints
faced by the Agricultural Inspectors, the distance to be traveled, a higher
number of farmers and area to be covered per day and less infrastructural
facilities were major constraints. Importantly, the study revealed that the
motorcycle subsidy has significantly affected the job performance of the
Agricultural Inspectors directly by facilitating to perform their job roles
and saving more time for Agricultural Inspectors to enhance their personal
and career development through knowledge acquisitions.
