Implication of Farmers’ Motivation in Attending Farmer Livestock School in Their Behavioural Change in Goat Production and Management Practices

抄録

The focus of the present study was to examine the importance of farmers’ motivation in attending livestock training in bringing about knowledge and behavioural changes in goat production and management practices (PMP). The training program called the Farmer Livestock School on Integrated Goat Management (FLS-IGM) which was implemented in 2007 with 130 beneficiaries was analyzed in the present study because it is the only season-long livestock training school in the Philippines that specifically deals with goat production – from housing to marketing. Data gathered from the survey questionnaires and 25-point pre and post test results from 101 respondents were analyzed. Results revealed that the participants have different motivations for attending the FLS-IGM. Majority (43%) of them were driven to attend FLS-IGM because they wanted to gain knowledge, followed by entrepreneurial motive (16%), improvement of technical skills (14%), benefit from government support (14%), use of spare time wisely (8%) and socialize with co-farmers (5%). There was an increase in knowledge by 129% after FLS-IGM and factors attributable to the increase were years of education, number of organizational meetings attended per year, over-all course perceived as highly satisfactory and participatory and number of training/seminars on goat production attended before FLS-IGM. Although knowledge was correlated to perceived behavioural change, respondents with the motivation of considering goat raising as a business (entrepreneurial motive) has the highest increase in knowledge (143%) and the highest (very much) perceived behavioural change that is reflected in their actual production and management practices. With the importance of farmers’ motivation, it is suggested that agricultural extensionist should also boost the entrepreneurial motivation of the participants for better training outcome.