Training Needs Assessment and Capacity Building of Fishery Extension Personnel in India: Socio-Economic Correlates and Predictors of Felt Training Need

Abstract

Effective delivery of fisheries extension services depends critically on the technical competence of front-line workers, yet systematic, evidence-based assessment of their felt training needs remains scarce in the Indian fisheries-extension literature. This study assessed the training needs of 180 baseline Fishery Demonstrators (F.Ds) engaged in government, non-governmental and progressive-farmer-linked extension delivery, across eleven technical subject areas spanning culture, breeding, feeding, water and soil quality, disease management, capture fisheries, resource management, fish seed, marketing, extension methodology and official work. A structured interview schedule captured socio-personal characteristics and felt training need (most needed / needed / least needed) for each of 41 specific items, from which a Training Need Quotient (TNQ) and mean need-score were computed per item and subject area. Water and soil quality (TNQ = 80.84%) and disease management (TNQ = 79.72%) emerged as the highest-priority subject areas, while capture-fisheries techniques (TNQ = 62.78%) ranked lowest. Correlation analysis showed that service experience was significantly and negatively associated with TNQ of culture (r = -0.452, P < 0.01) and breeding aspects (r = -0.279 to -0.452, P < 0.05), while the number of in-service training programmes already undergone was positively associated with TNQ of water-and-soil-quality, marketing and fish-seed aspects. Regression analysis confirmed that service experience and number of prior in-service trainings were the most consistent predictors of felt training need across subject areas, together explaining 13-26% of the variance in different models. The large majority of respondents (83.3%) were satisfied with their present position, yet only 27% were satisfied with their present salary, and the largest respondent shares favoured two-week duration (31.7%), an equal 50:50 theory-practical balance (48.3%), and training delivered outside the home state (top-ranked location). These findings provide an empirical basis for designing need-based, competency-linked capacity-building curricula for fisheries extension personnel in India.