A SCALE TO MEASURE THE ATTITUDE OF AGRO-INPUT DEALERS TOWARDS THEIR OCCUPATION

In India, agro-input dealers play a crucial indirect role in enhancing farm productivity and income. Due to their locational advantage and easy accessibility, they serve as important sources of agricultural information, offering guidance on technologies, recommendations, and input supply, contributing to farmers’ decision-making processes. This study was conducted to develop a valid and reliable statements to be used for measuring attitude of agro-input dealers towards their occupation. The scale-product method is used to develop the scale. This method is a combination of Likert and Thurston technique. 28 statements were assessed by 50 judges on a 5 point continuum. Then, after comparing S and Q value 16 statements were selected to form a scale to measure attitude towards occupation. The reliability coefficient (r) was determined to be 0.86, indicating reliability, using the split-half method. A questionnaire- based proportionate random sampling survey was conducted on 120 agro-input dealers in Anand district of Gujarat state. The statistical measures, such as SPSS and Microsoft excel were used and nearly two-third (67.50 per cent) of the agro-input dealers had favourable attitude towards their occupation.