Diffusion and Innovation Decision Process of Home Science Technologies

Abstract

newline New technologies are being developed and released to improve quality of life of newlinerural people. To understand the diffusion and adoption process of home science newlinetechnologies the present study was conducted in two villages of Dharwad taluk; newlineVaranagalavi and Belur-Heggeri of Dharwad district in Karnataka state under the newlineUniversity of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during 2016-2017. Eight home science newlinetechnologies were disseminated, and adoption was studied over a period of three newlinemonths. Eighty women who adopted the technologies were selected to study the newlineInnovation-Decision process. The Innovation-Decision process was studied over five newlinestages viz Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation. newlineDiffusion of health and safety practices was 31.65 per cent and for care and storage newlinepractices of clothing it was 19.21 per cent. Knowledge showed improvement after newlinedissemination. The attitude indices for health and safety practices and care and newlinestorage practices of clothing was around 71. For other technologies the indices were newlinearound 50. The acceptance index for health and safety practices was the highest newline(69.75) and the least for dust mite control technology (3.25). Implementation was newlinehighest (81.25 %) for health and safety practices . At the confirmation stage 72.50 per newlinecent of the respondents continued to use health and safety practices and 28.75 per cent newlinecontinued care and safety practices of clothing . When data plotted for adopter newlinecategorization S shaped curve was seen only for care and storage practices of newlineclothing and health and safety practices . The attributes of the home science newlinetechnologies that influenced adoption were trialability and compatibility. Lack of newlineobservability was the main reason for non- adoptability of home science technologies. newlineBased on the findings, a new Innovation-Decision model for home science technologies newlinehas been suggested.