Assessing the Competencies of Village Agricultural Assistants at Rythu Seva Kendras: Evidence from Eluru District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Village Agricultural Assistants (VAAs) working at Rythu Seva Kendras (RSKs) are frontline functionaries in Andhra Pradesh's village-level agricultural service system. This study assessed VAAs' self-reported competencies across technical, communication, organisational, and digital domains in Eluru District, Andhra Pradesh, India. A descriptive survey was conducted with 120 VAAs drawn from 120 villages across nine mandals. A pre-tested structured schedule contained 30 competency statements rated on a five-point continuum. Item-level responses were summarised using a normalised competence index, and domain means were calculated from the item indices. Organisational competence recorded the highest mean index (78.8), followed by technical (75.1), digital (71.9), and communication competence (71.3). At the item level, maintaining digital libraries (87), knowledge of recommended crop-production practices (86), and identifying farmers' needs and interests (85) were among the highest-rated competencies. Documenting community success and failure cases (54), transmitting large files using compression software (57), and using an LCD projector (58) were among the lowest-rated items. The digital domain showed the widest within-domain spread, indicating that routine internet and application use did not necessarily translate into competence in structured documentation and data handling. The findings support targeted in-service capacity building in digital documentation, data management, multimedia communication, and application of research and conservation knowledge.