Impact of Additional Duties on the Livestock Extension Services in Punjab: A Veterinary Field Staff Perspective

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of additional duties of veterinary field staff on the delivery of livestock extension services. The current study was conducted in Punjab province. Administratively, this province consists of nine divisions. All veterinary officers (VOs) and veterinary assistants (VAs) of Punjab were considered as the population of the study. A complete list of veterinary field staff was collected from the Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Department office. The sample size was calculated with the help of the online sample size calculator www.surveysystem.com with a 5% confidence interval and 95% confidence level. The sample size was drawn through a proportionate simple random sampling technique from two population subgroups, i.e., VOs and VAs. The study results revealed that 85.1% of respondents said they disliked performing the additional duties. About 93% of the respondents reported that the livestock department should have considered their will before assigning additional duties. Additional duties negatively affect the working efficiency of the field staff, as reported by 87.8% of VOs and 93.5% of VAs. Most respondents (58.8%) reported that they have to suspend their routine departmental services upon additional duties. It means, the assignment of additional duties seriously affects the departmental routine extension services. It is suggested that Livestock and Dairy Development, Punjab, should employ exceptional field staff for such additional duties to reduce the extra and irrelevant work burden on veterinary field staff.