HELPQUAL scale for measuring the quality of farmers helpline services

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The study was aimed at measuring farmers’ helpline services quality in India using a standardized multi-factor scale (HELPQUAL) developed as part of this study.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study is based on 360 farmers' and 45 experts' responses gathered using telephonic interviews and mailed questionnaires during the year 2021–22. The principal axis exploratory factor analysis, parallel analysis and Likert scaling were utilized to assess the scalability of items and identify underlying factors.

Findings

The 19 item HELPQUAL consisting of four factors, namely dependability, accessibility, understandability and communication effectiveness, was developed. The reliability of the overall scale was excellent (α = 0.908), whereas the factor-wise reliability was excellent to acceptable (i.e. α = 0.918 to 0.72). The convergent validity of the scale was also excellent (0.819).

Practical implications

The HELPQUAL scale developed is the first to measure the quality of agricultural helpline services. There are several farmers’ helpline services across the globe, however, no standardized scale has been developed to date for measuring their quality. Moreover, HELPQUAL is highly sector-specific, and factors like accessibility and understandability are different from the dimensions of generic SERVQUAL and SERVPERF scales. Therefore, it is advantageous and appropriate in the quality evaluation of agricultural extension services.

Originality/value

This study provides the first standardized scale for measuring the quality of farmers’ helpline services.

Theoretical implications

This study supports the argument that widely used SERVEQUAL and SERVPERF scales and their dimensions lack universal applicability in service quality measurement.

KEYWORDS:

• Farmers’ helpline
• agricultural extension
• service quality measurement
• HELPQUAL scale‌

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shivam Kumar

Shivam Kumar holds Doctoral Degree in Agricultural Extension. He did his doctoral research on the quality evaluation and query pattern analysis of farmers helpline services in India.

Shridhar Patil

Shridhar Patil is working as Assistant Professor cum Junior Scientist in the Department of Extension Education at Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour. Dr. Patil completed his Doctoral degree from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. His specializes in impact assessment, adoption of transgenic crops and technology use behaviour.

Anil Paswan

Anil Paswan is working as Assistant Professor cum Junior Scientist in the Department of Extension Education at Bihar Agricultural University. His area of specialization is social network analysis.

Swaraj Kumar Dutta

Swaraj Kumar Dutta is working as Assistant Professor cum Junior Scientist in the Department of Agronomy at Bihar Agricultural University. His area of specialization is conservation agriculture.

R. K. Sohane

R. K. Sohane is working as Director Extension Education at Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour. He has developed number of well-known ICT based extension models in India.