Agriculture plays an indispensable role in the Indian economy. Agro Service Centres (ASCs) satisfy the input and service needs of small and marginal farmers by providing quality products and advisory services. The present study was conducted among the beneficiary farmers of Agro Service Centres in Kerala, during the year 2018-19. The sample of the study comprised of 120 farmers from 26 Agro Service Centres in the Thrissur, Kannur and Kottayam districts of Kerala representing the central, northern and southern regions. The performance effectiveness of Agro Service Centres as perceived by farmers was measured in terms of Performance Effectiveness Index (PEI). Frequency and percentage analysis was carried out to fi nd the distribution of farmers based on their perceptions regarding the performance effectiveness of Agro Service Centres and a Kruskal Wallis test was undertaken to test the significant difference in the Performance Effectiveness Index as perceived by the farmers among the three districts. Based on the analysis of data, it was found that 48.88 per cent of the farmers from Kannur and 44.45 per cent of the farmers from Thrissur districts scored the ASCs in the high PEI category. In the Kottayam district, 50 per cent of farmers scored ASCs in the medium PEI category. This result of the Kruskal Wallis test indicates that the farmer beneficiaries from all the studied districts had similar levels of perception regarding the Performance Effectiveness Index of ASCs.

Keyword: Services delivery; Farmer’s income; Advisory services; Kerala