Dr Parveen Kumar
Socialization basically is a term that has come from Sociology and it means learning the culture i.e., the sum total of customs, attitudes and values of a group, community or culture. Socialization is essential for the development of individuals who can participate and function within their societies as well as for ensuring that a society’s cultural features will be carried on through new generations.
Socialization is most strongly enforced by family, school and peer groups and continues throughout an individual’s lifetime.
Agriculture in India is a way of life. Society has never left the side of agriculture and both are interdependent. Without one, the other cannot exist.
Many traditions, rituals and different kind of festivals are associated with agriculture.
The importance of agriculture to human life is celebrated in agriculture societies through rituals and ceremonial offerings are made to appease the elements of sun, rain and earth.
The country witnesses large scale celebration of many festivals at harvesting time of different crops. These include Rongali Bihu in Assam, Nabanna in Bengal, Baisakhi in Punjab, Onam in Kerala and Pongal in Tamilnadu. In some festivals, bulls are honoured since they are indispensible for farming like Pola festival of South India. Harvest festivals are not just about celebrating the ripe crops but also depict an important astronomical change going on in the solar system.
All this speaks in volumes of the rich agricultural heritage of the country and how agriculture is embedded in our social fabric.
Agriculture occupies a vital position in the growth of economy of the country. About fifty percent of the population depends upon this sector for its livelihood directly or indirectly. The growth in agriculture sector largely has been attributed to the different technologies developed over the last so many decades particularly in the post independence era. It is due to these technologies that country is witnessing a boom in food grains production. The allied sectors have also shown tremendous progress. Different technologies have changed the whole system of agriculture by introducing new farming practices, machinery and implements in different aspects of production and processing. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Precision farming, Agricultural drones and Robotics Censors have already revolutionized the farming sector all across the globe.
Agriculture over the years has transformed itself and is still in a transformational phase being continuously upgraded with various technologies; the adoption of such technologies is very much necessary if we are to reap their benefits. There are some attributes of technology which make their adoption wider and on a large scale. These attributes are the relative advantage of technology over the technology in use, the compatibility of the technology with the social system of the end users, trial ability meaning that the technology can be put to trial for desired results before going for large scale adoption and finally observibility i.e., the results of the technology can be observed or not. Although there has been no dearth of technologies, the issue is of their adaptation.
Most of the technologies remain on shelves. As a result the technological adoption rate in agriculture shows a greater fluctuation.
Studies have revealed it to be as low as 15 per cent for some technologies to as high as 80 per cent for some other technologies. While technological adaptation depends upon a host of factors like size of farm, educational status of farmer, innovativeness and risk taking capability of the farmer; socialization of technologies is a major factor contributing to the adoption of technologies.
Agriculture as it is a culture embedded in our social system, the technologies thus also needs to be socialized. Technological Socialization in agriculture refers to the development of technologies that are compatible to the social system. This compatibility means how well they fit into the existing values and beliefs, the religious faith and cultural set up of the system in which the technologies have to play their role. Just as socialization have three primary goals of teaching impulse control and developing a conscience, preparing people to perform certain social roles and to cultivate shared sources of meaning and value. Socialization of technologies in agriculture has the primary goal of understanding the impulse of farming community and promoting wider adaptation of technologies.
While integrating socialization into technology in agriculture increases the growth of the country, the impact of the socialization of technology in agriculture is also good for production from time to time. The socialization of technology helps farmers in the acquisition of farm information in detail.
It can also work efficiently for the benefit of the agriculture department and effective use of farmers in every step at the detail.
Thorstein Veblen, an American sociologist and economist who coined the term ‘Technological Determinism’ and the technological determinism theory states that the technology of a society is what determines the development of its social structures and cultural values.
Technology diffuses among the members of a social system and the rate of diffusion is largely proportional to its attributes.
Participatory Technology Development (PTD) that emerged during the 1980s and 90s involved collaboration between experts and farmers to analyze problems and find solutions in the shape of various products and implements.
It is another approach to socialization of technologies. Similarly may other extension approaches like Farming System Research (FSR), FSR&E, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) in one or the other way promote socialization of technologies.
Studies also do reveal that social influence leads to technology adoption. Technology adoption incorporates two essential elements, the embracement of the technology by individuals and its embedment in society. While technology may influence society, society often exerts influence on technology.
Consider messaging through SMSs and Whatsapp groups to the farmers, a technology that was originally intended to deliver information to farmers on a wide variety of topics related to agriculture is now being adopted by them as a vehicle for social behavior.
Let me take another example how technological socialization influences social structures. As the internet, networking, and communications technologies become increasingly embraced by individuals and embedded in everyday lives and activities, technologically enabled social structures are emerging that are changing the way individuals interact and communicate, and are facilitating fundamental changes to business practices. People now socialize, communicate and network via various social networking sites.
For communication, now physical presence is not necessary. As the country is dominated by diversity of colour, caste and creed; religion, dialect and ethnicity, compatibility of technology to the prevailing social systems is thus important to the adoption of such technology.
A technology which does not fits into the value and belief system of the communities has meager chances of adoption.
It is why technologies need to be socialized i.e., they need to be developed keeping in mind the culture and social dynamics of the society Socialization of technologies is thus very much necessary, if we are to ensure that they reach the end users and ultimately benefit them.
