Dr Banarsi Lal
Agriculture is an engine of growth and development and acts as an important contributor in national economy. The Indian agriculture is passing through an era of transition. The agricultural situation has become more competitive, knowledge based and market-led. The matter should be contemplated on imbalance of total production, national food security, rural-urban divide etc. The task of feeding the increasing population is possible by increasing the productivity from existing land, improving the nutritional quality of farm produce to deal with problem of malnutrition without disturbing the ecosystem stability and preserving the resources for the future generations. Ensuring food security, sustaining ecosystem, promotion of agro-processing, promotion of diversification and agri-business in the context of globalization are the challenges for the agricultural scientists. The agricultural globalisation and revolution in information and communication technology have brought tremendous changes in world economic growth. The agricultural strategy is making strenuous efforts to increase the crop productivity, improving rural income, creating employment opportunities and making environmental security. In this context Extension Education is playing a crucial role in effective implementation of development/livelihood programmes. Effective implementation of development/livelihood programmes can ultimately lead to the rural prosperity. If the proper awareness of different programmes are created properly among the rural people and implementation is done effectively at grass root level then many programmes can be made successful for generating the income and employment among the rural masses. There should be a great focus on promotion of sustainable agriculture through a regionally differentiated approach, transfer of technology, increase in input use efficiency, incentives for agriculture, strengthening of infrastructure and management reforms. There is a need to develop an approach not only to develop ecologically sound technologies for different areas but also to facilitate their utilization at gross root level. There are certain questions which should be discussed:
* What problems have arisen in agricultural system?
* What have been achieved in agriculture?
* What should we do so that agriculture can be made more commercially viable to increase the additional income and employment?
* How the research and extension systems should be integrated?
* What should be the ideal extension system to deal with the agricultural problems?
Over the years, the country has tried many extension and development strategies that helped to increase the agricultural production, productivity and improved the quality of life of human beings. Number of programmes have been launched by the Indian government for the welfare of the farming community. Community Development approach was developed after independence. The programme assured cooperative credits, land reforms, made marketing facilities, large scale irrigation projects and efficient use of resources with the help of National Extension Service (NES) agency. The main objective of Community Development programme was to bring the overall development of the rural community participation but not many good results were observed due to lack of commitment, expertise, conviction and the compelling situation of food shortages. In sixties, the agricultural production in the country was very poor and the high yielding varieties need was greatly felt and agricultural development became the only objective for rural development. Many programmes like Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP), Intensive Agriculture Area Programme (IAAP), National Demonstration and High Yielding Varieties Programme made a progress. At that time, the only objective to increase the agricultural production by modern means such as fertilisers, assured irrigation and high yielding varieties of crops. This strategy was found unsuitable due to diverse, risk prone and complex agriculture. Although, these approaches paid so good dividends but didn’t brought the desired results for poor farmers. During seventies, various other programmes like Small Farmers Development Agency, Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labour Development Agency, Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Training and Visit Programme (T&V) etc. were launched. The main focus was on income and employment generation in agriculture and allied sectors. Various other programmes like Operational Research Project (ORP), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Lab to Land Programme were also launched. These entire programmes along with National Demonstration were later on merged under Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) programme. The location specific research and extension programmes were started through KVK. The KVK system is successful in dissemination of agricultural information effectively and is playing a significant role in enhancing the income and employment among the farmers. It has been observed that generally many modern technologies did not match with the poor farmers need and resources because many times farmers are not involved while designing the technologies/programmes for them. In this context, Extension Education can play a crucial role in involvement of farmers while designing the technologies/programmes. Farmers’ need-based and problem oriented programmes need active participation of the farmers. Extension Education can act the bridge between the scientists/policy makers and farmers. Institution Village Linkages Programme (IVLP) was launched based on participatory methodology. Also National Watershed Development Programme for rainfed areas was also launched by Govt. of India with basic consideration of people’s participation. After that Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) using bottom-up planning was launched. At present agricultural scenario is more confused and there is no proper extension direction and approach. Although these programmes and approaches have helped to increase the agricultural production in India but the impact of different programmes in terms of people’s participation has not been so satisfactory. All these programmes considered farming problems as individual concern and not as collective issue. The individual-oriented extension strategy has ignored the poor farmers and concentrated mainly on rich farmers. The technologies should be designed in such a way that they become useful for the small and marginal farmers also. The development efforts did not trickle down to most of the farmers at the bottom level of development. Govt of India is striving hard to find fresh extension approaches to carry the agricultural development at bottom up planning. A large number of private players have entered in agricultural research and extension work. Public-Private Extension can also play a crucial role in implementation of livelihood generating programmes. The farmer is in a state of utter confusion about how to generate more income and employment from their small land holdings in this fast changing competitive era. There is serious concern to work out an integrated extension approach so as to safeguard the interests of the farmers. There is also need to extend agricultural gains in integrated manner to the rain-fed and dry areas where the modern technology has made a limited impact. Also there is need to develop and disseminate effectively eco-friendly technologies and increase emphasis on post-harvest management, processing, value addition and entrepreneurship development on area basis to make agriculture as internationally competitive. Rural societies are complex in nature. They are mostly heterogenous and their caste, religion, gender, economic status etc. define people. This complex stratification is prohibiting factor for receiving communication and process of development. The communication methods which are designed without considering the specific interest of the various segments of heterogeneity of the rural area do not reach many sections of the rural society. The communication plan must take into account with the socio-economic conditions in heterogeneous rural societies for ushering change. The Community Development extension system should be adequately equipped with human power on gender basis, transport facilities, computers etc. The roles of private and public players should be delineated that which one player with what role. Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) should have close links with Community Development extension systems to support in agricultural development and training of extension officers. The extension system should take whole village as a unit for agricultural development. In order to correct the public and private extension system regular monitoring and evaluation should be an integral component of Community Development extension system.
(The author is Head,
KVK Reasi, SKUAST-J).