Dr. Banarsi Lal and Dr. Vinod Gupta
The world’s population is expanding alarmingly which has serious implications for the number of finite resources to feed it and furthermore the amount of agricultural land is declining rapidly. It is predicted that the world’s population will be around 11 billion at the end of 21st century. It has also been reported that about 75 per cent of the resource-poor people in developing countries depend on agricultural-based livelihoods. Thus, in order to feed the increasing population, farmers need to increase their farm production up to 70 per cent by 2100.Producing food in a sustainable manner is challenging task as agriculture is very sensitive and vulnerable to various climatic as well as anthropological factors. Farmers always struggle against the changing environmental circumstances and socio-economic barriers. The problem is more intense in the nations like India where agriculture is the core of the economic activity. Development is a multifaceted and normative concept. It is simply a rapid and sustained rise in real output per head and an attendant change in technological ,economic and demographic characteristics in a society. It is becoming increasingly apparent that development of any nation is not possible without rural and agricultural development. Rural development can be conceptualized as a strategy designed to improve the socio-economic life of the rural people.
Agricultural development is a process of transforming agriculture from a predominantly subsistence level to an economy dominant by investment and market-oriented agriculture. Rural development is not possible without serious agricultural development. Agriculture is the main stream of Indian economy. It directly regulates the growth of economy of the nation. The main occupation of rural people in India is agriculture. As the scope for bringing more area under cultivation is limited, the only possible way to increase the crop yields is through the adoption of new and improved agricultural practices and techniques, so as to mitigate the long term food grain requirement of the country.
Communication is the vital aspect to change the behaviour of the receiver. As a matter of fact, no executive can be successful without communicating effectively with his superiors or subordinates. Messages could be in the form of words, symbols, signs, letters or actions. The importance of communication has been greatly emphasized by all the management experts. Communication is like a part of an individual’s life as well as organizational existence. Its importance is self-explanatory and is having common experience of all as well. The transfer of science to rural people in India and gradual inoculation of scientific attitude in their everyday life, need to demonstrate in the language which will be understood and appreciated by the rural people. The present age has been rightly termed as an ‘information age’. Information plays the significant role in our society. Information has become an integral part of our daily life. Now people want adequate and authentic information as early as possible. The mass media namely such as newspaper, radio and television are catering to this important need of people. For the rapid and overall development of a country it is important that the citizens of that country are well versed with the happenings around them. Effective communication among the agricultural stakeholders is the part and parcel of sustainable agricultural development. Development information and technologies generated for the farmers are of no use unless these reach to the ultimate users. It has been estimated that only about 30 per cent of the technologies are being received and used by the farmers. It is further added that the technologies generated today reach to the entire ultimate users in about 20 years.
Communication plays a vital role in sustainable agriculture to educate stakeholders, promote best agricultural practices and foster collaboration among farmers, consumers and policy makers. It has become a key feature of sustainable development. It is a key process in agricultural development. Indeed, communication for development has become a recognised field among many development decision makers. The agricultural development requires a timely and systematic transmission of useful and relevant agricultural information from source to the audience .It is the core activity of human association in general and progress as well as development in particular. No human life can exist in isolation. A man can survive only in society and the survival in society is possible with communication. Therefore, communication is identified as the oldest continued activity of human being since birth and goes on and on till death. More precisely, communication is the basic need of human beings and web of society which makes the survival, growth, progress and development of man possible and holds the society intact and progressive. Communication is a vital part of personal life in the society. It is equally important in business, education, civilization, administration and other situations where people encounter with each other to satisfy their needs and wishes. It maintains and animates the life. It is also a motor and expression of social activity and civilization. It leads people from instinct to inspiration, through process and system of enquiry, command and control. It creates a common pool of ideas, strengthens the feeling of togetherness through the exchange of messages and translates through into action. As the world has advanced, the task of communication has become more complex. However, unless some basic structural changes are introduced, the potential benefits of technological and communication development will hardly be put at disposal of the majority of mankind.
The rural poverty and its related incidences may decline if one puts efforts for sustained growth in agricultural production .The extension/communication/dissemination system and network is the key input in increasing the performance in agricultural production. Therefore, the communication is the most powerful input which brings substantial development in socio-economic status of an individual. Present Indian extension system is under numerous pressures where the extension workers, have to cater not only vast population but also to perform administrative, election, input supply and other works. Under these circumstances, it is not practically possible to serve all the farmers, all the time for all the problems when ratio of extension worker and farmer, the sender and receiver is more than 1:1000. Thus, the potential of mass media can be exploited to serve the rural population in this direction. Electronisation and mechanization in communication systems have provided opportunity to access the information rapidly, accurately and repeatedly. To reach the unreach modern electronic gadgets and systems have been introduced to cope-up the requirements. The government of India has realized the need and utility of these electronic equipments for rural population. Therefore, massive programmes of cyber extension, digital interactive distance learning, online networks, computers aided multimedia, internet and free online telephones etc. have been launched for the farmers. Some of the major extension technology systems and approaches are being used presently like call centre, Cyber Extension, ATIC, computer-internet connectivity etc.
In the ancient era farming communities shared agricultural practices through their traditional communication methods whereas today’s farming practices are highly modernised and require a geographic information system, global positioning system, computer control automated system, automated milking etc. Thus farmers need to adapt Information and Communication Technologies(ICTs) which is the fundamental tools of effective communication and offer information about good agronomic practices, transportation, marketing, weather information etc.I t has been observed that the individual, group and social media play a significant role in sustainable agricultural development. The use of present extension and communication technology system is based on the initiative of the farmers-the receiver itself. This is possible only when the farmer is conversant with the knowledge of handling system, approach etc. about present communication technology system as well as the positive attitude towards the system. In view of the progressive farmers, its use is judicious as they have high level of positive communication behaviour has resulted the desired results in their agricultural profession. As far as the farmers of remote areas are concerned they are traditionalist-hardliners and shy in nature with poor communication behaviour. They hesitate to ask recent information.
National development is the mission of all the nations across the globe and to attain this laudable objective can be achieved with the agricultural and rural development. In this perspective human resources can be developed through the use of mass media. Communication in agriculture is not only to inform and create awareness among the farmers but also to implement new ideas that change the mode of farming. Village extension workers inform the farmers about the new technologies, but they are not keeping pace with the advancement of technical know-how. Secondly, the message has to travel through many stages from its source to the ultimate users. Due to this hierarchical transfer sometimes it loses its meaning and originality. The research is the continuous process with changing scenario of developmental process. Number of researches had been conducted in the field of dissemination of information, communication and extension systems on fundamental, applied and other issues of developmental process. Introduction of latest interactive communication technology among the rural population has opened a new vista of researchers to find out viability, acquaintance, accessibility, satisfaction, constraints and many more issues of the launched electronic communication technology and systems. Mixed media strategy can be adopted. Traditional folk media can be integrated with the modern conventional media.
(The writers Dr. Banarsi Lal is Chief Scientist & Head of KVK Reasi and Dr. Vinod Gupta is Professor & Head, Division of Agricultural Extension Education, SKUAST-J)
