Some radical changes needed in Indian Agricultural Education

My views are as under

1. The courses taught in B. Sc. Ag must be pooled into groups as crop
production, protection, management, and social sciences, etc., each
group of subjects must be offered in a series of one or two semesters.
for eg. extension courses are taught in all the years. instead off
that they (all the courses put together)should be offered in one
semester. along with that courses of economics and statistics and
computers should be offered. like that all breeding courses in a
semester and so on.

2. As far as technology adoption is considered, we are going for
delivery of services whether farmer is interested or not. It should be
stopped. The farmer should come forward and ask for specif solution
for specific problem then only advice is provided but not as present
approaches that how to reach the unreached. Let the unreached ask for
something then only it will be served.

3. The govt should should concentrate only on timely availability of
inputs and in sufficient quantity.

4. UG and PG students should be extensively used for commercial seed
production and marketing. They should Learn By Doing.

5. Courses like experiential learning should be implemented in real
practical sense. Now its only a formality in most of the agricultural
Universities.

6. All the agril Univ. must be made mandatory to put the package of
practices in their websites. None of the Univ. shares it on website
now.

7. All the M. Sc. and PhD thesis of all Univ should be available on
the respective sites for effective and adoptive research.

8. There should be a cadre of Administrators for Agricultural
Administration in the country. (IAS)

In-tension of Ex-tension

In-tension of Ex-tension

By attaching the meaning to the term extension, "extending" relevant and useful information to the adult population at large, extensionist’s have assumed their responsibility on their own. Also they have tried their level best to differentiate education of extension science with formal education and they tried to find their own place in the ocean of education. Also it is pivotal to note that good number of extension studies throughout the have proved that friends and neighbours are the most trusted sources of information, hence, In-tension of Ex-tension emphasizes on development and strengthening of “Neighbourhood Extension” System.

In all these efforts it is emphasized enough on the term ‘Ex-tension’, the term ‘In-Tension’ remained unexplored. What I mean to say is now it is opportune time to look into the term ‘in-tension’ holistically. The term ‘in-tension of ex-tension’ is conceptualized as “the degree to which the philosophy, content, ideas, notions, objectives, principles, theory and models of ‘ex-tension’ have been internalized by the extensionists”. The term Extension Education as defined by J. P. Leagans (1961) Extension education is an applied science consisting of content derived from research, accumulated field experiences and relevant principles derived from behavioural sciences synthesized with useful technology into a body of philosophy, principles, content and methods focused on the problems of out of school education for adults and youth. The definition is emphasizing on research output, service and education. These things can better be realized by internalizing the philosophy, content, ideas, notions, objectives, principles, theory and models of ‘ex-tension’ hence it is opportune time to ‘In-Tensionise’ the process of ‘Ex-Tension’ . In-Tensionised Extension at its root can provide potential answers to burning questions that are before development professionals. An understanding of the history of extension helps in understanding the concept of In-Tensionsionsed Extension.

In-Tension of Ex-Tension

In-Tension of Ex-Tension means internalizing concepts, philosophy, principles, models and methods of extension fr the benefit of clientele.