Agricultural research and
extension systems needs urgent surgery and appropriate medical treatment. The
most ambitious programme of Government of India and dream of Prime minister
“Doubling Farmers Income by 2022” seems to be a difficult task once again.
Basically similar mistake was committed before launching green revolution
technologies. Similar mistakes are being done again in the era of information revolution.
The green revolution agriculture was dominated by agricultural technology and
the current DFI approach is dominated by outcomes of information technology. in
both these approaches the major missing element was and is educational aspect of ultimate end user.
When I say education don’t consider it in the narrow sense of formal
education. Here is a list of roles of
agricultural extension as listed in the report of Doubling Farmers Income Vol
XI, Empowering Farmers through Extension. In the entire list the issue missing
is educational approach. Everywhere technology is dominating. Or in some of
roles the postman’s job of extension education is being observed. At this
juncture it is necessary to understand and appreciate the difference between
the extension educationist and extension service providers. The roles listed
seems to be the roles to be played by Extension Service providers. Largely it
is being misunderstood as roles of extension educationist. The policy inputs
should provide some space for inputs from Extension Educationist, who has many
technical aspects to add to the extension services. Because we could not make
the differences between extension educationist and extension service providers
and Extension Educationists are largely considered as service providers and such
impression has sown the seeds of stagnant growth in agricultural sector.
Roles under
Agricultural Extension as listed in the report of Doubling
Farmers Income Vol XI, Empowering Farmers through Extension
·
Providing information on ongoing schemes
and programs in agriculture & allied sectors.
·
Capacity building and skilling in
emerging areas
·
Advocacy on farmers’ interests.
·
Counseling for farmers’ well-being.
·
Credit facilitation.
·
Critical assistance in risk management
including climate change, crop insurance etc.
·
Documentation and reporting roles
·
Enforcement of Farmers’ Charters
·
Issuing advisories on soil health
management, water conservation, pest management etc.
·
Facilitating access to production and
post-production inputs & data.
·
Facilitation & feedback
·
Serving as friend, philosopher and guide
to farmers
·
Engaging in research planning
·
Promoting projectised mode of extension
delivery
·
ICT enabled services
·
Intermediation
·
Linking farmers to markets
·
Building managerial competence.
·
Linking various support & service
networks
·
Organizing user/producer groups
·
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
·
Promotion of PPP models
·
Promotion of farmer led innovations
·
Redressal of grievances
·
Technology selection, etc.
·
Feedback to research system
The listed roles are expected
from extension service providers not by extension educationists. Now, the issue
is what is the difference between the extension educationist and extension
service providers?
•
Extension
Educationist: is
a person with the background of education in agriculture and/or allied sciences
and specialization in extension science and provides the knowledge and skills
of extension and communication tools and techniques to the Extension Service
Providers at regular intervals to bring the desirable changes in the behavior
of Extension Service Providers.
The clientele of extension
include scientists, faculty of various SAUs, extension service providers of
State Department of Agriculture and other line departments, financial intuitions,
input manufacturers (Seed, Fertilizers, plat protection chemicals, agricultural
implements etc.), input supply agencies, NGO professionals, progressive farmers and
opinion leaders etc. Extension Educationist should work with these groups and
provide them the desired information and extension technologies for educating
farmers on agricultural technology rather than involving them in Transfer of Technology.
The connotation attached with the term ‘Extension’ in Indian context. The inputs
of extension with extension technologies need to be learnt.
The evaluation reports of
Intensive Agricultural District Programme, Community Development Programme,
Training and Visit System etc have brought out one common limitation of
implemented projects was “The Extension workers were loaded with technology but
not prepared to stimulate (extension inputs) group action(adoption)”. The extension
technology is still in the back stage. Extension machinery is busy with
transfer of technology wherein education is still missing. We shall understand
the extension technology and educational aspect of extension, before that let’s
look into the concept of extension service provider.
•
Extension
Service Provider:
is a person with the background of education in agriculture and/or allied sciences
and specialization in the disciplines of agricultural and/or allied sciences
who is serving a public or private institution and meant for dissemination of
the technological advances to the intended communities and institutions based
on needs after acquiring the extension and communication tools and techniques
from Extension Educationist.
Every agricultural
professional is having a basic degree in agriculture or allied sciences viz.,
veterinary, horticulture, sericulture, fisheries etc then specialization during
his/her post graduate and PhD education. And it becomes is area of providing
extension service. Now it can be compared with medical profession. Where the
basic degree is common for all medical professionals whether he is dealing with
clinical or non-clinical profession. Similarly we chose a medical expert based
on our need and similarly in agricultural extension services it becomes
injustice to consider every graduate and post graduate and doctorate from one
angle. Every specialist has his own subject and area to deal with. But our
clients and policy makers are putting them in one basket and expecting the
miracle to happen. How is it possible? Until and unless the difference between these
professionals is appreciated and understood, we can’t think of any remarkable
change in Indian agricultural scenario.
In Indian context it is very difficult to delineate nature, culture and
agriculture. They share close knitted relationships. With developments in
modern applications there was more demand of comfortable technologies. Efforts
in this direction led to innovations and over a period of time and agricultural
production process was dominated by technology. On the other hand the extension
mechanism was not prepared for the dissemination of over flooding technologies.
With such situation there existed a new paradigm which can be understood with
the help of following models.
The traditional model of technology transfer, process, method,
principles, objectives and philosophy in Indian context in pre independence era
were dominated by technology and the approach of dissemination of innovations was
secondary. Extension was only exploited as an instrument by scientists to
transfer their technology which was lacking many issues like educational
approach and involvement of ultimate beneficiaries that needs assessment. The situation
has been represented diagrammatically in Fig.1. As a result of which there
existed phenomenon like non adoption of technology or partial adoption of
technology (De and Jirli 2010).
Subsequently in the later stages extension development thinkers started
pondering about absence of human element in the extension approach and in the
post green revolution period the approach was re-organized into participatory
and putting the farmer first types of projects were initiated and people
started visualizing some changes in the extension approaches. In the mean time
extension service providers dominated domain of extension educationists and
extension educationists took back seat in the competition. Extension service
providers felt they are good extension educationists and the process of technology transfer
continued unabated. Again the resultant was not much different than the earlier
model which has been depicted in fig.2. In the initial stages there were some
encouraging outcomes for the approach but still the similar end product of
partial adoption or non adoption continued. This was a crucial juncture for
extension educationists that how long the system is going to continue with such
stalemate? There must be re-thinking on the issue, there must be clear cut
demarcation between the roles
of actors of development i.e. the
roles of Extension service providers and extension educationists. Can we have
the comprehensible demarcations between these two roles of agricultural
information disseminators? The current scenario is not having any mechanism to
identify the multiple roles of extension educators, most of the time they are
treated as extension workers or extension service providers. The basic question
is why such discussion at this juncture of second green revolution or ever
green revolution. The simple answer is let’s not reiterate the mistakes of
first green revolution. Then what’s the way out? The way out is understanding
the In-Tension of Ex-Tension (Adopted from De and Jirli 2010).
In-tension of Ex-tension:
By attaching the meaning "extending" relevant and useful information to the
adult population at large, to the term extension, 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
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 was emphasized enough on the term
‘Ex-Tension’, while 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” (De and Jirli 2010). 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 the development professionals. An understanding of
the history of extension helps in understanding the concept of
In-Tensionsionsed Extension. In-Tensionised extension system will have a new
dimension when it is integrated with e-readiness. This is a holistic
integration in the sense the extension educationist and extension service
providers both are becoming equipped with ICTs. Conceptually it looks like an
utopian idea. But in the long run with concerted and committed efforts by all
the actors of development now it’s becoming a reality (De and Jirli 2010).
Technical aspect of Extension Technology
Extension Educationist
should develop mastery over extension skills which include
1. Communication Skills
(Persuasion skills, negotiation skills):
a.
Dynamic listening skills – A god listener can develop himself as good speaker. Listening
helps you to understand the others point of view. If you are involved in active
listening, more than half of the problem is automatically solved. Remaining part
is addressed by the help of technology. if the first part is missing even the most
sophisticated technology can not address it.
b. Speaking skills (Instruction
skills): Only when you are good listener (reader), then only you can speak. The
active listening and careful reading helps you to understand the issue and with
the help of technological background you can provide all possible solutions to
the problems through your spoken words.
c. Reading
comprehension:
d. Writing skills:
e. Thinking Skills: (Critical
thinking skills, Analytical thinking):
f. Message Treatment
Skills:
g. Developing message
suitable to specific media:
h. Feedback skills:
i. Noise reducing
skills:
j. Fidelity enhancing
skills:
2. Problem solving skills:
3. Coordination skills:
4. System analysis (Monitoring, Evaluation skills)
5. Time management skills:
6. Human Resource Management Skills:
a. Social structure of society (Social orientation):
b. Culture, Norms, Taboos,
Folkways, Traditions:
c. Social mobility:
d. Caste system:
e. Dynamics of social
system:
f. Social concerns
7. Management Skills:
8. Operational Management Skills:
9. Financial Management Skills:
10. Material Resource Management Skills:
11. Media Management Skills:
12. Leadership Skills:
13. Motivational
Skills:
14. Innovation skills:
15. Pressure management
skills (Stress management)
16. e-Readiness skills:
These skill will be
elaborated in next blog.
