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| Innovations in agricultural extension | | | Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. Anil Kumar
Agricultural development depends on innovations. The innovations are a prerequisite for agricultural development which ultimately is the route for rural development. From what once was perceived as new practice; innovations are now defined as what comes out of the interaction between different stakeholders. The goal of the research personnel's is now to facilitate the interaction between different stakeholders. The traditional approach to fostering innovation in agriculture has been until few years back one way or linear. Seldom was the knowledge of the community for whom the innovations were meant taken into consideration. The one way approach also had the possibility of excluding the stakeholders like agricultural universities, informal networking among farm communities, private sector participation, agribusiness, traders, and nongovernmental and civil society organizations. It often ignores actors such as the private sector and does not always take institutions or local Indigenous technical Knowledge (ITK). The result was that the adoption of the innovation was either very slow or very less. Broad-based, sustained agricultural growth and poverty reduction require an interactive approach to agricultural development to bring in the relevant actors, organizations, and institutions, which all play a role in this process.
Now we talk of the agriculture innovations system approach. The agricultural innovation system (AIS) approach is defined as a network of organizations, enterprises, and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their behavior and performance. A few decades ago, practitioners began to use the concept of innovation systems to explain noteworthy economic performance driven by a strong orientation to innovation in some developed countries. The World Bank (2006) defines an innovation system as 'a network of organizations, enterprises, and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their behavior and performance'. This thinking recognizes that interactions of people and ideas catalyze innovation and that innovation consists of generating, accessing, and putting knowledge into use (Hall 2006). It also recognizes the importance of institutions and policy in fostering innovation
Innovations in Agricultural Extension:
Broad based extension
Extension system which in the yesteryears was limited only to specific commodities like field crops has now broadened its ambit to include horticultural crops, animal husbandry, fisheries, etc. Narrow focus of extension system has now been widened and extension is no more limited to major cereals and providing subsidized inputs. Emphasis is on to introduce neglected crops such as coarse cereals and minor horticulture crops into the farming system. New technologies focusing on environment and sustainability like IPM, organic farming, natural resource management etc, were adequately promoted by the project. Moreover, new extension system could divert its attention from distribution of subsidized inputs to transferring the complete technology to farmers.
ICT-Enabled Tools
Agriculture is one of the core sectors where ICT interventions can be exploited a lot. Information and communication technology enabled tools have become more relevant in agricultural innovation systems. These appear ideally suited to the task of enhanced interaction because they can expand communication, cooperation, and ultimately innovation among the growing array of actors in agriculture. They are now all pervasive have reached at the gross root levels. Expanded telecommunications networks have increased the speed, reliability, and accuracy of information exchange through text, voice, and applications between farmers and other stakeholders. Now various private sector enterprises have started using ICT for the benefit of farming communities. The e- Choupal of Indian Tobacco Company (ITC), Warna village wired project of MS Swaminathan Foundation limited Chennai, Tata Kissan Sanchar Limited, Reuters Market Lights (RML) are some of the private sector initiatives in the country,
Expert Systems:
Farmers in India often do not get the relevant technology in time. They are not aware of the scientific production of different crops. They are also not able to select the best piece of information available to them from different sources. Making on-farm and land management decisions is often challenging for them. Expert systems are the decision support tool that guide decisions on various management practices. For example what crops to rotate, when to sow and when to harvest. It is a computer program which can be used as virtual expert to guide the growers. Expert system is a technological way to deliver theoretical knowledge for results practically. As a result, application of expert system in agriculture sector has become popular and many nations took initiative to develop different expert system.
Agricultural Technology Management Agency:
Extension system in the country is often criticized for being more centralized and supply driven. To overcome these constraints Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) was started under the Innovations in Technology Dissemination (ITD) component of National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP). It functions as a registered society at District level, serving as a focal point for integrating research and extension activities at the district level and helps in decentralizing the management of agricultural technology transfer. The project involved adopting bottom up planning procedures for setting the research and extension agency in order to make the technology dissemination farmer driven and farmer accountable. ATMA aims at bottom up planning, creating farmer advisory committee to improve feedback, encouraging NGO's and private sector involvement in technology transfer, validation and refinement of technologies through research units in the district, in-service training to increase staff competence and formation and strengthening of farmer's interest group. ATMA is now a part of the National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology (NAMET).
Partnerships:
In the country main responsibility for agricultural extension is with respective state governments. But the present times witnessed a decline in the extension services. There were many reasons for this. The situation demanded alternative extension approaches which are demand driven, client oriented and farmer led. The than union minister Sh. Ajit Singh had remarked that, it is now believed that the task of managing agriculture in the future cannot be adequately addressed by the public extension agencies alone, but will require the combined strengths and synergies of a pluralistic, multi-agency system in which the private corporate sector, farmers organizations, co-operatives, NGO's, para professionals, small agri business, self-help groups, input dealers and suppliers, electronic and print media and information technology will each contribute according to its own strength and capabilities. Today greater stress is laid on partnerships. Partnerships provide synergistic approach in the extension approach.
Market led Extension:
The increased competitiveness of the Indian agriculture and in order to maintain the edge of the farmers in the market it is necessary that farmers have to transform themselves from mere producers cum sellers in the domestic market to organized market driven production. This is also necessary to meet the consumer demand and to realize the better returns on investments, risks and efforts. For this the extension personnel's' are now facilitating appropriate linkages of the farmer or commodity interest groups with the markets so that they can earn handsomely. Market-led-extension system establishes its position by helping the farmers realize high returns for the produce and minimize the production cost and improve the product value as marketability.
Volunteer Farmer Trainers Extension:
This approach has also been found effective in providing timely information to the farming community. Studies done at the World Agro forestry Center and the International Livestock Research Institute have revealed that the voluntary farmer trainers are effective agents of change. Voluntary farmer trainers are trained by research and extension institutes. These are highly effective training on an average 20 farmers per month. As these have an in depth knowledge of the prevailing local culture and practices, speak their language and thus instill a greater confidence in them. This helps in adoption of technology rapidly. Here the farmer himself is the agent of change and the extension workers serving as the facilitators of change.
In an agrarian country like India, innovation is necessary for increasing productivity of major crops so that the competitiveness of Indian agriculture can be maintained and desired economic growth can be achieved. Innovations in agricultural extension are more important in so that the new technology can be transferred to the masses by various methods and using different approaches. This will than further help in alleviating poverty, generating income, ensuring food security and social equity for all. To conclude if we are to cope up with the challenges in the agriculture sector both at the national as well as global level we must have to innovate continuously. |
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