Extension services for the development of agriculture and allied activities

Abstract

Agriculture extension system bridges the gap between research labs to a farmer’s field. Agricultural research, education and extension are said to be the most critical for promoting farm productivity and enhancing farmer’s income. The public sector is major extension service provider and the reach of the public extension is limited in India and in addition it is burdened with non-extension responsibilities such as the distribution of subsidies and inputs, with little time left to attend to core extension activities. The objective of the article is to review the agricultural extension system in India to suggest pathways for better extension system in India. The public extension services are highly skewed towards crop husbandry ignoring allied sectors in India. Over the years the understaffed extension departments are burdened with non-extension works. The growth in the High-Value Agriculture sector has been twice or sometimes even thrice that of the crop production. However, Agriculture extension services for such sectors almost nil or unorganized. Further, extension personal are less than the recommended ratio of 1:750 at a national level. Hiring and training sufficient number of extension professionals in the sector can significantly contribute to the farmer’s income. India spent just 0.7 per cent of Agriculture GDP on agriculture research and education which includes extension and training, which is par below the recommended 2 per cent by the World Bank. The Government vision of achieving doubling of farmer’s income by 2022 without the successful delivery of agricultural extension to rural smallholder farmers is a daunting task if the issues not addressed timely.