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The term extension is more recent in origin, and was first recorded in Britain in the 1840s in the context of ‘university extension’ or ‘extension of the university’. James Stuart, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who gave several lecturers to women’s associations and working man’s clubs in the north of England during 1867-68, is considered as father of extension. The term extension was derived from the practice of British universities of having one educational programme within the premises of the university and another away from the university buildings. The programme conducted outside the university was described as “extension education”. The expression connoted an extension of knowledge from the university to places and people far beyond. But, the term ‘Extension Education’ was formally used for the first time in 1873 by Cambridge University of England to describe system dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge to rural people where they lived and worked. Within a short time, the idea had spread to other parts of Britain, Europe and North America. Extension work is an out of school system of education in which adults and young people learn by doing. It is a partnership between the government, the land-grant institutions, and the people, which provides services and education designed to meet the needs of the people (Kelsey and Hearne, 1966). The meaning of the term ‘extension’ has changed over time, and has different meanings to different countries. The term ‘’Agricultural Extension” was adopted in 1914 when the United States Federal Smith-Lever Act of 1914 formalized a nationwide cooperative federal-state-county programme and gave operational responsibility for this to the land grant colleges and Universities. In the beginning, agricultural extension was concerned primarily with the improvement of agriculture, using conventional teaching methods. As time went on, home economics, youth programmes and rural community resource development were included. Agricultural extension spread to tropical Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and Latin America following the involvement of the United States of America (USA) in bilateral AID programmes after the Second World War.

Extension Teaching

It is now evident that the extension is an educational process which attempts to produce desirable changes in the human behaviour. This educational process is nothing but teaching-learning process and this is explained by Leagans (1961) as follows:

Teaching is the process of arranging situations that stimulate and guide the learning activity towards the goals that specify the desired changes in the behaviour of people. Teaching consists of providing situations in which the things to be learnt are brought to the attention of the learners, their interest is developed, desire aroused, conviction created, action promoted and satisfaction ensured.

Learning is the process by which an individual, through his own activity, changes his behaviour.

Process means a course of procedures, something that occurs in a series of actions or events conducting to the desired end.

Extension Teaching Method

The function of extension education is to bring about desirable changes in the behaviour of a human being. The changes in human being are produced by increasing his/her knowledge level, improving skill and changing attitude. For all these to happen, an individual has to be taught, trained and communicated. So, the extension education emphasizes the process of communication, and if you examine, you will find that the extension education is broadly a teaching-learning process in which a learning situation is created by an extension worker/ teacher by which an individual attempt to change his/her behaviour. The learning situation created in extension education process is a condition or environment in which the elements like teacher, learner, subject matter, physical facilities and teaching methods and aids for promoting learning are present in a dynamic relationship with one another. The quality of learning depends upon the conditions created by the teacher for learners to learn. However, the learner is the key element in the teaching and learning process. His willingness and desire for change are very important. The third element; subject matter is the content of the message that the extension worker wants to transfer to the client. Transfer of the subject matter will be easy and effective if it is valid, correct, based on facts, applicable to practical life situation and need based. Effective teaching-learning process is also affected if physical facilities like place, light, ventilation, seating arrangements, etc., are not properly provided to both teachers as well as to the learners. Besides all these, the transfer of subject matters to the learners requires the help of suitable teaching methods, aids and media. Proper selection and handling of methods and aids facilitate in creating the desirable learning situation. The teaching methods and aids should be simple, easy to handle, suitable to subject matter, readily available, suited to the environment and needs of the learners.

EXTENSION TOOLS /AIDS

Audio-visual aids, audio-visual media, audio-visual material, communication technology, educational or instructional media, extension teaching aids, extension tools, extension aids, etc, - all these terms broadly speaking, mean the same thing. The use of the terms like educational technology or instructional technology instead of extension tools/aids in the recent time is primarily due to the dynamic expansion of programmed learning, computer assisted instruction and education television. In this discussion, the term audio-visual aid is used most frequently which is almost same as extension aids.

Communication and Extension

We spent most of the time in a day by communicating with others. It is impractical to think of a life in which we don’t communicate. Communication is a process not only limited to human beings. All creatures of earth communicate with each other for their better existence. In communication, we exchange our ideas, information, feelings, opinions about an issue, emotions, etc. with others throughout our life. It indicates that the communication is inseparable from the existence of life. A hypothetical example on the various kinds of communications that a Veterinary doctor might be using on a normal day is presented below for easy understanding.

A Veterinary doctor goes to office and put his signature in the attendance register (written communication) and greets his staffs (communication through gesture). Then he attends the patients and discuss with the owner (verbal communication). He writes prescription for the ailing animals (written communication). After office works, he may visit and discuss with the villagers about a vaccination programme (group communication) and inform the villagers about the date and time of vaccination. He may sensitize the people about the importance of vaccination through television, radio, newspaper, etc. (mass communication) and develop leaflets/folder/bulletins on different issues for distribution. This brief example suggests that the communication is an inevitable part of our daily life. It may be like that we may not survive without communication.

Role of Male and Female Extension Workers

Extension Workers include all persons working in the field for improving the qulaity of life of people. In our field, Gomitras, Livestock Inspector, VAS, BVO, etc are all extension workers because some way or other they are involved in promotion of livestock activites in the field. The role of extension worker working with rural people is to bring necessary change inindividual and collective behaviour and motivating them. The role of male and female extension worker is not very distinct. However, in some backward communities, the role of the female extension worker to motivate women, is found to be very encouraging. Here, we will discuss the important roles of both male and female Extension workers.

An extension worker should arouse farmers to recognize and take interest in their problems, to overcome these problems, to teach them how to do so, to persuade them to act on his teaching, so that they ultimately achieve a sense of satisfaction and pride in their achievements.

Participation means the involvement of the stakeholders in all the activities. In a true sense of participation, the farmers are involved in identifying the problems they face, prioritising the problems, determining ways to overcome them, designing realistic plans by themselves or with others to achieve the goals, and carrying them out. Participation puts emphasis on people’s involvement in decision-making processes, implementation of programmes, sharing of benefits of development programmes and involvement to evaluate such programmes. Community participation is an active process by which beneficiary or client groups influence the direction and execution of a development project with a view to enhancing their well-being in terms of income, personal growth, self-reliance, or other values they cherish. Community participation concerns the engagement of individuals and communities in decisions about things that affect their lives. Sometimes you have observed that some people do not want to be involved in decision making process and remain aloof, but it is our responsibility to create a situation so that everyone should have the opportunity to associate with the programme. We should not force people to participate in the project/programme which they perceive that it will affect their livelihood. In that case, we have to create awareness among the people regarding the beneficial effects of the programme. Solutions devised and fulfilled by the people and community in need are far more likely to prove successful than those imposed from outside.

Rural Sociology

Significant proportion of Indian population lives in village and derives their livelihood from villages. India is a land of agriculture and its customs, traditions, social structure, etc. are unique in the world. Understanding of rural society is must for successful implementation of developmental programmes. The understanding of rural people requires study of rural sociology. Rural sociology, as indicated by its name, studies rural society, rural social structures and institutions. The rural society is primarily depending on agriculture and hence rural sociology also concerns itself on the peasant society. There is a stark difference between the social structure, processes, social dynamics and social control in rural society and urban society. Thus, rural sociology has been specially designed to study the rural phenomena and it is a systematic study of the varied aspects of the rural society. It is the study of the rural social networks and how they operate for the smooth functioning of the society. The rural society is generally rooted in the villages, and rural sociology studies the facets of the villages, the way it functions, the various problems it faces and the how it tackles to face the imminent challenges. Rural sociology offers viable solutions and ways of mitigating the problems that hound over the villages.

Diffusion and Adoption of Livestock Innovations

One of the important functions of livestock extension worker is communication. This communication is not mearly informing the livestock owners about the improved technologies and practices, but to ensure the application of technologies for their benefits. Livestock extension worker’s efficency are always judged and measured (a) by the speed or quickness with which the gap between what is known and what is done by the livestock farmers is bridged, (b) by the number of new practices adopted; and (c) also by the number of livestock farmers and communities that adopt the new practices. While discharging the technology dissemination function, livestock extension worker often faces with some of the difficult questions:

Extension Programme: Planning and Evaluation

The first step to promote any extension programme is to prepare useful programme based on community need. Extension Programme planning is a blueprint or plan to an extension worker for effective execution. It is a procedure of working with people in an effort to identify and recognise the unsatisfactory situations or problems and to determine the possible solutions. To understand the extension programme planning process, certain basic concepts of an extension programme, planning and extension planning need to be understood.

Programme

The word ‘programme’ has several distinct meanings in the dictionary. It means a proclamation, a prospectus, a list of events, a plan of procedure, a course of action prepared or announced beforehand, a logical sequence of operations to be performed in solving a problem. This is a written statement which describes the extension activities proposed, the problems they address, the premises on which they are based, the objectives they seek to attain, the actions and the resources they require.

Data Collection and Report Writing

Many a times you may be asked questions like what is the average milk production of deshi cows of your area? What is the average lactation period of CB cows of your area? or maybe what is the impact of AI programme in your area? etc., by your higher officers. How to answer all these questions? All these questions may be answered scientifically if you possess elementary knowledge on statistics. We have to frame a research design and to collect data to answer these questions.

What is Data ?

Data is a collection of facts, such as numbers, words, measurements, observations or even just descriptions of things. Example: 5, Ram, Kilogram, Good, Male, etc. Independently they do not produce any meaning.

These are special types of information, generally obtained through observation, surveys, enquiries or are generated as a result of human activities.

Once you have decided what to study and how to study, you are faced with the task of systematically collecting reliable and valid evidence upon which you can base your findings. Data (singular datum) are facts which are observed and measurable phenomena. The purpose of gathering and summarizing data is to transform them into information. The data collected in the research study may be quantitative or qualitative in nature. Quantitative data can be counted and can be computed. Such as age of a boy, marks scored by a student, distance, etc. Quantitative data are easier for analysis. We also collect qualitative data like sex of a person as Male or Female or Transgender. The qualitative characteristics can be counted, but as such cannot be computed. For example, we may get “Yes’ or “No” to a question to farmers about vaccination of his animals. For this “Yes” or “No” , we may assign 0 to “Yes” and 1 to “No” in an artificial or nominal way to categorise these qualitative data, and go for computation. So, quantitative data are expressed in the form of numerals and are amenable to statistical analysis readily. Whereas, qualitative data are descriptive in nature and can be statistically analysed only after processing and after having them classified into some appropriate categories. Data is required to make a decision in any business situation. The researcher is faced with one of the most difficult problems of obtaining suitable, accurate and adequate data. Utmost care must be exercised while collecting data because the quality of the research results depends upon the reliability of the data. There are basically two sources from which we obtain data for our research works. They are known as primary data and secondary data.

Rural Development : Concept and Meaning

Mahatma Gandhi said, “India lives in its villages. If the village perishes, India will perish too”. This saying about the social, economic and political development of rural areas justifies that India is predominantly an agrarian country with more than 70 percent of its population living in more than five lakh villages. Agriculture is the predominant livelihood occupation and the rural population largely consists of small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, artisans and scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. A large part of this rural population is still living below the poverty line and is the focus of rural development programmes. Rural Development is not a new concept for India rather it is a very basic principle of our culture. The famous epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata teach us the dignity of humanity and benevolence and justice to people. In ancient days, our villages were self-sufficient and requiring very little assistance from outsiders. However, during British rule, the rural economy was destroyed and the rural mass was made dependent on goods and services provided by outsiders. There was no rural development policy as such to make the people self-reliant. Some of the rural development activities were taken up by the British Government in India during the Great Bengal Famine. These attempts were of very limited scale without having legal sanctions behind the move.

Pre-Independence Rural Development Programmes

Rural development traces back its history to the seventeenth century when voluntary efforts to serve the mankind were initiated by a religious society of people known as ‘Friends’ or ‘Quakers’ in England, then the other parts of World including India. It aimed at providing services to mankind transcending bonds of religion, territory and culture. During the British period, the British government was never serious about the rural development. But, they acted under compelling situation like famines and economic distress. During 1800 to 1825, it was reported that there were five famines; during 1825 to 1850, two famines; during 1850 to 1875, six famines; and during 1875 to 1900, there were eighteen famines in different parts of the country. Famines forced the British government in to action. The Famine Commission of 1880, 1898, 1901, the Irrigation Committee of 1903, the Commission on Co-operation of 1915 and the Royal Commission on Indian Agriculture were the efforts of the Government to improve the economic condition of the common man, but seldom were the reports of the commissions implemented in right spirit. However, during these periods, the most active role in the field of rural development was played by the Christian missionaries who aimed at the all-round development of their Christian converts. In the year 1987, British Government heeding to the representation made by Manchester Cotton Supply Association established the Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Commerce. But, this department did not do much related to agriculture development except the collection of agricultural statistics.

Planned Strategies for Rural Development in India

The Food and Agriculture Ministry appointed a Committee to examine the Grow More Food activities of the Government which were in implementation and to suggest measures for ensuring rapid expansion of agricultural production. The Grow More Food Campaign Inquiry Committee pointed out that there was imperative “Need of an organisation for intensive rural work which would reach every farmer and assist in the coordinated development of rural life as a whole similar in conception to the “extension” or “advisory’” services in the U.S.A., the U.K. and elsewhere.” One of the recommendations of the Committee was that an extension agency should be set up for rural work, which would reach every farmer and assist in the coordinated development of rural life. The Planning Commission set up the Government of India in 1950 to formulate the First Five Year Plan summarized the reasons for failure of the earlier efforts by the governmental and voluntary organisations as follows

Evolution of Panchayati Raj System in India

In January 1957, the Government of India appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Balwantray Mehta to examine the working of the Community Development Programme (1952) and the National Extension Service (1953), and to suggest measures for their better implementation. The committee expressed concern about the lack of participation of people in these programmes and made a string plea for devolution of power. The committee submitted its report in November 1957 and recommended the establishment of the scheme of ‘democratic decentralization’ through a three-tier system of local government from village to district Level-Gram Panchayat at village level, Panchayat Samiti at block level and Zilla Parisad at district level -which ultimately came to be known as Panchayati Raj in India. The recommendations of the committee were accepted by the National Development Council (NDC) in January 1958. The NDC did not insist on a single rigid pattern of panchayat raj system throughout the country but left it to the states to evolve their own patterns suitable to local conditions. But the basic principles and broad fundamentals of democratic decentralization remained identical throughout the country. Thus, the Panchayati Raj system came into existence in 1959 with two basic objectives. These were (1) democratic decentralization and (2) local participation in planned programmes. The new system of Panchayat Raj Institutions was first adopted in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh in 1959, followed by Assam, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in 1960, Maharashtra in 1962, and Gujarat and West Bengal in 1963 and 1964 respectively. By the mid-sixties, the hype to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) gave way to a growing tendency of centralization and the PRIs descended to ground zero. To revive the working of PRIs, the Janata Government in 1977 appointed a committee headed by Ashok Mehta to study the functioning of PRIs and to suggest measures for improvement. The committee suggested a minor change in the Balwantray Mehta Scheme. Mehta (1978), in the Report of the Committee of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) identified three phases of Panchayati Raj in India

The immediate objective of the programme was to achieve rapid increase in food grain production to meet the food grain requirement of the country. The programme was implemented in the district having potential irrigation facilities with less prone to natural hazards. Integrated and intensive approaches were adopted to solve the problems of agriculture production in the areas which were more responsive to such production effort. The programme sought to achieve rapid increase in the level of agricultural production through a concentration of financial technical, extension and administrative resources. In the long run it aimed at a self - generating break through in productivity and raising the production potential by stimulating the human and physical process of change.

IADP was a demonstrational programme which showed how to increase production more rapidly on one hand and a path finding experimental programme which facilitated the development of new innovations, new ideas and procedures for wider adoption in agriculture development.

One of the major drawbacks of IADP was its neglect of the equity aspect of the development. Even though this drawback, the spectacular results in improved production yield obtained in IADP, prompted Government to extending the benefit of the programme to other districts of the country with less cost and reduced staff strength. This resulted in launching of the Intensive Agriculture Area Programme (IAAP) in 1964.

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), a programme for the self employment of rural poor was started from 01.04.1999 after restructuring the six erstwhile Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and its allied programmes, These were : IRDP, Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Toolkits in Rural Areas (SITRA) and Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY), and Million Wells Scheme (MWS). The basic objective of the SGSY was to bring the assisted poor families (Swarozgaris) above the Poverty Line by providing them income-generating assets through a mix of bank credit and governmental subsidy. The programme aimed at establishing a large number of micro enterprises in rural areas based on the ability of the poor and potential of each area.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

Rationale of the Programme

A vast majority of the poor people in rural areas of the country depend mainly on the wages they earn through unskilled labour. They are often on threshold levels of subsistence and are vulnerable to the possibility of sinking from transient to chronic poverty, in the event of inadequate labour demand or in the face of unpredictable crises that may be general in nature like natural disaster or personal like ill-health, all of which adversely impact their employment opportunities. In a context of poverty & unemployment, wage employment programmes provide unskilled manual workers with short-term employment. The wage employment programmes provide income transfers to poor households during critical times and so also enable consumption smoothing specially during slack agricultural seasons or years. Durable assets created under these programmes have the potential to generate sustainable livelihood.

Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA)

Extension Reforms were introduced during 2005-06 by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India as a major intervention in addressing the constraints as observed in T & V and post T & V system by making the extension system farmer driven and farmer accountable through process and institutional reforms mechanism. The institutional mechanism in the form of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) at district level was pilot tested under Innovations in Technology Dissemination (ITD) component of National Agricultural

Technology Project (NATP) in seven states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and Punjab covering 4 districts in each State from 1998 to 2004. The key features of reforms are:

National Agriculture Development Programme/Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)

Economic reforms initiated since 1991 have put the Indian economy on a higher growth trajectory. Annual growth rate in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has accelerated from below 6 per cent during the initial years of reforms to more than 8 per cent in recent years. The Planning Commission in its approach paper to the Eleventh Five-Year-plan has stated that 9 per cent growth rate in GDP would be feasible during the Eleventh Plan period. However, Agriculture that accounted for more than 30 per cent of total GDP at the beginning of reforms failed to maintain its pre-reform growth. On the contrary, it witnessed a sharp deceleration in growth after the mid-1990s. This happened despite the fact that agricultural productivity in most of the states was quite low as it were, and the potential for the growth of agriculture was high. The GDP of agriculture increased annually at more than 3 per cent during the 1980s.

Since the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996 to 2001-02), India has been targeting a growth rate of more than 4 per cent in agriculture, but the actual achievement has been much below the target. More than 50 per cent of the workforce of the country depends upon agriculture for it’s livelihood and slow growth in Agriculture and allied sectors can lead to acute stress in the economy because a large proportion of population depend on this sector. A major cause behind the slow growth in agriculture is the consistent decrease in investments in the sector by the state governments. While public and private investments are increasing manifold in sectors such as infrastructure, similar investments are not forthcoming in Agriculture and allied sectors, leading to distress in the community of farmers, especially that of the small and marginal segment. Hence, the need for incentivising states that increase their investments in the Agriculture and allied sectors has been felt.

Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)

Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) is a modified programme of erstwhile Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) of the Department of Land Resources. The scheme was launched during 2009-10. The programme is being implemented as per Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects 2008. The main objectives of the IWMP are to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water. The outcomes are prevention of soil erosion, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table. This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed areas.

ICAR Frontline Extension Programmes

It was recognized by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in the early sixties that agriculture development requires interdisciplinary and multi institutional approach. The integrated functioning of agricultural research, education and extension was for the first time recognized as the cardinal principle of agricultural development system, and accordingly agricultural research, education and extension function were integrated in the ICAR institutes and State Agricultural Universities (SAU). ICAR established a Section of Extension Education at its headquarter in 1971, which was later renamed as Division of Agricultural Extension to promote the transfer the agricultural technologies through the ICAR-SAU system. The present position, as on 31.03.2020, of ICAR institutes, Central Agriculture Universities and SAUs are as follows:

Livestock Development Programmes/Schemes

Gausalas

Recognizing the potential of Gaushalas (about 10000) in the country which were engaged in rehabilitation of disowned cattle, the government of India in 1952 set up the Central Council of Govsamvardana (CCG). Some of these gaushalas were providing quality indigenous / crossbreds / heifers / bulls at many places like Nasik, UrliKanchan, Amirtsar, Indore and Ahmednagar. One gaushala at Bombay had completed a century of devoted work in 1986 and had established two institutes, one for research and another for fodder research and grassland development. The Sabarmathi Ashram gaushala founded in 1915 by Mahatma Gandhi near Ahmedabad is now being managed by NDDB and has a training center for AI service including embryo transfer.

1.1. Agriculture

Derived from Latin word; Ager-soil and culture-Cultivation.

An art: Governs the knowledge to perform the operations of the farm in a skillful ways.

A science: Uses technologies including breeding, production technologies, crop protection, economics etc., to maximize the yield and profitability of the farmer.

A business: Way of life for a rural population.

Involves management of labour, water and capital, and employing technologies for production of food, fibre, feed and fuel through mechanization to achieve maximum returns.

As per Agricultural act 1947, agriculture includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, livestock breeding, grazing land, meadow land, market gardens and nursery gardens.