EXTENSION REFORMS IN INDIA

Introduction:

Agricultural extension has a crucial role to play in the context of growing demands of
agricultural production in a sustainable manner. Reforms in the system envisage an extension
service more broad-based and holistic in content and scope, thus beyond agricultural technology
transfer. Its normal task of transferring and disseminating appropriate technologies and
agronomic practices would not be sufficient. Extension agencies, services and functionaries will
need to exercise a more proactive and participatory role, serve as knowledge information agents,
initiating and facilitating mutually meaningful and equitable knowledge based transactions
among primary producers, agricultural researchers and trainers. All this needs to be done in an
effective and cost efficient manner. The need for reforms in Agricultural Extension has been
explicitly raised in the National Agriculture Policy; the report of Expenditure Reforms
Commission, as well as, the Tenth Plan Approach paper. Keeping the recommendations of these
policy initiatives in view, and to provide policy directives for extension reforms, a broad Policy
Framework for Agricultural Extension (PFAE) has been developed by the Ministry of
Agriculture, Govt. of India.

The five major guiding elements of the Policy Framework are as follows:

 Reforming public sector extension

 Promoting private sector
 Augmenting media & information technology
 Mainstreaming gender
 Capacity building

The reforms enlisted above have been pilot tested under Innovations in Technology
Dissemination (ITD) component of World Bank funded National Agricultural Technology
Project (NATP) with effect from November, 1998 in seven states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and Punjab covering 4 districts in each State.
An autonomous institution – Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) has been
established in these project districts as a registered society representing various stakeholders,
including farmers, in project planning and implementation.
Implementation:

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 and 28 districts from 1998 to 2004. The key features of reforms are:

 New institutional arrangements – Decentralized decision making

 Convergence of line departments – gap filling mode
 Multi agency extension strategies – encourage private sector (minimum 10%
 allocation)
 Broad-based extension delivery through Farming Systems Approach (FSA)
 Group approach to extension through Farmers Organizations(FOs) and
 Commodity Interest Groups (CIGs)
 Gender concerns-Minimum 30% allocation
 Sustainability of extension services – Minimum 10% beneficiary contribution
 Bottom-up planning

Extension reforms through ATMA:

Technology dissemination is currently being augmented by extension reforms through the

Agricultural Technology Management Agencies (ATMA) at district level. These attempts to
integrate the current extension work within Departments of Agriculture (which are under-staffed
and rely on transfer of technology with almost no feed back into research and policy) with KVKs
and also active participation of farmer groups, private sector and civil society organizations
(CSOs), Special effort needs to be taken to transfer learnings from more successful areas to
others so that the ATMA model can live up to its expectations. The ATMA concept needs to be
strengthened, although possibly not as a stand-alone scheme. On the development side, extension
involves planning and its implementation so that ATMAs are best suited to operate as the
domain agency reporting to District Planning Committees. On the technical side, there is need to
better integrate into ATMAs the problem-solving capacities of KVKS and the feed-back loop
these offer to SAUs and NARS. The guidelines of RKVY need a re-look so that ATMAs and
KVKs can together bring better convergence at the district level and below between planning,
research and extension.

Decentralized Decision Making:

Decentralized decision-making is any process where the decision-making authority is distributed

throughout a larger group. It also connotes a higher authority given to lower level functionaries,
executives, and workers. This can be in any organization of any size, from a governmental
authority to a corporation. However, the context in which the term is used is generally that of
larger organizations. This distribution of power, in effect, has far-reaching implications for the
fields of management, organizational behavior, and government.

The decisions arising from a process of decentralized decision-making are the functional result
of group intelligence and crowd wisdom. Decentralized decision-making also contributes to the
core knowledge of group intelligence and crowd wisdom, often in a subconscious way a la Carl
Jung's collective unconscious.

Active participation of the rural population is an essential factor for real and sustainable rural
development to occur. Furthermore, involvement of appropriate levels of government in
decision-making, implementation, and evaluation of development programs is another essential
factor contributing to the success of rural development. The complexity of developmental
problems cannot be fully addressed, using the conventional top-down extension approach.
Successful rural development requires the transfer of authority or decentralization of specified
planning, financial, and management functions to different levels of government in a territorial
hierarchy under the jurisdictional authority of the central government. This demands the
participation of rural people and the development of appropriate extension capacity, at different
levels, especially at the local levels.

The decentralization of program planning, management and financial functions could help ensure
that extension systems are more effective, efficient and responsive to the needs of the rural
people. However, decentralization of a national agricultural extension system is an intricate
process and requires not only strong commitments and careful planning, but it is also an
enormous effort that demands the understanding and coordination of all parties involved to
ensure successful implementation.

Agro-Eco System Analysis (AESA):

 What - An ecosystem is a natural system based on interactions of biotic and abiotic

elements. It is an open system which nevertheless has some self-regulation capacity. If
this ecosystem includes crops, we call it an agro-ecosystem. An agro-ecosystem is based
on ecological interactions between the environment, plants (cultivated and non-
cultivated), herbivores (invertebrates - mainly insects - and vertebrates), plant pathogens,
and natural enemies of herbivores (parasites, parasitoids and predators). The health of the
plant is determined by the environment (weather, soil, nutrients) and the herbivores. The
populations of herbivores are balanced by their natural enemies. Weed plants in the field,
with which the crop has to compete, also have an effect on crop condition and health. To
be able to understand how this system is working, one should know the elements of it and
the interactions among them. This aim can be reached by Agro-ecosystem Analyses
(AESA).
 Why - The goal of AESA is to assess what type of action will be needed to best produce
a profit for the farmer.
 How – AESA should be conducted by observing biotic and abiotic elements of the field,
flowering field edges and the surroundings of the field. Sampling of a few locations in the
field allows us to estimate and to understand what is happening in the whole field.
Observations are made at each location of:
 Date, type of study field assessed, number of days/weeks after sowing (age of crop)
 Soil conditions
 Weather conditions
 Plant development: plant height, and the size and number of leaves, ears etc.
 Plant health status, based on leaf colour (nutrient deficiency symptoms), etc.
 Pest and disease attack symptoms, number and types of pests and natural enemies
 Presence of insect pests in the soil
 Presence of insects living on the soil (Barber pots/pitfall traps)
  Weed incidence
 Environmental conditions around the field
 Unknown insects, leaves with an unfamiliar appearance, with symptoms of unknown
diseases, insect damage, or with other damage

SWOT analysis:

SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate
the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or in a business
venture. It is also called as SWOC analysis. SWOC/ SWOT analysis is carried out in respect of
different Farming Systems, as observed in each AES. It is very useful tool in developing
strategies as it helps in identification of –

 Current strengths within existing farming systems and success stories,

 Weaknesses within the existing farming systems,
 Opportunities, which are advantageous for optimal exploitation of the existing farming
systems in terms of providing, scope for new market opportunities, new technologies,
services etc.
 Real potential threats to the natural resource base, existing farming systems and markets
etc.

The identified issues and also the findings of SWOC analysis are to be shared with the farmers to
prioritize the issues with commonality of understanding.

Example- SWOT Analysis of Public Extension System

 Strength –
 Highly qualified, competent and experienced personnel
 Good in-house training programs have produced credible staff
 Extensive grassroots coverage with district- and/or village-level representation
 Weakness
 Limited operational cost
 Bureaucracy and long channels of communication
 Lack of self-discipline: few can work without supervision
  Counterproductive policies ( no consideration of the ground-level impact )
 Opportunity
 Improved collaboration and efficiency through department merging
 Collaboration opportunities among ministries, departments and other system
actors
 Potential for improved effectiveness and efficiency through transformations (e.g.
commercialization and cost recovery programmes)
 Threats
 Inadequate budgets are declining in real terms (inflation)
 Unstable macroeconomic and political environment
 Political interference

Value Chain Analysis:

The value chain is a concept which can be simply described as the entire range of activities
required to bring a product from the initial input-supply stage, through various phases of
production, to its final market destination. The production stages entail a combination of physical
transformation and the participation of various producers and services, and the chain includes the
product’s disposal after use. As opposed to the traditional exclusive focus on production, the
concept stresses the importance of value addition at each stage, thereby treating production as
just one of several value-adding components of the chain.

The macroeconomic landscape, policies, laws, regulations, standards and institutional elements
such as research and innovation, human resource development and other support services form
the environment in which all activities take place and therefore are also important actors and
activities in the value chain. For instance, agro-food value chains encompass activities that take
place at the farm as well as in rural settlements and urban areas. They require input supplies
(seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.), agricultural machinery, irrigation equipment and
manufacturing facilities, and continue with handling, storage, processing, packaging and
distribution activities. Other elements, such as power generation, logistics, etc., which form the
chain environment, are also important factors affecting the performance of value chains.
Value chain analysis is a useful analytical tool that helps understand overall trends of industrial
reorganization and identify change agents and leverage points for policy and technical
interventions. It is increasingly used by donors and development assistance agencies, to better
target their support and investments in various areas such as trade capacity, enterprise
competitiveness, income distribution and equity among value chain participants.

Value chain analysis is the process of breaking a chain into its constituent parts in order to better
understand its structure and functioning. The analysis consists of identifying chain actors at each
stage and discerning their functions and relationships; determining the chain governance, or
leadership, to facilitate chain formation and strengthening; and identifying value adding activities
in the chain and assigning costs and added value to each of those activities. The flows of goods,
information and finance through the various stages of the chain are evaluated in order to detect
problems or identify opportunities to improve the contribution of specific actors and the overall
performance of the chain. By going beyond the traditional narrow focus on production, value
chain analysis scrutinizes interactions and synergies among actors and between them and the
business and policy environment. Thus, it overcomes several important limitations of traditional
sector assessments which tend to ignore the dynamic linkages with and among productive
activities that occur outside the particular sector under assessment or involve informal
operations.

Value chain analysis also reveals the dynamic flow of economic, organizational and coercive
activities involving actors within different sectors. It shows that power relations are crucial to
understanding how entry barriers are created, and how gain and risks are distributed. It analyses
competitiveness in a global perspective. By revealing strengths and weaknesses, value chain
analysis helps participating actors to develop a shared vision of how the chain should perform
and to identify collaborative relationships which will allow them to keep improving chain
performance. The latter outcome is especially relevant in the case of new manufacturers –
including poor producers and poor countries – that are seeking to enter global markets in ways
that can ensure sustainable income growth.

Simply value chain analysis is a strategic analysis of an organization that uses value creating
activities. Value is the amount that buyers are willing to pay for what a firm provides them and
is measured by total revenue. Primary activities contribute to the physical creation of the
product or service, its sale and transfer to the buyer, and its service after the sale. These are
inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. Support
activities contribute activities of the value chain that either add value by themselves or add value
through important relationships with both primary activities and other support activities. These
are procurement, technology development, human resource management, and general
administration. Value chain is represented in the following figure.