Role
of Extension Education
1. Bridging the gap
Extension education bridges the gap
between the scientists on the one hand and farmers on another. It brings new
technology to the doors of farmers and takes back the problems back to the
scientists for further development of new technologies.
2.
Adoption of new technology Adoption
of new technology or method is the foremost objective of the extension
education. Farmers are educated by demonstration and other extension methods. Helps
the farmers to visualize farming as a profitable occupation
3.
Training of local leaders helps in faster diffusion of technology
4.
Decision making Extension education trains the farmers
and local leaders to take independent decisions related to farm and farm
business. The most important object is to make farmers self realize that he is
capable of making better decision for his betterment.
5.
It changes the outlook of the farmer by changing his attitude towards his business
6.
Helps in achieving cooperation among the people, organization of groups for achieving the objectives.
7.
It also helps to get the necessary inputs from the extension agencies.
Constraints in Transfer of Technology
a). Technological constraints
1. High yielding varieties
- HYV
are available only in few crops particularly in field crops. Therefore,
development of technology and their adoption was restricted to only few
crops, thereby satisfying the needs of only few farmers.
- Higher
cost of inputs in terms of fertilizers, seeds and pesticides for the
cultivation of HYV
- Scarcity of labourers, inputs and machinery makes adoption process difficult
2. Indigenous technology
- Appropriate
low cost and local specific techniques are still scarce. Since most of the
farmers are living below poverty line, modern techniques with higher cost
slow the process of adoption.
Proper research and development directed for development of local
specific techniques are needed for successful transfer of technology.
3. Farm Management
- Farm
management studies have established that poor managerial skills of farmers
while allocating the resources and making decisions on enterprise mix are
the most important impediments.
b). Administrative Constraints
- Local
bodies like Panchayats, Panchayat samities, Zila Parishads have failed to
motivate the farmers to achieve the extension objectives due lot of
internal and external problems.
- Political
and bureaucratic nexus and interference have slowed down the spread of
technology in the targeted area.
- No
proper incentives for the village level extension workers who work for
more than 20-25 years on the same field without any promotion and other
social securities.
- Insufficient
staff strength, frequent transfers and improper co-ordination
- Poor
infrastructure for training the farmers and misuse of the government machinery by vested interests.
c). Extension Constraints
i). Stereotypic approach:
Practical application of extension
approach lacks the approach of bringing attitudinal changes in the farmers
concerned, now it has become more of a mechanical and stereotypic approach.
ii). Lack of Feed back:
Feed back mechanism is not working
well. Extension programmes are not properly evaluated for further
implementation.
iii). Lack of Infrastructure:
Most of the extension agencies
including Krishi Vigyan Kendra do not have proper infrastructure for training
of farmers.
d). Social Constraints
- Adoption
levels of farmers differ from one farmer to another depending up on
socio-cultural backgrounds. Innovators, early and late adopters and Laggards have different speed of getting adopted to the new practices.
- Social
values, social constraints, customs, religious taboos and caste systems
are some of the important aspects for farmer’s adoption to a new practice.
- Group
rivalries, illiteracy, jealousness in a society are also among the few
factors
e). Other problems.
·
Fragmentation
of land
· Lack
of proper study, surveys and resource maps for targeted application of
extension programmes.
· Lack
of proper marketing and price policy.
Principles of Extension Education
- Principles
of interest and need
- Principle
of participation
- Principle
of cultural difference
- Principle
of co-operation
- Principle
gross root organization
- Principle
of leadership
- Principle
of adoptability
- Principle
of satisfaction
- Principle
of whole family approach
- Principle
of evaluation
No comments:
Post a Comment