Back STATUS OF PRIVATE EXTENSION IN INDIA
- Dr. P. Chandra Shekara
- Faculty Private Extension
The fruits and benefits of an effective agricultural extension service have long been recognized, yet very often extension services in developing countries have failed to accomplish desired objectives and meet people’s expectations.
In Indian context, the role of agricultural extension in bringing the benefits of the green revolution to the farmer and making the country self reliant in food production is appreciated. Still, people’s expectations are not fully met. They are not happy with the rate at which their problems are solved and the rate at which agricultural development is taking place.
Some of the problems in public extension system observed are:
Public extension services are widely viewed as supply driven rather than demand driven.
Commercialisation of agriculture gave rise to specialized client and demand for location specific extension services which are not catered by public extension system.
Public extension deals with a large area, large population and diverse cropping pattern. Extension services provided are general in nature rather than specific and intensive.
High cost, low impact of extension programmes, growing conflicts between farmer’s interest and policy goals, poor motivation of staff and conflicting roles are observed in public extension.
Insufficient face to face contact between extension worker and farmer.
Inadequate funds for operational purpose.
Majority of the extension services are curative in nature.
Inadequate technical qualifications of VLW.
Incomplete extension services.
Inadequate internal organisation structure
Inefficiency of extension personnel
Inappropriateness or irrelevance of extension content.
Dilution of impact.
This public sector monopoly came under increasing threat in the 1980’s as many started questioning the desirability of this situation on economic and efficiency ground. Increasing restraints on government finances and emergence of new extension arrangements offered by the private and voluntary sector have accelerated the process of limiting the role of government in extension. Extension privatization is under active consideration in India and many state governments have initiated measures to achieve this end.
Savas (1987) defined privatization as the act of reducing the role of government or increasing the role of private sector in an activity or in the ownership of assets.
When agriculture extension is discussed, privatization is used in the broadest sense of introducing or increasing private sector participation which does not necessarily imply a transfer of designated state owned assets to the private sector.
But, private extension services are primarily of two types. The first is the entirely private type which is directly involved in farming activities through consultants, agri-business, agricultural input industries etc. The second type consists of farmer’s organizations, NGO’s etc., which remain largely dependent on government subsidies.
The farmer’s problems and agricultural technology become ever more complicated, there can no longer be dealt with effectively from a centralized and bureaucratic public entity. Public sector has definitely reached its limit. Therefore, the time has come to turn whenever possible to the private sector for support, though not for total substitution. Intermediate steps do exist between a solely public extension system and a solely private one.
The following examples will help illustrate some of the various stages that can eventually lead to users and the private sector as a whole taking increasing responsibility for extension.
Ecuador - Extension and sharecropping
In the highlands of Ecuador, extension agents share crop with farmer for a profit. Their low salary motivate extension agents to share crop. The farmer’s provide land and labour while the extension agents supply agricultural inputs and technical advice. Hired labour and other costs are shared. The agents have fixed salary, they easily obtain farm inputs from suppliers on credit until the harvest. Sharecropped field serves as a demonstration plot. To broaden this sharecropping practice, a suggestion has been made that the extension agents be allowed to share in the profits of joint farming enterprises.
China - An Extension contract system
A system of contract extension has been introduced in some provinces. Agro-Technical Extension Centres (ATEC’s) which operate all the way from the national to the township level draw up contracts to provide technical services and inputs to a farmer or a group of farmers. The extension stations / centers are compensated by the farmers with typically 20 percent of the value of the crop above the agreed target.
If the harvest falls below the agreed target as a result of poor technical recommendations or non-supply of timely inputs, the pay or bonuses of the contracted extension workers may be reduced upto 80 percent of the shortfall.It is estimated that only around 5 to 10 percent of the total number of extension workers in China remains with the large commodity oriented state farms, whereas the rest work with the many households. Many non-state extension agents work independently without being officially registered. For instance, individual farmers with experience may provide advice to outsiders for a fee, or farmers may organize themselves in producers associations which may advise other farmers on a paying basis.
Research institutions, agricultural colleges and individual scientists and teachers in China may sign contracts with rural units or farmers to provide technical support on an annual or continual basis. Some research results are now directly sold in the market place. At the same time, China is also enforcing a patent law to protect proprietary rights to research results.
Denmark - Management Committees
The government plays a minor role in Rural development but by contrast, is heavily involved in training and in adaptive research. The Danish extension service operates under management committees, that are administered by farmers. There is one national development center and about one hundred local ones. The local extension agents are supported by 99 advisors from the Danish Agricultural Advisory Centre. The extension agents work is planned by farmer’s elected to the committees. A law defines the role of extension and makes sure its agents are impartial and not beholden to commercial interests.
Government funding of extension services has gone down from 37 percent in 1972 to 14 percent in 1991, and further cuts are contemplated. Farmer’s contribution decreased from 17 to 8 percent during the same period. Most impressive has been the increase from 46 percent to 78 percent in the amounts billed to and paid by farmers. The later are charged by the hour for each visit by an agent to their household. Information and advice by phone are free.
Netherlands - Toward fifty-fifty
Farmers pay for advice and technical recommendations from the Agricultural Industry and Agri-business. Since the beginning of 1993, farmers have to pay for an increased share of the extension services, by annual increments of 5 percent until their share reaches. 50 percent in 2003. Farmers contribution will, by 2003 derive as follows, 15 per cent from a general tax based on the size of each farm, 15 per cent from direct contributions for services and 20 per cent from taxes and levies on farm produce.
Sweden - Consultants to farmers
Agricultural Extension activities are carried out through a wide range of organizations. Farmers cooperatives and private commercial firms employ increasing numbers of people trained in agriculture to serve as consultants to farmers. Some rural communities employ their extension agents. Additionally, the public radio and television networks offer educational and informative programmes aimed at farmers.
United Kingdom - Public Extension for a fee
1987 onwards funds of public system started to decrease, the public extension services mould gradually from cost-free-to-farmer to fee paying consultancies. These are usually in the form of contracts that include a package of actions and / or visits. Public system initially aimed for covering 50 percent operating cost, and eventually becoming 100 percent autonomous.
Some 200 out of 4000 public system extension workers have gone private. They are members of British Institute of Agricultural Consultants (BAIC) and look after their own groups of farmers. Their fees are no higher than those of public agents, the latter being at a disadvantage due to overhead costs. The consultants are now targeting the small landholders, who appear to be those in most need of advice.
In the early 90’s, there were some 3,323 agents supported by the public sector, of which 2,750 were employed by the chambers of agriculture. In addition to public extension, some 2,760 private advisers belonged to various professional groups, farmers associations, unions, training centers and private firms. To ensure high standards, farmers are advised to retain the services of those extension agents that are certified by the German Society for Agriculture. Advice from public extension remains free to farmers. Increasingly, farmers with similar activities and interests are forming groups to get the support of specialized technicians. The groups pay an additional contribution to the chamber of agriculture for such technicians. Private firms together with co-operatives also provide advice.
Portugal - Gradual Privatisation
An interesting programme of privatization was initiated in Portugal in late 1991. The purpose was for the government to gradually privatize the Agriculture Ministry’s traditional functions with the exception of research and experimental agriculture. Since 1988, about 400 servants have left the public sector to become employees of private farming organizations and to work directly for cooperatives.
The extension responsibility is rested with Ministry of Agriculture. The extension services were decentralized among country’s 17 regions, resulting in regionally autonomous but still public extension services. Advice provided by these services remain free. Country has 8000 chambers of agriculture which are funded by the institute for rural relations. The major unions has some technicians who work in close collaboration with the public extension service.
The government is increasingly diverting itself from a growing number of support services to agriculture. In addition to the services concerned with supplying farm inputs, collecting farm produce and providing veterinary services. Some private extensionists earn more than the average salary in the United States. This will certainly encourage other extensionists to try going private. Some large cooperatives have their own technicians as well. Public extension have new role that needs to be more clearly defined, i.e. more geared to training, improving links with research, preserving natural resources, ensuring sustainable development etc.
Chile - Subsidized private consulting services :
Agricultural Development Institute (INDAP) is an agency created within Ministry of Agriculture with the mandate to raise small scale farmer’s living standards. INDAP handles a subsidized private consulting services. It is publicly funded and privately executed by private technology transfer firms that are certified by INDAP. Farmers are not free to select the firm of their choice but have to accept the one designated by INDAP for the region. However, if the farmers as a group decide to change to another firm, they can ask INDAP for such a change. These firms do not provide supplies but focus only on technology transfer. The farmers who sign annual contracts with a firm are expected to contribute upto 30 percent of the cost of the programme by the time the project is completed. The ratio of farmers versus extension agents is typically 48:1. INDAP prepares the terms of reference, select consulting firms through competitive bidding and supervises and evaluates firms performance. Medium and large scale farmer’s also participate in a similar programme which directly transfers research results to the farm level. Currently this programme is totally private funded. In this project the extension services are provided by private sector firms and NGOs and the concept of graduation is to be applied both to extension and credit programmes to reduce small farmers dependence on the public sector in three phases over a period of 6 years.
Costa Rica - An Extension voucher pilot programme :
In Costa Rican Ministry of Agriculture, some extension personnel are moved to the private sector. A private technical assistance voucher pilot programme will increase the capacity of producers to contract private extension. During 7 years implementation period, the programme will consist of packages of vouchers varying according to type of farmers and level of technology. Farmers will trade vouchers for individual and group technical assistance to be delivered by private extensionists. Type-I and Type-II farmers are distinguished according to whether they require high or low intensity technical assistance. At project completion, beneficiaries of the voucher programme are expected to complete with solely private technical assistance. The private extensionist is to indicate annually to the Ministry of Agriculture which individual farmers should graduate from programme. Finally, training is to be provided by the private extensionist.
Some observations of private extension scenario worldwide :
- Private extension reduces the economic burden of governments – Netherlands
- Increases the efficiency of extension services provided upto the satisfaction of farmers
- Economic interest of the extension agent increases his involvement in providing extension services – Share cropping
- Privatisation increases the accountability of extension agent – extension contract system on China
- Privatisation increases the competency of the research system – Extension contract system in China
- It is possible to present the farmers being exploited by private extension agents by proper legislation – Management Committees of Denmark
- Money spent by private consultants to provide the same extension services provided by public system is less due to high overhead charges in latter case
- Government can ensure quality extension services by technically competent extension agents through legislation – certification in Germany
- Government can privatize extension while concentrating more on important areas – Tunisia
- Government can have maximum control over private extension activities – Chile
Types of organizations providing private extension services in India
Sl.No. Individual / Organisation
Private Role
Funding Delivery 1. Krishi Vigyan Kendra Public
Private
2. Farmers Associations Private
Private
3. Producers Cooperatives Private
Private
4. Consultants Private
Private
5. NGOs
- Private
- Public
- Private
- Private
6.
- Print Media
- a)News papers
- b) Agricultural Magazines
Private
Private
7. Television – Private channels Private
Private
8. Agri-business firms Private
Private
9. Input dealers Private
Private
10. Private sector Banks Private
Private
11. Internet Private
Private
12. Donor Agencies Private
Private / Public
Profile of Private Extension Service Providers
Department of Agriculture :
Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India is the agency which oversees all agricultural activities taking place in the country. Directorate of Extension is the nodal agency which assists and encourage the state departments in organizing, maintaining and operating professional extension services. The role of directorate is essentially collaborative, providing guidance, technical support, exchange of information and coordination
Agriculture is a state subject. Line departments include various state departments such as agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy development, fisheries and sericulture. Line department staff makes routine visits and pass technical messages on what needs to be done in crops. DOA activities in all states are constrained by inadequate operational funds and partly by inadequate subject matter knowledge / training of majority of the staff. Most of their time goes on implementation of a number of state and central sector programmes that have some input / subsidy delivery. All most all services are free.
Out of 80,800 village extension workers, 78,000 belonged to the Department of Agriculture in 1988 (Misra,1990). Presently state employ some 1,10,000 extension staff of whom around 20% are graduates (ICAR,1998).
The report of the working group on extension for the formulation of IX Five Year Plan describes the current status of agricultural extension services as follows:
1. Largely in the public sector, other operators remain at the periphery without clear policy enunciation or institutional support.
2. Operate largely in an interpersonal mode of select contact farmers (largely men) without planned and optimum utilization of the media and other modes
3. Low level of involvement of farmers in technology development and dissemination process.
4. Substantially top-down leaving little scope for localized planning and action.
5. Upward looking, therefore generate uniformity rather than specificity and focus on farm and rather than substance.
6. Manned by functionaries with low morale, low knowledge level and low incentives with limited exposure to recent developments in communication technology and
7. Resulting in depleting credibility, self esteem, relevance and public support (DAC,1996 a)
One factor deciding the overall effectiveness of extension is the amount of operational funds available for extension. One of the major criticisms of the agriculture departments has been the heavy salary bills leaving little for operational support for extension. A study revealed that the operational expenditure available for extension vary from 3.7% to 15.4%. In other words, salary accounts for about 85-97% of the government expenditure in line departments. Another study found that the actual cost of operating T and V based extension services in India (17 states) is about Rs.4000 million or USD 150 million. This works out to about Rs.50 per agricultural farm holding or about Rs.27 per ha cultivated (Macklin, 1992).
States are all encouraging the NGOs to take up extension activities. The Department of Agriculture, Rajasthan has extended an invitation to NGOs to take up extension work in any defined extension unit such as a cluster or an AAO circle. Under agricultural development project, the functioning of three AAOs circles were handed over to NGOs, i.e., GDC Research Foundation, Jaipur, Social Policy Research Institute, Jaipur and Jandhara Trust, Jaipur. Many NGOs given grants by the government for specific projects such as watershed development.
Review of the projects revealed that, two important issues constrained the effectiveness of collaboration. They are:
1. Suspicion on the motives and competence of NGOs by the government departments resulting in non-cooperation in activities at field level and active resistance by the employees who find in this a threat of loosing jobs in the long run.
2. Lack of staff and experience on agricultural research and extension by most NGOs.
But these constraints are not insurmountable and a lot of scope exists for active collaboration between the two so that the efficiency and effectiveness of both systems could be enhanced.
State Agricultural Universities:
There are 31 agricultural universities in the country. The universities perform three major functions namely teaching, research and extension. The major extension role of the university is to provide technical support and consultancy service to government departments (training) engaged in agricultural development work and to farmers in special cases. In terms of priority, agricultural extension ranks low in SAUs as evident from the expenditure and manpower allocated for it. In 1991-92, SAUs spent only 5% of its expenditure on extension education. In the same year, the SAUs employed only 4.7% of its manpower on extension units. The responsibility of planning and coordinating all extension activities of the university lies with Directorate of Extension. It has three major units i.e. communication center, training unit and farm advisory service. From farmers point of view, the directorates may not be of immediate benefit to farmers except for those residing nearly or near to it or nearby district of its location. The chances of constant interaction are also low because of the few technical manpower in the directorates and the large population to be covered in their operational area.
Some universities showing inclination for providing the services by charging. University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore is planning to establish agri-business advisory service where technologies are sold to private organsiations by charging and facilities are provided to private firms to conduct research on charging basis.
With newer technologies becoming more knowledge based and thereby necessitating newer skills to adopt, the demand for a full fludged training centre become increasingly appreciated. By design, KVKs have an appropriate mix of multi-disciplinary expertise including specialists in important areas. Currently there are 261 KVKs in the country of which 27 are in ICAR institutes, 139 in SAUs, 86 in NGOs and remaining nine under Central Universities and Agricultural colleges. Till 1992, KVKs had been fully supported by the ICAR. But from the eighth plan period the funding is being phased out. The KVKs are presently being actively encouraged to generate additional resources. Some KVKs started charging for their training, sale of planting materials, seeds etc. Some went one step ahead like Vidya Bhavan, KVK, Udaipur in getting resources for adaptive and socio-economic research programmes from donors abroad like Ford Foundation and NORAD. All these are expected to make many of the KVKs financially sustainable even after the complete phasing out of government funds. Though many KVKs have started charging for their training, this seems to have not diminished the demand for KVK training.User groups, including farmer’s organisations, farmer clubs, commodity growers associations, young farmer’s clubs, women farmers groups, special interest groups etc. are expected to be effective institutional devices for creation of client driven agricultural research and extension system. Often farmer’s associations are the starting points for the development of producer’s cooperatives. Commodity specific farmers associations exist in only very few commodities in India. The need for initiating farmers associations in crops has been well recognised under NATP, it is proposed to use NGOs to organise farmers into groups. The idea is to encourage farmer’s groups to organise different types of services for themselves, including input supply, credit and or technical services and marketing arrangements – activities that would increase their productivity and incomes, while decreasing their dependence on government (ICAR, 1998).
Producers’ Cooperatives :Producers’ Cooperatives are often formed to improve the marketing prospects in specific comodities where market operators are disadvantageous to the producers. They provide farmers the advantage of the economies of scale by bringing together produce from individual farms and marketing the same. Some of these organisations also provide extension services to its members. Most successful among them in India being the milk cooperatives.
Research InstitutionsResearch institutions of ICAR are doing some extension programmes as part of their outreach programmes. First of them are organising training programmes to the senior officers of the state line departments. Some are doing extension work through KVK also. Many ICAR institutes have been implementing the front line extension activities in select villages and this has improved the interaction between scientists and farmers in these selected villages. The institute village linkage programme (IVLP) is the latest in this direction.
Input Companies :Many of the agro-input companies performs some extension functions. This could be also viewed as one function of marketing. It is not surprising to see that the marketing officers are the one who also oversee the extension related functions. Schwartz (1994) notes that private extension is generally not a stand alone activity but will be provided where three conditions hold. First, purchased inputs must be necessary to achieve desired production results. Secondly, these purchased inputs must be cost effective relative to output prices. Third, there should be a fairly high degree of competition between input suppliers for the same market share. In many countries, much extension work is done by companies selling pesticides and other agro-chemicals and animal feed companies (Van Den Ban, 2000). Major categories of input companies include those dealing with seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and agro-machinery. Some of the extension methods adopted are :
Consultancy Services :Input companies spend considerable amount on advertisement, mainly to boost the sale of their products through bill boards, wall paintings, leaflets and media advertisements;
They also take up few demonstrations to publicise the new product;
Some companies also sponsor the cost of some extension activities of line departments such as agricultural seminars;
But in high value crops such as flowers, there are input firms which provide total extension support to their growers. This includes advise from site selection to technological guidance throughout the growing period and advise on marketing;
Some fertilizer companies arrange soil testing facilities;
Village adoption programmes are also carried out.
Emergence of paid extension services in agriculture is a recent phenomenon.
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) :
A study by NCAP revealed that some farmers availed the services of experts from the public sector on payment basis on specific crops such as Fig and Grapes. Many professionals after retirement from the public system have also been providing consultancy to the farmers. The farmers often meet the travel expenditure of the expert besides payment. The farmers have also joined together on certain instances to avail the benefits of consultants. Knowing fully well the scope for such services and the revenue it may generate, some organisations are presently opening up their facilities for paid consultancy services young technically qualified professionals have also now entered into the fray by starting their own consultancy firms. There are also few big firms in the market willing to offer their technical expertise in farm development, glass house erection, micro irrigation systems, tissue culture etc. Many foreign firms are providing consultancy to Indian firms and farmers. Input companies engaged in floriculture are also providing consultancy services to growers who buy inputs from them.Around 15,000 - 20,000 NGOs in India are actively engaged in rural development. Wide variations in the densities of NGOs is observed among states and even districts. Certain districts have high densities of NGOs which overlap and complete for clients while in other areas there are hardly any NGOs. Annual NGO revenue from abroad is in the region of Rs.9 billion (Farrington and Lewis, 1993).
To increase the involvement of NGOs in efforts to strengthen the research – extension delivery system, a pilot Central Government Scheme, agricultural extension through voluntary organisations was launched in 1994-95, implemented on pilot basis by involving 14 NGOs from 8 states. Experience has been encouraging both in terms of physical targets and in integrating NGO efforts with those of the main extension system (DAC, 1996 b). The number of NGOs is proposed to increase to 50 covering more States in the ninth plan. In Rajasthan on pilot basis, few AAO circles are handed over to NGOs to carry out extension work.
Commodity Boards :Commodity boards are engaged in activities which gives competitive edge to major Indian commodities. There are six commodity boards, 20 export promotion councils and two authorities to promote production, marketing and export of various commodities. They have their own research, extension, marketing and promotion wings. Extension activities is also supported by providing credit, subsidies and inputs. They have their own farm magazines in local languages and also training centres. Some commodity boards also introduced charging system for extension services like soil analysis, farm visits, training and publications.
Media-AIR and Doordarshan :At present there are 81 AIR stations producing and broadcasting agricultural and rural programmes (Kaurani 1995). For effective linkage between the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, a three tier mechanism for media coordination (national, State and Kendra level) has existed since 1994. The expenditure varies from 20 paise to 54 paise / ha. The agricultural programmes are aired in the morning and evening.
Now-a-days many private TV channels are telecasting agricultural programmes considering the cost effectiveness (cost / farmer), time at which they can reach many farmers at a time and the effectiveness of the media, efforts are needed to harness this potential.
Media-Print :Organised attempts to use print media for extension work started with the initiation of Farm Information Bureaus in DOA and Universities. Books, magazines, leaflets are printed and circulated widely. Newspapers are also covering agriculture news items. Almost all dailies presently devote one page once in a week covering aspects of agriculture. Newspapers are published in 100 languages during 1995. Many private individuals and organisations are also in the publishing business in the field of agriculture. They are catching the attention of farmers now-a-days.
Performance of organisations :NCAP through a study (2000) made an attempt to compare the performance of these organisations through three indicators. They are :
a) Expenditure intensity :
It is the expenditure incurred by an organisation on extension activities per ha of net cropped area. Here, operational cost of extension activities is the numerator.
Expenditure incurred on extension activities by an organisation in its operational area
Expenditure intensity = -------------------------------------------------------------------
Net cropped area in its operational area
b) Contact Intensity :
Contact intensity is derived based on the number / frequency of actual contacts an organisation makes with their clients in an year and the time involved with them. The product of contact numbers and time involved is derived by the target population of the organisation.
Sum total of contact achieved by the organisations (in hours)
Contact Intensity = -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Target population / cultivators
c) Technical Manpower :Cultivator Ratio (TC Ratio) :
TC Ratio is the ratio between the number of field level technical officers and the number of target population covered by the organisation in their operational area. The technical manpower available for extension includes only the field level functionaries directly involved in agricultural extension related tasks.
Total population covered
TC Ratio = -----------------------------------------------------------------
No. of field level functionaries available for extension
This data is based on the study published by NCAP in 2000 and study was carried out in four states.
Table showing ranking of organisations based on extension performance considering low expenditure, high contact and narrow TC Ratio:
Sl. No. Organisation
EI
CI
TC Ratio
Overall ranking 1. DOA
9
4
2
2 2. Directorate of Extension 7
8
9
7
3. KVK 8
7
7
6
4. Farmer’s Organisations 10
2
3
2
5. Producer’s Cooperatives 11
3
5
3
6. Research Institutes 5
-
-
-
7. Seed Companies 4
10
8
6
8. Fertilizer Companies 1
7
11
3
9. Agri-Business Companies 2
9
10
5
10. NGO 6
1
6
1
11. Commodity Boards 12
6
4
6
12. AIR 3
5
12
4
13. Agricultural Magazines -
-
1
1
Status of Information Consultancy Pattern :
NCAP study (2000) reveals that dealers, relatives / friends of farmers, newspapers and farm magazines are the important sources of information consulted by farmers for making decisions in agriculture out of 22 sources existing.
Statewise details are as follows:
State
Dealers
Other farmers (Relatives/friends)
DOA
Maharashtra I
II
III
Rajasthan III
II
I
Kerala * -
-
I
* Newspaper – II, Farm Magazines – III
- Level of satisfaction of farmers to their first preferred
- source of information
State
Source
Level of satisfaction
High
Medium
Low
Maharashtra I Dealers 27.1
61.4
11.4
II Other farmers 28.6
60.7
10.7
III DOA 44.4
46.6
8.8
Rajasthan I DOA 33.3
46.4
20.2
II Other farmers 26.7
57.7
15.5
III Dealers 17.4
58.7
23.9
Kerala I DOA 42.2
40.6
17.2
II News Papers 38.1
54.8
7.1
III Farm magazines 41.4
58.6
0.0
(NCAP, 2000)
In all the States, majority of the farmers had medium level of satisfaction with all the information sources, except with DOA in Kerala. Therefore, efforts are needed by all organsiations to increase the satisfaction level of farmers.
Willingness to pay for agriculture related information
State
Yes
No
Undecided
Maharashtra 57.5
38.3
4.2
Rajasthan 38.8
55.0
6.7
Kerala 48.3
51.3
0.4
Total
48.2
48.2
3.6
(NCAP, 2000)
Almost half of the farmers expressed their willingness to pay for extension services.
The reasons may be:Farmers are shifting from food crops to non-food crops.
They involve high investment and needs information which majority of the time not available in DOA. They look for other agencies and ready to purchase information which is vital to make profit.
- Types of information / services for which farmers are ready to make payment
- and the conditions for payment in Maharashtra
Sl.No.
A. Types of Information
Percentage
1.
Advice to solve specific problems in the field 53.6
2.
Advice on plant protection measures 22.0
3.
Totally new information / technologies 7.3
4.
Training programmes 7.3
5.
Advice on marketing (market prospects, prices etc.) 4.9
6.
On hybrid seeds (characteristics and availability) 4.9
B. Conditions for Payment
1.
Expert advice made available at one place 36.7
2.
Advice based on field visits 32.6
3.
Sharing of costs with farmers 16.3
4.
Effect of advice if guaranteed 14.3
- Types of information / services for which farmers are ready to make payment
- and the conditions for payment in Rajasthan
Sl.No.
A. Types of Information
Percentage
1.
Advice on plant protection measures 40.0
2.
Training programmes / study classes 23.0
3.
New technologies 20.0
4.
Information on loans, subsidies and other assistance to farmers 16.7
B. Conditions for Payment
1.
Advice based on field visits 47.5
2.
Sharing costs for an expert at the village level 37.5
3.
Seasonal / annual contract 15.0
- Types of information / services for which farmers are ready to make payment
- and the conditions for payment in Kerala
Crops having high demand for paid services
Sl.No.
A. Types of Information
Percentage
1.
Training programmes on new technologies 37.3
2.
On all aspects of growing new (non-traditional) crops 36.0
3.
Proper plant protection advice 26.7
B. Conditions for Payment
1.
Advice based on field visits 38.7
2.
The charges should be reasonable 24.0
3.
Firms to be brought under the purview of consumer court 21.3
4.
The firms to provide receipts for the payments made 16.0
State
Crops
% of farmers willing to pay
1. Vegetables
45.3
2. Flower Cultivation
22.7
3. Grapes
20.4
4. Citrus
9.1
Rajasthan
1. Oilseeds
54.3
2. Vegetables
31.4
3. Flower Cultivation
14.9
1. Vegetables
46.8
2. Flower cultivation
29.0
3. Spices
24.2
(NCAP, 2000)
Table indicates that majority of the farmers were willing to pay for the services in relation to cultivation of vegetables and oilseeds where they can expect more returns than food crops.
Willingness to pay
Willingness to pay (Rs.)
Percentage
10
27.3
20
11.2
25
30.2
50
21.0
100
10.3
Majority of the farmers are willing to pay Rs.25 as fee to extension adviser. However, that also depends on quality of information, crop cultivated and demand of farmers.
Privatising extension activities and conditions for success
No.
Activity
Conditions for success
1. Initiating and sustaining Self Help Groups of farmers Prioritise activities to give group formation more importance Limit implementation of schemes having input and subsidy distribution in selected blocks only
Officials of the department well trai4w3ned in the approaches of group formation
2. Contracting extension services to non-profit, voluntary organisations in remote and difficult areas
Identification of potential collaborators Evolving transparent mechanisms of selection and funding them
Monitoring performance
3. Franchising private agencies for input delivery Identification of private agencies for providing these services Evolving transparent mechanism for awarding franchise
Monitoring performance
4. Initiate consultancy services Encourage private individuals or firms to register as consultancy firms with the government Provide assistance to initiate the same
DOA to initiate consultancy services at district / block levels by availing the services of SAU staff and trained and qualified staff preferably in plant protection
SAU units to start the same in the respective units
5. Expanding training programmes KVKs to organise more training programmes (more off campus) Provide assistance to farmers groups to avail these services
Support KVKs, NGOs or SAU units in arranging more number of farmers trainings
Encourage input industries to initiate farmers training programmes by offering incentives/concessions
6. Cost recovery Training programmes and consultancy activities to be charged at least nominally Cost of inputs supplied to be recovered fully or the maximum possible extent
Priorities for public sector extension
No.
Activity
Conditions for success
1. DOA to concentrate in the short run on Programmes that improve the educational level of farmers on input use, availability, time and method of application of inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, credit etc.) prices, markets etc., especially in food crops
Facilitate building farmers groups
Build linkages with other technology providers
Enhance use of media in educational programmes
Initiate paid (nominally) consultancy services by maintaining a cadre of qualified staff at district and sub-district levels
2. In the long run on Transferring extension responsibilities to farmer groups Limit its role in maintaining linkages and facilitate the functioning of these groups
Strictly focus on educational programmes unattractive for private sector delivery (such as soil and water conservation, safe use of pesticides pest and disease forecasting etc.)
Monitor the performance of various agencies in the provision of extension services and take corrective measures
1. Agricultural Consultants :
Conducting training programmes for agricultural graduates who wish to become agricultural consultants. MANAGE will be the certifying authority. Certified consultants form a professional body at national level having base at MANAGE on the lines of IMC. They work out professional guidelines to regulate the activities of consultants in liaison with government. This professional body can take over bigger agricultural projects reducing burden on government but working with government. Government can insist for certified consultants for assigning work.
3. Agri-business firms :
There is a scope to conduct a research study on ‘Advertising for Rural Masses". The outcome / findings will serve as input for training programmes to be organised for agri-business firms. Even NGOs and GOs could also make use of the programme to push social issues among masses. This work can be collaborated with IIMC, New Delhi.
All the agri-business companies are interested in marketing their products, and hence carry out extension activities with respect to their product like seed, fertilizer separately. But, from a farmer's point of view, he needs a package rather than a product or practice. Thus, a seed company, a fertilizer company, a pesticide company, an agri-machinery company, an agro-processing company together carry out extension activities ultimately benefiting themselves and farmer both. Case studies if available have to be documented, studied or agri-business firms may be persuaded to carry out a pilot project that will serve as input for training programmes to be conducted for agri-business companies.
Workshop on factors influencing the growth of private extension.
4. Agricultural Dealers :
- It is necessary to press for legislation making training compulsory for seeking license for dealership.
- MANAGE can also take up the responsibility of conducting training at district level to dealers in association with KVKs/NGOs/SAUs.
5. Farmer’s organisations / Producer’s Cooperatives :
- Documentation of success stories / case studies;
- Training on ‘Innovative Extension Approaches in Farmer’s Organisations’;
- Training on ‘Rural Marketing’ ;
- Pilot study on ‘Young farmer’s club’ and subsequently training.
6. GO-NGO sector :
- Training on ‘Initiating and sustaining self help groups’
- Pilot study on contracting extension services to non-profit organisations in remote and difficult areas
- A case study on substitution of public extension with private extension.
7. Government organisations :
Training on ‘Public-private extension cooperation- Approaches and challenges'
8. Newspapers, TV channels, Internet and Agricultural Journals :
a) Training on ‘Agricultural Journalism – New Dimensions’ ;
Pilot study on ‘Agricultural Extension through media coordination committees’
9. International Cyber Seminar on Private Extension
10. Workshop on "Guidelines for Private Extension"
11. Workshop on " Public Sector in Private Extension Development through policy reforms and institutional changes.
12. Seminar on "Low Cost and No Cost Agricultural Technologies:"
13. WTA and its impact on "Indian Agricultural Extension: Banner Seminar"
14. Website on Private Extension
References
Rasheed Sulaiman. V and Sadamate, V.V. (2000), Privatising Agricultural Extension in India, Policy paper – 10, NCAP, New Delhi. Rivera, W.M. and Cary J.W.(1997), Privatising Agricultural Extension, Improving Agricultural Extension – A reference manual, FAO, Rome Charles Ameur, 1994 Agricultural Extension – A step beyond the next step. World Bank Technical paper number 247. The World Bank, Washington, D.C.
