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Moderated conference on rural advisory services for family farms: 1-18 December 2014

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Sun, 14 Dec 2014 07:22:33 +0100
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This is Dr Mahesh Chander again, responding to Question 4.4 in the conference background document.

There are regional specificities regarding rural advisory services for family farms!

Often technologies are advocated to producers without analyzing the associated requirements, consequently leading at times to failure of a high potential technology. A technology doing very well in irrigated areas having medium or large farmers like in the Punjab state of India may not sustain/perform equally well or fail in states falling in dry zones dependent on rainfed agriculture within a country like India. 

Here comes the role of doing analysis of region-specific characteristics, conditions, problems or issues which need to be considered. In India, the Green Revolution failed to take off in the drylands because the associated requirements like irrigation, chemical fertilizers to grow hybrid crops were not available/applicable to farming systems in place. Thankfully, the lessons from failure of the Green Revolution in drylands have been learnt well in India as now location-specific crops/varieties and technologies are being developed, tried and promoted by agricultural extension mechanisms like KVKs/ATMA/ICAR/central and federal Departments of Agriculture and other agencies.
 
Within the same geographical region too, there is a difference in the way we grow a traditional low yielding crop variety under a low input low output system compared to high yielding hybrids. It is expected to inform/train the farmers on rearing high yielding improved breeds of livestock before we introduce these in a farming system. These high yielders generally require higher levels of management, including improved nutrition, housing, and preventive health practices. While tailoring rural advisory services to family farms, it must be kept in mind what technology we are recommending to which category of family farms in which region.
 
Sometimes, the farmers may do well with a low input low output technology regime compared to a high input high output systems because of low capacities to meet the associated requirements like seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides etc. Such farmers can be oriented and trained on cashing in upon opportunities now available in the form of certified organic food products, for which new capacities are required among farmers and extensionists both! Besides, more production does not necessarily result in more profit and this is going to be more prominent in coming days, where quality would matter more than the quantity. The trditional mindset of 'more production' has to shift to 'more profit' among the minds of both the farmers and extension agents! 

The farmers can do farming beneficially in all the regions - irrigated, drylands, mountain terrains, deserts and other adverse situations provided the agricultural extension systems have capacities to analyse the regional situations, constraints and opportunities and then orient and train the farmers to raise crops and livestock under the given geographical specificities and resource domains of the categories of farmers they are working with. There is a saying, by Jamie Paolinetti, “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.”
 
Dr Mahesh Chander
Head
Division of Extension Education
Indian Veterinary research Institute, 
Izatnagar (UP) 
India
Phone +91 581 2302391, Fax: +91 581 2303284
Email: Mahesh64 (at) email.com

References: 

- Government of India. 2000. Policy framework for agricultural extension. Department of Agriculture & Cooperation. Ministry of Agriculture. http://agricoop.nic.in/policy_framework.htm

- Has green revolution failed India’s poor? Green Revolution Vs Rain-fed Farming. http://www.im4change.org/blog/has-green-revolution-failed-indias-poor-12.html

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/264776/  


  
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