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

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Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:10:35 +0100
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This is S.S. Roy again. 

While appreciating the three broad categories of family farms, as indicated in Section 4 of the conference background document, and also the observation made by Dr. Marisa de Luján Gonnella (Message 44), there seems to be another dimension of this categorisation which needs to be recognized: The organised farmers and the unorganised farmers.

The organised farmers, who may even be small and marginal, that come under the umbrella of producer organisations, cooperative societies or self-help groups (SHG) etc. are always better placed in accessing the rural advisory service (RAS), while the unorganised farmers do not have the ability to avail of this service.

Since the group of unorganised farmers constitutes the majority of the farming community in India, greater attention needs to be given by the concerned government extension department, NGOs and various national and international development organisations to provide quality RAS. The requirement of this group of farmers is for wholesome agriculture, means a basket of agriculture produce (field crops, vegetables, fruits, livestock, fishery), which is substantially different from the organised group, where one or two commodities are in production. Hence, the service providers for unorganised farmers need to be expert in multiple crops and sectors. This poses a challenge to the existing service providers both in quality and sustainability front.

To adequately address this issue, the Government of India had introduced an innovative business model (in 2002) known as Agri-Clinic and Agri-Business Centre (ACABC). The concept was aimed to make a self-sustaining RAS, which would provide expert advice on various aspect of production technology in the field of agriculture, livestock and fishery sectors by the graduates of the concerned discipline. Agri-Business was made an integral part of this model for its sustenance. This ACABC was designed to cater for the requirement of quality RAS especially for the unorganised sectors of the farmers.

To date about 16000 of such Agri-ventures have reportedly been established across the country. Though the number is not adequate in comparison to its vast requirement, it provides a lead in developing a sustainable model for the RAS. More details on ACABC is available at http://www.agriclinics.net/    
 
Dr S.S. Roy
Flat B-17
Trinity Court
South Main  Road
Lane 5, 
Pune - 411001 
India
(M) 91 9049455426
e-mail: ssr47 (at) hotmail.com

[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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