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

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This is Dr Mahesh Chander again, finally, sharing an incidence about responding to farmers’ needs!

 

Towards the end of this interesting e-discussion, I am tempted to share one small incident.

 

It’s now over 10 years since I was on duty at an agro-exhibition stall organized by the Ministry of Agriculture in the Indian capital and we junior extension personnel then were joined by our very senior colleague - an extensionist. One farmer visiting our stall asked, “Sir, I wish to go organic, would you please tell how to do it?”. Listening to this, our superior became nearly wild, telling the farmer why he wants to switch to this very unproductive and primitive system of production when he can have very high productivity using agro-chemicals. The farmer while remaining cool and in very polite manner (contrary to the angry response of our superior!) responded, “Sir, You didn’t listen my question well/properly. I am not asking whether to do organic or not but want to know how to go organic or how to do it, what are the standards/guidelines and procedures for converting to organic agriculture". He further said, if you know it, please tell me or else I will look for another source for this information as I have come this far to seek this information only. Obviously, this superior of ours was not aware of the procedure of conversion to organic agriculture, organic standards and certification procedures. Also, he had his personal negative attitude towards organic farming though the Government of India had already announced the National Programme on Organic Production (NPOP) in 2001-2002. Thus, he chose to respond in a manner to dictate what farmers should do based on his personal thinking and attitude. Gone are the days when extensionists would have one-way transfer of information and the farmer would blindly follow without having questions to be answered.

 

This case speaks volumes about the need of improving the capacities of extensionists to meet new challenges. On his retirement from government service, our senior extension colleague has changed his attitude towards organic agriculture and now he speaks highly about organic agriculture, maybe criticizing conventional agricultural practices too, which again is not a desirable trait! The extensionists are there to help farmers cash in on opportunities available in conventional or organic agriculture depending on the policies and market. I believe we are not supposed to take sides depending on our personal beliefs - in other words being professional in delivery of extension services.

 

Thankfully, the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) has realized this need by addressing it in The New Extensionist Position Paper on “Roles, Strategies, and Capacities to Strengthen Extension and Advisory Services”.



Thanks to FAO for hosting this e-discussion, which was a great learning experience for me.



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

 

1. Chander, Mahesh. 1996. Organic farming: Implications for rural extension services, pp. 144-149. In: Niels H. Kriestensen and Henning H. Jensen (eds) New Research in Organic Agriculture, Germany, IFOAM, pp. 500.



2. Organic Farmers' Need for and Attitude Towards Extension. http://www.joe.org/joe/2007december/a6.php 



3. Organic Agriculture and Poverty Reduction in Asia: China and India Focus. http://www.ifad.org/evaluation/public_html/eksyst/doc/thematic/organic/execsum.ht



4. Roles, Strategies, and Capacities to Strengthen Extension and Advisory Services. The New Extensionist. GFRAS position paper, 2012. http://www.g-fras.org/en/knowledge/gfras-publications/file/126-the-new-extensionist-position-paper?start=20



5. National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP). http://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/organic/index.htm



6. National Centre of Organic Farming, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation,Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. http://ncof.dacnet.nic.in/



7. Chander, M.; B. Subrahmanyeswari; Reena Mukherjee and S Kumar.2011. Organic livestock production: an emerging opportunity with new challenges to producers in tropical countries. Rev.Sci.Tech.Off. Int. Epiz, 30, 3, 969-983.www.oie.int/doc/ged/d11363.pdf

  

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