Lab to land technology transfer

Mandeep Singh Azad and Manmeet Motan
There is no fun of big research and technology if they are not accepted and adopted by farmers and to convince farmers to adopt these labs technology is the toughest job as farmer don’t change their age old practices so easily. Here comes the role of KVK’s Krishi Vigyan Kendras developed by the universities in most of the districts as the institute of technology transfer from universities lab to farmers field. Most farmers have small holdings; they lack information on the global supply-and-demand conditions that affect local prices; have limited access to crop management know-how, and weather forecasts that impact agricultural operations. Access to such information could help transform their low-yielding plots to highly productive farms. Making matters worse, Indian farmers are at the receiving end of an expensive, highly fragmented supply chain with underdeveloped infrastructure. Largely controlled by unscrupulous middlemen, these value chains plough back only a small share of the consumer price to the farmer. Together, these problems keep the farm incomes low, and lock the farmers into a vicious cycle of low income, low investments, low productivity and low income. Thus it becomes very important to keep these farmers updated about all the aspects from recent technology to market price and for this KVK’s play a pivotal role as source of farmer’s school where farmers are given all kind of information and updates.
In the changing global scenario, the technology dissemination process had played a pivotal role in mobilizing the agricultural information within a rural social system for maintaining sustainable livelihoods during the green revolution and post green revolution era. As a result technology transfer involves complex processes consisting of diverse structures, and relationship of inter-dependent factors and related variables, aimed at enhancing adoption of innovations. In the changed scenario, with the vertical expansion of the agricultural innovation, agricultural extension system in India is more of informative extension or knowledge intensive extension embedded with the traditional social system than emancipatory extension
Krishi Vigyan Kendra ( K.V.K. ) ia a noble concept developed by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) which was rest upon a solid base of transfer of technology from laboratory to farmer’s field with respect to Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Floriculture. Bee keeping, Mushroom Cultivation,Broiler Farming and allied subjects. As per the recommendations of Mohan Singh Mehta Committee during 1974, K.V.K.s were established in different states. Gradually working guidelines are prepared to make the K.V.K. as the light house for the rural people.Most of the world’s poor are engaged in agriculture in rural areas. Governments and development agencies promote income-generating projects as a way of encouraging growth through increased agricultural production and the protection of the natural resource base. Agricultural development is about income generation. In the developing world this means increased production that does not compromise the future productivity of the natural resource base. Many poor communities lack not only access to the means of increased production, they also lack outlets for that increased production. Without external markets able to absorb increased production, excess crops flood the local market and drive down prices. While this is good for consumers, it is bad for producers and acts as a disincentive to produce more in the future, and this in turn acts as a stop against income generation. Socio economic development is the best criteria to judge the development in agriculture sector. If we can make farmers socially and economically developed then we can say we are going in right direction. Increasing framers suicide due to low productivity and crop failure is the indicator of some gap in technology and information transfer which makes agriculture non profitable. Farmers should be regularly updated about the recent trends in agriculture technology in order to make their farm a profitable enterprise. The whole extension process is dependent upon the extension agent, who is the critical element in all extension activities. If the extension agent is not able to respond to a given situation and function effectively, it does not matter how imaginative the extension approach is or how impressive the supply of inputs and resources for extension work. Indeed, the effectiveness of the extension agent can often determine the success or failure of an extension programme. The extension agent has to work with people in a variety of different ways. It is often an intimate relationship and one which demands much tact and resourcefulness. The agent inevitably works with people whose circumstances are different from his own. He is an educated, trained professional working with farmers, many of whom have little formal education and lead a way of life which may be quite different from his. Thus KVK’s are proving to be a light house for rural people and thus transferring technology from labs to farmers field.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com