Transcript Slide 1

J.C. Katyal
Vice Chancellor
Haryana, India
South Asia (SA) Region
• As per the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC), SA
comprises of seven countries – India,
Pakistan, Bangla Desh, Sri Lanka,
Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives
• Notwithstanding this political allianceled delineation, statistics on the state
of agriculture and agriculture
dependent population, largely include
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
and Nepal to designate South Asian
Region.
Population and Area
World – Population
SA – Population
: 6.6 billion
: 1.5 billion
World – Area
South Asia – Area
: 13 billion ha
: 449 million ha
Thus, South Asia has to feed 23% of the world
population from merely 3.6% of the world
area
South Asia - Agriculture
• SA - a home to the most ancient agriculture based
civilizations
• One of the most resource rich regions,
particularly bio-diversity
• Region as a whole has high incidence of natural
disasters
• SA is characterized by high levels of food
production; happening of Green Revolution
• Emerging as a growing centre for manufacturing,
trade and services
• Despite successes, SA suffers from high density of
population, environmentally stressed agriculture,
high levels of rural poverty, gender inequality and
social exclusion, natural resources degradation,
depletion of land and water and a growing rural
urban divide
South Asia - Farmers
• Farmers living in different realities and facing
different futures: small and marginal farmers
dominate, holding size shrinking, subsistence
farming, high rate of unemployment, supplement
incomes by combining crops and livestock
• Share of agriculture dependent population
continues to be high
• Out-migration has to some extent relieved
economic pressure; left out population
represented by infirm and females who have
limited capacity and capability to invest in
restorative management and soil and water
conservation, all leading to accelerated damage
of natural resources
• Awareness and interest are increasing in
technologies and policies on sustainable
agricultural practices
S A- New Agriculture
• Diversification and value addition are seen as tools of
raising incomes, nutrition and sustainable growth of
agriculture, which at present is stagnating or declining
• A right mix of pro-farmer and pro-nature technologies,
their transfer and enabling environment
(education/training, inputs, infrastructure) and policies
(prices and market links) are necessary elements of
breaking the barriers of stagnation and or decline in
agricultural productivity, profitability and sustainability
of farming
• Education and training for know how and skill building
come as the front ranking strategy for relieving
population pressure
• Voice for lessening gender inequalities and
mainstreaming is focus of development discussions
Productivity and profitability –
women hit hardest
• Falling agricultural productivity growth rates, rising
costs, declining profits, high debt, spurious seeds and
pesticides, cheap imported agricultural
produce……all cause severe distress and need urgent
attention
• An estimated 27% Indian farmers did not like farming
because it was not profitable. In all, 40%, if given a
choice, prefer to quit farming (NSSO Report # 496)
• Women lives are dependent on and intimately
affected by the present state, particularly of male
farmers and falling profitability of farming. If a farmer
commits suicide due to mounting debt and falling
profitability, the widow in fact becomes a living
corpse
www.worldmapper.org
Sectoral distribution of WWF (%)
(HDSA, 1997 and 2000)
Country
Services WWF
India
Agri. Industr
y
62
11
27
27
Pakistan
47
20
33
42
B. Desh
59
13
28
40
Nepal
93
1
6
40
S. Lanka
49
21
30
36
Bhutan
92
3
3
32
Maldives
25
32
43
22
S A - State of Women Workforce
• Employment of WWF is very high
• WWF in agriculture often lacks basic services,
education and health care
• Low level of rights on productive assets
worsens their situation
• Micro-nutrient and vitamin A malnutrition remain
stubbornly high
• WWF is most unorganized because of unpaid
nature of work and tradition-forced social
responsibility of working maximum, demanding
minimum and eating whatever is leftover in the
family
Women – Contribution and Status
• Women contribute to two-thirds of the
world’s work hours, produce 50 per cent
of the world’s food supplies
• Women work in fields, take care of
families and manage household
• Despite the services rendered by women
in the family and work place, they make
up for nearly 70 per cent of the world’s
poor and more than 65 per cent of the
illiterates
Women: The Major Work Force in Agriculture
Women at Work
Pesticide Spray
Wheat harvest
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Health & safety issues of women in
Agriculture
Burden of family planning
Dangerous machinery
Unsafe electrical wiring and appliances
Livestock-transmitted diseases
Exposure to toxic pesticides
Reproductive hazards
Stress
Ergonomic adversaries
Data gathered thus far point out that women with
at least a secondary level education eventually
give birth to one third to one half as many
children as women with no formal education
Source: PRB, 2007
India
• India represents more than 90% of the
SA region in terms of land and
demographic resources
• In order to narrate new agriculture in
the context of education and
technology transfer hereafter I cite
India data as an illustration
• With minor deviations, Indian situation
is generally applicable to state of
agriculture in South Asia
HRD–Perspective Indian Agriculture
• To sustain an agricultural growth rate of 4%,
Indian agriculture (for that matter SA
agriculture also) must become efficient,
diversified, broaden its export basket, and
prepare to compete in ever more global
markets
• To sustain 4% agricultural growth, India
needs new-look technologies, a hierarchical
brigade of ‘knowledge and skilled men and
women workers’, necessary systemic and
institutional reforms in AE, supporting
infrastructure and pro-agriculture policies
Gender-wise student make up (%)
Degree
Male
Female
B. Sc.
72
28 (6-63)
M. Sc.
67
33 (12-69)
Ph. D.
71
29 (4-75)
Perspective – gender integration
or mainstreaming in AE
• Integration – fitting gender issues within
the existing course curricula and programs
without adjusting gender considerations in
sector and program priorities
• Mainstreaming – gender considerations are
central in the construction of educational
policy and programs. Not only do the
women become part of educational
budgeting, women and men jointly reorient
majority of the educational agenda
• Mainstreaming has proved to be elusive
Transition from integration to mainstreaming – causes of slow progress
• No serious attempt to clearly identify gender
sensitive core AE agenda and development
of policy packages in support of that agenda
• Insufficient attention while designing
budgets that support women oriented AE
agenda (including enabling issues)
• Lack of clear indicators to measure outcome
and impact
(Source; modified version of Jahan, 1995,)
AE – Focus Gender
• Common perception: Higher
opportunity costs and lower benefits
from educating girls. Preference goes
to sons
• General scene: Lack of boarding
facilities, separate toilette facilities in
schools
• Larger view: AE not a preferred
subject for girls
Female Faculty
• Sanctioned strength 23000; in position less
than 20,000
• 87%, 76% and 79% of the positions of
assistant professors, associate professors
and professors are filled
• Relative proportion of females (circa 2000): ~
20% (10% Assis. Prof., 6% Assoc. Prof. and
4% Prof.)
• In recent years proportion changing fast
• Insignificant females in managerial positions
Level of Technological
Awareness and Understanding
• Low level of awareness and understanding on
modern farming techniques and lack of competence
and necessary skills are fundamental elements of
overdependence on agriculture as sole source of
livelihoods
• Only 40% of farm households access various sources
of information. About 70% information comes from
non formal sources to which women have hardly any
reach
• Women are also suffer maximum due to less
education and training, which discourage mobility
and shrink opportunities for off-farm vocations
• Organized education and training cover only 4% of
the workforce; 57% workforce dependent on
agriculture (in this share of female workforce 85%)
remains outside its ambit
Technological Needs of WWF
• Women have different tech. requirements due
to disparate priorities, problems and needs.
Examples: food crops for food and fodder, local
breeds of livestock, backyard poultry, goat
rearing, local herbal remedies, less drudgery,
efficient energy for cooking…
• Women need greater awareness and
understanding of how technologies affect
household economies, their sustainable
performance and overall health of environment
• Gender oriented technology transfer and upskilling women competence is of fundamental
necessity if what Himachali women feel “Our
lives are no different from that of our bullocks”
has to be reversed
Emerging Issues of SA Agriculture
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Falling productivity, profitability & stability of agriculture
Water becoming most critical
Climate becoming more deviating and unpredictable
Land availability shrinking
Agriculture becoming more complex & competitive
Technologies that include WWF to have far larger role
than ever
Markets and consumers are having bigger say in what
and how agricultural produce should be raised
Agricultural research shifting from problem reduction to
problem solving approach
Economic growth will follow equity & gender
mainstreaming
Place of people will be increasingly central to R&D
A new look technology transfer system that treats
agriculture in all its aspects and is responsive to
knowledge and skill needs of farm men and women in
real time format is necessary to be devised
Only 40% of the farmers have access to information on
modern methods of farming in India
Relative importance (% farmers) of different
sources of accessing information
Source
Farmers Source
Farmers
P. farmers
17
Village fair
02
Input dealers
Radio
Television
News papers
13
13
09
07
Credit agency
Miscellaneous
Training
KVK
02
02
01
01
Exten. agents
06
Cooperative Soc. 04
Output buyers
02
NGO/private
Farmers tours
All sources
01
0.2
40
Demonstrations
02
Source: NSSO, 2005
Common Goals of SA Agriculture
– To infuse faster transfer of environmentally
friendly and time appropriate technologies to
fulfill food & nutritional needs
– To improve conservation of natural resource
– To establish linkages to imbibe changing
consumer needs & promote commercialization,
diversification, access to global markets
– To undertake research and technology
development & transfer to counter ill effects of
natural and man-made growth retardants
– To emphasize development of HR, specifically
WWF, by modernizing formal/non-formal
education
– Necessity is to develop a new look technology
transfer system; village based, farmers and
farming system driven, real time, supported by
a technology transfer facilitator and above all
links farmers to input dealers & output buyers
Trends in food grain production (M
tons)
Year
Haryana
India
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
12.1
13.1
13.3
203.6
209.8
196.8
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
13.3
12.3
13.2
13.1
212.8
174.8
213.5
204.6
2005-06
13.0
208.6
Data source: Statistical Abstract Haryana (2005-06)
and Agricultural Research Data Book (2006)
Yield-gap Analysis
Crop
Wheat
Farmers’ FLD
yield
(t/ha)
(t/ha)
2.8
3.8
All
0.8
oilseeds
All
0.6
pulses
P. millet 0.4
% gap
%
irrigated
27
86
1.2
29
25
1.1
42
16
2.0
56
8
Need for Comprehensive Solutions –
Focus Technology Transfer (TT)
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Farming system approach
Address small and marginal farmers’ concerns
Build rural knowledge economy
Capability development to access and use of new
scientific knowledge
This requires:
 Scientists to develop situation specific technology
Professionals/para-professionals for fast dissemination of technology
 Knowledge and skillful farmers for adoption and application of technology
Stress Points of TT System
• TT service does not cover physical, social and economic
aspects of an integrated farming system
• Technology transfer for improving livestock productivity is
covered poorly
• Livestock sector largely managed by women- their skill
and knowledge needs remain neglected
• Fragmented approach of technology transfer needs
integration; all components (c to c) of farm business do
not perform optimally
• Uniform technology packages for all categories of
farmers; gender sensitivity atypical miss
• Less emphasis on cautions and precautions for accepting
use of agro-chemicals; integrated solutions more a
rhetoric and less a reality
• Reach of technology transfer limited (typically to WWF),
unable to offer real time solutions. Use of digital solutions
only on margins
Operational holdings in India
Holding size (ha) and
category
< 0.5, near landless
0.5-1.0, marginal
1.0-2.0, small
2.0-4.0, semi medium
4-10, medium
> 10, large
Area (%) Holdings
(%)
7.0
42
10.2
20
18.8
19
23.8
12
25.3
06
14.8
01
Source: Agricultural Research Data Book (2006)
Small and Marginal Farmers
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Maximum concentration of poverty
Have less land & more dependent population
Unemployment/underemployment common
Limited marketable surplus
Diversify agriculture more than large farmers
Affected more by resources inadequacies & less
due to technological inappropriateness
• Suffer maximum distress during years of natural
disasters
• TT method a potential strategy
A New Extension Model
• Addresses a farming system and provides
holistic solutions to raise income, employability
and sustainability
• Includes resource poor small & marginal
farmers (women also)
• Provides real time solutions for all aspects of
farming; is multidisciplinary; emphasizes
partnerships; combines traditional and
advanced means and methods
• Is village based, assures farmers participation
• Focuses on education and training for
intensification, multiple use of resources and
vertical integration with a market value chain
• Builds competence & capacity for off-farm
enterprises
Long-term Vision
• Long-term vision of the extension model is to
sustainably modernize agriculture in each
village and to ensure that every rural person in
employable age group (18-60 years) is
employed gainfully.
• In short-term (~ 5 years), mission is to partner
with other extension/development agencies,
grassroots level organizations, private service
providers/agri-business houses for creating a
sustainable village based real time technology
transfer system for the development of
agriculture in all its aspects leading to more
income, larger employability & ensured health
of natural resources
• The technology transfer system will be
evolved, tested and applied in two village
clusters of 10.
Context of New Extension Model
• Income
• Employment
• Sustainability
Approach and Strategy
• Focus: Education and training for building
knowledge and awareness for conservation
agriculture, cost reduction, increasing livestock
productivity, primary processing, off-farm vocations,
protection and sustainable use of natural resources,
use of non-conventional energy
• Strategy: Education and training, village based,
use of conventional and digital means, partnerships,
multidisciplinary and eco-centric approach
Components
• Technology transfer facilitators
• Non-formal technology transfer
agents
• Networking of research and
diverse development agencies
• ICT
• Village-cluster based ATIC
• District level ATI
Organization of New- look Extension
System
• Village based:
Two enterprising farmers having
high school qualification to work as grassroots level
extension workers for technology transfer
– They will be supported by full time professionalgraduate (PG) – TT facilitators
– PG will also facilitate backward-forward links with
markets, credit extending & other agencies, KVKs &
HAU scientists
– Assess farmers need and analyze constraints throgh
diagnostic studies
– Based on diagnostic analysis he will prioritize the
activities in association with the two selected
farmers
– Team of graduates pursuing agri-business and agriclinic scheme will be linked to new TT system
Organization of New- look Extension
System: Contd.
• Agriculture Training Institute: Organized on the pattern of
ITI, ATI will build-up a class of expert farmers and selfemployable work force in different areas of agriculture for
productivity enhancement– Trainings in low volume and high income diversified areas
– Primary processing, use of alternate source of energy,
nutrient rich feed blocks preparation, seed production
– Apply a right mix of education and training with emphasis
on skill building in real life situations
– Use of conventional and ODL will be integrated to enable
maximum participation of WWF
Organization of New- look Extension
System: Contd.
• Technology mediated information
transfer for learning and skill building:
• Apply real time transfer of technology to
modernize agriculture
• To develop decision support expert systems
• Link small and marginal farmers to markets
• Develop off- farm employment capabilities and
opportunities
Activities and Programmes
Philosophy:
• ATIC facilitates farmers’ participation in – Real time information access
– Technology transfer and application
• Need based education for knowledge and skill
development
• Establishing partnership for inputs and credit supply
• Market links for remunerative prices
Reforms Required
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Institutional reforms
– Manpower demand projections to serve holistic
development of agriculture and existing and emerging
sectors of economy;
– Reorientation of course curricula to develop knowledge,
skills and entrepreneurial mindset of students to take up
self employment, perform in the job market, contribute to
rural livelihood security and attract foreign students;
– Availability of competent faculty and qualified technical
aides,
– Linking research with industry and field
System reforms
– Infrastructure rehabilitation and refurbishing
– Smoothening of administrative procedures
– Ensuring financial resource
– Transformation of delivery systems through
encouragement approach
Expected output and outcome
• A village based extension system that provides real time
solutions to all aspects of a farming system (from
cultivation of crops to rearing and raising of livestock in
unison to marketing of produce to its consumption and
beyond)
• Enhancement of income and employability leading to
improved quality of livelihoods, particularly of small and
marginal farm men and women
• Enlarged possibilities for maintaining continuity of
agriculture as an enterprise and sustaining quality of
natural resources and rural livelihoods
• Availability of a model for harnessing synergy arising
from multi-disciplinarily and multi-institutional functioning
And Finally
• AE needs modernization of course
curricula to focus on employability,
economic growth, environmental security
and gender sensitivity
• AE programs initiate institutional and
systemic reforms
• Addresses formal and non-formal
education
• Harnesses the power of tech-mediated
delivery systems
Contd.
And Still Finally
• The extension model suggested by me
is not intended to replace the existing
TT system
• It rather strengthens its contribution
by focusing more on farming as an
integrated enterprise, village based
extension, real time extension, gender
mainstreaming, partnerships – both
with farmers and other agencies
performing individually in the village
• It looks for an improved system, a
gender sensitive system, a robust
system, a sustainable system