AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES IN INDIA: FARMERS’ ACCESS, ADOPTION, AND PERCEPTIONS (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WESTERN UTTAR PRADESH)

Abstract

As the agriculture sector becomes more knowledge-intensive from land preparation to post-harvest, one of the critical factors that may spur agricultural growth is the content, quality, accountability, and capacity of agricultural extension services (AES) (including extension education and training) that may facilitate effective innovation diffusion to farmers, or in other words, actually transfer innovations from the labs to the agricultural fields. The available literature across the world has attempted to capture the elements that contribute to farmers' access to and adoption of AES. These studies attempted to analyse farmers' information demands, as well as their methods of obtaining necessary information. Given the unique geographical, socioeconomic, institutional, and cultural challenges that exist in each country, it is clear that the impact of the factors of AES varies. The NSSO reports of India have repeatedly highlighted the continued poor access of farmers to all the agricultural extension services, particularly public extension services, as evidenced by the fact that there has been a less than one percent increase in farmers accessing the agricultural extension services from the NSSO 59th (2003) to the 70th round (2013), highlighting the system's gross inadequacy. Additionally, NSSO 70th round data indicate that ICT tools are the most accessible source of agricultural extension services, but they are not preferred in the case of adoption of technical advice. Although several studies have examined the information content provided/desired and its impact, there do not appear to be many studies examining the reasons for small and marginal farmers' limited access and adoption. In this context, the present study examines the current agricultural extension approaches in India to understand where information gaps exist and find out why farmers are not able to access and adopt the information despite the presence of large, well-established public-sector extension systems as well as emerging private and third-sector actors. The study also investigates farmers' perceptions of extension services' success in imparting the necessary information and competence to enable them to maximise agricultural output. In order to better understand the breadth of digital agricultural extension through ICT tools, the study also investigates the level of awareness, access, frequency, and constraints in farmers' use of ICT tools for receiving agriculture-related technical services.