Police and paramilitary personnel may tread cautiously in Naxal-infested districts, but agricultural scientists roam here freely, dispensing technology for farm development. They are, in fact, welcomed by local people and extremists alike. This has been the experience of most scientists of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs or farm science centres) located in districts like Bhumbla in Jharkhand and Gondia, Sonbhadhra and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. These scientists show resource-poor people how to increase their incomes from their tiny farms and help wean rural youth off extremism.
State governments’ agricultural extension workers and input suppliers tend to overlook remote areas. Farmers in these areas are, thus, denied access to modern agricultural know-how and technology as well as yield-enhancing inputs, such as good seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, improved tools and the like.
However, KVKs, wholly funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), though run by agricultural universities and other R&D organisations, are mandated to work among farmers from such areas to offer them situation-specific technology that is within their capacity to adopt. “KVK scientists are now concentrating on maximising income per unit of land so that the youth, who are losing interest in farming because of the lack of profitability, are wooed back,” according to ICAR deputy director-general (extension) K D Kokate, in-charge of the KVKs.
With most landholding in India being small and unirrigated, the mantra for income enhancement is secondary agriculture, involving ventures like bee-keeping, backyard poultry, goat rearing and vermiculture (earthworm compost making), among other things.
KVKs conceive and recommend different modules of farming systems to farmers to let them earn extra income. Indeed, the original KVK concept was to impart vocational training to farmers and rural youth, and link them with input suppliers and marketers. But their role has evolved, depending on the changing agro-economic situations.
KVKs source technologies relevant to their regions from institutions in which these are available and pass them on to farmers — but only after trying them out at their own farms and refining and fine-tuning them to suit local conditions. The objective, apparently, is to enable farmers access technologies that fit their resource-framework and can, thus, be gainfully utilised for products that have market demand.
However, the KVK mandate has now been modified to transform them into “knowledge and resource centres” which, apart from providing technology and guidance, can also offer support services, such as soil and water testing laboratories and plant clinics to diagnose crop diseases and pests and suggest cure for them. “Today, farmers’ priorities are a sound production system and connection with agri-business and other partners. Knowledge empowerment is, therefore, becoming more important. KVKs seek to meet this need,” Kokate points out.
For this, KVKs are being provided e-connectivity so that these are not only in touch with each other and the ICAR but can also disseminate farm know-how and information speedily. In a novel move, text messages are being sent to farmers through mobile phones to guide them on day-to-day farm operations. “Alerts” are issued through such text messages on topics like the weather forecast, plant diseases and other contingencies along with advisories on how to cope with them.
“Farmers first” is the latest motto for the KVKs’ scientists and subject matter experts to ensure that they are in constant touch with farmers. This enables a two-way flow of information — knowledge from scientists to farmers and direct feedback from the farmers to the scientists.
Thanks to their record, KVKs, which now number nearly 588 covering most districts, have attracted global attention as a unique model of agricultural extension. In fact, many African nations have been in touch with the ICAR seeking assistance in replicating the KVK model. The ICAR is working with these countries and hopefully these KVKs will serve as catalysts of change there as well.
