Effect of Agricultural Extension Services and Development on Productivity among Small Scale Farmers in India

Abstract

Since the history of mankind, agriculture evolved round the basic food needs of man and developed principles and practices in crop production including field management. With changing situation, technological development have shifted the traditional agriculture from more crop production to mixed farming involving allied activities like animal husbandry, sericulture, pisciculture etc. Need for technological development in agriculture. Extension services have become the gold standard for agricultural development programs to spur farm productivity and enhance farmers’ livelihood. Scholars from distinct strands of research have contested the virtues of these programs as systematic reviews failed to disentangle the different causal paths. Despite a wide range of reform initiatives in agricultural extension in India in the past decades, the coverage of, access to, and quality of information provided to marginalized and poor farmers is uneven. While the call for demand-driven agricultural extension has existed in India for several decades now, new modes of reaching out to farmers could have significant impact in India, as they might better reflect the local information needs of farmers. This study therefore set out to find out through literature review the effect of agricultural extension services and development on productivity among small scale farmers in India. Using information provision and access as the basis for analysis, the paper reviewed some of the major agricultural extension programs in India by considering their ability to provide information and facilitate information sharing and use in small scale farming communities in India. The study established that The findings indicated that access to information from any source increased with larger farm size in India. Most farmers sought information on seed for cultivation, followed by veterinary care in animal husbandry, and then management and marketing in fisheries. Keywords: Extension services, agricultural development, productivity, small scale farmers