Annual Report 2009-2010 - Department of Agriculture & Co-operation

Annual Report 2009-2010
50
9
Agricultural Extension
9.1 Support to State Extension Programmes
for Extension Reforms: This scheme of Support
to State Extension Programmes for Extension
reforms, launched during 2005-06, aims at
making the extension system farmer-driven and
farmer-accountable, by way of new institutional
arrangements for technology dissemination in
the form of an Agricultural Technology
Management Agency (ATMA) at the district level
to operationalise extension reforms. ATMA has
the active participation of farmers and farmer
groups, NGOs, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Panchayati
Raj institutions, and other stakeholders operating
at the district level and below. The release of
funds under the ATMA scheme is based on State
Extension Work Plans (SEWPs) prepared by the
state governments. At present, the scheme is
under implementation in 588 districts in 29
states/UTs in the country.
9.2 In line with the provisions of the National
Policy for Farmers, which has been formulated as
per the reports and recommendations of the
National Commission on Farmers, the existing
provisions and implementation mechanisms have
been strengthened. The cafeteria of activities
being supported under the scheme has state as
well as district-level activities. State-level activities
include support for upgrading State-Level Training
Institutions (SAMETI), training and exposure visits
of extension functionaries, organisation of statelevel
agricultural exhibitions, regional fairs and
exhibitions, monitoring and evaluation, rewards
and incentives. District-level activities include
farmer-oriented activities (training, demonstration,
exposure visits, group mobilisation, and capacity
building), farm information dissemination activities
(exhibition, information technology, print media),
and research-extension-farmer linkages, (farmer
scientist interactions, organisation of field days
and kisan goshties; assessment, refinement,
validation, and adoption of front line technologies).
9.3 The important features of the cafeteria
include:
Farm schools in the fields of outstanding
farmers being promoted at the block/gram
panchayat level by integrating progressive
farmers into the Agricultural Extension
System (AES) (a minimum of one farm
school/block).