Dr YPS Dabas, Director of Extension Education
The Directorate of Extension Education is actively involved in transfer of technologies emerging out of research laboratories to farmers' fields and getting feedback for further linkages. According to Extension Education director YPS Dabas, the area under jurisdiction of the Directorate consists of all 13 districts of Uttarakhand.
Directorate of Extension Education is acting as a link between the laboratory, that is, research and land, that is, farmers. Its aim is overall development of the farming community. Considering the varied geographical, biophysical and socio-economic conditions of the State, technology transfer after its proper validation has become very challenging. The directorate has accepted this challenge and the extension activities are undertaken with different units ie State Agricultural Management & Extension Training Institute (SAMETI), Training and Visit Unit of Headquarter, Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC), 11 KVKs, Veterinary and Animal Science Extension, Agriculture Engineering Extension, Fisheries Extension and Home Science Extension. Following achievement were earned during the year 2012-13 by Directorate of Extension Education and their units. The directorate organised 701 training programmes on different topics related to agriculture and allied subjects which were attended by 14,191 trainees. Out of these trainings, 35 were organised by Training & Visit Unit and 666 were organised by 11 KVKs.
The State Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute (SAMETI) Uttarakhand has organised 15 training programmes for District/Block level Agricultural Officers, Members of Farmers Advisory Committee (FAC) and Progressive Farmers. The Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC) helpline has benefitted 1,356 farmers by helping resolved various problems faced by them.
A total of 1,864 farmers visited ATIC and collected seeds/information of new technologies. More than `3.55 lakh was collected from sale of extension booklets and seeds to farmers/extension workers. The ATIC is operating single window system to deliver information, inputs and testing facilities at one point.
Scientists of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra have implemented 37 projects at the centre and farmers' fields apart from conducting 4,274 Front line Demonstrations on 403.45 hectare land. KVKs have organised 18 farmers' fairs, 23 agricultural exhibitions and provided recent agricultural technological information to 46,993 farmers/farm women while 18,852 farmers benefited from 2,579 farm visits by KVK scientists. Scientists of KVKs have delivered 48 radio talks from AIR and recorded 61 TV programmes for different channels. A total of 78 articles have been published in news papers/magazines/periodicals. They have also produced 1190.75 quintals cereals, 35.10 quintals oilseeds, 73.79 quintals pulses, 9.5875 quintals vegetable seeds and 6,974.22 quintals sugarcane seeds along with 1.32 lakh vegetable saplings and 450 fruit plants which have been distributed to the farmers in the vicinity.
With the assistance of KVKs, the directorate has transferred various technologies to the farmers for their social development and economic improvement. These technologies include protected vegetable farming, alkathin tank, vermi-compost for organic farming, use of mulch for increasing production, better live stock management, integrated pest management, water harvesting, conservation and their proper utilisation.
The KVKs are implementing various projects under Horticulture Technology Mission and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, emphasising on e-extension, public-private partnership, commodity based extension/market led extension, women empowerment and drudgery reduction, identification, documentation and validation of Indigenous Technological Knowledge (ITKs), establishment of mini ATIC at KVKs and steps towards green and safe world.