Krishi Vigyan Kendras’ @50: Steadfast &
Indispensible
Dr. Parveen
Kumar*
The 75th year of India as a republic coincides
with 50th year of establishment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras’ (KVKs);
institutes that all through these five decades have proved their
indispensability in the transformation of agriculture sector in the country. As
a part of the front line extension system of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR), their contribution towards bringing about socio-economic
upliftment of the farming community in which a majority of the farmers are
small, marginalized and resource poor is immense. .
After independence, it started in 1960s. Like other
sectors, the agricultural sector in the country was also witnessing some
institutional reforms as well as structural changes. As agriculture was the
backbone of the economy, revival and strengthening of the farm sector needed to
be prioritized. The second education commission 1964-66 under the chairmanship
of Dr. D. S. Kothari recommended for the establishment of agricultural
polytechnics to provide vocational education in agriculture to school drop outs
and other rural youths. After threadbare deliberations by the representatives
of Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture and the Planning Commission
(NITI Aayog); the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as a follow up
to the recommendations emerging out of the deliberations constituted a
committee in 1973 under the chairmanship of Captain Mohan Singh Mehta of
Udaipur to work out a comprehensive plan for establishment of such institutes. Captain
Mohan Singh Mehta thus came up with the institutional design in the form of
Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and the first KVK was established in the year 1974
in Pondicherry (now Puducherry) under the administrative control of Tamilnadu
Agricultural University (TNAU) Madras in Tamilnadu. Since the establishment of
first KVK in 1974, these district level institutes are at the forefront of
technology dissemination and a vital and integral part of the National
Agricultural Research System (NARS) of the country. Their role and contribution
in the agricultural sector of the country has been immense.
At the district level, it caters to the diverse needs of farming
communities working in different
agro-climatic zones and different farming situations. Presently, each KVK has a
team of six scientists of different disciplines with each one taking care of
the subject matter of his/her area. Although, the initial idea of setting up of
these KVKs was to provide vocational training to rural youths in agriculture
and other allied sectors; but with the passage of time the roles and
responsibilities of these KVKs changed. Today KVKs provide a platform for interface between farmers,
researchers and extension functionaries to address the problems of agriculture
and allied sectors. These institutions are engaged in on farm testing to assess
the location specific needs of the farm sector, front line demonstrations to
establish production potential of technologies on farmers’ fields; to conduct
training programmes for farmer, youths, farm women for their skill development,
to act as a resource and knowledge centre of agricultural technologies for
supporting initiatives of public and private sector for improving the agricultural
economy of the country and the state in particular in which they are located
and to provide agro advisories to the farming community using Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other tools.
With
the passage of time KVKs mandate has changed from a single commodity approach
to a broad based that now includes not only cereal crops but to other crops
like horticultural, medicinal, oilseed, pulses and all other crops that are
grown within the concerned district. Besides, KVKs are now training young
person to become entrepreneurs, providing farm and weather advisory services,
celebration of important days, and in devising technologies that help in
drudgery reduction. There is also a lot of reporting work in the KVKs. So a
meagre strength of six, finds itself overloaded and difficult to cope with the
increasing responsibilities. Also a single KVK in districts having population
in crores is not sufficient to cater to the needs of all.
A statement
of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) reveals that there are 731 Krishi Vigyan
Kendras’ in the country of which 38 are under the control of state governments,
66 under ICAR institutes, 103 under NGOs, 506 under State Agricultural
Universities, 3 under Central universities, 3 under Public Sector Undertakings,
7 under deemed to be universities and 5 under other Educational institutes.
Uttarpradesh leads the states in having the maximum 89 KVKs. All the KVKs are now
under 11 different Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes
(ATARI) previously called as Zonal Project Directorates (ZPDs). ATARI Zone 1 at
Ludhiana has 72 KVKs including UTs of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh, Himachal
Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Punjab. ATARI zone II at Jodhpur has 66 KVKs of
Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan; ATARI zone III Kanpur has 89 KVKs of Uttar
Pradesh alone, ATARI zone 1V Patna has 68 KVKs of Bihar and Jharkhand, ATARI
zone V Kolkata has 59 KVKs of Odisha, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, ATARI zone V1 Guwahati has 47 KVKs of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim,
ATARI zone V11 Barapani HAS 43 KVKs of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland
and Tripura, ATARI zone V111 Pune has 82 KVKs of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa,
ATARI zone 1X Jabalpur has 82 KVKs of Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, ATARI
zone X Hyderabad has 72 KVKs of Tamilnadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana and ATARI zone X1 Bangaluru
has 48 KVKs of Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep.
A
high powered committee on management of KVKs was set up under chairman ship of
Dr. R. S. Paroda. It came up with a slew of recommendations regarding the
Krishi Vigyan Kendra. It recommended the change of vision of KVKs to ‘Science
and technology-led growth leading to enhanced productivity, profitability and
sustainability of agriculture’, where as the Mission should be ‘Farmer-centric
growth in agriculture and allied sectors through the application of appropriate
technologies in specific agro-eco system perspective’. The new mandate of the
KVKs as recommended by Paroda Committee was ‘Technology Assessment and Demonstration
for its wider Application and Capacity Development’ (TADACD). It also called
for an additional Krishi Vigyan Kendra in the district be established only
based on specific criteria such as large rural population, bigger geographical
area, higher net sown area, relative Executive Summary backwardness norms of
the district, more Tribal/Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe population, and those
in mountainous (above 5000 feet above mean sea level) and difficult/border
areas.
A
third party evaluation of KVKs carried out by National Institute of Labour
Economics Research and Development (NILERD), an autonomous institute under NITI
Aayog in 2018 came out with findings which reveal that the KVKs all across the
country are doing a tremendous job accomplishing and achieving many milestones.
The evaluation found that KVKs are playing a proactive role in transferring new
technology at field level with beneficial impacts and that these institutes
have an edge over other service providers by virtue of having better technical
expertise and demonstration abilities. The technologies demonstrated by KVKs
were immediately adopted by 40 percent of the farmers and 25 percent adopted
them by the next agricultural season. On an average a KVK covers 43 villages
and 4300 farmers every year and 80% of villages covered are 10 kilometers away
from KVK. The evaluation further said that 96 percent of the farming queries
were attended by the KVKs and 42% technologies adopted by farmers resulted in
higher productivity and 20 percent resulted in drudgery reduction. About 25% of
the persons trained by KVKs started their own self employment ventures.
Since
their establishment KVKs have been proactively contributing to the development
of farms and farming community by way of disseminating of sustainable
technologies, their awareness and sensitization, skill development of youths
and farmers including farm women, developing adequate linkages with private and
public institutes, collaborations with all relevant stakeholders, providing
marketing support, mobilization of this largely static entity and much more.
The OFTs and FLDs laid out by KVKs in lakhs in the farmer fields have resulted
in a huge increase in the production and productivity of the farms ultimately
benefitting the farming community. Most of the flagship programmes of the
government are now reach out to potential beneficiaries through these district
level institutes.
The author writes on agriculture
and social issues, can be reached at
pkumar6674@gmail.com
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