Thrust Areas
As an institution of providing agricultural management and extension trainings, PAMETI focuses on planning, development and organization of such training modules which can prove effective in making extension officials competent enough for bringing a positive change in the agriculture and allied sectors.
The evolving changes in the agri-education sector from “teaching to learning” mode and the need for rational dissemination of large information signifies the requirement to develop newer capacity building programmes and modern methods of training. The institute in view of the changing demands of the agricultural scenario in the State has to identify the key areas of interest where the extension officials are needed to be trained.
A paradigm shift in the approach to transfer of technology is required to make the farmers aware not only about how to increase production but how to handle the produce, manage & sell it. This task requires more emphasis on “Market Led Extension” rather than conventional seed to seed transfer of technology mechanism. Farmers should be imparted knowledge about what to produce, when to produce, when & how much to store, how to process & pack and finally where & whom to sell the produce at remunerative price. They must be given opportunities to explore different marketing alternatives and should be motivated to develop new innovative marketing strategies. In line with increasing interest of consumers to buy items online, use of Internet & E-Commerce sites for marketing of agricultural products direct from Farm to Consumer’s home need to be promoted. These may include farm fresh fruits & vegetables, spices, herbs, flowers, Organic products, Livestock products or many more such farm based products. Farmers should be informed about the benefits of using Electronic National Agricultural Market (E-NAM) to increase their outreach nationwide and get better profits.
Agri-preneurship or Entrepreneurship Development in agriculture and allied sectors is very much needed. Farmers should be advised to see their different enterprises in holistic manner and manage them in an integrated way so that outcome of one enterprise may be used as input to the other and resources can be optimally used. They should be encouraged to include allied enterprises with traditional practices of cultivating crops. This may need skill development in areas of Farm Planning & Management. Farmers should learn to see agriculture as agribusiness and manage their enterprises as managers only. They should learn to keep record of their farming activities as well as expenditure and incomes so that profit can be very well calculated and improvements can be done accordingly.
There is an ongoing discussion at both national and international levels about the effects of chemical residues used in production of our food on health and the environment. It is said that there
are noticeable amount of hazardous effects present in our raw and much of the processed food that we eat. That’s why the interest in organic food products has been raising steadily over the recent years with new health super foods emerging. Organic food production practices not only virtually eliminates the risk of chemical residues but also these are much more environmentally friendly because the use of all natural production methods eliminates the risk of soil and underwater contamination and helps preserve biodiversity & wildlife both of which have been seriously affected by the human actions. Our farmers should be encouraged to take up production practices which produce “Safe Food” for health and environment.
There is urgent need of inculcating skills among unemployed rural youth in our villages for empowering them and making them capable for earning their livelihood. Instead of creating jobs for them, they should be made competent enough to not only earn bread and butter for their own families but also create job opportunities for others. Skill development of rural youth in agri. based sectors would not only help them individually but would also boot these sectors. Rural youth can be very well absorbed in constructive development of agriculture and allied sectors. Through appropriate capacity building programmes for rural youth, their active participation in development of these sectors can be very well ensured. Youth can be engaged in management & repair of farm equipments, value addition of farm produce, supply chain management and marketing etc.
Achieving the above objectives would not be easy. As the number of extension functionaries are very few as compared to the number of target farming families, this requires latest and innovative extension approaches and strategies. Multi agency support in the form of Public Private Partnerships would be required. Para extension workers from NGOs, agri graduates, input dealers, private firms’ extension linkages would have to be used for this purpose. Progressive Farmers can play very important part as key communicators.
Use of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Agricultural Development must be given importance here as it would enable the extension officers to communicate their messages to the farming community timely. Trainees should be skilled in using various web & mobile based applications which has been designed by State as well as Central Government. Extension workers need to be motivated to become more innovative and creative for using these tools for the welfare of the farmers.
Extension workers must be made competent enough for accomplishment of above tasks. They need to learn various management skills like communication, group dynamics, team work, time management, stress management, leadership development etc. Various Human Resource Development workshops would help trainees to be self aware and give them opportunity to develop these required qualities.
Following are the identified thrust areas in terms of capacity building of extension functionaries:
- Market led Extension
- Entrepreneurship Development
- Role of ICTs in Agricultural Development
- Innovative Extension Approaches
- Human Resource Development
- Organic and Health Foods
- Skill Development of Unemployed Rural Youth
- Women Empowerment
- Processing and Value Addition