Mr. Vijay Kolekar will present his APS as per the detail:

Date: 3rd October 2023

Time: 1630 - 1730 hrs.

Venue: CTARA Conference Room No.2

Title: Study of Agriculture Extension Services in Maharashtra: Challenges and Ways for Improvement

Guide: Prof. Bakul Rao       

Co-Guide: Prof. Parameshwar Udmale

RPC members: Prof. Priya Jadhav, Prof: Sarthak Gaurav, Prof: Ganesh Ramakrishnan

Abstract:

The agriculture extension services in the public sector play an important role in enabling the farmers to adopt new technologies and to take better decisions in their farming systems. The cutting level extension service provider in the public sector is Agriculture Assistant whose post is created by the Government of Maharashtra in 1998. The village level extension services are very much demanded by the farmers to improve yields and to reduce cost of production and ultimately to enhance the farm income. The current work is focused on analysis of farming calendar which is based on FGDs conducted with the farmers in Aurangabad, Jalgaon and Wardha districts. Also the extension services needed by the farmers are recorded. So as to analyse the role of Agriculture Assistant in extension services, calendar of their work is prepared. The farming calendar shows a much variation in the farm operations carried out by the farmers growing Soybean based as well as Cotton based farming systems. The farmers expect extension service providers to share knowledge about new technologies, new seed varieties, new pesticides weather forecast etc. the Agriculture Assistants are carrying out the activities which are mandated by the Department. The activities of Agriculture Assistants seems to be aligned with farming calendar but the actual work done by them varies from farmers needs. Further correlation between farmers’ needs and current extension services will be studied after in depth analysis of work of Agriculture Assitants.