Mr. Vijay Kolekar will present his APS as per the details below:
Date: Monday, 29th September 2025
Time: 1715 - 1830 hrs.
Venue: C-TARA Conference Room No.2
Title: Agriculture Extension Services in Maharashtra: Study of Challenges and Ways for Improvement
Supervisor: Prof. Bakul Rao
Co-supervisor: Prof. Parmeshwar D. Udmale
RPC Members: Prof. Priya Jadhav and Prof. Sarthak Gaurav
Abstract:
The farming sector in Maharashtra is backbone of rural economy contributing 12 percent to the state GDP (FY2023). The agriculture sector growth rate is ranging from 3.5 percent to 4.4 percent during 2004 to 2021. Above 50 percent of the state’s population depends on agriculture. The agriculture sector in the state is dominated by small and marginal farmers, with 17.11 million operational holders are operating 21.07 million ha with an average size of 1.23 ha. The share of rural household dependent on agriculture has decreased from 63.9 percent in 2019-20 to 55 percent in 2023-24. The decrease may be attributed to adverse effect of climate change on agriculture sector making the sector more vulnerable. The climate variabilities are impacting the agriculture sector making the farmers weaker to take the appropriate farming decisions. They are more dependent on both public and private extension services for knowledge about the practices and technologies suitable to the crops. The public extension services are provided by the Department of Agriculture in the state, and these services, too, are undergoing the transformation considering the dynamic farmer needs under climate change scenario. The Government of Maharashtra has adopted ‘One Window System’ for agriculture extension and service delivery through a single person designated as Assistant Agriculture Officer at village since 1998. Assistant Agriculture Officer (AAO) is the backbone of the restructured extension system, and they provide services related to the agriculture extension, inputs, subsidy schemes, natural resource management at village level. The current research work is focussed on study of services provided by the AAOs, their workload, challenges faced by them, and ways for improvement of the extension services. During current APS, the focus of the study was to construct outcome-based ‘Workload Index’, and to suggest quality parameters for assessment of extension services provided by the AAOs. Also, there was an attempt to study the factors associated with Workload Index, as well as the factors associated with job satisfaction of extension service providers. Considering the nature of tasks mandated for the Assistant Agriculture Officers, a method to calculate Workload Index (WI) is suggested. The WI is calculated based on the output of the field activities implemented by the AAOs. The current study has identified six variables which are key contributors to the workload of AAOs, namely total number of villages allotted, number of farmers reached through extension services, number of financial beneficiaries served, number of Farmer Field Schools conducted, number of pest observation plots, and number of crop cutting plots managed. So as to construct a composite index, appropriate weights are assigned to each indicator based on the relative intensity, time requirement, and complexity of the associated tasks. The study was also conducted to examine the influence of factors such as gender, education level, days and time spent in the jurisdiction, and work satisfaction level on the workload. The analysis was done by conducting an ordinal logistic regression. The results showed that the job satisfaction level, gender, and education level has influence on the workload. The findings underscore the importance of psychosocial and demographic factors in interpretation of the workload by the Assistant Agriculture Officers. Further analysis of factors associated with job satisfaction underscores that demographic factors like age and gender, along with organizational support, are key determinants of job satisfaction. The main seeker of extension services is the farmer, and based on the perception of the farmers about the extension provided by AAOs, the study suggests parameters to judge quality of extension services as well as the ways to improve.