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Transcript

Hello friends. In our previous class. We discussed about what is extension. I am sure, now you are aware of the concept of the term ‘extension’. In today’s class we will be discussing about what extension is not about. There are some misconceptions regarding the concept of extension. So because of that misconception, people don’t understand it as a profession and as a discipline. And because of that, so they start telling something. The perception of those people who don’t understand the concept of extension say that extension is nothing but a type of gossip. It’s a gossiping subject. But exactly it is not. Why it is not? So that I will be explaining. It is not a science, not for intellectuals. And not academic discipline. So these are another group of misconceptions that the people carry with. So since beginning we have been emphasizing on, that it is the service as well as it is a profession. Because it is a service. It involves service, it has developed as profession. And it is academic discipline, because it has its own subject matter. It has its own contents. It has its own syllabus. And it has its own degree programs. And it is making, it is preparing the individuals to be professionals in agriculture and allied sciences. Some people say that it is nothing but the act of photography. So the profession of photography is something different. Yes extension makes use of the appropriate photographs, videos and everything for the benefit of the people for providing efficient services.

But it is not the process of photography. It is not the process of story writing. And somebody says that it is a type of journalism also. So the differences, that I will be explaining you. And by attaching the meaning to the concept of extension as the transfer of technology. So there is another connotation that it is nothing but the postman’s job. Taking the information from this place to that place, and handing it over to somebody else. But in between, so there are good number of educational activities that are part of the extension education. So wherein it proves that it is not the postman’s job, until and unless there is change in knowledge, there is change in attitude, there is change in skill, we cannot say that extension has taken place. So that is why it is not the postman’s job. It’s a vague, hazy, indistinct and a fuzzy subject. It, people perceive it because it is difficult to understand the processes of extension. It is difficult to understand all the nuances of extension. And it is difficult to take up the profession of extension, because extension deals with the most dynamic animal on this earth; that is nothing but human being. That is being dealt by another human being, who is having some competencies in the extension education. He is making use of all those techniques. So that to convince that particular individual. In that process if he fails, then he starts feeling that, it’s a waste subject, it is a fuzzy subject, it is an indistinct subject. These are misconceptions that are attached with. Then extension is dealing with the crowd pulling or making the people to come together.

Obviously we need the group of people to understand the technology, to understand the information which is appropriate for them. It is not that we are gathering the people for some other purposes. The gathering of the people is for the purpose of educational activities, for the purpose of changing their behavior, for the purpose of making them educated, for the purpose of changing their practices for which we are making the people come together. So that they can change their practices. Then we need these physical facilities also. There are different units for that which makes these arrangements. But the emphasis is on the educational activities. The emphasis is on changing the behavioral activities. These connotations or these terms that are attached with the term ‘extension’ because of lack of understanding of the concept of extension. But this is not about. And as I said when we say that extension is nothing but a propaganda activity. What do we mean by propaganda? Propaganda is the information especially for of a biased or misleading in nature, used to promote a political cause or a point of view. So when this particular concept itself is having so many negativities within it. But extension has nothing to do with these negativities. So since beginning we have been emphasizing on the issue that there is change in knowledge, there is change in attitude, there is change in skills. Then only we say that extension has taken place.

The propaganda deals with the biased, misleading nature of information to promote a particular cause or particular point of view. Then somebody says that it is extension is advertising, but it is not exactly an advertising because advertising is an audio or visual form of marketing communication that employs an openly sponsorednon-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or an idea. In extension also we are dealing with some of the information and the innovative ideas, but they are not non personal in nature. And we are not making the process of selling them. But these efforts are directed towards changing their behavior, changing their practices, changing their living standards, and ultimately leading towards enhanced production and productivity of its clients. Extension is nothing to do with the concept of journalism. Obviously extension makes use of the concept of journalism just to promote the ideas related to technology, related to innovation. And ultimately leading towards the transfer of technology. The concept of journalism is being dealt by the professionals who are trained in that and in which there is one issue of agricultural journalism also, wherein we are talking of popularizing the agricultural technologies with the help of the concept of journalism. That’s a different issue but definitely it is not journalism.

Extension is not the process of mass communication. Because mass communication is a study of how people exchange information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time. So that’s what is the area of mass communication. So the process of extension deals with maybe a particular target community. There information needs are totally distinct. But in case of mass communication they are dealing the entire community as a whole. But extension segments the entire population based on their needs and provide information which is relevant to them. If you take a village as a unit. So within the village, there are different needs; information needs that the farmers have. And accordingly there might be 10-15 groups of people who are in need of different types of information. And accordingly extension provides them. So in this context, so let us try to understand the difference between the person who is acting as an extension educationist and who is acting as an extension service provider. Because these are the people who are responsible for providing the extension services for the benefit of the people, so that we can overcome the misconceptions that we are trying to discuss about so far.

Extension educationist is a person with a background of education in agriculture and allied sciences and specialization in extension science and provides the knowledge and skills of extension and communication tools and techniques to the extension service providers at regular intervals to bring the desirable changes in the behavior of extension service provider. So this is what is the role of an extension educationist who has specialized himself in extension science. His rate of change in the behavior of the service providers. Who are the service providers? The service provider is a person with a background of education in agriculture and/or allied sciences and specializations in the discipline of agriculture and allied sciences, who is serving in a public or private institution and meant for dissemination of technological advances to the intended communities and institutions based on the needs. After acquiring the extension and communication tools and techniques from extension educationist. The extension service provider is an individual with the specialization of his own subject, in addition to that. He is getting the additional information of how to transfer that technology from extension educationist. Then he becomes a service provider. For example entomologist. For example pathologist. Agricultural engineer, agronomist, horticulturist, animal husbandry.

So these are the people who are responsible for transfer of information based on their learnings of that subject with their specialization for the benefit of the farmers. And this is how understanding these 2 terms, that is extension educationist and service provider, we can overcome the misleading concepts regarding the extension. So to conclude. There are some misconceptions which need to be overruled. As long as these misconceptions persist the extension cannot be strengthened. People carry these misconceptions and it is going to continue. And agricultural professionals should understand the difference between the extension service provider and extension educationist so that we can transfer the technology in an effective manner. And extension basically is an educational effort. So adopting the educational effort is the basic purpose of extension, wherein we said that education is nothing but bringing in desirable changes in the behavior of an individual. So when we do that. Definitely we are going to achieve the objectives of extension. With this we are coming to the end of today’s discussion on what extension is not about. In the next class we will be discussing about the definition and scope of extension.

Thank You.