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Transcript

Hello friends. In our last class we discussed about the efforts of Indian Council of Agricultural Research in providing extension services under the banner of first line extension services of Indian Council of Agricultural Research. In today’s class we will be beginning with the discussion on Agriculture Technology Information Center. This is the single window delivery system linking the various units of research institutions with intermediary users and end users in decision making and problem solving exercise. When a farmer visits a research institution or a State Agricultural University, so which is spread over in a large amount of area. But how a farmer or an individual can get all the information at one point. So that is what is the idea behind establishment of this ATIC, wherein all the services required by a farmer or an individual are being provided at one doorstep, so that’s what is the idea behind single window delivery system.

So there are such 44 ATIC centers under ICAR institutions or the State Agricultural Universities in operation. What we get in these centers? The products like the seed, planting material, livestock species, tools, equipments, value added products and other agricultural products are being provided to the farmers, which are the products of that State Agricultural University or the ICAR research institutions, which are providing these products. Then as far as the services are considered; soil and water testing, plant clinic, veterinary clinic. Testing and calibration of small equipments are also being provided to the farmers. It is not only the product. In addition to that the services are also there. Services like the information is also given to the farmers, which is based on their demand and for which the exhibitions are maintained in these ATIC centers, as well as the audio-video aids are there, small video films are there, audio CD’s are there, video CD’s are there. They can get this information at the ATIC center in addition to the literature in the regional language, which are being provided to the farmers.

Then coming to the, one of the mega projects launched by Indian Council of Agricultural Research launched in the year 1998 with the support of the World Bank. The objectives of this National Agricultural Technology Project include. To revitalize the agricultural technology generation, assessment, refinement and dissemination system. It means all the processes of technology generation like the process of technology generation itself and its assessment and its refinement as well as its dissemination system needed to be revitalized. So with that idea this NATP was launched in the year 1998. So through this project increase the quality and type of technologies disseminated through the location specific technology development and diversification and intensification of the farming system and use of sustainability enhancing technology was the priority. And the project emphasized upon the strengthening of the research, extension and farmer linkage and increase in the financial sustainability of the system was another priority of the NATP.

Under this NATP one component was bringing innovations in technology dissemination system. Innovations in technology dissemination system the model of ATMA was developed. ATMA means Agricultural Technology Management Agency. Basically it is a registered society. ATMA is a registered society of key stakeholders responsible for technology dissemination activities at the district level. So at the bottom level we have the commodity interest groups, the farmer interest groups, then the farmer. And these individuals are in interaction with various agricultural professionals like the farmer friend. And they are in interaction with the each other as well with the scientists through farm schools. And they are having an opportunity of developing as the agricultural entrepreneurs. And at the block level there is a Block Farmers Advisory Committee or FAC and Block Technology Team is there, to take care of the needs of the farmers at the block level. And at the district level ATMA governing body and Management Committee is there. And we have an advisory committee at the district level also. And the District Training Centers then the Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Zonal Research Stations are also supporting this ATMA at the district level. Under the State level there is a Nodal Center to coordinate the activities of ATMA. And the State Farmers Advisory Committee is there and in addition to that the ICAR institutes and State Agricultural Universities and SAMETI are supporting the functionaries of ATMA. The SAMETI means State Agricultural Extension Management Training Institute. Basically this institute is providing the training for the functionaries of the ATMA, to how to implement ATMA, how to prepare SREP, and how the entire mechanism of ATMA that is being carried out at the average district level and the State level. So that is what is the role of SAMETI.

And before coming to this top level of this Department of Agricultural Cooperation, the help of the media organizations is also taken care like the Prasar Bharati, which is providing the media support for the functions of ATMA. And the National E-Governance program of Government of India is also part of the ATMA model, so that all the electronic initiatives of Government of India are going to be inculcated as a part of the ATMA model. And the BSNL is providing the support services in the form of implementation of Kissan Call Center as well as through helping the technology dissemination. And the MANAGE is an institution which is providing the conceptual support for the formulation implementation of the ATMA model and the financial institution like NABARD(National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) is providing the financial support which are being providedin the form of subsidy to the ultimate end-user or the farmer. The beauty of this model if you can have a look at. The fund is flowing from top to bottom. But with a deviation from the various other programs that we discussed so far. The work plan is having the bottom-up approach. It means what exactly is needed by the target community will be taken care by the commodity interest groups or the farmers interest group. And they are demanding what they want and the rest of the agencies what we discussed so far are acting as a facilitator.

In case of the earlier programs specially the Training and Visit System, and other models if you look at. The what is needed by the farmer was decided at the top level, and it was supplied through till the farmer. And when it reaches the farmer, so many times farmer thought that this is not meeting out our demand, our need, so they used to reject those things. But when the demand is going from the grass root, so then we can say that this is the perfect bottom-up model of extension, compared to the earlier models which were the top-down models of extension. The stakeholders of ATMA include District Magistrate or the Collector is the chairman of ATMA. He is an ex-officio chairman of this ATMA. Basic role of the District Magistrate or the Collector is to facilitate the functions of ATMA, because good number of institutions are coming under one platform. The role of DM is only to facilitate. Then the chief executive officer of that particular district is going to act as a vice-chairman. And Joint Director of Agriculture or the Deputy Director of Agriculture is a member. And in addition to that the representative of KVK, farmer’s representative, livestock producer, horticultural farmer, representative of women, then scheduled caste-scheduled tribe representative, non-governmental organizations, lead bank officer of the district, means the representative of the financial institution, representative of the District Industrial Center, District Agriculture Marketing Board, representative of the input supply association. And one fisheries or sericulture representative depending on the availability of the enterprise in that particular district. And the Project Director ATMA, who is the ex-officio member secretary cum treasurer of this particular ATMA. So he is being nominated by the governing body which is consisting of these key stakeholders. So these people put together create the all the functions of ATMA, and based on the demands from the farming communities. The key actors of this stakeholders include, the Project Director, Deputy Director, Block Team Members, Farmer Advisory Committee Members and the village level extension workers and the farmer organizations. So these are some of the key players of this ATMA.

Let us look into the role set of them one by one. The Project Director is providing the overall leadership for the agricultural extension and the related technology transfer activities at the top level. And the convener of this Farmer Advisory Committee, he provides the technological coordination and administrative supervision for all block level extension programs. He is responsible for submission of the block action plans to the ATMA. Means the project preparation as I said, the demand starts from the farmers organizations, the commodity interest groups or the farmers interest group, that are being consolidated at the block level. Then the role of Agricultural Extension Officer or Horticultural Extension Officer or Livestock Extension Officer to identify and prioritize the important technical, management and resource constraints faced by the farmers using PRA method. Means involvement of the ultimate stakeholder in the planning process, is inbuilt mechanism of ATMA model. The village level extension worker shall prepare the inventory of the predominant crops, livestock, farming systems and determine the technology gaps and that limits the productivity of the field. It means the village level extension worker is playing the key role here. By identifying the gap it means, he is identifying the need in association with the farmers. And he also identifies the homogenous socio economic groups of the farmers, and organize them into the farmer interest group or the commodity interest group, based on their needs and based on their demands.

The role of the non-governmental organizations, they also work with the non-governmental organizations for formation of commodity interest groups because these commodity interest groups are going to play the role in the marketing of the produce. Because the farmers having the similar commodity or the same commodity are coming together and forming the group. A farmer can be member in more than one commodity groups also because of his cultivation practices. The farmer’s organizations are encouraged at village level, and in turn these groups evolve into the commodity associations, the marketing cooperatives and other types of farmers organization at block and district level. So one major deviation or the similarity that we can observe in this model is. Since beginning, so if you look at the discussion from the Rural Reconstruction Scheme, the Ravindranath Tagore’s, the Shantiniketan attempt and the subsequent development programs, and the latest program that is ATMA, which is operational in the entire country, the model of ATMA is being implemented. So in all these the common point that is emerging is. Organization of farmers into different groups. The nomenclature varied from time to time. Earlier we used to say that cooperative society, then we starting saying the self SHG, now we are telling that it is the commodity association or the marketing cooperatives or farmers organization. So the modus operandi remain same the philosophy behind the programs remain same, but the nomenclature varied from time to time.

Then coming to the next program, that is the National Agricultural Innovation project, which was implemented in 2006 after ATMA model. The World Bank supported to assist the stakeholders in coping the changing agricultural scenario through new strategies and innovative solutions. National Agricultural Innovation Project is an end to end scaled up pilot for application of science, advancement of science, human resource development, policy and process innovations for doing science in a different manner. So in this particular project there are different components, that we come across. The component 1 which said that ICAR as the catalyzing agent for management of change in the National Agricultural Research System. The component led to the research on production to consumption system, wherein the livelihood support system also came into existence. In the component 3, research on sustainable rural livelihood system security, and the fourth component said the basic and strategic research in frontier areas of agricultural sciences. The beauty of this National Agricultural Innovation Project included. So the projects were sanctioned based on the consortium mode. The individual project were discouraged under this model. So those researchers should form the consortium of their own. It means bringing various institutions on one platform for taking up, for finding solutions for the common problems that are being faced by the farmers in different parts of the country. So when one institution conducts research it is addressing the local needs. May be the similar problems that are prevailing in different parts of the country. So those things will be taken care of under this model of consortium.

To conclude, we can say that innovation in technology dissemination was one of the major com major outcome of the efforts under NATP. And emphasis was on participation of the stakeholders. And maximum involvement of the stakeholders was ensured under the programs like ATIC or the NATP, ATMA and NAIP. Then changing needs of the community and research provides appropriate solutions to that and it is a continuous process. So the moment we solve a particular problem, and we started with the innovative model. So again we are going to come out with good number of other problems, which we did not face earlier, and research system is there to provide appropriate solutions to that. And this is how the process of research as well as development continues. It depends on the individual who takes an active part in this process of finding the solution and moving ahead. If not, he is going to be a laggard or he will be left behind in the process of development.

With this we are concluding today’s discussion and in the next class, we will be discussing about the concept of democratic decentralization.

Thank You.