Difficulties faced by the extension agents The purpose of the study was to determine the extent of constraints faced by the extension agents in the practical implementation of the existing extension approaches namely T&V and Selected Concentrative Strategy. The author conducted structured interviews with 60 extension agents from January to April 2001. They identified the following important difficulties:
1. Non-involvement of local people in program planning: According to all of the respondents, the most important constraint for extension agents in their fieldwork is the non-involvement of local people in program planning. As the organisation of extension division follows the national administrative system, extension workers have to perform according to the plan of MOAI and farmers have no chance to participate in program planning and decision making process. Therefore, local people are not involved actively in the implementation of new extension programs. For example, some areas are not suitable for rice, but according to the ministry, farmers in these areas have to grow rice and farmers lose a lot of money. Consequently the farmers don’t trust the extension agents.
2. Lack of incentives for extension staff:
All of the respondents expressed that the lack of incentives for extension staff is the second most important constraint to perform extension work.
3. Farmers are very poor:
This is the third most important constraint for extension agents to perform their extension work. It is evident that even the farmers which are interested to practice new methods or technologies have no money for investments and once again extension is facing its limits.
4. Lack of suitable markets and favourable prices for farm products:
According to the planning of the ministry, extension agents have to organise the farmers to grow rice three times per year, but there is no market for their products and they have no right to export rice.
5. Farmers have no crop insuranceinsurance: It is evident that due to the successive growing of high yielding rice varieties, the soil fertility and subsequently the crop production is declining. Therefore the extension agents have no more strength to advice the farmers to grow HYV (High Yielding Varieties) rice. A vast majority of the extension agents mentioned that the lack of a suitable market, lack of crop price insurance and lack of crop damage insurance for the farmers were also major constraints for extension agents to perform their fi eldwork.
6. Inadequate extension staff:
The numbers of extension staff, who work in the AED, are not suffi cient for the large number of farmers and the cultivated area. This is partly due the unattractive work conditions and they shift, whenever possible, to other departments. At present, extension agents cannot perform their fieldwork effectively and efficiently.
7. Transportation facilities for extension staff are very poor: The poor transportation facilities for the extension staff is also a major constraint to perform the
extension activities. If there were good transportation facilities for the extension agents, they could reach in time to farmers’ site, and distribute and advice new and modern information, practices and technologies to farmers as well as they could bring
farmers’ problems to the respective research centre and find the solution in time.
Difficulties faced by the extension agents The purpose of the study was to determine the extent of constraints faced by the extension agents in the practical implementation of the existing extension approaches namely T&V and Selected Concentrative Strategy. The author conducted structured interviews with 60 extension agents from January to April 2001. They identified the following important difficulties:1. Non-involvement of local people in program planning: According to all of the respondents, the most important constraint for extension agents in their fieldwork is the non-involvement of local people in program planning. As the organisation of extension division follows the national administrative system, extension workers have to perform according to the plan of MOAI and farmers have no chance to participate in program planning and decision making process. Therefore, local people are not involved actively in the implementation of new extension programs. For example, some areas are not suitable for rice, but according to the ministry, farmers in these areas have to grow rice and farmers lose a lot of money. Consequently the farmers don’t trust the extension agents.2. Lack of incentives for extension staff:All of the respondents expressed that the lack of incentives for extension staff is the second most important constraint to perform extension work.3. Farmers are very poor:This is the third most important constraint for extension agents to perform their extension work. It is evident that even the farmers which are interested to practice new methods or technologies have no money for investments and once again extension is facing its limits.4. Lack of suitable markets and favourable prices for farm products:According to the planning of the ministry, extension agents have to organise the farmers to grow rice three times per year, but there is no market for their products and they have no right to export rice.5. Farmers have no crop insuranceinsurance: It is evident that due to the successive growing of high yielding rice varieties, the soil fertility and subsequently the crop production is declining. Therefore the extension agents have no more strength to advice the farmers to grow HYV (High Yielding Varieties) rice. A vast majority of the extension agents mentioned that the lack of a suitable market, lack of crop price insurance and lack of crop damage insurance for the farmers were also major constraints for extension agents to perform their fi eldwork.6. Inadequate extension staff:The numbers of extension staff, who work in the AED, are not suffi cient for the large number of farmers and the cultivated area. This is partly due the unattractive work conditions and they shift, whenever possible, to other departments. At present, extension agents cannot perform their fieldwork effectively and efficiently.7. Transportation facilities for extension staff are very poor: The poor transportation facilities for the extension staff is also a major constraint to perform theextension activities. If there were good transportation facilities for the extension agents, they could reach in time to farmers’ site, and distribute and advice new and modern information, practices and technologies to farmers as well as they could bringfarmers’ problems to the respective research centre and find the solution in time.
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