Agricultural Productivity gains through capacity building, eco-friendly farming and Extension Education Reforms

By PROF. GHULAM MOHY-UD-DIN WANI.

DIRECTOR EXTENSION EDUCATION AND DIRECTOR SAMETI,SKUAST-K,SHALIMAR POST GPO 461 SRINAGAR-KASHMIR. Home page.www.profgmwani.page.tl. Email ghulamwani1949@gmail.com wanimohyuddun@yahoo.com Phones 09419095342 09419409546

ABSTRACT

Agricultural Production has entered new era of competitive-low-cost globally oriented enterprise. The cost-benefit ratio decide the mode of Farming. Global marketing needs some changes at base level. Farmers have to be cost conscious and need new strategies of mixing various farming option like Agriculture, Horticulture, Livestock husbandry and Floriculture activities. A new model for incorporating all these fields in an eco-friendly mode is discussed. Appropriate mixed technology in tune with natural resources needed at the moment in India.. An agricultural mission for efficient Resource management should aim at bridging gap between current farm yield and potential Farm yield. Use of bio-technology and bio-informatics for identification of economically viable cropping options and combinations can not be ruled out ,however soil and environmental preservation must be kept in mind while using biotech farming options. We should talk of Eco-conducive-germplasm-base instead of high productive - germplasm, un-competable to our natural resources. All these and other aspects of future agricultural scenario in India is discussed in these pages. India with 1.09 billion people and 60% of them dependent on agriculture can not be leveled with USA who has merely339 million people and only 0.7 of them dependent or agriculture. Therefore the past trend of aping USA OR EU models of agricultural development won’t help. We have to innovate new ways and means conducive to our agrarian conditions and available resource to increase our food production for growing population in future. Some of the original thoughts of the author published as e-papers are reproduced here to suggest new innovative models.

Change of mind set We will need a change in the mechanism of technology dissemination thus a reformation model for extension education in India is proposed in these pages. More than 50% of our practicing farmers are women who are not exposed to technology new or old, thus a system of their capacity building and skill up-gradation shall be focused Agricultural and allied technologies tested and available in India have been the replications of commercial farming ventures of the west. I would dare to blame our policy planners for this vulnerable state de-affairs. They professed chemical farming when we were world leaders of organics In the past century when whole world faced the ill effects of chemical farming we are busy in advocating our forgotten options which luckily are still existing in deep and uncommunicable pockects of our country called backward pockects. Our research need a change from individual crop or commodity farming research to mixed farming approaches .My mohy model of 1992 is being quoted withmohy model of 1992 is being quoted with out reference quite often by those whose hollowness of innovative ideas is responsible for our defective policies.