FUTURE TRAINING STRATEGY FOR EXTENSION PERSONNEL

Sharma OP and Sharma BM

In Rajasthan as well as in the country, every year tremendous amount of time, energy and money is spent in various training activities for the extension-personnel. The most important of these activities are; workshops, seminars, conferences, short and medium duration courses, field visits etc. The extension-personnel should be progressive and well informed as the national agricultural economic growth depends on them. Hence, the need for strengthening the extension-personnel through effective training programmes has become an integral part of the agricultural strategy. A tentative training programme has been formulated and documented to achieve this objective which includes; i) “Anticipated future need of extension-personnel and ii) Capabilities for meeting the same. Keeping this fact in views a specific objective; “Future training strategy for Extension-personnel,” was included in this investigation.
The study was conducted in Jaipur district of Rajasthan State. This district is comprised of 13 Panchayat samities, which were grouped into three clusters namely; Shahpura, Jhotwara and Sanganer. Mainly three categories of extenhsion-personnel were working in these three clusters for transfer of technology. They were Village Extension Workers (VEWs), Assistant Agriculture Officers (AAOs) and Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs). One hundred and twenty six VEWs (42 VEWs from each cluster) out of 2476 VEWs and 21 AAOs (7 AAOs from each cluster) out of 41 AAOs, were selected through simple random sampling technique as the respondents from these three clusters. There were only ten SMss working in these clusters as technical guiders of VEWs and AAOs. They all were included in the sample for present investigation. Thus, there were 157 respondents (126 VEWs + 21 AAOs + 10 SMSs) in the sample.
Future training need inventory was prepared based on the suggestions received from the extension-personnel consisted of fifteen items which were arranged against a 3-point scale and the respondent extension-personnel were asked to rate each item in any one of the response categories as “Most Needed”, “Needed”, and “Not-Needed” categories respectively.
The respondents needed training mostly in the subject “Ecological farming (2.54 MS)”, followed by “Biotechnology in agriculture (2.40 MS)”, “Drip and sprinkler irrigation system (2.34 MS)”, “Fertilizer quality control (2.24 MS)”, Safe and judicious use of insecticides and pesticides (2.21 MS)”, “Latest communication techniques in Extension (2.19 MS)”, “Latest improved agriculture implements (2.02 MS)”, “Agricultural meterology (2.01 MS)”, “Computer in agriculture (1.89 MS)”, “Spice production techniques (1.82 MS)”, “Floriculture (1.81 MS)”, “Plastic in agriculture (1.77 MS)”, “Sericulture (1.76 MS)”, “Mushroom cultivation (1.62 MS) and “Bee keeping (1.60 MS)”.
All the items/subjects mentioned have been identified as important for the future training policy of extension-personnel. So, as far as possible, all these subjects must be included in the future training programmes of extension-personnel. Though, some of them are more important than the others, priority must be given to them in future training programmes. ‘They are, “Ecological farming”, because the world agriculture is now shifting towards ecological farming and this is growing need of today. “Biotechnology” is recent advancement in agriculture, so it must also be given priority
after “Ecological farming”. Agriculture in Rajasthan is mainly dependent on rainfall. For efficient and judicious use of available irrigation water, drip and sprinkler system of irrigation must be utilized by the farmers of the state but it may be only possible when the extension-personnel are properly trained in this aspect.
Suggestion for future training strategy of Extension-personnel for the success of any training programme meant for extension-personnel, it is essential that such programmes should be based on the training needs of the extension-personnel and priority must be given to those subjects/topics in which they find themselves really deficient in knowledge Those extension-personnel should be called first who have less working experience and have to serve relatively a large clientel for the inservice training programme. The training programmes for extension-personnel must be evaluated from time to time to find out the short comings, if any. This will help in strengthening the training programme and to reconstruct it with better equipments in order to meet the present demands. The whole concept of training should be viewed as problem oriented rather than subject oriented. It means more attention should be given to those aspects where the extension-personnel are not able to provide solution to the problems in the field situation. A system of adequate follow-up has to be developed so as to measure, whether the required productivity is being achieved or not.Instructions must be allowed to give lectures only after verifying their subject matter competence and teaching abilities. Instructors must give lecture notes in Hindi language rather than in English. This will facilitate greater interest and understanding on the part of trainees who are generally not highly educated. The number of extension-personnel per class should not exceed thirty and also must be homogeneous. This will help in greater attention to individual needs and will result in more gain and knowledge. Extension-personnel while attending must be provided with adequate information materials that must be neither too voluminous nor technical so that they can keep it for their guidance and reference for future use.