CHAPTER I — BETTER ECONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE
by the technical staffs of the State agriculture, annpal-husbandry, and other departments. Mobilizing the nation’s farmers to expand food production through extension education is the joint responsibility o f these organizations. To achieve greater farming efficiency and ex
panded output, we recommend:
1. The community development organization from the Centre*
to the blocks should focus its extension programme more fully on increased food production. The emergency nature of the present food situation requires much more than issuing directives that the VLWs;
Should spend 75 to 80 per cent of their time on agricultural production.
The top priority programme objective of community develop
ment in the foreseeable future must be to marshal the educational force and drive that will stimulate village cultivators to produce more- food. The application of many more technological improvements, and.
the vigorous impact of science, are greatly needed at the field level in- order to obtain the magnitude of production required. This demands, the use of technical agricultural specialists in the blocks and also other adjustments in current block staff assignments.
Additional block agricultural personnel with specialized techni
cal competence to handle local farming problems, such as irrigation,, soil conservation, farm management and home science, are needed; and more intensive technical and extension methods training must be given to all present block staffs as rapidly as possible. Adjustments in block budgets are also called for.
2. Immediate steps must be taken at the Centre, State and Dis
trict levels to strengthen extension work. Unless the block staffs are- adequately supported by a core of agricultural subject-matter spe
cialists up the line—specialists who are continuously in touch with current research developments—the local staffs cannot be expected to- carry on successful extension programmes to increase crop yields by modern farming methods.*
At the Centre, some of the nation’s most competent agricultural' technicians and scientists—in such fields as rice and other cereal crop- production, irrigation, plant protection, soil fertility, animal husbandry,, farm management and agricultural economics—must be recruited to give broad, general leadership to State extension specialists. The men- selected must be capable of commanding the complete respect of their opposite numbers in research. At State and District levels men o f similar qualifications are needed to give leadership and direction to*
the men in blocks and villages.
The shortage of technical personnel requires that care be exercised’
in building up this technical staff to avoid undue disruption to on-going' research work important to food production. In some cases,-research- workers at colleges and experiment stations might be used for this;
purpose on a part-time basis.
The kinds of State-wide and District farming problems impeding- greater food production should determine the snecial technical quali- ficatipns of these extension workers.
* The relationship o f research to extension is o f great importance and is d is- fcussed at several places in other sections o f this Report. Some general comments appear in Part III, Chapter V.
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3. In the interest of securing more rapid farrfiing improvements throughout the country, the approximately 2,000 “shadow” blocks (that is, the blocks not yet under the community development programme) should receive at least a minimum of extension educational assistance.
These areas should be manned with a full complement of agricultural assistants and field demonstrators, and these extension workers should also receive periodic subject-matter and extension methods training.
The following changes in assignments of officers at the block level should be made:
a. Village Level Workers: Relieve the Gram Sevak of service tasks, such as handling farm supplies, loan collections, etc., as rapily as these jobs can be assigned to other persons.
Direct more of the activities of the Gram Sevikas to teaching improved agricultural practices to farm women.
b. Agricultural Officer: Relieve him of service responsi
bilities such as seed, fertilizer, and insecticide handling, assign
ing this to cooperatives and to the Cooperative Officer.
c. Animal Husbandry Officer: Reorient his work toward food production, for example, giving greater emphasis to poultry production, where applicable, and greater emphasis to forage utilization and controlled grazing.
d. SEO (Man): Assign him as a staff officer to assist the BDO and other block officers in organizing facilities and in preparing visual materials and other teaching aids with par
ticular reference to agricultural production, and to, assist the VLW in organization, method demonstrations, etc.
e. Cooperative Officer: Encourage him to take greater responsibility for developing an understanding of the purpose, objectives and opportunities of cooperatives and aiding in their organization. Make him responsible for the supply functions such as seed and fertilizer currently usually handled by the agricultural officer.
f. Other Officers: The work of the engineer, panchayat officer, woman social education organizer should be redirected,
•to the extent possible, to educational activities and development programmes contributing directly to greater food production.
5. State Departments of Agriculture should provide adequate agricultural information services to help extend information on im
proved practices through mass communication media, such as radio, newspapers and pamphlets, and by visual teachning devices—movies filmstrips, posters, and so on. Information services can support the work'of local extension personnel by making farmers more aware of better farming methods, and by providing the local workers visual and other teaching aids.
6. Conditions contributing to rapid personnel turnover, such as low salaries, job insecurity and limited opportunities for advancement, should be remedied. This is particularly a matter of concern with respect to VLWs, but would also improve the quality of work done by extension personnel up the line. A part of these personnel problems can be solved by staff supervision oriented to worker counsel and guid
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ance and to general personnel development rather than to inspection, order-giving and control. Administrative steps must also be taken to correct the more crucial problems of job insecurity and low morale resulting from insufficient opportunities for advancement.
7. With respect to block budgets and accounting and auditing procedures, greater budget flexibility from block to block is needed.
•Budgets should reflect priorities set by the local -people and the block staff. Accounting and credit inspectors need a better understanding of extension programme objectives. Rigidities and complex paper controls place the local extension workers in “strait jackets” and con
sume time that should be devoted to the business of aiding farmers to produce more food.
8. The reports required of extension workers should be simpli
fied, and consist of periodic descriptive statements of extension pro
gramme achievements, with expanding food production as the central theme. The present detailed reports of VLWs and block extension officers appear to give more emphasis to mechanical paper control than to assessing programme results.
9. To mobilize the manpower of State-level personnel concerned with-food production programmes fully, each State should convene a working conference of community development and appropriate techni
cal department officers and specialists for the purpose of: (a) assess
ing and outlining the jobs to be done to aid local extension workers and village cultivators to produce more food, and (b) fixing the specific responsibilities of each department for carrying out the plans. Each such State conference should be followed by a series of District con
ferences in which all appropriate District personnel, official and non
official, would meet to appraise the food production potential of their respective Districts and determine and assign responsibilities for jobs to be done to support fcilock staff extensioh programmes with techni
cians, teaching equipment, materials and demonstration supplies.
Extension Methods
India’s extension education programme can be much more effec
tive if agricultural extension workers at all levels develop more of the skills for conducting an effective educational programme. To achieve this, they must have a better understanding of human rela
tions generally and of: (a) the social-psychological make-up of the cultivator, (b) the mental processes of the cultivator in learning and acting, and (c) the cultivator in his social setting in the village.
With respect to extension methods, we recommend:
1. Competent instructors in extension education should be secured or trained for the extension training centres, and a more comprehensive and practical work-training syllabus, including con
tent and methods of teaching, should be developed.
2. A critical analysis should be made, in the field, of extension methods now being used and of any others that may be valuable, to determine how extension programmes in Action may most effec
tively persuade the village farmers to adopt farming improvements.
3. Village leader training camps are an excellent method of extending and maximizing the limited resources of local extension
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staffs available to encourage greater food production. These camps should be continued and expanded in number, so that full advan
tage can be taken of local progressive farmer leadership, capable of influencing neighbouring farmers to adopt efficient practices.
Extreme care should be taken in planning the programmes of these camps to make certain that the subject matter taught relates clearly to increased food production.
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CHAPTER II — BETTER USE OF PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL