Raitha samparka kendras and their role in agro-information delivery

摘要

The demand driven extension system in India has experienced major conceptual, structural, and institutional?changes since the late 1990s to meet the needs of increased production. The earlier Extension Systems including Training and Visit system are gradually replaced by agricultural extension centers at hobli level called Raitha Samparka Kendras (RSKs) as?terminal linkage to the farmers to meet the needs of agrarian community for agriculture based technology and information. The?study focused on information delivery mechanisms of the RSKs located in Southern Karnataka has revealed that 25 percent?of technical and 20 percent of para-technical staffs in many RSKs and fractured information delivery mechanism in these?RSKs require adequate training to keep up the pace with development. Farmers are less aware about the structure and?functioning of RSKs and are using RSKs mainly as a government retail outlet for subsidized agricultural inputs. The officials?at RSKs are found to be over burdened with more administrative work than real extension work and are unable to deliver the?required technical information on agriculture and allied aspects. There is a strong need for RSKs to mould and adopt to?emerging extension methods such as ICT enabled approaches to cater the needs of farmers and sustaining agriculture development in future.