Short commentary: 2023 Vol: 27 Issue: 6
Bhawana Rathore, Manipal University
Sonal Sidana, Manipal University, Jaipur, Rajasthan
Citation Information: Rathore, B., & Sidana, S. (2023). Role of krishi vigyan kendra for the sustainable development of agricultural and rural areas. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 27(6), 1-4.
India has been predominantly a rural country with two thirds of its population still residing in rural areas. India's 70% workforce belongs to rural areas. It is said that true India lives in her villages. The rural growth and development drive the overall growth and development of India as the rural economy of India constitutes around 50% in national income of India, thus, the rural economy of India is backbone of the Indian economy. yet the people of rural India faces many pitfalls which act as an obstacle in rural development. Some of the major problems are small landholdings, water shortage. Older cultivation techniques, lack of marketing information, poverty, lack of agriculture and rural development policies. Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is an institutional project of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for training, testing and deportation of agricultural technologies for the benefit of farmers, farm women and rural youths. Krishi Vigyan Kendra provides several farm support activities like providing technology dissemination to farmers, training and awareness. Here the Researcher will do a systematic review to analyze the contribution of Krishi vigyan Kendra for the sustainable development of rural areas. What type of activities are carries out by kvk for the development of the rural community. We will try to analyze the impact of kvk in transfer of agricultural technology to the farmers. Is there any improvement in the livelihood of rural people? What are the constraints and challenges in the way of development of rural people? The findings of the study will elucidate the role of KVK in terms of sustainable development. The study will also look into the reasons why the rural area is behind in terms of development. Findings of the study will work as feedback for the administrators, and Trainers of KVK to rectify the weakness and shortcomings in planning and organization.
Sustainable Development, Role of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Technology Transfer, Training.
An Importance of Rural Economy and Agriculture Sector
India has been predominantly a rural country with two thirds of its population still residing in rural areas. India's 70% workforce belongs to rural areas. It is said that true India lives in her villages. The rural economy of India has continuously been supporting and contributing to the economy of India. Thus, the rural economy of India is backbone of the Indian economy. India is predicted to be a rural country in the time to come and its 50% population is projected to be residing in the rural areas even by the year 2050. So we can say that the overall growth and development of India will majorly depend on the growth and development of rural areas.
The Indian economy has a strong desire to become a 5 trillion dollar economy. To make this happen rural economy plays a significant role. Initially the primary source of rural economy was agriculture but now non farm sector has also been added. Implementing modern technology and mechanization in agriculture and allied sectors can improve the productivity efficiency and profitability while reducing the cost. Agriculture is the most dominant part of Indian economy. It is the source of living for most of the Indian families. Over 58% of rural people depend upon agriculture for livelihood. In India, about 16% of total GDP and 10% of total exports comes through agriculture (Wagh et al. 2016).
Threats and Challenges in Agriculture and Rural Areas
The main challenges in rural areas which act as an obstacle in the sustainable development are small land holdings, shortage of water, education poverty, health n nutrition, poor rural infrastructure, poor policy framework institutional constraints, and inadequate support services. The agricultural extension services play a vital role in the development of rural areas. These services help in replacement of old practices with new modern farming technologies. These services exploit and explore all the possible opportunities and resources. It delivers educational and awareness raising programs to improve the skills of rural people. High level of poverty, low welfare of the rural population, lack of social coherence in rural section and assimilation of efforts in solving local development problems act as major constraints in the development . So there should be execution of smart and all around development ideas that will make sure participation of all sections of rural society in socio economic transformations and multiply the value of human and social capital (Zinchuk, et al, 2018).
Most of the skilled workers are migrating to the neighboring towns and urban areas because of limited on farm and off farm employment opportunities. Lack of diversification of the agriculture sector is one of the major reasons behind migration. Gender inequality constitutes a clog on the wheels of sustainable development. Rural women are forced to do the household chores and taking care of children .mostly men have an advantage in access to resources, in decision making and in economic opportunities. Rural women should provide opportunities to enhance their livelihood.
Kvk Interventions in Sustainable Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas
1. Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is an institutional project of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) which provides training to the farmers and rural people for the livelihood. KVK helps in transfer of technology to farmers from the research centres to increase their productivity. It has an interdisciplinary group which works in a participative way with various segments of the rural community. The following activities are performed by KVK: farm advisory services; vocational training of farmers, rural youth; front line demonstrations; on farm testing. Kvk provide training as well as proper guidance to improve the skill of rural people (Prabha et al).
2. Krishi vigyan Kendra organizes different types of vocational training programmes for women like vermin compost, kitchen garden, tailoring, production of fruits and vegetables, nursery so that they can earn and survive. In India women are treated unequally as farmers, they have less control over resources especially land. Now days men are migrating from rural areas to urban for jobs, so women are taking more and more responsibilities for agriculture production and they are getting less support from input suppliers and credit institutions. So Krishi vigyan Kendra has got clear cut mandates for upgrading farmwomen Acharya et al. (2019).
3. Recently ICAR has initiated ARYA scheme (attracting and retaining rural youth towards agriculture) to attract rural youth in agricultural activities, as rural youth are migrating to urban areas. Under this scheme kvk provide training to rural youth. KVKs act as a technology partners along with ICAR institutes for incubation of trained youth and initial hand holding support. This adds entrepreneurial setup and also employment opportunities so that there will be less migration towards urban area.
4. As per the ICAR report 2019, there were 4280 youths in different types of entrepreneurial groups; they have been oriented for establishing micro entrepreneurial units. As an outcome, 49.5 % of them established their own enterprises (Sahoo, et al. 2021).
5. The main purpose of kvk is to cut the time span amid the formation of technology at the research institute and the transfer of technology to the farmers so that there would be increase in productivity and income which results in the development of farmers and rural people. Krishi vigyan Kendra demonstrate the climate resilient agricultural technologies so that these practices can be adopted in sustainable manner. In Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, India, These KVK programmes was found useful is using the technologies. KVK train farmers so that they have comprehensive understanding of adaption process with the full range of warning scenarios (Singh et al, 2018).
6. In Meghalaya, KVK provides training which has proven significant impact in terms of gain of knowledge and skill of farmers. The study has shown growth in productivity and in economic condition. It is also concluded that KVK training has also increased the social recognition of farmers. But there are some areas where progress is poor. So it is important to identify the factors so that changes can be made in training programmes and design new training programmes (Medhi et al, 2017).
7. In Palgarh (Maharashtra) kvk has been executing different type of expansion activities among the tribal women. Poultry management. Goat keeping, jasmine production has came out as an additional source of living for people who are not getting income from agriculture because of fragmented landholdings (Jadhav et al. 2019)
8. Krishi vigyan Kendra plays a major role in the rural development by empowering the rural women. Kvk develops knowledge and new skills required for the adoption of new technology. It has a very good impact on their empowerment and socio economic status (Rani et al. 2021).
9. Well timed agricultural information is essential to farmer’s success. It is significant to transfer the knowledge at the proper time so that they apply the information to enhance their productivity. To empower different sections of rural areas, different ICT strategies have been devised and are listed below:
? Those who have access to digital infrastructure can use websites / web portals to get the information.
? Those who have smart phone can install the mobile apps ex-KVK Mobile app, Kisan app.
? Those who have basic phones can call/SMS the experts for the information.
? Rural people can also call at the individual scientist of KVK.(Singh AK et al, 2020).
? To enhance income and employment, Krishi vigyan Kendra has introduced multi enterprises model. This model aims at integrating various farm enterprises which results in higher productivity than conventional method. Animal and plant wastes could also help in upgrading the soil health which increases productivity over a longer period of time with less environmental hazards (Sahu et al. 2017).
1. Nowadays people who are migrated are coming back to their own places because of uncertainty of jobs in cities, other family related issues, and absence of freedom in working place. Krishi vigyan Kendra provides sufficient knowledge and skills to the rural youth regarding a new entrepreneurship so that they can start their business for livelihood. It results in retainment of youth in rural areas for sustainable development (Parameswaranaik, et al. 2018).
2. After the training by KVK there was productive impact on income as people shifting from below poverty line to medium group. 22.00 per cent was gain in knowledge of the adopters as compared to non adopters of the KVK programme (Jamir et al. 2018).
By evaluating all the literature it is concluded that rural economy and agricultural sector plays a significant role in the Indian economy. Krishi vigyan Kendra is contributing a lot in the rural development. It has a multidisciplinary team who work in participative mode with different farming communities. , the following activities are performed by KVK: farm advisory services; vocational training of farmers, farm women, rural youth; front line demonstrations; on farm testing. Kvk provide training and proper guidance to improve the skill of rural people. But there are some areas where training has not made any impact for the development, so these factors should be identified so that suitable changes can in the training curriculum.
Managerial Implications
The findings of the study will throw light on the impact of the training in terms of rural development and agricultural development. The study will check out the reasons why the rural areas are lacking behind in development. Findings of the study will provide the feedback to the managers, executers and Trainers of KVK to rectify the flaws and shortcomings in planning and organization of future training programme.
Way Forward
This paper identifies the role of kvk in the agricultural and rural development. Which activities are performed by kvk for farmers, farm women, and rural youth In future research, the role of other agencies in sustainable development needs more study. More study requires understanding the obstacles faced by rural youth in while using the kvk services.
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Received: 15-May-2023, Manuscript No. AMSJ-23-13596; Editor assigned: 22-May-2023, PreQC No. AMSJ-23-13596(PQ); Reviewed: 26-Jun-2023, QC No. AMSJ-23-13596; Revised: 29-Aug-2023, Manuscript No. AMSJ-23-13596(R); Published:17-Sep-2023