01 November 2004	Monday	17 Ramazan 1425

Decentralization of the government and the administration has been adopted in many countries and the trend continues. The rationale is to shift the decision-making authority to lower administrative and political levels and should be able to plan and implement programmes with the active involvement of people.

The concept is sound, but implementation, so far, has not been smooth. Four years back the Pakistani government also decided to decentralize powers at district level. The district has become the focal point for agricultural activities with the support of specialists. After almost 4 years, there still is a need to thoroughly review and assess its outcomes. Has devolution been successful? Has it made extension services more accessible to farmers? Do local governments respond more favourably than before? What benefits farmers have gained out of it? These and other questions need to be answered.

This study is planned to look at the impact of devolution, and to identify possible areas of improvement for an effective working of agricultural extension services. For this propose 50 progressive farmers, Executive District Officer Agriculture (EDOA), and 50 extension workers including district officers, deputy district officers, and agriculture officers from two districts i.e., Badin and Hyderabad were randomly selected for interviews.

Agricultural extension is a means to alleviate poverty and ensure food security. It converts information into functional knowledge which helps develop enterprises promoting productivity with income generation. In addition to technology transfer, agricultural extension provides access to small farmers and the rural poor living far from the urban centres to non-formal education and information services. While it can provide these populations with services to increase their productivity, their food security will depend on institutional development and income-generation together with increased food crop output.

Agriculture service works as a bridge between research scientists and potential users of these findings. It helps in designing and undertaking the needs and problem-based research and at the same time enables farmers to adopt new knowledge and technologies. Agricultural Extension till 1962 did not have a separate structure. It is a hierarchic top-down system where decisions are taken by the top administration without much involvement of other stakeholders, and implemented by the field staff which does not fit well into the present day requirements of more progressive, intensive and integrated agriculture.

Before devolution, the department had a directorate general administering a large extension network down to the union council level. A union council is the lowest tier of the local government system. Agricultural extension like several other bureaucratic agencies operates on a top-down approach maintaining tenuous linkages with agricultural research, education, and other farm-support system units. However, its level and intensity of operation varies from province to province,

The devolution plan is to introduce drastic changes and to provide bloodline to the existing setup. The plan helps in reducing the bureaucratic impediments and providing people better access to the resources in all the public service departments. In the new setup each district of Pakistan is managing its agricultural extension activities where the functions of all sister organizations such as the water management, fisheries, livestock, soil conservation, forestry, etc., are put under one manager called the Executive District Officer of Agriculture (EDOA).

The designation of Deputy Director Agriculture (DDA) has also been changed as the District Officer Agriculture (DOA) now works under the Executive District Officer Agriculture (EDOA). The EDOA reports to the District Coordination Officer (DCO) who is answerable to the elected District Nazim (administrator), whereas the line departments provide the technical backstopping and monitor the cross-district agricultural development projects.

The provincial agriculture extension set-up in the form of Directorate General of Agriculture Extension continues to work and coordinates with the District Extension Services and provides technical support. The DG Agriculture Extension retains the subjects of the agricultural training and information, adaptive research, in service training, plant protection and quality control, agricultural planning and statistics, and coordination.

Impact: The impact assessment is a process to identify future consequences of a current or proposed action. It is about making the best possible decision in a systematic manner. It is essential to a sound and sustainable business operation and is a part of good governance and a key to sustainable development. Efforts have been made during the survey to assess the impact of devolution on the Agriculture Extension.

Transport facility to Extension worker may enhance working efficiency. Around 86 per cent of the staff reported that there was no change in transport facility, while at some places this has been decreased after devolution. Housing facility too, has declined, while medical facility is non-existent.

Impact on finance: The agriculture and deputy district officers are not involved in financial transaction and only the EDO and district officers deal in financial matters. Funds have been reduced by 25 to 30 per cent. Before devolution quarterly budget were received but now these are on monthly basis which creates problems in utilizing under different heads.

Impact on activities: Wall chalking, production and distribution of printed material helps farmers in the transfer of new information and technologies. Demonstration plots motivate them to adopt these technologies. Printing helps in preserving the technologies in the shape of books booklets, magazines, newspapers and brochures. Seminars too, are an important activity. Radio is a tool for the delivery of quick information. All these methods are found to be deficient in providing the services to farmers.

There is also a need to train farmers for using the new technology. Television is a powerful media of information exchange in these days. Investigation revealed a very dismal picture of the dissemination of information among farmers through an electronic medium. No change has been noticed in exhibition arrangements after devolution. Flow of market information through agents is found to have hardly changed.

It can be concluded that extension agent's or agricultural educator's primary concern should be to teach vocational and technical practices at all levels and undertake planning and evaluation for rural development. They are responsible for the dissemination of technology. While working condition in the existing system of extension personnel have deteriorated, their roles are increasing as they are no longer simple transmitters of technical knowledge.

The devolved services are anticipated to improve monitoring and evaluation set-up in the country as accountability of extension services is given to the elected local and district government representatives. The issues are now being addressed at the local level. Unlike past when everything was centralized with the provincial government, the task of planning and launching any specific campaign in case of outbreak of any disease rests with the district government.

Moreover, an attempt has also been made to replace the existing supply-oriented delivery system with the demand-oriented system ensuring active participation of local people in the process of planning, monitoring and evaluation and bringing it down to the grass roots level.

The need of an effective coordination among all the line departments is sought through placing them under the supervision of one person - the EDOA - at every district. Such coordination would improve efficiency and effectiveness of the extension effort by avoiding duplication, wastage of time, energy and other resources.

It is widely perceived that the elected representatives are inclined towards civil works, electricity and other development projects rather than in promoting agricultural activities. Thus, their lack of interest in and commitment towards agriculture affects the overall performance of agricultural extension system. As a result, the devolution has further marginalized the extension services - lack of recognition of the importance of budget and training facilities.

It has also weakened the morale and motivation of agriculture officers and staff. While under the devolution plan the agriculture extension service is placed under the district government and other sister organizations such as agricultural research, adaptive research, agricultural engineering, agricultural education, etc; are under the control of provincial governments. Therefore, the research-extension-education linkages, which are already weak and insufficient, are further weakened.

The district extension service operates in isolation and without any regular backstopping from agricultural research. Likewise, its disassociation from the Directorate General of Extension has diminished the technical support it used to receive from the provincial system. Abrupt merger of livestock, dairy, fisheries, poultry, forestry, food, cooperatives, water management, and similar other departments with agricultural extension have created ample confusion.

Apart from the professional performance, the extension service under the new arrangements is grappling with the creation of new rules, regulations, service structure and administrative and financial discipline. It seems that it will take a long time to achieve the desired objectives of the decentralization of agriculture extension service.

Majority of the extension agents had reported improvement but a vast majority reported these is no change in all extension activities. Majority 82 per cent of the extension agents perceive improvement in overall performance of the agricultural extension. Whereas, majority 72 per cent of the farmers have not reported any change in the overall performance of the agriculture extension after devolution.