PESHAWAR, Aug 24: Briga-dier Azeem Khan, provincial secretary of food and agriculture, has said extension wing of the agriculture department does not meet the present requirements of a more progressive and integrated approach to agriculture.
It was neither operationally attended in identification of farmers’ problems nor prompt to respond to their needs, he added.
The secretary was speaking at a one-day workshop on “Rethinking agricultural extension” organized by Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) here on Saturday.
The workshop was attended by a number of agriculture researchers, faculty members of Agriculture University Peshawar, farmers and NGOs representatives.
Azeem Khan said that at present there was a wide gap, ranging from 50 to 80 per cent between the potential and actual national average yields of major crops. Extension was the only source that could bridge this gap by conveying the technology and convincing farmers to use it on mass scale, he maintained.
Brig Azeem Khan said that rapid population growth and changing world scenario was compelling us to urgently and actively exploit the full potential of improved varieties of crops and better breed of animals. “Until we fill the gap between the achievable and actual yield, more investment in research to to improve these varieties will become redundant and marginally productive,” he added
The holding of this workshop by PARC amply illustrated the realization of the importance of extension wing’s role, he added.
He stressed on researchers to make concerted efforts towards agricultural development.
Brig Azeem said the aim of researchers and extension agents should be to increase production without increasing the cost. He advised researchers to accept the criticism/comments of extension agents for the development of agriculture.
Dr Waqar Malik, member of Social Sciences Division, PARC stressed on the importance of extension in the present scenario.
He said it was one of the objectives of PARC to disseminate the technology developed by researchers.
He informed the participants about the initiatives taken by the administration of the council regarding transfer of technologies developed by the researchers to farmers by introducing Technology Transfer Institutes (TTIs) in the four provinces, the AJK and Northern Areas.
He said aim of this workshop was to collectively think and articulate the role of extension services in the coming globalization task.
Dr Malik said the mandate given to the TTIs was to identify the technology developed by researchers and transfer this technology to farmers, to communicate and enunciate the issues faced by the farmers in order to wipe out problems faced by farmers.
He also pointed out that efforts were needed to eradicate the problems faced by the extension agents all over the country so that they could carry out their activities diligently.
Anwar Ali Chaudhry, deputy director-general, Technology Transfer Directorate of the PARC mentioned that extension was the driving force of agricultural development.
He pointed out that whatever development made in the field of agriculture must reach the farmers in order to take full advantage of the research.
Mohammad Iqbal, director-general of Agricultural Extension in his speech expressed his concern about the problems faced by the extension agents.
He described various methods and their significance followed by the extension system over a period of time. He briefed the audience about the performance of Farm Services Centres operating in the province.
He also informed the audience about the achievements made by the extension services in the NWFP.—APP