Aimed at increasing the farmers’ input in programme planning and resource allocation, the Strategic Research Extension Plan (SREP), to be implemented in all districts, is likely to give a boost to the agriculture sector in the state.
The government has approved the Rs 23-lakh project, which was proposed by the Agriculture Department. The programme is being implemented in all the districts as part of the Centre’s Agriculture Technology Management Agency.
Director of Agriculture R Ajith Kumar said that the programme would help in filling the gap between research and extension. He said that the plans had already been prepared for all the districts.
The farmers will be imparted training and given research facilities for increasing the production output.
If a group of farmers is interested in developing a technology, it will get help from the programme, Ajith Kumar said. He said that the department would arrange field visits and also arrange exchange programmes within the state and also with other states. The SREP is the best opportunity for the state to propose new extension and research strategies in the light of new technology initiatives such as hi-tech agriculture, he said. One of the objectives of the SREP is to achieve capacity building of farmers, farm women and rural youth.
It also bring together researchers, extension personnel, farmers and other stake- holders to make joint studies, district action plans and recommendations for expanded adaptive research.
A programme for bridging the gap in knowledge, skill and adoption, SREP will be a platform for introducing innovations in technology dissemination. The focus will be to improve the farmers’ input into programme planning by analysing the information obtained through participatory appraisals and analysing the feedback obtained from them.