WHEN THE ASHOK DALWAI Committee on Doubling of Farmers’ Income sat down to finalise its report on the role of extension services in increasing farm incomes 18 months ago, it faced a technical problem. It found that the definition of “agricultural extension” was outdated – it was “too production-centric”, prepared during the days India was struggling for self-sufficiency in foodgrains, particularly cereals. It decided to redefine “agricultural extension” as “an empowering system of sharing information, knowledge, technology, skills, risk and farm management practices, across agricultural subsectors and along all aspects of the agricultural supply chain, so as to enable the farmers to realise higher net income from their enterprise on a sustainable basis”. The definition, the committee said, brings into focus the all-important issue of farmers’ empowerment through information, knowledge…
