Revamp state agri extension agencies

Krishi Vigyan Kendras are transforming agricultural extension and the learnings must be applied at the state level

Agricultural extension is undergoing a paradigm transformation which will help it shed the tag of the weakest link or a speed breaker in the process of farm development and, instead, make it a growth driver. Ironically, this metamorphosis is taking place not so much in the state extension services, where it is needed, as in the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) — agricultural science centres — run by farm research organisations with funding and guidance from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The extension services of the state governments remain, by and large, in a shambles. Their extension workers, apart