Let us first try to keep our house in order

Dear Extension Professionals,
Greetings from Arunachal Pradesh,
I received a forwarded message (from Dr. Basavabrabu Jirli, BHU) loaded with (Dr. Sreenath Dixit’s) concern for extension related RMP (Research Management Positions) taken over by other disciplines…..But unfortunately, it won’t bother extension professional like me…. Because I was expecting this suppose to be happen little earlier than now…so that we, the extension professionals, may be united little earlier……. and started thinking for our subject and profession….

Here, I want to reproduce few lines of my concern from one of my abstracts titled “Agricultural Extension in India: Do or Die away” published during 2003 (in the abstract volume of First National Extension Congress, SEE, Agra, India organised by Dr. Jitendra Chauhan);
“Over the years, extension education as a discipline, struggling to introduce new dimensions in the curricula. Very outdated syllabus adds problem of our subject. Further, extension education is slowly loosing its identity by reducing number of courses in undergraduate curriculum. The task of providing rural agricultural work experience (RAWE)/ internship programmes to the undergraduate students is going away from the extension department. Among, extension post graduates, very few come with high desire for the subject and others choose as a “last resort” to earn degree. In Postgraduate level, almost exact repetitions of UG courses with little addition makes the extension graduates become less competent. The “professional complacency” of the extension professionals makes the extension subject become very weak. The situation calls for improving quality of curriculum and teaching by introducing “high professionalism”. Even after five decades of spectacular growth and existence, extension education discipline not having common nomenclature in the agricultural universities and ICAR set-up………
Extension research shows “declining” trend in quality due to duplication of research. Generally, the extension researchers are very reluctant to introduce new areas of research and research methodologies. The qualitative and quantitative tools very much lacking in extension research. Huge volumes of research findings of post graduates, and extension field level practitioners are not communicated………………..
In India, generally extension scientists are considered as “Extension workers/ Public relation functionaries” not as researchers……….”

1. Major problem in our extension is we are divided by name of the institutions; ICAR, SAUs, KVKs etc…. and or by positions like; Scientists, professors, SMS, extension functionaries etc…and or by specialisations like agricultural extension, veterinary extension, dairy extension, home science extension etc...First we should be united…instead of suggesting “Forum of Extension Scientists in ICAR (FESICAR)”, I feel that “Extension Professionals of India”, may be the most appropriate name for our forum.

2. As I understand, in most of the subjects, their professional society acts as a custodian of that subject. Unfortunately, Indian Society of Extension Education is very sick and almost in unconsciousness (coma) stage last few years….as a matter of routine, just organises one national seminar….and distributes few awards to those who are very close to the society executive members or organisers….because of this reasons few number of regional societies are very active and hence, they are not involving in the professional activities of the national society…..

I am very SORRY to make above statement…..I am forced to make…. because of following reasons;

a. In our ISEE only few professionals are thinking of future of subject, while others are showing “business us usual” attitude……

b. One of the very erratic journals of agricultural sciences in India is “IJEE”……

c. We organise number of ICT based national seminars, we talk lot about online journals….but we are unable put our “IJEE” in online….

d. Our society unable to encourage “next generation extension professionals…”, only consolation is in the name of “Young Scientist Awards” some Scientists, Assistant/ Associate professors/ SMS are given away awards (upto the age of 45 years that too “very secretly”, results were announced only during seminar days, I yet to see transparent recognition for “real” young scientists)

Still, more to come…..…I suggest following…

I believe that the Best brains of extension are available in HYDERABD….come out with an initiative…
-It is time to take care of our ailing subject, profession and national journal…..….

Let us first try to keep our house in order….then we will think of Research Management Positions (RMPs) in ICAR/ SAUs…..


The above comments are nothing against anybody and also it is not an opinion of my organisation, Central Agricultural University.

Sincerely,
R. Saravanan

Forum of Extension Scientists in ICAR

ஈமெயில் பிரோம்
e-mail from Dr. Sreenath Dixit
Dear Fellow Professionals,
Many of you may have already come to know about the change of guard at the highest office of Extension in NARS, i.e. DDG (Extn.). Dr.Kiran D.Kokate is going to take over as the DDG (Extn.) shortly. He has served as Director of Extension at the MPKV, Rahuri for over a decade. Like many other positions meant for Extension professionals, this one also had a strong possibility of going to the hands of a non Extension Scientist. It is indeed a matter of happiness for all Extension professionals that this position could be retained by a thoroughbred extension professional.
As you all know, positions of Heads of Divisions of Training in many ICAR Institutes and the Joint Director (Extn.) of IARI, the premier ICAR institute of the country and ADG positions in the Division of Extension have been occupied more often by non extension professionals. While we all know that it is impossible for an Extension scientist to even apply for a position of Head of Divisions other than that of Extension/Training/Social sciences, scientist of any other discipline can occupy a position of Head of Division of Extension/Training/Social sciences. It is a matter of introspection though for all of us, there is indeed a strong need for building up significantly pressure at the highest level to bring an awareness about this uncharitable practice. Further, we need to get together to raise ourselves and become capable of handling the challenges that go with any such position. This calls for an unified force that can act as a think tank, a pressure group and a professional network that can exert required force to seek justice to the discipline of Extension.
We request you to ponder over these matters and respond with your views. We also request you to pass this message on to your fellow extension professional and register his/her support on this matter. Through this we invite you all to come together as a virtual group that can be reckoned for its contribution to the growth and development of the discipline of Extension. To begin with, a few of us in Hyderabad have got together to get this matter across to all the Extension Scientists spread over various ICAR institutes across the country.
All you need to do now is to forward this message to those Extension professionals whose ids are not found in the list with a copy back to me so that we can include them in the list and formulate an e-forum of Extension scientists, ICAR. Finally, we also request you to think of a catchy name for our group. For eg. We may begin to work with Forum of Extension Scientists in ICAR (FESICAR).
Regards,
Sreenath Dixit
Sreenath Dixit, M Sc (Agri) PhDPrincipal Scientist (Agril. Extension) &
Consortium Principal Investigator
National Agril. Innovation Project (Comp.3)Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA)Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)SantoshnagarHYDERABAD 500059 India
Telefax::+91-40-2453 5336Tel:+91-40-2453 0161/157 Ext. 319 (Work) +91-40-2407 6328 (Home)Web:www.crida.ernet.inEmail:sdixit@crida.ernet.in