THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)
(a) & (b) Out of 31 districts in Telangana State, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) have been established in 16 districts and presently there is no provision for opening more, KVKs for Telangana State.
(c) A Third Party evaluation of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) has been carried out by National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (NILERD), an autonomous institute under NITI Aayog, in 2015. The major observations and findings of this evaluation are as follows: -
i. It was observed that KVKs are playing proactive role in transferring new technology at field level with beneficial impacts.
ii. The KVKs have an edge in technology transfer over other service providers by virtue of having better technical expertise and demonstration abilities.
iii. About 40 percent farmers reported that they implemented the technology immediately after its dissemination by KVK and that 25 percent did so from the next agricultural season.
iv. On an average a KVK covers 43 villages and 4300 farmers per year. 80% of villages covered are 10 km away from KVK.
v. 96% farmers’ requests were attended by KVKs.
vi. 42% technologies adopted by farmers resulted in higher productivity, 33% resulted in high harvest income and 20% resulted in drudgery reduction.
vii. About 25% of persons trained started self-employment ventures.
viii. With the intervention by KVKs, about 80 percent of the farmers have modified their agricultural patterns which were related to diversification of crops and changes in cropping pattern, seed planting technique, use of fertilizers and pesticides, changes in machinery used and in water use pattern.
Further, NILERD conducted categorization study of the KVKs on the basis of mandated activities, impact of the activities, allied activities, accolades and other parameters in 2018. The study categorized the KVKs as A, B, C and D. Best performing KVKs (43%) were rated as ‘A’ followed by 48% KVKs as ‘B’ and 9% as ‘C’ & ‘D’.
Besides, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) evaluated the KVKs in 2019. Major findings of the Study are as follows:
i. KVKs’ efforts generated an additional net farm income of Rs. 3568 per hectare.
ii. Cost Benefit ratio is 1:7.8. Thus, the rate of return on expenditure on KVK is very high.
iii. One farmer trained by a KVK disseminates technology/knowledge to 30 fellow farmers.
Recently in 2020, Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals, New Delhi also conducted study on impact evaluation of KVKs. Major findings of the study are as follows:
i. On an average, KVK outreach found to be around 90-100 villages. With its strong ICT interventions, the outreach to villages increases to even 200 villages per KVK.
ii. There is increase in outreach programs by KVKs from 2012-13 to 2019-20 in number of on farm trials by 51%, frontlines demonstrations by 61%, farmers trained by 16% and extension personnel trained by 35%.
iii. There is increase in proportion of farm women in trainings from 30% in 2012-13 to 37% in 2019-20.
iv. There is 142% increase in the number of short messages sent from 2012-13 to 2019-20. Similarly, there is increase in the number of the farmers covered from the year 2012-13 to 2019-20 by 135% with the advent of the digital technologies such as WhatsApp group, Facebook group which has increased the outreach by 4 times.
v. There is 32% increase in seed production and 117% increase in planting material production by KVKs during the said period.
(d) KVKs are mandated for frontline extension which act as a bridge between research organizations and the main extension system operated by different development departments of the State Governments. Considering the role and resources of a KVK, it caters to the requirement of the selected farmers of the district and provide capacity development support to State Development Departments. The coverage of entire district is the responsibility of development departments of State Governments. However, the Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals, in its Third Party Evaluation, has reported that on an average, KVK outreach found to be around 90-100 villages. With its strong ICT interventions, the outreach to villages increases to even 200 villages per KVK.
(e) & (f) So far, 727 KVKs have been established and there is a provision of establishing 18 more KVKs in the country. State wise list of districts for KVKs provisioned is given in Annexure-I.
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