Rural Development Programmes in India
History of agricultural extension is intimately related with development technology. The need for extension was felt acutely in Europe and North America during 18th century in the science and technology to the doorstep of farmers, agricultural societies were formed The first society is said to be established in Scotland in 1728 for the spread of academi knowledge of agriculture through lectures and publications. industrial development. To take advantage.
The roots of extension education, however, can also be traced back to 1840 when the term university extension was used in Britain to take the knowledge to doorsteps of common people. The first practical steps were taken in 1867-68 when James Stuart fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, England gave lectures to women's associations and working men's clubs. Stuart is called as Father of University Extension. He approached the authorities of University of Cambridge to organize extension lectures
The system was accepted by Cambridge University in 1873 and by Oxford in 1878
In USA, the first agricultural society was established in Philadelphia in 1875 for giving lectures to farmers in agriculture. Land Grant College Act or Morril Act was passed in 1962 to start educational opportunities for working men in subject of practical interest. Thus, Land Grant Colleges were established in each state. The spirit and philosophies of Land Grant Colleges were broad enough to take education beyond the classroom for farmers. After passing of Hatch Act in 1887, one experimental station was established with each Land Grant College.
Community Development Programme (1952)
Based on the feedback of the GMF Enquiry Committee report as well as the experiences gained through the Etawah pilot project experiment, it was planned to start 15 pilot projects with the financial assistance from the Ford Foundation. Further, the Indo-US technical cooperation agreement was signed in January, 1952, assisted in initiating 55 community development projects for a period of 3 years. The programme was initiated on October 2, being the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. The programme aimed at socio-economic transformation of rural people and as such the administrative arrangements were designed.
National Extension Service (1953)-
The people in all the project areas responded enthusiastically and the need for a rapid expansion of the programme to other parts of the country was urgently felt.
Limited resources, however, did not permit a rapid expansion of the CD Projects. A year later, in 1953, the National Extension Service (NES) programme was launched with the idea of having wider coverage at less cost and more people's participation.
Each ONE block had about 100 villages and about 65 thousand population. The NES block was headed by a Block Development Officer (BDO) and had a number of Extension Officers (EOS). For the NES blocks funds were drastically reduced and the number of multipurpose VLWs were brought down to 10. NES was thought of as the agency and CD as the method to bring about socio-economic transformation of the rural people.
Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1956-58) -
The programme of C.D. was initiated with a lot of fanfare, but the people's participation was not coming forth. To examine this issue, a committee under the chairmanship of Balwant Rai Mehta was constituted. The committee recomended for democratic decentralization through Panchayati Raj at three levels-Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti at Block and Gram Panchayat at village level. After this, there were different types of constituents in the agricultural administration process, the first being Panchayati Raj, the second being the direct line staff of the development sector such as Collector, BDO, VLW and the child specialist staff. The whole system brought in lot of confusion about each other's roles and responsibilities, priorities,etc.
Ford Foundation Team (1959)
Government of India sought the help of Ford Foundation to study the agriculture production scenario and suggest ways of accomplishing this as this was a crucial need As such, the agricultural production team of the Ford Foundation submitted its report on "India's food crisis and steps to meet it" and gave crucial decisions. They suggested that intensive efforts be put in specific areas and specific crops immediately. They suggested that top priority was to be given to food production in most responsive areas.
- Extension programmes to be based on local conditions, production problems of and potentials of the village communities.
- Strengthening staff at Block, District and State level and setting up information service.
- The recommendations were considered by inter-ministerial committee and were accepted in principle in June 1959.
Conclusion-
Rural development programme is important role of development human community .
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