Abstract:
The present study was carried out to review the studies on agricultural extension programs in Punjab. The reviews reveal that the government launched various agricultural extension programs from time to time. Village-AID Program, Basic Democracy System, Rural Works Program, Integrated Rural Development Program, Peoples Works Program, Barani Area Development Program, Traditional Agriculture Extension System, Training and Visit (T&V) Extension System were main agricultural extension programs. The mostly programs had weaknesses, which led to abolishment of various programs with the passage of time. The basic reasons for the failure of programs were lack of coordination between the line departments, lack of trained technical staff, inadequate local leadership, lack of adequate funds for the development, lack of participation of the villagers in preparation of plans and implementation of projects, misuse of the funds and lack of participation by the local leaders in implementation and decision-making. In Traditional Agriculture Extension System the most fundamental weakness was the lack of effective liaison between research and extension.Training and Visit System had several weaknesses, repetition of the same extension messages over a long time; improper selection of contact farmers and most of the contact farmers did not perform their roles as volunteer extension workers. For the success of previously launched programs, it is recommended that variety of approaches should be used to train farmers, cooperation between extension organizations and other stakeholders for rural development and policies should be designed from bottom to top not from top to bottom for the success of any agricultural extension program.
Page(s):
1-10
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Pakistan Journal of Life and Social Sciences, Volume: 7, Issue: 1, Year: 2009