This book “advances and challenges in agricultural extension and rural development” is a pioneering attempt to present major areas of agricultural extensions and rural development like extension education, extension educational technology, administration and management, human relation in development administration and human resource development, participatory approaches,  recent approaches in extension techniques, extension strategies for changing agricultural scenario, transfer of technology efforts, and recent advances in research methodology.  The authors are quite confident that this book would prove useful and would facilitate social scientists such as psychologists, sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists and others including the undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. scholars in the field of Extension Education to understand and gain knowledge with clarity and also from different view points while they study and undertake any research endeavor. This book holistically covers the areas in Agricultural Extension. Above everything else, it aims to convey the existing quality of agricultural extension and emphasized more on how it should be implemented better in future. A large portion of the book is focused on abstract conceptual and technical matters. A good bit of the book’s discussion slanted toward recent approaches in extension techniques, extension strategies for changing agricultural scenario and recent advances in research methodology. It is not covered in any of the books related to extension education. The book ends with fairly extended but covers areas which are essential in field level problems and how to resolve them by applying transfer of technology efforts which is a novel one. This book will be highly useful and indispensable among the extension and rural professionals.

The word extension literally means stretching out something. We often refer to extension counter of a bank or extension of leave Webster’s dictionary describes attention as a branch of university for students who cannot attend university proper. The term university extension or extension of university was first commonly used in Britain. Extension was then being referred as an educational innovation to take the advantage of university to people at their door steps. ‘Extension’ it used in different countries with little variation but similar intention in essence. The Dutch use: the word ‘Voorlichting’ meaning lighting the pathway. Though emphasis of intention work in its early phases of growth, was concentrated on agriculture, soon it embraced the field of Home Science popularly known as Home economics in USA. The close relationship of farm and home inspired the home economics extension work then.

“Educational Technology is the application of scientific knowledge about learning and the conditions of learning to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and training. In the absence of scientifically established principles, educational technology implements techniques of empirical testing to improve learning situation”. National Centre for Programmed Learning, UK “Educational Technology is a complex, integrated process involving people. procedures, ideas, devices and organization for analyzing problems and devising. implementing, evaluating, and managing solutions to those problems, involved in all aspects of learning”. Association for Educational Communications and technology (AECT), 1977 The most recent definition of the field (which uses the term, instructional technology) has been published by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). It defines Instructional Technology as “the theory and practice of design,

The word administration is derived from Latin word Ad + Minister means “to care for” or look after people / to manage affairs. Why Study Management Theory Theories are perspectives with which people make sense of their world experiences. A theory is a coherent group of assumptions put forth to explain the relationship between two or more observable facts.     i.    Theories provide a stable focus for understanding what we experience. A theory provides criteria for determining what is relevant.     ii.    Theories enable us to communicate efficiently and thus move into more and more complex relationships with other people.     iii.    Theories make it possible indeed, challenge us-to keep learning about our world.

STUDIES ON HUMAN RELATIONS Introduction A human relation is frequently used as a general term to describe the ways in which managers’ interact with their employees. A number of things were happening in United States in the 1920s and 1930s, organizations were growing in size and in their dependence upon technology. Social groups were breaking down. The combination of all these factors with the growing dissatisfaction with paced, mechanized, highly standardized work led to changes in two major directions. Management science developed as a technical discipline, concerned with the establishment of efficiency models of managerial and organizational behaviour. The other perspective was initiated by the work of Human Relation scientists. They are discussed in detail here.

Introduction to Research Research is an inseparable part of human knowledge. Its role in human life is as precious as that of salt in a vegetable. The life would lose its taste without research exactly in the same manner as a vegetable without salt. The modern academics just cannot stand and meet the aspirations of a matured society, if it does not provide for research and investigation. “The obvious function of research is to add new knowledge to the existing store. but its power for cleansing our minds of clinches and removing the rubbish of inapplicable theory is equally notable. Scientific research is a cumulative process. It is also a projective process, especially in the social sciences. Understanding can be (advanced) not only by gains in knowledge but also by discarding outworn assumptions”.

Participatory technology development (PTD) is an approach to learning and innovation that is used in international development as part of projects and programmes relating to sustainable agriculture. The approach involves collaboration between researchers and farmers in the analysis of agricultural problems and testing of alternative farming practices. Origins of participatory technology development The origins of Participatory Technology Development can be found in a number of approaches, concepts and techniques that became popular in the 1970s and 1980s: Farming systems research and extension, an approach that introduced social-ecomomic issues into organisations previously dominated by biological and chemical scientists. FSR/E also promoted the idea on ‘on-farm’ trials: Appropriate technology, a concept that recognises the importance of matching the design of technology to the resources and culture of the user.

AGRI BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Agribusiness is a generic term. It includes food production, farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesale and distribution, processing marketing and retail sales. John. H. Davis of Harvard University first used the term Agribusiness in 1955. Prospects of agri-business India (McKinsey and Confederations of Indian Industry 1997)     Food industry offers one of the largest opportunities in India today By 2005 - 07, the food industry will grow three fold to reach us 70 $ billion, and increases in forthcoming year. India can be the world Largest Food Factory     India’s food production today is equal to that of USA, second to China Value added foods will grow faster rates ($30 to $60) million. Growing the food industry will raise agricultural yields, increases income and create employment and economic development.

Extension Reform Strategies Global Perspective In an effort to respond to the new paradigm, countries worldwide have adopted a variety of institutional reforms. These reforms are either market-oriented or non-market-oriented (Smith 1997). This distinction, provides an imperfect but hopefully useful framework for considering these reforms as individual, non-overlapping constructs. Following the discussion of Figure 3, a dynamic view of extension institutional reforms is presented in Figure 4 which suggests possible interconnections among the various constructs. Inferences drawn from the two Figures will shape the discussion in the final section. The recent adoption by FAO and the World Bank of a fundamental vision and guiding principles for developing agricultural knowledge systems forms the focus of this section. This vision and these principles are reviewed in relation to the plethora of the ongoing agricultural and rural extension reforms.

Contract Farming Contract farming is defined as a system for the production and supply of agricultural/horticultural produce under forward contracts between producers/suppliers and buyers. The essence of such an arrangement is the commitment of the producer/ seller to provide an agricultural commodity of a certain type, at a time and a price, and in the quantity required by a known and committed buyer. Contract Farming Ventures in India: A Few Successful Cases The Government of India’s National Agriculture Policy envisages that “Private sector participation will be promoted through contract farming and land leasing arrangements to allow accelerated technology transfer, capital inflow and assured market for crop production, especially of oilseeds, cotton and horticultural crops”. Farming is an age-old means of livelihood for millions of Indians. However, there have been few systems/models in which farmers are assured of a market for their 

In most countries, extension systems have now been operating for some time and problems within them will often require a refinement of the existing system rather than design of a new system from scratch. The purpose of this chapter is to provide extension managers with a simple approach in analysing common extension problems. In most cases, suggestions are given for possible actions to consider in investigating the causes of the problem further and ultimately in overcoming it. However the primary purpose of the chapter is not ‘to give solutions to all known problems’ but to assist the extension manager in analysing problems to find their root cause (or causes). The chapter is designed to be simple and easy to use, and thus cannot do justice to the complexity of all the problems and situations faced by extension personnel. Many different approaches might be used to organise this process and information. The chapter has tried in all cases to begin with noticeable problems and by analysing these through an hierarchy or problem tree, help users to analyse and reach their own conclusions as to the best solution.

A Action research 134, 216 Administration 9,13,20,58,61,62,66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 80, 81, 100, 112, 143,160,197,246,257,258, 259,260,261,263,264,265, 266,267,275,422,519 Administrator 67, 80, 81, 106, 152 Agri clinics 454 Agribusiness 319, 320, 321, 324, 454, 455, 486, 487, 488 Agri-business firms 345, 433 Agricultural consultants 433 Agricultural extension 2,6,7,8,9,11, 12, 15,16,17, 24, 127, 231, 282, 324, 326, 333, 339, 341,342, 343, 362, 412, 416,417,421,427, 428,432,434,   439,448,455,456,457,458, 459,  460,464,465,467,469,470, 471, 478,490,491,492,493,494, 495,  502, 503, 526