eChapters

7.1 Conducive Soils

Without a conducive environment, plant disease does not occur. Soils that favour the disease/ and the pathogen are generally referred to as conducive soils. Inoculum of powdery scab is the either the spore ball (an aggregation of thick walled, tough, resting spores, comprising an average of 700 spores) or the swimming spore (zoospore) that each spore of the spore ball releases. Spore balls of powdery scab have been shown to persist for long periods (Brierley et al., 2008). Exactly, how long they can survive has not been fully determined, but experimentally and anecdotally, it is much longer than a typical rotation. Inoculum may be seed-borne or soil-borne and whatever the source spore balls are able to cause infection and disease. Seed tubers may carry spore balls within powdery scab lesions or may carry spore balls symptomlessly where they have been picked up from adjacent infected tubers or contaminated machinery (e.g. on grading lines). In addition, recently, it has been found that tubers may be latently infected. That is where tubers are infected but symptoms are not expressed. Latent infections may be associated with conditions that are unfavourable for disease development, such as sub-optimal temperatures.

i. Soil Moisture: A high soil moisture content both encourages swimming spore release and facilitates movement to the host. It is generally accepted that swimming spores are unable to move through the soil without free water within the soil matrix (i.e. soil saturation). Many studies confirm the importance of free water in soil as a requirement for infection. The occurrence of wet soil conditions prior to tuber initiation, enabling inoculum multiplication, has been cited as important for high levels of powdery scab. Alternatively, prolonged wet soil conditions after tuber initiation can lead to high levels. In experiments investigating soil moisture, there is disagreement over the importance of constant versus fluctuating soil moisture conditions in powdery scab development. However, it is difficult to make clear comparisons because soil moisture levels have not always been measured and factors that may affect disease development (e.g. soil type, initial inoculum level) will have differed from experiment to experiment. Some studies have shown that constant high soil moisture has suppressed powdery scab development possibly due to low oxygen/high carbon dioxide levels rendering swimming spores inactive.

6.1 Competition

Soil microorganisms in particular are perceived as active competitors that have evolved diverse strategies to facilitate resource acquisition. Activities including motility, coordinated behavior, and antibiotic production can tip the competitive balance, resulting in numerical dominance or local extinction of competing populations. Functional consequences of microbial social behaviors have been studied extensively and demonstrate the importance of factors such as relatedness, kin discrimination, enforcement of cooperation, and competition among relatives to microbial survival and f itness in the environment (Adil Essarioui et al., 2017). However, most investigations have focused on interactions among closely related taxa, often among species or genera. Yet, in natural environments, coexistence of individuals from diverse microbial phyla and kingdoms is common. In particular, bacteria and fungi commonly coexist in soil, but there has been relatively little study of the role of species interactions in mediating the dynamics of specific bacterial and fungal populations in soil. Moreover, we have little understanding of the extent to which the ecological context, and specifically plant host or plant community diversity, may influence bacterialfungal interactions in soil. Such studies are needed to begin to establish a more complete understanding of the ecological and coevolutionary dynamics of soil microbial populations.

Microbes have coevolved to engage in complex networks of interactions with coexisting kin and non-kin individuals in the soil and in association with plants. Microbial antagonism and resource competition within complex communities have been the focus of many studies that have explored the effects of diverse factors on the ecological outcomes of these interactions. However, the concurrent impacts on these processes of plant species richness and plant host, which jointly structure the environment within which rhizosphere microbes interact, have received far less attention. This is despite the fact that both plant community richness and plant species have been shown to impact microbial community composition and function in rhizosphere soil, with potential implications for microbial interactions and pathogen suppression in natural and agricultural habitats.

5.1 Important Terms

i. Inoculum: The infective pathogen propagules coming in contact with the host constitutes the inoculum. The inoculum in the liquid state is a significant factor in anaerobic digestion in solid phase because it is very useful to convey the micro organisms, the water of recirculation. Depending on the particular inoculant formulation, the inocula can be used for seed coating, for dipping seedlings, direct application to the furrow, or as foliar application. An appropriate inoculum consists of copious amounts of active microbes having the potential to convert the organic matter to biogas and the S/I ratio is essential for the rate of degradation of a recalcitrant substrate since it governs not only the biogas composition, digestion period and reactor. Spread of inoculum may occur by wind, water, infected plant material, insects, animals, birds, and people. Plant diseases may have more than one source of inoculum. The infection cycle of some economically important soil-borne plant pathogens involves a combination of primary infection from particulate inoculum residing in the soil and secondary infection as disease is spread from infected to susceptible hosts.

The infectivity of inoculum can be quantified by the pathozone profile which measures changes in the probability of infection when inoculum occurs at different distances from the host. For instance, the germinability of inoculum, the growth of the mycelial colony and the infectivity of mycelium at the surface of the host combine to dictate the shape of the pathozone profile for Rhizoctonia solani on radish. The ultimate shape of the pathozone depended on inoculum type and was particularly sensitive to changes in the density and distribution of the mycelium in the fungal colony. Mycelium from an infected radish plant grew much further and at a higher density than that from particulate inoculum (mycelial discs). This results in pathozone profiles that differed in shape. For particulate inoculum the profile rise and fall with distance whilst for an infected plant the decay is sigmoidal.

Biological control is defined broadly as the “use of natural or modified organisms, genes, or gene products” to reduce the effects of pests and diseases. The many approaches to biological control can be categorized conventionally into regulation of the pest population (the classical approach); exclusionary systems of protection (a living barrier of microorganisms on the plant or animal that deters infection or pest attack) and systems of self-defense (resistance and immunization) (Anchal Sharma et al., 2013). The agents of biological control include the pest- or disease-agent itself (sterile males or a virulent strain of pathogens), antagonists or natural enemies, or the plant or animal managed or manipulated (immunized) to defend itself. Principles of plant health care are offered, know the production limits of the agro-ecosystem, rotate the crops, maintain soil organic master, use clean planting material, plant well-adapted, pest resistant cultivars, minimize environmental and nutritional stresses, maximize the effects of beneficial organisms and protect with pesticides as necessary.

Biological control is the control of one organism by another. This control may be expressed as either a longer population of the pest or as a restriction or prevention of the severity or incidence of pest damage without regard to the pest population (Cook and Baker, 1983). Biological control depends on knowledge of biological interactions at the ecosystem, organism, cellular, and molecular levers and often is more complicated to manage compared with physical and chemical methods. Biological control is also likely to be less spectacular than most physical or chemical controls but is usually also more stable and longer lasting. In spite of biological controls having been used in agriculture for centuries, as an industry biological control is still in its infancy. Biological control is now being considered for an increasing number of crops and managed ecosystems as the primary method of pest control. One reason for its growing popularity is its record of safety during the past 100 years considered as the era of modem biological control (Anchal Sharma et al., 2013). No microorganism or beneficial insect deliberately introduced or manipulated for biological control purposes has, itself, become a pest so far as can be determined, and there is no evidence so far of measurable or even negligible negative effects of biocontrol agents on the environment. The new tools of recombinant DNA technology, mathematical modeling, and computer technology combined with a continuation of the more classical approaches such as importation and release of natural enemies and improved germplasm, breeding, and field testing should quickly move bio-control research and technology into a new era.

3.1 Soil Inhabiting Fungi

There’s a wild and wonderful world that remains hidden for most of us, at least most of the time. It’s an amazing ecosystem filled with fascinating creatures interacting with one another to create an intricate, dynamic web of life. It’s right under our feet: the soil ecosystem! Many organisms make up this ecosystem, and some of the most important ones are the fungi. Healthy soil is alive and teeming with an array of fungus species, each playing a vital role in its environment. Healthy soils are alive with an especially diverse array of fungal species, and many are essential to the health of the plants growing in that soil. In fact, a soil devoid of fungi is a dead soil, and is unlikely to support thriving plants. Some soil fungi are single-celled and visible only through a microscope. Others form large, underground networks of filaments that can cover an area the size of a football field or larger. Most of us are familiar with the above-ground parts of some soil fungi, the mushroom.

Fungi are one of the key microbial groups in terrestrial ecosystems that enabled colonization of land by plants and facilitated development of soil that supports most of the biota on Earth. The kingdom Fungi is one of the most diverse groups of life with an estimated 1.5–6 million species that represent heterotrophic mutualists, pathogens, and saprotrophs (Tedersoo et al., 2017). The 70,000–100,000 currently recognized species are distributed among 156 orders, 46 classes, and 12 phyla. Fungi have traditionally been identified and classified based on morphological characters of fruiting bodies and living cultures. Similar to bacteria and archaea, merely <1% of fungal species have been cultivated with established protocols, which renders large taxonomic groups undescribed and virtually unknown to science. Roughly 80% of all soil-inhabiting fungal taxa cannot be identified at the species level, and 20% cannot be reliably assigned to known orders.

2.1 Roots and the Rhizosphere

The rhizosphere, the region of soil surrounding plant roots in which soil and microbes closely interact–plays an important role in soil carbon cycling. The rhizosphere is only about 1-2% of Earth’s soil volume but can store up to 30-40% of Earth’s total soil organic matter. Plants secrete organic compounds such as amino acids or enzymes known as root exudates, which are key in recruiting and selecting relevant beneficial microbes to colonize in the rhizosphere (Julie Bobyock, 2023). Studying these microbial-plant interactions is critical to better understand the relationship between plant growth and the role soils play in keeping carbon from the atmosphere. It is the region that is a few distances (2-80 mm) extended from the root system. Rhizosphere zone is the region of intense microbial activity, and it is isolated from the bulk soil that often called as Edaphosphere or Non-rhizosphere.

Plant growth results from interaction of roots and shoots with the environment. The environment for roots is the soil or planting medium, and its importance is often not appreciated beyond the physical and nutritional aspects. Roots do provide structural support for the plant, and they absorb water and nutrients, but they also produce plant growth-regulating substances, such as cytokinins. The cortex of the root is largely starch storage tissue, and represents a transition zone from the soil to the stele. The cortex also provides a niche to be occupied by mycorrhizal fungi. It is not as generally appreciated, however, that roots also support the growth and functions of a complex of microorganisms that can have a profound effect on the growth and survival of plants. These microbes interact in the soil around the root that is influenced by root exudates; this zone is called the rhizosphere. The effects of rhizosphere microorganisms on plant growth or health often are ignored unless the microbes weaken or kill the plant through disease. There are, however, beneficial interactions that can occur and be enhanced if actively managed by the grower. Establishment and maintenance of rhizosphere microbial populations is a dynamic process affected by age and kind of plant, nature and treatment of soil, environmental factors, foliar applications of chemicals, and interactions of microorganisms. It is important to remember that selective or preferential development of rhizosphere populations occurs in the early stages of plant growth and root development when root exudation is maximal but, thereafter, is altered and maintained at some microbial equilibrium by both microbial and plant activity, with both being influenced by edaphic and other environmental factors.

Soil is a strange full of wisdom particularly in terms of biodiversity. Soil biota consists of the microbes (bacteria, fungi, archaea and algae), soil animals (protozoa, nematodes, mites, springtails, spiders, insects and earthworms) and plants, living all or part of their lives in or on the soil or pedosphere. Millions of species of soil organisms exist but only a fraction of them have been cultured and identified. Micro organisms (MOs) (fungi, archaea, bacteria, algae and cyanobacteria) are members of the soil biota but are not members of the soil fauna (Sachidanand et al., 2019). The soil fauna is the collection of all the microscopic and macroscopic animals in a given soil. The size of a soil organism can restrict its location in the soil habitat. Smaller members of the microfauna like nematodes are basically aquatic organisms that live in the thin water f ilms or capillary pores of aggregates preying or grazing on other aquatic microfauna such as amoebas. Soil has a direct effect on the environmental conditions, habitat and nutrient sources available to the soil biota. The term pedosphere is often used interchangeably with soil and captures the concept that the soil is a habitat where the integration of spheres occurs. These spheres include the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and the biosphere. Numerous biogeochemical processes regulated by soil biota occur in the pedosphere.

The physical structure, aeration, water holding capacity and availability of nutrients are determined by the mineral constituents of soil, which are formed by the weathering of rock and the degradative metabolic activities of the soil MOs. Soil microbiology is the study of organisms in soil, their functions, and how they affect soil properties. It is believed that between two and four billion years ago, the first ancient bacteria and MOs came about in earth’s oceans. These bacteria could fix N2 , in time multiplied and as a result released oxygen into the atmosphere. This led to more advanced MOs. Soil biology plays a vital role in determining many soil characteristics. The decomposition of organic matter by soil organisms has an immense influence on soil fertility, plant growth, soil structure, and C storage. As a relatively new science, much remains unknown about soil biology and their effects on soil ecosystems. The soil is home to a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity.

Gender Concepts

Gender is different from sex. Sex is the biological and physiological characteristics that define humans as female or male. Gender refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being female and male and to the relationships between women and men and girls and boys. Sex symbolizes biological differences between men and women whereas gender is recognized as a social characteristic that cuts across caste, class, occupation, age, and ethnicity. Gender identifies the social relations between men and women and gender differentiates the roles, responsibilities, resources, constraints, and opportunities of women and men. Gender roles are dynamic which change over time. In contrast, sex identifies the biological differences between men and women. The difference between gender and sex is indicated in Table 12.1.

Although women and men enjoy equal status in the law of the constitution, there exists a wide difference in how men and women are looked upon and handled by society. It is the society that has nurtured the ‘Gender gap’, as it is a socially constructed attribute of being male and female, by assigning roles and responsibilities with respect to one’s gender.

In order to address gender issues, it is imperative that we understand the different fundamental gender concepts to deal with them effectively.

Gender roles: Men and women have multiple roles. Women have productive, reproductive, and management of community assets roles whereas men have productive and other roles. Gender roles are learned behaviors in a given society/community, or other special group, that condition which activities, tasks, and responsibilities are perceived as male and female. Gender roles are affected by age, class, race, ethnicity, religion, and geographical, economic, and political environment. Some common terms relating to gender in use are indicated below.

Introduction

Decentralization means the action or fact of reducing or undoing “centralization” or “concentration.” The dictionary meaning of decentralization is “The process of transferring the functions from the Central Government to the local units.” Decentralization is devolving power of decision–making with the lower level of organization. In a decentralization, delegation and devolution of power are given to the lower level. Devolution implies a situation in which lower ranking units acquire greater autonomy in respect of certain defined functions, including decision-making authority. Devolution of functions, powers, and responsibilities are normally granted through legislation.

Decentralized Planning in India

With the introduction of the Community Development Programme (CDP) and National Extension Service (NES) in 1952, increasing agricultural production had been on India’s agenda in different plan periods. The success of CDP and NES was reviewed by the Balawant Rai Committee in 1957 and the committee realized that community development can be achieved only when the community understands its problems, owns its responsibilities, exercises the necessary powers through its elected representatives, and maintains a constant and intelligent vigilance on local administration. The recommendation of the committee led to the preparation of plans at the level of state, district, block, towns, and Panchayats in the second plan period from 1957 to 1962. The Fourth Evaluation Report (Programme Evaluation Organization, Planning Commission) in 1959 recommended that organized and institutional participation by the public in development programs is bound to give better, more consistent, and more lasting results. In 1977, Ashok Meheta Committee suggested changing the concept of Panchayati Raj to a political institution. In 1981, the eminent economist Prof. M.L. Dantewala observed that the merit of decentralized planning is derived from its ability to discover dormant resources and skills and its endeavor to activate them. However, there was slow progress in decentralized planning up to the eighth plan (1992-97).

Initially, rural development followed a top-down approach based on the information collected through the traditional survey method. It was soon noticed that the perception of the development professionals from the “top” was at variance with the perception of the rural masses. Visits were made and extractive surveys were carried out with the help of structured formats and questionnaires. These surveys had several biases such as spatial, season, person, caste, religion, project, education, etc. These limitations led to a search for a new method for understanding rural situations. New methods and approaches such as Farming System Research (FSR), Exploratory Survey and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) were attempted during the 1970s to overcome the deficiencies of conventional survey methods. Moving away from extractive survey questionnaires, two families of approaches and methods, referred to as Rapid Rural Appraisal and Participatory Rural Appraisal evolved in the 1980s and 1990s.

Origin of PRA

Participatory Rural Appraisal is ‘an approach and methods for learning about rural life and conditions from, with and by rural people’. It is defined as a family of approaches and methods to enable rural people to share, enhance and analyse their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and act.

According to Robert Chambers (1992), there are five main trends that decorate the principal method of PRA: Activist Participatory Research, Agro-ecosystem Analysis, Social Anthropology, Field Research on Farming Systems, and Rapid Rural Appraisal.

Concept of Community Development

A community is a group of people, who live in a geographical area and have interests in each other for the purpose of making a living. It is a form of social organization existing between the family and the state. Development connotes growth and implies gradual and sequential phases of change. A community development program means a program for gradual change in a group of people living in a geographical area and having an interest in each other for making a living. It involves the principles of sustainable development, empowerment, inclusivity, social justice, human rights, participative democracy, and equality. It is a collaborative and facilitative process of people who share a common purpose of building the capacity to have a positive impact on quality of life.

• Community development is a movement intended to promote better living for the whole community with the active participation and on the initiative of the community.

• It is a balanced program for stimulating the local potential for growth in every direction in both wealth and welfare by themselves with minimum outside help.

• It is technically aided and locally organized by self-help.

• Community development is adopted by many governments to reach village people and to make more effective use of local initiative and energy for increased production and better living standards.

• Community development is a process of social action in which the people of a community organize themselves define their needs and problems and plan for action.

Extension Program

Planning an extension program involves decision- making about the work of the organization. Extension program planning covers a set of objectives to be achieved by various activities included in the planning. Extension organization needs to decide the goal it aims at, the target group, the content of extension message, its use, and organization of all activities. The program includes situation analysis, and an action plan for solving people’s problems which is drawn in advance. Extension workers have to decide the goals, target group, messages, extension methods, and media and organization of activities. While setting the goal, the perception of the present situation and the vision of the desired situation should be borne in mind. The target group is normally larger than the extension worker contacts directly or through mass media. The target group can be contacted indirectly. The extension content depends on the goal, the target group, and the extension strategy. The content should be so selected that it can be implemented with the resources available to the farmers locally. A combination of extension methods need to be used. The extension program needs to be flexible and can be easily implemented by the organization.

Extension Program Planning

Extension program planning indicates an account of the activities to be undertaken by the organization.

The essential phases of program planning in extension are analyzing the situation, setting goals and objectives, identifying problems and gaps, developing work plan, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and reconsideration.

Approaches in Extension

Agricultural extension services have gone through various stages over the years, from the individual farm visits approach to the T&V approach. All these approaches are characterized to a greater or lesser extent, by a “ top- down” planning. Extension approaches mostly determine the direction and nature of the system in terms of structure, leadership, program, methods and techniques, resources, and linkages. Extension approach is a style of action within a system which embodies the philosophy of the system. Although there are many approaches to agricultural extension, there is certain commonality in them. All approaches function through non- formal education and all have agricultural content for the development of rural people.

Ministry- based General Extension

Ministry of Agriculture was entrusted with agricultural extension in a top- down manner for planning for the adoption of technologies. An increase in national production is taken as the measure of success.

All persons engaged in agriculture are the clients of this public extension who are served by extension staff. Program formulation and implementation are guided by public interest. Ministry- based extension faces difficulty in serving the majority of potential clientele and financial constraints that force it to reduce the staff. Whereas extension demands location- specific technologies and flexible decisions, the university extension is mostly top- down in nature. As the approach lacks a two- way approach the messages are not location specific. Production alternatives are absent in this approach.

The Training and Visit Approach (T&V)

Introduction

The history and evolution of extension in India during the Pre- independence and Post- independence periods have been narrated in Chapter 2. The major breakthrough in Agricultural Extension was the introduction of the T&V system with WB support from 1977 to 1997. The system tried to establish a strong linkage between the research and extension. Technical messages received from research stations were transferred to the farmers through an organized extension system at fixed time intervals and obtained feedback from the farmers about the technologies. However, the system was constrained by structural problems at organizational level. The system adopted a classical top- down approach and the recommendations were suitable for irrigated areas bypassing the rain- fed areas. After the withdrawal of support from WB, the T&V system was constrained by the paucity of funds to manage the manpower created, and the unpaid farmers did not continue to work. After withdrawal, it was considered necessary to make the extension more demand- driven, participatory, group extension, and farmer- centric with possible convergence for which extension reform in India was necessary.

Extension reform in India

There are many countries where extension and advisory services reforms are occurring globally (Swanson and Rajalahti 2010; World Bank 2012). Since agro- ecological conditions and access to markets vary within most countries, decentralized extension system was needed. It was considered that decentralized and demand- driven extension allows farmers to participate in setting the agenda and demanding extension and research priorities. The extension reforms made the system reach the smallholders, resource- poor, and women, and also focused on sustainability. When the donor funds dry up or the pilot projects end, the farmers no longer have access to the extension services (Birner and Anderson 2007). Therefore the public extension needs to be sustainable in extension services delivery.

Introduction

Innovation as a new idea, method, or object may be developed by research or by a farmer. Diffusion is a special type of communication on innovations. The proper use of innovation is called adoption. Communication is different from diffusion in the sense that communication covers all types of messages whereas diffusion is concerned with a message of new ideas. The extension workers need to understand the meaning of diffusion, adoption processes, innovation, etc. by which farmers accept new ideas. Adoption is a sequence of thoughts and actions which an individual goes through before s/he finally adopts a new idea. The adoption process is a mental process for passing the new idea to final adoption. In the diffusion process, the new idea spreads from its source of invention or creation to its ultimate users or adopters. Perception is an activity through which an individual becomes aware of objects around oneself and of events taking place.

Elements in the Diffusion of Innovations

The four main elements in the diffusion of innovations are innovation, communication channels, time, and social systems.

The Innovation

Innovation is a new idea expressed in terms of knowledge, persuasion of decision for adoption. The perceived attributes of innovations are relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability.

Relative advantage: The innovation should have a relative advantage over the existing ideas in terms of economic and social-prestige factors, convenience, and satisfaction. The advantage can be influenced by providing various incentives.

Compatibility: The innovation should be compatible with the socio-cultural values and beliefs of people.

Introduction

A teacher uses different aids in addition to lectures for effective teaching. Similarly, a trainer uses different training methods to make learning effective. In Agricultural Extension the extension worker as a teacher has to design and use appropriate teaching methods depending upon the group to make the teaching effective. According to Leagans (1961) “extension teaching methods are the basic and proven devices used to create situations in which communication can take place between the instructor and the learner.” Extension methods are powerful tools for extension workers to effectively communicate certain messages. Some studies suggest that the adoption of innovations by the farmers requires different teaching methods at different stages of learning. These methods are required for imparting new knowledge and skills to the farmers to adopt new practices for their increased production and income. The choice of extension teaching methods depends on the target audience, location, and availability of time for teaching.

Classification of extension Teaching Methods

Extension teaching methods are classified according to use, form, and function as shown in Table 4.1.

Classification According to Use

The extension methods could be individual or interpersonal, group contact, or mass contact as shown in Figure 4.1.

Individual contact methods: Individual methods provide face- to- face contact with individuals. Those techniques are very effective in teaching new technologies and creating goodwill among farmers and extension people. When few people are to be contacted and they are at a close distance, the individual methods are effective. The extension worker contacts directly to an individual and gets his feedback through different means like personal visits, telephones, SMS, etc. The individual contact method is useful for rapport building and easy to obtain feedback. But the method is time- consuming and quite expensive.

Introduction

Communication is a process for exchanging ideas, facts, feelings, or impressions between two or more individuals for a common understanding. Communication is required for transferring technology or obtaining farmer feedback to adopt technology in the field. Good communication is the essence of good teaching. Communication is a whole learning process in which the teacher sends a message through a channel to the receiver as a means of teaching. In traditional extension, there was direct contact between the extension worker and farmer to communicate research innovations and to obtain farmer feedback. In this system, only a few farmers had direct contact with the extension worker while the majority of farmers were contacted less frequently. Daniel Benor has tried to improve traditional extension through a “training and visit” (T & V) system designed to emphasize the organizational and training components of extension and improve communication with the farmers. In considering extension as a vehicle for communicating with large numbers of farmers without any discretion, the communication process and its role in extension need to be followed by the extension workers.

what is Communication?

Communication is a process of transferring a message from a source (communicator) through a channel to the receiver (communiqué). It is defined by different scientists in a different manner keeping the intent in view. However, it is accepted that communication is a process where a message is transferred from the source (communicator) to the receiver (communiqué). Some definitions of communication are indicated below.

• J. Paul Leagan (1961) defines communication as a process where two or more individuals exchange ideas, facts, and impressions for mutual gain and common understanding of the content and use of a message.

• “Communication is a purposeful process, which involves sources, messages, channels, and receivers.” – Andersch et al. (1969).

Van den Ban and Hawkins (1988) defined communication as the process of sending and receiving messages through channels that establish a common meaning between a source and receiver.

India faced a series of famines from 1857 to 1901, for which the government was forced to appoint some commissions. The Famine Commission of 1880 recommended the establishment of a separate Department of Agriculture at both the central and provincial levels. Based on such recommendations, the Agricultural Departments were established in 1981–1982, and some acts like the Land Improvement Act and Agricultural Loans Act, 1988 and Co- operative Act, 1904 were passed and development departments were established. As a protection measure, some irrigation projects were created. The Famine Commission (1901) also recommended for establishment of Agricultural Research Stations and Colleges. The Imperial Agricultural Research Institute along with an Agricultural College was established at Pusa Institute. As per the Government India Act of 1919, all departments connected with rural development to the major provinces and agricultural development became a State subject. Rural Development works were made provincial subjects from 1935. Various diversified efforts for rural reconstruction were made for the development of extension in India during the Pre- Independence and Post- Independence periods. These extension programs were launched in four stages as indicated below.

Stage I: Pre- Independence Extension

Stage II: Post- Independence Extension (1947–1953)

Stage III: Community Development and National Extension service (1953–1960)

Stage IV: Intensive Agricultural Development (1960 onwards)

Pre- independence extension in India

Between 1903 and 1946, eight important area- specific programs were implemented for rural development while the Grow More Food Campaign was implemented in the entire country to increase food grains production. The description of these programs/projects is given below in brief.

Introduction

Extension is a form of education, and extension services provide information, advice, and education for rural development in many countries. It was used for sharing ideas, beliefs, knowledge, and information with rural people in an informal way. In the mid-nineteenth century, extension services were institutionalized, and public funding was spent for organized extension activity in rural areas.

Extension Education

The word ‘extension’ is derived from two Latin roots, namely ‘ex’ meaning ‘out’ and ‘tensio’ meaning ‘stretching.’ Hence, extension means stretching out Figure 1.1.

Extension does not have a universally recognized definition. According to Webster, education is a process of teaching to develop the knowledge, skills, and character of students. Sociologist Rodney Stark declares that “Education is the cheapest, most rapid and most reliable path to economic advancement under present conditions.” Education is a lifelong process, and it is necessary to transfer experience and knowledge to the next generation for political and socio-economic development.

University extension started at Cambridge University, London University, and Oxford University before the nineteenth century. The success of extension in Britain led to the initiation of extension education in the United States later. In India, university extension was introduced after the establishment of State Agricultural Universities in a similar pattern to Land Grant Colleges in the United States.

Extension as a form of education facilitates the learning or acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, and habits. As an education, it can be informal, formal or non- formal. It can also be categorized as child education, adult education, technical education, health education, social science and humanities, etc.

Formal education: It is an institutionalized, chronologically graded, and well- structured system of education that starts from schooling to higher education. Formal education is usually given in structured classrooms in schools and colleges with a fixed syllabus, course curriculum, and certificates awarded after examination. In formal education, only qualified teachers impart education to the students.

Introduction

The traditional methods of food production are coming under increasing strain due to the ever- increasing population of the world and the ever- decreasing availability of land and water resources. The good news is that there are currently concrete solutions to some of these difficulties that can be provided by technology. The fact that climate change is happening while the global population is growing poses the question of how we can ensure that the food we produce is reliable and of consistent quality. Is it possible to grow food in settings that can be regulated, allowing for production that is not dependent on the weather or temperature? It is just a computer enthusiast who is thrilled about how the industry is evolving, but maybe that makes it sound like a visionary. Over the course, gathering a significant amount of expertise working on initiatives that include the use of technology towards horticulture concerns is important. In order to keep newly emerging pests and diseases under control, horticultural crops require a higher degree of personal attention and plant monitoring than arable crops. The use of this intensive but integrated management strategy cleared the path for technology advancements that automated and optimized the farming processes that were previously handled manually, hence introducing increased precision and dependability

The Importance of Adoption of Technologies

Recently, the necessity to improve production, earnings, and productivity was the primary driving force behind the choice of technology that was made available to farmers. The primary obstacles included a lack of access to cash, a lack of familiarity with how to use the technology, and exposure to market risks, the latter of which was mitigated by the policies of the government in many countries. In the past, “good policy practices” were therefore rather straightforward, relating primarily to increasing output, and the goal of agricultural and horticulture policies was to increase productivity in agriculture and horticulture. This was the case because in the past, “good policy practices” were related to increasing output. It is possible that agricultural research and extension services could center their efforts, for instance, on increasing the overall productivity of smaller farms.