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The history of Patent law in India starts from 1911 when the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911 was enacted. The present Patents Act, 1970 came into force in the year 1972, amending and consolidating the existing law relating to Patents in India. The Patents Act, 1970 was again amended by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005, wherein product patent was extended to all fields of technology including food, drugs, chemicals and micro organisms. After the amendment, the provisions relating to Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMRs) have been repealed, and a provision for enabling grant of compulsory license has been introduced.

There are many types of intellectual property and its type varies from country to country. The most common types are patents, copyrights, trademarks, design and trade secrets. Intellectual property is an intangible creation of the human intellect and this intangible nature of intellectual property faces problems in comparison of traditional property like land or goods. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property is not dividable therefore a number of people can consume an intellectual good without its consumption. In addition, investments in intellectual goods suffer from appropriation problems, for instance Landowners can surround their land with a robust fence and hire armed guards to protect it, but creators of intellectual property cannot do that to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at a lower price.

Major International Treaties Related to IPR & TRIPS

There are different forms of intellectual property like Patents, Copyright, Trademarks, Industrial design, Plant Varieties etc. Various meeting and conventions were also convened for the protection in these intellectual properties at international level from time to time and to bring uniformity and coordination among member countries. These were reflected in different treaties, which are mentioned below. Among all these treaties/conventions the agreement on Trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), which runs under aegis of World Trade Organization is most influential, comprehensive and inclusive of all.

The recent concept of intellectual property emerged in England in the 17^th & 18^th centuries. The term Intellectual Property came in use in the 19^th century and in the late 20^th century. As of now the Intellectual Property has occupied common position in the global legal systems. There are different forms of Intellectual property rights which include patents, copyright, industrial design, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade dress, geographical indications and in some jurisdictions trade secrets too

The concept of capacity development is defined in various ways. Broadly, it is defined as a process by which skills, and knowledge are built, utilized, retained and nurtured with a view to provide an entity responding to a development challenge. Two components that are vital in any plausible definition of the concept are human skills (the ability to perform a task) and institutions (effectiveness and efficiency of organizations, systems, processes and procedures).

Identify main reasons and purpose of curriculum development and key areas needed by stakeholders for curriculum change. This can be done by adopting participatory methods like Focus group discussion/ field level workshops. Carry out stakeholder analysis and identify specific potential areas suggested by stakeholders to be included in the curriculum for better performance at the f ield level and their likely role in the process. In order to encourage greater stakeholder involvement invite stakeholders such as staff and students from various farm universities, field extension workers and farmers.

Participatory curriculum reorientation awareness-raising workshop for key stakeholders: In the present study focus group discussion and workshops were conducted to know the effectiveness of present curriculum of extension education with different stakeholders (Students UG, PG and Ph.D, Extension teachers, Field extension workers and farmers). Data were collected by using schedules regarding the important contents of present curriculum and most important for extension workers in the present situation to be included in curriculum

The results of Focus Group Discussions and Field Level Workshops (Tables presented at the end of toolkit) conducted with different stakeholders mentioned in the methodology revealed that, communication skills, soft skills, leadership development skills, personal and professional development skills followed by entrepreneurship development skills are more important and needed to perform job effectively at field level extension work (Table 1).

To address the present day problems in agriculture and horticultural sectors and also to equip the graduating and postgraduate agricultural students, the ICAR has been continuously striving to bring necessary reforms for quality enhancement in agricultural education. The Council has appointed National Core Group and BSMA Committee for revision and restructuring of Post graduate and Doctoral syllabi in consultation with all the stakeholders to meet the challenges and harness opportunities in various disciplines of agriculture and allied sciences. It has been felt that a paradigm shift is necessary in academic regulations to comply with various provisions of National Education Policy-2020. The syllabus of Masters’ and Doctoral programs was restructured and new courses were introduced.

The motive behind conducting the workshop on Capacity Need Assessment and Development is that the existing Extension Advisory Services (EAS) needs new capacities to respond effectively to the emerging challenges in agricultural development.

While developing the toolkit for Participatory Curriculum Development participatory approaches like Focus Group Discussions and Field Level Workshops were adopted. The goal is to provide demand-driven services and to do so, extension professionals need to respond for farmers’ requests rather than deliver predetermined packaged solutions. It is also time to enable the farmers to empower and make their voices heard. Equally important is to make the service providers accountable to the farmers, which is possible when the farmers pay for the services they receive.

In the present system of curriculum changes, participation of all the stakeholders are not actively involved in developing curriculum over the years.

Real benefits are obtained when we use a participatory approach to curriculum development and reorientation. Primarily, the course contents we provide and the learning will become more effective. If students participate actively in the learning process, then they are more likely to learn and teaching is more likely to be effective. They will have more ownership in the teaching, because their needs will have been identified and hopefully they will also be involved in deciding how their needs can be met. This will increase their motivation, which will help them to learn more effectively.

• Content approach

We can identify several different ‘traditional’ approaches to curriculum development. The most common approach until recently is the ‘content’ approach. This is where the curriculum is basically a list of knowledge – things that the agricultural graduating learners need to know. Usually this list is made by a curriculum development committee or group of experts identified at the national level.

“Curriculum” is seen often as a critical issue during discussions on quality of agricultural education, being considered variously as content, as product and as process. It is easy to make the assumption that a common understanding of curriculum, but in practice this is far from the case, with a host of definitions, approaches and ideological standpoints. Even though a dialogue on curriculum theory is well established, there is still a strong tendency in practice to understand curriculum as a list of content, often developed in considerable detail, that students should be taught.

To explain the main concepts and elements of a participatory curriculum development process

To present practical skills and knowledge leading to the effective design of teaching and learning

To build confidence of the learners in applying new methods and approaches to teaching and field extension work.

To demonstrate application of participatory approach in development of Extension curriculum

This Toolkit emphasizes an active learning approach, based on the process of experience, reflection and action. The key principle is that people do not learn simply by passive listening. They need to be involved from beginning of the training and designing of the program.

Participatory curriculum development (PCD) in extension education is an emerging approach to help and improve the quality of education in farm universities. The main steps of the PCD approach adopted here have high practical utility for the design of formal course contents for the Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in Agricultural Extension. A great deal of thinking is required while deciding on how much participation will be required from which stakeholders, at what level(s).

As stated before, a careful assessment of the existing curriculum is essential before any modification is undertaken and must take into account the country’s education policy, political, economic, demographic, cultural, social and technological environment. Problems of farmers to be solved, needs to be satisfied, and priorities to be identified and addressed and then only the recommendations made for action.

Curriculum reorientation is necessary, when any one in use is no longer responsive to the needs, interests and unable to meet the demands of the farming community to which it is intended to serve. In any case a number of factors, such as those listed below, must be taken into consideration while reorientation:

There should be an analytical assessment of the existing agricultural extension curriculum in order to justify any proposed reorientation.

Learning needs of the farm university graduates and farmers should be reviewed from the point of view of both individual learner requirements and national development needs.

Introduction

Recognizing the importance and impact initiatives were taken for starting National Horticulture Mission, announced by Honorable Prime Minister on 15 August 2003. Crop diversification has become an imperative for India’s agri-economy. To address this need and to give further impetus to encouraging growth in cultivation of horticultures, vegetables, flowers, species etc. a National Horticultural Mission has been launched. Its main target will be doubling India;s horticultural production by 2010. Sub sequentially, National Horticuture Mission was launched during Tenth Plan with effect from 2005 2006 for holistic development of horticultural crops, having competitive advantages.