12 Roles of Extension agencies, Local Leaders and Institutions in Extension Program Planning

Dr. Ashok Kumar

epgp books

Course outline

 

  •  Introduction
  •  Learning objectives
  •  Role of Extension Agency
  •  Sequences of roles of extension agencies
  •  Role of local leaders
  • By D.M.Hall
  • By Dwight Sanderson
  •  Combined roles of extension agencies and Local leaders
  •  Role of Local Institutions
  •  Summary

 

Introduction:

 

Extension’s fundamental objective is the development of the people. Its aim is to achieve this objective through extension work. The clients are very large and reaching the large numbers of the clients or the people, therefore, require a systematic approach. The extension organization needs to establish some communication channel to carry out the extension work. The extension agency and the local leaders by virtue of their central positionin the group must play an important role in the communication process and for the effective extension work. The extension work is not limited to the rural areas alone but extends to the urban areas as well.The extension agency and local leaders both play their important roles in extension program planning.

 

Learning Objectives:

  1. The students will be able to explain the roles of the extension agency in extension program planning.
  2. The students will be able to explain the roles of local leaders in extension program planning.
  3. The students will be able to explain the roles of local Institutions in extension program planning.
  4. The students will be able to explain the combine roles of local leaders and extension agency in extension program planning.

 

Role of Extension Agency:

 

The extension agency plays an important and necessary role in the extension field. Extension work is not limited to the rural areas alone, but extends to urban side as well, although more emphasis is laid on the development of the rural sector. Even in some sectors, the nature of work is multipurpose. The extension work is bound to touch upon all aspects of rural life. These should have a comprehensive understanding of the village people and their problems. These should participate in sorrows and joys of the villagers and must develop a close contacts with the village people. These have to win the willing and enthusiastic cooperation of the people and the work is to start with the local felt needs. The work at the lower most level carried out in the village by village level worker who is the foundation of rural uplift, for it is they who are in direct contact with village people.

 

The extension agency is to choose its own way of living in such a manner as to adjust itself to the society existing around him. These have to perform the annual work in the village or taking an order. The extension agency personnel must be the friends to the village discussion groups. They must also be friends to the villagers and help

them in all situations and even in awkward circumstances. The extension agency has the full responsibility of successfully implementing the programs in the villages.

 

Keeping in view nature of theextension work, the extension agency’s roles in the various aspects of village life may be described as follows:

  1. The extension agency’s personnel have to acquaint with all the families in the village and learn their problems, needs and capabilities and help them by recognizing that planning with the people is a continuous and important part of extension work.
  2. The extension agency should use as many methods of extension as necessary, because experience has shown that the use of more than one extension methods make the extension programs more successful. The use of all practical methods of teaching requires careful planning.
  3. The extension agency should give the villagers every chance to work in cooperative group action. The villagers should be encouraged to have discussions because as a village discussion group grows and gains confidence; it will naturally seek to become a village extension group. The extension agency in the beginning must give leadership to the group.
  4. The extension agency has to improve the village life and surroundings and create the conditions for farmers to become active members of the public, socially, economically and politically. These are also responsible for making the villagers feel that these are the real partners in village affairs and should help and cooperation needed and valued in every village activity. These have to raise the levels of living of the villagers and provide a more stable base for economic and mental security, other than the directives of increasing the yields, and improvement of the personal and village wealth.
  5. The extension agency has to carry the extension programs to rural masses; i.e. basic knowledge of improved methods of agriculture, animal husbandry, home management etc. which will enable them to increase their agricultural production per acre, per animal and also improve their standard of living.
  6. The extension agencyhelp the villagers in crop and livestock raising so that their income increased. These also help the rural masses to appreciate the opportunities, duties and privilege of living in an organized way in the villages.
  7. The extension agency has to raise the whole standard of rural life by promoting social, cultural and intellectual activities in the village. These have to bring also the knowledge of conditions prevailing in the progressive countries to the rural people.
  8. The extension agency has to make the villagers intelligent, self –reliant and independent citizens who will love their homes and their country. These have to take the problems of the villagers to scientific institutions for their solutions.
  9. The extension agency has to change the attitude, knowledge and skills of the villagers. These have to bring about a psychological change in the mind of the village people to prepare them to adopt new way of life.

In a nutshell, the following roles are to be performed by the extension agency at all the levels in connection with the program planning.

  1. To collect, relate and analysis of facts
  2. To help in determine the objectives
  3. To study wants and needs of the people
  4. To decide upon practical solutions to problems or answers to wants and needs
  5. To decide which problems need immediate attention
  6. To develop complete procedures to train staff
  7. To strive for larger participation of the people
  8. To coordinate all the efforts and resources of other agencies and groups
  9. To evaluate results as an aid to future program planning
  10. To publish and distribute programs to the groups and the people.

Sequences of roles of extension agencies:

 

The sequences of roles the extension agency in program planning are summarized as by Rogers and shoemaker (1971).

These roles are to be performed with the client system from their points of view, in a consultative and persuasive manner.

1.Develop a need for change:

At the outset, help the clients to become aware of the need to alter their behavior.

  1. Establish information –exchange relationship:

Develop rapport with the clients. Extension agent’s credibility and empathy with the needs and problems of the clients are important. The must accept the extension agent, before they will accept the innovations which are promoted. The innovations are judged on the basis of how the extension agent is perceived.

  1. Diagnose problems:

Analyze the client’s problem situation in order to determine why the existing alternatives do not meet their needs.

  1. Create intent in the clients to change:

Motivate the clients to mentally accept till change.

  1. Translate intent into action:

Assist the clients to put the recommendations in practice. Emphasize on getting action or behavior change of the clients.

  1. Stabilize adoption and prevent discontinuance:

Take steps to stabilize (freeze) new behaviors by furnishing reinforcing messages to the clients who have adopted.

  1. Achieve a terminal relationship:

Generate a self-renewing behavior of the clients from a position of reliance on the extension agent to reliance on themselves.

Role of local leaders:

Extension’s fundamental objective is the development of the people. Its aim is to achieve this objective through extension work. The clients are very large and reaching the large numbers of the clients or the people, therefore, require a systematic approach. The extension organization needs to establish some communication channel to carry out the extension work. The local leaders by virtue of their central position in the group must play an important role in the communication process and for the effective extension work. The extension work is not limited to the rural areas alone but extends to the urban areas as well. A good local leader plays various roles in extension program planning. These are as follows:

  1. To assist the village groups and extension agencies in identifying the needs and problems of the rural people.
  2. To aid the group by setting some example before them.
  3. To assist in moving the group towards the achievement of the objectives and goals.
  4. To encourage and improving interaction among the group members.
  5. To keep the group together.
  6. To make the resources available to the group.

According to Hall, D.M., there are 15 roles of the local leader, which they have to perform in the villages or the community and they are as follows:

 

1. Initiator                9. Compromiser
2. Orienteer               10. Expediter
3. Facilitator                11. Spokesman
4. Encourager             12. Recorder
5. Harmonizer            13. Evaluator
6. Analyzer                  14. Summarizer
7. Fact Seeker             15. Status symbol
8. Fact Giver

Dwight Sanderson has listed six roles as under:

  1. Spokesman
  2. Harmonizer
  3. Planner
  4. Executive
  5. Symbol Status
  6. Stimulator/ Motivator

The village local leaders in whom people have confidence and respect, ad whom they fear are an asset to the development program. What their leaders say and do has more relevance to the village people than what outsiders might say and do. Therefore, the extension worker should locate and develop the village leaders and work with them. In helping the village people to implement their program, it is important that the extension worker should arrange adequate supplies and services in time. Without this no program can be implemented successfully and the villagers will begin to lose faith in the program.

 

Combined roles ofextension agencies and Local leaders:

 

The extension agency and local leaders both play their roles in extension program planning. The combined roles of both are explained as under:

  1. In collection, analysis and evaluation of data:

The extension worker and the local leaders must have adequate knowledge of what the farmers produce, under what conditions they produce and how the production can be stepped to the maximum for the purpose of formulating the plans at village and block levels. They also possess the factual and basic information about farm and family required for preparing the sound family, village and block plans. The local leaders should collect information in a comprehensive way of that locality. The information of the following aspects should be collected.

  • (i) Basic information about the village
  • (ii) Information about farm management and production programs

The data may be collected by the local leaders from the village themselves from the local institutions and from the revenue records. Thus, it is desirable that the data collected by the local leaders is passed on for review and action and in deciding which problem of the village and block should be tackled first by the extension agency. The fact and outlooks at the state and national level should also be considered in this context.

  1. Determination of objectives:

It is essential in the program planning process that before deciding on the project to be undertaken, the basic objectives of the program are determined by the local leaders in the consultation with the extension agency. Both should be arrived at the fixing of the objectives for the village development programs. In some cases the objectives of the programs may not be clear to the villagers, in such situation, the extension agency may give a lead to the villagers in determining the specific objectives.

  1. Definition of Problems:

In the process of program planning at the family, village or block level, it is desirable that village activities are properly classified. This will give an opportunity to the planners and the participants to access their potentiality and capabilities for executing the programs.

 

Such problems can be classified into the following categories:

  • (a) Problems, which can be solved by the villagers i.e., Organizing services like cooperative and mahilamandals etc.
  • (b) Problems that need community cooperation e.g. Improving village drainage
  • (c) Problems that required assistance from outside resources i.e. Construction of roads
  • (d) The local leaders with the help of the extension agency may define the problems and can break up the complex problems into simple problems step by step.
  1. Finding solutions to problems:

The local leaders working at the village level and the extension agency are two important functionaries who advise the village families and village institutions on their problems. It is of real importance that these functionaries have a clear understanding of the village problems and keep themselves quiet for offering solutions to the problems, the villagers present to them. They must consult their superior specialist on the problems; they are not able to handle themselves. The solutions offered should be practicable and economical and should result in satisfaction and learning.

  1. Selection of problems to be tackled:

The leaders and extension agency select problems and consult their efforts on projects in a faced way. This will result in appreciable achievements and convenience to the village people about the utility of the program. The care must be exercised by the local leaders and extension agency at the village and block level to review the situations periodically for determining how much progress has been made of the project undertaken, which projects are complete and which new project may be initiated. This would also provide the opportunities for selecting problems in a more methodical and democratic manner.

 

6.Annual plan of work:

 

Preparing a program plan of activities directed towards solving the selected problems is an important step. A plan of work is the listing of activities by which the objectives already decided upon are to be achieved. The local leaders can prepare their own annual plans of work in a simple way with the help of village panchayat, rural youth clubs and individual families. The extension agency may provide suitable helps and guidelines for preparing these plans and the initiative should come from the extension agency itself in planning the programs because in India, villagers and village institutions are not habituated to follow a systematic method to prepare annual plans of work based on village. After annual plan of work of the villages, it will be easy to prepare the block plans on a realistic basis on the needs of the villagers.

 

7.Carrying out the plan:

 

Carrying out a program should be discussed with the villagers and their consent obtained at appropriate periods so that a partnership in the program is built up and maintained. Local leaders should assist and direct villagers. If they have any confusion about in the launching of extension program, the cooperation and coordination of the village institutions, and extension agency have to be attained and thus, it will be more easy and realistic to implement the program. The extension agency should arrange the proper training for the local leaders and the members of the village institutions at the village and block level for the effective implementations of the extension program.

 

8.Continuous checking and evaluation of results:

 

The extension agency, village institutions and local leaders should undertake the evaluation of the activities jointly and the future programs should be based on the evaluation results of the previous one. Evaluation is not merely recording of activities or achievement but is a process of comparing these results with the original objectives.

 

9.Review of progress and projection of plans:

 

At the end of each circle of the program planning process, the situation should be reconsidered in the view of changes in the social and economical levels of the people so that the whole process may begin again with the new or modified objectives. The local leaders and extension agency should periodically review of the progress of the programs in cooperation of the staff members of the block and extension agency and it should never be considered as ends in themselves because they are merely tools for doing more effective work.

 

Role of Local Institutions:

 

The local rural institutions i.e. village panchayat, schools, cooperatives, banks, youth clubs, mahilamandals, Aanganbadi centers, self help group, and N.G.O.s play also very important roles in extension program planning which are as follows:

  1. These institutions assist in determining the methods of securing the largest possible cooperation of the village people.
  2. They help in considering the ways and means of solving the problems in the way of successful planning and implementation of the programs.
  3. These institutionsassist in mobilizing the adults, youths, womenand children for publishing the programs.
  4. They also assistin people’s participation in the process of program planning.
  5. They also help in organizing the resources and availability in time while carrying out the work plan.
  6. These institutions assist in coordinating and supervising the program execution at various stages of program planning.
  7. They also help in evaluation the programs.
  8. These institutions also providethe infrastructures for the training of the villagers, local leaders and extension workers for effective execution of the programs.
  9. And, they also provide and access to basic information and facts as well as present and past experiences before the prior execution of the programs to the extension personnel as well as to local leaders.

Summary:

 

Extension’s fundamental objective is the development of the people. Its aim is to achieve this objective through extension work. The clients are very large and reaching the large numbers of the clients or the people, therefore, require a systematic approach. The extension organization needs to establish some communication channel to carry out the extension work. The extension agency and local leaders both play their important roles in extension program planning. And thus, the extension worker and the local leaders should have the full responsibility of successfully implementing the extension programs for the development of the village people.

 

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