ROLE OF EXTENSION EDUCATION DURING PANDEMICS: CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

1. WELCOME

2. Presented by
DHANGAR MAHESH YASHWANT
En No. V/11/092
Dept. of Veterinary & Animal Husbandry
Extension Education,
KNP College of Veterinary Science, Shirwal.
Credit Seminar
On
ROLE OF EXTENSION EDUCATION DURING
PANDEMICS: CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

3. Role of Extension
Education during
Pandemics
CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

4. Presentation Overview
 Introduction
 What is Pandemic ?
 History of Pandemic
 Veterinary Extension
 Extension During Pandemic
 Challenges
 Strategies
 Government Initiatives
 Conclusion

5.  Emerging diseases are a global challenge to public health system.
 It brings to devastating physical, mental, social and economic losses.
 Impact of mass media on behavioural changes and social perception is highly influential during
pandemics.
 Role of agriculture and veterinary extension could be pivoting in bringing awareness during
pandemics.
 Veterinary extension services could be extended in collaboration with human health administration
during pandemic for
 Awareness,
 Capacity building,
 Diagnosis
 Surveillance,
 Marketing
 Policy implementation etc.
Introduction

6. Pandemic
 A pandemic is defined as “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a
very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a
large number of people”
 A pandemic is a global outbreak of a serious new illness
that requires “sustained transmission throughout the world”
(WHO, 2020)

7. (WHO-DEC 2020)

8. (WHO-DEC 2020)

9. Veterinary Extension
 Stretching out to people, beyond limits of education institutions
 Extension education is for all people, Extension is working with men and women, young
and old, boys and girls to answer their needs and wants
 Extension is helping people to help themselves, Out of school education
 Brining desirable change in the knowledge, skill, attitude
 To assist the people to discover and analyze their problems, felt and unfelt needs
 Develop leadership among people and help them to organize groups to solve their
problems, Motivate people to accept the technology and put it into practice
 To keep the researchers informed about the people and to ensure solutions
 Veterinary extension can have positive effects on the livelihood of animal holders, by
helping them to improve the health status of their animals and reduce losses caused by
animal diseases;
 Veterinary extension activities represent an important tool to assist the Veterinary Services
in controlling animal diseases and improving animal health and veterinary public health
(including food safety) and animal welfare
 Extending up to date knowledge from lab to land i.e. from scientists to farmers is basic
theme of the portal, hence the name vet extension as extension aims at developing people
by providing them right technology and knowledge at right time and right place.

10. Extension During Pandemic

11. Raising awareness about the diseases in rural areas
Providing timely information and stop rumor
Assessing the field situation and advocating for
urgent solutions to farmers’ needs
Ensuring continuous support to rural producers in
a situation of physical distancing
Building partnerships to overcome market
disruptions and ensure supply chain functioning
Facilitate conflict resolution
(FAO-2020)

12. Challenges
Narrow focus of extension
Supply rather than market driven extension
Lack of transparency and accountability
Inadequate technical capacity
Lack of local capacity to validate and refine technologies
Inadequate communication capacity and inadequate operating resources and financial sustainability
Extension models are usually top–down structures, often located within the ministry of agriculture, not
usually formally associated with universities and therefore, have poor linkages with research and
extension. (Boone 1989)

13. Shortage of qualified Veterinary Extension Workers
Lack of inclusive access to ICT-based services
Poor infrastructure
Non availability of network reach in rural area
Prevent potential staff exposure to diseases and maintaining the health of food
System Workers
The challenge is to change the organizational culture to incorporate innovation as
A core value and to institutionalize the emerging paradigms into research for
development processes.
Different strategies and measures need to be taken to ensure timely and quality
EAS by reorienting extension priorities in such pandemics and later too.

14. Digital illiteracy, Lack of technology friendly attitude
Inadequate Government programmes
Limited role of NGOs and the private sector
Difficult to encourage regional co-operation among different sections
Loss of traditional markets and fear among people about consumption of animal
husbandry products
Stray animals and hunger conflict between stray dogs and communities
Rumors aggravate the condition

15. Strategies

16. Need and Importance for Reorienting Priorities

17. Strengthening Extension and Feedback Mechanism
EXTENSION
(Mahesh Chander and Prakashkumar Rathod -Dec.-2020)

18.  Expensive
 Absence /Inadequacy of staff for extension
 Time consuming
 Message distortion
 Neglect of Technology of Transfer in Livestock Production
 More focus on crop production
 Poor communication capacity
 Low interactive ability
 Appeal to less number of senses
 Less ability to explore and arouse curiosity
 Lack active involvement of the audience
 Cannot cater to individual learning ability
Supply driven
Information
based on
perceived
needs
Livestock Farmers
Technical
Information
(Leaflets,
booklets,
Posters
etc.)
Communication
through
Mass Methods
Top Down Approach
Conventional System of Information Dissemination

19. Desired System of Information Dissemination
 Continuous availability
 Save money and time
 Cut steps in the diffusion process
 Information rich and interactive
 Instant international reach
 Appeal to larger number of senses
 Higher ability for exploration and arouse curiosity
 Improved quality of information
 Reduced dependency on expert advise
 Solves problem at doorstep
 Moves as per the learner’s ability
Livestock Farmers
Communication
Through
Individual/
Mass Methods
Demand driven
Information
Needs of
Farmers
Technical
Information
ICT
Tools
Bottom Up Approach

20. Improving Research-Extension linkages
Promotion of direct
interface between farmers
and scientists
Research priority setting
based on Strategic Research
and Extension Plans (SREPs)
(Rathod et al.,2008)

21. Capacity Building in Extension
Human Resource Development Programmes
Farmers’ training and Farmer led approach
Entrepreneurship and Vocational Training
Merging of Extension with other activities
Training of Para-professionals
Diploma Courses
(Bharti et. al., 2020)

22. Gender and Extension

23. Developing Infrastructure in Extension
Farms Hostel E-Classrooms
Laboratories
Audio-visuals
Room
(Mahesh Chander and Prakashkumar Rathod -Dec.-2020)

24. Role of Public-private Partnership in Extension
Animal Health
Policy
Financial
Services
Diseases
Control
Provision Of
Veterinary
Services
Marketing
Services
Genetic
Resources
Animal
Information
System
Laboratory
And Diagnosis
Services
Training
(Singh et al., 2014,Meera, 2020)

25. Extensionists’ Competency Development

26. Mass Media Support & Use of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs)
(Chander, 2020)

28. Easy access
Time saving
Economical
Overcomes
language
barrier
Videos &
audios
increases its
efficiency
Offline access
Advantages of Digital Platform

29. Market Driven Approach
MARKET
Customer need
Integrated marketing
Profit
(Prasad, 2020)

30. Value Added Dairy Products of Milk/Meat

31. Chicken and Egg Mela/Festival

32. Role of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) and
Farmers Groups/Associations
Financial
Services
Input-Supply
Services
Marketing
Services
Technical
Services
Networking
Services
Activities of FPO and Farmers Groups
 Farmer training
 Management activity
 Procurement
 Technology and innovation
 Finance
 Aggregation and storage
 Primary processing like drying, cleaning,
grading,
 Brand Building
 Packaging
 Marketing
(Nikam and Kale, 2020; Kanatt and Jos, 2020; Patil et al., 2020 and Shabong, 2020)

33. Role of Institutions and Organizations
Training Research Education
Consultancy Policy
Advocacy
Programmes
Planning (Chander Dec.-2020)

34. Investment in Extension and Advisory Services

35. Some Government Initiatives

36. Conclusion
 Preparedness for pandemics is necessary, while designing preparedness plans, more
holistic approach is demanded.
 Strengthening extension and feedback mechanism for capacity building is necessary.
 Reorienting extension priorities with special reference to disease management is very
essential with a vast network of various stakeholders by adapting effective approaches like
utilization of social media, human resource development, PPP, farmer groups etc. during
and post pandemic scenario.
 Empirical efforts are also needed to develop reliable, location-specific, participatory,
gender-sensitive and inexpensive extension methodologies and materials to meet the
demands during such crisis.
 More investment required in terms of various resources like financial, human resource etc.
for promoting higher productivity and sustainability through extension advisory services.

37. REFERENCES
 Chander, M. and Rathod, P. (2020). Reorienting Priorities of Extension and Advisory Services in India during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review Indian Journal of Extension
Education Vol. 56, No. 3 (July-September), 2020, (1-9)
 FAO. 2020. Extension and advisory services: at the frontline of the response to COVID-19 to ensure food security. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8710en
 Bhati, S., Vatta, L. and Tiwari, S. (2020). COVID-19- Response from Education System, Indian Journal of Extension Education, 56(2), 10-15.
 FAO (2020). In: Meera, S.N (2020) Is COVID crisis a tipping point for transformational changes in digital extension? Agriculture Extension in South Asia, Blog no-125, June, 2020.
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