Krishi Vigyan Kendra

1. Dr. J. Meenambigai
Associate Professor
Department of Agricultural Extension
Annamalai University

2. KVK
 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) are agricultural extension
centres incorporated by ICAR (Indian Council for Agricultural
Research) and its affiliated institutions at the district level to provide
various types of farm support to the agricultural sector in India.
 KVK, a project of ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
for testing and transfer of Agricultural technologies at the grassroots
level. These centres are located in every state of the country.
 These are usually associated with a local agricultural university and serve
as an ultimate link between the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research and farmers, and also aim to apply agricultural research in a
practical and localized setting.
 All KVKs fall under the jurisdiction of one of the 11 Agricultural
Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARIs) throughout India.

3. Need for setting up of Krishi
Vigyaan Kendras
The Indian agriculture faces many challenges, including a
high percentage of smallholder farmers, lack of supply
chain infrastructure, and extreme weather conditions.
A key strategy in addressing these issues, in addition to
policy support and a functioning market, is using
technology to better understand and adapt to complex
challenges.
However, higher-level research about modern agricultural
trends, such as Climate Change and GMO, takes place in
universities. The practical implications of this research, or
their relevance to a certain local context, are not readily
apparent.

4. Need for setting up of Krishi Vigyaan
Kendras
The same goes for ground-level innovations
which are effective in one local context but
may not be extensible to others.
Especially in areas with such geographic
complexity as India, agricultural extension
departments such as KVKs serve to gather, test
and disseminate knowledge between
centralized institutions and a geographically-
dispersed rural population.

5. Criteria for Setting up of KVKs
 A KVK can be formed under a variety of host institutions,
including agricultural universities, state departments, ICAR
institutes, other educational institutions, or NGOs.
 The 700 KVKs in operation per the ICAR website are split
into 458 under State Agricultural Universities, 18 under
Central Agricultural Universities, 64 under ICAR institutes,
105 under NGOs, 39 under state departments or other public
sector undertakings, and 16 under other miscellaneous
educational institutions.
 A KVK must own about 20 hectares of land for the
purpose of testing new agricultural technologies.

6. History of KVKs
The ICAR mooted the idea of establishing Krishi Vigyan
Kendras (Agricultural Science Centres) as innovative
institutions for imparting vocational training to the
practising farmers, school dropouts and field level
extension functionaries.
The ICAR Standing Committee on Agricultural
Education, in its meeting held in August 1973, observed
that since the establishment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras
(KVKs) was of national importance which would help in
accelerating the agricultural production as also in
improving the socio-economic conditions of the farming
community, the assistance of all related institutions
should be taken in implementing this scheme.

7. History of KVKs
The ICAR, therefore, constituted a
committee in 1973 headed by Dr Mohan
Singh Mehta of Seva Mandir, Udaipur
(Rajasthan), for working out a detailed
plan for implementing this scheme. The
Committee submitted its report in 1974.
The first KVK, on a pilot basis, was
established in 1974 at Puducherry
(Pondicherry) under the
administrative control of the Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University,
Coimbatore.

8. Responsibilities and Mandate of KVKs
 On-Farm Testing – It is responsible for conducting on-farm
testing to identify the location specificity of agricultural
technologies under various farming systems.
 Front-line Demonstrations – It is also entrusted with
organizing Front-line demonstrations to establish production
potential of various crops and enterprises on the farmers’
fields.
 Organizing Training & Capacity Building – It also
organizes need-based training for farmers to update their
knowledge and skills in modern agricultural technologies
related to technology assessment, refinement and
demonstration, and training of extension personnel to orient
them in the frontier areas of technology development.

9. Responsibilities and Mandate of KVKs
Awareness Creation – It is also responsible for creating
awareness about improved agricultural technologies
among various clienteles through an appropriate
extension programme.
Production – It conducts the production of quality
seeds, planting materials, livestock breeds, animal
products, bio-products etc., as per the demand and
supply the same to different clienteles.
Education Centre – It needs to work as a resource and
knowledge centre of Agricultural Technology to support
the initiatives of public, private and voluntary sectors for
improving the agricultural economy of the district.

11. Krishi Vigyan Kendras Portal
The central Government launched Krishi Vigyan
Kendras (KVKs) Portal which helps in
monitoring the functioning of KVKs at the
National level and in providing timely information
and advisory to the farmers.
The aim of the portal is to transfer the
technologies developed by the agricultural
scientists to the farmers in a fast and effective
manner using web and mobile technology as well
as to monitor the activities of Krishi Vigyan
Kendras (KVKs)

12. The objectives of the portal are
To create a platform to monitor the various activities as well
as resource utilization by various KVKs;
To create a database of the various programmes organized
by the KVKs along with their detailed information and
learning resources;
To help the farmers in resolving their queries using web and
mobile technologies;
To provide information about various facilities and
activities performed by the KVKs and to provide linkage to
other important information such as weather and market
information.

13. Thank YOU