The document discusses four current approaches in agricultural extension: 1. Decentralized decision making and bottom-up planning through Panchayati Raj institutions. 2. Farming system approach which takes a holistic view of the farm as an interconnected system. 3. Farming situation based extension which develops recommendations specific to different crop situations through farmer participation. 4. Category management systems for retail merchandising which use data-driven planning and forecasting to optimize product assortments.

1. CURRENT APPROACHES IN
EXTENSION
SONDARVA YAGNESH M
Dept . of Agri. extension education
B. A. college of Agriculture , AAU, Anand
1

2. CONTENT
1 . Decentralized Decision Making
2 . Bottom up Planning
3 . Farming System Approach
4 . Farming Situation Based Extension
2

3. •The first organization effort to solve the problem of rural India was mad
through the Community Development Progamme in the year 1952
National Extension Service in 1953.
•The Planning Commission appointed a high-ranking study team headed
by BALWANT RAI MEHTA, Chief Minister of Gujarat.
•There should be effective administration was to be placed under the
control of selected and integrated local self government system
ordinarily of 3 tiered bodies from village level to block level and then to
district level.
•This democratic decentralized system was named as “Panchayat Raj” .
1st Adopted in madras tried this as a pilot projects as early as1957. 2nd in
Andhra Pradesh state had 20 such pilot project then Rajasthan which
adopted decentralization on 2nd October ,1959. It was implemented in
Gujarat on 1st April,1963.
INTRODUCTION
1 . Decentralized Decision Making ,
Panchayat Raj
3

4. Objectives:
• Assistance to the economically weaker section of
the community.
•Cohesion and Co-operative self help in the
community.
• Development of the co-operative institutions.
• Development of local resources including the
utilization of manpower.
•Production in agriculture as the highest priority in
planning.
•Promotion of rural industries.
4

5. Philosophy of Panchayat Raj:
❑The philosophy of Panchayat Raj is deeply stetted in tradition
and culture of rural India and is by no means new concept
panchayati Raj provide a system of self governance at the
village level.
❑panchayati Raj institutions is the grass-root unit of the self-
government have been declared as the vehicles of socio-
economic transformation in rural India. Effective and
meaningful functioning of these bodies would depend on
active indolent, contribution and participation of its citizens
both male and female.
❑The aim of every village being a republic and panchayati
having power has been translated into reality with the
introduction of the three-tire Panchayat Raj system to enlist
people’ participation in rural reconstruction. 5

6. The Gram Panchayat:
▪ Primary unit of Panchayat Raj institutions or local self-
government.
Functions:
▪Preparation annul budget of village Panchayat.
▪Mobilization of relief in natural calamities.
▪Preparation of annual plans for the development of the
village Panchayat area.
▪Organizing voluntary labour and contribution for community
work.
▪Maintenance of essential statistics of villages.
▪Such other development work as may be entrusted.
▪Service or developmental function, such as promotion of
education, health, agriculture
.
6

7. Source of income of village Panchayat:
• Share in land revenue.
• House taxes & other taxes as specified in Panchayat Raj act.
• Contribution and grants
• Fees for providing amenities, cess,tolls,ect.
• Local rates.
Taluka Panchayat
❑ Knows as Panchayat samiti or Panchayat union. This is the
second tier of the administration taluka and block level.
❑It is headed by taluka president. Block Development Officer is
appointed by the Government. He function as leader of the
block.
❑The main function of the Panchayat samiti are planning, execution
and supervision of all developmental programmer in the block.
7

8. Zilla Panchayat:
❖Know as district development council or zilla parisad.This is the third
tier of Panchayat raj functioning at district level.
❖It is headed by Panchayat union chairman. District collector leads
the work with the help of district development officers.
Function:
• It works as advisory body for block for blocks.
• It approves budget plan of blocks.
• It allots funds to the blocks.
• It approves budget and plan of blocks. It allots funds to the
blocks.
• Secondary education is the responsibility of this council.
• It should advise GOVT. in all matter relating to rural development
in the district.
• It has to review the results achieved under various items a all the
blocks. 8

9. Definition:-
❖An established, habitual, logical, or prescribed practice or
systematic process of achieving certain ends with accuracy and
efficiency, usually in an ordered sequence of fixed steps.
Objectives-
❖ A robust Category Management System for Basic and Fashion
Merchandise, based on industry best practices, which can scale
to manage large volumes of data, enabling retail organizations of
any size to plan and monitor items down to the store level as
well as across multiple channels.
❖Permits the creation and management of profitable merchandise
assortments that are appropriate to the store location, store size
2 . Bottom Up Planning
9

10. ➢ Ensures that promotional and event inventory needs are built into the
planning process.
➢ Ensures that unit and dollar plans are synchronized.
➢ Assists buyers in planning SKU rationalization.
➢ Prevents out of stock and overstock situations through the rapid
identification of product trends at a level and within a time horizon in
which profitable action can be taken.
Functions:-
▪Assortment Plan
▪Re-Ranking
▪Markdowns and Promotion Impacts
▪Forecasting Options
▪Quantity Plan
▪Value Plan
10

11. 1.Assortment Plan:
Permits a thorough review of data utilizing drill-downs, filters
and alerts to ensure that all levels are reviewed for problems and
opportunities.
2. Re-Ranking:
Re-ranking is the dynamic evaluation of products within a
classification based on sales performance, value, quantity,
margin for a store, for a store cluster or at total company level.
3. Markdowns and Promotion Impacts:
During the Quantity plan build, additional stock requirements
due to promotional impacts are calculated based on the
promotional calendar and promotional index that are built into
the system. Pre-defined markdown scales are defined and
applied to every category based on a combination of Margin,11

12. 4. Forecasting Options:
To facilitate accurate forecasting, different forecasting engines are
used based on the product category, these forecasts are applied in the
creation of the Quantity and Value plans.
5. Quantity Plan:
The Quantity plan is generated on a monthly basis and uses algorithms
to project monthly target sales and projected stock quantities. All
integration to Supply Chain systems are managed using the Release
Strategy to generate Purchase Orders, changes to Replenishment
strategies and Pre-Allocations.
6. Value Plan:
Once the Quantity plan is generated, the Value plan is triggered based
on a Retail Sales and Retail Cost basis. SKU level sales and margin
values are forecasted, aggregated up the product and location12

13. FEATURES
❑ Permits planning of all categories, sub-categories, styles or SKUs
❑ Generates an Article and SKU level Quantity plan and Value plan on a monthly
basis
❑ Enables on-the-fly comparison between the Top Down Sales Forecast at the
Category level using aggregation algorithms at Store, Article and SKU level
❑ Generates a SKU buy plan with or without forecasting models
❑ Predicts Average Weekly Unit Sales using advanced SKU forecasting models
❑ Provides KPI’s such as sell through, inventory turns, stock to sales ratio and
performance indicators to assist the buyer in planning decisionsTracks and
compares in-season actual with forecasted and original sales numbers
❑ Provides the ability to reference an existing article from a Like Store grade or
cluster when planning new article introductions
❑ Permits micro-merchandise planning using stock norms such as
minimum/maximum stock quantity and DC/Vendor lead time
❑ Suggests markdowns based on the product life cycle for complete SKU
rationalization
13

14. BENEFITS
✓ Provides full integration to supply chain systems
✓ Provides full integration between Top Down Plan, Bottom Up
Plan, Allocation, Open To Buy and Purchase Order
Management
✓ Identifies potential opportunities and current sales trends
✓ Identifies potential negative impacts due to increased
competition, emerging technology, changes in promotional
patterns and new product introductions
✓ Maximizes profitability of the merchandise mix
✓ Improves margins by providing unit level sales and stock
management efficiency
✓ Provides complete control over the in-season management of
store merchandise assortments through the use of the robust
sales forecasting engine
✓ Maintains safety stocks to tide over unforeseen situations14

15. ❑CONCEPT OF FSA
❖Holistic approach.
❖Complex in nature.
❖Interrelated matrix of soils, plants, animals, power, implements,
labour, capital and other inputs.
❖Influenced by political, economic, institutional and social forces.
❖Biggs (1985) explained the concept of FSA as follows:
It is a problem solving approach for the farmer.
Requires commonly homogenous type of farmers.
It is an inter disciplinary approach.
It is a participatory and bottom up planning and requires on-
farm trials.
It depends on the concept of learning by doing
Farming system approach needs socially desirable technologies.
3 . FARMING SYSTEM APPROACH
15

16. NEED FOR FSA
I. High cost of farm inputs.
II. Fluctuation in the market price of farm produce.
III. Risk in crop harvest due to climatic vagaries and biotic factors.
IV. Environmental degradation, depletion in soil fertility &
productivity.
V. Unstable income of the farmer.
VI. Fragmentation of holdings .
VII. Low standard of living.
OBJECTIVES OF FSA
➢Sustained development of farm families and rural communities.
➢Raising production and productivity of farm.
➢Improvement in the economic situation of the farm and family.
➢Raising standards of household and fulfilling basic requirements.
16

17. Farm enterprises
Agro-forestry + Silvipasture
Floriculture + Apiary
Fishery + Duckery + Poultry
17

18. Stages in farming system development
approach
stage
ge
and implementation stage.
ion and impact evaluation stage.
18

19. Analysis of existing farming system
➢ Identification of major socio-economic situations.
➢ Understanding dominant enterprises and most common farming
systems .
➢ Analysis of economic viability of existing farming systems .
➢ Understanding relationship between different enterprises within the
system.
➢ Analysis of linkages between different farming systems.
I
19

20. Understanding the modifications made in existing farming
system by innovative farmers
➢Understanding the changing scenario in rural areas and its impact on
existing farming system .
➢Identification of new market opportunities and its impact and
relevance to socio-economic situation.
➢Suitable modification made by innovative farm families in existing
farming system .
➢Type of modification made ( diversification or intensification of the
enterprises) .
II
20

21. ❖ New options recommended by the researchers
Identification of new suggested options by researchers around
each dominant enterprise.
Understanding the technological details about new options .
III
Testing of recommended options.
➢ Selecting representative village / farm families .
➢ Training about technical skills .
➢ Testing the effectiveness of recommended options
Economic analysis of recommended options :
➢ Analysis of relative profitability of recommended options as
compared to existing farming system.
➢ Understanding of implications of each options with regard to
reallocation of resource .
V
IV
21

22. Dissemination and impact evaluation
➢Strategies identified during design and testing stages are
extended towards farmers.
VI
22

23. 23

24. 4. FARMING SITUATION BASED
EXTENSION (FSBE)
24

25. INTRODUCTION
❖Challenge in Indian agricultural development lies in the effective
involvement of farmers in the extension and research programs.
❖Stress is more on developing procedures or methods that encourages
farmer’s participation in planning and management of above programs.
❖Involving farmers in the process of technology development can
develop appropriate recommendations specific to crop situation.
❖This requires major changes in the attitudes, approach and role of
researchers and extensionists.
❖As such an approach which provides active participation of farmer-
researcher and extensionists in developing a modified or fine tuned
technological recommendations specific to crop situation has been
attempted through
❖“Farming Situation Based Extension”
25

26. FSBE
❖Participatory planning of extension activities.
❖ In this method the crop commodity situation in which it is
grown is taken as the basis for re-synthesising the blanket
technological recommendations rather than an area as a whole.
❖The crop situations are delineated with the agronomic factors
like sowing time, previous crop, source of irrigation (canal, tank,
well) soil borne problems etc.
❖The variations in these micro level agronomical factors leads to
different crop culture and demands for a modified / refined
technological package rather than a standardized technological
package.
26

27. Factors for deciding the farming situations
1.Sources of irrigation
2. Time of sowing
3. Previous crop
4. Problematic soils
5. Endemic or Epidemic pest and disease infested areas
6. Soil type etc
27

28. FEATURES:
I. Analysis of major situations of a crop (within a
given agro-climatic zone)
II. Re-synthesis of the technological package of the
crop (under each crop Situation) through a joint
effort of researchers, extensionists and farmers.
III. Assessment of gap in the adoption of technology
and using it as the basis for working out the
required extension strategy.
28

29. PROCEDURES
➢ Conduct focused group discussions to understand in how many
situations the crop/ commodity is grown in the village and the extent
of area (in %) .
➢ Draw a two-way table taking any two deciding factors on x-y axis
which will describe the situations keeping other factors constant .
➢ Consider those situations which are above 10% of the total area
under cultivation .
➢ For each of the selected situation conduct focused group discussion
with the farmers who are having the situation .
➢ Identify the production practices followed by the farmers from land
preparation to the harvest of the crop/commodity .
29

30. ❖ Identify the gap in adoption by comparing farmer’s practices
❖ ( EP) with the research recommended practices( RP ).
❖ Re-synthesis the technological gaps in adoption with the help of
scientists in the group.
❖ Compare the farmer’s practices with the Re-synthesis package and
identify the gap.
❖ For the identified gaps find reasons for gap in adoption and also the
solutions as perceived by the farmers .
❖ The reasons for gap in adoption will become the basis for developing
strategies. 30

31. CONCLUSION
➢This concept can be applied in narrowing down the gap in
adoption by re-synthesizing the standardized
recommendations emanated from university research by
involving farmers, extensionists and researchers.
➢ As such a crop specific and farmer driven technological
recommendation can be developed.
➢In addition to this an extension strategy to bridge the
knowledge and skill gap can also be framed thus making the
job of extension worker more easy and meaningful.
31

32. 32