Dr. Anne Adrian
International Extension Expert, USA
Many months ago Dr. Kalyan Ghadei , formerly visiting professor of Virginia Tech, invited me
to speak about eXtension at the inaugural International Extension Education Conference (IEEC). As eXtension is making
connections for ideas of discovering, curating, managing and sharing open source research-based knowledge and learning
opportunities (courses, videos, etc.)
Like typical conferences at IEEC, I learned about Extension research (the effectiveness
of Extension programs) and agriculture. In particular, the problems we are addressing in the U.S. are different
than the problems in countries, like India. U.S. farms are much larger. U.S. small farms are larger than the
average size farm in India which is less than 2 acres. Less than 2% of the U.S. population is considered to be a
farmer. While in India more than 60% of the population are farmers. Former DG of ICAR and Vice chancellor of
GBPUA&T Dr Mangala Rai pointed out in his closing address, the GDP value of India represents 3.3% percent of the
world economy with almost 1.3 billion people which is more than 17% of the world's population. On the flip side,
the U.S. population of 318 million represents only 4% of the world’s population and the GDP value of the United
States is 28% of the world economy.
India Extension is structured with the U.S. model in mind. One difference is that in
India the government employs many of the local Extension workers. While being embedded in the villages reaps the
benefits of developing community trust, there may be some disconnect between the universities and the local
Extension work—this is difficult to assess. We have 15,000 Extension professionals in the US; India may have as
many as 50,000. I also heard another consideration--there is 1 agricultural agent for every 1,500 farmers.
One of the similarities of India Extension and U.S. Extension is that we both have to
demonstrate our value to farmers, the community and the public good. Extension provides value not only to our own
countries but also to world. It is becoming more evident that sharing resources and knowledge across can benefit many
systems. In countries like India, weather variability and unstable markets can have intense and acute effects on
farmers and their communities and will ultimately affect the rest of the world.
We cannot ignore the potential of research and outreach efforts to improve the economic viability of agriculture
throughout the world. Increasing production in the U.S. continues to be a priority and so should the production and
marketing of production agriculture in India. If we want to look inwardly, we may also be asking what does an
industrialized country, like the U.S. get by paying attention to agriculture and Extension in countries like India?
In the most challenging situations, it is believed that innovation is more likely to occur
because the need for changes is so great. NGOs, private industries are looking for ways to improve the economic and
agricultural situation in developing countries. Through collaborative efforts, listening the goals of farmers, working
with farmers and being inclusive of women, technological and social innovation solutions will arise—solutions that can
also be directly beneficial to US agricultural and Extension.
At IEEC BHU, Varanasi , the dignitaries and the participants were excited to hear about eXtension’s focus on new online
technologies and growing our Extension professional,
As Dr. Martin Mulder, Wageningen University said, “eXtension is truly innovative.” eXtension has a responsibility to
offer advancements to U.S. Extension and to learn from others--internally and globally.
For simplicity I am writing about agriculture extension in India, though there were other countries represented. India
also has a Home Sciences Extension program and were represented at the conference.