ICAR Krishi Vigyan Kendra, CENDECT, Kamatchipuram, Theni (Dt)
ICAR KVK, CENDECT is a district-level Agricultural Training, Extension and Research Institution sponsored by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Government of India. It was established in March 1995 to benefit the farmers of Theni District.
The Kendra aims to transfer farm-worthy technologies to farmers, farm women, rural youth, and extension workers through skill-based training and on-field demonstrations.
Dr. P. Patchaimal serves as the Chairman of CENDECT KVK, and Mr. P. Maheswaran is the Programme Coordinator (i/c) of ICAR KVK, CENDECT.
The main objective of the Kendra is to impart the latest technical knowledge to the farming community through the principles of “Teaching by Doing” and “Learning by Doing”.
- Technology assessment, refinement, and demonstration of technology/products through KVK activities.
- On-farm testing to identify the location specificity of agricultural technologies under various farming systems.
- Frontline demonstrations to establish production potential on farmers’ fields.
- Training for farmers to update their knowledge and skills in modern agricultural practices, and training for extension personnel on advanced technologies.
- Functioning as a resource and knowledge centre of agricultural technologies to support public, private, and voluntary sector initiatives in agriculture.
- Conducting various extension activities to create awareness about improved technologies.
- Supplying quality seeds and planting materials produced by the KVK to farmers.
On Farm Research is a set of procedures for adaptive research whose purpose is to develop recommendations for representative groups of farmers. In On-farm research, farmers participate in identifying problems and its priorities, managing experiment and evaluating results. On-farm research, therefore, is an adaptive research with farmer’s perspectives. The objectives of On-farm research is to identify existing inputs or practices that might help to solve major problems of many farmers in a defined study area.
The procedure of On-farm research has five steps viz.,
- Diagnosis
- Planning
- Experimentation
- Assessment / Evaluation of results
- Recommendation and diffusion
Diagnosis: The diagnostic stage involves collecting and analyzing information in order to design On-farm experiments. In this step, an understanding of farmers’ circumstances and practices are made in order to: i) understand the farming system, and system interaction; ii) identify possible productivity problems; and iii) begin to develop hypotheses on possible solutions.
Planning: The planning of On-farm research is used to identify experimental factors to be included in on-farm experiments, as well as to suggest other research activities. There are six practical steps for research planning.
- Listing problems
- Ranking problems
- Identifying causes of problems
- Diagram problems and causes
- Listing possible solutions
- Screening possible solutions for feasibility
Experimentation: On-farm experiments are conducted in the fields of representative farmers and to examine a small number of experimental variables. These experiments may be described and classified in a number of ways, but regardless of classification most of them progress from exploring production problems, to testing possible solutions, and then to verifying recommendations and demonstrating them with farmers.
Assessment: The results of the on-farm experiments should be analyzed carefully. The analysis requires an assessment of farmers’ reactions and opinions. A thorough agronomic interpretation, and careful statistical and economic analysis will be helpful at this stage. The results of the assessment are then used to plan future research and to make recommendations for farmers.
Recommendation and Diffusion: When researchers are confident that they have enough information, they can formulate recommendations and non-recommendations. These can be released for demonstration on a larger area in the farmers’ fields.
KVK submits the Action Plan for technical intervention to ICAR – ATARI. Based on the approval, KVK conducts On Farm Testing in Field Crops, Horticulture Crops, Farm Implements, Enterprises and Livestock in the district.
B. FRONT LINE DEMONSTRATION (FLD)
The Front-line demonstrations are meant to showcase newly released crop production and protection technologies and their management practices in farmers’ fields under different agro-climatic regions. While demonstrating the technologies, scientists study the factors contributing to higher crop production, identify constraints, and generate data and feedback.
These demonstrations are conducted in blocks of 2–4 hectares for better impact on farmers and field-level extension functionaries. They are different from normal demonstrations conducted by regular extension services.
The special features of FLD are:- FLDs are conducted under the close supervision of scientists.
- Only newly released or soon-to-be-released technologies are selected.
- Organized in 2–4 hectare blocks involving all farmers in that area.
- Only critical inputs and training are funded; other inputs are farmer-provided.
- Training is mandatory for participating farmers.
- Target audience: both farmers and extension officers.
- Used to generate data on factors contributing to yield and constraints in the field.
C. TRAININGS:
Training programmes are organized to provide new scientific knowledge and develop skills for adopting latest agriculture, horticulture, veterinary, and home management technologies.