On-farm studies under Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) Education Programme in India - Some results
R.K. Nanwal and K.P. Singh
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar – 125 004 (Haryana) India.
Abstract
Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University started Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) programme to expose the out-going final year undergraduate students of agriculture discipline. The students are placed in rural areas and attached to farmers’ families to study the crop production technology adopted by the farmer family, its techno-economic survey and extent of agriculture extension in the preparation of technology to the farmers. The students are guided and supervised by a team of specialized teachers and scientists from Regional Research Stations and District Agricultural Science Technology Centers. In this programme during the year 2001-2002 a class of 60 students was offered this programme. These students were placed in 15 villages of six districts of Haryana state. Prior to their placement, the students were given basic training for carrying out survey work in the field. Out of the data collected and submitted by these students to the teacher incharge, compilation and analysis were made on total income from agriculture including milch and draught animals, expenditure, net income from subsidiary occupation. These data were utilized for finding out net income from agriculture, subsidiary income and income per earning family member of the farmer. The size of holding varied between 3 acres to 18 acres and, therefore, small, medium and large holding farmers were covered in these studies.
The analysis of data on net income reveal that income from agriculture (crops + livestock) was higher under large size holding, however, per unit net income was more under small and medium size holder. Subsidiary income from subsidiary occupation like sale of vegetable, operating telephone booth, preparation and sale of animal feed, operating of a shop was found to be a good source of income to the farmers’ family. Therefore, income per earning family member per hectare was higher when there was a subsidiary occupation of the family. These on-farm studies indicate that small farm can give good earning provided sufficient resource base is available with the farmer. The combination of agriculture including livestock with a subsidiary occupation may help in the improvement of the economic condition of the farmer. The studies further reveal that a combination of education and on-farm research and extension programme had better exposure of fresh agricultural graduates to the real ground problems at farmers field and acted as a tool of the feed back to research workers for planning their research programmes.
Introduction
Agricultural education is an important tool in ensuring increased agricultural productivity, sustainability, environmental and ecological security, profitability, job security and equity. In India, Randhawa Committee (1992) recommended the Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) Programme for imparting quality, practical and productive oriented education for the agriculture degree programme. The World Bank (1995) stated that there was little emphasis in the curricula on preparing the agricultural graduates for better career in agriculture or agribusiness outside government jobs. Therefore, the agenda for the 21st century in agricultural education must be drawn on the basis of the challenges it has to meet in the near future. Getting do, how practical hands-on training during higher education towards self-employment, is very essential. It provides significant hands - on experience in acquiring skills, which are mainly aimed at creating a product or providing a service to those who demand.
Based on these recommendations RAWE programme was included in the curricula of agriculture graduate degree programme at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (India) with the following objectives:
i)To gain knowledge and experience on the operational aspects of agricultural technology being used by the farmers;
ii)To develop communication skills in interns by effective use of extension methods to make them better extension worker;
iii)To help the interns to understand and appreciate the agricultural problems of the village with special reference to constraints in the application of latest farm technology;
iv)To acquaint the interns with the functioning of various agricultural researches, development, agro-based marketing industries, extension agencies and other allied organizations involved in rural development.
In this paper the brief analysis of data collected by students (interns) under RAWE programme during the year 2001-02 have been presented and discussed.
Materials and Methods
Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (India) started Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) programme to expose final year undergraduate students of agriculture discipline. During 2nd Semester of the academic year 2001-02 (February to June, 2002), the students were placed in rural areas and attached to farmers’ families to study the adoption of the agricultural technology by these families. The students conducted crop production and techno-economic survey of farmers’ families. The students were guided and supervised by a team of specialized teachers from College of Agriculture (headed by a teacher from Agronomy discipline) and scientists from Regional Research Stations and District Agricultural Science Technology Centers. During the year 2001-2002, a class of 60 students were registered for this programme. These students were placed in 15 villages of six districts of Haryana state. Prior to their placement, the students were given basic orientation training for carrying out survey work in the field. The final report containing the data collected by the students was submitted to the Teacher Incharge. The data were compiled and analyzed for computing total return, expenditure, net-income from agriculture as well as from subsidiary occupations. These data were also utilized for finding out net income from agriculture, subsidiary-income and income per earning family member of the farmer. The size of the land holding varied between 3 acres to 18 acres. Therefore, farmers were categorized as small, medium and large land holders.
Results and Discussion
As early as in 1946, Lewin viewed that Agricultural education, because of its essential thrust of Learning-Research-Action – “the triangle that should be kept together”, offers a research strategy to address complex agricultural issues. On these lines in our RAWE programme the data of 60 farm-families were collected, analyzed and results are presented in Table 1 and discussed in the following paragraphs.
The analysis of the data on net income reveal that net income per year from farming (crops + livestock) was higher under large size-holding ( > 10 acres), however, per unit net income was more under small and medium size-holdings. Income per year from subsidiary occupation like sale of vegetables ($ 124/-), operating telephone booth ($1031/-), preparation and sale of animal feed ($1237/-) and operating a shop ($722/-), ration depot ($866/-) added good income to the farmers’ family. Therefore, income per earning family member per acre per year was higher in families having a subsidiary occupation alongwith farming (Table 1).
These on-farm studies indicate that small farm can give good earning provided sufficient resource base is available with the farmer. The combination of farming including livestock with a subsidiary occupation may help in the improvement of economic condition of the farmer. Seetharaman and Iqbal (2000) also reported similar findings from the RAWE programme at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India. The studies further reveal that the Rural Work Experience Programme (RAWE) is an important competence and confidence building activity and tool introduced to provide integrated understanding of various disciplines and practical training to farm graduates in agricultural sciences. The combination of education and on-farm research and extension programme had better exposure of fresh farm graduates to the real ground problems at farmers’ field and acted as a tool of the feed back to research workers for planning their research programmes.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the contribution of several colleagues (teachers, scientists) and students in conducting these on-farm studies under the Rural Agriculture Work Experience Programme of College of Agriculture at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India.
References
Lewin, K.(1946). Action research and minority problems. J. Social Issues. 2(4): 34-46.
Seetharaman, N. and I. M. Iqbal. (2000). National Seminar on Rural Agriculture Work Experience organized by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University at Coimbatore, Oct. 20–22, 2000.
Randhawa, N.S. (1992). Report of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Committee on Rural Agriculture Works Experience programme implementation in SAUs of India.
World Bank Report (1995). Document of the World Bank Report No. 13517- In Staff Appraisal Report of India, AHRD, March 9, 1995. South Asia Deptt. of Agril. Operations Division.
Corresponding Author Contact Information:
Dr. R.K. Nanwal, Associate Professor of Agronomy CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana-125 004(India), Phone: 91-1662-31518 (O), Fax : 91-1662-34613, , Theme 4 – Poster Manuscript, Farming Systems Education and Training.
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Table 1. Results of survey conducted by final year undergraduate students of agriculture discipline under Rural Agriculture
Work Experience (RAWE) programme
Holding size (acres) / Expenditure on farming ($) / Family Income per year ($) / Net earning per family member per year ($) / Earning members (male + female)Farming / Subsidiary occupation / Family income
Gross / Net / Per acre / Total / Per acre
3 / 1006 / 196 / 810 / 272 / 1241 / 934 / 311 / 234 / 2+2
4 / 1443 / 1134 / 309 / 77 / - / 309 / 77 / 52 / 6+0
5 / 1500 / 734 / 766 / 153 / - / 766 / 153 / 192 / 2+2
8 / 2419 / 1197 / 1223 / 152 / 8662 / 2089 / 261 / 418 / 3+2
9 / 3059 / 1421 / 1639 / 182 / 7223 / 2361 / 262 / 394 / 3+3
10 / 2784 / 1134 / 1649 / 165 / 12374 / 2886 / 289 / 289 / 8+2
12 / 3010 / 1517 / 1493 / 120 / 1653 / 1658 / 138 / 415 / 2+2
13 / 4054 / 866 / 3187 / 245 / - / 3187 / 245 / 245 / 8+5
16 / 3211 / 1119 / 2093 / 131 / 10315 / 3124 / 195 / 260 / 8+4
18 / 6015 / 3864 / 2151 / 120 / - / 2151 / 119 / 307 / 5+2
1 = Vegetable shop ; 2 = Ration Depot; 3 = General Shop; 4 = Animal Feed Business; 5 = Telephone Booth
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