PM bats for Baramati

was Dhananjay Bhovsar, a programme officer associated with the KVK at Baramati. ‘‘Innovative measures are the only way to make a difference in agriculture extension,’’ he said.

A case in point is a pilot project scheme called aAQUA, acronym for Almost All Questions Answered. Floated by KVK Baramati in association with IIT Mumbai and Vigyan Ashram, it provides online answers to questions asked over the Internet in an attempt to bridge the farmer-research gap.

AQUA is currently operational in 11 kiosks, covering 44 villages in Baramati and neighbouring areas.

‘‘Everyday, we have 25-30 farmers coming to the kiosks with a range of questions,’’ said Bhovsar. ‘‘Information technology has to be strengthened so that farmers can access the research undertaken by scientists.’’

Baramati, of course, is far from being the norm. Agriculture secretary Radha highlighted the fact in her presentation, by complaining that scientific findings were not making their way to the farming community. ‘‘There’s a lot of research happening, but it takes years to reach farmers,’’ she said, adding that the gap needed to be bridged.

The onus is clearly on the scientific community, with the prime minister saying that a second green revolution could be achieved only if researchers provided crop-specific, region-specific, resource-specific and farm-specific solutions.

‘‘I am told there are estimates that indicate that even with the current available technologies, it is possible to double the present food production by the end of the 11th plan,’’ Singh said.

Agriculture experts agree that farmers are able to access barely 30 per cent of what scientists know. ‘‘There are thousands of technologies, the KVKs are supposed to transfer them to the field. But hardly 30 per cent reaches the farmer,’’ said P Chandrashekara, deputy director (agriculture extension) at the National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management in Hyderabad.

‘‘KVKs also need to link farmers to post-harvest techniques and markets.’’

In defence of the extension failure, it may be said many more outposts are required.

‘‘We train farmers in the latest technology, but in a month we can train only 150 farmers,’’ said K S Bhargava, training associate agriculture engineer in the Kutch KVK. ‘‘There are not enough workers, not enough KVKs.’’

The prime minister had earlier announced that each district in the country would have its own KVK by 2007. At present, of the 588 rural districts, 492 have a KVK each to provide scientific knowledge and training to farmers.

The Indian Council for Agriculture Research is in the process of setting up KVKs in the rest of the districts by the end of the Tenth Plan period. Also in the works: provision for e-linkages to 200 KVKs along with extension of soil and water testing facilities in 326 KVKs.