Workshop for Extension Officers of Himachal
Author(s): City Air News35 officers from Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry and Animal Husbandry departments attend the workshop Agricultural extension services are essential for ensuring good crop productivity and increasing farm incomes....
35 officers from Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry and Animal Husbandry departments attend the workshop
Agricultural extension services are essential for ensuring good crop productivity and increasing farm incomes. Keeping this in mind, a four-day workshop on ‘Motivational Skills and Decision Making for Better Extension Services’ was held at the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni. Thirty-five extension officers of State Departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry and Animal Husbandry attended the workshop.
The University’s Directorate of Extension Education (DEE) in collaboration with Chaudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University’s Extension Education Institute, Nilokheri, organized the workshop.
Explaining about the programme, Dr Mai Chand, UHF's Joint Director (Training) said that the main objective of the workshop was to strengthen the decision-making potential of the participants in order to facilitate better extension work. To enable this, the officers were given classroom and practical lessons on topics like extension techniques, communication, team building, the role of positive attitude in organizational performance, innovation, motivational techniques etc. by experts.
The Directorate has also been continuously striving to reach the farmers with the help of various activities and mediums. Recently, an exhibition of the university was displayed at the Shoolini Fair and different activities through which the farmers are touched were explained to the public. In addition, a counter for sale of university literature, seeds, honey and other processed fruit products of the university was also set up at the fair. The counter received a very positive response from the public.
Apart from serving the farmers of the state, the DEE regularly conducts training programmes for the farmers from other states as well. Recently, two training programmes for 30 farmers each from Sikar and Ajmer in Rajasthan, underwent a seven-day training programme on the production of fruits, flowers, vegetables and mushroom. The ATMA sponsored training also apprised farmers on the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants, soil management, zero budget natural farming and organic farming and beekeeping.