Agriculture development in India and elsewhere is at the crossroads, yet again. The food production isn’t a triumph anymore what with nutrition security becoming a difficult challenge to deal with; climate change is adding to Research challenges. Innovations, technologies and good management practices are vital for farmers and practitioners to sustain their profession.
Farming, now being invariably driven by markets, poses an equally difficult challenge to the weakened Extension system, which is surrounded by the more innovative competitors in the information marketplace. The challenge of increasing farmers income, therefore,comes in as a compelling reason for the Extension professionals to take a look around and within to come up with necessary course corrections to strive and thrive in the new order. Strengthening Research-Extension-Development continuum hence is today’s priority.
The International Conference on Extension for Strengthening Agricultural Research and Development with Focus on Farmers’ Income has the objective of bringing together agricultural extension scientists, researchers, academicians, professionals, students and many other stakeholders for a purposeful dialogue to get deeper insights into the current dynamics and for drawing future roadmap for agricultural extension.
The conference will deliberate on the themes that are listed in the conference communication, by giving due emphasis to the entire gamut under each theme. The Conference will also bring in experts from various support sectors that are driving agricultural development. Thus it is expected that the Conference will meet the interest and needs of a wide range of disciplines and actors. Keynote speakers, invited speakers, lead presentations and oral presentationsin common as well as parallel sessions are expected to enlighten and empower the participants on making the extension, the flag bearer of inclusive development in agricultural sector.
Participants
The Conference participants include agricultural extension fraternity across research, academics, development and related institutions including students, farmers, entrepreneurs and industries.
Theme1. Agricultural Research and Extension Systems and Approaches
Global and National scenario, Implications for public value building, Public-Public, Public-Private and Private-Private convergence, Pluralistic extension, Networked and Decentralized services, Frontline and grass-root extension systems.
Theme2. Evolving Institutional Innovations
Present and future of partnership development, Farmers organizations, Capacity building and empowerment, Cooperative extension services, Group dynamics, Changing rural and social order, Coping with distress, Considerations for strategies and policy making.
Theme3. Digital and Conventional Media
Connecting and networking solutions, Strengthening extension position in the competitive information marketplace, Communication and diffusion in the modern contexts, Mobile telephony, Social media, Web-based knowledge management, Low-end ICT in rural areas, GIS, Knowledge networks.
Theme4. Value-chain and market-led extension
Stakeholder-infrastructure-technology dynamics, Chain-wide learning for scaling-up, Linking global to local, Market-oriented diversification, Post-harvest management, Processing, Value addition, Consumer education.
Theme5. Extension Education and Research
Academics, Applications and Translational research, Strengthening extension education curriculum, Innovations in extension research, Re-orienting focal areas of extension research, Management administration to meet futuristic challenges, Professional ethics, Facilitating knowledge-sharing mechanisms.
Theme6. Gender and Youth Perspectives in Education, Research and Development
Inclusive and equitable development, Social capital, Nutrition and livelihood, Farming Systems Research and Extension, Preparing Future Farmers, Aspiration and perceptions, Return to Roots, Agri-entrepreneurship, venture/crowd funding for agri start-ups, climate-smart future agriculture
https://www.esard.org/
