Purpose and Significance of Livestock Extension Education

Purpose and Significance of Livestock Extension Education

Livestock extension involves systematic and organized communication with livestock owners with a view to helping them in such a way that the livestock owners

• obtain a better insight into their present and future position as livestock owners;
• acquire sufficient knowledge and skills necessary to increase production or reduce cost of production;
• develop positive attitudes of livestock development
• able to choose feasible and optimum objectives;
• able to identify problems, look for solutions, solve the problems identified; and
• evaluate the results within the farming system situation in which they are

The subject matter delivered should be directly applicable to the livestock owners, which is necessary for livestock development. This could be accomplished by designing the training programme based on needs of the livestock owners. It is also equally important for the extension agencies to help the development of leadership among the livestock owners. Development of appropriate local leaders helps the extension agencies in several ways.

There are no means by which a large number of livestock owners spread throughout the length and breadth of the country can be forced to practices animal husbandry in a specific way. Such attempts usually meet with passive and even at times active form of resistance. The better option could be is to influence their decision making through livestock extension so that their decisions will be to their own and to their society‟s advantage. Livestock extension alone is seldom sufficient to increase animal production. Livestock extension cannot operate in stand alone situation as it needs the support of various institutions and several groups of people. In addition to livestock extension, the other elements required for increasing animal production are;

1. remunerative market
2. assured water and electricity supply
3. local availability and accessibility of inputs such as feeds, medicines, vaccines, technical services and equipments
4. roads, transportation and storage facilities
5. credit supply
6. appropriate policy on animal

 

The domain of knowledge covered by Livestock Extension are;

 

1. technical problems such as selection of livestock, improved breeding, better feeding, housing and management
2. farm economics and organizational problems which include importance of culling of animals, labour management, labour saving equipments (milking machines, meat processing equipments) acquisition of credit and its repayment, farm plans How to reduce cost of production of milk, meat or eggs etc. is forms an important aspect for the livestock owners. ?
3. issues pertaining to globalization and WTO regulations

The change must be

1. felt by the livestock owners as important
2. significant economically and socially to a relatively large number of people
3. related to the primary needs of the

 

People must undergo change because

 

1. it is the people who must make changes in farming, home-making, health, community that contribute to development
2. change in people, educationally, is a pre-requisite to the attainment of other changes in a free society
3. changes in the mind (Head) and heart of people precede changes in actions (Hands).

Livestock Situation and Challenges for Livestock Extension

 

1. About 250 million people depend on livestock whether directly or indirectly
2. Livestock owners spread throughout the country
3. Resource poor livestock farmers contribute a lot to production of milk, meat, egg, wool
4. Common property lands are shrinking leading to increased dependency on purchased inputs
5. Majority of livestock keepers are poor and women
6. Veterinarian is the most credible source of information on livestock rearing
7. The market for livestock and livestock products is mostly unorganized
8. Per capita consumption of milk among the resource poor milk producers is very low
9. Majority of the poor own few less productive animals
10. The livestock owners have no control on quantity and quality of

This dynamic livestock situation is posing several challenges to livestock extension services. Some of the challenges with which the extension personnel have to cope up with are;

1. How to reach millions of livestock owners spread in every nook and corner of the country especially those who are thriving in Complex, Diverse and Risk prone (CDR) environment?
2. How to improve the living standards of the rural livestock owners through livestock rearing especially when the pressure on land is increasing and common property lands are slowly fading out forcing the rural poor to maintain the animals on purchased fodders?
3. How to sustain the production of livestock products with decreasing area under fodder and increase in the competition for feed resources and decreasing interests of the people in livestock rearing?
4. How to face the emerging livestock development situation as a sequel to the technological and development interventions?
5. How to take cognizance of the changes that are taking place in the society which include : Shift from farming to industry; Shift from rural to urban (migration ); Shift from grazing to stall feeding; Shift in focus from social to economic

 

Target Groups: Livestock development involves a number of target groups with whom the extension agents need to work with. These groups include;

 

1. Livestock owners: All those who own livestock (dairy farmers, sheep and goat keepers, poultry farmers, )
2. Livestock service providers:

Animal Husbandry department personnel, Marketing institutions like Milk Cooperatives, APEDA, Training institutions like KVKs, NGOs, Research / Academic institutions – Veterinary Universities/     Colleges, ICAR animal science institutes, Bankers, Insurance agencies etc.

3.Input suppliers:

Semen banks, feed mixing plants, Pharmaceuticals, vaccine production units, Livestock product processing units,Fodder seed production units, Agro related industries etc.

4.Policy makers:

Ministry    of    Agriculture    and    Animal    Husbandry,    Secretaries    of               AH organisations,             Senior  officials               of        AH                     Department,     Milk        Federations,Researchers, Farmer organisations etc.

Differences between Agriculture Extension and Livestock Extension

 

It is difficult to transfer livestock development technologies compared to crop technologies for a variety of reasons which emanate basically from the differences in crop and animals itself (Table 1). The livestock owners depend upon the technical persons for adopting technologies/ practices which include Artificial Insemination (AI), pregnancy diagnosis, vaccination, de-worming, diagnosis and treatment of animals. This means the livestock owner needs to take the animals to the technical person (veterinarian or stock assistant) or the latter have to be brought to the animal for services/adoption of practices. As a sequel not only the distance between livestock owner and the technical person but also the attitude and skill of the technical persons also come into the picture. If Roger‟s attributes of innovations are taken into consideration it will be very clear that crop technologies outweigh the livestock technologies in terms of observability of results, simplicity and cultural compatibility (Table 2).

 Table 1. Comparison of Crop and Livestock Research

 

Characteristics	Crops	Animals	Implications for using Animals
Mobility	Stationary	Mobile	Difficult to measure and Control non experimental factors
Life cycle duration	Generally less than 4 month	Generally over 1 yr	Increased costs, likelihood of losing experimental units
Life cycle synchronization	All units synchronized	Units seldom synchronized	Difficult to find comparable units
Multiple Outputs	Only       grain/tuber and residue	Multiple outputs: meat, hides, milk, manure, power	Difficult to measure value, treatment effect
Non market inputs and outputs	Few	Many	Difficult    to    value   inputs and outputs
Size                       of experimental unit	Small, divisible	Large, indivisible	Increased    cost,    risk    to cooperator
Producer attitudes	Impersonal	Personal taboos	Difficult to cull, castrate
Management variability	Low	High	Difficult          to          isolate treatment effect
Number                 of observation units	Many	Few	Large statistical variability
Variability of Observations	Low	High	Large statistical variability

Source: Bernsten, et al., 1983

 

The livestock owners depend upon the technical persons for adopting technologies/ practices which include Artificial Insemination, Pregnancy diagnosis, vaccination, de-worming, diagnosis and treatment of animals. This means the livestock owner needs to take the animal to the technical person (veterinarian or stock assistant) or the later have to be brought to the animal for adoption of practices. As a sequel not only the distance between the livestock owner and the technical person but also the attitudes and skills of the technical persons also come into the picture. If Roger‟s attributes of innovations are taken into consideration it will be very clear that crop technologies outweigh the livestock technologies in terms of observability of results, simplicity and cultural compatibility (Table 2.).

 

Table 2. Comparison of Crop and Livestock Technologies on Attribute of Innovations

 

Attributes of innovations	Technologies / Practices
	CROPS	ANIMALS
Relative advantage	Easy to demonstrate as the production period in crops are short and comparison is easy	Difficult to demonstrate as the production periods are long
Observability of results	Easily observable preventive technologies are less in numbers	Difficult to observe the results of say Vaccination, colostrums feeding etc.
Simplicity – complexity	Simple	Complex- Animal it self has many systems in the body
Cultural compatibility	High (Less level of Sentiments attached to crops)	Very low especially in case of Culling of animals through slaughter
Initial cost	Depends upon the type of crop	Depends upon the species and yield potential.
Trialability/ Divisibility	High scope as it is easy to divide the plots. Small scale experiments are possible.	Low scope as it is difficult to divide the animals especially large ruminants
Dependency on technical person in adoption of practices	Very low as most of the practices depend upon the farmers (done by farmers )	Very high as the livestock farmers need the help of technical persons in adopting practices

 

Gender and Livestock Development: The role and contribution of women to livestock development is very well recognized. Studies clearly revealed that women spend on an average about 5 to 6 hours a day on various livestock activities which include cleaning of sheds, washing of animals, feeding, milking etc. They have fairly good control and accessibility on the income they get from the animals which is being used for children‟s‟ education, household expenses, treatment of sick people in addition to feeding of animals. The women especially below poverty line have been encouraged to form themselves into Women Self Help Groups (WSHG) to bring about social and economic empowerment. These groups are being promoted by various government agencies including NABARD, nationalized banks, DRDA and NGOs. As a result millions of WSHGs are formed and registered with livestock rearing as the most sought after income generating activity. To reach and educate them on various aspects of livestock management in the context of very few or negligible women extension force in the country is the greatest challenge. Realizing the importance of gender and livestock development, the ICAR has incorporated this aspect as a teaching module in the post graduate programme for the veterinary extension students.

Communication

The most important challenge in communication of livestock technologies is to find out ways and means to convey the messages to the livestock farmers in an effective manner which enable them to take appropriate decisions on adoption of the technologies. To meet this challenge, it is important to understand the communication process, extension teaching methods, audio visual aids and their usage for effective communication. The word communication originated from the Latin word “Communis” which means common. Leagans defined communication as a process by which two or more people exchange ideas, facts, feelings or impression in such ways that each gains a common understanding of the meaning and use of messages.

Through communication, an individual shares his idea, information and knowledge with others. A good communication is the one which conveys the receiver what exactly the communicator wants to convey. A good communication depends upon the communicator‟s ability to organize the message with proper treatment in suitable channel keeping in view the receiver‟s type, cognitive ability and experience.

Key Elements of Communication

There are several models to explain the concept of communication. There are six important elements involved in the communication process. The six key elements are: Communicator, Message, Channel, Receiver, Feedback and Effect. In extension education the element „effect‟ can be called as „impact‟. Brief meanings of the key elements are as follows.

1. Communicator  :         is the person from whom the message originates.
2. Message :         is the information or the meaning the communicator

wants to convey.

3.Channel :         is   the   media through    which   the communicator

sends/conveys his message.

4.Audience :         is the   receiver   of   the   message or to whom the

message is sent.

5.Feedback :         gives the   details   about audience response to the

given communication process.

6.Effect or Impact :  is the   end   result   of the It is the

change that has taken place with the receiver due to the communication.

DR. DANIKSHAR, PROF. EXTENSION EDUCATION