Aligning Agricultural Research and Extension for Sustainable Development Goals in India: A Case of Farmer FIRST Programme

Abstract

Agricultural development and farmers’ welfare occupy a central place in the development goals of India. Various pathways which have evolved over the years have been implemented in the country to propel agricultural growth by shifting its focus from achieving food sufficiency to sustainable income and inclusive growth. The Farmer FIRST Programme (FFP), an innovative frontline extension program of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), was launched in 2016 to enhance the reach and effectiveness of agricultural research with a multi-stakeholder approach. This paper evaluates the outcomes of the FFP implemented in ICAR institutions for the upscaling of those promising technologies, which have resulted in a significant impact on the farming community. The criteria chosen for assessing the outcomes are farm income, cropping intensity, use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and organic manure, and nutritional security. The data were collected from 50 FFP-implementing institutions for the period 2016–2021 and grouped into six different zones. The results revealed that there is a significant increase in income, cropping intensity, nutritional security, and saving pesticides through this program. The nutritional security, measured using cereal equivalent quantity (CEQ), showed a considerable increase in average consumption in all the zones. Overall, FFP interventions have resulted in achieving significantly higher income and the nutritional security of the farmholds compared to the control. The recorded results are favorable for scaling up and institutionalizing the FFP approach at the national level. The study recommends a participatory mode of an interdisciplinary approach for the effective scaling-up of the FFP across the agricultural research and development landscape of India.

How institutions are related to agriculture? Systematic literature review

“…A beneficial effect of state intervention with a distress relief effect (COVID-19) on farm inputs is observed (Varshney et al, 2021). State programs such as the Farmer FIRST Programme can also contribute to increased productivity and better economic performance (Venkatesan et al, 2023). Programs that allow purchases with subsidies lead to both higher inputs and economic performance (Oldekop et al, 2015).…”

Sustainable Development of Water Housing Using the Example of Poland: An Analysis of Scenarios

“…In contrast, the surprise scenario includes the trends (from Tables 2-4) that are the least likely to occur, regardless of their potential positive or negative impact [32]; these results are presented in Table 8. *: in accordance with rounding rules, the calculated result of the arithmetic mean of the impact m aR is 0, because the 10-point scale of the impact assessment does not contain a neutral 0 value.…”

“…A diversity of concepts, and a wide spectrum of SD goals, have been the subjects of scientific research [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. An additional area of scientific research is the implementation of sustainable development goals by individual countries [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

Contributing factors for successful farmer producer organisations in Haryana

“…The second most contributing factor of success was enhanced bargaining power for output marketing followed by enhanced bargaining power for input purchase (Rank-III), access suitable market for produce (Rank-IV) and assured market price (Rank-V), etc. Herck (2014) [3] and Venkatesan et al (2017) [11] also reported that collective action approach enhanced the bargaining power of FPO members. The least important factor contributing to the success was FPOs has well-developed processing facilities followed by having well-built storage facility (Rank-XIII), helps in certification of produce/ procurement of certified produce (Rank-XII), etc.…”