Principles and Techniques of Veterinary and AH Extension

EXTENSION EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

• Extension education is a process and it is participatory in its approach. According to Leagans the sequence of steps involved in the process are
  • situation Analysis
  • formulation of objectives
  • deciding the content and teaching methods
  • outcome evaluation and impact analysis and
  • feedback and formulation of corrective action.
• In this way the continuous process of extension education goes on resulting in progress of the farmers from the given situation to a desirable situation.

• First Step: The first step consists of collection of facts and analysis of the situation. Facts about the people and their enterprises; the economic, social, cultural, physical and technological environment in which they live and work. These may be obtained by appropriate survey and establishing rapport with the people.
  • The responses obtained are to be analyzed with the local people to identify the problems and resources available in the community. For example, after a survey in a community and analysis of the data, the problem was identified as low income of the farm family from their goat enterprise.
• Second Step: The next step is deciding on realistic objectives which may be accomplished by the community. A limited number of objectives should be selected by involving the local people. The objectives should be specific and clearly stated, and on completion should bring satisfaction to the community. Objectives should state the behavioural changes in people as well as economic and social outcomes desired.
  • In the example, the problem was identified as low income from goat production enterprise. A deeper probe into the data revealed that low income was due to low weight gain of goat, which was attributed to the non use of the concentrate feed and lack of disease prevention measures. By taking into consideration the capacity and competency of the people in the community and the availability of resources,the objective was set up to increase the body weight of the goat at marketable age by 20 percent within a certain period of time. It was estimated that the increased body weight shall bring increased income, which shall enhance the family welfare.
• Third Step: The third step is teaching, which involves choosing what should be taught (the content) and how the people should be taught (the methods and aids to be used). It requires selecting research findings of economic and practical importance relevant to the community, and selection and combination of appropriate teaching methods and aids.
  • Based on the problems identified in the particular example, practices like use of concentrate feed, deworming and vaccination were selected as teaching content. Result demonstration, method demonstration, farmers’ training and farm publications were chosen as teaching methods, and audio CDs and slides were selected as teaching aids.
• Fourth Step: The fourth step is evaluating the teaching, i.e. determining the extent to which the objectives have been reached. To evaluate the results of an educational programme objectively, it is desirable to conduct a re-survey. The evidence of changed behaviour should be collected, which shall not only provide a measure of success, but shall also indicate the deficiencies, if any.
  • In the example, the re-survey after the fixed period of time, indicated that the body weight of goat had increased by 10 percent. It, therefore, indicated that there was a gap of 10 percent in crop yield in comparison to the target (objective) of 20 percent fixed earlier. The re-survey also indicated that there had been two important deficiencies in carrying out the extension educational programme, such as, there was lack of proper disease protection measures as per recommendation due to lack of funds.
• Fifth step: The fifth step is re-consideration of the entire extension educational programme on the light of the results of evaluation. The problems identified in the process of evaluation may become the starting point for the next phase of the extension educational programme, unless new problems have developed or new situations have arisen.
  • After re-consideration of the results of evaluation with the people, the following teaching objectives were again set up. For example, these were training the farmers on proper goat management practices. The people were also advised to contact the banks for obtaining production credit in time to purchase the critical inputs.
  • Thus, the continuous process of extension education shall go on, resulting in progress of the people from a less desirable situation.