Agricultural Innovations in India-Experiences of ATMA Model

During the past 60 years, the Indian extension system has evolved to reflect national priorities. At the outset, extension worked to bring about broad-based rural development. However, the food crises starting in the late 1950 refocused the efforts of extension on food security and increasing food production. The combination of Green Revolution technology in the late 1960s and Training and Visit (T&V) extension in the mid-1970s enabled India to achieve food self-sufficiency during the 1980s-1990s. At the same time, malnutrition and poverty continue to be persistent problems for the rural poor. As a result, the Government of India, with the assistance of the World Bank, designed and pilot-tested a new extension approach that would decentralize extension and make it more market-oriented. This paper describes the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) model that was successfully pilot-tested from 1998-2005 and based on the experiences of pilot phase it was up-scaled to cover 252 districts under a centrally sponsored scheme, “Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms in 2005 and further extended to 591 rural districts of 29 States and 2 Union Territories of the country. The paper examines the various stages of implementation of this innovative approach towards agricultural extension and its impact on extension programmes in India