The University runs the following two KVKs under its aegis as sanctioned to it by Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India:
- ‘Sasya Shyamala’ KVK located at Arapanch under Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narendrapur, Dist. 24-Parganas, West Bengal and
- ‘Dhaanyaganga’ KVK located at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Sargachhi, Dist. Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Both these KVKs have a common mandate, scope and activities in their respective districts for the benefit of the farmers, to reach the discoveries made by the scientists in their laboratories to the farmers in their lands: ‘lab-to-land’ as it is commonly termed. Given below are the ICAR mandate, scope and activities of the KVKs which are being followed and implemented in letter and spirit by the two KVKs under the University at Arapanch and Sargachhi respectively. Some details about KVK is given in the Appendix below.
About Krishi Vigyan Kendras—Concept, Mandate And Functions:
- The KVK Concept:
Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) is a project of ICAR for testing and transfer of Agricultural technologies to bridge the gap between production and productivity and to increase self- employment opportunities among the farming communities. The trainings offered here follow the principles of “learning by doing” and “seeing is believing”. It offers skill and knowledge oriented trainings in multidisciplinary areas like crop production and plant protection, horticulture, Animal Sciences and Fisheries, Home Science and Agricultural extension. The KVK is the light house of knowledge to the farming community of the State.
- The KVK Mandate:
- Organising vocational training programmes in agriculture and allied enterprises and other extension activities.
- On-farm testing on farmers’ fields of proven technologies in crop production, horticulture, livestock production, fisheries etc.
- Conducting front line demonstrations on major cereal crops, oil seeds as well as horticultural crops.
- In-service training to the field level extension officials.
- The KVK Functions:
The growth of Indian agriculture is dependent on 103 million farm families cultivating 140 million hectares of land. It is impossible to reach such a huge number of farmers. The effective dissemination and transfer of appropriate technologies to needy farmers is very much essential for increasing agricultural production in the country. It is very difficult for farmers to gather latest information of technologies from various research institutes. Keeping this in view ICAR granted its sanction for establishment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (the farm science centres) in May 1992 and by March 1993 a network of 376 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) were in place covering most of the districts of the country to function as ‘single window system’, wherein all the necessary information is made available to the farmers of the region through a single window as it were. As of January 2020, there were 721 KVKs covering all the districts of all the States in India, including additional KVKs in some larger districts.
Based on a bench mark survey of selected villages for socio economic appraisal and to understand the existing practices of the farmers, the KVKs were able to identify the technological gaps and critical needs and requirements of the farmers followed by farming operational modalities like training, demonstration and on-farm trials. Simultaneously the farm development work was also started as an important requirement for the strengthening of training cum demonstration infrastructure of the KVKs.
Apart from conducting these demonstrations various innovative approaches were undertaken for providing the environment friendly packages to meet the farmers’ problem. An overwhelming response of the farmers to these eco-friendly practices later paved the way for forming various farmers’ interest groups and self-help groups. These informal groups of self-experimenting farmers that provides an opportunity for sharing their innovations and practices among them. Further the KVKs started the Innovative “Farm Women’s Club” for involvement of farm women in the dissemination of various technological interventions at faster rate.
The KVK has excelled in bringing the modern technological packages at the farmers’ doorstep with the help of various instructional units. The KVK today has sufficient resources to impart training skills for not only the farmers but also the rural youth. The training schedule typically incorporates the existing needs and problems of the farmers for making a positive impact. The trainings are conducted both at the on-campus and off-
campus locations. It invariably emphasizes the providing both the short term as well as long durational courses specifically to impart practical orientation to these courses. The KVK has started the instructional units for not only imparting the skills but also for providing the critical inputs as per the demand and need of the farmers. Wherever the response of the farmers to technologies under the Lab-to-Land Programmes and the on-
farm-trials demonstrated by the KVKs was multi-fold, the need to take the assistance from the other funding agencies arose and the KVKs’ bold initiatives resulted in convincing the various State and Central Govt. funding agencies to provide financial support for the innovative schemes and projects for further extending its extension programmes.
Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra
‘Sasya Shyamala’ Krishi Vigyan Kendra has been newly established for the district of South 24 Parganas under the aegis of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute as the 2nd KVK in the district.
Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra is a new KVK established in 2013 with young, energetic, enthusiastic and dedicated fellow Subject Matter Specialists in different disciplines. The KVK is now actively engaged in dissemination of technologies to the farmers, farm women and rural youths and development of farm sector in South 24 Parganas district. This is the first of its kind in the Zone-II in order to facilitate providing better technology service to the farming community of the district, located at Arapanch, P.O.-Sonarpur, Dist.-South 24 Parganas, Kolkata-700150, four kilometre away from Sonarpur Railway Station by the side of the Sonarpur – Ghatakpukur Road. It has been vested upon important responsibilities of developing socio- economic condition of farming community of South 24 Parganas district through its mandated activities on organization of on-farm trials based on farmers’ problems, vocational training in agriculture and allied enterprises, frontline demonstration on major cereals, oilseeds, pulses and other enterprises related to agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, quality seed and planting material production for the farmers.
Website: http://kvk.rkmvu.ac.in/
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Page updated on: 3 Jan 2022