Village Resource Centres (VRC) - A New Approach in Extension for Increased Agricultural Production

To increase the food production and productivity one of the basic need is increased adoption of location specific technologies by farmers. For this, farmers need to be educated and should be convinced well. Interactive video conferencing through satellite is an effective means of transferring the latest technologies to farmers. Farmers can directly interact with experts from remote villages and collect latest information. Without any distortion, the message can reach the farmers in remote and rural area. One such initiative of Indian Space Research Organization is establishment of Village Resource Centres which are located in different remote villages. The study was done in Karnataka state of India to find out the effectiveness of interactive video conferencing in disseminating the technologies to the farmers. Two hundred farmers who attended the programme regularly were selected randomly for the study. Personal interview and individual case studies were conducted to know the effectiveness of interactive two way audio video conference and the results were encouraging. Interactive video conferencing had helped farmers to increase their knowledge on various agricultural technologies and made adoption of technologies easier. This proved to help farmers in seasonal planning and risk mitigation. It also resulted in increasing the confidence level of farmers as a whole. Technology transfer to farmers through this modern method of communication can empower the rural farmers in developing countries, enhance ecological and livelihood security and accelerate human development and quality of life.