Assessing Perceived Constraints in Implementation of IARI’s Extension Approaches for Outscaling of Improved Agricultural Technologies

The present study was conducted in Uttar Pradesh with an objective to delineate the constraints perceived by beneficiary farmers and other stakeholders of IARI’s extension approaches and to suggest suitable strategies for improvement of the approaches. Following Stratified Multistage Sampling technique, 120 farmers and 30 stakeholders were selected. The study revealed that, the most severe constraints perceived by farmers of IARI-NEP and IARI-VO adopted village was Problem in marketing of the produce (Garrett’s score = 78.63 and 80.63 respectively). The most severe constraints perceived by farmers of IARI Model village (IMV) extension approach was Inadequate quantity of seeds (Garrett’s score = 74.27). The study suggested that there is need to make the IARI programmes broad based to include other package of practices and technologies including crop production, protection and conservation etc., the capacity building programmes should also focus on scientific cultivation and promoting profitable enterprises, the seed production and availability of quality seed may become integral part of the programmes through of partner organisations and farmers in seed production and conservation practices, farmer groups may also be promoted at village level to establish seed enterprises. The ICT tools can also be utilized to provide market information to the farmers to facilitate their sale of farm produce, as marketing of farm produce was the major constraint expressed by majority of the farmer respondents.