EXTENSION LANDSCAPE: A Theoretical PERSPECTIVE

There is already ample evidence that the growing challenges of food production has changed the fabric of the farming population, bearing implications for agricultural extension services. Apart from the routine difficulties faced in daily work in rural areas by extension functionaries in developing countries, the threat agriculture extension services face are mostly of a technical and logistic nature. Some cases are insect pest invasions, outbreaks of serious diseases, locust attacks, severe climatic effects, natural disasters, or intensive campaigns for an increase in agricultural production. This challenge has at least three major dimensions. First, the very nature of the extension work; second, the knowledge associated and third, the process involved with the clientele of extension services. To realize agricultural development, it is agricultural extension agents, particularly in developing countries, which are the main actors in delivering extension services to farmers. In listing the essential components of extension service puts extension agents as critically necessary stakeholders.