You could say it is a summer of education for the farmers in Gujarat. But there are no boring classes in hot, windless rooms. Instead there is colour and gaiety when the administration sets aside a month in the summer to take technical, scientific, and other related information on agriculture practices to each and every village of the state. What is more, this is becoming a agriculture model for various states.

Called Krushi Mahotsav, the annual exercise that started in 2005 is essentially a statewide mobilisation to provide extension services that educate state’s farmers on the latest in agricultural practice. This year NGOs too have been mobilised for the festival.

With tractors turned into decorated raths containing information and communication material, the Directorate of Agriculture covers Gujarat’s over 18,000 villages during the month-long festival beginning Akshay Tritiya each year.

The Mahotsav this year has seen 230 such raths, accompanied by 700 agricultural scientists from state’s agriculture universities backed by close to one lakh Government staff pan out across the rural hinterland. “On the face of it the work is simple exercise in provision of extension services. What differentiates it is the mission mode.

In just one month the department reaches all 18,000 villages with literature, kits, implements, vaccination, accompanied by lectures and demonstrations,” says state’s Director of Agriculture S R Chaudhary.

A typical village visit consists of the rath entering a village amid much fanfare, the folks gathering at the village centre, lectures and demonstrations by the accompanying team of subject experts on practices like fertiliser composition, optimum insecticide use, crop and agro-climatic zone compatibility, value addition, available government schemes on crop finance and insurance among others. Companies connected with agricultural implements, seeds, and fertilisers are encouraged to set up shops at the venue giving it the flair of a fair.

... contd.