On-farm studies under Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE)

Education Programme in India - Some results

R.K. Nanwal and K.P. Singh

CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar – 125 004 (Haryana) India.

Abstract

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University started Rural

Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) programme to expose the out-going final
year undergraduate students of agriculture discipline. The students are placed in
rural areas and attached to farmers’ families to study the crop production
technology adopted by the farmer family, its techno-economic survey and extent
of agriculture extension in the preparation of technology to the farmers. The
students are guided and supervised by a team of specialized teachers and scientists
from Regional Research Stations and District Agricultural Science Technology
Centers. In this programme during the year 2001-2002 a class of 60 students was
offered this programme. These students were placed in 15 villages of six districts
of Haryana state. Prior to their placement, the students were given basic training
for carrying out survey work in the field. Out of the data collected and submitted
by these students to the teacher incharge, compilation and analysis were made on
total income from agriculture including milch and draught animals, expenditure,
net income from subsidiary occupation. These data were utilized for finding out
net income from agriculture, subsidiary income and income per earning family
member of the farmer. The size of holding varied between 3 acres to 18 acres
and, therefore, small, medium and large holding farmers were covered in these
studies.

The analysis of data on net income reveal that income from agriculture (crops +
livestock) was higher under large size holding, however, per unit net income was
more under small and medium size holder. Subsidiary income from subsidiary
occupation like sale of vegetable, operating telephone booth, preparation and sale
of animal feed, operating of a shop was found to be a good source of income to
the farmers’ family. Therefore, income per earning family member per hectare
was higher when there was a subsidiary occupation of the family. These on-farm
studies indicate that small farm can give good earning provided sufficient
resource base is available with the farmer. The combination of agriculture
including livestock with a subsidiary occupation may help in the improvement of
the economic condition of the farmer. The studies further reveal that a
combination of education and on-farm research and extension programme had
better exposure of fresh agricultural graduates to the real ground problems at

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farmers field and acted as a tool of the feed back to research workers for planning
their research programmes.

Introduction

Agricultural education is an important tool in ensuring increased agricultural

productivity, sustainability, environmental and ecological security, profitability,
job security and equity. In India, Randhawa Committee (1992) recommended the
Rural Agriculture Work Experience (RAWE) Programme for imparting quality,
practical and productive oriented education for the agriculture degree programme.
The World Bank (1995) stated that there was little emphasis in the curricula on
preparing the agricultural graduates for better career in agriculture or agribusiness
outside government jobs. Therefore, the agenda for the 21st century in agricultural
education must be drawn on the basis of the challenges it has to meet in the near
future. Getting do, how practical hands-on training during higher education
towards self-employment, is very essential. It provides significant hands - on
experience in acquiring skills, which are mainly aimed at creating a product or
providing a service to those who demand.

Based on these recommendations RAWE programme was included in the

curricula of agriculture graduate degree programme at CCS Haryana Agricultural
University, Hisar (India) with the following objectives:

i) To gain knowledge and experience on the operational aspects of

agricultural technology being used by the farmers;
ii) To develop communication skills in interns by effective use of
extension methods to make them better extension worker;
iii) To help the interns to understand and appreciate the agricultural
problems of the village with special reference to constraints in the
application of latest farm technology;
iv) To acquaint the interns with the functioning of various agricultural
researches, development, agro-based marketing industries,
extension agencies and other allied organizations involved in rural
development.

In this paper the brief analysis of data collected by students (interns) under
RAWE programme during the year 2001-02 have been presented and discussed.

Materials and Methods

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Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (India) started
Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) programme to expose final year
undergraduate students of agriculture discipline. During 2nd Semester of the
academic year 2001-02 (February to June, 2002), the students were placed in rural
areas and attached to farmers’ families to study the adoption of the agricultural
technology by these families. The students conducted crop production and
techno-economic survey of farmers’ families. The students were guided and
supervised by a team of specialized teachers from College of Agriculture (headed
by a teacher from Agronomy discipline) and scientists from Regional Research
Stations and District Agricultural Science Technology Centers. During the year
2001-2002, a class of 60 students were registered for this programme. These
students were placed in 15 villages of six districts of Haryana state. Prior to their
placement, the students were given basic orientation training for carrying out
survey work in the field. The final report containing the data collected by the
students was submitted to the Teacher Incharge. The data were compiled and
analyzed for computing total return, expenditure, net-income from agriculture as
well as from subsidiary occupations. These data were also utilized for finding out
net income from agriculture, subsidiary-income and income per earning family
member of the farmer. The size of the land holding varied between 3 acres to 18
acres. Therefore, farmers were categorized as small, medium and large land
holders.

Results and Discussion

As early as in 1946, Lewin viewed that Agricultural education, because of its

essential thrust of Learning-Research-Action – “the triangle that should be kept
together”, offers a research strategy to address complex agricultural issues. On
these lines in our RAWE programme the data of 60 farm-families were collected,
analyzed and results are presented in Table 1 and discussed in the following
paragraphs.

The analysis of the data on net income reveal that net income per year
from farming (crops + livestock) was higher under large size-holding ( > 10
acres), however, per unit net income was more under small and medium size-
holdings. Income per year from subsidiary occupation like sale of vegetables ($
124/-), operating telephone booth ($1031/-), preparation and sale of animal feed
($1237/-) and operating a shop ($722/-), ration depot ($866/-) added good income
to the farmers’ family. Therefore, income per earning family member per acre
per year was higher in families having a subsidiary occupation alongwith farming
(Table 1).

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These on-farm studies indicate that small farm can give good earning provided
sufficient resource base is available with the farmer. The combination of farming
including livestock with a subsidiary occupation may help in the improvement of
economic condition of the farmer. Seetharaman and Iqbal (2000) also reported
similar findings from the RAWE programme at Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University, Coimbatore, India. The studies further reveal that the Rural Work
Experience Programme (RAWE) is an important competence and confidence
building activity and tool introduced to provide integrated understanding of
various disciplines and practical training to farm graduates in agricultural
sciences. The combination of education and on-farm research and extension
programme had better exposure of fresh farm graduates to the real ground
problems at farmers’ field and acted as a tool of the feed back to research workers
for planning their research programmes.

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the contribution of several colleagues (teachers,

scientists) and students in conducting these on-farm studies under the Rural
Agriculture Work Experience Programme of College of Agriculture at CCS
Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India.

References

Lewin, K.(1946). Action research and minority problems. J. Social Issues. 2(4):
34-46.
Seetharaman, N. and I. M. Iqbal. (2000). National Seminar on Rural Agriculture
Work Experience organized by Indian Council of Agricultural Research,
and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University at Coimbatore, Oct. 20–22, 2000.
Randhawa, N.S. (1992). Report of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research
Committee on Rural Agriculture Works Experience programme
implementation in SAUs of India.
World Bank Report (1995). Document of the World Bank Report No. 13517- In
Staff Appraisal Report of India, AHRD, March 9, 1995. South Asia
Deptt. of Agril. Operations Division.

Corresponding Author Contact Information:

Dr. R.K. Nanwal, Associate Professor of Agronomy CCS Haryana Agricultural

University, Hisar, Haryana-125 004(India), Phone: 91-1662-31518 (O), Fax : 91-
1662-34613, coe@hau.nic.in, Theme 4 – Poster Manuscript, Farming Systems
Education and Training.

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Table 1. Results of survey conducted by final year undergraduate students of agriculture discipline under Rural Agriculture
Work Experience (RAWE) programme

Holding Expenditur Family Income per year ($) Net earning per Earning members
size (acres) e on Farming Subsidiary Family income family member per (male + female)
farming ($) Gross Net Per acre occupation Total Per acre year ($)
1
3 1006 196 810 272 124 934 311 234 2+2
4 1443 1134 309 77 - 309 77 52 6+0
5 1500 734 766 153 - 766 153 192 2+2
8 2419 1197 1223 152 8662 2089 261 418 3+2
9 3059 1421 1639 182 7223 2361 262 394 3+3
4
10 2784 1134 1649 165 1237 2886 289 289 8+2
12 3010 1517 1493 120 1653 1658 138 415 2+2
13 4054 866 3187 245 - 3187 245 245 8+5
5
16 3211 1119 2093 131 1031 3124 195 260 8+4
18 6015 3864 2151 120 - 2151 119 307 5+2

1 = Vegetable shop ; 2 = Ration Depot; 3 = General Shop; 4 = Animal Feed Business; 5 = Telephone Booth

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