Diploma In Agriculture Extension Services

n India, there are about 2.82 lakh practicing agri-input dealers, who are the prime source of farm information to the farming community. The first contact point for majority of farmers is the agri-input dealer. While purchasing different inputs required for farming operations, the farmer naturally tries to find out from the input dealer about the usage of inputs, both in terms of quality and quantity. However, most of these input dealers do not have formal agricultural education. If these input dealers can be shaped as para-extension professionals by providing requisite knowledge, they can professionalise extension services and contribute to bring a paradigm shift in Indian Agriculture.

It is in this context, the National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management (MANAGE) had designed a one-year diploma course titled ‘Diploma in Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI)’, which imparts relevant and location-specific agricultural education to equip these input dealers with sufficient knowledge to transform them into para-extension professionals so as to enable them to address the day-to-day problems being faced by the farmers at field level. MANAGE had launched DAESI program in the year 2003 and so far covered the practicing input dealers of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.