The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Degrees await these barefoot `scientists'

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Sunday, Dec 10, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Degrees await these barefoot `scientists'

N. Rahul

First graduation ceremony for farmers from `on-farm schools' next month

HYDERABAD: The State Government has planned annual graduation ceremonies for `barefoot agricultural scientists', a concept developed on the lines of barefoot doctors of Rajasthan. The first of them will be held next month.

Some 1,000 farmers, who worked as facilitators of `polam badi' (on-farm schools) of the Government over the last couple of years, would be given a theoretical test to qualify for the graduation. Half of them would be selected for the ceremony where they would be presented certificates conferring on them a title. The Government is yet to decide on the title.

Agriculture Commissioner, Poonam Malakondaiah, said the ceremony would be held every year to create a repository of 50,000 barefoot agricultural scientists for the 27,000 villages in the State. Five hundred farmers would pass out every year.

She said the programme was aimed at preparing farmers as scientists in their own way to take agricultural education to fields. The idea was to make farmers talk among themselves instead of being lectured by experts. It was in effect a bottoms-up approach where the farmers donned the role of scientists.

Emulating Rajasthan

They would be like the barefoot doctors of Rajasthan who made a mark for themselves by taking up first-aid and primary health care services to remote villages. Common villagers were trained as para-medical workers in that State.

Mrs. Malakondaiah said the farmers would be trained in seed, fertilizer and pesticide management, use of implements and access to credit. The objective was to reduce the cost of cultivation and to increase productivity so that agriculture became profitable.

`Post-graduation'

After graduation the barefoot scientists would undergo six months' refresher training and serve as resource persons of the Government.

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