1. Public- Private Partnership in Extension: ATMA Experience
Dr.K.M.Singh
Director,
State Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute, Bihar
National Agriculture Summit 2006, October 2006,
Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, India
Organized by Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)

2. Challenges before Extension System
Food and nutritional security
Poverty alleviation
Diversifying market demand, & export opportunities
Linkages between producers and consumers of these products
Sustainable NRM
Funding extension

3. System Constraints in Extension
Extension programs top-down
Supply–driven and not Market–driven
Extension not accountable to farmers
Inadequate technical & managerial capacity
No formal mechanisms to empower farmers
Weak private sector involvement in extension
Weak R-E-F-M linkages

4. Key Elements of the New Strategy
Shift from food security to diversifying into high-value products
Farmers organized, trained and linked to these new domestic and international markets
Implementing organization pilot tested under NATP was the Agricultural Technology Management Agency or “ATMA”

5. ATMA was the Mechanism Used to Decentralize Extension: Critical to a Building “Market-Driven” Extension System
Regional and urban market opportunities tend to be “location-specific;” therefore,
Extension planning must be “bottom-up!”
NATP replaced with “Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms” by the Govt. of India
Coverage extended to 252 districts

6. Steps in Implementing the Strategy
Conduct PRA
Develop Strategic Research and Extension Plan
Identify and evaluate “Success Stories”
Determine most promising products/markets
Organize farmers into groups
Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) at village level & Farmer Associations (FAs) at block, district & state levels
Farmer leaders are critical to the success of FIGs
Exposure visits and demonstrations are used to motivate FIG members.
Investigate markets to identify interested manufacturers or wholesale markets (i.e., avoid traders; shorten the supply chain to avoid middlemen.)

7. Implementing the Strategy (cont.)
Collaborate with research (e.g. SAUs or KVKs) to develop and test production and post-harvest technologies and then train FIG members to produce to contract specifications.
Public-Private Partnerships are emphasized at block level; emphasis is on “contract farming” between FIGs and companies.
Many companies have entered in contractual production of high value crops like aromatic crops, exotic vegetables, organic farming

8. Building Social Capital VIS-À-VIS MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Two basic types:
Bonding
Bridging
Local Markets
Research &
Extension
Global Markets
FIG
Farmer Association
Urban Markets
FIG
Slide by Burt Swanson
Farmer Federation

9. Organizing Farmers into Commodity-Based Farmer Associations
Extension specialists teach women’s groups to produce high-value crops
I.e., Building social capital
And honey
And mushrooms

10. Impact of this ATMA Model of Extension on Crop Diversification and Farm Incomes (Average changes in production area and income in 28 project districts between ; IIM Lucknow data)
Horticultural Crops: 12  16%
Oil Seeds: 3  11%
Herbs and Medicinal Crops: 1  5%
Sericulture: 0  1%
Area planted to cereals declined: 55  47%, but yields increased 14%
During this period, average farm income increased 24% in project districts in contrast with only 5% in non-project districts

11. Conclusion: Key Elements of this New Extension Strategy
Refocus some research and extension resources to high-value crops/products, including market assessment
Decentralize extension planning and decision-making; begin by focusing on local and regional market opportunities.
Empowering Farmers — organize and train farmers so they can link to high-value markets; they must get organized to achieve economies of scale and to increase market power.

12. Experiences of ATMA, Patna

13. Using Private Sector and NGOs for Extension
Private Sector Companies:
Confederation of Indian Industry, Bihar Industries Association
Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan, Patna, Fragrance Herbs, Patna
Ayurved Shri Herbals Ltd., Patna, Pamer Agro Ventures (P) Ltd.
Amrapali Foods, Ltd., Patna, Samrat Mushrooms, Patna
Micro Tech Nutracueticals, Patna, Raj Agrico, Patna NGOs
NGO:
DOLPHEN, Patna
Adarsh Gramin Vikas Sanstha, Patna
Prem Youth Foundation, Patna
RP Channel-5 Vitarani Krishak Samiti, Bikram
Paliganj Vitarani Krishak Samiti, Paliganj
Manjhauli Vitarani Krishak Samiti, Naubatpur
Nari Gunjan, Patna
Mahila Bal Jyoti Kendra , Katesar, Bihta

14. Partnership with Private Sector

15. Promoting Farmer to Farmer Extension Training and deploying farmer resource persons
Sri Ajay Kumar Diversification in Agriculture
Sri Krishna Prasad Marketing of Aromatic Oils and Medicinal Plants
Sri G.N. Sharma Medicinal Plants cultivation
Sri Ajay Prakash Aromatic Plants cultivation
Sri Vijay Kumar Medicinal Plants Conservation
Sri Ashok Kumar Singh Mushroom Production
Sri Ramjeet Sharma Vermi Compost
Sri Samarendra Kumar Floriculture and Exotic Veg.
Sri Sanat Kumar Organic farming/ Diversification
Sri Bageshwari Pd. Singh Zero Tillage
Sri Sudhanshu Singh Seed Production
Dr. Anand Sharma Input Supply & Aromatic Plants
Sri Pappu Singh Commercial Floriculture
Sri Raju Kumar Lal Medicinal Plants
Sri Anil Kumar Singh IPM and INM
Sri Kumar Siddhartha Mushroom (Oyster)
Sri Kaushal Kumar Mentha & Aromatic Plants
Sri Hare Krishna Goat Rearing
Sri Indrajeet Singh Organic & Exotic Vegetables
Sri Vibhesh Kumar Group formation
Sri Vimlesh Kr. Singh Agro processing
Sri Ranjeet Kumar Zero Tillage in Pulses
Sri Arun Singh Manufacture& Marketing of Organic manure

16. Preparation of Directory of Service Providers and its release by Secretary (A & C), Govt. of India

17. Other Public-Private Partnership Initiatives
Between medicinal plant growers of Patna and M/s. Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan
Buy-back Arrangement for Mushrooms
Agreement to Buy Fresh Organically Produced Vegetables with M/s. Raj Agrico.
Contract Between M/s. fragrance Herbs, and FIG Members to Produce Essential Oils
Baby corn buyback with M/s. Amrapali Foods Ltd.

18. Other Field Outreach Activities
Promotion of Agri Clinics & Agri Business Centres
Technical publications in local language
Video films developed with help of private sector
Success stories used as role models for extension
Cyber marketing support to farmers with the help of private entrepreneurs
Networking with organizations working in the field of extension
Constant capacity building of stakeholders
Gender issues given due priority

19. Process Interventions by ATMA
ATMA Single Window delivery point for Technology.
Diversification dictated by market demand.
Judicious Use of Mass media.
R-E-F-M linkages strengthened with primary focus on farmer.
Revitalizing the farmers through capacity building,
Using farmers, Para-professionals and private entrepreneurs as Extension Agents.
Group focus in all the interventions.
Effective use of NGO’s, & private sector.
Sustainability given due importance, with cost sharing being the key word in most of the interventions.

20. ATMA Model : Lessons Learnt
Autonomy, financial flexibility and direct funding resulted in better outcome.
Better coordination, Convergence, pooling of resources
Integrated delivery of demand driven extension.
Priority settings through the farmers involvement (SREP , GB and FIAC).
Strong R-E-F-M Linkage.
ATMA an effective platform for PPP.
SREP as a tool for bottom-up planning
Capacity building through need-based trainings, exposure visits, demonstrations, etc.

21. THANKS