Extension Education: Concept

 The term extension was first used in the United States of America in the first decade of this century to connotes the extension of knowledge from land grant colleges to the farmers through the process of informal education.

Need & Scope of Extension Education

The extension appears to have unlimited scope in situations where there is a need for creating awareness amongst the people and changing their behavior by informing and educating them. Kelsey and Hearne (1967) identified nine areas of program emphasis, which indicate the scope of agricultural extension.

1. Efficiency in agricultural production.

2. Efficiency in marketing, distribution, and utilization.

3. Conservation, development, and use of natural resources.

4. Management on the farm and in the home.

5. Family living.

6. Youth development.

7. Leadership development.

8. Community development.

9. Public affairs.

The extension is an integral part of agricultural and rural development programs in India. The progress in production which has been achieved in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, veterinary, fishery, social forestry, sericulture, etc., may be thought of as proportional to the strength of extension service of the relevant government departments.

The following statements will further amplify the scope of extension.

1. Extension is fundamentally a system of out-of-school education for adults and youths alike. It is a system where people are motivated through a proper approach to help themselves by applying science in their daily lives, in farming, homemaking, and community living.

2. Extension is education for all village people.

3. Extension is bringing about desirable changes in the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of people.

4. Extension is helping people to help themselves.

5. Extension is working with men and women, boys and girls, to answer their felt needs and wants.

6. Extension is teaching through learning by doing and seeing is believing.

7. Extension is working in harmony with the culture of the people.

8. Extension is a two-way channel; it brings scientific information to village people and it also takes the problems of the village people to the scientific institutes for the solution.

9. Extension is working together (in groups) to expand the welfare and happiness of the people with their own families, their own villages, their own country, and the world.

10. Extension is the development of individuals in their day-to-day living, the development of their leaders, their society, and their world as a whole.

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