Another point that needs to be emphasised relates to coordination and contact between the agricultural departments and the universities. During the past twenty years we have succeeded in improving the contact and coordination between what in a way are the two wings of agricultural effort. It will have to be our constant endeavour to maintain and improve upon it. Agricultural research and agricultural policy must go hand in hand and supplement each other if they have to make any impact on agricultural development in the country. Agricultural departments are in the best position to have first hand information regarding the problems faced by agriculturists. These problems are, however. tackled mostly in the universities and research institutions. It will be only through a process of continuous interaction between these two equally important wings that we will be able to take the fruits of the research to the fields and render service of immediate practical value to the farmer. It is only through such measures that we can succeed in breaking down the barrier of apathy and lack of confidence with which an average farmer still views governmental agencies. And this will be the first vital step towards making him receptive to the ideas of modern farming.
The third part of the process. viz. of making the farmer adopt new techniques of cultivation, would probably demand more attention and effort. It involves transformation of a traditional mentality into a modern one. A change always evokes resistance, but it is more so when the changeover involves risks. It will be wrong to minimise the importance of this vital factor by merely ascribing it to the illiteracy of the farmer. Agriculture is frought with so many uncertainties like weather, availability of fertiliser, water shortage etc. that the unwillingness of the farmer to take to new techniques or seeds can be considered as a very rational decision. To reduce such elements of risk in any changeover to new technology will have, therefore, to be treated as a vital research problem. It is only when we succeed in this effort that we can expect the rate of assimilation and acceptance of technological change to go up. To make the farmers economic-minded, it is not necessary that formal education should reach them. What would be of more relevance is an education regarding new techniques of cultivation, prices and marketing. This task will necessarily devolve on the shoulders of extension workers. They constitute the kingpins in the whole process of change. The success or otherwise of the effort will depend on their capacity to assimilate and absorb the new technological developments and transmit them to farmers in a language they understand. This makes it imperative for us to devote greater attention and effort towards raising the technical competence of the extension workers. Agricultural universities and institutions will have to share the major portion of our effort in this direction.
