What ails Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)?

What is the objective of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)? The government of India has set up 727 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) to undertake significant activities across the country with the mandate of technology assessment and demonstration for its application and capacity development. KVKs organize training programs for farmers including rural youth and women farmers for their knowledge and up-gradation of their skills in agriculture and allied sectors.  Besides these, various agro-clinical services like soil, water, leaf, and petiole analysis for effective nutrient utilization and disease and pest analysis are also provided by the KVKs. 

KVKs are envisaged to provide the necessary technical input and development initiatives under the District Agriculture Plans.  KVKs contribute along with ICAR and the state agriculture universities (SAUs)  to the preparation of the District Agriculture Contingency Plans (DACP), recommending location-specific climate-resilient crops and varieties and management practices for use by the state departments of agriculture and farmers. MoRD has joined up with KVKs to train the workers under MGNREGS for organic manure preparation and basic storage of the crop produce. Krishi Vigyan Kendras provides the skill training conducted on the Qualification Packs developed by the Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI) in agriculture & allied areas in compliance with the National Skill Qualification Framework. 

The challenges faced by KVKs are listed below: 

1. Lack of  Budget and Human Resources: There are huge numbers of unfilled vacancies for technical support staff and especially scientists. Several KVKs have infrastructure such as laboratories and equipment for soil testing but lack technical assistance. There has been a reduction in budgetary allocations over the years which is minimizing the coverage of KVK activities. There have also been delays in sanctioning budgets, leading to a financial crunch and affecting the activities of KVKs housed in SAUs.   

2. Failure to pay for Extension Services: The ability to pay for extension services is another significant hurdle in the effective delivery of services. This is both due to the social unwillingness to pay for government programs and the economic inability to do so. 

3. Emergence of Private Extension Services:  There has been a rise in the private players providing extension services to the farmers' associations and farmers. They have limited reach and generally are linked to input supply or output purchasing and contract farming arrangements. They provide agricultural extension services to the extent necessary to preserve the profit margin they gain from selling products. eg ( JFarm Services by TAFE)

KVK as part of the public extension system has to be reoriented away from traditional supply-driven, production-focused approaches, and towards more market-oriented approaches. Delivery of public extension services could be improved by introducing decentralized strategic planning, with the active participation of farmers and other stakeholders.  The roles of extension in KVKs at the grassroots level are changing. These changes will involve capitalizing on ICTs as a viable option. GoI is also planning a scheme in PPP mode on the delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers by involving public sector research and extension institutions with private agri-tech players. The future lies in the customized solutions and diffusion of innovations in agriculture and technology to the farmers. The shift in strategy has been done in selected KVKS from target crops to target farmers' needs through all the initiatives.

List of Resource Institutions working in FPO ecosystem

• Access Development Services
• Access Livelihoods Consulting
• Action for Agricultural Renewal in Maharashtra (AFARM), Pune
• Action for Food Production (AFPRO)
• Action for Social Advancement (ASA)
• AFC INDIA LIMITED
• Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP)
• BAIF Institute for Sustainable Livelihoods and Development
• Basix Krishi Samruddhi Limited
• Bhartiya Sammrudhi Investments and Consulting Services Limited (BASICS)
• Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA)
• Centre of Agriculture and Rural Developments (CARD)
• CTRAN Consulting Limited
• Dhan Foundation
• Dvara Trust
• Ek Lavya Foundation
• Harsha Trust
• Heifer India
• Indian Farm Forestry Dev. Co-operative Ltd. (IFFDC)
• Indian Grameen Services (IGS)
• Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), Hyderabad
• Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP)
• Indo Global Social Service Society
• KRISHI VIKAS SAHAKARI SAMITI LTD. (KVSS)
• Lupin Human Welfare & Research Foundation
• Madhya Bharat Consortium of Farmers Producer Co Ltd.
• Maha Farmers Producer Company (MAHA FPC), Pune
• Mart Global Management Solutions LLP
• NABCONS
• Pragya
• Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)
• Sahyadri Community Development and Women Empowerment Society 
• Sesta Development Services
• Sheel Biotech Limited
• Solidaridad Regional Expertise Centre
• Srijan India
• Synergy Technofin Pvt Ltd.
• Tanager
• Technoserve
• Vrutti

Links to important Documents & Information on the Farmer Producer Organizations

1. FPOs created by NABARD and SFAC

2. Operational Guidelines for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations

3. Strategy Paper for promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) 

4. Frequently Asked Questions for FPOs:  SFAC, NCDEX, ICSI & E-NAM 

5. Farmer Friendly Handbook For Schemes & Programmes

6. Guidebook of Training Modules for FPO by BIRD, Lucknow

7. Live Quotes of Future Prices of Commodities

8. Circular on Early Pay-in Facility for Farmer Producer Organization (FPO)

9. Plan for utilization of regulatory fees foregone by SEBI

10. NCDEX under its price dissemination policy offers you to avail the SMS facility. 

11. State-wise List of the Warehouses Registered with WDRA

12. Resource Book on Formation and Functioning of Farmer Producer Companies

13. Guidelines for promotion of Producers’ Enterprises Under DAY-NRLM

14. Financing for Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)

15. Farmer Producer Companies - Past, Present and Future

International Placement of Indian workforce

At present, developed countries don’t have the demographics to support their labor market and will need to depend on the rest of the world.  India has a working population of 400.7 million with a thriving education sector. India’s demographic dividend can be leveraged to meet the requirements of developed countries across diverse sectors. For the last 30 years or so, India’s youth have been part of the workforce across the Middle East, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  

Yet the proportion of formally skilled workers in India is extremely low, at 4.69% of the total workforce, compared to 24% in China, 52% in the US, 68% in the UK, 75% in Germany, 80% in Japan, and 96% in South Korea.  Hence, the skills ecosystem should not only cater to the existing Indian industry requirements but should have a definite room for the international placement of the Indian workforce. Changing the employment landscape post-COVID-19 has led to a rise in both onsite and remote work. 

The nearest European country is more than 4300 km away from India. This distance from Europe is one reason why a significant proportion of migration from India takes place to countries like the UAE, Malaysia, etc.

The Indian government has taken notable initiatives including MoUs with developed economies on labor mobility, e-Migrate, Indian Community Welfare Fund, Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendras, and Pre-Departure Orientation Programmes. The proposed Emigration Bill, 2021 will constitute the core of enabling framework for institutional support.  

Suggestions for International Placement

1. NSDC is making efforts to align and recognize the Indian Occupational Qualifications Training and Certification at the destination countries.  This is a long-term effort to match NSQF-level corresponding job roles in both countries.  A unified system for formalizing a variety of skills acquired through both formal and informal learning should also be mapped to the European Qualification Framework (EQF). 

2. The better approach will be creating assessment and certification centers in accordance with standards recognition of awarding bodies of destination countries. Presently, only Singapore has testing centers in India where candidates interested in migrating to the nation can get their applications processed and skills verified locally instead of flying to Singapore for the attestation and recognition of skills.

2. There must be the creation of the TVET (technical and vocational education and training) programs with an Indian partner for the implementation and a foreign entity as a knowledge partner.  This will ensure the quality of the curriculum with a lower cost of operations. The pricing pressure on such TVET programs will be huge as Indian universities are offering similar courses in vocational studies. TVET program must ensure good placement as the cost incurred by the candidates must be recoverable within 2-3 years post the course completion. 

3. Any TVET program offering global certification to the candidates must lead a clear path to global exposure. This can be done either through apprenticeship or an opportunity to study/upskill in the destination countries. 

4. Poor knowledge of the language of the destination countries creates a major gap between the aspiration of youth and the reality on the ground.  Skill development programs and language training programs must be linked to the formal education system through a unified skills and education qualification framework. This will change the negative public perception of TVET courses. 

5. JIM Japan India Institute for Manufacturing - Japanese companies in India are also supporting young Indian talent in acquiring the concepts and skills of Japanese manufacturing by using existing factories and facilities to develop future shop floor leaders. Such an arrangement can be extended with MNCs operating in diverse sectors.  

6.  Migration of students to study in destination countries can help build skills that may otherwise be difficult to acquire in India. The mobility of students should be promoted and pathways must be explored for their stay as a workforce in destination countries. 

Direct Benefit Transfer - G2C in India

India is among the top three global economies in the number of digital consumers. With 560 million internet subscriptions in 2018, up from 238.71 million in 2013, India is the second-largest internet subscriptions market in the world. [1]

The Government of India runs large-scale benefits and subsidy programs for its citizens.  To ensure accurate targeting of the beneficiaries, digital verification to eliminate duplicates, ghost recipients, and fraud. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was started on 1st January 2013. DBT is utilized to eliminate losses and inefficiencies in the disbursement of benefits and subsidies across wages, food, fertilizer, cooking gas, power, and other areas. Direct Benefit Transfer is already showing the changing landscape of the government-to-citizen (G2C) payments system.

Requirements

• To further expand the reach of such digital payment programs, banking infrastructure needs to be enhanced by ensuring sufficient bank branches, banking correspondents, the post office, and Common Services Centres to make it easier for citizens to access payments to them.
• Rural customers typically maintain low bank balances, are geographically spread out, and have low transaction volumes. Given the low levels of women's digital engagement, easy access to banking infrastructure for cash in-cash out services remains a necessary condition to enable. However, the private banking correspondent business model has chronically suffered from low profitability and a high level of agent attrition on account of unattractive remuneration.  

There has been an attempt made by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in the past for DBT readiness of states/UTs to pursue G2C and government to bank/business solutions through the use of ICT for effecting cashless in-kind transfers. (DBT_Presentation_NCAER (dbtbharat.gov.in).

Pros

• DBT eliminates inordinate delays, multiple channels & paperwork involved in the existing system.  
• This is a better way to help the poor than providing them under-priced grain, fuel, and essential public services. A poor household with cash via DBT can access and choose a private-sector provider and not just be dependent on a monopolistic government provider.
• Targeting the poorest has the obvious advantage since the marginal value of money is highest since they have the least money.   
• The per-person costs of delivering transfers have fallen rapidly in many places due to advances in last-mile digital payment infrastructure.

Cons

• The DBT model has been seen as a substitute for state action. The state has to build implementation capacity and grievance redressal mechanisms as many beneficiaries are used to interacting with frontline workers or local government officials for scheme-related grievances. 
• While it may not be mandatory to link an Aadhaar Card with a bank account, for now, it appears that there is no escaping the process. Aadhaar seeding is necessitated for receiving Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT). This protocol followed by government officials has led to an increase in exclusion errors, denying genuine beneficiaries their entitlements.
• DBT system has no mechanism to strengthen transparency and accountability at the local level. Technical errors such as age, spelling, and a host of other data points plague the system. People with incorrect names, and mismatching dates of birth, end up unable to avail of any welfare scheme that they are otherwise eligible for.
• There has been an assumption that the economy will become burdened with these schemes leading to inflation and price distortion. Data again does not support this argument as it showed better economic participation and thus a net boost to the local economies where the schemes were implemented. DBT can be indexed to adjust with inflation.
• Complexity increases if Aadhaar is seeded in multiple bank accounts of beneficiaries. There are several cases like the money transferred to account holders died a few years back, and money could not get transferred due to the closure of accounts which are issues to be resolved with NPCI and banks. 

Conclusion

DBT is no magic bullet as the reduction of poverty in India requires much more than solutions such as direct cash transfers. DBT is techno-enabled, transformational effort to fix the delivery system that is broken with corruption. Several studies have investigated the returns to investing in payments infrastructure relating to DBT and found them to be ‘large and positive’. In the new development, e-RUPI is launched by GoI to bring the ease and simplicity of UPI to the social security platform of DBT. 

References:

1. Indian telecom services performance indicators, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, as of December 2013, September 2018, and March 2018; Analysys Mason, as of January 09, 2019.