INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON COMMUNICATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURE
Department of Extension Education, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU organized International Seminar on Communication and Sustainable Development in Agriculture from 07-09th January 2003. Prof. Dipak De (Vice President, GCRA, Australia) was the Organizing Secretary of International Seminar.
Communication and sustainable agricultural development is the means of economic and social development of the Nation. A nation needs it and an individual demands it. The basic issue of sustainable development takes care of preserving the harmonic relationship between man�s progress and nature�s capacity in order to provide secured and peaceful future for the mankind. The human domain and environmental conditions, both are of equally importance in scientific and policy-oriented researches. Ensuring sustainability is the greatest challenge before agriculture. In one hand we are to maintain and even improve upon the food, feed, fiber and seed security and in other hand to maintain environmental and resource security. Development and standardization of resource conserving and regenerative type of technologies and their speedy transfer from the laboratories to the farmer�s field are of immense importance in this regard. In this context communication plays an important role in initiating and accelerating the process of development in general and sustainable Agricultural development in particular. Communication and development are considered to be closely related. Recently, communication technologies and Microelectronic innovations have changed the entire gamete of technology transfer.
Today Communication is omnipotent component of sustainable agricultural development. The present seminar had contributed immensely to such developments through close knit interactions among the participants from India and abroad. The deliberations of the seminar had go a long way in bridging the gap between research and development institutions through the farming community at large. The participants in the seminar are coming from various spectrum and wide subject matter areas. The Scientists, development workers, academicians, policy makers and representatives of public and corporate sectors etc. The accumulated experiences of these was interacted by wide range of people who deliberated and discussed at such forum, many feasible alternatives and policy implications had emerge out.
This seminar had provided an opportunity for participants to engage in dialogue with scholars from various backgrounds, making preparation for meeting out present day challenges in the field of agriculture and communication.
The large gathering of intellectuals specialized in the field of communication and agriculture followed by tireless deliberations was expected to develop a guiding force and widens the ability of thinking process for improving the quality of research and development and extension activities in the field of agriculture.
The International Seminar had attracted 294 research abstracts covering 10 sub themes viz., Communication Technologies for Information Support (40) Expert Systems in Extension (11), Communication and Empowerment (27), Media and Communication (69), Communication and Sustainable Agricultural Production (63), Participatory Communication (23), Heritage Culture and Communication (23), Media and Ethics (5), Communication and Gender Issues/Market Intelligence/Agribusiness (35) and Research Methodologies for Communication (12). The participants of the International Seminar came from four continents, 15 countries, coming to India 23 states, 20 Agricultural Universities, four Deemed Universities of ICAR, 25 ICAR Research Institutes, IITs, various KVKs, NGOs, and Executives and Representatives from Pubic, Private and Corporate sector organizations.


NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON COMMUNICATION SUPPORT FOR SUSTAINING EXTENSION SERVICES

Department of Extension Education, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU organized National Workshop on Communication Support for Sustaining Extension Services from 17-18th February 2004, sponsored by Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. Prof. Dipak De (Member, International Council IAMCR, London and Vice President, GCRA, Australia) was the Organizing Secretary of National Workshop.
Today communication is an omnipotent component for agricultural development Transformation of research information into common mans� language is a major task of communication process. This is another aspect of research. When we conduct research on any issue the question is how to translate and transmit it to the user or clientele of research information. Research and development workers are doing a lot in this direction. In the present era, electronic media has become the major channel for communication. Development and advancement in electronic media is going at a very fast rate. The technology of today is going to be obsolete in near future hence; appropriate strategies have to be designed at regular intervals for keeping pace with the technology development and efficient communication systems. The basic issue of sustainable development had takes care of preserving the harmonic relationship between man�s progress and nature�s capacity in order to provide secured and peaceful future for the mankind. Ensuring sustainability is the greatest challenge before agriculture. On one hand we are to maintain and even improve upon the food, feed, and fiber and seed security and on other to maintain environmental and resource security. Development and standardization of resource conserving and regenerative type of technologies and their speedy transfer from the laboratories to the farmer�s field are of immense importance. In this context communication plays an important role in initiating and accelerating the process of development in general and sustainable Agricultural development in particular. Communication and development are considered to be closely related. Recently, communication technologies and Microelectronic innovations have changed the entire gamete of technology transfer. Extension agencies are doing their level best to achieve breakthrough in their efforts of sustaining extension system. Nevertheless, it is possible only when there is an appropriate communication support. It has become the need of the hour to deal with the issue at length and evolve a strategy to provide communication support. Hence, there is a need to develop appropriate strategy at national level on communication support for sustaining extension services. It is against this backdrop the National Workshop was being planned to discuss the issue and evolve a national strategy on providing communication support for sustaining extension services.
The response of the researchers, academicians, policy makers and development workers from various states was overwhelming. In all workshop received 80 research papers covering 4 focal themes of the workshop viz., Communication and sustainable agricultural production (40), Expert systems for extension (10), Message development for communication (10) and Recent advances in information technology and its application in agricultural knowledge and information system (20). The National Workshop was having the representation from 17 states, 18 Agricultural Universities, 3 Deemed Universities of ICAR, 10 ICAR research institutes, 15 NGOs, various KVKs and Progressive/Experimental farmers.

WINTER SCHOOL ON COMMUNICATION SUPPORT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Department of Extension Education, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU organized WinterSchool on Communication Support for Sustainable Development from 09th October to 29th October 2004, sponsored by ICAR. Prof. Dipak De (Member, International Council IAMCR, London and Vice President, GCRA, Australia) was the Course Director of the WinterSchool. Participants came from North, East, West and South covering 12 states, 14 State Agricultural Universities, 3 ICAR research Institutes, a Traditional University and CentralUniversity. Among the participants 3 were Associate Professors, 3 were ICAR Scientists and 21 were Assistant Professors. The average age of the participants was 36, ranging from 30 to 49. The average experience of the participants was 9.8 years, majority of them (18) were engaged in teaching and extension, 2 were in Teaching, Research and Extension and 7 of them were engaged in research and extension.
Topics were covered under the broader perspective of WinterSchool viz., Social Sciences, Computer in Development, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Environmental Science, Legal Sciences, Role of Language in Communication and Media in Development.
This WinterSchool provided an excellent opportunity to the participants to bring about qualitative improvement and updating the latest knowledge and techniques in the field of communication and sustainable development. An effort was made to unfreeze the state of mind of participants through inaugural function and attempts were made to move during the 21 days programme by exposing them to new knowledge, providing a platform for instructional programme, to refresh their concepts, providing an opportunity for discussion and exchange of ideas with the guest speakers and providing facilities with excellent Library empowering them to become professional in their respective fields. Through Valedictory function an attempt was made to freeze their state of mind. The participants were young and energetic and actively participated in this programme. Opportunity was given to demonstrate leadership qualities through making them Chairman and Rapporteaur of different presentation sessions.