Agricultural extension in India - the effectiveness of the Agricultural Technology Management Agency

This paper assesses the effectiveness of India's Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) through a study of the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state and the Dahod district of Gujarat state. Fifty ATMA farmers and fifty non-ATMA farmers were randomly selected from each district. In Ahmednagar, the beneficiary farmers recorded a high increase in yield, returns and income from their wheat crop, and thus there was a high effectiveness index compared with that of the non-beneficiary farmers. In Dahod, where ATMA had been operational for a shorter time, there was a very low increase in yield, returns and income for the maize crop of beneficiary farmers, and thus the effectiveness index of ATMA was low. The authors assess the programme in the light of such findings and offer recommendations for future extension strategies.