Pages 2021-2.cdr


My dear readers of Journal of Extension Educa�on,

The United Na�ons has declared 2019-2028 as the 'Decade of Family Farming'. As per 
FAO, 'Family Farming', which includes all family-based agricultural ac�vi�es, is a means of 
organizing agricultural, forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture produc�on which is 
managed and operated by a family and predominantly reliant on family labour. Small family 
farms would be  playing a vital role in achieving food security for 9 billion people by 2050, as 
world agricultural produc�on will have to increase by 70 per cent. Sta�s�cs say that globally, 
there are around 525 million family farmers, and they account for over half of all agricultural 
produc�on. Of the 17 SDGs of the UN, 10 are directly related to family farming. These family 
farms are es�mated to represent over 90 percent of the world's farms. For India, which 
accounts for over 24 % of the world's family farms, this exists as one of the most important 
factors in food produc�on.

Rural youth and women, who face numerous challenges in family farms, need to be at 
the centre of any development strategy during this 'decade', for improving their access to 
advisory services, credit facili�es and markets.

While discussing the bo�lenecks faced by smallholder farmer groups in the arid and 
semi-arid lands to raising produc�on and produc�vity, Kamanga (2014) had listed the 
following areas: 

1. Limited to no access to inputs: improved variety seeds, informa�on, crop protec�on
inputs, and financial services;

2. Limited skills and knowledge in good agronomic prac�ces required to exploit the full
poten�al in improved inputs (par�cularly seeds);

3. Limited knowledge of market requirements;

4. Limited knowledge in harves�ng and post-harves�ng management;

5. Limited access to labour-saving machinery for land prepara�on and harves�ng, to
minimise the drudgery of labour-intensive agriculture;

6. Limited capacity to operate as economic units that appeal to value chain players

Extension services have a predominant role to play in all the aforemen�oned
constraints. Innova�ve technologies and indigenous knowledge possessed by the farm 
families may have  to be carefully integrated while developing strategies to overcome these 
constraints.

This issue of JEE has papers on topics such as SWOT analysis of milch buffalo rearing 
system in the wetlands of Kerala, assessment of a mobile applica�on for dog breeders and 
group dynamics assessment of farmer producer companies. Do send your feedback on these 
papers to editorextension@gmail.com

JEE 33 (2) Chief Editor

6637

mailto:editorextension@gmail.com