The Agriculture Extension sub-component, implemented by the Department of Agriculture’s Directorate of Extension, provides demand-driven services to organized groups of men and women farmers. Support covers pre- and post-harvest practices, soil testing and soil improvement, farmer-operated commercial nurseries for improved fruit and vegetable planting material, and assistance to Agriculture Research on contract-based potato seed multiplication and adaptive trials.
Activities and responsibilities
District and field staff are assigned to programme implementation. Farmer training is identified during business-plan formulation at village and valley level. A farmer-to-farmer approach is used: key farmers in each group and association are trained and then train fellow farmers for a particular crop.
The Directorate helps farmer groups establish commercially run nurseries, including access to improved progeny sources and to Value Chain Support Fund capital. Soil-testing laboratories are made fully functional so that target villages receive soil-testing and improvement advice. The programme funds essential equipment, mobility and incremental staff so the Directorate can meet these responsibilities.
How it is organized
The Extension Directorate is headed by a Director, with district offices headed by Deputy Directors and field presence of Assistant Directors and field assistants. Provincial, district and field staff deliver pre-harvest, post-harvest and crop-management training for identified value chains and support farmer-operated nurseries for quality fruit plants. The soil-testing laboratory in Gilgit is part of this system.