Agri-Technologies and Travelling Facts: A Case Study of Extension Education in Tamil Nadu, India

This paper is motivated by two broad questions: how is technologytransferred from academia to non-academic domains, and how welldo facts within these technologies travel? These questions areexplored in the context of a particular extension education program inTamil Nadu, south India. The paper explores the extent to whichfertigation technologies (drip irrigation) and other farm and postharvesttechnologies travelled from the Tamil Nadu AgriculturalUniversity to the farming community in two districts of north TamilNadu. The extension effort, involving direct scientist to farmerinteraction, sought to push facts about such technologies – termed‘precision farming’ – to the larger community through demonstrationeffects. We conclude that although facts about precision farmingtravelled well, the technologies themselves travelled once certaininstitutional barriers were overcome. This involved not onlyovercoming the farmers financial inability to invest in a relativelyexpensive technology, but also fostering cooperative behaviour andimproving individual bargaining power through the formation of localfarmers associations. This model of an extension education had anstrong demonstration effect that encouraged the travel of critical factsabout precision farming.[...]