Agricultural extension services will have to be centre piece of any future strategy to improve agricultural performance For long Indian agriculture has been beset by two kinds of problems. One, the farming problem, which essentially relates to falling productivity and overall production. Two, the farmers’ problem, which is about how agriculture is un-remunerative to those involved in it. Of course, the two are interlinked but often the solution to the former, such as increased use of fertilizers and pesticides, aggravates the latter, by further squeezing monetary resources. More often than not it is the second problem that attracts greater attention, I suspect, due to the human element. It is true that every year more and more farmers give up farming in India. Not surprising when one notes that agriculture accounts for 55% of all employment while generating just 14% of the GDP (gross domestic product) share. In fact, the latest economic survey shows that for the first time there has been an actual decline in the absolute number of people involved in the farming sector. The total number of cultivators has gone down from 127.3 million in 2001 to 118.7 million in 2011.

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