Unit 9: Agricultural Innovation System & Extension Approaches
How thinking moved from transfer of technology to innovation systems, and the pluralistic, participatory and market-led approaches that came with it.
What this unit covers
Unit 9 is where the conceptual shift of the last thirty years is examined. The move from transfer of technology to knowledge systems to innovation systems is not just terminology; each step changed who is considered to produce innovation. Questions frequently ask you to compare the linear model with the innovation systems view, or to evaluate participatory approaches critically. Knowing what PRA is will not be enough if you cannot say where it fails.
The unit is broken into 10 syllabus areas, listed below. ASRB has set 12 descriptive questions from it that are on record, and there are 100 practice questions for it on this site.
Syllabus areas in this unit
- Transfer of Technology, its models and its criticisms
- Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS)
- Agricultural Innovation System (AIS): concept, actors and linkages
- Innovation platforms and multi-stakeholder processes
- Participatory approaches: PRA, RRA, PLA and participatory technology development
- Farming Systems Research and Extension
- Pluralistic extension and public-private partnership in advisory services
- Market-led extension and value chain approaches
- Privatisation and demand-driven extension; fee-based advisory
- Climate-resilient agriculture, NICRA and extension for adaptation
Key concepts
Agricultural Innovation System. A view of innovation as the product of many interacting actors, organisations and institutions, not a linear pipeline running from researcher to farmer.
Participatory Rural Appraisal. A family of methods letting rural people themselves map, rank, score and analyse their situation, with the outsider facilitating rather than extracting.
Market-led extension. Extension that starts from what the market will buy and works backwards to what the farmer should produce and how.
Previous year questions from Unit 9
Descriptive questions ASRB has actually set from this unit, with the year in brackets.
- Difference between PRA and PTD (2021)
- What is innovation and consequences of innovation? (2021)
- Attributes of innovations (2014)
- What are the problems faced by the farmers in the adoption of climate smart agriculture (2021)
- Five pillars of Atma Nirbhar Bharat? (2021)
- What are the strategies perceived by you in encouraging youth in agriculture (2014)
- Compare Farming System approaches participatory extension approaches (2014)
- What is FSRE? What is its role in Agricultural development? (2014)
12 previous year questions from this unit in total. The full list is on the PYQ page.
Practice for this unit
- 100 descriptive practice questions across 5, 10 and 15 marks, in the Mains section.
- Objective practice for this unit in the MCQ section, with ASRB marking and full analysis.
- Full-length tests that draw on this unit alongside the other nine, in the mock tests.
The other units
- Unit 1: Fundamentals of Extension Education & Communication
- Unit 2: Extension Methods & Agricultural Journalism
- Unit 3: Information Communication Technologies
- Unit 4: Training & Human Resource Development
- Unit 5: Research Methodology in Extension Education
- Unit 6: Programme Planning, Evaluation & Impact Assessment
- Unit 7: Extension Management & Organizational Behaviour
- Unit 8: Entrepreneurial Development
- Unit 9: Agricultural Innovation System & Extension Approaches (this page)
- Unit 10: Gender Sensitization & Empowerment