Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK)
The farm science centre: origin, mandate, the four mandated activities, and how one is staffed and run.
Origin
The Krishi Vigyan Kendra was recommended by the Education Commission of 1964 to 1966 and taken forward by the Mohan Singh Mehta Committee of 1973, which worked out the form it should take. The first KVK was established in 1974 at Puducherry, then Pondicherry, under the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
The founding idea was vocational: a centre that would impart training through work experience, without formal qualifications as a barrier to entry, teaching in the local language and on the farm rather than in a classroom.
The mandate
The mandate of a KVK is technology assessment and demonstration for its application, and capacity development. It is a knowledge and resource centre for the district, not a line department office and not a research station.
Under that mandate sit four activities, which are the most commonly asked part:
- On-farm testing. Assessing the location specificity of a technology under the district's own conditions before it is recommended.
- Front line demonstration. Demonstrating the production potential of newly released technology on farmers' fields, conducted by scientists.
- Capacity development. Training farmers, farm women, rural youth and extension personnel to update their knowledge and skills.
- Knowledge and resource centre. Working with the district's public and private agencies, and producing seed, planting material and livestock strains.
Advisory services through ICT and other media, and awareness of improved technologies, are carried out alongside these.
Front line demonstration
An FLD differs from an ordinary demonstration in three ways worth stating explicitly in an answer: it is conducted by scientists rather than extension staff, it uses newly released technology, and its purpose is to establish the production potential of that technology and to feed farmer reactions back to research.
Host institutions and management
KVKs are sanctioned to State Agricultural Universities, ICAR institutes, non-governmental organisations, state departments and other educational institutions. They are funded fully by ICAR and coordinated through the Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes, which were earlier called Zonal Project Directorates.
Each KVK is headed by a Senior Scientist and Head, with Subject Matter Specialists covering the district's main disciplines, plus programme assistants and support staff. A Scientific Advisory Committee, chaired by the head of the host institution, approves the annual action plan and reviews progress.
Where KVKs sit in the wider system
The KVK is the district-level link between research and the farmer, while ATMA is the district-level coordinator of extension delivery. A frequent question asks you to distinguish them: the KVK is a technology assessment, refinement and demonstration body under ICAR, whereas ATMA is a convergence and planning society under the state, funded through a centrally sponsored scheme. The KVK is a member of the ATMA Governing Board.
Points to carry into the exam
The lines from this topic that recur in the paper.
- First KVK: 1974, Puducherry, under Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
- Recommended by the Education Commission 1964-66; form worked out by the Mohan Singh Mehta Committee, 1973.
- Four mandated activities: on-farm testing, front line demonstration, capacity development, knowledge and resource centre.
- FLD is conducted by scientists, on newly released technology, to establish production potential.
- KVKs are fully funded by ICAR and coordinated through ATARIs.
- Know the KVK versus ATMA distinction; it is asked directly.