Farmers’ Academy: A Novel Farmers-Driven Strategy for Agricultural Education, Research and Extension

The idea behind this article revolves around the fact that while we are facing new critical challenges in agriculture, the farm diaspora must adopt adequate and timely measures to achieve the five securities- food, health, nutrition, energy and environment security. In this changing scenario, the farmers should play the central role in framing and implementing the policies of agricultural education, research and extension, and therefore the present agricultural system necessitates an overhauling transformation. We propose in this article a novel and realistic concept of ‘Farmers’ Academy’ for this purpose and delineate the rationale and genesis of this concept. This article deliberates on the existing agricultural system of education, research and extension, with special emphasis on the common approaches of extension, particularly by drawing examples from India, and suggests the potential role of Farmers’ Academy as a realistic approach with the fundamental idea “of the farmers, by the farmers and for the farmers”. The proposed structural and functional dimensions of a Farmers’ Academy including its day-to-day activities, organizing capacity building programmes, adopting climate smart agriculture, marketing and value chain activities, prospects of publication in information dissemination, launching of a website, role in strengthening research and development and in development of curriculum have been described. The requirement, strategy and benefit of convergence of farmer producer organizations with a Farmers’ Academy have also been discussed. The conceptualization of the concept of Farmers’ Academy by the first author and its successful implementation in Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India in 2015 have been recorded. The probable challenges and their possible way outs have also been depicted.