Study on Management Strategy of Government Farm and Training Centres

Project Description

Agricultural farms and training centers were initially set up as major providers of quality production inputs to the farmers in their areas of influence. Some of these farms have been around for as long as 40 to 50 years while agricultural training centers were developed much later. The government has been providing agricultural training facilities through central as well as regional training centers. Both farm and training centers can be viewed as learning centers for farmers where they can expand their knowledge of agricultural technology and put them into practice. In the past, the management aspects of both agricultural farms and training centers were, for the most part, sidelined and never received the adequate priority during budgetary allocation. The Ninth Plan specifically mentioned that agricultural Farms would be gradually privatized based on their respective potentialities, but the process has not gained momentum as yet. An attempt at privatizing some farms on a test case basis failed miserably due to lack of adequate study, justification and appropriate modalities before handing them over to the private sector. Overall, the major issue concerning the management strategy of government run agricultural farms and training centers relates to an absence of a long-term vision and strategy. For instance, due to lack of such a vision, the management focus of Farms is sometimes placed on income generation aspect and sometimes on purely research and training aspects. Similarly, in some cases, Farms are partially handed over to the private sector while, at times, they are made to follow an inadequate and incomplete double-track system. Due to an absence of a conceptual clarity and long-term vision concerning the management strategy, these farms and training centers have not been able to produce intended results. In addition, the ongoing conflict in the country has severely affected the functioning of these farms and training centers. This has necessitated a thorough review of the present management strategy of agricultural farms and training centers, assess their strengths and weaknesses, examine and analyze their effectiveness in order to find out what are the constraints in operating them with full potentials, and to arrive at a viable plan of action to make the best possible use of them in the present context of the government’s long term planning and priorities.
This assignment attempted to answer some of the questions raised above by means of an analysis based on both primary and secondary information collected through desk study, field work, expert observation, extensive interactions with all stakeholders, including the beneficiary farmers, and a household survey with the help of a set of structured questionnaire. Sixteen different farms and training centers spread over the different regions of the country were selected as sample farms and centers where detailed observations were made by the team of experts.

Assignment Description

Following were the major tasks undertaken by the consultants: • Reviewed of the management strategy of both agricultural farms and training centers including their strengths and weaknesses and relevance in the present context; • Identified the policy issues, policy inconsistencies and gaps. • Analyzed how far the farms and training centers have been able to achieve their intended goals. • Explored the possibilities of involvement of private sector, NGOs, CBOs and local bodies and examine the resulting strengths and weaknesses. • Provided specific recommendations to address the gaps and inconsistencies in the present management strategy. • Suggested management strategies for farms and training centers. Following were the tools used • Collection and review of the existing information on Farms and Training centers, • Consultation and interaction with key stakeholders, resource persons, experts and institutions including key government officials, private sector and NGO representatives, and relevant research and academic institutions, • Interview and interaction with concerned stakeholders including beneficiaries • Beneficiaries (household) Survey • Focus Group Discussions with the beneficiaries • Brainstorming sessions with concerned key stakeholders and experts on the prevailing issues. • In depth study of selected farms and training centers • SWOT/C Analysis of selected farms and training centers • Gap Analysis - Capacity of Farms and Training centers in service delivery The deliverables were: • A comprehensive report on the management strategy of farm and training centers • Presented the major outcomes at the Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting and CADIC meeting