Abstract :
The word ‘extension’ is derived from Latin roots ‘ex’ meaning ‘out’ and ‘tensio’ meaning stretching. So, extension
is that kind of education which is stretched out to the people living in rural areas beyond the limits of the educational
institutions like Schools, Colleges and Universities to which the formal type of education is usually confined. Extension is pursued in agriculture and many other disciplines like Veterinary, Dairy, Fishery, Forestry, Home Science etc., to educate, motivate and change the behavior of the people. So, this particular branch of science is also known as Extension Education. The term ‘extension’ originated in United Kingdom (U.K) in 1866 with a system of University Extension, which was first taken up by the Cambridge and the Oxford Universities and subsequently by other Educational Institutions in U.K and other countries. In 1873, the Cambridge University first used the term ‘extension education’ to describe a particular educational innovation. Several of the institutional innovations that have come up in response to the weaknesses in public research and extension system, have given enough indications of the emergence of an agricultural innovation system in India. This has resulted in the blurring of the clearly demarcated institutional boundaries between research, extension, farmers, farmers groups, NGOs and private enterprises. Extension has to play a very important role of facilitating the nodes to generate access and transfer knowledge between different entities in the innovation system. It also has to create competent institutional modes to improve the overall performance of the innovation system. Inability to play this important role would marginalize extension further.
Author Name : Raji, K. Paul, Dr.T.Sudha & Dr.Giji Elias
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.556559
Keywords: Extension Education, Kudumbasree, micro enterprises, agriculture.
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