ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the current outreach and agricultural extension system in Pakistan with particular reference to social mobilization. The chapter also highlights role of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) in community outreach and technology transfer activities. Several extension and outreach programs have been introduced in Pakistan since independence to uplift the country's agricultural sector and rural economy. But most of these programs achieved only modest success. Discontinuation of the policies by new governments, lack of effective linkage between research and education, poor linkages between line department, and inadequate efforts for social mobilization are some of the major challenges and reasons for the limited success of past outreach programs. Socioeconomic and ethnic diversity is another issue in this regard. Pakistan has very diverse and heterogeneous cultural and socioeconomic set-ups. Each district has unique socioeconomic characteristics and heterogeneity is found even in villages of the same region/district. Another challenge for social mobilization in the context of agricultural and rural development is declining economic dependence of smallholder farmers on farming because nonfarm income is becoming increasingly important for majority of the farmers. The evidence showed that an integrated approach can be an effective strategy to bring social changes in rural areas. The UAF has developed an integrated model of outreach and social mobilization and is making all-out efforts in technology transfer, outreach, and social mobilization through several integrated activities like farmers’ day, kissan mela, traditional events and competitions, seminars and conferences, Saturday outreach, cyber extension, call centers, print media, etc. However, we argue that different service providers (public and private sector, universities) are working in isolation from each other without any composite or integrated strategy. Similarly Pakistan, unlike many developing countries, doesn't have an agricultural policy. Some of the possible ways forward for enhancing outreach are enhanced use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), mobilizing farmers, particularly youth and women, establishing farm service centers, promoting the culture of collective action and policy intervention for integrated efforts by different service providers from public, private, NGO, and academic institutions.
