Promoting Adoption of Water Conservation; Soil Fertility and Health Improving Technologies through Agricultural Service Provision in Pakistan

Agricultural service providers (Agric. SPs) play an essential role in the adoption of promising agricultural technologies by small and medium-sized farms. Similarly, agricultural service provision also generates substantial income for them. The study highlights the role of Agric. SPs in promotion of moisture conservation; soil health and fertility improving technologies at specific sites in Pakistan for three years i.e. from 2015 to 2017. It is based on primary data collected in the year 2018-19 from eighty sampled farmers, which were purposively selected to cover a range of selected technologies. It is found that Agric. SPs-induced adoption of these technologies has increased over time. They achieved considerable success in the promotion of the use of gypsum for moisture conservation and fertilizer placement drill in Pothwar-Punjab, ridge planting of crops in irrigated province Punjab, laser land leveling in irrigated areas of Sindh province, and use of biozote for improving soil fertility in both irrigated and rain-fed areas of Punjab province. These technologies have good income generation potential for Agric. SPs. The article also highlights factors hindering the large-scale adoption of the technologies in the country. Technical and entrepreneurship capacity building of the Agric. SPs in the provision of services to farmers in multiple technologies, and technical feasibility assessment of few technologies to use these for more than one crop are suggested for large-scale adoption of these technologies.