Evaluation of Agricultural Extension: A study of Haryana

The subject of project appraisal and evaluation has become an integral part of development programmes in UDCs with the obvious reason that the advanced countries and international finance agencies like World Bank now insist that before any aid is sanctioned, they must be satisfied about the rate of return on a project and its social profitability. To determine the actual benefits provided by the project in ex-post is as important as appraisal in ?ex-ante? by comparing the expected project results with the real results one can justify the usefulness of investments. The World Bank has been financing many agricultural extension projects in almost all the Third World countries. The methodologies used for evaluation of such projects obviously vary from country to country.
The present work analyses the rationale for public sector involvement in the dissemination of technological information to farmers and justifies the government. Participation in the field. Agricultural extension through the ?Training & Visit? system has proved to be a principal way to disseminate information in Haryana State (India). The Criteria adopted has been to look into extension effectiveness, cost benefit analysis and financial viability of the project.