Education Commission (1964-66) recommended that a vigorous effort be made to establish specialized institutions to provide vocational education in agriculture and allied fields at the pre and post-matriculate levels to cater the training needs of a large number of boys and girls coming from rural areas. The Commission, further, suggested that such institutions be named as 'Agricultural Polytechnics'. The recommendation of the Commission was thoroughly discussed: during 1966-72 by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Planning Commission, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and other allied institutions. Finally, the ICAR mooted the idea of establishing Krishi Vigyan Kendras (Agricultural Science Centres) as innovative institutions for imparting vocational training to the practicing farmers, school dropouts and field level extension functionaries.
The ICAR Standing Committee on Agricultural Education, in its meeting held in August 1973, observed that since the establishment of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) was of national importance which would help in accelerating the agricultural production as also in improving the socio-economic conditions of the farming community, the assistance of all related institutions should be taken in implementing this scheme. The ICAR, therefore, constituted a committee in 1973 headed by Dr. Mohan Singh Mehta of Seva Mandir, Udaipur (Rajasthan), for working out a detailed plan for implementing this scheme. The Committee submitted its report in 1974.
The first KVK, on a pilot basis, was established in 1974 at Puducherry (Pondicherry) under the administrative control of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. In 1976-77, the Planning Commission approved the proposal of the ICAR to establish 18 KVKs during the Fifth Five Year Plan. With the growing demand for more such kendras, Governing Body (GB) of the Council approved 12 more KVKs in 1979 and they were established in the same year from Agricultural Produce Cess Fund (AP Cess Fund). Pending clearance of the Sixth Five Year Plan scheme on KVK by the Planning Commission, the GB of the Council again approved 14 KVKs in 1981, which were established during 1982-83 from AP Cess Fund.
A High-Level Evaluation Committee on KVK was constituted by ICAR in 1984, after thorough review of the programme, strongly recommended for theestablishment of more KVKs in the country. Keeping this in view the Planning Commission approved to establish 44 new KVKs during the Sixth Plan. Thus, by the end of Sixth Plan, 89 KVKs had started functioning in the country.
During the Seventh Plan, 20 new KVKs were established. Success of KVKs at many locations created a great demand for establishment of more KVKs in remaining districts of country. Accordingly, Planning Commission further approved 74 new KVKs to be established during the period 1992-93. Again, in the Eighth Plan (1992-97), 78 new KVKs were approved and the same were established in the country, making total number of functional KVKs by the end of the Eighth Plan to 261. Number of KVKs increased to 290 during Ninth Plan with the establishment of 29 KVKS. On the occasion of Independence Day Speech on 15th August 2005 the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India announced that by the end of 2007 there should be one KVK in each of the rural districts of the country.
| S. No. | Organization | KVKs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SAU/CAU-State/Central Agricultural University | 460 |
| 2 | ICAR Institutes | 64 |
| 3 | Non-government Organization | 102 |
| 4 | Public Sector Undertaking | 3 |
| 5 | State Government | 36 |
| 6 | Central University/Deemed University/Other Educational Institution | 15 |
| Total | 680 |
Source : http://www.icar.org.in/content/agricultural_extension_division (as on 28.12.2017).
Under ICAR-ATARI, Zone-II, Jodhpur, 61 KVKs are functioning in Rajasthan (42), Haryana (18) and Delhi (1).All KVKs are working towards reducing the time lag between generation of technology at the research institution and its application to the location specific farmer fields for increasing production, productivity and net farm income on a sustained basis.
Vision : Science and technology-led growth leading to enhanced productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture.
Mission : Farmer-centric growth in agriculture and allied sectors through application of appropriate technologies in specific agro-ecosystem perspective.
Mandate : Technology Assessment and Demonstration for its Application and Capacity Development.
