Papers and Proceeding of the worksnop Cum-Seminar on Rural institutions and Agricultural Development: Organised by the NICD at Hyderabad from Oct 14 to 16, 1971.

The seventies hold out promising prospects for agricultural development in the country. With the successes of the new agricultural technology and the expectations of further improvement in agricultural productivity, one frustrating hurdle has, at long last, been lowered. But along with these emer gent trends, other new dimensions have surfaced in the area of agricultural development policy. The challenge of agricultural transformation will, there fore, continue to remain priority theme in the seventies as well.

To popularise and sustain the spread of the new agricultural technology, the existing agricultural organisation needs to be streamlined, policies need to be reviewed and reformulated, and disturbing socio-economic forces also need to be checked.

The NICD organised a workshop-cum-seminar from October 14 to 16, 1971 on the role of rural institutions in agricultural development. In order to have a broad view, participants were drawn from different levels of the hierarchy of various organisations and institutions. Representatives of depart ments of central and state governments concerned with programmes of agri cultural development, input supply corporations, credit institutions, voluntary agencies and training and research bodies were invited to participate.

A background note was circulated amongst the invitees outlining the objectives of the workshop-cum-seminar. It served as a poser on the basis of which papers presented at the seminar were prepared. Institutions were requested specifically to throw light on their organisational and operational problems. An overview of the institutional network and its problems was provided by the other papers specially invited for the seminar. Issues that were deliberated at the workshop were taken largely from these papers.