DECENTRALIZATION is a multi-dimensional process of shifting the focus of development away from central planning and bureaucratic government agencies to community-based participatory systems that use the full range of local public and private institutions. It is the transfer or delegation of legal and political authority and resources to plan, make decisions and manage public functions from central government and its agencies to field organizations and those agencies, subordinate units of the government, semi-autonomous local governments or public corporations, area-wide or regional development authorities or functional authorities, autonomous local governments or non-governmental organizations.

The wave of decentralization of governments throughout the world since the end of the Cold War has fostered decentralization as a theme of political importance in many developing countries. This devolution movement has the power to dramatically change the relationships between the central and local institutions in such countries.

A recent study showed that out of 75 developing and transitional countries with a population of five million or larger, 63 claim to have embarked on a programme of transfer of power to the local units of the government through decentralization. One of the most significant reasons why so many countries move towards decentralization is equity in the developmental processes.

Today, about 70 per cent of people live in the rural areas, but they have been disenfranchised in the decision-making processes that affect their daily life. Their representatives, who do not share their deprivations, have different priorities. In most countries rural per capita income is about half of the urban areas. They have limited access to civic services. On the average they receive less than a quarter of education, health, water and sanitation facilities in the less developed countries.

The position is somewhat better in Pakistan, but disparities are still quite large. The income of urban households is 60 per cent higher than the rural households. More than 80 per cent of the poor people live in rural areas.

About half of the rural population is without safe drinking water, and 80 per cent without sanitation facilities. About 55 per cent of rural population is without electricity. Availability of doctors is 12 per 1000 of population against 44 in the cities. Literacy rate in the rural areas is 25 per cent against 46 per cent in the urban areas; infant mortality per 1000 is 130 in the rural areas against 100 in the urban areas. The basic aim of decentralization is to improve the delivery of basic local services like extension.

In order to be successful, decentralization facilitates the use of local knowledge, local participation and ownership, very often-utilizing local resources. Furthermore, it enhances transparency and accountability, and builds capacity at a local level, which can be applied, to the provision of other services.

The central government levels are, according to their new role, responsible for policy formulation, national extension strategies that implement the national policy, and defining regulatory frameworks and standards for good services.

The agricultural extension services are under increasing pressure due to the reason that the agriculture today is entirely different from that in the past as a result of transition from traditional to modern technology. The capacity of the farmer to adapt to the changing conditions ultimately determines the rate and direction of agricultural development. In these circumstances at the national level, inappropriate public extension policies, limited public funds, lack of accountability, and increasing rural poverty have prompted developing countries to re-examine the relevance of agricultural extension to rural development.

At the institutional level, problems of complexity, responsiveness, financing and cost-effectiveness, and growing demands for local services are all challenges that extension must address to prove its importance to rural development.

The agricultural extension services have to become more effective, more responsive to client, and less costly to government. Decentralization is an increasing common aspect of extension reforms. Decentralization of agricultural extension and research seeks to increase user participation in technology programmes and make programmes more accountable to users.

International agencies and scholars have been urging developing countries to decentralize their extension systems and to introduce other organizational reforms (e.g., improved management, accountability) to deal with many of these problems, as well as to realize rural development goals, such as the more equitable distribution of economic growth, and to facilitate grassroots participation in development.

In the contemporary world, decentralization is acquiring a pivotal position in the structure of governance. Decentralization has taken many forms, but most common are de-concentration, delegation, devolution, partnership, and privatization.

In the fragmented history of decentralization in development management, the largest experiment in Pakistan is implementation of the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), which was a donor-driven programme initiated by the World Bank on the basis of a policy paper prepared in 1974, to launch an integrated world wide attack on rural poverty.

The programme was implemented through area development projects, covering agriculture, social services, training, and rural infrastructure. The major projects were Shadab in the Punjab, and Dawoodzai in the NWFP. But in January 2000 General Pervaiz Musharraf introduced an advanced form of decentralization called as the “Devolution of power” plan. Implemented after a series of local government elections that ended by 14, August 2001, the plan was designed to widenn the local government functions and to empower with more authority the elected people representatives.

The local bodies have been given adequate specified powers to generate resources and allocate the resources for local needs.

The main strengths of the devolution plan are it specifies a political process that weaken central and provincial governments discretion by devolving more powers to non-partisan local government elected officials; emphasizes the need for grass-roots accountability of local government; puts in place checks and balances and external accountability mechanisms including citizen monitoring committees, the District Ombudsman, clear procedures for selection and removal of senior officials and elected representatives; incorporates provisions to promote popular participation at the local level; reserves 30 per cent of elected positions at the union and tehsil level for women thus attempting to break with traditional non-representation of women in the political process; and provides for representation of peasants/workers and minorities to prevent capture by the current power blocks.

According to the devolution plan, functions of all service delivery line departments including agricultural extension were transferred from provinces to the newly elected district governments. The introduction of devolution plan is one of the efforts that government has made to introduce drastic changes and to provide lifeline to the existing setup. This plan helps in reducing the bureaucratic impediments and providing people better access to the resources in all the public service departments.

Under new setup, each district is managing its agricultural extension activities where the functions of all sister organizations such as water management, fisheries, livestock, soil conservation, forestry, etc., are put under one manager called as the Executive District Officer of Agriculture (EDOA). The designation of the Deputy Director Agriculture (DDA) has been changed as the District Officer Agriculture (DOA) who now works under the EDOA. The EDOA reports to the District Coordination Officer (DCO) who is answerable to the elected District Nazim (administration) whereas the line departments provide the technical backstopping and monitor the cross-district agricultural development projects. The DOA and the Deputy District Officer of Agriculture (DDOA) at district and tehsil levels assist the EDOA, respectively. The Agricultural Officer and the Field Assistants are working at Merkaz and Union Council.

The provincial agricultural extension setup in the form of Directorate General of Agriculture Extension continues to work and coordinates with the District Extension Services and provides technical support. This system ensures the maximum participation of people at grassroots level.

The main problems in decentralization of the agricultural extension reforms are that the elected representatives of the district government are more inclined towards civil works, electricity and other development projects rather than promoting improved agriculture.

The devolution plan has further marginalized the extension services like lack of recognition, importance, budget, and training facilities. It has also weakened the morale and motivation of the agricultural Extension Field Staff (EFS).

Under the new institutional reforms the agriculture extension service is placed under the supervision of district government while on the other hand the allied departments like adaptive research, agricultural engineering and agricultural education, have continued to be under the control of provincial government. This situation weakened the research-extension-education linkages, which were already scarce. If the Government succeeded in removing these obstacles/problems from this new system, the fruitful results will appear which lead the country towards better development to face the challenges of new millennium.