Extension - Meaning

The word extension is derived from the latin roots 'ex' - meaning 'out' and 'tensio' meaning 'stretching'. Stretching out is the meaning of extension. The word 'extension' came to be used originally in USA during 1914 which means "a branch of a university for students who cannot attend the university proper". In other words, the word extension signifies an out of school system of education.

Education is an integral part of extension. The basic concept of extension is that it is education. Extension means that type of education which is stretched out to the people in rural areas, beyond the limits of the educational institutions to which the formal type of education is normally confined. 

Education: It is the production of desirable changes in knowledge (things known), attitude (things felt), and skills (things done), either in all (or) one or more of human behavior.

Basic definitions related to extension

Extension education is an applied social science consisting of relevant content derived from physical, biological and social sciences and in its own process synthesised into a body of knowledge, concepts, principles and procedures oriented to provide non-credit out of school education largely for adults. - Paul Leagans (1971).

Extension service refers to a program for agricultural development and rural welfare which (usually) employees the extension process as a means of program implementation.

Extension process is that of working with rural people through out of school education along those lines of their current interest and need which are closely related to gaining a livelihood improving the physical level of living of rural families and fostering rural community welfare.

Scope of Extension Education

Extension appears to have unlimited scope in situations where there is need for creating awareness amongst the people and changing their behavior by informing and educating them.

 Kelsey and Hearne (1967) identified nine areas of programme emphasis, which indicate the scope of agricultural extension.

1. Efficiency in agricultural production.

2. Efficiency in marketing, distribution and utilization.

3. Conservation, development and use of natural resources.

4. Management on the farm and in the home.

5. Family living.

6. Youth development.

7. Leadership development.

8. Community development and rural area development.

9. Public affairs.

Extension is an integral part of agricultural and rural development programmes in Nepal. The progress in production which has been achieved in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, veterinary, fishery, social forestry, sericulture etc., may be thought of as proportional to the strength of extension service of the relevant government departments.

The following statements will further amplify the scope of extension.

1. Extension is fundamentally a system of out-of-school education for adults and youths alike. It is a system where people are motivated through a proper approach to help themselves by applying science in their daily lives, in farming, home making and community living.

2. Extension is education for all village people.

3. Extension is bringing about desirable changes in the knowledge, attitudes and skills of people.

4. Extension is helping people to help themselves.

5. Extension is working with men and women, boys and girls, to answer their felt needs and wants.

6. Extension is teaching through "learning by doing" and "seeing is believing".

7. Extension is working in harmony with the culture of the people.

8. Extension is a two-way channel; it brings scientific information to village people and

it also takes the problems of the village people to the scientific institutes for solution.

9. Extension is working together (in groups) to expand the welfare and happiness of the

people with their own families, their own villages, their own country and the world.

10. Extension is development of individuals in their day-to-day living, development of their leaders, their society and their world as a whole.

The need for extension arises out of the fact that the condition of the rural people in general, and the farm people in particular, has got to be improved. There is a gap between what is-the actual situation and what ought to be- the desirable situation. This gap has to be narrowed down mainly by the application of science and technology in their behavior.


According to Supe (1987) the researchers neither have the time nor are they equipped for the job of persuading the villagers to adopt scientific methods and to ascertain from them the rural problems. Similarly it is difficult for all the farmers to visit the research stations and obtain first hand information. Thus there is need for an agency to interpret the findings of the research to the farmers and to carry the problems of the farmers to research of solution. This gap is filled by the extension agency.