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Decision-Making Information System. This System Goes One Step Further in The Process of Decision

This document discusses management information systems (MIS) in agricultural extension organizations. It explains that MIS are needed at different levels of an extension system, from central to block levels, to provide various types of information to support decision making. This includes information on human resources, plans, budgets, monitoring and evaluation, research-extension linkages, training requirements, field demonstration programs and activities, and farmers' responses to extension programs. The document also provides examples of how extension organizations use information from MIS, such as to compare costs and effectiveness of extension delivery methods, analyze economic returns to adopting practices, and make predictions based on changes to activities or staffing. Overall, the key purpose of MIS in extension is to provide management information to decision makers to

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28 views3 pages

Decision-Making Information System. This System Goes One Step Further in The Process of Decision

This document discusses management information systems (MIS) in agricultural extension organizations. It explains that MIS are needed at different levels of an extension system, from central to block levels, to provide various types of information to support decision making. This includes information on human resources, plans, budgets, monitoring and evaluation, research-extension linkages, training requirements, field demonstration programs and activities, and farmers' responses to extension programs. The document also provides examples of how extension organizations use information from MIS, such as to compare costs and effectiveness of extension delivery methods, analyze economic returns to adopting practices, and make predictions based on changes to activities or staffing. Overall, the key purpose of MIS in extension is to provide management information to decision makers to

Uploaded by

HK Mahmud
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© © All Rights Reserved
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· Amount of extension financial resources, both salary and operating expenses, allocated per year to

selected extension approaches to solving different farmer problems or concerns

Information obtained from these kinds of analyses is normally summarized in a two-way tabular
format. And likewise, the information often is compared over time. Managers can then use such
information to make predictions, for example to forecast costs of particular undertakings for
budgeting purposes or as a basis for predicting results if a given change is made, such as change in
the number of demonstrations with a given change in staffing.

Decision-Making Information System. This system goes one step further in the process of decision
making and incorporates the value system of the organization or its criteria for choosing among
alternatives. An extension organization's values are many and varied. They include concerns for
resolving farmer problems, increasing and providing for stability of farmer incomes, and improving
the quality of farm life. But they also including and providing for stability of farmer incomes, and
improving the quality of farm life. But they also include an intent to provide well for staff members
(training, adequate salaries, etc.) and to aid in the process of bringing about rural economic
development.

Table 1. Information Groups in India's Agricultural Extension System.

Levels Groups Types of Information Needed

Central Extension commissioner, joint (1) Information on human resources, plans,


commissioners, directors, joint directors, and budgets for various extension services
etc. of the directorate of extension, (2) Statewide monitoring and evaluation of
ministry of agriculture activities completed

State Director of agriculture, additional director, (1) Districtwide information on extension


joint directors, etc. of the state department programmes, activities, expenditures, etc
of agriculture (2) Research-extension linkages and
coordination with other allied departments
such as animal husbandry and horticulture

District District agricultural officers (DAOs) (1) Information on extension resources and
constraints at subdivision and block levels
(2) Training requirements of staff at
subdivision and block levels

Subdivision Subdivisional agricultural officers (1) Field demonstration programmes,


activities planned and implemented by
subject-matter specialists (SMSs) (zone) at
the block level
(2) Technical programme and constraints
identified at the block level

Block Agricultural extension officers (1) Performance of VEWs in terms of


(county) achievements in extension activities
(2) Field-level problem of assessment of
beneficiaries' response to various extension
programmes

Information regarding these various attributes helps managers to make more enlightened decisions.
Examples of ways that an extension organization uses information from a decision-making
information system are as follows:

· Change in specific farm outputs (yields, practices) following selected extension activities

· Change in staff productivity following selected interventions (in-service training, better transport,
etc)

· Comparison of relative costs and relative effectiveness of alternative extension delivery methods

· Analysis of economic returns to farmers who adopt recommended practices as compared to those
who do not

Decision-Taking Information System. Examples of decision-taking information systems are not


usually found in an extension organization. This is a decision

system in which the information system and the decision maker are one and the same. Management
is so confident in the assumptions incorporated in the system that it basically relegates its power to
initiate action to the system itself. Airplanes carry automatic pilot systems, which are an example of
a decision-taking system. Once activated, the system itself keeps the plane on course and at the
proper speed and altitude (according to parameters determined by the pilot). Another example of
decision-taking information systems is found in modem factory production. In automobile
production, continuous inventories of parts are maintained by computer as cars move down an
assembly line. Orders are placed automatically by the computer when additional parts are needed.
This is done without the intervention of a manager.

The choice of an appropriate management information system (MIS) category primarily depends on
the nature of the decisions it supports. While unstructured decisions may use MIS-category (I), the
highly structured ones, such as production schedules in an industry, may use MIS-category (iv).
Further, Banerjee and Sachdeva (1995) observe that "as the deep structure of the decision problem
becomes more and more understood, we may move to higher level of MIS i.e., from MIS-category
(I) to MIS-category (ii); and MIS-category (ii) to MIS-category (iii); and so on."
Role of MIS in the management of agricultural extension programmes

National agricultural extension systems, especially in developing countries, tend to be very large.
For example, in India, the national agricultural extension system employs about 125,000 people.
Extension managers at various levels need relevant information in order to make effective decisions.
In the absence of such information, they act only on the basis of their intuition and past experience.
Data that have been processed, stored, and presented properly will aid them in analysing situations
and to make effective decisions.

As suggested above, at every phase of the management process, managers need information in order
to make effective decisions. This we call management information. It does not include purely
functional information or technical information, such as packages of practices for rice or wheat
cultivation. Management information is the information required by managers as they make their
decisions, such as the number of extension personnel employed by category, their training
requirements, career development plans, job descriptions, budgets, forecasts, benchmark surveys,
reports on socioeconomic conditions of people served, and existing facilities (Ramesh Babu &
Singh, 1987).

The main purpose of management information systems is to provide management information to


decision makers at various levels in the organization. Specifically, in an agricultural extension
organization, MIS is needed:

1. To plan the most effective allocation of resources, for example, the allocation of extension
personnel under a T & V extension system, the need for communications and training equipment
and facilities, mobility, the amounts of required operational resources

2. To choose between alternative courses of action, whether to conduct a study on the impact of the
T & V system with the resources on hand or hire an expert to investigate

3. To control day-to-day operations, for example, comparing the actual results achieved and those
planned under the T & V system.

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