What is MANAGE and when was it established?

MANAGE — the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management — is the apex national institute for agricultural extension management in India. It was established in 1987 by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, as an autonomous body under the erstwhile Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. Originally set up as the National Centre for Management of Agricultural Extension (later renamed MANAGE), it is headquartered at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, on a campus adjacent to the ICAR National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU). MANAGE's mandate is to build the capacity of the country's agricultural extension system — state departments of agriculture / horticulture / animal husbandry / fisheries, SAMETIs in every state, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, ATMA staff and farmer-facing functionaries — and to design, coordinate and run flagship national extension programmes for the Ministry.

What is MANAGE's statutory role in the Indian extension ecosystem?

MANAGE is the apex training and coordinating institute for agricultural extension management under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Its role is threefold. First, human-resource development: MANAGE runs long-duration academic programmes (a two-year Post-Graduate Diploma in Management-Agri-Business Management, or PGDABM, AICTE-approved) and short-duration in-service programmes for state extension officers, IAS / IFS probationers deputed for agricultural orientation, and bank officers. Second, capacity building of the state extension architecture: every state and UT has a State Agricultural Management & Extension Training Institute (SAMETI) whose curriculum, faculty training and quality assurance are anchored by MANAGE — SAMETIs in turn train district ATMA staff, Block Technology Teams and Farmer Friends. Third, delivery of specific national schemes assigned to it by the Ministry — most importantly the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) scheme, the Diploma in Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI), the MANAGE Entrepreneurship Development Programme (MEDP), and Farmer FIRST / ARYA / Krishi Sakhi extension support to ICAR and DA&FW.

What role does MANAGE play in the ACABC scheme?

MANAGE is the national coordinating agency for the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) scheme launched in April 2002 by the Ministry of Agriculture. Under ACABC, agricultural graduates and diploma holders receive a 45-day free residential training programme designed to convert them into agri-entrepreneurs setting up soil / water testing labs, plant protection centres, tissue-culture units, seed processing units, custom-hiring centres, agri-input retail outlets, apiaries, mushroom units, dairy / poultry / fisheries units, veterinary clinics and IT-based agri-information kiosks. MANAGE empanels and manages the network of more than 100 Nodal Training Institutes (NTIs) that run the residential batches across the country, standardises the curriculum, runs the online application portal at agriclinics.net and the MIS at acabcmis.gov.in, and monitors the two years of post-training handholding provided by each NTI. NABARD is the refinancing agency for the credit-linked back-ended composite subsidy (36% general / 44% women, SC / ST and NE / hilly candidates) on projects up to ₹20 lakh (individual) or ₹1 crore (group of 5).

What is SAMETI and how does MANAGE support it?

SAMETI — the State Agricultural Management & Extension Training Institute — is the state-level counterpart of MANAGE. Every state and Union Territory has a designated SAMETI, typically hosted within the state department of agriculture or on a State Agricultural University campus, which conducts state-language training and orientation for district ATMA staff, Block Technology Teams (BTTs), Farm Information Advisory Committees (FACs), Farmer Friends and other frontline extension personnel. MANAGE anchors the SAMETI network at the national level — providing curriculum modules, master-trainer certifications, monitoring formats and quality assurance — so that ATMA-Krishonnati Yojana extension calendars are delivered to a common standard across states.

How does MANAGE support ARYA, Krishi Sakhi, Farmer FIRST and NICRA?

MANAGE routinely provides extension design, curriculum and master-trainer support to ICAR and DA&FW flagship programmes even when it is not the implementing agency. For ARYA (Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture) — the ICAR-KVK cohort programme for rural youth aged 18-35 setting up dairy / fishery / apiary / mushroom / poultry / floriculture / protected-cultivation / post-harvest units — MANAGE contributes agri-business curriculum modules and orientation for KVK ARYA nodal officers. For Krishi Sakhi — the community-resource-person programme jointly delivered by MoRD-NRLM and DA&FW to train women self-help-group members as village-level extension paraprofessionals — MANAGE supports curriculum and master-trainer training. For Farmer FIRST — ICAR's Farmer's First-approach programme — MANAGE contributes extension research and evaluation. For NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture) — CRIDA-anchored — MANAGE contributes extension outreach and stakeholder training. MANAGE also publishes the Journal of Agricultural Extension Management and the MANAGE Discussion Papers series that document methodologies and outcomes across these programmes.

Who governs MANAGE and how does one apply to its programmes?

MANAGE is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. It is governed by a Governing Council chaired by the Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, with senior officials of DA&FW, DARE / ICAR, state agriculture departments, State Agricultural University Vice-Chancellors, agri-business leaders and academic experts as members. Day-to-day operations are led by the Director General, who reports to the Ministry, supported by Directors for each thematic vertical (Agri-Business Management, Extension Systems Management, Human Resource Development, Extension Innovations, ACABC, DAESI, etc.). Applications to PGDABM are through an annual admission cycle advertised on the MANAGE portal at manage.gov.in with a written test and interview; ACABC candidates apply on agriclinics.net; DAESI candidates apply through empanelled state NTIs and the DAESI portal; and short-course participants are typically nominated by their parent department or bank.

MANAGE — National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad: ACABC, DAESI, PGDABM, MEDP and SAMETI Capacity Building for the Indian Extension System

The National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), headquartered at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, is the apex national institute for agricultural extension management in India. It was established in 1987 by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, as an autonomous body— the instrument through which the Ministry designs, coordinates and delivers agricultural extension policy at the national scale. MANAGE's campus at Rajendranagar sits alongside the ICAR National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) and the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), forming the largest agricultural research-and-extension training cluster in the country. On the same Rajendranagar cluster sits MANAGE's sister institute NIPHM— a DA&FW subordinate office focused specifically on plant health management (IPM, plant biosecurity, pesticide management and the Central IPM Centre network). MANAGE anchors flagship national programmes including the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) scheme, the Diploma in Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI), the AICTE-approved two-year Post-Graduate Diploma in Management-Agri-Business Management (PGDABM), the MANAGE Entrepreneurship Development Programme (MEDP) and capacity building for the SAMETI network in every state that trains ATMA field staff. MANAGE also supports the extension design of ARYA, Krishi Sakhi, Farmer FIRST and NICRA. For the wider portfolio of farmer-welfare programmes see our India government schemes for farmers reference.

Origin, legal form and governance

MANAGE was set up in 1987 by the Ministry of Agriculture, initially as the National Centre for Management of Agricultural Extension (NCMAE) and subsequently renamed the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE). It is an autonomous bodyunder the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, funded by grants-in-aid along with fee income from academic programmes and project-mode assignments. The head office is at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad – 500 030, Telangana, co-located with ICAR-NAARM and PJTSAU. Governance vests in a Governing Council chaired by the Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare with senior officials of DA&FW, DARE / ICAR, state agriculture departments, SAU Vice-Chancellors and academic experts as members; day-to-day operations are led by the Director General, who reports to the Ministry and is supported by Directors heading thematic verticals (Agri-Business Management, Extension Systems Management, HRD, ACABC, DAESI and international programmes).

How MANAGE fits the extension ecosystem

MANAGE is the apex node of a four-tier extension architecture: national MANAGE for curriculum, master-trainer certification and national programme delivery (ACABC, DAESI, PGDABM, MEDP); state SAMETI (one in every state / UT) certified by MANAGE to train ATMA staff in the state language; district ATMA as the on-ground delivery agency under SMAE / Krishonnati Yojana, with Krishi Vigyan Kendras as the ICAR-ATARI technology assessment and demonstration arm; and village-level Farmer Friends, Krishi Sakhis and DAESI-trained input dealers as the last-mile paraprofessionals.

Flagship programmes

Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC)

MANAGE is the national coordinating agency for the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) scheme launched in April 2002 to convert agricultural graduates and diploma holders into agri-entrepreneurs. Every eligible trainee gets a 45-day free residential training at one of 100+ Nodal Training Institutes (NTIs) empanelled by MANAGE — SAUs, ICAR institutes, agri-focused NGOs and private training centres — with two years of post-training handholding. NABARD is the refinancing agency for a credit-linked back-ended composite subsidy of 36% (general) / 44% (women, SC / ST and NE / hilly candidates) on a bankable project up to ₹20 lakh (individual) or ₹1 crore (group of 5). Candidates apply on agriclinics.net (MIS at acabcmis.gov.in).

Diploma in Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI)

DAESI is a MANAGE-designed one-year diploma that converts private input retailers (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides) into para-extension workers. The programme runs in the local language over roughly 48 classroom sessions (typically once a week) plus field visits and practicals, and is delivered on the ground by empanelled Nodal Training Institutes — State Agricultural Universities, KVKs, agri-focused NGOs and state department training centres. The rationale is straightforward: in rural India the input dealer is often the farmer's first and most frequent point of technical contact, and a DAESI-graduated dealer can substantially improve on-farm advice on seed selection, integrated pest management, fertiliser recommendations and safe pesticide handling. On completion, dealers become eligible for licence upgrades and refresher accreditation under state agri-input rules. MANAGE operates a dedicated portal for the programme at daesi.manage.gov.in.

Post-Graduate Diploma in Management-Agri-Business Management (PGDABM)

The PGDABM (historically also PGDMA) is MANAGE's flagship two-year residential academic programme, AICTE-approved, at the Rajendranagar campus. The programme prepares professionals for agri-business firms, cooperative federations, banks with agri-lending desks, agri-input companies, FPO ecosystem organisations and state extension services. Admissions are through an annual cycle advertised on manage.gov.in with a written test and interview.

MEDP and SAMETI capacity building

The MANAGE Entrepreneurship Development Programme (MEDP) is a short-duration entrepreneurship programme aimed at rural youth, SHG members, FPO members and returning migrants — opening agri-entrepreneurship training to cohorts wider than the ACABC (which is restricted to agri-graduates / diploma holders).

SAMETI— the State Agricultural Management & Extension Training Institute — is the state-level counterpart of MANAGE. Every state and Union Territory has a designated SAMETI, typically hosted within the state department of agriculture or on a State Agricultural University campus. MANAGE anchors the SAMETI network at the national level with curriculum modules, master-trainer certifications and quality assurance, so that ATMA-Krishonnati Yojana extension calendars are delivered to a common standard. SAMETI in turn trains district ATMA staff, Block Technology Teams, FAC members and Farmer Friends.

Support to Farmer FIRST, ARYA, Krishi Sakhi and NICRA

MANAGE routinely provides extension design, curriculum and master-trainer support to ICAR and DA&FW flagship programmes even when it is not the implementing agency — ARYA (Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture), the Krishi Sakhi Programme, Farmer FIRST(ICAR's Farmer's First-approach programme) and NICRA (anchored by CRIDA at the same Rajendranagar cluster) all draw on MANAGE curriculum contributions, KVK nodal-officer orientation and evaluation studies.

Publications and international programmes

MANAGE publishes the peer-reviewed Journal of Agricultural Extension Management and the MANAGE Discussion Papers working-paper series, alongside operational manuals for the 100+ ACABC Nodal Training Institutes and SAMETI master-trainer curricula. It also runs international training programmes for extension officials from partner developing countries, frequently under ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) sponsorship of the Ministry of External Affairs.

Portals and how to apply

PGDABM admissions and short-course catalogues are on manage.gov.in; ACABC candidates register on agriclinics.net with the MIS at acabcmis.gov.in; the DAESI diploma runs through daesi.manage.gov.in and empanelled state NTIs.

ACABC Guide

Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres — MANAGE's flagship 45-day residential training and NABARD-refinanced subsidy for agri graduates.

ATMA Guide

District-level extension delivery under SMAE / Krishonnati Yojana — capacity of ATMA staff is anchored by SAMETI, certified by MANAGE.

ARYA

ICAR-KVK Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture — MANAGE contributes agri-business curriculum and KVK nodal-officer orientation.

Krishi Sakhi

Women SHG community resource persons trained as village-level agri-extension paraprofessionals — MANAGE supports curriculum and master-trainers.

Krishi Vigyan Kendras

District-level ICAR technology assessment and demonstration centres — many double as MANAGE-empanelled NTIs for ACABC and DAESI.

ATARI

ICAR's eleven Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes — the zonal coordinators of the KVK network that MANAGE / SAMETI curricula plug into.

All schemes

Browse the full farmer-welfare portfolio index.

References

manage.gov.in — MANAGE corporate portal: PGDABM admissions, short-course catalogue, Governing Council composition, Annual Reports and publications.
agriclinics.net — the ACABC portal for candidate registration, NTI selection, batch schedule and post-training handholding formats.
daesi.manage.gov.in — the DAESI programme portal.
agriwelfare.gov.in — Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the administrative Ministry for MANAGE and for the ACABC scheme under the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Extension (SMAE) / Krishonnati Yojana.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) — releases on MANAGE, ACABC and periodic scheme reviews.

Frequently asked questions

What is MANAGE and when was it established?: MANAGE — the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management — is the apex national institute for agricultural extension management in India. It was established in 1987 by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, as an autonomous body under the erstwhile Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. Originally set up as the National Centre for Management of Agricultural Extension (later renamed MANAGE), it is headquartered at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, on a campus adjacent to the ICAR National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU). MANAGE's mandate is to build the capacity of the country's agricultural extension system — state departments of agriculture / horticulture / animal husbandry / fisheries, SAMETIs in every state, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, ATMA staff and farmer-facing functionaries — and to design, coordinate and run flagship national extension programmes for the Ministry.
What is MANAGE's statutory role in the Indian extension ecosystem?: MANAGE is the apex training and coordinating institute for agricultural extension management under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Its role is threefold. First, human-resource development: MANAGE runs long-duration academic programmes (a two-year Post-Graduate Diploma in Management-Agri-Business Management, or PGDABM, AICTE-approved) and short-duration in-service programmes for state extension officers, IAS / IFS probationers deputed for agricultural orientation, and bank officers. Second, capacity building of the state extension architecture: every state and UT has a State Agricultural Management & Extension Training Institute (SAMETI) whose curriculum, faculty training and quality assurance are anchored by MANAGE — SAMETIs in turn train district ATMA staff, Block Technology Teams and Farmer Friends. Third, delivery of specific national schemes assigned to it by the Ministry — most importantly the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) scheme, the Diploma in Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI), the MANAGE Entrepreneurship Development Programme (MEDP), and Farmer FIRST / ARYA / Krishi Sakhi extension support to ICAR and DA&FW.
What role does MANAGE play in the ACABC scheme?: MANAGE is the national coordinating agency for the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) scheme launched in April 2002 by the Ministry of Agriculture. Under ACABC, agricultural graduates and diploma holders receive a 45-day free residential training programme designed to convert them into agri-entrepreneurs setting up soil / water testing labs, plant protection centres, tissue-culture units, seed processing units, custom-hiring centres, agri-input retail outlets, apiaries, mushroom units, dairy / poultry / fisheries units, veterinary clinics and IT-based agri-information kiosks. MANAGE empanels and manages the network of more than 100 Nodal Training Institutes (NTIs) that run the residential batches across the country, standardises the curriculum, runs the online application portal at agriclinics.net and the MIS at acabcmis.gov.in, and monitors the two years of post-training handholding provided by each NTI. NABARD is the refinancing agency for the credit-linked back-ended composite subsidy (36% general / 44% women, SC / ST and NE / hilly candidates) on projects up to ₹20 lakh (individual) or ₹1 crore (group of 5).
What is the DAESI programme and who is it for?: DAESI — the Diploma in Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers — is a MANAGE-designed one-year diploma programme that converts private input retailers (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides) into para-extension workers. The programme runs in the local language over roughly 48 classroom sessions (typically once a week) plus field visits, and is delivered on the ground by empanelled Nodal Training Institutes — State Agricultural Universities, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, agri-focused NGOs and state department training centres. The rationale is that in rural India the input dealer is often the farmer's first and most frequent point of technical contact — a DAESI-graduated dealer can therefore substantially improve the quality of on-farm advice on seed selection, integrated pest management, fertiliser recommendations and safe pesticide use. On completion of the diploma, dealers become eligible for licence upgrades and refresher accreditation under state agri-input rules, and MANAGE operates a dedicated portal for the programme.
What is SAMETI and how does MANAGE support it?: SAMETI — the State Agricultural Management & Extension Training Institute — is the state-level counterpart of MANAGE. Every state and Union Territory has a designated SAMETI, typically hosted within the state department of agriculture or on a State Agricultural University campus, which conducts state-language training and orientation for district ATMA staff, Block Technology Teams (BTTs), Farm Information Advisory Committees (FACs), Farmer Friends and other frontline extension personnel. MANAGE anchors the SAMETI network at the national level — providing curriculum modules, master-trainer certifications, monitoring formats and quality assurance — so that ATMA-Krishonnati Yojana extension calendars are delivered to a common standard across states.
How does MANAGE support ARYA, Krishi Sakhi, Farmer FIRST and NICRA?: MANAGE routinely provides extension design, curriculum and master-trainer support to ICAR and DA&FW flagship programmes even when it is not the implementing agency. For ARYA (Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture) — the ICAR-KVK cohort programme for rural youth aged 18-35 setting up dairy / fishery / apiary / mushroom / poultry / floriculture / protected-cultivation / post-harvest units — MANAGE contributes agri-business curriculum modules and orientation for KVK ARYA nodal officers. For Krishi Sakhi — the community-resource-person programme jointly delivered by MoRD-NRLM and DA&FW to train women self-help-group members as village-level extension paraprofessionals — MANAGE supports curriculum and master-trainer training. For Farmer FIRST — ICAR's Farmer's First-approach programme — MANAGE contributes extension research and evaluation. For NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture) — CRIDA-anchored — MANAGE contributes extension outreach and stakeholder training. MANAGE also publishes the Journal of Agricultural Extension Management and the MANAGE Discussion Papers series that document methodologies and outcomes across these programmes.
Who governs MANAGE and how does one apply to its programmes?: MANAGE is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. It is governed by a Governing Council chaired by the Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, with senior officials of DA&FW, DARE / ICAR, state agriculture departments, State Agricultural University Vice-Chancellors, agri-business leaders and academic experts as members. Day-to-day operations are led by the Director General, who reports to the Ministry, supported by Directors for each thematic vertical (Agri-Business Management, Extension Systems Management, Human Resource Development, Extension Innovations, ACABC, DAESI, etc.). Applications to PGDABM are through an annual admission cycle advertised on the MANAGE portal at manage.gov.in with a written test and interview; ACABC candidates apply on agriclinics.net; DAESI candidates apply through empanelled state NTIs and the DAESI portal; and short-course participants are typically nominated by their parent department or bank.

MANAGE's founding year, legal form, Rajendranagar head office and ACABC / DAESI / PGDABM / MEDP / SAMETI programme design above draw on publicly available material on manage.gov.in, agriclinics.net, daesi.manage.gov.in and DA&FW / PIB releases. Programme parameters, portal URLs and admission cycles are revised periodically — applicants should verify current notifications before enrolling.