The two-days training workshop on “Effective Communication Skills and Innovative Methods for Extension & Outreach” was organized on 8-9 December 2016 by the Outreach Chair of USPCAS-AFS, Universality of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

Major objective of this workshop was to educate the young officials and faculty members on communication skills and innovative extension methods for outreach to the farming community. Participants of the workshop included young officers from different agricultural organizations (Extension Wing of the Punjab Agricultural Department, NIAB, NIBGE, AARI, Agricultural Research Centers and In-Service Agricultural Training Institutes), private sector and faculty members from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Agricultural University Peshawar and Sindh Agricultural University. Dr. Bashir Ahmad, Director/Chief-of-Party in his inaugural address presented a brief introduction of USPCAS-AFS and told that the CAS is offering scholarship opportunities to PhD and M.Sc. students. He also informed that new call for research proposal would be released soon and the faculty members and scientists should apply for research grants offered by the CAS. Dr. Babar Shahbaz, Chair Outreach Program of USPCAS-AFS in his presentation described the objectives of workshop. He highlighted the significance of effective communication for outreach and said that it is very important for the scientists to learn how to communicate with the non-scientific community particularly farmers. He told that the Outreach chair of USPCAS-AFS has established six community outreach centers in different villages and the major purpose of these community centers is to improve interaction between farmers and researchers through need based outreach activities. One of the major obstacles to effective outreach and extension is lack of communication skills by the researchers. Dr. Shahbaz said that faculty members and researchers are generally very good in communicating with the scientific community but interaction with the farmers requires different skills and this workshop which is being supported by the USAID is focused on this particular area. He also told that the workshop participants would also learn about developing audio-visual extension messages by using modern ICT tools.

The first training session was commenced by Mr. Waqar Haider Awan, HR specialist and consultant form Islamabad. During the interactive session the participants learned about different types of communication, communication models, presentation cycle and Dos and Don’ts of presentations in the field. Mr. Waqar also elaborated the types of conflicts and conflict resolution during communication. The second day of the workshop was dedicated to the hand-on training regarding short messages and video-making by using Power-point and Camtasia programs. Dr. Hammad Nadeem, Dr. Ijaz Ashraf, Dr. Ghazanfar Ali Khan and Mr. Zeesahn Liaquat facilitated the practical sessions. The participants worked in groups to develop audio-visual extension messages and then recorded short videos during the training session. The participants were also taught about different non-verbal forms of communication and communication barriers. During interactive session, the facilitators helped the participants on overcoming some communication barriers. During the final session of the workshop, certificates were distributed among the participants.