Farm  Services ...  farming as a business Crop Production / Extension Today's market place demands quality produce supplied at the right time and in the right volumes. Meeting these requires care throughout the crop production cycle - from seed selection to post-harvest handling. Accurate forecasting of production targets is a prerequisite to planning - for marketing, for input supply, for training interventions, and so forth. Historically, NASFAM saw agricultural extension work as the domain of the government. However, experience has shown that it is neither viable nor practical for NASFAM to rely on this source. NASFAM's ability to sell member crops, and thus its ability to sustain itself, is directly related to crop production, and NASFAM has found it inevitable to engage in the provision of extension services. Fortunately, this realisation came at a time when the government was developing a new, pluralistic extension system that is demand driven and allows private sector participation. Productivity enhancement is being carried out in an environmentally friendly manner, through improved seed selection, better pre and post harvest husbandry and agronomic practices, whilst promoting land conservation, afforestation and irrigation. Productivity enhancement is also being accomplished by making existing farmers more efficient rather than simply by increasing the numbers of farmers producing a given crop.