Agricultural Extension Reform in Africa

Agricultural Extension Reform in Africa

Author: Steven Were Omamo

Publisher: ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD)

Published: 2002-01-01

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 9789291461189

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Agricultural extension systems across Africa are under great pressure to become more efficient and effective.


Agricultural extension: Global status and performance in selected countries

Agricultural extension: Global status and performance in selected countries

Author: Davis, Kristin E., ed.

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2020-09-02

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 0896293750

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Agricultural transformation and development are critical to the livelihoods of more than a billion small-scale farmers and other rural people in developing countries. Extension and advisory services play an important role in such transformation and can assist farmers with advice and information, brokering and facilitating innovations and relationships, and dealing with risks and disasters. Agricultural Extension: Global Status and Performance in Selected Countries provides a global overview of agricultural extension and advisory services, assesses and compares extension systems at the national and regional levels, examines the performance of extension approaches in a selected set of country cases, and shares lessons and policy insights. Drawing on both primary and secondary data, the book contributes to the literature on extension by applying a common and comprehensive framework — the “best-fit” approach — to assessments of extension systems, which allows for comparison across cases and geographies. Insights from the research support reforms — in governance, capacity, management, and advisory methods — to improve outcomes, enhance financial sustainability, and achieve greater scale. Agricultural Extension should be a valuable resource for policymakers, extension practitioners, and others concerned with agricultural development.


Agricultural Extension in Africa

Agricultural Extension in Africa

Author: Nigel Roberts

Publisher:

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13:

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The contributors to this document compare the main approaches to agricultural extension in sub-Saharan Africa; the cost-effectiveness in view of precarious national budgets; the weaknesses of the system for generating technology; the difficulties in forging productive partnerships between researchers, extensionists and farmers; the ineffective public services and fragile institutional networks; and the degree to which farmers are allowed to participate in extension management. The articles include: (1) "Agricultural Extension and Its Linkage with Agricultural Research" (D. Pickering); (2) "The Commodity-Driven Approach of the Cotton Companies" (G. Mahdavi); (3) "The Extension System of British-American Tobacco (Kenya) Limited" (F. N. Kimani); (4) "The World Bank and the Training and Visit System in East Africa" (N. Roberts); (5) "A Few Questions on the Training and Visit Method" (D. Gentil); (6) "The Design of T&V Extension Programs for Small Farmers in Ethiopia" (A. Dejene); (7) "Proposals for a New Approach to Extension Services in Africa" (G. Belloncle); (8) "Village Associations and Agricultural Extension in the Republic of Mali" (B. Sada Sy; M. Yero Bah); (9) "On-Farm Research with a Farming Systems Perspective" (M. Collison); (10) "The Farming Systems Approach and Links between Research and Extension" (N. Okigbo); (11) "The Farming Systems Approach in Senegal" (J. Faye); (12) "Extension under East African Field Conditions" (J. R. Morris); (13) "Public Investment in Africa's Extension Services" (J. Howell); and (14) "New Developments in Agricultural Extension" (M. Baxter). A reference list of 95 items is appended. (NL)


Agricultural Extension and Research

Agricultural Extension and Research

Author: Dennis Purcell

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780821338780

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Environmentally Sustainable Development Studies and Monograph Series No. 17. A 1995 publication from the World Bank, Monitoring Environmental Progress: A Report on Work in Progress, generated great interest in the use of indicators to measure the pace and direction of change in environmentally sustainable development. In particular, the attempts to define what it means to be wealthy or poor by recognizing that a countrys wealth is the combination of various forms of capital--produced, natural, and human resources--led to new thinking on what constitutes wealth and how it might be measured. The current document, Expanding the Measure of Wealth: Indicators of Environmentally Sustainable Development, extends the earlier analysis by highlighting portfolio indicators for tracking a countrys progress toward sustainable development. These include new estimates of national wealth and genuine savings, a detailed analysis of changes in subsidies that have environmental consequences, and progress on the conceptual foundations of social capital. The new estimates reinforce the importance of the natural resource base of all economies as well as the fundamental role of human resources, including both human capital and the more difficult to define concept of social capital.


Agricultural extension and rural advisory services: What have we learned? What’s next?

Agricultural extension and rural advisory services: What have we learned? What’s next?

Author: Davis, Kristin E.

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2021-10-29

Total Pages: 14

ISBN-13:

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Agricultural extension provides the critical connection from agricultural innovation and discovery to durable improvements at scale, as farmers and other actors in the rural economy learn, adapt, and innovate with new technologies and practices. However, lack of capacity and performance of agricultural extension in lower- and middle-income countries is an ongoing concern. Research on agricultural extension and advisory services (in short, extension) has been an integral part of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) since its inception. This brief synthesizes key findings from research funded by and linked to PIM from 2012 to 2021, presenting lessons learned and a vision for the future of extension. A list of all PIM-related extension and advisory services research is provided at the end. Designing and implementing effective provision of extension is complex, and efforts to strengthen extension services often fall into a trap of adopting “best practice” blueprint approaches that are not well-tailored to local conditions. An expansive literature examines the promises and pitfalls of common approaches, including training-and-visit extension systems, farmer field schools, and many others (Anderson and Feder 2004; Anderson et al. 2006; Waddington and White 2014; Scoones and Thompson 2009). To understand extension systems and build evidence for what works and where, the “best-fit” framework, a widely recognized approach developed by Birner and colleagues (2009) and adapted by Davis and Spielman (2017), offers a simple impact chain approach (Figure 1). The framework focuses on a defined set of extension service characteristics that affect performance: governance structures and funding; organizational and management capacities and cultures; methods; and community engagement — all of which are subject to external factors such as the policy environment, agroecological conditions, and farming-system heterogeneity. To enhance extension performance and, ultimately, a wide range of outcomes and impacts, new and innovative interventions can be applied and adapted within this set of extension characteristics.


The Road Half Traveled

The Road Half Traveled

Author: Mylène Kherallah

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13: 0896295257

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The need for agricultural reform; How far did reforms go? Impact of the reforms; The future of agricultural market reform in Sub-Saharan Africa.


The History of Agricultural Extension in Malawi

The History of Agricultural Extension in Malawi

Author: Jochen Knorr

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 119

ISBN-13: 9783823615132

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"After some highlights about the emergence of Agricultural Extension in industrialised countries, a detailed outline of its history in Malawi is given. Besides publications the source of assessment of the Malawi extension system are interviews with farmers as well with actual and with retired extension staff from 2001. Recent developments since 2001 are again followed by literature review. As a result there is a clear picture, that despite regular reforms and changes in the extension approach, most of it did not really reach the ground, did not much affect, what happened at field level. The problems could never be solved in a satisfactory way, and as a consequence extension failed to fulfil its role for rural and small farmer development. The most crucial deficit seems to be, that at no times there was enough appropriate extension content, to justify all the efforts and costs of transfer. The recommended technologies were either too risky, or dependent on non-available inputs, too general and not adapted to local conditions. The recent reform, explained in detail in this book, seems appropriate, but also highly ambitious, certainly needing longer periods for full implementation. Looking to the past, one would be rather pessimistic about its chances for success. But seeing new market opportunities emerging and clear indicators for economic growth in Africa and even in Malawi, there is some good reason for hope. The book is a key to better understanding of the past and present problems of agricultural extension systems in Africa."--Publisher's description.


World Congress on Communication For Development

World Congress on Communication For Development

Author:

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 082137138X

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"Communication for Development is a multidisciplinary area of study and work that is based on two-way models of communication, going beyond diffusion and dissemination of information. Its functions range from engaging stakeholders in problem analysis and risk assessment to supporting behavior and social change. The experiences recounted here are drawn from the various sessions of the Congress and emphasize the value of using Communication for Development to engage stakeholders in a professional and systematic manner for more effective and sustainable project design and implementation."--BOOK JACKET.


African Farmers, Value Chains and Agricultural Development

African Farmers, Value Chains and Agricultural Development

Author: Alan de Brauw

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 303088693X

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This book provides a thorough introduction to and examination of agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, the authors introduce the economic theory of agri-food value chains and value chain governance, focusing on domestic and regional trade in (and consumption of) food crops in a low-income country context. In addition to mainstream and heterodox thinking about value chain development, the book pays attention to political economy considerations. The book also reviews the empirical evidence on value chain development and performance in Africa. It adopts multiple lenses to examine agricultural value chains, zooming out from the micro level (e.g., relational contracting in a context of market imperfections) to the meso level (e.g., distributional implications of various value chain interventions, inclusion of specific social groups) and the macro level (underlying income, population and urbanization trends, volumes and prices, etc.).Furthermore, this book places value chain development in the context of a process the authors refer to as structural transformation 2.0, which refers to a process where production factors (labor, land and capital) move from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity agriculture. Finally, throughout the book the authors interpret the evidence in light of three important debates: (i) how competitive are rural factor and product markets, and what does this imply for distribution and innovation? (ii) what role do foreign investment and factor proportions play in the development of agri-food value chains in Africa? (iii) what complementary government policies can help facilitate a process of agricultural value chain transformation, towards high-productive activities and enhancing the capacity of value chains to generate employment opportunities and food security for a growing population.