Agricultural Extension:
Global Status and Performance
in Selected Countries
Edited by Kristin Davis, Suresh C. Babu, and Catherine Ragasa
Agricultural extension is critical to rural transformation. Extension performance (the quality of service provided) affects farmers’ attitudes, knowledge, and practices. This in turn affects their incomes, nutrition, empowerment, and more. In this book we analyze the drivers of extension performance—governance, capacity, management, and advisory methods—to recommend improvements to extension services globally. We begin with a global overview of extension systems and then dive deep with case studies in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda.
Explore the drivers of extension performance
Institutional setup for extension, including roles, privatization, decentralization, funding, coordination
Performance
Governance
Institutional setup for extension, including roles, privatization, decentralization, funding, coordination
Capacity
Human and organizational competencies, financial and physical assets
Extension is becoming increasingly pluralistic with the private sector and civil society taking on new roles, but the public sector is responsible for most implementation as well as coordination and regulation. Yet most countries still lack specific policies to guide extension governance. Countries finance extension from national budgets, levies and taxes, development aid, and paid services. African and Central Asian countries in particular have difficulty funding extension. Government funds go to cover salaries, often leaving little for operational expenses. Donor funds help, but if not well-regulated, can lead to lack of cohesion and duplication of services, and their use for operating expenses is unsustainable. Ethiopia and Brazil stand out as having well-implemented polices, and show a strong commitment to extension.
Today there are more than 1 million extension agents, but fewer than half have more than a 2–3-year diploma. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 78% of field staff had education beyond a secondary or high school degree, but many agents with only primary or high school education received less on-the-job or skills development training than those with a higher education level. Limited training compounds the challenge posed by the weak skill sets of the many extension agents who lack formal education and technical training. The participatory methods used require producer organizations to help identify, prioritize, and solve problems, but they need capacity to do so. In the DRC, management training had a positive effect on producer organizations’ service delivery performance.
Implement extension policies with adequate monitoring and evaluation systems
Mix funding sources and advisory approaches to maximize outreach
Strengthen coordination and quality control to support effective pluralism
Recommendations
Global share of agents by education
level by type of organization (%)
Source: GFRAS 2012
100
75
50
25
0
Secondary school diploma
2-3-year diploma
BSc
MSc
PhD
Governmental
Private sector
Public research institution
University-based
Total
Extension agents carry a heavy work burden, often including non-extension tasks. Frontline workers spend a lot of time traveling to advise farmers and collect data, assisting in input distribution, and writing reports. Managers must balance expectations of their staff with associated support to agents.
Management
Extension management, including training, procedures, incentives, and monitoring and evaluation
Frontline workers’ time allocation during planting season in Malawi (%)
Source: Authors’ in-depth interviews of 71 frontline workers (December 2016 to February 2017).
Note: FISP = Farm Input Subsidy Programme; APES = Agricultural Production Estimates Survey.
Socializing with others
Institutional affiliation of
providers of agricultural
advisory services
in Uganda
78
Public sector
Other
3.5
Large-scale farmer
1.5
NGO
15.2
Input supplier
2.2
Farm association
2.5
Strengthen management and leadership skills for institutional innovation
Provide continuous skills development for staff to stay relevant
Build capacities of producers and their organizations to identify and prioritize needs
Recommendations
Reduce transportation time by providing motorcycles or other vehicles
Support data collection and communication activities through radio, video, digital technologies, and smartphones
Provide staff incentives through career plans, rewards, and continuous education
Recommendations
Traditional approaches such as demonstrations and group meetings continue in countries including Colombia, Chile, and Argentina, while market-oriented and digital extension approaches are rapidly increasing. Brazil uses participatory approaches to promote inclusion of marginalized groups. Uganda uses mass media, demonstrations, shows, and group approaches to reach farmers.
Advisory Methods
Approaches used to interact with farmers
Agricultural extension service methodologies in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia (%)
Local innovation system and networks
Mass media (radio, TV, internet, press, brochures, magazines, etc.)
Group (workshops, focus groups, demonstration sites, schools, etc.)
Individuals (view/direct communication with the producer, email, telephone)
100
75
50
25
0
Intensify use of digital delivery tools for effective and efficient outreach
Use digital tools for demand articulation, feedback, monitoring, and accountability
Recommendations
Performance
Quality of extension as judged by content, relevance, and effectiveness,
as well as outcomes (change in behavior) or impact
Households in Malawi receiving agriculture or nutrition advice from any source (%)
Agriculture
100
75
50
25
0
Nutrition
Agricultural production
Market/
Agroprocessing
Environment/
Climate change
Aquaculture
Livestock
Nonfarm livelihoods
IFPRI household and community surveys (2016 and 2018).
Note: HH = household. Survey question: “In the last 2 years [In the last 12 months], did you receive any information or advice on any of these topics?” Agriculture (the first item) combines all non-nutrition-related advice, including on crop production, market/agro-processing, environment/climate change, livestock, aquaculture, and nonfarm livelihoods.
Access to extension:
Gender, youth, indigenous groups
Extension coverage for women and youth has been increasing, but much improvement is needed. Globally, 22% of all organizations reported targeting women farmers; and 16% of organizations reported targeting youth. Particularly in Africa, there has been a focus on reaching and engaging youth (15–35 years) in extension, a big change from 1993 when rural youth were reported as a program area of little importance. In Malawi, the reach of extension services to women and youth has been improving over time, but the gender gap remains and youth continue to have less access to these services than their older counterparts. Globally, the number and proportion of women field staff has increased, up from 15% in 1993 to 22% in 2009. In Latin America, programs emphasized social inclusion; many successful programs targeted women farmers (for example, the Ecuadorian Tungurahua Agricultural Strategy, serving 70% women, the Zero Hunger program in Nicaragua, and Guatemala’s programs and strategies targeting youth and indigenous communities). The region’s territorial development approach allowed extension to be more responsive to local needs.
Access to extension services by gender and age group in Malawi (%)
Young women
60
40
20
0
Source: IFPRI household surveys (2016, 2018).
Old women
Young men
Old men
% of individual respondents by group
34
38
34
35
44
47
55
57
2016 2018
Engage youth through extension programs promoting youth entrepreneurship to help modernize agriculture and to give them opportunities for productive jobs
Recommendations
Reduce the gender gap and target both female and male adults in the same household to increase productivity and food security
Set more ambitious objectives for assessment and evaluation of extension and advisory services
53
54
36
42
31
34
21
27
22
23
14
17
2
1
11
5
2016
2018
Non-government (N=37)
Government (N=32)
Total (N=69)
49
8
9
14
6
9
5
37
14
24
8
5
9
2
42
12
20
8
5
9
4
Office work (e.g., staff meetings or writing reports
In-service trainings
Interactions with researchers/ other service providers
APES-related activities
FISP-related activities
Advising farmers
As the food and agriculture sectors rapidly evolve, extension and advisory services need to transform to meet new needs and challenges. In this context, more ambitious objectives should be set for assessment and evaluation of extension and advisory services. The best-fit framework used in this book can support assessments of performance and impact by looking at how the extension services’ characteristics fit with the prevailing environment and what policy reforms are needed. More and better evaluations that clearly link extension and advisory services to their outcomes and impact will garner significant support for these services that are critical to over a billion small-scale and marginalized farmers worldwide.
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Human and organizational competencies, financial and physical assets
Extension management, including training, procedures, incentives, and monitoring and evaluation
Approaches used to interact with farmers
Quality of extension as judged by content, relevance, and effectiveness, as well as outcomes (change in behavior) or impact
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Source: LSMS 2015-16
Brazil’s public services reached over 550,000 farm families, out of 4.3 million, from 2010–2014. In Ethiopia, access to extension significantly increased adoption of modern inputs such as improved seed and fertilizer from 2004 to 2014, contributing to overall agricultural growth and transformation. In Malawi, 54% of households reported receiving extension services in the 12 months prior to two survey rounds (2016, 2018). Other positive trends in Malawi include:
• more men, women, and youth accessing extension;
• consistently high ratings in perceived usefulness
of extension;
• greater diversity in topics and messages; and
• improved use of cost-effective tools like radio
and group meetings;
• but, limited impact on technology adoption and
agricultural outcomes.
We examined national extension system performance in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda. This included systems-level performance regarding content, targeting, feedback, timeliness, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. We assessed performance at the level of target households and individuals, including access to extension and indicators of its quality and relevance. Most countries use changes in behavior and practices through technology adoption patterns to assess performance, and some look at changes in yields, productivity, or food security.
Source: Preissing, J., S. Ardila, F. Aguirre, and J. Buitron. 2018. “Latin America.” Unpublished report, IFPRI, Washington, DC.
Improve monitoring and evaluation systems to better assess future performance
Recommendations
Improve monitoring and evaluation systems to better assess future performance
Set more ambitious objectives for assessment and evaluation of extension and advisory services.
Recommendations
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