Agricultural extension and rural advisory services:
What have we learned?
What’s next?
Research on agricultural extension has been an integral part of PIM.
This interactive graphic synthesizes findings from research funded by PIM and other closely related studies from 2012 to 2021, presenting key lessons learned and a vision for the future of extension.
Governance structures and funding
Organizational and management capacities and cultures
Methods
Community engagement
Findings
1
2
3
4
Governance structures
and funding
1
Decentralization improves access to extension — but can increase the gender gap.
Devolution can increase accountability but undermine extension provision.
Public extension departments and projects see private extension agents as a means of reaching more farmers.
Less than 3 percent of global development finance between 2015 and 2018 was spent on agricultural training, education, or extension
Methods
3
Capacity strengthening of farmers must go beyond transferring technical skills to include complementary functional and business skills and a focus on empowerment and inclusion.
Nutrition training of extension staff is often inadequate, and lack of career opportunities discourages them from engaging with nutrition integration programs.
Intensive training of lead farmers and follow-up and continued mentoring by extension agents can improve lead farmer performance.
In Ethiopia, education opportunities attracted and retain women and men to extension; availability of things like housing, electricity, and transport attracted women more than financial incentives.
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Organizational and management capacities and cultures
2
Volunteer farmers trainers can be highly effective, training 20 farmers per month on average in East Africa.
Lead farmers are more effective when programs provide intensive training and incentives and where active extension agents and local leaders support them.
Video-mediated extension had wider reach than conventional extension and led to more knowledge and uptake of promoted agricultural practices in Ethiopia.
In Uganda, video had a positive impact on knowledge, adoption of inputs and practices, and yields, but IVR and SMS had no significant impacts.
Photo: Bjorn van Campenhout
Community engagement
4
Women lack access to extension services and thus miss out on information that can lead to uptake of new technologies.
Agricultural information should reach both women and men in the household for enhanced knowledge and empowerment.
Game-based facilitation tools can increase inclusion of youth, the less educated, and women.
Providing entrepreneurship training can help attract youth to agriculture.
Youth need support through a broad enabling environment that includes policies, training, and coordination.
Private youth extension providers lack skills and strategies to interact with other value chain actors.
Photo: Raphael Rurangwa
A vision for
the future
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Attitudes for future extension
Collaborative spirit
Inclusivity
Empathy
Entrepreneurial spirit
Openness to learn
Multitasking
Broad vision of
agrifood systems
<3%
>97%
Skills for future extension
Facilitation of interactions
Business and marketing
Gender and youth inclusion approaches
To support farmers to select innovations
Multi-channel communication fluency
Community mobilization
Farmer group development
Adult education
and learning
Social communication
Digital literacy
To secure funding, extension proponents must communicate a strong value proposition, backed by better monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems.
Future extension systems should use multifunctional approaches allowing staff to educate farmers, broker relationships, link producers to markets, and sell products and services.
Extension will rely more on digital tools in the future, but should continue with traditional methods too.
Consideration of intersectionality — gender, age, and other socioeconomic attributes of individuals and communities — is important to reach clientele.
Knowledge, skills, and attitudes for the future include digital literacy and empathy toward clientele.
Extension must continuously adapt extension governance structures and funding, organizational and management capacities and cultures, methods, and community engagement.
For more detailed information, read the synthesis brief.
Findings are organized by the adapted “best-fit” extension characteristics:
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Photo: Simrin Makhija
Photo: Simrin Makhija
Photo: Simrin Makhija
Photo: Simrin Makhija
Read the brief
Photo: Simrin Makhija
Photo: Simrin Makhija
Photo: Simrin Makhija
