8 pages, Agricultural extension can be defined as the entire set of organisations that support and facilitate people engaged in agricultural production to solve problems and to obtain information, skills and technologies to improve their livelihoods and well-being. Extension officials should ensure that farmers are engaged and capacitated so that they can make production decisions that are not in conflict with nature, yet such decisions ensure that their well-being is improved. With 75% of the world’s poor living in rural areas, the topic of improved agriculture through agricultural extension is viewed as central to poverty reduction. There have been questions posed by stakeholders (communities, policy-makers and politicians) about the non-visibility and accountability of agricultural extension in the communities that it is supposed to help. There are however a number of factors (perceived or real) that make agricultural extension less or not visible nor accountable. Therefore, this paper investigates and proposes a theoretical framework or model to ensure that agricultural extension is visible and accountable to all stakeholders. This will in turn ensure that there are noticeable increases or improvement of the lives of the resource poor farmers and communities.
Broughton, Duncan (author) and Win, Su Su (author)
Format:
Research summary
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
Myanmar: Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D11673
Notes:
7 pages., Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy, Research Paper 131, Burma Food Security Policy Project (FSPP)., Analysis revealed that Myanmar has one of the smallest, most underfunded agricultural research systems in Southeast Asia. It is cited as having critical gaps in research capacity, an agricultural research capacity that is highly fragmented, weak linkages between research and extension at local level, and lack of overall strategy for development of agricultural research and extension. Strong economic justification was cited for higher rates of investment in agricultural research, along with recommendations for action.
8 pages, Agricultural extension is now backing on the development agenda. The acknowledged failure of the traditional extension model in India has stimulated debate on extension reforms and the introduction of new extension models. Further, Indian agriculture has recorded an alarming ‘knowledge gap’ where ‘knowledge’ became central to agricultural production. The role of extension functionaries today is more challenging and demands structural and functional changes to meet the holistic needs of farmers and they have to equip themselves to cope with the drastic chance and dire needs. Agricultural extension is not only about imparting knowledge and securing adoption of improved practices but it also aims at changing the outlook of farmers. Moreover, Indian agriculture is undergoing a rapid transformation under globalization from a simple making a living to complex endeavour. Information revolution leads to fundamental changes in economic, political, social and cultural relations. Information technology is the lifeblood of many other technologies. It is opined that there is direct relationship between communication and development of agricultural sector. New information technology provides the opportunity for innovation. The ‘free flow of information’ will help the farmers is to overcome the knowledge gap and the availability of the new technology lead farmers to make real choice. This paper emphasizes on the role of ICTs in contemporary agricultural context and critically understands the failure of traditional extension functionaries.
5 pages, The current research was planned and conducted at Institute of Agricultural Extension, Education
and Rural Development, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan during the year 2019-20
and restricted to district Gujranwala with respect to potato crop. The main objective of this study
was to compare the extension services provided by the public and private sector along with
different teaching methodologies adopted by them. However, 36 respondents from each tehsil
of district Gujranwala were selected through convenient sampling technique. Thereby, getting a
sample size of 144 for the purpose of data collection for which interviews were conducted. Data
were analyzed through SPSS. Results were explained through weighted score and mean values
of all variables. According to results it was found that both sectors were giving useful knowledge
to farmers with different teaching methods. It was also concluded that farmers had desire to take
information from public sector but they have to go to private sector for products. Furthermore, it
was also concluded that performance of public sector was better than private sector.
7 pages, Agricultural extension is the medium through which external agricultural technologies have been transferred to and transplanted in Africa to improve agricultural performance. Over a period of close to a century, different agricultural extension models have been proposed but their structure and content has virtually been the same: top-down, linear, non-participatory transfer of technology with no feedback loops for reverse diffusion. This presumably explains the poor performance of Africa’s agriculture and the scale of food security challenges facing the continent. In this review paper, we trace the history of agricultural extension and examine various agricultural extension delivery models to identify their major strengths and weaknesses, using Ghana and Burkina Faso as case studies. We then review the most recent literature in the field about the philosophy, scope, content, delivery, and outcomes of agricultural extension. The conclusion that agricultural extension has consistently remained out of sync with the needs and aspirations of stallholder farmers was reached. Smallholder farmers are now calling for new agricultural extension delivery models that are truly farmer-led, indigenous knowledge-based, context-specific, culturally-relevant and environmentally-sustainable to guarantee efficient farming systems into the future.
7 pages, Present study was carried out in 2018-19, in the three districts of Punjab i.e., Faisalabad, Sargodha and Muzaffargarh to analyse the factors affecting dissemination of agricultural information to farmers through ICT tools. One hundred and twenty respondents were selected randomly from each district, making a total sample of 360 respondents. Concerning the general use of ICT
tools in the dissemination of agricultural information, the findings indicated a change in trend
from the radio (11.1%) towards TV (85.6%) and mobile phone SMS (75.8%). The relevance of information and ICT tools’ cost appeared as common determinant factors for technology transfer effectiveness by ICT tools. Furthermore, farmers also indicated that the most effective
tool to disseminate agricultural information was television, followed by the mobile phone and social media. Moreover, most of the farmers (81.7 % and 73.1%, respectively) indicated that the
lack of innovative information and difficulties in using ICT tools were significant barriers while
communicating via these tools. The use of television and mobile phones in extension should be improved because they were relatively more popular among farmers. It was recommended that the Punjab government should also design a system of periodic monitoring and evaluation of the use of information and communication technologies in the extension with agricultural universities’ participation and relevant non-governmental organizations in Punjab. A dynamic feedback system should be designed, based on the local advisory committees’ recommendations, to determine the local farmers’ needs/problems, which should be sent immediately to the Directorate of Agricultural Information to suggest some suitable solution and disseminate through ICTs.
16 pages, This study analysed the delivery of public agricultural extension services to the rural households of Idutywa, Eastern Cape. Primary data were collected from 75 participants. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results revealed that there is generally a lack of access to extension services by households in the study area. Above all, the findings showed that access to agricultural extension services is influenced by limited movements, cellphone data, household size, and a limited number of farmers for training. Based on the control and treated variables, the Average Treatment Effect Treated from Kernel, Nearest Neighbours, and Radius matching methods were found to be negative which means that if farmers did not receive the program during the pandemic, the performance and yields were going to be very poor and low. The study recommends that extension officers should be empowered with modern tools to deliver need-based agricultural extension services in the future.
10 pages., via online journal., Purpose: Agricultural extension graduates do not get jobs and farmers are not getting agricultural
extension services, and therefore, both the farmers and agricultural graduates do not receive benefi ts.
The study assessed the interest of agricultural extension students in providing private extension services
to farmers, examined their perception towards private extension services and identifi ed extension skills
possessed by the students.
Research Method: The study comprised all the fi nal year students in the Universities in Osun State. A
two – stage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents. One university was selected from
each category of federal, state and private. A total of 68 respondents were selected and interviewed.
Data collected were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings: The results show that the mean age, mean years of formal education of the respondents
were 23.75 ± 2.02 and 17.40 ± 1.16, respectively. About half (51.5%) of the respondents had positive
perception towards the private extension service while 57 percent had high interest in providing private
extension services. Majority of them possessed teaching skills (97.1%), innovation dissemination
skills (95.5%) and communication skills (88.2%). Also, sources of agricultural information available
(χ2=22.448), types of sponsors (χ2=6.102) and marital status (χ2=16.535) had a signifi cant association
with respondents’ interest in providing private agricultural extension services.
Research Limitation: The study focuses on the interest of agricultural extension graduates to provide
private extension services; however, these graduates may have an interest in other areas that have not
been investigated.
Original Value: The study provides an insight to show the interest and capability of agricultural students
to be engaged in private extension services as a livelihood
14 pages, The study assessed the agricultural extension agents' climate change training needs in Abia state. Eighty-three extension agents were chosen for the study using a simple random sampling procedure. Questionnaire was used to collect data, which was then summarized using percentages, frequency counts, and the mean. The findings indicated that male agricultural extension agents comprised a majority (53%) of the state's agricultural extension agents. The average household contained between one and five members (60%). Only 10% have a master's degree, while the majority (69%) have a bachelor's degree. The average length of employment was 15 years. The study's findings indicated that there are still extension agents who are unaware of climate change (1%). Agricultural extension agents in the study area have a limited understanding of all six climate change statements. Extension agents provide significant climate change services to farmers, including technical advice on climate change ( =2.0), the establishment of Small Plot Adaptation Techniques (SPAT) to monitor the impact of climate change (=2.1), and educating farmers on appropriate agrochemicals for climate change adaptation (weed and pest control) ( =2.2). Additionally, the results indicated that understanding fundamental climate change concepts ( =3.7), utilising cultural practises to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts ( =3.4), and environmentally friendly management practises to mitigate and adapt to climate change ( =3.4) were the primary areas of need for climate change training among extension agents. Inadequate funding for training (=3.4), a lack of financial support from organizations ( =3.3), and an inability to access financial support from funders (=3.3) were the major barriers to attending climate change training for extension agents. Regular climate change seminars and training workshops for agricultural extension agents at the federal and state levels will help to improve their overall knowledge of climate change issues. The Agricultural Development Program should utilize Forth nightly training (FNT) meetings to educate extension agents about climate change issues.