Download or read book Agricultural extension Global status and performance in selected countries written by Davis, Kristin E., ed. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-09-02 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The History of Agricultural Extension in Malawi written by Jochen Knorr and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.

Download or read book Modeling the effectiveness of the lead farmer approach in agricultural extension service provision Nationally representative panel data analysis in Malawi written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2019-06-14 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lead farmer (LF) approach has been implemented and heavily promoted nationwide in Malawi since 2009 to support government extension workers and accelerate technology dissemination. Earlier reports have shown that donor-funded projects in Malawi widely adopted the LF approach, indicating positive roles and contributions of LFs. However, national data show persistently low rates of adoption of management practices being promoted by the LFs, prompting this study to look closely at the nationwide implementation and effectiveness of the LF approach. Specifically, we model the effects of farmers’ interaction with and exposure to LFs and farmers’ access to LFs’ advice on farmers’ awareness of and adoption of several promoted technologies and management practices. We use data from 531 randomly selected LFs linked to panel data from 2,800 farming households and, using correlated random effects, model the effectiveness of the LF approach on technology awareness and adoption. This is complemented by 55 focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with agricultural extension development officers (AEDOs) and service providers. Our results point to two major conclusions. First, LFs support and assist AEDOs in their work, especially in organizing community meetings and farm demonstrations, and are also an important bridge between farmers and AEDOs. But LFs complement AEDOs’ work rather than substitute for it. In communities without strong AEDOs and community leaders to work with and monitor them, LFs were not active or performed at a substandard level. Second, results show limited coverage and weak implementation and effectiveness of the LF approach at the national level. Only 13 percent of farmers reported receiving agricultural advice from an LF in the last two years, and only 20 percent reported having interacted with an LF. Our econometric models also consistently show neither the farmers’ exposure or interaction with LFs nor farmers’ access to LFs’ advice had an effect on awareness of and adoption of the major agricultural management practices being promoted. When heterogeneity and types of LFs are unpacked, results show that quality of LFs, adoption behavior of LFs, and regular training of LFs have strong and consistent effect on the awareness and adoption of most agricultural practices promoted.

Download or read book Guide to Extension Training written by Peter Oakley and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 1985 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The framework of development; Understanding extension; Social and cultural factors in extension; Extension and comunication; Extension methods; The extension agent; The planning and evaluation of extension programmes; Extension an special target groups.

Download or read book The Million Farmers School An evaluation of its impact on farmers agricultural knowledge in Uttar Pradesh India written by Kumar, Anjani and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Million Farmers School (MFS) is an innovative extension program initiated by the Department of Agriculture in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, in 2017. Twice in a year, the department deploys its entire extension machinery to organize nearly 15,000 training programs for about a million farmers across all districts of the state. Unlike traditional extension services, MFS integrates various facets of agricultural knowledge into a packaged product and delivers through village-level trainings where printed material on the topics of training are also distributed among participants. This study presents early findings of a process evaluation, involving assessments of program design, implementation strategies, and estimation of benefits from program participation. In addition to consultation with public officials and community organizations, a state-level representative survey was conducted on a sample of both participating and non-participating households. The early results based on matching and instrumental variable methods—suggest that knowledge outcomes are significantly better among participants vis-à-vis non-participants. The results are robust to different model specifications. The study also qualitatively assesses various aspects of the program’s design and implementation, highlighting the constraints and challenges it faces and offers implementation advice for greater efficacy in its future course.

Download or read book Disentangling food security from subsistence agriculture in Malawi written by Benson, Todd and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-05-24 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development How much can Africa learn from Asia written by Diao, Xinshen, ed. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Download or read book How to Be a Great M C written by Alex Mair and published by Hurtig. This book was released on 1999-07 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Agricultural Input Subsidies written by Ephraim Chirwa and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-09-26 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes forward our understanding of agricultural input subsidies in low income countries.

Download or read book Agricultural extension and rural advisory services What have we learned What s next written by Davis, Kristin E. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-10-29 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Supply of and demand for agricultural extension services in Malawi A synthesis written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2018-02-14 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are more than 120 organizations and programs in Malawi working on agriculture that include extension service provision among their main activities. However, extension service provision is largely "projectized" uncoordinated, and unmonitored. This Note synthesizes the main findings from the recent surveys and interviews of households, communities, and service providers about the status of access to these extension services, challenges on both demand and supply sides, and suggestions and reflections that can inform the ongoing development of the National Agricultural Extension Strategy.

Download or read book Concepts and Practices in Agricultural Extension in Developing Countries written by and published by ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD). This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mala i and Madagascar written by Frederic L. Pryor and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a comparison of the economic systems and long-term economic policies of these two countries, in order to illustrate not only their different economic approaches to similar problems, but also to highlight general forces linking poverty, equity and growth in all developing nations.

Download or read book Building Competitiveness in Africa s Agriculture written by C. Martin Webber and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2009-12-16 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Value chain based approaches offer tremendous scope for market-based improvements in production, productivity, rural economy diversification, and household incomes, but are often covered by literature that is too conceptual or heavily focused on analysis. This has created a gap in the information available to planners, practitioners, and value chain participants. Furthermore, few references are available on how these approaches can be applied specifically to developing agriculture in Africa. 'Building Competitiveness in Africa s Agriculture: A Guide to Value Chain Concepts and Applications' describes practical implementation approaches and illustrates them with scores of real African agribusiness case studies. Using these examples, the 'Guide' presents a range of concepts, analytical tools, and methodologies centered on the value chain that can be used to design, implement, and evaluate agricultural and agribusiness development initiatives. It stresses principles of market focus, collaboration, information sharing, and innovation. The 'Guide' begins by examining core concepts and issues related to value chains. A brief literature review then focuses on five topics of particular relevance to African agricultural value chains. These topics address challenges faced by value chain participants and practitioners that resonate through the many cases described in the book. The core of the book presents methodological tools and approaches that blend important value chain concepts with the topics and with sound business principles. The tools and case studies have been selected for their usefulness in supporting market-driven, private-sector initiatives to improve value chains. The 'Guide' offers 13 implementation approaches, presented within the implementation cycle of a value chain program, followed by descriptions of actual cases. Roughly 60 percent of the examples are from Africa, while the rest come from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The 'Guide' offers useful guidance to businesspeople, policy makers, representatives of farmer or trade organizations, and others who are engaged in agro-enterprise and agribusiness development. These readers will learn how to use value chain approaches in ways that can contribute to sound operational decisions, improved market linkage, and better results for enterprise and industry development.

Download or read book The state of agricultural extension and advisory services provision in Malawi Insights from household and community surveys written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2017-03-04 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is part of a series of descriptive reports and later in-depth analysis of the survey data. These series are aimed to provide an assessment of the state of agricultural extension and advisory services provision in Malawi in order to inform policy and reform processes and programming by the government and donors. These studies are in response to the re-quest by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD) to look closely at the state of extension services provision with the intent to further strengthen the contribution such services make to food security, economic growth, and achieving sustainable development goals. This report summarizes key findings on the state of agriculture and nutrition extension and advisory services in Malawi based on responses from household and community surveys conducted in Malawi between August and October 2016 that focused on the demand side of agricultural extension service provision and access to those services. Nationally representative samples of 3001 households and 299 communities in all districts of Malawi, except Likoma, were interviewed for the study.

Download or read book The impact of agricultural extension services in the context of a heavily subsidized input system written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-01-08 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper aims to test this hypothesis and to contribute to better understanding of strategies to revitalize the agricultural extension system in Malawi. Specifically, it examines the interplay between the fertilizer subsidy and access to extension services, and their impact on farm productivity and food security in Malawi. Results show that the fertilizer subsidy has inconsistent impact on farm productivity and food security; at the same time, access to agricultural advice was consistently insignificant in explaining farm productivity and food security. Further analysis, however, shows that when access to extension services is unpacked to include indicators of usefulness and farmers’ satisfaction, these indicators were statistically significant. Households who reported that they received very useful agricultural advice had greater productivity and greater food security than those who reported receiving advice that they considered not useful. This result implies the need to ensure the provision of relevant and useful agricultural advice to increase the likelihood of achieving agricultural development outcomes

Download or read book Improving Agricultural Extension written by Burton E. Swanson and published by Fao. This book was released on 1997 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book on Improving Agricultural Extension: a Reference Manual offers a critical review and inventory-analysis of the "State of the Art" in agricultural extension theory and best practices written by internationally known agricultural extension practitioners, educators and scholars. A total of 38 authors from 15 countries contributed to the 23 chapters of this book and thus they provided broad international perspectives, covering both theory and practice, as well as micro and macro issues related to agricultural extension. It is the third edition of a classic reference manual on agricultural extension published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Aimed at agricultural extension planners, managers, trainers, educators, and field practitioners, this book could be useful in improving the quality of agricultural extension and in generating new ideas and methods for increasing further the cost-effectiveness of agricultural extension programmes. It provides many sound and practical suggestions for developing and improving the conceptual, technical, and operational methods and tools in order to strategically plan, efficently manage, and scientifically evaluate a problem-solving, demand-driven and needs-based agricultural extension programmes.