STATE OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES …
Transcript of STATE OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES …
African Forum for Agricultural
Advisory Services
Silim M. Nahdy (PhD) - Executive Director, AFAAS
&
Mr. Max Olupot-Technical Assistant
AFAAS Presentation- NEPAD CAADP WORKSHOP
25-28 February 2013
Dar Es Salaam - Tanzania
www.afaas-africa.org
STATE OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES IN
SUB -SAHARAN AFRICA, IMPLICATIONS FOR NUTRITION
Outline
• Agricultural Extension and Advisory
Service –AEAS in Context
• State of AEAS in Sub Saharan Africa
• Capacity development
• Recommendations
• Conclusion
AEAS in Context
• Three-quarters of the world's poorest billion people live
in rural areas & depend on agriculture for their
livelihoods;
• Agriculture and rural development are uniquely
important for improving nutrition for smallholders;
• Smallholder farmers, fisher-folk and livestock keepers
produce 50–80% of the staple foods consumed in
developing countries,
• Poverty is still pervasive in SSA
Climate change & soil degradation
Poverty & Nutrition in
Africa Low / poor agricultural
productivity/quality Low level of capacity
Poor market orientation
Policy environment Conflicts
AEAS in Context…..
Africa’s Performance in Global Development AEAS in Context
AEAS in Context …. • AEAS play a significant role in stimulating;
– economic Growth,
– reducing poverty, and
– improving food and nutrition security in Africa;
YET AEAS is Inadequately emphasized
• AEAS therefore needs to be revitalized and to deploy
a variety of innovative methods to facilitate access of
farm families and their organizations to;
– knowledge and information
– relevant technologies for household food security and
nutrition
– for interactions amongst stakeholders
AEAS in Context........
Revitalization of AEAS for greater impact: focus of
reforms;
o putting in place a demand for services- inclusive of
nutrition, incomes, natural resources mgt
o market-driven service provision system,
o decentralizing service delivery and improving
accountability to clients
o promoting increased participation of the private sector
o promoting pluralism in provision of services.
National AEAS in SSA
• National AEAS systems worldwide have
undergone major changes during the past
two decades
• AEAS continues to evolve based on context
• Originally extension was conceived as a
service to “extend” research-based
knowledge to the rural sector to improve the
lives of farmers
National AEAS …….
Widening role of AEAS
• components of:
o technology transfer and
o broader rural development goals (management skills, and
non-formal education- household as unit of focus)
• AEAS arena:
o go beyond technology transfer to facilitation;
o go beyond training to education,
o assisting farmer groups to form and organise,
o dealing with household food and nutrition security
o marketing issues
o partnering with a broad range of service providers, other agencies and private sector.
Inappropriate
funding
approaches
Farmers who
are not
empowered
Widening scope
of AAS
Inability to target
poverty and
gender
Ineffective
demand for AAS
Environmental
degradation and
climate change
Poor Market
Orientation ?!
Challenges Facing African AEA
Unsupportive Policies
and inappropriate
institutional
arrangements
Inappropriate
AAS delivery
approaches
Low
organisational
& Institutional
Capacities
Supporting
pluralism
Status of EAS in Sub Saharan Africa - SSA
Extension and advisory services is weak , mainly
as a result of many years of public negligence.
However;
• Reforms are being undertaken including
appropriate policies and strategies
• Instead of a single model several models of
EAS are being used for different situations
• New extension approaches are emerging
based on experimentation, learning, and
adaptation to prevailing circumstances
State of Extension in SSA - contd
• Partnerships for varied skills and
competencies to provide integrated support
(technical, organizational, marketing,
nutrition aspects) to producers is recognized
and emerging;
• New developments have brought new
challenges creating new learning
requirements; But opportunities exist eg.
innovation platforms, e-learning, e-extension,
FFS etc;
• However, capacities of all actors still weak.
The smallholder producer and household
Rural technicians and artisans
Extension workers and change agents
Entrepreneurs, traders, processors, wholesalers, retailers
The need for integrated capacity development
policy makers, scientists, researchers
Adapted from FARA
Recommendations • Appropriate policies is fundamental in AEAS delivery
systems,
• key to reforms has to focus on strengthening of
demand for services and accountability through
participatory approaches
• Extension and research systems need to go beyond
the superficial linkages and engage in strong
collaborative partnerships at all levels
• Need to promote public-private partnership (PPP)
– PPP play a critical role in service delivery in terms of
financing, filling capacity gaps, value addition and
marketing
Recommendations
• The need to for strong integration of AEAS issues in
the CAADP process
– The CFP should strongly engage AAS Country Fora as platform for the AAS stakeholders to continuously participate
in CAADP processes
– Review implementation of Agric Food Security investment
Plans ( AFSIP) to determine adequacy of regulatory
frameworks
Conclusion Food and nutrition security is and needs to be
recognized as a public good as well as a social and
economic good. Therefore, the role of national
government is central for catalyzing its country's
energies to combat food and nutrition insecurity
and poverty- Country IPs therefore should reflect
this call;
Governments have the responsibility to establish
policies, strategies, functioning institutional
arrangements and infrastructure enabling the
smallholder farmers to achieve food and nutrition
security.
Thank you
Email: [email protected]
website: http://www.afaas-africa.org
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