Agriculture Extension
Historically, the concept of agriculture extension was developed around the practice of “extending” research-based knowledge to farmers in rural areas so as to improve their lives (Davis 2008). In this top-down approach, researchers developed new technologies and innovations, which extension workers then passed along to farmers. Extension services disseminating information to farmers were often managed by governments.
Now a wide array of organizations are providing an increasingly broad range of extension and advisory services (EAS) to farmers and others involved in agriculture value chains. Organizations now involved in EAS include governments, research centers, universities, civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector (Sahlaney et al. 2015). Dr. Kristin Davis, the current Executive Secretary of Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services, wrote in 2008, “Today’s understanding of extension goes beyond technology transfer to facilitation, beyond training to learning and includes assisting farmer groups to form, dealing with marketing issues, and partnering with a broader range of service providers and other agencies.”
Many of these organizations providing EAS are shifting away from the top-down approach to a more holistic approach that includes a better understanding of how and where farmers get their information and technologies (Swanson and Rajalahti 2010). In efforts to improve EAS services in hard-to-reach, rural smallholder communities, and to gain a better understanding of local resources and needs, organizations might consider EAS programing facilitated by community agriculture extension workers and modeled after CHW and CAHW programs with proven success. --- TN #83
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