Knowledge and Attitude of Extension Educators Towards Digitising Agricultural Extension Services in Kwara State, Nigeria

In Tanzania, agriculture sector is known for employing more than 70% of the total population. Agriculture sector faces many challenges including climate change. Climate change causes low productivity in agriculture; low productivity is caused due to poor implementation of agricultural policies and strategies. This poor implementation of policies has also caused many farmers to be not competent in climate change adaptation. Over the years, provisions of agricultural advice and extension were provided by various approaches, including training and visit extension, participatory approaches, and farmers’ field schools. However, provision of agricultural advisory and extension service is inefficient. Also, in most cases the usage of most agricultural innovations and technologies developed is limited. A literature review indicates that the main reasons given by Tanzanian farmers for not using improved technology are not lack of knowledge or skill, but rather that the technologies do not contribute towards improvements (e.g., the technologies are not profitable or they imply to high risk). Thus, agricultural extension service needs to be geared towards teaching farmers how to develop innovative and cost effective technologies that are contextualized. Limited numbers of agricultural extension staff and less interactivity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as radio and television, have been mentioned to be among the factors limiting the provision of agricultural advisory and extension services to the majority of farmers in Tanzania. The advancements in ICTs have brought new opportunities for enhancing access to agricultural advisory and extension service for climate change adaptation. In Tanzania, farmers and other actors access agricultural information from various sources such as agricultural extension workers and use of various databases from Internet Services Providers. Also there are different web – and mobile – based farmers’ advisory information systems to support conventional agricultural extension service. These systems are producing bulk amounts of data which makes it difficult for different stakeholders to make an informed decision after data analysis. This calls for the need to develop a tool for data visualization in order to understand hidden patterns from massive data. In this study, a semi-automated text classification was developed to determine the frequently asked keywords from a web and mobile based farmers’ advisory system called UshauriKilimo after being in use for more than 2 years by more than 700 farmers.

In this paper, we revisit the contested issue of the impact of agricultural extension on farm production. We exploit two features of the data available to us: its longitudinal nature and explicit measures of farmer ability. We find that after controlling for innate productivity characteristics and farmer ability either using household fixed effects estimation, or by including a measure of farmer ability and village fixed effects, access to agricultural extension services, defined as receiving one or two visits per agricultural year, raises the value of crop production by about 15 per cent. This parameter estimate is statistically significant. However, we also find variability in these parameter estimates across individual crop years, with the impact being markedly different in drought and non-drought years. Collectively, these results suggest that although access to farm-level extension visits does increase productivity even after controlling for innate productivity characteristics and farmer ability, results from single-year cross-sectional studies should be treated with caution

Aims: The liberalization of the agricultural sector has facilitated the advent of multitude stakeholders with varied profiles involved in the provision of numerous services to agriculture. This study analyzes the advisory and extension services that support the provision of agricultural inputs in two Divisions of the Western Region of Cameroon (Mifi and Menoua).
 Study Design and Methodology: These areas are home to about 60% of the private agricultural input distributors involved in the provision of agricultural advisory and extension services within the region Data collected by questionnaire and interview guide were carried out with 62 agricultural inputs sellers with input shops on the one hand, and 7 managers of a number of organizations involved in the provision of agricultural services on the other hand.
 
 Results: private agricultural input providers use several agricultural advisory and extension approaches: 42% among them use agricultural extension approach, while 32% use advice to the family farm approach, 21% use organizational capacity building advice and 5%, demand driven approaches. The terms for providing these agricultural extension and advisory services depend on the rationalities of each of these providers. Some agricultural extension and advisory services providers (NGOs, CIGs) promote agroecology through the diffusion of organic inputs, while others promote conventional agriculture through the popularization of synthetic chemical inputs. Access to services by beneficiaries are either paid-offerings or free-offerings. Findings also reveal that in some cases, the actions of some of these providers in the field are intertwined and lead to a collaborative relationship, while in other cases providers work completely compartmentalized leading to negative effects and low performance of the local agricultural extension and advisory system.
 Conclusion: The advent of private providers has increased the number of actors with various profiles leading to potential advantages (e.g., includes access to agricultural information). Yet these potentials have not yet been fully valorized in the provision of agricultural advisory and extension services to farmers. And the needs of farmers have only been partially met. It would be equally crucial to factor climate risks as integral part of extension and advisory services.

This article explores the role and effects of mobile phone technologies in ensuring farmers’ access to agricultural information and extension services in a tea outgrowing scheme in Tanzania. Semi-structured interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and Key Informant Interviews were employed to collect the information. The study revealed that the rapid infiltration of mobile phone technologies into Tanzania's rural areas since the late 2000s has simplified the provision of agricultural extension services. Both farmers and extension service workers perceive mobile phone technologies as an essential supplementary mechanism to ensure easy and timely access to agricultural information. In the context of a tea outgrowing scheme, farmers use mobile phone technologies to access information on input distribution, tea collection time, farmers’ meetings, and how to address some agricultural-related challenges independently. Extension service officers also rely on mobile phone technologies for sensitization. The study highlights the importance of complementing traditional and modern extension service mechanisms to ensure farmers’ efficient and timely access to agricultural extension services and information. Mobile phone affordability and its use cost are also a concern when considering improving agricultural extension service mechanisms.

Chapter 2 - Reforms in agricultural extension service system in Bangladesh

Climate change and extreme weather shocks pose serious threats to a number of agricultural outcomes, including agricultural production, productivity, and income, especially when households depend heavily on this activity. Agricultural extension and rural advisory services are key instruments in promoting technical change, advancing agricultural productivity growth and, ultimately, improving farm livelihoods, and are expected to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and extreme weather shocks. Their mitigation effects, however, may vary depending on the sex of the recipient. This paper investigates the role of sex-disaggregated agricultural extension recipients in contexts where agricultural performance of farm households is affected by weather variability. To this aim, we match multiple rounds of panel microdata from the nationally representative, consumption-based Living Standards Measurement Study -Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), collected in four sub-Saharan African countries, with remote sensing data on biophysical dimensions over a long-term horizon as well as year-specific weather shocks. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a micro-level dataset with individual-level information on agricultural extension services’ recipients has been assembled and examined to investigate the effects of extreme weather shocks and climate change. Applying panel data econometric estimators, the study finds that agricultural extension and advisory services translate into higher agricultural performance of farm households where women are also among the beneficiaries, as compared to non-beneficiaries and households where beneficiaries are men only. Moreover, these services can mitigate the negative effects of weather variability and climate change, controlling for country and time fixed effects as well as holding all other variables constant. These results call for national and international policies and interventions strengthening rural advisory services, especially targeted to women in settings where household livelihoods are predominantly agriculture-based and weather variability and shocks are expected to negatively affect farming activities.

Agricultural Extension Services (AES) have been restricted due the COVID-19 guidelines set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as the Nigerian Government, thereby limiting farmers’ access to new innovations. The research utilized relevant literature on the subject to better understand how the coronavirus pandemic has affected Agricultural Extension Services (AES) and farmers. The study also suggests various means through which Digital tools can be utilized in order to propel agricultural production in a time when Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) find it difficult to reach farmers. It was discovered that the pandemic creates opportunities for utilization of digital ICTs to contact farmers specifically when physical contacts are restricted. The utilization of Digital communication tools creates an enabling environment to access new agricultural innovations from any part of the world. AEAs can therefore transfer new innovations to farmers as well as other stakeholders in a challenging time as this and even beyond.

The U.S. Cooperative Extension System (USCES) faces some serious challenges. Its relevancy and necessity are under continuous scrutiny as the number of farmers and the political power of the agricultural vote diminishes. These challenges provide an excellent opportunity to explore alternative sources of funding for the USCES and methods of technology transfer to farmers. Our objectives were to review the process and results of commercialization (the transition to user-paid consultancy) and privatization (the transition from government to privately owened) of New Zealand's agricultural extension service. Full commercialization of the New Zealand extension service took nearly 9 yr (1986 to 1994) and 3 yr (1992 to 1995) of negotiating before it was sold to a private company. During the commercialization process, the market for paid advisors increased and many of them left the public extension service to become private agricultural consultants. Many farmers were initially unwilling to pay for consultancy services. On the other hand, implementation of advice and adoption of new technologies has been greater among farmers when advice and technology are purchased than when they are provided free. Since the commercialization of publicly funded extension, farmer cooperatives and commodity boards have begun to provide free or low cost services to transfer information to farmers. Educational models and goals, and client-advisor relationships have also changed as a result of user-pays. The commercialization and privatization of publicly funded agricultural extension is a relatively new process and its affect on the long-term sustainability of agriculture within a country are uncertain. Consequently, additional in-depth investigation into the process and its long-term consequences on agricultural productivity, profitability, and social well-being should be completed before initiating such a plan in the USA.

Agriculture and agricultural extension service are facing numerous problems in present times when good solutions are not easy to find. Providing of agricultural extension service is important foreign-political instrument of a state which has stimulates the development of agricultural production. Agricultural extension service must provide effective link between holdings-producers, agricultural research and other sources of information. Agricultural extension agents must be aware of psycho-social and social aspects of group action and individual counselling. Therefore, one of priorities in agricultural development of our country is rising of the level of extension operation and establishment of extension service based on modern principles. This is the reason why in this paper, some of the traits of the genesis of extension services were indicated, as well as types of extension services and models of the organization, financing and human resources at disposal and structuring of these resources according to main characteristics, for the purpose of modernization and agricultural and rural development.

Access to credit is essential for sustainable agricultural development. This paper evaluates the impact of formal and informal agricultural credit, access to extension services, and different combinations of agricultural credit and extension services on the economic outcomes of farming households in Afghanistan. This study applies a quasi-experimental approach (propensity score matching) and inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) analysis. The data comes from a survey of 277 randomly selected farming households in the three districts of rural Afghanistan. The results show that having access to formal agricultural credit has a positive and differentiated impact on the farming costs and net revenue of farming households. However, the effects increase when a farming household has access to both formal credit and extension services. The results also reveal that credit constraints affect farming costs and net revenue. The study provides some practical implications for agricultural development policymakers. First, formal agricultural credit affects farm revenue in rural Afghanistan. Second, the impact of credit bundled with agricultural extension services on farm revenue is higher than the impact of the provision of each service separately. Therefore, a more sustainable agricultural credit arrangement should be supplemented by extension services for farmers in Afghanistan.

This paper examines the effect of agricultural input subsidies (AIS) and agricultural extension services (AES) on farm labour productivity in plots planted with maize in Tanzania, using panel data from the National Panel Survey in Tanzania. To control for the endogeneity of the two programmes, a control function and instrumental variable approach is used to estimate the effects of AIS and AES on farm labour productivity. The results show that AIS and AES are significant in raising labour productivity in maize‐planted plots. Similarly, AIS and AES are also effective in increasing land productivity in these plots. Moreover, each programme has comparable effects on land productivity and farm labour productivity. These findings imply that public investments in AIS and AES are effective in raising farm productivity.

The paper focuses on the agricultural skills of black and coloured “emergent” farmers using municipal commonage land in South Africa. This paper is based on in-depth interviews with 28 commonage users, undertaken in Philippolis in the Southern Free State. The farmers are typically of modest financial means, and with a limited exposure to agriculture. The paper reflects on their livestock holdings, the amount of money they spend on their agricultural enterprises, and their reasons for farming. The profound need for agricultural guidance and extension services for these farmers is highlighted, because many of these farmers have no background in farming at all. Their current source of knowledge is primarily from their previous white commercial farming employers, and to a lesser extent, from their peers. The Department of Agriculture hardly features as a support institution, which raises far-reaching questions about the adequacy of current agricultural extension systems. Keywords : Municipalities, commonage, training, emergent farmers, extension services. South African Journal of Agricultural Extension Vol. 36 (1) 2007: pp. 190-202

Adoption studies have mainly focused on econometric and quantitative modelling that usually assume smallholder farmers competently adopt agricultural technologies. This study provides novel insights on user competency and frequency of usage of mobile telephony for agricultural extension services among smallholder farmers and agricultural extension agents (AEAs) and key factors that impede the adoption process. The study examined users’ competencies and mobile phone usage frequency for access and delivery of agricultural extension services in Eastern Ghana. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 95 AEAs and 330 smallholder farmers in five districts of the Eastern region of Ghana and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and regression analyses were performed to analyse the data. Results showed substantial differences between AEAs and smallholder farmers’ competency in the use of mobile phones for agricultural extension services. Socio-demographic characteristics of smallholder farmers and AEAs correlated with usage frequency of mobile phones for access to extension services and delivery. Educational level, amount of weekly expenditure of money on mobile phone use, mobile phone network quality, income level, and age of both AEAs and smallholder farmers had positive and significant correlations with frequency of usage of mobile phones. User competency differentially impacts the frequency of mobile phone use in agricultural extension services between AEAs and smallholders. High call tariffs and access to recharge cards are major challenges in using mobile phones for agricultural extension in the study areas. The study shows components of the adoption theory of compatibility, and complexity where an innovation fits within the socio-cultural framework and perceived difficulty of use. Thus, the frequent use of voice calls is indicative of early stages of the diffusion process and may diversify into other applications in the future. Farmer-based organisations should be resourced to support training of farmers to use mobile phones to improve access to agricultural information dissemination. Integrating voice-based agricultural information services (IVRs) into the current SMS-based agricultural extension services in Ghana could potentially boost extension service delivery to smallholder farmers in the Eastern region and across the country. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture may partner with key stakeholders and mobile service providers to offer hands-on capacity building to smallholder farmers and AEAs in video calling/conferencing, multimedia service, and social media to enhance their competencies for improved agricultural extension services.

While agriculture is integral to the development plans of many developing countries, the sector and those who work in it face several challenges. Additionally, even though agricultural extension and advisory service (AEAS) is prescribed as essential to addressing some of these challenges, the evidence base is thin, especially in Ghana, where most existing studies are based on cross-sectional, regional, and small-sample analyses. The absence of rigorous and generalizable analyses limits evidence-informed advocacy, planning, and decision-making on AEAS. To address this evidence gap, we analyze the effects of AEAS on poverty, assets, per capita consumption, and dietary diversity based on three waves of the nationally representative Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey. We find that AEAS is associated with a 28.3% increase in household and farm assets, 20% increase in value of per capita food consumption, and a 4.2% increase in household dietary diversity. Disaggregated by provider type, we also find that households receiving extension service advice from farmer-based organizations show the highest increase across these welfare outcomes. Despite these positive effects, our results show that the uptake of AEAS is generally low and especially from service providers other than government sources. Furthermore, those who received AEAS show null or negative results for poverty. These findings add to the body of evidence on the positive effects of access to agriculture advisory. We recommend that the government further strengthen the extension service system, specifically by encouraging uptake of extension services from government and non-government providers.

Despite the application and use of mobile and web-based technologies in improving access to information, the agricultural extension services still plays a key role in disseminating knowledge, technologies and agricultural information, and linking farmers with other stakeholders. However, limited access to extension services is the main factor causing decreased agricultural productivity. In Kenya the extension staff: farmer ratio is 1:1,500, a situation that hinders most farmers from accessing technological advances. A critical change agent is therefore required in transforming farming to modern and commercialized agriculture, promote household food security, improve income and reduce poverty. Virtual Agriculture Community (VAC) is a platform that provides access to agriculture information and training for both farmers and agriculture extension officers (AEO) through voice channel and supported by short message service for quizzes and multimedia short message service for graphical information. This paper discusses the application of innovative ICT tools that offer an effective solution that catalyses the information dissemination and knowledge transfer. It proposes Virtual Agricultural Community platform to provide remote access regular live and offline training of agriculture extension officers and farmers through mobile phones.