Public Agricultural Extension Research Articles

Influence of public agricultural extension on technology adoption by small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe

This paper presents the findings of challenges facing Zimbabwe’s extension services and how these have affected the adoption of technologies they render to small-scale farmers. This study uses a critical review of relevant literature on Zimbabwe’s primary public extension agency (AGRITEX). Additionally, 21 key informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted to corroborate data collected in secondary research on extension approaches currently in use, the key factors affecting technology adoption, and the technology adoption process of small-scale farmers. The study found AGRITEX’s major challenges to be poor funding, poor remuneration and incentives for extension personnel, lack of in-service training, lack of appropriate technology, as well as poor operational resources like transport to reach all farmers. Consequently, services offered to small-scale farmers were compromised, which led to poor adoption of recommended technologies. Furthermore, the study determined that key factors influencing technology adoption are related to the farmers’ circumstances, the operating environment, and the attributes of technology itself. As a lasting solution to poor technology adoption, an adaptive extension system that promotes building the capacity of extension workers and researchers, as well as embracing farmers and their indigenous knowledge, is proposed.

Smallholder farmers willingness to pay for privatized agricultural extension services in Tigray National Regional State, Ethiopia

This study assessed farmers’ willingness to pay for privatization of agricultural extension services and examined factors that determine willingness to pay for those services. Multistage sampling procedure was used in selecting 240 households. Data were collected using household survey, focus group discussion and key informant interview tools. Data were analyzed using percentage and logit model. Results showed that 58% of the respondents were willing to pay for the privatization of agricultural extension services. Farm size, age, family size, credit access, frequency of extension contact and income were significantly influenced farmers’ willingness to pay for privatization of agricultural extension services. Privatization of agricultural extension services encourages graduates of agricultural sciences to launch consultancy firms and this engenders professional entrepreneurship. Number of visits, socioeconomic, and institutional factors must be given emphasis for privatizing the agricultural extension service in Ethiopia. Moreover, government should launch privatization parallel to the public agricultural extension services
 Keywords: Agricultural extension service, willingness, privatization. Ethiopia

Technical and Economic Factors Affecting Losses in Sweet Cherry Production: A Case Study from Turkey

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting losses in sweet cherry production. The research was carried out in the Kemalpaşa district of Izmir province, which is one of Turkey’s most important sweet cherry production centers. The research data were obtained from face-to-face questionnaires with 102 farmers. Losses in production derive from poor practices in three distinct stages of activity on the farm: pre-harvesting, harvesting, and post-harvest processes. Ordinal Logistic Regression Analysis was used to determine the technical and economic factors affecting these losses. Results indicate that “experience of sweet cherry production,” “experience in agriculture in general,” “quantity of production” and “certified production” had a significant negative effect on sweet cherry losses. “Technical problems in production” and “reasons for sweet cherry crop losses” had a significant positive effect on sweet cherry losses. It is thought that promoting certified production methods such as Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and organic farming, increasing the effectiveness of public agricultural extension services and agricultural organizations will have a positive effect in reducing rates of loss and improving quality.

ICT Application in Transforming Agricultural Extension Information Service Delivery in Tana River County, Kenya

Agricultural Extension includes dissemination of information on farming to farmers in order to help them improve agricultural productivity. A premise exists that if extension programmes are well planned and delivered, they will enhance farming efficiency and output by providing farmers with agricultural information that will help them to utilize their limited production resources. This paper examines how ICT application could help transform public extension service delivery and improve the skills of public agricultural extension service providers and in so doing increase small farmers’ access to agricultural information. This study is set in the Tana River County in Kenya, considered agricultural sector growth and development as vital to the County’s economic stability and community progress. However, while determined efforts in uplifting extension, and firming up their linkage with other actors in agricultural value chains were recognized as important to the future of agricultural development in the county, there is still a lack of evidence of a clear relationship between agricultural productivity and extension services. There was also no clear evidence that small farmers in the county were receiving sufficient extension services to sustainably undertake farming for improved productivity and food safety. While the application of ICTs in agricultural extension was found to be limited, the research acknowledged its important role in facilitating access to agricultural information by providing farmers with timely and relevant agricultural information. The study considered the necessary requirements for setting up an effective agricultural extension information system and it is assumed that this will add credibility to the policy agenda for agricultural extension and communication for rural development.

South African National Climate Change Response Policy Sensitization: An Assessment of Smallholder Farmers in Amathole District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province

The South African National Climate Change Response Policy (NCCRP) was instituted in October 2011. Amongst the policy’s priorities is building capacity and resilience in the country’s agricultural sector, with the public agricultural extension system being a principal component for climate change sensitization, education, and capacity building. This study, therefore, investigated the level of the policy awareness amongst smallholder farmers in the study area and the sensitization and response implementation. A multistage sampling procedure was used in the selection of the study population, with a cross-sectional household survey conducted using semi-structured questionnaires. Findings revealed that there was an extremely low awareness of the policy, and a dearth of sensitization campaigns and capacity-building training by extension officers in the study area. The practical and policy implications outlined could aid an increase in the resilience of farmers, with support from extension advisers and other relevant stakeholders.

Knowledge Management Practices, Challenges and Coping Strategies Adopted by Public Agricultural Extension: A Case of Nandi-Hills Sub-County, Nandi County, Kenya

Aims: Knowledge Management (KM) in agriculture is a core aspect of agricultural productivity and profitability, but is one area with scanty literature. The aim of the current study was to determine the knowledge management practices, challenges and coping strategies adopted by public agricultural extension agents in Nandi-hills Sub-county, Nandi County, Kenya under a fairly new devolved system put in place by the constitution of Kenya in 2010.
 Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional case study survey design was adopted for the study.
 Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Nandi-hills Sub-County, Nandi County, Kenya. Data were collected between January and April, 2019.
 Methodology: All the Extension agents in the Sub-county were targeted. A questionnaire with closed and open ended questions was used to collect data from the 32 participants in the Sub-county and the data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Descriptive statistics were utilized to document the practises based on their frequencies and associations. 7% of the respondents were certificate holders, 37% were diploma holders while a majority; 56% were degree holders. Associations between attributes was analysed by running Goodman and Kruskals’ gamma.
 Results: Findings indicated that lack of organized knowledge sharing fora, poor ICT infrastructure, lack of budgetary support and transport were the major challenges facing knowledge management. There was strong negative correlation between education levels with rating of knowledge storage (Gamma = - 0.647, p = 0.001) and with access to stored information (Gamma = - 0.824, p = 0.001).
 Conclusion: Diverse methods of knowledge capture and storage were utilized and faced varied challenges mostly attributed to inadequate facilitation to support knowledge capture and storage in modern forms such as ICT. Cooperation and collaboration with private sector players was adopted as a strategy to cope with the challenges.

User-centred design of a digital advisory service: enhancing public agricultural extension for sustainable intensification in Tanzania

ABSTRACT Sustainable intensification (SI) is promoted as a rural development paradigm for sub-Saharan Africa. Achieving SI requires smallholder farmers to have access to information that is context-specific, increases their decision-making capacities, and adapts to changing environments. Current extension services often struggle to address these needs. New mobile phone-based services can help. In order to enhance the public extension service in Tanzania, we created a digital service that addresses smallholder farmers’ different information needs for implementing SI. Using a co-design methodology – User-Centered Design – we elicited feedback from farmers and extension agents in Tanzania to create a new digital information service, called Ushauri. This automated hotline gives farmers access to a set of pre-recorded messages. Additionally, farmers can ask questions in a mailbox. Extension agents then listen to these questions through an online platform, where they record and send replies via automated push-calls. A test with 97 farmers in Tanzania showed that farmers actively engaged with the service to access agricultural advice. Extension agents were able to answer questions with reduced workload compared to conventional communication channels. This study illustrates how User-Centered Design can be used to develop information services for complex and resource-restricted smallholder farming contexts.

An assessment of the use of agricultural marketing extension among extension methods: Insight from Jordan

This study aimed at assessing the use of agricultural marketing extension services among extension methods provided by public agricultural extension agents in Jordan. A sample survey of public agricultural extension agents was conducted covering the whole Agricultural Directorates in the country. The survey employed a structured questionnaire with pre-coded questions. The entire sample consists of 107 agricultural extension agents. To achieve its goals qualitative as well as quantitative analytical procedures were adopted in this study. A Four point likert-scales was used to compute the respondents overall mean score. The study provided empirical evidence about the lack of agricultural marketing extension among extension methods used by public extension agents in Jordan. Public extension agents in Jordan consider agricultural marketing extension with low priority during their extensive activity. Public agricultural extension activities should be directed to enhance marketing extension activities. Extension methods such as newspapers, radio, TV, mobile, internet and experts systems should be strongly considered to spread marketing knowledge to the farmers. Public agricultural extension activities should be directed to enhance marketing extension activities. Extension methods such as newspapers, radio, TV, mobile, internet and experts systems should be strongly considered to spread marketing knowledge to the farmers.

Farmers' perceptions of climate variability, their adaptation strategies and agricultural productivity: a case of Limpopo province, South Africa

ABSTRACT The provision of farm management decision support and advisory services to insure climate resilient agricultural production systems, especially for subsistence farmers, depends on data on such producers. The main objective of the paper was to generate such data by comparing the status quo regarding dryland, subsistence grain farmers' perceptions of climate variability, their adaptation strategies and crop productivity. Using a survey questionnaire, the comparison was made across time (2014 and 2017) in selected municipalities of Limpopo province. The findings across time and aggregated for all the different local municipalities investigated were similar regarding respondents' perceptions of climate variability, adaptation strategies used and crop productivity. The perceptions revealed that respondents were aware of the reality of climate variability and its negative effects on their crop and livestock production, Agricultural productivity amongst extension and non-extension recipients was low, with minimal differences. These findings auger well for the development of common strategies to improve the effectiveness of the support for farm management including climate variability that is provided by the public agricultural extension service to the group of producers in this study to reduce the negative effects of climate variability on their crop productivity. This will eventually help to improve their food security. Keywords: Perceptions, Climate variability, Productivity, Spatial and temporal variation, Subsistence farming.

Agricultural Extension Services as Private Sector in Poultry Production: A Case Study of <i>Aljafarah</i> and Surrounding Areas, Libya

The present work was conducted in poultry production units in Aljafarah area, Libya. The objective of this paper was to illustrate the role that played by the private agricultural extension represented in units of veterinary services consultations, the veterinary pharmacies and advisory services offices in the field of poultry production. The population of this paper represented by total number of actual producers of poultry in the site, total number of units of veterinary services, and advisory guidance of the private sector. A number of 30 extension worker at private sector extension units and 138 from poultry producers were selected as sample size. A closed ended questionnaire was designed to collect the data from the two groups of the study. The collected data were analyzed using frequency distribution, percentage and chi square test. Results showed that more than 50% of the poultry producers have depended only on the private sector agricultural extension units as a main source of information concerning their work; also most of the respondents (98.6%) had a positive assessment for the private sector extension. Most of the private extension (76.6%) offered no training to their staff members. Half of the respondents in private extension were sometimes involved in dissemination of innovations. The results extended to reveal that there was a significant association and dependency in the positive direction between research centers and dissemination of research results by private extension among poultry producers. Also, there was a very high significant association between techniques adopted by the poultry producers and the techniques which had been promoted by the private sector extension. The findings of this paper revealed that the private agricultural extension has played an important role and resulted in a positive impact in the field of poultry production. It helped to disseminate, promote innovation, new techniques and training to producers in addition to their supervision and follow up of poultry producers. This had led producers to increase production and increase their incomes. It is recommended that the ministry of agriculture should improve the activities of the public agricultural extension, facilitate and support the private extension work. Also the private extension units should train their staff and equip them with appropriate knowledge and skills.

Policy options for Agriculture Green Development by farmers in China

Farmers are the key agents who manage land and water. Agriculture Green Development (AGD) requires a transformation in farming from high resource consumption and environmental cost to sustainable intensification with high productivity, high resource use efficiency and low environmental risk. This paper analyzes the public policy challenge of AGD and makes the case for a location-sensitive policy mix made up of regulation, advice provision, voluntarism and targeted incentives. The public agricultural extension service in China is a key resource, but one that requires reorientation and reform with the aim of better balancing high farm productivity with environmental protection.

Small businesses, potentially large impacts

PurposeConstraints associated with public agricultural extension services imply that farmers increasingly rely on input providers for agricultural innovations and knowledge. Yet such providers are typically commercial profit-making agents and may have an incentive to suggest relatively costly inputs and/or high rates. The purpose of this paper is to look into the case of Bangladesh and the role of fertilizer traders in terms of farmers’ decisions on which fertilizer to apply and at what rate. Using primary data, the authors examine farmers’ chemical fertilizer use and the associated rice production efficiency, based on different information sources (fertilizer traders, government extension agents or own/peer experience).Design/methodology/approachUsing primary data, the present study estimates an ordered probit model and production functions separately based on whether or not a farmer relied on information from fertilizer traders or own experience and government extension agents, and examines the efficiency score of each type of farmer.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that the resource-poor farmers rely more on traders’ suggestions for fertilizer application than public extension – but the actual fertilizer information source has no significant effect on the production efficiency of the rice farmers. This study, therefore, does not find exploitative behavior of fertilizer traders. Thus, this study concludes that small rural traders in Bangladesh are working as agricultural extension agents and provide necessary fertilizer application information to resource-poor farmers.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a case study based on Bangladesh – an emerging economy in South Asia. The findings of the study may not be generalized for other countries.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that confirms the role of agricultural input sellers as the extension agent in developing countries.

Social inclusion of rural-rural migrant arable crop farmers and agriculture production in Delta State, Nigeria

ABSTRACTThis study was conceptualised to determine the influence of social inclusion on rural-rural migrant arable crop farmers’ level of agricultural production. A sample of 254 rural-rural migrant arable crop farmers identified by key informants. Findings revealed farmers had a mean age of 45 and were mostly married females who had completed secondary education, had an average of 15 years farming experience. Average farm size was 2.5ha and annual mean crop output ranged from 1000 to 25,000 kg (1–25 metric tons). Most had membership in farmers’ groups and contact with two extension agents monthly. Their level of social inclusion at a community level was lower (inclusion index = 0.68) than at the farmers’ group level (inclusion index = 0.85). Social inclusion of rural-rural migrant farmers achieved significance to level of crop output at the farmers’ group level. Socioeconomic attributes, such as gender, marital status, level of formal education, years of farming experience in host communities, and monthly extension contact, contributed to farmers’ level of social inclusion. It is recommended that social inclusion of rural-rural migrant farmers in their host communities should be encouraged and sustained; social inclusion of migrant farmers in farmers’ groups should also be sustained and encouraged by the public agricultural extension agency and related non-governmental organisations, with those in communities that had not subscribed to membership of such groups encouraged to do so.

Effectiveness of mKRISHI® Personalised Advisory on Water and Soil (PAWS) in dissemination of agricultural information in north-western Himalayan region

The effectiveness of an extension system referred to its ability to meet the farmer needs in providing the new technology which suits to their conditions and results in better production. Recently the demand for information on agricultural practices and technology among the farmers is increasing day by day but fulfilment of these demands exclusively by public agricultural extension system is limited. To address this challenge, information communication technology (ICT) has the immense role in supplementing the extension system. Among the ICT tools, mobile phone, because of its affordability, accessibility, minimum skill requirement, widespread network etc., has emerged as important tool for information and knowledge dissemination to the smallholder and marginal farmers. But it is necessary to study how effective they are in achieving the respective objectives.The present investigation was conducted to study the effectiveness of mKRISHI® PAWS (Personalised Advisory on Water and Soil) in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state. An ex-post facto research design was used for this study. Total 136 messages were sent to the respondents. The data was collected from 240 beneficiary farmers of the north-western Himalayan region. The effectiveness of the mKRISHI® PAWS in technology advisory and delivery services were measured by developing an effectiveness index for the purpose. Results showed that 93.8% of farmers perceive that quality of information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was excellent and 83.75% of the farmers felt that the information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was appropriate to their condition. The study revealed that the extension services delivered by mKRISHI® PAWS were found to be highly effective by majority of the farmers. 34.58% farmers perceived that the mKRISHI® PAWS was very highly effective as a mean of getting their information needs.

Evaluation of South Africa's public agricultural extension in the context of sustainable agriculture

South Africa’s public agricultural extension services evolved from as early as the beginning of 1900. Agricultural extension is now recognised as a science by the South African Council of Natural Science Profession (SACNASP). This paper presents a philosophical argument that the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices should remain the domain of public extension and advisory services. To provide context, the paper firstly defines agricultural extension and the role extension could play in promoting the five pillars of sustainable agriculture. Secondly, it evaluates the national policy on extension and advisory services to determine the extent to which it addresses the framework of the five pillars for sustainable agriculture. Thirdly, the paper evaluates the Extension Recovery Plan (ERP), norms and standards for agricultural extension and the National Development Plan (NDP) against the framework of sustainable agriculture. The evaluation indicates that only three pillars of sustainability are emphasised. There is a need to subdivide the traditional pillars to align with the full framework for sustainability. The initial findings suggest that, while South Africa’s agricultural extension policy often refers to sustainability and even to sustainable agriculture, they do so using the traditional three-pillared framework of economic, environmental and social sustainability, and thus fall short on key elements essential to sustainable agriculture, namely maintaining and increasing biological productivity, decreasing the level of risk to ensure larger security, protecting the quality of natural resources, ensuring agricultural production is economically viable, and ensuring agricultural production is socially acceptable. The paper also explores government initiatives to support extension and advisory services. Finally, this paper concludes by emphasising that the national policy on extension and advisory services should be amended to suit the five pillars of sustainable agriculture. Keywords: Sustainable agriculture, extension and advisory services, extension, pillars of sustainability, agricultural policy

Perception and understanding of agricultural extension: perspective of farmers and public agricultural extension in Taba Nchu

Perception and understanding of agricultural extension: perspective of farmers and public agricultural extension in Taba Nchu

English

This paper examines technological challenges of the agricultural extension in North Gondar Zone of Ethiopia. Understanding technological gaps in public agricultural extension helps to devise demand driven and compatible technologies to existing contexts of farmers. The study used cross sectional survey using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Data were generated from primary and secondary sources using household survey from randomly taken households, focus group discussions, key informant interview, observation and review of relevant documents and empirical works. The result of study shows that there are mismatches between needs of smallholders in crop and livestock production and available agricultural technologies delivered by public agricultural extension system. The existing agricultural technologies are limited and unable to meet the diverse needs of farm households. On the other hand, some of agricultural technologies in place are not appropriate to existing context because of top-down recommendations than need based innovation approaches. Key words: Agriculture extension, challenge, mismatch, smallholder, technology.

Public agricultural extension workers as boundary workers: identifying sustainability perspectives in agriculture using Q-methodology

ABSTRACTPurpose: To provide farmers with access to salient knowledge on sustainability that could contribute positively to farmers’ livelihoods, there is a need for knowledge facilitators. This paper examines the role of public extension workers as boundary workers in Indonesia on sustainable agriculture and challenges around them.Design/methodology/approach: To identify sustainability perspectives, this research uses Q-methodology which analyzes individual perspectives on sustainability, their differences, and similarities. This research also employs focus group discussions and interviews. In three regions in Indonesia.Findings: Q-method resulted in two perspectives. The technologists perceive sustainable agriculture as food security and the use of organic pesticides. They also believe that the responsibility for sustainable agriculture lies with extension workers and governments. The environmentalists believe the concept of sustainability implies the active prevention of environmental degradation. They also believe that everybody should take responsibility for sustainability. The paper determines that boundary work needs highly motivated extension workers; the ability to gain trust from farmers; and government support.Theoretical implication: This paper contributes to the literature on boundary work by connecting the concept of boundary work to agricultural extension.Practical implication: The results may be used as inputs for Indonesian policymakers to develop a guideline on sustainable agriculture for extension workers.Originality/value: In current studies on extension workers in developing countries, an analytical framework which employs the concept of boundary work is hardly found. Boundary work is a relevant concept to depict challenges extension workers are confronted with when brokering. Q-methodology aims to obtain individual perspective on a particular issue. This research provides insight on individual perspectives of extension workers on sustainable agriculture.

Agricultural Extension: Challenges of Extension service for rural poor and youth in Amhara Region, North Western Ethiopia. The Case of North Gondar Zone

Ethiopia is one of the countries on the African continent with highest agricultural potential. Its natural resources base is the foundation of any economic development, food security and other basic necessities of its people. Predominantly smallholder agriculture is the dominant sector of the national economy. Smallholder agriculture is the dominant sector of the national economy. To boost the production and productivity of the agriculture sector; the extension systems is expected to play paramount role. However, the agricultural system is still characterized by low level of Agricultural service delivery practice that couldn’t move the existing traditional agriculture in to modern. The objective of the study is toexamine constraints in addressing women farmers and rural youth and to assess constraints of extension system in promoting agricultural technologies to farmers in the study area. Primary and Secondary data was collected for the study purpose. In addition to respondents’ interview, focus group discussion, key informants interview and case studies were used for qualitative data analysis. Descriptive statistics of mean, standard devotions and percent was applied. For statistical tests, chi-square, T-test, Pearson and spearman’s correlation coefficient were employed. As a conclusion, the challenges of existing public agricultural extension service provision institutional, technological and technical and in terms of addressing cross-cutting issues such as environment and gender as theses have wider contexts to look into existing endogenous and exogenous constraints.

THE ROLE OF COMPETENCY DIMENSIONS AND ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT IN CLIMATE CHANGE ADVISORY SERVICE DELIVERY

Agricultural sector is vital not only to the livelihood of Malaysian farmers but also to Malaysian economy. However, the sector is currently being threatened by environmental phenomenon in form of climate change. Majority of Malaysian farmers are small-holders who rely mostly on extension workers for information and advisory services. Hence, it is the job of these extension workers to facilitate adaptation among their clientele. This study assessed the factors influencing the performance of such job among the extension workers. The study sought to establish the role of relevant factors in effective performance. The factors have been tested separately previously, but this study brought them together to assess their respective contributions. The research design was quantitative cross-sectional survey of public agricultural extension personnel in Peninsular Malaysia. Data was obtained from 328 extension personnel. It was analysed using descriptive and inferential techniques. The results revealed that extension workers with higher core and adaptation-specific competencies; more work experience and younger in age are predicted to be more effective in job performance and facilitating climate change adaptation among clients.