ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO FARMERS USE OF EXTENSION

1. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO FARMERS USE OF EXTENSION • INTRODUCTION • Extension approaches are presented here in terms of their most important organizational forms and their respective goals. • The goal system reflects the power positions of various groups of actors. • The historical developments of the interest groups involved, present achievements and shortcomings of extension approaches would enable students to evaluate extension.

2. EXTENSION GOALS • Goals reflect the interest of stake holders and differ according to specific life situations, power positions and development philosophies. • The prominent features of a system are influenced by its set goals and must be evaluated in terms of their contribution to goal achievement.

3. Extension goals cont. • Main actors within the extension system are the members of rural communities, extension and other development personnel, researchers and staff of commercial or public service and support organizations • Empirical evidence shows a variety of forms within these groups. • The variety of forms suggest a similar variety of goals, and either can be used to classify extension approaches.

4. Ext. goals cont. • In practice one finds an almost inseparable mixture of goals inhibiting a clear – cut classification. • The respective goals are treated as a continuum. • The two end points of this continuum are technology transfer and human resource development.

5. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER • Until the end of the eighteenth century, farming systems techniques developed gradually and steadily over centuries with a few qualitative leaps. • Colonialism and imperial expansion introduced innovations in maize, tobacco and potatoes, but experimentation and dissemination of knowledge were basically at the local farm level.

6. Technology transfer cont. • The rise of agricultural science induced dramatic changes in this respect. • Increasingly, new technology has been created outside the actual farming sector by public sector research organizations • Recently private firms in industrialized economies find agricultural technology research and development a highly profitable business.

7. Tech transfer cont. • For decades the research – extension – farmer linkage especially in developing countries, was based on a rather simple model. • To achieve development, “modern” research results had to be transferred to the “traditional” farmer, and extension seemed to be the appropriate means to do so.

8. Tech transfer cont. • General faith in extension and modernization led to discrediting of indigenous knowledge. • Farming systems research and “rediscovery” of farmers’ knowledge have shown that “improved” technology is a package of inputs and practices that usually comes from many sources.

9. Tech transfer cont. • For the local farmer the increasing problems such as the degradation of marginal land surpass their problem solving capabilities. • New priorities have to be set and their knowledge systems rather have to be built, as compared to information transfer by extension agents.

10. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT • Human resource development is much broader than that of technology transfer though both are closely interrelated. • New skills are needed as a result of increasing complexities of technologies and life situation of farmers. • Teaching the basic skills of literacy and numeracy has not been an extension activity.

11. Human resource devt. cont. • Limited success of literacy programmes in developing countries has drawn attention to non formal education in which extension has an important part to play. • Importantly extension has to teach managerial and organizational skills that will enable farmers to increasingly solve their problems.

12. Human resource cont. • HRD aims at what may be called “critical competence.” • Extension should extend HRD to under-privileged groups with less access to formal or vocational education – women farmers, rural youth and small scale farmers in remote areas.

13. ALT. WAYS OF ORGANIZING EXT. • These alternative ways of organizing extension demand choices between the following: • Public versus private • Government versus non government • Top-down (bureaucratic) versus bottom – up (participatory • Profit versus non profit • Free versus cost - recovery

14. Alt, ways of ext cont. • General versus sector • Multi-purpose versus single purpose • Technology driven versus need oriented.

15. 1. GENERAL CLIENTELE APPROACHES • The general clientele approaches include: • Ministry- based general extension • Training and visit extension • The Integrated (project) Approach • University – Based extension and • Animation Rurale

16. Ministry – Based General Extension • Before or after independence, organizing agricultural extension under the wings of the Ministry of agriculture seemed to be ideal for many African and Asian governments. • The original colonial model combined extension and research within the same organization

17. Ministry based ext. cont. • There was thus the systematic expansion of the “top down” approach to the village level • The general nature of extension as practised led to the compounding of problems of non commercial farmers. • Failure resulted due to contradictory nature of goals

18. Ministry based ext cont. • Public interest implies serving farmers and the urban population, securing subsistence production and promotion of cash crops, reaching the masses of rural households, and serving the needs of specific groups etc. • These hampered the realization of the full potential of extension. Priority setting for research was rarely based on extension field evaluations, because it did not make room for critical upward communication.

19. Ministry based ext. Cont. • More extension workers select the more responsive section of their clientele, due to many challenges faced: fulfilling production plans, improve job satisfaction etc. • Decision making was highly centralized and formalized

20. TRAINING AND VISIT EXTENSION • This is one way to organize ministry – based extension. • It was primarily meant to solve some very specific problems of conventional extension services. • In criticizing the T & V system, Bennor and Harrison found the following:

21. T & V • An inadequate internal organizational structure • Inefficiency of extension personnel • Inappropriateness or irrelevance of extension content • Dilution of extension impact

22. T & V cont. • Implementation of this concept was difficult due to the following: • The contact farmer concept failed • Extension agents were blamed for selecting wrong contact farmers • It was top-down leaving little possibility for participation and initiative • Messages passed were of little relevance to existing local conditions

23. THE INTEGRATED (PROJECT) APPROACH • It aimed at influencing the entire rural development process. • It was implemented in the form of large scale and foreign funded projects aimed at alleviating mass poverty in rural areas on the basis of a “simultaneous improvement in the utilization of natural resources and of human potential.”

24. Int. Approach cont. • The key concept is the availability of locally adapted solutions established on a common basis. • This required participatory technology identification, test and dissemination, active role by the change agency in mediating between different institutions involved and their interests.

25. UNIVERSITY BASED EXTENSION • This is generally practiced in the USA and India where there is an integration of the educational institutions into practical extension work. • In most countries the contribution of educational institutions to extension will be the training of qualified, dedicated, and responsible personnel

26. University based extension cont. • Remarkable features are direct assessment of client needs, user oriented research, quality training for state personnel, and a strong linkage between academic education and field practice. • Regular workshops are organized for parties concerned: extension officers, researchers and outstanding farmers.

27. ANIMATION RURALE • This gained importance in Francophone countries • AR was an answer to the authoritarian and often repressive nature of intervention before independence • AR relied on voluntary collaborators called animateurs

28. A.R. cont. • Animators were selected by the villagers themselves and they have to be those well respected in their communities. • Their task was to initiate discussions within the communities on local needs and objectives, thus empowering rural people for a dialogue with the state.