The Relevance of Customized Agricultural Extension Services for Social Inclusion and Food Security: A Showcase from Ethiopia

For the last six decades, Ethiopia has been implementing different agricultural extension approaches. These approaches range from area focused comprehensive package programme which selectively targeted high potential areas to modified Training and Visit extension and the recent nationwide participatory extension System. One thing in common in all these approaches is standardized advisory system characterised by ‘one size fits for all’ approaches which pushes selected package of technologies and extension messages to all classes of smallholder farmers. The study followed a comparative analysis of baseline and post interventions assessment using ‘one-timad extension package’ customised advisory service. One -timad extension package is exclusively designed for land constrained poor farmers on a quarter of a hectare land size with farmers preferred crop varieties, recommended fertilizer rate, practical training and Integrated Pest management. The pilots were implemented in four regional states of Ethiopia to get an insight for further engagement. The finding shows the need for advisory service to be inclusive; technology supply and services tailored to the multiple capacities and demands of different classes of small farmers. Hence, further piloting to new clients and areas is recommended for institutionalization of the approach.

Assessing the Impact of Participatory Extension Programme Membership on Farm Business Performance in Northern Ireland

This paper evaluates the impact of membership of the Business Development Groups (BDG), a participatory extension programme in Northern Ireland on the economic performance of participating farmers for dairy and sheep enterprise groups. The study employs the conditional difference-in-differences approach which combines a non-parametric matching estimator with a difference-in-differences analytical technique to obtain a credible best-estimates of the causal effect of BDG membership on farmers’ economic performance assuming that BDG participation is as good as random after controlling for observable farm characteristics and that the parallel trends assumption holds between BDG participants and non-participants. The results of the analyses showed that membership in the BDG programme has a statistically significant impact on the economic performance of participating farmers. Specifically, the results showed that farmers who are members of the dairy and sheep BDGs increased their gross margin by £109.10 and £17.10 per head respectively compared to farmers that are non-members of the BDGs. The results of the study provide robust evidence to inform policy development around the area of participatory extension programmes. It also supports the design of efficient agricultural education and extension systems that incorporates the ideas of the farmers themselves through peer-to-peer learning thereby maximising the economic and social benefits accruable from such programmes.

Transforming Extension and Service Delivery through Bottom-Up Climate Resilient Farmer Field School Approach to Agribusiness in Eastern Africa

There is consensus that climate variability and change is impacting food security in Eastern Africa, and that conventional extension approaches, based on top-down model of information dissemination and technology transfer, are too inadequate to help smallholder farmers tackle increasingly complex agro-climatic adversities. Innovative service delivery options exist but are mostly operated in silos with little effort to explore and blend them. There are efforts to develop a blended Climate-Resilient Farmers Field School methodology to address the gaps, with objective to improve participants’ knowledge, skills and attitude to apply the blended approach and to sensitize actors on what needs to be advocated at the policy level. Some 661 local trainers/facilitators (ToT/ToFs), 32% of them women and 54% youth, were trained across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, with additional 76 Master Trainers (MToTs) trained to backstop the ToT/ToFs. Through the implementation, the process reached 36 agribusinesses covering some 237,250 smallholder farmers trained across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda on CSA technologies, practices, and innovations by the end of 2020. The blended approach offers lessons to transform extension to help farmers improve food security and resilience. Preliminary findings indicate that the process is rapidly shaping individual adaptive behavior and group adaptive thinking. Lessons also show a strong need for agronomists to work more closely with agro-meteorologists to ensure that farmers are properly guided to participate appropriately in the co-generation and application of climate information and agro-weather advisories, which they can interpret easily and utilize for their agricultural production purposes. Experience from this initiative can be leveraged to develop scalable participatory extension and training models

Nerica Rice Technology Acquisition through Community Agriculture Development Project in Semi Arid Lands (CADSAL) of Kerio Valley, Kenya

The aim of Community Agriculture Development Project in Semi-Arid Lands (CADSAL) in Kerio valley was to increase agricultural production in the project area and it used Community Participatory Extension (CPE) approach. A survey methodology was utilized in the study with target population of 480 small-scale farmers who interacted with the project in Kerio valley locations. The objective of the study was to determine and compare the level of performance between the CADSAL participants and non-CADSAL participants in knowledge acquired in NERICA technologies in Kerio Valley of Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. A sample of 160 comprising 80 CADSAL-Participants and 80 Non-CADSAL participants was chosen using simple random sampling. A structured questionnaire was administered through personal interviews to the respondents at their homes. Descriptive statistics was used to compute percentages, means and standard deviations. Inferential statistics was used which included multiple linear regression and t-test to test the hypothesis at α = 0.05. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for SocialSciences (SPSS) Version 24.0. The result indicated positive acquisition of NERICA technologies by the community using community participatory extension approach. The t-test p-value of less than 0.05 was achieved upon analysis of data which led to rejection of all the null hypothesis. This means further that community extension approach was key in enhancing the level of acquisition of technology by the farmers and hence extension agents need to utilize participatory approach. The study outcome therefore encourages Community participation in the projects meant to increase knowledge of food production in order to increase food production, accessibility and income both in productivity and diversity of production hence sustainability.

The Role of Creative Social Energy in Strengthening Ecological Adaptation Capacity Through Community Empowerment

Investments in large companies engaged in natural resource management have the potential to cause conflict, which requires an alternative model of conflict potential management. This study aims to analyze the development of creative social energy as an alternative to managing potential conflicts through empowering community food security. This study uses a participatory action study method for community empowerment and cybernetic triangulation methods in extracting data. Communities in the company's operational Ring1 area carried out community empowerment efforts by placing extension workers as community assistants. The results of the study show that community empowerment through a participatory extension approach is effective in supporting the realization of community welfare through increased income. Participatory community empowerment is effective in developing creative social energy. There is a close relationship between community empowerment and strengthening creative social energy and increasing the ecological adaptation capacity of society to the dynamics of environmental change. The ecological adaptation capacity of the community develops in line with the level of community empowerment. Community empowerment through effective participatory counseling is a model for managing potential conflicts in CSR programs. Extension workers with participatory community empowerment competencies are a key factor in the success of community empowerment.

Photovoice as a Participatory Extension Approaches Method in Expressing Youth Views of Agricultural Work

This study aims to: 1) reveal the views of youth regarding agricultural issues through photovoice and 2) evaluate photovoice as a Participatory Extension Approaches (PEA) method. This study uses the photovoice method. The premise of photovoice is to empower people through documentary photography. Photovoice is a method of placing cameras in the hands of people whose voices are often silenced by the power elite. The subjects of this study were grouped into two, namely main informants and supporting informants. Data collection techniques were carried out by in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The results showed that photovoice is a method that empowers youth by increasing the ability of youth to express their views, thoughts, concerns and hopes regarding agricultural issues which are described through agricultural potential, farming problems and agricultural work. The application of the Participatory Extension Approaches method through the photovoice method is the most appropriate method in the community empowerment process, because in the process of making it aware of the problems and potentials that exist in people's lives, which not only makes the community the object of change, but also as the agent of change.

Investigating the Drivers of Farmers’ Engagement in a Participatory Extension Programme: The Case of Northern Ireland Business Development Groups

Participatory agricultural extension programmes aimed at encouraging knowledge transfer and the adoption of new technology and innovation at the farm level are a novel approach to advisory service provision. In order to drive sustainable agricultural production systems that address farm-level economic and environmental objectives, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) in November 2015, developed a new participatory extension programme for farmers in Northern Ireland, the Business Development Groups (BDGs). The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyse the drivers of farmers’ decisions in relation to joining and participating in this new approach to farm extension, learning and advisory service provision. Making use of data from both primary and secondary sources, this study employs a mixed-methods approach which involves an empirical analysis of quantitative and qualitative data to examine the factors influencing membership of the BDG programme. The results of our analyses show that larger, more intensive farmers who are keen to access information from other farmers to improve their business performance are most likely to participate in the BDG programme. The study contributes to the empirical literature by establishing the need to take into consideration the different characteristics of farmers in the design and delivery of participatory extension programmes.