African Forum for Agricultural

Advisory Services

Silim M. Nahdy (PhD) - Executive Director, AFAAS

&

Mr. Max Olupot-Technical Assistant

AFAAS Presentation- NEPAD CAADP WORKSHOP

25-28 February 2013

Dar Es Salaam - Tanzania

www.afaas-africa.org

STATE OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES IN

SUB -SAHARAN AFRICA, IMPLICATIONS FOR NUTRITION

Outline

• Agricultural Extension and Advisory

Service –AEAS in Context

• State of AEAS in Sub Saharan Africa

• Capacity development

• Recommendations

• Conclusion

AEAS in Context

• Three-quarters of the world's poorest billion people live

in rural areas & depend on agriculture for their

livelihoods;

• Agriculture and rural development are uniquely

important for improving nutrition for smallholders;

• Smallholder farmers, fisher-folk and livestock keepers

produce 50–80% of the staple foods consumed in

developing countries,

• Poverty is still pervasive in SSA

Climate change & soil degradation

Poverty & Nutrition in

Africa Low / poor agricultural

productivity/quality Low level of capacity

Poor market orientation

Policy environment Conflicts

AEAS in Context…..

Africa’s Performance in Global Development AEAS in Context

AEAS in Context …. • AEAS play a significant role in stimulating;

– economic Growth,

– reducing poverty, and

– improving food and nutrition security in Africa;

YET AEAS is Inadequately emphasized

• AEAS therefore needs to be revitalized and to deploy

a variety of innovative methods to facilitate access of

farm families and their organizations to;

– knowledge and information

– relevant technologies for household food security and

nutrition

– for interactions amongst stakeholders

AEAS in Context........

Revitalization of AEAS for greater impact: focus of

reforms;

o putting in place a demand for services- inclusive of

nutrition, incomes, natural resources mgt

o market-driven service provision system,

o decentralizing service delivery and improving

accountability to clients

o promoting increased participation of the private sector

o promoting pluralism in provision of services.

National AEAS in SSA

• National AEAS systems worldwide have

undergone major changes during the past

two decades

• AEAS continues to evolve based on context

• Originally extension was conceived as a

service to “extend” research-based

knowledge to the rural sector to improve the

lives of farmers

National AEAS …….

Widening role of AEAS

• components of:

o technology transfer and

o broader rural development goals (management skills, and

non-formal education- household as unit of focus)

• AEAS arena:

o go beyond technology transfer to facilitation;

o go beyond training to education,

o assisting farmer groups to form and organise,

o dealing with household food and nutrition security

o marketing issues

o partnering with a broad range of service providers, other agencies and private sector.

Inappropriate

funding

approaches

Farmers who

are not

empowered

Widening scope

of AAS

Inability to target

poverty and

gender

Ineffective

demand for AAS

Environmental

degradation and

climate change

Poor Market

Orientation ?!

Challenges Facing African AEA

Unsupportive Policies

and inappropriate

institutional

arrangements

Inappropriate

AAS delivery

approaches

Low

organisational

& Institutional

Capacities

Supporting

pluralism

Status of EAS in Sub Saharan Africa - SSA

Extension and advisory services is weak , mainly

as a result of many years of public negligence.

However;

• Reforms are being undertaken including

appropriate policies and strategies

• Instead of a single model several models of

EAS are being used for different situations

• New extension approaches are emerging

based on experimentation, learning, and

adaptation to prevailing circumstances

State of Extension in SSA - contd

• Partnerships for varied skills and

competencies to provide integrated support

(technical, organizational, marketing,

nutrition aspects) to producers is recognized

and emerging;

• New developments have brought new

challenges creating new learning

requirements; But opportunities exist eg.

innovation platforms, e-learning, e-extension,

FFS etc;

• However, capacities of all actors still weak.

The smallholder producer and household

Rural technicians and artisans

Extension workers and change agents

Entrepreneurs, traders, processors, wholesalers, retailers

The need for integrated capacity development

policy makers, scientists, researchers

Adapted from FARA

Recommendations • Appropriate policies is fundamental in AEAS delivery

systems,

• key to reforms has to focus on strengthening of

demand for services and accountability through

participatory approaches

• Extension and research systems need to go beyond

the superficial linkages and engage in strong

collaborative partnerships at all levels

• Need to promote public-private partnership (PPP)

– PPP play a critical role in service delivery in terms of

financing, filling capacity gaps, value addition and

marketing

Recommendations

• The need to for strong integration of AEAS issues in

the CAADP process

– The CFP should strongly engage AAS Country Fora as platform for the AAS stakeholders to continuously participate

in CAADP processes

– Review implementation of Agric Food Security investment

Plans ( AFSIP) to determine adequacy of regulatory

frameworks

Conclusion Food and nutrition security is and needs to be

recognized as a public good as well as a social and

economic good. Therefore, the role of national

government is central for catalyzing its country's

energies to combat food and nutrition insecurity

and poverty- Country IPs therefore should reflect

this call;

Governments have the responsibility to establish

policies, strategies, functioning institutional

arrangements and infrastructure enabling the

smallholder farmers to achieve food and nutrition

security.

Thank you

Email: Secretariat@afaas-africa.org

website: http://www.afaas-africa.org

http://networking.afaas-africa.org