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INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Overview of Extension Reforms in South Asia- Historical Trends and
Recent Developments
Regional Workshop on Extension Reforms in South Asia
New Delhi, India. February 17-18, 2015
Suresh Babu and P. K. Joshi
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Presentation Outline
1. Challenges in Extension
2. Strategies
3. Global Trends
4. Lessons for South Asian Extension System
5. Some Conclusions
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Provision and financing of extension
• Why reform?
• Problems of PUBLIC sector extension: - scale and complexity - dependence on policy environment - weak accountability - weak links between extension and research - difficulty in attributing impact - weak political commitment /support - public duties other than knowledge transfer - fiscal sustainability (Feder et al. 2001)
• PUBLIC, PRIVATE, THIRD SECTOR?
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FUNDING
DEL
IVER
Y
Public Private Third Sector
Public
Decentralization: Deconcentration Devolution Delegation
Fee-based FBOs contract staff from public sector
Private
Contracting out private service providers (out-sourcing)
Subsidies to producers to hire private provider
Commercialization
Total privatization to private companies
FBOs contract staff from private service providers
Third Sector
Contracting to NGO/FBO providers
Advisory services hired by NGO/FBO, farmers pay
FBOs hire own advisory staff and provide free service to members
Strategies
Sources: Birner et al. (2006), Rivera and Qamar (2003),
Rivera (1996).
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Global Trends Examined
1. Decentralization
2. Broadened Extension Function
3. Privatization
4. Participatory/Demand-driven
5. ICT Use
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1. Decentralization
• Admin to local level
•More accountability
•Need to build capacity
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Example: CHINA • Agro-Technical Extension Centres (ATEC)
• Each level responsible for $$
• Contracts: extension – farmer, FBOs commercial demonstration farms
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2. Broadened Extension Function
• PREVIOUSLY:
• Transfer of Technology
• Cereal crop production
• NOW:
• Post-harvest: storage, handling, marketing
• Facilitation, capacity building
• Rural Development – Climate change, nutrition
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Example: U.S Cooperative Extension System
• Decline in public funding, awareness and use
• Expand beyond agriculture = increase client base and relevance
• Rural Development: Family, Health, consumption, sustainability, small businesses
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3. Privatization + other cost recovery options
• Fee for service, cost sharing
•User pays; poor farmers? Excludability
Low High
Riv
alry
Low
Public goods
-environment, natural
resources, non-excludable
agricultural information
Toll goods
-excludable agricultural
information
High Common-pool goods
-modern technologies
Private goods
- modern technologies
Source: (Umali-Deininger, 1997)
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Example: The Netherlands
• Fully privatized from 1990: DLV Plant
WHY? Difference btw govt policy – farmer interest, reduce cost
• More competition, client orientation
• BUT remote farmers, minor crops ignored, weakened links
• Ministry of Ag: public good programs e.g. Nutrient Management Support Service
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4. Demand-driven / Participatory approaches
• Consultative process – communities, ecosystems
• Participatory, bottom up
• Problem Driven –Water, Nutrition, climate change
• = accountability, empowerment
• Extension = facilitation, capacity building (takes TIME)
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Example: Landcare AUSTRALIA
• 4500 community groups, 1 in 3 farms
• Address land degradation issues, natural resource management
• Partnership: Funds = Central, Action = Community
• “Self-help” supported by coordinators
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5. ICT Use
• Connecting famers directly
• Emerging trend in developing countries
• Allows new actors and entities to play their role
• Also brings in problems
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Example: JAPAN
• Highly connected through ICT
• Lower transaction cost, increase efficiency
• Extension Information Network System (EI-NET) links all levels
• National Case Information of Extension Activities Database
• Local networks for farmers
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Diverse Strategies - Pluralism Global Extension
Trends
Australia Netherlands U.S Japan China India
Governance
structure
Decentralization X XXX X XXX XXX
Privatization XXX XXX
Contracting X
Actors
Involved
Public-Private Partner XXX X
Role of Third Sector XXX
Producer Orgs X X X X
Type of
Service
Fee-for-service X X
Commercial Services X X X
Diverse Services XXX X
Method Use of ICTs XX XX XXX XXX X X
Approach Participatory X ?
Reform
process
National Strategies XXX XXX ? ?
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Summary of Issues for extension reforms
1. Governance, Management, and organisation
2. Systematic promoting pluralistic extension
3. Appropriate extension approaches and methods
4. Increasing demand driven nature – empowerment of
the unreached farmers
5. Participatory approaches for stakeholder collaboration
6. Increased thematic dimensions for research-extension-
client Linkages
7. Organization, policy process, and human capacity
Building
8. Effective and appropriate use of ICT
9. Gender considerations
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Lessons for South Asian Extension Systems
• Broaden BEYOND ToT
• Public sector fiscal sustainability?
• Privatization = large farmers BUT limited accountability
• Public for resource poor farmers
• Link between Research – Extension,
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Conclusions
• Challenges are common
• Reforms are the norm
• Countries are experimenting
• What lessons we learn collectively?
• How to share knowledge within outside the regions?
• This Workshop is an effort to bring South Asian experience as GPG