This study assesses the use and benefits of the Plantwise Knowledge Bank (PWKB) using mixed methods. Focusing on website activity for 2021, study findings show that the PWKB has diverse users within national plant health ecosystems from both Plantwise and non-Plantwise countries. Plantwise countries are countries who have implemented elements of CABI’s Plantwise programme. Most users in 2021 were from Plantwise countries in Asia, with users from other regions also contributing significantly to the site traffic. Furthermore, there was an increase in number of users, visits and page views as compared to past years, with the site having more men than women, visitors. Most users were repeat visitors who found the site organically via mobile phones.

Le conseil agricole est l'un des instruments le plus importants de la politique agricole marocaine. Il contribue grâce à l'accompagnement des agriculteurs et la profession à la modernisation de l'agriculture et à l'amélioration de sa productivité et de sa valeur ajoutée.

Ce guide méthodologique a le mérit de rassembler et synthétiser les démarches du conseil agricole et de clarifier les concepts, les méthodes et les approches de vulgarisation et de conseil agricole au Maroc. Il rappele également l'evolution et les axes repères du système national du conseil agricole depuis l'indépendence et donne un aperçu sur le programme de formation complémentaire aux futures conseillers agricoles privés qui será assure par notre Etablissement.

Planning for quality programmes

Since the development of the farmer field school (FFS) approach in the late 80s in Asia, thousands of FFS have since been implemented across the world, in over 90 countries and across a varied range of contexts and thematic areas. Demand for FFS programmes is increasing, and in several countries the approach is now institutionalized within public extension systems and NGO programmes. It is estimated that by 2015 millions of farmers and agro-pastoralists had benefitted from the unique ability of FFS programmes to address the technological, social and economic needs of smallholder farmers and land users.

This FFS Guidance Document focuses on the process and critical decisions that are necessary when starting a new FFS programme, and guides the reader through the essential steps required to establish a solid basis for such programmes, in tune with the specific local conditions. It also defines the essential elements and processes required to ensure programme relevance, quality, growth and sustainability. The document differs from most of the FFS manuals and guidelines available in that it focuses on providing support to FFS programme managers and formulators, as opposed to FFS field facilitators or trainers, who are the primary target group for most existing manuals

Loin de présenter une méthode applicable en toutes circonstances, ce guide propose des principes pour construire une méthode et des outils adaptés aux conditions de chaque situation, en étroite collaboration avec des paysans motivés et leurs organisations, pour renforcer des compétences utiles au conseil, pour négocier et mettre en place des dispositifs d’appui-conseil. Ces principes sont issus d’une réflexion collective sur diverses expériences de conseil en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre. Cet ouvrage, illustré par de nombreux exemples, s’adresse en priorité à des techniciens et des responsables paysans qui souhaiteraient approfondir ces principes méthodologiques, maîtriser des outils et construire des dispositifs d’appui-conseil.

In today’s fast-changing world, agricultural producers need support to innovate as well as reliable sources of information, knowledge, skills and technologies along the entire value chain in farming, livestock and fish production. One of the core functions of extension and rural advisory services is to facilitate the access of farmers, their organizations and other market actors to knowledge, information and technologies/practices. To carry out these multi-faceted functions, extension professionals and their organizations need to utilize a broad range of methods and approaches. While nearly every extension and rural advisory service program and project has developed guidelines on how to use and evaluate extension methods and approaches, there is a lack of detailed information and guidance on what factors need to be considered when selecting extension/advisory methods and approaches which are most suited for which purpose and content. The inappropriate selection and use of extension methods may limit the effectiveness of service provision, resulting in diminished impact and a failure to meet clients’ needs and demands. This decision guide is intended to help extension professionals and their organizations make informed decisions about which extension method and approach to use for providing information, technologies and services to rural producers and to facilitate interactions and knowledge flow. Expected users include field-based rural advisors, extension managers and programme planners

A growing variety of public and private rural advisory services (Box 1) are available today, leading to increasingly “pluralistic service systems” (PSS), where advisory services are provided by different actors and funded from different sources (Wongtschowski et al., 2013). This is generally regarded as an important step forwards, away from reliance on monolithic, mostly state-led service systems. 

PSS have the potential to overcome constraints related to funding, staffing and expertise, and to make advisory services more demand-driven. But are they really able to reach the hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers in need of services? 

Reality seems to indicate that too many farmers still fall through the cracks between service providers and remain without any services at all. The inclusive aspect of PSS thus warrants closer attention.

The Latin American Network for Rural Extension Services (RELASER) was created in October of 2010 as an institutional space for the promotion and strengthening of Rural Extension and Advisory Services (REAS) in Latin America. It promotes dialogue and cooperation to generate approaches, strategies, policies, methodologies and tools for REAS, agricultural innovation and rural development. The network works through the exchange of experiences, information and knowledge.

A key element of the strategy of RELASER and GFRAS is building and strengthening Country Fora (CF) of the network at the country level. The Country Fora of RELASER have the objective of highlighting the topic of extension in the national debate towards its improvement. They work by identifying, classifying and articulating relevant actors to jointly develop a Work Plan to influence the country's policies.

Policy Brief

Implementing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices requires changes in the behavior and strategy of millions of farmers. Rural Advisory Services (RAS) can play a crucial role in transitioning to CSA and help build resilient agrifood systems if a conducive environment for their effective functioning is created.

This document on Good Practices in Extension Research and Evaluation is developed as a hands on reference manual to help young researchers, research students, and field extension functionaries in choosing the right research methods for conducting quality research and evaluation in extension.

A growing variety of public and private rural advisory services are available today, leading to increasingly pluralistic service systems (PSS) – in which advisory services are provided by different actors and funded from different sources. PSS have emerged in many countries as a response to a decline in public sector extension and the increasing demand for tailored, diverse and market-oriented services. Private companies, non-governmental organizations and producer organizations, today play more active roles alongside traditional public sector providers. The diversity of service providers in PSS has the potential to make services more inclusive, responsive to demand, contextspecific and based on multiple knowledge sources. This is particularly relevant, as farmers are highly diverse, differing in resources, gender, market access, crops and livestock systems, and therefore require different types of information and services to achieve sustainable productivity growth and better livelihoods.

A growing variety of public and private rural advisory services are available today, leading to increasingly “pluralistic service systems” (PSS), in which advisory services are provided by different actors and funded from different sources. However, these PSS and the way they operate are still poorly understood. In particular, how PSS can effectively respond to demands of heterogeneous farmers in contexts where small-scale agriculture increasingly needs to exploit value addition and adapt to market requirements.

In this context, FAO organized a Side Event on Promoting Inclusive Pluralistic Service Systems during the 7th GFRAS Annual Meeting “The Role of Rural Advisory Services for Inclusive Agripreneurship”. The Side Event aimed to explore current thinking on PSS and facilitate a debate around the main themes of inclusiveness, coordination, accountability and scaling up pluralistic rural advisory services. This is a synthesis of discussions and outcome that was submitted to the GFRAS Steering Committee on 7 October 2016.

Extension and advisory services (EAS) are well recognized as a key factor in contributing to agricultural productivity and growth. However, rigorous evaluation of EAS approaches and assessment of complex national or subnational pluralistic EAS systems are rare. This working paper examines the literature on experiential and empirical insights and explores methods to assess complex pluralistic EAS systems. The authors present conceptual thinking on innovation systems and EAS, and review the IFPRI “best-fit” framework. This framework remains relevant because it is based on a holistic perspective with an impact pathway orientation. The paper aims to operationalize and improve the best-fit framework to guide the evaluation of complex EAS systems. The authors draw on and summarize existing literature to illustrate methods and tools used to analyze each component of the framework. The review pays close attention to the literature and methods for assessing the diversity of service providers and their various delivery tools and learning approaches. The discussion also pays close attention to the interaction of each component and how it affects the performance and impact of EAS from a systems perspective. This paper adds key points and considerations on how to operationalize the best-fit framework to carry out evaluations of pluralistic EAS.

Supporting agricultural extension towards Climate-Smart AgricultureAn overview of existing tools

The Compendium seeks to provide an overview of approaches and practical tools to support extension services in the field of climate-smart agriculture. 

Globally, ministries of agriculture, universities, and the private sector employ more than 600,000 extension agents (Swanson, Farmer, and Bahal 1990). In the past, extension services, largely public, were equated with the transfer of agricultural production technology in pre-determined “packages”. Extension systems are now understood to be much broader and more diverse, including public and private sector and civil society institutions that provide a broad range of services (advisory, technology transfer, training, promotional, and information) on a wide variety of subjects (agriculture, marketing, social organization, health and education) needed by rural people to better manage their agricultural systems and livelihoods. This module seeks to summarize principles and good practice for investments in building effective and sustainable extension systems.

Since the development of the farmer field school (FFS) approach in the late 80s in Asia, thousands of FFS have since been implemented across the world, in over 90 countries and across a varied range of contexts and thematic areas. Demand for FFS programmes is increasing, and in several countries the approach is now institutionalized within public extension systems and NGO programmes. It is estimated that by 2015 millions of farmers and agro-pastoralists had benefitted from the unique ability of FFS programmes to address the technological, social and economic needs of smallholder farmers and land users.

Considering the expansion of FFS, both in terms of scale and in the application of the approach, concerns have emerged around how to best ensure a minimum level of quality of FFS program implementation and harmonization across programmes and actors, while still maintaining the flexibility required for the continuous adaptation and improvement of the approach.

An Action Research Project of the RELASER Network in Latin America

The Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS) project, a USAID activity implemented by a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)-led consortium, has the objective of defining and disseminating good practice strategies and approaches for establishing efficient, effective and financially sustainable rural extension and advisory service systems. MEAS has focused its efforts in Latin America through partnerships with organiza-tions that have strong involvement with extension system development in the region. The Latin American Network for Rural Extension Services (RELASER) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) partnered in this initiative to provide six exchanges where innovative programs and practices are shared with extension organizations involving 12 countries in South America over the course of calendar year 2015.

The Community Knowledge Wworkers (CKW) system, a type of farmer-to-farmer extension, involves local networks of farmer-to-farmer peers serving as information intermediaries. They use smartphones and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) to reach fellow farmers with agricultural (livestock management, agronomic practices for crops), weather (seasonal and daily forecasts), and market price information. Their smartphone connects to a remote server called Salesforce, which provides access to real time agriculture, market price, and weather information.