Most farms worldwide are family farms and they produce about 80 percent of the word’s food in value terms. The majority of family farms are smallholdings that face many challenges, but their contribution to sustainable intensification of agriculture and to poverty eradication is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

This document has been developed based on many consultations (workshops, e-discussions, interviews, expert contributions) and literature reviews by FAO and GFRAS. It describes briefly the diversity of family farms, as well as the roles played by rural advisory services (RAS) in enhancing these farms. Constraints on RAS’ ability to respond to the diverse needs and demands of family farms and to provide relevant good quality advice in an efficient, effective and sustainable way are outlined. Experiences and solutions are then presented for addressing these limitations. Finally, conclusions and key messages are formulated for policy and action for tailoring RAS to family farms.

One of the major priorities identified during the first meeting of the AESA (Agricultural Extension in South Asia) network was capacity development of EAS  providers. The first step in this direction was to assess the capacity gaps among the EAS through undertaking a capacity needs assessment at the national level in select countries in the region. 

A synthesis report

About 80% of South Asia’s poor live in rural areas. Most depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Agricultural and rural development is the key to eradicating poverty and creating conditions for sustainable and equitable growth in the region. South Asian agriculture faces several new challenges ranging from  eteriorating natural resources base, climate change and increasing de-regulation of trade. Moreover, the sector is dominated by small farmers often with weak bargaining powers and limited political voice. 

One of the major priorities identified during the first meeting of the AESA (Agricultural Extension in South Asia) network was capacity development of EAS providers. The participants agreed that much more needs to be done to strengthen the capacities and deal with the rapidly evolving challenges in agriculture (AESA, 2014). The first step in this direction was to assess the capacity gaps among the EAS through undertaking a capacity needs assessment at the national level in select countries in the region.

A Guide for Facilitators

About 80% of South Asia’s poor live in rural areas. Most depend on agriculture for their livelihood. A pluralistic and demand driven extension provision, that offers a much broader support to rural producers, is critical for agricultural development and poverty reduction in South Asia. One of the major priorities identified during the first meeting of the AESA (Agricultural Extension in South Asia) network was capacity development of EAS providers. The first step in this direction was to assess the capacity gaps among the EAS through undertaking a capacity needs assessment at the national level in select countries in the region. 

This guide can be used as a standalone document /procedure for assessing the capacity needs of the extension and advisory service providers. However, using this guide for CNA has greater value if the outputs of this exercise are linked to a capacity development process. Moreover, this process also needs to be organised from time to time to identify new capacity gaps. 

Participatory Radio Campaigns (PRCs) were developed by Farm Radio International as a way to help farmers learn about, evaluate, and introduce new agricultural practices that they are interested in trying. With training and facilitation support from Farm Radio International, selected radio stations work closely with farmers and farmer organizations, agricultural extension and advisory services, researchers and others to carefully plan and deliver a four-six month radio campaign. During the PRC, farmers are able to explore, exchange knowledge, gain information and share experiences with a new agricultural practice that can improve their family’s food security. Lively and entertaining, PRCs feature the voices, stories and perspectives of ordinary farmers through a mix of radio formats, including panel discussions, vox pops, village debates, phone-in shows, mini-dramas and music. Farmers provide feedback and are involved in monitoring and evaluating the PRCs throughout. New Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as cell phones, MP3 players, interactive voice response systems, and bulk SMS messaging systems are linked with radio to boost the interactivity, reach and accessibility of PRCs. 

Sourcebook

This sourcebook is meant to equip development and communication professionals with a useful set of guidelines, reference materials and learning resources to apply communication in rural development initiatives. The main goal is to enable readers to design and implement rural communication strategies combining participatory methods with communication processes, media and tools best suited for a specific situation.

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.

Radio is a powerful communication tool. Experience with rural radio has shown the potential for agricultural extension to benefit from both the reach and the relevance that local broadcasting can achieve by using participatory communication approaches. The importance of sharing information locally and opening up wider information networks for farmers is explored with reference to the specific example of vernacular radio programmes based on research on soil and water conservation. This paper describes this specific experience in the context of rural radio as a tool for agricultural extension and rural development, with reference to the dramatically changing technology environment that is currently influencing information and communication processes worldwide. The implications for policy makers of harnessing rural radio to improve agricultural extension are also discussed.

The role of the farmer in Europe is changing, as farmers have to develop new skills to be competitive. In a word, they need to become more entrepreneurial. Many of the skills associated with running a successful business are not necessarily skills that the farmer has. The paper presents a number of models, delineating these skills and provides initial definitions of farm entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills. Suggests that farmers do not systematically access Business Advice networks and that they are less likely to access opportunities because of limited business networks and feel farming is ‘different’. Also proposes that farmers do not systematically engage in continual professional development to update their skills and competences.

UK farming is less entrepreneurial than many other industries. Yet more entrepreneurial

farms are more profitable. This is evidenced from academic research. If this is so, there is scope for the UK farming industry to learn lessons and improve its returns as a result. Farming is a commodity industry with multiple producers of homogenous goods. Buyers therefore purchase on price. In this business model, margins are inevitably tight and so volume has to be high and costs ruthlessly low. Variation in profitability is rising, policy support that has protected farmers for 50 years is declining and could be 30% less in 5 years’ time. Political change is also placing new restrictions on the industry. The challenges of commercial farming are increasing. We cannot do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

Entrepreneurship in agriculture is an important issue in Europe. Policy makers, researchers, farmers’ unions and advisory services are all working on the development of entrepreneurship in agriculture. The question answered in this report is why entrepreneurship in agriculture is important and what kind of entrepreneurial skills farmers require. This report is part of the European research project ‘Developing Entrepreneurial Skills of Farmers’ (www.esofarmers.org). Research institutes from six countries are involved in this project (England/UK, Finland, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland). The report covers one phase of the project, which has the following objective: Exploration of the significance of entrepreneurship in agriculture in selected European countries.

Diversification to farm tourism is increasingly seen as a viable development strategy to promote a more diverse and sustainable rural economy and to counter declining farm incomes. However, our understanding of the dynamics of the modern farm tourism business and the entrepreneurial and competitive skills farmers require in making the transition from agriculture to a diversified - and service based - enterprise remains limited. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore the range of skills and competencies that farmers in the North West of England identify as important when adopting a diversification strategy to farm tourism. With the findings indicating that that whilst a range of managerial skills are valued by farmers, they lack many of the additional business and entrepreneurial competencies required for success. Moreover, this paper acknowledges the need to generate consensus on the requisite skill-set that farm tourism operators require, along with a need for a currently fragmented rural tourism literature to acknowledge the significance of rural entrepreneurship and the characteristics of successful farmers and farm tourism ventures. 

The main purpose of this descriptive correlative research is to consider the effects of agricultural extension system on promoting the entrepreneurial characters of farmers in rural areas. Statistical society of research was 1800 persons of Kermanshah province farmers who attended extension classes at least once. By using Cochran's formula, sample size is determined and it is concluded of 125 individuals that by stratified sampling method proportional to township size, attributed. Research instrument was questioner with cronbach alpha = 0.85 as reliability. Independent variable is "extension education" and dependent variable is “incidence of client's entrepreneurial characters “. Result of compare mean between amount of "entrepreneurial characters” of client before and after taking part in classes’ shows that there is significant difference between them.