Quelle durabilite des dispositifs de conseil a l’exploitation familiale en afrique de l’ouest ?

The purpose of extension is to disseminate advice to farmers. Knowledge gaps contribute to yield gaps. Services and quality inputs are essential productivity-enhancing tools. However, their optimum use requires knowledge. Farmers also need information on prices and markets, post-harvest management, produce quality determinants, and safety standards. Some farmers marshal knowledge themselves. The “resource-poor” majority, growers of much of India’s food, need external, science-based, extension to complement local knowledge. Much debate focuses on how best to achieve the desired outcomes that extension can convey. Many countries have neglected extension and indeed agriculture as a whole. But interest appears to be returning globally, and India is no exception. In 2009, a National Seminar on Agriculture Extension discussed knowledge management, convergence of extension systems, the role of information and communication technology and mass media, private sector initiatives including public– private partnerships, and farmer- and market-led extension systems. This article builds on that discus- sion. It looks at extension in relation to both primary production and market links, and acknowledges the contributions of all providers of extension, public and private. 

Concept Note of a workshop held 13 to 15 November 2012 in Benin

Note conceptuelle pour un atelier de réflextion tenu du 13 au 15 novembre 2012 au Bénin

The Brundtland Report (1987) still provides the most quoted definition of sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Acknowledging the importance of gender equality for sustainable development, it also highlights the varied interactions between social, economic and ecological dimensions of development. Nevertheless, sustainable development is still often seen primarily as environmental sustainablility, with gender concerns often taking a backseat.
Currently the international community is discussing the elaboration of a new framework of development goals, possibly called sustainable development goals (SDG’s), which are supposed to replace the Millenium Development Goals in 2015. This is a good time to discuss and conceptualize what sustainable development actually means in the current context of crises on many fronts (economic crises, climate change, rising inequalities, poverty etc.).

This case study explores the Voluntary Service Overseas
(VSO) Ghana’s women extension volunteer (WEV) model.
The WEV model is a peer-to-peer extension approach that
uses community-based female volunteers to increase
agricultural information dissemination in rural northern
Ghana. The model is part of a national volunteering flagship
program of VSO Ghana, a non-governmental organization
(NGO).

2012 was a year of building on preceding GFRAS work. Forum members participated in several major international events to advocate for the importance of rural advisory services for global development. GFRAS also continued to strengthen its evidence and capacity strengthening functions. 

Roles, Strategies, and Capacities to Strengthen Extension and Advisory Services

Extension and advisory services (EAS) 1 play an important role in agricultural development. However, these services need new capacities to address the current challenges in agriculture and to contribute better to agricultural innovation – a process that that requires interactions and knowledge flows among a wide range of actors in the agricultural innovation
system (AIS).

A summary of this paper is available here.

A guide for extension workers

The guide aims to highlight major issues affecting rural households, and to provide users with resources and tools for collecting, analysing and sharing information about the constraints, opportunities and priorities faced by communities, households and individual household members.

The guide promotes the use of gender-sensitive and participatory approaches as a means of achieving sustainable development that puts people at the centre of the issues, analysis and solutions.