This paper provides a review of the agricultural extension system in Jordan, with a focus on strengths and constraints, as well as options for how to improve efficiency in service delivery and efficacy in outcomes. While public extension in Jordan has gone through many reforms and phases over the past three decades, contemporary concerns related to regional conflict and blockages in access to traditional trade routes require a repositioning of extension and advisory services within the Kingdom. This need is further strengthened by persistent pressure on the use of water resources that is well above natural recharge rates. Both international donors supporting the Kingdom in dealing with the mass influx of Syrian refugees, as well as the government itself, will require significant contemplation over how to shift some of these funds towards research and extension activities that seek new markets for a range of products that are competitive internationally given the need for costly air freight. Equally important, and connected to international community demands for employment of Syrian refugees within Jordan is attention to skills training, matching of skills with demands of employers, as well as access to profitable agricultural value chains for both refugees as well as host communities within which refugees are placed. This will require a meaningful change in the manner that agricultural extension and advisory services are delivered, with more attention to aspects of social work and care – an area that receives little attention within agricultural education curriculums – and reform of agricultural education more generally
During the period 2013-2019, the Agricultural Extension in South Asia (AESA) Network has served as a platform for collating the voices, insights, concerns, and experiences of people in the extension sphere of South Asia. Diverse professionals shared their concerns on...
Green Extension is an umbrella term used to describe rural advisory services which support the scaling up of sustainable agriculture. This encompasses a range of methods to promote various types of content. What these approaches have in common is a...
The private sector’s presence in agricultural advisory services worldwide has been on the increase for over three decades. This trend has also been observed in the Mantaro Valley (Peru), in a context of dairy family farming. The objective of the...
Though extension services have long since proved their value to agricultural production and farmer prosperity, their record in sub-Saharan Africa has been mixed. To study the impact of such programs on farmers' learning about agricultural technologies, we implemented a quasi-randomized...
This paper takes a closer look at innovation systems, including the various actors involved, their interrelationships, and governance mechanisms. Innovation systems operate at different levels, in terms of structure, functioning, and performance at the national level, and from two different...