Mounting evidence points to the fact that climate change is already affecting agriculture and food security, which will therefore make the challenge of ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture even more difficult (FAO 2016). Through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13, the 2030 Agenda calls for strengthened resilience and adaptive capacity in response to natural hazards and climate-related disasters globally. It calls on all countries to establish and operationalize an integrated strategy – one that includes food security and nutrition – to improve their ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, and to foster climate resilience and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions without jeopardizing food production (FAO et al. 2018). Climate Smart Agriculture may help achieve higher production with reduced emissions. This would have been the simple answer to climate change impacts on agriculture, if the issues were simple. But they rarely are. Extension and Advisory Services (EAS)i need to support farmers in addressing some of these concerns, but their capacities need to be significantly enhanced to play these roles. This brief discusses some of these issues and draws significantly on the South Asia Policy Dialogue organized jointly by Agricultural Extension in South Asia (AESA), IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC), the Centre for Research on Innovation and Science Policy (CRISP) and the Sri Lanka Network of Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (NAEASSL) at Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 5 October 2018. Several policy makers, donors, and key extension professionals engaged in promotion of climate smart agriculture in South Asian countries participated in this dialogue.
The new Constitution of Nepal (2015) has initiated federal, provincial, and local governments in Nepal, each bestowed with respective rights, responsibilities, power and authority. While developing the new mechanism of governance, the Constitution has given immense authority as well as responsibility to local governments, which is unprecedented and has never been experienced before in the history of Nepal. Along with the restructuring of the state, the institutional mechanism of the agriculture sector has also been restructured. The agricultural extension service delivery system is currently trying to adjust to the changing institutional and policy context introduced by the new federal structure.
In theory, under the federal structure agricultural extension services can serve communities better as it aims to be client responsive and accountable to its consumers at the village level. However, poor understanding of federalism that has only recently emerged from the persisting centralized and feudal conceptions, limited practices of democratic norms and values primarily due to the lack of understanding of local governance, and limited commitment of political actors and policy makers to federalism, may derail the good intentions behind federalism. The dividends of state restructuring take time to be realized, and state restructuring should be given sufficient time to deliver. Despite some limitations, Nepal’s considerable experience with local governance and decentralization will hopefully facilitate its adaptation to the new federal structure.
This paper reviews the extension curricula currently followed in universities in India at different levels in light of the new challenges faced by farmers, the new capacities needed among extension personnel to address these challenges, new trends in the job market and advances made in the field of extension. Apart from analyzing the existing mechanisms available for curriculum reform in India, the paper also reviews the literature on extension curriculum reforms elsewhere including recent efforts by the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) to develop and promote the New Extensionist Learning Kit (NELK), a collection of learning resources in specific areas where capacities of extension professionals need to be enhanced.
Development is the process of change and facilitation helps in accelerating this process through the change agents‘ or the extension service provider. While working with farmers, agri-traders and processors, facilitation refers to promote group learning, building consensus and enhancing participation in collective actions. A facilitator has multidimensional roles to play. The module has been prepared to assist facilitators/ trainers engaged in training of agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS) staff and other mediators on facilitation for development by enhancing their knowledge on how to facilitate change in individuals, groups and organizations and also to facilitate multi-stakeholder engagements through brokering strategic partnerships and networking. While working through this module the trainers will find the relevance of facilitation for development in the context of agricultural innovation services (AIS).
Weak extension and advisory services limit the ability to reach small-holder farmers with agricultural innovations and market opportunities. We work through action-oriented research and outreach efforts in developing countries to strengthen extension systems to increase agricultural productivity and reduce rural poverty.
Extension systems in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Central America need to undergo significant change if they are to effectively serve the food security and economic development needs of resource-poor men and women farmers. New approaches must draw on full breadth of resources in public, private and civil society organizations and utilized available advanced information and communications technologies. MEAS is a Center of Excellence that seeks to promote and support such endeavors.
This brief explains the concept of gender equality in advisory services and discusses the opportunities that gender equality in rural advisory services can create for global and local food production, women’s economic empowerment, household food security, and nutrition. It summarises experiences of how gender equality can be pursued in advisory services and provides some practical examples.
