Farmer-led extension: Concepts and Practices

Abstract

Conventional, government-run agricultural extension services have notably failed to deliver improved agricultural productivity and standards of living in many parts of the developing world. This is especially true in remote and marginal upland areas, and even in the lowlands conventional extension approaches have been criticized for promoting chemical-intensive, standardized, and often inappropriate packages of farming practices. Clearly, more locally controlled and managed approaches are needed, and over the past decade farmers, non-governmental organizations, governments and donors throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America have been experimenting with a range of approaches to extension. These include the 'campesino-a-campesino' movement of Central America, 'farmer field schools' in Southeast Asia, 'problem census' approaches in South Asia, and information facilitation programmes in Africa. All these approaches promote farmers and other rural people as the principal agents of change in their communities. Farmers are not only key to accessing services provided by professional extensionists and researchers, but also make many of the management decisions and do much of the extension work. Because the recommended technologies and approaches are determined locally, they can be adapted to suit particular needs in the village. This is the first book to focus on farmer-led extension, drawing on the experiences of over 70 farmers, community workers, NGO staff, researchers and policy makers from throughout the world. It is both an invaluable introduction to farmer-led approaches, and a mine of ideas for extension managers and project staff seeking to promote agricultural development. (from the back cover of the book)

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