Decentralized Agricultural Extension and Social Networks: The Potential for Agricultural Information and Technology Dissemination in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Policymakers in Sri Lanka are seeking for cost-effective extension systems due to poor governance and limited budgets of current agricultural extension programs. Recently, there has been increasing interest in social learning as a mean of technology dissemination at a low cost. Therefore, this paper reviews the literature related to social learning and social-network-based agricultural extension (SNBAE) in developing countries to identify its possibility in information and technology dissemination in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, it looks at the present agriculture extension system of the food crop sector in Sri Lanka to clarify the potential of SNBAE for information and technology flow to the grassroot level. The review of the literature shows that SNBAE has positive effects on the effectiveness of knowledge and skill transfer to peers and neighbours. The overview of the agricultural extension systems in food crop sector in Sri Lanka shows that the decentralized agricultural extension system implemented from 1989 failed to bridge the agricultural information and technology gap, especially due to insufficiency of agricultural extension officers at the village level. However, the analysis of agricultural extension system of food crop sector shows that SNBAE has succeeded to some degree in narrowing the information and technology gap between extension officers and rural small-scale farmers.