Innovations in extension and advisory services for family farms

Abstract

Extension and advisory services for agriculture are recognized to be an important factor in improving farm performance. In the past decades they have evolved in many ways. First, we witness a withdrawal of public advisory services and the emergence of other service providers pursuing a large range of objectives. A second shift has been the development of advisory activities aiming at addressing a broader spectrum of topics beyond the agricultural production which entails to support a diversity of actors involved in innovation processes. A third shift has been a switch from advisory approaches based on transfer of technologies to approaches based on learning processes to increase actors’ capacities to innovate even if the transfer of technology approach is still dominant. Currently pluralistic EAS form a complex system embedded within an agricultural innovation system. Since three decades MAFF (Management Advice for Family Farms) programs conducted in many Francophone African countries have sought to promote new type of advice to farmers based on learningmethods. The MAFF approach aims to strengthen farmers’ ability to manage their farms and improve their autonomy with regard to their economic andsocial environment and with regard toall the farmers’ activities. CIRAD has been involved in these programsby experimenting with farmers and services providers, and by providing training and expertise.The CIRAD support has focused on the design of the method and the governance mechanisms.