Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension

In view of the market failures and the state failures inherent in providing agricultural extension, community-based approaches, which involve farmers' groups, have gained increasing importance in recent years as a third way to provide this service. The paper discusses the conceptual underpinnings...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Feder, Gershon, Anderson, Jock R., Birner, Regina, Deininger, Klaus
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154813
_version_ 1855540889927024640
author Feder, Gershon
Anderson, Jock R.
Birner, Regina
Deininger, Klaus
author_browse Anderson, Jock R.
Birner, Regina
Deininger, Klaus
Feder, Gershon
author_facet Feder, Gershon
Anderson, Jock R.
Birner, Regina
Deininger, Klaus
author_sort Feder, Gershon
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description In view of the market failures and the state failures inherent in providing agricultural extension, community-based approaches, which involve farmers' groups, have gained increasing importance in recent years as a third way to provide this service. The paper discusses the conceptual underpinnings of community-based extension approaches, highlights theoretical and practical challenges inherent in their design, and assesses the evidence available so far on their performance. The paper reviews both quantitative and qualitative studies, focusing on three examples that contain important elements of community-based extension: the National Agricultural Advisory Services program of Uganda, the agricultural technology management agency model of India, and the farmer field school approach. The review finds that in the rather few cases where performance has been relatively carefully studied, elite capture was identified as a major constraint. Other challenges that empirical studies found include a limited availability of competent service providers, deep-seated cultural attitudes that prevent an effective empowerment of farmers, and difficulties in implementing farmers' control of service providers' contracts. The paper concludes that, just as for the state and the market, communities can also fail in extension delivery. Hence, the challenge for innovative approaches in agricultural extension is to identify systems that use the potential of the state, the market, and communities to create checks and balances to overcome the failures inherent in all of them.
format Artículo preliminar
id CGSpace154813
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2010
publishDateRange 2010
publishDateSort 2010
publisher International Food Policy Research Institute
publisherStr International Food Policy Research Institute
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1548132025-11-06T07:23:35Z Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension Feder, Gershon Anderson, Jock R. Birner, Regina Deininger, Klaus agricultural extension agricultural technology empowerment gender women In view of the market failures and the state failures inherent in providing agricultural extension, community-based approaches, which involve farmers' groups, have gained increasing importance in recent years as a third way to provide this service. The paper discusses the conceptual underpinnings of community-based extension approaches, highlights theoretical and practical challenges inherent in their design, and assesses the evidence available so far on their performance. The paper reviews both quantitative and qualitative studies, focusing on three examples that contain important elements of community-based extension: the National Agricultural Advisory Services program of Uganda, the agricultural technology management agency model of India, and the farmer field school approach. The review finds that in the rather few cases where performance has been relatively carefully studied, elite capture was identified as a major constraint. Other challenges that empirical studies found include a limited availability of competent service providers, deep-seated cultural attitudes that prevent an effective empowerment of farmers, and difficulties in implementing farmers' control of service providers' contracts. The paper concludes that, just as for the state and the market, communities can also fail in extension delivery. Hence, the challenge for innovative approaches in agricultural extension is to identify systems that use the potential of the state, the market, and communities to create checks and balances to overcome the failures inherent in all of them. 2010 2024-10-01T14:04:03Z 2024-10-01T14:04:03Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154813 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Feder, Gershon; Anderson, Jock R.; Birner, Regina; Deininger, Klaus. 2010. Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension. IFPRI Discussion Paper 959. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154813
spellingShingle agricultural extension
agricultural technology
empowerment
gender
women
Feder, Gershon
Anderson, Jock R.
Birner, Regina
Deininger, Klaus
Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension
title Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension
title_full Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension
title_fullStr Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension
title_full_unstemmed Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension
title_short Promises and realities of community-based agricultural extension
title_sort promises and realities of community based agricultural extension
topic agricultural extension
agricultural technology
empowerment
gender
women
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154813
work_keys_str_mv AT federgershon promisesandrealitiesofcommunitybasedagriculturalextension
AT andersonjockr promisesandrealitiesofcommunitybasedagriculturalextension
AT birnerregina promisesandrealitiesofcommunitybasedagriculturalextension
AT deiningerklaus promisesandrealitiesofcommunitybasedagriculturalextension