Promises and Realities of Community-Based Agricultural Extension

Feder, Gershon; Anderson, Jock R.; Birner, Regina; Deininger, Klaus

doi:10.1057/9780230295018_12

Cited by 71 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The challenges faced by public seed companies involved in these tasks have already been described above. Public agricultural extension services are also facing numerous governance challenges which are well documented in the literature (see, e.g., Feder et al 2010). With regard to seed promotion, the scale and complexity of extension service provision commonly presents the biggest problem (cf.…”

Section: State Failurementioning

confidence: 99%

Why do maize farmers in Ghana have a limited choice of improved seed varieties? An assessment of the governance challenges in seed supply

2018

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The liberalisation of commercial seed systems has largely been seen as an essential means of improving agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, access to improved seed varieties has remained a major constraint in many countries in spite of liberalisation and other reform efforts. This paper analyses the governance challenges involved in seed systems from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. The paper applies theoretical concepts of New Institutional Economics to identify potential governance challenges involved at the different stages of the seed supply system. The commercial maize seed sector in Ghana is used for an empirical case study. Ghana has passed a seed law that aims to increase the availability of improved seed varieties to farmers by providing more opportunities to the private sector. However, there is still a chronic lack of varietal diversity, indicating that governance challenges in the seed system remain despite the reform efforts. For data collection, a participatory mapping technique known as Process Net-Map was applied, together with expert interviews involving a diverse set of stakeholders. The empirical evidence reveals that, in line with the theoretical considerations, governance challenges indeed affect all stages of the seed supply system. These challenges include limited involvement of smallholders in setting breeding priorities, restricted private sector participation in source seed production, limited ability of an under-resourced public regulatory body to ensure high seed quality through mandatory seed certification and overdependence on a weak public extension system to promote improved varieties. The paper discusses the policy implications of the findings.

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Section: State Failurementioning

confidence: 99%

Why do maize farmers in Ghana have a limited choice of improved seed varieties? An assessment of the governance challenges in seed supply

2018

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“…The main criticism suggested that CBWs are not always sufficiently knowledgeable and equipped to pass on information to others adequately (CBW, 2007). In their review of community-based agricultural extension approaches, Feder et al (2010) concluded that communities can also fail in extension delivery. Elite capture, for example, was a major constraint, as well as limited availability of competent service providers, deep-seated cultural attitudes that prevent effective empowerment of farmers and difficulties in implementing farmers' control of service providers' contracts.…”

Section: Institutional Pluralism Empowerment and Community-based Extmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…About 80 percent of the extension services are publicly funded and delivered by civil servants, justified by the view that many aspects of agricultural knowledge diffusion are 'public goods'. However, there is a general consensus that the performance of extension services has been disappointing (Anderson, 2007;Feder et al, 2010).…”

Section: Challenges Of Agricultural Extensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With this renewed interest, there is also growing awareness that farmers get information from many sources and that public extension is one source, but not necessarily the most efficient. In most public systems, extension agents are only indirectly (if at all) accountable to their farmer-clients (Feder et al, 2010). Therefore, over the last decade or so, there have been many reforms to extension and advisory services to make them more pluralistic, demand-driven, cost effective, efficient and sustainable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effectiveness of Grassroots Organisations in the Dissemination of Agroforestry Innovations

Degrande¹,

Franzel²,

Yeptiep³

et al. 2012

Agroforestry for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services - Science and Practice

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“…Lastly, sustainability of CrFS activities after the end of the BINDS program was a challenge identified by all the stakeholders (Oxfam 2015), which is a common critic of FFS and community-based approaches in literature (see Anderson and Feder 2004;Swanson 2008;Feder et al 2010;Swanson and Rajalahti 2010;Sherwood et al 2012;Ensor et al 2014). This research notes that financial Whatever the approach, diffusion of CrFS, institutional strategies (see Table 7 a.…”

Section: Barriers To Adoption Of Climate-smart Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-smart agriculture in practice: insights from smallholder farmers, Timor-Leste and the Philippines, Southeast Asia

Chandra¹

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The climate challenges confronting agriculture are multiple, interconnected and multi-scaled.Agriculture is a source of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, but it is also vulnerable to climate change impacts. Adopting resilient approaches in the agricultural industry can help to contribute to both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. Climate-smart agriculture has emerged as a solution to address the multiple challenges of climate change and food security by sustainably increasing productivity, enhancing resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To date, there is limited scholarly evidence on what constitutes climate-smart agriculture, and how it is framed globally and practiced by smallholder farming communities. This research helps to bridge this gap by analysing the international discourse around climate-smart agriculture, and providing local empirical evidence derived from smallholder farming communities in the Philippines and TimorLeste.At the broad level, this research aims to identify how climate-smart agriculture within communitybased adaptation programs is contributing to the integration of mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change. Drawing from political ecology and climate change (adaptation and mitigation sciences) theories, the research explains how socio-institutional factors -inequality, unequal power relations and social injustice -influence climate-smart agriculture. The theoretical arguments are illustrated with empirical case studies of smallholder farmers and civil society organisations in the two case studies. Using mixed qualitative methods and descriptive analysis of over 150 semistructured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, the research examines climate-smart agriculture practices across three broad categories: vulnerability of smallholder farmers (socioeconomic factors), synergistic relationships (adaptation, mitigation and food security) and governance (socio-institutional determinants).This research argues that mitigation and adaptation interventions are climate-smart for smallholder farmers when they directly address local climate risks, support a combination of adaptation, food security and livelihood strategies, and empower at-risk and marginalised populations. Results indicate that climate-smart agriculture in the Philippines and Timor-Leste are characterised and influenced by multiple socio-institutional factors. The increasing burden of loss and damage as a result of extreme climate events subject women to migration, increased discrimination, loss of customary rights to land, resource poverty and food insecurity. In terms of farming practices implemented by smallholder farmers, most adaptation actions were found to have corresponding positive mitigation, food security and livelihood co-benefits. At the community level, climate-smart interventions are highly locationspecific, technically rigorous, involve knowledge-intensive processes, and are influenced by the finance and capacities of local farming com...

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Promises and Realities of Community-Based Agricultural Extension

Cited by 71 publications

References 30 publications

Why do maize farmers in Ghana have a limited choice of improved seed varieties? An assessment of the governance challenges in seed supply

Why do maize farmers in Ghana have a limited choice of improved seed varieties? An assessment of the governance challenges in seed supply

Effectiveness of Grassroots Organisations in the Dissemination of Agroforestry Innovations

Climate-smart agriculture in practice: insights from smallholder farmers, Timor-Leste and the Philippines, Southeast Asia

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