This paper presents the position of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) on where agricultural extension stands today and where it needs to go in the future. The findings presented here are intended to better situate extension in consideration of the future of agricultural research for development. It incorporates feedback from a number of stakeholders from the Neuchâtel Initiative (www.neuchatelinitiative.net) and others. This paper includes a number of brief case studies. These cases are presented as illustrations of the range of experience and approaches that characterize today’s pluralistic extension systems. They are presented here to raise awareness of the variety of ways that extension is contributing to sustainable rural development and poverty alleviation.