Research & Extension

Publications

May 2021
Food production and consumption patterns have changed significantly in recent decades. Food supply chains have become ever more integrated and globalized. This has imposed additional constraints on the majority of small-holder farmers. The required shift from subsistence farming to more commercially-oriented farming is a slow process and often hampered by several challenges: weak management and business skills, limited ability to manage risks, the quality and quantity of production, poorly organized producers, lack of capital, poorly developed markets, and high costs of intermediaries and transactions. The publication shows how pluralistic actors in extension and advisory service (EAS) systems can support rural ...read more

Publication available in:
Mar 2021
Human nutrition is vital for agriculture. Many smallholder farmers are food-insecure and suffer chronic or acute forms of malnutrition. This can permanently harm the physical and cognitive growth of children, while reducing productivity as household members are less able to carry out agricultural work. To this end, we must build the capacities of farmers, agriculture extensionists, consumers and others, encourage innovation, investments and enabling policies, and address gender issues. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) uses a food-based approach to agricultural development to make the global food system produce better nutritional outcomes.

Publication available in:
Mar 2021
Why the need to coordinate? Since the 1980s, investments in public sector extension have declined, while new challenges and opportunities faced by producers have dramatically increased the need for diversified services, around topics such as sustainable production, climate change adaptation, links to markets and entrepreneurship, community mobilization, nutrition-sensitive agriculture and much more.

Publication available in:
Mar 2021
Why must we enhance linkages between research, extension and producers? Closing agricultural production gaps between smallholder producers’ actuals and the potential created by scientific research results and advancements is a vital if we are to address global challenges such as food insecurity, environmental degradation and climate changes. The gap is particularly large in developing countries where smallholder farming dominates the agricultural sectors. One of the many factors and constraints is the fact that researchers in universities and research institutions have no incentive or motivation to serve rural producers. This is due either to the systematic separation of research, extension and actual ...read more

Publication available in:
Mar 2021
Case study on science and technology backyard

Publication available in:
Feb 2021
Integrating nutrition objectives into agricultural extension and advisory services programmes and policies

Publication available in:
Nov 2020
Why do we need demand-driven extension and advsory services? Faced with changing environmental and socio-economic conditions, rural producers must continuously innovate and adapt, calling on improved technical, marketing, or managerial skills and strategies. Effective extension and advisory services (EAS), designed to address the varied and complex needs of actors – especially producers – throughout the agri-food system, are critical to facilitating that change. They also play a key role in helping producers formulate their demands, communicate them to other actors, and respond as required. However, our view of producers’ needs may not always reflect their actual demand. Making EAS demand-driven is not an end ...read more

Publication available in:
Nov 2020
Between present disruptions and future threats to the food supply chain, the COVID-19 outbreak has generated extreme vulnerability in the agriculture sector. It is therefore crucial to mobilize all available instruments, institutions and stakeholders from both public and private sectors and civil society to ensure an appropriate and timely response. Agricultural Extension and Advisory Service (EAS) systems play an indispensable role at the frontline of the response to the pandemic in rural areas. However, in order to adapt to the emergency context within the government regulations, EAS providers need to rapidly change their way of operating.

Publication available in:
Oct 2020
This publication contains twelve modules which cover a selection of major reform measures in agricultural extension being promulgated and implemented internationally, such as linking farmers to markets, making advisory services more demand-driven, promoting pluralistic advisory systems, and enhancing the role of advisory services within agricultural innovation

Publication available in:
Jun 2020
Agricultural research and extension systems are central to unlock the potential of agricultural innovation and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Publication available in:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8