Extension Services
Education, training and outreach programs help farmers and scientists
from developing counties find solutions to specific agricultural problems.
Effective agricultural development requires all. And new models for education,
training and outreach are emerging as information and communication technology
(ICT) opens access to knowledge through distance education.
Outreach is broadening from a focus on agricultural production to the
provision of a broader range of information services to support markets,
environmental conservation, poverty reduction and off-farm activities.
Outreach is therefore characterized by more diverse systems of funders
and service providers. Public, non-governmental and private organizations
all deliver outreach and extension services, increasingly through cost-sharing
and fee-for-service programs.
A USAID project that illustrates a new configuration of outreach and
training is the Agro-based Industries and Technology Development Project
(ATDP). ATDP was designed to promote commercial agribusiness in Bangladesh.
Synergistic alliances with local organizations were critical to building
the capacity of local institutions to disseminate improved technologies.
From the beginning, ATDP partnered with the Department of Agricultural
Extension and government research services to commercialize breakthrough
technologies such as urea supergranules, which has helped farmers more
than double their income. The success of other ATDP activities has stimulated
their replication by the influential Grameen Bank. Through collaboration
with NGOs, notably the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, ATDP has
indirectly reached tens of thousands of smallholders.
Since 1978, USAID has supported research, education and outreach through
the Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSP). The CRSPs harness
the expertise of U.S. universities in low-cost, high-impact programs
that contribute knowledge, trained personnel and technology to agriculture
worldwide in the fight against hunger and poverty. The nine CRSP programs
funded by USAID and other collaborating organizations focus research
upon crops, including beans and cowpeas, sorghum and millet, and peanuts;
broadening access to factors and strengthening input systems; livestock;
integrated pest management; pond dynamics and aquaculture; soil management;
and sustainable agriculture and natural resources management. CRSP programs
help build national agricultural research capacity in developing countries
as well as benefit American agriculture. CRSP programs embody the mutual
dependence of research, outreach, and training, in which education and
training are integrated with research, and applied solutions require
outreach.
Over the last decade, there has been a steep decline in long-term training
(LTT) of agricultural professionals from developing countries in the
U.S. The capacity for adaptation and innovation in agriculture in many
developing countries is now declining as scientists and policy makers
retire. Yet without professionals with advanced knowledge in agriculture,
biotechnology, education, infectious diseases, information technology,
energy and the environment, developing countries can only grow more marginalized
as economic, technological and health-related “divides” with
the industrialized world widen. As professional relationships between
researchers and educators in the U.S. and developing countries decline,
American scientific, economic and, ultimately, national security interests
also are harmed.
The Board for Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) has recommended that
USAID renew its investment in global LTT and capacity building in agricultural
and rural development. USAID is therefore developing a new LTT initiative that
will employ both American and developing country-based programs. Beginning
in Africa, innovative and cost-effective solutions for LTT will be applied
which can be extended globally. LTT efforts will work closely with stakeholders
and involve the U.S. university community and other donors.
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