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Moderated conference on rural advisory services for family farms: 1-18 December 2014

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This is Laurens Klerkx, associate professor at the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation group of Wageningen University. 

I have enjoyed the discussion so far, with the rich contributions from so many countries. It is obvious that there are still many challenges to solve in term of the reach and competences of extension to serve family farmers. Many of the concerns raised seem to be about coordinating different types of extension providers in pluralistic systems, and making sure that advice is consistent and coherent and that complementarity amongst different types of advice (agronomic, technical, economic, farm management, nutrition, etc.) is achieved. This in turn should follow the different demands of family farmers. 

I'll now try to respond to some of the questions raised in the conference background document based on our experiences studying extension systems in different places.

As regards question 4.2 ( 'What are the current gaps in rural advisory services for smallholder family farms?')

In line with earlier comments, I would say that often coordinating and achieving coherence among different extension providers is a key gap. In a study we did on achieving such coherence in extension provisioning in onion production in Kenya (see Kilelu et al, 2013), we found that it is by no means easy, because often extension mandates or project plans are geared towards following pre-described delivery pathways which could not respond flexibly to what we called a 'dynamic learning agenda' of farmers. Also, different reforms may result in reduced coverage of extension as we found in a study on reforms in veterinary services provisioning in the north of Ghana, as there is no adequate monitoring on the effects of reforms (see Amankwah et al, 2014). As a response to gaps left by structural reforms, local providers and farmers themselves self-organized to fill some of the gaps left by reforms but this did not restore the original level of service provisioning.  So mapping demands and seeing how a coherent supply can be organized is of key importance. Such supply does not necessarily mean that the number of extensionists should increase, also group based methods or employing local people such as in the Farm Input Promotions (FIPS) model may be an option (see Priest, 2012). 

As regards the questions 4.3 ('What role can producer organizations play in tailoring rural advisory services for family farms?') and  4.6 ('What strategies are needed at the national/state level to enhance rural advisory services for family farms?') 

In response to the challenge to achieve coherence and synergy in pluralistic extension systems, and optimize the match between demand and supply, farmer organizations can be key as intermediaries between demand and supply, and beyond linking farmers to technical services also make the link with value chain parties (I think both addressing farming system level and value chain level in extension is equally important as they mutually influence each other). 

We did a study in China which showed different linkage building and brokering roles of farmer organizations (see Yang et al, 2014) and in countries like Kenya the 'hub model' fulfils these role (see chapter 4 in Kilelu et al, 2013). Chile and other Latin American countries have good experiences with the 'Alianzas Productivas' model ('Productive Alliances' -  in which agro-industry together with government coordinates private extension provision for smallholders, see e.g. http://indap.gob.cl/programas/alianzas-productivas - in Spanish) and the AGI model (Agencias de Gestión de Innovación - Innovation Management Centres) in Mexico which is built around centres of collaborating private advisors  (see Aguilar Ávila  et al, 2010).

So while challenges are still substantial, interesting integrative models are also emerging.

Dr. Laurens Klerkx 
Universitair hoofddocent / Associate professor / Profesor asociado
Wageningen University
Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group 
PO Box 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen
The Netherlands
tel. nr. 31- (0) 317-484694
fax nr. 31- (0) 317-486094
Skype: lauklerkx
Personal page: http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Persons/Laurens-Klerkx.htm 
Profile Academia.edu https://wu.academia.edu/LaurensKlerkx 
Profile ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Laurens_Klerkx?ev=hdr_xprf 
e-mail: laurens.klerkx (at) wur.nl

References:

Catherine W. Kilelu, Laurens Klerkx & Cees Leeuwis , The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension (2013): How Dynamics of Learning are Linked to InnovationSupport Services: Insights from a Smallholder Commercialization Project in Kenya, The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension. http://tinyurl.com/qgoo39x 

Kwadwo Amankwah, Laurens Klerkx, Owuraku Sakyi-Dawson, Naaminong Karbo, SimonJ. Oosting, Cees Leeuwis & Akke J. van der Zijpp (2014): Institutional dimensions of veterinary servicesreforms: responses to structural adjustment in Northern Ghana, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. http://tinyurl.com/n8v88db 

David Priest. The Village-based Agriculture Advisor: A new model for self-employed extension workers. Presentation to World Bank meeting on Agriculture Innovation Systems. 30th May 2012. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTARD/Resources/335807-1339778891514/Part3.9_FIPS_Village_based_ag_advisors_Priest.pdf (3.3 MB).

Huan Yang, Laurens Klerkx & Cees Leeuwis. Functions and limitations of farmer cooperatives as innovation intermediaries: Findings from China. Agr.Syst. (2014). http://tinyurl.com/qj3jjsk 
 
Catherine W. Kilelu. 2013. Unravelling the role of innovation intermediaries in smallholder agricultural development: Case studies from Kenya. PhD thesis, Wageningen University. http://edepot.wur.nl/281847 (1.9 MB).

Jorge Aguilar Ávila, J. Reyes Altamirano Cárdenas y Roberto Rendón Medel (coordinadores). 2010. Del extensionismo agrícola a las redes de innovación rural. http://www.redinnovagro.in/documentosinnov/extensionismo_30_sept.pdf (2.2. MB).

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