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

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Tue, 9 Dec 2014 13:55:13 +0100
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Dr Mahesh Chander again, responding to Section 4.7 of the conference background document which seeks to know, how can family farmers be best involved in formulating policies relevant to rural advisory services for family farms?

 

This is one of the important points raised in this document. The evidence-based policies on rural advisory services (RAS) are required to benefit effectively from these services. However, it needs to be seen whether such policies exist in many developing countries. Inclusive and context-specific agricultural extension policies (AEPs), strategies and approaches can effectively contribute to national, continental and international development goals, while addressing the agricultural development needs of any country. Yet, not many countries in Asia and Africa in particular could develop AEPs despite the importance and clear recommendations for the same.

 

The importance of extension policy was recognized by FAO’s Global Consultation on Agricultural Extension when it recommended that "all national governments should develop and periodically review their agricultural extension policy. This policy should include the goals of agricultural extension, the responsible agencies and personnel, the CLIENTELE TO BE SERVED, the broad programme areas to be addressed and other relevant guidelines" (Contado, 1997). The Global Consultation further recommended that "the FAO, in cooperation with the donor community, should engage in policy dialogue with national governments to stress the importance of agricultural extension in national agricultural development and the need to have an explicit, formally enacted agricultural extension policy" (Swanson, 1990). 



Thus, the importance of extension policy has been sufficiently emphasized and elaborated at the international level especially by the FAO (Contado, 1997) as well as in the Asian context (Sulaiman and Hall, 2005). However, even after various deliberations and discussions, many countries do not have a National Agricultural Extension Policy to date. Appreciably, the 5th Annual Meeting of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) addressed this issue substantially during 23-25 September, 2014 at Buenos Aires, Argentina (http://www.g-fras.org/en/events/gfras-events/annual-meeting-2014-argentina.html).

 

Maybe it will help, if the evidence based policies are framed, wherein, different categories of farmers, especially the subsistence farmers are addressed to be included in the policy formulation and its implementation.

 

Dr Mahesh Chander

Head

Division of Extension Education

Indian Veterinary research Institute, 

Izatnagar (UP) 

India

Phone +91 581 2302391, Fax: +91 581 2303284

Email: Mahesh64 (at) email.com



References: 



- Contado, T.E. (1997). Formulating extension policy. Chapter 12 in: "Improving agricultural extension: A reference manual", B.E. Swanson, R.P. Bentz and A.J. Sofranko (eds). pp107-114. FAO. 220 p.  http://www.fao.org/docrep/W5830E/w5830e00.htm 

- Sulaiman, R. and Hall, A. (2005). Extension policy at the national level in Asia, Plant Production Science, 8(3):308-319.

- Swanson, B.E. (ed). (1990). Global Consultation on Agricultural Extension: A report. Rome: FAO



[1. FAO's Global Consultation on Agricultural Extension took place on 4-8 December 1989 in Rome. The Global Consultation participants examined the concepts and policies of agricultural extension, target clientele, extension approaches, programmes and methods, extension impacts and effectiveness, human resources, and technical and financial assistance issues.

2. A large number of FAO publications on Extension can be downloaded from http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/informres/extension/en/ ...Moderator].

 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/264776/  



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