This is Simon Manda from Zambia extending Prakashkumar Rathod's ideas (Message 67) on limitation of extension services. 

If at the broader level, agreement is elusive with regards interventions required in rural spaces and for family farmers, then we should expect more confusion in family farming. What form of rural transformation do we envisage in the rural spaces? What will transformed livelihoods look like? And what will be the pathways for small famers? Migration, employment or producers as meta-narratives suggest? 

The nature of extension services particularly in Zambia takes a scaling down approach and where family farmers buy in, results point to disappointing outcomes. I argue that current research and in this regards extension services is misplaced and the sooner we re-orient our efforts towards appreciating local dynamics and what can be built in rural spaces the better for all of us. I am of the view that extension services should start with the way our research for rural livelihoods is conceptualised. 
 
Manda Simon 
Mandela Washington Fellow 
Lecturer, 
University of Zambia 
and
PhD student 
School of Earth and Environment 
University of Leeds
Leeds, 
United Kingdom
e-mail: smanda08 (at) yahoo.com

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