1. Developing Innovative Extension
Systems to help Small-scale Men
and Women Farmers
Burton E. Swanson
Professor Emeritus of Rural Development
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services Project
Coordinator, Worldwide Extension Study

2. Background
 Key goals of the international community:
 Maintain national food security and
 Increase the incomes of small-scale farm households
 Agricultural extension can be the key pathway to
achieving both goals
 However, pluralistic extension systems are now
common in most countries (and competing for resources)
 The key question is how to create more
innovative extension systems, especially in
reaching the rural poor
 First, lets examine the value-chain projects
being financed by the donor community

3. Value Chains are now the Primary
Donor-Financed Advisory Services
SUPPORTING
MARKET PLAYERS FUNCTIONS
Information
Private sector
Government
Input
Demand
Producers Supply
Wholesale Retailers
Suppliers
Business
Non-governmental membership
Organizations (NGOs) organisations
Standards Laws
USAID: Meeting the Challenges
of Value Chain Development: RULES
A Learning Event

4. Key Issues Being Addressed by
USAID Funded Value-Chain Projects
1. Determine which districts are the poorest and
where farm households need the most help.
2. Determine which agro-ecological areas within each
district can produce specific staple, livestock
and/or other high value products (HVPs).
3. Determine farmer access to markets where these
crops/livestock/HVPs can be produced & sold.
4. Determine which firms can provide inputs and then
process, package and successfully market these
products along the designated value chain.

5. Unless Specified, These Value Chain
Projects Can Have Negative Effects
 A key problem is that these value chain projects
generally focus on only 4 crop/livestock products
 In most cases, small-scale farmers are not included
in these donor-driven value-chain projects, since
they cannot handle the necessary “risks”
 In particular, women farmers are the least likely to be
“involved” in these value-chain projects
 Unless specified in the project, only the more
progressive farmers, who can handle risk, are the
primary ones most involved and then only if they are
in the designated project area.

6. With this brief overview of
Value Chains, let’s move on to
Review the Key Functions of
Comprehensive Agricultural
Extension Systems

7. What are the Key Functions of an Effective,
Comprehensive Agricultural Extension System
Maintaining National Food Security Improving Rural Livelihoods
• To achieve national • Increasing farm-
food security the household income by
primary target group helping small-scale
will continue to be men and women
small-scale male farmers learn how
farmers since they Training to produce and
Technology farmers how market high-
produce these transfer, esp
crops in most to intensify & value food
ecially for diversify products
countries the staple their farming
food crops systems Training rural women how
to improve family nutrition
Training and use improved family
Training planning, hygiene and
farmers how farmers how
health care practices
to use to organize
sustainable into producer
NRM and self-help • Building social
• Achieving Long- practices capital: Helping
term food security groups
men and women
by using sustainable farmers organize into
land, soil, water & producer groups to
other NRM practices increase market access
& other needed services
PRODUCT INNOVATION PROCESS INNOVATION

8. Relationship between Agricultural
Extension and Innovation Systems
 Definition of an Innovation: A new way of
doing something; most agricultural innovations
either reduce costs and/or increase profits
 Agricultural innovations can be categorized as:
 Product innovations –primarily from research and
with a strong focus on creating traditional value
chains for progressive farmers
 Process innovations—should be a new role for
extension in the 21st Century, especially in serving
small-scale men and women farmers and other
rural households (i.e. the rural poor)

9. Building Social Capital: a key element to
develop a successful, market-driven extension system
 To create an effective market-driven extension
system, then small-scale men and women farmers
must get organized into groups (i.e. build social capital):
 In India, small-scale male farmers began as farmer
interest groups and then transitioned into producer
groups based on resources;
 Rural women began as self-help groups (SHGs), including
micro-credit, and then transitioned into producer groups
(primarily using community property resources)
 Under the ATMA approach, most groups were organized
by local NGOs; then extension would take over and
provide technical assistance on specific HVC/Ps;
 Subsequently, local farmer group leaders would begin
organizing other producer groups in nearby communities;
thereby linking them with both extension and markets.

10. Extension’s Role in Serving the Needs of
Small-scale Men and Women Farmers
 Public extension should focus more attention on:
 process innovations, where extension personnel serve
as “facilitators” or “knowledge brokers.”
 Process innovations are especially location
specific, due to:
 Access to markets for different high-value products
 Local agro-ecological conditions, and the
 Specific interests and resources of small-scale men &
women farmers, including the rural poor.
 Finally, innovative farmers can play a key role in
identifying and scaling up process innovations

11. Key Players in Agricultural Innovation Systems:
Most Agencies and Firms Play Different Roles
Ag Innovation Systems (AIS)
Exporters Agricultural Knowledge and
Information Systems
Agro-
Processors
Agricultural
Producer Research
Organizations System
Input Supply
Providers Farmers
Credit Agricultural Agricultural
Agencies Extension Education
Services System
NGOs

12. Key Functions of an Innovative, Market-Driven
Extension System in Helping Small-Scale Men AND
Women Farmers Increase their Household Income
1
Expanding
High-
Value
Markets
6 2
Develop Identify
Market PRA Innovative
Chains Farmers
Research on
An On-farm
Innovative research re:
HV Markets
Extension HVC/Ps
& Value
System recommend-
Chains
5 3 ations
Train Organize
Interested Self-Help
Farmers 4 Groups NGOs can help
Farmer-to organize SHGs,
Farmer especially rural
Assess- women
ment

13. Why Should Extension Systems become
more Decentralized and Bottom-Up?
1. Both markets for high-value crops/products and
agro-ecological conditions are location specific:
a. First, extension workers should identify which HVC/Ps
have the highest potential of success in each area
b. One approach is to identify innovative farmers who are
already producing and marketing specific products
2. In addition, to make extension systems more
farmer-driven, they must formally establish
Steering and/or Advisory Committees to identify
the specific needs and priorities of representative
poor farmers, especially rural women!

14. ATMA Model in India was Designed to Reach the
Rural Poor and to Become more Farmer-Driven
Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA)
District Governing Board (30% women farmers)
ATMA Director and Deputy Director
Level
ATMA Management Committee (AMC)
F W
U O
N R
ZRS KVK D DOA DOH DAH K DOF Other
Depts.
F P
L L
O A
W N
Block Farm Information & Advisory Centres (FIAC)
Level Farmer Advisory Block Technology
Committee (30% women) Team (BTT)
Village Different socio-economic groups of men & women farmers were organized into
Level
Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs)

15. Basmati Rice-40 FIGs Dairy – 125 FIGs (25)
Major Urban Centres
Example of how the ATMA approach was Implemented
Oilseeds - 10 FIGs Poultry/Fisheries - 35 FIGs
Vegetables - 46 FIGs (20) Mushrooms – 152 FIGs (120)
In the Patna District in Bihar, -India
Pulses 25 FIGs Potato/Onion - 35 FIGs
HMACs – 140 FIGs Vermi-compost – 52 FIGs (28
Diara =Ganges river-basin
Floriculture 19 FIGs Beekeeping – 13 FIGs
Silt builds-up in the diara, which
Post-harvest – 26 FIGs (17)
is good for post-monsoon = 45 (39)
Micro-credit SHGs
horticultural crops FIGs = 763 (249)
TOTAL
Tal = wetlands good for post-
monsoon (rabi) pulse crops
Number and type of Farmer and Self-Help
Groups in different blocks in Patna District,
Bihar (Slide developed by K.M. Singh, 2008)
(Slide developed by K.M. Singh, 2008)
Swanson, Singh & Reddy, 2008

16. Other Key Extension Issues
Currently, there are over 1 million public extension workers
but, with the exception of China (600,000+), most are largely
ineffective due to the T&V approach (top-down) and total lack
of public funding to provide advisory services to farmers.
Long-term public financing (and short-term donor financing)
of public extension systems is essential.
In a decentralized extension system, local extension staff
Must be able to work with farmer groups,
But to do so, they need adequate program & operating
funds, but most donors are unwilling to invest in public
extension
To address this problem, the donor community must
reconsider investing in public extension to ensure
sustainability!

17. Strengthening Advisory Services for
Natural Resource Management (NRM)
Overuse of water & climate change are serious
problems in most developing countries
Soil and land-use management practices must
help maintain sustainable cropping systems
Most farmers should use fewer pesticides (IPM)
Farmer field schools (FFS) is an effective
method for IPM and NRM practices (but costly and not
sustainable over the long-term)
A key problem is that most Value-Chain projects
do not address these important NRM issues!
Donors needs to address these critical issues!

18. Role of Non-Governmental Organizations
Providing Agricultural Advisory Services
 The role of NGOs in providing extension services
has changed substantially over past 20+ years
 Originally, most NGOs focused on “social skills”
 Now, with expanded donor resources being invested in
value-chains, “entrepreneurial NGOs” are hiring away
the best public agricultural extension advisors, and
 Most new agricultural NGOs are very successful in both
competing for and carrying out donor-driven projects,
especially those focused on “value chains.”
 But, are these new NGO advisory service
providers sustainable after donor funding ceases?
 There is a need for Public-Private Partnerships!

19. Conclusions
 Public extension should give priority to process
innovations, especially focused on the rural poor
 Public extension must also give high priority to
natural resource management (NRM) practices
 To make these institutional changes, public
extension systems must become more
decentralized, farmer-led and market-driven.
 Finally, pluralistic extension systems can
become more sustainable if donors start building
public-private partnerships

20. This presentation was given:
By Burton E. Swanson on behalf of
MEAS
at the Global Learning Exchange on
Best Fit Approaches in Extension and
Advisory Services
in Washington, D.C.
on June 6, 2012

21. Terms of Use:
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22. Disclaimer:
This presentation was made possible by the generous support of
the American people through the United States Agency for
International Development, USAID. The contents are the
responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
views of USAID or the United States Government.
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