IFPRI organized a two day workshop on “Agricultural Extension Reforms in South Asia – Status, Challenges, and Policy Options” to be organized at Committee Room 3, NASC, Pusa, New Delhi on February 17-18, 2015. IFPRI has been conducting research related to agricultural extension reforms in India and collaborating with researchers in other south Asian countries for the past five years through various projects. For understanding extension reforms in India, a major consultation was held in NAARM in 2009 during which policy makers called for development of evidence for spreading extension reform process in India. Since then several research papers have been produced on various aspects of Indian extension system. While they are presented in various forms including several discussion papers, there is a need to pull all the research result together to present it in form that could be used by the policy makers to further guide them in the reform process. South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are going through similar challenges in getting knowledge to farmers. Several experiment shave been conducted to test new approaches to extension by the public, private and NGO sectors. Learning from each country experiences will bring collective understanding and knowledge for the policy makers who are attempting to bring changes in the reform process. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together a groups of researchers, analysts and policy makers to present the issues, constraints and challenges facing agricultural extension reforms that are being implemented in South Asian countries.

1. INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Overview of Extension Reforms in
South Asia- Historical Trends and
Recent Developments
Regional Workshop on Extension Reforms in
South Asia
New Delhi, India. February 17-18, 2015
Suresh Babu and P. K. Joshi

2. Presentation Outline
1. Challenges in Extension
2. Strategies
3. Global Trends
4. Lessons for South Asian Extension
System
5. Some Conclusions

3. Provision and financing of extension
• Why reform?
• Problems of PUBLIC sector extension:
- scale and complexity
- dependence on policy environment
- weak accountability
- weak links between extension and research
- difficulty in attributing impact
- weak political commitment /support
- public duties other than knowledge transfer
- fiscal sustainability (Feder et al. 2001)
• PUBLIC, PRIVATE, THIRD SECTOR?

4. FUNDING
DELIVERY
Public Private Third Sector
Public
Decentralization:
 Deconcentration
 Devolution
 Delegation
 Fee-based  FBOs contract
staff from public
sector
Private
 Contracting out private
service providers
(out-sourcing)
 Subsidies to producers
to hire private provider
 Commercialization
 Total privatization to
private companies
 FBOs contract
staff from
private service
providers
Third
Sector
 Contracting to
NGO/FBO providers
 Advisory services
hired by NGO/FBO,
farmers pay
 FBOs hire own
advisory staff
and provide free
service to
members
Strategies
Sources: Birner et al. (2006), Rivera and Qamar (2003),
Rivera (1996).

5. Global Trends Examined
1. Decentralization
2. Broadened Extension Function
3. Privatization
4. Participatory/Demand-driven
5. ICT Use

6. 1. Decentralization
• Admin to local level
• More accountability
• Need to build capacity

7. Example: CHINA
• Agro-Technical Extension Centres (ATEC)
• Each level responsible for $$
• Contracts: extension – farmer, FBOs
commercial demonstration farms

8. 2. Broadened Extension Function
• PREVIOUSLY:
•Transfer of Technology
•Cereal crop production
• NOW:
•Post-harvest: storage, handling,
marketing
•Facilitation, capacity building
•Rural Development – Climate change,
nutrition

9. Example: U.S Cooperative Extension System
• Decline in public funding, awareness and use
• Expand beyond agriculture = increase client
base and relevance
• Rural Development: Family, Health,
consumption, sustainability, small businesses

10. 3. Privatization + other cost recovery options
• Fee for service, cost sharing
• User pays; poor farmers?
Excludability
Low High
Rivalry
Low
Public goods
-environment, natural
resources, non-excludable
agricultural information
Toll goods
-excludable agricultural
information
High
Common-pool goods
-modern technologies
Private goods
- modern technologies
Source: (Umali-Deininger, 1997)

11. Example: The Netherlands
• Fully privatized from 1990: DLV Plant
WHY? Difference btw govt policy – farmer
interest, reduce cost
• More competition, client orientation
• BUT remote farmers, minor crops ignored,
weakened links
• Ministry of Ag: public good programs
e.g. Nutrient Management Support Service

12. 4. Demand-driven / Participatory
approaches
• Consultative process – communities,
ecosystems
• Participatory, bottom up
• Problem Driven –Water, Nutrition,
climate change
• = accountability, empowerment
• Extension = facilitation, capacity
building (takes TIME)

13. Example: Landcare AUSTRALIA
• 4500 community groups, 1 in 3 farms
• Address land degradation issues,
natural resource management
• Partnership:
Funds = Central, Action = Community
• “Self-help” supported by
coordinators

14. 5. ICT Use
• Connecting famers directly
• Emerging trend in developing
countries
• Allows new actors and entities to
play their role
• Also brings in problems

15. Example: JAPAN
• Highly connected through ICT
• Lower transaction cost, increase
efficiency
• Extension Information Network System
(EI-NET) links all levels
• National Case Information of Extension
Activities Database
• Local networks for farmers

16. Diverse Strategies - Pluralism
Global Extension
Trends
Australia Netherlands U.S Japan China India
Governance
structure
Decentralization X XXX X XXX XXX
Privatization XXX XXX
Contracting X
Actors
Involved
Public-Private Partner XXX X
Role of Third Sector XXX
Producer Orgs X X X X
Type of
Service
Fee-for-service X X
Commercial Services X X X
Diverse Services XXX X
Method Use of ICTs XX XX XXX XXX X X
Approach Participatory X ?
Reform
process
National Strategies XXX XXX ? ?

17. Summary of Issues for
extension reforms
1. Governance, Management, and organisation
2. Systematic promoting pluralistic extension
3. Appropriate extension approaches and methods
4. Increasing demand driven nature – empowerment of
the unreached farmers
5. Participatory approaches for stakeholder collaboration
6. Increased thematic dimensions for research-extension-
client Linkages
7. Organization, policy process, and human capacity
Building
8. Effective and appropriate use of ICT
9. Gender considerations

18. Lessons for South Asian Extension
Systems
• Broaden BEYOND ToT
• Public sector fiscal sustainability?
• Privatization = large farmers
BUT limited accountability
• Public for resource poor farmers
• Link between Research – Extension,

19. Conclusions
• Challenges are common
• Reforms are the norm
• Countries are experimenting
• What lessons we learn collectively?
• How to share knowledge within outside
the regions?
• This Workshop is an effort to bring
South Asian experience as GPG