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How to make agricultural extension demand-driven?: The case of India's agricultural extension policy

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  • Birner, Regina
  • Anderson, Jock R.

Abstract

"Many countries have recognized the need to revive agricultural advisory or extension services (the terms are used interchangeably here) as a means of using agriculture as an engine of pro-poor growth; reaching marginalized, poor, and female farmers; and addressing new challenges, such as environmental degradation and climate change. In spite of ample experience with extension reform worldwide, identifying the reform options most likely to make extension more demand-driven remains a major challenge. The concept of demand-driven services implies making extension more responsive to the needs of all farmers, including women and those who are poor and marginalized. It also implies making extension more accountable to farmers and, as a consequence, more effective. This essay discusses various options for providing and financing agricultural advisory services, which involve the public and private sectors as well as a third sector comprising nongovernmental organizations and farmer-based organizations. We review the market and state failures, and the “community” failures (failures of non-governmental and farmer-based organizations) inherent in existing models of providing and financing agricultural extension services and then outline strategies to address those failures and make extension demand-driven. Then we examine India's Policy Framework for Agricultural Extension, which has demand-driven extension as one of its major objectives, and review available survey information on the state of extension in India. We conclude that although the framework proposes a wide range of strategies to make agricultural extension demand-driven, it is less specific in addressing the challenges inherent in those strategies. Moreover, it remains unclear whether the strategies proposed in the framework will be able to address one of the major problems identified by farm household surveys: access to agricultural extension." from Authors' Abstract

Suggested Citation

  • Birner, Regina & Anderson, Jock R., 2007. "How to make agricultural extension demand-driven?: The case of India's agricultural extension policy," IFPRI discussion papers 729, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:729
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    1. Tesei, Andrea & Ponticelli, Jacopo & Gupta, Apoorv, 2019. "Technology Adoption and Access to Credit via Mobile Phones," CEPR Discussion Papers 13956, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Singh, K.M. & Meena, M.S. & Swanson, B.E. & Reddy, M.N. & Bahal, R., 2014. "In-depth Study of the Pluralistic Agricultural Extension System in India," MPRA Paper 59461, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Sep 2014.
    3. Akter, Shaheen & Fu, Xiaolan, 2012. "Impact of Mobile Telephone on the Quality and Speed of Agricultural Extension Services Delivery: Evidence from the Rural India," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126798, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Matuschke, Ira, 2008. "Evaluating the impact of social networks in rural innovation systems: An overview," IFPRI discussion papers 816, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Sebaggala, Richard & Okello, Patrick, 2010. "An Econometric Analysis Of The Link Between Access To Agricultural Extension Services, Adoption Of Agricultural Technology And Poverty: Evidence For Uganda," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124622, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Cohen, Marc J. & Lemma, Mamusha, 2011. "Agricultural extension services and gender equality: An institutional analysis of four districts in Ethiopia," ESSP working papers 28, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Daum, Thomas & Ravichandran, Thanammal & Kariuki, Juliet & Chagunda, Mizeck & Birner, Regina, 2022. "Connected cows and cyber chickens? Stocktaking and case studies of digital livestock tools in Kenya and India," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    8. Babu, Suresh Chandra & Joshi, P.K. & Glendenning, Claire J. & Kwadwo, Asenso-Okyere & Rasheed, Sulaiman V., 2013. "The State of Agricultural Extension Reforms in India: Strategic Priorities and Policy Options," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 26(2).
    9. Kinya K. Kigatiira & Hellen K. Mberia & Kyalo wa Ngula, 2018. "The Effect of the Nature of Messages Conveyed Between the Extension Officers and Farmers on the Adoption of Irish Potato Farming in Meru County," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 8(4), pages 392-407, April.
    10. Mequaninte, Teferi & Birner, Regina & Mueller, Ulrike, 2015. "Adoption of Land Management Practices in Ethiopia: Which Network Types," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212631, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Meena, M.S. & Singh, K.M. & Swanson, B.E., 2013. "Pluralistic Agricultural Extension System in India: Innovations and Constraints," MPRA Paper 48324, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Jul 2013.
    12. Ke, Sam Oeurn & Babu, Suresh Chandra, 2018. "Agricultural extension in Cambodia: An assessment and options for reform:," IFPRI discussion papers 1706, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Glendenning, Claire J. & Babu, Suresh C, 2011. "Decentralization of public-sector agricultural extension in India: The case of the district-level Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA)," IFPRI discussion papers 1067, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    14. Thomas Daum & Regina Birner, 2017. "The neglected governance challenges of agricultural mechanisation in Africa – insights from Ghana," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(5), pages 959-979, October.
    15. Glendenning, Claire J. & Babu, Suresh & Asenso-Okyere, Kwadwo, 2010. "Review of agricultural extension in India: Are farmers' information needs being met?," IFPRI discussion papers 1048, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    16. Singh, K.M. & Meena, M.S. & Swanson, B.E., 2013. "Extension in India by Public Sector Institutions: An Overview," MPRA Paper 49107, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Aug 2013.
    17. Bartoli, Luca & De Rosa, Marcello & La Rocca, Giuseppe, 2014. "Which Organizational Models Stimulate Higher Access To Agricultural Extension Services? Empirical Evidence From Italy," Politica Agricola Internazionale - International Agricultural Policy, Edizioni L'Informatore Agrario, vol. 2013(4), September.
    18. Cohen, Marc J. & Lemma, Mamusha, 2011. "Agricultural extension services and gender equality: An institutional analysis of four districts in Ethiopia," IFPRI discussion papers 1094, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Apoorv Gupta & Jacopo Ponticelli & Andrea Tesei, 2020. "Language Barriers, Technology Adoption and Productivity: Evidence from Agriculture in India," NBER Working Papers 27192, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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