The Impact of T&V Extension in Africa: The Experience of Kenya and Burkina Faso

Agricultural extension programs based on the Training and Visit (T&V) system are operating in some thirty-one Sub-Saharan African countries. Evidence from Kenya and Burkina Faso shows that T&V management enhances the effectiveness of extension and that such programs support agricultural growth and produce high returns on investments. The data indicate that areas served by extension have higher yields and that within these areas the highest yields are achieved by farmers who participate directly in extension activities. As a result, extension helps to close the gap between the yields attainable with existing technologies and those actually realized by farmers. Closing this gap improves agricultural productivity in the short run, but long-term increases in output in Sub-Saharan Africa will depend on the development of improved technologies that are relevant to local conditions. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.