Ethiopia

This chapter takes stock of the provision of extension services in line with the country’s development and suggests ways such services might contribute to accelerating agricultural growth and poverty reduction in the years ahead. Ethiopia has invested significantly in its extension system, in line with national policies that place a high priority on boosting agricultural production and productivity. Ethiopia is considered a leading country globally in the provision of extension services to farmers and has the highest extension agent-to-farmer ratio of any country. Ethiopia presents an interesting case, as it is one of few African countries to have placed agriculture at the forefront of its economic development policies, having invested heavily in the sector over the past two decades. Unlike many countries where private-sector extension services expanded following drastic public funding cuts to their extension systems in the 1980s and 1990s (Zhou and Babu 2015), Ethiopia’s extension system remains predominantly public.