African Journal of Agriculture and Food Security

African Journal of Agriculture and Food Security ISSN 2375-1177 Vol. 6 (7), pp. 263-268, July, 2018. © International Scholars Journals

Review

 Evaluation of the development of agricultural extension services in Africa

Chuks Obiora Nnamdi

Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 09 July, 2017

Abstract

Many developing countries are now at various stages in the process of economic liberalization, privatization and decentralization. This implies that technical programming, personnel management and budget appropriations for extension delivery will no longer be the same as they used to be under centralized public extension service delivery. Liberalization has bred different actors in extension delivery such as the public agencies, private service providers, produce organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). It is therefore important to find out the methods utilized by the current facilitators of extension activities and how the activities are funded. This paper thus examined the current approaches to agricultural extension in South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda and Madagascar. Findings revealed the following approaches: (1) partnership extension services, (2) people centered participation, (3) farmers organizations and (4) fund mobilization through shared responsibility among all the stakeholders. These approaches covered a significant part of each of the countries examined. However, time must be giving if the approaches are to stand the test of time. Effort must be intensified to see how the benefit from the approaches in the enclave coverage can be extended to every part of the nation. Enabling environment like development of viable markets, communication and other infrastructural facilities can be provided for the exploration of these approaches.

Key words: Actors, private service providers, non-governmental organization, public agencies.