APPROACHES IN EXTENSION

Dr. Judith D. Intong

 What is an extension approach?
➠ An extension approach is an organized and coherent combination
of strategies and methods, designed to make rural extension
effective in a certain area.

➠embodies the philosophy of a system

➠spells the doctrine of the system

➠ style of action which by and large, determines the direction and
nature/style of the various aspects of the system (e.g. structure,
leadership, program, methods, resources and linkages)
 What are the general commonalities among
extension approaches?

➷ all approaches employ NFE procedures

➷ all have content related to agriculture

➷ all seek to improve the standard of living of the rural people

 What are the seven dimension by which
approaches are characterized?

1. The dominant identified problems to which the approach is to be applied

2. The purposes it is designed to achieve
3. The way in which the control of program planning is carried on & the
relation between those who control & the target
4. The nature of field personnel & their relation with clients
5. The resources required and various cost factors
6. The typical implementation techniques used
7. How it measures success
 What is the General Agricultural Extension
Approach?
• It is a dominant approach for the last 80 years, commonly found in
the government Department/ Ministry of Agriculture
• It assumes that technology and information are available and not
being used by farmers; if communicated to farmers, farm practices
would be improved.
• Its purpose is to help farmers increase their production/income
through adoption of technology.
• The field staff are assigned all over the country by political sub-
division.
• Requires a large number of government field personnel.
• Success is measured based on attainment of increased farm
production and family income as well as better quality of life.
 What is the Commodity Approach?

• It is an organized and coherent combination of extension

strategies and methods which facilitate the production of one
specific crop/livestock (commodity).
• It assumes that the way to increase productivity and income is
through the production of a particular commodity.
• Requires highly qualified scientific and field personnel
• It does not provide advisory service to other aspects of
farming if farmers like to produce more than one commodity.
• Measure of success is the total production of that particular
crop/animal.
 What is the Training and Visit
Approach?
• It is spread rapidly since mid 70s advocated by the World Bank
• It assumes that extension field personnel are poorly trained, not
up-to-date and tend not to visit farmers.
• There is a fix schedule of training of village extension workers and
farmers.
• Implementation relies basically on visits by village level extension
workers to small groups of farmers or to individual contact
farmers.
• Costs are high.
• Success is measured based on increase in yield and improved
communication flow.
What is the Participatory Agricultural Extension Approach?

• It assumes that farming people have much wisdom regarding production

of food from their land, and levels of living and productivity could be
improved by learning.
• It aims to increase production of farming people and increase the
consumption and enhance quality of life of rural people.
• Success is measured on the continuity of local extension organizations,
benefits to the community, extent to which agricultural research
personnel and others actually participate in both planning and
implementation.
• It costs less because local associations facilitate communication making
whole system more efficient..
 What is the Project Approach?
• It assumes that the large government bureaucracy is not likely to
have a significant impact upon either agricultural production or
rural people, and that better results can be achieved in a
particular location, during a specified time period with large
infusions of outside resources.
• It aims to demonstrate what can be done in a few years/short
period of time.
• It has bigger project allowances for field staff with better facilities.
• The measure of success is usually short run change at the project
site.
• There is a tendency that when money ends, so does the project.
 What is the Farming Systems Research & Extension/Development
Approach?

• Assumes that technology which fits the needs of farmers, particularly

small farmers, is not available and needs to be generated locally
• aims to provide extension personnel (and through them farm people), with
research results tailored to meet the needs and interests of local farming
system conditions.
• the control of the program is shared jointly by local farm people, extension
officers and researchers
• in each particular location, the program actually ‘fits’ the needs and
interests of its clientele and they are more likely to participate over time,
adopt recommended practices and support continuity of the total
agricultural extension program.
• the cost can be very high
• the approach brings results slowly
 What is the Cost Sharing
Approach?
• Joint venture between the community and GO/NGO in the utilization and
complementation of resources;
• It assumes that local people may not be able to sufficiently support their
own development efforts thus, outside resources should
supplement/complement
• It aims to increase productivity and help farmers help themselves, teaching
them self-reliance
• Resources required from government is less
• Success is dependent on farm people’s willingness and ability to
sustainably share in the cost.
 What is the Educational Institution Approach?

• Extension done by academic institution

• It assumes that agricultural educational institutions have technical
knowledge relevant to the farm people
• It aims to help farmers learn about scientific agriculture
• Costs may be high without collaboration with other agencies
• Success is dependent on attendance and extent of participation of
the farm people
 What is the Technical Change Approach?

• an extension approach which aims at the maximum adoption of a

number of innovations
• most common approach followed in agricultural development
• farmers are free whether or not to receive the information and to
try, adopt or reject the innovation
• problem on the heterogeneity of rural populations in terms of their
access to resources and their farming systems
• Success is dependent on the adoption of innovations
 What is the Farmers Organization Approach?

. independent, self-management and in most cases permanent

organizations are formed with the objective to propagate some
kind of social or economic development for the members.

• requires a relatively high degree of mobilization of the farmers as

well as the capacity to manage their own affairs on a communal
basis

• requires government policy that facilitates or tolerates the

emergence of a farmers’ lobby and is willing to look upon the
organizations as partners in development.
 What is the Functional Group Approach?

• is an extension approach where one of the prime targets is to form

groups of persons who join their efforts in order to mobilize the necessary
resources to be able to achieve a shared goal.
• .the change in behavior of participants is carried out by five different
elements: mobilization; organization; training; technical and resource
support; and special efforts to consolidate and replicate the results.
• crucial role in the system includes starting up functional groups and
agency support, maintaining the linkages between them, mobilizing,
organizing and training new functional groups, initiating local
development projects; providing starter loans, lobbying for support from
agencies, so forth
 What is the Target Category
Approach?
. an extension approach which provides carefully selected
information, and other support for the specific needs of
deliberately chosen categories in the population
• target categories are formed on the basis of similarities of their
needs and/or opportunities
• selective delivery of opportunities is successful to the extent that
they benefit only members of target categories
 What is the Scheme Approach?

. an organized and coherent combination of extension strategies and methods which

aims at the reinforcement of the rules and regulations of a scheme.

• the management control most of the production factors

• decisions about innovation are all taken by one management

• allow results in a short time and can be expanded to include large numbers of people

• success depends on the quality of management

• unless it is designed and controlled very much according to rules which fit the farmers’
needs, and unless the scheme yields results which farmers perceive as beneficial,
scheme approach hardly works
 What is Rapid Community Appraisal (RCA)

• data collection technique that can be used both for rural and urban
situations, with multi-perspective analysis

• short duration, conducted by multidisciplinary team interacting

with the community, obtain usually non-empirical data to guide
further study and plan intervention programs or other possible
courses of action

• rapid and effective way of obtaining behavioral, economic and

sociological information about a particular topic or situation; able to
deal with complex systems and can provide insight into situations
from multiple perspectives

• generates large amount of data which needs comprehensive and

thorough analysis and synthesis
Other extension approaches as listed by Alex, Zijp and
Byerlee (2001)

Strategic Extension Campaign (SEC)

• Methodology developed by FAO to systematically incorporate
people’s participation into a national extension program.

Publicly-contracted extension
• Services provided by private firms or NGOs on contract to
government.
 Other extension approaches as listed by Alex,
Zijp and Byerlee (2001)
Targeted Extension Services
• Approaches that attempt to avoid the high recurrent costs by
focusing either in terms of subject matter, clients, region or time.

Specialized Extension Services

• Focus efforts on improving production of a specific commodity or
aspect of farming (e.g. irrigation, fertilizer use and forest
management).
Other extension approaches as listed by Alex,
Zijp and Byerlee (2001)

Client-group-targeted Approach
• Focuses on specific types of farmers, usually on
disadvantages ethnic groups.

Producer-led Extension Services

• The approaches involve farmers in the work of
extension drawing on producers’ knowledge and
resources.
 Other extension approaches as listed by Alex,
Zijp and Byerlee (2001)
Animation Rurale (AR)
• Introduced in francophone Africa as a strategy to break the top-down
pattern found in most development programs.

Producer-organized Extension Services

• Completely planned and administered by producers.

Commercialized Extension
• These approaches rely on commercialized extension services.
 General Principles regarding Approaches to Agricultural Extension

• Success of an extension program is directly related to the extent to

which the approach fits program goals
• Participation of rural people tends to facilitate learning and
adoption of improved farm
• Effectiveness of an extension program vary directly with the extent
of discipline and seriousness among personnel
• Effectiveness depends on the extent to which goals of the program
are clearly understood by responsible personnel
• Sustainability depends on the extent to which benefits to both
sponsors and clients are greater than costs
 General Principles regarding Approaches to Agricultural
Extension

• Information from both indigenous knowledge and international scientific

knowledge systems tend to be more effective than those which utilize
technical information only
• Particular approaches will be most successful when they fit national
aspirations
• Cultural factors need to be considered in planning any extension program
• Approaches used should be gender sensitive
• More participatory approaches tend to fit best in national systems where
public administration is more decentralized
• Approach should encourage two-way communication linkages between and
among sponsors and clients
• An approach is effective if it could develop sustained, vigorous, dynamic
and creative leadership