Agric Extension Services necessary for agric modernization – PFAG, SEND-Ghana

Two organisations say Ghana's quest for modernised agriculture would remain illusory if the authorities continue to neglect extension services.

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghanan and SEND-Ghana say farmers across the country urgently need the guidance and support of extension officers to adopt modern techniques of agriculture.

The two organisations said in a statement issued in Accra.

They are calling on the political parties contesting this year's elections to make adequate provisions in their manifestos on how to improve the extension-farmer ratio.

Read the full statement below:

Agricultural modernization has been the focus of government and captured inGhana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) II, 2014-2017 and also in both Food and Agricultural Sector Policy (FASDEP I & II) as the solution to transform the agricultural sector to accelerate growth.

This will quicken the pace towards full domestic food security, increased agricultural exports, improvement in farm incomes, production of raw materials for value addition through processing, generation of employment and alleviation of poverty.

According to research conducted by Peasant Farmers and SEND- Ghana, this dream will remain a mirage, if attention is not given to the drivers of this change who are the Agricultural Extension Services. “Unfortunately, due to poor extension services, the aim of modernizing the sector to propel growth had not been achieved”. The Programme Officer of Peasant Farmers indicated.

According to them available statistics from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture shows that the national farmer-extension ratio stands at 1 Agricultural Extension Agent (AEA) to 1,500 farmers (1:1500) (MoFA).  However, research conducted by the organisations shows that; there is 1 AEA to 3000 farmers (1:3000).  According to the Programme Officer of SEND Ghana; the situation is compounded by lack of the right combination of logistics such as motor bikes, computers and information for the few AEAs to discharge their duties effectively. Besides, extension officers are ill-incentivised in Ghana, especially those working in very deprived and hard-to-reach communities resulting in demoralised, scarce and unproductive extension service agents. 

According to them, the consequences of poor extension services delivery to smallholder farmers brought in its trail characteristic poor agronomic practices; post-harvest management challenges; inefficient use of inputs; abuse of pesticides; low adaptive capacity for research and technology uptake; and inadequate access to auxiliary information that could help increase agricultural productivity in Ghana

They are calling on all political parties as part of their 2016 manifestoes to the agricultural sector to be bold and resist external forces to continue placing embargo in the recruitment of extension officers. How can you invest in building more agricultural training colleagues, producing average of 600 extension officers every year yet you refused to employ them? They also call on government to increase investment in agricultural extension services by purchasing more motor bikes, proving extension staff with the needed logistic to operate with and also ensure there is proper extension research linkages.

They called on government to also empower CSIR with enough resources to enable them disseminate research products to farmers and also research for more important products that addresses the needs of farmers. This is the only way the aim agricultural modernization can come to fruition they concluded

Below are some of their policy recommendation

1. Extension human resources management

• The welfare and motivation of extension staff are central to an effective national extension service. Extension officers need clear roles and objectives with appropriate career development opportunities to do their job effectively. Adequate training and resources are vital. When officers are scattered widely, there must be efforts to provide interaction, feedback and support, for example, through mobile phone and internet technologies.
• In the short term extension graduates should be treated like it is done with for teachers to have guaranteed jobs by posting to new graduates to farming communities where they will be focusing on service delivery to smallholder farmers
• MoFAs should make the strategic decision to develop and implement gender-sensitive recruitment policy to hire more women extension officers. This is crucial to address the social and cultural factors that work against women smallholder farmers from accessing services provided by men. 
• The intention to rely on E-Extension to reach farmers must be pursued cautiously. Ghana has not completely reached a point where E-extension can be regarded as the solution to inadequate human resources for extension service delivery. Mobile penetration is continuing to be a challenge due to rising cost of the gadget; poor network connectivity in the rural communities, multiplicity of languages, high illiteracy rate that limit the extent to which mobile phone functions can be utilized etc. besides, some issues bordering on human interaction cannot be replaced with gadgets. Hence the continuous need to invest in building more agricultural training collages and absorb their graduates into the Civil Services.

1. Promoting Demand-drive research and extension services

• To ensure consistency and coherence in policy implementation MoFA should undertake a participative stakeholder audit every three years to see where government extension services are most needed, and to identify opportunities for collaboration with Apex Farmer Organisations, NGOs and/or the private sector.
• The same exercise can serve dual purpose by ensuring that there is in place, regular implementation of a monitoring and evaluation framework for extension services delivery to ensure that they are meeting the needs of smallholder farmers

1. Supporting and resourcing the policy framework

• There is need for government to invest in the training of the private sector to build public and private partnerships in the delivery of extension services and
• Government should as a matter of urgency lift banned on recruitment of AEAs and absorb all graduates from agricultural training colleges into the public sector

1. Clarity on Standards for Private Extension Service Delivery

• There is need for MoFA to develop standards and guidelines for the implementation of extension services for all actors in the sector. The guidelines for extension delivery should focus on code of ethics and standards for extension providers; and establishment of regulatory body for registration and accreditation of extension providers and practitioners.

1. Mal-functioning Farmer-Based Organizations (FBOs);

• MoFA should collaborate with the recognized Apex Farmer Based Organizations and NGOs working with grassroots farmer groups to reorient existing FBOs to bring back the spirit of voluntarism in grassroots advocacy movements.
• Extension service agents should facilitate access to credit for small scale farmers, especially, those that belong to FBOs,to ensure smallholder farmers take advantage of existing and new technological innovations. Access to credit will also reduce reliance on hand-outs that interfere with the running of the FBOs.

1. Where to find the Resources

• The Ghana extension services policy can be funded in a variety of ways: as part of the government budget for agricultural development; through industry levies (for example, where farmers or marketers pay a set fee to government each time they sell their produce); or through affordable ‘user pay’ schemes (where farmers pay for specific services/products provided by extension officers). This will require the intervention of the government to exercise their oversight roles to ensure that the right strategic framework and laws, regulations and instruments are in place.It is important to ensure that funding is aligned to the priorities for the extension service sector. 

1. A functioning Research –Extension - Farmer – Linkages - Committees (RELCs)

• The ministry of Food and Agriculture should be given the mandate to ensure effective and efficient coordination of the RELC process and as well as all activities undertaken by government, the private sector and NGOs in the subsector
• The decentralized system of extension services should be properly assessed to ensure recognition and support agricultural directorate at the district level