Is Agricultural Extension Services becoming a Distant Memory?

Knowledge, Knowledge, Knowledge

 The percentage of farmers with access to agricultural knowledge and best farming practice is low. In most cases it is the big farmers that highly benefit from extension services. The government of Kenya has over the years been steadily falling to invest in agricultural research and extension.

Whereas the approximate rate of return on government research and extension services stands at 34% in the sub-Saharan Africa, there is a great under-investment in research and extension by the sub-Saharan governments.

According to Beintema et al., 2018, government expenditure on research and extension as a proportion of GDP has fallen immensely. It stood at 0.48% in 2016, representing a 60% drop from 2006. A need therefore arises for instance to re-allocate part of the income from high revenue commodities like coffee back into research.

A farmer centered approach is necessary. Providing knowledge on the benefits of using certified seeds, and the rate of fertilizer application is an initiative that would promote productivity for example. Farmer cooperatives and societies should be used as outlets for knowledge on better farming methods and practices.

Capacity building for farmers is paramount. Most technological developments are not informed by correct priorities, circumstances and socio-economic conditions of farmers themselves. The scenario is that of building systems that will be hard to adopt since they were built without considering the end users. It leads to rejection and hence unsustainable adoption of such development technologies by farmers who were the intended end-users.

Insufficient transfer of product specific knowledge from manufacturers and suppliers of inputs to the farmers plays a major role in the tackling productivity challenges of farmers especially the smallholders. Now this is merely an impact, the main factor contributing to the current scenario is a transaction oriented supply chain by dealers and suppliers that has a focus only on short-term profit maximization rather than a customer driven long-term practice.

The successful commercialization of agriculture will occur with efforts that aim to avail the markets for farmers and minimize the transactional costs between production and the market. These efforts should be centered on:

1.  Financing and offering credit for farming enterprises.

2.  Organizing of farmers through resource pooling.

3.  Availing the necessary knowledge to improve productivity and further providing access to markets.

Digital Technologies

Is our focus only one-sided?

A review of the existing financial techniques to support farmers especially the smallholder indicate that there is a one-sided focus by digital platforms to disseminate information on price and product selling whereas there is little on how to access inputs at cost-effective costs.

Perhaps it is time that more was done to improve farmers’ access to the following:

i.            Financial services.

ii.           Knowledge on production.

iii.          Agricultural inputs.

iv.         Markets.

Kenya is on the world map for digital communication. The rate of mobile penetration stands at 88.1% (Moore, 2018, CAK). There are a number of mobile services in operation. However to leverage on such impressive mobile reach in the country to improve productivity in agriculture would require the industry to promote access to input knowledge disseminated through the m-services.

The mobile services should also aim to strengthen the social-capital capacity apart from just facilitating trade between buyers and sellers. They should facilitate communication, and decision-making between producers and consumers.

Reference

Beintema, N., Mose, L., Kibet, T., Emongor, R., Murithi, F., Kimani, I., Ndungu, V. & Mwangi, P. (2018). Kenya: Agricultural R&D Indicators Factsheet Update. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO). Retrieved from: https://www.ifpri.org/publication/kenya-agricultural-rdindicators-factsheet-update

Moore, H. L. (2018). Prosperity in crisis and the longue durée in Africa. The Journal of Peasant Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1446001