Role of research-extension systems in promoting food and nutrition security

A panel discussion on the role of research-extension system in promoting food and nutritional security was the first interactive session during the Expert Consultation on 11 December 2013. Panel moderator Dr. Raj Paroda, Executive Secretary of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) put the following questions to the panelists who included Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC); Dr. Annie Wesley, Senior Program Specialist, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada; Dr. Abdus Salam, Advisor, Agriculture & Food Security Program, BRAC, Bangladesh; Dr. Ir. Agung Hendriadi, Director, Indonesian Center for Agricultural Technology Assessment and Development (ICATAD); and Mr. Sopheap Pan, Executive Director, Farmer and Nature Net (Cambodia) :

• How to bridge the gap between research and extension and increase the impact of extension?
• How to ensure that extension is related to the farming system with knowledge and multi-disciplinary approach are needed for food security?
• What role do stakeholders play in strengthening extension to fill gaps which governments cannot fully respond to? 

In response the first question, Dr. Ahmad acknowledged that although research and extension have contributed to food security to a great extent in Pakistan, there is still a gap between research and extension systems. “Government policy advocacy is important. Unless the government understands, they cannot create good policy for smallholder farmers,” he pointed out.

He said agriculture must be seen as an industry and not just as an issue of subsistence in order to ensure a holistic approach. Private sector involvement must be encouraged with new investment concepts such as ‘minimize external resources and utilize local resources’. He called on all stakeholders to work together to develop a regulatory framework integrating such an approach. He emphasized the importance of doing more to attract youth into research and extension.

Dr. Wesley, representing the donor community noted that “nobody can deny that research and extension are highly significant and unprecedented improvements have been seen, especially in Asia and Pacific.” Yet, achievement in strengthening the three pillars of food security has been mixed, she added, with most progress in the area of food availability with room for improvement in the area of accessibility and utilization.

As a researcher, she thought that “making sure that research objectives incorporate what is necessary for research results to be implemented right from the beginning is important.” There is need to share research from the beginning for better connectedness and responsibility among all stakeholders to implement the results of research.

Dr. Salam raised the question of sustainability, insisting that “we must look at this from the perspective of sustainability of research and extension system to produce more food for improving livelihoods of those in marginalized areas.” Research systems should target multiple cropping, rather than single cropping for better sustainability.

Dr. Hendriadi listed four subsystems that can be developed to make research and extension more effective in promoting food and nutrition security. These include institutional capacity-building, cooperative research and extension systems, translating scientific research into easy-to-understand language and farmers’ participation in research. Public-private partnership should also be promoted given the budgetary constraints for many governments.

Mr. Pan pointed out that the most important challenge is that “extension services provided by the government do not yet fulfill the needs of farmers.” To address such problems, he suggested regarding farmers as scientists and extension workers themselves, because they can be more effective in transferring knowledge to colleagues and the next generation.

Comments from the floor pointed out the importance of indigenous knowledge, sustainable food-value chains, the need to set up more farmers’ organizations and constant upgrading of knowledge.

Concluding the session, Dr. Paroda reiterated the importance of advisory services and advocated that national systems must be reoriented to link research and extension systems. This requires reorienting the research agenda to address small farmers’ concerns “‘Farmer first,’ is the message,” he said.

Reporter: Ms. Yuri Kim, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), yuri.kim73@gmail.com 

Status of research-extension linkages in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka was another country represented in presentations on ‘Status of Research-Extension Linkages’ during the Expert Consultation. Dr. R. R. A. Wijekoon, Director General of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka, stated that “agriculture contributes 11.1 per cent to Sri Lanka’s GDP with an estimated growth rate of 5.8 per cent”. The main agricultural produce include rice, vegetables, fruits and spices. The research-extension sector uses training, crop clinics and print media as the main tools to strengthen research-extension linkages.

The most remarkable research-extension achievement is the initiative of fixed and mobile crop clinics. Public-private partnership controls research and extension with activities such as awareness building, events and covers different agricultural sectors - paddy, vegetables, fruits, crops and plantation crops.

Capacity-building programmers are needed, using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and research-dialogues are required to review ways of filling gaps between research and linkage. The Sri Lanka Department of Agriculture has suggested increased role for public-private partnerships, transferring ICT knowledge to farmers and increasing field research activities.

Prepared by Suraj Pandey, Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT), India

Status of research-extension linkages in India

Indian agricultural growth has undergone wide diversification in the six decades since Independence. However, the agriculture sector, which is still crucial for the livelihood of the vast majority of people, is facing many challenges to ensuring food security for the nation.

Regional imbalances in access to agricultural resources are a major constraint to bringing about significant increases in crop yield. In recent decades, population growth, declining average farm size and the increasing vulnerability of smallholder farmers are threatening the sustainability of agriculture and resulting in a situation of “too many mouths, little food”.

Dr. Kiran D. Kokate, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), presented the status of research-extension linkages in India. In recent years, institutional innovations by ICAR and other National Agricultural Research System (NARS) bodies have enhanced sustainable livelihood opportunities for farmers by strengthening linkages between technology adaptation and dissemination.

The ICAR organizational structure is a showcase of institution building and research-extension linkage, covering various agricultural disciplines. ICAR is giving top priority to a capacity-building programme using research-extension linkages from the district to the national level, with annual agro-advisory and stakeholder meetings organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) or agricultural science centres.

This has led to the establishment of an Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), District Annual Action Plan (DAAP) and State Extension Work Plan (SEWP) to provide technology inputs and updates to extension workers, scientists and farmers to strengthen their knowledge. The current research-extension linkage model also includes capacity-building of the extension system to enhance the knowledge of scientists and resource persons in State agriculture universities (SAUs), KVKs and ICAR.

The research-extension linkage package is still being improved to address gaps and issues. The ATMA, as a district-level convergence platform, facilitates and coordinates efforts to strengthen institutional capacities. The ATMA platform also involves farmers through research-extension links, using SAUs, block-level committees and district-level training programmes organized by government institutes. KVKs advise ATMA in implementation of their national-level flagship programmes such as NFSM, NHM and NAIS. ATMA and KVKs also organize Kisan Melas (farmers’ fairs) to disseminate scientific practices to the field.

There is a felt need to enhance research-extension linkages in India through collaboration with international organizations such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and others.

Prepared by Suraj Pandey, Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT), India

Presenting an overview of expert consultation on strengthening linkages between research and extension to promote food and nutrition security

A joint presentation by Dr. Katinka Weinberger, Director of CAPSA and Mr. Kevin Gallagher, Agricultural Research, Extension and Education (REED) Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, set out the issues to be considered by the Consultation. Noting that smallholder farmers contribute largely to world food production, Dr. Weinberger highlighted the need for research and extension to be focused on them.

Agriculture growth for whom?

About 75 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries and most depend on agriculture for a living. There is irrefutable evidence that agricultural growth reduces poverty, in particular in rural areas, by increasing employment, incomes, wages and lowering prices for consumers.

Sustainable small-scale farming is challenged by increasing environmental degradation as well as the growing frequency of extreme weather events and climate change impacts, Dr. Weinberger pointed out.  Small farmers are expected to produce more while contributing to environmental preservation through lower resource intensity, in order to create new economic opportunities,  reduce food loss and waste, and to support the shift towards healthier diets.

Stressing that this requires small farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, Dr. Weinberger said this can be done through the establishment of a knowledge-based centre focusing on capacity building and knowledge exchange. Extension and advisory services also need to be strengthened.

In recognition of the important role of small farmers and of research-extension linkages in agricultural development, the Expert Consultation aimed to assess the current status of research and extension and its linkage in selected countries in the region, she said.

Dr. Weinberger hoped the Consultation would result in a tangible Action Framework to identify appropriate national policy and programme options in support of small farmers in order to enhance food and nutrition security.

Doing better by sharing best practices

Mr. Gallagher noted that many countries in the region have already achieved international development goals related to food security and poverty reduction. He outlined challenges facing the agriculture sector including increasing population, urbanization, feminization, changing food consumption patterns and climate change. Mr. Gallagher emphasized that besides the major cereals, the fishery, livestock and aquaculture sectors should also be taken into account when talking about the agriculture sector. Agricultural development does not simply mean focusing on technology but also on increasing farmers’ access to markets.

The research and extension model has changed over time and is no longer a one-way communication from the research centre to the extension agency and then knowledge transfer to the beneficiary, but is a more complicated system with interactive communication and many actors such as the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and consumers. ICTs have made sharing of information easier and more convenient.

Mr. Gallagher listed several research-extension issues to be taken up by the Consultation including the big gap in capacity development among farmers, fishers, herders and foresters, budget constraints for public research, decentralization of extension, higher average age of agricultural experts and attracting youth into agriculture, which would inform the development by the Consultation of an Action Framework for 2014-2015.

Prepared by: Chanerin Maneechansook, chanerin@apaari.org